Our Culinary teams close shop from 7-10 days before the Giant Werk Conference of Doooom to a couple days after. We do all the catering ourselves, so it's an enormous job. They feed ~20k people two or three meals a day, which takes a bit of time to prep.

They're back today. This is cause for celebration. I was really dragging after my first couple of phone calls, so I walked over to the nearest cafe for something hot to drink.

Their new special? Pumpkin Spice Latte.

It's officially fall. I haz a happy.

There were many good things on the weekend. And several exhausting things.

Friday - Left work a little early, but since I got there silly early, it wasn't actually a big deal. Came home, had dinner, had snuggles, went to bed.

Saturday - Woke up bright and early with cold Ox feet pressed to my spine. Like all kids, he's more happy to be up really early on the days that he could just sleep in. I got up and Emi came out, too. She could also sleep in, but decided that she should be up EVEN EARLIER than on a school day. Suggestions to just go back to sleep were met with a meltdown. This will become a theme.

Prepped for Scion game. Found out that one player wouldn't be able to come (in-laws visiting). Then found out that two other players were on call and getting dragged into work things and might not make it at all. Emi melted down and then refused to nap. This is doing her head cold NO FAVORS.

Eventually people came over and we gamed. Once again, I pull out bad guys that look scary on paper, but turn out to be not even a challenge. At all. The players steamroll over everything in their path.

I'm...frustrated. They seem to be having fun, which is okay, but then Downwood wears his grumpy face all day because the combat's over before he gets a turn and it's just...yeah.

Kids ended up going to bed late, since gaming pushed dinner until late. This wouldn't be a problem except

Sunday - Once again, both kids awake at the crack of dawn. Ox, because he's a morning person. Emi, because she's contrary. Once again, refusing to rest and nap and anything that would help her immune system fight off the cold. Sigh.

I started laundry going and took a couple of steps on a sewing project. Then showered and noticed the freezing rain coming down. Went out in it anyway to go get coffee with RH and Au. Aside from the sidewalk outside the coffee shop being a SOLID SHEET OF ICE, it was a lovely time. Wonderful coffee, tasty scone, good friends, and relaxing conversation. I either saw Mary Robinette Kowal or her doppleganger. I didn't go eavesdrop on their conversation to confirm either way, though I did explore her Facebook and website to see if she had any announced plans to come to Madison. I'm a fangirl, but not quite rabid enough to interrupt a conversation when I wasn't positive. Still, cool.

Stopped by Walgreens for med refills, went home, had tacos for lunch (mmm...tacos...), and did more laundry. I also finished another of my KnitFix projects - a Julia cardigan for my MiL as a birthday present. I made some progress on other KnitFix projects (shirts for Ox), mediated disputes, cajoled kids into picking up their rooms, snuggled Ox, and tried to not be overwhelmed by all of the everything.

Downwood cleaned the kitchen, I got the kids' rooms less booby-trapped (legos on the floor in the middle of the night = hell), and it was the typical "Get all the household things done that I don't have time for during the week" Sunday.

Today - Emi coughed all night long. I didn't get good sleep, but still had to get up really early for work. If I don't get in by 7, I can pretty much kiss my productivity goodbye, especially when I start with meetings at 8.

Emi was up before I got in the shower. Even though she's sick. Even though it's spring break and she has 9 days off of school. Even though she didn't have to get up at all, she was up a half hour before normally I'd be dragging her out of bed by her toenails. She REFUSED to go back to sleep. Ox was up shortly after. Downwood was up shortly after that.

I'm tired, grumpy, and bitter. I get whining at home and come into work to more whining. I've had a lot of coffee, but not much in the way of healthy, good food (which is, honestly, a contributing factor to my mood).

