6. March 2010 by Bex.

Holy shit, long time no blog!  I’d like to say there is nothing new in my life but there is tons going on.  So here is an update:

First off:  We beat Bioshock 2 just in time for the March 11th expansion pack. I haven’t planned any of the online portions of the game yet so I can’t really say much about the multiplayer, online death matches.  However the story was good for a sequel and the graphics, though at first seemed grainy, turned out to be really awesome.  I thought the game was harder overall with more melee type attacks.  Playing it on easy gave you a lot of hints that seemed a little unnecessary but that’s ok too.  I love the art deco themes and the characters are interesting.

Second:  Lasik went awesome!  I can see!  It was horribly uncomfortable and while they give you a lot of valium, that just wears right off when you are under the laser.  It was nice that my husband was allowed to sit in there with me and I clawed the shit out of his hand during the procedure.  But the awfulness lasted only about 20 minutes followed by a horrible ride home.  I took something to help me sleep and by the time I woke up 4 hours later, I felt worn out but fine.  I did have to wear some groovy blinders at night for a few days to keep me from scratching my eyes.

I had some lovely impressions in my flesh every morning.  But it turned out really well and I’m happy with it.  No more contacts or glasses.  Schweet.

I’ve been working pretty hard at my health shit.  I found some books at the Half Price Bookstore which talk about fibromyalgia and endometriosis.  I’m working on a symptom and food diary to try to pinpoint triggers.  During this time I’ve had a fever that came out of nowhere and am trying to figure out if there is any rhyme or reason to things like that.  So we’ll see what comes of this new experiment.  I still would like to lose the rest of the 40lbs I gained.  That means I have another 15-20lbs to go.  Being overweight and chronically ill is not easy.  It just exacerbates all your shit.

No new pets and no pets have passed away, no matter how old and infirm they are.   I’m starting Patton on obedience classes this coming week.  I hope that when he gets over his fear of oh…..EVERYTHING….he will be able to start training for a therapy dog program.  Our vet seems to think he’d be excellent at it because of his very mellow temperament.  He went in today to get his distemper shot and a heart worm test. He’s a very sweet dog and I think he’d be a great ambassador for his part Staffordshire Terrier breed.  So many Pit mixes like him are put down right away or taken from their homes in cities with breed bans.  We are learning a lot about this because of our involvement with a pit bull rescue.  This volunteer work has been very rewarding as well as educational.  Just to get it out there, I fucking hate the media.  I hate them all.  Their mission is to sell news by freaking the shit out of everyone in a community.  Period.  Misinformation be damned!  We have to sell newspapers, ratings, etc!  Fuck the truth!  Ok sorry, I’m off my soapbox for now.

Last couple of thing:  I’m going to take a pinup photography class next weekend.  I’m going by myself, which for a hermit, is a big deal.  I’m freaked out by social situations like this but I think it will be fun and informative.  I think the new pin up style with the tatts and vintage/rockabilly themes are awesome.  This all proceeds the Pinups for Pit Bulls event in KC on the 19th.  I’m all for animal rescue organizations, beer and music.  Now, what to wear?  No clue…  The last item of discussion is that I really want another tattoo.  I’m trying to find something that reminds me of my mother.  Yesterday was the 26th anniversary of her passing.  A long ass time ago.  I really miss her and would like my next tatt to be something to do with her. Ron is pretty ready for more ink so we’re going to investigate some new tattoo parlors.   And finally, I hope to hit up the roller derby around the end of the month.  It’s going to be a girls night comprised of women I work with.  I think we’re going to get a little drunk and watch some chicks on roller skates beat the crap out of each other.  That should be fun!

I’ll update my blog with another stitch or two when the time is right.  I’ve got some ideas on the burner for new embroidery and I’m excited to get started.  So overall things are good but everyday is a learning experience.  Some times I fuck up royally and other days I have things in control.  I can’t seem to predict from one day to the next how it’s going to go.  Just doing the best I can!

Tschus.

Posted in Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Endometriosis, Crafts, Embroidery, Video Games, Dogs, Animals, Hobbies | 1 Comment »

28. October 2009 by Bex.

Here is a quick recap:  We’ve kept somewhat busy on the weekends which can be both good and bad.  We finally used our free tickets to the KC Renaissance Festival and had a nice time eating a turkey leg and drinking Irish ale.  Also in the last couple of weeks we saw Zombieland and Paranormal Activity.  Both very awesome.  If you are looking for a laugh, I highly recommend Zombieland.  Speaking of zombies, Maul of the Dead is at the Coterie and Roxanne and I saw that last weekend.  It was pretty fun!  Great theatre group, everyone should go!  What else…oh!  A good friend from high school dropped in and it was awesome catching up with him.  I really miss familiar faces from home!

