Missed a week, oops

We played Deadlands after my last post. The GM, DR, says our game is between 2 and 20 sessions to go before the final resolution. We were debating what game to play next and decided on Blue Rose. I had mentioned on social media that I had a concept for my next fantasy character, inspired by Mrs. Pollifax. I want to play a middle-aged woman whose children are grown with their own lives and she fulfills her young dream of becoming an adventurer. With Blue Rose, she can become a government agent, a la Valdemar Herald. The GM had gotten his copy of Blue Rose and he thought that character would work fabulously. We're still playing the Deadlands game (although CD will miss this week's game), though.

Saturday (the 3rd) was the Tri-tatters doing their part of living history at Mordecai House in Raleigh. We were on the house porch this time instead of at the visitor center. I took a break to talk to the cook/soapmaker. The theme was roses and she made rose short bread and rose scented soap. She's very nice and I look forward to talking to her again. Unlike us, she was dressed for the era.

I did finish an ice drop and finally made good progress on the sea glass pendant after another false start. I used the technique from Anitra's turtle but had to play with the stitch count to get it to work.

Tri-Tatters at Mordecai (I missed getting KV)

Tri-tatters at Mordecai (can you tell where I was sitting?)

sea glass pendant

 Sunday, CD and I made a flying visit to mom to fix her phone. And her DVD player. And her Kindle. They all had the same issue, no power. The outlet the phone charger was plugged into was controlled by a switch, which was frequently off. So the phone wasn't charging. The power strip where the DVD player and Kindle were plugged had come unplugged from the wall. Easy fix, luckily.

Afterward, CD and I went to DSW. My sandals broke on Memorial Day and I needed a new pair. In theory, I could have fixed the broken strap, but that wouldn't fix the other problems (sole wearing out, etc). I bought new sandals, and on mom's advice I bought two of the same.

Tuesday the 6th was the big Blood Drive at UNC. I volunteered at check in and then grabbed a bite to eat before going to donate. It meant I was out of the office most of the day but I was helpful. My donation went well.

The same evening was my monthly date with CC. We went to DSW. I wanted to see if they had the multi-color sandal in the same style in my size. Alas, they did not. But I did buy a pair of shoes to replace my tennis shoes, when they finish dying. They were really expensive shoes, but on clearance meant they cost as much as an expensive (for me) tennis shoes. CD said she bought a pair of shoes of the same brand and they lasted 25 years. Breaking down the cost per year, they'll be cheaper in the long run.

I also fell to the croc side. They're work suitable and really comfy. Except if  the 3rd time you ever wear them you walk 10+ minutes in the heat and then get sand in your shoe and you don't immediately rinse them out, they are not so comfy.

Wednesday night we went out for my birthday supper. We were going to Casa San Carlo, but they're closed for renovations. Instead, we went to Tokyo House. JJ came, CD of course, RG, DR, SR and her husband SR, and at the last minute I asked CC and her SO came, too. I will say, Tokyo House did a great job and the service was very good.

However, right before I left work on Wednesday some stuff came up for mom's financial stuff. Very stressful. Thursday, I thought I got it temporarily resolved, at least until they got my POA processed. Except, they apparently didn't. As I found out late Friday.

Saturday, I just rested and relaxed. I desperately needed a recuperation day. Sunday, CD and I went to pick up comics, manga, and game books. We hadn't been to our FLGS and had orders to pick up.

Later, CD, CC, her SO, and her friend D all went to see Wonder Woman. There were a couple 'why did they do that?' moments but overall I really liked it. There were not incompetent characters, just competent at different things with different strengths and weaknesses. Even Etta wasn't played for laughs. She had some very funny lines but she wasn't comic relief.

Monday, I took a long lunch and took care of mom's stuff in person. There were phone calls to make and I did some follow up today and I'm doing more tomorrow. But there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Palmetto Tat Days registration is open. I need to do that tonight.

Here are some random photos. I've done some coloring pages and isn't this a huge thistle?

And if ever wonder what manspreading is? This is it. That's a 3 person bench. You can see a woman squeezed at one edge and this guy is taking up 2 spaces. If the bus wasn't crowded, I wouldn't care. But it was quite crowded that day.

