But first I want to say sorry again for being so late in replying to comments.  My day has been insane today. And I just found out that I have to go upstate to do field work tomorrow, and have to leave at 6:30am. :P It's going to be an all day thing, probably won't be done till around 3 in the afternoon.  I should probably be back home some time in the evening, so it looks like I won't get to do my usual Puppy!Sam picspam until tomorrow evening/night.  Again I just found out about this and I won't have time to do the picspam tonight because I still have housework to do and have to turn in early so I can be up by 5:30 or 6am tomorrow. 

My only saving grace is that tomorrow is Friday.  Thank God for the weekend.

Today was a blah day. My dog hasn't been herself much and has been pretty much incontinent the past couple of days. Took her to the vet for some tests.  Could have urinary tract infection but we'll know more soon hopefully.  I guess the weather could be part of it (she has been dragging a little... it's humid again).

Went to Best Buy last night and talked to a salesperson.  For an SLR camera he recommended the not-yet-released Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS. Supposed to be a lighter weight entry level SLR but with pretty much the same features as the XSi.  Live View and all that fancy stuff.  Not sure when it'll be released but the salesguy believes within the next month or two.  As long as I have plenty of time to practice before the con in November.

So I finally have some more Stargate artwork. The Sam/Daniel-thon has inspired me again.  So let's see what we have here...

18 icons, 1 wallpaper (all Sam/Daniel).  None from the two dvd movies, so no spoilers. Some are pretty non-PGish. *g*  Wallpaper uses a nice manip from rightxhereAll are snurchable. Credit not totally necessary, but appreciated.


And the wallpaper:



(click to enlarge)

Hope you like. :)

Back from NYC.  Macbeth was great.  Patrick Stewart was awesome :D 

Had a blast hanging out with some great people.

*hugs suzotchka *  Thanks again hon for inviting me! I had a really great time. :)

It's been a long day and I'm getting sleepy, so that's it for tonight. I promise I'll catch up on replies to posts here tomorrow morning.

Till then!

Sorry I'm a little behind with responding to comments here.  Had a ton of things to do when I got home from work yesterday, errands, housework...then sat in front of the tv (I will catch up though!).

Speaking of which...



I'll most likely be MIA tomorrow.  Going with suzotchka and a few of her friends to see Patrick Stewart in Macbeth on Broadway.  I'm pretty excited about it.  Should be fun and will take my mind off a ton of crazy RL stuff. 

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend.

For any stupid or foolish comments I may have made either here or anywhere else in LJ lately.  Fact is I'm PMSing badly again.  Wasn't feeling too good this morning, then felt a little better. Then they found something out of place when I went to physical therapy. Some muscle near my shoulder blade moved upward when I raised my arm and it's not supposed to (that was what they told me).  So they made me hold off on one exercise and tried something else. I asked them what could have caused this and they don't know, maybe another exercise they made me do last week.  Then the therapist started hurting me when he massaged me and he tried to stretch my arm when I was lying down.  Anyway this is bothering me because it feels like such a setback. I've been in therapy for this broken shoulder for 7 months now and I'm starting to get tired of it.  I can't wait to be done and now it feels like the end will never come.  Things just seem so bleak right now.

I hate when I get in these moods. I really need to research PMS again or talk to my doctor.  But anyway I apologize for anything stupid, strange, or unreasonable that I've said anywhere on LJ. :(

Today I took in the flower show at one of our local nurseries.  It was very nice; saw some lovely flowers (but sadly didn't bring my camera), fell in love with a nice new fragrance (Spider Lily), and picked up a few plants.  It wasn't as extravagant an affair as it was last year, but still very nice.  Unfortunately I had to leave after a while because my PMS started rearing its ugly head and I started feeling a bit weepy and depressed.  That's long gone now thankfully.

Yesterday I picked up the new issue of Stargate (SG-1 and Atlantis) magazine, the one with MS, AT, and BB on the cover (with the interviews inside on the 2 movies).  A few spoilery things I'll hide behind a cut...


Oh, and another up side to that magazine... there was a nice ad in it for the Supernatural magazine. *grin*

And speaking of that, I will have some new artwork to share soon. I've made a LOT of new icons, headers and whatnot since my last artwork post, so look for those soon. 

I'll also have a new LJ header soon.  I'm working on something that will pretty much showcase most (or hopefully all) of my different fandoms, all in one place.  I have one version that I quite like but I'll be working on a few more.  I'll probably unveil it in a few weeks, the closer we get to Spring. 

