Java, I'm so sorry about your mother. It sounds like she had a good run, though.

I'm sorry about your mother, Java. She sounds like an amazing person! I'm also sorry about your cat. It sounds like a coyote-free zone for your other cats would be good. We've had alleged coyote sightings in my county (central NC), but no confirmed ones in town. Yet. I see deer in my apartment complex grounds 2-3 times a week, so other semi-wild-life wouldn't surprise me.

Thanks for the kind words. We just moved all her stuff out of her apt., and the cremation is tomorrow. Life goes on.

Oh, hon. I'm so glad you were there for her, and she got to spend so much time with you the last several years.

(waves) ... I've been swamped at work and haven't been on the board for (runs out of fingers to count on). But I hope to get back and catch up with everyone.

I didn't life recap last year - we moved in October, so I was kinda busy, but that means that in this year's recap I can note that one year ago today we moved to Cincinnati, OH. We're sort of half-settled in; the kids (6 and 9) switched schools this fall, and that's a good thing. mr. flea loves his job, and it is likely to be stable and long-term. I worked from Nov. - May at a job in my field that was temporary, poorly-paid, and under the supervision of a very high-strung person. I'm still looking for a job, but I am enjoying being a stay at home parent for the first time much more than I would have expected, and I am trying to start putting together a valuable part-time career of a freelance/grant-funded nature. We still own our house in GA, but as of the 20th it will be rented, so that is a big financial relief. And amazingly, Buffistas come through Cincinnati all the time: I've seen/met meara, Maria, and Liese, in addition to the opportunity to see Teppy and the boy any time we want to see each other!

I'm so sorry, java cat. Glad you had time to spend with your mother. And yikes! Poor kitty.

Here's my post from last year: smonster "Delurking 1: Because we don't always check our e-mail." Oct 10, 2011 5:52:01 pm PDT

Still loving New Orleans. I have a different dream job, much better than the previous one which turned out kind of nightmarish and laid me off in March. I feel competent and appreciated here, and my coworkers are a delight.

I am dating a different lovely chap, since the last lovely chap wasn't actually interested in a relationship (with me, anyway). This one is kind of fantastically improbable (swing-dancing, rugby-playing, ex-orthodox jewish russian immigrant pop culture geek) and improbably fantastic (in the context of my dating history).

Financial struggles continue, but I am mentally and emotionally sooooo much healthier than I was just a few years ago, and for that I am super thankful.

I'm a little lurkier than last year, but I read and nod and send ~ma. Most often seen in GWW, Bitches, Natter & still lurking Boxed Set like a lurking thing.

This was me, last year: Sox "Delurking 1: Because we don't always check our e-mail." Oct 7, 2011 2:50:31 am PDT

This year, I'd say project is trending toward a career-shaped-thing, though I've still got a way to go and a lot to learn (ad infinitum).

I got to see Javachik, Raq, D (whoohooo, biking!), and Amy this year, meet JenP, and join in some of the amazing buffista side projects. I met Sheryl and her DH in an elevator! And will do it again, hopefully in November.

DH and HPF are both working hard, doing great. Some growing pains and house shenanigans, all within normal ranges.

Fingers crossed for a good year to come for everyone!

Sox,

If you mean Philcon, Gary and I will be there. This time, maybe we can meet for more than a few minutes. :)

{{Java cat}} Much sympathy for your loss.

I looked back at my post last year to get a link to it and saw it was all of five lines long. No linky for you!

That doesn't mean you get off Scott free, though! This year has been quite eventful.

In many ways, my life is so much better. My circle of friends in Madison is growing. We came together over Star Trek and have moved on to Avengers fandom at the same pace. It's nice having geeky friends to do things like go to the local martini bar and get themed drinks to match each of the Avengers. We all bought matching t-shirts with a logo that looks a lot like the Obama 2012 t-shirts but have a combo of Cap's shield and the arc reactor for the 'O' and then it says Rogers•Stark under it. Gives most people a double-take when they see it.

My best friend of 27 years got booted out of England (her visa had been expired for two years and they only just found out!) and moved in with me. It's so great having a roommate who knows me inside and out. This will be the third time we've shared living quarters and we've just fallen into the same old routines, with the same banter and the same totally goofy love for each other. It's one of the reasons I'm not around the board nearly as much; I've turned her into a Doctor Who fan and we've been watching 3-4 episodes a night. I'll collect a toaster now please!

Another reason I've been so absent is that I had to give up cable to fund my trip to the F2F this year. It was totally worth it! But it means I'm not watching much TV (other than Netflix) so I can't keep up with my favorite shows as easily and have to stay out of a lot of threads. Supernatural! ::sob::

Despite the lack of pay raises at work (2 1/2 years now), since I'm a state employee, things are going well despite a bad beginning to the year. I was paired with a program coordinator whose personality and mine just did not mesh. I finally threw a hissy fit and threatened to quit, which actually had them panicking and promising me things would change. I've never done anything like that before and honestly didn't expect it to work. I ended up trading one set of crappy duties for another, but at least it's crappy duties that don't come from a condescending bitca. The new coordinator I have to work with is so sweet and she thanks me every time I do something for her, she's a pure joy to work for and makes the drudgery of the task easier to bear.

One of the things I did learn from my hissy fit back in February is that I've not been coping with stress in my life very well at all. I lost four pounds in one weekend over a three-day program off-site working with the bad coordinator. The last day of the program I found myself driving home in tears. On the following Monday, the first thing I did was call my doctor and get referred to a shrink. I'm back on bipolar meds and I feel so, so much better. So much better, I finally tackled the fact that I had gained over 50 pounds in the past 5 years. At this point, since February I've lost 44 of those 50 pounds. I haven't felt this good in years despite the fact I've had to have steroid shots in my right foot to deal with a torn plantar plate. C'est la vie, it comes with age.

The last little bit of news is work related, again, and it makes me very happy. This is despite the fact my supervisor seems to think I'm under-worked (which I very much am not, but she's never appreciated what I do and has always looked down on me) and can therefore take on more tasks that will completely overload me without extra compensation. I did manage to negotiate a minor trade and got rid of a piddly task that barely took up an hour of my time per month, but winning any concessions from this woman is a major victory. Anyway, the division (continuing studies) is trying to convert more of our non-credit course offering to an online self-paced format. I've been asked to help out the instructional design team with that, which means learning more CSS and HTML (which I know the basics of) and Dreamweaver (no experience at all). Yesterday, I was in a (continued...)