kistha

Crows:
Thursday started on a high note with getting to attend Dr. Marzluff's presentation, entitled, "In the Company of Crows and Ravens: "Coevolution of Animal and Human Culture" at NOAA. (He did the recent book In the Company of Crows and Ravens that

sgoilear and his wife got

dthon for Christmas) The only sad note here is that

dthon was unable to attend due to his working to the wire on the new game HorrorClix. As head designer the whole last week was pretty much a pain-in-the-ass, and he couldn't take the time out to go see it. It was a fun presentation, and following that I was able to stop and pick up two lamps for less than the original price of one lamp at the massive sale at JCP. Not only that, but it was easy as pie, took under 10 minutes for the whole transaction including parking! Then stopping at Wizkids I got to play with one of the super expensive light sabers (green) and beat up an old coworker. Thursday pretty much kicked ass. Had dinner and TV with

argentyne and went home to sleep the sleep of satisfied.

Friday blipped by with a visit to

writersweekend and a quiet evening at home.

Tea:
Saturday opened with sleeping in, and then for my birthday we went to have tea at the Queen Mary's. Dr. J couldn't make it but everyone else managed even with all the power outages and the closing of 520.

xlana,

argentyne,

cheriezel and

dthon were all there and very merry. Totally at random,

xlana's top matched her tea cup. Tea and company were wonderful and I got lots of good loot. (Which I wasn't expecting.) I received a dismemberable doll (The Black Knight by Monty Python) and Egyptian magnets, The Black Jewels Trilogy in Omnibus, and a fabulous handmade bag..it's so beautiful - and it carried all the loot home. I'm in love with my bag, and am enjoying the doll and can't wait to re-read the Black Jewels. The tea was fabulous as always and if the tiara was a little late, I was still Queen for the day. I really drink tisanes rather than actual tea, and the Tropical Princess was excellent. I even bought some to drink at home.

Singing:
After tea we stopped by and visited

dthon's step-dad, for the first time in far too long, which was followed by a great SGLC (http://www.slgc.org/) concert with the lovely

scarlettina who was quite good indeed. Then as I had joked "It spun wildly out of control and into dinner." Off to the Broadway Grill (with the relentless Into the Woods number "On the Steps of the Palace" driving me nuts, which I then tortured

mimerki with) and the general chaos of getting a table for "6, no 10, maybe 30? 13? You can seat 13 now? We'll take 13!" had a tasty dinner/breakfast with way too much wacky conversation, I was totally hyper and high, and enjoying every minute! We got the table with

scarlettina &

writersweekend so we totally won. Didn't get home until after midnight since 520 was still closed across the water. Got home sleepy and satisfied, A very good pre-birthday birthday day.

Abject Terror
We haven't had the time or tools to clear out the gutters since we moved into the new house. We are surrounded by pines, maples and ceder trees. We knew we needed to get it done, and finally a day came when we had the ladder, the spouse and dry weather. So, up to the rooftops we went. We have 5 gutters and a fairly steep roof in places, and one VERY steep roof side (which of course has a gutter.) I'm afraid of heights, and while I refuse to let it rule me, it's still very, very real. The garage roof wasn't bad, but after that was done I climbed up the 5' ladder to the real roof. Once I was up we realized that one person would have to stay off the roof, so that they could help the other down. Since I was up, I did the work. I cleaned the other two gutters by hand crouching over the edges. I swept the roof ( a neighbor was doing the exact same thing, and apparently it's a twice a year job) and folded down the flashing and spread Baking Soda on all the moss until I ran out. (Which means up I go again next week)The last gutter was on the crazy steep side with the chimney in the way, so I couldn't just crawl my way across. At the very end I was talking loudly enough to myself that the neighbor called out from his roof to make sure I was OK. I think he thought I was hanging from the roof. I probably got rid of 20 maple sprouts that were trying to grow on the roof or in the gutters. But I did it, I didn't totally freak, and at the end, even climbed backwards to the absolute edge, and lowered one foot blind to the ladder and got down. I have definitely done my heights for the year, that's for absolute sure. My one elbow is rug-burned from dragging myself along the steep roof edge, and so is one knee. But I did it.

And after that we met with

argentyne and did a Costco run, where I got Alien Nation the series for my birthday from the hubby! Go Me!

I feel very accomplished and very pleased.