All About Dafydd

2:41pm: The move
I'm not known for doing things in a timely manner (normally), so it shouldn't surprise anyone that I'm only now finalizing the details of my move (my new rental starts on the 13th of this month - yep, this Saturday! Fortunately, my old rental doesn't end until the end of the month ...)

I'm officially moving on Tuesday the 16th. The heavy lifting will be done by Mambo Movers, who are (I think) the ones that did my move from University City to Green Manor. I'm taking the day off, obviously. The good news about moving on Tuesday instead of Saturday is that my packing isn't done (it's maybe 50% done, definitely over the hump of packing since the books in the library are all packed up, as is the Lego (except for whatever isn't getting broken down). Now it's all about rearranging so there's room for the boxes, finishing up the packing (which includes the really tough part: figuring out how to pack some of the odds and ends in the place!), cleaning up other odds and ends so they can be packed, and moving boxes into the library (I'm figuring that I've got close to 70 boxes of books (maybe more), and 15 or 16 boxes of Lego ... and that doesn't count the coffee table books not yet boxed in the living room, plus about 800 CDs, plus the misc books on the shelves in the front hall, plus the games, plus the household files, plus the computer stuff .......). So having an extra couple of days to pack isn't going to be any kind of hardship.

I just now finished (I think) getting everything set up for turning on in the new place (gas, electric, phone, cable, internet) and turning off in the old. Furniture shopping will need to happen between the weekend (when I've got someplace to put new stuff) and whenever my money runs out - fortunately I've got the help of an uber-shopper to make my bucks go long enough to get a new couch, a new bed, perhaps a new chair, some new tables, maybe some nicer-looking shelves than the brutal wooden ones I've got in the living room, and most likely some lamps (if it were up to me I'd probably spend everything on one FLW-reproduction chair that would be ridiculously expensive and too uncomfortable to sit on, and end up sleeping on a $20 air mattress 'cause my money ran out). It's really too bad that I won't be able to afford this: http://www.maclinstudio.com/frllwrta2fll.html .

So, the move is bearing down on me, but not quite like a freight train entering a tunnel I'm standing in the middle of (that'll be right about noon on Saturday, after I've paid the last of the move-in money for the new place and received the keys, and I get to see just how small the place really is ... and whether or not it has a fireplace ...).

6:12pm: Medical news
Got a call today following up on the tests I've had done in the past week or so (totally routine). While my liver is behaving (within limits), it seems that other parts aren't (and not the ones that I knew weren't working).

Early last year, after the December 2008/January 2009 imaging (CT Scan), Dr Bailey called me with the information that it appeared that I had a kidney stone causing some swelling in my left kidney. She recommended I have it looked at but since 2009 was my medical-visit-free year and I had no symptoms (indeed, my bathroom trips have been just as ridiculous as ever thanks to the diuretics I'm on, and I've been kidney pain free), so I didn't follow that recommendation (big surprise).

I got an MRI this past Friday, and the doctor's assistant called this evening to report on it. It seems that that kidney stone (she called it something else - I think she's not very used to dealing with patients, since she kept using medical terms, unlike Dr Bailey's jargon-free explanation) exists, and it is causing a fluid backup which may actually be dangerous (also unlike Dr Bailey, she gave me a reason to get it checked out even if I don't have symptoms or problems). Getting to a urologist within the next two or three weeks means getting in contact with either my PCP or my GI for that referral. I know that I need to do both of those anyway, but I was going to wait for a while ... as long as I could, in fact ...

So to avoid possible sepsis from the fluid buildup in my left kidney from this stone blockage, I need to dive back into the whole turning-50 medical nonsense (including putting cameras where they don't belong) ....... unless, of course, I just don't .................

9:40pm: I don't usually do this, but ...
First, this may be NSFW (if not for the images, then for the insane giggling ... if you're as sick as I am, anyway).

Second, you may not actually find this as funny as I do - if not, I appologize in advance.

Third, if you do like it, check out some of their other videos - click to their channel. I recommend the "sneezing panda" one as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uilt0kyKROI

11:41am: Status (really: Weekend)
This is going ( to get tedious )

8:49pm: More DVR cleaning
Not gonna do this in depth. Just wanted to say that, given my current emotional state (way deep down, where no one can see, sometimes not even myself), this was a TRULY bad time to watch "The End of Time, Part 2" ...........

Aside from that, it was really great. The identity of the President of the Time Lords was fantastic, and I've got a clue about who the woman was ...

