har og ra fee

We are so lucky, and most people here are congratulating their ingenuity (such as it was) with still being alive. They are celebrating the massacre at our gates, the lives taken, and taken again (you would be surprised how stubborn Target employee zombies can be. I wish they’d shown such diligence when alive).

No, folks, sorry. We got lucky, and that’s all there is to it. So many others tried and died, and we got lucky.

That’s all there is now. Count on yourself and your loved ones, and leave everyone else behind. Stay away from the rest of humanity. Close your curtains, shut your blinds, and do not interact with people. Do not draw attention to yourself.

Live quietly within your secure bubble and hold out as long as you can.

No one knows how this started or when it might return - and after these past 24 hours, we’re going to have a lot more dead to deal with if it does happen again.

Live and learn, and don’t count on luck.

I am going to bed. I am dreading waking up to this again tomorrow, but the alternative is worse.

Perhaps I’ll get lucky and wake with the sun rather than with the dead.

I don’t think I have the words to describe what I’ve been doing today.

We have people stationed at the two locked side gates, which have so far been holding. Everyone has been doing what they can to not draw attention to those areas, and we also have patrols going around the perimeter watching for any that have made it over the fence. So far, none.

The majority of our time has been spent at the front gate - three lanes, completely open.

Early on in the day I convinced people with large vehicles to park them in the driveway, blocking the roads. We have the cars five deep, but they’re not touching so the creatures can come between the cars and some have crawled under them.

We are so poorly armed for this - landscaping tools, water hoses, some sports equipment. So far, through sheer luck, determination, and numbers, we’ve made it so far.

Most of us have, anyway.

One of the security guards came to relieve me from my post. I’m covered in I-don’t-want-to-know-what.

There came a point when fury just overcame me, and my memory went blank. So much of this day has been a blur.

I’ve always been one of those Worst Case Scenario people, who enters a new place and checks for good hiding spots and exits, just in case. Who knew that it might come in handy one day?

I go back on duty in a half hour. They’ve taken over the Target across the street, and are pushing their injured around in shopping carts in a cruel mockery of our material world.

I’m going to go sit in the jacuzzi for a while. Maybe they won’t be able to find me if I hide underwater with my snorkel - worth a try when they break through our barricade, right? Anything would be better than ending up like them.

I heard from Alan! He made it to work! He and his fellow geeks are holed up in Imageworks, which is luckily a fairly secure site. They figured out how to cut power to the doors, so everyone is locked in.

They have water, soda, popcorn, and vending machines for food, and hundreds of dead computers and monitors they can use as ammunition.

Alan is considering building a ballista out of cubicle parts. He also sent me this, which is useful considering our situation.

As for me, I am staying home. My office is next to one of the largest cemeteries in SoCal, and near to another one. I have no desire to see Zombie John Candy and Zombie Bing Crosby. But oh my god, Bela Lugosi is buried there. I think I could die happy if I got a picture of Zombie Bela Lugosi!

Oh, the irony.

Bella was pacing this morning, starting at 5am. I should’ve known something was up. I finally got up at 6 to walk her.. everything seemed normal, if a little quiet (although I’m not up at 6am normally, so how would I know, really?) until I walked over to the side of the neighborhood by La Cienega Blvd - the part where it’s still sorta like a freeway.

There was just a mass of cars. I could hear groaning, I saw some hands, grasping, reaching out of car windshields. Bella didn’t want to approach the gate, and whined when I drew closer.

Oh my god. Her whine drew their attention. I saw figures rise up from among the wreckage and turn our direction.

I have never been so happy to live in a community with 14′ high walls topped with spiky bars, and closed off with locked and secured iron gates. There is just one open entrance and exit, and thousands of people in here. I hoped we could hold them off, working together.

I ran back home, closed all the windows and the shades, and got back into bed with Alan. I think I was hoping I was still dreaming.

Unfortunately it was all too real.

I woke up again hours later, and Alan was gone. I think he went to work, not knowing what was going on outside. That, I suppose, is the problem with living in a quiet neighborhood.

I should’ve woken him. I don’t know where he is now.

Alan and I went to the tasting at the wedding location on Saturday.

Oh. My. God.

As I told my friend, I rated the food on a scale from “yum” to “OMFG”. Most dishes ranked in the “delish-OMG” range… which is to say, that was some of the best food I have tasted in my entire life.

We are not at all concerned about which dishes to serve at the wedding, as anything we offer is going to be so utterly fabulous as to render everyone silent when they eat.

Now I am looking forward to the wedding moreso than the honeymoon!

Sparkly purple

Originally uploaded by there’s a b





This delightful yarn is blue-faced Leicester, merino, tussah silk, and angelina glitz I bought from SheepyEyed on Etsy. It’s 71yd, and maybe a bit finer than sport weight.


This is what I spun up over Memorial Day weekend (used a drop spindle).


I also joined the Sunday Spin-along because it’ll get me to try different techniques with my wheel, which I have not been using a whole lot until this past week. Last night I discovered that I need more bobbins. I wonder what I’ll learn tonight?

Oatmeal wool

Originally uploaded by there’s a b

I’ve been spinning.

Over Memorial Day weekend I spun all the purple sparkly wool I got from an Etsy seller, and last weekend and went through all my handspun yarn and measured it (roughly) and re-balled it. Unfortunately I forgot to bring the measurements to work with me today, but I have:

1. A gray wool single.
2. The sparkly purple wool (2-ply)
3. Purple merino/tencel blend (2-ply)
4. Purple wool 2-ply
5. Purple experiment (3-ply)
6. Red merino thick’n'thin 2-ply
7. Purple/blue/green merino/tencel blend 2ply
8. Gray alpaca 2-ply
9. Camel/silk blend 2ply
10. Brown icelandic sheep (3 balls of chunky singles)

I guess I have been pretty busy this past year. More pictures forthcoming, I promise. Even of the skeins I am not so proud of.

I totally missed the impending release of the sequel to Nochoi Dozor (Night Watch) - Day Watch.

woot!

I have the Night Watch & Day Watch books at home, too.. I gotta get reading! At this point, probably not until after the movie, but that’s okay.

But at least they’re useful!

So, as some of you may know, my college pc was turned into a FreeBSD webserver that we kept in our apartment.

Being nearly eight years old - and having been sent cross-country several times in those eight years - much less having been ON nearly every day for eight years was bound to take a toll. The fan in the power supply finally passed away, overheating everything and making it shut off. We haven’t yet plugged the parts in to a different computer to see if the motherboard can be salvaged (not that it’s worth it, really).


So, anyway, I am starting over for now. I am hoping to try out some new widgets and tinker with this fine-but-monotone template, and see what happens.