Book Meme & Old Movies
'We encourage you to be creative with this! Please choose one or two questions to answer or try to answer all the questions in five words or less. Or choose a picture to answer a question! Brevity is the goal of today!'

1. Do you snack while you read? Only if I'm hungry

2. Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? Um, bookmarks! Use them!

3. How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open? Does scrap paper count, or


4. Fiction, Non-fiction, or both? 99 out of 100, fiction.

5. Hard copy or audiobooks? Hardcopy but sometimes 'reread' audio.

6. Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point? Usually, end of chapter.

7. If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away? Look it up later.

8. What are you currently reading?


9. What is the last book you bought? Above & 2 manga

10. Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time? I used to only read 1.

11. Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read? Whenever I have light.

12. Do you prefer series books or stand alone books? Serial a tad more.

13. Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over? Bujold, Bardsley, Nora Roberts (like she needs it), Shelly Laurenston, Jim Butcher & Terry Pratchett

14. How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?) Um, do stacks & stacks count?

Meme over.

I watched The Trouble with Harry last night. It's not a rollicking comedy but it's definitely amusing. I suddenly realized, Weekend at Bernie's has a vaguely similar plot. Er, they both involve inconveniently dead men. I guess it's not that similar after all.

Trip to Mom's et al (with pictures)
I should have taken a picture of the succulent, probably a cactus, that I gave Mom for her birthday, but I forgot. Of course, I needed before & after & after photos. I bought the plant at the Flea Market, and it was sort of a rosette, just about the size of my palm, perfect. I left it out overnight, in the rain, figuring what could be better than Mother Nature's watering can. It 'sploded. It filled the little pot that it was in, and doubled in size and also put out additional rosettes. I had planned to repot it anyway, but now it was demanding a larger pot. I bought a ceramic coffee cup pot painted in bright colors. Now, the plant has room to grow. Mom really liked it, too.

I also had a book of NC humor essays for her & some odds & ends that I thought that she'd like.

I read a couple books while there; I finished re-reading Pack Challenge by Shelly Laurenston & a Judge Dee. For some reason, that did not give me mental whiplash.

She found some fabulous children's books for me to give to my namesake. I'll probably mail most of them to her. I think that I'll wrap them individually & tell Namesake's mom to let her have one a week. Mom also found a nice pair of clogs for the child.

I think, though, that cigarette smoke might be one of my migraine triggers. I started getting one Sunday afternoon. I left a little early because of that. Even with two migraine pills & some headache balm, I barely made it home.

Dad's birthday was last weekend. I drove down Sunday afternoon and got there just after my brother and his family arrived. Here's a bad photo of the cake that K (my stepmother) made. She had a hard time transforming a Harley bike cake to look like a Moto Guzzi, but it looks good, doesn't it. The gravel is rock candy.

After supper with the family, the neighbors came by. I finally got to meet some of the neighbors that my dad has talked about. They were nice folks. I had to give my dad an IOU for his present. I'm still working on it.

My edging is coming right along. I managed 5 and a half repeats this morning and it looks like I'm getting near the 3rd corner.

Here's the edging, by itself.


And here's the edging against the hankie that I'll be attaching it to. The color is not a perfect match, but it does go together well.

I think I finally realize why women's hankies are smaller than men's, usually. It's not because women are 'daintier,' it's because women's hankies often have decorative edgings & men's don't. It's just easier to make an edging for a smaller handkerchief.

And here's the butterfly bookmark that I made for M (my co-worker). She really liked it. I can't remember where I found the pattern, but I found it online (thank you, designer).

Migraine fun - not so much
A cold front moved in last Sunday, at about 11:12 pm. Guess how I know? Yep, steep drop in barometric pressure = I'se has a migraine. It took two hours for my Excedrine migraine to kick enough that I could put my head down on the pillow. Yes, my head hurt so much that the weight of it on a pillow was too much pressure.

Monday, I still had it, as well as less than 5 hours of sleep, but I was able to function. Thank you OTC migraine meds. I was stupid with pain and painblockers, but I was functioning, so I went to work. I woke up with morning, still with the headache. I am really tired of being in pain. But at least, it faded to a mere headache level pain.

After a couple days, I felt like I could pick up my tatting again. And promptly messed up a ring. Which I noticed after I made the subsequent chain. I retro-tatted & *successfully* opened the ring & corrected it. Yay me! I'm not on motif 6 of the 9 to the next corner.

Work was less than a thrill with the pain but I got through it.

Sorry for the interruption but lunch just arrived.