And somewhat related... I now hear that the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) may go on strike? *puts head in hands* Jeepers, we just got through one strike and now we'll have to contend with another? I was watching TV yesterday and there was a little news blurb about this, saying it could affect production in the summer on new TV seasons.  I'm not taking any side in this; not the actors' side or the studios' side.  I just really hope they can come to some kind of agreement.  Don't they see what this past strike has done?  You'd think they'd want to avoid another one.  I really hope this can be avoided.

And finally... I think my muse is returning.  She forced me to answer this prompt on the sg1_five_things comm, the "Five times Sam and Daniel went out together (five things they did as friends or on a 'date')" prompt.  They're supposed to be unveiled tomorrow so when that happens I'll post a link here to it.  Thanks to maevebran for giving the heads up over at the S/D thread at GW. :) 

I've also got a little idea for a Supernatural fic.  It's not much, just a tiny little plot bunny and I'm not too sure if it could work.  I'll do some more brainstorming though and see if it can go anywhere.

Guess that's about it... the PMS is also making me really tired so I'll probably call it an early night. 

First of all,

vixen_logic ... your birthday card arrived yesterday.  What a sweet gift... thanks so much hon!! *HUGS* I will be sending one to you soon.

Second... oh it's quite cold here today.  Even though I'm in a warm office I'm still freezing.  No snow yet (but that may change tonight...*sigh*) but still cold.  Supposed to get warmer next week finally.

No real plans for the weekend. Might check out a flower show with my mom if the weather holds up.  If not I'll be holed up inside here probably working on fanfiction and fanart.  We will see.

glitter-graphics.com


I am feeling a lot better today - think I may be able to go back to work tomorrow!  :D

So I'm still sick. :(  The past few days, I've gone through periods where I felt a lot better and thought I was kicking this bronchitis.  Then the next day I'd feel worse.  My chest is still a bit congested, and my nose is as well.  I'd finished my medication last Wed., so I went back to the doctor this afternoon.  He says the bronchitis is still lingering a bit and he gave me 7 more days of medication.  Said I should start feeling better in a few days.

I'm really hoping so because one of my good friends will be visiting this coming weekend. I haven't seen her in at least a year.  So many people around here have been sick for quite a while lately - even the doctor told me there is a lot of respiratory stuff going around that takes a while to get rid of.

I just want to be able to breathe - fully - again.  Having my nose stuffed up for so long gets so frustrating.  I've tried virtually everything to remedy it... I just hope this next round of antibiotics helps finally knock out the bronchitis.  I want to go back to work and just feel like my old self again.

Hoping and praying that this happens soon....

... Is such an idiot.  The guy has a huge pickup truck that for some reason he never parks in his driveway (even though the driveway is huge and can fit at least 2 vehicles in it).  He always parks it out on the street.  He and his family have lived here for more than 6 years and he's done it every day.  Our street is not that wide to begin with, so it takes up a ton of room.  I'm surprised that no one has come speeding around the corner and creamed it.  In the past he's parked it in such a way that makes it hard for us to get out of our driveway.  We've spoken to both him and his wife about it, and he would park it closer to their corner for maybe one day.  Then it was back to the same old thing. 

This morning I wasn't feeling too well, but I had to go to work because I have to edit my resume and possibly speak again to the head hunter about it.  This schoolbus stops at his corner to pick up children and every single morning sits there for 10 minutes at least (I guess the bus driver has a friendly conversation with one of the kids' mothers).  I decided that to avoid them I'd go the opposite direction, turning left instead of right once I'm out of our driveway and going up another block.  Today he's parked right smack up against his driveway, which is just about directly across from ours.  I maneuvered so tightly to try to avoid him, but it was impossible. I ended up tapping his bumper.  I got out, looked at his truck and there didn't appear to be any damage, while I have some of his nice paint on my back bumper, as well as a bit of my paint scraped off and a very small crack.

I was so pissed off.  I ran back into the house and angrily told my mother about it.  I was so angry and I had to get to work, and I didn't know what he was doing (I guess in his house somewhere totally oblivious to this).  My mom just told me to go to work and she'd take care of it.  I didn't want her to have to do that but I left anyway. 

