TGIF & TIAS

I managed to get home at a reasonable hour last night, after gaming at Sci Fi Genre. The Living Forgotten Realms game went pretty well; we felt challenged. My character, an avenger, did her part; took damage and dealt it (striker/defender).

I forgot to show pictures of my impromptu picot gauge. Here it is, along with my progress, through day 8 of Jane's TIAS. It's a piece of paper, folded to the correct size.

This morning, I was feeling so good and so on top of things, I decided to do day 9 of the Jane's TIAs. I had no problem with the first four split rings. I was in the middle of the fifth and looking for the picot on the chain. It had disappeared; another problem with that black thread. No problem, I can see where it was. As I finagled the hook of my shuttle between two knots, everything suddenly loosened. The thread broke! Again.

For a second, I just looked at it. I said a couple impolite words and ripped the thread off the shuttles. I'll be starting the TIAS again, with different thread instead of the black.
Here's a close up of the break:

Change of subject: they're still predicting snow for tonight. At this point, they're calling for 5-7" starting between 8 pm & midnight. We'd planned to go to see Avatar tonight. Not anymore. We'll try again next week.

I've starting downloading the pdfs from DriveThruRPG's Gamer's Helping Haiti special. Wow, there's a lot of stuff.

It's been a bit of week, between migraine, work stuff, etc. I'm profoundly glad it's Friday, even if I will be trapped in my house the next day or so. I debated wearing my new snow boots but I haven't broken them in & I won't need them today. However, between tatting disaster & shoe decisions, I managed to forget my lanyard. The one that has my work id/key/food money and my bus pass. Luckily, I had some cash in my pocket, but it was not a good start to the morning.

Someday, I'll resume my Colorado posts. Just not right now.

I Pontificate, on re-reading books

There are some books that I read once and then get rid of, via Used Bookstore, Bookcrossing, whatever. There are other books that I keep around to re-read once in a blue moon. Then there are those books that I re-read over and over again. Sometimes I read them from cover to cover and other times I read selected bits.

Some of those books I no longer re-read like I used to. I've changed or perhaps I read that book one too many times.

I'm thinking about this because I've been in a funk, for quite a while now. It's been really hard for me to get into a new book, no matter how good. I haven't wanted to stretch myself to deal with an unfamiliar author or story. There have been a few exceptions but I have been turning to my old favorites a lot lately. Admittedly, that does help with my book bill (a book a day habit is expensive).

This morning I was dipping into War God's Own again. I was just in the mood for Bahzell Bahnakson. Tomorrow, I may be in the mood for Circle of Magic: Sandry's Book, or perhaps one of the In Death books will call to me siren-like, or maybe I'll dig out an old Jayne Ann Krentz.It depends on my mood and what I can reach from my stacks of books.

Why do I re-read books? I know how it ends; usually. My memory can be a bit spotty & when you read 300 books a year, more or less, they do blur together. The story isn't going to change the second time I read it (Juliet always stabs herself -oops, I hope that's not a spoiler).

I think it's like my ancestors, yours too, probably. They knew that Beowulf was going to kill Grendel (oops, another spoiler). Nonetheless, they sat by the fire and listened to the story again and again.

That's what makes the difference I suppose. Really good story telling.

I WON!

I won a TotusMel bracelet from Choklit. I'm squee'ing I'm so happy. I missed her announcement so she contacted me on Twitter. Wasn't that nice of Choklit?

Yes, I still have my migraine. Thank goodness for pain medication. I still have the headache, but unlike years ago when my only option was extra strength acetimoophen, or a relative, I am not curled in a ball in darkened room, whimpering. Yes, I have done that. My pillow hurt, it was that bad.

Rainy Morning Monday

The day started out very windy & wet. What I didn't know is that there had been high wind & tornado warnings overnight. There had even been about 2 inches of rain in 12 hours. It was lightly raining while we were at supper and it rained on the way back from the game, but it must have intensified after we got home. It was windy enough that some of our recyclables blew out of the bin. I hope that they dry out before pickup tomorrow. One oddity, I swear I could smell the sea sometimes, in the morning. I'm about 300 miles inland, so that seems a little unlikely.

My friend & I got lost on the way to meeting Chris for the movie Friday night. We got there before the movie started, but not with enough time to eat. Instead, we went out for a nice supper, not fast food. We left the restaurant at about the same time the movie would have been letting out. We're going to try again next Friday.

The next day, we went to Joe M's place for LFR (Living Forgotten Realms). Chris ran a game & a guy named Alex ran a game. We had a quick supper in between. We finally finished at about 1 am. It was a great time with some great roleplayers, but I was so tired. I played Black Raspberry Chocolate Tracks, of House Tracks for both games. She's 8th level now. She is just so entertaining to play when there're some good roleplayers at the table.

Needless to say, I was just a leeeeetle tired on Sunday. Pizza Inn, our usual pre-game lunch spot has changed. We need to go by to see if they still open at 11 am on Sunday, if not, then we aren't likely to go back there. We have time constraints, after all.

