Boy-o-boy! What a day – we were woken somewhere between 3.30am and 4.00am when Neale, my favourite eldest daughter’s husband, rang us to say that she was back in hospital with more chest pains. He’d give us updates as they became available. So then it was lie awake and worry, worry, worry… time passed… eventually we heard that no, she wasn’t having another heart attack (she’d had one small one some time ago) This time, however, they didn’t let her come home, they kept her there for the rest of the “night”, and for most of today, doing tests and x-rays and what-not. The long and short of it is, they don’t have a clue what the problem was. According to the hospital, it could have been anything from bad indigestion, to a panic/anxiety attack, but as far as they could tell, her heart was fine. Some small comfort in that, I suppose… I’ve only had a panic attack twice in my life – both totally unexpected and out of the blue (and both times while I was driving, would you believe?!) I’d read about panic attacks, of course, but the first time it happened to me it took me completely by surprise. I was driving along, minding my own business – I think I was going to pick the kids up from school, or something terribly mundane and boring. I came up to a “controlled” (traffic lights) T-intersection at the top of the street, started a right hand turn when the lights said I could, and all of a sudden! Woosh! The adrenaline started pumping, my hands got sweaty and clammy, I got a very bad case of butterflies in my tummy, and I thought “??!! AArrgggh!”, and then I thought, almost with a sense of wonderment “I think I’m having a panic attack! Oh, I wonder why?!”, and it went away. I don’t think it liked being recognised 
So, anyway, I know what a panic attack feels like, but I would never have thought that maybe I was having a heart attack… This isn’t the first time that Lee has had these sorts of episodes, however if after testing for certain enzymes, and scans and x-rays to show any sort of heart damage, the medics can’t find anything wrong, well, maybe anxiety attacks are different from panic attacks, or different people experience them in different ways, and that’s what it was. Anyway, she’s home again now, and hopefully it’ll be the last “mystery” attack for at least a couple of months (so as to let my hair grow back in again!)
Neale had to go to work, so that left Julian to fend for Lee when she was told she could come home (fairly late this afternoon, as it turned out) – in the meantime, we had the fun arrival of our new furniture, which was all terribly exciting because the entertainment unit almost proved to be too big for the lift (but they managed to squeeze it in in the end), and the delivery guys had to take the legs off the sofa bed because the corridor it had to fit down to get to the spare room was too cramped and tight – according to Julian, we nearly ended up with no entertainment unit, and no sofa bed! But they’re in now, and the two new side tables in the lounge room look much more betterer than the old ones (which now look much more betterer in the spare room, on each side of the sofa bed) We’re getting there! 🙂 Admittedly, fairly slowly, but then we’ve been without a lift for most of that “slowly”!
I Rifted for most of the morning, and spent most of my time turning Persha into an Apothecary. I went through everyone I had, looking to see who could do what. We need an Apothecary badly – they make potions and stuff. I also woke up to the fact that they can also make Augments, that any Crafter can use with the goods that they make, so I guess once I designate an Outfitter (they make clothes and some forms of Armor) and start making gear for everyone, Persha will be kept pretty busy making Augments to boost everyone’s clothing stats. But the main reason I needed an Apothecary today, was because we don’t have very many healing potions in the Guild Bank, and what’s more, no-one seems to be making them and putting them up on the Auction house! So I thought “Damn it! I’ll make my own! Who can I turn into an Apothecary?”, and Persha drew the short straw. Still, I got her up to Grand Master Apothecary today – but it was just too expensive to get her up to Savant status – that’ll have to wait – and it’s not as though we’re in dire need of level 60 Healing Potions – yet! 😉 However, I now have a list of all my boys and girls, and what skills they have, so now I can decide who’s going to do what. At the moment, Winterthyme is a Runecrafter (Runes are sort of like Augments, in that they give items boosts (read: better stats)), and Rubyfox is a Dreamweaver (she makes Dimension stuff – not that we need any, the Minions are brining in enough to sink a couple of aircraft carriers!) – and that’s about it, at the moment. We must move the extra platinum and goods from Laethys to Hailol toot sweet – we’re starting to get desperate for funds and Guild Bank Vaults – I’m afraid that Persha’s little Training spree cost nearly 300 platinum 😦
And after luncheon I did a bit more graphic work. Can anyone tell me why, when you go looking for “Free” and “Royalty Free” images, you keep being given so-called “freebies”, covered in watermarks and logos? Of course, the site will happily remove these unsightly marks – if you pay them a fairly hefty fee for their pains. I tell you what, it makes my blood-sweat-and-tears boil, when they try to pull that one on me! Luckily, I know a couple of techniques to remove most of those watermarks. But it’s a pain – lots of tedious, close up work, but then again – why not? The images are being offered to you as “Free”, and “Royalty Free”. I’m still not happy with what I’ve achieved with zodiac signs, though… I’ll keep working on it…
Weigh-in this morning. Hmmm.. Maybe I did mozz myself last night – I was the same weight again this morning! 101.0kg If I don’t go down tomorrow, it’ll be the (*gasp*, *shock*, *horror*) Pre-Lunch Third Stair Walk pour moi! 😦 Let’s hope I go down again tomorrow, so that it doesn’t have to come to that…
So anyway, look in on us again tomorrow night – find out how my (seemingly fruitless) search for really-truly free, and royalty free garphics is coming along – will I have managed to remove part, or all, of the watermarks on the supposedly Free (and Royalty Free) images?! My gold leaf nail polish has been taking a bit of a pounding, writing this blog an’ all; I’m hoping that it will last until next week, but we’ll just have to wait and see if it’ll remain intact enough for that. Most importantly, will my weight have gone down, or will I be trudging off before lunch every day for a third daily Stair Walk? These questions, “and many, many more”, will be answered, right here, this time tomorrow night! Don’t be the only one to miss out on all the new news! 😉 So until this time tomorrow night, bee good, don’t stand around out in the rain, and… stay safe! ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 