Here's my wishlist|And my guestbook|And my gallery

All good things... Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2007 by gwen
I've made a tough decision regarding the future of Squeetilyboink.net. From here on out, barring some major change or whim, I'll be posting primarily to my LiveJournal.
I had grand plans for this site, but they never really came to fruition and Livejournal already has a lot of the things I wanted to do with this site. I'll likely still post my photos in my gallery, and my wishlist will be here, but the info will primarily be there.

hookie Posted Monday, February 26, 2007 by gwen
It snowed on and off all weekend. I'm not sure exactly how much we got, as I haven't ventured outside since Friday, but it was at least 3 inches since the city declared a snow emergency yesterday morning and then it snowed more on top of that. Last night as I was sewing the binding onto the top of McSassypants' corset I was thinking about how much I really didn't want to drive until more of the roads have been plowed, so I called in and said I was staying home. At least this time when calling in due to road conditions it was only because I didn't want to drive in them rather than having unsafe tires like I did for the last 2 big snow storms last year (which were within 2 days of each other, grumble grumble).

The current plan is to hang out until around 10 or so and then go to the gym, since hopefully the plows will have hit most of the roads I drive to get there by then. Depending on how that goes I may also swing by the post office since we went through 4 Netflix DVDs this weekend. It would have been nearly 5, but I didn't pay close enough attention and the next Angel DVD wasn't ready for shipping yet. grr. Either way, the snow looks lovely from inside my warm apartment and I'm looking forward to another quiet, restful day like I had over the weekend. Let's just hope that Leeko will allow it.

Hour 51 Posted Sunday, February 11, 2007 by gwen
well, we survived trivia weekend this year. It was fun, but there was a really small turnout. There were only 3 people up for the overnights, and it was the same group both nights (It included me). Since there were so few people, it seemed like we were always scrambling to get the answers and there weren't enough people to work on each question. They stopped reporting the scores after hour 45 and we were somewhere around 30th place (of 80) then. Plus we lost about 4 people all right before the big 500 point question so that kind of took the wind out of our sails. We worked hard, but by hour 48 our hearts weren't in it and we kind of gave up. We called in when we knew the answers but we weren't working to our full potential. I've had about 7-8 hours of sleep in the last 64 hours and I'm wiped out. Hooray for planning to take the day off tomorrow!

Next year, all you slackers who didn't show had damned well better be there!

Waiting Posted Friday, February 9, 2007 by gwen
It is 5pm. This is the mythical trivia weekend, 50 hours straight, and the contest is beginning now but Harold is nowhere to be found. I'm sure he's on his way home, but I've been home for over an hour, had time to shower, pack up all our snacks, pack a bag of toiletries, just waiting for his contribution after he showers, and read through my Friends list on Livejournal. I hate being late when it's not my fault. Because I'm cranky I currently believe that Harold's boss schedules jobs as far as humanly possible on Fridays or laundry nights just to fuck with us. I got a call 45 minutes ago saying that it would be half an hour before he was even back to his car in St Louis Park, which will have him driving home in rush hour on Friday. When he does get home, we still have to get the computers packed up, the cats fed and the litter changed since Enzo's been particularly stinky lately and I'm guessing that the litter box is more foul than usual.

Why am I cranky? The only thing I can figure is that it's biological. I just hope that it's better once we actually get there, otherwise it's going to be a friggin awful weekend otherwise. I think that perhaps next year I won't plan to stay the whole time. Oh and I'm hungry.

Harold just got home, and apparently the sales person only told his scheduler about half of the order, which has been a fairly common occurence lately. He's in the shower now and in about as good a mood as I am. Let the good times roll.

Feeling like a horrible person Posted Monday, January 29, 2007 by gwen
I had to bring Enzo in to the vet this morning. We' brought him and Leeko in about a month ago for their checkups. He was due for dental cleaning but they had an emergency surgery so they couldn't fit it in. Since he needed booster shots anyway it made sense to wait a month for those to be due as well. The horrible thing is that they said he shouldn't have any food or water after 10pm last night. I woke up at 4 and was nuzzled and purred at for about an hour until I got out of bed. Enzo then spent an hour prancing in front of me, purring and meowing whenever I got up. He came when I called him and then I had to forcibly put him in his carrier. As usual he cried the whole way there, then cowered when I tried to get him out of the carrier to weigh him. I feel like dirt. I know it's in his best interest but I can't help feeling that I deserve the (presumably unrelated) upset stomach that I developed about half an hour before we had to leave. Leeko's all confused because Enzo's not around, and she'll be mean to him when he gets home because he'll smell like the vet and will be all loopy from the sedative. I'm going to go crawl under a rock now.

