Chris's birthday: I did not have his present ready. He wants a padded bag to hold & protect his D&D 4e books. I was about to sew up the sides when I realized that it's too wide. I will be working on it some tonight but he's leaving for Wicked Harvest (gaming convention that's all Witch Hunter) so he won't get it until he gets back.

State Fair: looks like it's going to be cold & rainy so I'll pull out my Colonial era outfit. I think that I will take my new bodice & an appropriate blouse in case I need a change of clothes (Anitra & Steve usually do laundry Sat night after we get back & the clothes are ready the next day).

Work: Yesterday was interesting. When I came back from lunch I learned that the power was. The power went out in the restaurant that I was in, but since it's a 10-minute walk I didn't think that my building would be out, too. There wasn't much that I could do except hang around and wait for the power to come back.

Today was Employee Appreciation. There's free food, and this year's selection was much better. Since I volunteered, I got a different lunch though. I also hit the sale at the store and went through the information fair; lots of drawings and free pens.

Before things got started

and while things were in full swing. Yes, that's the line for lunch. The lunch tables are just out of sight on the right.

And this is where I worked during my volunteer shift. We were visited by a number of 'striped damsels', mostly honeybees but with the occasional yellowjacket for variety.

Craft: I finished the rag 'rug' that I was working on. It's from a craft that I saw while on vacation. Originally, they would use a wagon wheel; since I didn't need anything that big, I used an embroidery hoop. You tie & weave strips of fabric to make the rug, or in this case trivet type. I tied the ends too tightly though & it cupped, as you can see. The first picture is how it looks from 'the top' & in the 2nd picture you can see where I tucked in the ends.

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.

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.

Watched the season premier of CSI last night, so that makes my 4th night of less than ideal sleep. Maybe I can get to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight. Maybe.

Chris took the day off to go get his new Driver's license, today. Sci Fi network was showing a marathon of Friday the 13th the Series. He taped them. We watched the first episode, Inheritance. The actress playing Mary, the little girl, looked scarily like me when I was a little girl. As a result, Chris declared that I cannot have any porcelain dolls (cursed bisque doll in the episode), just tooooo creepy.

Mom scared the crap out of me by calling after 9 pm. From her tone of voice, I honestly thought she was about to 'invite' me to a funeral. Turns out there's a change of plans with next month visiting my aunt & uncle. My other two aunts are coming into the state but my uncle is worse and has trouble dealing with strangers; so no nieces and nephews. I'll go visit mom for Thanksgiving, instead.

Gaming: Looking back, I realized that I never posted what happened in last week's Mutants & Masterminds. We had a nice little fight in the vaults of Astro Labs with the Bestiary (4 ~myth-themed villains) and then met the superthief for hire, Magpie, as he was stealing something from the Freedom League vaults. Turns out, Lady Celtic's son, from a previous life, has stolen her powers, at least partially. He's a little obsessed with his mom's legacy. We ended with Freedom League trying to find proof that he was behind the theft by Magpie.

Saturday I'm in a zero-round of a game for the Living Forgotten Realms weekend. Basically, I'm rounding out the table. Sunday, I'm in another LFR game. How did this happen? I could have sworn that I had a free weekend somewhere.

Met up with some old friends in Raleigh last night. It was nice seeing some old friends, and some new faces. Anitra wasn't there, she's still occupied with family matters.

As I was leaving, I managed to drop my Palm. Luckily, I had sync'ed it night before last, so I only lost was I had entered yesterday & I think that I remembered it all.

I finally found some stamps so that I could mail my letters. I sent one to Mom, too. That reminds me, I think that I need to write Mitra again.

Tatting: Saturday was the Heritage Day at Oak View Historic Park. The Triangle Tatters got together & had an exhibition table. About six of us came, tatted, chatted, demonstrated and displayed. The weather was nigh onto perfect, although I could have done with fewer bugs. I did not get much done, except for learning that I have my necklace entered in the wrong category. To still have a good entry, I'd need a new creation, one that fits the category that I entered. Poor Tara about freaked out. Today is the first day that entries can be taken to be submitted. I have until Monday. My bookmark is about 3/4 done so I'm not very worried. And I wasn't worried on Saturday.


Gaming: Sunday's game got cancelled. One of the players got sick and Chris had a flat tire. If we had tried to go, after that, we would have been at least an hour late. It was one thing after another. The special piece that lets you loosen the theft-prevention lugnut was missing so Chris and Joe couldn't change the tire to put the spare onto the car. So we called AAA and had it towed. The tire place we took it to didn't have a universal so they couldn't get it either. Chris ended up taking it into the dealer on Monday, before work.

Monday's game: we managed to leave the Giant's castle, without fighting the entire population. We did score, inadvertently, a diplomatic coup. We set off the traps on the magic artifact, so the queen for whom we were retrieving it, won't. Which is good, because she'd auto (story-line) fail all the saves and die. Poor Gaius, Joe's character, failed one of them and was in very bad shape.

On the bad side, I apparently bought my tennis shoes, on sale, when I weighed a couple pounds less. When I was driving to meet Anitra on Saturday they about cut off the circulation in my left foot. I am not exaggerating. Ouch. Luckily, I had another pair of shoes with me. Otherwise, Saturday would have been quite unpleasant.

I was interviewed on Monday for a friend's ethnology class. It was interesting trying to explain gaming to someone with little to no common experience. For one analogy, I suddenly stopped, she had no clue what I meant when I compared Superman to oh..Booster Gold, or Blue Beetle. Literally, I had to explain the dice involved, the character sheets, the existence of rulebooks, touch on the history of gaming, all that. She barely knew enough to know what questions to ask. Heck, if I'd been a jungle tribeswoman, she'd have had a better idea what to ask.

The walking group was still small on Tuesday. We walked a 3rd route and boy howdy, this one was hill-acious. It took me half the afternoon, and a smoothie, to cool off.

Online Weirdness: I am on a couple social networks and I always include in my profile that I am in a relationship. So why do guys keep sending me messages about 'how pretty' I am and wanting to get to know me? One, while I don't scare small children, I'm no beauty queen either. Two, you only know what I've posted. For all they know I'm a guy who's using some woman's picture & is spoofing being female.

FYI, according to the "quiz" below, I jumped on a football player because I'm a Ninja.
Pick the month you were born:

January-------I kicked
February------I loved
March--------I karate chopped
April----------I licked
May----------I jumped on
June----------I smelled
July-----------I did the Macarena With
August--------I had lunch with
September----I danced with
October-------I sang to
November-----I yelled at
December-----I ran over

Pick the day (number) you were born on:

1-------a birdbath
2-------a monster
3-------a phone
4- ------a fork
5-------a snowman
6-------a gangster
7-------my mobile phone
8-------my dog
9-------my best friends ' boyf riend
10-------my neighbor
11-------my science teacher
12-------a banana
13-------a fireman
14-------a stuffed animal
15-------a goat
16-------a pickle
17-------your mom
18-------a spoon
19------ - a surf
20-------a baseball bat
21-------a ninja
22-------Chuck Norris
23-------a noodle
24-------a squirrel
25-------a football player
26-------my sister
27-------my brother
28-------an iPod
29-------a surfer
30-------a llama
31-------A homeless guy

Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:

White---------because I'm cool like that
Black---------because that's how I roll.
Pink---- -------because I'm crazy.
Red-----------because the voices told me to.
Blue-----------because I'm sexy and I do what I want
Gr e en---------because I think I need some serious help.
Purple---------because I'm AWESOME!
Gray----------because Big Bird said to and he's my leader.
Yellow ------ --because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars
Orange --------because my family thinks I'm stupid anyway.
Brown---------because I can..
Other----------because I'm a Ninja!
None----------because I can't control myself!

