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BPAL Madness!
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My Random BPAL-Related Thoughts

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Wow.

It has been an intense and stressful day.   Again.   I didn't sleep well last night. I can't, won't, go into whys. That's personal.   So I've put in an order for TKO and The Deep Ones. That is odd. Only putting in an order for *2* bottles is odd. I usually get in touch with the people I've enabled or the Hamilton BPALer to see if anyone wants to tack something on. Not this time, I really feel I need to get this order in ASAP so I can get TKO sooner, not later. I've got other bottles I want, especially GCs. I decided to hold off for now.   It's been a Western Diamondback day. I put it on this am knowing it was going to be a busy day and that I had an appt after work that I needed some comfort for.   Going to go put some more WDB on, chuck some more Baku on my pillow & see if I can sleep better tonight.  

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Can it be better now?

Still really down. I'm having a hard time with Freeway not eating much. I worry about him. He ate a bit more tonight because I put it on my finger and encouraged him. I'm exhausted. I'm worried. But it was nice to see him get a little playful when I put the catnip around. He even played a bit in the box with Morgan, a bit with the possum ball.   So it's good to see him play but I think I'll still worry because he just isn't eating much and he's not in a position to loose much more weight. Tonight we did try to feed him first then pill him, in case pilling him was putting him off his food.   Another day, another hill to get over.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Forgiving Cats

It was Mr Way's fluid night and it didn't go so well to start. My first attempt at sticking & he let out a little meow & hunkered down to try to get away from the needle. It was only half way in so I pulled it out, thinking I'd maybe gone in wrong. I pulled it out and tried again, same response. I decided to push it in all the way, start the fluids & see how it goes, knowing I could get them started and we could stop them if he seemed like he was in pain too much. He did well, settled down and purred while I scratched his chin. He got anxious towards the last 20 or 30 mls but he did well. As soon as he was done I took him in and gave him some jellymeat (wet food). Usually I give him some dry food but this time I thought he deserved something better (he does like the dry food). He ate. He came and settled on my lap, purred for a bit and was sooky.   It's nice that he's come and settled. It helps me feel better. He was resting his head on my arm as I reached around him to type.   PO this weekend. I got my Ebay Bed of Nails last weekend, the Etsy cases for Carol and Kelly and a couple decants (Smiling Spider & Spirit of the Komachi Cherry Tree). Smiling Spider did not like me and I was expecting something different. It's put me a bit in fear of the Mort De Cesar lunacy I bought, hopefully it's not quite that...strong. I really liked Bed of Nails. It is similar to Mechanical Phoenix but not quite as 'harsh' or metally. It's nice. I had that on today. And Ted went way out with the frimps, it was great! I really appreciated it all. I've got some goodies to send but want to get some mroe things.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Freeway's Improvement

Freeway has been slowly gaining weight again. He's eating, not a ton but little bits here and there and that's what counts. He's sitting on the couch grooming himself. He had stopped grooming himself when he wasn't eating much so it gives me hope again. We've got a little digital scale & weigh me, then him & me. We've been doing it for about a week. Yesterday he was up to 4.7 kilos. He doesn't look like he's gained weight so I'm glad we are weighing him, so I tell he's doing better.   I'm ok. It was a tough week last week. Work got pretty unbearable. And it's not fun when issues you are dealing with at home come up at work and vice versa. It felt like everywhere I turned I was being attacked. Just not fun.   Checking the PO today, our 10/2 Lab order should be here, along with some decants I was expecting last week. And I hope Sharon's Possets order makes it this time. She's kindly reshipped since it should have been here by now and wasn't. Fingers crossed. We are seeing Sharon tomorrow and I can give them to her then. And we are seeing Joan so if the Lab's box is here that means I can give her the Muse she ordered.   We put in an order yesterday, got Hexennacht 08 on it and I hope that works for me. Most of the order was for Carol this time. I put Ebisu Making Love on for me, the reviews sound intriguing. And I put an imp pack on for me. I chucked a GLowing Vulva on because my counsellor really liked it so I can give her a decant. I want to pull a few decants out then Carol can use it. She liked it, not as much as others, but I wanted to be able to decant some.   Ah well, finish coffee then off to the shower. Busy today, PO then the pet store to look for some clumping litter, then the fruit/veg markets out in Massey for fruit for tomorrow. What else? Oh. Bills. I'm a week and a half behind doing them. Must Do Today. And gardening (lawn is up to my knees!) and housework. I'm glad this is a 4 day weekend!!

