tcsumner

Well, after emails were sent by rezansky , myself, and other folks, She seems to have realized that there was something wrong and she needs to back off...
It is a relief and now we can get back to looking forward to the event.
It seemed, even as we were getting ready for bed, that things were sinking in, and I, for one, actually got a good night's sleep and feel much much better. (and I no longer have the great desire to hit someone - I really really wanted to hit someone yesterday, which is something that I really don't like!)

I thank all of you for your support.

Now, I just have to plan the vigil...OH MY! If any of you have any good suggestions, please pass them my way. We do have plans to have someone to help in the Twin Cities (waiting to hear back), and that should help with the logistics.

Now, back to work. I try not to write LJ at work, but this morning I wanted to post a quick update...

Ok maybe it wasn't the best planning to turn in my apprentice belt two weeks before my husband is placed on vigil and we will need to try to work with her...
but it was still the right thing to do.
So, let's move on and work together for rezansky ...and leave off with the snarky comments to others...
The fact that I am Ivan's wife SHOULD be more important than the fact that I am your ex-apprentice...

Sorry, I had to vent.
And to those in this household that were dragged into this drama of my no longer being in said household, my apologies! It was never my intent to get you involved between the two of us in this matter and the fact she said what she said in the email today has me seeing red! I am very sorry.

And yes, I have emailed her and tried to lay the matter straight
The was the worse day at work - I was actually busy and then having HER go manic with mad plans on top of it all...

I am waiting to hear her reply.

One glass of wine at dinner wasn't enough. I need something more...

I am sitting in what is becoming more and more a recognizable library...giving my back a break while rezansky is assembling the last new bookcase.  We got rid of a lot of boxes and I found a home for the empty milk crates I have had for nearly 20 years...Inna and Trip are in the next  room, the guest/scribe room - they love the mattress is on the floor.  We got my scribe bookcase up and in place and slowly getting all my calligraphy, illumination, and paleography books in place (@%#^^#$ LJ, just froze up and now there is lag time between my typing and showing up on the screen)  Still haven't found my Ott light, however.  I can't understand where it would be...

Work has been mostly better. Mostly being driven crazy by one of the faculty.  We are starting to use a new e-reimbursement system and the traveler is responsible for doing the report.  Because we are still down a person in the office, I am the only one who can "approve" the reports and send them on to the next level.  I cannot be an alternate and fill out a report for a traveler AND be the approver.  This faculty member blieves that he shouldn't have to do any administrative work.  He said that if he wanted to do admin work he would not have gone into academia.  He wants me to do it for him, but I CANNOT.  I have explained and explained.  He has to do another report and I am dreading it.  Normally, I like him.  He is laid back and has a sense of humor.  I am one of the few who can get him to reply to emails.  But I am just going crazy trying to help him with this without just smacking him upside the head!  Guess what?  Travel reimbursement is a PAIN.  It has always been that way.  This new system will work better, but you got to actually learn how to do it...you know, like go through the damn tutorial!  None of the faculty will go to training and I doubt most of them will go do the online tutorial.  Four grad students have done reports with very little trouble...it isn't hard.
This reminds me why I would really really really love to leave the effing University some day.  I am sick of faculty bullshit!

I am looking forward to the party this weekend.  I think  I know what I am going to make for tasty treats and it will be nice to entertain again.  I have a sneaking suspicion that we might have forgotten to invite a few folks...the problem of "do you have so and so's email?"  "Yes, at work" and then you forget. 

Well, I suppose I should post this already and maybe put a few more books away before I call it a night.
 

