Projects done

I finished Mom's shrug on Saturday. I was going to go see Mom, but Aunt Flo visited with a vengeance. Out of three 109 yard skeins, I have 4 yards and 6 inches of yarn left. I have not idea what I'll do with those 4 yards. I do have the book about small knitted animals; I'll see if that's enough for a project.

I was on a roll, so I finally attached the icord tail to the loom knit kitty and embroidered a face on it. Not a great embroidery job, but it's done.

I finished watching the 4th season of Leverage and started the 5th (and final) season.

I was going to visit Mom on Saturday, but Aunt Flo kicked me in the uterus. Hard. So I went on Sunday. We just went to lunch, grocery shopping, and I printed out some new pictures for her. I hooked up her new ringer again and wow, it's loud. But that's effective.I also left a small photo of how her phone should look all hooked up.

Oh, have you  heard of Boil the Frog? It's like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, sort of. It's a music playlist from one musician/band to another. It's not a complete list of musicians; no Kay Kyser and the Les Brown I found was the wrong Les Brown (motivational speaker, not the one with the Band of Renown. And no filk artists.

And my partner realized that our Blue Rose group is Mystery Inc (Scooby Doo). There's a 'talking dog' and friend who are both food obsessed, aka Rhy wolf and healer. There's someone who's the knowledge person, aka my diplomat. There's our strong person who handles transport; the horsewoman; and finally our 'finds the traps, by accident'; even though the traps are more social than physical, aka our soldier with 'the big, open heart, matched by his big, open mouth.'

I got some of mom's yarn while I was visiting. She doesn't crochet as much, and she wants to give me stuff, so I take some of her yarn. Right now, I'm doing a quick knit and purl scarf. It's a bulky yarn so it's nice and soft and squishy and warm. Picture later.

On the way home, I got to see the full moon on Sunday night. It was gorgeous, with moon dogs. But I was driving, so no pictures.

Tatting and Pathfinder

 Saturday was the Triangle Tatters' meeting. My friend wasn't available so I went alone. I brought my books to show off and worked on my beanile necklace. I also found the size 10 thread I was using for my bottle holder. I had a great time and there were a total of 10 of us at the meeting.

Sunday was the Pathfinder game. There were some scheduling conflicts, so we had a short day; only 2 pm to 6 pm (well, by the time we were packed up, it was about 7 pm) and then went out to supper. I handled the tactics pretty well this time and really challenged them.

My two new students started on Monday. I finally have someone to cover my lunch hour and my meetings. Which is good since I had a 2+ hour meeting today.

Need to know about a movie before you shell out for a ticket or DVD or whatever? Here's a collection of review sites.
One: if you or someone you know has problems with certain themes or content (ie blood and gore are fine as long as no kids or animals are hurt, or No explosions, period), this tumblr site is working on a list to let you know before you view.
Two: How accurate is that outfit? Frock Flicks lets you know.
Three: aggregate of professional critics review movies on Rotten Tomatoes and they have a separate audience score
Four: general audience (ie whoever wants to) reviews on the internet movie database.

okra blossom

some kind of bean

Okra

clouds

muscadine grapes

display at library

Triangle Tatters and other matters

Deadlands went pretty well. We didn't die and we made progress. Well, we made progress until we were intercepted by bad guys. We left mid-fight because we have to work the next day.

Saturday, I ran the next session of Tears at Bitter Manor, the first one with the remote player. The host and he ironed out the technology in the week before the game. We discovered the kindle with skype worked really well, both for sound and image quality. The phone worked pretty well but when it got hot (after a couple hours of use) signal quality declined markedly. I did send the maps to the remote player via email, just in case, but he didn't need to use them. The high contrast of printed maps also probably helped.

I prepped for 3 fights. Of course, they did 2 of them at once, skipped the 3rd one and then went after one I had not prepped at all. Despite that, it went smoothly.

I had the maps printed out. The big ones (~14-19) and the two smaller ones for just under $50. They worked so well that we all considered that money well spent. And RG said she plans to have me take her maps to get printed the next time she runs.

