Tatting & scratchies (pictures)

Here's the edging that I did. I'm not happy with how it turned out. I think that if I don't join the points, it will look better. I didn't make those picots long enough. It's an antique pattern that I found on-line. Of course, now I can't find the link.

Here's the unfinished pendant, TotusMel's cameo pendant. It needs to be ironed/pressed and it needs the central bead.

I'm going to do this one again, in perle 5 again, same thread. But I'm going to add silver beads to the outside edge.

Oh, and here's a glimpse of my arm, the 1st day of the amoxicilin reaction. By the Wednesday, my BF was making redskin jokes.

Surprise! 2 posts in 1 week

Shocking, isn't it? I'm finding politics to be particularly distressing right now. But it's spring, flowers are blooming (too bad that includes the Bradford pear trees), the sun is shining warmly, and the days are longer.

I mailed my postcard today (the one that I mentioned yesterday). It's not a crafty one that I made myself, or one showing local sites or sights, but still it's a postcard. Maybe I'll send a second one that is local or crafty. If you have some postcards, just sitting around, gathering dust, try making a little notebook/journal out of them. I've made some of these and they are so cute. Here's two from postcards that I got in Williamsburg, Va. The first one uses a ribbon to tie the pages into place. The 2nd one is stapled.

I think I have a certain nerd's (or maybe his wife's) birthday present. I think she find this book helpful; based on the blog post.
Here's a couple crafty links
This one is for simple fabric flowers, add to shirts or make pins
Fold towels to make pockets (like at fancy hotels)

And this is just neat, English spoken in different accents

Gaming: I think that I'd like to read through this; it's a simple, cliche driven game system called RISUS
I love these dice bags

I've Been Sick

I swear, I had one month without illness since October. It's been one thing after another. I had viral bronchitis from October to January. I had a month of good health before I caught a nasty cold, that turned into a sinus infection. On day 8 of the anti-biotics I got an allergic reaction, or side effect, to the amoxicilin. It was a full-body rash, an itchy rash. My face and scalp were never affected and my palms and soles were the last to be affected. It could have been worse, I could have needed an epi-pen.

I finally got my hardcopy of the Pathfinder core rulebook. I also picked up a book for Chaosium Basic Roleplaying Game; Rome: The Life and Death of the Republic. I bought it for the historical information, etc, not so much for the game info.

I'm trying to write an entry for Obsidian Portal's latest contest. It's to do a write up for a joke game; HamSTARR 2099.

Speaking of contests, Isdihara is doing a giveaway on her blog, in honor of Tatting Day (April 1st). That prize looks scrumptious. And here's one that I'd like to enter (& give the prize to my namesake)

And if you have time in the next day or two, send a postcard to cheer up a girl after surgery.

Here's a book review of a book that intrigues me. It's about members of the SCA, Society for Creative Anachronism. The book is portraits, both photographic and essay/interview, of SCA members.

Assorted linkages
And here's a neat find on Etsy. I'm so tempted by this hosiery.
Ballad of GI Joe
Stone spheres of Costa Rica
Virtual Choir, on YouTube
Political (American politics, don't say I didn't warn): Open Letter to Conservatives (with links to proof, examples)

I have been doing a little tatting, but nothing that particularly thrills me. I'm so unhappy with my current edging that I'm just tatting until I empty the shuttles. Isn't that sad.

I've gotten a couple of lovely emails recently. I don't remember if I mentioned it, but I made a couple scarves for Operation Gratitude to send to military serving overseas, usually in Afghanistan & Iraq. The recipients emailed me a thank you. Isn't that great?! One of them is even from a town not far from where I grew up. Small world, huh?

I'll try to do some more catch up (and edit the last Friday vacation post that I did, complete with photos). But not today.

quick link to craft instructions

Want to teach a kid to weave but don't want to invest a fortune into buying a loom? Or want to try it yourself? Here's instructions on making a simple loom from some dowels and a clipboard.

Colorado Vacation - Excerpt 4

Excerpts from My Colorado Vacation - Day 4

21 July ‘08

6:40 am  Light breakfast in the HoJo library. I had their cinnamon (packaged) bun and my tea, Majestic Morning. I’ll be hungry later.

Met National Guard Army guys, during breakfast. They’re in OKC for Search and Rescue Training. Very nice guys.

7:30 am All packed and ready to load car. Laptop still exiting.

8:30 am Off to the Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. I took pictures of the mural on the western wall and of our hotel (HoJo0 from the museum parking lot.

