A quick post for my SP

I've been pretty busy this weekend so I wanted to just add a quick post. My SP sent me a quick treat.



Some great stitch markers, a card, a bag to put other stitch markers in, gum, a blow pop, and some Jelly Beans.

Isn't she great? Eric's eatting the gum right now. ;)

I'll add some knitting content (yes really!) and reply to comments later.

Thanks SP!

The 'All Clear' and the Ghost in the Bathroom

So my wrist has been pretty good lately. Well enough that I have been given the all clear to use it like I always used to. YAY! I can knit again. You have no idea how happy this makes me. So, I've decided, before I start up with a new project like say the sweater I have been wanting to do and just got all that yummy yarn for (THANKS SP!!!!!) I am going to finish I Do and the tank top that I am working on. That's it. Gotta do it. I can't have too many UFO's hanging around you know. ;)

I was supposed to have my follow up for my surgery this Wednesday but the doctor's office called me and said he had to reschedule... Until August 31st! Holy crap he's a busy man! I guess that's one thing I have to deal with when the Division Chief is my physician. Oh well, I'm willing to wait to have him check me out rather than have a surgeon/physician I don't know look at his work. Call me crazy but I'd rather stay with the man that did all the work on my sinuses in the first place. Besides, if I'm having another nasal endoscopy... I want the guy with the gentlest hand doing it, know what I mean? So, I literally am kicking myself for not bringing my knitting with me to work. But I do have my offensive cross stitch with me. ;)

So of course this brings me to the next part of my title... the Ghost in the Bathroom. Now I don't know how superstitious you are, but me... the urban pagan, I kind of am. I won't walk under a ladder, but I have no problem stepping on cracks. I don't worry if I spill salt, but I did worry about Eric seeing my wedding dress before it was on me. I worry about breaking mirrors, but I don't mind a black cat crossing my path. It's kind of hard to mind when you have a black cat... it's what they do. They walk in front of your ankles as much as they possibly can. Mind you, this is not restricted to black cats... all cats do this... well at least mine do. *Shakes fist* I'm pretty well used to it unless it's 2am and I'm trying to get to the bathroom to potty. Tends to make things rather loud with the crashing, the hissing and the cursing.

But anyhoo, the ghost. In our new building, the Ladies room is all the way at the end of the hall. Like our old building, there is one Ladies Room and one Men's Room per floor. Most of the time, like I'm sure most of you do, I use the one on our floor. But sometimes, I'll stop in other ones like on my way to or from my car. But I digress. When we moved into the building, there were a few times where I went into the Ladies Room and if you go into either of the last two stalls, the door to the other would slam. Loudly. Sometimes repeatedly. I began to test this, wondering if they were just hung badly or if it was just the way that I closed the door to the stall. I could never get it to do it when I wanted to. Sometimes, the door would slam quickly, three times. Sometimes, only once. And never at the same times. Also, it never feels like you are alone in there. I'm not sure how to describe it but you know when you walk into the bathroom anywhere, you just know there is someone else in there even if they are not making a sound. Same thing here. I thought it must just be me, and/or thought it must just be the building moving because there was still some minor construction going on and I thought it must be the fact that maybe I just finished talking to someone else so thus, my brain was still fixated on a person (or what have you). I ignored it.

About a month after we were all settled in, I heard a colleague of mine, Lisa...:



(That's a shot of her in our old office) ...talking about how odd she feels when she's in the Ladies Room on our floor. As if we moved as one, myself, and about five other women all popped around the corner to add our agreement. Then it hit us. We all felt the same way? We'd all had the same odd occurrences in there and in none of the other Ladies Rooms? Well of course, my mind jumped to conclusions. "Well it's obviously haunted" I said. We all laughed but then we all started talking about it.

Could it be? I mean, people get hurt and/or killed all the time on big construction projects. We've had at least two deaths on this campus alone in the past year due to construction accidents. As a matter of fact, I pass the wreath that hangs on the New School of Public Health Building every day that I drive to work. That building will be finished in two years I believe but a man was killed there so I guess it's possible that he could still be there with the building. So we all began talking about this. How could we find out? I called the City Clerk. The woman who answered told me I would have to search the Sherrif's database or the City Police's database but unfortunately, this could not be done online. But she agreed, that it was an interesting circumstance and that it was worth checking out. She transferred me to a Sherrif's Deputy who was fascinated by my (our) thoughts on the topic and even told me that he'd have a hard time going into the bathroom if it were him but he could offer me no other avenues for research than what the City Clerk told me.