And here's an ice drop in the Spice Cake (like the sea glass pendant) and a heart.

Looong Weekend

Thursday was my natal anniversary, aka birthday. I decided to take it as a vacation day. And since it was the Thursday before a holiday weekend, I took Friday off as well. This was a good plan.

Thursday, CD also took the day off and we just spent time together. We went out to lunch, played games, and just enjoyed each others' company.

Friday, I went to get my jewelry cleaned. This used to be a minor task. CD bought insurance on my jewelry when he bought it from a chain. I take it to get cleaned and inspected every 6 months and all repairs are free. Except. The two closest stores closed. On the bright side, the next closest store is in Greensboro.

After, I met part of my family for lunch. They picked a place close to where I was going to be and close to the highway, so I could make my way home again. It was a lovely. Dad and K gave me a bracelet he bought in Texas in 1977. It's turquoise and coral chip Kokopellis silver cuff bracelet. They also gave me a book about the Acoma people. They gave me a phenomenal photo of some Acoma pottery for Christmas.

CD gave me the soundtracks for the 1st two Hobbit movies and RG gave me Elle King's cd, and a book from my Amazon list.

Saturday was TriTatters. I managed to make one ice drop and got some sea glass from Carolyn. I started an ice drop with one of those but they are larger than my usual glass and I'm adjusting to fit. I don't think I've made it large enough.

I want this book (one of the tatters brought it to the meeting)

It was a lovely meeting. I helped someone with a current project and showed her how to make Martha Ess's half-braid bracelet. She wants to make one for her daughter, to recognize her daughter's getting her prize job. The tatter, we'll call her R, is still learning and this is a pattern well within her skills. She was so thrilled. I love helping people like that.

Sunday was Pathfinder, Tears at Bitter Manor again. We haven't played since February and one of our players had to bow out (his wife is sick - I hope it's nothing serious, but he just wanted to be there for her). We played without him but we spent lots of time socializing and didn't get a lot of play in. We did get through 2 battles and I almost killed the barbarian. Concentrated fire is very bad. Of course, I targeted her because she was the most likely to survive.

Monday, a few of us got together and did some computer gaming in Lord of the Rings Online. It was lots of fun. We hadn't had a chance to play together in ages.

Today, a new staff person joined us at work. I finally have another woman in the office.

Pictures

more pages from the coloring calendar

storm clouds

mock cable stitch gauge in progress

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. 

Oops, lost track of time

Sorry, (to all 3 of my readers) I lost track of time and didn't post. The Friday after I came back from Md Sheep and Wool, mom totaled her car. She was completely unhurt and well, it was an old van. Takes less to total it. I drove to see her the following Saturday. I was going to help her get stuff out of her van; except the place where it had been towed was only open Monday - Friday, 9-5. Yeah.

She bought a new Honda (2013) on Monday. And she has declared that if anything happens to that car, she's stealing mine. So I'll have to go car shopping and not her.

I did stuff the weekend after, but cannot remember. I finally took the hand/wrist brace off today, for more than a brief span of time. I'm still going to wear it at night, and not type as much, and not tat....she types. 

For my birthday, I went and volunteered at a charity golf tournament; Chancellors' Cup, to benefit the Janet P. Royster scholarship. This year it was at Tobacco Road Golf Course, in Sanford. I was taking a table so we got a minivan from motor pool. I drove it down there, and got there at 7:30 am, with a golfer, too. Ramses came for a visit and was a big hit. Even people who aren't UNC fans had fun; like the guy who said, 'I can't have my picture taken with him, I'll get thrown out of the family; we're all State fans.' Ramses did a little golfing, too. Until we sent him back to the clubhouse. It was really hot and he'd been in the sun most of an hour and a half. He came back again for a short time.

sometimes it was rough

After, CD took me out to supper. We had a lovely supper. He had left my birthday presents waiting for me when I got up in the morning. He left balloons, too.

And this is one of my presents:

 There is also a couple coloring books, a novel, and another nonfiction. Oh, and a gift cert to B&N.