Hmmm.  It has been a while since I posted.  I was going through a anti-computer at home phase.  After all, I stare at a computer all day at work and I really don't like them that much to begin with...so spending time on the laptop at home just didn't seem fun...
Most of you have been reading rezansky  's post about the house and the move.  We are still unpacking, but the living room is almost done and seems homey.  We got some pictures up on the picture rails - those are interesting, but they work.   One major thing still missing - my Ott light that I got for my drafting table.  My scribal room is the guest bedroom upstairs and there is no ceiling light so the ott light is really essential...I found that out last week when I did the worse scroll of my life, white ink on blue paper.  Couldn't see the friggin lines!!  (and the ink was clogging my pen and all sorts of other problems.)  I really didn't want to turn the scroll in but I promised something.  When I gave it to HRM I told her I thought it was a promisory.  She disagreed and said it was good and was NOT a promisory.  I am not going to argue with the queen, but I am glad I don't have a picture of it!
The scroll I am almost  finished with tonight is going MUCH better.  I am even semi pleased with the illumination and I haven't done a human before!  (I don't draw freehand, most of the time, but I am good at tracing!)  I even had fun coming up with ideas - I like doing a scroll when I know the person - much easier to come up with ideas.  I just finished the calligraphy and I just need to do three red letters and some space filler and then find my scrolls ride to Gimli.
I do wish we could go to Gimli this year.  I will miss it!  Even with the 13 hour drive from hell, it is worth it.  (for those not in the SCA, Gimli is an event held in Gimli Manitoba on the shores of Lake Winnipeg) 
My next scroll will be working with another - I don't know who it is for, so I don't want to give anything away, but I get to do some research in a new area and I am looking forward to it.

Ah, rezansky just came home with dinner.  Chinese!!!  Yum!

Prednisone is EVIL!
Yes, the doctor I saw agreed it was the prednisone that was making me feel horrible.  Blood pressure was high and all that...
Bad news is that you can't quit prednisone cold turkey, so I had to continue to take it (tho at a lower dose)Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  To offset the anxiety I was also given clonazepam...So Thursday at work was fun...high blood pressure, anxiety, and drugged out - all in one day.  When I started crying for no reason I called rezansky  to come and get me.  I stayed home today - a little less anxiety and I don't have to try to figure out math while drugged out...
today was the last day.  For rezansky 's sake, I hope it leaves my system quickly- I am very irritable and in a horrible mood.  I don't like myself like this...I think most women should embrace their inner bitch, but this is a bit too bitchy...

Well, rezansky  is keeping everyone updated on the house thing - things are moving along.  I am trying not to get too excited and jinx it...LOL

I have been having some problems dealing with allergies this season and been very very tired at work - micro-napping which is just damn scary.  I stopped taking my zyrtec and that seemed to be what was causing the severe fatigue and saw my doctor.  He put me on new nose meds, well, sort of.  It is actually an inhaler and I have to use a baby bottle nipple to get it up my nose.  I seem to know a bit more baby bottle nipples now...hm.  I might have a few for you, when the time comes, goldfrog ...
And I was put on prednisone to help reduce the inflamation.  I think I am having a bad reaction to it.  Headaches worse and worse since the new meds to the worse migraine I have had in a long time from Monday through last night.  Also anxiety issues have reared their head again and last night severe insomnia.  Plus I just feel bad - I think my blood pressure is up...  I am seeing a doctor in a hour and hopefully we will figure out why I feel this way.  I can't afford to miss work like this with a move coming up.   I really think it is the prednisone, but the nurse yesterday did not think so...but I feel worse after I take the damn stuff (I havne't taken it today and I am feeling a little better...) 
The good news is my allergies seem to be doing better with the inhaler and baby bottle nipple...

You know, when you are on a FDA restricted medicine and the FDA decided to make it MORE restricted, you would think that someone, the pharmacy or the doctor's office, would have a mechanism to tell the patients BEFORE they need a refill!!!!!!!!!!!  I have enough to last through Tuesday, if I take one a day instead of two...
I just found out from the pharmacy, when I called in for the refill, that every month when I need a refill I have to bring in a new script...and it can't be faxed.  (and the script has to have a special sticker on it)  
So, now, I have to run by the doctor's office (it has to be the West Clinic because that is where he sees his Lotronex patients and that is where the special stickers are - not his office at the hospital where it would be easier for me to get to...) once a month just for the script!  And how is this supposed to make me safer?  I don't need to see this doctor every month and I already signed so many forms and releases to be on this stuff.

