I don't even know what to call this post

Someone told me that there was something in the Bimbo's blog about her f****** another married man and ruining his life even before we had ever heard of her. So much for her not going after married men. (She says that. She made a big deal about she didn't go after married men, that he was the first. Somehow the fact that she was after my married man didn't count. What? You're not a homewreckingslut if you only wreck one home?)

Anyway, I have read the post in question, and I don't see anywhere that she says he was married. But whatever was going on, she did f*** someone when she knew that she shouldn't, and it did really upset the guy. Ruining his life was mentioned. And again with the she has no regrets. She's determined not to regret anything, so of course she'll never learn from her mistakes. (If you can even call such a thing a mistake after you've very clearly thought about it and knew it was a bad idea, and then did it anyway. I tend to think a mistake is something that is almost an accident or something you did without giving it any thought.)

But whatever. I'm not up to reading through the whole thing again at this point to find out how she ruined the man's life or if he was actually married. But, yes, she's totally into ruining people's lives, not just mine. She supposedly feels bad that she hurts people, but if it is something she wants to do she does it anyway.

But never mind about her. The really funny thing is about her friend. The one that doesn't seem so much into hurting people and destroying marriages and ruining lives, but is really into some strange sex stuff.

For the most part, she seems much smarter than the Bimbo. And she doesn't have anything to do with married men. I am not sure if this is a moral stand, or if she's done that in the past and got hurt, or if she just doesn't think married men are worth the effort. All of that and more are good reasons not to get involved with married men, and she doesn't.

But she wrote the funniest thing a while back.

She said that she wished she had fewer hangups about sex.

????

The woman is into this S & M bondage stuff.

She's into leather and other weird clothing. (Okay, can't really fault her on that one, just trying to paint a picture. If you know my other identity you know I am not picking on her choice of clothing. This rest of you will just have to take my word for it.)

She's been in a threesome.

She has pretended to be a dog. (I don't think I'll explain that, but I am not referring to a common sex position.)

What hangups does the woman have left?

Does she regret that she's uncomfortable getting involved with married men?

Does she regret that she doesn't get paid for sex?

Does she want to do it on film?

Does she want to do it with animals?

Does she want to do it with someone underage?

Does she need more than two other people in bed with her?

????

What's left that she has these hangups?

Ask a dumb question....

There were five of them. Five. One, two, three, four, five. F****** five of them together.

She was all sad and sick about her decision to break up with someone. And then....

PARTY TIME!!!!

FIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

????

Annual Physical

Okay. Today is the dreaded day, but I'm a grown woman and this is going to be no big deal. One of life's little annoyances. I get it over with today, hopefully get a clean bill of health, and another year's supply of birth control pills and things of that nature.

I don't waste time talking to a friend at school. It would have been a good day to have a nice long chat, but no, I have a schedule to keep. I left at 11:30 and got on a freeway that I rarely use, because the exam is three towns away from the college.

At 12:00 I got off of the freeway. At 12:05 I buy a taco and a large Coke. I don't really need the calories in the large Coke, but I deserve something with lots of sugar to make up for the rest of this awful day.

At 12:45 I am at the clinic. Perfect timing. There's usually a form to fill out, and my appointment is at 1:00. I sign in and take a seat.

At 1:05 a woman is trying to get her little girl to behave. The little girl keeps going to get magazines for people who don't want them. I'd like a magazine. She brings me a phone book. Nice.

At 1:35 not only has my name not been called, but they haven't given me any forms to fill out. There are usually forms to fill out. Did they forget about me?

At 1:40 the receptionist tells me that I do not need to fill out any forms because I was there for something else a few months ago, and those forms only need to be filled out once a year. And I'll be the next one called.

Okay.

At 2:15 my name is finally called. Come this way, please. Could you step on the scale, please. Could you give us a urine sample?

Okay.

2:20--Thank you. Could you please go to the next room and have a seat on the blue chair? Thank you. Now, could you look this over and tell us if there have been any changes since your last visit? Thank you. Now if you'll roll up your sleeve we'll get your blood pressure. Thank you. Now if you'll disrobe and put this on with the opening in front and put this over your legs, the doctor will be with you shortly. Thank you.

2:40--Thank you for waiting. Your blood pressure seems a little high. Any reason for that? I see. We'll have to have that checked again soon. Also, since you've reached the magic age of 40, you'll have to have a mammogram within the next three months, but we don't do those here. Please pick up a referral list before you leave. Are you experiencing any other problems that we might help you with?

I don't think so.

2:45--Now if you'll just take a deep breath. Breath in, breath out. And again. And again. One more time. Thank you. Now if you'll move down to the edge of the table and put your feet here. Thank you. Now this is going to feel a bit cold. Almost done now. Just a couple more things. Okay. Now there's this last thing that we advise now that you've reached the magic age of 40....

Where?

Okay, fine, get it over with.

2:55--Now you can get dressed, and I'll be right back to take some of your blood.

3:00--Okay, this is going to sting a little. Oh, that's going to leave a bruise. Here, hold this down tight. Got plenty of blood for the tests now. Blood just popped right out. We should know in a couple of weeks if anything is wrong, and you'll need to get your cholesterol checked in a week or so. Just don't eat anything that morning before you come in. Okay, all done. Don't forget the referral list on your way out.

3:05--Okay, that will be two hundred and four dollars.

Monday Morons at motels

So I'd like to talk a bit about this last trip specifically, and then a bit about travel in general.

So we were off to spend a few days in the middle of nowhere Texas, near a lake, and very near the Louisiana border. The week before we left, my husband had talked to a few people about where we were going and whether or not there would be a good motel in town and stuff like that. Several of the people had been to this little town before. He was told not to worry about that. There was a motel. No one seemed to remember the name of it, but it used to be a Super 8.

I do not quite understand why people say stuff like that. If we've never been there before, we don't know where the Super 8 used to be.

Now, maybe I lived down the street from a motel that used to be a Ramada Inn, but telling someone from out of town to go to the old Ramada Inn just doesn't help, unless the out of state person used to live near me about two years ago and happens to remember where the Ramada Inn was. Or maybe a person has visited the place so often that he knows where the Ramada used to be. But mostly, it seems like a dumb thing to say, but people say stuff like that a lot.

My husband once had to work at a mall and was told to set up in the space that used to be the San Fransisco Music Box Company. After they take the sign down, how are you supposed to know which space used to be the San Fransisco Music Box Company?

Another time my husband had to set up photography equipment at a clubhouse that we were told was "down the street from the Rock Shop" but not to worry about it, cause everyone knows where it is. Well, first, we don't know where the clubhouse is and we don't know where the Rock Shop is, or we wouldn't be asking. And everyone going to this event is not a member of your club, so maybe they don't know where your clubhouse is, and maybe they don't know where the Rock Shop is either.

So we were driving out in middle of nowhere Texas, looking for what used to be a Super 8. The mapquest directions were very bad, and at some point we were supposed to get on this little dirt road. No way. We went back about ten miles to try a different way. We found the town, but it seemed smaller than I expected. I didn't even see a Walmart. How small do you have to be to not have a Wallmart?

But, we did find a grocery store, and somebody there knew of the place that used to be a Super 8. So were were again sent about ten miles out of town, but this time directed towards Louisiana. We drove through another small town on the way there, but we found the place, and the address on their business cards stated that we were still in the town that we drove away from ten miles back. Whatever.

I do not know what kind of gerrymandering nonsense was going on when the map of this place was drawn. My husband went to look for the church that he was supposed to work in this little town. So he drove back away from almost the Louisiana border going west and then a bit south back into town. And he couldn't find the place. But again he went to the grocery store to ask for directions, and he was sent back out of town, south this time. He drove almost twenty miles and passed through yet another couple of small towns to get there, but he did find the place. And of course, there was another motel right next to the church, but it didn't used to be a Super 8, and no one told him about it, and now we already had the other room. So he had to drive forty-five minutes everyday to go to work, even though the addresses of both places were supposedly in the same small town.

But back to the motel that used to be a Super 8. The place is right on the lake, and the lake is very pretty and all of that. But lakes are wet. And it rains a lot, and it rained several times while we were there. And, like a lot of places, there is a mat outside the door so that hopefully you do not track too much water inside when it does rain. Only this place had a mat so big that it extended past the doorway's small overhang, and so the mat was actually out in the rain so that it really soaked up more water for you to step in right when you came in the door. And there was not a second dry mat inside the door. So the floor got a bit wet every time someone came in the building.

Most motels I have been in the past few years have television sets in the breakfast area, so that the guests can watch the morning news while they are having their donuts and coffee. I have thought it would be nice if the TVs were on a turntable so that the employees could watch TV from the front desk after the guests finish with breakfast. At this place, they didn't even bother with that. They actually had the TV permanently turned toward the front desk so that the guests can't see it at all. Every morning I listened to JAG during breakfast, rather than watch the news as I did at most places.

The company my husband works for wants him to send them a package everyday. Now that they use digital cameras, the package ends up being very small, so you'd think once or twice a week would be often enough and they could put more stuff in one package, but they don't see it that way. Fine. The package is picked up everyday by DHL, which is like Fed Ex or UPS, but they drive red and yellow vans. When we are near home, we leave the packages in a drop box, but when we are out of town and don't know where the drop box is, we leave the package with the front desk and call for a pick-up.