Still to go:

Alice (someday)
David Garrett Live in Berlin (from NJN ... I'm not crazy-nuts about violin, unlike some I know, but from what I've seen so far, he could be playing a tissue paper on a comb and I'd still stare and drool ...)
The G4 Special about behind the scenes at KA ... guess I won't be winning the free trip to LV to see a performance (but I've seen a performance anyway), but it will be cool to see some of the performers up close on TV, and get glimpses of that fantastic theater again.

Come to think of it, I guess I've actually got a time limit on watching this stuff, since once I move I'll be terminating my Comcast access and so lose my DVR ...

11:02pm: Happy New Year?
Not so much.

It's over. It lasted longer than I had any right to hope for, mostly because she's an outstanding human being. But we're just not meant for each other.

It was a great year plus a few months. She deserves my thanks for her understanding and caring. I'll treasure the memories always. We'll still be great friends, and that's a fantastic thing to take away from this.

9:30am: Clearing out the DVR
Watched "Waters of Mars" last week sometime - it was fast, exciting, engaging, but while I enjoyed it I also felt there was something a little ... off ... about it. Aside from the "the Doctor does nothing to influence events" (until the end, when he shouldn't), it was really just a lot of noise and excitement and an ending that wasn't baffling but more like, just, eh?

Last night, I watched "The End of Time, Part 1", and it is Doctor Who back on form. No spoilers here, but if you think the previews have already spoiled the major twist (I mean, "John Simm" is listed just after "David Tennant" in the opening credits!), just wait until you see the end!

I've already got next week's conclusion set up on the DVR. I won't be deciding what I do next Saturday night by the TV schedule ... but I will be eagerly awaiting a convenient time to see "The End of Time, Part 2" with the lights down and nothing else in front of me.

(I've got Alice still waiting. TV Guide wasn't all that happy about it, but they didn't like Tin Man much either, and I enjoyed that one. So, when I've got 4 hours to kill, I'll catch up with that one.)

12:39pm: It was 20 years ago today ...
... that my Dad died. He was flying his boss home to Utah for the holidays. He was supposed to land at a little automated airstrip where the landing lights come on when you radio the tower. The lights never came on. The plane crashed into the lake at the end of the runway, killing him and his boss, a bigwig (I always thought President but I'm not sure) at BFGoodrich.

His 4th wife (Mom was his 3rd) managed to track me down at work at Wolfe's Clothing Store via the police to give me the news. My brother was in jail at the time, and my Mom and sister were traveling out to St Louis to see me for the holidays, and so were not reachable (no cell phones in 1979). When they arrived, I got to tell them.

My Dad was a pilot, and I don't mean that was just his profession. Flying was in his blood. Health problems grounded him in the mid-'70s, and he did his best to get back into the air by legal means - surgical procedures, etc. They didn't work (or so I heard), but he did end up flying again. There's no evidence, but I've always presumed that his pilot's license at the time was somewhat less than legal. And the radio in the tower at the airport was working fine - there wasn't a fault in it or the lights. To all appearances, Dad never sent the radio signal. My guess is that his health problems caught up to him.

This isn't an anniversary that I observe every year. Even back then, apart from the immediate trauma of finding out, then having to spread the news, etc, it wasn't a shattering event. Mom and Dad had been divorced for almost 10 years, and he had been living in North Carolina for even longer. He wasn't a large part of my life as a teenager, and I never really knew him as an adult. I had just visited him in August of 1979, the first time I'd spent any length of time with him since the divorce, really. But I just figured that 20 years was something to mention, possibly in light of the other recent passings, several here at work.

11:29pm: And today's lesson is ...
Always check the weather forecast.

My plans for today were all outdoors-ish: maybe go see the holiday-decorated houses in Fairmount Park, maybe go stroll around Lahaska looking for the couple of Christmas gifts I need to get (and no, that's not "still" ... well, I've got 1 of the 5 people I need to shopped for ...), and at the minimum perhaps go walk around Chestnut Hill on that shopping mission.

But, because I was playing DAO for hours and hours and hours both Friday *and* Saturday, I missed the forecast. Thus, I didn't know that today was supposed to be nonstop rain, whereas yesterday was rather nice outside. If I had known this, I would have shopped/visited on Saturday, and gone to the movies today.

Oh well.