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Tattoist/Piercer in Trouble!

I wonder if there would be a way to let Beth know about this, see if she'd be willing to consider doing a small donation like she does for the comic book fund? Or are they too stretched on donations already, with the ones they have? I'd buy a bottle just to be able to donate. Would it be too forward to drop an email to the Lab and mention it to them? I have a feeling this kind of injustice would be as close to Beth's heart as it is mine. I've got 3 (had 4) tats, got piercings too. (**Edited: I couldn't go to bed without emailing the Lab about it. I feel really silly doing that but I don't think it should have waited while I wrestled with my shyness).   Here is the long version Linkie Thingie   Here is a recent update   Short version: a tattooist/piercer in UT is being harrassed because she refused to tattoo an under-age minor without a parent present. She even refused to sell the supplies so they couldn't pierce themselves. The minor has complained to the cops in this tiny po-dunk town saying that she and friends were able to view the shop's genital piercing book. Never mind that the "witness" story has changed several times. This book isn't left out for people to just view. Regardless, the cops have raided the parlor, taken a bunch of flash (come on, semi-nude fairies???) as well as the book. Unfortunate for the parlor, a couple of 17 year olds snuck in and got a tat. The receptionist didn't notice, the guys signed paperwork swearing they were over 18. The parents didn't really mind but did their 'civic duty' (this is UT remember) and reported it to the cops. This has been brought up in the recent charges against the tattooist. She has a 2 year old.   Please spread the word. If you are able to, donate $1 or more to the legal defence fund. I've donated $15.00. It isn't much but hopefully every dollar will help.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Homeopathy

I decided that I *know* we can't afford it but tough tiddlywinks. I've put in an order for 2 bottles of Chaos Theory IV. Maybe it will be the cure for the chaotic/hellish year we've had so far. Homeopathy uses very dilute 'diseases'/'poisons' to build up your immunity to cure you. And if that doesn't work for Smellies, just getting the CnS and then the package makes us smile so that's worth it.   And maybe by getting 2 we're likely to get at least one blend that will smell nice on one of us.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Pending Sales

I've counted and we have 10 pending sales plus the lab Ebay sale I won which is already on it's way thanks to the illustrious Ted.   Plus I'm getting ready to put in our combined order. I wanted to put it in by tonight but haven't heard from Symone yet to confirm hers are all bottles and not imps given the price (approx $65NZ). I might just put the order in if I haven't heard from her by tomorrow 'cause I'm pretty sure that's what she wants and I know she doesn't check her mail/internet regularly.   I vascillate, wanting to put more Lupercalias & Shungas on this order and telling myself I can wait until March.   Just for us on this order I've got Her Voice Muse CHESHIRE MOON LUNAR ECLIPSE MEN RINGING BELL WITH PENISES Western Diamondback   I am also debating slipping a couple imps on. One of our coworkers has 3 imps I'm debating adding 3. Hmm, Maybe I can chuck on a Snake Oil (to see what all the fuss is about/start aging), an Embalming Fluid for Carol, maybe Wolf Heart for both of us and/or a Defutata for me. Yummmm cinnamon notes..... Ok, that is more than 3. I will either need to narrow it down or to-hell-with-it-order-more-than-6. I can hold off on the Lupercalia/Shungas I guess because I do have imps coming of those. Maybe we can get a few imps each order or a pack each order. Since we've got 3 imps already on it's only natural to put another 3 on to make a full pack....     On non-order related BPAL stuffs: I put Western Diamondback on tonight. I'm depressed. Things are getting to me, just personal stuff I don't want to get into it all here. I like the smell of the WDb. It's comforting. Is it the subtle vanilla? I don't know why but it is. I love it and it is definitely staying on the order!   Meh, gonna finish watching Pushing Daisies. Maybe some light humour would be good.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Really Down

(Copied from my post in All Things Pet).   Feeling really low. The picts have helped me not completely loose it, thank y'all for sharing.   We took Freeway to the vet for his blood tests. He's a Chronic Renal Failure kitty. We haven't had the results yet (preliminaries tomorrow) but I've been worried about him. This will be the second set of tests since he was diagnosed. He's down to 4.35 kilos (just over 9 pounds), has lost 325 grams since Jan. He's cut down on his food, went off the Renal stuff and we are trying Fancy Feast to tempt him. I worry about him and it's starting to affect me at work and my sleep. I've been lurking over on a Yahoo CRF kitty group, reading stuff over there and trying to learn more.   Up until now my BPAL has helped me stay up, feel better but tonight it's not. I don't know, maybe it's a couple of potentially lost packages (one from a forum person and a Possets package as well as no CnS/recent word on my 10/2 order although I thought Bill had said they were working on it when I emailed last week Edited to add that not even 5 minutes after I posted this I've had the CnS. Thank you Labbies. You are psychic and sent this exactly when I needed it) as well as Kitty, work and home stuff all getting to me.   I've got my 'comfort scent' on now, Western Diamondback. Tomorrow is Friday. I have an appointment with my counsellor on Saturday and hold out hope that the MIA packages will be at the PO Saturday morning along with a couple of expected decants.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Snakes!