Poor R, she was running the game on about 5 hours of sleep. Plus, the incoming storms were giving her headache. We still got through some important stuff in the game. We didn't have a combat but we made progress. Joe J wasn't there, he was sick, and we didn't get so far that his character won't be able to catch up.

I didn't do much tatting. I made some white & silver butterflies. Day 9 of the TIAS came out, but I haven't started it yet.

TIAS, the weather and gaming

I just missed the bus last night, so I was working on day 6 of Jane's TIAS by streetlight. Or I tried. Both threads broke, not just the chain thread. I was disgusted by that point, so I tied in a knot and kept tatting. It won't be pretty, but it will be done. I got the point where I needed to add the bead and realized that I could not do that in the poor light. I finally finished day 6 at lunch today. I almost shredded the thread getting the bead onto the ring.

I managed to get day 7 done and was working on day 8. At one point, I was trying to make a join on ring 12 & realized I had lost a picot. It was a very small picot. Why, oh why did I choose black for my 2nd color? What was I thinking?








I finally finished day 7, but as you can see it's not pretty.

Here's part 8, done. Sort of. Sorry about the loose threads. Remember what I said about threads breaking? Here's proof.

The weather was really, really rainy last night. I had my wipers on full a few times, from the rain. There were also a couple instances in which tire spray played a role. There was a stretch of road where the lane markers pretty much disappeared. The only saving grace is that there's a median separating the two directions.

I made it to, and from, gaming last night safely. But my legs, arms and lower back ached with tension. At least my character was able to thoroughly whomp some bad guys. They were hard light constructs (ie no one alive in them) so no punch pulling, just slice, dice & whack.

Tonight a couple of us are going out to a quick supper and then on to see Avatar. It's not a 3D theater but from what I've heard you really don't want to wait for the DVD on this one. Unless you have a really big screen at home, of course.

Tomorrow, it's more LFR. I hope that I remember how. I ended up canceling the last time I had planned to play. Luckily, it's a really simple game.

Sunday, it's R's game. I've decided to enter the notes that I have as an adventure log on Obsidian Portal. That will make it easier for me to track NPCs etc.

A picture or 2, and other developments

As promised, here is a picture of the vest that I worked on this past weekend.

As you can see it has a lot of beads & embroidery.

Here is a detail of the embroidery that I fixed. Can you see what I did or where? If not, then I did it right.

The bugle bead that I did not replace is one from near the hem (you can barely see the area in the bottom of the photo, rice beads & bugle bead motifs). As you can see, it won't be too noticeable to be missing one.

Tatting: I finished the motif for my secret project (for some reason, every time I hit the quote mark key, the search function comes up *shrug*). I managed this despite 1) running out of thread on my shuttle & 2) running into a knot as I reloaded the shuttle

I started to do day 6 of Jane TIAS but my thread broke. I will need to do some retro tatting, adding a new thread & then I can continue. (still cannot use single quote mark " works though).

The weather has turned cold & rainy. At least it is not ice. Mutants & Masterminds tonight. No ice means that I will be playing. Good.

Someone else's contest & family stuff

A wonderful artist is running a contest on her blog. It's a tiered contest so I'm going to let you in on it, despite my own desparate desire to win. If she get 33 individual entries, then she offers up a $33 certificate to her etsy shop. She makes gorgious cuffs, collars, sleeve garters & earrings. See, take a look. If she gets 66 entries, the certificate goes up to $66.


Another day, another way to help Haiti

I had a nice time visiting my mom & her older sister this weekend. I pulled out my laptop to get family info. My mom & two of her sisters were brunettes, while the youngest was blonde. No one could remember what color my granddaddy's hair was before it went white, and Other Mother's hair was dark (yes, I called her Other Mother, because she was more like another mother than a grandparent; I was 5, I thought it was An Other).

I finished my Ren faire blouse. Mom and Aunt Shirley took one look and were aghast. It's kind of shapeless because, duh, I'll be wearing a bodice over it, which will provide any shaping. So yes, it hangs like a sack. I did run into one problem with using the old sheet; the machines hated it. I wasn't using industrial machines and the tight weave of the sheets did funny things to the stitch evenness. As they say, I won't be wearing it to meet the queen after all. Not a real one, anyway.

I also fixed a not-quite-antique beaded & embroidered sweater vest. (note: I need pictures of these 2 projects,don't I?). I had to replace one pearl, I let one bugle remain missing and I fixed some loose embroidery threads. It took about 10 minutes & the difference is remarkable. Mom & Aunt S were amazed. They'd been letting it sit for months, waiting for me to fix it. They didn't realize that it was so simple. Admittedly, it was simplified by Aunt S having a pearl on hand for me to use.