A night out Posted Sunday, January 21, 2007 by gwen
Harold had his D&D session tonight, and I wasn't sure what I planned to do with my evening. I had decided to go along and listen in on the action. I was in the shower when Annie called asking if we wanted to go to see Pan's Labyrinth tonight. I decided to do that.I felt a little bit like a third wheel. Despite the fact that Annie and Andy have never dated, they have known each other for quite a while, and I don't know Andy that well. We started out at Sushi Tango and had a hurried dinner since we didn't want to be late for the movie. The movie itself was good, and I can definitely understand why there was a sign at the ticket booth saying that it is not a kids movie and that parents should think twice before bringing their children to see it. It was creepy enough that there's a possibility that I may have nightmares from it. That said, I'd recommend it. It's in Spanish with subtitles, but at some point I forgot that it was subtitled because I was so sucked into the plot. While there are some truly cringe-worthy moments, I'd still recommend it.

What was I afraid of? Posted Tuesday, January 16, 2007 by gwen
I've been having a lot of trouble getting to the gym consistantly lately. At heart I'm a creature of habit, and I enjoy it. The holidays in conjunction with afternoon chiropractor visits threw off my schedule and I've been averaging maybe one trip to the gym a week since mid-December. Even though it's not like they take attendance, The only way I can describe my reluctance to go to the gym is by comparing it to playing hookie. You miss a day or 2 and you enjoy yourself. Then you get ready to go back and you realize that you don't have a good excuse for having been gone and you can't go back without an excuse. The next day it's been even longer and you still don't have an excuse, plus now you're falling behind, etc. It's completely irrational, I know since the only person I'm cheating by skipping the gym is myself since it's paid in advance. Still I had a hard time going.

With some gentle nudging from my friends I decided I would go this afternoon. I did a half hour on the elliptical, 10 minutes on the stair-climber and probably another 5-10 minutes of calisthenics and stretching, but I'm so proud of myself for going. I feel great, if not a little sweaty. As I tell myself every time after I lapse in my gym attendance, I have to remember this feeling next time I want to ditch.

Now if only I could figure out why my car's wiper fluid spray thingy won't work....

Victory? Posted Monday, January 15, 2007 by gwen
It would appear that my long battle with Cingular has ended. It all began in mid-November when I saw I was eligible to upgrade my phone. I called and set everything up, and was told that it would ship overnight, which meant that I should receive it the following Tuesday at the latest. Over the weekend I got an email saying I wouldn't get my phone because the sim cards were on back order. When I called to ask about this they said they had no information about that, but if they were on back order it would be about a month before the next shipment came in. It turned out to be a problem with their shipping system, and they couldn't cancel the order, but they would send me another phone and I would just return the first one when it arrived. I might see the charge for it on my bill, but it would be wiped as soon as I sent back the extra phone. I get my phone on Tuesday, and find out that it's defective and won't save any numbers. I take it to a Cingular store and they see the same problem and swap it with another one that works. I'm all happy.

I get the extra phone about 2 weeks after the first one arrived and I called to get a return-shipping label. I'm told I should see it in a week. Nothing happens. I call after a week and talk to someone who has no record of the first request in the system, but will be happy to send another. I give my work address since that's where the phone is. I call the next day to verify that they had the correct address since the rep I spoke to before had problems getting the city and state in the correct order (that's Minnesota, Minneapolis, right?). The person I speak to has records of me calling each of the last 2 times asking for a return label, but says that neither request was entered into the system, but she'll see to it. I ask about the refund for the phone that I will be sending back as soon as they supply a label and am rudely informed that they won't take anything off my bill until they have the phone back because how do they know that I'm not keeping it and using both phones? I wait the week I'm told it will take for the label to arrive. It doesn't I call again and speak to a very earnest man who says that none of the 3 prior requests were entered correctly and nothing has been sent out. He gives me about 5 different tracking numbers for the conversation on the rare, off chance that I don't get the labels, and I'm assured that I won't be penalized for returning the phone late. 2 days later 4 labels arrive, 1 at work and 3 at home. I send it out and keep the tracking number and hope that it will turn out.