6:23pm: Ninjas!
So, if you ever wondered what it might be like to jump into an Olympic-sized pool filled with blood (or blood-colored, slightly viscous liquid), you can do it without needing a shower afterwards:

See Ninja Assassin.

Blood. Gore. Blood. Action. Blood. Flying body-parts. Blood. Bullets, rocket launchers, fire. Blood. Shuriken flying fast and hard as machine gun fire. Blood (think old-style kung-fu movie hyper-loud contact sounds, and replace those whacks! and smacks! and thuds! with blood spurting, spraying, gushing, and flying everywhere, and you'll get the idea).

Great story, great special effects, I recommend the movie ... but only if you're not squeamish in the slightest.

11:31pm: Doubts,
( but only about the new apartment. )

9:54am: Re-lo
It is all but official - I'm going to be moving into a townhouse in the Chestnut Hill Village complex on or around Feb 13, 2010.

I'll have twice as much square footage as I do now (on paper at least - I'm feeling better about it being roomier than it looks), my own front (and back) doors, 3 floors, 2.5 bathrooms (though the single tub is one of the new-style, shallow deals), a dishwasher, a clothes washer and dryer, a whole room devoted to storage, and even a sort-of back yard.

And I even get a rent discount because I work for Drexel!

5:59pm: Melting plastic
This weekend was retail therapy weekend, and retail therapy it was. Bought stuff, am happy, had to bathe the credit cards in liquid nitrogen before they melted. I'll probably get carpal tunnel from cataloging the new books, and I've got a blu-ray dvd player that's not even actually a blu-ray dvd player ............

This weekend ended up being a hermit/cash-depletion weekend because it was reserved for my Mom's birthday. Should probably have made those plans before Thursday, 'cause she went out to State College to watch football. So next weekend will be another on-my-own stag-fest, with much of Saturday evening being spent at my Mom's having dinner and sharing pictures. Sounds like fun, huh?

12:06pm: Samhain
I'm only posting this because I posted about last weekend. This one wasn't nearly as interesting, mostly due to my own intestinal problems.

The highlight of the weekend was the (supposed to be) Henson-themed party hosted by a very good friend of Niki's. I went as Doc from Fraggle Rock (mostly because the costume only required me to wear regular clothes, though I did buy a white button-down shirt and a stuffed dog to stand in for Sprocket, though it isn't nearly as grey as Sprocket should be), and she went as Red. It was a nice party, with some great food (or so I assume - I wasn't in any shape to eat anything, but I certainly would have if I could have) and great costumes (not quite as Henson-themed as it might have been, though the Muppet-hunter was fantastic!).

The rest of the weekend for me was lots of not-eating, quite a few bathroom trips, some soaking in the bathtub (I'm really going to miss that tub!), and some playing on the computer. Niki got tons of stuff done as well, and I can only hope that she had more fun doing the same stuff she could have been doing at home but in my company ...

I'm not well enough to be at work today, but I'm really hoping that this is the last of it. The next two weekends will be stag weekends for me, but we've got some big plans for later in the month.

4:57pm: HP#1
This past weekend was ( under this cut )

9:52pm: The trials of traffic, or what I did on my weekend ...
Friday: had tickets for Alegria at Temple, which is, like, 10 minutes away. Left circa 6:45, figuring to arrive by 7pm or so, which was in plenty of time for the 7:30 start time.

Enter the traffic. Broad Street was slow for blocks, and jammed right up near the Liacouris Center. It took minutes to move a car length. Turning onto the side street leading to 15th street took minutes (yes, just the turning), and then traveling the block to 15th was many more minutes. Turning onto 15th - minutes. Traveling the two and a half blocks to the parking garage - many minutes. Entering the parking garage - minutes. Circling to the 5th floor - minutes. Parked, went over to the center, had to walk around to the front of the center to the will call window, went in, got money (for food - we hadn't eaten yet), used the lav, went up to our level (I got nosebleed seats 'cause I'm being frugal in the interests of saving money to move) ... arriving at at least 8pm, perhaps later.

Now, the traffic was all pretty much going where we were, which meant that we weren't the last ones into the place by far - tons and tons of people were trickling, oozing, and flowing into the center for at least 30 more minutes! Don't know what happened - the weather? people planning badly? the Liacouris Center just not being suited to such a crowd (as in access, not space)? But it was truly bad ... bad, bad, bad ...

The good bit was that we got comped seats down on the first level ('cause we couldn't see to get to our actual seats, and the staff didn't like us standing on the stair landing), where we got a good, if slightly obstructed, view of the stage, and an interesting partial view of the back stage area. So it wasn't all bad.