At 2 am, a mere 2.5 hours after I'd gone to sleep, my stomach woke me up, cramping with hunger. I dragged myself up to have a piece of bread with jam. I dozed until my stomach stopped cramping and went back to bed. The entire time I could hear thunder rumbling, like someone wheeling a trolley on uneven floor.

I'm managing to stick with my cutting down on soda. I've only had about a glass a day for the past three days. I've been getting my caffeine from hot tea, instead. At least that doesn't leach calcium from my body.

As soon as I stepped out the door after work, I could feel the cold front. The temperature has dropped considerably since lunchtime.

I have tomorrow night's Mutants & Masterminds game to look forward to. Wheee!

Did the mile walk with the walking group today. I walked a little too fast for my own comfort. My knees are killing me tonight, even though I was wearing tennis shoes (with supports). I almost walked 5 miles total today (9000+ steps, instead of 10K).

As I was stretching beforehand, I saw the branch of a bush in the planter next to. I thought, bird? maybe. I looked closer and found what was moving the branch; it was a little green gecko-type lizard, eating a bug. It was so cute. I was sorry to scare it off.

Supper at Bali Hai tonight, with John & his mother. The sweet & sour is really good. I managed to eat to satiation, but not overeat.

Despite going to bed on time the last couple nights, I'm still tired. I really don't know why.

Did the mile walk with the walking group today. I walked a little too fast for my own comfort. My knees are killing me tonight, even though I was wearing tennis shoes (with supports). I almost walked 5 miles total today (9000+ steps, instead of 10K).

As I was stretching beforehand, I saw the branch of a bush in the planter next to. I thought, bird? maybe. I looked closer and found what was moving the branch; it was a little green gecko-type lizard, eating a bug. It was so cute. I was sorry to scare it off.

Supper at Bali Hai tonight, with John & his mother. The sweet & sour is really good. I managed to eat to satiation, but not overeat.

Despite going to bed on time the last couple nights, I'm still tired. I really don't know why.

Tatting: I'm working with that sulky thread that mom gave me. It's gorgeous, but I keep breaking the thread as I try to close the 3rd ring. Is it because it's a split ring? I just don't know.
: I'm working with that sulky thread that mom gave me. It's gorgeous, but I keep breaking the thread as I try to close the 3rd ring. Is it because it's a split ring? I just don't know.

Mom: Had a nice weekend with Mom. I had insomnia Friday night which made getting started Saturday somewhat problematic. Then of course, there was the problem of finding gas.

When I got to Mom's she had the tv on & couldn't hear me knock. I finally had to call her to get her attention. We went out to lunch & we found the beads for the tatted pendant for my state fair entry. I got one bead for the pendant & two to make matching earrings (after the state fair).

We went through Mom's stuff, helping her sort and throw stuff away. At 8 pm we broke off so we could watch Mom's shows. She loves PBS's Saturday night line up.

This morning we went and had a traditional? Southern breakfast. We went to Your House & had waffles. Their pecan waffles had the pecans in the waffles, not just on top. That makes a huge difference to the taste. And to make matters even better; they had hot tea that wasn't Lipton's. Yum.

We went to Big Lots & I got a replacement for my double outlet device (so I can plug two items into the cigarette lighter). Naturally, we picked up a few other items as well.

On the way home, I had two traffic incidents. One was a jerk who sped up when I switched on my turn signal, nearly causing me to run out of merge lane. The other was a nice guy who pulled over to let me pull over to make room for the folks trying to merge onto the highway.

I also saw a lovely rainbow on the way home. It was a 6-color one; red, yellow, orange, green, blue & indigo. The colors were a little blurred, but they were there.

I brought my stuff inside and immediately had to wash my hair. I love my mom but she still smokes and I can't stand the smell. I gave her the 1-800 stop smoking line; a not very subtle hint.

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.

tatting: I started an easy heart this morning & messed it up. Instead, I made a butterfly and gave it to the guy sitting next to me, since he asked me what I was doing and even asked questions about it.

health? I don't know if I'm coming down with a cold, the office is just too air conditioned or if I'm suffering from hypochondria. I feel lousy but that could be lack of sleep, coupled with hormones. Maybe.

Music: I'm listening to 80's tunes on Pandora. My assistant reminded me of it. I'd heard of it months ago but never followed up. It's pretty cool, but it doesn't seem to have any filk.

Gaming: We survived the fight in the feast hall. When we ended the game, there were two or three giants left, my druid had fallen twice (thank goodness for Delay Death), the dwarf monk called it a 'good fight,' and the cleric and my character were pursuing fleeing drow.

TV: I'm catching up on Primeval. There was a neat twist in the episode that I saw last night. Can't wait to see what they do with it. There's an American version of Life on Mars coming out. It should be interesting to see what they do with it.

Picture of a picnic area at a rest stop in Oklahoma. Yes, that's me on the left.

Gaming: Turns out we had a ranger, a swordmage, a warlock, a wizard & my cleric. The only thing poor Denar really accomplished was healing people, when she could. She's not really a healing cleric, after all. I bombed my turning undead rolls and use of her daily power. *sigh* Sometimes the dice are just cold.

Tonight it's Chris's game and we're facing a feast hall full of giants. Luckily, we have a warmage & a cleric. We just might succeed.

Sight of the day: how do you tell someone that everytime she leans over, ie to type on her laptop, that she's flashing her bra? It's a cute sundress but she needs to pay better attention. * added later - apparently the friend that sat down with her said something; she's much more careful about it now.

Chris bought me a new pillow. Guess we found the source of my headaches.

Gaming: LFR today. So far we have a swordmage, either 3 rangers or 2 rangers & a wizard & I have to decide whether to play my warlock (& have her reach 2nd) or play my cleric. We have an abundance of Strikers, a Defender, maybe a Controller & maybe a Leader.

Lunch @ Pizza Inn buffet. It was a little crowded but not too bad. It's the only Pizza Inn in the area now.

Manga: My bill @ FE was, not unexpectedly, high. It had been more than a month since I had picked up my manga order. We had the time, so we socialized with Rick. It had been awhile since we did that. I also qot the Stitch n' Sew magazines that his wife, Leigh, had sent for me.

Chris had to pick up a special order from Games Connection, in Knightdale. I need to add Wings of War to his birthday list, & a couple planes at least.

