Our dog Rodeo continues to meet his goal of having the most health expenses of our entire household, humans included. And no doggy health insurance plan to cushion the blow. He has some sort of UTI that won't go away, so he's on super-strong antibiotics. He has something going on with his ears requiring drops twice a day, and an ear-wash twice a week. (He gets his first ear-wash tomorrow - I predict he will not enjoy it.) And he needs to eat this special food that's specially formulated for his kidney condition.

Meanwhile Lilah, our 19-year-old cat, has taken to peeing in a corner of our bedroom. We had to put down some old clothes there so that she has something with which to cover the puddle. She still uses the regular litter box as well, so she hasn't developed an aversion to it. She also has some sort of kidney condition requiring daily doses of calcitriol. In addition to regular dry cat food, we feed her wet food every night, that's dosed with lysine and some fish oil. But she's very exacting in her wet food preferences: she doesn't like the roasted or grilled flavors, nor does she like the flaked kind. Refrigerator-cold food is also not acceptable. Warming it to room-temperature is hit-or-miss. Sometimes she'll eat it, sometimes not.

I would never have expected Scottie to be the low-maintenance one! He's happy just surveying the great outdoors from the window-sill. And he likes swishing his tail in my face or walking on my hair when I'm trying to fall asleep, or at 5am when I'm in that deep sleep you get just before waking up. Mr Piggly-Wiggly does have a bit of a weight problem, and we continually threaten to put him on a feeding schedule, but so far inertia has won out. Aside from the occasional hair-ball (he is a long-haired cat) he seems to be in good health.

Yesterday I went to the Whidbey Island Fabulous Fall Fiber Sale with bookish_girl_. It was held at the Paradise Found Fiber Farm. Getting there seemed to take age, as we drove through Oak Harbor and past Coupeville. Going home, we took the ferry and I-5. When you factor in the ferry wait, I don't think we saved that much time. But driving at high speed on a straight highway just seemed quicker.

I picked up a Kumihimo Disk. It makes round braids that you can use for lanyards, bag straps, necklaces, etc. I had intended it as a Christmas gift for my niece. Naturally I had to try it out, so I could answer any questions she might have. Now I just may keep it for myself.

Take a look at the stunning cocktail hat kate_schaefer just posted. And the good news: she sells such creations!

dangerdaisy - we should all wear Kate's hats at your next cocktail party!

I think it's safe to say that ValhallaCon was a success. We're already planning next year's con!

My elected role is Treasurer, but at the con itself I volunteered to help Tina in the Hospitality suite. We kept people well-fed, garnering several compliments about the quality of Hospitality. We also kept folks well-caffeinated, with a little help from the_black_drop and Starbucks. Both businesses graciously donated coffee and cups with their respective logos. Don't worry - I made sure to serve each coffee in the proper cup!

I'm planning to get a T-shirt at our Cafe Press store, as well as a tote bag with the program book cover on it. Next year we'll have such items available before the con actually starts!

Actual panels I attended:

First panel of the con: John Lawler, Professor Emeritus of the University of Michigan, talked about creating fictional languages, and real-world examples of linguistic oddities.

Local author Clete Smith talked about his new book Grandma's Intergalactic Bed-and-Breakfast, scheduled for 2011. This will be Clete's first published novel, and he recounted his experience of writing and selling the book. He also read an excerpt from the novel.

The Mathematics of Juggling, with juggler/ math professor jjuggler. A fascinating glimpse of how mathematical notations have revolutionized juggling.

The Future of Biotechnology was a wide-ranging discussion of what might lie ahead.

The entire program is still online. Check it out, and see what you missed!

My maternal grandmother passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 95. I'm so glad we saw her at her 95th birthday celebration last April when she was still slightly aware of her surroundings. She'd been holding on for weeks at the hospital, but practically comatose and unresponsive. Very exhausting and emotional for my mother and aunt, I'm sure.

As jkling just announced, we're scaling back ValhallaCon a bit. Consequently, the membership rate has been reduced to $35. Naturally, those who bought memberships at the previous $45 rate can apply for refunds.

Hope to see you there!

ValhallaCon - where heroic Viking(Con)s go when they die!

Long-time Bellingham-area SF/F congoers may remember VikingCon, held up at WWU. A group of intrepid Bellinghamsters has now resurrected the con as ValhallaCon! It's going to be held on September 4-6 2009, at the Bellingham Airport Hampton Inn. The Writer Guest of honor is Nancy Kress, multiple Nebula and Hugo award winning author of Beggars in Spain and Probability Moon. The Science Guest of Honor is Peter Ward, a paleontologist at the University of Washington, author of Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe.

Come join us on Labor Day Weekend at a small, relaxed, local (for Bellinghamsters!) SF/F convention, and meet like-minded people interested in science, science fiction/fantasy, gaming, media, and more!

Full disclosure: I am on the ConCom.

