...and they eat us and they take our women...

I saw a movie this weekend. From the above title you should be able to figure out which one. I was looking forward to it. It was okay.

Also, I have recently seen Monsters. After being told it was being released on a certain date, and then a later certain date, and then a third later certain date, my brother found it on pay for view, so we ended up watching it at his house. You would think that watching it at someone's house would be really cheap, but it was eight dollars. This is not cheap to me, since I usually watch new movies at a nearby theater for less than four dollars matinee, and more often than that just wait til things are at the dollar theater. Anyway, after all that waiting and wanting to see the thing, I was a bit disappointed. I liked the feel and look of it, and I don't have a problem with the low budget and such, it's just that after sitting through the whole movie I know just about as much as I did from watching the previews. Which is, mostly nothing, except that six years ago we sent a probe to get samples of some lifeform, then the probe crashed, leaving the lifeform to grow on Earth, mostly in the northern half of Mexico. There were hardly any action scenes in the movie, but for all of that time talking, no one said anything. No one said anything interesting about the creatures, and no one said anything interesting about themselves. We have your average jerk guy who apparently doesn't know where babies come from til he ends up with a now six year old son, except that he still hasn't figured out what not to do cause he's still sleeping with random people. And we have daughter of the jerk's boss, trying to get home after doing we don't know what in we don't know where and we don't know why. And they wait til the last possible day, have their boat tickets stolen, and have to get home by land through this area where the creatures live. And that's pretty much it.

Also on the movie front we have Harry Potter coming up. But I can't talk about that really, cause it hasn't happened yet. I should have made a new hat last year, but I didn't, and now I'm just getting started on it, and I need it done by Thursday.

Right.

Okay, so I was all in pain with the mysterious back/hip problem. That pretty much lasted a whole month. I never went to a doctor, just kind of waited for it to go away, which it finally seems to have done. Now I just feel rather blah bad, not like really bad, which I guess is mostly normal for me now.

And then I finally went to the dentist. I had my annual checkup (which I have missed for like the last four or five years) back in August, at which time I was told what needed to be done and the estimated cost for all of that. I would need at least three more appointments, and several hundred dollars for the first two, assuming that all went well and the insurance paid half and all of that. So, in August, I did not have several hundred dollars twice over, much less four times over if the insurance did not pay, which was not very likely but something I might have to be prepared for just in case. So I did not make those appointments in August, cause I said that I would have to talk to my husband and find out when we would have the money, and when we would be in town, and so forth. My husband was also supposed to have had his "annual" checkup that day in August, but his schedule was changed and he went out of town, and so he was not there for a while to have this discussion about the money. So I told the lady at the dentist office that I would call her back, but then I did not call her back for a very long time. First, we went out of town a lot, for most of September. And then my first week home I had a lot to do and went to visit Buddy and the baby. And then the week after that, my back hurt, and I was in such pain that I could only rest in certain positions, and the dentist office chair was not one of those positions. So I did not think that I could stand being in the dentist chair long enough for him to get any work done, so I continued to put it off until after Halloween. When a week went by without serious back pain, I finally called the dentist office to make an appointment, and they said that they could see me the following Monday. I should have scheduled the crown first and gotten it over with, but I didn't. I've had two of those before, and I was in pain the whole time between getting the temporary crown and getting the permanent crown. So I just needed a bit more time to get mentally used to the idea, and also I had to schedule it so that if I were in serious pain for the whole two weeks before getting the permanent crown that I wouldn't be missing anything important. They were wondering if I could come in that Thursday.

Two weeks from that Thursday would be Thanksgiving.

I'm thinking that they would not be open on Thanksgiving, even if I wanted to do that. I didn't want to have to wait more than the two weeks, and even if they could squeeze me in that Friday, I rather think that I'll be out shopping and such on Black Friday. Not that I told them that. I'm not going to tell my dentist that saving some money on clothes and getting cheap DVDs is more important that fixing my teeth. But they did seem to understand wanting to get it all over with before Thanksgiving. So they asked if I would mind coming in that Wednesday.

I wouldn't mind that at all, I'm just surprised that they could get me in so soon. If they had suggested coming back in the next day, that might have been a problem, since I didn't get to eat much solid food on Monday after breakfast, and doing the same thing again and not eating on Tuesday would not have been fun. But having the day between to recover was okay, as long as they were going to be open two weeks later to do the permanent crown. They said that they would be, so I made the appointment.

While they were working on my teeth they found another cavity, and I said that they should go ahead and deal with that since they've already given me pain medication, so that cost another hundred bucks. But we are still a bit under a thousand dollars, and the checks did not bounce, and so far the insurance hasn't refused to pay for anything.

Oh, I forgot about Halloween. I spent most of the Thursday or Friday before making finger shaped cookies for the party, which was that Saturday. And then at the party I spent a couple of hours handing out cookies and trying to get people to guess that I was Weena. I was surprised how many of them could not guess, and I stayed in character and did not tell them. And then I was going to get really strange about half an or an hour before the costume contest, only I didn't correctly remember when that was, so then I'm rushing around trying to get one of my props ready, and I didn't get to do all that I meant to. So no one saw me eating the Morlock foot till the contest. Get it? In an alternate timeline, the Eloi eat the Morlocks.

I guess just too many people there were not familiar with The Time Machine, so I guess they just didn't get the joke. Maybe they thought that the Eloi were supposed to eat the Morlocks. You would think that people would get it. I mean, there are mundanes that know about The Time Machine and that the Morlocks eat the Eloi. But I just wasn't getting the laughs. So, I ended up winning an honorable mention for the cookies, but I didn't win any awards for the costume contest, other than the sort of joke awards that they hand out later.

So I had fun, but it was also a bit of a disappointment that nobody got it really. And I didn't get to eat much, cause a.) I was busy handing out cookies, and b.) I was trying not to get anything on my very light yellow dress.

So that was Halloween, or at least the night before, and there was nothing to do on Halloween itself or any time near Halloween, as my back was still hurting a bit and I was afraid of going to a haunting house or anything that might make my condition worse. Too late I thought of going to the wax museum, as they are usually very tame, and I'm sure that someone would have let me out early if I was having a problem. So I didn't get to do anything at all this year, other than the party.

And I'm trying to restrain myself with the clearance sale shopping. I've hardly bought anything at all, and half of what I did buy was either for Buddy or the baby.

Other than that, things are mostly just annoying. Like, I can't find my Harry Potter clothes. Or, I can find some things, but I can't find other things, and most of the things that I do find don't fit. But, I'm not quite ready to give up on the idea. I still have my scarves if nothing else works.

Another thing is annoying, which I won't talk about now, except to say that it has been a whole damned freaking month. And I have had enough of it.

Anyway, back to looking through the costumes and working on my hat.

Besides rearranging the boxes

The boxes are still there, but I haven't really looked at them since Friday. Saturday I went and hung out with my friends for a bit, and ended up staying out past one in the morning and not getting to bed until about two. In my usual routine I try to go to sleep at about ten and usually don't make and end up falling asleep watching TV around nine or even eight. So two in the morning is really late for me.

It was a very busy Saturday. First, there was the usual stuff. Then there was the first round of discussion about the Halloween Party. Then there were people showing off their steampunk stuff, and even a demonstration on how to make steampunk stuff.

I have no steampunk stuff. Everyone assures me that with my closet full of stuff I must have most of something steampunk already, and that I just need to add goggles or a hat or something. But I don't think so. Even if I go for an all black look and just have to get a hat (which I don't think is true) getting a hat is probably going to cost some money. Hats are not something I tend to find at Goodwill. And I'm trying to cut down on the Goodwill stuff anyway.

So I'm debating on whether or not I should try to make anything steampunk, just cause that is what everyone is doing at the moment.

Anyway, after the steampunk stuff there was a bit of just hanging out and wondering what to do til seven, when we were heading out to swim and have hamburgers and someone's house. Miss Allergies wanted to go shopping a bit and then go to a restaurant, cause she didn't want a hamburger. There was so much time spent discussing this, and there wasn't much time to kill to do one of those things, much less both. And I'm thinking that going to a restaurant on the way to dinner sounds a bit dumb. It's a waste of time, and it's a waste of money, even if I only buy and overpriced soda and tip the waitress. I don't want to do that.

And why can't Miss Allergies eat a hamburger. I know that she eats steak, so what is the big deal about eating a hamburger. I know that she isn't allergic to beef.

And even though I meant not to go home, I realize that I've forgotten my phone, and I want to go back for it. And I do have an errand to run, so I tell them I'll see them later, maybe at this restaurant, and maybe not.

So after going home and running an errand and doing one more little thing, I only have about twenty minutes to kill anyway. Going to the restaurant seemed silly to begin with, and going to a restaurant for twenty minutes sounds outright stupid. So I find something else to do and skip the restaurant.

I head out and miss the place that I'm supposed to turn. I aways seem to miss the place that I'm supposed to turn, even in the daylight, and end up having to make a u-turn and drive in a big circle to get back where I was. So I end up being a tiny bit later than I meant to be, even without going to a restaurant or going shopping or any of that other stuff.