Heading home was an exercise in patience - being on the 5th (of 6) floor of the garage, it was clear we weren't moving any time soon. We got to the car at just about exactly 10, started it for the heat, and sat. There were cars trying to get out, and they might as well have stayed parked - they weren't moving. In fact, the line of cars in the aisle didn't begin to move until 10:34 (I checked). I didn't back out until there wasn't anyone behind me in the aisle, and the descent to the exit lasted until 11pm. (Then I managed to get us lost going home - didn't arrive until very close to midnight ...)

Saturday: first destination was a hotel in central Jersey, where Niki and her boss were accepting an award for her company. Arrival time, 11:45. We left slightly late, didn't get lost, stopped for Dunkin' Donuts and then for gas, and arrived at the hotel at 11:40 (would have been 5 minutes earlier if there had been a reasonable u-turn route, since we arrived on the opposite side of the highway).

Next, I headed back south to a restaurant we had passed heading to the hotel, but I misremembered how far away it was, and managed to drive right by it. By the time I realized my error, turned myself around, found the restaurant, once again failed the u-turn test, recovered, and made it to the restaurant, it was 12:30. The meal was great, and I was out of there and back on the road by 1:40. However, traffic once again slowed me down, and the bad u-turn by the hotel didn't get any better with further exploration, plus the wait to take the left back onto the highway once I was pointed in the right direction was much longer. I was supposed to be there by 2, but got there at 2:15. Fortunately, Niki wasn't freaking or anything .....

We headed for the hotel we would be staying the night in after a little retail therapy, window-shopping style, to calm me down. That trip was just fine, and the hotel was really nice, and very convenient to the super highway. There were even swans in the little lake out back. We chilled for a while in the room, then headed out to our second destination, an anniversary dinner for one of her family members. This time, we aimed for 6pm and even with a detour, we arrived exactly on time! Which was actually about an hour and a half early ... we were there before anyone else besides the staff!

The party was great - super food, neat entertainment (the videos and dancers were great even if I didn't participate except for on, not that there's any evidence of that), a really great evening. We didn't get lost returning to the hotel, nor on Sunday on the way home, when we stopped at another restaurant we'd passed on the way to the presentation hotel - a sushi buffet that was absolutely worth the $15 price: lots of different rolls and nigiri, as well as plenty of other dishes from dim sum to Chinese dishes, with a few American ones squeezed in, and plenty of soups and desserts. If only it was closer!

A stop at Target followed, and then home for a nice afternoon out of the weather (which wasn't that bad on Sunday) and the traffic.

Next weekend, another trip north for a Halloween party. Weekend after, another one, but basically at home. Then there's turkey day with my not-really-step-sister in Tenafly, and then the other side of Niki's family somewhere up there as well, followed by attending her high school reunion (never mind that I've never attended one of my own reunions, and there have been 32 of them!, and I will know no one at this one ...).

7:56pm: I've got a question
for court heralds specifically, and everyone else in general.

Why do heralds not bother to at least try to find out how to pronounce names? It isn't a new trend or anything, but hey, I recall an award given recently in Hungarian ...

I mean, Welsh isn't a dead language. It's not even obscure! And for sure, it isn't nearly as difficult to pronounce well as Gaelic, or even French! And yet, I get called up into court for huge awards to horribly massacred versions of my name. I mean, twice I've been summoned as "David Chowder!"

Hmph!


(This post is because I really wanted/needed to post something, and I didn't want to self-promote concerning Saturday evening ('cause that's tacky), or "dear diary" about Sunday night ('cause that's TMI to this rather mixed crowd).)

4:53pm: What a ________ (adj) weekend ...
My Mad Lib fill-in is boring, but from the evidence I'd guess that no one else's will be (evidence = 1 post on my FL from Friday 5:30pm, and a second on Saturday 9ish pm and that's it!).

My squeeze spent the weekend on the left coast, so I got to be a hermit. Played Evony, watched a Mythbusters marathon, went out for takeout sushi last night, and for eat in pseudo-TexMex plus buying some U-Haul small boxes today. And that's pretty much it (the Mythbusters marathon on DiscoveryHD turned into a Gone In A Minute marathon, which is now some episodes of Rampage!, at least until I change it over to This Old House hour). Don't I just live an exciting life!

