Great Weekend
On Saturday, I was driving down to see Felicia *wave hi* and I was about 15 minutes away when I got hit by rain. Not just any rain; this was a frog strangler.

Ever been in a summer Southern (US) storm? People do pull off to the side of the road to wait for it to weaken or pass. Some just slow down and turn on their hazard lights.

If you've never been in one, you may think, 'how silly, it's just a little rain.' Which just goes to show, you've never experienced one.

The road is a 65mph highway, 4 lanes on my side at the point where I got hit by the rain. Of course, that means that many people drive 75 mph, although you could occasionally find some doing 60 mph in the slow lane.

The sky darkened as the clouds rolled in. You could see the haze of the rain as it advanced toward us.

Then it hit. Soon, I had my wipers going full speed and I had slowed down to 30 mph; felt like I was speeding. I was profoundly thankful for the car in front of me. By following its hazard lights, I was probably still on the road, and in my lane. The sheets of rain on my windshield kept the lights blurry, despite my wipers whipping back and forth.

Sometimes the rain would let up, just a bit, enough to see the highway signs or for the wipers to actually clear my windshield. Then another wall of rain would hit and I'd be hoping that the car in front of me wasn't going to take an exit ramp any time soon. Luckily, those downpours don't last for long. It only seemed like forever.

Visit: Felicia & I had a nice time, talking over lunch. I certainly hope it's not another 23 years before we do it again. I'd forgotten how much I like her.

In the evening, Chris, Rosemary & I went to meet with Irene, et al. She lives on the West Coast, too. She emailed a bunch of people, whom she'd met at different times in her life (1st grade friend to me whom she met in college), to all get together for supper. We ended up going to an Ethiopian restaurant. It's been years since I've been to one. The food was great, although much of it was too spicy for my palate. Of course, that's why the injera (sourdough flatbread - kind of like a cross between a pancake & bread) is so important. You need it to ease the burn of the capsaicin.

Gaming: Sunday was Rosemary's game. We didn't have the technical difficulties this time; that made things a lot smoother. She also felt better about challenging us. She made the arcane in the patrols a warmage, instead of a wizard. That made the fire shields (spell that hurts the attacker who lands a blow on whomever it is cast upon) really, really dangerous for our characters. A wizard's version does X amount of damage, call it an average of 8 pts of damage (vs characters who can take 60 - 100 points). The warmage's version was doing a minimum of 23.

Thursday I'll be in an LFR game. I know which character I'll be playing & where I'll be playing & that's it.

Family: I'm going to see Mom this weekend. The local tatters are getting together on Sunday, so I'll do the Friday/Saturday thing. My dad leaves tomorrow, with his closest cousin, to go 'home' to visit graveyards. I finally found grandmother(his mother)'s grandmother's grave, Henrietta Marshall Sentiff. She's not buried with her husband so she was a little hard to find. I would like to thank the Illinois Genealogy Society for the material that they have posted. I would not have found her without them.

I'm trying to write my letters (to aunts, et al). I've only done 2.5. I just need to sit down & do it.

Weather, health & stuff...
I was originally scheduled to go see my mom this weekend. Chris got some bad (but not dire) health news & wanted me to stick around. An old high school friend (at our age, it's getting to the 'old' friend stage) is in town (60 miles away counts, right) from California & I wanted to see her, too.

Mom forgot that I was coming & was planning to go visit her sister. She went on and we rescheduled our visit.

Aaand I got Chris's cold that he had Tuesday. It wasn't horrid, just tired, felt lousy & mild fever. But, oh the joy, I had a migraine on top of it. Needless to say, the only thing that got done this weekend was napping. And some tv watching. I wonder if all the weather fronts moving through had anything to do with it?

On the bright side, I won some Julia Quinn (who looks younger than I thought) books from a contest & they arrived on Friday. Whee! Much happiness! I've already read 2 of them. Yeah, I've read them before, but I enjoyed them anyway.

And we had a real frog-drowner of a t-storm yesterday. It just pounded the windows. I was glad to be indoors.

Gaming: I'm still reading Starblazers Adventures but it has a group character creation format, which I can't do alone. I borrowed Chris's copy of Victoriana (2nd ed) to read. I'm still in the setting section. It's alternate history Great Britain in 1867. There are elves, dwarves, etc as well as magic and science. The US Civil War has not started and the Crimean War continues.

Thursday is our Mutants & Masterminds game, per usual; and Sunday is Rosemary's game, Forgotten Realms setting of D&D 3.5e.

I hope this is not menopause
It's a little early, but not too early for me to be starting menopause. But frankly, I feel like I am having PMS 28 days a month. I expect menopause may be *ahem* less than fun; but if this is a preview, then it will be hell. For me & for everyone around me.

Tatting: I've been working on my edging, from Big Book of Tatting. I'm only on the 2nd side, with the 1st side being incomplete. At least, with Carol's help, I managed that [expletive deleted] corner. It's the green & white edging on p 10. Except I'm doing it in variegated brown to go with my handkerchief.

I've been hoping & wishing but it's official. I won't be going to Palmetto Tat Days this year. Maybe next year. I even had a potential ride lined up.