Well, I meant to eat first and then rest a bit before jumping in the pool, but nobody else seemed ready to eat, so I was soon in the pool in my somewhat tight figure-correcting swimsuit. I don't look too bad in it, and I got compliments and such. And then somehow the discussion of modest swimwear came up, and I said that I would wear one if I knew where to buy one at a good price. And I don't want to go to an athletic store and buy one there, cause while those are more modest they are for serious swimmers and they cost a serious amount of money. Then someone is saying how swimsuits cost that much money anyway, unless you go to Walmart or something.

Now, I think that what the price is at Walmart is what the item actual costs (and I often pay even less getting things on clearance or on sale), and the price paid at other places is not for the thing itself but for the label or the fancy store, not for the thing itself. So I don't know what this person has against Walmart or Target, but I would certainly buy the thing there if they had it, I'm just pretty sure that they don't.

Anyway, after looking online I think that something close to what I want is on sale for fifty dollars, and that is still too much, especially since it doesn't cover the knees, and I hate my knees. So I'm probably not going to get one, since I don't look too bad in the one I got on sale last year for eight dollars.

After that, the atheist who went on a rant New Year's Eve went on another rant. And it wasn't like a back and forth discussion or anything, it was just her going on about it, and people mostly agreeing with her except for minor points, and I can't get a word in anyway, and even when I do she just keeps going. I'm getting tired of it. I realize that most people do not hold up to my moral standards, but I look the other way if people don't rub it in my face.

Except for that, I really had a good time, but stuff like that reminds me that I should get some new friends.

Swim, eat, and then swim again. Okay, not really swimming, just being in the pool. Then I went home and tried to get out of the swimsuit. Well, it was tight enough to start with. After it gets wet it is outright difficult to get in and out of. Then I went to bed about two.

Unfortunately, I still wake up at the usual time. So I don't feel well until a couple of hours after lunch. For lunch we went to a nice place, even though it was Father's Day and both our fathers are dead. But we had this gift card from Christmas that we still hadn't spent, and the buffet that we used to like so much is only served now on holidays, so if we really wanted it that was the day it had to be. So we went. It wasn't quite as great as I remembered, but it was nice. We ran a few errands, and then I spent most of the rest of the day in bed watching DVDs.

Monday I tried to do something in the garden involving cinder blocks. Okay, it isn't the garden itself, it is the damned "please don't flood my house" pump, which usually works now, but on rare occasions it gets tangled up and you have to go and deal with it during the actual flood. And since the pump in the area that is low anyway, if you walk to it during the rain you have to wade through a puddle. So I am clearing away the area right up against the wall and trying to make a pathway of these cinder blocks. It is more work than I had in my head. In fact, just getting the things home from the store is harder than I pictured, so that is getting done four at a time, not all at once, and not even six at a time like a planned.

So I did about a third of the first part of the work Monday, followed again by several hours of being in bed watching DVDs. And then something had to be dropped off in Arlington, and what was supposed to be just that and a trip to Home Depot turned into a whole afternoon thing ending in the all you can eat buffet at Pancho's, which isn't even my favorite thing anymore. And I really must stop going to buffets, cause I feel bad about it later.

I'm about to go and add three more blocks to the path.

Until ten this morning, there's free breakfast sandwiches at Whataburger, so we'll be doing that soon. And then either today or tomorrow we will probably be going to a garden in Dallas, cause we bought a season pass or a membership or whatever. This should encourage us to go for long walks. Walking is pretty much my only exercise, as I really hate participating in any sports, and I don't really swim, even when there is a pool, which usually there is not.

And the boxes still need to be rearranged again.

What smells like beer?

Before I get too much into the boring details, let me say that I mostly had a good weekend.

And if you were planning to eat your spaghetti dinner while watching the latest episode of Being Human, alter your plans a little bit.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to make some cookies. I don't think that I have made any cookies from scratch since I have lived here, but I thought that it might be a good idea after I found this recipe online, and I remembered that I would have three things coming up that would require me to bring food.

So I took the new mixer out of the box and I went and spent five bucks on a new cookie sheet (cause it had been so long since I made any cookies I couldn't find the old ones) and I got together the ingredients that I already had and went out and bought what was missing. The new cookie recipe was not that great, but now that I had this new cookie sheet and all the ingredients for making cookies, I decided to try making an old recipe except to substitute whole wheat flour. That wasn't great either, so I went and bought some regular flour and tried again.

The cookies weren't bad, just not like I remembered. They are sort of tall and fluffy. I don't know what I did wrong. Also, I don't taste the baking soda. Chocolate chip cookies have baking soda, and I am quite sure that I put in the baking soda, but I can't taste it. Does baking soda get old or go flat or something?

Again, the cookies aren't bad, and in fact I am starting to like them, though I sort of doubt that anyone else will. I just can't figure out why they are different. Anyway, I took some of the whole wheat ones to the annual meeting, cause I had to take something, and most of them did not get eaten, which is okay cause that left more for me. I took the regular flour ones to the party, and again not many were eaten, so again I have leftover cookies for me, which I am not complaining about. But I think that I will give up on making the cookies for anyone other than me, and I will figure out something else to take to the last thing, and in fact there is no reason that I have to take anything to that at all if I don't want to. But I'm thinking that I will just purchase some candy instead.

All day Friday and Saturday, I had been very careful to read any emails from the group, in case it had something to do with the party that I would need to know about. Not that there was much, just people asking other people if they were going, and what are you bringing, and once in a while what are you wearing, etc.... And there was this new guy that hasn't been to a regular meeting yet, though he's already officially a member of a club, just that most of us hadn't met him yet and didn't know who he was. And he was asking about the party, and no one else answered him, and I didn't quite know what to tell him. But I thought that somebody had to say something. It wasn't an official club function, just that someone had invited pretty much everyone in the club. If he had joined a few weeks earlier, he would have officially been invited already. I didn't think that it would be a problem if he came, but I really couldn't invite someone I didn't know, and I thought that he should talk to the couple giving the party, though by that time it was too late. He already knew where the party was, so I told him the time and a little more info, hoping that someone else would chime in and say whether he was or was not officially invited, but again no one else said anything.

So after all this wondering what I should take to the party and what I should wear to the party, I have bought a black blouse and this sort of black thing that is not really a shawl and yet another black dress, and then I decided that it was too cold to wear any of that and just gave up and decided to wear what I wore last year. Except that I couldn't find what I wore last year. So I ended up wearing some really dark blue stuff and black boots and this black thing that used to be part of a Masonic costume.

I was getting ready to leave early, cause I hate driving in the dark, when I realized that I forgot to charge my phone. So I wait a little while to put some life into the phone, and then I head out, and as I am just nearly there I realize that with moving things from one bag to another and getting my keys sorted out and everything that I have somehow not transferred my wallet and do not have my driver's license or any money or a debit card or anything. Not that I expect to need any money or anything, but it would be very upsetting if something happened and I needed to show my driver's license. I didn't expect that would happen, and I was nearly there anyway, so I kept going, and nothing bad happened. But it was still very annoying.

So I got there at about the same time as a couple of friends, and we were all about twenty minutes later than we had intended, but we were still the first there from our group, and the parking lot was mostly empty. And I have been to this place several times before, but I am always surprised by the layout when I get there. There is this sign that says something like "Lake Ahead", and literally, the lake is right there after the sign. Not that the parking lot I'm looking for is ahead, but the lake is ahead. By the time I read this sign I have already missed where I meant to go, and I have to turn around and go back a little bit.

So we go in and see all empty tables, as everyone who is already there is in the back helping our hostess. So we are relieved that we are not late.

More people come in and bring food, and I am surprised how many of them are not wearing black. A few more of my friends show up, and some of us sit down and eat. And then this guy comes in by himself, and I think that's probably our new guy, and then I restrain myself from blurting out something like "Are you the new guy?" and he looks around a bit and goes to the back of the room. So maybe he isn't our new guy. But a bit after that someone brings him over and says something like these are some of the people in your group. And then there is a discussion between the four guys about steampunk stuff, and then the new guy and the other guy wander off to meet other people.

I get up to get some more food, and I'm wondering what smells like beer?

Probably beer.

I don't drink alcohol, but I do like several things that are made with alcohol, mainly beer bread and beer chili and beer cheese soup. But there was none of that, just beer.

So there was a lot of talking to people I don't really know and whose names I can't even remember. And I talked to the new guy some more. And I talked to M.

This is not M my friend the Klingon, this is the other one, and I see him once in a while, and I have finally decided that it isn't weird and running into him a couple times a year is not a problem. So that's what I thought, so I kept talking to him. I was wrong.

I had a few items of clothing that I decided I needed to part with, though I would rather give them to someone I knew would appreciate them and make costumes from them, so I brought them to the party. I gave a t-shirt to my host, who thought it was such a cool picture that it didn't bother him that it was started to tear. And I looked around the room for women who might fit into the dresses, and I asked a few if they were interested, and they said no. And then I noticed a certain person I did not want to have any of my things, so I did not make an announcement like I had planned. But then another friend arrived, and she said that she wanted the whole bag, so that worked out. I'm glad I thought of it instead of just dumping the stuff at Goodwill with the rest of the clothes I got rid of.

