Tatters and Gamers

 Jane Eborall's Tat It And See is almost complete. At the Palmetto Tatters Guild meeting (live and via Zoom) Saturday, she mentioned part 13 on Sunday and then one more. 

Sunday was our Pathfinder game. We had to suddenly relocate when we learned the daughter of our host has a stomach bug. We decided not risk exposure and we played elsewhere and that player joined us via Zoom, along with our out of state player. 

Story time: Our characters have been hired to put a stop to the kobold raids on the village. Our employer doesn't care how, just that the raids are stopped. We met the lookouts and tried negotiations. That didn't go well. We pretty had to slaughter our way into the mines/caves. 

We finally found one who would talk to us and it turned out she had run afoul of the chief. She wanted to leave the village alone and the chief (possibly egged on by another party) wanted to continue to raid. She was able to guide us so we could avoid non-hostiles and needless combat; like the dire rat lair and the hatching room. 

That meant we had the resources to deal with the evil cleric, although we were willing to talk until we got a taste of how evil and found out who she worshiped. 

Then we had to fight the chief and minions, although we talked one into fleeing and not getting involved. The chief was a sorcerer and it was not an easy fight. He didn't do a lot of damage but he had a lot of defensive stuff. 

We made our ally the new chief, mostly by giving her the chief's keys which included the one for the armory. She wasn't going to be raiding the village as long as they respected the kobold boundaries. We also suggested some items she might trade, so they could get bread, etc.

End of gaming story

Finally last week, someone at work noticed my hair cut. My hair went from coccyx length to a bit below my shoulder blades. So still long, but short enough I frequently wear it loose. The only reason said coworker noticed? I had my back to her and she didn't recognize the shorter hair. It's possible other coworkers have noticed, but none of them have said anything.

And I got my acknowledgement email from Locks of Love. I'm not sure how many more donations I'll be able to make that will go into their wigs. My hair is going white in places and while I know they can't use that for children's wigs, at least they can sell it to fund wigs.

Happy St. Valentine's Day (if you celebrate it)

Today, CD surprised me with 3 skeins of the bison/bamboo/silk yarn, in purple this time. I have to make a decision now. Do I make a teal trimmed purple lace shawl or a purple lace shawl and a smaller teal lace shawl? Decisions, decisions.

He's also asked me for a knit scarf. I've offered but until recently he didn't need one. He has definite ideas on what he wants so the next step is to find the right pattern. I have yarn (~600 yards each) in two colors so I can do a kind of tweedy look.

And here's a 2007 paper on the connection between knitting and activism. If you're interested in that sort of thing.

A number of museums and libraries put out coloring pages again, look for #ColorOurCollections. Here's a page I did from the UNC Health Sciences Library.

I took a picture of my hair after I cut it. Sort of. It's not a very good picture, but it's better than nothing.

Saturday's plan: go to bank so CD can deposit a check, grab a bite to eat on the way to see mom, set up mom's tv and see if we can get the DVD player to work, go to lunch, CD goes home and I take mom yarn shopping in her car, then I drive home in mom's car.

What actually happened: stop by bank and notice a tire is low, go to dealer and discover tire needs to be replaced, another tire needs to be replaced, brake pads, etc, etc, etc. We went from 'be there until  2 pm' (call mom cause we aren't coming) to get a shuttle ride to somewhere we can get lunch, to finally leaving the dealer after 5 pm.

We did the 'go to mom' stuff on Sunday. And learned her car tags are out of date and her battery is dead. And the new tv doesn't even recognize the connection to the cable box, never mind the DVD player. We did get the yarn shopping done and I have to find out about mom's car taxes, etc.

I finished my 90 hearts. And I finally remembered to send in my registration for the NCRL Day. Too late for the commemorative shuttle thought. sad face.

I'm still behind on TIAS 2017, but I've made some progress.

Monday I saw someone I'd only seen once in the past 2-3 years. He hasn't changed much. We all had supper (CD, him, and me) although our first choice of dining establishment had closed. We caught up a bit and shared a couple gaming stories.

Tonight, I go see CC. I'll show her my shawl. And my yarn. And maybe she can give me advice about my wristlets to match my shawl.

Last but not least, US politics again. I took a break from calling my MoC over the weekend. I had enough on my mind. But I started right up again on Monday. I have yet to reach a live person in my senators' offices and I've reached a live person every time in my representative's office.

Oops, Missed a Post

I didn't even realize it until Thursday, or maybe Friday. I thought about doing a late post but decided I might as well wait and do one today.

And the weather has resembled a sin wave. Today the weather is downright spring like. I sat outside at lunch and you can see some of my tatting photos were taken outside. Sunday morning, there was ice on my windshield (sleet).

