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cat_77: Old Kingdom Series (Lirael)
Thursday, March 14th, 2019 07:32 pm
Been debating a certain tattoo for ages. Literally years. Had today off of work (tomorrow too) and decided to at the very least price it out again as it had been a while. They had an opening. I have a tattoo.

It’s super simple and will mean very little to anyone not my family. And yet I hesitated for so long partially because I did not want to deal with my mother’s response given how she reacted to the first one I got years ago. Finally figured I’m a grown ass woman and can do what I want.

So, yeah. Got my tattoo. Technically two of them as there’s one on each arm.
cat_77: (chocolate (text))
Sunday, April 26th, 2015 07:27 pm
Crawling out of the abyss of mandatory overtime to offer a half-hearted wave.

My days have been spent at work, poking at the gym, and/or poking at a fic I really want to finish by the end of the week. Unfortunately, the gym poked back, or maybe the fact I'm not twenty anymore did, and I appear to have caused some injury to myself, specifically my knees. It was probably when Eldest and I tried to outdo each other, to be honest. I have an appointment tomorrow wherein I hope my doc doesn't just do what she usually does and tell me to go to "a specialist in the field, just in case."

Attempting and failing to stay off of Tumblr for a bit as apparently very few people feel the need to tag their Age of Ultron spoilers. I usually don't mind minor things, but there is something to be said about the element of surprise in a movie, you know?

In other news, I resisted the urge to put ghost pepper salt in the kids' pasta tonight, so that totally deserves a reward of the chocolate type, right?
cat_77: (mordred hates you)
Monday, February 9th, 2015 08:16 pm
So E signed us up for LA Fitness tonight as a surprise. Apparently they do an assessment of your physical standing and such - mandatory - when you begin. I believe I will set new lows for their numbers. With my bad wrists and worse shoulders? Planking it should rock. The step test should feel great on my knees as well, though that I'm far more used to. I have absolutely no idea what an "overhead squat" is though.

Sigh.

Did I mention I screwed up my shoulder again this weekend? In new and differently painful ways?

It's for the best though, and I know it. I need to get in better shape lest this whole wiggy joints thing controls my life. I had a friend at work that was a personal trainer for the same place and he said they are decent people willing to work with you and guide you to what you should and should not do. I guess I get to find out how much is should not versus how much is want not, huh?
cat_77: (mordred hates you)
Sunday, February 8th, 2015 11:17 am
I am debating joining a gym. I am somewhere in between both being in okay shape and being completely out of shape, but I know I could do better.

So, here's the thing: there's a YMCA pretty much at the end of our block, but they charge more than the gyms that are like a mile away and then have additional charges for anything extra like classes. Planet Fitness is by far the cheapest, but their site doesn't really tell you what they have and Wikipedia says they have no pool, which E desperately wants for her little swimmer heart and, let's face it, we are both more likely to go if we go together even if we aren't doing the same things when we're there. LA Fitness has a pool and individual machines, but neither of the locations near us do the basic classes save for a cycling one so I think I'd be more on my own?

Limitations: I have horrible joints and regularly dislocate my shoulder and screw up my ankle. Like, we're talking every few months here. It's genetic and annoying and whatever. I also have asthma of the exercise-induced variety, thus the lack of regularly working out because that whole not breathing thing sucks.

Anyone have any preferences or horror stories or stories of success for any of these places?
cat_77: Picture of Ghost with booze (Default)
Monday, November 17th, 2014 09:07 am

June 25, 2005 - November 16, 2014

I'd say something noble like he's gone off to join the hunt or something like that, but he was so blessedly stupid he'd try to make friends with the big thing with the cool antlers.

They no longer think it was rat poison, or at least just rat poison, but they have no idea what it actually was as they had never seen anything like it before.
cat_77: (napalm)
Sunday, November 16th, 2014 04:36 pm
There is about a 90% chance someone poisoned our dog.

