New Being Human...

Mitchell gets stuck with clean-up after a blood frenzy and the music is I'm Into Something Good by Herman;s Hermits.

Dying laughing.

Now, I do like snow, but this is silly. We got nothing last year, or close enough to nothing to count as nothing, and now we're set to get *blinks* 22 more inches in the next two days?

Made my grocery list so I can go out to the store at 0-dark-hundred to get supplies in case we're snowed in for 24 hours again. Mainly, milk, cereal, eggs, bird seed, red wine... the essentials.

Needless to say, the cancelled schools again for tomorrow already this afternoon.

We put our some bird seed for the adventurously opportunistic birds this morning. Never mind that the seed is now covered with snow, they are happily digging for it, and we will put out some more later.

Lily is parked by the glass door looking out at them, tail twitching, and I can imagine that she is chanting "I'm a lion, I'm a lion, I'm a lion..." to herself with each twitch of the tail.

Puck is sulking and eating her food in the kitchen, and I imagine that she's saying, "doesn't taste at all like bird, but it's all they'll let me have."

We tried opening the door earlier for Puck when she was crying piteously to go out to get the birds, but the stubborn wench made a bee-line back into the house once her precious paws hit the cold white stuff. Now when she cries, we tell her to shut it and she goes off to sulk. Lily, meanwhile, is the Queen of the Kalahari... well, at least in her little kitty mind.

( She's a lion )

Still snowing. In fact, it isn't supposed to stop until after 7 pm or so, so there's no work for me today. We'll have to see what tomorrow brings re: road conditions. It is gorgeous out there, but whilst looking at the snow still coming down, I am glad that I am inside and do not have to go outside save to play.

The net connection is on-again/off-again... mainly depending on where we're trying to connect. Thank god TVU is working. I've closed all programs save this one so that I can watch Hull v Man City. TVU, though, won't play the Fox Soccer Channel for me, so I'm watching Fox Sports en Espanol. It works nicely.

ETA: The latest forecast - Blizzard Warning in effect until 10 PM EST this evening... Whee!

It is coming down. Supposedly, we'll be getting anywhere from 2-3 feet. I'm not going to hold my breath, but there is weather as the net's been at a snail's pace all day. I can... eventually... log in to places, and am sending this via Semagic as I can queue it if need be.

Fun times.

In other news, my SIL broke her ankle as a result of ice. Ice = bad. Snow = good. Thank you.

In other other news, my beasties are trying to get me to play WoW. I told them that I will consider it once I take over this world and the nine levels of the Inferno first.

The beasties went out last night to slide about in the snow and ice. They also filmed themselves and their friend doing so. I call it Jackasses in Winter.

As soon as I can figure out how to get that on YouTube, it's going up.

The beastiette wisely remained home and warm. The middle beastie, my poor unlucky lamb, has a shiner from a spectacular tumble... at least there was plenty of ready ice to be applied to the bump. The elder beast did a good job of frozen first aid before they got home and thawed out.

Time for some tea, and then I have no idea what. My house looks like a war zone, and they've already cancelled school for tomorrow. I'm hoping for inspiration in tea.

I shall fear no evil, because if it come close enough, I shall vomit upon it.

My children have once more shared their germs whilst hoarding their sweets, and I've been in bed with a novovirus. Maybe I should not blame the beasties, but instead the insta-salad in a bag I bought on Monday. The convenience was not worth it.

*knocks wood* I hope that I am over the worst of it. I'm hungry but still afraid to eat due to the nasty side-effects of such foolishness. I tried oatmeal yesterday, you know, gentle and boring oatmeal, and it hated me with a hatred that knew no bounds. Tea, though, particularly Lady Grey, has been my friend.

I might be suicidally adventurous and try scrambled eggs on toast in a few minutes.

In other, happier news, I think that I am going to buy the new moon perfume from BPAL:

CANDLES MOON
To-day is the Day of Bride,
The serpent shall come from his hole,
I will not molest the serpent,
And the serpent will not molest me.

The serpent will come from the hole
On the brown day of Bride,
Though there should be three feet of snow
On the flat surface of the ground.

Moonlight shining on the Quickening Tree, the heat and wax of sacred candles, the milk of ewes, Brigid's blackberry, the sting of keening wind, and the last flutter of the Cailleach's winter snow.