Sight of the day: guy who looks like typical heguy (ratty baseball cap, torn sleeve t-. & jeans) walking on side of road in quasi-rural area, carrying a bright yellow flower.

Autumn Equinox is Sunday. Many people are calling for a minute of silence at noon and to pray for peace.
I quote:

A Four Directions Call

This is a call to all people of spirit who wish to join in a global linkage for Peace as noon rolls across the planet on the vernal Equinox. We request that you add to your observances a minute of chanting the sound of “MA” in appreciation for the Earth, her gifts and all her children.

In all traditions, “MA” is the root sound for mother, “AH” is the sound of appreciation.

The goal is to help create a wave of healing resonance that will sweep across the planet. It is a time of great peril and trauma on this fragile world. Can we, for a moment, come together with one heart, one mind, one voice and one intention in a tone of healing?

Please in whatever tradition you are gathering for this event, will you commit to a moment of global unity for all our relations.
–Betsy Stang

Gaming: I’d missed a couple fights when I missed the last gaming session, and some exposition.

That alien promising a golden age? Very few heroes, or even villains, believed him, unsurprisingly enough. Many people had toured the ship and some had gone missing. Solaris said that his fellow aliens were in deep sleep and he was gradually waking them up.

The Freedom League (our gaming group) and the Atom Family got together & negotiated with what’shisname, the ruler of Thule, to get both groups up into the ship. Suleimane, whose name I do not know how to spell, did a ritual to magically teleport Totem (my character, even though I wasn’t there), Max Atom, oldest female sister Atom, Vicky Atom, Chase Atom & Chase’s pet monkey, Troll (Diana’s old character), Kodachrome (her current character), The Wraith (Chris’s character), Memento Mori (Nate’s character) & Lady Celtic (Rosemary’s character) into Solaris’s ship. The Freedom League, minus Totem, went to be a distraction – leaving graffiti, multilingual of course, and fighting energy guardians and then fighting the plants, which were knocking out Kodachrome. A lot.

They met some of Solaris' fellow aliens, who were puzzled why the ship defenses were attacking non-evil people. Turns out the aliens are genetically manipulated humans (who had disappeared) with the personalities of the aliens implanted and suppressing the human minds. The aliens had all died long ago with just their memories/personalities saved on the ship’s computer. When they found out what Solaris had done the ‘aliens’ were horrified. About that time the Freedom League gets a call for help from Chase Atom; Troll had been knocked out.

While the rest of the Freedom League was off causing trouble, Totem was sent with the tech team to disable the ship. Yep, the tech-inept was sent with the tech team, because I wasn’t there. The justification is that since she would keep a better look out because she would not get distracted by the all the shiny toys.

Last night: GM, David, caught me up with what had happened, including the fight that Totem had actually seen; Solaris knocking everyone out. The evening’s real action started with Totem going toe to toe with the golden alien and was at least holding her own, even if she wasn’t doing much damage. She got blinded in the second round of the fight but since she often relies on her nose (accurate scent) and has blind-fighting, that didn’t have any appreciable effect. After about 6 rounds, the rest of the Freedom League showed up. More fighty-fighty until Lady Celtic, who with Rosemary’s dice luck was doing more support than combat, encouraged the three ‘aliens’ to get involved. Solaris, who was a few fries short of a happy meal anyway, went totally bugnuts when they remonstrated with him & fried the three ‘aliens’ and started to eat their souls/absorb their energy. Lady Celtic saved their soul energy and then drained much of Solaris’s defenses. He broke down, making it possible for to Totem walk up to him & knock him out.

There was wrap-up; people being restored, finding someplace for the aliens to safely colonize (Jupiter - one cloud city coming up), etc. And Kodachrome found out that her powers come from Cosmic Energy manipulation. The Chullons (no, I don’t know if that’s the right spelling) are binary in their energy work but she has 7 forms. Hmmmmm.

I was so tired when we got home. I had planned to do one or two things but my energy levels nixed that. It was hard waking up this morning, too. But at least I started the day without a headache.

Yes. Headache again. It's not very severe, but it's not fun reaching for the pain pills first thing in the morning.

I got my picture in the paper yesterday. It's even a half-decent picture, just a little blurry.

And I have a tree in the 7th Generation Forest. Too bad, I can't find it.

Not one, but 2 service stations without public bathrooms. It's a conspiracy.

My nod to politics: No matter what your beliefs are, get out & vote. There, I'm done.

I still have my headache, at least it's gotten milder.

gaming: I'm reading Runner's Companion (Shadowrun book). I went to the basement to look for a calligraphy book and managed to shake a half-dozen books down onto myself. On the other hand, I found a fiction book to re-read.

Tomorrow night is Mutants & Masterminds. I so want to beat up on things.

tatting: I started AnneB's Norwegian dragon but I will need to practice single shuttle split rings before I really do anything.

Ever heard of Jasper Maskelyne? I caught part of a history channel show on him.

Stopped by Bittenbybooks for a guest blog by Lucynda Storey; first novella: Texas Tea. She has the setting & lets others write novellas in it.

Boring day, really.

Weather Another rainy day. I hear that, if you measure rainfall, the drought is over. Although, if you look at that state of the ground water, I don’t think that’s the case. This is probably from Ike’s bands, I think.

letters I lost the stamps that I bought last week, so I bought more today & finally mailed my letters. I wanted to get them out over the weekend; oh well.

Gaming This weekend, it’s more Living Forgotten Realms. One of the players can’t make Rosemary’s home game, so we’ve scheduled an LFR adventure instead. Rosemary will be running Inheritance, the one that I ran a couple weeks ago.

Thursday, it’s our regular Mutants & Masterminds game. I missed the last session, so I’m not sure what’s going on. Since I’m the one who takes the notes; there’s no one to fill me in either, not in any detail. Maybe they only had an Annual (a short story that is not part of the current continuity).

work We had another fire alarm today. Everyone stood outside in the rain, or went to the nearest store, and waited for it to be over. It takes 15-20 minutes before they clear the building (ie report that it’s safe to go back inside). I had left my umbrella under my desk to dry, from when I went out at lunch. Luckily, I was able to share the umbrella of the woman who works just outside my office. I dropped my change purse & saw it when I started back inside, thank goodness. That coin purse was a gift, from Guatemala, yet.

The walking group has restarted. I went to the kick off at lunch. Since it was so wet, we walked around indoors. My hip may be in the local paper (the photographer took a picture of my pedometer). We only walked for about 15 or so minutes, but that’s better than nothing, right?

TV We watched more of Diners, Drive-ins & Dives last night; as well as the Closer. I really like those two shows. Some of those dishes that Guy tries, though, I would not touch. It’s not that I think that they’re bad or anything, I just have a very low spicy threshold. Last night’s Closer was the EE episode. It was really funny watching Brenda being carried down the stairs; twice.

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!

Rain. We have rain. Goody. With what Hanna dumped on the area, our reservoirs are full. Maybe today's rain (the stuff to come) will help the groundwater, too.

I am mind-numb. Why?