I talked to the new guy some more, and it is always nice when someone attractive is paying attention to you. He made suggestions, and though he said upfront that it would not be a date, I'm afraid that he didn't really mean that so I declined. It seems like the guys that I have known for a while who suggest something that is "not a date" really mean that and totally get that it is not a date and is not going to lead to anything resembling a date, but guys that I have just met are thinking that the "not a date" will either somehow become a date or at least end with me agreeing to a date later. So no more "not a date" type things with anybody I don't already know. I will be happy enough to talk to you when we just happen to be at the same place at the same time, which is probably going to happen a couple of times later in the month anyway.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, M has reached a whole other level of stupid. And it is hard to believe that anyone is really that stupid, so he must just enjoy making other people uncomfortable. I am thinking that if I have anymore trouble from him, I will start a new blog totally devoted to answering the question, is M really that stupid?

The party ended a bit after that, and I waited for certain people to get their things together so that I could walk out with them and not be around either M or the new guy, even though the new guy was being totally nice.

I managed to drive home without anybody finding out that I didn't have my license in my purse.

Sunday we ate at Taco Bell, after my husband saw a commercial for something he wanted but they hadn't had for a while. And then there was the Superbowl, which he watched, and I watched commercials in between Googling stuff.

Yesterday we went to various thrift stores, but I didn't buy much, and it got cold and rained and we came home earlier than we might have and watched Caprica and Being Human.

And then we got some bad news about this job he was applying for. He had read somewhere what the pay was, but then he couldn't find where he had read that, so he sent another email. And we can only hope that they misunderstood the question. Surely no one gets paid that little. We were only thinking about the job because he read that it was a lot of money, and we wanted some clarification on if that was the most you could make or if that was an average or what. And on top of that you had to provide your own transportation to the interview, which was out of the state and would require either plane tickets and cab fare, or would require driving a lot and get a couple of motel rooms. And then you had to provide some of your equipment and buy somewhat of a uniform, plus nicer clothing was sometimes required.

Anyway, that is the end of that. We would have serious problems with paying to get to the interview even if we thought it would mean a good paying job. There is no reason to even waste the time if it is really such a low paying job. It was about half or less of what we have read about similar jobs, and even those do not seem to pay enough. So that was disappointing, but at least that particular discussion is over.

A few things in no particular order

A friend sent me a link about a job, and I can't get it to work. I will try again later, but maybe it isn't worth the effort, as I missed four or five questions on what seemed to be an easy practice test. I'm getting old. I'm slipping.

We have finally figured out the whole unemployment thing. The thing about the unemployment is that you have to file all the time, even when you worked and don't need it, even when you didn't apply for a job and won't get it, even if you turned down work and won't get it, even when all this is going to do is waste time and make people at the unemployment office do more work that is totally unnecessary, and that way you are still in the system on the week that you don't work and need the money, and they send you your money in a reasonable amount of time and such.

So that is what we are doing. Unfortunately, now that we have figured all of that out, we are told that we only have ten thousand dollars left, and the way things are going that isn't going to last us very long.

My husband seems to be making an effort to be especially nice to me, if you can call it that after more than three years of him still not having done one thing that he was supposed to do for us to be roommates, much less actually be back together like nothing had happened. On my part I was having one of those moments when I think that I might as well try to enjoy myself with the way things are, as they will probably not change in the near future. He worked two days last week and two days the week before, and then he is not likely to work at all for the next two weeks, and then we don't know what is going to happen after that. So of course what we tend to do when he has all this time off is go to restaurants and go to movies and go shopping. Well, we are short on money, though not as short as we would be now that we have figured out the whole unemployment thing. We have not been going out to nice restaurants, just now and then going to Arby's and such, cause we have coupons. And we haven't done that much shopping, but we have bought a few things. While I feel some guilt over that, I can't really say that I feel bad about seeing a few movies, as we have a couple of inexpensive theaters. But there are still days when we stay home and do absolutely nothing, and it tends to get on my nerves spending all that time together doing nothing, sort of getting in each others way.

Not that the day I had to myself went any better. I had planned to spend it knitting, and something went wrong, and I don't know if I can fix it. And he was really trying to be nice to me after that, but there is just nothing to be done about it. I will just have to put the thing away for a while, and maybe after some time has past I will see a solution and not get so upset when I look at it. I instead spent the day watching videos, but I did not feel much better. The next day when he was trying to be nice to me, I did make an attempt to just forget about everything that is stressing me out and just enjoy the day, which I did, for a while. And then the next day I noticed something, and that made me think that something is going to go wrong, and that he knew about it and intended for something to wrong, or at least that he was okay with it. But even if nothing goes wrong, that is what I think of him now, that he is very selfish and this attempt at being nice is just to hide the fact that something else is going to go wrong and that he is responsible.

Christmas Eve dinner was finally rescheduled for yesterday. I ate a half dozen oysters and have no need to see anymore oysters for a while. They were really big oysters too. I'm not really complaining, the food was good, and it was good to see everyone and it was good for mom to have a break, as grandma did not get better like we thought from her most recent hospital stay.

Saturday was fun, though not what I had imagined. We did trivia as planned, but just regular trivia, not sci fi stuff like usual. So I did not win, even after having put together a really great team. And we were playing Family Feud, and the answers are based on what people think is the answer, even if that in fact is not the answer. So we were trying to "steal" points from the other team, and we just don't have any good ideas. The question involved things that turn from green to yellow, and all the good answers have been taken, and all I can think of is pears. My friend thinks maybe the answer is yellow squash, except that I and another friend have gardens, and we know that yellow squash starts out yellow, or maybe even white, and is never green to begin with. So we go with pear, cause no one else can think of anything, and the answer was squash. And then there was a question involving things associated with Texas, and the answers to this question obviously did not come from Texas, and no one was getting those right. And then there was a question about haunted houses, and I was thinking theatrical production, and I guess that the people taking the survey were thinking real house that no one lives in anymore. So we got all of that wrong too. But it was still fun, and I didn't need a silly plague anyway.

I have really had it with all the junk. This helps somewhat when we are shopping, as I have several times put things back, cause I'm thinking that I don't need it right away and I don't want it enough to find someplace to put it, and if something happened and I had to move away, would I want to pack this? Probably not. So I have stopped myself from buying a few things, but I still don't manage to get rid of much.

I know all the experts say that if you don't use something for a year (especially things that you have had in box that hasn't even been opened for a year), you should get rid of it. And I know that makes sense on some levels, but on other levels it just doesn't work for me. Like I have many craft things that I don't use for a year, but that doesn't mean that I should throw away tools or supplies that are still good (or even still new in the package). And seasonal things stay in boxes most of the year, should I throw them away cause I was too busy to put everything out this year? Throw out the stuff that I didn't put out cause it looks too old or I just don't like it anymore, sure, but just because I didn't use a particular decoration this year doesn't mean that I won't want them next year. And I haven't done any baking in forever, but I just have a feeling that in the future I will want to, maybe because of the financial situation, and then I either wouldn't be able to do anything or else I would have to go and buy all new stuff, which would be hard to do because of the financial situation.

And then like all people who have either been on a diet and gained it all back (or people who keep thinking that they will diet but don't), there are all these clothes to think about. And even if I haven't worn them in a year, it still doesn't seem to be a good idea to throw them out. If my weight changes by ten pounds either way, if I didn't keep the clothes, I would have to go out and buy clothes (clothes that might not even fit for very long), or else I would have to stay in the house all the time naked.

So I guess I would rather live with all the junk than live in fear that I'm going to be stuck in the house naked without bakeware and holiday decorations.

The other thing that I have a lot of that I don't really do much with anymore is books. For the last three or four years I have done little reading. My eyesight isn't what it was, and most of the time I just don't have the attention span necessary to enjoy reading a book. But reading has been such a big part of my life, and I keep thinking that someday I will feel better and want to read again. And it also seems silly to get rid of the one thing that is somewhat organized and I actually have a place for. I have many bookshelves, and the books that I've had for a long time have places on the bookshelves and I know where they are and I can find them when I want them. And then there are some additional books that I'm not quite sure where to put, cause they don't quite go with the books that are already on the shelves. And then there are really new books that I didn't put anywhere, cause I was reading them (or at least I meant to), and they are just here and there. So there is the dilemma about the books that on the one hand I shouldn't get rid of them because if I really put some effort into it that is the one thing that I could get organized and every book would have its place, and on the other hand books are the one thing that I could easily get rid of and there is a place to take them where I wouldn't feel that they had just been tossed out. I could even get some money for them, though not enough for that to be the deciding point. Still, I think today I will make another attempt to cull some of the cookbooks. There are two boxes of them that I meant to look through, and it may have even been a year since I last looked at them.

And while I am trying not to spend money and buy things that I will just have to put away somewhere, I am thinking of buying yet another black dress. I was invited to a party, and it is less than a month away, and since I just now learned of it I haven't been planning what to wear. Ideally, it would be something goth, and while I have plenty of black I don't think that just being black makes it look goth, and of course a lot of my things just don't fit at the moment. So I am looking through my things trying to find something that looks goth, or something that I can add to something to make it look goth. I don't think that my best black dress looks goth, but if I add enough stuff to it then maybe it does, except that I wore all of that to a party this time last year that was for the same people, and I'd rather not wear the same thing two years in a row. Though they do not have the same reason for the party as last year, they are thinking of just having a theme party as an annual event. So this may require a whole series of black dresses and gloves and hair ornaments and such.

