Weekend with Mom
I'm off to see Mom this weekend. I'll drive down tonight & come back on Sunday. I need to make certain that I have the things for her; chopsticks, video tape, etc.


I started this on Friday...you see how far I got.

Anyway, the visit would have gone pretty well; the traffic wasn't too icky and although I got there later than I planned, I made it before full dark. Saturday morning, over breakfast, I was bragging that I hardly ever get migraines anymore. Yeah, I know, mistake. Guess what hit me that afternoon. There went 4 hours, asleep, with something over my eyes as even the light coming through my eyelids was too much. At least I didn't reach the sound sensitive stage too.

Neat family stories: my mom's oldest sister went to lots of dances, with two dates every time. She had one date for the slow dances & another one for the fast ones. She taught Mom how to jitterbug.

Mom grew up in Havelock, NC; near Cherry Point. Somehow they got hold of a defective parachute and they (grandmother et al) made a skirt for that aunt from it. It had so many yards of fabric that they had to cover a leather belt to hold the fullness.

The first gift the man who would become her husband gave her was a rifle. He also taught her to shoot.

Mom loved her in-laws. Both families got along great. Dad's older sister is eerily similar to Mom's oldest sister & Dad's step-sister eerily reminiscent of the sister immediately older than mom (I mean, both married pharmacists, who both owned drugstores; both women helped their husband in the store on occasion, and both never left the house without looking like they'd just come out of a salon).

Had to start back too early on Sunday but I had a cushion of time to get gas. That turned out to only take half as long as I thought it would. So I had plenty of time to wash my hair before Sunday's activities (love my mom, hate the smell of cigarette smoke).

Gaming: We had a great time playing Shadowrun. Too bad Mike couldn't make it. He was suffering, both from illness and from massive guilt (for not making it). It was kind of funny, none of us really knew what we were doing. I was the only one who had even played 4th edition Shadowrun. I think the gm & I were the only ones who had read the rules. I found a great character dossier thing; too bad it looks like it's for 3rd edition. I may be able to use it anyway. I'm going to try.

The conversations were great, during & after. I love geek convo's. Where else can the talk range from the direct to DVD Wonderwoman cartoon to the casting of the Green Hornet movie, the success/failure of modern Pulp era movies, & the history of Charlie Chan. And that's just a sampling.

I did see the oddest tanline on Sunday. Older gent who obviously usually wears socks; from mid-calf down he was about as white as I am. Then toasty brown until just about his knees, then variable brown up to the hem of his shorts. It was kind of like a tan-line trainwreck. It was hard to pull your eyes away from the horror.

More Gaming: They were short of GM's at the local gamestore for Thursday's Living Forgotten Realms. So I volunteered to run. That gives me 2 days to read, research & know what I'm doing. Frankly, I'm okay with missing playing a game. LFR just doesn't grab me like LG or some of the other "living" campaigns have.

Tatting: I've been working a little on that new edging for my hankie. I should take a picture and post it. It's variegated brown & the pattern is from the same tatting book that I got the last edging from. If I get stuff done, I'll edit this post with the exact pattern & maybe a picture.

I also added the button for TattingChic's 50,000 visitor giveaway. I wasn't going to enter but I have a friend who'd like to learn and this would help her.

Tatting Pictures, Finally!


Here's the brown edging that I did. It's from the Big Book of Tatting by Darlene Polachic. It's the white trefoil edging on p. 9. That's also the label from the thread, a ball that I picked up at a thrift shop.


And here's the purple & white scrunchy. I forgot to pack it this weekend. I don't know what I'm going to tat when I'm brain dead.

Long, Long Trip
With bathroom & lunch breaks, we expected to reach our hotel around 4pm. We got here about 7 pm. Yeah, we hit traffic that bad. One was 45 minutes or so for an accident. It was a single car and the people were standing around (with a police officer), so no one was hurt it looked like. It just backed up traffic.

I've finished my Shadowrun Missions character. Chris's spreadsheet really helped. It did the math for me. Now I just have to translate it to paper. It took longer than I expected.

Last night's LFR game ran long, too. We played high and we barely squeaked by in a couple places. It was nice to see my avenger be useful and we got some actual role playing in (Rosemary was playing her tiefling who came forward in time through a portal, our PCs were kids about the same time, but now mine's really old and hers is still young).

I didn't get any useful tatting done. I don't know if it's because I was tired (1/2 required sleep) or what. I only managed to sleep an hour on the way down. That's unusual for me.

We had a great supper at Pappadeaux. And most of us have leftovers. It was a lot of food; especially since we all wanted dessert, too.

As soon as I wrap up a couple things, I'm off to bed.

