Okay, so, now that you all know more than you ever wanted to know--I really meant to post that last entry to naturalliving. Sorry for the TMI. *headdesk*

Not, come to think of it, that I'm all that inclined to keep personal information to myself. I have a tendency to A) blurt out whatever's on my mind, and B) overshare, and C) feel like I'm lying if I don't tell everything that's going on in my life. I would make a lousy spy.

And now, off to forage for dinner.

So. Writing is not getting done. Research for writing is, and something came together as I was playing DragonFable that will help the plot. Some exercise was done, but only around 200 calories' worth or so. Lots of sleeping was done. I swear, I sleep more than any other person I've ever met who wasn't in a fairy tale. It says something about my life that the "kisses" waking me up come from my cat in the form of head-bumps for attention.

Spent some time working on the SPN summergen story, which is not coming along very fast at all. I can't seem to get in a groove. I *will*, it just hasn't happened yet. Also had nice chats w/ Mom and kaytee4ever. And, seriously, that was about it for the day. I have lazy down to an art.

Okay, so, long day, right? And I decide to go shopping. Get to the store, shop, run my card--it's declined. I know there's no reason for that. Plus I'm pissed. So I go home, call the card people, they say that something was screwed up in the transmission, so they sent a request for the 3 digit whatsit number on the back, the request wasn't answered, so they didn't authorize the card. Now I'm really pissed. Ms. Hides-from-confrontation goes *back* to the store, asks for a manager, explains the situation, and is told that their machines don't display the message asking for the 3 digit whatsit code. The manager does say that they should have either tried to run the card again or contacted him to let him see what was going on or whatever--none of which happened. So I stress I'm not wanting anyone to get in trouble; I just wanted to know why it happened. So I go off to re-grocery shop** and the manager tracks me down and gives me a $25 gift card for my trouble. Which was nice, but I would have rather avoided the whole thing.

**They'd basically dumped my old groceries wherever--the fruits I'd bought were still in their respective bags.

Just--ARRGH.

Training's almost done--one more day. I'm glad in that A) I won't have to get up so early, and B) I won't have to sit in a hard chair all day. We do get up and move around a lot, but ever since I had that reaction to Levaquin several years ago, my knees just don't take having to be bent for long periods of time. Still, the training is pretty good, the other teachers are fun to hang out with, the gossip about what's going on in the district is intriguing, and all in all it's been a good experience.

I feel like I have more to say, but my brain is too dead.

The training for the past two days has been good; not stellar, but I'm getting some good ideas, and that's what counts. What's been amazing is having a chance to bond with the other people from my school, some of whom I see a whole lot less than you'd expect for people who work together. Also, I found out that J, one of the teachers, is doing a Love and Logic seminar that I quickly signed up for. She hasn't been teaching that long, but she handles her classroom so well. I'm looking forward to her class.

Too tired to think. Training okay. Getting up early not okay. Going to bed now.

We ran some errands this morning, including a trip to the library in the next town, which has a reciprocal agreement with our library. Even though they're a lower income city, their library is so much better, especially in the Fantasy/SciFi arena. We went mainly because Will wanted to check out one book that wasn't at our library; he came away with five. I grabbed an omnibus edition of the His Dark Materials trilogy (Golden Compass, etc.) to see if I like it better now that I've seen the movie and have some mental pictures.

Tonight was the first bookclub meeting I've been too in a long time. We were discussing Kabul Beauty School. Fun discussion, and J. was there, so we arranged to have coffee next week when I'm done with my training. Which starts tomorrow--I hope I can remember how to get up early.

Grr. Argh.

When I switched from Verizon to cable phone service (doesn't that sound odd?), the lady told me my Verizon bill would be prorated. Is anyone surprised that it showed up on my bank account today, not prorated? *sigh* Which wipes out the last of my money until payday. *sighX2*

I did another 1.22m/350calories today, this time without wall damage. I guess that's something.

I also finished The Fairy Godmother yesterday and Kabul Beauty School today. I recommend the first as a good story with eh writing, and the second as an interesting non-fiction look at Afghanistan and the life of women there. Now I've got to figure out what else to read, plus work on some writing. But for the moment, Will and I are watching Grave of the Fireflies, which is supposed to be good. Oh, and as far as recommendations go, we watched The Spiderwick Chronicles last night, and that was definitely a good movie. I think I'll have to hunt down the books now.

Highlights of today include putting my foot through the wall--no, seriously. I was on the treadmill, right? And I slipped, and my foot got caught at the end of the treads/at the wall, and apparently arrived with enough force to put it *through* the wall. Thankfully, courtesy of another incident with exercise equipment, I do know how to patch holes in walls (and ceilings, in the earlier case). But, still...hole in the *wall*. I now have paper taped over it because A) I don't want the cats trying to go in--what can I say, I have big feet--and B) I don't want anything in the walls trying to come out.

Moral of this story, folks: put enough room to fall behind your treadmill.

On the plus side, I did 1.22m/350calories on the treadmill once I'd extracted my foot from the wall. I also discovered that running just isn't going to happen on that thing, so I did a fast walk/slower walk combo. I'm trying to come up with some sort of reasonable exercise solution that will work during the school year. I have to be at work by 7:30, which makes exercise in the mornings tough. I've timed myself and I need 2 hours to go from bed to the door at work if I try to exercise for 30 minutes first (due to the need to shower and partially dry my hair, among other things). In the summer, it's not even light enough outside to see until around 6, and it'll be worse in the winter. The city park where I walk/run is not in the best part of town, so I'm reluctant to run there in the dark. So, it's either exercise after work (when I'm tired, grumpy, need to come up with dinner, and have had all day to talk myself into not exercising) or exercise inside, which means the treadmill and no running. Because I fall off, and my walls just can't take it. Why can't this be simple?