Lost AIM.

Tried to reconnect three times, but the lines are having none of it. *sighs*

Hopefully the wet will move out over the night and it will be a happy network tomorrow.

Until then, I have a feeling Roberto's got one more round to go before I go get some rest.

Or, make that staph.

Ted thought he had a small insect bite on his forearm. Oh no, my friends, nothing that small and simple. In the span of the day, it enlarged to triple its size, turned a livid red, and if you touched his arm three inches away, he yelped. Over to the Urgent Care Centre we trekked and the poor beastie had it lanced and drained by the wonderful medicos on call. I will be very glad when he will no longer need to risk life and limb in that locker/change-out room at his school. There seems to be a distinct lack of sterilisation going on there, as he has always come home from school with Pink Eye after being in that room.

In any case, we're home. He's Bactine'd and bandaged, little Miss Flu is feeling better and sneezing a bit less, and the Elder Beast is fighting tooth-and-claw to keep from succumbing to the flu.

I also hear that I did not miss much in the derby today.

Now, though, there is food calling me and then time to hide the plague victims away in bed before I relax for the night.

Trillian is happily updating itself. I estimate a restart in about 3 minutes, but, in the long run, it's not a big thing.

Sort of packing for the trip up to Mum's for the big birthday weekend*. I've decided that if the beasties have clean clothes on tomorrow morning and a pair for Sunday, that's good enough. I'm not going to worry or stress over it.

I do have to pick up a birthday present for my niece, but there's a few stores out there along the way. *grin*

*By big, I mean big. My three cousins, my niece, my aunt, and my uncle all have birthday between the 25th and the 4th of February. We have one big sour beef and dumpling supper each year for it. Mmmmmm... Yes, definitely going to concentrate on the food and not the packing.

We will be back Sunday, well fed and well watered, and ready to relax and have fun.

The good news is that the day is nigh over. Had a bit of a worry with my bank account over the past 24 hours, and it finally got resolved about 10 minutes ago. I'm sure that Western Union is just spiffy, but CitiBank's computer system makes me want to call them ShittyBank. They doubled billed me for a money gram to make the car payment so that there were no late fees. It's Wachovia, why they couldn't have done an on-line payment and avoided the fess, I have no clue... but I'm not trusting the express payments again. I sent an email off to ShittyBank's customer (non)service and was told

Currently we are experiencing an unusually high volume of e-mails. We are here to help you. Our current turn-around time is 48 hours. If you require immediate assistance, please contact us via the number on the back of your card.

Needless to say, it was a bit stressful.

All is well now, but I can feel the budding migraine, and am taking steps to nip it in the bud. Currently, those steps are dark chocolate and tea.

In other health news, all beasties are now feeling better. Thank god for small favours.

The peace is over.

*sighs*

Having a quiet house after finishing up the last of training and falling asleep because the beasties are away.

Memo to the Universal Powers That Be: This is not funny. Thank you.

We had out last classroom session tonight, exams... or rather, post-orientation employee evaluations... taken (and passed, I hope *wink*) and all that is left is First Aid and CPR on Saturday, which should be concluded in the early afternoon. Huzzah!

Next up will be on the job site training, although I did notice a newer posting for a part-time position that has more hours and is a better block of time schedule wise for me. I feel a bit crappy about getting an application and applying for the transfer already, but I have to do what is best for me. So, I grabbed an internal application and will fill it out tomorrow.

Other than that, have some good ideas for this weekend; am going to watch Man City v Blackburn; the beasties are making arrangements to have sleepovers all weekend as Monday is a holiday; and I'll have a few good free days. Life is good.

And now, a nice warm bed is singing its siren song, and I shall give into that temptation. Until the morrow!

Busy week. Part of it good, part of it not so good. Seems to be the way life is at times, but I'm just focusing on the good for now.

Was offered, and accepted, the part time-position with The ARC, and am hoping that this opens new and better doors for full-time employment. I'll be keeping my eyes and ears open to see if I cannot get another part-time position with them, or a full-time one in the near future.

But... there's always a but, I lost my SocSec card and had to get it replaced. That was no fun, nor was going into DC to get a certified copy of my birth certificate. Call me paranoid, but I just do not trust sending my official documents through the post to someone and then waiting for them to be sent back. So, yes, this week has been productively busy.

