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the incontrovertibly incorrigible kimpy
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 19th, 2009|10:07 pm] |
I haven't forgotten the two remaining commissions; I was about halfway through Steerpike before I left (and I haven't found any images I really like of Nick Drake yet), but I haven't really been able to work on it since I got back - I think after this week is over, I'll be completely caught up on sleep and the craziness at work will have calmed down, and I can finish those off.
I'm feeling a lot better, though. The first few days back were rough, but I've been sleeping an *average* of nine hours most of this week, and while there's still crap coming out of my nose (remember: the sinus was blocked off for three straight days), the dried blood is all gone. (Yay TMI!)
Filed the medical claim on Friday; I checked today and they had received it. It'll probably be a couple weeks before I get any notice, but cross your fingers that they reimburse me for most if not all of it! |
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| the vacation that nearly wasn't. |
[Oct. 13th, 2009|08:25 am] |
So, the short version of the last two weeks for the few of you who don't have me on Facebook/Twitter and don't already know:
I went to Germany on the 30th (technically the 1st when I landed) to hang out for a day, then go to the Netherlands for ProgPower Europe. On the 2nd, the day I meant to leave for Venlo for the show, I was hospitalized in Düsseldorf for a hemorrhaging sinus. What exactly caused this isn't known yet, but the general assumption is that going from a warm climate to a cold climate with nine hours of crappy plane air (something which is a very well known cause of travel-nosebleeds), the perpetual hot-and-cold of wandering around rainy Düsseldorf, and the crappy dry air of the hostel were all key contributors. Why it was so BAD, I don't know. The doctor spent 45 minutes trying to stop the bleeding, then told me I was going to stay put for at least the weekend and probably closer to a week, shoved an inflatable tampon into my nose, and sent me off to the ward.
Insert sucktastic weekend made briefly better by a visit from Sahi from Smarch. She was coming to see me that day *anyway*; she just had to adjust her destination to Düsseldorf instead of Venlo. I was pretty miserable, and I was glad to see her.
They took the block out on Monday morning (OH GOD THE RELIEF), kept me for another day for observation, then let me go Tuesday morning. I spent the afternoon with Aan from Smarch, mostly walking slowly around the city and then parking in a cafe for a few hours because I didn't yet have the stamina to get back to my usual touristy activities. (I didn't lose enough blood to need a transfusion, but I lost enough to make me tired for a while.) I was forbidden from flying home on Wednesday (until the weekend at the earliest), so my mother rescheduled my flight for Monday, and I took the opportunity to salvage my vacation by going to Amsterdam for a few days.
I ended up staying with a good friend of mine from the UM forum about half an hour south of Amsterdam, so I got to see the city for a couple of evenings with some other friends that I missed seeing at PP Europe, went to a Damian Wilson show in Zoetermeer to make up for missing the festival, and then got a scenic tour of the region by car.
Went back to Düsseldorf on Sunday (Expedia refused to change the airport to Amsterdam, which would have been a hell of a lot more convenient) and got home yesterday evening.
What a strange, strange, strange week and a half it was. I could have lived without the hospitalization, and I'm still mad I missed PPEu, but it really turned out for the best. |
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| the Dopey American Tourist is back on tour! |
[Sep. 30th, 2009|07:51 am] |
I'm off to Europe in a couple of hours - of course, nobody knows anything about that, because I haven't said a word about it in the last three and a half months.
My trip, of course, involves hostels, and one of those hostels involves almost 174 Europeans, most of whom will most assuredly be drunk. My hostel for two days in Düsseldorf is just a few blocks from the Altstadt, sometimes referred to as the longest bar in Europe. I don't think I will ever have a story to top the Moaning Frenchwoman of Edinburgh, but I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of tales to tell regardless.
I'm so looking forward to opening the metalhead gills for the first time in ages... the one day I was at PPUSA was just a brief desperate gulp.
*fidget* |
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| no tea no tea no tea |
[Sep. 14th, 2009|06:20 pm] |
I'm on my second week of no tea. I came up slightly anemic again when I tried to donate Friday before last - normal, really, but the bottom end of normal, and they want the numbers a little higher, not just for my benefit but also for the person receiving it.
