I woke up this morning after a dream where I was watching a Disney movie where the heroine (you could tell she was the heroine because she was wearing whites and pastels) had a pick-axe and was twirling around and singing a joyous little ditty about how wonderful it was to beat people to death. I recall watching with some interest and thinking, "I really need to tell yhlee about this!"

Look, I've got a fever, ok? I'm doubly not responsible for my dreams.

Yesterday I was congested, feverish and listless. Today I was all of that, plus suffering coughing spasms that leave me doubled-over and beet red. It's really quite unpleasant. I can't cough anything up because there is nothing to cough up--my lungs are a clear as a bell; it's my sinuses that are triggering it.

The listlessness is also very unpleasant. I've been eating ravioli from a can, without bothering to heat it up, because scraping it out of the can and into a pan, and from there into a bowl, seems like too much work. I tremble to think of what my sodium intake today has been.

I'm hoping that I've hit bottom and will start cycling back up soon. I have stuff I need to do, but I need a brain that isn't braising in its own juices to do it.

Short form: My radio interview had a TN of 20, and I rolled really high.

Somewhat lengthier form: The event went pretty smoothly. I had been a little worried when I woke up yesterday, as I found myself with a slightly sore throat and some nasal congestion. A pot of hot tea and my antihistimine took care of that well enough. I was somewhat nervous when I got there and learned that we would also be accepting call-in questions from listeners, but that did not result in any disasters. In fact, by sheer chance I managed to answer a caller's question before she was even put on the air to ask it. ("It's the ultimate in customer service", I commented.)

Our general manager had had the foresight to bring a radio to the store, so that my staff (and anyone else with a free moment) could listen. The general opinion seems to be that I did a good job--apparently I have a good radio voice and I'm good at explaining things. (The last at least does not surprise me, given that I spent a number of years as a TA in physics. Practice, as they say, makes perfect.)

I'd followed through on my intention to call my parents to let them know, and as a result my mom called me last night to tell me she'd heard me on the radio. She also said I had done a good job, but really what does one expect to hear from one's mother? I don't know yet if Dad heard it--his work may have kept him away from a radio. But we are supposed to get a tape of the show, so if he is interested I can find a way to get him a copy of the tape.

On the down side, my slightly sore throat and congestion of yesterday has blown into heavy congestion and a low fever today. So I am at home, fretting. My staff is really good, but we are still in Grand Opening mode and as a result of the interview I'm now expecting a heavy run on our lemon bars. *fret* At least the lemon bars are easy to make. I really need to get well soon, though. November is a horrible month to get sick in.

I keep forgetting to post this, though I'm not sure why anyone would care--

I'm going to be on a live radio interview program tomorrow. The show is called Judy A La Carte, and it originates on KFOR, a local radio station. I'm even listed on the show's official website, though for some reason they only have my first name. (That might have been a result of our advertising person's mistaken efforts to keep my name off the internet. That ship sailed a long, long time ago.)

Anyway, I'm supposed to talk with Judy about the bakery and baking in general. I'm not too worried because although I am horrifically shy in personal matters I can talk forever if I have a role to play--and Bakery Manager is a role I am very comfortable with.

I suppose I should call my parents tonight and let them know. Parents like knowing things like this.

Monday I couldn’t start right in on Ellis because I had other responsibilities. Princess Smith and the Clockwork Knight is the next book due out from Sabledrake Enterprises, and will be released sometime in November. So I spent the day laying that out and getting proofs ready. I needed some artwork for that, so I renewed my subscription to ClipArt.com and spent much of the day downloading artwork from them. The layout went well, and everyone here as well as Rob, the author, liked how it looked.

Tuesday I finally got back to Ellis and dicked around for a long time before I figured out what exactly I wanted to do with the Bestiary section. And, since I had been playing around at Clipart.com, I decided to include artwork for the beasts. It took a long time (I didn’t finish until Sunday), but it looks really good.

That evening, I took Becca to a meeting at Deaconess Children’s Services, a local non-profit helping families and children. She had an interview to begin volunteering. She was a little shy at first, but was in a surprisingly good mood, and pretty well aced the interview. She was supposed to start helping with dinner food prep the following Thursday.

Thursday, there was a huge fire on the same block as Gary’s Games. It destroyed four little restaurants and damaged the Taproot Theater. It now turns out that the fire was arson, but we only found that out recently. KC, my co-worker, came in to see what was up with the fire and we had a long talk, both about the Ellis layout and about Gary’s Games’ web presence.