Then this past weekend, I went to see Mom again. Her car is nice, newer than mine, and has a backup camera. We got stuff ready for Aunt S's visit. Mom was to meet cousin AJ, who was bringing her from the coast, in Efland.

Oh, and my latest Kumihimo project.

I've done a necklace length and I'm working on a bracelet length.

Mom's present to me was to pay for my bids on the Tatting Corner auction. I bought some thread, beads and books. I'll need to take pictures of those to add to my Pinterest board (thread I own, books I own).

Poncho and Tat Days Prep

Shockingly, I recently ran out of notecards. Or at least, if I have more notecards, I cannot find them, which amounts to the same thing. Luckily, I am prepared. I have a pad of decent quality watercolor paper, 6"x9", and washi tape and rubber stamps and bits of tatting. Between these elements, I can make my own notepaper. The drawback is a lack of envelopes. However, as per this blog, there's a solution for that. I often use old calendars and maps.

Here's an analysis someone has done, attempting to use Spotify to identify timeless music. It's interesting and it might be possible, due to modern technology. The only other way to measure how popular an older song is (to my knowledge) is it still being purchased? If I'm wrong, please let me know. I'm curious about this.

CD, my SO, made another chocolate chess pie. This one was ever better. It was lighter and the crust was softer. I don't like hard pie crust. He used grated frozen butter and frozen vanilla vodka and colder dough means softer crust.

My boss turns 50 this week, so the office got together to celebrate. Monday evening, three of us decorated his office with balloons, caution tape, etc. At lunch, the people who share an office with him added more. We had cake, ice cream, nuts, chips, and CD's pie. We were supposed to have punch but the woman making it dropped her punch bowl and it broke. Luckily, it wasn't an antique or anything like that.

picture from iPad game, Neko Atsume

And this arrived this week

Pretty

Remember the cape from last year? My...additions are complete. Bwahahahaha.

And coincidentally, Michael's had Aunt Lydia's Mexicana thread in size 10 on sale, $2.93 each if purchasing 3 or more, compared to the usual $3.49. No connection. At all. Really. I mean that.

I've been trying to write in my journal again. This blog , with daily journal prompts, is inspiring.

Someone save me. My eye was caught by a small Dr. Who sampler, I now want to do a larger sampler with the transcript from Blink. There are some obstacles; one, what fabric would I use; two, do I do the entire transcript or just the Dr's lines; and the hardest one to overcome, time.

British Library published public domain pictures. Much fun.

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.

Happy Memorial Day (US)

It's not really a happy holiday, but it is a good time to recognize the sacrifice of men and women in uniform and their families. I hope you took at least a few minutes to remember them.

No Deadlands game this week, the GM had tickets to a showing of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and for some reason he felt that was more important. Poozer. (joking of course)

Saturday was a meeting of our local tatters. I showed Rosemary (one day I should learn her last name) how to tat with beads. She's working her way through Kay Judt's book of stars. I also brought a box of thread to share (thanks, Stephanie). There were balls of size 10 and size 80.

On Sunday, C had a pie class. He brought home sample of his strawberry-rhubarb pie and it was delicious. I hope he makes it again. After that, we dropped off a bag to Goodwill, some books to sell at a UBS, and finished emptying my Saturn. I had forgotten to empty the glove compartment. No one keeps gloves there anymore, did you notice?

One of the errand we ran was to try and get my purse fixed. It's a teardrop purse, cross body sling, of leather and nylon. It's an excellent bag but the back of the strap is nylon and wearing to pieces. The guy took one look and said, 'nope, can't do anything with this.' I think he could have, if he had asked what I wanted him to do. I didn't expect him to replace that lining, I wanted him to sew leather over it. Ah well. I have sewn fabric over it and hopefully that will work. (pictures to be added later)

Monday, C and I went by Jo-Anne's so he could buy my birthday present. He bought me a new pair of embroidery scissors. They didn't have exactly what I wanted and if I hadn't gone with him, he would have had no idea what to get for me.