Considering how much I've tried to add a ton of protein and iron to my diet in the last year, something can't be right. The nurse who tested me was the second or third person to mention that a component in tea (tannin) interferes with iron absorption. I do drink an awful lot of tea, iced or hot, usually black tea, invariably oversteeped because I never pay attention to the five minute mark to pull out the bag.
So I decided I would stop drinking tea of any kind for about three weeks, then go back and get retested either before I leave for vacation or after I get back. If my numbers go up, then obviously that's the problem, and I'm going to have to cut back my intake, or at least not drink it with meals.
I've been good and not had ANY tea since then, although I'm seriously craving a nice hot cup of that luuuvley bing cherry black tea. As long as I don't open my tea cabinet (which results in a blast of tea-air), I'll get by another week or so... |
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| commish update |
[Aug. 28th, 2009|07:34 pm] |
Well, since there were only three requests, I guess that makes it easy enough. *g*
I currently have David Cook in progress for MJ. (happened to be the first one where I found an image I really liked.)
No promises on how long this'll take me, guys; it usually takes a week or so per drawing, but it depends on how cooperative the muse is being. So far, so good. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 27th, 2009|04:16 pm] |
I wore a short skirt out in public today. :O I don't do so often. A couple months ago, I bought what I thought was a skirt that turned out to be a skort. a) I don't like skorts on principle, and b) the shorts part did not accommodate Long Waist + Almighty Ass. So I got my aunt to strip out the shorts part, leaving the skirt behind, which fits fine. In the front, it's mid-thigh, which is an appropriate length for my proportionately short legs. (I should have at least a 32"-34" inseam to go with the rest of me, but instead I have about 30".)
In the back, the Almighty Ass brings the hemline up a bit. Not absurdly so, and repeated checkings of the mirror make it clear that the chance of malfunction is low, but there's this rather large triangle of space between the skirt and the back of my legs that makes me feel kinda vulnerable. This as much as the "OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN A SKIRT" reaction is what keeps me from wearing them more often... |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 12th, 2009|04:49 pm] |
I have family in town from Rochester this week, so we wandered around Wilmington for a few hours today. I found the Ye Olde Bookstore (whatever it's really called) on Front St. and ... it's okay. The fiction is completely uncategorized except for alphabetizing, which is moderately annoying, because it's hard to get a sense of what's there when they can't even break it up just into fiction-horror-fantasy/scifi-smut. They did, however, had a pretty impressive selection of foreign language books in German, French, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese.
Also: from my switch witch, I got Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Welsh. WELSH! It was mostly a joke request, and I was amazed when I pulled it out of the box! Total geekgasm. :D |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 31st, 2009|12:05 am] |
* Have new bright red rolling bag. Same size as the black one, but with zippers that don't stick on the plastic, a detachable vinyl bag for toiletries of the correct size for TSA, and it's even expandable.
* Do not have pretty Bolivian leather backpack. I've not found anything on the intarwebs that I like nearly as much, so I hope it comes back in stock within the next six weeks.
* My skin declared war on me several weeks back, and my scalp joined the revolt. I've tried every non-prescription alternative remedy I can think of, and nothing works, which means it's time for the coal tar shampoo. Blech.
* Have been stuffing my head with German. I can still read it pretty well, and listening goes as well as you might expect when I have 70% hearing in one year, but man, my accent is abominable.
* If August goes anything like last year did, last weekend was probably the last full weekend I'll have off until Labor Day. Tax Free Weekend is next weekend (we're expected to pull 3-4x our usual daily sales for all three days), Teacher Appreciation is the following weekend, the weekend after that is right before school starts, and maybe around the 30th we can all breathe again. |
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| blather |
[Jul. 27th, 2009|11:14 pm] |
* My birthday was fun. Mentioned dinner already, and went out to a club on Saturday night with a handful of my coworkers for a great 80s cover band. It's every bit as much fun to peoplewatch drunken college students as it was when I was a ... college student.
* Presents: a nice leather and Bolivian manta mini-backpack, and a new overhead-sized rolling suitcase of some obnoxious and distinctive shade. I do not have either yet; one is backordered, and have not found one I liked of the other. My old one is straight-up black and the zippers are mutinying, and I want something in a color that's more easily identifiable on a carousel (or, god forbid, in a large room full of bags due to excessive delays!)