The first day we called DHL we were told that this place was so remote that they might not get to it that day. It wasn't near the routes that had been given out that morning. They couldn't get to it before 5pm, and they thought it might not be picked up until the next morning. Fine. The next morning we called very early and told them that we had another package. They still hadn't picked up the first one, and we just wanted to remind them about that one and tell them that now there was a second one. We we came back from dinner on Wednesday night, both packages were still waiting to be picked up. We decided if they were still there on Thursday morning when we left that we should take them with us.

At some point before we left Thursday morning, one of the packages was picked up, and the other was not. What is up with that? I can understand not being about to find the place, since it is on a lake and ten miles away from the place on the map, but I don't understand why after someone found the place that they would only pick up one package after we called and told them that they needed to pickup a second package.

I get really annoyed with places that claim to have a Jacuzzi or whirlpool or spa or hot tub or sauna. This place claimed to have a heat indoor pool, and I don't remember if they used the term spa or hot tub. But anyway, it was on the sign at the front desk. And the hot tub or spa part was not marked out, so it should still be there. And the indoor pool and tub were both there, but the pool didn't seem very warm to me, and there was not a drop of hot water in the tub. There was hot water in the shower, and there was enough hot water in the sink that if you weren't careful you might get burned. But they couldn't seem to get any hot water in the actual hot tub.

I seem to have a lot of trouble with stuff like that. We sometimes pay a little bit more or drive a little bit farther to get a place advertising a hot tub and/or sauna, but when we get there we can't use it. Sometimes we just have bad luck and it just so happens that it is being repaired while we are there. Sometimes the thing hasn't worked in months or years, but they continue to advertise it. Half the time the thing is outside, and it is closed for the winter. The other half of the time it is the summer and it hasn't even been turned on because they claim they didn't think anyone would want to use it unless it was cold outside.

I really like hot tubs, but I don't care that much for saunas. My husband likes both. Hot tubs are more common than saunas. Whenever we find a place in our budget advertising a sauna, we try to go there. A few times we have found that the advertised sauna was actually a hot tub.

I can understand when a person says Jacuzzi, which is a brand name, when they actually mean some other hot tub. Whirlpool might also be a brand name, but I would still understand that it was some form of hot tub. The word spa is a bit more confusing, since it is sometimes used to mean a plastic hot tub with water jets, but sometimes it means a place where you can get rubbed with sea salt and have your nails done while you take a nap with cucumber slices over your eyelids.

But a sauna is a small room with steam. It is not a hot tub. It might be next to a hot tub, but it is not a hot tub. Nor is the room the hot tub is in properly called a sauna. If there is enough steam coming from the hot tub that you think the hot tub room is an actual sauna, then the hot tub is way too hot and someone could get killed. I understand the confusion about the word spa, and I understand if a person calls their less expensive hot tub a Jacuzzi, but I don't understand how a person could get hot tub mixed up with sauna.

Let me close with the two dumb things I did during the trip. First, when I was packing, I left the keys in the car door, and I didn't discover them there until we were on the other side of Tyler. And the other thing I did was I spent several days just across the bridge from Louisiana, and I forgot to buy Powerball tickets. And we actually went into Louisiana for lunch on Monday. But it turned out okay, since my regular numbers didn't win any money that week, and I don't regret not getting a few quick-picks either.

Oh, I almost forgot. The vasectomy reversal billboards are still up, in case anyone needs that service in Houston. We saw one going east on I-20, and we saw another one coming home on I-45.

It is good to be back in my own bed

My husband got off work early yesterday, so we came home. I hated to waste the money, since we'd already paid for the room for the night, but it wasn't that great of a room and we didn't have any plans in the area for this morning, so we left. And, even though we stopped and had dinner with the only one in his family he is still speaking to, we still got home before dark.

Not that I got much sleep. I forgot to take a pill. Somehow, part of me must realize that I forgot to take it, because I never seem to get enough sleep when that happens. But usually, it is not a big deal. I finally realize I forgot to take something, and I either go to the kitchen or the bathroom for a drink of water and take the pill and go back to bed. But tonight I realized I forgot to take something, and the medications were packed in a bag that I'd taken on the trip. And the bag did not turn up in the pile of stuff dumped in the living room, so I had to get dressed to go out and get the bag out of the car. So by the time I did all of that I was pretty much awake and not going back to sleep any time soon.

But it is still better to have insomnia in my own home. At least here I can play with the computer.

As some of you might have guessed, I have been away for the week, and I did not have Internet access. I did get to take my knitting machine, which is actually a lot like packing a big screen TV. When it is put together, the knitting machine is 39 inches long. Rather than risk damaging it, I do not take the thing apart. If I have to put it away or move it somewhere, the box I keep it in is 44 inches long, about 20 inches wide, and about 7 inches deep. To make room for it, I packed clothes in the smallest bag I could find and we took out the Coleman electric cooler. Since I didn't cook anything to take on the trip, and we hoped to have refrigerators at the motels, we didn't really need the cooler.

I hadn't really made arrangements to have my mail picked up and stuff like that, but my brother lives across the field, so I didn't think it would be a problem. I put four plants in the sink and hoped they would survive without me for a while. But I still left the house thinking something was wrong.

The first stop was the Dairy Palace for buffalo burgers. It was a bit expensive for hamburgers, but we liked the place, and I finally started to relax a bit.

The second stop was a Walmart. I had packed the knitting machine, but since I didn't think I'd be able to do that, I hadn't bought any yarn. And I totally lucked out at Walmart. They had five of the exact colors I needed for one scarf, and they had two other colors that were close enough that I switched and used them. They also had three out of four colors I needed for two other scarves, which left me lacking only the light grey for the Ravenclaw scarf, and I was pretty sure that I'd be able to get that Thursday morning at a Hobby Lobby. I couldn't go to Hobby Lobby that day, because they are closed on Sundays.

The first motel was right on the lake. There's all sorts of dumb stuff I have to say about the motel, but since tomorrow is Monday, I will save it. Still, a motel right on the lake is nice, and that sort of thing rarely happens. And we didn't even plan it that way. The motel just happened to be on the lake.

It did tend to rain a lot. But when it didn't rain, I was on this beautiful spot on the lake, and when it did rain, I had plenty of knitting to keep me busy.

So there was this seafood restaurant on the lake, and my husband thought that we should go. And it looked really cool with plants and palm trees and such. Inside were mounted fish and head of furry things with big horns. And luckily there was a line of people in front of us, or we might not have noticed the sign saying that their credit card machine wasn't working, or we might have spent the night washing dishes. But, we were out in the middle of nowhere, and the place closed at nine, so we ended up just going back to the motel and microwaving soup. We were just not up to looking for an ATM in the dark. We'd just go there some other time for lunch.

Only the place wasn't open at all on Monday or Tuesday, and they only opened from 4-9 on Wednesday, when my husband would be at work, and we'd be leaving the next day. So no Bryce's Seafood for us.

The next day we went to a different fish place in Louisiana. And they had fish mounted on the walls. And pictures of people posing with fish. And T-shirts with fish. And we ate catfish. And just the whole area was all about the fish.

On one of the times that it was not raining, I went for a walk and picked up some pine-cones and stuff like that. I found seed pods from water lilies. I don't know what the seed pods are called, but they look interesting. I found some more of those, but before I went back for them it started raining again. Maybe it is just as well. I pick up this stuff once in a while, saying that I will make wreaths or something with them, but there are no wreaths in my house, and I can't remember the last time I actually finished making a wreath.

Well, I did almost stay home from this trip. But the night before we left I did mention some rules, and he wasn't happy about it, but he didn't seem actually mad about it either. So that was awkward, but I was glad I got that over with before we left and thought that was the end of it. But, no, he still doesn't get it. We sort of had the discussion again. And one evening I thought it was going to get ugly, but it didn't. But he still doesn't get it. He so doesn't get it I don't even want to bother talking about it anymore. Can't we even just agree that we are not going to have serious discussions about our relationship while we are out of town? Even if there was a point to having one of these same discussions again, or even if there is something new to talk about, can't we talk about it at home? While we're out of town, can't we at least pretend things are okay?

So I mostly got through to him, and he said that everything was okay, and there was nothing to get upset about.

Wednesday night he got off of work early. He got off early enough that we went back to Bryce's seafood restaurant. The dinning area was not so interesting as I would have thought from the outside. And the light inside was really bright, and it was really dark outside, so we couldn't see the lake. They have these really huge windows, and they are right on the lake, but you can't see any of it. And I was really tired Wednesday night. The I'm going to fall asleep on my food kind of tired. So it was really nice of him to take me there, but it just wasn't as nice as we had imagined it would be Sunday night. And it wasn't that late either. We got back to the motel in time to watch LOST.

I was working on a Dr. Who scarf. I think it is season 17. Anyway, it is whatever season they took two of the old scarves and sewed them together. The panel was about 26 feet long when I had to stop because I ran out of green yarn. That took fourteen hours. It will take about another hour to finish knitting on the machine, I don't know how long to join the tube together, and another two hours for the fringe. It might end up being 30 hours or so.

Then it was Thursday morning, and we went to some other small Texas town. This one was between Dallas and Houston. On the way there we stopped at Hobby Lobby and got my grey yarn for the Ravenclaw scarf. I was not crazy about the motel. And maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed damp or humid or something. It made sense on the lake, but not here. I knitted and joined the Ravenclaw scarf, and the final Gryffindor scarf for the wife of my friend from up north. Now I just have to put fringe on both of those, which should take about four hours.