For supper, we met some friends at Casa San Carlo. I had wanted sushi but the sushi place was closed. It's not exactly a hardship to go to Casa San Carlo instead. I had the blue crab ravioli again. And for appetizers we had escargot and the fried mozzarella. By getting leftovers, I had enough room for a slice of the orange patron cake. So. Very. Good. RG had my birthday presents; a copy of How to Get Dressed, Mer World Problems (coloring book), and a corner paper punch. She did very well, didn't she. The funny thing is, they arrived at her house while I was visiting her. She had paid for all 3 to be gift wrapped but only two of them were. I had to plug my ears and hum while she called customer service to get a refund. They handled it quickly and well, at least. But they taped the wrapping to the book. SACRILEGE!

DR gave me a gift certificate to B and N. Hmm, books, how did he know?

Today, my co-workers took me out for lunch and my supervisor brought in chocolate cake. I brought half of it home.

Still Alive

But it's been a very busy 6 weeks, or so. Let's see.

IOLA (you know about that), then I went to see my mom for Mother's Day weekend, then off to Tennessee for Diana's graduation party/wedding reception, my birthday weekend and Tri-Tatters meeting, off to Maryland to see a friend and his wife, and this weekend back to see Mom, weekend after is Maker's Fair, play We Be Goblins, Too, and Father's day, the next weekend is prep for Contemporal and finally Contemporal. Don't ask me about July yet. I know I have a small con at the end of the month, but I'm not thinking past Contemporal yet.

Mom loved her Mother's Day present. I found a copy of Best, Exotic Marigold Hotel on DVD, on sale. A movie she loves and I got it on sale. I swear, I think she was in heaven. We both watched the movie and enjoyed it massively. All the actors are quite good, even the four I'd never seen before (the Indian actors, I'd like to see more of them). She bought me my Christmas present, an iPad. I was a little surprised, but I love it. Just in time, too. My newly installed anti-virus software was fighting with something I thought I'd turned off and it crashed my laptop. My friend in Maryland fixed it for me, fyi.

The trip to Diana's graduation was long but it was great to see her and Chris again. They've gone to Canada now where she has a job. Guess it's time I buckle down and get my passport. Since we were uncertain if it were a one-day or two-day party (there was a typo on the invitation), we ended up being at loose ends on Sunday. We went to Gaitlinburg. We went to the Ripley's Aquarium. We saw a baby penguin and found the sea turtle (she was napping, I think).

On Saturday following, my dad, step-mom and brother drove down to take me to lunch. C was able to join us after all. His car repair was going to take long enough that he had time for the courtesy van to drop him off, him to do some shopping (cooking store for the win), and have lunch with us, then catch the van back. They brought a lovely shell disk bead and turquoise chunk necklace and tea accessory kit from Ikea. The set has a lemon squeezer, honey wand, and a combined tea ball and tray. The tray suspends the tea ball over the cup or mug, then gives you a place to put the tea ball when you withdraw it. Very nifty. It was great to see them and I really enjoyed it.

The Tri-tatters meeting was loads of fun, as always. We had a couple new people as well as familiar faces.

Then it was off to Seoul Garden for some Korean barbecue. That was quite tasty and I may have overeaten just a little. The rest of the weekend was quieter and I got some things done.

This past weekend wsa the drive to see M and his wife, B. She is such a good cook. Her blueberry pie with marscapone is incredible. She also made salmon with kolbi marinade. Must look for some of that. We played two Pathfinder modules, Scene It (both teams won once), and Munchkin. We went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness. My expectations were not high, so they were met quite well.

I should try to add some pictures, but they're in my iPad. Maybe my next post will be more picture heavy.

State Fair time

It's time for the State Fair. I'm taking the day off work on Monday to go see it. Even then, I will probably miss a few things. There's just so much to see.

As promised, this is the website of the nice lady who had the tatting shuttle giveaway. This is the website of the gent who made the shuttle. Doesn't he make lovely things?

The Lacemakers is going out of business. I'm really sorry to see them go. They've been the vendor at Palmetto Tat Days for at least 2 years. Really nice people.

