So I think my dog bruised the cartilage in my nose.  Yeah, two good whacks in the nose by a dog with a brick for a head would do that I suppose.

Hey guys, I'm participating in a walk for the Arthritis Foundation in support of one of my friends.  It's May 30th, and we are rounding up donations under our team "The Walking Zombies".  If anyone wants to donate (I won't hold it against anyone if they don't) go to:
http://arthritiswalkie.kintera.org/thewalkingzombies
Click on my name (in the team members block, Kristen Thorne) and it will take you to my donation page.  Minimum donation is $20.00 (I didn't set it).
Thanks guys.  And please pass on the message to anyone you think might be interested in helping out.

I has pretty new car.  Yayz!

My guy buddies at work wanted to know what costume I was working on.  I told them Sophitia.  Neither of them knew what she looked like, so one of them looked her up on his iphone.  They were both like "whoohoo, I like that character design"  then they asked who I was making the costume for.  I said me.  They both were like "oh you had better be getting pictures of that." and "I am so gonna look for you at con, and dont think I wont find you."  Then I told them it was for Fanime not AX.  They both went "awwwwwww . . . wear it at AX too!"

I'm not really sure if I should see it as them wanting to see how well the costume turns out, or if the just want to see boobies . . . I'm leaning towards the boobies.  I guess you just can't keep the guys from being pervy, even when one of them was sitting right next to his wife XD.

Yeah.  That was my story for today.

This is for Zach

I got a few emails from you that had nothing in them.  Don't know what was suppose to be there but it's nothing but the headers.  All my other emails are fine so I'm a bit confused.  If they weren't mistakes, try sending one again please.  I'll let you know if it's still not coming through.

I'm getting pretty far on my Sophitia accessories (gonna put some pics up soon).  I just kinda wish I didn't choose to hand sew all the pieces . . . . my fingers are getting kinda torn up . . . .

I'm gonna have a new car by Sunday!!! Whooooo!!!!  I'll be able to drive further than ten miles again!!!

Yeah that was it.

I was looking through some older cosplay pics and came across this one.  It was from a Halloween Town event at RCC and our club used Kenshin for the door theme.   Then this happened:

Yahiko = My brother
Kaoru = our friend Elisa
Kenshin = Me
Sanosuke = Hat James

The funny part about the picture is that my brother didn't know Elisa was behind him, Elisa didn't know I was behind her, and I didn't know that Hat James was behind me.  Ah that was a fun event.

Even though I was really sick yesterday, I went to work (didn't have any daytime medicine, totally thought I did, but I didn't).  Nearly fell asleep at my desk several times.  Bossman didn't call me on it though.  The only thing I had to do was finish the month end stuff, which wasn't much, however it couldn't be finished until the CPA was done with his auditing.  So I had pretty much nothing to do inbetween the little adjustments that needed to be made.  The CPA didn't get done until just after 3pm, which meant there was no hope of going home early.  Slept through all my breaks.  Didn't eat until I got home, which was a bowl of soup crackers and a glass of juice.  Slept off and on between 5:30 and 11:30.  Trudged upstairs, took some sleepytime meds and slept for another ten and a half hours.  Aaaaaah.  I needed that.  Finally ate something real.  Bought daytime meds (yayz). 

I was supposed to go to an SCA event today with my parents, but they didn't want to wake me up to ask if I was feeling good enough to go.  I was out like a light.  Oh well, I'll go next time.  I really need to clean and catch up on my costume.  So many little accessories . . . . *sigh*.

I've been reading Fruits Basket.  My neighbor gave me the first 14 volumes of it. 

Okay that's enough blathering for today.

I'm sick.  Blargh.  Not really bad but I feel it coming.  Got a sore throat now and the coughing is getting worse.  Can't stay home from work cuz we're in the middle of the month end wrap up for accounting.  *sigh*  I haven't figured out how I got it yet.  It was either from my family (I'm always the last to catch the bug around here) or from the guy who sits behind me at work.  I consider blaming him cuz he's been sick this whole past week, and I just realized today that he's been breathing WITH HIS MOUTH OPEN.  He sits all of four feet behind me . . . probably doesn't use a tissue to cover his mouth or sanitize his hands before touching the communal printer . . . grrr.

