February 2005 Archives

Ugh... I can't believe how much I still have to do before we leave tomorrow. I still have to pack. I have to pack for both the Sierra Club trip and the IA Summit, since I won't have the time between trips to pack. It's almost 9 - usually I'm drifting off to sleep right about now. I'm so tired. And E is coming over sometime tonight and we will then have to consolidate our stuff into the one suitcase we are bringing. So it's not like I can just leave a light on for him and go to sleep before he gets here.

Isn't there a magical Fairy Packing Mother that can come and rescue you at times like this? Oh well... I guess that's why I made The List (tm) while my brain was still functioning. One doesn't really have to be conscious to fold things, right?

I just found my Girl Scout Gold Award project listed on the council's website. They have a list of cookbooks and my Council Camping Cookbook is listed.

That's really cool. I made that thing back in 1991. I collected recipes from troops all over the council and made them into a paperback book (with the help of E and his Apple Plus and copy of PageMaker). They sold it at the Council store and all proceeds were to go to support the Council's camps.

That's really cool. :)

Last night I started getting a sore throat. It's still here in all its glory this morning. My glands don't feel swollen, but my voice doesn't sound right and I wish I could find a way to get through the day without swallowing. I also have that achy and tired feeling that go so well with getting sick.

Grrrrrr.

I don't want to be sick. I'm suppose to be scuba diving Wednesday night in Maui. (night dive! yay!) I can't be sick. They tend not to like you to be at depth and coughing and blowing your nose. It scares the fishies. (I'm making light, but yes, I am well aware that it can be dangerous to dive with a head cold. Which is why I'm trying to speed-heal).

If you can spare some healing thoughts today, I wouldn't mind if you send some my way.

This weekend I was in Monterey and Pacific Grove taking the Advanced Open Water Scuba class. There's been a lot going on lately with the job and projects gearing up and I'm still adapting to my commute. I wasn't looking forward to spending the weekend away. But I'm really glad I went.

I feel that I am a much better diver now, and that's the whole point of the class. I worked a lot on my buoyancy (making sure I don't hit the bottom or pop up to the surface) and it was much better. I didn't pop to the surface at all and was able to recover quickly when I did start to float away. I also didn't scrape the bottom as much - something that is vital when we are in Hawaii and swimming with coral.

The hardest part of the class was hauling the gear around and the surface swims. I got blisters on two of my finger tips (which popped the 2nd day) and rubbed my knuckles raw on both hands. My muscles are very sore and tired. But it's good. I pushed myself to my limits and I survived. I was able to climb the ladder back onto the boat the second time (as opposed to my beached whale tummy slide entry the first time). That was an achievement. And I was able to walk out of the shore with all my gear from the final shore exit, which was the 3rd dive of the day and had the biggest surface swim. Another achievement.

So I am now a certified advanced diver. Yay! We didn't do the night dive - I was too tired and the conditions got rough - rougher than I felt comfortable dealing with at night. But I'm confident that E and I can do the night dive in HI without issue. And I'm really looking forward to a 3 mm suit and only 14 (or so) pounds instead of the 7 mm suit and 38 pounds on me.

Yay. Diving. Thanks E. *hug* It was a great present.

It is official.

I am finally free.

Let the party begin.

Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Pet lovers can be a crazy bunch. Today I learned about Catster, the feline equilivent of Friendster, Orkut, Ryze, and those other social networking sites (there is also Dogster, for those canine focused folks). Needless to say, Freesia and Smudge both insisted that they join. Um, yes. They "insisted".

Other than being painfully slow (or is it that my network is having issues today?), the site is rather cute. It seems to be laid out well. And the cat-theme, while pervasive, isn't too over-the-top-annoying. The interface for adding your cat to the site is very easy to use. They also have a multi-faceted search so you can find cats by all types of criteria, such as breed, location, name, or characteristics such as "multi-toed" and "pure-breed." I thought that was pretty nifty.

I must say though, the site does attract an interesting following. In less than a hour of adding The Kids to the site, I had 5 invites from complete strangers wanting to befriend my cats. Seeing how The Kids don't take too kindly when a strange cat comes on the porch, I think I'll follow the same rules of friending that I use on other sites. Real-life friends' cats only.