I sent off a snowflake to help the NC Conservation Network raise money. Too bad I forgot to take a picture before I sent it.

Tonight, a few of us are taking my SO out to supper for his birthday. We're going to a Brazilian steakplace. It's not cheap, but oh-so good. Apparently, my reaction to the grilled pineapple was funny. According to my SO, I looked like an addict, both before and while eating it. He said it's an expression he has never seen on my face before. And here I thought I was a biblioholic.

His present arrived yesterday. I was stupid and didn't order it until late so I had to pay for expedited shipping to get it here in time. Another friend's birthday was last week. I have his present, too. His present showed up overnight, even without the expedited shipping.

Feeling Better

I've been in a little bit of a funk recently. I haven't managed to tat, knit or write from Sunday until today. I managed to work on a my 'historical piece.' It's a size 10 cotton thread in variegated purple, with a Lady Hoare shuttle tatting a 1930's era edging.

There's hope.

Had a great belated celebratory supper on Saturday for a friend. We went to a new Irish pub and it was great. Lovely decor and great food. They also made a very wise choice; they had live music outside. So many times, the music is so loud you can't even hear yourself think, much less appreciate the music.

Sunday was the Forgotten Realms (3.5e) home game and tonight, it's the Traveller game.

And Friday night is another birthday supper and Saturday is the meeting of our local tatters, plus a bead show in the morning. I have lots to look forward to.

Trip to Mom's et al (with pictures)
I should have taken a picture of the succulent, probably a cactus, that I gave Mom for her birthday, but I forgot. Of course, I needed before & after & after photos. I bought the plant at the Flea Market, and it was sort of a rosette, just about the size of my palm, perfect. I left it out overnight, in the rain, figuring what could be better than Mother Nature's watering can. It 'sploded. It filled the little pot that it was in, and doubled in size and also put out additional rosettes. I had planned to repot it anyway, but now it was demanding a larger pot. I bought a ceramic coffee cup pot painted in bright colors. Now, the plant has room to grow. Mom really liked it, too.

I also had a book of NC humor essays for her & some odds & ends that I thought that she'd like.

I read a couple books while there; I finished re-reading Pack Challenge by Shelly Laurenston & a Judge Dee. For some reason, that did not give me mental whiplash.

She found some fabulous children's books for me to give to my namesake. I'll probably mail most of them to her. I think that I'll wrap them individually & tell Namesake's mom to let her have one a week. Mom also found a nice pair of clogs for the child.

I think, though, that cigarette smoke might be one of my migraine triggers. I started getting one Sunday afternoon. I left a little early because of that. Even with two migraine pills & some headache balm, I barely made it home.

Dad's birthday was last weekend. I drove down Sunday afternoon and got there just after my brother and his family arrived. Here's a bad photo of the cake that K (my stepmother) made. She had a hard time transforming a Harley bike cake to look like a Moto Guzzi, but it looks good, doesn't it. The gravel is rock candy.

After supper with the family, the neighbors came by. I finally got to meet some of the neighbors that my dad has talked about. They were nice folks. I had to give my dad an IOU for his present. I'm still working on it.

My edging is coming right along. I managed 5 and a half repeats this morning and it looks like I'm getting near the 3rd corner.

Here's the edging, by itself.


And here's the edging against the hankie that I'll be attaching it to. The color is not a perfect match, but it does go together well.

I think I finally realize why women's hankies are smaller than men's, usually. It's not because women are 'daintier,' it's because women's hankies often have decorative edgings & men's don't. It's just easier to make an edging for a smaller handkerchief.

And here's the butterfly bookmark that I made for M (my co-worker). She really liked it. I can't remember where I found the pattern, but I found it online (thank you, designer).

State Fair: My entry is in and I added a couple remarks about the origin on the back of the tag. I neglected to get a picture of it; whoops. Maybe I can find out how I did this weekend. Cross your fingers.

Gaming: Yesterday was interesting. No GMs signed up and whoever was organizing it did nothing to rectify it. So we had 9 players and no GM. Since I had an adventure on my laptop, I volunteered to run something. And someone else volunteered to run an adapatable; he just had to get the book from home. Three of the four people at my table had played Inheritance before. At least two of them had also read it. On the bright side, this means that they could nudge me when I made a mistake.