Imma go make some soup now.

Gave my dog a bath today.  Heh.  That's always fun.

Our neighbor was having a yard sale and my brother was 'marveling' at it, so she gave it to him.
Poor Auron has to chill under it now ......... *snortlaugh*

I forgot I took pictures last night.


A little blurry but it works


Yayz for cosplay accessories!
(and chibi Kakashi in the corner)

I need to get out and socialize more.  Get on the damned dating scene.  Hermit sewing gets lonely.

My dear darling daddy seems to think that it's okay to bring me a hoard of sewing projects he wants me to do.  And all during the time I reserve for my costuming.  Can he not wait until after I don't have cons every other month?  And none of his little projects needs to be done till September, but he wants them all now.  Well too bad daddy dear, this is MY project time.

Moving boxes today went very smoothly.  Imma be sore tomorrow.  But accomplished. Whoo.

That is all. Buh-bye! *waves*

We're moving file boxes around at work again.  I don't mind it too much, I'm cool with manual labor.  Except this time I have to work with a different set of people, none of which has done this before, none of which can get it through their heads that I HAVE done this before and have a working system for doing it.

Three of the people are new hires (hired less than a few months ago).  The girl is already annoyed with me cuz she apparently doesn't like to be told where to put the boxes and how to stack them.  One of the guys is like that too.  This is his first week, and I guess because he's taller than everybody else, he knows the best ways to move things (of course the reason two of the stacks fell over was because they weren't stacking them properly).  The other guy is more like "I'm just gonna do it the way I'm told to."   Him I can work with.

The other two people are both supervisors.  One is my supervisor, Bossman, who helped move boxes the first time (okay I lied, I have worked with him and he knows what to do).  I work well with Bossman.  The other supervisor is from the Accounting department (the girl works for her), and she has a bad habit of over-explaining things . . . constantly.  Once we've thought something through we don't need to think it over five more times and explain it each time.  Nice lady, really, but not someone I can stand working with for too long.

Today we were gonna start moving things outta the cage.  Our area however has been boxed in by the mail room people's boxes (they are SO considerate).  Short term solution: have the mail room people move their boxes outta the way enough for us to move around.  Long term solution: have maintenance put in a gate at our end of the cage.  Both of which will be happening.  Tall guy's solution: have a person stand on either side of the fence and hand the boxes over the top.  Dumbass.  These boxes are not light.  Someone could get seriously hurt doing that (of course I don't think he cares seeing as though he already smashed my finger between two boxes cuz he wasn't paying attention and then was all *shrug* when he saw me yanking it out, grrr). 

So the actual moving of said boxes from the cage will begin tomorrow (we've been moving around other boxes for two days).  Hopefully things will run smoothly.  Hopefully they'll let me explain the system before trying to come up with something else.  Otherwise they can all go back to their desks and I'll move the boxes myself.  Hrmf!

Sorry for the long-windedness (I forgot how to do cuts =P)

I don't have the actual meme. I was going over Erin's marriage meme, and took it myself in my head.

. . . . I got 27. . . . . I apparently only have two more years . . . .

I visited my grandma today with my mom.  We were all sitting on the couch, and I was working on cosplay pieces for Sophitia.  My grandma asked me what I was making so I showed her a picture of the full costume.  She asks "Oh so you're making this whole outfit?"  and I say "Yup. Except my boobs won't be hanging out like hers."  she replies "Well why not?!  It'll totally make the costume!"  I died laughing.  My mom's face was all O.o and stuff.  And she was serious about it too.  I love my grandma.  Now I have to try and make my boobs hang out cuz she told me I should XD.

After not being able to contact the lady from my health insurance for the second day in a row (no answer, no reply to messages I had left), I ended up calling the original number to call someone else.  The guy's name was Justin.  He said that I did not need to pay the retroactive dues, and they had been taken off of my account.  After telling him I already sent the payment out he assured me that the overage would be applied toward my bill for next month.  Coolies. Thanks Mr. Justin.

