This is where I bitch.

It was a good weekend / trip up to mom and dad's. Left early on Saturday, got up in time for lunch with mom, grandma, aunt Carol and aunt Sue. Mom made meatballs and mash potatoes, which I love and we usually eat at Christmas Eve dinner. But this year mom and dad are in Saudi with Laura, and Paul and I will be in the Twin Cities with his family, so that won't happen. So it was nice to have.

Then we visited an older friend of ours that I hadn't seen in a while. She talked about her husband who passed recently a lot, but it was good to see her. After that we went to my uncle's house and fished with dad for a bit. Cold but fun.

Image of the pond an the sunset where we were fishing: http://yfrog.com/gii2poj

Then we had sauna and supper with my uncles Jim and Dan and my cousin Tory and his son. As well as a few family friends. Mom made buffalo ribs, yummy.

Sunday we talked with Laura, Jack and Rob on Skype, then I help mom dig up some blubs so they wouldn't freeze over the winter. I stopped by grandma's to see her and Carol on the way back home and let kinda late. I almost didn't make it back with Blythe's car in time for her to make practice (she lent it to me so I could take the rip up there, she is awesome).

I have real work this week, which is nice.

I finally got podcastle loaded onto my ipod. It's kinda hit or miss. I think it is easier to write short stories about horror, a la pseudopod, dunesteef, drabblecast, etc. than it is to write fantasy. Mostly because fantasy requires a lot of world building, as the listener needs to know the rules before the plot can happen. In horror it usually takes place in the real world, either modern or historical, and the setting can be assumed. I imagine that sci-fi will be the same, but will have to listen to some escapepod first.

The first podcastle episode I listened to was great though, and I will keep giving it a try, hoping for more of that. It was a short story about the politics of the Shire after the end of the Lord of the Rings books. I'll admit my favorite part was the gay trolls, but in general it was a good story. This supports my thoughts on setting, as nothing needed to be laid out for the reader, as most people interested in this podcast will be familiar with Tolkin.

Gonna be working all weekend. What else is new?

I'm looking forward to going north and seeing Jack and Laura. Not sure when yet, need to see Paul's July schedule first. It'll also be my friend Ben's birthday that week, so I'll try and meet up with him too.

Still need podcast icon...

Been a pretty good weekend so far. Friday I was late leaving Madison because I got a half hour out of town and realized I had forgotten my cooler, so I had to turn around. I got up to mom and dad's around 10, and Jack was still up. Way past his bed time, but I got to see him. I'm sure he was just waiting for me. :)

Saturday I hung out with Laura, Rob, Jack and Kelsey. We hit a flea market where aunt Carol was working. Then made our own lunch at mom's and cleaned up afterwards. We were very adult. Then we went out to the cabin at the lake, only to find out we missed grandma and mom and my aunt and uncle had gone off kayaking. The four of us played some Settler's of Catan until everyone got back. Then we made our own dinner of pan fried fish while mom, Nancy and Steve went to a graduation party. After we went home I swung over to see grandma.

Sunday I went over to see a grade school classmate I have recently started talking too again. He's up there living with his dad for a bit. I got to see his art studio he built in his dad's garage and his daughter. It was nice to chat with Ben in person instead of online all the time.

Then I drove back to Madison and Paul and I grilled out with Jess and Lari before I whooped their butts in Killer Bunnies. It was an awesome game. There were death threats against me.

Today I cleaned up from the gill out, figured out bills and mowed the lawn. Plus got in two walks with JP. I almost ran over three baby bunnies though. That was a surprise. We have been noticing that every morning and evening a large wild rabbit would sit in the middle of the lawn. Couldn't figure out why, but we just let her be. Well there is apparently a hole there and when I came up on it two baby bunnies shot out. Paul helped me herd them out of the way and then we took pictures of the last one before it hopped away. I'll post them when Paul gets them online.

Soon Jess and Lari will be over again and we will figure out the evenings plans.

Well I need a new faucet. So I got in an hour early (waking up at 5am not my fav thing) so that I could work enough hours. After Paul's allergy shot (:crosses fingers for no reaction:) we are going out and looking for a new faucet, maybe get a new vanity too, we'll see what deals we can find. Then this weekend Keith will stop by to help me install it.

I'm not gonna make it up north to watch mom, bro-in-law Rob, aunt Nancy and uncle Dan ski the Birkie this year. Just too much to do on the project that won't make it's deadline. The schedule for the National version is ridiculous, even worse than this one, so we are ignoring it as no one has told us to start thinking about it yet.

I've lost more help on the project too. We complained that it was a waste of my time to sit with two people for 2 hours each training them to help, then answering questions every hour, only for them to be pulled from my job after a few days. Someone needs to go over how things are run here and change it to work. Maybe there is some room for me to advance after all.

The pipe under the kitchen sink burst last night. The laast owner used plastic pies and some corrugated tubing. I think some glue finally lost hold and one piece of pipe let go of the washer that was holding it on. So the dishes aren't done and the floor was wet. Need to call a plumber today cause I don't have the time or the know-how on how to fix it.

Into work early so I can head north as early as possible. It's a 6-7 hour drive up to where the marathon is. Everyone seems happy that I'm coming, but its a long drive and I'd rather relax at home. Oh well, some day.

Will miss Paul terribly.

We each had a massage last night at a new place on Willy street called Sacred Body. It was good, she had a very nice place, good atmosphere, and good technique. I think both of us prefer a guy, who will tend to work muscles harder. But she also makes all natural soaps and aromatherapy items, so I'll probably go back for that. I had met her on LJ actually when she was giving an introductory price on the madisonwi community.