Chris's Supper: We took Chris out to Rio Churrascaria. I managed not to eat myself to foundering. I count that as a victory.

Health: Tomorrow I'm getting my flu shot. I meant to get it last week but I needed my health insurance card. I want to have it in effect by the time I start working at the fair. It will hopefully prevent me from catching anything really nasty.

Birthday fun! I bought glue to attach bits of tatting to the front page copies for my relatives (& for those pins that I made) & some glue to fix my shoe. I also indulged & bought a couple green glass bead bracelets that were on sale for a dollar. Chris & I watched some of the early episodes of Voltron & I took a nap.

After that, we went to get Rosemary & went to see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. It had more plot than I expected. It was pretty good & the animation absolutely rocked! I hope they go ahead & make a sequel.

We then stopped by FE to pick up comics, manga & mini's. After giving Duncan a chance to visit his favorite tree, we were off to Red Lobster to meet for my birthday supper. David R, Diana, Colt, Richard & Kathy were there. Apparently, Red Lobster was a good choice as almost everyone had difficulty deciding what to eat. I had a Bahama Mama (mmm, 2 types of rum & fruit juice) and crab leg. For appetizers, we had fried calamari, clamstrips & crab/lobster etc stuffed cheesy mushrooms. No, I don't have a hangover because I also drank a full glass of water.

loot list: gift cert to B&N from David, gift cert to Amazon from Richard & Kathy, the movie 12:01 plus The Complete Book of Tatting from Rosemary & pets, and the Thin Man collection from Chris. Isn't that great!

This list will be continued after I see my parents plus from Diana & Colt (who forgot it last night).

tatting: I started making a simple bookmark of size 80 ecru. I made some good progress.

books: I read A Mold for Murder, Ouran High School Host Club vols 3-5, & Kitchen Princess vol 2.

clothes: green Harrington Steading polo, blue jeans, brown belt, emerald earring & necklace set, moss agate bead bracelet, black & green glass bead bracelet (just bought), and brown loafers.

Keys! I've misplaced my keys. I had them when we left for gaming yesterday but I haven't seen them since. That makes getting home this evening very interesting.

Birthday supper: It was great. There were enough of us (9) that we rarely had the same conversation at the same time but the food was good & so was the company. Everyone liked their presents but I snuck Joe's to him & he didn't see it at first.

books: I finished Goblin Quest. Alas, Bull's Head does not have Goblin Hero.

clothes: fuschi pink silk shirt (that has bleached spots, so I need to bleach/tie dye it), black jeans, black belt, black socks & loafers, same jewelry as yesterday & braided hair. It's too windy to let my hair be loose in any way, today. And it's gotten cold again.

Gaming: Today is Rosemary's Forgotten Realms game. Since Sofia is gone, it's just the 5 of us. We're finally leaving Tantris.

Afterwards we're taking Richard, Kathy & Joe out for their birthdays. It's also Richard & Kathy's anniversary. We'll be joined by Kathy, Diana & Colt and going to Macaroni Grill.

Books & Games: We stopped by FE and I picked up the latest Shojo Beat & two manga.

Movie: We went to see Next last night at North Hills. I can see why it got bad reviews; it's such a geek movie. I mean, I loved it, but for really geeky reasons. After the movie, Chris, Rosemary & I talked about it. We've decided that Mr. Cage must have gotten to the point where he's really well-off & since no one is offering him parts that interest him, he's making movies that he wants. And he's using stories & comic books that he likes. Why else would he do Ghost Rider? I mean, that's not exactly one of the big comic book names, now is it.

Books: I started reading Goblin Quest today. It's pretty good.

clothes: red Wilson Athletic t-shirt, blue jeans, brown belt, white tennis shoes, moss agate bead bracelet, silver hash mark ring, Celtic knot ring, hematite ring, star/moon/tree pendant, Celtic knot earrings, and my hair pulled to one side in a ponytail.