Friday we had lunch at someplace called the Moosehead Cafe. Without thinking, I ordered the special, which was catfish. I must have had catfish five or six times that trip. Not that it was bad, but I should have ordered just about anything except catfish. My husband also bought some fig preserves. We almost bought something called Blue Blazes, which was blueberry preserves with jalapenos, but they didn't have any samples of that out. Maybe some other time.

We somehow managed to eat out everyday for a week without eating either Chinese food or a pizza. I'm dying for a pizza. And just boring stuff that I usually only eat at home, like fried eggs, or spaghetti.

So far as I can tell, nothing terrible happened while I was away. The four plants left in the sink survived without me. My brother got sick and wasn't able to pick up my mail, and my mom forgot about it until Friday, but that's probably okay. There were no urgent messages on the answering machine, and no annoying notes taped to the door.

I cannot believe how tired I am. I didn't do anything but knit all week, and yesterday I didn't even do that. Luckily I don't have to go to school until Tuesday.

Talk amongst yourselves: or, the clip episode and catching up

This is the anniversary of the when the trouble started, but I didn't know that at the time. Or, I guess I should say, when the real trouble started. There were problems before that, but March 11th was the day that the Homewrecking-slut decided that she would seriously go after my husband.

My husband had left a comment on her blog, and his email address. I can't believe that he meant any harm by it, but she took it to mean that he wanted her. So she had to think about it for a longtime (2 days), and then she decided it was okay. He tried to correct her, told her that he loved me and would never do anything to hurt me, and that he wouldn't even be talking to her if he there was anyway that they would ever meet in real life. Her second email invited him to come to London and f*** her in the a**.

I don't know what was said during the next few days, other than she must have promised him all kinds of sex. They can't have had any meaningful conversations. They can't have talked about anything that decent people discuss. I'm sure that they were all about sex, and I'm sure he didn't really care anything for her then. He erased all of those emails right away. If they were about the important things in life, if this was really someone he cared about, he would have kept the emails. But he kept very few of those, so I can only imagine want they said. And even the earliest ones that he kept for a while were all about f***ing. Before a week was up she sent him nude photos and a close-up of her butt.

But I do know that in that first week she invited him to move in with her, in London. My husband is quite obsessed with London. He is also quite fond of a movie called "Same Time Next Year", and before he decided that her emails were something he should keep she had not only agreed to reenact this movie with him, she offered to pay for it as well. What kind of disgusting creature offers to pay thousands of dollars to get a married man to cheat on his wife? What can possibly be in it for her to do something so vile to another human being?

But he still said he loved me and couldn't stand the thought of leaving me. She had to work on him for another two or three weeks to get him to come around to that. Then when he changed his mind and didn't want to do it, she reminded him that he'd given it a lot of thought and waited along time to tell me. Sure. Almost a month is a long time to decide to ruin an relationship that had lasted almost two decades. She has like a five-year-old's definition of a long time.

Anyway, she came here, and as soon as he saw her, he knew he didn't want her. He got very depressed. I don't know if she didn't notice the difference, or if no one really wants her and there was no difference, or she just didn't care or what. About two hours after she got here, they decided that they might as well get on with it before dinner. I still cannot grasp why they would do that after it was obvious that they had no future together. A few hours after that he realized he had made a serious mistake.

The next morning, he called me and told me that I was right about everything. I had already told him that there were conditions if he came back, so I thought that he was going to come home and do all the stuff that had already been discussed. He said that he would see me later. I thought that he was taking her to the airport and that he would be home in a couple of hours. I waited, and I waited. He took her shopping and did a little sightseeing.

????

So he finally comes home, thinking that he is going to keep seeing her for the next few days until she can arrange to stay with a friend in Chicago.

????

When he came home, he forgot to pack his things, and I had to drive him to the motel to get some of his stuff. And she's actually trying to get him to change his mind while I'm waiting in the car. He finally convinces her that the best thing is for her to stay at a different motel closer to the airport, and that he won't ever be seeing her again.

After she left, she still wouldn't leave him alone. She kept emailing him and such. I knew he had sent her a few emails to make sure she got home and all of that, but more than a month later she's still in contact with him. For all I know, she still is. She just wouldn't go away. And then she's blogging about her romantic trip that didn't work out and that she wasn't sorry for what she'd done and that she did what she had to do. She had to do it? How sick is that? Not even that she'd learned her lesson about married men or strangers on the Internet or anything. This was just something that she had to do.

After that she was blogging about what a wonderful person she was. She was a giver. So, I left a comment that giving it away doesn't make you a giver, it makes you a slut. She didn't like me doing stuff like that, so her blog didn't take anonymous comments after that. That was the first time that I got a blog, so that I wasn't anonymous.

So that's what I originally got the blog for, to make fun of stuff that she said on her blog. But then she had a members only blog and then she didn't blog at all for a while, so I just had this blog that I wasn't doing anything with.

I think that everyone should be caught up now.

I've been asked to provide links to my favorite posts. I thought that my second post wasn't too bad, even though it didn't have anything to do with the original reason for the blog. It starts out with an apology for being a boring post that had nothing to do with anything, and ended up this long explanation on why I like black (especially black clothes) and why is that anybody's business if I wear black most of the time.
http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2006/09/todays-planned-post-has-been-lost.html

The next entry had more to do with what I wanted the blog to be about
http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2006/09/recomend-website.html
and the one after that was supposed to be a contest in creative insults. I was the only one writing the insults, but I thought they were pretty good.
http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2006/09/what-do-you-even-call-such-vile-person.html

I thought that the name of this one would get some attention, but it is actually about my temp job at the Halloween store.
http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2006/09/giant-penis.html
And this one also has a good title, but it is actually about the one-size fits all myth (in clothing, not the other).
http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2006/09/sluts-r-us.html

This one is about how I used to really like something when I was a kid and I have a very different view of it now.
http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2006/10/darkness.html

This one is a silly bit about the Halloween party.
http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2006/10/rende-awards.html

There are a lot of just this is what I did today and things that I am thinking about, but I thought this one was pretty good.
http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2006/11/murphys-law-and-other-annoying-things.html

This one is about how I feel about my husband now.
http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2006/11/sort-of-like-shallow-hal-but-not.html

This is just too weird. I saw it many years ago, but I just got around to writing about it recently.
http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2007/01/bizarre-billboard.html

This is the going on a diet stuff that I wrote after Anon 1 did that bit about fat women.
http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2007/01/why-im-not-exactly-fat.htmlhttp://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2007/01/watch-movies-and-eat-popcorn-diet.htmlhttp://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/2007/01/review-of-diet-drinks.html

And since the earlier link didn't work, this is all the stuff where I mention the Homewrecking-slut in passing. I didn't really write that much about her, but I probably will later. http://insidioustruth.blogspot.com/search/label/bimbo%20bashing

So, just in case I don't get to write much this next week or so, that should be plenty to keep everyone busy.

Tomorrow is Spring Break

It's official now. Spring break is here. Though my class ended at about 11:30 am on Thursday, other classes were still going on Friday and Saturday, and I went to the Saturday until about two. The instructor wanted to leave earlier than that, but he doesn't chase me away if he has to stay for some reason, and despite his best efforts another student had to stay even later than that.

I divided up a 50 pound bag of plaster today. So that made a bit of a mess. I meant to cast three tiles today, but the third one still needs some work, and casting the first one took longer than I expected. I was mixing plaster, and I got some of it on my shirt. I was standing right next to the sink anyway, so I tried to clean up a bit. So then I go back to the plaster, and it sets up while I'm in the middle of pouring it. So not only is that cast not near as good as the other one, but it took more than an hour to clean out dried plaster so that the next person could use the equipment.

The next batch of plaster I probably poured too soon, but I didn't want the same thing to happen a second time. It looks alright, and it will have all week to dry out anyway.

Next, I put slip on one of the vases, and that didn't go as well as I hoped either. Mostly, I just painted little squiggly lines, but I would have liked them to be more uniform. They got progressively bigger, but I didn't notice how far off they were from the first one until I got back around to the beginning. The main design in the center looks good, but the sides are off. I guess it doesn't matter. It wasn't the most symmetrical vase to start with. It will be a good test of the process anyway.

Damn. I meant to bring home the box. We're supposed to sand it, and I figured that there was nothing special about the sandpaper in the lab, so maybe I'd get away with at least doing that at home.

Not that I'm actually supposed to be at home. My husband has wanted me to go with him on the last few trips, and I've put him off. I almost went this week. I probably would have gone, but then I remembered about spring break and put it off one more week. Anyway, I did want to go. The last few weeks I was trying to do extra work in class so that I could go without feeling guilty about it. But now I'm not so crazy about the idea.

To start with, I was told to pack light. Non-sequitur. Not so much in the usual way of "What will I wear?" I don't really care about that. I'm going to spend most of my time stuck in a motel room anyway.

My problem is what to do with all of those hours being stuck in the motel room. I really don't want to go without my knitting machine. But taking the knitting machine isn't exactly packing light, is it?

And we are going to the middle of nowhere, Texas. I don't even know if there will be a swimming pool or a hot tub or anything. Probably not. But I don't even know for sure that they will have the Sci-fi channel. I might be stuck for a week someplace that doesn't even have decent cable.

But the real problem is that last weekend was not exactly wonderful, and it did not put me in the mood to want to spend an entire week with the man.

Worse, I am remembering that last trip before Christmas. It was a disaster. Is that what I can expect to happen again? Should I set some ground rules before we leave? Would that just make it worse?