I really think these people believe they're the only ones who live on our block.  How I would love to tell them that that isn't the case.  But they're so stupid I don't think it would do any good.  His wife never even stops for the Stop sign on their corner - she just speeds through it around the corner, every single day.  I can't wait for a cop to catch her, but they're never in the right place at the right time.

I so didn't need this.  This guy has all the room in the world to park his truck, from between his driveway to the street corner. And he always picks the most inconvenient spot.  And the fact that talking to them will do no good makes me even more pissed off.

*sigh* Calming down, calming down.....

snatched from majorsamfan

Two names you go by:
1. Jessica
2. Jess

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. Jeans
2. Sweater

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. listen to music
2. do artsy things like writing and ... art (graphic and drawing)

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. a Supernatural convention on the east coast
2. 100% return of all my arm strength so I can stop going to physical therapy (too much to ask, I know...)

Two pets you had/have:
1. Penny (beagle) - have
2. Honey (beagle/shepherd mix) - had many years ago

Two things you did last night:
1. got a cavity filled at the dentist's... fun, fun, fun...
2. Watched Supernatural rerun

Two things you ate yesterday:
1. blueberry yogurt
2. chicken noodle soup

Two people you last talked to:
1. mom
2. dad

Two things you're doing tomorrow:
1. catching up on my fic-reading
2. meeting some friends at a diner late in the afternoon

Longest driving trips
1. Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada (waaaay back in 1989) = approx. 450 mi.
2.  Saranac Lake, NY in the Adirondack Mountains (August 2005) = approx. 330 mi.

Two favorite holidays:
1. Christmas
2. Thanksgiving

Two favorite beverages:
1. Water
2. Green Tea

Had a nice time out with a few friends last night.  We went to an old restaurant in Jericho (a town not too far away from here), the building itself has been around since the 1600s, was apparently popular during Colonial days, and is now a restaurant with a main building, carriage house (which is mainly used for different events), and a little village of shops that includes an ice cream parlor and bakery.  Went back to my house for some dessert and coffee (though we were all stuffed anyway).  Didn't do a whole lot except for chatting and watching the Twilight Zone marathon (just had to satisfy my inner geek. *grin*). 

And unlike last year I was actually able to make it to midnight.  Watched the ball drop in Times Square, we cheered and all that, wished each other a Happy New Year, watched a bit more TV and that was the extent of the celebration really.

Relaxed today for the most part.  Thought back on all the craziness - good and bad - that was part of 2007 for me.  Fandom-wise, we had SG-1 ending. I branched out into some other shows/fandoms as well, cooled my SG-1 fandom-ness just a tad (I don't think I'll ever let go of it completely - but I'm not as obsessed as I was 4 or 5 years ago... I don't think, anyway).

Real life-wise...  I had my laser eye surgery (which was successful, thank God), I'd met a few guys here and there, but none that I clicked with and the desire for a relationship was not there - either coming from my end or theirs.  There was my big accident in July that left me with a broken nose and arm/shoulder.  That was the toughest thing I had to go through, without a doubt.  Not just physically but emotionally/spiritually.  I don't think I would have gotten through it completely without the support and love from my family and friends.  Here it is more than 5 months later... I am for all intents and purposes pain free.  The only reminder I have that something happened was that I still can't lift my arm completely up as far as my left one.  I may never be able to get all my strength/mobility back. I'm trying to keep positive thoughts about it in the meantime. I visit the orthopedic surgeon again in a few weeks so we'll see what's what. 

So, looking ahead to this year, I am hoping that I will make a full recovery as far as the right arm goes.  I am hoping that I get a decent settlement as far as the accident goes (a woman from the kid's insurance company called last week and told me she was putting together a settlement package and wanted my medical records since the accident ... I referred her to my attorney). I am wishing both my parents success at their jobs (my dad has been slow to receive payments from clients), especially my mom who has been working two jobs lately, despite the fact that she will be retiring in several years.

And last but not least I am hoping I meet someone special.  I'm going to be 30 this year...next month actually... and finding that special someone has been a long, sometimes frustrating process.  Don't get me wrong - I love being single most of the time, getting to do what I want when I want, but I don't have a lot of friends who live nearby that I get to see often, and at times I just feel like my life is missing something.  And as childish or stupid as it sounds, I sometimes feel very bitter when my friends who are married/engaged or have boyfriends brag to me about it.

Here's hoping that something good comes out of this year.

