A Week Older

A week since my birthday and I'm getting used to saying I'm 47 years old. Of course, by the time I'm really used to it, I'll be 48. And I still have birthday cake (from the cake my coworkers got me on Tuesday).

Friday, I took the day off to meet my dad for 'lunch.' We met at 9:30 and had breakfast. Then we kept talking until we went to lunch. He had found some old negatives from when he and Mom got married. There were pictures of the first house they rented after they got married and pictures of Aunt Carole and Uncle Dick, and cousin Beth, and Grandma and Grandpa. There was also this wedding portrait.

My parents, on their wedding day

Dad also gave me my birthday present. I now have a gift card to Michael's. Bwahahaha.


I 'found' the empty light on the gas gauge of my new Honda. Now I know when to expect it.

I spent over an hour Saturday morning looking for my phone. I left it on the charger on Friday and took it off when I got home. I thought I slipped it into my purse, but when I looked I couldn't find it. I checked other possible locales, then looked through my purse again, repeat a couple more times. I took a break to see if thinking of other things would bring it to mind. Emptied my purse and looked through it again. Finally went 'duh, use the landline and call my phone.' Listen, listen, hang up, call again, and yes, it was in my purse. It had been concealed by a fold of fabric in a pocket.

The actual drive didn't go much better. I missed my exit but that's no big deal, I just took the next one. It's been awhile since I took that one and I missed the turn that would quickly put me on the road I wanted. FYI, the road I was on is a curved, winding 2-lane 45mph road, often with trees or farms on either side. I noticed an oddity for the area, a trio of bicyclists. You never saw them on this road while I was growing up.

I was careful and went by them. Then I passed another one. Then two more. Then three more, and another one. Then a quartet, and a single. After the 1st two groups, I was thinking bike tour. By the time, I'd passed a dozen, I'm thinking, bike race of some kind. Especially as I saw of quintet of bikers ahead. I gave up and turned off.

I proceeded to get thoroughly lost. My hometown was laid out logically, once up on a time. Now? Not so much. At one point, I ended up on a highway; what I thought was a right turn was an on-ramp. When I hit downtown and saw another trio of bikers, I gave up and called my mom for help. She gave me some direction and I finally made it, in time for us to go to lunch.

I worked on this post Tuesday night, but something went wrong and nothing saved after this point and I've had to rewrite it. Oh well.

Mom and I had a nice visit. We took some things to a church who is active in helping those people in economically distressed areas. The next day we hit the thrift shops so I could find another pair of jeans and maybe a couple more pairs of pants to wear to work. I also found a fabulous toy gun that is begging to be transformed into something steampunk.

I mailed some snowflakes to Palmetto Tat Guild, to be part of their fundraising for the Tat Days scholarships they offer.

I left the threads in case they were needed for hangers. The snowflakes are from Kaye Judt's Oh My Stars book.

 Tuesday night, I had a nice date with CC. We had supper and conversation. We've gotten to know the waitress and when she's not busy, we include her in the conversation.

Afterward, I started sewing the edging onto one end of the scarf/shawl. It's about half an inch too long. I have since removed the edging and I will attempt to ease it to fit. If wait until the last, like I did last night, it bunches awkwardly.

Tatting: Only 4 people at the meeting on Saturday. It started snowing just about 3:30 so that's no surprise. I found it without getting lost; that's a surprise. I finally finished the Gemini Star during the meeting. I've decided to make the pink into a bookmark instead of edging.

Also I've completed both Cupid Stars from Oh My Stars! (so far I don't like dimpled rings. I need to try them a couple more times before I settle with that opinion though) and the Shooting Star. The rickrack Cupid Star is in variegated pink; from a very old ball. I started the Stars & Stripes, in size 80, gadzooks. I only had two colors of thread in the same size in the 80. So it's variegated blue & solid white.

books: Read A Tisket, A Tasket, A Fancy Stolen Casket, and um, still working on Chapter 2 of Teach Yourself Gaelic. I've started a vocabulary card thing. I write the Gaelic word on the front & the pronunciation (as best as I can tell), definition & helpful information about it on the back; things like 'causes lenition' and other tidbits. The former is a mystery set in small town South Carolina, with the protagonist Calamine "Callie" Lotion Parrish. She's a cosmetologist at a funeral home; giving loved ones a final beautiful memory of the dear departed.

My cousin Kathy, Aunt Evelyn's younger daughter, called me Saturday evening, so I'm a little glad that caution about the weather prevented me from driving down to see my aunts after the Tatting meeting. If I'd left, I would have missed her call. We talked for a few minutes. She's only about 10 years older than I am.

Sunday, I waited until the roads had a chance to thaw before I left. I took some stuff out of my car first, so I left a little later than I'd planned. I got there via the 5th route now (as of the last 2 trips plus this one). I'm getting better. They were glad to see me & I tatted while Aunt Dot & Uncle Albert watched football & Aunt Shirley read. Mom arrived that evening and she was surprised to see me. I had tried to call her to let her know about the roads (& let her know that I'd be there) but she had her cell phone off again.

We did a little sewing on Monday. Mom had found a better suitcase for me to use to carry my sewing machine. It's a lot sturdier than the one that I have been using. However, it doesn't have pockets, so I used some drapery fabric & sewed a couple. That will help in stowing the presser feet and extra bobbins. I completely forgot my bag of 'needs repairs' and the satin fabric for my new pillowcase. I could, theoretically, work on that tonight. Theoretically.

I had to leave last night and made it home just after dark. It was markedly colder. When I was putting my bags in the car, I just wore a turtleneck & felt fine. Getting them out, I felt like I was freezing; it was only 2F above the freezing mark, so no wonder.

clothes: jeans, turtlenecks, Celtic knot jewelry

Okay, it's been awhile. But, hey, it's Christmas.

Let's see: done - presents to family, present to Joe, presents to Mike, presents to Chris, presents to co-workers

not done- presents to neighbors, present to Rosemary (well, it's 1/2 done), present to mailcarrier, cards to aunts, cards to card exchange, wrapped presents to James & clan

presents received: FE gift cert (From Joe), 2 corduroy vests (forest green & dark red) from Dad & step-mom, 2 pairs of earrings (from Chris, turquoise & silver & then emerald & gold), multi-strand necklace (from Marck & kin), jacket/sweater (ditto), bug sweeper (from Mike - long story), target gift card (Mom), tea stick (Kathy & Dad), Oh My Stars (from Rosemary), & a pair of olive wood praying hands.

tatting: snowflakes, snowflakes, snowflakes

books: Don of the Dead, The Chick & the Dead, Tombs of Endearment, Confessions of a Werewolf Supermodel, Crazy in Love, & half of Death & Thraxas. Also read Cursor's Fury, before I gave it to Chris (cause I wasn't sure if he already had it or not; turned out he didn't even knew it was out).

I had a couple lightheaded events recently. Rosemary told me that that's symptom of diabetes. Oh. Yay. That reminds me, time to check WebMD. Well, that says that dehydration is a common symptom (along with bleeding but I know that's not it). It was probably a combination of hunger & dehydration.