We have a fenced in back yard and he only goes out of it on walks with a leash and full supervision. The only chemicals we have are locked up away from the animals and neither of the cats are sick. The vet says that the amount of rat poison he would have needed to consume would have been the equivalent of eating 100+ tainted mice, so they doubt it's from him maybe eating a single mouse that got in post eating Decon somewhere. We have searched the house and found nothing, and the recent snow may be covering anything in the yard.

He's overnight in the ER because he's peeing blood nonstop. As in he can barely walk without leaving a trail of blood. He is a very stupid, very loving animal who does not deserve this.
cat_77: (Hands - Freya & Merlin)
Thursday, November 6th, 2014 10:57 pm
So, um, this happened tonight...

After fifteen years together, and the state making it legal one year ago, E and I got hitched.

Put a ring on it... )
cat_77: Katie being awesome (Katie)
Tuesday, November 4th, 2014 09:32 pm
Family just had a Nerf gun shootout. Best part is each and every member stopped by to re-arm me, not knowing I was the one who shot them.

They have multi-shooters, I have a single shot (seriously, it's adorable and looks like the Noisy Cricket from MIB). It's only fair, really.
cat_77: Rising Sun (Maggie)
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2014 08:45 pm
Today was setup day for CONvergence. Got the teens set and settled, got the games room prepped to be settled, got badges sorted, got packing sorted, got food in me (eventually), and got home. We don't check into the hotel for sleeping rooms until tomorrow, so tonight is paying bills and finding all the last minute stuff.

Up side: found my missing badge holder.

Down side: cannot find my copy of Imzadi and Marina Sirtis is a guest of honor who will also be doing signing. Boo.

Now if I can get some actual sleep tonight and get the giant set of hives on my arm from brushing up against something to go away so I can wear the adorable dress I found, I'll be set.
cat_77: OTP (head/desk)
Sunday, June 29th, 2014 09:23 pm
I love my son. Really I do. Let me recap since Thursday as we prep for CONvergence (he's one of the heads for the Teen Room).

"Did you make signs advertising the Teen Room?"

"Crap, no, I forgot!"

Rush around. Rush around. Get some quick and dirty ones done.

"Um, honey, the guy who does all the official artwork for con just posted a ton on Tumblr."

"Oh, yeah, saw that. Cool."

"You know, while we were rushing around would have been a prime time to tell me you knew he was making these..."

"What, I'm supposed to remember everything?"

Head desk.

Here's the link for the images, if you are interested: Teen Room Posters. The guy is rather awesome and also is a professional comic book artist.
cat_77: taken w/1953 Pony (drinks (old school))
Saturday, May 10th, 2014 03:13 pm
When I was young, I had this awesome great-great-aunt that lived only a few blocks away. She let me "runaway" to her house for a few hours when my parents were too much, and would ply me with cookies and hot chocolate or ice cream, tell me stories, let me paint, and then send me home.

I did a post on Tumblr about her a while back for International Women's Day because she was a lounge singer in Greenwich village in the 20's, an Army nurse that ran a hospital in Italy during WWII, and the second dean of Saint Catherine's College. She never married because she said no man was worth her and, eventually, I figured out she was a dyke like me.

She died when I was about 16, she was 93 at the time. Everyone divided up her stuff, and I really wanted a single painting of hers, but didn't really have a claim. My parents gave my a tiny yellow rose she painted on black canvas when I moved to the dorms, and I was thrilled.

When my grandmother died, the family divvied up the literally dozens of paintings she had from her aunt. I was so happy to get one. Then we found the one she had painted of her girlfriend and my aunties insisted I get it, so I had two! Then someone left one behind because they didn't like the damaged frame and my cousin insisted I take it because "it's done in the style of 'Irises' and I remember how much you liked sitting with her." So I took home three for a total of four!

When my parents moved, they left behind one of her few watercolors (she usually preferred oils), and we hung it with the rest in the dining room (next to the liquor cabinet, so it truly was a memorial to her *g*). Now my sister is moving and she gave me hers so it wasn't lost in storage while she's in Thailand for a year.