I thought that there was more, but now I can't remember what.

Halloween Party 2009: and the Oscar goes to....

Well, I spent most of the day not doing much. I woke up earlier than I wanted, tried to go back to sleep but did not succeed. So I was just trying not to do anything much that would make me tired.

At some point I tried to deal with the weird food. Do to technical difficulties, the weird food did not work out. I tried three times to make it work, but it just wouldn't do. I have an idea now why it didn't work, so I will make one more attempt (for future reference, cause I might want to make that same thing for next year's party), and then I will just give up on the idea. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

Anyway, I don't guess that it matters that much. I don't think that there were cash prizes this year.

After I decided that the weird food wasn't going to work out, I started thinking about putting some flowers in my hair. My costume just didn't look that much like a costume, it was just clothes. I thought that it needed something. And I had bought flowers, thinking that I had wire and such at home to make a wreath, but I couldn't find the wire when I needed it. I tried using something else and then gave up.

Next I thought about props. I was going to make a fake menu and complain about a missing waitress (or, if someone showed up in that costume, complain directly to the waitress), but I changed my mind and put the bar's name on a wine glass. I know, most of the time the name isn't on a wine glass. On a shot glass, sure. On a beer glass, maybe. On a wine glass, not so much, though I suppose they do have them sometimes, and I used to have a souvenir brandy sniffer from a local landmark.

Anyway, I fixed my hair without flowers, put on makeup, but on a necklace that I had added a bull's head with permanent black marker, put on my black almost dress and headed out.

I got to the party and pretended to be Maryann Forrester, the maenad from True Blood, and then I asked people to guess who I was. Only one person could guess. I had clues. I had the bull's head necklace and the wine glass with the Merlotte's logo on it. Still, only the one person guessed right.

I took off my shoes and sort of danced around the place, thanking people for coming to my party. People still couldn't guess. I decided the costume contest might be a waste of time if no one could guess who I was.

I went around the room, telling people that they should loosen up and have a drink. Someone I didn't know said that she couldn't drink because she was the designated driver. I told her she shouldn't drive anyway, just stay at the party.

She thought I was already drunk.

I don't drink. At all. Ever.

It is called acting.

Anyway, we weren't supposed to open the bar until nine, but since no children came, we opened the bar at seven, and people just thought I had a few too many.

More fun. Still didn't tell anyone who I was. They would just have to guess.

A couple of guys tossed coins at my cleavage. One of them actually landed on target.

About this time I decided to do the costume contest anyway. Then I could tell everyone at once who I was supposed to be.

Taking the shoes off seemed like a good idea, but my feet really started to hurt right before the contest. I took a break.

Then we lined up for the contest, and without assigned numbers it was just whoever got in line first got to go first, so I was third. Which meant that I got to sit down sooner and rest my feet some more.

The judges went off to debate who won what. There was more dancing (without me) and door prizes giving away (I didn't win any), and then the judges came back out to announce the winners.

Without much in the way of a costume, and there not being a special award for staying in character, I did not really expect to win much if anything. I hoped I would get an honorable mention, but, no.

Miss Allergies got Most Beautiful. A chupacabra got Most Disturbing. There were about four or five other awards given away before they got to Best In Show, which I assumed would go to the pilot, since he didn't win anything else. The pilot and his wife came as these old toys where you move metal "hair" around a face with a magnet. So we spent the evening giving the two of them interesting hairdos.

So I just knew that the pilot would get the last award, until the head judge started saying something about drinking and such. I don't quite remember what he said or who he was quoting.

I got Best In Show. I have never won Best In Show at the Halloween Party, and my one time winning Best In Show at a con must have been fifteen years ago. So I was totally surprised.

Some other people were also totally surprised, and maybe not too happy. The pilot was happy for me, but people who just didn't get it, well, they just didn't get it.

So it was explained to someone that I (and a couple of other people who also won awards) had stayed in character all night until the contest (almost three hours for me), and that even though they didn't have a special award for staying in character that they decided those of us who did should get extra points for our efforts.

And here I had almost decided not to enter the contest.

So I had fun at the party, even if the rest of the Halloween season was a bust.

It doesn't much feel like October

Halloween is usually my favorite holiday, even more than Christmas. I like the costumes. I like the decorations. As a kid I liked to walk around in the dark. I like haunted houses.

And here it is halfway through the month, and I've done nothing. I've done a bit of shopping to get a costume, but really, that still isn't ready. And this year my costume isn't even the "Halloween type" of costume that I would normally wear. I'm just going to go as a TV character from a cable show and see if people can guess who I am supposed to be.

I haven't decorated the house. Well, there are some decorations up all year, cause it seems silly to risk damaging them trying to squish them into a box for storage. I like them, so why not just leave them up. No one else is going to see, and if they did see, well, if they didn't get it, why did I invite them to my house? So there are pumpkins up all year and ravens and owls and a few skulls and now a couple of tombstones. But the rest of the stuff is still in boxes, and they will probably stay in the boxes this year, cause I probably won't get enough of the place clean to bother with putting the rest of it up.

And of course I have no money, so that tends to be a problem. I'm not even looking at the haunted house ads. I can't go to anything. I bought my ticket to the Halloween party a long time ago, so I wouldn't have to worry about saving enough money to do that. But I haven't money for anything else. No haunted houses, no Screams, no Fright Night at Six Flags. Nothing. I can't do any of that.

At this point I'm not even sure that I will make it to Judgment House at my mom's church. Not that it would cost a lot (and if I literally had no money, mom would pay for it), but that is not a month long thing, and by the time it gets here I will probably be busy with other things. Being the only Judgment house in the area, it is usually a long wait.

I will have the house to myself for a couple of days. My husband is going to middle of nowhere just west of here. While I was debating on whether or not to go with him, I decided that if I went we would either have the added expense of staying over Saturday night (which the company might or might not pay for, but even if they did we would still need the extra money up front and then wait to be paid back) or else I would have to find someplace to wait all day, like maybe movie theater, and that also takes money and I find it rather tiresome anyway.

So while I was debating about that (the main reason for going to middle of nowhere is to have a place to knit without distractions other than the cable TV, and there not being a good place in the house to set up the knitting machine), I remembered that this weekend there is a meeting, so I shouldn't go anyway. So that is figured out. I'm not going. But it is only for a couple of days and Saturday, and I will already be busy on Saturday, so I don't expect to get much done. Still, it would be nice to get a couple of videos done, work on some knitting, maybe do some sorting.

The weather is not all that cold, but there did seem to be this dramatic drop in temperature earlier, so for a couple of days it did seem cold and I start to cough and get a sore throat and such. It went from what would have been a pleasant eighty if it had been dry, to a high of about sixty, which means that if you wake up in the middle of the night it is about forty. Forty is no big deal, except that I do not have an electric blanket and I hadn't yet turned on the heater. So the heater was on for a couple of days, but now it is back off. It is just so wet outside. It doesn't dry out long enough to do any gardening, so all that water is going to waste. Except that it is making the grass too tall, and it doesn't dry out on my husband's day off, so it doesn't get cut.

I really do not care how the grass looks, but this is starting to look really bad. We will get a complaint letter if he does not cut the grass soon, but it is hard to do as it keeps raining on and off.

In other parts of the country, people are going out to look at the red and orange leaves. Here, if we have a red tree, it is because the crepe myrtles are still blooming. We will probably go from having green trees to having no leaves on the trees rather quickly. We don't get a lot of the red and orange thing, and of course if we had it right now we couldn't really go out and enjoy it anyway. It is raining too much to go out and look at the leaves.

I think I may miss the entire October experience, except for the Halloween party. I won't even get to do much in the way of after-holiday shopping, cause we don't have any money. Not that I need to eat tons and tons of candy, but it was nice to get some while it was on sale so that I wasn't tempted to spend money on it the rest of the year. And I tend to buy a lot of practical things the day after a holiday, like plastic spoons and storage containers and Kleenex, cause they are half price for being orange.

That reminds me. If you like the Rubbermaid Takealongs, go out and buy some more while you still can. I think that they are going to switch to something "new and improved", which is new but I can't see how it is improved. In fact, the new ones look like the same cheap plastic that all the other brands use, which is why I was spending a little more to get Rubbermaid in the first place. So I need to go and buy about a dozen or so of those, regardless of color, but I can't because we don't have any money. So it doesn't look like I will be going out to stock up on them November 1st.

Except for the party, I have nothing to look forward to. Not even post-holiday clearance sales.

And I still don't have a flu shot.

This sucks. Business usually picks up by now, but not this year.

Yesterday's shopping

So here it is October, and I don't have my Halloween costume ready, or even mostly ready. This just won't do at all. I had to go shopping.

I had been shopping earlier and found an interesting dress. I held up the dress and asked my husband who it looked like. He thought the same thing that I did. I tried on the dress, and while it fit, it would need some work. But it was only two dollars, so I decided to buy it anyway.