1^st pictures inside: Triptych of Yellowstone. 1 to establish size, 1 for ‘close look’ of 1 of all three. There were more triptychs in the banquet/meeting room but a meeting was about to begin so I didn’t want to take too long taking pictures. If you looked at the center painting, ‘closely’ you could see two individuals on the overlook. I overheard someone pointing them out, otherwise I would never have noticed them. They were that small.

Into the gardens: otter sculpture “Ring of Bright Water”, tiny frogs, koi, koi, Buffalo Bill, water people statue (look for dragonflies on the spears), heron statue

I took pictures of the military officer’s dress helmet and great coat. I want to show Chris but without flash, I’m not certain how well the pictures turned out.

Parade saddle: I’d love to know how much it weighs.

Canyon Princess statue and End of the Trail.

Colonel Tim McCoy, early actor in Westerns. He was an actual Army Colonel c. WWI and was fluent in multiple Native American dialects. Early Westerns (pre-Depression) frequently had real Native Americans as extras, for realism. I learned this in the Westerns in Hollywoodand TV section of the museum.

I got a little lost in the Prix de West section. It was art/sensory overload.

~12:30 pm we had lunch at the Museum restaurant. I had shepherd’s pie and fruit salad, which was cut up fresh fruit. I decided against the buffet because I wanted a light lunch. Then the food was so good that I couldn’t stop eating.

At the gift shop I bought a couple shot glasses for R’s collection and a t-shirt and a couple pins for myself. I found nothing for for anyone else.

[sticker from museum: black silhouette of cowboy with yellow bandanna and belt buckle against yellow mountain silhouetted against royal blue sky, all next to ‘National Cowboy and; Western Heritage Museum’]

This is the sticker so that they knew that we had paid to tour the museum. If you were just going to the restaurant, you got a round green and gold sticker.

101F but it’s dry. That really does make a difference. For once ‘they say’ is true.

We left the museum ~1:30 pm and I napped. Dad woke me at 2 pm because the terrain had changed.

The wheat has been harvested. It’s very flat, more pastures with cattle or a dozen horses loose in the pastures. Lots & lots of sky.

And the state troopers use SUVs.

~2:30 pm We’re paralleling Route 66. I see a lot of streambeds, arroyos?, that are dry. Is there a drought or are they seasonal?

The grain silos are huge. They are more like silo complexes.

Before the Texas border, we passed a wind farm, big wind turbines. And a dust storm, or cloud, hit us, brief and orange.

2:45 pm I saw the 2^nd, or was it 3^rd, Cherokee Trading Post. It has gas $3.69.

Canute, OK

Gas stop

I saw a truck “soil farming” but it turned out that it was just the company name.

Clouds splatter across the sky like paint flung from a brush.

4:22 pm Crossed into Texas panhandle

Don’t  see any more farms, it’s ranches. There are fewer trees, a few clumps, but they are scattered.

4:25 pm

See a barn, or shed, with murals painted on the walls. Very pretty. Wish I could have gotten a picture.

Soon after, see my first longhorns in the field.

The travel center is 100 miles inside the border, near Amarillo. No welcome center. 1^st rest stops are picnic shelters only, no bathrooms.

At the first real shelter with facilities, we stopped. I took a panorama shot from the overlook. I also took pictures of the neat picnic shelters there.

They had a warning about rattlesnakes on the doors and about fires on the notice board. The interactive windmill exhibit was not active (couldn’t turn the display model) but it had neat info.

“Miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles.”

Texas highway speed signs have a day speed and a night speed.

Near Groom, TX (~exit 110)

Leaning water tower, used to be functioning. Made to advertise a now-defunct service station. Also saw a giant cross with a life-size Jesus Journey to Cross behind gift shop [looking back at my note, I remember the water tower and the giant cross but not the rest of that].

5:45 pm Finished 4^th round of doily, despite problems. I ran out of thread 3 rings too soon, etc.

6 pm Amarillo, Ritz Airport Plaza Hotel

The Texas Travel Center closed at 5 pm.

Dad’s not feeling well, upset stomach. About 7 pm, Kathy and I went to Big Texan for supper. Kathy and Dad went there the last time they went to Colorado. The restaurant’s claim to fame is their offer;  as home of the 72 oz steak, if you can finish the whole thing, plus fixings, in an hour, they’ll pay for the meal. They charge you ahead of time, so they refund your money. Some guy finished it with 10 seconds to spare when they were there last time.