And yes, it does work and make my life so much better...and I would walk on fire to stay on it, if they wanted.  But I would still bitch if they didn't tell me until they showed me the coals!

Waiting for rezansky  to get back from taking the pups to the kennel and we will be on our way to Crown!  Got the scroll done - I think it looks like crap, but I think all of my scrolls look like crap right after I finish them.  I see all the mistakes and problems...rezansky  assures me that it does not look like crap and I can safely give it to the Signet...

Oh god, we are pre-approved and the great house hunt can begin. 
Once we start looking at houses I will become more excited, but right now I am scared shitless by the amount of money.  


Looking forward to Crown.  I will not get my new outfit done - too many sinus headaches.  I am making progress on my scroll.  I thought I had a border down, but when I started playing with ideas of how to paint it, well, it just didn't work.  So I came up with a new idea on Sunday and got it mostly painted.  I was working on my calligraphy practice (I am obsessive - I will practice the text at least three times before I do the final plus I am doing general practice since it has been so long since I picked up a pen) and discovered how little strength I have in my thumb.  After a rather short period of time my thumb told me to STOP NOW!  I am afraid I am going to have to do the calligraphy in at least two sittings.  I prefer to do it in one for continuity, but my thumb has other plans.  (This is all still MUCH better than the pain I was in.  While my thumb was tired, it didn't really hurt after I put the pen down.)

I do love spring!  We have a profusion of daffodils blooming and the hyciths and tulips are coming along wonderfully.  Last year I received a gift of a box of bulbs from our friend in the Netherlands -she works for a bulb company (and lives amongst the bulb fields in Holland)  We had more bulbs than we could plant.  They are beautiful! 

Well, it is like I am trying to make up for lost time when my wrist hurt...I need to make a new under tunic for crown (hopefully will cut out my linen tomorrow and borrow a sewing machine this coming week).  And I decided that my new peplos needs some card weaving trim so I am working on that right now (actually, taking a break because warping drives me NUTS!  I have NO patience) AND I have my first scroll assignment since I did one for AEsa and Raito's coronation...I decided on a border last night and a hand...just need to work on the text, so I can start practicing the calligraphy.  
If it gets too much, I might not finish the tunic and just wear something else...I really hate to sew.  I do it so I can have garb how I like, when I like, but I really find it tedious.  

Work is going ok.  Our financial person is still out, tho we have seen evidence that she has stopped by her office.  (things are gone from her office and there were witnesses)  She has barely contacted our Administrator so we are still not sure what is going on.  She won't be able to sneak into her office (she is not supposed to be coming in since she is on medical leave) because we decided to change the master key on our floor and all the locks were changed.  We have had some security issues, separate from our financial person.  The person who replaces Mr. Incompetent is actually very competent!  She is catching up and starting to make heads and tails of his mess. And I am working on a re-classificiation of my position.  My boss said she will help me when she gets back from vacation and I went to a workshop that the Union organized.  I think we can ultimately get it done.
rezansky  is out picking up our dinner from PF Chang's and it is going to be project night.  What an exciting way to spend a Saturday night!  LOL!  Maybe I will break out the chocolate port later on...that might make weaving interesting...

Well, this is the first post since the hand surgery... and let me say the surgery was a bloody MIRACLE!  I can type!  I can knit!  Maybe this weekend I should pick up a quill and try a few lines of calligraphy!!!!
Man, what a difference it makes...going from chronic pain every damn day to slightly tired hand. 
Hell, maybe I should even take mightyjesse 's spinning class at coronation.   Well, I don't want to go too crazy - (I tried drop spinning in a class once and it ended in dismal failure and frustration)