I put some of my Banded Sea Snake decant on today. I kept getting whiffs of myself through the day. I like how I smell! Yumm, I'm glad I've got a bottle coming from a swap. I had to reapply when I got home, didn't want to stop smelling so damn hot! Well, ok, I think I smell so damn hot! And I never thought I'd say that about myself.   I've decided that while I don't have a TON of BPAL I do have a lot and that gently applying small drops here and there just isn't gonna do it! I've decided I should judiciously slather. Not only do I want the glorious scent to last teh whole day and share it with everyone around me, I want to be sure to use my Preciouses so I can justify buying more   Stretching my ear piercings seems to be going well. I have the 12ga black snakes in. I want to stretch further, I'm not sure how far but maybe up to 8ga or 6ga? I think the 12ga definitely look too "femme" on me, although one of my coworkers today said they didn't. Still, I'd like to go up some more. Only problem now is with the job on the possible chopping block, with the offshoring and all that, chances are that I may need to reapply for jobs (internally or externally). Body mod isn't the image most bank staff are supposed to sport. And sadly, nothing that pays decent will allow for it either. So am I going to have pull them out once I get up to whatever gauge I want?   I'm getting excited about getting my Three Witches from our partial swap. Really looking forward to getting it!!

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Package received and BPAL scent thoughts/ideas

We got an enabling package from pugmom! She totally spoiled us with imps of Mechanical Phoenix, The Music of Erich Zahn, Diwali & Dragon's Bone for me and Vampire Tears, Belladonna, Frumious Bandersnatch and Salome for Carol. Wow, really really cool of her!   My spreadsheet is updated now and I'm testing Mechanical Phoenix. She sent it in plent of time for me to smell and test it before the lab pulls this Anniversary scent. It's definitely on the order list!   I be a very happy and a very nice smelling Vulture now. Every vulture should have something to cut the smell of carion!   I had an idea today. I thought it would be great if Beth could come to NZ and smell some of the typical Kiwi smells here. She'd be able to expand her single notes and add another dimension to the scents on offer. I would love to smell her interpretation of the NZ bush, with it's pungas and kauri and rimu. It would lend itself well to masculine scent, earthy and wet and natural-bush. I would love to smell her rendition of manuka/kanuka flowers, it would be a nice feminine scent. Not the tea tree kind of scent you get in essential oils but the sweet-florally scent that you get from the bushes when you walk through a patch of them. Then there are things like the native clematis, the flax, the pohutakawa and the Earina orchid (http://www.kaimaibush.co.nz/Orchids/orchid_frameset.html) I used to have one of those until it died. For such a tiny orchid it has an amazingly powerful scent. If I could get them to live I'd offer to mass-grow them and produce essential oils for Beth to use! I think for now I'll see what essential oils I can find. If all else fails, 'cause I don't remember seeing flax or clematis scents anywhere I can see if Cal will let me buy some of the nice lotions based on these scents I got at Craftworld for my Secret Santa. I'm sure Beth wouldn't mind getting them to at least smell the fragrance, and to use for her and the labbies if she'd share.   I could see either a whole line based on Maori mythology (don't know if they'd go for that, she'd have to investigate it since they are sensitive about people using their culture to make money) or on Lord of the Rings or just on NZ native things (ie--a scent incorporating flax called The Tui or something like that.   I'd like to pick up some essential oils made out of native plants/scents and mail them to the lab for her with the idea. Even if she didn't go with it, it's a nice thought. Though I can dream about her coming here to check things out and we pick her up and take her around places in AKLD like the Waitaks and the Botanical Garden to check the possibilities out.   PS- along the dream of Beth creating Kiwi smells and showing her around, I imagine we'd bring her back to our hovel and make her manuka-smoked lamb shanks and for desert pavolva with passionfruit and kiwi fruit. I could see her adding pav as a scent that the foody-loving customers would...well, eat up.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Wow but this sucks

