Tuesday, November 07, 2017

Finally got my tablet to connect

I had to hold the cord into place, but it worked. And I had lots and lots of pictures to download so it took a couple tries to get them all.

And it's too much to deal with right now.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

I'm tired

not enough sleep the past few days. Still can't get pics from my iPad. sorry. State Fair. no ribbon for bobeche. necklace got 4th

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Long Week

I skipped last week's exercise class. It was step class and my knees were hurting; not a good combination. I missed yesterday's class for much the same reason. It's a bit of a catch 22; my knees hurt enough to interfere with going to exercise class, but I need to go to exercise class to build up muscle, strengthen sinews and bones.

Saturday was the demo at Oakview Historic Park Heritage Day. We were behind the house this time; which equaled less traffic, but also better shade. It was moderately cool but massively humid. It was just the 3 of us this time. K had car trouble and it was G's birthday. G and her mom came by so w could meet her mom and socialize a bit.

We shared a tent with the American Wildlife Refuge. One of the birds was a new education bird and wasn't settling well; Steve Stone took her home and brought back a more experienced bird. They had Princess, a kestrel; Speedy, an eastern screech owl; Forest, a great horned owl; and Scowl, a barred owl. Princess was quite chatty throughout the day.

CK brought some flat, plastic shuttle she had made. I had my size 10 thread associated with my bottle holder so I used that to demo. I did talk briefly to the lye soap maker and to some people from the Joel Lane House.

The director invited us to consider doing a demo there in early December. It would require using their loaner 18th century outfits. That's early than the tatting era, but still would be cool. And it's possible someone was tatting that early, we just don't have any evidence of it. Tatting does require a certain standard of thread, and we don't know if the thread that early had the requisite smoothness for the knots to slide.

Mostly, I worked on my beanile necklace. I was 3 chains and 1 ring away from completion when the rain started. It cut the day short by only half an hour. It came down in buckets. And then by the time we had packed up our stuff and ready to move cars and pack them? The rain had slowed and then stopped.

I went back with A and contacted CD. We met for supper and when I got home, I finished the necklace. I also found out part of my other State Fair entry was missing.

Sunday morning, I got started on filling in the missing piece. I finally got it done in the afternoon and hurried to get dressed, off to Michael's for display items, and then to the Fairgrounds. I got both pieces into the Fair (I was unable to complete my 3rd piece because of needing to redo the 1st one) and submitted with 10 minutes to spare. Whew.

The weather has been very un-autumnal the past couple days. Yesterday it started in the high 70s and rain. It stayed humid and warm all day. This morning was 77F with a 76F dewpoint. Ugh.

Sorry I don't have pictures. There's something wrong with my iPad/laptop connection and I haven't been able to download them.




Tuesday, October 03, 2017

Spaced Last Week and Forgot to Post

I played Deadlands again and caught up with what happened in the session I missed. Our characters are now in Sioux territory so the white characters are at a distinct disadvantage, my character at a lesser one. We made it to town at least.

My Starfinders book came in. I've been reading it a bit and creating a character. I haven't gotten through as much as I thought I would. 

Saturday was the mini maker's faire at Wake Tech. We had a good time. I made a bookmark to take to the family reunion as a door prize. The coverage Wake Tech had used our picture as the 1st one (see the link). Pretty cool, huh?


The bookmark pattern is from the Moonlit shuttle packaging. The fabric triangle was made by Katie (3rd from the right in the photo). She made one for each of us to catch our thread bits.

Sunday I made the apple and sweet potato dish for the family reunion and went to take a shower while it baked. I was all dressed and about to go out the door when suddenly I felt sick. I felt bad enough I wasn't up to going. I called my cousin Joy so they wouldn't be looking for me and getting worried.

The following Monday was the big sustainability event at work. I helped Claire man the table. Her husband made a really cool frame for the poster, out of bamboo.


I missed the 2nd exercise class. I missed the 1st one because I wasn't dressed appropriately. I made it to Thursday's class, and it was body sculpt. The instructor did a good job of providing instructions for the less fit (like me). She did occasionally use terms without defining them.

This past Saturday, I went to see mom. I took her a few things; some nuts, some chocolate, some chamomile tea, some soda, etc.

We went to JoAnne's. I'm looking for some j-hook beading needles. Michael's near me doesn't have them. Neither did the JoAnne's near mom. We picked up one or two items, because they were on sale, and stuff I'd get anyway. But mom got tired pretty soon, so we sat down and looked through the costume patterns. Some looked really good and some you'd have to pay me lots of money to make. And some I still wouldn't.

We also went by a thrift shop. Again, Mom got tired pretty quickly. I told her she needs to start walking the halls to build up her stamina again. 
 