Gaming: Sunday's game was delayed due to internet problems. Actually, it was due to laptop problems. Richard got them straightened out enough for Mike to tele-game as usual. We managed to get through one fight & dropped straight into the next one, overlapping a little. Ooops.

Thursday's Mutants & Masterminds went pretty well. We were a little miffed, cause we were defending the mob from an evil, okay amoral, super. I think that we did get some evidence to prosecute the mob guys, at least.

Tonight I'll be playing LFR at Sci Fi Genre. I had almost forgotten that I had signed up. It's my 3rd time playing this adventure. It's okay, I have at least one, maybe 2 characters of the right level who haven't played it.

I bought a new game book on Sunday, Starblazers Adventures. It has no connection to the anime, originally called Battleship Yamato. It's actually based on a British comic. The game book is huge, think biology textbook-sized.

I'm hoping that my copy of Victoriana & Shadowrun 20th anniversary edition both come in soon. Yes, I'm antsy, why do you ask?

Weather was so hot Monday & Tuesday that I wore a skirt. Yes, that is unusual for me.

Temperamental Me
Ever had a day, or a span of time (a second, a minute, an hour, a week, whatever), when what you really wanted to do was throw a full-blown, screaming hissy fit? Or is that just me? Maybe you're asking, 'Arlene, what has put you in such a foul mood?'

To which the answer is, 'I have very little idea.' There have been the usual picayune annoyances (oh, the reports are ready today? Already? Do I have enough of the right kind of paper to print them?/too many late nights/stomach just a little unsettled/etc, etc). However, there has been nothing so major as to bring on that reaction. So, I stifle it. Because I'm an adult and there are certain social expectations regarding 'adult behavior' as well as cultural expectations of appropriate behavior. Ugh.

And I am left with the unfilled urge to scream, stomp my foot and in other ways act like a brat. I am looking for suggestions on what I can do to sublimate this. I'm afraid to pick up my tatting in this mood. I might throw it across the room in frustration, risking a broken shuttle; or at least a dented wall.

Weekend with Mom
I'm off to see Mom this weekend. I'll drive down tonight & come back on Sunday. I need to make certain that I have the things for her; chopsticks, video tape, etc.


I started this on Friday...you see how far I got.

Anyway, the visit would have gone pretty well; the traffic wasn't too icky and although I got there later than I planned, I made it before full dark. Saturday morning, over breakfast, I was bragging that I hardly ever get migraines anymore. Yeah, I know, mistake. Guess what hit me that afternoon. There went 4 hours, asleep, with something over my eyes as even the light coming through my eyelids was too much. At least I didn't reach the sound sensitive stage too.

Neat family stories: my mom's oldest sister went to lots of dances, with two dates every time. She had one date for the slow dances & another one for the fast ones. She taught Mom how to jitterbug.

Mom grew up in Havelock, NC; near Cherry Point. Somehow they got hold of a defective parachute and they (grandmother et al) made a skirt for that aunt from it. It had so many yards of fabric that they had to cover a leather belt to hold the fullness.

The first gift the man who would become her husband gave her was a rifle. He also taught her to shoot.

Mom loved her in-laws. Both families got along great. Dad's older sister is eerily similar to Mom's oldest sister & Dad's step-sister eerily reminiscent of the sister immediately older than mom (I mean, both married pharmacists, who both owned drugstores; both women helped their husband in the store on occasion, and both never left the house without looking like they'd just come out of a salon).

Had to start back too early on Sunday but I had a cushion of time to get gas. That turned out to only take half as long as I thought it would. So I had plenty of time to wash my hair before Sunday's activities (love my mom, hate the smell of cigarette smoke).

Gaming: We had a great time playing Shadowrun. Too bad Mike couldn't make it. He was suffering, both from illness and from massive guilt (for not making it). It was kind of funny, none of us really knew what we were doing. I was the only one who had even played 4th edition Shadowrun. I think the gm & I were the only ones who had read the rules. I found a great character dossier thing; too bad it looks like it's for 3rd edition. I may be able to use it anyway. I'm going to try.

The conversations were great, during & after. I love geek convo's. Where else can the talk range from the direct to DVD Wonderwoman cartoon to the casting of the Green Hornet movie, the success/failure of modern Pulp era movies, & the history of Charlie Chan. And that's just a sampling.

I did see the oddest tanline on Sunday. Older gent who obviously usually wears socks; from mid-calf down he was about as white as I am. Then toasty brown until just about his knees, then variable brown up to the hem of his shorts. It was kind of like a tan-line trainwreck. It was hard to pull your eyes away from the horror.

More Gaming: They were short of GM's at the local gamestore for Thursday's Living Forgotten Realms. So I volunteered to run. That gives me 2 days to read, research & know what I'm doing. Frankly, I'm okay with missing playing a game. LFR just doesn't grab me like LG or some of the other "living" campaigns have.

Tatting: I've been working a little on that new edging for my hankie. I should take a picture and post it. It's variegated brown & the pattern is from the same tatting book that I got the last edging from. If I get stuff done, I'll edit this post with the exact pattern & maybe a picture.