Nearly a month later, I've had no luck finding fabric to match the dress, and I haven't found a bra to go with the dress, and I'm running out of time to fix it.

I very much have it stuck in my head that I was going to go to the Halloween party as a certain character from a cable TV show that was on this year. The character died, so if I don't go as that character this year, I don't think I would try to do it next year instead. I can use the dress for something else, but I think that this is the only year that I want to be that character, unless maybe some other people want to go as a group as characters from that show, and then I might just tag along with them. But as for going by myself as the character, either it will be this year or else I just won't do it.

After looking at pictures of the character, it isn't like the dress I bought exactly matches anything that she wore. She definitely has a certain style, but I think I can wear something that doesn't exactly match anything and just act like the character.

In fact, the plan is to act like the character and see if anyone can guess who I'm supposed to be.

So yesterday I decided to go shopping, and then I would make a final decision. Either a.) find fabric to fix the first dress and find a bra and shoes to go with it, b.) find a different dress that will work for the same character, or c.) admit defeat and buy some black fabric so that I can be a witch or a vampire or something.

Before I started going to this party every year and got so competitive, I would find a witch costume or a black vampire dress and just go as one of those every year. I didn't do all of this fuss over the costume, it was already done, I just had to see which one fit better or if it needed repairs or anything. The witch costume I had shrunk, and I'm not sure what happened to my first black and red vampire outfit.

Anyway, that idea went out the window after I wore a different costume one year and won a ribbon. And at this party it is rare for people to wear the same costumes year after year. So I have had a different costume every year since then. But I have started to think that this is all taking up too much of my time and that I should just go back to having the standard witch or vampire costume ready to go and wear one of those most of the time.

But maybe not this year.

So I had all these places mapped out. The first place I went to was a thrift store, and I tried on five or six things. Now, I don't need another black dress. I like black dresses, but I have several, and I don't wear them that often. So I should stop buying them. As it is, I have already bought one that I haven't worn yet. But, as I was looking through the racks, a black dress spoke to me. The character tends to wear dark brown, not black, but would anyone other than me notice?

There was a dark brown dress, but it would need work, and I already have a blue dress that needs work. So I figured if I bought that I would spend the rest of the day still trying to match fabric. I didn't buy that one. The other dresses didn't work at all.

And then the black dress turned out not to be a dress but pants. And it didn't quite look exactly like the character, but, it did look pretty good on me. And it didn't need as much work as either of the other dresses, and if I do decide that it needs something, finding matching black fabric would probably be easier than matching brown or blue.

I also found a bra and shoes.

So, that settles that. I bought the black almost dress and the bra and the shoes. Now I will just have to make up some jewelry to go with it, and decide if it would look better with a belt and do I need to hem up the pants.

My not so attractive arms are still showing, but maybe I'll wear a shawl or something with it.

After that I went to Michael's, still hoping for either some glow-in-the-dark yarn, or something to make glow-in-the-dark yarn. I have found out why I can't seem to find the yarn, the kind I heard about last year has been discontinued. I don't understand why. I don't get the whole discontinued thing anyway, but if you are the only source of a really unique thing, why stop making it? So that sucks. I bought a very small bottle of glow-in-the-dark fabric paint, wondering if it might be possible to dye the yarn, but it probably won't work. I will just have to find someone who has some of the discontinued yarn (and pay shipping) or give up on the idea.

Next, I went to JoAnn's, and I'm not sure why. Just went there on autopilot I guess. I mean, I no longer need to match the blue fabric (besides which I think that I had already tried at that particular store), I didn't buy the brown dress so I didn't need to match that, and if I wanted to match the black I probably wouldn't buy it there anyway. It's too expensive. Even their clearance stuff is at least four dollars a yard, and for clearance stuff I usually only spend a dollar or two, usually at Walmart. I used to also buy stuff at Clothworld or Hancock's, but most of those have closed.

Anyway, I should have gone straight to Walmart, but I didn't. So as long as I'm there, I try one more time to find knitting tools to go with the knitting machine. And I find that the ten dollar pocket knitter has a single transfer tool that would probably work. I'm still out of luck on getting a proper size latch hook or getting a two or three pronged tool, but if I am ever truly desperate and need to get a transfer tool without having it shipped, I guess I can buy a pocket knitter.

While I was in JoAnn's I bought a bra extender. As it turns out, I paid almost twice what they cost at Walmart, but it is too much of an effort to go back and return it to save a dollar and a quarter.

And, as it turns out, I may not need the extender anyway. But it is good to have one, just in case.

I did not buy anything of interest at Walmart. After not finding any interesting fabric, I nearly left the store without buying anything, but remembered that my husband had asked for something that cost five dollars. So I bought that, and then I went home. I was too tired to go on to Hobby Lobby, and I was about out of money anyway. Besides, I got the main thing that I was after at the thrift shop.

When I get home, I regret spending the five dollars at Walmart. My husband didn't seem all that happy I bought it, and now I don't have enough left for all of the lottery tickets I usually buy on Tuesday. I'll have enough to buy two for today and two for tomorrow, but I usually spend sixteen dollars every other Tuesday. I don't have that much left. I'll just have to spend four dollars today and get the rest on Friday.

And there had better be money on Friday or I will be really mad.

The Bionic Woman and random things

The first fourteen episodes of The Bionic Woman are on Hulu. That is, the first fourteen episodes of the real The Bionic Woman are on Hulu, not the recently "re imagined" thing done by those people who "re imagined" Battlestar Galactica. The re imagined thing was removed months ago, and now there are fourteen hours of "The Bionic Woman Classic."

If you are not a big fan of either The Bionic Woman or The Six Million Dollar Man, you might not think this is a big deal. Except that The Bionic Woman was on thirty-three years ago (and The Six Million Dollar Man was on a couple of years before that), and we haven't been able to (legally) buy or rent either series on video or DVD in the years since then. The reruns were on The Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy) about ten years ago, and I saw some of them then, but I didn't actually have cable, I was just in a lot of motel rooms where I could sometimes watch on Thursday and Friday afternoons. But mostly, I haven't seen them since I was a kid.

Now when someone makes a movie or a TV show, the subject of DVDs is just part of the deal. It is decided ahead of time what everyone's cut will be if there is a DVD and all of that, and if you don't like your cut or you flat out don't want your work to be on a DVD, then you can go and look for another job. But in the seventies the contracts weren't written like that, and if you want to release a DVD of something from that time you have to go back and get everyone to sign another contract and figure out what everyone's cut is, etc....

And some people can't be reached, and some people just don't want to play, and some people hold out for more money.

And while this sort of thing drags on, those of us who really want to see the show again look for illegal copies, and when the people holding out for more money finally do sign on, there are fewer customers wanting to buy, and there is less money to be made anyway.

Better to have a smaller cut of a bigger pie than to wait til there is no pie left.

So maybe there will be more of The Bionic Woman on Hulu, and maybe some of The Six Million Dollar Man will make an appearance, and maybe they will both be available on DVD now. Not that I actually have proof of any of that, but it does seem a step in the right direction.

Back to my usual moaning about the money situation.

So we made a car payment on both cars, which means that we are now currently only one payment behind on each car, and I doubt that anyone is going to try and take my car over one late payment. And I hope that we will be caught up on that next month anyway.

But that didn't leave us much money, as there is still a missing expense check out there, as we changed our direct deposit to a different bank so that we could close one of our accounts.

My husband is going to middle of nowhere Texas for three days next week, and while I was sitting here debating on where or not I should go with him, I realized that I already have plans for that weekend. So that settles that. Now if we could actually get paid for that expense check, he would actually have enough money to go on the trip, just he will be going alone because of my prior commitment.

It was just middle of nowhere Texas, and not even a long drive, and the main point of my going would have been knitting anyway.

About the knitting....

I should have started that months ago. In fact, I should have started it in January and been done with it. But I usually save some of the knitting for when I go on these little trips, but there haven't been many of these little trips, and of the few that there have been I ended up not going on most of them, mainly due to the money situation but occasionally because of my prior commitments.

So, basically, I haven't done any of the knitting that needs to be done before Christmas, and here it is already October.

I may be handing out IOUs for Christmas.

And then there is always this confusion about who is doing what for Christmas anyway.

After having worked with the round looms for more than four years and having had The Ultimate Sweater Machine for almost three years, I have yet to knit any sweaters. I am mainly knitting scarves, though there have been a few hats and the odd assortment of leg warmers and such. At some point I thought that I should learn regular knitting before attempting to knit a sweater. Not that I had any intention of knitting a whole sweater by hand, but I had thought that there might be some little thing that needed to be done with a sweater that just wouldn't be practical on the machine. Like I thought that I might need to do some regular knitting around the neck or at the waist or maybe on the sleeves, that the pieces of the sweater might not match up the way I imagine while working on the machine, and I would have some hand knitting to do before joining the pieces. So I attempted to learn regular knitting, but I didn't get very far with it. Regular knitting just isn't my thing.

Anyway, you would think that knitting scarves all the time would get dull, but I seem to get new ideas for them now and then. But even with the machine, they do seem to take so long.