Sunday,  CD and I ran errands. We also went with RG and her dog to the park to go walking. Well, they went walking. I wasn't wearing the right shoes to go walking. So I sat at a bench and tatted and read while they walked. When they came back to me, I went to the bathroom. RG's dog was very upset by this. From the noises she made, you'd think I was torturing the poor canine.

I'm almost finished my 1st Fair tatting project. I have about 10 chains or so left. I made progress on my beanile necklace. I don't know if I'll get my 3r project done or not. We'll see.

POLITICS
So #45 made more stupid comments, about Puerto Rico, NFL players, etc. Although his statements re: the NFL players were actually illegal.

And how many more mass shootings and terrorist attacks like the one in Las Vegas will it take before Congress grows a spine and stands up the NRA or the NRA gets some common sense instead of knee jerk 'all guns good, all gun control bad.'


I called the office of one of my senators (I called both, but left a message on one but no one ever answers in that office). I was upset when I called. By the time I was off the phone, I was furious. The person who answered the phone really needs customer service training. I started the call saying "I want to express my opinion" and he wanted to debate. When I interrupted him to tell him I wasn't finished and to let me continue because my time is short he interrupted me. I actually got rude and told him to shut up and stop interrupting me. He got snippy about me not being civil. I told him to stop interrupting me and I would be. I actually called back and told him that him interrupting me like that made him look sexist (which I doubt he believed, but since I doubt he'd do that to a man, I think it does).

Later on, I called the same office to leave a message and told them he needed customer service training on how to deal with upset callers. After all, Republicans are in the same dog bed as Trump and those who lie down with dogs will get up with fleas, so they need to be prepared to deal with flea bites.


Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Tatting and Pathfinder

 Saturday was the Triangle Tatters' meeting. My friend wasn't available so I went alone. I brought my books to show off and worked on my beanile necklace. I also found the size 10 thread I was using for my bottle holder. I had a great time and there were a total of 10 of us at the meeting.

Sunday was the Pathfinder game. There were some scheduling conflicts, so we had a short day; only 2 pm to 6 pm (well, by the time we were packed up, it was about 7 pm) and then went out to supper. I handled the tactics pretty well this time and really challenged them.

My two new students started on Monday. I finally have someone to cover my lunch hour and my meetings. Which is good since I had a 2+ hour meeting today.

Need to know about a movie before you shell out for a ticket or DVD or whatever? Here's a collection of review sites.
One: if you or someone you know has problems with certain themes or content (ie blood and gore are fine as long as no kids or animals are hurt, or No explosions, period), this tumblr site is working on a list to let you know before you view.
Two: How accurate is that outfit? Frock Flicks lets you know.
Three: aggregate of professional critics review movies on Rotten Tomatoes and they have a separate audience score
Four: general audience (ie whoever wants to) reviews on the internet movie database.
okra blossom


some kind of bean
Okra

clouds

muscadine grapes


display at library


Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Home again, home again

I'm home from my trips. There was a trip to see friends in Maryland. We went to the Orchid Cellar and a mead tasting. I bought some scented lotion bars. The tasting room is quite rustic looking, with log walls and a fireplace stove in a brick nook. They have original art on the walls. There was also outdoor seating, but it was too cool out for us to sit there comfortably.



I was great seeing M & B and their kids. I haven't seen them in 2 years. We also watched Princess and the Frog on DVD. I hadn't seen it before. It's really good. I took lots of pictures, but since I haven't gotten permission to post pictures of people, I'm sorry, you won't see faces.
but the little girls were learning how to take selfies.
Since it was so unexpectedly cool, I bought a cotton blanket for the car and a hooded sweatshirt. I'm keeping them in the car for cold weather emergencies.

Surprisingly, I didn't fall asleep on the way home. And we got back kind of late. I tried to sleep in on Tuesday but failed. Tuesday, CD and I just rested. Wednesday, we did errands; including me packing my clothes and my tatting.

Wednesday night, I put my overnight bag and my tatting bag in the car. It made getting out the door easier. I even managed to get on the road on time; 7 am.

At that time, the trip to Anitra's went quickly. We got her stuff in the car and back on the road. Just in time to hit some really bad rush hour traffic. Nonetheless, we got to ME's house in good time. We didn't hit any more bad traffic but we ate lunch quickly. As a result, we got to the convention center in time to get our stuff in our rooms and for Anitra and I to get to the teachers' and aides' meeting just in time.

As usual, the goodie bags were fabulous. I should have taken better pictures. I did get my bracelet finished, and Erin said it looked good.


Here are a few. I'm still kind of tired.





Brag table



























And someone got a little silly. She couldn't make it, but she sent these.
There were some really cool costumes at the banquet.

There's more but I'm just too tired to type anymore.