Tat Days Report: from my perspective at least. There was no problem meeting with Anitra but her car was persnickety and that delayed us a few minutes. Then, as we were about to get on the highway, the on-ramp was blocked by an accident. We had to go 'round our elbow to get to our thumb to get on the highway. All told, from the time that she met me to actually leaving Raleigh, it was an hour.

Perhaps the large soda at breakfast was a mistake because I needed a lot of pit stops. Lunch was at an Iron Skillet and finally, at almost 3 pm, we got to the conference center. Apparently, the 3 pm time was the correct one as registration was still being set up as we arrived (I didn't get a program until Saturday because we arrived before they did, and yes, I'm still giggling about that a little). I was telling Teresa about TIM (at work) and in one of my wide gestures I hit Riet. I hugged her in apology and she forgave me.

After we unloaded the car, Anitra went to the teacher's meeting and I started loading shuttles for class. I wound a few more thread samples (I think that I ended with about a dozen) and a couple more of those fast & easy hearts. Supper was good and it was great to see folks again.

Anitra & I both headed back to the room early after supper as we were both tired. Up bright & early the next morning for breakfast and the vendor room. I spent *cough* dollars right off. Lacemakers was the key vendor this year. Oh wow, they stuff that they carry. In addition to tatting, they have kumihimo, knitting and two things I have never seen: Viking wire knitting and Chinese braiding. I bought a kit for the wire knitting and books for each, the wire knitting & the Chinese braiding.

I spent most of the morning talking and then classes started after lunch. I took block tatted hearts with Martha Ess. She is so nice & I had fun. I finished the Claddagh heart using filament thread and it looks really pretty.

My second class was with Karen Bovard, her split ring & padded tatting heart. Ran into a small problem with the pattern and I need to email her to find out how to get past that point.

The banquet Friday night was delicious and it was a lovely evening. Georgia Seitz auctioned off the first printing of the book that she edited of lace flowers and a chocolate cake, to raise money for the Tat Days scholarships. The scholarships pay for all or part of an attendees room and board at the convention center, fees, etc. So the tatter only has to pay for travel and for shopping. Over the weekend, enough money was raised for 3.5 scholarships.

Anitra & I didn't stay up very late after the banquet. We stayed for the lampwork bead demo. Then we enjoyed some of the tat & chat time before heading off to get some sleep. I had a headache every day but when I woke Saturday morning, I learned that I had not packed my migraine medicine. I blame Hanna for that headache.

Saturday morning was gorgeous; cool, low humidity, just so nice. There was a cheerleader group at the center (lots of kids, age 6- 15, I'd say), a Christian women's auxiliary & a family weekend (for families of children who have or had cancer), so meal times got crowded, especially lunch. Lunch was a zoo. I did get to meet Sandra and Hegla from eTatters, though.

I had Karen first thing Saturday morning and we did her Danish basket weave heart. It's a large pattern so we did not finish during class. Just before lunch, I was in Riet's crystal heart class. It's Jane Eborall's pattern and it's just so cute. I finished one heart & started another with the same thread. I almost finished the 2nd one, was on the last split ring and the thread slipped off the shuttle; but it looked like I still had enough thread to finish. I was attempting to join it to the heart when it started to shred; because the hook that would fit through the heart bead hole was so small it was catching only part of the thread. I finally just put it down.

I finished it after supper, so it just took more patience than I had at that moment. Here's the troublemaker, on my lanyard:


My Saturday afternoon was all one class; Riet again. This was enclosing a circle in tatting without actually joining to the circle. That means you can tat around a disk that doesn't have holes to use as a mobile or ohhh, maybe a pendant for a necklace that I made 10 months ago that desperately needs one. I got to the third round and Riet was really worried that her students wouldn't be satisfied since no one finished. Everyone assured her that we got enough done that we felt that we had mastered the technique.

Saturday night was when they announced the winner of the grand door prize and people traded thread & hearts. I managed to bring home fewer samples than I took. I got one of Martha's hearts. All the hearts that I got are beautiful.

Sunday was breakfast, pack up, check out & travel home. Anitra & I stopped by South of the Border for lunch. I bought a cheap folding fan that I was hoping would at least make it through 3 uses. I pulled it out this morning & it already has a loose place.

Pictures
One of the hearts that I traded (from Barbara H's pattern)


Here's some of the thread, after I had traded some:

Tatting: Today's the day; I meet Anitra & we leave for Palmetto Tat Days. I'm all packed and my GPS and phone are charged. I just need to pack my laptop. Gee, wonder why I haven't done that yet? :roll eyes:

I probably overpacked on thread and underpacked on shuttles. I will probably buy some at the vendors. No shock there.

Gaming: The game that I ran went well. It turned out that I only needed one section of the DMG*; the skill challenge part. Everything else was in the adventure. If you've read the PHB**, you can run the game. The DMG has some good info on how to run a game; which is great if you're inexperienced.'

Weather: The news is all about Hurricane Hanna. Hopefully, it won't hit here, or the convention, hard. Actually, I hope it doesn't hit anywhere hard but you know what I mean. Frankly, Hanna is only category 1. That just doesn't scare me. Ike, who's 4, that scares me a little.

I'm sure that there was more that I wanted to talk about but I'm a little distracted right now. Maybe I'll remember and post more later.

*Dungeon Masters Guide
** Players HandBook

I didn't do much yesterday, not really. Today it was my very first game of D&D 4e and Living Forgotten Realms. It was interesting. It is very, very different than 3e or 3.5e. In its favor, it is very team-oriented. Which is great, unless you have 6 individuals playing.

I played a half-elf fey-pact Warlock, from Aglarond. That improved misty step was incredibly useful, especially at getting out of the way of foes and traps. The adventure was a definite challenge. It was 6 hours of playing time and 840 experience (it's usually 3 adventures to level, and it's 1000 experience to 2^nd level).

Tomorrow, I'm running my first game of Living Forgotten Realms. I haven't even read the DMG yet, much less the Monster Manual. Tomorrow morning, I'll read the adventure and then run it in the afternoon.

I bought The Runner's Companion supplement book for Shadowrun. Mostly, I bought it for the character quiz. I'd really like to play Shadowrun again.

And next weekend I'm going to Palmetto Tat Days. Let the panicking begin. I haven't done anything to prepare. Eeeeeeeek!

TV: watched Adventure of English. I am such a geek, but it's soooo good.

Light supper last night, just me. Chris was over at his parents helping them move something & of course they fed him. I watched the first episode of Primeval. It looks like a pretty good show.

A few nights ago, I caught part of a later episode, which Chris was watching, while cleaning up the kitchen after supper. (for anyone who’s thinking ‘sexist, the man’s watching tv while the woman works in the kitchen,’ it’s not. It’s whoever didn’t cook, cleans up the kitchen).

Today’s my supervisor’s birthday. We went out to eat at a local eatery. It was a very good burger (I’m donating blood today & need the extra iron) and the sweet potato fries….yum. He doesn’t know that he’s getting a cake, too. It’s surprisingly hard to find birthday cake candles. I found some very colorful ones. Since we don’t have one for every year, we’re doing one color for the number of decades & another color for the single years.