No one was trying it while Kathy and I were there.  Certainly, we didn’t. We both had the 6 oz Austin Lady cut steak. Soooo good, steak sauce would have been a sacrilege.

We hit the gift shop. I found a perfect lunchbox tin for Gretchen. Yes, I am enabling her storage container addiction. But it’s such a cute tin, the perfect size for tatting.

We came back to the hotel room and I watched Hogan’s Heroes while catching up on email, etc. Dad was feeling a little with judicious application of ginger ale and crackers.

Hotel pro’s:

Wifi

Very good towels

Cons:

No iron in the room, had to ask for it

Breakfast had been canceled with no recompense

2 lamps unplugged (of 3)

Entry light almost burned out

Alarm clock not plugged and never found an outlet for it

Once a great hotel, lobby chandeliers are gorgeous. Gift shop was closed. It has an interior garden/atria but showing signs of neglect.

Weather & donating books

We've had almost an inch of rain since midnight. No wonder we have flash flood warnings.

Oh, here's where you can donate books for Haiti literacy.

I got to bed late after the game last night. Which is mildly ironic since we managed to negotiate our way out of the big fight. The bad guy was more of a criminal than a villain and we brokered a deal; he made reparations for the damage that he had done with his video game (player"s avatars were really commiting crimes by using solid light projections). He also had to work for the government as part of his parole. However, his assets would not be seized (he had made a fortune with his MMURPG), and the government would be sort of renting his technology insteado of seizing it. Kind of caught the GM (D) on the hop. He had to extemporize the next adventure.

Recent tatting:
Here's a snowflake. I wonder how long I had it on the shuttle, just one join from completion?

And here's the 'edging'.

It's a modified Hen and Chicks pattern. (okay, so the link goes to a tatted cross, but it's based on hen and chicks, too, a bit more obviously)

Speaking of tatting, here's a whole library of antique patterns. Before you buy that CD of old patterns, check to see if they are available for free.

Two things I want to try: a fabric note with envelope and a photo kaleidoscope.

And I want to buy some bags at wrapsacks.

Tonight is Mutants and Masterminds. We miss Troll and Kodachrome (same player, 2 different character; she retired the former to the city on the moon) and um, Captain Nightlight (not the hero's name; player got job whose hours interfered with the game). We did gain two new players. The Freedom League roster is now Lady Celtic (R), The Wraith (C), Totem (me), Dr. Marvelous (N), Fury (T), & Prometheus (R2). The last two are the new characters.

Shh, don't tell my SO, but I won a signed book from Jim Hines. I say don't tell him, because it's going to be his Valentine's Day present. We don't usually do the typical candy, flowers or jewelry. For example, the first Valentine's present that he gave me was a book on how to draw manga. I was so thrilled. Even in memory, it's an 'awwwwww' moment.

Book Trailer for contest

Over at Bitten By Books, they're talking to Chris Marie Green; who's written some interesting books.

Here's a book trailer for the latest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ReLmr6MYk8

Tatting, TV & a great Haiti essay

Tat It And See is done. Heeeeere's Norman:

Short & Sweet

Short post because I really need to catch the next bus home. We got about 6" Friday & Saturday, of snow & sleet mixed. Went to supper with J on Friday, instead of going to see Avatar. By the time we left the restaurant at 8 pm, it had already accumulated about 2 inches.

When I took the trash out on Saturday, I barely made an impression in the snow/ice. Scarier, neither did my boyfriend on Sunday when he cleaned off the cars.Today, I could hear the layer of ice creek under my feet.

I had no problems getting to work because I take mass transit & the highways were completely clear. Stuff melted today, and will freeze again overnight. Plus we might get more freezing rain tomorrow night. Winter weather & how.

I only made a single, although large, motif from A Tatter's Workbook. It's more or less square in blue size 10. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I'm thinking. I need to work on Norman (Jane's TIAS).

We watched quite a bit of our recorded tv and we're still only down to about 70% on our DVR. We also watched DVD 3 & 4 of the Season 1 Two & A Half Men.

Time to go, I really don't want to be walking home any later than necessary.

(No time to do links, sorry)

TGIF & TIAS

I managed to get home at a reasonable hour last night, after gaming at Sci Fi Genre. The Living Forgotten Realms game went pretty well; we felt challenged. My character, an avenger, did her part; took damage and dealt it (striker/defender).

I forgot to show pictures of my impromptu picot gauge. Here it is, along with my progress, through day 8 of Jane's TIAS. It's a piece of paper, folded to the correct size.

