Kiss My Knits!

For those of you wondering how the costume went, I was all set to stitch up a bedraggled costume out of an adult-sized bridesmaid dress. Luckily, Mom saved me from having to do that, and probably also saved me from bursting a blood vessel from stress, by finding a store-bought costume big enough to fit Em. Thanks, Mom! The pretty princess is all set to go tonight!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

ETA: Halloween night update! Before trick-or-treating, we went up to her school’s “Family Fun Night.” I’d say three out of every five girls were dressed as princesses. She got a little candy, did “ghost bowling” (ghost outlines taped to empty milk jugs knocked down with a plastic ball) and bounced on a giant bouncy castle with attached inflatable slide.

As we were getting ready to leave, her best friends from her class came in. They were also dressed as princesses. They exclaimed, “EMILY! YOU LOOK SO PRETTY!!” and they rushed up to hug her. Man, that was gratifying. They were going into the cafeteria, so we encouraged Em to go in too. It worked out well. They all got cotton candy and sat together for a little while, but not too long, since Em was keen to trick-or-treat.

We went to about eight houses – a record for Em. She was doing her level best not to break into a run going up the sidewalk. She ate some candy and then we watched Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. Now Em’s completely worn out. She just this minute went to bed, and I predict she’ll be asleep within five minutes.

“Halloween was so exciting! I hope I can do all these things again next year for Halloween!”

Yesterday, for the first time in about 110 days, I forgot to weigh in on the wii fit.

Just now, I weighed in and was mocked, “Too busy to work out yesterday, eh Tvini?”

Bite me, wii fit.

ETA: today’s run. NikePlus congratulated me for running 50 miles since starting with the NikePlus device. Wii fit could learn a few things!

There’s an early voting place directly across the street from my house that opens at 11, so I just walked out my back door to go vote. The line for cars was way up the street, and people were parking in some very undesignated spots. I asked a lady who was leaving how long the wait to vote was, and she said she’d been told it was 2 1/2 hours.

2 1/2 hours? I have to pick my kid up from school in 2 1/2 hours! I mean, I’m very happy so many people are voting, but come on! I guess I’ll have to try again tomorrow, when the polls open earlier and I have child care. DAMN YOU, DEMOCRACY!

ETA: I decided to walk over and wait in line for an hour and see how far I got. I actually got in and out in about an hour and fifteen minutes, and the line was getting much shorter while I was there, so it shouldn’t be so bad for others going in the afternoon. Mission accomplished!

D&D Week 5: When You Are Engulfed In Flames

I want to run today, and it’s not going to get above 50. I saw this coming last week, when the weather forecast turned bleak for the week. I wanted to keep running through the winter, and I only had one pair of good shorts and one good t-shirt, so last weekend I went shopping for cool weather running gear.

Now, we fuller-figured gals know that shopping for clothes anytime can be unpleasant. When I was a size 8, everything fit me perfectly and I could get in and out of a store in 15 minutes. Now that I’m… uh… no longer a size 8, it takes longer and I tend to get a little “HULK SMASH!” But I wanted to keep running, and I didn’t want to get hypothermia, so there was nothing for it.

I got very, very excited when I saw this little blue number on the hanger. Why? Because it would be so, so easy to pair it with black leggings (with shorts over, I’m not ready to shake my moneymaker quite that publicly) and then to sew a little Star Trek insignia on the chest. Presto! I’m a science/medical officer on the Enterprise, out for a morning jog.

The outfit is pictured at right. One hand is making the Vulcan salute and the other is apparently holding some kind of futuristic glowing power device. Or possibly a camera with a flash. Never let my valor be questioned, for lo, there is no bravery like that of a woman who displays what she looks like under the dressing room bulbs of death. “There Are Four Lights!”

What? I’m a great big geek! And I figure if sewing on the insignia makes me want to suit up and run, then it’s a good thing. Alas, even in size XL, this was far too clingy. I hadn’t realized when I put it on that it was compression gear. Supposedly it’s good for the circulation and muscles, but looking online, my suspicions that it’s more of a marketing ploy may be valid. Besides, neither I nor the world are ready for the sight of me bouncing down the street in skintight lycra.

The second thing about the compression gear is that it wasn’t so much that it didn’t fit because of my stomach, it was my bosom. Do big-chested ladies not run? What’s the deal, clothing manufacturers? It’s not like I have to special order my bras; I wear a regular size. I’m just, as my mother would say, “womanly.” Seriously, I’m not out there to show off the girls, I’m out there to exercise!

After trying on a few more things, I could feel a good head of steam building up. I was ready to let loose with a rant about how if you’re already in good shape, then your options are limitless. But God help you if you’re on the road to fitness but not there yet, because then you’re just out of luck! I was about to launch into it in the dressing room, and that would have been bad, because Dick’s Sporting Goods would have lost money when all the ladies in the rooms next to me left the store to get away from the crazy lady.

Anyway. At the end of the day, I came away with a pair of leggings, a long-sleeved shirt, and a third shirt which I’m going to take back because I wasn’t making the best decisions since I was all in a tizzy. A tizzy, I say!

So I’m about to grab a snack and knit some Jayne hats while I wait for it to warm up a little. Wish me luck – the cold and I are not friends, but I’m going to persevere!

Em has hives.

If you have a prom/bridesmaid dress that you don’t want anymore and don’t mind seeing destroyed, let me know. My daughter has just decided that I can make her a princess costume for Halloween. Which is next week. Great.

I figure I can do a really bad basting job on an over-the-top dress that nobody’s going to want, add a tiara, and we’re good to go. I’ll be hitting Goodwill later on.

This week’s session was a little lower key than usual, because we had some business to take care of at the start, what with leveling up and buying new supplies and one of our members going powermad and declaring himself the head of the party. Life of the party, maybe, head of the party, no. I picked up some more arrows. Our rogue picked up some more oil in case he wanted to set anyone else on fire.

On the way back to our certain doom, we noticed a body just outside the mines. Apparently it had been there all along, and we were so busy being gnawed on by giant rats that we didn’t notice it the first time we went in. Someone shot an arrow at us, so naturally instead of assessing the situation, my fellow Dwarf and I made a mad charge into danger.

We found three Dwarven miners tied up by mercenaries, mercenaries whom the party proceeded to beat the living tar out of. One enemy was set on fire, but that was intentional. Our rogue fell unconscious after untying a miner to fight on our behalf. Once he was free, the miner basically wet himself in fear and cowered. Unfortunately, since the rogue turned his back to the action to untie the captive, he got shot and fell unconscious. Now, some might say that turning your back on the enemy to free a captive who then refuses to fight may be a foolish action, but I say it was actually very noble and helpful. I credit our party’s lack of accidental burning to the rogue’s unconsciousness. Kudos, rogue!

We killed all our of enemies except one, whom we decided to keep for questioning. I got out my rope and narrowly avoided tying myself to him. Based on past performance, I credit that as a win. Then we untied the Dwarven miner captives, who were so ticked off at having been captured that they promptly bludgeoned the bound mercenary to death. So much for information.

It was at this point that our rogue, no longer unconscious, managed to antagonize the former captives to the point that they started whaling on him with their bare hands. We managed to pull them off of him and got some good info. We also got a really cool coffer as a reward from the miners. The catch is that the key is somewhere in the mines, aka The Tunnels of Humiliation and Burning.

All in all, it was a good session, with a lot of good setup for next time. We all lived, no party members were set on fire, so let’s call it a success! Yay!