I finished the knitting for the plush cat (but no picture, sorry). But the drawstring cast one didn't work; perhaps due to the yarn. It's a loopy yarn.

More calendar pages:

I've been coloring on my lunch hour and sometimes a little before and after work.  

I've done a little tatting, but I'm a couple days behind on Jane's TIAS. I did this ice drop to match my turtle earrings and bracelet. And I've made some more hearts for the NC Regional Lace Day. I have 80+ made. My target is 90 by April 1st.

1st try, too small to hold the glass

before I added the loop for the chain

day 1

day 2

day 3

day 4

day 5

day 6

I've run 2 sessions of Tears at Bitter Manor (Pathfinder Module). We're almost through chapter 2. I think one more session and it will be done. Then we'll start chapter 3. We've been having a real problem starting on time, so we're only getting about 4 or 5 hours of playing time instead of 5-7 hours.

I also cut my hair. I've been wanting to cut it since around Christmas but wanted to wait until after the holidays. My hair went from coccyx length the elbow length. I'm donating the 15-18" to Locks of Love. My hair is still a color they can use for children's wigs. As I go grey, they'll sell the hair to fund the wigs instead. 

US POLITICS AHEAD:
My senators continue to disappoint me. They have voted to confirm every cabinet nominee; despite lack of qualifications and even in the light of being aggressively unsuited for the position. At least my representative isn't an embarrassment. Oh, and I have yet to talk to a live person in my senators' offices; no matter what time I call I always get voicemail. Meanwhile, the only time I have not talked to a real live person in my representative's office was egregiously after hours.

Early Gifts & Odd Compliment

The drive to see Mom wasn't too bad. It was in the dark, but that's not unexpected. I was a trifle delayed as I stopped to pick up some cold medicine. Turns out I didn't need the stuff that you have to show id to get (thank you very much, meth heads -grrrrr) but I still waited until I got to Mom's house before I took it.

She was glad to get the ironing board cover but the polka cd made her chortle with glee. We listened to it as we packed stuff on Saturday. Mom is working to cut down on her stuff. As she put it, "I'm over 70 years old, when am I going to wear all this?" We sorted clothes & packed them to be given to charity. Polka music did make it easier.

We also hit a really nice yard sale on Saturday. I bought a new rug for the guest bathroom; long enough to go from toilet to sink. That's important because linoleum is cold in the winter. I also got a hooked rung. I'm not sure where I'm going to put it but it was only $5 & I know how much effort goes into that. I watched Sharon Richmond during the State Fair.

I have not started the wristlets, yet. It turns out that I don't have that size loom. I'll pick it up tonight. I need to run a couple errands after work anyway.

I did a lot of sleeping this weekend. I blame the cold & the cold medicine. It started raining again last night. That made the drive home...entertaining. At least it was a frog killer; just kind of damp & chilly.

The odd compliment? Mom & I had breakfast at this diner. They have good food and for a good price. Their pecan waffles are actually waffles with pecans cooked inside, not scattered on top. Anyway, as Mom & I were enjoying our waffles yesterday, a customer came up and asked me who had braided my hair. Unsure of what she expected, I told her that I did (I frequently braid my hair, it's just easier). She called this information back to her friends but I ignored the conversation after that. As I walked by them later, on my way out the door, one of the gents said what a nice braid I had, not a hair out of place, so nice that they were convinced that someone must have braided it for me. Um, okay?

I've been complimented on my hair before. It's long & it's a lovely color (I inherited it, so I don't take credit for that). This is the first time though that I've gotten a compliment on my hair braiding technique.

How's this for an icebreaker: "When I was a little girl, my daddy did shows wearing a wig and makeup." It's true, too. My dad was a Koshare; when I was a little girl he taught Indian/Native American/AmerInd dances to a scout troop. They did shows and well, I take after my Dad in coloring. To look the part, he wore a black wig & make up.

computer: I still can't get my Palm (older one of course) to work. Of course, I spent a lot of time looking for the right cable (found it by accident this morning). If I have time after I finish packing tonight, then I'll try to get it to sync properly. I haven't tried to do anything with it since I got my new harddriver. I'll need to reinstall everything. Since the batteries were dead in the Palms in question, I could do nothing with them anyway.

Vacation: as par for someone of my coloring, my skin is milk white everywhere that the sun has not touched. I remember to put at least spf 15 on my face so it's barely touched by the sun. Mostly it's my forearms; they're sort of cream; sprinkled liberally with cinnamon. I freckle like I swallowed a dollar and broke out in pennies. I wear pants most of the time, so my legs, shoulders & upper arms cause snow blindness when hit by bright sunlight.

This is not a desired look in our culture but I'm not going to sunbathe to change it. My skin cancer risk is too high. I bought some sunless tanning solution; I don't want to be brown, I just want to be off-white. It works very well, too. It's not perfect but who's going to be paying that much attention anyway?