This morning, I was feeling so good and so on top of things, I decided to do day 9 of the Jane's TIAs. I had no problem with the first four split rings. I was in the middle of the fifth and looking for the picot on the chain. It had disappeared; another problem with that black thread. No problem, I can see where it was. As I finagled the hook of my shuttle between two knots, everything suddenly loosened. The thread broke! Again.

For a second, I just looked at it. I said a couple impolite words and ripped the thread off the shuttles. I'll be starting the TIAS again, with different thread instead of the black.
Here's a close up of the break:

Change of subject: they're still predicting snow for tonight. At this point, they're calling for 5-7" starting between 8 pm & midnight. We'd planned to go to see Avatar tonight. Not anymore. We'll try again next week.

I've starting downloading the pdfs from DriveThruRPG's Gamer's Helping Haiti special. Wow, there's a lot of stuff.

It's been a bit of week, between migraine, work stuff, etc. I'm profoundly glad it's Friday, even if I will be trapped in my house the next day or so. I debated wearing my new snow boots but I haven't broken them in & I won't need them today. However, between tatting disaster & shoe decisions, I managed to forget my lanyard. The one that has my work id/key/food money and my bus pass. Luckily, I had some cash in my pocket, but it was not a good start to the morning.

Someday, I'll resume my Colorado posts. Just not right now.

I Pontificate, on re-reading books

There are some books that I read once and then get rid of, via Used Bookstore, Bookcrossing, whatever. There are other books that I keep around to re-read once in a blue moon. Then there are those books that I re-read over and over again. Sometimes I read them from cover to cover and other times I read selected bits.

Some of those books I no longer re-read like I used to. I've changed or perhaps I read that book one too many times.

I'm thinking about this because I've been in a funk, for quite a while now. It's been really hard for me to get into a new book, no matter how good. I haven't wanted to stretch myself to deal with an unfamiliar author or story. There have been a few exceptions but I have been turning to my old favorites a lot lately. Admittedly, that does help with my book bill (a book a day habit is expensive).

This morning I was dipping into War God's Own again. I was just in the mood for Bahzell Bahnakson. Tomorrow, I may be in the mood for Circle of Magic: Sandry's Book, or perhaps one of the In Death books will call to me siren-like, or maybe I'll dig out an old Jayne Ann Krentz.It depends on my mood and what I can reach from my stacks of books.

Why do I re-read books? I know how it ends; usually. My memory can be a bit spotty & when you read 300 books a year, more or less, they do blur together. The story isn't going to change the second time I read it (Juliet always stabs herself -oops, I hope that's not a spoiler).

I think it's like my ancestors, yours too, probably. They knew that Beowulf was going to kill Grendel (oops, another spoiler). Nonetheless, they sat by the fire and listened to the story again and again.

That's what makes the difference I suppose. Really good story telling.

I WON!

I won a TotusMel bracelet from Choklit. I'm squee'ing I'm so happy. I missed her announcement so she contacted me on Twitter. Wasn't that nice of Choklit?

Yes, I still have my migraine. Thank goodness for pain medication. I still have the headache, but unlike years ago when my only option was extra strength acetimoophen, or a relative, I am not curled in a ball in darkened room, whimpering. Yes, I have done that. My pillow hurt, it was that bad.

Rainy Morning Monday

The day started out very windy & wet. What I didn't know is that there had been high wind & tornado warnings overnight. There had even been about 2 inches of rain in 12 hours. It was lightly raining while we were at supper and it rained on the way back from the game, but it must have intensified after we got home. It was windy enough that some of our recyclables blew out of the bin. I hope that they dry out before pickup tomorrow. One oddity, I swear I could smell the sea sometimes, in the morning. I'm about 300 miles inland, so that seems a little unlikely.

My friend & I got lost on the way to meeting Chris for the movie Friday night. We got there before the movie started, but not with enough time to eat. Instead, we went out for a nice supper, not fast food. We left the restaurant at about the same time the movie would have been letting out. We're going to try again next Friday.

The next day, we went to Joe M's place for LFR (Living Forgotten Realms). Chris ran a game & a guy named Alex ran a game. We had a quick supper in between. We finally finished at about 1 am. It was a great time with some great roleplayers, but I was so tired. I played Black Raspberry Chocolate Tracks, of House Tracks for both games. She's 8th level now. She is just so entertaining to play when there're some good roleplayers at the table.

Needless to say, I was just a leeeeetle tired on Sunday. Pizza Inn, our usual pre-game lunch spot has changed. We need to go by to see if they still open at 11 am on Sunday, if not, then we aren't likely to go back there. We have time constraints, after all.