You'd think he'd would just know, this is the way things are, these are the rules. But, somehow, he doesn't know that. So you have to explain to him, this is the way things are, these are the rules. And then one day something comes up, and you have to remind him about a rule. So after the rules have already been explained to him, and after he's been reminded about one in particular that same day, he still doesn't get it. And then he gets mad cause things aren't going the way he wants.

It's almost like he expects our problems to magically go away because we go out of town for a while. He thinks the rules don't apply. If anything, they apply more then. If he does something to upset me at home, if I absolutely cannot take it anymore, I can leave for a while. I can go visit my mom or go see a movie or something. Or maybe he'd be reasonable and leave me alone for a bit.

But we can't do either of those things when we go out of town. We're both stuck in the same motel room. It can be really awful.

Not that it's always awful. When we go away for a while, it is usually very nice. If it wasn't usually nice, I wouldn't go so often. But because of school and such, it has been almost three months. And that last time was really bad. The weird thing was that he just had this puzzled expression on his face, like he didn't understand, like he didn't even remember what the problem was.

So I don't know if I want to go. But I probably will go. So I'd better go finish packing.

100th post: Dinner with Shatner

I'm not sure how far back this was, maybe 1995. Voyager was the new Star Trek series. I was in a different Star Trek club than the one I am in now. I went to a lot of conventions. I had some fun.

Some people in the club I am in now and the club I was in then volunteered at a museum sometimes. I tried to do that for a while, but I quickly dropped out. I had volunteered at another museum before that one and was used to getting of stuff in return for my work. Working for no money is one thing, actually working for free is something else.

And I hate Dallas anyway.

This museum in Dallas was going to have a Star Trek exhibit. At about the same time, there was a small convention planned near the museum. People in the area were getting interested in Star Trek.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could get the actors who played the four captains on the four Star Trek shows all together for some event?

So I think I knew about The Legacy of Star Trek Dinner Gala before the actors did. More people got involved, and it looked like it might actually happen some time that September. There was all kinds of scheduling that had to be worked out, but none of the actors had actually said no, so maybe it would all work out.

Kate Mulgrew, Avery Brooks, Patrick Stewart, and William Shatner were all very busy people at the time. Finding a weekend when they were all free turned out to be very difficult. But it was finally narrowed down to two possible days: one day everyone but Kate Mulgrew was available, and on another day everyone but Patrick Stewart was available. Since Kate Mulgrew was the star of the new show, Patrick Stewart got bumped from the program.

Jonathan Frakes came instead, so they could still call it the four captains' dinner if they wanted.

Sometimes the local clubs are asked to help out at conventions and such. Volunteer security and directing foot traffic and stuff like that. For a while a friend of mine organized people from many clubs in Starfleet Region 3 (Texas, Louisiana, and Mars) to help out with such things, usually in return for free admission and free advertisements for the clubs and stuff like that. This was something she was not paid for, but it over time it seemed to develop all of the hassles of a real business. People she barely knew would call and complain that she did not pick enough people in a certain club, people demanded to work on certain projects after the schedule was already filled, I've worked twice as long as the new guy and he got just as many freebies as I did, mom always did like you best, etc.... She was getting tired of the whole thing. She decided she didn't want the Region 3 volunteer group anymore, just the volunteer group from her own club. If she needed more people, she'd ask for help from people in specific clubs, or maybe she'd just ask specific people.

So when this thing came up, she only had twenty slots to fill, and she was not going to waste them on the Region 3 group. I was one of the extra people she talked to about the Gala.

On that same weekend was a Stellar Occasions convention. I think Jerry Doyle (Mr.Garibaldi from Babylon 5) was there that year, but I'm not sure. Anyway, the point being that if I didn't get to go to this thing, I would not be totally crushed, there were other plans for the weekend. But it was really cool to be one of the few asked to work at this thing. And, if I skipped the costume contest on Saturday, I could probably do both.

There was maybe a bit of a problem. The volunteer group usually works in costume. Sometimes, they specifically work in uniform. Now, I have costumes. I enter costume contests. In a costume contest, for the most part, you do not want a uniform. Certain uniforms are really good, and if you have one of those uniforms the entire audience will be on their feet cheering just because you stand at attention. But most of us do not have those uniforms. Most uniforms are bought from a catalog and come in sizes S, M, L, XL, and you really shouldn't be in uniform but you've already sent us a check. Those uniforms are good, but not that great, and for the most part they should not be entered in contests but usually someone doesn't know that and does it anyway. I have never wanted one of those catalog uniforms enough to spend money on them, and unless I win the lottery I won't be buying any of the really good ones either. I have some homemade ones that are probably not even as good as the catalog ones, but sometimes I wear them anyway.

What I spend my time and money on are costumes, not uniforms. They rarely look just like someone else's, but they don't usually have to look just like someone else's. I made a few Centauri dresses that I liked, but mainly I was known for a certain borg costume. And this wasn't a regular borg costume, this was a parody costume with lace nylons and earrings and such. The last time I wore it, pearls were added.

So I didn't have exactly the type of thing that they wanted the volunteers to wear that night, but so far nobody had said that I couldn't wear the borg costume.

One of the companies involved with the Gala was one of those superstores that sells computers and stereos and such. It was owned by Tandy (Radio Shack), and I want to say it was called Incredible Universe, but there were a lot of these stores for a while, so I might have the wrong name. So this store was advertising the event, and they had a costume contest in one of their stores, and the first prize was two tickets to this event at Captain Kirk's table.

That store was in Dallas. I hate Dallas.

But never mind about the Dallas store. That same day the Arlington store was also having a costume contest. I heard that they were going to give away a phone that looked like Voyager or a shuttlecraft or something. And who doesn't want a phone that looks like a spaceship?

So a friend of mine was going to the Arlington store, probably to help out, and maybe to be a judge. But he wasn't going to enter the contest. He was wearing a uniform, probably size L. He was not wearing an elaborate costume. I went with him. I was going to enter the contest, unless they told me that I was disqualified for being a member of one of the participating clubs. I was wearing the borg thing.

While everyone seemed to know about the contest in Dallas, few people seemed to be aware of the contest at the Arlington store. There were about four people in uniform and two of us in other costumes, and half of the six were judges. Too bad, because it turned out that the Arlington store had the same prizes as the Dallas store. First place was two tickets to the Gala at Captain Kirk's dinner table. Second place was two tickets to the Gala at Captain Kirk's dessert table. And third place was that spaceship phone.

I won first place. This alien of a species I could not identify won second place. Another guy that was on and off with our club won the phone with a gold Voyager uniform, size S. And that was it. Only three of us entered. A little kid showed up in a red uniform, but he was almost an hour too late.

Who wants to compete against little kids anyway.

So that was cool. I won tickets. So my husband could go to the thing too if he could get off work. And they let him off work, no problem.

It didn't really sink in at first. I wouldn't be going to the Gala as a volunteer in either a borg costume or a uniform. I would be having dinner at one of the front tables, with William Shatner.

I needed a dress.

And, to go with that, my husband's suit didn't seem to fit him anymore. We didn't have a lot of money, but we needed to wear something. I think we went to Ross like a week or two before the Gala.

There is this whole other language to describe clothing, and I basically know none of it. The dress was very modest in front and a bit lower in the back. It had short sleeves. It was lace over something else. The skirt was sort of zig-zag in layers, so that in some parts the hem was up near the knee and in other places it was nearly down to the ankles.

And of course, it was black.

My husband was also all in black, with little glittery bits in his vest, and one of those shirts with the little collar that you don't wear a tie with.

And I still went to the Stellar Occasions thing first. I annoyed Mr. Doyle with my total inability to use a camera. ("Take the picture. Take the picture. Take the **** picture.") I spent most of the day in a Babylon 5 uniform and then changed into the dress at the hotel about two hours before dinner.

I have all kinds of stuff that would have been better with Will Shatner's autograph, but I didn't know what the rules were and I didn't want to risk losing my stuff, so I didn't bring much of it. I meant to put a couple of trading cards in my purse, but I must have misplaced them. And we spent a lot of time worrying about the camera. Flash photography was not allowed, and it was hard to find film that would work indoors without a flash. We found something that worked most of the time, but it made everything orange, almost red.

So we went to the place about almost an hour early. I saw a bunch of my friends, most of them were volunteers, but a few were guests in the cheap seats. And there were a bunch of other people that I didn't know with badges. I think that there were like four or five different kinds of badges. My friends had one kind, and the waiters and such had another kind, and other people doing different things had other badges, and then the people really in charge of the thing had a different color badge. So if someone told you something, you went with that, until someone with a higher color badge said something different.

We talked to people for about twenty minutes or so, and then one of my friends (in a Klingon General Chang costume) took us to our table. The table was still empty. I was surprised that except for the people with badges, there didn't seem to be a lot of people there yet.

And then I had to decide where to sit. Mr. Shatner had a place-card, but I guess the rest of us were supposed to figure it out for ourselves. So, does the first one there get to sit next to him or what? Or does he have a date? I don't want to sit in the chair next to his and then get asked to move because he has a date.

So I sit one seat over. In theory, I could get a good look at everyone from there. Kate Mulgrew's table was in front to the left, and Jonathan Frakes' table was in front and to the right. Avery Brook's table was just to the left of ours, and his chair was about six feet away from mine. This is good.

People are starting to come in, but not a lot of them, and most of them don't go to the tables. They're just sort of milling around the front of the room. Then I notice that one of them is Kate. Okay. We watch Kate, but we don't get up. Are we allowed to get up? This just isn't what I'm used to at all. Frakes comes in too. A couple of people go up and ask for their autographs. You're not supposed to do that now, are you?

