Many things to be in a tizzy for:

1) Our Medieval Fair is running over the auditions for the Harry Potter "Land" at Universal Studios.
2) My husband is the Artistic Director and portraying William the Conqueror at our festival, therefore he cannot audition (and he wants to).
3) Kozibot will be a mere 2 hours away in a city that Dean and my girls always go to! Damn it!

Too early for Christmas decorations? My husband wants to start decorating early, so that we actually get it done. I told him I would make it all tacky Griswald inside the house for him, this year and even if it's 80 degrees outside on Christmas Day - I'm putting the dogs in sweaters!

Damn you sunny Christmas!

Well, as gutted as I am that Dean cannot attend the Harry Potter Universal Auditions in two weeks because of our own festival, it's good to keep in mind that we're less than 2 weeks away from the festival and its coming in quick. I've busted my ass to get the right marketing done with the Sarasota Medieval Fair this year from pizza places, to mobile billboards, to gorilla marketing, to hotel room trading, to coupon stealing, to sweating my ass off between places to make sure they have our stuff. The cast is big, bigger than we've had, but sadly I'm not part of the cast this year in any bonding-sense other than my close friends pulling me in with them. I will miss sword fighting this year, but because of the state of the economy, I had to put my own preferences aside to kick ass at making sure people come out to see my friends perform. Without that, we might have suffered. But, they're in for a good time.

I've not finished things in the house that I had wanted (painting, cleaning, completing house projects) before guests come (aka, the Joust troupe are old friends of Dean's and mine and well, Dean really looks up to these guys as he's known them since he was about 14...). We live not to far away from the festival site, so we've offered out house up to the jousters to "chill" during the week and take real showers and have real cooked food. Need to get ready.

The Harry Potter Live Action! Wizard Chessmatch is just beginning the planning stages amongst tatiana422 and mars_reiko and myself. We've got ideas we pass around, but hope to actually write the script and "fights" between wizards over the holidays. The closer we get to Infinitus, the better! We're wicked excited.

So, for now, I've got AVPM on in the background playing on the computer as i attempt laundry.

I'm actually putting this here, so I can know...might help others. I'm one of those that wants to "get healthy" before having kids. Just thought it useful.

"Someday," you say, "I'm going to get my health back on track, after this next project," or "when I get back from my cruise," or "when the kids get a little older" ... C'mon, you know your list of reasons -- or what I call EXCUSES -- better than I.

Look, if you're waiting for some magical day to appear, you just may be waiting forever. These days do not "show up"; you show up for THEM. I have identified five critical areas, bad habits that many people mindlessly follow. Do you realize that each and every day of your life that you do not reverse these dangerous trends, you get farther and farther from your ultimate goal of living a fulfilling life?

Take a look at each area, determine how you stack up, and then make the fix today:

1) Stealing from sleep: Studies show that a minimum of seven to nine hours of uninterrupted sleep (at night) are essential for health. Sleep is the time when your body repairs and recovers from all of the metabolic processes that your body performs every second. Sleep supports healthy weight management, raises growth hormone, and heals the adrenals. If you are watching TV, working on your PC, or otherwise stimulating yourself so that you are unable to go to sleep by 11 PM, then establish the Power Down Hour and turn to more relaxing activities like baths, light novels, or cuddling with a loved one (or pet!) at least an hour or two before bedtime. Then ... retrain yourself to sleep through the night.

2) Skipping breakfast: How many times do you find yourself dashing out the door to start your day, only to discover that you forgot to eat? Listen, your body has just "fasted" overnight, and in order to fuel yourself for the day (and lower stress hormones), you must eat a balanced meal that includes proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Otherwise, your body will turn on itself for fuel, and it isn't fat but muscle that it's going to target ... which will cascade into a very nasty sequence of health consequences that will make you fat, old, and tired before your time.

3) Blowing off exercise: If you think you can manage your health and weight through dietary means alone, it won't work. Period. Exercise is crucial for stimulating proper physical and hormonal response necessary for building muscle and bone, burning fat, letting you sleep, keeping you young, giving you energy -- the list is endless. More important is the CORRECT type of exercise, which involves high-intensity interval training, along with resistance workouts. If you can't find 20-30 minutes a day to incorporate these exercises into your life (oh yeah, that is ALL you need, by the way), then you can kiss your health goodbye.

4) Noshing at night: Strapping on the feedbag in the evenings basically signals your body to hold off on burning existing fat stores, raises stress hormones before bedtime, and screws up your body's natural digestive processes at a time when it should be ready to shut down and repair. If you are eating in a hormonally-balanced way during your evening meal, there is absolutely no need to munch afterward.

5) Not counting your beverages: One of the craziest things I encounter in my work is the lack of consideration of high-calorie, high-sugar drinks in the diet. Yes, those healthy "Jumbo Juices," designer coffee slurpees (hey, they may as well be, given all the sugar in them), and those harmless little cocktails every night, especially those fruit-flavored martini and tequila drinks, can really pack on the pounds in a hurry. Make the switch to healthier options like iced green tea -- or, my favorite, Emergen-C -- for some sparkling mineral replacements that not only satisfy, but also fuel and nourish!

When you know you're a Nerd:

*You look at your friends from a Con and think, "what's so abnormal about this?".
*You go outside for a cigarette dressed as a character from a book that was mentioned for 3 pages

Well girls, I converted another to "A Very Potter Musical". They also found it clever and witty. Dude, that Joey (RON) is wicked cute!

After a long emotional discussion about finances and budget and taking care of ourselves, my husband made a big dramatic performance to throw his $130/month habit down the toilet.  That's right, Dean decided to quit smoking.  I'm tired of working as much as I have and have him spend that month, a good portion of my part time check, to the 7-11 on something I have been able to curb.  It's a ridiculous price.  But, after talk about baby in the future and the fact that I wanted to put it off because I wanted to do the last harry potter con for a bit, he was all ridiculous about it.  I told him that "since he's not ready to change his life, perhaps I'm not ready to change mine."  It's true, though.  I seem to keep having things come up, he thinks I'm the bad guy for waiting because he's 40 and I'm only 30, etc....  But, why should I give up something (or just one more thing I want to do) to have a baby if he's all aloof about quiting the costy, stinky habit that I, myself, would rather choose to not do.  My habit is no where near his, as I spend maybe about $35/month on it and even when I look at that - it's pathetic.  Just one month of his habit almost pays for my Infinitus registration and for that...we talked.  I told him I was going to set aside 130/mo for whatever I wanted and if his phone got shut off, I would NOT rescue him by taking it out of my "cigarette" fund to help. 

It just makes sense, because he wanted to get a new gym membership and that's not even 80/mo.  Guess which one is going to prevail.

He's going to be an ass, I'm just warning those that know him.  But for my Flist, any ideas how to help him cope and deal?  I already think he's calling out of work tomorrow (he's going to say its because of hs back), because he's not ready to deal with the world without them one day after.

Dean got this in his email because he gets the alerts for auditions in the state of Florida....well, let's just say I was hyperventilating.

( OMG..it's coming! )

The only reason he's not attending is because he's in the show he's directing.  For open auditions like this, you can't make appointments.