Poor R, she was running the game on about 5 hours of sleep. Plus, the incoming storms were giving her headache. We still got through some important stuff in the game. We didn't have a combat but we made progress. Joe J wasn't there, he was sick, and we didn't get so far that his character won't be able to catch up.

I didn't do much tatting. I made some white & silver butterflies. Day 9 of the TIAS came out, but I haven't started it yet.

TIAS, the weather and gaming

I just missed the bus last night, so I was working on day 6 of Jane's TIAS by streetlight. Or I tried. Both threads broke, not just the chain thread. I was disgusted by that point, so I tied in a knot and kept tatting. It won't be pretty, but it will be done. I got the point where I needed to add the bead and realized that I could not do that in the poor light. I finally finished day 6 at lunch today. I almost shredded the thread getting the bead onto the ring.

I managed to get day 7 done and was working on day 8. At one point, I was trying to make a join on ring 12 & realized I had lost a picot. It was a very small picot. Why, oh why did I choose black for my 2nd color? What was I thinking?








I finally finished day 7, but as you can see it's not pretty.

Here's part 8, done. Sort of. Sorry about the loose threads. Remember what I said about threads breaking? Here's proof.

The weather was really, really rainy last night. I had my wipers on full a few times, from the rain. There were also a couple instances in which tire spray played a role. There was a stretch of road where the lane markers pretty much disappeared. The only saving grace is that there's a median separating the two directions.

I made it to, and from, gaming last night safely. But my legs, arms and lower back ached with tension. At least my character was able to thoroughly whomp some bad guys. They were hard light constructs (ie no one alive in them) so no punch pulling, just slice, dice & whack.

Tonight a couple of us are going out to a quick supper and then on to see Avatar. It's not a 3D theater but from what I've heard you really don't want to wait for the DVD on this one. Unless you have a really big screen at home, of course.

Tomorrow, it's more LFR. I hope that I remember how. I ended up canceling the last time I had planned to play. Luckily, it's a really simple game.

Sunday, it's R's game. I've decided to enter the notes that I have as an adventure log on Obsidian Portal. That will make it easier for me to track NPCs etc.

A picture or 2, and other developments

As promised, here is a picture of the vest that I worked on this past weekend.

As you can see it has a lot of beads & embroidery.

Here is a detail of the embroidery that I fixed. Can you see what I did or where? If not, then I did it right.

The bugle bead that I did not replace is one from near the hem (you can barely see the area in the bottom of the photo, rice beads & bugle bead motifs). As you can see, it won't be too noticeable to be missing one.

Tatting: I finished the motif for my secret project (for some reason, every time I hit the quote mark key, the search function comes up *shrug*). I managed this despite 1) running out of thread on my shuttle & 2) running into a knot as I reloaded the shuttle

I started to do day 6 of Jane TIAS but my thread broke. I will need to do some retro tatting, adding a new thread & then I can continue. (still cannot use single quote mark " works though).

The weather has turned cold & rainy. At least it is not ice. Mutants & Masterminds tonight. No ice means that I will be playing. Good.

Someone else's contest & family stuff

A wonderful artist is running a contest on her blog. It's a tiered contest so I'm going to let you in on it, despite my own desparate desire to win. If she get 33 individual entries, then she offers up a $33 certificate to her etsy shop. She makes gorgious cuffs, collars, sleeve garters & earrings. See, take a look. If she gets 66 entries, the certificate goes up to $66.


Another day, another way to help Haiti

I had a nice time visiting my mom & her older sister this weekend. I pulled out my laptop to get family info. My mom & two of her sisters were brunettes, while the youngest was blonde. No one could remember what color my granddaddy's hair was before it went white, and Other Mother's hair was dark (yes, I called her Other Mother, because she was more like another mother than a grandparent; I was 5, I thought it was An Other).

I finished my Ren faire blouse. Mom and Aunt Shirley took one look and were aghast. It's kind of shapeless because, duh, I'll be wearing a bodice over it, which will provide any shaping. So yes, it hangs like a sack. I did run into one problem with using the old sheet; the machines hated it. I wasn't using industrial machines and the tight weave of the sheets did funny things to the stitch evenness. As they say, I won't be wearing it to meet the queen after all. Not a real one, anyway.