Saturday I worked on Ellis in the morning, and then we went out Halloween shopping. Becca has turned 15 over the week, so she got taken out to Mexican food for lunch. After a short nap, chubling came over for a bit and we strategized for an online RPG she’s playing in. Wallace & Gromit’s new movie for family movie night was a big hit and very cute, with better pacing than the last few.

Sunday, I got a private message over Facebook from Kelly, my neighbor across the street. He was having his roof done (I had only found that out Thursday morning as they delivered the industrial-sized dumpster) and was offering me use of the dumpster. We wound up having a long conversation during which I mentioned that I was having my roof done too.

Then we started comparing. He’s getting his done for less than $4000. That was quite a shocker. It actually made me want to cry. But then I was able to point to things that I’m getting that he’s not. His roof was being done by an independent contractor (just one or two guys) and his 10 year old son, who was wandering around cleaning things up. He only had one layer of roof to remove, while I had three (one more than the current building code allows). I’m getting top quality shingles (even that other bid that I got, the one for just materials, listed a price of $8k for the same brand of shingles with only a 30 yr. warrantee). They’re putting in new vents and flashing, and dealing with the difficult flat roof. All with a lifetime warranty, and we plan to keep this house as a rental for a long time.

And I guess that flat roof section is really the key. It has been troublesome the entire time we’ve owned the house. While it didn’t leak while we were there, it always sagged, and it being “fixed” was actually a condition of us buying the house. And by fixed all that really happened was that a support post got put in, rather than any actual repair to the structure. There is definitely something not right going on in there, the real question is just how much bad, how structural is it and how difficult will it be to fix. So I really want someone with experience and the resources to be able to fix whatever is under there.

This is all me trying to justify my decision, but I think it’s still a good one. While I would love to get a roof for $4000, I do want a good one that I can ignore for a long time. But on the other hand, for the price I’m paying, I could buy four cheap roofs. Even if they each only lasted 15 years, that would still be a lifetime’s worth. So I don’t know. It literally makes me sick to my stomach to think about it too much and to wonder if I’m really wasting that much money.

Other than that, Kelly and I had a great chat, over an hour standing outside on the very chilly morning. After that, I went inside and finished up Ellis while the girls worked on Becca’s zombie Halloween costume.

Or waiter. Or sushi-chef.

I've only got anecdotal evidence supporting this, but the impression I get is that with tighter economic times people are eating out a little less, and tipping a LOT less. The restaurant managers I've spoken to (I know a few, yes) have said that average tips have dropped from around 18% to around 10%.

Sure, sure... a lot of us look at tipping as a way to reward excellent service, and will withhold a good tip from a lousy waiter or waitress. But that's not what's happening here. What's happening is that a lot of us don't want to give up eating out, so we're cutting back on our tips.

Two things:

1) Be the guy (or gal) who tips well. Start at 20% and round up. Factor that into your budgeting.

2) Crummy service? A low tip just says "I'm cheap." Unless the service is absolutely execrable, it's not really your job to discipline your server. Tip your server well, and then call the manager over and complain. If it was really that bad you'll probably come out further ahead than if you'd skimped on the tip. If not, well... you don't want to eat there again.

My friend Bob has a great policy when he eats out with a large group. He hands the unsuspecting server a $20 at the beginning of the ordering process and says "I want to make sure this is a great experience for everybody... including you." At the end of the meal he strongarms the rest of us into tipping a solid 20%. Funny thing... when Bob's around we ALWAYS have a great time at the restaurant.

But you don't have to go the extra mile. Just make sure you don't skimp. Waitresses and waiters are feeling the crunch at least as badly as the rest of us are.

Today did not begin well.

Normally I do not dream. That is to say, that while I almost certainly dream every night (that being the nature of the human mind) I very rarely remember my dreams and that is exactly how I like it.

Last night I had a dream that started with cocaine and zombies and ended with GIGANTIC SEA MONSTERS and an air craft carrier. Somewhere in between I had a gun and a fiance. Now what I am saying is, how could anyone actually get rest with all of that racket going on? I have coworkers who have elaborate bed-time rituals designed to help them have dreams and remember them and I think they are crazy. Cocaine and zombies is not how you get a peaceful night of slumber!

In tenuously related news, I now have a bedspread. I've wanted one since I moved into my new apartment but hadn't gotten one because they are a lot of money and I hadn't found one I liked enough to spring for. Well, Sunday I was in the local Goodwill to see if they had any good plant pots and I noticed that they had their bedding on sale. I strolled over to look and almost immediately found a bedspread in blue and ivory with roses. Blue roses Combining my favorite color with my favorite flower raises the whole thing to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups levels of awesomeness, so I checked the tag to see what size it was and--It was the right size for my bed! Modified rapture!