And then there are these little tools that come with the machine. One of them is called the latch hook tool, which looks like the latch hook tool that comes with a rug kit, except that is a smaller hook. And the other is the transfer tool, which rather looks like a giant sewing needle, except that the pointy end is buried in the handle as it is the big eye of the needle that is used on the knitting machine. If you aren't doing anything fancy, you don't use these tools very often, but you do need them once in a while, especially if you've made a mistake.

On the other hand, if you are doing something fancy, you need these tools all of the time. And, if you are doing something fancy, it is helpful to have double or triple pronged transfer tools, and double or triple latch hooks.

The problem is that I have never seen double or triple latch hooks, so if I want those I will have to find a way to make them myself, and I have seen that other knitters have done just that. As for the double and triple pronged transfer tools, they used to just come with the machine, but now they don't, and if you want them you have to pay extra and have them sent, which means that you also have to pay shipping.

It seems to me that the charge for the tools is more than they should be, even before you have to add for shipping.

By contrast, the tool that goes with the round loom is easily found at any craft store, usually for a dollar. I have bought several sets of looms, and still I lose the little tool and have to go to the store and buy more. But it is no big deal. The tools are at the store and they only cost a dollar.

The cheapest transfer tool for the knitting machine is three dollars, and it is not available at the store, and so in addition to the three dollars you have to pay for shipping and you have to wait for the mail to arrive.

So to get the transfer tool and the latch hook that came with the kit (cause I am always losing things and need them replaced, or maybe something breaks once in a while), that would cost me about fifteen dollars with the shipping. And that's not counting if I would like a double pronged or triple pronged transfer tool, and they are only sold two at a time, so another ten dollars if I want the one and another twenty dollars if I want them both.

And that's if they even have them in stock, which doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.

About a year ago we found another knitting machine at a thrift store for forty dollars, and we decided to buy it, just for the tools and such, not cause I wanted another machine. So I had another transfer tool and another latch hook, which would have cost me about fifteen dollars to buy online. Unfortunately, this kit did not come with the desired additional two and three pronged transfer tools, but now I also have a spare of just about everything else, and I think this is good to have just in case I should break a key plate or tear the thing that holds the weights onto the machine.

But now I have lost both latch hook tools and all but one of my transfer tools. It is time to buy some more tools, or look into buying another machine to get more tools.

That has lead to some interesting eBay searches. There just all of a sudden seem to be a lot of people selling old knitting machines. And some of them aren't selling for that much, so I am tempted to buy another one. I imagine all of the tools and spare parts that I might get for somewhere in the twenty to forty dollar range.

Now I just have to figure out which one I should bid on.

(I probably just missed bidding on the one I should have tried to get, but I had it in my head that it was over tomorrow, and I wanted to think more about the money situation before I bid on anything.)

Unfortunately, I can't bid very much. In addition to the usual money problems, there is that still missing expense check, and the fact that my husband just realized that his car inspection sticker lapsed three months ago.

Still, I do have to wonder what is up with all of these knitting machines on eBay. Is it just an odd coincidence? Are desperate people raiding there craft rooms and finding knitting machines they have decided they will never use? Are that many knitters all dying and having estate sales?

I just don't know what the deal is. Another odd thing is when someone is selling the machine and knows nothing about it. One ad for a machine turns out to just be for the carriage, and there are no hooks. But there are other spare parts, so maybe no one else will want that one and I will be able to get it.

Of course, I have no money left in the Paypal account, so if I decide to buy anything I will have to come up with some money from somewhere else and remember to transfer it before the bill is due.

Anyway, it really ticks me off that I have to think about any of this right now. If I am going to make those Christmas presents, I have to have those tools. If I am not going to make any Christmas presents, I certainly do not have the money to buy Christmas presents instead, and I'm going to have to tell people to count me out this year. And it shouldn't be this much trouble. The tools should just be in the craft stores with the other knitting stuff. Even overpriced at five dollars each, I would buy them, if they would just put them in the stores.

And while I am worrying about the knitting, I still haven't finished my Halloween shopping. I have an idea for a costume, but not all of the parts. I may have to give up and go as a witch, but since I have gained weight since last time, I would still have to go shopping. I had hoped to get a flu shot before the party, but I doubt that I will have enough money left for one shot, and of course this year there are two. Great.

Filming delayed again due to more shopping

Yesterday or the day before, a new reader left a comment on a post I made like a year and a half ago. I don't know if he is still reading. But I thought I would stop and say hello, just in case.

It was raining a bit yesterday, so we did not film the beginning of the video like I had planned. We got an early start on the shopping instead.

First, there was the trip to the bank, cause I think that the ATM was empty. I don't think that has ever happened to me before, though I suppose it must happen once in a while. But, it didn't say that it was out of money, it just refused to give us any. We could check our balance and see that we had money, and we were given the option of depositing money, but we were not given the option of withdrawing any money. Weird.

So after we went to the bank to get our money, we had to go to a different bank and deposit some money. Then I had to go pick up some pills, and as long as we were in the neighborhood we might as well go to the Only 99 cents store.

It was closed. The store is gone. I learned that was going to happen last week, but I didn't realize it would happen so soon. I was expecting a clearance sale or something. But, no. It is just gone now.

I loved that store, and there isn't another one within a reasonable driving distance for regular shopping visits.

The rest of the shopping went rather well, considering it was off to such a sad start.

From there we went to eat at Pancho's, and since the Irving location has closed we had to go to Euless. We shouldn't have spent the money, and we didn't even have a coupon, but this is one of his favorite places, and for the last three or four times I've talked him into something else. So we ate out this one time, and we will behave ourselves for the next week or so.

From there we went to Goodwill, and almost all the dresses I like were black. I love black, but I really can't justify buying another black dress. No matter how good it might look, it would just be another black dress, and I doubt that anyone would even notice that it was a new black dress. I might see all these little details that might it look good on me and make it look better than the last one, but if I want a new dress I should probably wait and buy something that really looks different. There were a few other things that caught my attention, but nothing really spoke to me enough to try anything on. We didn't buy anything at that stop.

Next stop, Jo Ann's Fabrics. Not that I bought anything there either, but I did want to have a look around. The one thing that I actually went in thinking I might buy I found for eight dollars, but I was thinking it would only cost two or three dollars, so I didn't buy it. And then there was something else that I had to look at, not cause I needed to buy one, but just cause I needed to know what a new one cost. A red knifty knitter, sold by itself, is seven dollars and forty-nine cents. I took a quick look at the Halloween stuff, and then I left.

Having come so far into the Tarrant County side, we kept going. We went to Thrift Town, and that was worth the drive even if we hadn't gone anywhere else. In September and October, they put out the clothes that they can't sell the rest of the year, just in case someone might want something for Halloween. So not only is there all this great stuff, it usually doesn't cost that much, cause if they don't sell it before October 31st, they either have to put it in storage for another year, or they have to put it in the trash.

So, I just wanted everything, but I managed to narrow it down to five things before heading to the dressing room. One item wasn't even for me. I plan to give it to a friend for Christmas, cause he never has any costume stuff to wear. Then there was a long blue dress, which isn't too different from a long black dress, but it wouldn't be exactly the same either. But it didn't fit. Then I had something short and purple, which would have potential if I ever want to be a fairy (I already have purple wings), but I probably won't do that this year. The dress fit just fine, but I could still lose a few pounds if I actually want to look good in it. And then there was this red Chinese thing, which was just a bit large and had a defect that didn't even show when it was buttoned up. And I really wanted it, but in the end I decided that since I wasn't planning to wear it to anything specific this year, I should put it back. Besides, if the idea is to look like a character from Firefly, I think the shirt is light blue, not red.

I just wanted to try on a whole bunch of other stuff, just in case I ever go to a Shindig, but I decided not to. I'm probably not going to such a thing this year, and whatever I buy this year might not look good on me next year. So no Shindig dresses. I'm not altogether sure which direction I would go with the Shindig dress anyway. Would I want elegant or pretty ruffles? I can't decide.

So one item for a friend, and one little purple thing, and then there was this greenish blue dress that spoke to me. It made me think of a certain character on a TV show I've been watching, and with some minor fixing, I could wear it. The main thing is that I would need a matching bra and some good shoes. So I think that I might have found my Halloween costume after all, though not for the character I had originally planned.

Three costume pieces cost me eight dollars and some change. Nice.

From there we went to Town Talk, where we bought odd sodas and really awesome white chocolate and some brie and white cheddar. And some energy drinks. But, we did also manage to buy more than five pounds of rice at twenty-nine cents a pound, so it wasn't entirely luxury items.

On the way home we stopped at a Walmart. This isn't the same Walmart as Thursday, but I was hoping that they would have the same item on sale. I knew that they probably wouldn't, since it was probably a clearance sale and there doesn't seem to be an uniformity in clearance sales for Walmarts. So, I went in and found the item, or at least, it looked like the same item to me, but it was five dollars. At the other store, it had been two dollars marked down from four dollars. So how is it five here? I can understand that it would still be regular price instead of clearance price, but isn't the regular price four? I don't get it.