You don't often think 'military base' and 'nature conservation' together. It turns out to be a thing.

Not connected to anything else, but these (still experimental) bio sensor tattoos are so cool.

Sunday was the second day of Cary Lazy Daze and I joined Anitra and three others demo'ing in the Young Community Center. Anitra managed to get my ring to open; turns out a knot was so tight the thread wasn't sliding. She retrotatted half of it and then I finished retrotatting it and started over. I'm up to a dozen repeats on that bracelet now. I really need to get it done.












We shared the room with the leatherworkers and gourd artists, and twisted fibers (crochet/knit/spin) were supposed to be there (they were there on Saturday) but I guess something happened and they weren't there. I knew one of the ladies, and she introduced herself to Anitra. I've been trying to get Danielle to the tatting meeting for a few months.

The gourd folks and leather folks were really nice. I bought an ornament for mom from the gourd makers. It's a gorgeous painted egg gourd. The leatherworkers had set up little stations for folks to make a little something.

I watched this movie, Mr. Right tonight. It's not the best movie ever, but I enjoyed it. It had some really funny moments amidst the violence, and it's a lovely romantic story, too.

I'm so sad and so mad

This is a very interesting article on what Salt Lake City is doing to resolve the issues of chronic homelessness in their city. Make sure to watch the video at the end. Part of the current mayor's dedication to the matter was when he and a colleague spent three days homeless to get an inside view.

Oh, here's a cicada I spotted on Friday.

The Deadlands game on Friday went well. Our prisoner/informant was stupid. Not only did he decide to escape while we were busy dealing with the mining camps but he stabbed the kid who tried to stop him. We patched up the kid and pursued Pyper (the rat chimera prisoner). Of course, a couple characters had been wanting to kill him for ages, and only the Catholic priest and sort of my character prevented it, because you don't kill prisoners. After he stabbed the kid, I wasn't as keen on not killing Pyper. And oops, he got killed while we were pursuing him.

The construction on the road where my work bus stop usually is finally wrapped up. Originally, it was supposed to be done by August 5th and then they changed it to the 11th. They actually got it done the 9th but they didn't move the stop. The stop was back in its usual place on Monday, thankfully. I didn't mind the walk so much but the construction threw the bus schedule off.

I went to see Mom on Saturday. It was a last minute decision, because I was waiting to find out when the August Tri-Tatters meeting was set (for the 19th). I grabbed a couple things for her (box of facial tissues, a 12-pack of Dr. Pepper, and some chocolate) before I headed her way. We went to lunch and then hit the dollar store. She got tired before we finished hitting all the aisles but we picked up a few things for her; nuts, candy, etc and some things for me; book cover, candy, etc. I forgot to stop and pick up Cheerwine, though. Alas, she decided to hand off the Kindle to me. She hasn't been able to master using it.

Here's an old picture she has of me and my brother. Guess which one is which.

When I got back, I heard about the events in Charlottesville, VA. Sunday, I called my Republican congressmen, telling them to either make their voices heard condemning this or I'll understand they condone it (see Trump's statement) and consider them as aiding and abetting racism and Nazis. I try not to get political here, but how spineless do you have to be to not say 'hey, I don't support Nazis'?

And here's just a lovely picture of a water drop on a kale leaf. Surface tension for the win.

coneflower?

Another week, another tatting demo

I just wish I'd gotten more pictures. On Saturday, the Triangle Tatters, aka Tri-Tatters, were invited to demo at an independent living facility. They fed lunch to four of us (the ones who RSVP'd) and it was delicious.

After, we sat at tables in their activity room and showed off tatting and examples of tatting and ooh'ed and ahh'd over the tatted collar and pillowcase edging one of the residents brought. I took pictures of that, you betcha.

I started a ring in thread to match my turtle earrings, etc but I didn't load enough thread and ran out 3/4 the way through. Rather than load more thread, I gave up on the ring, temporarily. Instead, I emptied my shuttle by making a couple hearts. I gave one to the lady who showed her tatting to us and the other to the woman who sat next to me, patiently listening to me tell her about tatting.