There were also two decorative pillow shams in the same pattern which I grabbed on principle. I don't have any decorative pillows in that size, but I might get some someday and I had no way of knowing if I would ever see this pattern again.

So now I have a bed graced with a lovely bedspread. Now if only I could get some lovely zzzzzs in it!

The weather was horrendous that Saturday. The rain was coming down in buckets. So much so, that even on the drive down to Gary’s Games with no traffic, we were only going 40 MPH on the freeway.

I had gone to the bank on Tuesday and confirmed that I could get $10k out of home equity line of credit, and then Evan had come back over Wednesday night for us to sign papers on getting the roof re-done. Of the four contractors that came out to look at the house, only two actually got back to me with quotes! Only Jorve offered to meet with me and discuss options. And the other one, while they did send a quote, only quoted me for materials, not for time, permits, disposal of the old roof, etc. Jorve also gave me copies of all their licenses, insurances, Labor & Industries documents and the like. Professional through and through.

And with a professional price tag. $15,200 plus tax and possible overruns. So I’m figuring $18k. That includes new underlayment, new vents, flashing, a lot of work on that troublesome flat roof area that necessitated this whole thing and a lifetime warrantee. But they also said that they would come out and tarp down the roof so that it wouldn’t leak while they fit me into their schedule.

And so I drove by the house on my way to the game. Nearly the entire roof was covered in tarps and in the wind and rain it wasn’t fluttering or looking like it was going to blow away. A good, professional job. Later, when I called the tenant, he said that they had arrived on Thursday morning (remember we signed the papers Wednesday night, after business hours) and that the rain had started about 15 minutes after they left. Perfect timing!

I got to the game nearly late and drenched. Despite the poor weather, there was a good turnout -- five out of six spots. The game went very well, though there was a strange, unanticipated bit where everyone decided that I had not outfitted their characters properly and they wanted to go shopping.

We went a little late and wound up having to skip the big final battle. That is, we didn’t skip it, but also didn’t actually play it out. I thought it went well, and many of the player’s talked about coming to the next session.

That night we watched the really cute, and not at all cheesy Shaun the Sheep, in two videos for Family Movie Night.

Sunday was a major chore day, and I would up cleaning, doing yard work, shopping and dealing with several large totes full of old computer manuals left over from our July garage sale that had been left on the front porch but uncovered so that they had filled up with water and the paper rotted. Quite disgusting!

I followed that up with a second try at cheese making, which went much better (at least for the cheddar, the ricotta failed).

My big project for the weekend was the layout of Ellis. I didn’t really expect to get it done by the end of Sunday, but I had hopes to be close and absolutely had to be done by Wednesday. But the layout wound up taking forever, first because it was 250 pages, second because I wanted this edition to be a sample of the final layout, so I was actually laying it up similarly to the final, printed edition so that it would be a test of that layout, and finally, I made some bad decisions in how to handle large files within PageMaker, so by the time I was at page 80 or so, I started to see major computer slowdowns whenever I would edit images or change pages, which was insanely frustrating.

And there was more to do that weekend. Since I had bought the milk, and the less processed milk had a shorter lifespan in the fridge, I had to do the cheese or waste $20 of milk. So, with really less time available than I needed, I started the chessemaking process. I’m not going to go into the details here (I’ll do it in my medieval living blog), but something went wrong and the cheese curds never really solidified. So while there was no cheddar, I did get some really good ricotta out of it, that would up making fabulous tasting Libum.

That night the CandyLand birthday party was a lot of fun. The idea was that everyone had to bring a game designed using the pieces of a CandyLand set without adding any pieces. My entry was a Euro-game style design that was a sort of mash-up of Res Publica and Puerto Rico, using the candy trail as a scoring track. I hadn’t had time to playtest it, so it didn’t work perfectly and definitely needs work, but it wasn’t too bad. I think it was one of the best themings at least. Charley is supposed to eventually post them all on his website.

Sunday was layout in the morning and the World of Darkness game in the afternoon/evening. Becca and I got into a little bit of a fight on the drive home, but other than that it was good.

Monday and Tuesday were all about layout and by Tuesday night I had to come to the conclusion that either I could finish by Saturday, or I could stop where I was (having finished character creation and combat) and do all of the prep work I needed to do for the game I had already committed to running Saturday morning. So I choose the latter.

It was a good decision. I made six characters, finished the adventure that I had started to write a year ago, made up player handouts, etc. I was still typing these out two hours before the game.

A lot has happened in our little corner of the world since my birthday party, which was my last post.

