Thanks for the Confidence

As usual, I got quite a number of people telling me that my costume was great and not understanding why I didn't enter the costume contest again. What's really funny about that is half of them, after telling me my costume was great, had to ask what it was! As fabulous as my steampunk airship captain costume is, I'm not surprised that many didn't recognize it. Unless you're a reader of Girl Genus, the style might be beyond you! (One of my coworkers did say "Agatha would approve!" Go me!)

I knew this ensemble wouldn't be a costume winner, unless there was a judge or two who recognized it. Still, most people said I looked better than anyone else. There was one guy with a rock star costume, and I thought he was great. It would have been ok to lose to that, his costume looked like it took some effort and creativity. That's what I like to see. Still no word on who won.

Big to-do at the ministry tonight! Should be funner than ten things that are fun.

Not to be Outdone

Tomorrow is OBC's annual Halloween costume contest. Yesterday and today, a ton of my coworkers have been asking me how I plan to top The Phantom from last year. I still maintain that I'm not entering the contest (yes, I agree, I'm a sour sport when it comes to this), but I will wear the steampunk costume that I wore to last week's party. It came out great, if I say so myself. In fact, Liz* (one of the proprietors of the ministry I've been working with who threw last week's party) said I won the costume contest that they didn't have. I'll take it!

So, yes, coworkers, I will be wearing my costume. I'm not sure if the airship captain will best The Phantom, but I'll be wearing it just the same. And still not entering the contest. That's disappointment that I'm tired of getting. Even last year's write-in award isn't enough to sway this decision.

I'm sure I have a picture from last week, or I'll get one tomorrow to load for you.

Henchmen

During the past two days that I've been off of work, (among other things) I've been playing Guild Wars. In the first campaign, called Prophecies, there is a vast, involved tutorial area. At the end, you go through a mission and end up in the bulk of the game, two years after the events in the tutorial. Once you go through the mission, there's no going back. Some people like to stay indefinitely in the tutorial. Yes, there is a limit as to how much your character can grow there, but you can easily farm for gold or coveted items like dyes. I created a character for the sole purpose of holding my earnings because there is no bank in this part of the game. Once you get to the main part of the game, you can get a bank that is connected to all characters on that account, across all campaigns, except for whoever is in the tutorial part.

So, I had a character in the Nightfall campaign who was in need of some extra cash since she's not strong enough yet to be making much herself. All I needed to do was get someone from the tutorial, armed with gold, to the next part of the game where they could access the bank and deposit some sharable funds. I created a character with the purpose of deleting it just for this run. I leveled him up so he was good and strong to get through the mission, then loaded him with lots of gold.

Now, this mission is in two parts. The first is a short PvP battle with an assigned group of four players against another group of four. Then, your group goes through the mission, kills the bad guy, and arrives two years into the future. It just so happened that last night, when I was ready to run through the mission to deliver my precious coinage, no other players were doing so. This means I had no one to group with or fight against. What happens then, you may ask. (Ok, probably only Fox is wondering at this point.) I was assigned three NPC henchmen! And since I was the only player, it skipped the PvP part (which I'm not fond of anyway). So, me and my three henchmen, each two levels below me, went through the mission, killed the bad guy, and there we were. It was great fun going through that part with henchmen, and not with other players who, I've found, often rush through it.

You can hire henchmen on your own in the later part of the game. I think I need to work with them more often. It's fun to have a group of NPCs around to kill things with you. I hope no one is around the next time I have to run that mission. It was fun! LDS called me a geek!

With pride!

Now that all of you, gentle blog readers, are going crazy with my game-talk (by the way, you can purchase a copy of your very own through my Lemonade Stand below, if you want to see what my fuss is about), let's talk about the weather. It's cold. Not snow cold, but cold. There's an outdoor event at the ministry I've been working with on Friday. It's going to be cold.

Phoenix and I are learning that our condo doesn't heat very well. The vents are at the tops of the walls, so heat is rising to the ceiling. This leaves us poor people on the floor quite chilly. We had the thermostat at 74° on Monday and were still wrapped in blankets. I thought, since we're on the top floor, that the heat from other condos would help keep ours warm. I guess they're too well insulated because that doesn't seem to be the case at all. And, there are no vents in the bathrooms. I get chills just thinking about it.

We're either going to have to bite the bullet and pay out the wazoo to heat up the place, or get some energy efficient space heaters so we can put the heat on the floor where it will do the most good. The latter seems to be the best idea. I'll stop by Target on Friday before I head down to the event to see what they have. I can't take too many more nights shivering under a foot of blankets.

Two Day Off

And, like yesterday, here's another of those days that I had to take off or lose PTO. That's alright with me. I did manage to get all the days I needed to not lose any PTO. I'll plan this out for next year at some point.

So, today, I've been catching up on my webcomics. Soon, I'll take out the recycling and play some Guild Wars, probably at the same time as watching a movie. I can multi-task!

Of course, I've also spent the morning shooing my roommate's cat from the dragons. She doesn't just watch them like Miss Luna does, she tries to get them. She won't succeed, but it worries my poor little lizards anyway.

