January 31st, 2009 by Missy

I did a pullup, I did a pullup! I did a chinup too, actually. Yes.. one of each. Whatever though, I’m all proud of myself ^_^

Also, my awesome and sexy husband bought me a heart rate monitor (and yes, I do always post with some kind of praise for him when he lets me spend lots of money). It is a Polar F6, and I also ordered a spiffy sports bra and transmitter from NuMetrex so that I don’t have to wear a chest strap. I wonder how long it will take before he decides that he wants one, too. I suppose he probably won’t, since he never likes to spend money on himself.

January 27th, 2009 by Missy

Sosleepy. Honestly, I’ve been sleepy for like two weeks now. Dan and I started P90X on January 10th and I’ve been tired since then. The problem, I think, is more staying up too late than the working out. It feels like we have no time anymore. By the time we workout, cool down, eat dinner.. the day is almost over! We generally stay up fairly late anyway, but we’ve been staying up later lately (yes, I know saying later lately sounds stupid) and I’m.. so.. sleepy!

I should just take a nap, but once again it just feels like a waste of day. Not that I am really doing anything at the moment (aside from posting this blog and staring at my monitor), so I’m not sure what the opposition to napping is, exactly. I do have things that I could be doing..

I have a dress that I want to sew for Anya, but I need to go to JoAnn’s to get a zipper and some ribbon or edging. I could be painting some Warhammer figures, but I’ve decided that I’m only going to paint when Dan is home (I don’t want to keep hobby swapping.. so daytime is for sewing and Dantime is for painting).

Speaking of painting — I’m in the mood to paint some Sisters of Battle models. I stripped down my old ones (well, Dan did actually.. he says I am too delicate to touch paint thinner ^_-) and they’re just kind of.. staring.. at me right now. I have absolutely no idea how I want to paint them. Everyone and their mother paints red / black / white for SoBs and I don’t really feel like going with any of the color schemes in the book. I’d kind of like to do red and gold, but gold power armor (and gold tanks QQ) would just be AHHHH. I could paint red power armor (and, thusly, tanks) but then where does the gold fit in? I don’t want to give them cloth of gold habits or anything. I suppose they could have red armor, white habits and gold accents (gold inferno pistol? LOL).

Sigh.. hopefully something will come to me when I break out the paints. Maybe I’ll just paint them pink -.- And use a fluffy bunny as their Order symbol. Ordo Lepus or something.

January 24th, 2009 by Missy

I seem to say this quite often, but it has been a long time since I blogged here! Rattributes and Sewpbox have been more active, but Exquisite Turmoil has been down-right neglected! Spring is in the air (not really, but hey — we’ve got the air conditioner blowing) so looks like it is time for a change!

I’ve got a new theme up (I’ve been taken with this style of drawing lately, as seen by Sewpbox’s theme) and I’ll be starting up the blog again! Not sure why, exactly, I need three blogs.. but I have them anyway. Rattributes is obviously for all things rat. Sewpbox is for my sewing projects and will soon also be housing knitted items as well. I may just make Sewpbox my “domestic” blog (sewing, knitting, embroidery, possibly cooking) and keep Exquisite Turmoil as a personal blog.

Only time shall tell.

September 28th, 2008 by Missy

Dan has been working on modifying the rat cage for a while now, which basically means cutting PVC coated chicken wire to size and ziptying it to the existing structure. The living room is, surprise, currently covered in little bits of chicken wire and the tails of zipties. Dan and I are chatting about it and he says “God, it’s a fucking mess over there.”

Anya pipes in with “That’s a bad word and you can’t say that!”
Dan said “I’m a big person and I can say words like that if I want to.”
Anya: “Not at work you can’t.”
Dan: “Well, I could if I want to.”
Anya: “I’m sure your boss wouldn’t like that.”
Dan: “He wouldn’t really care.”
Anya: “Well anyway, you can’t say words like that in front of little children like me.”

She had me cracking up.. just the way she was talking to Dan like he was some little moron who was too dense to understand what she was saying to him. She sounded so adult while she was berating him.. like a teacher would sound talking to a kid swearing at school.

September 28th, 2008 by Missy

Bwahaha! Highlander finally arrived today.. seriously took like three weeks to get here. I’ve got the Kurgan’s theme song on my iPod (Gimme the Prize) and every time it came on Dan and I would be taken with a desire to watch the movie. After a trip to Best Buy, Target, Walmart and Blockbuster yielded 0 copies of Highlander we just ordered off of Amazon. Not through Amazon, mind you, but a random seller. I was beginning to think it would never arrive.

In any case.. wow.. I forgot how much the movie sucked! Don’t get me wrong, I love it to death and I’m so happy to own it now, but it is truly awful. And enjoyable. At the same time.

September 27th, 2008 by Missy

I suck so bad at blogging, seriously.  Honestly, life has been fairly boring recently.  Most of my time has been taken up with reading ratforums and sewing rathammocks and other things involved with rat obsession.  I actually registered a new domain name yesterday for ratblogging!  Don’t worry, I still intend to blog here, the rat page will just be for rat related items.