I also started another ice drop. However, it turned out I'd picked up a ball of size 10 to work with. I had to adjust it a bit and I didn't load enough thread onto the shuttle. On the other hand, it only lacks a final chain and a hanging loop. It still looks good.

Thursday's game was cancelled; the GM had deadlines at work. And Friday, I took a few hours off to get my mom's taxes done.

Alas, it turned out she donated so much she topped their 'non-cash donations' limit on what they feel confident about handling. It was very disappointing, mostly because I'd spent so much time getting the materials together. But they don't charge for the service, so I shan't look a gift horse in the mouth (I'm not Greek or Trojan, so I feel safe about that).

The NC Natural and Cultural Resources is doing a project about NC and WWI, since it's the centennial of WWI. On Tuesday, there was this little tidbit about Cherokee 'codetalkers' at the Somme Offensive.

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.

Martin Luther King, Jr, and other matters

There's been a rise in racism, anti-semitism, and other hate speech activity. Read this article.

And if you're active online, be aware of this website; it has way too much information. You can opt out, but that may merely mean your information is not publicly accessible, it may still be there.

But to cheer up, here are a couple videos; one is a music video and one is of animals playing in the snow.

I went to visit mom on Saturday. The remote did nothing. A new dvd player did nothing. It is definitely the tv. But we had a nice lunch.

I've started knitting a shawl. It's Sweet on Ruffles by Renee Van Hoy.

I passed the halfway point on my shawl.

Unfortunately, I've reached the point where it's not easy to take it with me. I only work on it at home now.

I was behind on my 90 hearts by NC Regional Lace Day but I caught up today. I'm still on track to get all 90 done.

Post-Christmas (sort of)

Sunday, I had Christmas lunch with C's family and R. Monday, C and I drove to my Dad's house and from there we went to my brother's house. I spent Saturday and Sunday morning wrapping while C cooked. I ran out of gift bags and ran to the dollar store to buy some more, and some wrapping tissue.

Oh, there's a 5-disc collection of 20 hours of African-American films, mostly dating from the 1920s and 30s. Here's an interview about it.

Here's a picture of the scarf I made for C's nephew. He loves it. He's even happier that it's machine-washable (Yay, acrylic). I did recommend he use a mesh bag so it doesn't get tangled up in the rest of the laundry. On his behalf, C asked me to make a matching neck gaiter. Glad I got that 3rd skein.

Here's the start of the neck gaiter I made for my brother, but I neglected to take a picture of the finished project. I've asked him to send me one. I did not sew on the buttons, since I wanted to fit it. I just left the buttons on the card and 'buttoned' it, after sewing around the buttonholes to stabilize them.

I made a lucky penny for my niece, too, but I neglected to get a photo of it. I also gave my SIL's sister and brother-in-law a snowflake I made. I thought I had a picture of it, but I don't. My niece likes her fuzzy fleece blanket and pottery state magnet with crystalline glaze. However, I forgot her calendar. Her fiance likes the corvette calendar C found. So that's good. Dad likes his military history calendar and we had a good laugh over the bobeches I gave K. I still haven't found the red necklace I bought for her. We told the story about her 2 bobeches from last year and 'oh no, her display has five candles.' Then she revealed she set out votives this year, about a dozen of them. Maybe I should make some votive candle frills next year. Bwahahaha.

I made my first ice drop. And the thread (vintage) broke as I was closing the last ring.

I've made one with green and white thread but I haven't taken a picture yet.

I have more wrapping to do. If anyone is interested, I'll talk about the presents I've received.

Projects, Websites, and Mom

Maybe it's the season, but I've been looking at clothing websites. There's the legging shop I mentioned in the last post (I ordered a pair from their sample shop to try them). There's also this one, which makes the clothes to measure, when you order them.

Then there's these undersleeves. I really want the jersey ones, the lace ones, and the bell lace ones; in black and ivory, maybe in white. I have at least 2 or 3 sleeveless shirt, a couple cap-sleeves shirts, and one or two dresses that these will work with.