We had some bad news at work today. It makes us sound like dogs...oooh boy we get to be retrained. Nothing is final yet and it sounds like everything is up in the air because they haven't made any decisions, but it sounds like most of our 'redeployment' options are going to be customer-facing jobs. I don't want to do customer-facing. It isn't my cup of tea when it comes to the banking industry. Yeah, let's get a job where we have to push credit cards and accounts at customers. Um, no. I don't do selling.   My Western Diamondback got a work out today. It's my #1 comfort scent and one of 3 roller imps I've got at work. We had the announcement. I took a short break and slathered WDB when I got back to my desk around 11. I refreshed it around 2 and again when we got home tonight.   Yeah, no BPALz for us at this point. No, I'm not out of a job like some of the unfortunate people at other companies who were told today their jobs were going overseas. But it's possibly the same thing if the alternatives are things I don't want to do. I already can't stand my job. This is going to make getting a new one harder, especially since I'd considered changing over to another area which is one of the areas that is affected.   I had already wanted to cut back BPAL (and other) spending because I want to work harder at getting a house and with about $1500 in savings far from enough to be a down for a house. Then I'd really like to get some medical stuff taken care of. I found out one of 2 things I want/need done costs approx $12kNZ. I have no idea on the 2nd thing but I'm guessing it's going to be at least the same, if not more. And beyond the 2 there is another major thing which would probably cost about $50kNZ.   I have a lot of scents I enjoy. So does my wife. I'll sit back and read the updates, do some swaps and maybe order the odd bottle for each of us. But no more big orders.  

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Another day.....

Tomorrow is our first full week at work in 2 weeks. We've had 2 short weeks due to the holidays and our most of my team has had the time off on annual leave. I'm not looking forward to a full week at work and I'm not looking forward to most of my team being back. It's been nice and quiet without most the people there. Yeah, I've missed one or two but the rest of them can be a nuissance.   And there is one in particular that isn't going to be fun. It's partly my own fault for the situation but she holds blame too. I noticed that she has on occassion left work. She's had her reasons but it seems that the harder stuff is left behind for me to pick up. I didn't do most of her training but when I have offered to show her some of the more complicated stuff I've heard things like "I'm not a morning person", "I'm too busy", "I've got it written down somewhere", "I'm not having a good day", "I'm tired", "It's too late", "I learn better by doing" (but when I offer to let her do so she can learn then she's got one of the other reasons). When I talked to her last time about how it seems she takes a particular type of easy stuff she said it was the way she was trained (which is odd because I know the person who trained her and I know she didn't do things that way). I thought it was resolved until I started noticing again some of the more difficult types of work were left behind and work from certain geographical areas was being left behind. And someone in one of those geographical areas that I never seemed to see work from made a comment along the lines of "Oh, I guess I should have asked X to do it". It was random, especially given that up to that point we hadn't divided into geographic areas.   Then, one day just before Xmas I was finishing up a complicated request I had picked up. It was afternoon time & I noticed there was a complicated request that came in while I was engaged in it. This other person left it. Ok, not too bad as there is the chance that she didn't see it when it came in and it was too late for either of us to pick it up. The second day we had meetings and stuff that took up part of our day. On top of that I had some documents returned in the new stuff that I had learned. It was complicated and someone else was helping me sort it. Between that and the stuff I'd already had to do for that day, I wasn't able to pick up anything new until that afternoon. And yes, it was still in there. I was stressed and peeved. It had sat in there for 2 days and I knew I wasn't going to be able to do it at that point. I put it in my work queue because I konw there was no way in he!! she would at that point. Being upset and stressed I grumbled to 2 people in my old team about it. There was my mistake. I grumbled to someone about it instead of locking it in. One of these 2 people went and told her and she went to the team leader. I was told in my monthly meeting that I was "slagging her off" to the old team. No, not quite. Then the team leader made some comment about how certain work takes priority. WTF? Like I wasn't doing that work too?? WHATEVER. I knew it was no use saying anything but I did say that I told one person (I later remembered telling 2). I couldn't figure out how it got to my team leader. Both the coworker and team leader went on vacation right after this. I didn't learn 'til relatively recently that the person had been told that I'd said something & went to the team leader about it.   So now I have people I know I can't trust that I used to trust.   I'm not sure what BPAL I want to wear tomorrow. I'm considering Blood Lust because I feel like I've got to go to battle when I got work now. I could consider Dragon Claw, for the "sharp" factor. Or I could go with something more 'sophisticated'/masculine cologne-y like Mechanical Phoenix, the Music of Eric Zahn, Titus Andronicus or Black Forest.   Wow, didn't realise I had that many choices. And we've still got an order to put in tomorrow night. I'll give my Diwali away because it went really nasty on my skin. Like, along the lines of cigarette butts soaked in coconut and burned on a rubber tyre pyre. Yeah, that good on me. I've held off our order in case the person I'm giving the imp to likes it & wants a bottle.   On that note, I should get to bed. I haven't been sleeping well and got grumpy today. I am sure lack of sleep contributed.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Hooray! Order Number 2 Away!