I call to verify that they've received it a week after I sent it and they don't have record of it. I'm put on hold for 15 minutes while the person I'm talking to is supposed to be going to the warehouse to ask about it. I get disconnected. I call back and get someone who tells me that of course they haven't processed the return yet, it usually takes 2 months after they log the return in their system to process the refund, but I won't be assessed any late fees. I think this is the same person who accused me of plotting to keep the extra phone but I can't be sure. Harold has been paying the current charges, and just leaving the amount of the phone remaining. This month we were assessed late fees, but I didn't have the energy to fight with them over that.

Finally I called today to see if they've received my phone yet, and I give the person who answers my information and a brief run-down of the whole saga. He puts me on hold for a minute and asks me if we've paid the current charges. I tell him that we have. I'm on hold again for another moment and he asks why the payment was about $3 less than what he shows as the current charges, and I tell him that Harold probably only paid the current charges without the late fee since I'd been told we wouldn't have to pay them. He puts me on hold again and tells me that I have a 0 balance now. Hooray! It didn't show online, but I just called the automated balance line and it says that I have a 0 balance, so I'm cautiously optimistic about this actually being fixed. Harold and I will be looking for a different cell phone provider when our contracts expire.

In which I get whiny and needy Posted Thursday, January 11, 2007 by gwen
It currently feels as though I've been beaten with a bat around my lower abdomen and my kidneys. This is par for the course. I defy anyone to not succumb to the following demands.
1. Those magic heating pads that you can strap on and wear around town.
2. A hoodie to curl up in. Large should be fine. If it doesn't have an electric sheep on it I'm likely to pout.
3. New books. I've run out of books that I haven't read yet.
4. Soup and Grilled cheese for dinner.
5. A blankie.
6. Ice cream. Yes I know we just bought ice cream yesterday, but I don't see it in a bowl in front of me.

I'll be in bed waiting for these to be delivered.

Bandwagon time Posted Tuesday, January 2, 2007 by gwen
Well, I suppose I'll jump on the resolutions bandwagon, what with it being January now and all. Here's what I would like to accomplish this year.
1. buy a house (with Harold, of course.) We're hoping to start house hunting seriously in March.
2. Continue(or rather resume) losing weight. I figure if I can average a lb a week, that will put me within 20 lbs of my goal weight by the end of the year.
3. Addendum to #2, I will try to reduce my refined sugar intake, mainly by avoiding the office candy bowl. Since I'm partially in charge of keeping it stocked this is a tricky one.
4. I'd like to make more progress on McSassypants' 1890s ensemble. I've only made a chemise and partially finished drawers so far and I'd like to even get her dress finished in time for next year's 12th Night ball.
5. I'd like to try my hand at pattern drafting (or resizing at least). I've got a book of fantastic patterns that need enlarging to use.

That's about it for me this year.

so very strange... Posted Sunday, December 24, 2006 by gwen
So Harold and I opened our decemberween presents from Javaluv and Xaroth. Oh man...They gave me Evil Monkey slippers. I think they'll provide hours of entertainment. Leeko was scared of them when I was wearing them yesterday. This morning I put them on to discover she or Enzo had crammed paper into one of them. I guess she showed me!

ha! Posted Sunday, December 24, 2006 by gwen
Well now that it's been given, I can tell you that the item that I finished was a quilt for McSassypants. I hope that the history of it and the original intent won't deter her enjoyment of it. If I were smarter I would have taken pictures of it before I wrapped it, but oh well. If you're ever in the McSassypants neck of the woods, I'm sure she'll let you see it.

Closure Posted Saturday, December 23, 2006 by gwen
I finally finished a project that has been a few years in the making. I don't remember exactly when I started it, but I think it may have been the summer of 2002. It started out as a gift, but then the occasion it was commemorating passed. Then it was put off until the following year, but by then I was having issues with my sewing machine and didn't think I could finish it. I unearthed it again during my last cleaning fit, and decided I wanted to try to finish it in time for Christmas this year. It was looking pretty iffy, but I finished the last step, which was primarily hand sewing around midnight. I'm fairly happy with how it turned out, although I find that my standards have been raised in the time when I finished the first 2/3s of it to now. I'm more proud that I actually dug it out after it lay dormant for so long and now have a finished product to show for it.

