Feeling better :)

Well, I actually got through a whole week of work this past week and lived to tell the tale, lol. I am feeling much better. Still have the cough and am more worn-out than usual and needing a bit more sleep, but other than that I feel pretty good.

I actually had a bit of delayed retail therapy earlier this week. I've never been a big dress person, but for some reason lately I've been wanting more. So...

...about a month or so ago I picked up a few at Kohls that are cute. (I was excited that the XL in their misses section usually fit me, as Kohls really doesn't carry plus-size dresses, at least not in the stores here.)

...I ordered one from Target and two from Roamans (here and here), figuring if they don't fit I just have to return them.

...Oh, and I got a beautiful cotton turquoise floral dress from Torrid. I've been lusting after this dress for a while and decided to buy it before my size is gone. I plan on buying a short-sleeved cropped cardigan, bolero or jacket to go with this so I can wear it to work, and will probably need to wear a camisole under it. I bought some pretty and inexpensive rings, too.

...I ordered some nice thigh highs and pantyhose from Bare Necessities for the spring and summer. I've decided to go against the current style of bare legs with skirts and wear light and sheer thigh highs instead. I think my legs will look better and I've never really been comfortable with the bare legs look with a skirt, anyway.

...I got a great deal on a skirt from Talbots, and it's a petite!

...Then yesterday I went nuts on the E.L.F. website. Apparently this company has been bought out by Nordstrom's and they are having a fire sale so they can off-load all the stuff. Great makeup for hardly any money at all, and I've been experimenting with different colors and stuff so figured I'd take advantage.

Looking at all this, it looks like I spent major money, but I got most of it on sale, which makes me happy. :) So, we'll see how much of this fits correctly and how much doesn't, and some may get returned. Shopping on line for clothes is always a gamble, but I don't find a lot of dresses I like in local stores. There's a nice Lane Bryant near me, but their dresses tend to be too long for me. So why is it that fat women aren't supposed to show their legs according to some people anyway? My legs aren't tiny but they are muscular and have shape to them, so I don't want to wear stuff that cuts me off mid-calf. I like knee-length or a little shorter.

Anyway, today I think I'll get some things done around here and maybe visit my friend Karri who had foot surgery and is going a bit stir-crazy. I actually did get some stitching done over the past week (mostly on Skeleton Crew) but you know how bad I am about taking pictures and uploading them, like it's some sort of huge task, lol. I think I'll take care of that this weekend, too.

Blah

Sorry, not in a mood for creating a title today. :)

Seems I have asthmatic bronchitis. Basically, the infection is gone but the congestion is still there, which is why my chest has felt very heavy since finishing the medication. I've also been pretty worn out because I'm not breathing well. So, I have an Advair inhaler and Ocean nasal spray, and hopefully after two weeks everything will be cleared up.

I'm so looking forward to being healthy to go to Celebration of Needlework in NH! I may buy that new Stitch-Opoly and take it with me. That could be fun. I may take a class in Hardanger, I'm not sure. I have to look at my budget for the next few months to see if I can swing it. I guess I should do that soon, before the class fills up.

My department at work is having a tough time lately. Our work is up to snuff, as usual, it's our personal lives. I've been having health issues for a few months; one of the guys has been sick or his wife has been sick; my boss's grandmother died last week; a woman's great-aunt has been very sick and she's been helping her get things in order, find attendant care and see about hospice care. I really like my coworkers and hate to see them in pain like this. :(

I have been doing some stitching lately. I'm almost done with the ribbon topiary. I would be finished but I ran out of floss and just ordered some more of Dinky Dyes' Gum Leaves so I can finish. The last few days I've been working a little on Skeleton Crew. I'll get some pictures over the weekend.

Not planning on doing much this weekend, other than stitching and resting. I should have some nice progress pictures to post by Sunday night. I haven't been stitching as much as usual in the last month or so, but I think I'm getting my mojo back. :)

What kind of nerd am I?