The hand is better and even work has improved.  The idiot they hired last year to take the place of two of my co-workers finally left!  He once asked me how to fold a business letter and how to put it in the envelope.  He didn't know how to click and drag in Excel tho he was supposed to be a computer expert.  And he was TWO whole levels above me and didn't know this stuff....
And the idiot/crazy lady who hired him and was our supervisor retired!  Maybe there is a flying spaghetti monster.  She made my life a living hell (I blame her for most of my panic attacks).  My new supervisor seems nice, intelligent, compitent, and helpful.  She communicates - she even lets me know what her schedule will be.  She talked to me about the interviews she did for Idiot Boy's position!  She told me that the crazy lady said that there had been no real team work in the office.  Idiot!  There had been team work - the four of us who worked under her worked as a team.  She was the one who wasn't on the ball!
Anyway, she is gone.  Idiot Boy's replacement starts in a couple of weeks and that will be nice.  I would say that we might be back to normal except what happened today.  Our financial person is fairly new too (All three women I worked with retired)  I think she can do the job- is smart and can be compitent.  However, she is very flighty.  She keeps misplacing receipts  and documentation for the department credit card.  She forgets her tea in the microwave.  She forgets to put stuff back.  Mostly her private life has gone to hell and she is stressed (divorce, move, no longer in retirement because of divorce, mother dying for years, brother dying, another brother dead, cat died, mother finally dying - all within a year and a half)  OK.  She called in sick yesterday.  Ok.  No problem.  She didn't call today, however and that was odd.  Especially since the supervisor saw her coming in last night around 5:30. 
Then late this afternoon we get a call from Letters and Sciences HR.  Our financial specialist stopped by thier office this afternoon to drop off paperwork requesting a medical leave of one month!  She bypassed us completely!  Not a bloody word!  Not even stopping by to show us what needs attention on her desk!  This pisses me off because it shows a lack of respect for us.  I just had to take 2 weeks of medical leave myself, I don't begrudge that.  But I let everyone know what was happening, why, and when. 

Ah well.  We will deal with it on Monday.    It is Friday night - time for snuggling with the pups!

As I mostly send text with my cell phone because I can't really hear the phone (like calling john to tell him that I missed the bus and will be late) I decided that I should get a cell phone that is easier to send text - something with a qwerty keyboard.  And thinking about it...I decided that the best phone for me, considering my limitations with my thumb, would be a cell phone designed not to be used by all thumbs...in other words, eithni , I got an i-phone! 
Wahoo!

Well, It has been a long time since I posted anything.  A long time since I read anything as well, I am afraid to say.

I have had problems with my wrists, well, I was going to say since grad school, but that is not true...I have had problems since junior high - that is when I noticed I had a cyst on my right wrist.  In high school it cause a lot of problems, but then it stopped for a while in college...
In grad school things got bad again, and then after working at a bread bakery, I really hosed them and I have carpal tunnel syndrome.  Last year I started having problems with my right thumb as well.  I got a new brace and that helped tremendously. 
Then a few months ago my thumb started having new problems and things have gotten worse.  I made an appointment with my PCP for the Friday after thanksgiving.  My thumb and wrist are swollen and ache when it is cold, and when I type, and sometimes write, it is very painful.  Forget about calligraphy- haven't been able to do that for a while.  I used to be able to knit - wear my brace first, train my thumb in where to stay, then I could take the brace off and I could knit with my thumb in the same position.  I haven't been able to do that for a few weeks.
Monday at work was the worse.  I put on my brace and the pain of it against the swollen part of my wrist and thumb hurt so much that I wanted to cry.  I couldn't do SHIT!  So I called the doctors and asked if anyone could see me.  Someone could, but it was an effing waste of time.  Take tylenol 4 times a day.  Ice occasionally.  When asked if it could be my cyst causing the problems, I got a rambling explanation that they were not really equiped to look at such things (isn't that why they are connected with the UW Hospital?)
I couldn't go to work on Tuesday or Wednesday - hurt too much.  I went on Friday and was able to do a little since I completely rested my wrist the days before.  I saw my PCP Friday afternoon.  I am going to have a MRI done on my hand.  He thinks that it is possible that I have a complex cyst - I have volar ganglion cyst on my right wrist - the base of the thumb.  It isn't large, but the doctor said it felt deep - it could be that is is larger under the tendons and skin and that we can only see the tip of it - he thinks my pain is a compression pain from a complex cyst.  If he is right, I will most likely need surgery.
Lets not go there.  Most know my feelings about medical procedures.

anyway, You probably won't be seeing many posts from me until this is taken care of - it just hurts too much.  I can type right knowing that I can take some codine later tonight...