I've already put 3 of the new boxes to use - 2 were filled with the Lego that very nearly filled the medium box I bought last time I went to the U-Haul store, which are really too big for much of anything that I need lots of boxes for (both Lego and books will make them too heavy - maybe blankets and clothes?, but I don't have 20 boxes worth of either, or even both ...), and the last holds the dregs of that. I'll either empty the other two too-large boxes (one from the little TV from the bedroom, the other from some other purpose or other) into, or use it to take apart some more Lego into. The library is soon going to be slowly vanishing into boxes, but I need to clear more space in there to stack the boxes before I start that process. Shelves are coming down as well - so far, only the newest ones that I stacked on top of dressers and other shelves that have now been stripped of their Lego cargo - but I need to find a good place to put them too. And with such a filled-to-the-brim apartment, finding extra areas to stack bulky stuff like boxes and Ivar shelving really isn't easy.

So that's what I've been doing with my hermit's weekend. Aren't you glad you're not me?

10:08pm: Niki's surgery report
According to the majorly hot (and somehow familiar ...) surgeon, Niki's surgery went fine.

However, her recovery is being delayed by complications (most likely due to her sensitivity to the anesthesia, when she falls asleep her oxygen saturation level (and just *how* do they measure that with a clamp on the tip of the finger?) drops well below save levels. She has been admitted to the hospital (room 428) for the night - once the last of the anesthesia clears her system (and you know that can take abnormally long with her, right?) she should be fine again and I will be able to bring her home tomorrow.

2:32pm: Upheavals
Well, there's no doubt in my mind any longer - I will be moving, and sometime soon.

I've been dreading this for a couple of months, basically since some fliers started circulating in the building concerning some rumors going around (that I hadn't heard) about renovations and leases being terminated and stuff like that. Turns out that they were basically true: the management company for my building is gut-renovating it block-by-block - to the studs (or whatever is behind those crappy plasteroid walls) tearout and re-assembly in a different configuration. In other words, not the kind of gentle updating that a neighbor could possibly live through, and believe me, the nailgunning, sawing, hammering, and whatever-the-hell-they're-doing-just-the-other-side-of-my-big-bedroom-wall-that-sounds-like-dental-drilling,
is barely bearable from the next block of rooms over.

I've seen the new plans - you can too here: http://www.apartmentguide.com/apartments/Pennsylvania/Philadelphia/Greene-Manor/12353/
Note the square footage and the prices - I'm currently in a little over 800 sq ft, and paying almost half of what the 900 sq ft 2 bedroom place is going for. Needless to say, I won't be transferring to one of the new units, since I've already outgrown the place I'm in.

So, I'm looking for a new place, preferably a house (on the vague assumption that I can get more space for the buck). I've seem some nice places and some real holes (online - I've not yet gone visiting). And, of course, there's the old conundrum - I can get 4000 sq ft for under $1000 a month if I want to live in a war zone, but if I want to live on a nice, tree-lined, quiet, safe(ish) block, I can only get about 1000 to maybe 1500 sq ft, and only if I can pony up $1200 to $1500 ... (The gorgeous Victorians, complete with huge yard, that rent for $10,000 a month aren't even on the radar, except in my dreams ...).

I've known that I need to move for far longer than those fliers and rumors - I really am running out of living space in my apartment, and I'm not one to easily dump those things crowding me out (my books, my toys, etc). Being forced to get off the stick and do it like this is actually quite a good thing, looked at in that way.

However, the crux of all of this is that I hate change. I find something that works and stay there. I've been at Drexel for 27 years. I've been living in my current apartment for 12 years. I drove my PT Cruiser for almost 9 years. Change sucks, especially when it isn't really change that advances me. When I move, it's pretty much going to be a lateral move - somewhere (I hope) that's nice and with more space, but still a rental, still virtually a nomadic just-post-college-student type of dwelling. Not that I want to own a house (despite the two lovely Victorians on Wayne between Johnson and Lincoln that are up for sale), but it would be nice not to have to debate war zones with square footage vs lawns and trees with high prices.

I like my life. I like my lack of major responsibilities (i.e. a mortgage plus house up-keep expenses). But its at times like this that I really feel my age, and wonder why, at 49, I have to scramble to be able to move from one temporary abode to another like a college student between semesters.