I am working on pendant for my niece (she doesn't read my blog, so it's safe to talk about it). I'm tatting a bezel for a penny minted the year she was born. I have a moleskine 2017 planner for her, too. I'm using Diane's icy drops pattern.

I went to see Mom this past Sunday. It was not a good weather day and the drive back was horrendous. But we went to a used bookstore to get her a new dictionary. Her current one was pitiful; thin and large print. We got her a good one and a couple other books beside. I also delivered her jade plant. I'm still looking for a small aloe plant.

I wrote and mailed my Christmas cards. I don't think I got everyone but it was a good 1st batch. I got all my aunts, my one uncle, my Dad and stepmom, and responded to one card. I have finished much of my shopping. I just have a few things yet to pick up. Either that, or I've forgotten whole swathes of people.

I don't have any new pics to show, sorry. I have pictures of a couple tatting books I want and a business card for a place that might carry tatting supplies in the area. But I'm not sure anyone would find that of great interest.

And Now It's Over (for now)

Monday, there was frost on my windshield. Since then, it's been warm and almost rainy. We could use some rain. It's been dry to the west, drought conditions. The light rain we had helped control the wildfires, but it's still bad farther west, in Tennessee.

I'm still doing physical therapy. It's not cheap but it's helping.

Thursday, Dad and K met me for lunch. We went to Maggiano's They considered C invited, considered it implicit. I told them he preferred an explicit invitation. It was a lovely meal.

That evening, C fixed supper. Unable to get a non-frozen turkey, he made a roast beef instead. He also made mashed sweet potatoes, dressing, and mixed veggies (squash, zucchini, and okra). We finished the last of the leftovers Monday.

I braved Black Friday and picked up a couple things for mom. At least, I waited until mid-afternoon so most of the crowds were gone. I found a jade plant for her. I still need to find something to put in and also find her an aloe.

I picked up some plumber's tape to fix the faucet. It is mostly fixed. I had to use layers of tape. It was tape, test, tape, test, repeat, until the knobs caught and worked.

Our Pathfinder game on Saturday got canceled (one of the players could not make it, private stuff that I'm not going to blast over the internet). So I went to the Tatter's meeting instead. I made a snowflake for the exchange. I took a picture before the exchange but I haven't taken a picture of the one I got, yet.

















I'm also making another knit block, to try and make this rabbit. I know, I'm knitting just to make something else. But it's so cute.

Oh, and one of my friends pointed me towards this website. I've ordered a pair of leggings from the sample shop. We'll see how they work for me. They're expensive leggings, but if they're as good as the review I read promised, they'll be worth it. And there are so many cool designs (about 42 pages).  I'm thinking of designing my own, based on tatting.

So, That's What Winter Feels Like

Monday morning and this morning, there was frost on my windshield. If I'm going to drive to the park and ride, I'll need to build in some defrosting time. I decided to walk to the bus stop this morning.

I missed the Native American Heritage Day the NC Historical Museum. I got lost. I ended up having lunch in Cameron Village. Ah well.

Sunday, I went to see mom and take her shopping. She needed some odds and ends, like an alarm clock. She seemed to like the lined clogs I found for her and the warm socks. I took her the photo album with all the pics of some of my friends. I'll need some more, but it's a start. We stopped for lunch and I took a picture of her. I need to print it out and send to her sisters.

Mom

I finally finished the baby blanket block. I got it into the mail on Monday. It's made with love, not skill. But I posted a couple pictures of it and people were nice about it. It's the bamboo stitch.

bamboo stitch

bamboo stitch

This etsy artist has some lovely owl rings. I also like the butterfly earrings.











I've started keeping a bullet journal. It's helping. I put down a monthly to do list, a weekly to do list, and a weekly schedule. Plus, trying to track certain healthy habits; like sleep, exercise, etc. Mine isn't very fancy; no banners, etc, but it's working so far. I

Front of Journal

back of journal; with pen pocket strap

pen pocket on journal

Today is the anniversary of John Griffith London's death.