Today is the day of really short conference calls. Had to get in early to get into a conference call with India. My part was 15 minutes. Then did some emails until 9am when I had to have another call with a client. 15 minutes later we decided that we are right and the client needs to decide if they will cover the cost of what they want done. Now I might be able to get some work done.

Last make up game of softball last night. My pitching was not good, didn't walk anyone home, but walked enough people on base to be hit home by someone else. We lost by 2. I think I walked like 4 of the runs that came in. I did have a nice hit the ended in a triple and a scraped leg from sliding.

Messy schedule today with in early, then car switching at lunch to take care of JP. Then Paul home early and me back to work.

Have decided that only I will go north this weekend. Between the late start we'd have after Paul is done, the 6+ hour drive with the puppy, the early start again on Saturday to watch the marathon and the luke warm reception mom and dad give him, Paul decided to stay home. he has the weekend off, but he can have puppy bonding time and relax. I'm not to thrilled with the long drive either, but it will be nice to see the family.

Friday was actually busy-ish at work. Nothing exciting, but it took the whole 8 hours. After work I walked home and stopped by the post office and (finally) mailed off a package to my sister. Then I did some house chores while Paul worked till the bank closed. I was going to split the compost bags from last weekend into more bags, each can only weigh 50 pounds and they were double that, but realized that the new bags were in the car, which Paul had with him. He came home and we hung out for a bit, until I had to go to volleyball and he went to Milwaukee with Jess. We played two games, won them both and was done. Driving to the match took longer than playing. I'm thinking we should not do as well next session so we have more playing time in the tournament. I went out with the league for a few drinks and got home later than I'd wanted.

Saturday I got up early with a headache and did the compost bag splitting chore, then drove the 4 hours to mom and dad's. We visited with grandma and aunt Carol, had dinner and sauna, and was in bed by 10. It was a usual, calm day in the northwoods.

Sunday was breakfast made by dad, then church where I ran into a high school class mate and his new baby. It was nice to catch up. Then I helped mom with lunch until I had to go and pick up my aunt and uncle who had a flat tire a 1/4 mile from out house. Lunch was good, with 8 people there. Mostly just talking. At 1:30 I packed up some buffalo meat and drove back to Madison, with a quick stop at my grandma's grave site. Got into town around 5:30ish, got a hold of Drew and Paul and I went to Oregon to visit with Wendy, Drew, James, Jeff and Pat. It was very nice and we just chatted about stuff. Had time to go and collect a lot of asparagus, and Jeff and Pat said we could come back when we need more. Hit the grocery store, as we were very low on everything, then watched Across the Universe. I had started watching in a few weeks ago, but was able to finish it this time (the last time was cut short due to time, not movie quality). It was good, very visual. I'm not a huge Beatles fan, but do enjoy their music.

Paul has the car today since he has training up by East Towne Mall. He will swing by here after work and we will zip off to my softball game at 5:30. The early game is annoying to try and get to.

Hmm, turns out my sister can't make it home for Easter either. And my grandma is going to Williamsberg with my aunt Robin and her boys. Uncle Dan is heading to St. Thomas for my cousin's wedding. This means mom and dad will be home alone for the holiday. (Oh... aunt Carol will be there, I think. That's good). Laura said that mom didn't see too upset about no one coming home though. So hopefully that's not just a brave face.

We will have to make an effort to go home sometime this spring.

Work seems like it will be steady at least.

I have new Torchwood (well, Ianto) icons. I think I will watch more of my new favorite series tonight. I can only home that my download god (*cough* anothersuperboy *cough*) will hook me up soon. ONly one more episode until I run out. *fears*

Well Friday was nice. Ended up leaving work around 2:30. I had hit my 40 hours and had enough done for the week. I pawned off some work to other people that needed something to do, and headed out. Paul took the car to work and I got a ride to volleyball with Keith. We didn't play till 9pm, which is kinda late, IMO. I reffed one of the first games to pass the time. We won 2 of 3. We are also the only team that stayed the same after the winter session. It turns out that we did win the tournament last weekend after all.

Saturday we slept late and then tried to find bar stools. No luck so we will line up other places to look next weekend. I am not going to make it north for easter this year. I want to spend time with Paul and he has to work. Plus with the price of gas I want to travel less. Too bad, it'd be nice to see the family. We looked at finances for a bit, which is always depressing. We are on track to get things lined up to accomplish what we want, it's just a waiting game while staying on budget now. After that we had dinner at home and then went over to exarian's for Rock Band. Paul had fun and did well on Hard. I did OK. I tried singing but it was suggested I stop that. Mostly I didn't know the words, so it was hard to control my pitch. I've decided to wait until "Boy Band" comes out, it will have songs I know.

Today I did some house stuff and made granola. Home made granola cereal is much better than store bought. I then took an hour long walk around the neighborhood. It was sunny and not too cold, so decided to get some exercise. I think I'll chill out this evening, watch Torchwood, maybe get some volleyball web site stuff done, and thing about doing some art work.

I had 5 emails about the laptop table already. Hopefully the guy I'm selling it to (chosen because he is the first to pay my asking price) will be able to pick it up early next week.

I also made an insane journal, since I've been reading more and more fiction over there I'd like a place to bookmark them, instead of making text docs on my desktop. It's radlilim if anyone wants to friend me over there. I won't be posting much content, I don't think. Maybe put my art up there again. We'll see.

Edit: I almost forgot! On my walk I saw a hawk or falcon up in a tree chirping away. Pretty cool for a city, IMO.

Stardust was awesome. We rented it last night and Robert De Niro as a cross-dressing gay pirate was awesome. Good fantasy story line, interesting plot, well placed humor. Will be adding it to the Amazon list and want to read the book now.

Have plans to write the trip post this afternoon after Paul goes to work and post the pictures.

Good weekend, I needed the time off. Still a bit sorry that I couldn't make Mom and Rob's race.