There was a schedule printed out. We were supposed to be eating by a certain time, and then we were supposed to be having dessert by a certain time, and then people were supposed to be speaking by a certain time. So, even though we were the only ones at the table, someone brought us salads. Okay, we'll eat our salads.

Soon a couple more people came to sit at the table. They brought pictures. They were a father and son team who went to costume contests as borg. I'd seen them before, though never out of costume. They had won first place at the Dallas store. Two more people came and sat with us. I don't remember exactly what the deal was, but their tickets also came from a contest, but they didn't win that contest, someone gave them those tickets or they had the winning bid for the tickets, or something. Anyway, those tickets were originally won by my friend who was in charge of our little volunteer group, but she wasn't going to use them, so someone else got to use them. The guy who had won second place at the Arlington store came by so I could see what he looked like without the alien stuff. The waitstaff brought more salads.

The cheap seats were filling up. They were getting their salads. The front eight tables were still mostly empty. People are talking to Kate. Jonathan Frakes goes over to talk to her. That seemed to get everyone's attention. Like they weren't sure it was really Kate Mulgrew before that.

William Shatner came in, and someone told him where he was supposed to be. And he came over and pretends to look real serious and says "Eat...your...food." There was an implied "or else." We ate.

More people were getting up and asking for autographs. Now, I have been to many book signings and many conventions and such, and you're not supposed to just walk over to someone and ask for an autograph. I did that once, at my first or second convention, cause I didn't know any better, and I was embarrassed about it later. There is usually a set aside time and place for autographs, if they are even allowed, so that the actors aren't mobbed in the lobby and bothered by fans all the time.

On the other hand, there didn't seem to be anything on the schedule about autographs. And there was a warning about not taking shooting videos or using flash photography, but it didn't say anything about not being allowed to ask for autographs. And the man is sitting right there, and he doesn't seem interested in his salad, so why not? So I asked him to autograph my invitation to the thing, and he did, and my husband got his autographed too. And we took some photos of him with the orange looking film.

Everyone is going up front and asking William Shatner and the other actors for autographs. People in the really cheap seats are going to get autographs. Damn it, I'm going to go get some more autographs.

Just when I finally get up the nerve to do that, a lady with one of the important people badges asks me to sit down. And I'm like, but I'm at a captain's table. I'm supposed to be up here. And she says that they just can't have all these people milling around up front, so if I'll go back to my table someone will come and get me when it's my turn to get the other autographs. Okay.

So I go back to my table and other people are going back to wherever they are supposed to be. I eat my salad. The last three people come to our table. The guy that runs the Incredible Universe, the guy that bought my tickets for me, he sat down between me and William Shatner. And his wife and daughter sat on the other side of Shatner. Good. The guy who made this possible for me gets to sit next to Shatner. Couldn't be more fair, could it. Anyway, I don't remember the guy's name, but he was nice. He and his wife talked to Shatner about horses.

My husband said something about Avery Brooks coming in. Where? I couldn't see him.

Avery Brooks didn't sit in his assigned seat. He sat at the right table, just in a different chair. We were sitting back-to-back, and I couldn't see him without turning all the way around. He was in a very colorful outfit with boots and one of those little African hats.

Someone took our salads away and brought us chicken and vegetables. Shatner said he wasn't feeling well and sent it back and asked for all vegetables instead. Then he only ate the carrots. He looked at some pictures of me and the other two borg in costume.

Someone came and took two people at our table to a different table. They were supposed to be at Captain Kirk's dessert table, not the dinner table. So then we had two empty seats for some reason, and they can't have two empty seats at the front tables. How would that look? So they went back to the cheap seats and found a widow of someone who had worked for Tandy for over twenty-five years, and her and her grandson sat with us instead.

If you don't know, William Shatner has this problem that causes him to always hear ringing in one of his ears. Leonard Nimoy has a similar problem, in the opposite ear, so they think that they both damaged their ears during a certain movie scene that involved blowing up a door. So between the ringing in his ears and general background noise of people talking at the other tables, he couldn't hear us very well. So he made a point of getting up and going around the table and shaking hands with everyone and stuff like that.

Just about the time that everyone is starting to relax and talk to him, someone tells him it is time for dessert and takes him to the other table. I know that they're on a schedule, but that was a little bit unfair, since dinner got started a little bit late. The people at the dessert table had more time with him than we did.

And all evening, people kept being brought to the different tables to ask for autographs. Supposedly, someone is going to come and get me when it is my turn. I wait.

The people at my table are having a good time. The people at the Captain Kirk's dessert table are having a good time. The people in the cheap seats are having a good time. We're all looking at the actors.

The people in the other front six tables are all looking at themselves.

I don't think that they cared anything about Star Trek at all. It's like they just came so that people would see that they could afford the expensive tickets. From some conversations I overheard, some of them had never seen some of the shows and didn't even know who some of the actors were.

Whatever.

Someone took all the actors backstage. I still didn't have my other autographs yet. But I thought maybe I would get them at the end of the program. And I said that I would wait. So I wait.

People start milling around again. Someone from the Paramount station came over to talk to us. He was expecting Myrh the cat to come by later. I knew better. Myrh was at Stellar Occasions being MC of the costume contest.

This guy I know who has an excellent Klingon costume went to the microphone. "You will be seated." You do not argue with this guy. Today is not a good day to die. We sat down.

The guy from the TV station spoke first. I don't remember what he said. Then the guy from the museum spoke. I don't remember what he said either.

Then Kate Mulgrew spoke. She asked if we could see her okay, cause the lights were too bright and she couldn't see anything. So she was talking about what an impact Star Trek had made on people, and how recently she'd been to some thing where she met a lot of young women who had won scholarships and such, and a bunch of them talked about being inspired by Star Trek. So she just knew that one day one of them would cure cancer or something, and it would partially be because of Star Trek.

And then she talked about the hard work of being Captain Janeway on a weekly TV series, and how it was nice to be away from that for a change, wearing a dress.

Avery Brooks came out next. He was all into the Education is Paramount thing. And he was saying how in the beginning he wasn't even sure he wanted to be Captain Sisko. He didn't know if he'd like being associated with Star Trek. And then he was talking about it to his wife, and I don't remember exactly what she told him, but it was something like "Quit being dumb. Do it for the kids." I'm not sure if that meant their family specifically or that it was good for kids in general to have a role model, but that snapped him out of it and he took the job. And now he could go all over the country and tell kids to stay in school and all of that.

Jonathan Frakes came on stage, and he complained about the lights a bit. And he talked about how he wasn't sure about the whole Star Trek thing in the beginning. He didn't think people liked his character at first. At one of his first conventions he noticed a sign at one of the dealers' tables that said "Buy any action figure, get Riker free." But he was glad that he stuck with it. And he agreed that it was wonderful to be here "in a dress."

William Shatner spoke last. He came out and said, "I don't know what everyone was complaining about. I can see just fine." And then he was talking about how sometimes things happen to show you how insignificant you are in the grand scheme of things. He'd just gone with his family on a trip to Africa. And he was sleeping in a tent. And the guides had all warned them not to leave the tents, not to wander around at night, and all that stuff. And when you are in Africa, and your guide tells you to do something, you'd better listen.

But he heard a noise and woke up, and he went outside to see what it was. And it was this huge elephant. And he's standing right behind this huge elephant thinking, wow, an elephant, this is great. And he's trying to be quiet and not disturb the elephant.

And the elephant dumps on him.

So that was really funny. And then all the other speakers came back onto the stage. Someone had made these crystal statues to give to the actors to thank them for helping them with the museum's fund raiser. And they're all saying thank you, how nice, and stuff like that. Jonathan Frakes said, "Mine has Patrick Stewart's name on it." And we all laughed, but maybe it did have Patrick Stewart's name on it, since originally he was supposed to be there.

And then they all walk backstage. I have to run to the ladies room. There's a line, and this greatly upsets me because I still think that someone is going to escort me backstage so I can get autographs. I'm in the thousand dollars seats. Surely I'm going to get more autographs.

And I get back to the table, and people are milling around, but no one seems to know anything. Finally, I find someone with the important I'm in charge badges, and he tells me that all the actors left the building as soon as they went backstage. He's sorry about the mix up, but there's nothing he can do about it now.

So I never got my other autographs. But I have William Shatner's autograph, and that's the important thing.

So we went out to the lobby to talk to some of my friends. And we got someone to take our picture with the Klingon General Chang. Then someone from TV Guide took the Klingon's picture.

People were leaving. Some people went to another room for an auction, but I didn't have any money so what was the point in staying for that. My friends stayed and danced until the place closed, but I was tired and went home. I don't really dance anyway.

Really, I only got to talk to the man for like ten minutes. But who else gets to say that they had dinner with William Shatner.

Mud

It looks like I can do this one last post before the 100th post, which at this point looks like the dinner with Shatner thing. I meant to post some pictures of some of the actors I mentioned in the last post, but I don't quite seem to have the hang of it yet. Maybe later. I know you're all dying to at least see what the guy in the Vorlon suit looks like.

Last night I spent playing with mud. Literally. The soil around our house is not what I would like to have for gardening. There is too much clay in it for my liking. Clay is heavy and difficult to dig and deal with in general. Many plants do not like it. Once in a while, I think I'm going to get serious about the gardening, and I put a lot of work into mixing other things with the soil to improve drainage and such. But it is so much damn work, and by the time I get halfway done with it I decide it is too late in the season to worry about plants and I move on to some other project.