I survived

Mom's apartment is now vacant. She had two bedrooms, each with a walk in closet of clothes, plus a free standing rack of clothes, and a small coat closet. Since my mom stopped wearing uniforms, she became a bit of a clothes horse. CC, Mom, and I culled her wardrobe, but more still needs to be done. I am not sure all of her clothes will fit into her closet, plus drawers, plus glass front cabinet (for sweaters and such, so they are protected but visible. Drawers are for things she doesn't need to keep an eye on to remember, ie underwear and socks.

CD came and helped me move big stuff, like her couch to Goodwill, and her two glass front shelves and sewing table to her new room. Plus, a small set of metal shelves (which she's using to hold and display her scarves in her bedroom) and a rolling chair (for her sewing table). He also helped me take stuff to the dumpster, along with JJ. We left about 11 pm Sunday, exhausted. I'm still aching a bit. CC helped me on Saturday to pack stuff to deliver to Goodwill. Yesterday, I took the last load to the local one.

 I'm aching now. Plus, my already sore knee really hates me. At least it waited until Monday to start screaming at me.

Instead of spending the day demonstrating tatting at Oakview Historic Park, and finishing my projects, I was clearing mom's apartment. That's delayed things for me. I still have stuff to do before Saturday.

I'll post pictures after the State Fair starts. I may not get my 3rd project finished.

Tonight is my date with CC, so I'll return her dolly and a couple things she loaned me. She had to be home on Sunday to do her Fair prep.

Last night, I finally got enough sleep. I've been stressing about mom's apartment since August. And it's gotten worse as the end of the lease approached. I found multiple cases of purchases that I think were there because she remembered she needed something, but not that she already had it. For example, a red blouse.

Here, have a semi-amusing article about a crow stealing evidence from a crime scene.

Publishing Scheduled...and Yet Silence

So, I finished my post last week and set it to publish in an hour. And it never published. So, to anyone actually waiting for it, sorry. I hit Publish Monday (again), and this time it worked.

Friday, I went to lunch with my co-workers to celebrate one's lunch. We went to Carolina Brewery. I'd never been before but I can recommend their barbecue and their sweet potato fries. None of us had any beer; middle of the workday after all. No hardship for me, I don't like beer. Our newest co-worker told us about a trip she'd taken to Paris. She's good at telling stories.

Anyway, I made progress on my test swatch for my knitting. It failed, which means I'm starting over using what I learned. My target, is a 7" by 1" strip. My result was about 10" by 1/2".

I've made one earring, for the pattern for Tat Days. I say 'made', but I still need to make one join and hide the ends. Then I need to load more beads, make the mate and then start the variant.

No progress made on the blocking. I need to take the one I've blocked, photograph it, and send the picture to Anitra. And of course, I need to block the next one.

RG's puppy chewed a hole in her blanket (the puppy's blanket). I took it home and I'm going to try to patch it. My main concern is that my patch is not more vulnerable to puppy teeth than the rest of the blanket.

Of course, Fantasy Gamers Conclave was over the weekend. It's a small Saturday and Sunday convention. CD, RG, and I have been running Pathfinder games there for at least since 2010. Alas, they're taking a break and won't have a con next year. But maybe the year after that. :crossed fingers:

I ran Silverhex, or rather 3 of the 6 quests, for 3 people who'd never played tabletop RPGs before. They were interested, and one of them had a Beginner's Box but found it confusing. Getting a chance to play and see how it works in real life and learning by doing really helped. All three of them decided to join PFS (PathFinder Society). Whether they follow up with more PFS play, well, that's up to their preferences and opportunities. I had a picture of one of the maps, but I can't find it.

Saturday afternoon, I ran Sun Orchid Scheme. It's a regular scenario. I had a full table for that one. I had two new(ish) players using pre-gens and everyone else had PFS characters. We also wound up really late. I didn't get to sleep until after 2 am.

CD let me sleep in Sunday and our games didn't start until 1 pm, thankfully. I ended up running a couple of quests from Phantom Phenomena. I had 4 people playing, interrupted by a couple of them needed elsewhere for a time. All the players had fun, and that's the important part.

They raised over $3000 for Autism Society of North Carolina. I helped a little more by buying something at auction. There were other things up for bid that I wanted but they went out of my limited price range.