Today, they had a fresh market thing here. I got some locally grown produce, some bean sprouts, a lemon, and a very small apple pie. I also got a reusable bag to carry it. I also will be getting a recipe for a collard dip. I don’t like collards. It’s very un-Southern of me but I just can’t stand them. This dip, very like a spinach dip, I liked.

I finished making the 3^rd 4e character this morning. I need to go back and decide what region to make her home region. I don’t want to make all my characters from the same area. My 1^st two are already from Aglarond.

I’ll be playing a game, maybe 2, of 4e this weekend. So I will finally get to try out the game. I missed the sample game that Chris ran; I think that I was still in Colorado. Or at least in Illinois.

Someone really startled me this morning. It’s raining a bit and I was crossing a side street when I saw, out from under the umbrella, a car swerve, almost like it was about to hit me and pulled aside. It turned out, it was just someone trying to get directions. Luckily, I knew where to find his destination and could point him the right way. And as he drove off, he apologized for scaring me.

Health: I have not been getting enough sleep. I keep going to bed way too late for me. Of course, then I’m exhausted on the weekend. Big surprise, huh.

Gaming: I'’ve created 2 characters in 4e D&D. One’s a half-elf fey-pact warlock & the other is a
dragonborn cleric, both from Aglarond. Rosemary found out something though, so I had to
correct the cleric’s deity. I had her worshipping Bahamut but the dragonborn don'’t really believe that Bahamut is good, they don’t trust him. So one, even one raised by elves, probably wouldn'’t worship him either.

After reading the rituals section (final chapter), I have decided the cleric’s 2nd feat (2nd level). It will have to be skill training. Because as it stands, there’s only one ritual that she can cast at 1st level. There are not any others that she can cast but there is only one 1st level spell that uses Heal, none that use Religion; of the rest, one uses Nature & the rest use Arcane. Guess what skill she’ll get training in at 2nd level. Did you guess Arcane? I knew you would. And you’'d be right.

I think I'’ll make up one character of each ‘type’; defender, leader, striker &
controller. I already have 1 leader & 1 striker. That way, if/when I play Living
Forgotten Realms, I can bring whatever type is needed to the table.

Weather: It's RAINING! Actually it's storming off & on. So far, I've managed to avoid getting soaked. I know at least two people who haven't, avoided getting soaked that is. Hopefully it will soak into the ground and start restoring some of the water table.

tatting: My watch chain broke. I tried to tat a new fob but the thread broke. It's an older thread, that plus my tight tatting and the very large ring was a recipe for disaster.

Gaming: The game on Sunday was entertaining. My character finally met her goddess, or at least her goddess's avatar; that's a thrill. There was a lot of humor found, between her teaching the little drow orphans to pray (much to the dismay of the Torm paladin, who couldn't find a reason why he should a object, just felt vaguely that he should) to the tiefling's appreciation of the Drow dancig..aaaaaand the revelation that some god had already marked the agnostic/atheist tiefling. Rosemary is still chortling about that; she won't tell him who.

Tonight we're still invading the giant's keep. We've found the artifact, sort of. We just need to fight/trick our way through several giants and some scorpion-worshiping drow. Yeah, that'll be easy.

Work: the end is in sight. I've managed to shrug off the easier part, and the data entry, onto my assistant. Now I just need to do the other stuff that's been on the backburner & get it done.

Work: spreadsheets, spreadsheets, spreadsheets. I am so sick of spreadsheets.

I got very little done today. That's no real surprise. I was so tired, just no energy.

My amazon order came early. It's the stuff that I ordered to get free delivery on Mom's present. I wasn't expecting it 'til Tuesday. That's kind of nice.

I finished creating one 4e character, a half-elf warlock. She might even done correctly. Maybe.

Have you ever cheered someone else just with a sentence or two? I did that this morning with a local police officer. I said the usual greetings and ended with, 'hey, it's Friday, TGIF.' One of the cops remarked that that reminder brightened his day. Wasn't that nice.

The sun is rising later. This morning I could look east, to see if my bus was coming, without risking damage to my eyes.

My stomach has settled down. I think. We'll see what happens in a half-hour or so when my breakfast starts really digesting.

Sometimes I hate my digestive system. It woke me up at 3 am and it's been gurgling ever since. I almost missed the bus because I just wasn't sure if I could make it to work. I drove down to the park and ride barely ahead of the bus.

My supervisor bought our lunch today. Wasn't that nice? Shame about how my system handled it. At least I got to enjoy it.

R's bedroom ceiling tried to fall in. Apparently there was some kind of leak and it was dripping. The question of Sunday's game was in doubt. Tonight's game was cancelled. I'm not sure who called in but I'm guessing that R was one.

site of the day: new variety of specialty contacts; anime eyes.

Went on a History & Mystery tour around campus yesterday. That was fun. The conditions were hot and humid, but at least we walked a lot. Seriously, the sponsors provided lots of bottled water and the three speakers were interesting. One focused on the role of African-Americans, especially slaves, in the history of the campus; one talked more about some of the myths; and the third talked about the buildings, etc.

I arranged a ride before I went. I'm glad that I did, because I so missed the last bus. I was still half the north campus away from the bus stop when the bus was scheduled to stop.

TV: I've almost caught up on the Connor Chronicles. I have only the season finale yet to watch. Maybe I'll watch that tonight. Maybe.

Work: Gaaaaah! The e-timesheet system has been driving me nuts today. It kept giving me 'cannot connect to server' errors. Logging off & back on didn't fix it. Restarting the computer didn't fix. Deleting the browser history does seem to fix it. We'll see if the fix lasts.

My student assistant is back. I immediately dropped a stack of invoices to be mailed into his lap and a notebook of old paperwork to shred into his lap. He does get a couple days without the daily reports because I need to revamp them.

Reading: I finally read a short story in Alyssa Day's Poseidon warriors series. It was in an anthology that I've had for months. I think I'm going to have to go find the first book and read it. Oh. Woe is me. Alas and alack. *snerk*

I've almost finished reading the D&D 4e PHB (for the non-gamer that equals Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition Players Handbook). I'm in the combat section. I really do need to play a game before I can truly judge the system.

I pulled out the calligraphy pen to to work on the rest of Mom's present. And realized that I hadn't washed the nib yet so it won't write. I gave Mom a recycled silk yarn scarf for the first part of her present. It's a very long, rectangle scarf of bright fuschia with bands of other colors at the ends. And one of the stripes matches an outfit that she's wearing to a wedding, so it's perfect timing, too.

I'm sitting in a corner of the student stores, in the bookshop (not textbook) section. It's got a patch of carpet surrounded by comfortable chairs and couches. Everyone is reading or working on their laptop (moi & one other person) and being careful to be quiet. Conversation is in low tones, leave to talk on the cellphone, that sort of thing. It's very pleasant.

Weekend: Saturday was a visit to a lovely bead store that regrettably is going out of business. Anitra & I stocked up. I was good though, I stayed in my budget. I also got the oil in my car changed. The mechanic was quite disapproving as my car was almost dry. ooops *blush*

Sunday, Mom came by for a visit. Too bad that it was so late that I couldn't get anything else done. I did have a nice time showing her some of my pictures.