The weather, by the way, is remarkably warm. It started Sunday with temps in the 60's. And it was sunny. Same thing yesterday, and today. I wore a polo shirt today, atlhough there was frost on the ground this morning. My neighbor's poor pear tree though, it's put out blossoms. That won't last. We had a thunderstorm Sunday & that means that winter weather is likely in the next 11 days. It sounds like superstition but it has a scientific basis. If the conditions are right to have a thunderstorm in winter, then they're right to have 'wintery' weather (around here that's code for snow/sleet/freezing rain), too.

TIAS Day 5 & not much else

Here is Day 5 of Jane's TIAS














And here's Day 1 & 2, with Day 5 (which includes days 3 & 4)

Sign that your headache is actually a migraine. You take pain medication & your nausea disappears.

I'm off to Jacksonville, NC for a 3-day weekend. Family time. Don't have too much fun without me.

Haiti & other matters

Here are two other craft people who are doing a little something for Haiti; Shore-House Chic and Reclaimed Home. Both are running auctions, the former for a tote & the latter for a necklace, in which the winning bid goes to a charity for Haiti. Proof of donation sent to the artist has her shipping the item to the winner, at no further cost to the winner. Isn't that just nifty.

I could not find any solid Olympus #40 thread to go with the multicolor that I used for the 1st 2 days of the Jane's TIAS. Talking with A on the phone, I had the brainstorm to just start over; in a thread that did match. I found some multicolor size 10, along with a couple balls of solids color.

Here's original Day 1

And here's the new Day 1 & 2

Along with Day 3 & Day 4

I'm in a Funk

Which is soooo much fun for the people around me. Luckily, that amounts to none, right now. I'll do what I can to get out of it by the time C gets home tonight.

I'm 2 days behind on the TIAS. I suddenly realized that I don't know if I have any solid color thread the same size as the multicolor that I used. Some days it doesn't feel worthwhile to have gnawed through the straps. I have thread that might be the same size, but it's a different number, by a different company, from a different country...so I just don't know. My eye isn't good enough to see more than obvious differences.

I could moan & groan about the little things that have gone amiss today, but next to what's happening in Haiti, I have it so good it seems ridiculous to complain. By the way, if you're wondering what you can do; here are links to the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. If you have text capabilities on your phone then you can ext "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to RedCross relief efforts in Haiti ($10 posts on your bill, Std msg rates apply). Or you can text YELE to 501 501 and $5 will be donated to help those in Haiti.  

There are a lot of people doing little things (this week, $5 from each sale by this Etsy vendor goes to help Haiti)  and that will add up to a lot. And Jeri Smith is donating a copy of her book, Bad to the Bone, to the 1st 20 people who donate $15 to MSF (Doctors w/o Borders).


Speaking of 'I don't really have it bad', a friend of mine has been spending time since New Year's at hospital etc. He's the primary care giver for his mother. She's in good shape, for her age; and that's the key phrase. Anyway, she fell December 30th and broke her other hip. As a result, she was in surgery New Year's Day. Now isn't that a crappy way to spend a holiday.



I'm driving down to see Mom this weekend. She's staying with her sister at the coast and hopefully her sister from Miami has come north (kinda bad timing, temperature-wise). I have Monday off and that means I can stay 2 nights instead of just Saturday night.


My namesake has been enjoying her Wednesday presents. Although her father is not too happy about the glow in the dark (plastic of course) scimitar. She's not quite old enough for live steel, although she should get her own pocketknife soon, IMHO.


I've been reading The Double Daring Book for Girls. I wish I'd had this when I was kid. As it is, I'm sorry, niece, I'm keeping this copy. I've already used one bit to use an old map (instead of a paper grocery bag) to make a book cover. I'd forgotten how to do that, which seems a pity, because it's soooo easy.


I'm worried (not in a tear-my-hair-out stress and panic way) about my iPod mini. It's 5 years old, or maybe more, years old and I think that battery is on its last legs. I had it fully charged yesterday but it only lasted through about 5 songs this morning and died. Maybe, just maybe, I had it accidentally turned on in my coat pocket. I'll keep better track tonight and we'll see.


No pictures today. Maybe in my next post.

Brrrr, It's Cold

It's been unseasonably cold; or is that unreasonably? Temperatures have dropped into the teens & twenties several times over the past week. Luckily, I finished my scarf.

That's me, wearing it. I also have on the hat that Alisa made for me. Despite the cold, I have not unpacked my OMG It's Cold coat. I've been making do with layers and a leather jacket.

Alas, due to construction, my bus stop does not exist. I have another stop to use, but it adds 15 minutes or more to my commute, most of it waiting in the cold. Not fun.

And they're predicting snow tonight. It's been cold enough that whatever lands, will accumulate.


I've joined Jane Eborall's Tat It And See (TIAS). So far, we're on Day 1.

We'll see if I can keep up. Part of my problem is using up the thread that I'm not using. I should just pull out more shuttles to avoid that issue.

I started a bookmark just after Christmas, but I don't like how it is turning out. So, I'll put it on the scrap pile and maybe I'll find a use for it one day. I found out that Alisa needle tats. We need to get together so I can show her shuttle tatting; she wants that , too.