All my life, I wanted just one from her collection, and now I have six. I just had to share because it makes me so happy to have some small piece of this truly awesome woman who meant so much to me growing up.
cat_77: Smiling Vala (glee!)
Monday, March 17th, 2014 01:06 am
Thank you for the b-day wishes!

Took Friday off from work, slept in, and played at the comic store. Saturday we went to Pagoda by our old house and had their most excellent roast duck for dinner. Sunday we went out with [personal profile] wolfie74's cousin who I share a b-day with. She is visiting from Colombia for a year and we took her to La Colonia as a surprise - she seemed to love it! She's been a bit homesick and kept raving about how the food was done the right way. Bonus of being the only place in MN where we can find Colombiana to drink.

Ooh, and [personal profile] wolfie74 got me really awesome hot chocolate and a little soccer dude (because our boys were at one time little soccer dudes) and a little Natasha with guns as presents. Too cute, really.

Pics below the cut. )
cat_77: (a gay icon)
Friday, February 21st, 2014 09:24 pm
So [personal profile] wolfie74 and I have officially been together 14 years as of today. We celebrated by her pushing my car out of the snowdrift that was our driveway so that I could drive to work and she could hire someone to clear our roof.

And they say romance is dead.

They also said this whole gay thing is just a phase, but it seems to be a pretty damn long one.
cat_77: old tree w/color (tree)
Friday, January 24th, 2014 02:39 pm
We spent the last week in Cancun on vacation, the 70-80 degree temps a sharp contrast from the single digits and negative temps of MN. Friday was [personal profile] wolfie74's birthday and she really wanted to spend it somewhere with sun, water, and sand that was not behind clouds, frozen, or used for traction on the ice.

Thursday )

Friday )

Saturday )

Sunday )

Monday )

Tuesday )

Wednesday )

All in all, a pretty good trip. Beautiful sites, excellent food, awesome weather. We didn't hit the hugely touristy spots (everyone assumes you want to go to Coco Bongo and Señor Frogs, which are huge Spring Break places, but not for us) but still had a good time.

[GIMP and iCloud are not playing well with each other (actually, iCloud is not playing well with itself either after the latest iOS update), so the pictures turned out a bit large. Because of this, I am tacking them on at the end behind their own cut instead of within the main text.]

Pictures )
cat_77: Katie being awesome (Katie)
Wednesday, December 25th, 2013 02:41 am
Woke up and cannot immediately go back to sleep due to far too much on my mind.

This is the first year in my 30+ in which we did not go to one of my relatives for Christmas Eve. Instead, all of the way too many cousins were doing things with their own expanding families and the like, so we got together here with [personal profile] wolfie74's mother and the boys' father. The boys' father usually comes over for Christmas Day, opens presents with us, then takes the kids to his side of the family for their festivities. Due to the massive amounts of snow and ice and the possibility of being snowed in, we did everything tonight instead and he left with them before it got worse. It was a little odd after so many years of doing it differently, but it does mean the possibility of sleeping in come morning for the first time in years.

[personal profile] wolfie74 seems to have really loved her gifts. The boys actualy actively searched for things with meaning to them this year (versus the Chocolate Fountain Year, the Operation Game Year and more) and I found a handmade doll on Etsy of her fave Doctor that she cooed over, amongst other things. She got me things for our upcoming trip and a shirt that's technically in her fandom but the art kinda makes it looks like Natasha as well and makes me both want ALL THE KIDFIC and want to change one of my last two [community profile] hc_bingo stories that I'm struggling with to kidfic as well.

Her mother gave me something I am still struggling to figure out how to react to, but in a positive, heirloom, you-are-family kind of way. My mother both listened about a WWII history book I wanted in memory of my great-great aunt, and got me bracelet a friend made at a craft show because "it has stars and moons and celestial stuff you like."

And, finally, I peeked at LJ when I first woke back up and couldn't fall asleep and Yuletide has posted! Dude - I got three stories to enjoy in the morning while contemplating survival in the vast cold and white. So excited! Will post more when I am coherent and awake enough to do so about those!
cat_77: taken w/1953 Pony (drinks (old school))
Thursday, November 28th, 2013 03:59 pm
Remembing Thanksgivings of days past...