Looking forward to this week:
Tonight - Dance.
Wednesday (probably) - new WtNV podcast
Friday (maybe) - Girl Scouts for Emi
Saturday & Sunday - Easter with MiL

Next week: 
Monday - Dance
Friday - Final ink on peacock
Saturday - BUW workshop and show. I may or may not do the workshop. Tripp Commons is EVIL on my back and knees, but the show is at Monona Terrace and will have a bar

Then the next Monday I have off work and a spa appointment. Somewhere in here I have a haircut, but it's not in my phone so I have no idea. Need to call and check. I'm thinking going shorter for spring, but I don't know what will look nice on me with a minimal amount of effort on my part.

So far today, I have accomplished:

• Happy Ox snuggles
• Sleeeeeeepy Emi hugs
• Pay credit card bills
• Move paycheck to accounts
• Thrown money at Eliza Rickman's Kickstarter to fund her new album. She's the first weather feature from WtNV that I said "I need this" after hearing her. I love her album and want more.
• Listened to Part 2 of the anniversary WtNV show. CECIL AND CARLOS 4EVER!
• Had a coffee as big as my head
• Signed up for the Holy Taco Church newsletter
• Asked Girl Charlee if their stretch knits are layerable or standalone. I kind of dig this one. http://www.girlcharlee.com/light-mocha-rose-matte-stretch-lace-knit-fabric-p-9961.html?cPath=132
• Drooled over Ponte Roma knits on etsy. I think I need a peacock blue skirt. https://www.etsy.com/listing/168857890/peacock-heavy-ponte-roma-fabric-by-the?ref=listing-17  Since it only comes in yard increments, if I get 2 yards, that'll be enough for a solid peacock skirt with enough left over to do color blocking with black on a second skirt. Plans within plans, y'all.
• Made my Will save against buying more dresses from eShakti. If I can't be bothered to bring them in to get dry cleaned, I'm obviously not enough of a grownup to have nice things. Also, pencil skirts.
• Downloaded my Audible preorder of "How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove Back."
• Not gone off the handle at the guy in the office next to mine who's been shouting obscenities at his phone/computer all morning.
• Done some code review
• Tried to not beat myself up. I get shorted on sleep on Monday nights and I wasn't feeling too well, either. Looking at my calendar, I could have easily taken the morning as a half sick day just so that I'm not feeling awful later.
• Haven't yet made up my mind about driving to Iowa this weekend. Pros: see my family. Cons: 10+ hr in the car, being busy busy busy all weekend. Not actually resting. But family! But stress! But family! But oh gods would I rather just say home, maybe go to Faire, and sleep in.

Even though my previously favorite skirt no longer zips, I have a skirt bought around the same time that's still flattering and comfortable.

In searching for the shirt that I wore to my kids' birthday party 2 years ago, I found a t-shirt on my shelf that's astonishingly cheerful coral flowers.

I am one with the glitter body lotion. It's permeating all my stuff. My car glitters. My purse glitters. My clothes glitter. I'm fabulous, y'all.

The coffee cart at work brought back their Magic Coffee for the summer. It's iced coffee with brown sugar, cinnamon, half-and-half, and crack. It's only been here for 2 days and it's already owning my soul. To combat this, I've tasked Downwood with starting some iced coffee at home, and I'll figure out how to make the sweetener myself.

I told Emi this morning how proud I was of her yesterday. She did 2 loads of dishes all by herself (mostly. Daddy helped/supervised). She was SO PROUD. Apparently, when Downwood started doing dishes, she had a TOTAL MELTDOWN because he wasn't letting her help. So he filled the sink with clean water, put in her dishes, and told her to go to town. So proud. So big.

We started a new choreography last night. It's an OMG!Fast drum solo. It has some nifty call/response sections, a 10/8 section, and we got about a minute into it last night. This is a minute of choreography that Teacher M made up on the fly for us, so it was even more impressive that we got that far in 35 minutes.

We also got to dance for several minutes to a lovely saxophone tacsim. It was ooey, gooey, and so very much fun. M had to run out to her car for the music, so it was just free dance for those minutes. It was fantastic and felt really good.

I published the first scene in my Storium game this morning. Let's see how this goes.

I got most of our bills paid online this morning. I have a few more checks to write and then I'm done for a couple weeks. The glow of accomplishment looks good on me.