In other news, I found a seller on e-Bay who has the frog clock that I inadvertently threw away. I can't afford it now. I hope it's still there by the time I get paid this week. I hope...I hope... I hope....

One Day Off

Since OBC suddenly forced all employees to take another five days off or lose that earned time, today is one of those days.

So far, I've spent it gaming, napping, and watching a movie with henna mud in my hair.

Good times!

Call Me Dolt

You know, scratch that. Maybe it's not such a foolish thing after all.

Years and years ago, someone gave me a gift for Christmas. It was a little frog and clock on a lily pad. Nothing special, really. I happen to be rather partial to frogs (this must come from working at Tall Toad at the Renaissance Festival) and it so happens that this friend who gave me this gift and I have gone our separate ways. I rarely thought much of it, really. It stayed in the box for years. I brought it with me when I moved out, and it's been sitting on my desk, keeping time in its little froggy way.

Tonight, I noticed it wasn't here.

Miss Luna has been knocking things off my desk for some time. I recently moved things around so that she wouldn't have things to knock off. I didn't move the clock. Sometime last week, I heard the distinctive clunk of something heavy falling into my metal trash can. I didn't find anything and took the trash out.

And there is no frog clock.

And I am very upset about this. The truth is, I didn't realize how important it was to me until I discovered that I must have thrown it out. I've searched every logical place and some illogical ones. Phoenix and her boyfriend searched too. It's not here.

So, I've been calling myself a fool all night for being so attached to a thing that, most days, I didn't even think about. But, maybe it's not so foolish after all. Maybe it was a silent reminder of my friend. The paths of our lives split for no catastrophic reason, just that they did, and sometimes it happens that way. But that tiny little clock made me smile, and think of my friend, and hope she's doing well where her life took her. Maybe it's not so foolish to have that reminder and miss it when it's gone. I won't forget my friend. I just don't have a trinket to help me remember anymore. I'm still upset about that, but I'm feeling less foolish for it. I know I'm sentimental. It's not such a bad thing.

Time to Party

I'm off to carve some pumpkins and have a spooky time! I'll get pictures.

Just Admit

Yes, I know, I owe you a week of posts. I'm going to just have to concede that they're not going to get up, because I didn't write any! My life is wonderfully busy right now, and that's why blogs haven't happened.

So, a recap.

Saturday was fun and chilly at faire. I had dinner with my dear friends Fox and Fae and dad, and that was my birthday dinner that the yummy Irish place. Those of you who know me know I like those smaller gatherings much better than a ton of people, so it was perfect. (Fox, I found my copy of that book, I have it here with me. You can have yours back, but thank you. And read it, I'll be expecting a discussion later.)

Sunday, the last day of faire was fun and chilly. We had yummy things to snack on all weekend: dolma, banana bread (mine!), goat cheese, sausage, and tasty chocolates. I haven't worked closing weeking in a while, so this was really fun for me. Though, it would have been nice to bring Gloria to the faire again. Alas, she did not get to go this year.

Let's see, Monday through today was pretty much work. I've been playing Guild Wars again (Oh, Fox! A vile of silver dye dropped the other day. Silver!), so that sometimes occupies my evenings. I had my annual eye exam yesterday and everything looks perfect. The yellow dye has been draining from my eyes all day, making people think I was in a fight or just really sick. As it happens, I've been fending off a cold for the past couple days as it is. It's on the out now. Whew!

So, tomorrow will be a fun day of pumpkin carving (I don't carve real pumpkins anymore, but I'm sure they'll let me in anyway) at the ministry house and then a fun costume party into the wee hours of the night.

And today, a coworker and I have been trading Red Dwarf quotes.

"No silicon heaven? Preposterous! Where would all the calculators go?"

Once More With Annoyance

I took my car back to the shop in the wee hours of the morning, annoyed that I had to do so at all. They better not charge me an arm and a leg.

This is the last weekend of the Renaissance Festival and, for the first time in a long time, I'm working both days. A big group from the ministry is supposed to come by on Saturday. Oh, and I've got to make some banana bread this evening to share with the Toadettes.

I worked a lot this year, it seems. It will be nice to have my weekends back again. And none too soon, there are tons of seasonal celebrations going on in the coming weekends.

The Welcome Back

The COO of OBC sent an e-mail yesterday morning that I didn't get, being out of the office and all. That e-mail stated all the reasons why, effective immediately, we can only carry over forty hours of PTO instead of eighty like it's been for years. It's apparently some way to cut costs to the company.

Now, everyone is scrambling to fit in five more days off during a busy, holiday, and out-of-the-office-intensive time. I pulled it off with some random days over the next two months: a Tuesday here, a Thursday there.

They also came through and replaced all lights with superbright white tubes. They're probably more energy efficient lamps, as another way to cut costs, but I've got such a headache today! Someone should be coming up to take the lights out of the fixture right above me. I hope that will help.

At least there are only two days of this before the weekend!