We are also still going through the home buyer’s program.  Our counselor thinks we’ll be in the purchasing phase soon.  I really hope that’s true!  We’ll see though.  We may hit a waiting period but that’s ok.  I’m totally cool with moving in the spring rather then the winter.  Either way, we are hiring movers this time!  I can’t physically help Ron lift half this stuff so we’ll need a little help.  I’m so freakin’ excited and scared.  Basically I’m scared of the realities of fixing everything yourself….and having to pay for it.  I think I can handle it though.

I recently had a really negative experience with some people I used to call friends.  However I did get something positive from the situation:  I’ve let my diseases and illnesses shut me off from people.  I’m really going to try to talk to people more often and get together with locals at least once a month or so.  It can be really tough sometimes…when I’m tired out, I just need to rest.  Sleep.  Recharge.  A lot of things like housework and socializing get neglected when you don’t feel well.  Unfortunately these people, who I thought knew what was going on, took my absences personally.  As if I didn’t like them and was using my health as a reason not to see them.  I think that’s pretty silly and thought if a person felt upset, they would talk to me about it.  But whatever makes a person feel good about themselves…  It feels really, really wonderful to cut out negative people from my life.  No more stress on that front…what a relief!  Now if I can only get work to go a little better, I think things would be perfect!

Here are images of the last three projects I worked on.  I have some ideas of things I need and want to do soon.  Some of them involve Christmas presents.  I better get started on those!  November will probably go very quickly.

Come Get Some tote bag feature the almighty Bruce Campbell!

The first of the 1898 Antikamnia Calendar series.

This was a piece done to recognize domestic abuse.  Yes, it’s a personal story.  No, not going to blog about it.  However you can check out Craftster if you want to know more about the piece.  Enough said on that.

Rowdy is shrieking at me to go outside so I’m cutting off the blog for now.  Expect some goofy Halloween pictures next week!

Posted in Crafts, NACA, Craftster, Needlework, Embroidery, Movies, Bruce Campbell, Health | 2 Comments »

10. October 2009 by Bex.

Things are better.  Why you ask?  Well I got a new endocrinologist who agreed to ramp up my Synthroid a bit.  Yes, my levels appeared normal but I didn’t feel right.  Most docs at this point would argue it’s all in my head, it’s the RA, it’s the fibro, I’m crazy, etc.  This one actually agreed to let me try a higher dose.  And guess what?  I feel better!  More energy, less depressed.  What a concept-listening to the patient.  Gnarly.

We also had our first one-on-one meeting with a NACA representative.  Although she is an ardent animal hater, we were happy with our session.  If all goes well, Ron and I will be in our first home together in around 6 months.  No money down, no closing costs, fixed rate, low mortgage.  No shit.  I was so happy to hear that, I had to do another self-evaluation of my priorities.  Is it more important for me to find my dream job right now?  Or is getting a home and being settled more important?  Unfortunately I’m putting my career second, or third.  I want to be happy with my job everyday but uprooting again and moving to a different state is going to be so hard.  I’m just starting to feel better and don’t want to start over with doctors.  Therefore I decided to withdraw my applications for jobs out of state.  I’m really excited to be in my very first home!!

We’ve also got a lot to do this weekend.  It’s cold though so that might limit how much we do.  Today is another Zombie Walk which starts at 3:00 on the Plaza.  The high is only 49 degrees today so I’m unsure if I really want to run around outside.  Speaking of zombies, we also really want to see Zombieland this weekend.  Perhaps we’ll do that instead.  And tomorrow night we have tickets to see Lewis Black, one of Ron’s favorite comedians.  We’re pretty geeked about that!

Finally, here is my cross-stitch that I referred to in a previous post.  The recipient received it so I was able to make the photo public finally.  I kind of miss this piece.  It looked good sitting in our living room.

I did a piece yesterday for a Craftster challenge and I’ll have that posted by Monday.  I’m also working on a piece I patterned after an obscure 1898 calendar.  Hopefully that will be done soon.  I’ve got to stitch something together to trade with a woman at work who makes and fixes jewelry.  I’ve got some things for her to fix!

That is about all I can think of for now.  This is a busy month so I’m sure there will be more blog posts to come.  Tschus!

Posted in NACA, Craftster, Crafts, Needlework, Work, Cross stitch, Health | No Comments »

27. September 2009 by Bex.

We hit the jackpot this weekend at Game Co.  It’s like Game Stop only more vintage, and they pay a lot more for your games.  We got a nice credit with them and picked up several used games.  I was pretty geeked to find two Evil Dead games on XBox:

I haven’t played A Fistful of Boomstick yet but I did play Regeneration for over an hour today.  It is HILARIOUS.  Ted Raimi does the voice of your midget Deadite sidekick and Bruce does Ash’s voice, of course.  There are a lot of catchy one-liners and general hilarity.  The best part?  You can lock on your enemies and punt the Deadite to attack them.  I love it!    Since having an XBox is relatively new to me, I didn’t pay much attention to these games before.  I now have all the ED games but not all the games with Bruce’s voice.  Which is ok, as I’m not sure how much of a geek I want to allow myself to be.  Here is a link to the games: http://www.bruce-campbell.com/group.asp?grp=49

Crap, I just noticed this as well: http://www.bruce-campbell.com/pilot.asp?pg=action_figure It’s a BC action figure.  Crap….$60?  I may be a geek,  but I’m a cheap geek.  Damn.