I have a favor to ask my very talented friends...can one of you who is good with the fiber arts, be persuaded to knit me a pair of wrist warmers?  My wrist aches something horrible in the cold and right now I have a pair of socks where I cut off the toes and made a slit for the thumb...  I am willing to pay for both time and fiber...  I was going to make a pair for myself and that is out of the question for now...
Would it help if I begged?

And there is so much going on and stuff I wanted to say...a little optimistic about the new administration to come in, angry about Prop. 8 in California (I just don't understand those people who have to be scared and use fear against an 'other'...), had a great time in Nordskogen a few weeks ago!  (UMMMM  Indian food after the event and lambic after that...yum......) and I even had a job interview - for a transfer position.  
Damn!

I will try to keep up reading what the rest of you are up to.  If you don't hear from me in a while, don't give up, hopefully we can get this blasted thing figured out...

"Nuclear weaponry, of course, will be the be all end all of two many people and too many parts of our planet..."

Oh really?

And can't you just once, can't you stay on the question instead of "Can we talk about..." or "I want to talk about..."  No!  Talk about the damn question put to you!

So help me god!  If she says John McCain is a maverick one more time, I think I will lose it...well, lose it more...

STOP with the LIES!
Answer the damn question - not say, well, I want to talk about something else!

AAIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!  My brain bleeds!
I don't have enough hard cider to sit through this - I might have to go to the hard stuff.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

Where an unanimous (9-0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." and overturned Plessy v. Ferguson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education

It takes all kinds of geeks to run this world and I just read a good article by someone who likes to diagram sentences -a real grammarian geek - and she attempts to diagram some of Palin's "sentences"
http://www.slate.com/id/2201158/


I am not sure if we have enough alcohol in the house for both of us to watch the debate tonight...between listening to Palin's shallow answers and hoping that Biden doesn't put his foot in his mouth...we will need the alcohol...

Posted on Paul Krugman's blog this evening...http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/mccain-on-banking-and-health/
Krugman (an excellent columnist for the NY Times, by the way)
Anyway, in his blog, he quotes an article by McCain saying that the best way to fix the health care problem in this country is to deregulate the health care industry JUST LIKE WE DID TO THE BANKING INDUSTRY!

I mean, I know Palin is horrible - horrible horrible choice for VP (an another interesting read is John Dean's column with FindLaw's Writ : http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/) but I agree with Arianna Huffington - she is just a Trojan Moose.  McCain is the true problem and this just proves why.  Out of touch.  And lets not even talk about the whole crazy, is it a mix up or is it not, thing about the Spanish Prime Minister...   And he wants to win so bad that he lies and then lies about his lies.

On the home front, I am taking a break from knitting.  Eliane helped me fix a mistake at Coronation (Which, as so many have reported, was fantastic!) and I might actually be able to finish this project.  It is a wrap using a interesting stitch.  I am still new enough to find that a challenge - after this, maybe I will feel confident in learning something like socks...well...maybe...(I now know how to decrease, but increasing is still a mystery yet to crack...)
And I decided that I am going to answer Gevehard's challenge for the Scribal and Heraldic Symposium and work on a calligraphy (& paleograhpy) project.
 

considering I haven't had French in over 20 years...

Your result for The Let's Parler French Test...

89% LikelyToSurvive!

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Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...

NBPC - The Daydreamer

Nature, Background, Big Picture, and Color

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