Second order has officially been sent/paid for via Paypal. The imps from the first order haven't grown cold yet and we've officially become adicted   Here's what I put in for us, 5mml bottles of each of the following:   hers: White Phoenix Noche Buena Phobos   mine: Mechanical Phoenix KRAMPUS 2007 Satyr   Diwali has been ordered for a coworker. Neither of us liked it when we were gifted the imp and it only made sense to gift it on to someone who would appreciate it. Really glad I was gifted the imp before choosing to order it!   Yay for another order--very dangerous. I want to order them all and just sniff and sniff!   Re the previous entry: Blood Lust seemed to be good for today. It helped keep me calm and focused. Tomorrow maybe I'll do Mechanical Phoenix. I'd like to go for Satyr but it might be too early in the week for it.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Have I Become a Dealer?

I took our current imp horde into work to let someone have a sniffle. I ended up roping 4 people into sniffles. 1 had sniffled before but we've had the imps from pugmom since then. 3 of the 4 people are interested in doing an order!! Our order is in as of yesterday but if each of them want something I can put the order in for them. I know 2 of them (all 3?) don't have Paypal so I've offered to put the order in for them if they want. One is going for 5 imps so far, one for a bottle of Vampire Tears and one for a bottle of Phobos. I've passed the BPAL site on to all 3, I think 2 of them will look into it.   On the side, I got an email from the one I ordered Diwali from saying "if you haven't ordered it don't, order Rose Essence". Um, BPAL doesn't just have a rose essense. I tried to tell her that yesterday when she mentioned it. And when I told her that & asked if she still wanted the 5ml of Diwali she said yes. I know I can hold onto it for a couple months and swap it once it's off list (more likely to go when it's off list) but really, we are out that $ and wouldn't have ordered it if I didn't have to.   So & for enabling (we let one person try my wife's Phobos and gave the other person the Vampire Tears imp we had been gifted with). And & for enabling coworkers so that we can do group orders and keep our shipping costs down.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Getting Ready for Another Big Order

Tomorrow I need to finalise the order for the people at work. It's going to be a big one. And we've got a BPALer in Hamilton (hi Elizabeth!) and I've offered to put her Rose Red onto our order to help save her money on shipping. It makes it a bit lighter on the pocket.   Exhausted.   Had a bit of a grumbly bit at work. Won't go into it all but basically had 2 people kind of getting on me about a difference of opinion/difference of doing our work. I started feeling upset. Took a moment to put some Green Day on the headset and sniffed my Dragon Bone. It reminded me there is something bigger out there, that work doesn't matter. BPAL does!   Bed time.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Rest In Peace Sir Ed

Rest in peace Sir Edmund Hillary. May the mountains be just high enough for you and the days sunny and warm for climbing.   He wasn't just a man who climbed a mountain. He was someone who had a dream and followed it, when everyone at the time said that it couldn't be done. He was well-known in Nepal for his generosity. He didn't just go and climb their mountain, he tried to give back to the country that made him famous.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Order #3?! & Random Thoughts