I didn't get much sleep last night, so I decided to bring an extra cup of coffee with me on my drive.

I had to stop at Target before work, so I decided morale demanded a fancy latte.

I got to my desk and found a bottled frappuccino waiting for me. No note, but I'm very thankful for my mysterious benefactor.

I'm going to be soooooo caffeinated. Whee!

...maybe I should eat something. Yes.

Friday - I'm so thankful that bad days end. I was really past frustrated with everything involving work.

Saturday - Went and got my hair cut. I didn't double-check my calendar, so I got there at 10 instead of 10:30. So I got to sit, listen to music, drink good coffee, and read in peace until they were ready for me. It was very nice! Then I went home and got ready to game. This involved putting on a floofy skirt and corset, clearing the table, ordering pizza, and getting out a pile of papers.

My poor Scion players. I made the most ridiculous prop in the history of ever for them. It was an 8-page newspaper with horoscopes, classifieds, and custom news articles. I decided to give them a chapter or two of open-ended exploration instead of railroading them through a plot. Letting them discuss and choose which plot hooks they wanted to explore made my job a little harder - had to think on the fly of how things would play out - and a little easier - they spent a lot of time arguing amongst themselves of how they wanted to handle things.

And then Downwood gave me a margarita and made it his mission to keep it full. Holy god. I hope I didn't embarrass anyone, including myself. I eventually poured myself into bed and slept all the sleeps.

I'm thankful for margaritas, forgiving friends, really good sales at We3 Bellydance on eBay, and margaritas.

Sunday - Woke up a little hungover, but coffee and Gatorade fixed that. Folded three loads of clothes, then washed and folded four more. All the clothes are now clean. Oy. Did a little more henna on my legs and finished Downwood's Cthulhu hat. It's pretty amazing. Also, I helped Emi with her new art project. She learned how to thread a needle (a giant, dull yarn needle) with yarn and string beads on it. She's a bit obsessed, but that's okay. She had a lot of fun digging through the beads, sorting them, and figuring out which were big enough for the needle to go through and which weren't.

I'm thankful for Advil, coffee, music, and a little girl who loves making things as much as Momma.

Monday - Wow, I'm tired. I'm also sitting at my desk at work, looking at the pile of stuff I need to do, and wanting to say "Bugger all this for a lark". I need to do work - there are people counting on me and I like getting a paycheck. I just feel totally out of it and don't want to get yelled at or deal with the dumb. I'm just...argh. Burned out, could be the phrase. Frustrated, could be another. Really don't want to be here and dealing with this. Wondering if we're going to have dance because OMG!Mother Nature needs Xanax.

Why didn't I refill my emergency Xanax bottle in my purse? Things are not quite to Utterly Terrible, but are heading that way.

Fuck this. I'm-a go get a coffee. I'm tired of telling people to click on buttons that if they'd just followed the flow chart, they would have found it already.

I'm thankful for coffee (really, I can't emphasize this enough. Coffee and me, we're like THIS), soup, and being able to wear slippers around the office so I don't have to tromp everywhere in my snow boots. I'm also thankful that I have a car with high ground clearance and 4WD so I could get out of my driveway this morning and make it to work without being in the ditch.

Friday - Went home early, feeling like death. Got mobbed by kiddos. Tried to sleep, got mobbed again. So I took Emi downstairs and worked on her new dress for a bit. Came back upstairs, felt like death, went to bed reeeeeally early.

Saturday - Emi's first soccer game! OMG it's started - the getting up early on the weekend because munchkin is doing something. Oy. But she had a total blast. Ox had a meltdown because he was FED UP with not getting to go out onto the field with the big kids. I was going to run my Scion game but by the time we got back from soccer, Ox was wiping his nose on anything other than a Kleenex and Emi was coughing. I dozed on the couch and watched football instead of doing anything requiring thought.

Well, that's not entirely true. I started crocheting some monster slippers for Hogswatch gifts. Need to start crafting presents early, yo.

