MY Mardi Gras 'celebration' & other recent events
Since I turned 35, I've been meaning to get a mammogram. For my New Year's Resolution, I promised myself that I'd actually get one done this year. So, this year for Mardi Gras, I bared my breasts. And had them smashed by the radiologist. Yay me. In some ways it was not as painful as I feared; in some ways it was. Ouch.

The doctor that I saw later siad that my cough was probably a residual, 2ndary infection from the flu. She doesn't think that I had bronchitis but that I probably had the flu instead. Huh. Guess my flu shot was useless this year. Glad I stayed home from work for a week. At least that way, I didn't infect anyone.

Tatting: I did have time, between/during appointments to finish another bookmark. I have made three, found an older one and I'm on yet another one. That will bring the total up to 5. I still can't find the first one I made. It's variegated blue and it was my first, ever, successfuly split chain. This tan one is the exact same motif pattern but the tail is different. I made it in one round by using split rings and a split chain.

I made a spiral for the tail of the blue one (Josephine knots). I need to take pictures of the other ones. The green and burgundy ones are also from Lindsay Rogers' Tatting Collage. I took a motif and added a tail. The yellow one that I'm tatting now is from Rebecca Jones' The Complete Book of Tatting.

A note about split chains; they are much easier to do when the thread is a tightly twisted one. I gave up on the perle 8 one that I tried to do. I kind of fudged it.

Triangle Tatters will be meeting Saturday. After that, I'll know how many more bookmarks I need to make. I promised a total of 24. *crosses fingers*

Bad News: I somehow broke the cover of my Palm pilot this morning. I'm not sure how, but only one hinge is still attached. If both hinges were gone, then I could just re-insert it. If both were present, I could clip the cover back onto them. Soooo, it doesn't look good. I won't know how bad until/unless I find the cover.

I may be shopping for a new one. I don't want the latest & greatest (I don't need a cellphone PDA). I just want one that I can move my stored info to and that recharges instead of using batteries. Is that too much to ask?

Family: off to meet Dad & stepmom for supper tonight. I'm not looking forward to the drive, but I am looking forward to seeing them. I'm going to give 3 Cups of Tea to Kathy for an early b'day present.

*grumble* Where's my card reader?
I have some great photos to show but no way to download them from my camera. I have to find what I did with my card reader before I can show off.

Tatting: I finished the Eritrean flag & it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. There's a flickr group & I plan to post the picture as soon as I get it downloaded (notice theme?). Since that was finished and even mailed off, and I don't know how many bookmarks to expect from others, I started on the bookmarks for my company's adult literacy class. [I really want to finish AnneB's dragon. I have 2 of them started who just need wings.]

I decided to do something simple for my first one, so I chose the square motif from p 58 of Lindsay Rogers' Tatting Collage in variegated blue (I have a picture, honest) Olympus 40. I adapted the pattern with a split ring so that it's one round instead of two. But then when I got the end, I'd have to cut & tie and then put the tassel elsewhere. Ick.

Instead, I finally mastered split chain. I've only been trying to for 2 years. I am not kidding. I remember trying to take Karey Solomon's morning split chain bag class and just. not. getting. it. Then Mary S. at last year's Palmetto Tat Days showed me her cabochon ring trick for learning split chain. Nonetheless, when I tried it with thread my attempt yielded your basic rat's next. Yesterday, I finally got a chain instead of something that the cat threw up. See Arlene. See Arlene do the happy dance.

I am making the same bookmark again but in variegated brown Red Heart size 20. I am also adding 2 extra ds, at the beginning & the end, to the chains. My blue one cups a little and this will fix that. I tat tighter than Ms. Rogers, I guess.

Other craft: Technically the flag goes under this, too since I quilted the flag and only tatted the olive branch & wreath.

I made a quick fleece blanket for Rosemary's birthday. I bought 4 yards, 2 each of 2 different fabrics, of poly-fleece. I laid them out on the conference room table during lunch. Then I carefully trimmed them (to get rid of the selvages), clipped and tied them. It's a fairly simple way to make a reversible fleece blanket. One side is a dark tartan; navy, forest, garnet, thin yellow & thin white stripes. The other is a cheerful red with multi-colored snowflakes. It's big enough to cover her completely, and should be very warm.

Gaming: tonight is Mutants & Masterminds. Yay! I get to hit things and not think much. The funny thing is, my character Totem is very intelligent. But her ignorance of modern technology lead people to drastically underestimate her.

Something is wrong with my office temperature setting
It should not be 78F in my office in the middle of winter. Meanwhile, a co-worker down the hall opens his door to a freezing office every morning. He has to run a heater half the morning just to get it comfortable.

The tree by my front door has relieved my mind. I saw buds on it this evening. I was getting worried because my neighbor's tree has blooms and there was nothing on mine. Since a large branch broke off last year, it was a possibility that something had killed the tree.

My knees really hurt today. I have no idea why. My knees have hurt before, so this is nothing new. Usually though I can blame conditions like, driving for hours, walking in bad shoes, etc.

I've started typing my game notes for my LFR blog. Whenever possible, I type my notes into my laptop but sometimes that is not, so I'm left trying to translate my scrawl. I'm trying to keep them in order. Yesterday, I started the blog by introducing my characters.

The days have really gotten longer. I can walk home without turning on my safety lights.

I am going to look for my Lindsay Rogers book. I think it will really help with my wreath.