5:13pm: I guess I really am getting old
This past weekend I attended the annual writers' summit held for those who work on the Dargon Project (and their SOs). It was held terribly far away - out in Lancaster County, PA! - so the trip was a great deal of effort (a couple of hours driving rt30 to 322 to 222 to 272 to Adamstown ...). I managed to arrive at about 5pm, when several others arrived, and a few more re-arrived after arriving, leaving to purchase supplies, and coming back. At that time, there were only two people not yet there - one who was coming into the Philly Airport, and one who was coming from work in south Jersey.

The tale of the rest of Friday night had comical elements (Jim and Jon managed to finally pick up Claudia at the airport by traveling there by way of Allentown ...), good food elements (Liam, MaryEllen, Niki and I ate at this great steakhouse about 5 minutes from the cottages we were renting), game playing elements (a basic game of Carcassone got some people back into the swing of the game, and finally a meeting new people element as both Niki and Claudia were introduced around at various times to the whole attending crew.

The cottages were very nice - quaint, small, well appointed with nice bathtubs or showers, tvs in both living rooms and all bedrooms, and lots of air conditioners which were running from the moment I arrived. And it was the air conditioners that bothered me the most (aside from the outdoor hot tub between the two cottages that was deemed too mildewed to use). I have become, lately, rather temperature-sensitive - I'm comfortable with my apartment being 80 or 82 as long as a fan is going. Some of the AC units were set to 77, 74, 70, etc, and as they were window units, they were noisy to boot.

Saturday started on time, and the business portion of the convention went smoothly, if with some of the normal backtracking and over-hashing of stuff that really didn't need to be hashed in any way, shape, or form. I was dressed for a nice, summer day in south-east Pennsylvania - t-shirt, shorts, and sandals, and to say that I was freezing in that living room would be utterly accurate. Fortunately, at one point when I looked around the room and saw person after person huddled up or under a blanket or some other way obviously cold, I was able to get the temperature raised, but only a little as there were others who were not nearly as cold.

After a quick in-house lunch, and some brief research as to what to do, most of us set out for some sightseeing. We visited the oldest pretzel factory in the US (or so they claim) in Lititz (after missing the place and the huge plaster pretzel out front the first time we passed it), and then a rather rambling trip through nice countryside to Intercourse for a buggy ride through Amish farms. With better planning, we could easily have done more, and there was certainly more to do (we were so close to Strassburg and its trains, other buggy rides, antiques markets, Amish farms and shops and just maps and maps of points of interest to investigate had we decided to really spend time and/or effort. Still, this was more of a lark than a *must see now* type of thing, and it's not like the place is so far away that I couldn't go back to Paradise, Bird-in-Hand, Intercourse, Blue Ball, or any of the other places in and around Lancaster, Reading, Ephrata, Lititz, Strasburg, etc.

We had dinner at the same place as on Friday, and the food was just as good. Afterward, Carcassone happened again - the basic version plus 8 or so expansions, which adds rules, tiles, and time to the length of the game. It's been a tradition for the past few years to play at least one game, which we'd already done, but everyone was game for the longer version, even a few people who hadn't played the simple version. We started explaining things at about 10pm, and started playing at about 11 - some of this delay was caused by some excellent dessert provided by Niki, including a cake for Claudia's 65th birthday (I was not the oldest at the shindig) and lots of fruit with various dipping sauces.

The game was fun, even though the gang-up-on-Dafydd bits weren't taken as well as they should have by me. But as the game went on, and on and on and on, the AC unit in the next room kept blowing more and more cold air into the dining/game room. It got later and later, I got more and more tired, and colder and colder. My pleas to turn it up or off were reluctantly heeded, but only a little, and i was still cold in my t-shirt and shorts and sandals. And by the time I went upstairs to bed at 3:45am, I was literally teeth-chatteringly cold, chest-deep shudderingly cold. I got ready for bed, climbed under the quilt, huddled up for warmth, and prayed to get warm again.

Well, here's where the title comes in - I woke up the next morning (i.e. a few hours later) in pain and miserable. My head was spiking in pain, I had a hacking chest cough, and I was alternately sweating and shivering. While my pre-existing health conditions (thin blood, injured liver) had much to do with that, I'll bet that being exhausted by staying up so late, combined with those health conditions and my age, are what knocked me for the loop that kept me in the bedroom for 95% of Sunday (except for a long stint in the whirlpool tub, and a brief foray downstairs to consume most of a single piece of very good cheese pizza). And it didn't just ruin my Sunday either - I was so rocky on Monday that instead of driving in to work, I took Claudia to the airport and drove home to nap for most of the day. I went to work yesterday and today, feeling mostly better but not 100% just yet, which means that I won't be going to fencing practice tonight (which is a shame for multiple reasons ...). I'm hoping fervently that I'll be all better tomorrow.