One really neat thing, on the way home on Sunday, there were some heavy clouds rolling in. And as the sun was setting behind them, there was a smaller whisp of cloud coming out and the sun shining through it cause it to light up like a rainbow. I really wish I could have gotten a picture, because my words are not up to describing just how unusual and lovely it was.

We also had another major storm roll through. There was one crash of thunder so loud it sounded like a cannon going off. Fortunately, this time we didn't lose power.

Some books I had ordered, also arrived on Saturday. I finished reading one of them on Sunday and started another one. That leaves 2 more (book 2 & 3 in a series), plus one I've been putting off because once I start it, I won't want to stop for anything, including sleep.

Tonight is my date with Carry. You'll find out about that next post.

And here's an entertaining flowchart. Are you caught in a time paradox?

More Zen Koi images

Schedule...or Not?

It's only been a few days since my last post, but I'm trying to get into the groove of posting on a schedule.

I hope (for my US readers, all 2 of you) you had an enjoyable holiday weekend. For my other reader, I hope you had a good weekend and good start to the week. I lazed around and just did a few things around the house.

We now know the problem with the washing machine is not the hose and not the filter. We've changed one and cleaned the other; but the cold water still dribbles into the machine instead of pouring. It may be something wrong with the machine itself.

CD made chocolate chocolate chip cookies on Sunday. The first batch was a little overdone but the second batch came out perfect. I also have some Milano cookies I bought left from a potluck. Thank goodness I have (almond) milk to drink.

I still haven't picked up the yarn for the baby afghan project. Maybe I'll get a chance to do that tonight. Tonight is my date with CC so I'd have to pop into Michael's on the way.

I am so glad I had noted down the phone number for my voice mail in my old phone's contact list. I entered it in my new phone's contacts finally. I called it and I had 17 messages. None of them had dates or times (unlike my work voice mails) but the subjects mentioned let me know I could delete them; i.e. references to my mom being in the hospital. If there is some symbol or something to alert me about messages I haven't found it. There's something to let me know I missed a call or have a text message waiting, but that's it.

NASA got the Juno satellite in place. Yes, it is rocket science. The links go to YouTube videos; one is the trailer and one is a documentary on the project.

From futuristic, to ancient past; here's a short video of a young woman using kulning to summon cows back to pasture. There's a difference between kulning and hollering.

I wonder if my local comic store could get this series, Saltire; it's an import so it might be difficult.

I did get some good news. Another friend called to let me know he and his wife are expecting a baby. They're not spreading the news yet, so I won't even mention initials. 

WARNING: Politics Ahead
And then there's the news from Istanbul; 41 people dead and how many more injured? During Ramadan, one of the holiest holidays in the Muslim calendar (or such is my impression). As usual, Daesh kills more Muslims than any other religion. Despite what they call themselves, Daesh is barely more Islamic than I am. But they could call themselves cars easier than I could, with just the same amount of truthfulness (they are closer to a major source of gasoline than I am). I refuse to call them their preferred name as they are neither Islamic nor a State. They are a terrorist political organization.

And two major US presidential candidates are in my state today, as well as the US President. At least none of them are in the towns where I live or work. No offense, but I'm pretty sick of all them by now. Okay, one of them more than the others. Can you guess which one?

RavenCon etc

The trip to Ravencon went well. The drive down was not particularly heinous and we made good time.

Signs around the Con

MM met us at the con Friday afternoon. We played a couple games that night and finished up as scheduled and got back to the hotel around 1 am. The morning slot started at 8:30 am. We played the morning slot and then the battle interactive in the afternoon. Saturday night we went out to supper.

We got the Sunday morning slot wrong, and showed up late for We Be Goblins, Too. The GM was at another table but generously got up to run our game. The Goblins adventures are massively fun, and often run short on time. We had time to go to the Dealers' room and see Artist Alley. I was going to buy a Con shirt but after walking back and forth, looking at the shirts, and then making my decision, and then waiting for another minute or so and being ignored, I decided not to. The person at the table was in a conversation and I'm too Southern polite to interrupt. A couple dealers had some very nice pocket watches. I want a small silver(tone) one and apparently one of them had one, but I missed them.