The time we made pemmican and wild rice in protest (my partner is part Native and the entire family was feeling quite political about some things going on in the world).

The time I nearly slugged my sister.

The time my uncle with Alzhiemer's was finally himself again because he recognized the antique furniture from his parents' farmhouse mixed with his mother's recipes. It was one of the last times he ate on his own without excessive prompting.

The first time my sister's now husband celebrated with us and didn't know what to do what that much food and one tiny plate. Or when, while he tried to load up said tiny plate, my 75 year old aunt asked him if they had big meals like that to celebrate where he was from and he said, "No, not in England, no ma'am."

The time both sides of the family came and we filled three banquet tables, a kids' table, two couches, an inset bar, and people still overflowed to the kitchen. My mother thought she over-estimated for the lot as there were still two pans of potatoes and a pan and a half of stuffing that hadn't been brought out yet. Then the twins came and we ran out.

The time in Catholic school where they rewrote the Thanksgiving day play because they told us to dress like we did for our real celebration and I wore jeans. They added a line that I needed to go change because the alternative was that they were going to say I was the help. Yes.

This year, it will be just the immediate family, [personal profile] wolfie74's mom and cousin. However, being the chef she is, she's made a crap ton of food and keeps making more "just in case." We even dug out my grandma's old box of recipes so that she could make the traditional farmhouse dressing for her cousin to try. We'll see how it goes over? Currently no one is wearing socks or shoes and Eldest is in shorts because he can.

This is not really a big holiday for us spiritually or emotionally, but there has always been a time set aside for good food and family, if nothing else.

For now, I need to go take Benedryl because her mother just arrived and the smell of Febreeze and Downy is overpowering the sage.
cat_77: Picture of Ghost with booze (cat)
Sunday, November 24th, 2013 06:12 pm
So we went to run errands today, one of which was to pick up dog food. While at the pet store, we looked in at the cats up for adoption. One was listed as having been thrown out with the trash. Needless to say, we ended up with a new kitty after she decided to cuddle and found us acceptable.

We called the boys to see if they would be okay with us getting another cat. I suspected they would when, after telling them her story, Eldest said, "So you're bringing her home, right? We'll get stuff ready."

Her name is currently Jane, and she is a foster and it makes my geeky, comic heart smile that she is Jane Foster, a tiny little survivor. She is getting along fine with our existing cat, Ghost, who so far has given her kisses and let her eat the food put out. She is six months old (estimated) and incredibly calm so far.

Beneath the cut are some honking huge pictures because the app doesn't resize them despite saying it will. Kitties! )
cat_77: old tree w/color (tree)
Sunday, September 22nd, 2013 09:51 am
Going apple picking with the fam today, as is our usual tradition. May post pics later, if I remember to take them.
cat_77: (a gay icon)
Thursday, August 1st, 2013 07:59 pm
So, as of today, it is legal for [personal profile] wolfie74 and I to get married in the state we live in. We're still not sure if we're going to or not - that will likely be determined come tax season when we see what benefits and/or detriments await. Given that we have already lost approximately $7,800.00 in tax refunds from property taxes alone for being The Gay, it may well lean in that favor. Yes, there's also the added benefits of survivor rights and no one questioning why we're in each other's hospital rooms (happens more often than one may think), but MN had always been pretty relaxed about the latter and will hopefully shape on on the form if there's a few pieces of paper drafted by an attorney.

I work for a company that already grants partner benefits, but am looking for a new job so it'd be nice not to have to worry about that should I succeed. Yes, we are the pratical ones. Or anti-romantic or some such thing.

Random, slightly related question - anyone know where I could get a leather-type bracelet with a ring woven into it? She reacts poorly to metal, and had lost the past three rings I have given her, and it would be something a bit more uniquely us. If we did this. Which we might not. But might. Yes.