I’ve been thinking alot lately about my various online commitments… And I’ve come to the sad conclusion that I’m tired of most of them. Or, if not tired of them, just too short on time to continue them. The PTRs I’ve been doing for the past few months take up about 4 hours of my day. That’s 4 hours that was previously used for TCG stuff, site update stuff, dolling stuff, QBee stuff…

Stuff that I enjoy, to an extent, but that I’m not able to fully involve myself in. For awhile there, this holiday season, I got back into the QBee, and determined to be active and an all ’round fantastic little member. But that lasted less than a month. I finally decided to close my own TCG, Bibliophile, and put myself on hold in the one TCG that I’m still in - that is still active, anyway. I’m probably going to leave that, as well. My dolling has dropped off sharply; while I still enjoy doing it, I just don’t have the urge to doll that I had when I rediscovered it ages ago. Its more of an occasional hobby now, at best.

Things with Nepheliad seem to have stalled. I haven’t contacted Carole, nor has she contacted me, in ages. I’d still like to do it - we had some really great plans for it, between the two of us, but at the moment, I’m just not moved to do so. Its sad. I was really excited about that for awhile. Part of the reason it stalled out, though was internet connection. I got the idea for it right around the time I switched form DSL to dial-up, and that just made anything TCG-related unbearably time-consuming.

I never did manage to upload all the pictures I’d wanted & put them on this site. I probably won’t get around to it. Its the sort of thing I might go back and do when Keslyn goes to school, but for now I’m going to keep them on my machine and just spend the time that would have taken enjoying her.

I haven’t gotten in touch with my best friend since… Christmastime. Which is a shame. I’d like to know how she’s doing, and how big her daughter has gotten. I just never seem to remember to squish stuff like that into the day. Truth be told, the PTRs take up so much concentration while I’m doing them that, by the time I’m finished for the day, I just don’t even want to look at my computer anymore.

And I’ve missed two birthdays. Or will have, by the time its a reasonable hour back in Michigan tomorrow. So, happy birthday to my brother Freddy Fred. And happy birthday to my friend, Derick.

And here’s hoping everyone else has more free time than me.

Sooooo… Long time, no update, yea? I’m lazy, I admit it. This’ll be a short one, too, but expect a proper entry… Oh, sometime soon-ish.

For anyone who wanted to buy gifts but had no idea what to get us:

John’s Amazon

Kathleen’s Amazon

Keslyn’s Amazon

Happy holidays, folks.

Halloween-Type-Stuff - Keslyn’s costume arrived, and we tried it on her… Can I just say she’s probably the most adorable little witch I’ve ever seen? Will post pictures after Halloween, but geez. So cute.

And Joe & John are going to dress up for Halloween, as well. I probably won’t be… The theme is EQ characters, and Joe really went all out and bought himself armor and ears and a sword and face paint… John got a staff (which Keslyn refers to as “The Ooga-Booga”, since that’s teh sound John made when he showed it to her), and is working on some sort of kilt idea. Dunno. It would have required too much effort & money to recreate one of my old EQ characters. If I go as anything, it’ll likely be a witch - all I’d need to buy is a hat, that way.

Work-Type-Stuff - I’m doing some volunteer work for The Bigfoot Discovery Project. Volunteer? Yes, volunteer. Why, you may be wondering, am I working for free when I could really use cash? Portfolio, people. Its good work experience, and its an… Unusual project to be working on. And, actually, the whole museum thing that they’ve got is only an hour or so away in the Santa Cruz mtns, so if I got itchy to get more involved, its not outside the realm of possibility. Mostly the portfolio, though. Its incredibly difficult to get work when you haven’t had work in the past. Especially when you’re self-taught and don’t have a degree to back you up. So. I’ve been surfing Craigslist awhile, looking for people who need web work done, and volunteering my time.

Housing-Type-Stuff - We still haven’t gotten in touch with the guy that John said wanted to rent to us. So. Its all still up in the air. I really want my dsl back.

Free-Time-Stuff - Free time? What free time? I’ve been making more dolls. They’re up on the Blooms section. I’ve been working more on Nepheliad, and I expect to have that functional and ready to go by December 1st. Carole’s been a huge help, making card sets. I hate making card sets. Quilting, too, lately. I’ve nearly finished Keslyn’s quilt. John hooked upt he sewing machine for me, so that’s going a little faster. I’m also crocheting a hat. Its… An experience. Heh. And I’ve been coloring a lot, Keslyn LOVES to color, but lately she’s figured out how easy it is to break crayons.

The biggest downside to that is that I’m very anal about my crayons. I like to have them all put back in order, all UNpeeled, all very neat and tidy and NOT broken. I’m a crayon-nazi.

But I’m trying to relax. A little. I draw the line at chewing on them!

And so do we… Just how we do it is a…

Nevermind. I get that song stuck in my head all the time!  Its a commercial right now, in Grey’s Anatomy, which means that I have about 3.5 minutes to blog. Lucky, because that’s about all the time this update is going to take.

All that PTR stuff I’ve been doing for a couple weeks? Paying off. Sort of. If things keep on the current track, I should be able to steadily make enough to at least pay for my webhosting, which is nice. One little worry I can forget about. If I get really lucky, I may make a few bucks extra to begin putting towards other debts. I have a lot of little debts. I just need to collect them all so I can pay them off. I’m talking really little. Like 9.99 for a magazine thing. 15.00 for a book club thing. Tiny little debts that I could have paid off ages ago, but forgot about, or misplaced, or whatever.

Oh. Show’s back on. G’night!

I just have too many online involvements. I can’t keep current on a blog, and yet I went and opened a new section of the site (Blooms). I’ve pared down WhuddleWorld, though, and taken on staff at Bibliophile, so that should help out. Things at the QBee are hectic at the moment, but only because of the Halloween activity, so I expect that to settle to a dull roar by month’s end. I’ve been doing a lot of PTR stuff lately, to bring in a (very) little bit of extra income, and that really does eat into my time. I have a separate email account strictly for that, and its not unusual for me to get over 100 emails a day. You can imagine, then, how long it takes me to sort through them all. Yikes!

And I’ve started dolling once again (which is what the new site section is all about), and base-making, which is tedious and frustrating and very satisfying when it all works out.

And I spent hours updating Keslyn’s Amazon wishlist, for anyone out there who wants to buy her things. Go here to see it in all its oh-so-current glory. Also linked into the sidebar. That project came about because Keslyn’s grandparents (John’s folks) are buying her costume this year, and Amazon seemed the easiest way to show them what we wanted. So, thanks for the costume and the boost in the rear to get the thing up-to-date.

And some (potentially) good news: we may be moving! Not to Michigan, not yet, but out of this restyled frat house semi-studio that is entirely too small for the three of us, and into a 2 bedroom garage-turned-cottage owned by a guy that John has been doing some side work for. And for $60 less a month! With more space, we could get out of the storage unit we’re renting (which costs us another $125 a month). So this place, provided it works out, could save us nearly $200 a month. I’m excited, but trying not to be too excited - we’ve had other similar housing options fall through on us in the past.

Still, its looking good, so keep your fingers crossed for us!