Return to Phae

 Well, not all.  Let's say LOTS of the things.

So, the cold snap is over ... for now.  Temperatures outside are finally on the plus side of the thermometer.  Yay!  

Also, we found a house.  Again yay!  I am tempted to gush over it, but we haven't signed the lease yet, and we don't have the keys, so I'm feeling a bit superstitious about the whole thing.  I'll gush when keys are in hand.  Suffice to say that it's a 2 bedroom bungalow built in the 20s. And even though we will be the last tenants before the owner tears it down in favour of building something bigger and brand new, I intend to make sure this little blue house feels lots of love in it's last years :)

I haven't been as careful as I should since I've been here, diet-wise.  A house full of gluten is a minefield for me, since everything in my kitchen is safe for me to eat (unless it's DW's bread, which is easy to spot because it's the only white bread).  And because I haven't been careful I got one hell of a head cold (crappy immune system, plus -40 weather, plus dry as desert climate).  I'm feeling a bit better now, but I hadn't been that sick since before I went gluten free.  It sucked.  I only hope that I didn't pass it on to the baby.

I've been inspired by the cold and dry to start making my own hand creams and lip balms.  If they turn out, I'll put them up for sale on my etsy store.  After some thorough product testing, of course. I'll be looking for volunteers as soon as we are moved in, set up and I have my first batch finished ;)

I also dug out my old BOS file from my back-up hard drive.  I need to go through it and make something cohesive and useful.  Maybe a PDF.  I have Acrobat trial for another month or so.  We'll see how I go about learning to work with it.  It may turn out to be a beloved program like PS.

I also found my old website files.  And the files for Wickets.  That made me smile.  Even though it didn't really work out.  I liked working on it, and I learned a lot about BB coding and whatnot.  I have been thinking a lot lately about updating my blog from 'school enforced business idea' to something more easy, personal, more me, but had been having trouble coming up with an identity for it.  I've been doing a lot of reviving lately, maybe Wickets deserves another incarnation as well.

I have a new computer.  It's just a little netbook, but it's portable and lets me surf or get things done while the baby is asleep in my lap.  I don't have PS on it because it isn't powerful enough to run it, so I have been making use of Picnik and it's pre-google-absorption special.  It's pretty awesome for an online photo editor.  I hope that G+ doesn't change too much. 

Hi All -

I guess this is an update of sorts. I haven't really been doing much other than working, sleeping and taking pictures. WD and I just booked a trip to Mexico, so I am looking forward to a long overdue holiday.

I think that we have pretty much decided to spend some time travelling over the next few years. The plan, such that it is, is to head to Europe and Britain next June. Past that, I am continuing with school, and getting a photography business set up.

I am feeling somewhat adrift again. My most recent tarot spread was a three card spread and showed the 6 of Swords, the Devil and the Ace of Pentacles.

Seems somewhat portentous to me at this point - though, I'm not really sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

I do know that I've got to start swimming again.  I haven't had any kind of energy lately.  I feel like I am always exhausted.  It's true what they say about sleep - you can never really catch up.  Once it's gone, it's gone.

I'm really looking forward to our holiday.  If for no other reason than because I will actually be able to rest with nothing to worry about.  I am going to try and make sure that we don't plan too many activities.  Our last holiday ended with us being more tired when we got back than before we went.  I don't know if I could handle that happening again.

I'm letting a lot of things slide right now.  Cooking, magic, LJ, etc.  I know that I can't keep up with everything right now.  I've been spread too thin for too long.

I think that there are some changes coming (besides governmental and economical upsets) - I'm just hanging on for the ride.

That's about it for me.  I do try to read LJ every other day or so, but beyond Twitter, I know that there hasn't been much noise from me.  I aten't dead ;)

--Phae

Well, sort of.  Take a look --->

http://members.shaw.ca/alcros/ind.html

--Phae

I have decided to make more of my posts open.  It has come to my attention recently, that I have more readers than I had originally thought, and I guess I want the random folks to find stuff on here that is more interesting than a stream of silly quizes.

I have yet to decide if I want to post my new articles here before my website.  I imagine that might end up being a good idea since it takes me so bloody long to update the damned thing anyway.  I do want to have a few on the side that I can submit to some Pagan print magazines.  Witchvox is great, but I have yet to see my opinion in print (well, not since highschool, and they didn't pay me to do it).

Anyway, that is about it for this morning.  I did work on my novel a bit more last night.  It feels really good to be writing again.  Everytime I start I get a little bit closer to finishing it!  Yay!

Happy Tuesday, Folks.

--Phae

Today is my day off. Well, my day off from the soul-sucking hell that is Superstore, anyway. I wrote my bare minimum word count yesterday (despite getting only one 15 minute break on an eight hour shift ... bastards). I didn't type it out because I was just too tired.

Today I will type it out and write today's section. I have been having issues with uploading my wordcount at 12:01 so that it ends up getting counted for the next day. I gotta fix that by the end of the month or I am gonna be screwed out of finishing.

I must say that WoW has been a sanity saver for me this past week. We are heading into Holiday Hell at work, plus I am now writing blind (as in sans outline or any idea what is going to happen before I set pen to paper). All in all, I think I am still doing well.

Went shoping yesterday and I picked up some new hot chocolate flavours. White chocolate and After Eight (which is mint chocolate ... I never remember what candies you guys have in the states).

The rest of my swap packages are out (I sent them the quicker way, so they shouldn't take long to get to where they are going). And speaking of, I got my swap package from Leigh and from Otter (they were great, thank you guys ... the pumpkin is now my moniter decoration and I think that the art cards will finally fit those frames that WD bought for me that were too small for the prints I already had).

I think that I am now going to go and see how well white chocolate mixes with coffee and then I am back to work. I intend to take a WoW break after I get yesterday's wordcount typed and uploaded. Undermine is turning out to be a fun little server.

Congrats on the election, folks :)

--Phae