I've decided to wait to cut my hair when I get back. My hair really is my crowning glory; a beautiful color & past my waist. I cut my bangs last week and boy, they're shorter than I thought. I cut them dry and pulled them down to eye level before I cut. Without the weight though, they've sprung up to only half my forehead. I don't want that to happen to my hair, even though I was only planning on cutting it up to my ribcage.

I was an odd teenager. Teens are notorious for staying up late, right? I went to bed at 9 pm, voluntarily. My mom once had to insist that I stay up later to finish the card game. My reasoning was easy enough; if I went to bed at 9 pm, it was easy to wake up at 5 am & watch Hogan's Heroes before getting ready for school.

As an aside, read about some of the stars of Hogan's Heroes sometime. The actors portraying Sgt Schultz, Col Klink and Gen Burkhalter were all born in Austria or Germany. And the first two were Jewish. Newkirk and LeBeau really were from England & France. Maj Hochstetter is from Tennessee. Kinch was, frankly, just impressive.

Sunbathing? My mom & I were going to go visit her sister in Miami and both of us are Celtic white. She insisted that we sunbathe to take the edge off and be less vulnerable to the Florida sun. Ye gods that was boring. And it didn't make a difference. I have gotten a tan twice in my life; both times by accident. The first time was during my summer job after I graduated high school.

I worked in a building so cold, that I'd sit in the sun at lunch just to warm up. Even with SPF 15, or 25, whatever was the highest available at the time, that has an effect. I was shocked one morning when I noticed that I had a tan line. I had turned a lovely shade of cream, not brown, cream. Same thing happened in 2000 when I spent at week at Disneyworld. It was May but I still darkened to cream.

Squirrels aren't carnivorous, right?
Because I'm not certain what I saw. It looked like a squirrel carrying a small, furry object. Maybe it was transporting a baby squirrel? If so, why? Why couldn't a young squirrel that size move on its own?

I tried to save water this morning; I tried a camper's trick; I combed corn starch through my hair instead of washing it. My hair isn't greasy (it was at the edge of wash/don't wash) but it does look dull from the white powder. After all, isn't that one of the tricks actors use to replicate grey hair?

tv: Watched a couple episodes of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Yes, we've been reduced to watching Reality TV. *sob* It's not bad, though. Last night was this neat little vegetarian restaurant in Paris. A question about prices led us on-line to compare prices at other restaurants in Paris. While there, I looked up the restaurant in the episode. It kind of spoiled the ending, though.

tatting: AAAARRRGH! I just compared my red snood/bun cover to my white one. I messed up the 5th round. I joined it to every ring, not every other ring. No wonder it's not cupping properly.

books: kind of re-reading Then Comes Marriage by Kasey Michaels.

clothes: black loafers (oops, those are crapped out, change to beaded flats), knee-highs, black slacks, black belt w/ silver buckle, white waffle polo, small labradorite pendant, hematite bead earrings, hematite band, black stone band, flower band & hair up in a knot/bun/ponytail affixed with a white chopstick almost decorated with a blue dragon.

Cut my bangs yesterday: As usual, I cut them just a little too short. At least they'll grow out.

Forgotten Realms: Even with Mya as a distraction, we at least got through the fight yesterday. As typical, the wild magic played havoc with our plans (& those of our opponents). Rosemary is doing a good job of taking a module that was written as a tram ride (ride the tram, door opens, you watch stuff happen, your actions mean nothing) and turning it into something playable. We do have the problem that our characters have traveled back into their history so they have some idea what happened and dare not interfere too much. Although they did try to prevent Cyric from becoming the god of death & murder. They failed, as became shockingly obvious in yesterday's game.

Mya: Duncan's reaction was pretty funny. He likes babies because they're about his size & thus they are not intimidating (he overcompensates). However, at one point he was quite vocal and as best we could tell, he was scolding Richard about something. We think it's because he was holding Mya & she was crying. She really doesn't like being put down for her nap.

At some point, everyone at the game but Chris had a turn at holding her. She's fascinated by everything around her and whoever is holding her becomes the focus of her attention. I was holding her while Richard set up the play pen (it folds up to the size of a large fencing bag) and I was watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom episode about wolverines. So I would repeat what the show was saying about wolverines, bears, etc while I held her.

books: Read the next volume of Kitchen Princess, #3 & also the most recent Genju no Seiza #4. I'm now re-reading Games of Command. I really want to re-read An Accidental Goddess, but I can't find my copy.