But we did not go see movies as we had planned. 8-{

tatting: I screwed up the checkerboard doily. I am so sick of that thing. I am more than half-tempted to just simply stop. I might sew it onto something, someday, once I no longer want to throw it across the room.

Chris is so sweet. I was in a pissy mood on Saturday so he bought me an art book. It's drawing samurai & ninja manga/anime style.

It's late & I'm off to bed.

Computer games: I have a guilty secret. I bought another one (or 4) yesterday. It was one of those, buy 4 get 45% off on all of them. They are all ones that I have played the trial download & liked. I am playing them one at a time, to extend the playing pleasure I guess. Right now I'm playing Jojo's Fashion Show. It's a strategy game; put together 'looks', like Western or Surf, from the offered garments. Get points for garments that match the 'look' better, there are key words involved.

Today I'm supposed to get my new computer at work. And it's one that tracks internet usage. So I'll have to limit how much time I spend posting, etc. *sigh*

Aaaand here he is. I guess I'll just post this. I planned to write more. Oh well.

Gaming: Tough fight last night in Chris's game. The giants were pretty stock, a couple hill giants and a trio of frost giants. But they were supported by a couple Drow arcane casters. Kelis went negative (-6 hit points) but autostabilized. Then the scout and the warmage poured enough healing potions down her throat to get her to positive. By that time, the giants were dead and our group was hunting the two casters who were under the effects of a greater invisibility spell. Our cleric was sick so my druid and potions or wands was all the healing that we had. Since our cleric was gone last session, Kelis had some healing spells prep'ed. Good thing, too. She used at least one & maybe two of them, plus a mass lesser vigor. No one else went to negative hit points, but at least two others were in single digits.

Next time, we continue our search for the missing Elf relic and kill more evil giants.

Weather: it was pleasantly cool this morning. How refreshing.

TV: I found the remote last night, so we're going to put off buying a new tv, at least for a couple months. We taped the Olympic equestrian events last nigh; and I'm going to check the online schedule to record some other things, too.

site of the day: Angry Chicken, eco/hippy/treehugger but practical

Chris's game tonight. So we have to move the old tv, it's still in the middle of the living room floor. The TV died the second Wednesday that I was out of town. It was death by fire (there were flames involved).

TV: We went TV shopping this weekend. We're looking at 30" to 42" and no larger. That's the biggest that will fit the space that we have. We know what we're looking for, just shopping around for price.

Movies: Went to see Dark Knight & the 3rd Mummy movie yesterday. Dark Knight is a very good movie. It's going to be interesting to see what they do for the next one. It's going to be hard to top. They set a very high bar. Mummy was about what I expected. It's not quite as good as the first but it was a good movie.

Greyhawk Ruins: We did another two adventures on Saturday. They went pretty fast. Part of that was that we got lucky. A couple of well-placed spells really shut down the opposition.

My sunburn has finally stopped peeling. Yay?

Tatting: I worked a little more on the Checkerboard doily, from Tatters Treasure Chest. I don't think that I really like it though, pity that. I really want to work on AnneB's dragon. I just need to finish at least one project.

Doily that I gave Louise:


I've almost caught up at work. Now I'm starting the actual, current work. Again, yay?

One picture from Vacation (one of the few that looks good enough to share)

Journal: I wrote in my journal everyday on the trip. I almost finished the journal. I wrote everything from 'time & temperature when we stopped for food' to my impressions of the scenery. I'll try to add selections later. We'll see.

Work has not been a lot of fun. I had 18 voice mail messages waiting for me. One dated from the Sunday after I left. Apparently no one had the password. Of the 18, two were for the same call (got interrupted), two were for Derek, one for Mike, one in response to a call that I'd made before I left and the rest of them were for vending. Then there's all the data entry for the reports. I'm almost caught up on those. Almost.

I had my dentist appointment yesterday. And it's official. I cannot face the dentist chair without drugs. I had to delay my appointment until I got a prescription filled and had a chance to take it.

Gaming: Tonight is Mutants & Masterminds, I still don't know if Diana will be giving me a ride or not.

My stomach's been upset all day. I think it's the aftereffects from the migraine (tension induced).

Back from vacation. Lots of pictures. No time. Tired. Wrote in journal whole trip. Whee!

Halfway through vacation: and I ate something that disagreed with me.

Let's see, Saturday night a week ago was Memphis, TN. We were only there long enough to eat supper at Corky's (great barbecue) and sleep. Sunday, we reached Oklahoma City but since it was Sunday night, everything was closed.

Monday morning we toured the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and I took lots of pictures. Many of them even turned out, a few decently. Tuesday night, we reached Amarillo, Texas, where Dad's upset stomach sent him to bed early. The hotel was obviously wonderful in its day. But it has not been maintained. And they canceled breakfast with no provision or more than perfunctory apology made. The desk said that the reason was maintenance. It's possible that they were doing something in the kitchen, but there was no sign of it. I'm sure that the desk staff caught hell for something that they could do nothing about.

Kathy & I ate at the Big Texan, a place that looks like a tourist trap but has incredible steaks. They're the home of the 72 ounce steak. If you can eat it, and the trimmings (salad, roll, etc) in an hour, the whole meal is free.

Wednesday, we got to Santa Fe, New Mexico, early enough to go downtown. We went to the governor's palace and I met some of the local Native American/Indian artisans (some people prefer one term, some the other). I bought a barrette, two pairs of earrings, necklace to match one pair of earrings, pendant and a piece of pottery. I could have bought so much more. It was all just gorgeous. And everyone was so nice. The woman from whom I bought the barrette has a son at Camp LeJeune. He just came back from two tours in Iraq.

I bought some magnets for my coworkers and a hat for myself. I finally found a straw hat that I'm willing to wear in public. Naturally, it's in the cowboy style, black. Dad went back to talk to the artisans and rest his legs. Kathy & I hit the shops. We went through this wonderful art gallery. I finally understand why someone, who has the room in their house, would buy a waist-high statue for the entryway.

We ate at a rooftop cantina, Coyote Cafe. The food was good and the breeze on the roof was perfect. I am such a wimp when it comes to spicy food. The 2 on the waitress's scale of 1 to 10 was almost too much for me. It's a good thing I changed my selection. My original choice was a 3.

Thursday morning we left for Ouray, Colorado. We stopped at the Continental Divide and took pictures, both of the new sign & the older, more informative one. We had to cross the modern, 4-lane, highway to reach it.

We spotted a sign for a park, Aztec ruins, and had to stop. I can't remember if it's a National Park or a State one but oh, how neat. It's an ancient Pueblo ruin, c. 1300, I think. They've reconstructed the main kiva and you can walk through some of the housing. It was well worth the stop. We stopped by a nearby trading post as we left and I bought a bookmark. It's tatted by a woman in Farmington. I plan to give it to Kathy when we get back to NC.

