You Are a Mai Tai

You aren’t a big drinker, but you’ll drink if the atmosphere is festive.
And when you’re drunk, watch out! You’re easily carried away.

I’ve been catching up on friends’ blogs and just read D’s.  I’m
feeling fairly guilty that I never got around to helping him write some
essays and responses to law school applications.  Although life
got pretty busy, I really do not have a good excuse for not blocking
out a few hours to sit down and edit his stuff.  I’m glad he has
other friends who are lawyers and who made the time.  I can be a
selfish shit sometimes, or maybe the better word is thoughtless. 
One of the many things on my list of “things to work on to make myself
a better person.”

This is kind of weird to me.  I always thought of myself as more
Libertarian, or at least a “social liberal, economic
conservative.”  I’ll have to think about this some!

You are a Social Liberal (75% permissive) and an… Economic Liberal (36% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness. loc: (93, -50) modscore: (22, 45) raw: (2642)

Well the two days of work after returning from Spokane basically sucked
(Spokane itself was beautiful – great weather and not so stressful
days).  I had major personnel issues to deal with Thursday and
Friday, including a very tense interview with an angry 6’10″ guy, and
coordinating an investigation of alleged “bad” acts (it’s part of that
lawyer thing – can’t be more specific on a public page).  Plus,
one brother and his family boarded up their Houston house and decided
to ride out the hurricane there.  My oldest brother evacuated from
Beaumont and was completely out of touch for 12 hours.  And,
several cousins and my elderly aunt decided to stay in Beaumont despite
the mandatory evacuation orders.

So, Friday was just a very tense day until about 4:30, when my oldest
brother finally got through to tell me they were safe.  Took them
a total of 14 hours to get from Beaumont to Dallas, but when they
finally arrived we ordered dinner delivered and went through a couple
of bottles of wine.  Everyone slept well, we’ve been in touch with
all the family still in Beaumont and Houston, and we’ve been watching
the news all morning hoping to find out how much damage there is in
Beaumont.  So far, the news media has talked about Houston and
Port Arthur, but hardly anything about Beaumont.  Can’t figure out
if that’s good or bad.  At any rate, they’ll probaby be here a few
days. 

My cats are going nuts because they brought their birds, and we’ve got
them locked in their cages in a back bedroom.  You can hear the
cats pawing at the door and expressing their displeasure at not being
allowed to play with our new room-mates!

Life keeps getting more and more interesting.  Work has erupted in
several fires, one of which is taking me to Spokane Sunday evening
through Wednesday.  I think it’s not really necessary for me to be
there, but it apparently makes everyone else feel better, so off I
go.  And that means I get to spend the weekend coming up with
talking points for all the stupid meetings I now anticipate having to
have.  Sigh.  Oh well, I haven’t been up in that neck of the
woods in years, so I’ll hopefully have a little time in the evenings to
drift around a bit. 

I guess I shouldn’t complain too much.  The job is sending me to
San Francisco for a two-day  conference and then to Australia for
a week to visit our operations there, and my boss told me that she
expected I’d be taking time off to see the sights while visiting both
places.  I imagine I’ll take the first three days of the week off
for the San Francisco trip, and at least a week (maybe two) for the Oz
trip.  I’m researching now to figure out what I most want to
see.  It’s a whole damn continent (not to mention New Zealand),
and I can’t see everything!  O suggested that I try to make an SCA
event while I’m out there.  She’s going off into fantasies of
making a fabulous dress that will wow them all, so I can tell them that
*that’s* how Ansteorran Roses always dress!  If we actually do it,
I’m gonna owe her big time (maybe she’ll barter for jewelry?).

That’s it for now.  At least I’m now remembering to occasionally log on and write stuff!

My yoga instructor tried to kill me tonight, or at least maim me beyond
recognition.  That’s what I get for not doing any yoga during my
vacation at Canyon Ranch.  Yeah, I did plenty of other healthy
exercise type thingies, but yoga wasn’t one of them.  Actually,
the whole Canyon Ranch experience was pretty cool, a weird cross
between working your ass off exercising and being healthy, and doing
that pamper-me-spa-experience.  I actually came home with all the
usual stress knots in my shoulders gone.  Of course, they’re back
only a week later, which is probably why my yoga instructor seemed to
be extra evil tonight.

I’ve got another new hobby, thanks to my summer camp stay.  I took
a jewelry making class at Canyon Ranch and learned how to do wire
wrapping.  Made a spiffy necklace and earring set with aquamarines
and black pearls.  The class price included the basic tools
required, as well as the semi-precious stones, so now I’ve got the
tools I need to make more stuff.  I’ve found a couple of near-by
beading supply stores, so I’ll probably drop a bunch of dough sometime
soon.  Why aren’t any of my hobbies cheap?

Well, I’ve been ignoring this site for weeks now, but I just read D’s
site and liked this quiz.  So, here’s how I scored.  That
whole “regenerate yourself” bit sure seems to fit.  I wonder what
Fox’s attributes are?

You scored as Dragon.
You are the Dragon. You store a lot of knowledge about everything. You are generally one who is good with personal growth and can regenerate yourself after a bad experience.
Dragon 92% Fox 92% Stag 83% Bear 83% Dog 75% Crow 75% Salmon 75% Eagle 75% Horse 75% Wolf 75% Bull 58% Deer 58% Ram 50% Snake 25%