So I have wondered if there was enough clay to use the stuff for ceramics. I put some of it through a kitchen strainer and fired a few rings. It appears to be terra cotta, which is not my favorite clay but it could still be useful for a lot of things (and I'm very new at this and may decide later that terra cotta is just wonderful). Still, there was a lot of sand in it, so it isn't very smooth. The instructor was even worried that there might be so much sand that the sand would melt in the clay and cause it to stick to the kiln shelf. That did not happen, but it still is a lot of sand to deal with.

While I thought I had thoroughly sifted the clay with the kitchen strainer, there are finer screens for this type of work. Before I spent twenty dollars or more on a set of screens I might never use again, I took most of a five gallon bucket of mud to school and borrowed the instructor's screens.

It took about four hours to put all of that mud through two screens. It isn't hard physical work, but it does take a long time. If I decide to do this on a regular basis, with a good chair and something to prop up the bucket of mud up to a comfortable level, it could even be relaxing. I might find a way to do it watching TV, but if not, listening to music should not be a problem.

Still, four hours is a long time, even if it isn't hard work. Afterwards, I felt like I had done a lot of hard work. Today, I feel awful.

Maybe it is just a coincidence. Maybe I was going to feel awful today anyway. But I can't think of anything else I did that would be the cause of it. Or at least, I didn't physically do anything to feel bad like this.

Anyway, I have about four gallons of smooth slip. It still isn't clay. It needs to dry out a bit and be kneaded before it will be usable as clay.

The other thing that happened in ceramics class today was that the instructor became obsessed with getting everyone's vase in a metal can and ready to be fired. He had several of us trade cans to try and hurry things along. It seemed pretty pointless, since there are already too many of them to be fired at once. I did two vases, so he had me trade cans with someone so that I could get both vases in the same can. But one of them is going to have a design painted on with slip, which was why I made two vases, and I haven't done that yet so who cares if they both fit in the same can?

Spring break is next week. I am supposed to out of town with my husband. No place special, just someplace in the middle of nowhere closer to his work assignment. I forgot when spring break was, and I almost went away with him this week instead. Not that I especially wanted to go to that place either, but just the fact that he said he missed me and asked me to go was nice. I needed a break, and I was looking forward to it.

Now that my week off is nearly here, I'm not so sure that I want to go. I should go, unless I have a good reason not to. In theory, I could stay home and clean house and do garden work.

Everyone who thinks that would actually happen, please raise your hands.

I don't think so either. At least if I'm in a motel room doing nothing, I'll have an excuse to do nothing. There's not much work I can get done from a motel room.

Starting tomorrow is a bunch of one year anniversaries to the bad stuff. Maybe I'd rather just not be around him for that. But that will go on for like two months, and I don't really want to avoid him for two months. But being in a motel room with him for a week might be a bad idea.

The guy in the Vorlon suit

I'm taking a break from playing in the mud. Since this one only got one vote and will not be the 100th post, here it is now.

I think I picked a bad time for a 100th post. One of my readers will be away partying for several days. Playtah hasn't posted on her own blog for five days, and the last post sounded like she was depressed, so I hope she's okay now. I think that except for Rachel everyone who has ever read my blog is having a bad time or out of town or something this week.

But never mind about that. This post is about the guy in the Vorlon suit.

I think it was back in 2000, at a Stellar Occasions (or maybe Uncommon Con). I had this Babylon 5 poster that I got at the first Stellar Occasions. It was an old picture, not pilot old, but old enough that it had a picture of Sinclair instead of Sheridan, and Delenn's picture was bald. So I took the poster around and tried to get a lot of Babylon 5 people to sign it. The first year I got autograph's from Claudia Christian (Ivanova), Producer and Creator J. Micheal Straczynski, and Script Writer D.C. Fontana. Later I got other people to sign it: Michael O'Hare (Sinclair), Stephen Furst (Vir), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Walter Koenig (Bestor), Ed Wasser (Mr. Mordan), and Peter Doyle (Garibaldi).

So at this convention I was going to try to get autographs from Jason Carter (Marcus Cole, one of the human Rangers) and Patricia Tallaman (Lyta Alexander, the first and last telepath). And at the last minute Robin Atkins Downes (Byron, another telepath) was added to the guest list. So I'm very happy fan, walking around the convention with a poster I'm probably going to get three autographs added to.

The actors talk about some personal stuff. Jason Carter doesn't think much of the American University system. He went on about how in England you have your finals just before you get your degree. What is the nonsense about taking finals at the end of each semester. And then he read us this silly poem he wrote about grandma falling in the loo.

But mostly, they talk about behind the scenes stuff on the set. So Patricia Tallaman and Robin Atkins Downes are talking about a love scene that they filmed. It was directed by Tony Dow (Wally Cleaver from Leave it to Beaver). Apparently Robin didn't look like he was having much fun. When Patricia is on top of you naked, shouldn't you look happy? How bad do you have to be that Wally Cleaver thinks your big love scene looks boring? Robin said he was embarassed that he would get a stiffy in front of all those people. Patricia said when she's doing a love scene with someone he'd better get a stiffy.

Patricia also has stories of being a stunt-woman, which she decided she would probably have to give up since coming home with bruises would probably upset her child. Also, Patricia seems to think that she has a big butt. She doesn't really. Maybe she's just getting material ready for a comedy routine. So she's telling us about this stunt where she has to run in high-heels and jump onto the back of a truck. And the jump is okay, but not graceful since she's wearing these high-heels. So she lands on the truck with her butt in the air, and she isn't happy with it at all and wants to try it again. But the director is happy with it and doesn't want to waste time and money on a re-shoot. So she goes home and calls a friend and cries about the stunt and how big her butt is going to look on the film. And her friend is like, who cares, everyone will think it is the other actress' big butt. So then it was okay.

And I am just having a wonderful time. There's a line for the autographs, but not a huge line, and I'm going to get autographs from Patricia and Jason and Robin. And I've got my poster out and I'm about to talk to Patricia. And there's this guy sitting next to Patricia, but I don't think anything about it because there is often a volunteer sitting with the actor to help them and maybe sell pictures and stuff like that. And I put the poster on the table, and the guy asks if I want him to sign it. And I don't know who the guy is, and I don't know what to say. I don't recognize him, so maybe he's one of the writers, and I've already had a couple of writers sign the thing so that would be okay. But I don't know what to say, so I finally just blurt out something like, "Who are you?" And he picks up this name card that has Jeffery Willerth Kosh printed on it, and he waves it and says "I'm Kosh! I'm Kosh!" And I'm like, that's great, cause I'd love to have Kosh sign my poster. But I'm so embarrassed that I didn't know who he was.

So he signs my poster and Patricia signs it and I move on to another table and get Jason's autograph and Robin's autograph. Then I put the autograph stuff away and go look for some of my friends. Caught up with Melissa from the club and hung around a bit with Myrh the cat.

Melissa and I tried to get something to eat before the costume contest, which I wasn't in for a change. Myrh was the MC, and he should have been testing the microphones and such, but he was in the bar instead. Melissa said "Look, a drunk bobcat." Myrh just smiled. Not exactly drunk, just a bit mellow. Melissa said "That's what you get for drinking alcohol through a straw." Not that he has a choice about drinking through a straw with the cat makeup on. So Myrh went to get ready for the contest, and Melissa and I finally gave up on the idea of being served food within a reasonable amount of time and went to find seats to watch the contest.

I don't remember much about the contest, except that Myrh missed some cue from Skippy the Klingon. But, Skippy didn't get mad or anything. Then we all went back to the bar and tried to get something to eat again. Jason had a few drinks and probably said a few words about how Americans couldn't properly play pool or darts or anything else that one does at a bar. I heard that he had a few more poems, about worse things than grandma in the loo, but I didn't hang around to listen to them. Myrh went off to talk to some other people, which left four empty seats at our table.

Some guy that I didn't know at the time came in with his wife and asked if they could sit at the four empty seats, and we said sure, no problem. So he waves at someone at the door to come in.

And the person at the door is Jeff Willerth, Kosh, the guy in the Vorlon suit.

So Jeff sits in the chair next to me and apologizes for being late and missing the costume contest. He said that someone took him and his wife to a Japanese restaurant, and that they drove a long way to get there. He said maybe the restaurant was in Iowa. Now, if he'd said Oklahoma, I might have thought he was serious, so I'm glad he didn't say that cause I was embarrassed enough already. So the other guy asks if his wife is coming, and Jeff doesn't think so, because she had too much sake.

A bit later, Patricia comes in with this man, and says "Gimme the keys, gimme the keys," or something like that. (I would see this several more times that weekend, and I'm not sure if it was the same man each time or not.) So that was odd, but Jeff gave her the keys and she left with this man.

The five of us talk for hours. Jeff offers to buy me a drink, but I don't drink alcohol, and I didn't think that I should have any more caffeine, so I just kept drinking water. Then the guys are teasing me about how drinking too much water can hurt you. Then he was telling us something about some of the people who worked on the show. The other guy was talking about a Deep Space Nine script that he sold, but was never filmed because he missed some deadline. And then we were talking about Bruce Boxleitner working on some things with his wife Melissa Gilbert, and I said I'd seen them on Touched by an Angel, and I think that they used some video of the Babylon 5 Christmas party.