They had a kid in the right one

I did buy a new (silk) fan stamped with foxes, and a present for someone else. CD bought a t-shirt for me and a necklace. There were more things I really liked, but well, funds.

steampunk R2D2

Market Square, new since my last visit

We found some new restaurants in Williamsburg. We went back to the Sal's Ristorante, a place CD and RG tried years ago. The food was still great and so was the service. We also tried Emerald Thai, The Cheese Shop, DoGs Street Pub, and The Whaling Company. We also tried Capital Pancake for a change from Mama Steve's.

mussels bowl leftovers, soooo good

bracelet based on edging

Gaming and Lace

I found this website last week but forgot to mention it. If you are vulnerable to cute puppies and dogs, proceed with caution.

And the source of that edging turned bracelet is The Craft of Tatting by Bessie M. Attenborough. The one on page 29.

It's not a good picture, but you can see the key points

On Wednesday, I worked in the Community Garden. I did some harvesting (spinach mostly), photographing volunteers, etc, and some weeding. I was so sore and frankly, a bit sweaty. Then I got onto the wrong bus. Luckily, I realized before the next stop and I got off the bus to catch the correct one.

Thursday, I was still sore so I skipped yoga. Went to the Deadlands game, though. Traffic was horrendous and I got there late. We spent a lot of time and care to 'kill' some standing skeletons before they attacked us. Turns out they were just normal skeletons that had been articulated. We amused the GM (DR) at least.

Sunday was the next game of Shadows of the Century. After last session of pregens and fight, the players decided they wanted to try a full session, complete with pitch. Part of the game is creating the setting as well as characters.

The pregens from the last game were all  fight-y or spy types and mostly they had a fight. It was a sort of running gun battle down the streets of LA at 3 am, climaxing with a rocket launcher.

This time they decided they wanted to play a fairly low weirdness level (same as 1st game) and the main plot was an invasion in a small town, a la Twilight Zone or X-Files. The subplot, and reason they're there, is that their car broke down. They tossed around ideas about a tour bus, etc and finally decided they were a loan-out act from Cirque du Soleil. They had done a show on the East Coast and were driving back to Vegas. One character is the bus driver/manager and another one is the special effects 'enthusiast'/artist. The other two are performers; knife thrower and underwater ballet dancer. The gear of the special effects enthusiast is the reason they're driving; some stuff just isn't permitted on planes.

Three of them had some kind of secret. The bus driver/manager was on the run for (possibly, she says she didn't) committing some crime, the knife thrower is an undercover Interpol agent (is the bus driver the wanted person? She's so nice, maybe it's the special effects guy, they're both tall and blond), and the dancer claims to be from the Bolshoi ballet (but really he's ex-KGB).

They got clued in by all the people whose names started with 'j' and who all had black hair, brown eyes, and olive skin. Except the leader, who had bleached his hair and wore color contacts. Since they were in Arkansas, with the preponderance of Latino and Native Americans that coloring would not look out of place (if they had been in Nebraska, the invaders would have been blond).

They used their smarts, their stunts, and their aspects to get out of trouble (like finding the planted drugs before their bags got searched), find the clues (like only the lines in the sheriff's office working to reach out of town), distract the sheriff and other interested parties (boom, goes the gear), one punch the only person between them and escape, get on their bus and get out of town, with evidence of something hinky going on. I need to type up my reports and submit them to the publisher.


And since we're going to Ravencon this upcoming weekend, I also spent time making sure all my Pathfinder characters were updated. And apparently, I'm missing a character notebook. 

We're trying to eat up our groceries and it looks like Wednesday will be leftover night.

Dad called and Yvonne and her mother will be having a layover in Raleigh a Sunday in May. He thought giving them each a lace cross would be nice. I do hope I get to see them. I've only met Yvonne once, when she came with Bill Toledo to North Carolina for the big Marine Corps Reserve gathering in Greensboro, and I've never met her mother. Dad and K stopped by to see them the last time they went to Colorado.