still alive

Work's been kicking me up one side and down the other. Three of my customers have become very demanding, the fourth is acting like they're wanting to get things going on their installation again, and a customer that I'm covering while their primary is out is blithely ignoring the first part of "if this absolutely can't wait for him to get back, email Sabine" and they're sending every little thing my way. So I'm a little stressed out and have barely enough time to breathe while I'm at work. This is not real fun.

Things that make life pretty good anyway, in no particular order:

1. Good music - Jack Johnson's In Between Dreams, Great Big Sea's Rant and Roar, and Seanan McGuire's (cadhla) Stars Fall Home have been on continuous repeat for the past week and have kept me from killing people. My office mate finally got an office of his own, so I can use speakers instead of headphones. My favorite songs off of these three CDs are, in order, "Better Together", "Ordinary Day", and "Take Advantage of Me". Anyone who can guess why can have a cookie.
   
   
2. Good books - I recently finished Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. It was recommended to me by the same Borders employee who told me to read Game of Throne. This book is incredibly rich - you're dropped into the middle of the story and instantly immersed into a world saturated with detail. I totally recommend this book and am pretty excited that there are more books in the series.
   
   I'm about 100 pages from the end of the third Gaunt's Ghosts book, Necropolis. Dan Abnett is a hell of a storyteller and I love his characters, but it's not a great feeling to have been reading for the last 2.5 hour plane ride and wonder whether the anti-aircraft artillery will be shooting your plane down as it descends in Mad-town. I also began reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss yesterday afternoon. Holy crap. Good book. Seriously good book. I wish that I didn't have a huge pile of sewing to do because I really, really want to know what happens next.
   
   I also got Downwood, Bex, and Asmoduce all hooked on the Dresden Files and we sent Val home last night with the first one. Mwahaha! I will spread the bibliophile crack to whomever I can!
   
   
3. Hot Boy TV - Supernatural rocks. We watched more of season 1 yesterday. Thankfully, those episodes weren't nearly so scary as "Asylum". I'm okay with the nasties when I'm pretty certain that they're not going to be coming after me - it's when I fall within the monsters' preferred victim demographic that I start jumping at shadows.
   
   
4. This is pretty darn shiny
   
   
5. Faire starts on Saturday!! I'm way behind on my sewing, but I think I can get the pants, frogs, and hat done for Asmoduce by the weekend. My new kirtle can wait (oh, drat, I'll just have to wear my pretty blue dress again. phooey), Downwood's other shirt can wait (he only got two new ones already from my mad sewing spree), and I can wait to make my pirate shirts since I haven't figured out the jacket at all yet.
   
   Does anyone out there have an Embellish Knit tool? I got one to make cording for the frogs and it worked great for a while, but now it's refusing to turn correctly. I think that I just need to get some WD-40 in it, but Downwood's counseling restraint and says I should get a second opinion from someone else who has one.
   
   
6. My greyhound is adorable and loves me no matter how bad of a day I'm having.
   
   
7. I suppose my husband loves me as much, but he's not nearly so cute as Rain. He's more useful around the house and a better conversationalist than she is, so I guess I'll keep him.
   
   
8. Dance class started again last week! And I'm in the Continuing level instead of Beginner! Yay! And since Mona took me aside in last week's class to remind me how to stand up straight, I'm back to making a conscious effort to keep my ribcage up off my low abs and quit trying to pretend like I'm shorter than I really am.
   
   Bonus: it makes my rack look fabulous. Who knew?
   
   
9. Big Fish Games came up with a new Minesweeper-ish game called Gemsweeper. I think I've played too much of it over the last week, though I cut back once I started dreaming about the game.
   
   
10. I have the best friends EVER.
    
    
11. Though my fake-history!muse has totally abandoned me for parts unknown, Downwood and I have pretty much finished fleshing out the world for the game I'm planning on running. I have a couple more things to try to get straight in my head (gods? magic? what, now?), then I'll be making a massive post with game premise, character concept guidelines, and theoretical schedule. Honestly, the night I run will be determined by what night I have dance class. It also won't start until August, so no worries.
    
    
12. I've been going to the gym more frequently than before. I also got Suhaila's Stretch and Tone DVD. It's still kicking my ass, but my legs are definitely improving in strength and flexibility. I can't tell if I'm losing any of my belly flab yet, but Downwood says I'm looking better in my face and neck, so that's a bonus. Also, the TA for class last week has about the same about of tummy rolls as I do and she looked great while dancing, so I think I'm probably okay. Now to just try to shake the lingering notion that I'm horribly overweight and shouldn't be allowed out of the house or be allowed to eat again unless I spend two to three hours on the treadmill every day (Thanks, Mom!)
    
    Yay for therapy. Seriously. Yay.
    
    
13. There are some webcomics that made me laugh, but since those are on my home machine, I'll wait to post 'em until later.