Since I have nothing to do work wise at my place of employment, Bossman sent me to the task of writing up an instruction manual for my desk.  Coolies, I can do that, I did it for my previous desk before being promoted.  So I started making a list of what I needed to do instructions for . . . holy crap . . . it doesn't look like much at first but everything encompasses a bunch of other little things.  That's okay, I can do it!  But because this is all I have to do and I think better when writing it out on paper first, my poor thumb is gonna end up with nerve damage (cuz of how I hold my pen), and I've already been working on it for near two weeks now (not even half way done).  *sigh* If it isn't one thing it's another, eh? Well it keeps me busy.

Currently working on:  Sophitia's earrings
In need of:    Coming outta my hermit hole of a sewing room and socializing with people XP

So after dealing with bills that amounted to 2.5 times as much for my health insurance this month than normal, I get a message today from my dad saying to call the health insurance people back when I'm off work.  The relay message was that the girl I talked to yesterday had given me the wrong information and that I should not send any payments at this time because I will end up overpaying.  Which means that either my premiium wasn't supposed to increase as much as it did, or I no longer need to pay the retroactive dues and charges (or at least not as much).  Sounds pretty cool right? Wrong.  Me trying to be all responsible and shit, I sent out my payments this morning on my way to work.  Now I get to play phone tag with these people to see what payments actually needed to be paid and if they can just put the overage in payments towards my next bill instead of trying to get it back to me.  *sigh* I'm pretty surprised that I'm not really stressing out about this.

OH OH!  In other news, because extra funds for cosplay will be nearly non-existent for a while, I have given myself a challenge.  I need to make my Sophitia costume.  I have previuosly purchased the wig, white fabric, and skin-tone undershirt (cuz bra-less and I don't get along), but everything else I will attempt to make from materials that I either already have lying around the house, or can pilfer from my mom and dad's craft stash.  So far I've been able to scrounge up a majority of what I need from my stuff alone.

And now I'm off the pillage, plunder, rifle and loot (drink up me hardies yoho!) my parents stuff for the rest . . . . and find some food . . .

I got two bills in the mail today for my health insurance.  One was the regular bill, which went up, but I knew that was gonna happen.  The other bill was for retroactive dues and charges.  When my rate was supposed to go up, the health insurance people had a few bugs to work outta their system so I wasnt being charged my new rate.  I was sent a letter to inform me of this pretty much saying "we are having problems on our end so we are only charging you the rate you had last year until the problem has been resolved."  So I'm all, okay I can deal with that.  Well apparently the letter was also supposed to say that I would be billed for the difference.  Did it say that? No. It didn't.  Now they are charging me retroactive fees for three months.  I called customer service to have them explain to me why and I was told that they should have informed me of the retroactive charges, sorry that was their mistake, but you still have to pay them.  Grr.  I can't be mad at the girl who was helping me cuz she was really trying to help me understand and was very patient and nice, but she couldn't do anything about the charges.  So now I'm mad at the health insurance people in general . . . .  that's the money I was saving up for a down payment on a new car too.  I'm totally going backwards with this saving money for a car thing, and I really can't do much about it.  BAH.  My cosplay is gonna end up suffering now . . . . but I will NOT miss my cons!!!!!

Just wanted to give everybody an update on my costuming . . . in case anybody would like to know.

Recently finished:
Mikoto (first dress) - Princess Princess
Pike - Princess Tutu (to be worn whenever)
Yukari (school uniform) - Paradise Kiss (also to be worn whenever)

Beginning to work on:
Sophitia (v.1) - SC IV

Others planned to have ready for Fanime:
Temari - Naruto Shippuuden
Sophitia (v.2) (probably not gonna happen)

Planned for Anime Expo (have to narrow these down to three):
Blossom - PowerPuff Z
Mikoto (singer dress) - Princess Princess
Shino-Sis -    Izuna- Legend of the Unemployed Ninja
Chouji - Naruto Shippuuden (cuz we are supposed to have an Ino again)
Voltron Force ?!?!?! (a friend at work wants to do this, don't know if it's gonna ever happen though ^_^;)
Karasu (want to redo this one cuz it was a half-assed costume to begin with)

That's just an overview for now.  I'm open for costume suggestions if anyone has some.  I tend to enjoy doing cosplays that others pick out for me.