We finally had to leave. Being at a bar isn't something that I do very often, much less stay til closing. Melissa went home. The other guy and his wife went up to their room. I left Jeff talking to some fans and went to make an appearance at a couple of parties. I ran into Jeff again, just as I was leaving and he was going up to his room. I think that was a little bit after three in the morning.

So while it isn't exactly what it sounded like, the next day I had this to say: I spent most of the night with the guy in the Vorlon suit, I had more to drink than anyone else at the table, and we closed the bar.

Vote on the upcoming 100th post

Or, at least, the upcoming 100th published post.

Given what the blog was originally supposed to be about, I could write something about the homewrecking-slut, or some advice and/or questions for homewrecking-sluts in general.

I could blog about all the things that I have done in bed (not what it sounds like).

Dinner with William Shatner? My evening with the guy in the Vorlon suit? Last year's All-Con?

At some point, I mean to do a serious list of favorite books and movies, but I don't really think I could do it justice in the next week or so.

I have an interesting 9-ll story, but I think that I'll save that for September.

I could stop blogging for a while and come back sometime after spring break and tell you about my first experience throwing (ceramics), which hasn't happened yet. We're a bit behind schedule for some reason.

I'm open to suggestions for future blog entries. For the record, I would prefer not to write a whole blog having to do with my private parts or anyone else's private parts.

Any thoughts?

Monday Morons

I was debating whether or not I wanted to blog about my husband. But then I remembered that it was Monday, and that I had started this whole Monday Moron thing. So maybe I'm not ready to actually call my husband a moron on the blog yet. But last night he actually said that he thought that things were better. How messed up is that?

But I don't want to get into that at the moment. And I don't really want to go back and do the same thing as last week and talk about how stupid I have been and how I've wasted time during this. I don't want the Monday Moron thing to always be about the same thing, even if that is what seems to be on my mind most of the time.

So let's talk about the school I am at right now and some dumb rules that they have.

The one that really doesn't bother me that much is the no food or drink rule. I'm used to individual instructors having that rule, but here it isn't up to the instructors, they just have the rule for all of the classrooms all of the time. And that includes the art labs.

That's just wrong. Art labs have classes that are two or three hours long. And what is the big deal if there are crumbs or something like that in the ceramics lab? The ceramics lab is a mess and constantly being cleaned anyway. So what if a few potato chip crumbs get cleaned up along with the dried clay bits? How is this a hardship or added work for anyone?

The instructor gives everyone the option of taking a ten minute break, but that's really not the same thing. I usually don't want to stop what I'm doing for ten minutes, to go get a soda and chips. And the few times that I bother to do that, I end up having to throw half of it away when the break is over, and I don't like to waste stuff. If I paid to have a snack, I should be able to eat all of it.

That's really not such a problem for me. Even when there is a rule like that, I ignore it and bring a bottle of water. (Unless I am in a computer lab or someplace that has a legitimate reason for banning even water.) And I can tell myself that I really don't need the soda or the chips. But the same rule applies to the Saturday only class, which is six and a half hours. There are two scheduled ten minute breaks, which only leaves fifteen minutes for lunch. They aren't even given the option of skipping the two ten minute breaks to get a longer lunch break. A forty-five minute lunch break is reasonable, but fifteen minutes is not.

But my main problem with this place is the rule that we are not allowed in the lab unless someone on staff is in the room with us. Therefore, there is no open lab time. The instructor cannot be expected to sit in the room with us outside of class time, and he has been unable to find someone to babysit us, so the room is locked all of the time when a class is not scheduled. He tries to make sure that the assignments do not take longer than the class period, but really for a class of this type the students should put in a minimum three extra hours of lab time.

This is especially annoying for me, since I do not need an extra art credit, and I specifically took this class so that I would have lab space to work in. So to get extra lab time, I have to attend his other classes, which are spread out over the entire week. I put in about forty hours a week in my last class. If I were in the lab every time the doors were unlocked, I'd only have about twenty-four hours per week. I've quit trying to do anything near that. It just wastes too much time and gas driving back and forth all week.

What is really upsetting is when there is already a maintenance person or someone like that in the lab, and they run you out. I have had to get the campus police to let me back in to get my books after that happened a couple of times.

And you would think that with the lab being locked for so much of the time that your stuff would be safe, but there have still been a couple of thefts. One of my tools went missing, but I think that was an honest mistake. And there's a box of them from students who left their stuff last year, so I just took one of those to replace it. But another student had his whole tool kit taken. So you can't get into the lab because it is locked up, but your stuff still gets stolen, so you wonder what is the point of it being locked up in the first place.

Not that I'd really want it to be left unlocked all of the time. There would be serious theft all of the time if they did that. But surely some compromise is possible. Like maybe security could be called to let one of us in, and then they could come and check up on us every fifteen minutes or so, and then lock the room when we're ready to leave. And most of us have cell phones now, so we could even just call and tell them when we're ready to leave.

But no. They just have this rule that keeps us from getting our work done. They like their rules and they aren't going to change them.

Of all the dumb things to fight about

My mom and I recently had a fight. We seem to do that a lot lately. The odd thing was that the thing she was talking about when the fight started was...

Anna Nicole Smith

????

I dropped by my mom's house unannounced. It was later than I would usually stop by. I figured that I didn't have to be anywhere, and I didn't have anything that I had to do the next day either, so if I ended up staying late it wouldn't matter. If she wanted to talk that was nice, and if she didn't want to talk that was good too, and I'd just get what I came for and leave.

But she seemed glad to see me. So we were going to catch up on things. I noticed that she hadn't brought in her mail yet, so I got it for her. And we were laughing that my brother got a coupon from Victoria's Secret and then deciding which of us should get the coupon.

And the next thing I know is she's talking about Anna Nicole Smith. I can't even remember how we got there, but I didn't really want to talk about her. My mom is asking if I saw some clip of her, and I'm like I haven't and I don't keep up with her. I really don't want to hear my mom describe this clip of Anna Nicole Smith. Hearing my mom's description would take longer than actually watching the clip. I don't want to get into it. I said something like that. I don't watch stuff about Anna Nicole Smith, and the whole Anna Nicole Smith thing is a mystery to me anyway. Why would anyone care about her in the first place, why is she still famous for stuff that happened like twenty years ago, etc...

If we are going to talk about people we don't even know who have died recently, let's talk about Walker Edmiston. He died February 15th. He was an actor. He was Enik the Altrusian on Land of the Lost. He did voice-over work. He was Ernie Keebler the elf. Surely more people will miss him than Anna Nicole Smith.

But my mom is ticked that I tried to change the subject. So she talks some more about her. Poor Anna. Anna is still a person, etc...

Okay, if your point now is that Anna is a person, how about we just leave her alone and not talk about her, like we would not talk about any other persons misfortunes.

My mom really starts to lose it. She didn't say anything bad about Anna Nicole Smith. I should be interested in stuff in the news. I shouldn't try to change the subject. I have no social skills. There is something wrong with me. No wonder I can't get a job. I think that my time is more important than everyone else's and I cannot be bothered to listen to my own mother talk about Anna Nicole Smith.

Never mind. I can just leave now. I start to go.

So then my mom is going on about how I think that I'm better than everyone and I think that I know everything. And why do I think that she's racist?

Really. I don't bring this up anymore. But it is so obvious. Not that she does anything bad. But sometimes I just don't like the attitude. But I didn't even bring it up, and she just says that out of nowhere and wants to know what makes me think that she's racist.

Just little things that have happened. Just the way you act. Just little things that you've said.

Like what?

I really do not want to get into this. Can't I just say that I don't have time for this right now? But I tell her the thing that probably bothered me the most when we were kids.

Before a little boy named Adam Walsh was kidnapped, people used to do dumb things like leave their kids by themselves in a store in the toy department. I recall this happening a lot. And for the most part, we enjoyed that. We would just be left in a store looking at toys, while our parents went to look at something important like clothes or lawnmowers or something.

Not that we ever got any of these toys. Toys were for Christmas and birthdays. I only remember one other time that my mom bought any of us toys other than that, and at the time it made me very suspicious. But we would look at the toys, and within a few minutes my little sister would become very attached to some doll, which my mom would not buy for her, so there would often be a lot of crying and screaming as we left the store. As I got older, I knew this was coming, so I didn't really enjoy being left with my sister at the toy department.

But, this still happened on a regular basis. So one time our whole family went to this store, and my parents went off to look at something, and my brother and sister and I were left in the toy department. My sister had about twenty dolls at the time, and there was no way that she ever needed another one, but she didn't see it that way. So she's looking at the dolls, and decides which one she wants, but she would happily take any and all of them home.

So, my parents come back, and she's gripping a doll. It is not Christmas or her birthday or near either of those days, and she's not going to get the doll, and she's not even going to be quieted because she might get it soon for a present. She wants the doll, there's no way that she's going to get the doll, and it's about to get ugly.

My mom finds this other doll. It's a black baby doll. And my mom picks up the doll and I think she even said that my sister could have the doll. I'm not sure exactly what she said, but the implication was clear, my sister could have the black doll if she wanted it.

My sister loved all dolls, so she let go of the one she had picked out and hugged the black one instead. And my parents thought it was funny and laughed. It looked to me like my mom just assumed that my sister would not even even be interested in the black doll. But now my sister is in love with the black doll.

So my parents take the doll away from her, and my sister cries and makes a big scene. And rightly so, in my opinion. Mom made her think that she could have the doll, and now we were leaving without it. All those other times, it's just a little kid not getting her way, and even at that age I thought she should figure out that you don't get to buy toys just because you find one in the store. But this was different.