I understand that the others had a good time on that Sunday - Niki was her usual great companion-self, but also left me to myself so that she could enjoy some time with well people, for which I'm glad. She left Sunday night because she had to go to work on Monday morning and had farther to go than I did. I also think I brought some of the unwellness in with me (I hadn't been feeling terribly well earlier on the Friday, and though that pain went away on the drive, there was some incipient head pain). And I certainly could have gone upstairs at some point that Saturday night to get a sweatshirt and long pants and socks, which might have helped. But I do wish that AC units were used to cool things down, not refrigerate rooms ...

And I wish I wasn't so generally unwell ... or old ...

12:29pm: Pennsic, the rest
( Or, what I forgot about )

8:18pm: Pennsic
( Should I or shouldn't I ... ok, I will )

9:20pm: Go West, Old Man!
I love it when a plan comes together, even when I have to fight my own inertia to make it work.

The whole 'pack a bit a night over the week before you leave' thing worked wonders - I was, for all intents and purposes, finished packing by about 7pm last night (i.e. Thursday). The Outback is capital-f Full, but everything except for the last-minute stuff was in there and ready. Which meant that I managed to get out of the house by about 10 of 10 this morning with no trudging up and down the stairs, sweating my ass off, exhausted and nearly dehydrated before getting anywhere near western PA! Sure, I had to lug a big suitcase (with toiletries, tomorrow's clothes, and stuff I couldn't pack earlier like my meds and my glasses, plus anything else I could think I might possibly need), a little suitcase (my dance carry(almost)all), my laptop bag, and my fencing bag down all in one trip as I left for work, but that wasn't nothin'!

Went to work, actually did some work-like stuff, and split in time to be on the road by 1:30, happily sitting in the parking lot that is I-76 (and that's before you even GET to the turnpike! - that road is seriously, stupidly, and totally BROKEN!!!!!!!!!!). Hit big weather around Harrisburg, then construction (of course), stopped only twice, once for gas, once for munchies. Arrived very near New Castle at the Super 8 on 422 at just about 7:30 - 6 hours, even with the stops and the weather and the traffic. Wow!

The hotel is nice - and comes with free internet, as you can see. There is even an add for an internet cafe in New Castle - I'll need to make a note of it and see if I can slip away next weekend to check my email. I had a nice little meal, and now I'm listening to Con Air (because the only table in the room faces away from the TV, and because though said TV has oodles of channels, it does NOT have BBC America, which means that I do not get to see the end of Torchwood: Children of Earth until I get back (and I just know that what happened at the end of part 4 isn't permanent! it can't be!!!).

I'll be going to bed early, and getting up early tomorrow to do my duty to Clan Dance Horse. Which means, of course, that I get the best tent position in our little 40x50 camp site!

6:09pm: The insanity begins
I decided to be somewhat productive this week, and in aid of that, so far today I have:

1) done two loads of wash (at least two more to go, and these are my tunics)

2) cleaned out the back of my car - upon doing which, I discovered that there is actually a bit of room in there! I took out some of the junk (including my battery-corroded air pump, which means a trip to Target or some such before the weekend), stowed some more (there are a couple of places to stash stuff out of sight back there), and load up the small tote I bought months and months ago with camping-related stuff (that would fit). Then I loaded back in the tables, chairs, and small tent that I keep back there because it's easier than toting them upstairs and back down whenever I need them. There's now room back there for at least one of the big totes without even putting the back seats down, which means that I'll be able to get the other two totes plus a cooler, plus the popup, quite possibly without obstructing my view. Which means that the extra suitcase and camp popups will fit as well, plus the hurdy gurdy, the didge, and even more stuff I can stuff in there. So, that means that the upgrade to the Outback did, in fact, get me more haulage room (and better gas mileage ...).

Tonight, I'll probably start packing my doublets and stuff, and tomorrow after doing the other loads of laundry, I'll put a tote or two in the car. I've decided that instead of spending two to three hours on the day I leave sweating my ass off lugging stuff downstairs and into the car, I'll pack incrementally and leave for work on Friday, then leave work early for Pennsic, since I get to be there for land grab for the first time since the very first land allotment day (when Lord Roger actually did the land grab stuff that I was there to do ...).