The other thing I did this weekend was finish up a book called Shadow of the Wind.  It is one of the best novels I have read since The Historian.  The author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, writes very descriptively.  The setting is 1940’s and 1950’s Barcelona, set in the aftermath of Spain’s civil war.  It’s a mystery and very well woven.  I’m sure I could have figured out some of the twists and turns if I had let myself think about it, but I really enjoy just letting a story take me along.  I can’t write a good review on it but you can find some great reviews on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zafon/dp/1594200106  Apparently The Angel’s Game is a prequel that just came out in English only a year ago.  I’ll have to grab that up soon.

Long story short, read it.  I was dubious at first but I went from summer beach reading to this book.  You have to get your brain in the right mode to really let the story suck you in.   If you read it, let me know what you think!  I should really join a book club but am too damn lazy.

I also finished another cross stitch but will have to wait to unveil it until after I send it.  I made it for a swap for a photo group I participate in on Flickr called Phat Quarter.  After the recipient receives the piece, I’ll post photos of it.  It’s actually very lovely if I do say so myself!  I also finished an embroidery not long ago that is for a breast cancer awareness challenge on Craftster.  It’s another photograph-to-embroidery piece:

This photo has over 12,000 hit on Flickr, but that’s probably only because my boobs are partially showing.  I hate that pervs are looking at it but the photo has done some good.  I’ve had some people contact me to ask about the reconstructive part of mastectomies.  I personally feel better having talked to someone who has gone through this shit before me, no matter what it is.  So I keep the damn picture up for others to find, in case anyone else has questions.  The contest on Craftster starts in a couple weeks and I’m eager to sumbit this.

Rowdy is shrieking/whining for his supper so I better go.  Dogs do not like to wait for their supper!  Tschus!

Posted in Cross stitch, Needlework, Crafts, Craftster, Bruce Campbell, Photography, Video Games, Books, Flickr, Hobbies | 2 Comments »

21. August 2009 by Bex.

It was posted today!  See the Stitchgasm on Facebook.  (I’m not sure where it is on the main site, so I have to link you to it on Facebook.)  I’m pretty excited and happy, etc etc etc and to be honest, having this happen and my first Etsy sale in one week is exactly what I needed.  I’ve been having a hard time keeping my spirits up and got all doom and gloom.  It’s good to be reminded that there are good things going on too.

So!  If you are a crafter or looking to start, check out Mr. X Stitch blog about the 1st birthday of the Mr. X Stitch site.  They are having giveaways and other fun things.  Good stuff!  Check ‘em out and start subscribing!

Posted in Stitchgasm, Mr X Stitch, Crafts, Etsy, Embroidery, Needlework, Hobbies | 1 Comment »

5. August 2009 by Bex.

General brain befuddlement has prevented any new creativity as of late.  I did however crank out a couple of things about a week or so ago:

I have a set of Hitchcock stamps that I collected years ago that I want to frame.  That is what inspired the Hitchcock piece.  The Super Bitch came from a book of cutsey patterns I bought.  I also happened to find small frames at Wally World and this was an experimentation with small designs.  I’d really like to put it at my desk at work but don’t think it would be wise.

Lately I’ve been looking at embroidery and wanted to try it.  Again I’m lost as to what to stitch.  However I woke up last night with an idea and spent the day looking at the internet for tutorials on how to make the images in my brain come to the fabric.  There are a few photographs I’ve snapped over the years that I really like and I’ve decided to make embroidery patterns out of them.  Thankfully there are people out there in the crafty world who blog and make how-to videos for the internet.  Here is part of the pattern I put together:

I’m afraid that I might start filling up the spare room with projects so I put up an Etsy store finally in the hopes of getting rid of some of them.  You can find the store here:  www.ndbex.etsy.com.  So far I haven’t sold anything but there is still hope in me to get rid of some things.  I made them pretty cheap!

Double dosing with the new drug and the Cymbalta is still a hellacious experience.  I was laid up in front of my computer all day because of it.  I hope I can get this out of my system soon.  In order to get away from all the stress, Ron and I booked a cabin for the weekend down by Stockton Lake.  It’s only a couple hours away, we can take the dogs and we’ve been there before.  If we can afford it, we might rent a pontoon and spend Saturday morning tooling around the lake.  We badly need to get out of town and have some fun.  I’m so excited to go!

That’s my exciting life this week.  Tschus!!

Posted in Needlework, Etsy, Crafts, Embroidery, Cross stitch, Hobbies, Photography, Cymbalta, Health | No Comments »