Sunday - Tried to sleep in, but got foiled by kiddos. Funny how that works. Washed All The Things (dishes and clothes) and tried to do some decluttering/straightening. Downwood took Ox to the grocery store, so Emi and I finished her new dress! It's red costume satin with a sheer black overlay. The black has metallic spiderwebs printed on it. I made a black satin spider out of a remnant and appliqued it to the bodice with glitter thread. I also made her some gauntlets with the same black mesh over the red satin. Throw in a red superhero mask and you have a Spider-Emi! It's pretty boss, if I do say so myself.

We also tried out the Cuban coffee maker my Florida customer gave me. Good, delicious, wonderfully caffeinated stuff, man. OMG. I now have NO REASON to go to Miami...unless it's to get more of the special coffee for the coffee pot. So good.

Today - Went to the dr for an annual checkup and got the fantastic news that my age demographic no longer needs annual pelvic exams! Yay! Instead I got gently told that I should drop 10 lb to get my BMI closer to "normal", that I should do what I can to take care of myself, and it's okay to be overwhelmed with kiddos. Downwood's upset that I forgot to mention that I don't seem to get restful sleep anymore, but I plumb forgot.

I remembered dance stuff tonight, so that will be good.
Pumpkin ice cream is amazing stuff.
Having trouble coming up with cope. Werk is not a good place lately.

Things I want to make (a list for no reason but to get it out of my head):

• Moar monster slippers!
• Baby blankies for our neighbors
• Tutus for our neighbor girls and my almost-neice
• xmas placemats for my MIL
• Surprises for my family
• A pillow from the fabric left over from the monster blankie my sister asked me to make her. I showed her the fabric and yarn and told her to choose colors. So she did.
• Brownies.

Chili is in the crockpot. It's been a long, long time since I made chili. This is weird, as it was such a staple of my college and grad school days. It's cheap, pretty hands off (yay crockpot!), and makes many meals. I blame Munchkin #1 for not liking anything she can't pick apart and eat the ingredients separately. I also blame working long hours and not having energy for anything other than the bare minimum of life.

We got sick last weekend. Like really sick. Like sick enough that we shipped Munchkin #1 down to Grandma's house so that she would hopefully not get it. Norovirus is awful. Turn the cruise ship around! A side effect of being sick and not eating anything other than Saltines, Gatorade, and thinned down chicken noodle soup is that the dozen donuts I bought to have throughout the weekend all went stale. Stale bread = bread pudding! So that will happen later today.

I think I need to finish my coffee, take a shower, then go re-thread my serger. I have a pattern for a cute shrug cut out of two materials from my stash. I'd like to have at least one of them for Monday. I also need to let my brain percolate on what I want to do with the gamers who will be coming over this afternoon for chili and game. I'm not sure who all will be here, which is why I'm not sure what I'm doing yet. I do pretty well when flying by the seat of my pants - all that structured improv practice pays off in other areas of life, too!

Coffee first. Coffee is awesome. Yus.

Forgot the cell phone today. Call office if need be.

Send caffeine.

Maybe pronouns, too. Not necessary, but may make life easier.

True update later. Stay tuned.

Must get more coffee. Yes, coffee.

The Bad Joke of the Day is brought to you by the caffeine buffer, pH 2.3.

Two hillbillies walk into a bar and order a shot of whiskey.
They talk about their own moonshine operations. Suddenly, a
woman at a nearby table, who is eating a sandwich, begins to
cough. After a minute or so, it becomesapparent that she is
in real distress.

One of the hillbillies looks at her and says Kin ya swaller?
The woman shakes her head no. Kin ya breathe?
The woman begins to turn blue and shakes her head no.

The hillbilly walks over to the woman, lifts up the back of
her dress, yanks down her drawers and quickly gives her right
butt cheek a lick with his tongue. The woman is so shocked
that she has a violent spasm and the obstruction flies out of
her mouth.

As she begins to breathe again, the hillbilly walks slowly back
to the bar and his partner says:

"Ya know, I'd heerd of that there Hind Lick Maneuver, but I
ain't never seed nobody do it."