Showing posts with label challenges. Show all posts
Showing posts with label challenges. Show all posts

Sunday, July 30, 2017

I think I'm back...


My tablet died, so I had to get a new one. The new model is considerably bigger, and consequently easier to type on. I'm going to try to resume semi-regular blogging... we'll see how I do.

I had to sign back into Facebook to save my progress on a few games. I took a brief glance at the first few items on my news feed, went "Nope" and will be deactivating the page again. I've been happier without it, although I *do* miss the interaction with a few friends & family members.

Still battling the fatigue issues, but my health is otherwise tolerably good. In an effort to be more active, I have started volunteering as a role player for training exercises at the police academy. THAT has been a freaking hoot! Most of the recruits are wet behind the ears kids, and the handful of older ones with some life experience still aren't prepared to deal with someone like me. One scenario I was in had me & another girl (who was almost as big as me) in a domestic issue where the ex-wife & new girlfriend started fighting when hubby tried to pick up the kids. She & I were having fun slinging furniture & throwing mock punches. The kids sent to stop us were both around 5'2-5'4 and probably less that 150 lbs each. The slightly taller of the two pushed his partner toward us, said "you deal with that while I talk to this dude." Little guy shrieked, "who, me?!?" We stopped fighting each other, turned & gave him evil smiles, and started his way. The assessor finally managed to stop laughing long enough to call a halt to the scene once it was clear that the kid was either going to wet himself or run, possibly both.

Another day saw me in a loud party scenario. I was paired up with Officer E, who is also a big girl, and another civilian. The kids were "dispatched" in groups of 3 this time, not that it did them much good. All 3 of us escaped custody, they usually didn't find the drugs & weapons hidden on us, and the piece de resistance was the final group. We were in a second floor room for this exercise, and had been heckling a group that was below us outside. (The training staff were in hysterics by the end of the day because E & I were being total heathens) We got what turned out to be our last group. As they burst into the "party" (which they did incorrectly) & turned our music off, I was hit with inspiration. I went a couple of rounds of music off/on with the little guy closest to me (seriously, most of this class is 5'2-5'8) and then freaked him out. I screamed, "oh, snap, someone sent us a police strip-o-gram! Get them clothes off, baby!" E immediately caught on & followed suit. (Our 3rd comrade & the assessor were both laughing too hard to do anything) We started grinding on those boys and tugging at their uniforms. THEY panicked. In the middle of all this, I grabbed my guy's gun (not a euphemism, his actual mock weapon. Thankfully they weren't given real guns & tasers for these exercises) and ran to the window, tossing it out the the scenario out below us, allowing all hell to break loose in that one too. The trainers called time on us at that point.

We went downstairs to return our stuff to the prop boxes & join the session debriefing. Then I hear the Lt. say, "wait, that's not a prop, that's a recruit's gun!" followed by a bellow of "which one of you damn fools got disarmed and who did it?!?" The kid reluctantly confessed & pointed at me. Lt. M gave him quite an earful about it. He also dropped by my office that night to tell me that they'd watched the body camera footage of all the incidents (they didn't tell US that those damn things were live... oops) and had been laughing themselves sick for 8 hours. Especially at the last scene. "We never knew you were so good at being bad!"

I'm really hoping that footage never leaves the academy, but I suspect it's making its way around the department.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Chat Noir & other odds and ends


What a bummer 2016 has been already. We've lost David Bowie, Alan Rickman, the man who did the voice of Disney's Robin Hood,Lemmy from Motorhead, anbd now Glenn Frey of the Eagles. I'm sure I've missed someone else, but honestly that list is too long as it is!

Amazon finally managed to get the rest of my Christmas presents delivered! I'm listening to Paper Gods now & I like it much better than Duran Duran's last album. I was going to watch Luther 4, but I'm not sure I can stay awake.

Oh yeah, I'm sick again/still. The below freezing temperatures here haven't helped, & the double I foolishly worked Saturday made things worse. I'm voluntarily going to the doctor tomorrow.

Nightshade & Boo are taking turns being cuddly when I'm on the couch. Remy is still a bit reserved. Shady & the boys haven't quite figured each other out yet- lots of hissing going on, and Shady smacked one of them on the nose for getting too close. Not bad for only living together 3 weeks. It took that long just to get Shady out from under the couch when she came to live with me!

Signed up for the Goodreads challenge again this year. The last few years have been squeaked by at the end, so I lowered the bar a bit for this year. I'm making a concerted effort to get back to doing things I love despite the CFS, and reading is the biggie. I'm off to a good start so far!

I'm not letting myself start a new cross stitch project until I finish at least ONE of the ones I already have going. Since I really want to start the Beauty & the Beast project that I got for Christmas, I've been working on Chat Noir. Here's the latest view:

I've finished the cat's body & have started the base. Not much more to go. I'm dreading the back stitching, but I think it'll look good once I'm done.

Until the next time...

Monday, September 14, 2015

Fall Weather Descended With A Vengeance This Weekend


I love it! I'm sitting here on my couch in layered sweats & fuzzy slippers. I've slept better the last 2 nights than I had in months. And Princess Purrsnickety has deigned to come indoors and be cuddly!

Not much else going on. Dad had a chest pain scare that landed him in the hospital Thursday night, but was allowed to go home after blood work showed no sign of a heart attack and a scan showed no blockages. They think k it might have been a weird reaction to his flu shot earlier in the week. He goes to his cardiologist for a follow-up tomorrow, just to be on the safe side.

I haven't made any progress on my two previously posted cross stitch projects, but I have made a start on this:
For the SAL that I signed up to do, this is the frame for Gold Cottage- part 1 of Country Cottage Needlework's Fall Festival series. I'm hoping to finish (or at least get close) all 5 parts by the time the SAL ends in November!

Until later, dear reader (readers? Is anyone out there?!?)

Monday, December 15, 2014

New Version Book Challenge

I'll most likely do the Goodreads challenge again for 2015, but I found this online and think I'll add it into the mix.

Hopefully the link works- it's a printable checklist for the Popsugar Reading Challenge.