In the meantime, here is a fandom related meme I snurched from suekay_87


and a not-so-fandom-related meme (also from suekay_87)

I got some pretty nice gifts for Christmas, but one in particular that arrived in the mail on Christmas Eve is hard to top:




Try to ignore the fact that I look drugged or something, LOL. Just focus on the gorgeous man next to me. :D
 
The funny thing is I had emailed Chris at Creation the day before asking about the photos.  Then I headed over to GW and one gal who had the same problem said she'd heard from him, and to tell everyone at GW that their photos will be arriving shortly (something about him doing three different shows at once and he got behind).  I'm just glad that it arrived.  But wow, what timing. *grins*

Anyway, I had a nice Christmas with my family.  On Christmas Eve we went to mass at 4pm, then got some dinner at a nice restaurant/pub called E.B Elliot's.  It's on a seaside strip called The Nautical Mile.  Nice views and the food was good.  The weather wasn't too bad either.  No snow, and not very cold.  Needless to say we didn't have a white Christmas.  It was quite bright out and around 45 F.

Among the gifts I received were a few sweaters, pairs of socks and a pair of gloves.  On DVD I got Doctor Who series 3 and Ghost Hunters season 3 part 1. Got a couple of jazz CD's, ghost hunting book by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson (from GH), the Supernatural novel "Witch's Canyon"...  um a couple of calendars as well - for my desk at work one with tropical seascapes and for home a Supernatural calendar.  Also got a pack of blank DVD-R discs and a 4GB pen drive for my computer.

Spent Christmas day with my parents, grandmother and uncle.  It was a nice, quiet day for the most part.  I do have some pics to share from Christmas morning... hope I am doing this right:


I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. :)

I think I did something to my back in physical therapy on Monday. On the weekend I had this soreness in my upper right back, around my shoulder blade. I thought maybe I'd overworked it that Friday in PT. It eased up some but I told the therapist on Monday about it, that it was still there. He massaged it, pretty hard, so that a few times I was wincing in pain. But he said he broke up the knots so it should be okay. I felt okay, but then started feeling a little sore Mon. night. Yesterday morning I woke up in a fair amount of pain, so bad I couldn't even drive and had to take off from work. It even made my arm lock up at a certain point. I just sat around and took it easy. Advil helped somewhat, as did this new cream I tried... I can't remember the name of it, but it's almost like Theragesic or Icy Hot. Mostly for arthritis but also for joint and muscle pain. I felt a lot better after using it.

Today it's also better. But I decided to cancel my PT appointment for today, to give myself some time to rest. The receptionist told me that sometimes when the therapist does a massage he can be very aggressive and I know one girl told me when he'd given her one, she ended up with some bruises. So I guess it's a combination of his massage and then some of the exercise I did afterwards (for this one exercise for my upper back, I'm supposed to grab a long rubber type band that's attached to the door, pull back and down with my arm).

It's also that time of the month for me, and even before the accident I'd get muscle aches. Hopefully that will ease up in the next day or two. I have a Christmas party to attend tonight... held by some business colleagues at a catering hall type place (which I hear they use for weddings sometimes). Looks like I should be okay for that.

So, fandom break... Because I am in a really snarky mood now, and remembering some past conversations on here about other SG shippers and being inducted into The Club *grin*... Here are a couple of things. The first I made myself at some website, diy.despair.com I think. The second, I found the image somewhere on the net, can't remember where and I manipped it a bit.

( Snark of a S/D shipper... )

Yeah, I need to cut down on the snark today... heh.

Ugh, weather here is awful.  It started hailing this morning, then turned into freezing rain and sleet and snow.  Not sure what it's doing now but it's pretty loud... sounds like sleet possibly.  Supposed to go on until 11pm. 

Had a dentist appt at 3pm which I canceled.  The roads are pretty bad and people out here drive horribly even when the weather is good, so I'm not taking any chances.  Didn't go into work today on account of this, plus the fact that I'm aching something terrible.  Since physical therapy yesterday I've had this awful backache... my right upper back and a bit of my mid back as well.  I think I pulled something in my right thigh too, because that's smarting a bit.  Plus whenever I'm PMSing I get muscle aches anyway, so in some weird way it makes sense.