I also fixed a not-quite-antique beaded & embroidered sweater vest. (note: I need pictures of these 2 projects,don't I?). I had to replace one pearl, I let one bugle remain missing and I fixed some loose embroidery threads. It took about 10 minutes & the difference is remarkable. Mom & Aunt S were amazed. They'd been letting it sit for months, waiting for me to fix it. They didn't realize that it was so simple. Admittedly, it was simplified by Aunt S having a pearl on hand for me to use.

The weather, by the way, is remarkably warm. It started Sunday with temps in the 60's. And it was sunny. Same thing yesterday, and today. I wore a polo shirt today, atlhough there was frost on the ground this morning. My neighbor's poor pear tree though, it's put out blossoms. That won't last. We had a thunderstorm Sunday & that means that winter weather is likely in the next 11 days. It sounds like superstition but it has a scientific basis. If the conditions are right to have a thunderstorm in winter, then they're right to have 'wintery' weather (around here that's code for snow/sleet/freezing rain), too.

TIAS Day 5 & not much else

Here is Day 5 of Jane's TIAS














And here's Day 1 & 2, with Day 5 (which includes days 3 & 4)

Sign that your headache is actually a migraine. You take pain medication & your nausea disappears.

I'm off to Jacksonville, NC for a 3-day weekend. Family time. Don't have too much fun without me.

Haiti & other matters

Here are two other craft people who are doing a little something for Haiti; Shore-House Chic and Reclaimed Home. Both are running auctions, the former for a tote & the latter for a necklace, in which the winning bid goes to a charity for Haiti. Proof of donation sent to the artist has her shipping the item to the winner, at no further cost to the winner. Isn't that just nifty.

I could not find any solid Olympus #40 thread to go with the multicolor that I used for the 1st 2 days of the Jane's TIAS. Talking with A on the phone, I had the brainstorm to just start over; in a thread that did match. I found some multicolor size 10, along with a couple balls of solids color.

Here's original Day 1

And here's the new Day 1 & 2

Along with Day 3 & Day 4

I'm in a Funk

Which is soooo much fun for the people around me. Luckily, that amounts to none, right now. I'll do what I can to get out of it by the time C gets home tonight.

I'm 2 days behind on the TIAS. I suddenly realized that I don't know if I have any solid color thread the same size as the multicolor that I used. Some days it doesn't feel worthwhile to have gnawed through the straps. I have thread that might be the same size, but it's a different number, by a different company, from a different country...so I just don't know. My eye isn't good enough to see more than obvious differences.

I could moan & groan about the little things that have gone amiss today, but next to what's happening in Haiti, I have it so good it seems ridiculous to complain. By the way, if you're wondering what you can do; here are links to the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. If you have text capabilities on your phone then you can ext "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to RedCross relief efforts in Haiti ($10 posts on your bill, Std msg rates apply). Or you can text YELE to 501 501 and $5 will be donated to help those in Haiti.  

There are a lot of people doing little things (this week, $5 from each sale by this Etsy vendor goes to help Haiti)  and that will add up to a lot. And Jeri Smith is donating a copy of her book, Bad to the Bone, to the 1st 20 people who donate $15 to MSF (Doctors w/o Borders).


Speaking of 'I don't really have it bad', a friend of mine has been spending time since New Year's at hospital etc. He's the primary care giver for his mother. She's in good shape, for her age; and that's the key phrase. Anyway, she fell December 30th and broke her other hip. As a result, she was in surgery New Year's Day. Now isn't that a crappy way to spend a holiday.



I'm driving down to see Mom this weekend. She's staying with her sister at the coast and hopefully her sister from Miami has come north (kinda bad timing, temperature-wise). I have Monday off and that means I can stay 2 nights instead of just Saturday night.


My namesake has been enjoying her Wednesday presents. Although her father is not too happy about the glow in the dark (plastic of course) scimitar. She's not quite old enough for live steel, although she should get her own pocketknife soon, IMHO.


I've been reading The Double Daring Book for Girls. I wish I'd had this when I was kid. As it is, I'm sorry, niece, I'm keeping this copy. I've already used one bit to use an old map (instead of a paper grocery bag) to make a book cover. I'd forgotten how to do that, which seems a pity, because it's soooo easy.


I'm worried (not in a tear-my-hair-out stress and panic way) about my iPod mini. It's 5 years old, or maybe more, years old and I think that battery is on its last legs. I had it fully charged yesterday but it only lasted through about 5 songs this morning and died. Maybe, just maybe, I had it accidentally turned on in my coat pocket. I'll keep better track tonight and we'll see.


No pictures today. Maybe in my next post.