Reprieve!

I got to the courthouse right on time, and looked at the board to see what room I was supposed to be in, then realized that the listings were for sessions that had ended an hour before. Just as I was looking for someone who could tell me, the plaintiff's lawyer approached me, asking if we could talk for a few minutes. I told him what was going on with us, and offered to negotiate a settlement. After a little while, we'd worked out a payment schedule that worked for both parties. Of course, if I miss one payment, we're out on our asses in no time flat.

Also this week, both the router and the DSL went out, which cost some money to restore, but by the time I went to bed Thursday, we were back online.

Today I got extravagant, buying our Thanksgiving meal. We usually don't do turkey, because Honey doesn't like it (having spent her young summers raising them). What we do instead is indulge in what we refer to as "high-class cold cuts": brie, pate, prosciutto, etc. We sit around noshing that and sipping wine while watching old movies. No family, no stress, just us relaxing together.

Fun Stuff! Crafty Stuff! Free Patterns!

As some of you may know, I'm into a lot of different crafts: quilting, knitting, crochet, needlework, beadwork, etc.

But today I have something very cool to share with you. I've added a new feature to my sidebar:

Free Quilt Pattern of the Day by FourTwinSisters.

These women make a host of quilt patterns of many different subjects. For years, they have offered all of them for free. Now, they are offering a new free pattern every day. Some of them may be published on their site in the future, but many may not.

So check back here every day for a new free quilt pattern!

The Saga Continues...

Let's see...what's happened since my last post?

• We have a court date. On the 15th of this month (yeah, that's this coming Wednesday), I get to go explain to the judge why we shouldn't be thrown out into the street. Wish us luck, because we need all the help we can get on this.
• Honey's holding steady on the quit-smoking project. She's too stressed over our financial situation to cut back any further right now.
• My new assignment's going well. My cohort and I are taking on more responsibility, though she's a little nervous about it, because she hasn't had as much experience with this kind of analysis as I have. Our biggest frustration, I think, is with one of our other co-workers. He's from one of the Big Accounting Firms (BAF's), which I would have thought meant that he'd be an ace accountant. Sadly, this is not the case. He asks us the same questions over and over again, and even when we explain it to him over and over again, he doesn't really seem to get it. Some days we fantasize about doing him some harm, or at least gagging him and tying him to his chair so he can't pester us for awhile. He's a nice enough guy, and we know he means well and is trying to do his job, but damn... Actually, it often seems as if he's trying to get us to do his job and then take the credit for it. But we had been advised already by others on the team that people from this BAF tend to do that. So whenever someone refers to something that he presented, we let them know that we built it for him. We've also decided that maybe we're working for the wrong agency, since his bill rate is so much higher than ours, and we are so much more competent.

Well, that's the news in a nutshell.

Catching Up (aka The Story So Far)

I know it's been a really long time since I last posted here. Here's a synopsis of what I've been up to since then:

• I did so well at the assignment I was on then (test-piloting/creating a new position), that they decided early this year that they needed a full-time, permanent person to do it. I applied for it, but the position went to an inside candidate, naturally.
• I got another assignment in the same office park, so I have a whole new set of puzzles to play with in the same great place. It also means that I can keep in touch easily with my cohorts from the previous assignment. Recently, I asked them how my replacement was doing at keeping up with the pace (she's pretty sharp); they told me that she's managing it, but she's having to work extra hours to do it (I rarely stayed past 5). Hmmm...maybe by the time I finish the current project (in about 12 to 24 months), the powers in that department will want me back. We'll see.
• Meanwhile, Honey's health has been bad. Starting this past May, I've had to take her for an average of three medical visits a month. Each has not only had the direct cost of the copay, transportation to and from, and associated prescriptions (among other things); it has also had the indirect cost of my taking a day off from work, sans pay, to take her there. Part of this increased frequency is because she started having severe chest pains this summer, which means we've added a cardiologist to the mix. He ordered several tests, which showed "a slight narrowing" in one of her arteries. When I told the cardio about her visit to the ER in the last week of September, he booked her for an angiogram the first week of October. Well, the angiogram showed three major blockages in one of her coronary arteries, so they went ahead and performed an angioplasty while they had her on the table. So instead of sending her home that afternoon, they admitted her overnight. But we had planned for that possibility, so she had jammies and such with her. She also had me, because I told the staff from the outset that if they wanted me to leave her alone there, they'd have to drag me bodily from her side. So Honey is now the proud owner of three brand-new stents, and is feeling better than she has in quite some time.
• The downside of all this medical activity has taken its toll on our ever-precarious finiancial situation. So, even though we had kept the apartment management apprised of the situation, the owners served us with eviction papers last week. But this time, instead of rolling over and crying for more time, we filed an answer with the court, claiming (a) medical hardship and (b) they didn't hold up their end of the deal in terms of habitability. So we'll see how that goes when we get to court. Wish us luck, because if we lose, we have nowhere to go.

So, how have you been?

Musical Mayhem

The guys I work with now are quite goofy much of the time, with a fair amount of banter going back and forth, including song scraps and lines from movies. So when one of them said (in a conversation I only heard part of) "cabana boy", I immediately came up with the following:

Cabana boy, the towels, the towels are soggy

Look at this mess of wet things on the floor

Bring me a fresh one so that I can dry myself

Don't make me stand here, dripping by the door

Cabana boy, I really need a towel now

My hair's all wet and dripping in my eyes

Bring me a great big cotton terry one

So I can be all snug and warm and dry.

That got me started on the the thought that "Danny Boy" is set to the tune of "Londonderry Air", which of course led to puns:

The girls in France act like they are too good for me

But English girls at least pretend to care

I'm going to go across the Channel now

And try to get some London derriere

and:

There was a farm outside of London town

The sweetest milk came from the cattle there

When people passed, they'd hold their breath and cry:

"My god, it's London dairy air"

See what I mean?

And just in case that's not bad enough, think about this: "Amazing Grace" scans to the tune of the theme from "Gilligan's Island". Try it; it works, but it's really quite disturbing. :-)

Sorry to keep you waiting so long

It's been quite awhile since I last posted here. I've been quite busy in the interim. Among other things, I'm now working on a new assignment. It's a better fit for me than the last one, making great use of my particular skillset. It's also a beautiful location; I don't know who designed it, but they really put the "park" in "office park".

On the artistic side, I've finished the last of the blocks I was making for the star sampler swap, and everyone loved them. Now I'm working on another swap; this one's mini Christmas blocks.

My partner's doing a little better than she had been lately. Her bad leg has been getting worse; the fused bones have been bowed for as long as I've known her, but in the last couple of months it seems the bowing has gotten worse. So she was in a lot of pain (more than usual, that is) while her body adapted to the new position.

Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print right now.

Here I go a-surfing again

Staunch Moderate