Anyway, after some slight begging and a stop at 7-11 for a cold drink, we went to the other Walmart so I could look for the clearance sale item. And, display I had seen on Thursday was gone, so they had probably sold all of them, but I went to have a look on the regular shelf space anyway. And there they were, or at least, I thought I'd found them, and they were five dollars. That didn't make sense. Thursday they had been two marked down from four, and now they were up to five? This didn't even make sense at a different store, but at the same store it really didn't make any sense.

I hoped the price was wrong and that it would somehow scan two dollars. I found a scanner, but it was five dollars. I took the item back to the shelf.

I really gave it a careful looking over. This is the same item, isn't it? I know that a lot of similar things end up not being the same price, but the same item being a different price? Was there anything different about this item and the item I bought on Thursday?

And then I noticed that the item had the barcode on the side, while as far as I could remember the item I purchased Thursday had the barcode on the bottom. I had a similar thing happen the day after Thanksgiving, when I went to buy some eight dollar jeans that looked exactly like some twenty dollar jeans, and I couldn't find any that scanned eight dollars, until I noticed some of the tags were in a different place.

So, I found three with the barcode on the bottom. These scanned two dollars each. I was happy. And, now that I knew what to look for, I found a few more.

I had gone into the store hoping to buy four, but after all of this trouble I decided to buy six. I would have bought six more, but I really do not like being totally without funds, and I couldn't see doing that again for another two weeks, especially since I haven't yet bought gas or the lottery tickets.

Anyway, now that I know what to look for, I will look again next time I'm in Walmart and I have some money.

So I went home tired but happy. We decided to rest for about an hour before we thought about the video. We did finally get the beginning of it done, and now I have to go and work on the project so that we can maybe film the end of the video tonight and then try the editing on Sunday.

Just a day or so behind schedule. And there's a little more shopping planned for today, but not much.

Behind schedule again

Before I get into that, someone has read the last post and asked if I had fun at the party. Sorry I didn't make that clear. I had fun at the party. You maybe don't think so, cause I don't drink alcohol and I don't dance, but I still enjoy going to a couple of parties. I like to hang out with my friends, I like to eat, I like raffles and such, and most important I like to watch people.

I don't know if it was said that children were not invited, or if just most of the people knew what to expect and didn't bring any. Not that anyone wore anything particularly out there, but in this group there's usually a lot of costumes that prominently display the quadra-boob. I only remember one such costume this time, but it just all depends on who shows up and if they've had time to make anything new or if they'll just show up in last year's ren faire stuff.

So at some point I went to get something to eat, and I came back to find one of my friends had been told she wasn't dressed appropriately. Did she display too much boob? No. Did she have on a really short skirt? No. Did she wear something skin-tight or see-through? No.

She wore jeans, and this was a formal dance.

Okay, it says that somewhere, but I don't think that it says anywhere that jeans are forbidden. It is a party, and it is supposed to be fun, and for some people stressing over what to wear is not fun.

At our table, no one was particularly in costume. I had the black slinky dress, but I didn't do anything particularly interesting with it. No latex, no hat, just plain old me but in a dress. A male friend had nothing interesting to wear, but he did put on a tie. One girl had on a uniform top with jeans. This is a no no when one is out in public to represent a particular group, but when one is only at a party to enjoy oneself, it shouldn't matter if jeans were worn instead of black dress pants. Another girl wore t-shirt and jeans, another wore jeans and a very average looking top, and still another girl wore black shirt and pants with a lot of loud costume jewelry. Half of our table would dance a lot, and the other half didn't dance at all.

But it is a party. You should do and wear whatever is fun for you. I probably wouldn't be having much fun if I didn't wear something interesting, but I wouldn't want other people to stay home if they can't wear something equally nice. That would be almost as unacceptable as someone trying to make me dance.

After that little bit of drama was over, we went back to having fun.

One of my friends will soon be off to Dragon Con. I, of course, will not be going. I never go. I never have any money. I rarely even go to anything here anymore, so going to Atlanta is out of the question.

Anyway, my friend is going. I should think that he has to go somewhere to show off his costume.

He is Ironman.

Seriously, he is Ironman. He probably put as much effort into this costume as the comic book character put into his suit. He wore it to last year's Halloween party, having this idea that he shouldn't enter it into the costume contest. He thought that it would be unfair to the other people who wanted to be in the contest.

He has the best costume, cause he worked on it all year and spent a lot of money on it. It is a damned good costume. What the hell is unfair about entering and winning a costume contest?

Some people in our little group used to go to conventions and some of us even used to compete, but now most of us seem so focused on ren faires and our Halloween Party that we almost forget to enter other contests. And most of our Halloween costumes just aren't convention material, but Ironman fits in just fine.

At some point my friend was talked into going to a local convention and entering that costume contest, and he won first place.

In Atlanta, he will get some real competition, but I still think it is a good idea for him to try.

Back here, I have all but given up on this year's Halloween party, at least as far as the costume contest goes. I just don't have the money to do anything new. I have a new dress, but I can't buy anything interesting to go with it. I seriously have no money at all. I will have to figure out something to do, mostly with what I already have. The most I can do is fix a new hat, but I'm losing interest in even trying to do that.

So I should be putting up Halloween decorations today, but I'm not going to. The house isn't clean enough. And yes, there are already Halloween decorations up, but I mean that I won't be getting started putting up any extra Halloween decorations. The decorations that are already up are there all year.

Halloween is just two months away. There's just no time to do anything.

At this point, I am even starting to worry about Christmas. I knew from last year that unless there were major changes I wouldn't be able to do much. I considered just making an announcement that I didn't have enough money to participate in any gift exchanges. But I had so much fun last year, and I got it into my head that I could give my friends some homemade things that they would like, if I got an early start on it.

And of course, Christmas is now less than four months away, and I haven't started on anything. If fact, for the most part, I can't even remember what it was that I was going to make. I remember that I was going to make a few scarves, but that's about it. I even remember buying a lot of supplies at clearance sales, only now I can't remember what I was going to do with them.

I've wasted the whole year.

I did end up going to that party

So I did finally find a black bra, though not the best one. Still, after I found that I was able to wear a certain black dress that I haven't been seen in for a while.

Somebody said I looked slinky.

Okay. Anyway, not much of a costume, but something I was happy to wear anyway. So I did not win any awards, though I wish that there was some way of finding out if I even got any votes. Marvin won two awards, but of course, he is Marvin. And I didn't see him even take off his mask the entire evening, so for a while I was wondering if maybe she was Marvin.

I was one of three people who got all the correct answers on both of the table games, but I didn't win a prize for either. After spending about four dollars on raffle tickets and the silent auction, I came home with an Erin Grey picture, a Klingon bird of prey model kit, and some sort of homemade liquor. I do not drink alcohol, so I will either find something to cook with it, or else I will give it to my brother. I am strongly anti-drug, so I think that giving someone alcohol is a bad idea. Still, he'd probably just put it in his collection and not drink it for a long time anyway. May end up giving him all three items for Christmas or something. I have to think about it a bit.

I feel somewhat guilty that I did not put a scarf up for auction, just to see what would happen. The last one only got 23 dollars, but that would have been an extra 23 dollars for charity. Someone else put a scarf in as a raffle prize. That I wouldn't do. All that work for not much money, and you don't even know if the recipient even wanted the scarf.

We have our own auction next month. But that is for the club and not a charity, and I've donated two scarves to that in past years. I think that I've done my bit there.

Note to self: if you really want sodas at the next party, bring your own. Also, the spaghetti from the Mexican market was probably a good thing for the donation box, so look for it again next year.

The party broke up at a bit after eleven, about two hours sooner than some of us wanted to go home. I am thinking that we have to be out of the building by twelve or something, or else some people would stay longer as at other events. Still, getting home at a bit before twelve is a lot later than I would normally stay out, so I was a bit tired on the drive home.

After I got to sleep, I was still in the mood for a party. I met some actors. A fun dream, and it felt so real I'm afraid that I would say something stupid if I ever met these people in real life.

So I must have gotten a lot of sleep if I was able to dream, but I don't feel rested. I would just go back to bed if I could.

Today will be an odd Sunday, as my husband works today. He almost never works on Sunday. And while he's actually making some money for a change, he was happy to hear that this particular account was cut short by two days. The customers are buying, but they're a bit strange. The salesman who bailed on us two weeks ago is working on this account, so the sales are good, and we need the money.

The salesman is back to being his friendly self. But he's suggested to my husband that the next time he gets his own account that they should work together. He's apparently acting as though nothing has happened. Anyway, as nice as it would be to have him work on the new business, we don't trust him now. We don't know if we should give him another chance or what. I would think that he needs to do something to show he's committed to the project, like buy his own laptop, but then that wouldn't work either because he'd have people's credit card numbers on his computer. And someone would still have to watch him to make sure that he didn't have people write checks directly to him. So I don't know what to do about him.

I got almost nothing done yesterday. I spent some time looking for my black bra and trying on clothes and such, and I went to the library, and after that I pretty much sat around watching TV while waiting for it to me time to get ready for the party. So I'm not sure why I feel so bad. I didn't eat that much, I didn't overdose on soda, and I didn't spend all night on my feet. But I still feel pretty strange, like the day after I go to a party and do all that stuff that I'm not supposed to do.

