I'm just a cock-eyed pessimist

shadowdaddy was super nice and let me take the car to work today, which means I also slept in. This was unfortunately necessary as my sleep schedule was really whacked thanks to my 6:30 nap yesterday. (The whacked schedule was also potentially responsible for a dream involving people whose LJs I read but have never met ... as if I even know what ciphergoth looks like! But how did my Grandma get in this dream, I wonder?) shadowdaddy and I both died while we were at scarlettina's party last night ... the lack of sleep from the night before caught up with us while we were there and even her delicious latkes weren't enough to shake us out of our stupor (and the little kids there were, I think, playing havoc on my mildly damaged head). So I crashed out officially once we got home. This was mostly a good thing, as it made me pleasant company for Jared and Julia when they returned from their afternoon's adventures.

We played a game of Puerto Rico with Jared (incredibly low scores - 36 a winner - but a true tie with me and shadowdaddy both at 36 with one doubloon apiece), then I sat down with Julia and tried to relearn how to knit (not that I ever really had it figured out). Knitting felt to me like trying to eat with chopsticks, only with one in my right hand and one in my left - incredibly graceless and uncoordinated. Finally I twisted the thread around my middle finger so I could hold onto the loops with my index and thumb, and things started going more smoothly. It was nice having her there ... very relaxing! But I could feel some pain in the back of my left hand from holding everything so tightly and I wondered if I've got some kind of carpal tunnel coming on or if perhaps I'm eventually due for rheumatoid arthritis.

I'm expecting work to be dead today. My muslim officemate said it felt like a Sunday in here. We have no plans for tonight either ... well, maybe we'll go to the Pat Graney solstice party, but other than that, I don't know, Bad Santa is all that's coming to mind, or getting together with Cathy so she can get back her Settlers of Catan game.

I forgot to mention that writing assignments have been distributed for the final biweekly edition of Tablet - and I'm doing a story on the Erotic Art Show! It's 800 words, like my Michael Kenna story, so it should be pretty substantial. I'm excited - this is going to be a fun one to write. Afterwards, I'll be getting a two month minimum break as Tablet moves to a monthly magazine format. I hope I'll still be getting good assignments ... I've really enjoyed working on Tablet and I don't just want it to go away.

Nice article today on La Paz in the LA Times today, although I was really just looking for better news about the earthquake. I need to remember to get us a place to stay since the flaky lady at the first B&B didn't have her act together.

I wound up actually having some honest to God work to do today besides reading specs. I even found a (super low priority) bug! Lawsy me. Better get that puppy written up - it's only been two hours. Most of my time today was spent getting me a 401K plan set up - sort of a work thing to do.

I've got a lot of support for going to the 3:15 Lord of the Rings at the Cinerama next Tuesday (the 30th), so if any of you want to join me, just speak up and I'll see about getting you a ticket. (This is despite a review in the New York Times which said that the movie's audience is very much skewed toward men, adding "A female colleague went because her boyfriend wanted to, explaining her own interest by saying, "I'm so in love with Viggo"(not her boyfriend's name). I of course am going because of Orlando Bloom.) As for tomorrow, I'm looking at a half day and a trip to Renton to eat at the BBQ hut. No sense straining myself this close to Christmas!