Further Notes on the Adventures of Steff

(Someone left a comment to my last posting, asking what images I was blowing up for Christmas presents this fall. I can't do the shots of people themselves since that breaks one of my personal blogging rules, but these are some of the images of my own work from the last 18 months or so, that I'm blowing up for myself and a friend this holiday season, and I'll scatter 'em through this posting. If you're liking 'em and you want to buy Giclee quality prints for your home or gifts, drop me an email and we can talk!)

It's another rainy day in paradise and I'm hanging on to my coffee like it's the last thing protecting me from the world at large, and it is. When it's gone, then so am I.

I've agreed to do a lot of overtime this week and next, which means I'm doing a bit of a tailspin as I try to get my still-spiralling life under control. I guess the older I get, the more I realize I'm a creature of routine more than I'd like to be. This upheaval I've faced for god knows how long is still confuddling my mix.

An exercise routine is something I'm desperately trying to get together. I'm making progress, and I hope to be able to say by the weekend that I've definitively made progress. I did the stairs yesterday, but I dialed it back by 30%... The first time I did them, two weeks ago now, I was in so much pain for the next few days that it killed any desire to do it again, and strained my achilles tendon. Today, I hurt a bit, but THIS is just fine. This is manageable. So, tomorrow I'll do the stairs again and add another storey into it. Controlled growth. There's no sense excercising to the point that you're in 24/7 pain if it means you won't do it again for a week or more. Amazing how simple epiphanies can yield such amazing dividends.

Speaking of dividends, I'm getting freaked out by the economy these days. It feels like the end of the world when our dollar, the Canuck Buck, is one of the mightier currencies on this spinning ball in space. I mean, are pigs flying? All of a sudden we're trading at 1.10 US. Then there's the fact that the American economy seems like a pinata, with everyone's seeing just how many more hits it's gonna take before the whole thing goes flying open and it's a free-for-all.

In other end-of-the-world news, I was reading an interesting story earlier about plastics and potential links they have to obesity, birth defects, and other fun "I'll take two!" side effects that makers of convenience products and toys likely don't want you knowing about. Me, I've always had a skeptical look at things like plastic and styrofoam, and I don't even own a microwave because I don't want that shit around me 24/7, so I don't get too surprised when I find out there are fears that the off-gassing of things like plastic water bottles or containers getting nuked in microwaves are fucking with us on practically a molecular level.

But I thought I'd share for some of you rose-coloured-glasses types who don't realize that all the little handy plastic containers you're nuking your food in, the water bottles you're reusing well past the "hmm, my water tastes funny" stage, and plastic glasses and dishes you have at home are actually just your free ticket to a whole new somewhat chemically compromised you.

All that aside, I'm in a decent mood. Heh. I'll be writing more later this week -- the exercise and the making-of-many-lunches activities have usurped all my free time since Sunday. (I've made some 20-25 curried chicken wraps for lunch and have frozen them... 20 lunches for $25, and I don't have to make any effort to get it ready for the next three weeks or so.)

I may be working a lot this week and next, but the crafty me you love has still managed to cling to her beloved three-day weekend that's upcoming. Saturday's for writing better content for here, since you deserve that at the very least (as do I) and in so doing I'll be tackling a particularly tough reader question... and may tackle some of the ones that have fallen through the cracks these past few months, even if they're now obselete. Still. Better late than never, and hey, it's not like I get paid for this. :)