Glad that I went anyway.

Love the new purse

I may have mentioned that I am not so much what you would call a girly girl. Not that I was ever really called a tomboy either. I didn't like sports enough to be called that. And I am way to old to be called a tomboy now. But, still, compared to the rest of my sex, I don't spend a lot of time shopping for clothes or looking in the mirror or getting my nails done, etc....

At some point, I decided that carrying a purse was too annoying for everyday use. My keys and ID and money could go in my pockets, along with maybe some lip balm, and I was good to go. This did not please my mother, as she could see all this stuff in my pockets, and it did not look lady-like or something. But I find that carrying around a purse is annoying, besides the fact that I might forget and leave my purse somewhere, and a couple of times that I've had my purse stolen. So most of the time I would rather do without one, unless I am trying especially hard to look nice, or I need some stuff that I don't want to carry around in my pockets like a brush and a bunch of medications and extra cosmetics.

So it is sometimes necessary to carry a purse, and I do have one or two. I'm just not often seen carrying them around.

A couple months back I found a purse at a Goodwill. It was black and it had dark purple or plum flowers glued to the top. In my opinion, this was rather tacky. I thought that it would look good with a Harry Potter costume, as at some point I hope to have a hat with black or dark purple flowers on it, and the purse would match the hat, sort of.

I had a look at the purse and found that it was in good shape and had a magnetic clasp. So it wasn't an old purse. It was four dollars, and I decided to buy it.

A bit more than a month ago, I was going to wear some of a witch costume to a Star Trek club meeting. I didn't want to wear the costume all day, as it was rather warm. So I took the costume to change into. And as long as I would eventually be in the costume, I thought that I might as well take the purse too, even though I did not yet have a hat with flowers, I thought the purse still looked good with the witch costume. So money and ID and cell phone and keys and brush and medications and extra cosmetics all went into the new purse, and off I went to the meeting, not yet in costume otherwise.

And then a lot of my friends were saying how much that they liked my new purse, and did I glue the flowers on myself or did it just come that way, etc....

Okay.

I had expected that maybe after I got into costume some of them might say how well the purse went with the costume. But I wasn't in costume yet, I was just in regular clothes. So I thought that was a bit weird.

Maybe they are like my mother, and they hate that I stuff everything in my pockets, and they are just happy that I have a purse. Any purse. Or maybe they are just happy that I decided to act like a girl for a change. I don't know. But it was hard for me to think that they really liked this tacky purse, other than for it's costume potential.

About a week ago I was going to see my mother, so I took the purse to get her opinion.

Mom, do you like my purse?

Um, well, let's see. Not particulary. It's okay. I wouldn't like it for me, but if you like it, I guess it's okay.

So it is not just the coolest purse that you have ever seen?

Um, no....

So I tell her about my friends all liking the purse, and she thought that was funny, and she agreed that they might just be saying that to make me feel better, and that it might not really be a great purse. But she really isn't the expert on such things. Better ask my sister.

So my sister agreed that it was a nice purse, though she did not all go crazy about it like my friends had. But she did say that it was a good purse to have, and not just for costume potential. My mother still thought it a bit on the tacky side, but it was a major improvement over stuffing everything in my pockets.

So I have somehow managed to buy a cool purse on accident, when I was intending to buy something tacky. How did that happen?

Stuff from this weekend

Well, I had been debating whether or not I should make an appearance at the movie theater that my friends were hanging out at. I wasn't up for a long drive and being on my feet all night, but just maybe I could go for an hour or two on Saturday, after I had already driven halfway there to get to something else anyway.

First thing that I did was email three of my other friends who had not yet made an appearance at the theater. Maybe they would like to go there too.

One didn't even return my email. Another didn't return my email, but we had already discussed the situation somewhat. Miss Allergies said that she did not want to go to the theater, not even just to see the other people all dressed up and not dress up herself. Going to the theater would interfere with our usual plans for going to dinner.

Our usual plans of going to dinner are already interfered with, as some of our friends were already committed to being at the theater all evening anyway.

Miss Allergies insisted that people do have to eat, so that maybe they would take a break and go with us.

Well, they might, but they aren't going to drive all the way back and forth from the usual place. Maybe if we pick another restaurant closer to the theater. So we discuss a few places and pick one. The other two guys are easy and will usually go along with where we want to go.

Only after we discuss the idea of taking a break with the people who are committed to being at the theater all night, they insist that they really must be at the theater all night, even during the hour and a half between shows when they aren't really doing much. At that point, Miss Allergies wants to go to the usual place rather than driving all the way to the other restaurant.

So I decide if we are not going to the other restaurant I really don't need to go to dinner. I really do want to hang around at the theater, even if it is just for an hour or so. And hanging around at the theater will only cost me a bit more gas, while going to dinner will cost me more money. If we could have done both that would have been nice, but I don't see being able to do both if we don't go to the other restaurant. So I'm off to the theater.

Except that Miss Allergies is begging me to go to dinner instead. And then while she is trying to talk me into dinner instead, she mentions that she wants to go to the bookstore first.

I don't want to go to the bookstore at all. I spend enough time in that place when I have money, so I don't want to waste any of my time there when I don't have money. I'm off to the theater again. Miss Allergies complains that we never get to see each other anymore.

Well, I am hardly to blame for that, but I don't say so. I've about had it with Miss Allergies.

She thinks it is all about me not having money. She offers to buy me dinner. It is partially about me having no money, but not entirely. And I really do want to go to the theater for a bit. She still wants to go to dinner at the usual place, but she still wants to go to the bookstore first.

I think why don't I just go to the theater now, and then I'll see how I feel about going to dinner afterward. That seems to make everybody happy. I check to make sure that I have their cell phone numbers, and again I am off to the theater.

I actually get out the door this time and really do drive to the theater.

Last month I had all these plans for making new costumes and such, and then decided not to bother with it. If I really want to go, I can wear the old stuff that I wore last month. Only, at about the time that I decide that, I realize I don't know where the old stuff is. As it turns out, I had left it in the car from last month. So I had looked it over and then put it back in the car and added a scarf.

So I get to the theater, and I'm rather late for one show, but I can help out with two others and then leave in an hour. Perfect. I get changed.

Besides our group being dressed as Tonks and Dumbledore and the elder Malfoy and Snape, I see a group of girls who is not part of our group. They have come wearing school uniforms and neck ties and such. And one of them had a toilet seat around her neck, cause she was moaning Myrtle. And there was another girl with that group all dressed in brown with this sort of grass skirt thing around her knees, cause she was a broom. Silly girls.

So that was fun, but I didn't get into costume soon enough to have my picture taken with them.

So I go and change. Now, the nice thing about dressing up for Harry Potter is that you can still wear your glasses, and you can even carry a purse if you want to, and I found one that looked eccentric enough to work. So after an hour or so I called my other friends, who were just then getting to the restaurant. I change out of the skirt but keep the rest of the costume on, and I'm off to the restaurant.

So I get to the restaurant maybe twenty or thirty minutes after they did. So I think that worked out pretty well. Then Miss Allergies still wanted to buy me dinner, which I thought was weird, cause I assumed that she just offered because she thought that I wouldn't go otherwise. After I'm already at the restaurant and starting to order the soup I didn't think that it mattered anymore.

But she still wants to buy me dinner, apparently because she'll taking the others somewhere later this week and I'm not going.

Okay. I'm not sure why I'm not going, but I don't ask. Maybe it is because she thinks that I don't want to waste the gas going to Fort Worth. I don't know. I didn't ask, and I'm not going to.

We stay at the restaurant three hours. We get ready to leave, and again Miss Allergies is going on about how we don't get to spend enough time together anymore.

And whose fault is that? But I don't say anything. But it is weird that she keeps going on like that. And here I am right now, without a job, and I could meet her any Saturday that she wants, and I might even meet her on a weeknight if she would ask. But I already know that she'll never invite anyone to her house (which I know cause we have both said that we never have anyone over) and she won't want to meet me anyplace halfway, and she would never say meet me at the mall or at a fast food place to just have a soda. She has to go only to certain restaurants because of her allergies, etc....

Sunday, I get nothing useful done. I watch Sunday Morning and then spend about three hours watching stuff about Apollo missions. I would have liked to watch The Dish, but I seem to have misplaced it. I thought I knew where most things were before I started cleaning, and now I can't find anything. And we didn't even go to my brother's place as I had already watched Eureka on Hulu Saturday morning, cause I didn't want to hear any of my friends talking about it before I watched it.

Anyway, Sunday started out pleasant enough, but it soon got back to normal. And now it is Monday, and I got up later than usual and haven't done anything. I suspect it will be another day of not doing much, though later I should get to watch True Blood. Today we have to sit here and wait for someone to deliver a computer. That's always fun.

This week would almost be a good time to do some gardening, if I would get up early enough. We expect only low to mid nineties, rather than high nineties and over a hundred. But I probably won't get around to that.

My almost planned day away isn't going to happen tomorrow. And then the husband will go out of town for three days at the end of the week. I should plan what I am going to do before then so I don't waste the time.