Mom does not remember the incident.

Of course not.

Mom wonders if my sister remembers the incident. I didn't think that she would. She couldn't have been more than five at the time. But mom calls her anyway.

People do this once in a while. They make a brief phone call to check something. No big deal. So fine, call her if you want to.

So my mom calls my sister, and my sister doesn't remember the incident. My sister said something like my mom so often told her that she could have things that she was never given that she wouldn't remember that particular incident anyway.

Interesting. My sister just said that my mother was always breaking promises, and that this happened on such a regular basis that she isn't surprised that she doesn't remember this one time in particular. But this doesn't get the least little reaction from my mother.

My mother even laughs. And my sister goes on to say that she doesn't think mom is racist and she tells some story why she doesn't think mom is racist. She's on the speaker phone.
I am not in the conversation at all. The two of them just start talking.

I'm the one who has no social skills? I'm standing here, and my mom has stopped talking to me to have a phone conversation with my sister. And I'm looking at her, and I'm not even being subtle, but I don't think that she got it. I even sort of waved at her a couple of times. Finally, I waved that I was actually going to leave, so then she got off the phone.

She wants to know if she should call my brother to see if he remembers the incident.

I don't care if he remembers. I remember. Do we have to do this?

She wants to know more things that make me think she's a racist. So I mention a few things, and she goes on explaining them, and to me it just makes her sound more like a racist. But I really don't want to do this, so can I just go?

I'm standing at the door, and she makes a few more remarks about what if she'd said similar thing about other people? And I don't want to get into it, and I don't think that's really a valid argument anyway. And I've got the door open.

And she wants to know what I call how I feel about the Bimbo.

And what does that have to do with anything? The Bimbo is not of a different race, just from a different country, so it doesn't make me racist or anything resembling racist. If she wants to say that there is some negative label for that too, fine. Put whatever ugly label you want on that as long is it factual, and there are a lot to choose from, including murderous hatred. (But not actual murder. And that would be difficult anyway, since she is there and I am here.) What does that have to do with anything? I left.

To be clear, my mother is not a name-caller or one of those idiots on Jerry Springer having white babies for white America. My mother is just the most civilized human being. She doesn't get out much, so maybe things would be different if she'd ever worked outside the home for more than six months and was forced to deal with people she didn't like. But, for the most part, I think that she would still be the same. She's not a doctor, she's not anyone's boss, and she isn't rude. She can be a racist and never hurt anyone by it and I don't think that she ever has or ever will.

Is it art?

The age old question came up again today, and we all just sort of shook our heads and agreed now was not the time to get into it.

At the end of my previous ceramic class, another student was trying to give me a compliment. But while she was talking she said something like "of course your stuff isn't art, it's a craft." Not that I was really offended. I found it rather humorous. I rarely make such distinctions.

Dr. Spurlock had a definition for art, but I can't quite remember what it was. It's one of those things that you never really wrote down anywhere (except maybe on the test), because you could never forget it. But somehow I did forget. There were three points, one of which was that it is intended as art by the artist (and apparently God does not count as an artist). So you couldn't really count accidents or things in nature, though accidents and things in nature could be part of your art.

So, I can't remember what the other two main points were. But I definitely have the first point. I made something (not by accident) and I intended it to be art. So it is art. If you want to call it a craft, it is that too, and you can call it either one.

So that was all a bit silly. But it does seem to keep coming up in discussion. A few weeks ago I went to an art exhibit closing reception (which I have never even heard of before), and the artist was explaining that ceramics was not even widely accepted as art until the 1950s. Now that was really odd. Museums are filled with ancient pots, and about half an inch thickness of the the art history textbook is ceramics, so why would anyone want to dispute that new ceramic stuff is art?

Last week we were discussing the student art show and whether or not pieces would be sold after the show, and did the art club want to have a separate art sale a few days after the show? Of course we do. And do we want to include people who are not art majors and/or not in the art club? Yes, we need money and we want a big sale.

We just want to make sure that everyone understands that it is a fine art sale and not a craft show.

Okay. Whatever. No Christmas ornaments allowed. No macaroni necklaces.

So today we were talking about the art sale, and we had to repeat a lot of stuff for people who were not at last week's meeting. And I said something about no macaroni necklaces, and I can't sell my scarves.

Susan disagreed. I can sell scarves if I want. But not Christmas ornaments or macaroni necklaces.

If anything that I have ever done could better be described as a craft rather than art, it would have to be my scarves.

Whatever.

So she went on to say that we were the art club and we want to look professional. And at that point we agreed not to waste the art club's time getting into the whole is it art or is it a craft question. But I thought the "look professional" bit was funny, especially when talking about art.

Professional just means that someone is getting paid to do something. Professional is not necessarily a good thing. Whores are professional.

I am an artist. At this point in my life, I am not a professional artist. I like my art, and I rarely part with any of it. The only things I can remember selling were a couple of painted eggs (one of them to the store owner who dropped it) and a couple of drawings of Star Trek characters.

What does professional have to do with anything?

Please excuse my absence

It is one of those Wednesdays again. I plan to spend most of the day at school. A ceramics class, lunch, maybe a short trip to the mall to get something from Bath & Body Works, several hours of library time, followed by another ceramics class.

I will not be blogging, emailing, answering phones, etc....

You know the drill.

If you have something to say, say it anyway, and I will try to get back to you tonight or early tomorrow morning.

And, if you get bored, you can always go back and read an old post. Most of them are labeled now. The categories are: Bath and Body Works, bimbo bashing, black, clothes, costumes, dumb job, ebay, gifts, Halloween, haunted houses, idiot bloggers, just nice, movies, old travel, recent travel, ren fest, stupid people, stupid things I did, TV, wasting time, weird dream, and when I was a kid. Soon there will be a category called "no label" so that I can say I have labeled everything. Hopefully, I will figure out this label thing soon.

I have almost a hundred posts now. I should think of something special to write.

Dumb things I have done in the past week or so

I ate a whole package of raw cookie dough. Not all at one time. Not even all in one day. It took about a week. It's just one of those things that you think you'd like to do when you're a kid, but some adult tells you not to. I have heard that is one of the dumb things some people do soon after they get their own place. Eat a whole package of raw cookie dough, or maybe a bowl of cake batter. Anyway, I had never done that before, but I got about half way through a package last week. I kept meaning to get the rest of the thing out and bake cookies, but always I would look at the oven, decide it wasn't worth the effort, eat a little more dough and put the rest back in the frig. With about half a dozen pieces left, I finally decided not to bother with baking any cookies at all. So there, an early childhood dream fulfilled.

Not near as cool as going to Loch Ness (another childhood dream), but it did not require me to take off from school, get on a plane, or spend more than five bucks.

Today I bought myself a dozen red roses. They were on sale for two dollars, and how can I pass up a deal like that? It's the sort of thing that I would look out for in case my husband wanted to take pictures, but then I remembered that he wasn't here this week and the flowers would die before he got back. And he wouldn't have time to take pictures anyway.

And then I thought, whatever, they're two bucks. So I got them for myself. So now I'm wondering if I should go back and get some white roses or yellow roses and make one of those dried flower things for my hair that I used to wear to ren fests. I think I'll probably be going to one in April.

I watched most of the remaining Stargate: Atlantis episodes for the year. Almost. A friend burned a disk for me with the last cliffhanger and the rest of this years episodes. Except that I can't seem to find episode #18, and I didn't watch episode #16 because it didn't have any sound. He also gave me the 80's version of Day of the Triffids, but the sound didn't work on that either.

My brother loaned me his Space: Above and Beyond dvd. I really enjoyed watching it. I didn't like the show that much the first time around. And I had forgotten how hot the tanks were.

Monday I went to ceramics class. It wasn't a day that I was scheduled to go, but there is no open studio time, and going to another class is the only time you can get in.

There was a sign on the door saying that the instructor had taken a sick day, and class was canceled.

Since I was forced to switch to New Blogger, I decided to put labels on everything, or at least try to. I guess I should go back and label everything without a label "no label" or something like that. Anyway, most of the posts have labels, but there doesn't seem to be a place where the readers can see the list of labels. So I guess that is something I have to figure out how to do later.

The clay fairy came

In ceramics class we are making these tiles, and I couldn't make up my mind which design I wanted to use. I finally decided on the sea turtle, but I asked if I could do another one if there was leftover clay. So the instructor let me have a second piece. And today two more pieces were left on my shelf. So I'll also end up with a a sea turtle, a Stargate symbol, and a Celtic knot. The fourth tile might be another Celtic knot, but I haven't decided yet.

Also, we had to dig this big hole in the backyard. We should have done this as soon as we moved into the house, but we didn't understand that the house was going to flood otherwise. I tried to do it myself, but I just wasn't up to it. We had a bad flood about a year ago, and the hole still wasn't finished. My husband just finished the hole Sunday. Thank you, husband.

Anyway, what came out of the hole turned out to be terra cotta. Some really sandy gritty terra cotta, but still, it's free clay. I'm sure I can do something with it.

You would never guess that this stuff is terra cotta just by looking at it. The clay is dark grey, but after it is fired it turns orange-red.

I've been trying to decide whether or not to skip school next week, and I totally forgot that the week after next is spring break. And, there is stuff at school that absolutely must be done before spring break. So I will try to control myself for one more week and not stay home from school until the week that we are off anyway. But, just to be on the safe side, I think I should go in tomorrow and do some extra work.