So, Dan and I have played a bit of WAR.  We’ve both got level 21 characters, mine is a Warrior Priest and his is an Ironbreaker.  The game is fun, but I’m having a little trouble getting into it.  Don’t get me wrong, it would be all too easy to get into it (we played basically nonstop for three days when we finished downloading), but as I’ve said about a million times before — I am an all or nothing person.  If I’m going to do something I am going to do it.  I don’t really want to get sucked into MMOs again, it just eats up so much time and I’ll admit that when I’m playing I kind of lose track of the world, and I don’t particularly feel like sinking back into that mire.  For that reason, I’m having trouble getting into the game.  I make myself not play as often as would be my natural inclination to do so and because of that I feel a sort of disconnect with the game.

Dan really enjoys it and would, I think, like to play in the longterm but I guess I’ll have to see where things go.  If I can find a comfortable equilibrium between playing all the time and not playing at all then I think that we’ll continue to play, but with the way I’m currently feeling about the game.. well.. I’m just not sure.  Only time will tell, I suppose.

September 22nd, 2008 by Missy

The kids went to the doctor on Friday for vaccinations.  They’ve actually had quite a few shots over the course of this year, but this is the first time that Dan was able to go with us (as we scheduled the appointment for after school, whereas previously Anya was only going to half-day school and we made appointments for while Dan was at work).

Getting shots is always a big undertaking.. the kids sob and scream, then we go get ice cream and usually pick out a toy.  Apparently, however, Alex decided that Daddy being along meant he had to be brave.  Firstly, he declares that he is getting his shots first today (normally he and Anya fight and try to make the other go first).

Then, he asks the nurse how many shots he needs to get, and she says two.  So he replies with…

“Two?  Hah, I laugh when I get two shots.”  So she gives him the first shot, and we hear “Waaaaah-ha.. ha.. ha.. hah.”  I wish I had a recording of it.  He so obviously wanted to wail but he forced out the most fake laugh I’ve ever heard.  It was adorable.

September 16th, 2008 by Missy

So I’m making a trip to the bank today and driving along on our little crappy dirt roads, talking to Dan on the phone.  At the last house on the road there are some guys out working in the yard.  I take my hand off of the steering wheel to turn on my blinker.. and when I put it back on the wheel.. I honk x.x  On accident, of course.  But all the guys just kind of looked up at me like “heh.. heh..”, so they obviously thought that I was honking at them.  I think I must have laughed for like five minutes.

It really doesn’t sound funny when I type it out, but I was laughing so hard trying to tell my mom once I got to the bank.. we were both cracking up so hard that we were practically crying.

September 15th, 2008 by Missy

The cage is completed~! Doesn’t it look fantastic? I still need Dan to modify the bars with hardware cloth (since the boys will be small enough to slip through the bars for a few months), but other than that it is all ready for occupants! Isn’t it amazing how much better it looks than the previous picture, with just the addition of a few more hammocks and liners? The liners, I think, make the biggest difference. To me they make the cage look comfy and plush, whereas before it didn’t look like it would be particularly comfortable (as soon as you stepped foot out of a hammock, that is). I also have to say, Dan’s idea to add a tube hammock leading back to the corner hammock (back left) was fantastic.

Now to get another set of hammocks and liners ready! I’m currently working on a Halloween set (just have one hammock and a cube done) and then I’ll make a set out of a cute stars pattern that Anya picked out. I’d like to have at least four liners completed by the time the boys arrive, and three sets of hammocks (not counting the Halloween one, since it’s for… Halloween).

I swear, I’m going to slowly go insane waiting for the 10th of October to roll around. I want my rat babies so bad!

September 12th, 2008 by Missy

Whee! Dan took me shopping today (Petco) to buy some necessary items for the rat cage. Lets see.. we got a nice big wheel, a litter box, an igloo, a water bottle (glass), a little hangy toy thing, a bunch of jingly balls (cat toys), and a few teeny tiny stuffed pumpkins. Oh yes, we also bought a little ladder. The ladder isn’t going to be remaining where you see it in the picture, it’s just sitting there until Sunday. The girl I bought the cage from forgot to give me the ramp for it (and I am, obviously, picking it up on Sunday) so the ladder is there temporarily to look cute and such. Once I get the ramp I think that I will hang a little basket from the side of the cage and have the ladder lead up to that.

I also ordered a new bottom pan (one that doesn’t have the cut out part in the back right, under the litter box) and an outside ramp that will lead from the door down to the floor so that the rats can go in and out of the cage at will when the doors are open. You can also see from the photo that I started making some larger hammocks, and that they look MUCH better in the cage. I’d still like to make a nice big cube and maybe a double decker out of this fabric, but I think that the first set of bedding (I am discounting the actual first set since it is too small and useless) is almost complete. Ah yes, I also need to make liners, but I’m holding off on that until Dan gets a chance to take the pan and shelf outside to power wash them.