Found in Translation

I'm on half days at the moment, due to there being buggerall to do at work. They did train me on a filler project, but just looking at the spreadsheet was enough to set off the 'ohgods what am I doing with my life' chorus in my head. So, less money but more afternoons. I think I'm still winning this one.

Until work picks up again, there's a ton of stuff I've been meaning to do but putting off indefinitely. Behold my mighty to do list! Posted for accountability, and stuff.

This week:

• Ring plumber and get bathroom tap sorted


• Look into Ecotricity


• (Addendum: sort out horribly sloppy record keeping. Argh.)


• Ring up AA to book Pass Plus


• Order more storage for war room


• Book an eye check


• Cook and freeze a batch of veggie soup


• Cook and freeze a batch of bolognaise


• Clean kitchen


• Clean study


• Clean bedroom


• Figure out how to crochet skulls: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/13229392628719701/

Within the next two weeks:

• Switch energy suppliers


• Get new glasses


• Assemble new shelving


• Unfuck the pile of stuff currently living on the war room sofa


• Get Pete to unfuck the towering pile of armour and scraps in the corner


• Get some varnish for the gazebo


• Sand and paint the thing before it succumbs to rot - finally finished halfway through March


• Actually get in the car and drive on a regular basis - scuppered by flat battery. Did have my first Pass Plus lesson, though.

Before going back to full time in April:

• Decide on where to go for our honeymoon, and book it


• Get at least partway through Pass Plus


• Zap car back to life like a mad scientist


• Go for a drive to charge up the battery


• Make new dress for Animatium


• Overthrow the Patriarchy


• Build volcano lair


• Take over humanity's collective subconscious via the medium of owl memes

Sounds doable, right?

Today, I did something I'd been meaning to do for weeks: I got on a train to Oppenheim, climbed up to the ruined castle above the town, climbed what's left of the tower, and had lunch there.

The weather wasn't ideal, gusty wind with spatterings of rain, but I figured I wasn't going to get any better this week. This little hike was part of my 'lose some of that unnecessary blubber' campaign--since thirteen years of PE have given me a lingering hatred for anything commonly labled 'sports', I avoid gyms like the plague and take myself for walks instead. Seems to be working so far. While not very high, that hill is pretty steep, but I had to stop and wheeze for breath only once, about two thirds up. So I managed a lot better than last summer.

Oppenheim is a typical little riverside town, lots of cobbled streets and old watchtowers, surrounded by vinyards, and very quiet and pretty. It's so small you can see the whole of it from the castle ruins. Because it's more or less built into a hillside, it is full of steep narrow stairs in odd places to connect the different tiers. Quite a bit like Edinburgh, on a smaller scale. It's also full of tunnels--the whole place is built on a maze of underground passages dating back to the Middle Ages, with a few layers of old town in between.

There's an annual reenactors' market, which provides a minibus shuttle service from the station to the castle. When I went there last summer, said mimubus contained (barely) the driver, yours truly, and five armed-and-armoured-to-the-teeth saxons. Good times.

What with sitting around on trains and platforms, I managed to tackle my ever growing pile of photocopied lit, and carve a chunk out of it. I've reached a point where I might actually be able to write something without being crushed by paranoia about my appalling lack of research. That will be tomorrow's challenge.

I shall leave you with the most adorable thing I've seen today:

( Cat and Fennec )

Well, yeah. Hi again. Some of you might remember me. :)

I stopped updating this journal almost three years ago because it had begun to feel like a chore. Something that's meant to be fun shouldn't be an obligation, so I left it to itself. Lately, though, I've been thinking it might be fun to write again, so here we go.

Some of you, gentle readers, have met me in real life or talked/IM'd with me recently; some of you haven't. (Here's a belated 'Hello!' to those I've met at the filk con a few weeks ago. 'twas good to see you.) I've been reading along, so I'm marginally familiar with how your lives have been going. Here's an update on the state of the Katie.

( For the curious or interested )