So where did that leave us? Well we had to name it. I mean, it's rude not to say hello when you see someone in the bathroom right? ;) So we decided on Leeloo. Lee because that can be a man or a woman and Loo because well, it's in the Loo. :P So most of us now go in and say "Hello LeeLoo!" and go about our business. It seems though that one gal can't even go down there anymore. She goes into our old building to use the Ladies Room in there because she is too scared to go into ours now. *laugh* I have no problems with LeeLoo. Someone mentioned we should bring in a candle for him/her. If we could have candles in the building, I would. Maybe I should bring a flower then or knit something instead. Maybe some knit flowers. Something for LeeLoo to enjoy.

Yeah.. I'm a freak.

Well... I -am- the urbanpagan after all.

Origins, The Sultana of Swag, and Yarn Pr0n!

*Warning!* This is a picture intensive post, loaded with pics of geeky people doing geeky things. If this might be too much for you and/or if you are just here for the yarn pr0n, then shield your eyes and skip to the bottom. If you are a geek like me and/or you are feeling brave, then read on! You have been warned! ;)

(Quick note, click on the thumbnails to see a larger version of the pic.)

Eric and I went to Origins again this year and as usual, had a great time! This year, both Eric and I decided to run some games. It went pretty well and I guarantee that I'll do it again next year too. Hell, they give you a free badge if you are a GM. Free badge = $65 that I don't have to shell out for.

Right out the gate, even though it was early Wednesday, there were plenty of people around:



As usual, we went right to the Dealer Hall first. Here are some shots of the area:



I didn't see as many people in costume this year as I did last year. *shrug* Oh well. Here are some of the interesting people we saw:



There were also these guys. I watched some of their fight and let me tell you, it was rough! A great fight to watch. Sometimes you see people get dressed up and kind of play fight... nope. These guys were actually doing shoulder throws, kicks, and of course swinging their foam weapons. They were all panting and sweating pretty hard by the time they were done:



Of course the miniatures and board game room was pretty busy. I was in there for a while running Apples to Apples when I saw a celebrity:



Yup... William Hung. I'll be honest... I was surprised. I heard through the grapevine at the con that he's always been an avid gamer and been to Origins a few times before. Most people left him alone. Some said hello. Some got autographs. Most did like I did and snapped a photo from a distance. :P

But anyhoo... the board games and miniatures room... behold:



Of course we ran some of our own games. Sadly, I didn't get any pics of Eric's tables while he was running games as he was running some at the same time as myself. But here are some of the folks I played with:

For the Shab-al-Hiri Roach:



For My Life With Master:



For SPANC:



Of course we got our own demo in (that's Eric in the middle in the red and white shirt):



People were literally in every possible location, playing games:



When we got home, it was time to tally all the swag (free stuff) we got.

Eric's is on the left, mine is on the right:



I rock. Eric called me the Swag Mistress but I prefer the Sultana of Swag myself. Swag Empress works well too. The Goodie Goddess, the Gimmie Guru and the Queen O' Freebies are close runner ups. :P (For the record... I actually got more than what was in the picture but I gave some of it away.) :D

So once we were -really- settled in, I started going through the mail. And to my surprise, my box of yarn from Knit Picks had arrived! I used just about every cent of that gift certificate. I'm pretty sure I have about $1.46 left on it. :P



I'm such a happy girl!

In response to comments:

Marlene said: Are you publishing an rss feed? I can't find it.

Um... *scratches chin* I have no idea. How would I find that out?

Ragan said: WOW!!! $75!!!! Cool!

Jennifer said: That is an incredible gift!

Marlene said: That is so effin cool! I still can't get over how cool that is! Get knitting!

Helen said: oh, what a lucky gal! no one deserves it more.

Thanks ladies! I sure as hell do feel special right now. I have been playing with all the yarn I got and well... just enjoying petting it all at the moment. :P

As soon as I'm done with this last cross stitch project, it's back to knitting! Hooyah!