I've confirmed with everyone at work so now I need to sit and organise myself and order their smellies. I was excited, looking forward to this but the news of Sir Ed's passing has taken that excitement away and has left a sadness in it's place. Not much to say.   We weren't originally going to put anything in on this order, but Rose Red sounded like something that would be nice for Carol. I told her about the description, read her some of the reviews and she decided she might like to try it. Since we can't do an imp of it I've put a bottle order in for her too. So that makes 3 Rose Reds, the Vampire Tears, Phobos, and an imp pack. I'd originally planned on puttiong an imp for Carol on Sharon's request for 5. Since we are getting her a bottle I figured I'd get an imp of Coyote for me. So yeah, another big order, 4 days after the last one! I had expected it to be only 2 or 3 bottles at the most. 5 bottles and an imp pack later..... And this after a 7 bottle order on the 7th. Wow, that's us for the year!       I walked home from the train station today. I realised that BPAL has re-introduced me to my nose. I was breathing deeply, I could say to experience the smells of summer but really it was puffing from being a bit out of breath from the hill. I was enjoying the occassion whiff of Satyr mixed with the different trees and plants; the cypress, the oak, the ?. It was really neat.     So what BPAL do you wear for something like Sir Ed's death? I have Namaste on my wishlist, that would be perfect. But going off my current list I guess it would be something like Mechanical Phoenix (for when he used the tractors at the South Pole)? Or Titus Andronicus because he was a classical guy, but then Titus was a bloody play and Sir Ed was a man of peace so maybe not. Just some thoughts.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

BPAL Dreams

Yes, I has them.   Regularly too.   Since we've gotten our first BPAL order in Dec I've had dreams about the scents, the names, the bottles. Sometimes the whole dream is about BPAL, sometimes it's just a component. It makes for interesting and far more pleasant dreams than usual since they aren't work-related or about family or anything.   Last night's was cool, I dreamt that I'd woken up and gone onto the Lab's page to look at some of the scents (since I still haven't read about all of them yet) & instead of the Krampus image there was a grayscale image. I can't remember what it was, maybe a grayscale fluffy bunny or something like that, but done in a Victorian/Goth kind of way. The whole site hadn't been updated, only some of it. I can't remember the names of the scents, I think they were vaguely baby-related.   Yes, I am offically a BPAL adict!

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Bad BPAL Week.

My BPAL week hasn't gone great. Maybe some planet is in retrograde or some Fate has been tempted?   I lost out on 2 of the Lab's Ebay scents, one of them seconds before it closed.   Ok, I can take that. Wasn't meant to be.   Saw Three Witches for sale on the forum. ZOMG! I got an empty sniffie of this from Wren08 and it was lovely, now I want some. I PM'd but managed to miss it. Darn. Another one gone. Maybe it isn't meant that I buy BPAL this week.   See a post on LJ about from someone with a CRF kitty, a sales post to raise funds. I see Alone! Maybe it is meant to be?? (see below for my spills, copied/pasted from the spills thread). Maybe I wasn't meant to buy the other things because I can get another Alone bottle and help a fellow CRF kitty owner. I've PM'd but no answer yet. Another one missed?   Just when I think it can't get worse I got the CnS of d0000m. CnS's are usually "YAY" posts. But this one said it was going to Australia. Not that I don't mind enabling and sharing but a 9-bottle/2 imp pack order to Aussie? Nah, I'd rather it come here. I forwarded it to the Lab and Bill was able to track it down before it left the building. It's on it's way to me now. Whew. But it was a tense evening/day while I waited for an answer 'cause 2 of the 3 backordered bottles are on that one.   Checked the PO today. Yay I got 2 of my decant packages, but none of the big Shunga/Lupercalias yet. And the one Ocicat mailed on 7/2 (imps) hasn't shown up. And the Possets I ordered for a coworker (with a bottle of Cadmium Orange) is late getting here. Hopefully it's due to bad weather in the US when it was sent.   And the spills. Oh, the spills. The horror. Copy/pasted so if you've read this from the Spills thread you can ignore the below.     Laugh. Please. Because I'm trying to....   Tuesday: In the Bathroom. Alone. And with Alone, my new favorite. Apply. Apply. Apply. Decide I need a bit more on my fingers so I can run it through my hair a bit more (my baseball caps smell nice!). I hold the bottle and run my fingers down the glass wand. When I set the bottle down and pulled my hand back the bottle stuck to a finger and dropped off, dumping Alone on the bathroom counter. I ran into the bedroom and grabbed a pipette (advice to Newbies: Invest in pipettes even if you don't plan to decant!!). I got most of it up. Bathroom = Alone.   Thursday: In the livingroom, at the kitchen table (we don't have a dining room, tiny place). November. Not a favorite of mine or my wife. I was getting some imps together to send to a friend in the US to enable her. I decanted into a rollerbottle and thought "hmmm, maybe a bit more". Picked up the bottle, sucked up a bit more of November's flowers and leaves. Went to set bottle down. Same thing: bottle stuck to a finger and when I pulled my hand back I ended up with about 1/2 and imp's worth of November on the table. Sigh At least I had the pipette in my hand. I got most of it up, wiped the majority of it with a napkin and cleaned the rest with a Cancer Society bear. Carol remarked that as late as yesterday the table still smelled nice.   This morning: (you can start laughing now, really....) Decided to decant some Satyr for same friend I'm enabling. She said she'd be interested in trying it. We were on a chat at the time so I asked her if she'd prefer a rollerbottle or regular imp. She said regular imp, she's a bit of a clutz. I laughed and told her I am too. Decanted Satyr into the rollerbottle and as I was pushing the rollertop bit on the bottle shattered into about 4 big pieces and some tiny bits. (Really, laugh now). It was 8am, I hadn't had a full cup of coffee. I know I'm a bit strong but really, not that strong! I sucked up a little bit of the oil but was worried about glass so didn't really suck up a lot. Wiped up the spill. Picked up the second rollerbottle. Sucked up more Satyr. As I was pushing the second roller top bit into the bottle base I hear a light crack and see a line run down the bottle. I gently pried the top bit out, a bit of the bottle broke but I was able to pour it into rollerbottle #3. Which mercifully didn't crack. Or shatter. Or do anything but sit and hold the oil. I've used these rollerbottles about a dozen times, this was the first incident.   The table now smells like November and Satyr (not in the same places).   Alone has faded from the bathroom.   Laugh, really, go ahead.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

