What's going on...

It's been a while since I've written, so it's time to catch up on what's been going on in the last while.

Things are getting pretty exciting for Eldest in the last while.  She has her online comic, Magpies, Killers and Vagabonds, up, currently on her deviantart account.  She'll be uploading 3 new pages every tuesday there, until she can get her dedicated website up and running.  She's also started a new tumblr page for her sketches and whatnot.  Meanwhile, she's signed up for a booth in a street festival in the late spring.  The big art festival she's been in the last couple of years comes up for registration soon, so she'll have that.  In the early fall, she'll have her art up in one of the various coffee shops that double as art galleries featuring local artists.  She's certainly going to have her hands full in the next while to get all she needs for those, while also looking up other venues to see her art. 

Youngest is still enjoying her guitar lessons.  She's also been extressing interest in a variety of things, such as belly dance and martial arts classes - something more organized and interesting then doing weights and basic exercises at home.  Unfortunately, such things are not cheap, though she's been able to start doing some Tai Chi with Dh.  He's slowly adding things like that back into his regimine to try and strengthen and stabalize his back, and he's more then happy to teach her.  It's been a long time since he's been able to teach martial arts of any kind, and he really misses it. 

Youngest hasn't had much chance to practise her driving, unfortunately.  Between the price of gas and the current weather, I just haven't been able to take her out much.  One irritation about living in the city.  It's hard to find someplace safe for her to practise.  When I was learning how to drive, there were plenty of empty country roads to use.

Both girls have been on a movie watching blitz again, borrowing stacks of movies from the library.  Youngest is still working her way through the libraries graphic novel collection, and they are both completely entranced with the Avatar;  The Last Airbender series.  There's some really solid story lines in that series.

Raider King just left from an extended visit.  He was here for a week, and it was a busy one for him!  He applied for a local digital arts college.  He managed to get an interview, take the entrance exam and get accepted all in a few days!  It's an intense 6 month course (another college has a similar course spread out over 2 years) that has a post graduate hiring rate of 85-90%.  Now he has to come up with the money for it. :-/  We've made sure to tell him that he doesn't have to worry about a roof over his head, even if it means he's with us for the entire 6 months.  Obviously, he would prefer his own place, and he's looking, but we want to make sure he knows he can focus on paying for his course and not have to worry about paying for housing on top of it until he's in a better position.  It'll be another month before he's back, and then it's to stay.  He's looking forward to quitting a job he hates, and I'm looking forward to him getting away from a rather negative domestic situation.  *sigh*  Family.  They either build you up or drag you down, don't they?  :-/

Dh, meanwhile, is still struggling with his back.  It's got to the point that I can't remember the last time he has been able to go to the office for a whole 5 days in a row.  I've been driving him to and from work.  He's hoping to be able to start walking to work again once the sidewalks are less of a concern and his back has improved, but we shall see. The alternative is the bus, and the few times he's had to take it has not been good for him at all.  Meanwhile, he finally has an appointment for an MRI to see just what the heck is going on with the soft tissues.  There had been a delay in getting the appointment; his doctor very sheepishly inform him that the ball was dropped in his own clinic, and the request of the MRI had never gone out.  Dh has been going to the doctor often enough to have been able to nag a bit, which is good, since that's why the problem was discovered.  Once the request actually went out, he got a call within a rather short time with an appointment.  Unfortunately, it's not until July.  When I'd been sent for an MRI, it was much quicker, but then I was also sent to a hospital in one of the bedroom communities surrounding our cities, while Dh is being sent to a local hospital and not one of the many clinics. 

Speaking of doctors and health issues, I've finally made an appointment for myself.  I've been feeling some odd pains that I at first thought were pulled muscles.  They didn't go away or get better.  I normally wouldn't have thought much of it, but after what happened last year, I'm a little more aware of potential problems.  I'm starting to think that there's a George Jr. hanging around, trying to figure out what happened to papa.  *sigh*

Meanwhile, I'm still supposed to be teaching crochet, but class registrations dropped right off after Christmas.  I'm also supposed to be working on my writing; especially finishing off the novel I started during NaNoWriMo.  Instead, I haven't been able to do much writing at all, and it's starting to drive me bonkers.  When I have something I want to write about, it hangs around in my head while I'm doing other stuff, and I tend to write/re-write/debate and argue points until I can finally sit down and put my thoughts onto text.  The problem is, I need uninterrupted time to do that, and I just haven't been getting any.  Meanwhile, I've got more and more stuff that I want to write about, and they're starting to mess me up.  Last night (a night when I was supposed to get up early, of course, so getting sleep was much needed) I found myself completely unable to sleep.  Once I was laying down and no longer thinking about the usual daily activities, all this stuff hovering in the back of my head just burst to the forefront.  I found myself lying there, getting increasingly awake, as my brain started writing, editing, and re-writing three different topics at the same time.  I tried to distract myself by playing some solitaire on my phone, but at soon as I felt I was finally tired enough to sleep and put the phone away, it all just blasted back again.  I finally gave up and got out of bed, but irritatingly, was too tired to actually write!  Not that I could have, since that required heading downstairs and firing up the computer, and Raider King was asleep on the couch.  I don't think he would have minded, but I do want him to have at least *some* privacy!  I need to figure out some way to wrestly that uninterrupted writing time I need, but I'm at how to go about it.  There are just too many things to work around.

I'm starting to think we need to get another desktop.  The tablet and Eldest's laptop are useful, but not for me, and not for what I need to do.  If we get another desktop for the rest of the family, I can take this one and hide it in a corner somewhere upstairs - maybe set something up in the laundry room? - where I can shut away the rest of the world and work.

*sigh*  I don't know.  Will have to figure it out.

Well, I guess that's the catch up for now.  Now to get to all the stuff I have been ignoring so I could at least get this post done!! *L*

Going back in time

When I was a kid, one of the things we looked forward to was getting the new Eatons and Sears catalogs.  Many hours were spent flipping through the pages, dreaming of being able to buy some of the stuff in there.   For many years, the Eatons catalog was the only way people in rural areas could get a lot of their supplies, and the items listed reflected those diverse needs.  Eatons stopped their catalog service in the 70's, if I remember correctly.

Going through this 1920-21 Eaton's Fall and Winter Catalogue is a fascinating glimpse back in time.  Enjoy!

(You can use your keyboard arrow keys to flip through the pages.)