That weekend we had planned to go downtown to BrickCon, a lego convention, but when we got down there, we encountered a line of 8-12 year-olds around the block and decided that it would be too much for us. That evening Becca went to a birthday party.

The next day we drove north to the Skagit County Festival of Family Farms. Becca had said beforehand that she didn't want to go, but that morning she changed her mind and came with us and that made me very happy. She really seems to hate my new-found gardening/farming hobby, but sometimes it shines through that maybe she just enjoys being contrary.

We spent the day touring the farms and bought some really good cheese and egg nog from Golden Glen Creamery. We will certainly go back there. We hit some thrift stores on the way home, looking for a copy of CandyLand, because Charley's birthday party was the next weekend.

Becca had complained that her wrist hurt ever since the party so I wound up taking her to the doctor on Monday. After a long wait and having to witness a 40-something daughter badger and berate her elderly, not-all-that-with-it father for most of it, she got x-rays that were inconclusive. We got a brace and were told to go easy on it.

That week, I finished the writing of the hopefully-final Ellis edition (v. 1.7). I also went down to the local co-op and bought supplies for making cheese, because after getting the cheesemaking kit for my birthday, I was eager to start in on that.

In less fun news, we had roof issues. We have a rental house and it has, for several years, had a leaky section of the roof. Every year I go up, slather on some tar, and that gets it through the winter and the tenants don’t complain. This year, that didn’t cut it. When I looked at it from the inside, looking behind sheetrock and pushing away insulation, it was obvious why none of my efforts topside had helped.

The wood of the roof (this is on a section of flat roof) was rotted through and you could see the underside of the tar paper. How it had kept the water out was really the bigger question.

So I also spent much of that week calling roofing contractors and arranging for them to come out at look at the place and place bids. On guy, Evan from Jorve Roofing, even came out to the house on Wednesday night to go over everything and teach me everything I wanted to know about roofs.

Needless to say, this stressed me out immensely and still continues to, but more on that later.

If you've been following the news, there are lots of people screaming about how incredibly expensive the stimulus package was, and how it didn't create enough jobs for the money spent.

I'm not a fan of stimulus, nor big government, but I do know how to do math like a capitalist. An employee costs a lot more than just salary, and I haven't seen much reporting in this vein.

Let's say you've been given stimulus money to hire somebody. GREAT! Do you start writing them paychecks immediately? No. You find work for them to do. Let's go on to say that the employee is (as many of them are reported to have been) a construction worker. How much is it going to cost to put that person to work? Well... you have to have land on which they can put a building, materials to put up the building with, and tools for them to use. Some of this you might already have, but with stimulus money you're going to go buy MORE of it so you can grow your business and (here's another form of the word) STIMULATE the economy as a result.

Pulling numbers out of my butt: if twenty guys can build a subdivision of 40 homes in a year, and the homes cost $120,000 each to build, you've spent just short of five million dollars creating 20 jobs, at a cost of $240,000 per job.

You also created forty homes (in a depressed real-estate market that is saturated with defaults, foreclosures, and short sales, but I digress...)

Also, somebody out there sold you a whole mess of lumber, nails, concrete, PVC, etc.

Sure, if all we wanted to do was feed people tax money we could do it much more efficiently by just dumping the entire stimulus package into the existing welfare system. But that doesn't stimulate the economy, and it provides incentives for the wrong sort of behavior.

Again, let me say that I'm not a fan of the stimulus package, not as implemented, and not in principle. But the math I use as a good capitalist who wants to be able to create jobs tells me that the critics of the stimulus package are being very loudly dishonest in their criticism.

(Note: If you gave me $240,000 and told me to create as many jobs as I could, I would hire a writer, two line-artists, and a colorist and create graphic novels out the wazoo. If the books sold well, I'd be able to keep my employees. If not, well... they worked for a year, and we all had a good time with taxpayer money. DO NOT SEND ME TAX DOLLARS IT WILL ONLY END IN TEARS.)

A few years ago helen_keeble demonstrated the boundless depths of our friendship by writing a an L5R fanfic for me. About exploding possums. Earlier today I discovered that recently Helen herself hadn't been able to find the story because she hadn't tagged it and it was lurking in the dusty corners of her LJ.

As fate would have it, I have it bookmarked because last spring I was trying to find it, and d_silverblade heroically battled the forces of entropy on my behalf. Clearly, the only fit thing to do is to put up a link here, so that other people may benefit from helen_keeble's writing and d_silverblade's heroism.

The series of events that would later be referred to variously as the Season of Teeth (by the Crane), the War of Dire Beasts (by the Lion), or That Thing With The Possums (by everyone else) started, as so many wars do, with a party.