I wish the English language had a gender-neutral pronoun one could use to refer to a person. "It" is not correct, and "one" is too archaic. Sometimes I just use "they", and try to refrain from wincing.

I'm still knitting these days, and liking it. Tuesday nights I go to my local yarn shop, Northwest Handspun Yarns, for Knit Night. I've finished quite a few small projects already, but gave away most of them. Recently completed projects include:

- Pair of lace socks that I gave to my sister. They were supposed to be for me, but they ended up slightly too small for me.

- A cap and a pair of little socks for my coworker's newborn baby.

- A pair of red fingerless gloves - for me!

I am still knitting the sweater for jkling. Perhaps it will be finished in time for this year's cold season. Also, I'm about to dive into my first Fair Isle project: a tam.

... that I have glasses.

A week before my birthday in April I tried to renew my driver license. The DMV declared me unfit to drive due to impaired vision, and told me to get my eyes checked. That's how I discovered my LASIK surgery had stopped working. This happened as we were preparing to visit the Philippines for my grandmother's 95th birthday. Fortunately jkling was unconcerned about driving overseas, since he was the chauffeur the whole time we were in the Philippines.

Back State-side it was a different story. Quoth jkling, "You better get your eyes checked, 'cause I ain't driving you around forever, Miss Daisy!" Well, Miss Daisy finally has glasses. For driving I have some huge sunglasses that fit over my regular glasses, courtesy of bookish_girl_. They're kinda dorky, but very effective.

If you think I've been ignoring LJ for weeks, you're right. I have a full-time job right now that involves a lot of work on the computer. The last thing I want to do when I get home is stare at another computer monitor. But I miss y'all! So I will try to make time to read my friends page at least once a week.

So what have I been doing besides work?

Playing Bioshock on the Xbox 360. My first serious foray into the world of first-person shooters. Such games usually make me barfy, but Bioshock's story line was compelling enough to keep me playing until I got past the queasiness.

I'm currently knitting a sweater for jkling. The back is half-finished, and I will soon get to the part where I start shaping for the armholes. I knit every morning on the bus to work, every Tuesday at my local yarn shop's knit night, at our weekly D&D sessions, and sometimes in the evenings or at lunch time.

I have resolved to start exercising regularly. Last night I spent some quality time on the exercise bike. I'm going to do this two or three times a week. I also plan to resume my DDR habit. That's Dance Dance Revolution for you non-video game players.

Last Saturday I went to mcjulie and paulcarp's annual Hallowe'en party. This year had a zombie theme. My costume was (still-living) advocate for zombie suffrage. I dressed up in a flashy blazer and a straw hat adorned with mini-zombies, and pestered all the party-goers with earnest patter about the disenfranchisement of zombies in the USA. I also passed out handbills printed with slogans like "Votes for Zombies!" and "One Zombie, One Vote!"

The other day I saw a poster at my local yarn shop advertising Opal brand Harry Potter und der Halfblutprinz Pullover und Sockenwolle. That is, a line of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince-themed sock wool from Opal yarns. There are several colorways for Harry, Ron, even frigging Tonks, but no Hermione colorway! Boo, hiss!

Happy Birthday, terminusest!

It's 9:30 on a Friday night, and I'm about to go to bed. I bet I wake up at 6:00 am tomorrow too.

This is my second or third time to go to the annual Greek food fest. This year I got a gyro for lunch and loukoumades for dessert. Loukoumades are basically fried dough drenched in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon. Best eaten fresh out of the fryer. Mmm, Greek food.

Two things that make me happy about tomorrow:

• It's Friday, duh!
• Greek food fest - yummy

Current projects:

• knitting a toddler hat for charity
• crocheting a hat with huge yarn for my brother
• knitting a sock for jkling
• knitting a sweater using a Red Cross pattern from World War 2

Unfinished tasks:

• laundry, neverending
• sweeping floor, not done in ages
• arranging stuff on media shelf
• arranging stuff on bookshelves
• catching up on personal e-mail and lj

So far my Fight Club DVD has refused to play on:
- the Xbox 360
- the Marital Aid (aka my laptop computer)

The special features disc plays no problem. This would be weirdly symbolic, but I can't be bothered by such things when I'm jonesing for a Fight Club fix. I may have to hook up the good ol' DVD player to the TV.

jkling and I are off to make raspberry jam with dangerdaisy. I am bringing two knitting projects (a nearly-done wine bottle cozy, and a half-finished sock), a knitting magazine, and the dog. These may all be abandoned in favor of dangerdaisy's latest acquisition: Wii Fit.

What happened to summer? It's grey and drizzly enough to be fall!

I think the alarm clock, aka our dog Rodeo, may be getting the hang of weekends. On Sunday he didn't come into the bedroom until 9am. I had been reading in bed since 8:30, wondering where he was. Today being Monday, I had my cell phone alarm set. When it went off at 6am, in bounded rowdeeoh, ready for his walk!