You know how sometimes you can't focus your eyes after you just wake up? It took me over ten minutes to get them (mostly) completely focused just now. Er. I dunno if I should be worried that it's a blood sugar problem or just throwing in some eyedrops or what.

Well, I ate something proteinated, so hopefully it will straighten itself out.

Why will my brain not write? I've got to get this SPN summergen story done; I've got the shape of the story in my head; words are not coming out. I originally typed that "worlds are not coming out" which is weirdly appropriate.

I was thinking about words earlier today. ( I'll cut to spare those who don't care. )

In other news, I keep having this serial dream in which three kittens show up: a yellow/orange tabby, a white and yellow/orange whatever, and a brown/gray whatever. What's weird is that when they show up in my dream, I'm all, "There's the kittens! I wondered where they'd gotten to!" which is crazy because anyone who has kittens knows that they're in your face--or climbing up your legs, or sitting on your boobs/head/shoulders/computer--constantly. What is my subconscious trying to tell me?????

Half a run today, knee's okay, so hopefully tomorrow or Friday I'll get a whole one in. I also went to Bealls and spent a bit too much money on capris**, one shirt, and a clearance-rack outfit that I can use for one of the three outfits I need for the start of school (orientation night, first day, first day take 2--being on block schedule gives us two first days, isn't that just awesome?). Now Will and I are watching National Treasure: Book of Secrets, which I'm not quite loving as much as the first one but am still enjoying.

**Teacher uniform for when it's too hot to wear pants.

Hee. After several viewings of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (movie), I finally got Will to read the books--well, he's on the first one now. And he doesn't want to put it down to go to bed. Kid has good taste.

So I spent a lot of time awake last night due to a headache I still have, and got woken up by a phone call saying the cable guy was at my door. So, in my shorts and tank top, hair messy, I let the dog out real fast and let the cable guy in. I may have taught his son. *facepalm* I get Brenna in the kennel, the cable guy oriented, and then quickly change and clip back my hair. And then we wait for five hours while he rewires and gets stuff set up and Brenna barks almost nonstop.

On the plus side, while waiting I finished the last of the first trilogy of Thomas Covenant. I've got to admit, it improved as I went along, mostly because I got involved with the secondary characters. I still think Covenant is an ass. Slightly less of an ass by the end of the trilogy, but ass nonetheless. Now I need to decide whether I'm going to read A) Twilight, B) Red Seas Under Red Skies (2nd Locke Lamora book), C) Dragon's Winter/Dragon's Treasure by Elizabeth A. Lynn, D) the newest Nightrunners book, or E) The Kabul Beauty School. And meanwhile, I'm also reading Lackey's The Fairy Godmother, which is a fun read but needs editing. Seriously, is she one of those "my prose is golden" authors that won't allow anyone to cut out her flotsam, or does she just have a lazy editor?

For some reason, Will has a tendency to use the "Me, I'm ___" sentence construction, and it drives me insane. And I just know I'll end up picking it up from him and saying it myself.

In conclusion, my headache needs to go away now. And also, if you go bid for me in this auction, I'll write you a really cool Supernatural story. If you bid for someone else, they'll write you a really cool story. You win either way, plus a fellow fan gets some help in buying needed medical equipment.

I did half a run today. My knee was feeling it at that point, so I decided to cut it short. I might try again tomorrow, but it depends on how early I wake up. We've got the cable guy coming to set up cable tv/phone/internet. I'm mainly motivated by the cheaper price, but I tend to hope that the internet will be faster to make up for the fewer channels on the TV.

I also got my video capture device today--the one that, in theory, will let me capture my VHS tapes onto my computer. Hopefully it will work out as advertised.

Last night's barbecue and fireworks were fun. Will was awesome with the younger children and with lighting the fireworks, the fireworks were pretty, and just getting to sit outside under the clear night sky and visit with T, M, and T's dad was fun. I think we're going to make this a yearly event. After, we went back to T's house and played Star Trek Uno (the kids played the Wii) for a bit, but we were pretty tired by that point, so it wasn't long before Will and I headed home. Then John wanted to chat, so we were up another hour. All in all, it was three when I went to bed and four before I got to sleep.

Then we had to get up just before eleven and get ready to go out to Mom's for her "4th". We had a nice visit there, and the drive back was amazing--some hot summer days in Texas you get a clear, deep blue sky and the tallest, fluffiest clouds you've ever seen. There were literally hundreds of clouds, huge and white on top with an absolutely flat bottom. It was just beautiful.

And then I took a nap. :-)

Does anyone know if SciFi is planning on showing the entire Dr. Who finale or if it's going to chop it up for time? If it's the latter, I'm obviously going to have to take steps.

Number of fireworks sold: A LOT
Number of fireworks left: Not much.
Number of bugs that flew down my shirt: Too many
Number of other people's fireworks shows we got to watch from a distance: Two (plus a few on the drive home)

All in all, it's been fun getting to hang out with T and chat with customers. This evening we're going out to have barbecue and/or hot dogs and blow up the rest of the fireworks. That should be fun, too.

Back out to T's today for more fireworks work. It's actually fun, plus I get to spend time with T, her kids, and her dad, who are all fun people. We'll actually do our 4th of July celebrating on the 5th (with T and family) and the 6th (with Mom and family).

Happy 4th to those of you in the States!

Would someone please tell my child that germs don't generally show up to the naked eye, making the fact that the peaches "look fine to him" not a relevent argument for why he shouldn't wash them before eating them??