:( RIP Hone Tuwhare

Following after the death of Sir Ed Hillary, NZ has lost another good man. Hone Tuware has died. I don't know a lot about him but have read some of his poetry and have a cd with some NZ artists speaking/singing his poetry.   Here's one of his poems. I hadn't read it before but it seems appropriate. Haere Ra Hone. May your ancestors greet you in the Afterlife singing Haera Mae Haere Mae Haere Mae.   Toroa ~ Albatross - Hone Tuwhare   Day and night endlessly you have flown effortless of wing over chest-expanding oceans far from land. Do you switch on an automatic pilot, close your eyes in sleep, Toroa?   On your way to your homeground at Otakou Heads you tried to rest briefly on the Wai-te-mata but were shot at by ignorant people. Crippled. You found a resting place at Whanga-nui-a-Tara; found space at last to recompose yourself.   Now, without skin and flesh to hold you together the division of your aerodynamic parts lies whitening, licked clean by sun and air and water. Children will discover narrow corridors of airiness between, the suddenness of bulk. Naked, laugh in the gush and ripple — the play of light on water.   You are not alone, Toroa. A taniwha once tried to break out of the harbour for the open sea. He failed. He is lonely. From the top of the mountain nearby he calls to you: Haeremai, haeremai, welcome home, traveller.   Your head tilts, your eyes open to the world.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

I Can Has CnS Pleze?

I've been eagerly waiting for my CnS for our 7/1 order. I know the lab is busy and I'm not worried, just anxious I didn't know how long it was taking to process an average order. But on the CnS chatter topic it looks like some of the people who have ordered 7/1 and are getting their CnS's today. Since ours was a 7 bottler I expect it will take a bit longer. Like I said, I'm not worried, just eager.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Sadness Day

I'm watching the live feed of Sir Edmund Hillary's funeral. I'm feeling emotional, melancholy already from it. We also took my oldest cat to the vet today. He was diagnosed last month with the beginnings of renal failure and hyperthyroid. We have been feeding him special food and have been giving him meds for the kidneys but he's been loosing weight. They are doing blood work today and we're going to have to do bloods every 2 weeks for awhile to see if we can get him stabilized.   He's my boy. We have 4 but he's the one I got after spending 8 months in Nepal. He's the one I brought over from the US because I couldn't bear to leave him behind.   I'll have to cut down our BPAL orders. We'll be paying for 2 different meds, the special food (which is expensive), blood work every 2 weeks and we'll also be doing sub cutaneous fluids daily. It's a lot of expense and it will start to pinch. I'd like to get an order or 2 in before it pinches too much. Maybe I can find a scent that is comforting for me through this time.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