We had barely reached the mountains when it started raining. The scenery was breathtaking. There were mountains all around us. The road was a mass of narrow hairpins. The sign 'shoulder drop off' was on the white line because the only shoulder was about 1000' feet down (I exaggerate, maybe, but that's certainly what it looked like). There is no guardrail so your view is completely unblocked. We finally reached the summit, Coal Bank Pass, some ten thousand plus feet elevation. Despite the cool temperatures and drizzle, we got out to look.

When we reached Red Mountain Pass, eleven thousand plus elevation, we just kept driving. Dad was very tense and did not look at any of the scenery. Occasionally there were pull-offs so that the tankers and other semis could get off the road and let the traffic that had built up behind them by.

We got to Ouray just before dusk and checked into our room. It was long and had really high beds. Literally, the bed was hip high on me. Dad had to use a stepstool to get into it. We had a second floor room and left the window open so that we could hear the river all night. By the way, Ouray is pronounced 'You-ray.' We ate at a local hotel/restaurant, former saloon. It has one of the 'faces on the barroom floors.'

The next day we went for a walk by the river and then hit downtown Ouray. I bought a lovely black leather jacket, trimmed with tan and elk bone. I also bought some beads to make into a tatted bracelet later. We had packed everything but our swimsuits before we went shopping.

That was because we decided to go to Ouray's swimming pool. It's fed by a hot spring. Ohhhh, it felt so good. The part closest to the dressing rooms was as warm as a late afternoon Miami swimming pool. You know, after it's been warmed all day in the sun. A wall, just a little higher than the water separated it from the cool and hot area. The cool area is probably close to the same temperature as a typical swimming pool and the hot area ranges from 102-106F. Mmmm. I basked in that a few times. I saw one guy swimming it but I couldn't quite bring myself to do that.

We got to talking to some locals and found out that we had come in via the Million Dollar Highway; the two worst passes in Colorado. No wonder Dad swore to never drive that way again. I also got a sunburn, mostly on my right shoulder. And guess who decided not to pack her aloe. I guess even SPF 30 wasn't enough, although if I had used the waterproof, it might have been. We were in the pool over an hour and only stopped for a quick lunch before heading for Manitou Springs.

We didn't have time for any stops, especially since it started raining again. Fortunately, the pass out of Ouray towards Colorado Springs is a lot milder (it has a guard rail for one thing) than the one by which we had entered Ouray. Our motel in Manitou Springs was a little thing, also old but well-maintained.

Friday morning it was up to Pikes Peak via cog railway at 8 am. Wow, what a ride. We had a very good conductor who was full of anecdotes and humor. I bought a windbreaker at the gift shop at the top. I only brought one jacket and Dad couldn't bear for me to use it. It's an old suit jacket that I picked up at the thrift shop but he wouldn't see the moth holes, etc and just kept saying 'it's too nice to stuff into a bag like that.' I borrowed a light knit jacket and a windbreaker from Kathy for the trip up. It was nice to wear my own jacket on the way down.

Truth to tell, a couple of the canyons were cooler than the top. I guess because there wasn't much wind and the sun was shining. What a view from the top. I think that we could see Kansas it was such a clear day.

It was another quick lunch and we headed for LaJunta. We checked in, to our hotel and at the reunion. We unpacked the car and went to the welcome barbecue. We did catch part of the rehearsal for Friday night's show and Dad ran into several people that he knew.

The show Friday night was great. They had alumni dancing as well as current Koshares. Most were in garb but some were in every day clothes. I wish I could have gotten pictures but my flash was useless.

I started laundry today, after we had breakfast at the reunion. Kathy brought me some lunch but I didn't realize until too late that there were onions on it. So I'm still doing laundry while Dad & Kathy get to go listen to the Navajo code talker. I won't talk about it because I get depressed every time.

I hope that my stomach is better in time for the banquet tonight. Speaking of which, it's time to get ready.

3rd full day of vacation: and the 3rd city, not including the original departure. I made it to Dad's & Kathy's Friday night, only about 2 hours or so late. Dad spent time packing the van & I got to bed later than comfortable for me. Which wouldn't have been so bad but we were up at 3:30 to leave Pleasant Garden by 4:30 am.

Day 1: to Memphis. It was a long day of driving, I spent most of it sleeping. I got a little reading done, a little tatting done. We had supper at Corky's. Absolutely delicious barbecue.

Day 2: to Oklahoma City. Our hotel was next door to the Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum but we got to town after it had closed. We went to supper almost next door, on the other side of the hotel. We went to County Line, a great local restaurant. It has a lot of history; shame that the overlook just 'overlooks' the hightway. You can see the dome of the capital building though.

Day 3: the next day we went to the museum. Wow, it's a great place. 3 plus hours was not enough. The Prix de West was there and we sampled that, until we ran out of time & I was suffering from over stimulation. We had lunch in their restaurant. The food was really good, I had the shepherd's pie and fruit salad (cut up fruit). I overate, just a little. I couldn't even manage to dessert, luckily the fruit was enough.

Then we left for Amarillo. Dad has an upset stomach but we managed the drive anyway. I napped a little but kept getting woken up. I did more tatting, despite some hinderances *grumble* The scenery has definitely changed.

Dad wasn't up to eating supper, so Kathy & I went alone to The Big Texan. It was a really good steak.

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.

Urban Legend: Have you ever heard the story of the lost server? The story goes that an institution had a contract to replace their servers on a rotating schedule. The company notified them that it was time to replace Server, let's call it X. Institution's IT department checks their maintenance logs & can't find a server X on it. They double check with the company, who confirms that yes they have a Server X. IT people ping the server & to their surprise they get a response. So the server does exist, but where?

They do a quick check and can't find it. In resignation, they form teams to start tagging and tracing cables, to find the server (good things those thing aren't wireless, huh). These cables sometimes go through walls and so on, too, increasing job fun. One team, in a recently renovated building, traces a cable going into a wall but can't find where it exits. As a last resort, they cut open the dry wall to see where the cable went.

There, behind the drywall, still in the plastic, protective dropcloth, is the missing server. It had been placed temporarily between to wall studs and then the workers had just drywalled over it. In all the time since the renovation, it had done its work, without requiring service, covered by a dropcloth.

Here's the kicker. I know the building where they found the server. One of my friends was on a search team, although not the one that found it. This is not an urban legend. It really happened.

Bus: I was (I counted) 36 steps from the bench at the bus stop when the bus drove by. It must have been a new driver because although the sidewalk is not right next to the road there, experienced drivers look to see if anyone is close to the stop. I know because I've had them stop for me. I got to work a little late as a result. The sad thing is, if I had walked back home and driven to a park & ride to get to work; I would have gotten to work at the same time as I did waiting for the next bus.

Gaming: Chris's game was last night. We're sticking with D&D 3.5 because switching to 4.0 would be like changing game systems entirely. One player is at the beach & another one had car problems but we continued the adventure anyway. We descended into the underground river to sneak into the giants' keep.