Gaming This Weekend
I'll be playing quite a bit of Living Forgotten Realms and one session of Shadowrun Missions. The Witch Hunter game was cancelled because everybody (but me & one other guy) had already played what was being offered (not a lot of selection right now).

Problem: I haven't finished writing my Shadowrun character. I still need gear, cyberware & contacts. Making these decisions is hard; I'm not certain what to expect or what to prepare for.

We played on Sunday and it ran a little late. Even though it took 'just a little long', it was fun. My "drow" is now 5th level. I need to do the progression on her, since I'll be playing her this weekend.

Tatting: Did I mention that I missed a picot join on Your Grape Big Heart and had to start over? I have started over and fortunately tatting over threads really doesn't show in size 80 thread. Now I only have 5 more rings until the next stage. At least it's looking good.

I did the finishing work on the bookmark for Melinda. She seemed to really like it.

I forgot the good deed
While talking to one of the tea people, she noticed my bracelet & I told her where I'd gotten it. She'd never heard of hungersite.com, ecologyfund.com, care2.com or Kiva.org. I told her about them and she wrote them down. So I've spread the word, and she'll tell other people.

Good Deeds & Tea
Chris & Rosemary took me to use the gift certificate for tea that she gave me for my birthday. First, we stopped by Natural Neighbors & I bought some lavender pump soap. She also gave me a sliver of soap in a small baggie, to try as an alternative to using commercial handsoaps. It does work, sort of. But I still want to try soap powder or flakes.

On our way to Tea-rific Spices, I stopped to finally get my glasses fixed. The nose pads have been slowly disintegrating, exposing the hard plastic skeleton, so they really needed to be replaced.

Once we got to the tea shop, I ordered some iced herbal tea while Rosemary had a cold fruity tea, raspberry I think, and Chris had some other iced tea. I bought a tea strainer and three teas with my gift certificate. They were out of the Peach white tea that I wanted, so I got some Pai-mu-tan, another white tea instead. I also got a nice vanilla chai for a wake up tea and something called mango mate.

I had some of the Pai-mu-tan last night & this morning. It's great iced, too. I brewed some and chilled it in the fridge to drink this morning.

After shopping and lunch yesterday we went went to see Monsters Vs. Aliens. It was an entertaining movie. I definitely liked Susan, and even Bob was kind of cute, in a brainless kind of way.

GAMING:
Saturday's game went well. At least I made it a little challenging for the players. I took one person down to negative hit points and had at least a couple people bloody every fight. I haven't reported it yet, but I will as soon as I find my notes.

after gaming cookout/holiday party:
Rosemary's house got a little crowded with everyone but we had fun, talking and eating. Since I only had one burger, I had enough room for watermelon & ice cream afterwards. It would have been a shame to miss anything. Mya had a hot dog. She's 2 and a half now and I had fun occasionally confusing her by asking her if she could say 'no.' Or not say 'no'.

Holiday Tomorrow!
From work, anyway. Saturday, of course, is the actual Independence Day. I am profoundly relieved. I feel a great need for a vacation.

I have a couple errands to run and other than that, well, some household chores.

Tonight, at one point I looked up and said, 'is the AC running rough, or is that rain?' It was rain, heavy rain. Finally. After rain threatening scattered showers for a week, we finally got some. I don't know if my plants got any or not, though.

I feel like I had something to say. But now I can't remember what. Ah well.

Murder of Crows
I saw it again yesterday. I think that if I lived in one of the places that they've been around so regularly, I'd be worried. 6 crows is enough for a murder, right?

I was running late so I drove to the nearest park & ride to catch my bus yesterday. I'm glad that I did. A couple of the other people already there, pointed out a rainbow overhead. I just don't see enough of those, so the opportunity to see one shouldn't be missed.

I got another 2 rings done in Your Grape Big Heart. I do tat slower with size 80 thread.

I learned a lesson last night. No more watching episodes of Harper's Island while I'm alone in the house. It's just too creepy.

Met someone interesting at lunch yesterday. His vocation is with Fisher Scientific, but his avocation is storytelling. We had a nice discussion while I ate. He's still in the area, so I'm going to try to meet him for lunch today.

My attempt to cut down on soda is not going so well. Ah me, habits can be hard to break. If I brew the tea the night before, I'm more likely to drink it chilled the next morning. However, I have to remember to brew it.

Weekend plans: Tonight I'm playing an LFR adventure. I don't remember which one. Saturday, I'm running one and then we're having buffalo burgers on the grill. These will be Chris's stuffed burgers, with the 'toppings' inside the burger. They are so nummy. And Sunday I'm going to try to donate platelets at noon. Wish me luck with that.