Dreams: another weird one. Saturday night it was a CSI dream. There was an old woman first, but I'm not sure how she was connected. The team was called out to look at a dead body in some kind of wet suit, in a sealed coffin/sensory deprivation tank found floating in the river. It turns out the DB was an addict & the set up was for smuggling. They checked records & this particular addict had been brought in by the same EMT every four weeks for the last [indeterminate period]. It turns out that was also part of the smuggling. The drugs were in the addict, who's kept out of it in the container, floated on the river across the border & then the container is retrieved and then the EMT retrieves the drugs from the addict/mule as part of 'emergency call.' The EMT gets arrested, natch.

Last night's was set in a dystopia. Some government agent had tracked down The Wells Traveling Circus. It turned out that Mr. Wells, who had had the contacts that kept them traveling without getting caught had died; so they had settled in this apartment/brownstone building. The agent, a woman, was going up the stairs, around the ex-performers who are exercising and practicing when she was finally met, near the top, by Mr Wells's assistant. The assistant showed off her hat/wig that she wore for her dance routines in the circus (based on an old friend who was a belly dancer, with the addition of a hat with braids hanging down). The performers would probably be executed for seditious and disloyal behavior (entertaining etc). The acts consisted of everything from a Fat Lady (who had lost a lot of weight since they stopped traveling) to Martial Arts Exhibitionists to Dancers and Acrobats.

Switch to an underground gambling hall, where drudge office workers/drones entertained themselves playing slot machines etc; none of which is permitted by the government (nothing entertainment is permitted - it is a distraction from working all the time). Under the floor of the gambling hall, people try to keep the machines running. I was working on trying to repair an old ticket/lottery machine when the establishment got raided and I had to flee.

I managed to get a ticket on the subway train (in Germany or France) and somehow managed to stretch the ticket to Rushford in England. About that time, my alarm went off.

clothes: navy loafers, khakis, white UNC polo, ~rope band, hematite band, knotwork earrings, star/moon/tree/knotwork pendant & braided hair (white elastic).

Vent Ahead: I have very brittle nails, a trait that I inherited from my mother. I keep them short (no longer than the tips of my fingers) to prevent breakage & splits. Last week I broke both thumbnails, partially or almost to the quick. They have just now begun to recover.

This morning, I jammed my index nail again a cabinet door & it completely tore. The only nail left is that covering the nail bed. It doesn't hurt (other than the unaccustomed pressure of fingertip no longer protected by fingernail) but it's just so annoying.

I just needed to vent about this minor annoyance. Losing the thumbnails was worse, it made it more difficult to tat (shoving knots into place & neatening them as I went).

Today's outfit: soft, black knit polo; faded black cotton slacks; black tassle loafers; nude knee hi's (too cold for sockless this morning, too warm for socks this afternoon); black stone ring; flat silver rope band, small labdourite pendant on silver chain; braided hair w/ a black elastic; & 'silver' & black bead earrings round black bead on double loop wire that connects from earwire to 2 duplicate double loop wires [with sead bead, faceted bead & seed bead] that each hold one end of a 'silver' bas relief crescent, set with a centered fasceted bead, that dangles 5 faceted beads).

My bangs are still very short from last weekend's chop. I swear I cut them even with the tops of my glasses. The lighter weight allows them to spring up & only reach halfway to my eyebrows, if that.

Tatting: I finished my fair entry, almost. I need to add the other end of the toggle fastener to the bracelet, cut loose ends & block all the pieces. I also need to buy display supplies (black velvet & foamboard) & see in which category tatted jewelry belongs.

This weekend, I bought a little more thread & a lot more beads. I have some great ideas for jewelry. I've started a pale & paler purple necklace for Linda's Christmas present. She adores purple & I made her purple snowflake earrings last year.

Busy week this week. Monday was Living Greyhawk at 1pm, supper at 6pm, home campaign at 7pm. Clean up after gaming at 11 pm. Tuesday, prep for Living Greyhawk on Wednesday (read through module & take notes & pack), Wednesday was run Living Greyhawk at Cerebral Hobbies. Tonight it's pack for ConCarolinas in Charlotte this weekend. Tomorrow night it's drive to Charlotte, to spend the night with James & Liz. At some point I need to make certain that I know how to get to James & Liz's & then how to get to ConCarolinas. This could be important. Saturday I have entered Nadia (my primary LG character) in the promotion board, then I'm playing in a mod that afternoon & in the evening I'm running Ironclaw. I leave after that, maybe 1-ish. To return in the morning & either run the same one or a different adventure, depending on if I get the same players or not. Then I come home.

Yesterday's outfit: salmon silk blouse, print gauze skirt, black loafers, moonstone jewelry. Hair done in a temple braid. I'm trying to train it to side part again.

Today's outfit: bone slacks, print silk blouse, lapis posts (that fell out sometime this morning, I need new backs), same hairstyle with a different colored elastic, & silver rings.