Snagged from Whizgidget's blog:

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Artistic Nerd   Whether it's painting, sewing, drawing, arts and crafts; or just splashing paint onto a canvas and calling it art; you mostly fit this description. Lots of people envy the artists, but be humble and keep working on it. There is a shortage of true artists today who actually contribute anything to society.
Literature Nerd
Musician
Drama Nerd
Social Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Missed another day

Well, it looks like I pushed it too hard yesterday and stayed home again today. I think my boss has pretty much banished me from the office for the rest of the week. I understand -- her immune system isn't the best right now plus her grandmother is very sick and I'm sure she doesn't want me to give her anything for her own sake or that she could carry to her grandma. I have no idea what I'm going to do about my trip with my friend to the Celebration of Needlework show in NH at the end of April, as I've had to use some vacation days for that and will be down to one, maybe two days instead of four. I can deal with that, but I feel awful for my friend. I'm sure she'll understand -- she's a good friend -- but I still feel bad. Oh well. I really really hope this is that last of my winter nonsense.

I am still going in tomorrow morning for the EARN Center event in the morning, but I think I'll just come back home and work from here. Then Saturday morning I need to go to the Health Expo we're running, but that's just a few hours in the morning. I probably won't do the wellness walk because it's supposed to rain and I think that would REALLY be pushing it.

Book Meme

I haven't done a book meme in a while, and found this one over at Terri's blog.

Look at the list of (100) books below. Bold the ones you’ve read.
Italicize the ones you want to read. Leave blank the ones that you aren’t
interested in. (Movies don’t count.)

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) (I'm actually reading this right now)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Yes, I'm whining again.

Well, I never did get to that stitching, which is a shame because I've really been in a slump. My "just a cold" isn't. It's an upper-respiratory infection, a lovely thing that seems to be making the rounds at the moment. I honestly thought it was just a bad cold, but then I kept getting a 101 fever every night. After it happened again last night (4th night in a row), I told myself I'd call my doctor. So, he gave me some antibiotics and very low-grade steroids. I can't believe how much work I've missed during the last few months, but there's not much I can do about it. I told my boss I'd try to come back tomorrow, but she said she really wanted me to see how I feel tomorrow for two reasons: 1. she doesn't want me to come back if I should be resting to get rid of this thing; 2. she doesn't want me to give it to the rest of the department, lol.

So, we'll see how I feel in the morning. I can still check email and put out fires as needed from home, so I'm not letting everything completely go. I'm just irritated as heck about the whole thing. I'm glad I talked myself into calling the doctor, at least. I don't like calling about a simple cold, but that fever was bothering me and I developed a lovely cough yesterday. Last thing I want is to let this sort of thing go to long and end up with pneumonia or something. Ick.

Maybe I'll get some stitching in tonight. We'll see. :)

Good day for stitching

I really have been in a bit of a stitching slump since getting back from San Francisco a few weeks ago. I'm not sure why, just haven't been in the mood. I think the fact that my livingroom was a disaster area was too distracting for me, lol. I got most of it under control last weekend and will do the final touches today (shouldn't take more than 30-60 minutes) then I can sit and enjoy the place while I'm stitching inside and it's raining and icky outside. I have to run a few minor errands, but I can do those first and get them out of the way.

We'll see how I feel later, anyway. I came down with a nasty cold during the day on Thursday. I do OK during the day, but Thursday and Friday nights I've been running a fever and had a hard time sleeping. Thursday was 100, last night was 101. It's not THAT high, just high enough to make me very cold no matter how many blankets I use and make me generally uncomfortable.

What I'm very thankful for is that the small event we were going to have at the EARN Center has been postponed. It was going to be this morning, meaning I would have had to get up very early to take 90-120 minutes to get up there because part of the El is shut down due to construction and they are using shuttle buses, and in the rain with a nasty cold. I was soooo thankful when I learned we postponed it!

Oh, I bought a few cute spring clothes last weekend at Kohls and Fashion Bug. Fashion Bug has some pretty trapeze-type short-sleeved sweaters in pink, yellow and white. I bought a pink and yellow and will probably go back for the white. I also bought some similarly styled tops at Kohls, along with a dress and a pair of jeans. I'm slowly getting rid of my lighter wash jeans in favor of darker jeans. I'm not getting rid of them until they either don't fit or are worn out, but I don't wear them to casual Fridays and such anymore. The old ones are comfy, but I do notice that I look better in the darker jeans.