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.

Missed another one, oops

I successfully donated whole blood on the 15th. Yay me. Whole blood is a little easier than platelets for me; only 1 stick. After that, I had an interview with a grad student for their research project. The project is about people and roles they play.

I made RG an ice drop pendant. I got it done just in time for her birthday supper on Saturday. We had a lovely time. JJ had not gotten CD's email about the supper but I had left him a voicemail, asking if he wanted to carpool. He showed up just in time for us to leave and make it to the restaurant.

I've started learning how to loom knit cables. I knitted, I ripped, I knitted, I ripped, and I knitted. And ripped and knitted. They aren't great, but they are discernibly cables.

I found out the power had never been turned off in Mom's apartment. She was paying someone else's power bill, essentially. I had sent the company my POA and told them to discontinue her account but apparently they never got it. I called them on Friday (when I found out she was still getting billed) and that's when I found out the POA wasn't in her file. Grrrrr.

The tatters' meeting on Saturday was lovely. We didn't get our usual time, so we had it 10-3 instead. I tatted around a wood key and made a heart and started a bracelet. However, the beads and thread color didn't work out so I cut it apart before I was quite finished.

We also had two new tatters. Anitra helped one and I helped the other. Both had mastered flowers (1 ring with lots of picots) and were learning chains and bigger rings.

Leigh from Somthingunderthebed.com brought some books and I now have a few more to add to my wishlist.

She had brought this old, early 20th century German tatting book with her. She also talked about having an early 20th century German book without publisher or designer name. She's been trying to identify the designer by finding (probably) her designs in a magazine. Magazine publication was more common than book publication and sometimes have the designer's name; although not always.

Leigh's been looking for German magazines of the same era. However, she doesn't know the names of any applicable ones and neither do any of her contacts. I posted something in social media and someone in my circles pulled up a German catalog. I don't know if it will pan out but hopefully Leigh will find something helpful.

After the bracelet didn't work out, I made some hearts from the thread (and I've been having fun with my coloring page of the day calendar - I work on them whenever, so I'm nowhere near close to today).

The weather has been absurdly warm for this time of year. Not just the Bradford pears have been blooming but so have the star magnolias, tulip poplars, and other trees I don't know the name of.

I went to visit RG and her dog, Dez, recently. Her dog is almost a year old and up to fourteen pounds. Here's a still from a short video of her chewing on one of her favorite things, an antler.

US politics ahead:
When a white supremacist is a trusted advisor in the White House, with an admitted goal (in 2014) of destroying the US government, is it any wonder I'm depressed.

Here's a heart from Martha Ess's book of holiday tatting. I really need to work on my block tatting. I have all these gaps.

I finally sent the letters that I wrote to my family. I included the picture in the local picture of me in the walking group. I also sent a copy of one of the letters to my mom (she doesn't care, as long as she gets something).

I made another Viking wire tatting piece today. I did this one in silver and made a necklace.
Here's a detail:

It got almost 2.5 times as long once I pulled it through the drawplate. It went from about big enough to fit over my pinky, to small enough to fit into a mechanical pencil.

Gaming: Today was the LFR (living forgotten realms). We only have time to play the 1st two of three parts.

Tatting: I've made a couple more of those easy hearts designed by Barbara H. Friday is 'appreciate your operator (bus driver)' day & I wanted to give them to my favorite drivers. I ran into an old co-worker and he's having a rough time with his soon to be ex-wife (she's a moron btw, if half of what he says is true), so I gave him one that I had made. He teared up; it really touched him. It really is the little things that mean a lot.

sight of the day: Muslim on his prayer rug, doing his noon prayers.

I got to work just as it started to sprinkle. Turned out to be a false alarm; it's just really windy really.

TV: Watched The Big Bang Theory & Bones last night. What can I say, I like tv shows with geeks in them.

Tonight I'm supposed to meet Dad & Kathy for supper. We'll see how it goes. I copied my pictures from vacation onto a cd to give them.

At 30 minutes before the end of my work day, the fire alarm goes off. I was so tempted to just go home. But no, I waited and sure enough the alarm was shut down with 10 minutes yet to go. I stopped by the little store to get some stamps as I left work and when I stepped out, it was raining.

No big deal; I had my emergency umbrella and it wasn't raining hard. When I got to the bus stop the benches were still dry; sheltered by the trees. I sat down and waited. I had missed the bus but it was only 10 minutes or so until the next one. Then the rain came down harder, and harder, and harder. The gutter in front of my overflowed into a low spot in the sidewalk. And I huddled under my umbrella.

The rain tapered off. After a bit, I brought my umbrella down, hoping to drip some of the water off of it. The sun was shining of course, and the light reflected off the puddles to the west was absolutely blinding. A bus stopped in front of me and I idly watched people get on board, my eyes drifting to the back of the bus, where it was raining. Not three feet to my west, it was raining lightly. In front of me, nothing. And the sun was shining brightly. I put my umbrella up as a parasol to give me shade. And it rained to my west.

My bus came, about 20-some minutes late. But it came. That's when I learned that the ends of my hair had gotten wet from the rain, not quite covered by the umbrella. Welcome to summer rain in NC.

Family: I finished the letters but I can't find what I did with the stamps after I bought them. I looked where I thought I put them & they are not there. Each letter has a little tatted heart in it.

Gaming: Today we played another 2 Greyhawk Ruins adventures. One was a mystery; it started in an earlier adventure. We found one, maybe 2, more clues but did not find out who killed the two people or what the connection is. It was still fun and the way the second one ended was just too funny. The final big bad was finished off by a summoned giant celestial bee. And it turns out that we were able to do a favor for the god of bees, etc.

We would have gone to supper afterward but with gas prices (thanks price gougers & the panicky reacting to Hurricane Ike hitting Galveston) we just didn't dare risk it. As it is, we gave Diana a ride so that it reduced how much she'd have to pay.

I was really tired last night. I slept just over 9 hours and even then had trouble really waking and dozed for a few more minutes.

Tatting: I finished the Valentine Heart by Martha Ess. I did mine in variegated red (red to almost black- garnet) for the block-tatted heart & green for the lacy edging. It turned out pretty good & I only drew blood once trying to get the hook through a lockjoin.

It was almost cool today, almost. It was still so humid I was surprised not to drown whenever I inhaled. I went to the grand opening of a Starbucks today. Luckily it's not very close, otherwise I'd be way too tempted to get a chai tea latte everyday. My waistline (and hipline, thighline, etc) doesn't really need that.

I've started letters to the family but I forgot to put them in my bag this morning. I only have one more aunt to write plus the kids.

tatting: I finished the block part of Martha's block-tatted Valentine heart (heart block tatted & then with edging). I used the red heart variegated red (ruby to deepest garnet) for the heart & plan to use red heart brand green for the lacy edging.

TV: watched some taped shows tonight. It was the first episode of the 2nd season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Wow, what a good episode. I also watched an episode of In Plain Sight. Then ended with The Kitchen Nightmares.

And one picture from my vacation: Rainbow's end (for the first time, I saw the end of the rainbow). Isn't that just neat!

Vacation tatting: bookmarks - The notorious "How many mistakes can you find" bookmark (by Jane Eborall):Same bookmark, correctly done. Olympus thread, pastel variegated & bright variegated
First leaf of November bookmark from Tat's Where I Stopped

Two leaves done
Four leaves done (& then donated)
Heart from Tat's Amore, with extra double stitches on the upper curves of the heart:
Different heart, same book