Arm is fine though, ironically.  I went to the orthopedic surgeon yesterday and was almost embarrassed by how the physician's assistant was acting.  She was amazed at my progress.  She said my posture has improved so much, both shoulders are basically in alignment.  My range of motion, strength and flexibility have all greatly increased as well.  Physical therapist had told me the other day to not let them cut off my therapy yet.  He said I'm about 90% of the way there and he'd like me to get the full 100%, so he would like me to get 4-6 more weeks of therapy.  I told her and she wrote me out a script for more.  I have to go back on January 23rd and she'll probably discharge me then.  So that is some good news.

Oh, question for the icon makers.  I was trying to make an icon with animated snow to match the Supernatural header I have here, but the file size keeps coming out really large.  I should start out by saying that I don't have PS Imageready.  I only have Photoshop Elements at work (and on my laptop), and on my desktop here at home I have Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop.  Used Animation Shop to make the icon, had 15 frames.  I was making it using this tutorial which I tweaked somewhat for my own purposes.  Whenever I tried to optimize the file in Animation Shop, it ended up being something like 55kb in size.  LJ only lets you have 45kb for a GIF file, apparently.  When I tried to optimize it further, it came out looking really crummy (really basic as far as the colors are concerned).  Unfortunately AS doesn't give you much of choice as far as optimization is concerned. 

Anyone have any tips, pointers, or whatever?

Anyone know of any natural/herbal PMS remedies you could recommend?

I seriously need to stay offline when I'm PMSing.  I overreact to trivial things and take everything to heart.

For example - based on something that was said at Gateworld to me, I am thinking that I can no longer call myself a fan of Daniel Jackson.  Because I have some little issues/misgivings with the way he has been portrayed in the most recent couple of seasons, I am being too negative and I guess I need to think of him only in a positive light and ignore any of his flaws.  Or something like that anyway.  Otherwise I can't be a fan of his.  Apparently.

I'm not a true fan of Stargate as it is, as I haven't pre-ordered Ark of Truth and really don't have any plans to (I know, I know, stone the heathen...).

So I guess I should just stay away from the Daniel Discussion and Appreciation thread. And the Daniel/MS Thunk Thread (aka The Pond) to be on the safe side.

You know, now that I think of it, I think I'm just going to take a nice, long break from the active Stargate fandom.  I'll stay away from all the current chatter/news/whatever pertaining to the show.  I'll  possibly stick to some of my Yahoo groups, which aren't all that active anyway.  I'll possibly do a little work on the fics I have in progress, but I'm not even so sure about that.  I'll keep my website up (heck, I just got my domain and account renewed...I'd be stupid to ditch it now).  I may still watch some of my old DVD boxsets.  But I'm getting a bit frustrated and disgusted, and I think I need some time off.

I'm sorry to anyone I may have upset/offended/etc. in this post... I'm really not this loony all the time.  It's the fracking PMS.  I think I may need some kind of Blacklist for sites to stay away from during this time of the month. :P

The other day my parents got a call (as well as a letter) from our insurance company - with whom we have both auto and home insurance - that they're being dropped from auto because of "too many accidents."  And they're being taken off home insurance because the company wants to force a new policy on them that includes flood insurance. 

Okay, first of all... My parents have not had a lot of car accidents over the past handful of years.  My mom had one back in June 2005 but no one was hurt and there wasn't much damage. I can't even remember the last time my dad had one.  If they're taking me into account (I got hit in a parking lot in January 2005, a collision in July 2005 that totaled my car because some girl decided to use a left turn lane as a passing lane, and I got left-turned by another girl in December 2006... not sure if they'd count me getting hit by a car as a pedestrian this past summer), then it makes no sense because I have my own auto insurance policy.  Why would they count me in? It just makes no sense.  My dad talked to them on the phone and they said it's simply the fact that I still live at home.  No matter that I have my own policy, they still count me because I live with them.  Like not being able to afford living on my own at the age of 30 because of ridiculous costs of living (including taxes) in this area is such a crime.  Apparently the guy was pretty rude to my dad, also. 

As for the flood insurance thing... I have no idea what that's about.  We don't live in a very flood-prone area.  Yes this is an island but where we live it's about 75 ft above sea level.  It's not like New Orleans.  Unless the company is trying to cover their tracks somehow in the extreme outside chance that something like this could happen. 

So I guess they have to shop around for new insurance (and me for new auto insurance).  I just can't believe it because everyone we've dealt with in this company has always been very reasonable.

Yeah I just have to taint an episode review post with some silly RL stuff.  But I'll save that for last.  Beware of spoilers in the reviews.




Now onto the crazy RL stuff... yeah I need a cut for this too...