* 65 days to go and I'm all booked for Germany and the Netherlands, and nearly paid off as well. August is Complete And Total Insanity so I imagine that it'll be only 35 days before I know it, and then time will slow to a maddening crawl.
* Have a new minion at work. I like him so far. He's smart, pays attention, asks the right kinds of questions, and appears to be self-motivated. If he puts stuff where it belongs and he can talk people into warranties and services, and he doesn't STEAL FROM US, he's golden. I will give him five bravo cards (random drawing for $50 every month) if he gives the correct response to "You went over my helmet?" Bonus points if he salutes properly.
(what?) |
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| :D |
[Jul. 20th, 2009|07:44 am] |
Sean Bean is going to play Eddard Stark in the HBO production of Game of Thrones.
I think I just squeed all over myself.... |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 17th, 2009|11:08 am] |
Liberte six grain yogurt is pretty good, at least the yogurt part is, but I don't quite understand the point of including what looks like maybe a tablespoon of grains. What kind of health benefit would come from such a small amount? At least it's a good *real* raspberry flavor that still has the tart in it.
And Fresh Market is finally carrying Skyr yogurt! (it's actually cheese, but stirrable.) I used to get a cup every week or two from Whole Foods down in Harbor East, but we have no Whole Foods down here yet (although Google seems to indicate the possibility of one being built up past Ogden? Way the hell out of my way.) It's expensive - $2.50 for a 6/8oz cup - but SO good.
And in UNhealthy things, Coldstone Creamery just sent me my annual free ice cream coupon. Too bad I didn't have this two days ago when I was in Mayfaire for HBP, but clearly I'll just have to find a reason to go back before the end of the month... |
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| genealogical crackheads |
[Jul. 13th, 2009|04:55 pm] |
This shit is HILARIOUS.
This is some fellow on a genealogy forum for my surname and its spelling variants, who is ... just a little weird, to say the least:
I had forgotten in my childhood that my grandfather had [snip] an old steamer like trunk covered in a canvas-like shroud keeping out moisture. The trunk was pitched all over with tar or such substance to keep the trunk and interior waterproof.
That trunk hold the family, and the Kympton-Kempton-Kimpton genealogical archives for what could truly be said to be nearly 2,000 - 4000 years old. Inside are cuneiform tablets, papyri, parchments (which are as old as the Dead Sea Scrolls .... and the State of Israel knows about them! they are that biblically important), and ancient papers, genealogical lists, et al across a variety of ancient nations and languages of Gaul, France, Britain, Germany, Brittany, .... [snip] Little did I know as a little child that this archive was passed down nearly 2000 years IF NOT MORE!
[snip]
... the direct-male Kympton-Kempton-Kimpton lineage. We descend directly from King David. That does not mean that we are Jews or Jew-ish, but that our ancestors had an ancient faith called Yehidah, which is a parallel definition to the Tribe of Judah. We are Judaic and the religion is Yehidah. We follow the true ancient faith that our Master Jesus taught.
From the times of Jesus ... down to 1066, ... our ancestors were very highly placed in whatever nation they held. We were the Kings of the "Jews (Yehidahs)." We were known and respected as such, irrespective of being national kings, princes, dukes, earls, or even Emperors in the Mideast down through history.
We were second cousins to King William the Conqueror of Normandy,[snip] We, and the Percys of Northumberland were the most powerful Earls in the land. [snip] The Kemptons are the descendants of Thomas FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel.
SOME of the stuff on this page as it pertains to the family lineage is known to be true, or close enough that it doesn't matter. But largely ... he's a crackhead! But it's a fun read. |
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| Writer's Block: Lights Out |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|09:59 am] |
March 1991 - a terrible ice storm took out most of western NY and parts of PA and OH. I was in 9th grade at the time. I woke up in the middle of the night to what sounded like gunshots, but were actually tree branches breaking off due to the weight of the ice, which went on for hours. My aunt came in and threw another blanket on me and said that the power had gone out. They spent all night running up and down the stairs, bailing out the sump pump - which, without power, results in flooded basements.
