A Day Late, but hopefully not a dollar short

It was my monthly date with Autumn Breeze and we lingered over supper, talking. I got home late and then I was dealing with some of mom's paperwork. By the time I got done, it was late and I was tired, so I went to bed.

I bought a birthday card for my sister-in-law and then found out it needed extra postage. It is a lovely card but it meant a trip to the post office. First I found out how much I needed and then decided to get some extra stamps while there. Guy pulled out the new solar eclipse stamps.

solar eclipse stamps from post office

You see the stamp in the lower right hand corner? That's how they look normally. See the stamps in the upper left corner? That's how they look with a little heat applied, like someone put their hand under the sheet. I immediately wrote letters to my usual correspondents; 'hi, how are you? Hope your summer hasn't been too hot? Have you seen these stamps? Aren't they neat!?'

I will be a teacher's aide in two classes at Palmetto tat days. I've started one project, the longer one. It's a name badge lanyard and uses about 170 beads (yay, beadspinner). I've completed it. And I made many, many mistakes. So I will make another one before Tat Days. First, I'll make the bracelet for my other class.

Mom's phone charger had definitely disappeared. CD and I went to jumpstart her car and get it inspected. I decided we could go get her a new charger while it was being seen. It took a looong time to charge her car enough for it to start. It was 'five more minutes and we stop before CD's car overheats'. CD sat with mom's car running (to charge up the battery) while I got her phone and did another look round for her charger.

The plan mostly worked. We did drive it to be inspected. We did get lunch. We did find a charger*, although the Radio Shack I went looking for had closed. However, they were not able to inspect the car. Because the car had been jumpstarted, the computer gave a 'not ready' answer to most of the emission questions. The car had to be driven 50-100 miles to reset the computer.

I plugged mom's phone in with the new charger and then drove home. I immediately drove it to the inspection station near me. The guy was 'oh, it's only half-hour til we close, there's no way we can get it inspected today,' and he was very relieved when I said, 'I wasn't expecting you to inspect it today, I thought tomorrow.' That they could do. Although they already had a line up for Saturday and it might be midday before they got to it.

*The salesman at the phone store was quite insistent on giving me a quote. I had to tell him, "If I have to deal with one more thing, even that, I'll break down in tears" to get him to stop. Even then, he gave me his card, etc.

CD had class on Saturday, so if the car wasn't ready by the time he had to leave, he could drop me off and I could drive to my tatters' meeting from there. It turned out, he had to go buy new shoes. They were both whistling due to holes. He had to go a bit out of his way, but he got a good deal.

The Tatters' meeting was nice. I made good progress on the lanyard (despite screwing up a floating chain). Carolyn had brought in some old workbaskets and I got one from the 1940s. Neat!

Anitra's husband had seen a listing on Craigslist for a woman who used to own a bead store who was gradually selling off what remained of her stock. He made the arrangements and a few of us went to her apartment after the meeting. I got some lovely beads, including some silver(ish) drops that are metal and a tiny bit heavy. They'd be good for something that needs a tiny bit of weight to hang right.

She had two lovely foster dogs. The newer one stayed isolated most of the time. She has a tendency to jump on people, but she's a lovely, friendly, Pit/Lab mix.

Monday, LotRO was supposed to have an update, opening Mordor and High Elves. An annoying bug cropped up and they delayed it until Wednesday. So our LotRO date will be postponed, too. It's going to take at least an hour for the update to load so I'd better take a nap when I get home.

Tuesday, was my monthly date with Autumn Breeze. We went back to our usual diner. It's under new management. They've painted the walls and put a new mirror in the bathroom. It's nice to see more than my face from the nose up while I'm washing my hands.

Wednesday is also the monthly Forum meeting and the committee meeting will be afterwards. Then it's about half hour or so at work, take lunch, and then out to the garden for the Forum sponsored workday. It's going to be a hot one, so I'll really need that nap.

Another picture. I think it's Virginia Creeper.

It's Almost Fair Time

First, yes, I survived Matthew just fine. I'm far enough inland and uphill that flooding wasn't much of concern for me. We lost power, but very briefly. It was long enough for everything to need to be reset and rebooted, but that's all.

Last Thursday was our Deadlands game. The last one was cancelled and I missed the one before that (Palmetto Tat Days). They caught me up on what had happened while I was out and then we handled what my character had been doing while she was separated. The son of one of the players came again so he got the same NPC and he went with my character. Our characters are reunited and after months of play time we've gotten past that one day of game time (June 16, 1879).

Friday afternoon, I went for my mammogram. Ouch. Apparently, I have 'dense flesh.' Part of that genetics so I need to tell mom that I blame her for my pain on Friday. 