BPAL and Cat-Related Things

Feeling pretty low & needing a BPAL lift. I'm hoping our 7/1 order that I got the CnS for is at the post on Sat. I've got some decants and imps coming but I don't think they'll be here quite yet. Maybe SH's Vampire Tears but that's all. She's so excited about it.   3rd night of my Baby's sub cutaneous fluids. He meowed tonight when Carol put the needle in. She didn't want to hurt him & couldn't do it so we switched out. He meowed when I put it in too. He was ok through most of it, struggled a bit at the end. He didn't want anything to eat after but I gave him some brushes & he seemed to appreciate that.   I've been going over our BPAL wishlist on my Excel spreadsheet & refreshing the decant circle forum & watching the LJ swaps page. Not only do I want to pick up some LE decants from our wishlist instead of ordering because of our new expenses for Freeway, but I know I'm trying to help myself feel better, trying to find That Perfect Scent or Those Perfect Scents that will bring me some comfort while I go through this.   I sent an email out to my enabled coworkers, the ones who ordered the last time, and gave them the links to the updates. I let them know I'll be putting an order in early to mid-Feb and that I won't be able to do any big orders for awhile after that. At the end of the day, SB came up and asked if I had my 'samples' (my imps). I told her no but that we were hoping for an order this weekend and if so I'd bring some in. She's got 5 imps on the 11/1 order.   I'm also looking forward to some decant supplies I ordered off an LJ person. They are 1ml rollerballs and some pipettes. I figured I can either give a rollerball/pipette to each person who ordered a bottle or decant 1 ml for them to have/carry around if they want (SH I think said that she wasn't comfortable doing it herself so I offered). I think they'll all appreciate that, they can then safely carry their imps and not loose their bottles.   Down. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday but it's going to be a busy day for me. I'll have to just get through and I have a 3 day weekend. Tomorrow might be another Western Diamondback day.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

Our CnS, We Has IT!

I was really hoping to get this today, really needed to get it after a bad day. Just about ready to go to bed and thought "I'll just refresh my inbox". Desperate times call for desperate measures, yes??? Didn't expect it with it being 11pm here, 1am in Calif. But We gots it My Precious!!!   This will be our 3rd order from the Lab, mostly stuff for coworkers. I tacked an imp onto someone's 5-imp pack so they could get the reduced cost & I could get one of the many imps on my list, and we got Carol a bottle of Rose Red before it was pulled from the site.   Look *proud*     This ship notification is being sent to you by the U.S. Postal Service at the request of SHIPPING DEPARTMENT. If the "Shipped To" address information is not correct, please contact the Shipper.   A package with a Click-N-Ship label created on usps.com containing the following information is scheduled to be shipped on 01/25/2008. From: Shipped to: SHIPPING DEPARTMENT BLACK PHOENIX ALCHEMY LAB 12120 SHERMAN WAY N HOLLYWOOD CA 91605-5501     Our 7/1 order should be at the PO tomorrow (fingers crossed). I've got several private sales going, mostly decants so I can make our minds up about some of the stuff coming down from the Lupercalia & Lunacy updates. I have some decant supplies coming too, hoping to decant into 1ml rollerballs and stash a scent or two at work for the really stressful days when I need a boost and my scent is wearing thin. Also would be nice to decant some of the coworkers bottles into the 1ml rollerballs for the same reason. Also looking at picking up some wand caps for the same reason. Just nice little gifts for them this time around.   Bedie bye time. I've got our 3-legged right next to me purring, the deaf white one crashed out next to him and Freeway, our CRF kitty curled on his pillow on the coffee table. Eyeball (the one-eyed) is crashed out in a heap on the scratch post. Adorable little monsters.

vultureguy

vultureguy

 

We Got Our Order Yesterday

Yay! Our 7/1 order was here at the PO yesterday. 7 bottles and 14 frimps, wow, Thank You Lab!!! Some of the frimps weren't quite our style but that's ok because I can use them as frimps/swaps/sales. I will need to pass frimpage onto my coworker who ordered one of the bottles.   But in ack-ness, I'm getting sick. My nose is trying to congest & my throat hurts. I'm tired. Not sleeping doesn't help the tired bit. I hope I am ok for the Relay for Life.   Mr Way, my CRF kitty, is asleep on my lap. I'm stretched around him in an awkward angle and he's got his head resting on my arm. He's a sweet boy. The fluids seem to be helping a bit. It isn't anything too obvious, he wasn't acting really sick before, but he's grooming himself more now. His coat is a lot softer tonight too. Yes, we give him brushes before and after his fluids but it's his whole coat nad it wouldn't make that much of a difference.   I still haven't found the right "stick your cat with needles" scent yet. Maybe in the next order or one of the private sales I've got coming in. I've got the scent for doing my injections every 2 weeks. Hmm, I wonder if Western Diamondback would be appropriate for Mr Way's stickings? I'll have to try that.   Going to finish watching the CSI Miniature Killer repeat. I don't remember seeing the end when it first aired. I'm exhausted but want to see the end.

vultureguy

vultureguy

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