The next morning, the destruction was unbelievable. Even the main roads were nearly impassable, and forget the residential roads. School was canceled for at least the next couple of days, til the extent of the damage could be assessed and the roads reopened. We spent the first three days huddled in the living room. We had a generator, but as I recall, it only had two outlets and one of them was dedicated to the sump pump. It was cold - upstate NY at that time of year is still barely in the 40s and frequently below freezing at night. After a couple days, my aunt and uncle sent me up north to the town of Greece, where another aunt and uncle had gotten power back, and I stayed with them until I went back to school on Monday. We got power back on Tuesday afternoon, after NINE DAYS. Some people in more rural areas went as long as two weeks. Something like 80,000 trees were destroyed by the ice. Due to the damage, our crabapple tree in the front yard - which was already ten years beyond its lifespan - only flowered every other year for the next fifteen years until it was finally cut down.
The two long-term effects of this were a) immediate purchase of a manual can opener, and b) I no longer had six-inch-high hair. No power = no curling iron! And life was so much easier for not wasting half an hour every morning curling my hair and helmetting it in place with hairspray... |
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| the universe is making up for treating me poorly these days... |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|07:54 pm] |
A couple weeks ago, I posted that I called Expedia about extending my stay in the Netherlands for a full day so I could see Amsterdam at my leisure, rather than fast-tracking it with Sandor, because I had to be back in Düsseldorf that night. They wanted $250 to change my flight, and I said no thanks.
They called me tonight to let me know that my flight home from Germany had been cancelled, and did I want to come home a day earlier? Absolutely not, I said, but how about the day after? Sure thing, they said.
So I get my extra day after all, at no charge. Woot! |
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| vile. |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|09:08 am] |
I was reading the Vanity Fair article and this picture almost made me yarf my breakfast. Consequently, I'm going to inflict it on ALL OF YOU, so that you may be inspired to find your schadenfreude in advance of whatever's about to bite her in the ass. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|10:53 pm] |
Most Saturdays, excluding those on which I work, I make the five mile round trip on foot to the farmer's market on the Cape Fear River. I pretty much live on tomatoes all summer long, and I can't abide grocery store tomatoes when I can get a paper bag full of locally grown tomatoes that were still on the vine 24 hours earlier. Not quite as good as when they were on the vine 24 seconds earlier, but they'll do.
Anyway, the riverfront between the bridge and the market is full of 18th and 19th century architecture. Nearly every house on Front St. has a historical plaque explaining who lived there and occasionally what happened there. I kept meaning to bring my camera and kept forgetting, and finally did last weekend. (And discovered that the battery is crapping out after only a little over a year. Better I find out now than after I land in Germany, though!) Most of the pictures are kinda lame; the streets are narrow and lined with big old trees, which are pretty to look at without a camera, but they get in the way a bit...
Presented is the Captain John Harper house. He was the owner of Wilmington and Southport Steamboat Company which operated the steamers “Wilmington” and “Sylvan Grove.” An officer of the New Hanover Transit Company, he was instrumental in the development of Carolina Beach. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 28th, 2009|02:59 pm] |
My mom's been taking Murphy out on a harness designed for a toy dog, and I thought that was a great idea, so I got one for Imp. Calpurnia doesn't need one; she will mostly stay with me when I take her out for ten or fifteen minutes. When she starts trying to roam, I bring her back in. Imp, on the other hand, I can't trust to stay with me, so I can't take her outside without one.
I put it on her, and boy, she hated it. Contorted every which way trying to get it off, except she couldn't reach it with her teeth. After about a minute, I picked her up and took her outside with a leash, so that she'll associate Nasty Harness with Outside, and hopefully she'll protest a little less the next time I take her out. She sure enjoyed it out there, though. Calpurnia's mad as hell, but it's too hot to take another cat out there for a while yet... |
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| Too weird to live, too rare to die? Apparently not. |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|06:12 pm] |
people always told me be careful what you do
don't go around breaking young girls' hearts
and mother always told me be careful of who you love
and be careful of what you do cause the lie becomes the truth |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|05:50 pm] |
So you can't paddle a misbehaving student, but you can make them strip and check their panties for drugs on the accusation of another student!
...yeah, that makes sense. |
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marared's journal
relieved