It will be going to its originally intended recipient in honor of Christmas, although it's for a much different occasion than I'd first planned. After that person has it, I'll post more about what it is, and possibly photos as well, but until then I'd like it to be a surprise.

Babies! Posted Wednesday, December 20, 2006 by gwen
Today was the day for potlucks throughout the building I work in. Most of our group had one big potluck, and then a subset of our group had another one. As part of the admin staff this means I got very little actual work done today. Between making sure the room was set up correctly, and fielding the usual "can we eat yet?" variety of questions, I hardly had 15 uninterrupted minutes. This explains my lack of attention span all day. Towards the end of the day I felt a need to not be at my desk so I wandered around the main part of the office, where I met with K, one of the chemists who had a baby about 2 weeks ago. She was handing out photo birth announcements and told Renee and I that her baby was still in the lab. Of course we both rushed over. We each got to hold her. She's still really small, still has the umbilical stub, she's so young. And the whole time all I could think was "I want one." Here's hoping that by this time next year I'll have one, or at least have one on the way.

In which Gwen gets an urge to clean and technology rebells... Posted Saturday, December 2, 2006 by gwen
Yes, We had cleaned this summer and kept it all nice and pretty for a few months. Then the costume took over. I stopped picking up after myself and Harold followed suit and now everything is all messy and horrible again. It really doesn't help that we've gotten a lot of stuff that belonged to Harold's mom and no room in the storage space. I've just spent about 2 hours organizing my sewing area (hey, Harold suggested it) and hopefully I'll be able to get more done before it's time to go to the gym with Annabel today.

At the beginning of this I decided to document the disaster that is our apartment, and the I turned off the camera (the brand new one I might add) and it said there was a problem with the memory card. damn.

Thanksgiving re-cap Posted Sunday, November 26, 2006 by gwen
Harold and I have survived Thanksgiving. I woke up Thursday morning and participated in the Turkey Day 5K with my dad, McSassypants and Annie. McSassypants and my dad ran it, and Annie and I walked together. Sadly, Annie and I didn't finish in time to get our shirts, but I should be recieving one in the mail at some point in the future. i'm guessing that they had a lot more people sign up the same day than they were expecting. I got home and Harold had made his pumpkin pie to bring to the McSassypants/Dangerryan Thanksgiving/Birthday Extravaganza. I went to work on my apple pie, and he made bread to bring to Tomahawk with us. He also made the green beans (yum!) We had a very laid back dinner followed by sitting around and watching "Scrubs". McSassypants and Dangerryan put out a lovely spread and a good time was had by all.

Friday morning, Harold made the second loaf for Tomahawk and we headed out. We spent Friday night at my uncle's place, and then my brother wanted to swap so we spent Saturday night at my aunt's. For the most part the kids were well behaved, as were most of the adults and it was a really nice experience. We all got together again this morning for a big breakfast to send us on our way, and Harold and I got a chance to catch up with my aunt a bit. I learned a couple of things about the family that help put a lot of things in context and overall we had a good time catching up. The only bad news is that my grandma seems to be declining mentally pretty quickly. She always used to be so on top of things (as you'd have to be with 8 kids) so it's especially hard to see her having memory problems.

On the way home I managed to wrench my neck somehow, which exacerbated something that I did earlier in the weekend. I'm hoping that sleeping will take care of it, but if it doesn't I may end up calling Harold's chiropractor to check on it. I'm not in excruciating pain, but I figure that I have the insurance coverage and life is to short to sit and wait a week for it to resolve itself.

w00t! Posted Saturday, October 28, 2006 by gwen
The costume is done! There's a finishing touch that I may add, or I may not. The party tonight begins at 7:30. It's 20 minutes or so before I should start getting bustley. The only thing that sucks about Victorian costume is that it's hard to gauge how long it will take to get dressed. Sometimes it's 10 minutes, sometimes it's 45. The upshot of this is that it's 45 minutes before we have to leave and I'm in a chemise, drawers, boots and I'm corsetted and killing time. I'll force Harold to take pictures, and hopefully I'll be able to post them tomorrow.