Snow day here today. Woke up at 5:30, saw the snow, went back to bed until 10. It felt good. It felt needed.

Perhaps. Who knows?

I wanted a pithy subject line for the first post of 2010, an omen of things to come perhaps, or just something a bit more in-depth/creative/festive than Happy New Year! Instead, you got stuck with a film reference.

The new year started not so much with a bang as with an "OMG! Why do I feel like death warmed over?" The stomach virus that my sister-in-law had finally caught up with me, the belated little bugger. I was going to moan about how unfair that was, what with being a new year and all, but then realised that I got 95% of Friday in bed, half of yesterday in bed, and three concerned beasties bringing me broth whilst the anchor took care of supper for two days. On the whole, not a bad deal if you can swing it... I must bend my wits to thinking about how I can do this next year without the actual stomach upset part.

Sadly, I did miss the sideline eye-candy, save for the last 10 minutes when Mancini took on Boro in the blizzard. At least I was able to catch the highlights show.

I see that there are some posts that I need to reply to, and I should check in over at WriYe, at least.

Oh yes. Doctor Who End of Time! Not too shabby on the whole. Timothy Dalton just gets more and more delicious. I'll need to add him to my Christmas wishlist for this year, too. *sighs* Another crush on a dark-haired man exuding power from every pore. Perhaps I'm not quite right in the head, but the idea of spending eternity in a time lock with him as Rassilon... not a bad way to go. ( I also think that the mystery Time Lady was )

Well, enough of this. Time to get myself into gear and move forward into productivity.

P.S. I really just love this:

New manager Roberto Mancini has unintentionally started a fashion trend at Eastlands by donning a 1950s-style sky blue and white scarf on match days...

ETA: Third tier Leeds was given a dubious reward for knocking Manchester United out of the FA Cup on Sunday, drawn to visit Tottenham in the fourth round.

BWAHHAAAHAAAAAAAAAA!

THE FRUIT OF PARADISE 2009
While Persephone visited the realm of Hades, she tasted one single pomegranate seed, an act which compelled her to remain connected to the Land of the Dead for all eternity. Demeter's grief over her beloved daughter's absence that brings on the bleakness and barrenness of the winter months.

The Fruit of Paradise, the Nectar of Death: bittersweet pomegranate, nurtured and cultivated in the hollow darkness of the Underworld.

ON DARKNESS 2009
You darkness, that I come from,
I love you more than all the fires
that fence in the world,
for the fire makes
a circle of light for everyone,
and then no one outside learns of you.
But the darkness pulls in everything;
shapes and fires, animals and myself,
how easily it gathers them! --
powers and people --
and it is possible a great energy
is moving near me.
I have faith in nights.

An embrace: black poppy, lavender, thick black incense, black amber, rose geranium, Brazilian rosewood, and benzoin.

THE PEACOCK QUEEN 2009
In dramatic contrast to the soft innocence of Snow White and the dew-kissed freshness of her sister, Rose Red, this is a blood red, voluptuous rose, velvet-petaled, at the height of bloom. Haughty and imperious, vain, yet incomparably lovely to the eye, but thick with thorns of jealousy, pride and hatred.

Yeah. Packing did not occur as planned last night as the Elder Beast ran into friends he had not seen for over a year, and my house became the impromptu party place.

No worries, it was fun and served to get us into the holiday spirit.

Now, however, we are all packed and ready to go over the river and through a few modestly tree-lined avenues to my mum's house for a few days.

Have a great weekend, happy times with friends and family, and I shall return on Sunday. Both muses and I shall be rested and ready for mayhem [just for the muses, please good gods, thank you] when we get back.

Last night I saw the winter spirits as they pressed their faces to my window. They were wild, with leaves and feathers covering them. In all, there were five that came to visit, without malice, just curiosity.

Perhaps it was the joy felt by the gift of snow and the energy of playing in it that has attracted them to the house; and the thinning of the veil helped me to see them more clearly.

I will learn to speak with them, these spirits of the forest and land. It seems only proper as they have made the effort to appear to me.

I will let this week be the fallow week. Time is slowed down and the earth... at least my part of it... is coming to rest.

We hang now in the moment of infinite possibilities.

It is time to incubate the seeds of the next season, To select them and nurture them.

I know which seeds I will water with the cold kiss of melting snow.

It will be good.