Friday night, we took JJ out for his birthday at Kanki. His birthday was Saturday but with Matthew coming, we went to supper on Friday instead. It was a good idea. We had a nice time and JJ was interested in the books we got him (1st three of Theirs Not to Reason Why). He's reading the later written prequel already.


I was going to go take my entries to the Fair on Saturday but decided I could wait. And since I spent last weekend emptying mom's apartment, I didn't get the time to prep to run Tears at Bitter Manor on Sunday so I cancelled. I took my entries to the Fair on Sunday, just before 5 pm. I got one of them in but not the other so I had to go back Monday. I called my boss and got the okay to go to work late on Monday to get it done. Traffic to Raleigh is very bad in the mornings; I'm glad that's not my commute.

It's much cooler this week and I pulled out the hand knit shawl I got from Autumn Breeze Designs. Yesterday it was enough, today I added a jacket. Yes, I know that post I linked to is old; she's still around and selling her yarns, patterns, etc.

At least the post-hurricane weather is very pretty. It's clear and chillier, so maybe the ground will have a chance to dry before the fair. 

I survived

Mom's apartment is now vacant. She had two bedrooms, each with a walk in closet of clothes, plus a free standing rack of clothes, and a small coat closet. Since my mom stopped wearing uniforms, she became a bit of a clothes horse. CC, Mom, and I culled her wardrobe, but more still needs to be done. I am not sure all of her clothes will fit into her closet, plus drawers, plus glass front cabinet (for sweaters and such, so they are protected but visible. Drawers are for things she doesn't need to keep an eye on to remember, ie underwear and socks.

CD came and helped me move big stuff, like her couch to Goodwill, and her two glass front shelves and sewing table to her new room. Plus, a small set of metal shelves (which she's using to hold and display her scarves in her bedroom) and a rolling chair (for her sewing table). He also helped me take stuff to the dumpster, along with JJ. We left about 11 pm Sunday, exhausted. I'm still aching a bit. CC helped me on Saturday to pack stuff to deliver to Goodwill. Yesterday, I took the last load to the local one.

 I'm aching now. Plus, my already sore knee really hates me. At least it waited until Monday to start screaming at me.

Instead of spending the day demonstrating tatting at Oakview Historic Park, and finishing my projects, I was clearing mom's apartment. That's delayed things for me. I still have stuff to do before Saturday.

I'll post pictures after the State Fair starts. I may not get my 3rd project finished.

Tonight is my date with CC, so I'll return her dolly and a couple things she loaned me. She had to be home on Sunday to do her Fair prep.

Last night, I finally got enough sleep. I've been stressing about mom's apartment since August. And it's gotten worse as the end of the lease approached. I found multiple cases of purchases that I think were there because she remembered she needed something, but not that she already had it. For example, a red blouse.

Here, have a semi-amusing article about a crow stealing evidence from a crime scene.

Long week was long

Okay, really it was normal length, but after last week's short work week, it felt long.

I had my monthly date with Autumn Breeze on Tuesday. I'm so glad we started doing that. It keeps us in contact the way phone calls, letters, and emails don't.

Oh, here's an interesting band (links to YouTube videos) a friend recommended, Veronica Veronico. Makes me wish I wasn't so close to monolingual.

Saturday is back to the mines, as we resume our Wardens of Reborn Forge game. Or actually, we're leaving the mines as we seek the source of the mystery.

I made another bracelet; shades of purple with dark green beads. I don't have a picture of it yet. I may use it as a gift. Or, I'll make another one, same thread with those silvery gold beads. Chrissie loved the bead petal earrings with matching bookmark. They turned out really nicely, but the photos I have are not good. She promised to take a better photo for me. The heart is adapted by one from Be-Stitched newsletter. I used fewer picots on the clovers and added beads to the chain picots.

both ends of the bookmark, used lockchain for the middle

bead petal earring (pattern by Karey Solomon

in process (using a drill at this point)

Tuesday evening as I was leaving work, I saw this. They were doing a menorah lighting ceremony. They were making the menorah.

ice menorah, in progress

Alas, it rained overnight, blurring the details

What light pollution? (fog reflecting lights)

fog amidst the trees

 Sunday was the Tri-Tatters' meeting. It was the only day in November we could get the meeting room. We had someone relearning to needletat. Thank goodness, our most skilled needletatter was there to help her. Somethingunderthebed brought her latest find; 100 year old women's magazines. She's working hard at scanning them to add to her page.

fun with colored lights (I took a whole series)

Update: one last photo, new tablet game: Monument Valley