It was all navigating natural hazards and one character's lack of engineering knowledge. Our scout almost drowned but the one who almost drowned her, rescued her. We used an immovable rod to belay the rope to lower folks down the waterfall. Which is great, but the monk deactivated the rod early and let all the rope descend on the scout swimming downstream. She managed to cut the magic rope, making is disappear, before she drowned. The monk had consumed a fly potion so he was able fly over and grab her to finish the rescue.

My druid Kelis, 12th level now by the way, used her 2nd wild shape of the day and took the trip as a polar bear. I need to check how long she's been changed, I think she's limited to her level in hours.

More Gaming: It's Pyre of the Righteous today (Living Greyhawk). I'm playing Kayla for the first time since September. We're waiting for our 4th player, so I have time to post a little bit. I get to kill more things, cause Kayla's a barbarian.

Chris was sick yesterday so I didn't get much done. I collected my manga together, or at least a lot that I have not read yet. I cleared out the floor near the phone and that was it. Then this morning a transformer blew & we lost power for 3 hours. It came on in time for Chris & I to take showers and run to FE for me to pick up more manga.

Dream: I had a bad dream Friday night, it was not a nightmare per se, but definitely unpleasant. I remember a mechanic allied with us that I was glad that he was on our side; quasi-psychotic perhaps? I remember him shooting an attacker on a motorcycle and I could see the biker's spine sticking up out of the wound/severed torso.

Computer game: I've been playing Chocolatier and Build-a-lot. They are fun little strategy & economics games. In one you're building a chocolate empire and in the other a construction business.

Mutants & Masterminds: Since two of the players couldn't make it to the game; we had an 'annual.' That's the GM's name for a one-shot. We ended up dealing with a racist ghost/demon. It had been summoned at the end of the Civil War, as a last ditch effort. Its MO was to possess someone, until they died. Too bad the last host had been in a coma, trapping it. We had to fight it; it killed a male nurse and two of his neighbors. We managed to save the teenager that it possessed. It briefly possessed Kodachrome (after she accidentally revealed her secret id to a freelance reporter) and tried to possess Totem. Its weakness was gold. Totem and her priest trapped it in a gold inlaid ashabti. The reporter agreed to keep Melanie's/Kodachrome's secret since she saved his life.

Dream: I had a really good one last night. It was a fantasy adventure but I don't remember much. There was a princess/queen and a prince pursuing the prince's older brother, who had stolen her magic artifact/treasure. The pair had both bonded to large panthers, who were partners rather than anything subservient. The panthers chose their partners and, as usual for cats, still retained much of their independence.

Work: More unpacking today. My boss really helped. Mostly, I told him where I wanted stuff, at least more or less, and he emptied boxes. All that's left are the drawers around my desk. That will take some doing as they got re-arranged. I may have to empty & redo them.

Cause of the day



Work: Meetings are taking up most of my day today. Plus I'm trying to unpack and do all the daily stuff. Wheeee!

Weather: Another storm hit. I got home just ahead of it. No power outage this time.

Family: Kathy's mom died. She's been ill for some time but Dad's been frantic trying to reach me. Then when I called him back, my phone died.

site of the day: spoof of Bay's Batman script *shudder*

Work: the carpet people finished today. If they get my furniture put back together then I'll be moving back into my office today. Too bad I'm not dressed for it.

Clothes: I've worn new shoes for the past two days. Belgarath in the Eddings Belgarion saga wore mismatched shoes. When someone got around to asking why, he said that it was because the toes on the right shoe of that pair pinched while the heel of the other pair rubbed badly. I finally understand that. The right shoe of the pair that I wore on Monday rubbed a blister into my right heel. The left shoe of the pair that I'm wearing today rubbed along the toe joint on my left. I'm going to wear my old shoes tomorrow and I'm going to buy some moleskin. I also need to find some Scotchguard for my new white eyelet flats.

Family: despite a growly stomach and a bad t-storm I went to see Mom on Saturday. We worked on her house, plus worked on emptying a closet. She's thinning her wardrobe, based on the 'I will never wear out all that if I live to be 130 so I might as well get rid of some of it.'

When I came home Sunday night, I went to take a shower. She smokes & I wanted to get the smell out of my hair. Just as I was about to step into it...the power went out. I couldn't lay my hands on matches to light the candles that I keep in the bathroom; so I trotted downstairs to get a flashlight. I took my shower by flash & candle light. Chris was at David's running a Witch Hunter game (that apparently ate the characters & spit them out - it was harsh). I played games on my laptop until the battery got too low, sat around bored for at least 2 minutes. Despite the risks, I decided to go to B&N.

I wrote a note for Chris and then got the bright idea to call David. Chris had already left so I was going to leave a 2nd note for Chris, when the power came back on. *sigh*

Gaming: Mutants & Masterminds on Thursday. I am looking forward to it. I need to beat up something.

sight of the weekend: Coming around the on-ramp in Greensboro about 4:30 in the afternoon, I spotted a brown hare, presumably grazing in the grass, in the middle of the cloverleaf.

Movies: Wanted, Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Rush Hour 3. John J, Chris & I went to see Wanted Thursday night (just missing the rain). It was not the best movie that I have seen all year but it was a good movie and I enjoyed it. I might even be willing to buy a copy. It had a couple very good plot twists and some interesting world building.

Friday, Chris, Rosemary & I went to see Indiana Jones. There weren't very many surprises but it was a good action movie. The final ending had a big disappointment though (spoiler ahead: highlight to read: aliens? freaking interdimensional aliens?! WTF?!

Since Chris forgot to bring the zombie fluxx deck, we rented Rush Hour 3 and watched that instead, as we ate our bison hot dogs. Jackie Chan was his usual scarily marvelous self. The bit where he grabs the flag is just wild. I've seen Cirque du Soleil acrobats do that. I don't know how much longer he can keep up his action movies but I'm happy to see every one that he makes.

Weather: Just as the movie ended, the heavens opened up. Or someone uncapped the heavenly hose and sprayed the area. Either way, we got very wet running out to the car.

It rained again on Saturday. And Sunday. We're already more than halfway to our usual monthly amount of rain. And we're only a week into the month. We lost power for over an hour on Sunday. I was getting ready to give up (my laptop battery was almost gone) and go somewhere that had power when it came back on.

Family: I went to see Mom on Saturday. I was delayed, first by bad stomach juju and then by the Saturday storm. We found some shirts that I plan to take with me to Colorado; short-sleeved cotton ones to wear over tank tops. We also found some white shoes to wear so that I'm not wearing all black shoes or tennis shoes.

shopping: I also bought some black flat shoes to replace my black ~ballet shoes. I'm wearing a pair today & really wishing that I had some moleskin. I have a couple bandaids on but I think that I will be adding more before I head home. I also bought a pair of black, high heeled sandals. I think those are the first new heels that I have bought in over a decade.

But my teal silk dress really calls for heels, not flats. I need to try them on together to make certain that everything looks good together. I've been planning the outfit but it's all been in my head; teal, brushed silk spaghetti strap sheath, black nubby silk haori, black heels aaaaand I need to decide about jewelry too. Do I go black or turquoise?