*panic* Posted Friday, October 27, 2006 by gwen
The bodice still isn't done. I worked on it yesterday and I made progress, but I still have to put on the sleeves, and attach the lining. Don't get me started on the hat. The only good thing about the situation is that I have all this evening to work on it and until about 3:30 tomorrow. If I haven't made sufficient progress, I can always get up early tomorrow to get started.

I had my first session with a personal trainer on Wednesday. I'm particularly sore, but worst of all, I think the extra activity shook loose some important lung crud that was magically keeping me healthy. It's felt like I have the beginning of a chest cold for the last 2 days. I was supposed to have another session tonight, but I cancelled it since I don't want to waste one of my few workouts with my trainer because I'm sick and can't work to my full potential, and I don't want to get the whole gym sick. The only good thing about this is that it gives me more time to work on the bodice. I'm still moderately confident about being able to finish the bodice on time, but the hat is looking like it might have to wait until Tuesday.
Poop.

Oh crap! Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006 by gwen
My bodice is still not done, and I have to wear it on Saturday. Well, I don't have to wear it, but we'ge going to a party where there will be costumes and I'd really like to wear it. I think that if I work pretty much non-stop when I get home from work each day, I should be able to finish it and still make my hat. I suffered a minor setback when I realized I'd screwed up the vest part of the bodice. I wasn't paying attention and had already clipped curves and edges by the time I noticed my mistake, and it may be better in the long run to just cut out new pieces rather than try to work around my error. That should add about an hour to my total time. I still think I can do this, though.

Harold and I went to see "Marie Antoinette" this past weekend. I'd heard about this movie nearly a year ago, and from the snippets I'd seen it looked pretty promising. It was really a letdown. The costumes were gorgeous as I'd expected, but the sense of timing was all wrong. Most of the movie was set in about a 5 year range from what I could recall and then they just glossed over nearly 15 years in the space of 20 minutes. There hardly any dialogue, and it seemed more like a series of beautiful still photos strung together rather than a movie. There were a lot of repetitive scenes that didn't really service much purpose. Seriously, who needs a 2 minute montage of shoes, dresses and pastries? I could see what Sofia Coppola was trying to do, but I spent most of my time in the theater noticing what she was trying to do rather that getting drwn into the plot or really caring about any of the characters. I figure I'll wait for someone to get it on DVD and get a bunch of screen captures of the dresses and then I'll just pretend the whole thing didn't happen.

speedbumps Posted Sunday, October 15, 2006 by gwen
Annabel came over yesterday to help me fit the mockup of my bodice. She was already on her way when I pinned it closed and realized that I need to cut out the next smaller size. I figured that I'd rather cut it out a little big and take it in than have it too small. However when I put it on it was too big all over. So this morning I cut it out again using the lining fabric because I'm impatient. hopefully it will work out. There was some fiddling with the sleeve caps to be done either way, but I'm hoping that will be relatively painless. I also have to sew trim on the overskirt, but that shouldn't take too long, especially with my new sewing machine!

Yes, new sewing machine. My old one works but I'd been breaking more and more needles lately (about 12 since I've begun this costume) and only 2-3 of them were from sewing over pins. Harold and I had some money coming and each set aside some for play money, with the rest going towards a down payment on a house. Harold ordered his new Macbook and I got a Tivo, my new sewing machine and an iPod. I may be a consumer whore, but at least I've got toys. The new machine has a lot of neat features and it's really quiet, but the main thing that I wanted in a machine was a 1 step buttonhole, which I got. I plan to get the old one serviced and keep it as a backup machine and a loaner for friends who might need use of a machine.

Mrawr... Posted Sunday, October 8, 2006 by gwen
It would appear I'm sick. I'm happy that this didn't hit until today so that i didn't have to be sick at Kastinkerbell and Coleridge's wedding, but i'm still not happy about this. Harold's been fantastic and although McSassypants won't agree, today is a day I'm willing to argue that lime jello is one of nature's perfect foods. I was hoping to finish my overskirt today, but I couldn't concentrate. I'm going back to my couch and blankie now.