I also added the button for TattingChic's 50,000 visitor giveaway. I wasn't going to enter but I have a friend who'd like to learn and this would help her.

Tatting Pictures, Finally!


Here's the brown edging that I did. It's from the Big Book of Tatting by Darlene Polachic. It's the white trefoil edging on p. 9. That's also the label from the thread, a ball that I picked up at a thrift shop.


And here's the purple & white scrunchy. I forgot to pack it this weekend. I don't know what I'm going to tat when I'm brain dead.

Long, Long Trip
With bathroom & lunch breaks, we expected to reach our hotel around 4pm. We got here about 7 pm. Yeah, we hit traffic that bad. One was 45 minutes or so for an accident. It was a single car and the people were standing around (with a police officer), so no one was hurt it looked like. It just backed up traffic.

I've finished my Shadowrun Missions character. Chris's spreadsheet really helped. It did the math for me. Now I just have to translate it to paper. It took longer than I expected.

Last night's LFR game ran long, too. We played high and we barely squeaked by in a couple places. It was nice to see my avenger be useful and we got some actual role playing in (Rosemary was playing her tiefling who came forward in time through a portal, our PCs were kids about the same time, but now mine's really old and hers is still young).

I didn't get any useful tatting done. I don't know if it's because I was tired (1/2 required sleep) or what. I only managed to sleep an hour on the way down. That's unusual for me.

We had a great supper at Pappadeaux. And most of us have leftovers. It was a lot of food; especially since we all wanted dessert, too.

As soon as I wrap up a couple things, I'm off to bed.

Gaming This Weekend
I'll be playing quite a bit of Living Forgotten Realms and one session of Shadowrun Missions. The Witch Hunter game was cancelled because everybody (but me & one other guy) had already played what was being offered (not a lot of selection right now).

Problem: I haven't finished writing my Shadowrun character. I still need gear, cyberware & contacts. Making these decisions is hard; I'm not certain what to expect or what to prepare for.

We played on Sunday and it ran a little late. Even though it took 'just a little long', it was fun. My "drow" is now 5th level. I need to do the progression on her, since I'll be playing her this weekend.

Tatting: Did I mention that I missed a picot join on Your Grape Big Heart and had to start over? I have started over and fortunately tatting over threads really doesn't show in size 80 thread. Now I only have 5 more rings until the next stage. At least it's looking good.

I did the finishing work on the bookmark for Melinda. She seemed to really like it.

I forgot the good deed
While talking to one of the tea people, she noticed my bracelet & I told her where I'd gotten it. She'd never heard of hungersite.com, ecologyfund.com, care2.com or Kiva.org. I told her about them and she wrote them down. So I've spread the word, and she'll tell other people.

Good Deeds & Tea
Chris & Rosemary took me to use the gift certificate for tea that she gave me for my birthday. First, we stopped by Natural Neighbors & I bought some lavender pump soap. She also gave me a sliver of soap in a small baggie, to try as an alternative to using commercial handsoaps. It does work, sort of. But I still want to try soap powder or flakes.

On our way to Tea-rific Spices, I stopped to finally get my glasses fixed. The nose pads have been slowly disintegrating, exposing the hard plastic skeleton, so they really needed to be replaced.

Once we got to the tea shop, I ordered some iced herbal tea while Rosemary had a cold fruity tea, raspberry I think, and Chris had some other iced tea. I bought a tea strainer and three teas with my gift certificate. They were out of the Peach white tea that I wanted, so I got some Pai-mu-tan, another white tea instead. I also got a nice vanilla chai for a wake up tea and something called mango mate.

I had some of the Pai-mu-tan last night & this morning. It's great iced, too. I brewed some and chilled it in the fridge to drink this morning.

After shopping and lunch yesterday we went went to see Monsters Vs. Aliens. It was an entertaining movie. I definitely liked Susan, and even Bob was kind of cute, in a brainless kind of way.

GAMING:
Saturday's game went well. At least I made it a little challenging for the players. I took one person down to negative hit points and had at least a couple people bloody every fight. I haven't reported it yet, but I will as soon as I find my notes.

after gaming cookout/holiday party:
Rosemary's house got a little crowded with everyone but we had fun, talking and eating. Since I only had one burger, I had enough room for watermelon & ice cream afterwards. It would have been a shame to miss anything. Mya had a hot dog. She's 2 and a half now and I had fun occasionally confusing her by asking her if she could say 'no.' Or not say 'no'.

Holiday Tomorrow!
From work, anyway. Saturday, of course, is the actual Independence Day. I am profoundly relieved. I feel a great need for a vacation.

I have a couple errands to run and other than that, well, some household chores.

Tonight, at one point I looked up and said, 'is the AC running rough, or is that rain?' It was rain, heavy rain. Finally. After rain threatening scattered showers for a week, we finally got some. I don't know if my plants got any or not, though.

I feel like I had something to say. But now I can't remember what. Ah well.

Murder of Crows
I saw it again yesterday. I think that if I lived in one of the places that they've been around so regularly, I'd be worried. 6 crows is enough for a murder, right?

I was running late so I drove to the nearest park & ride to catch my bus yesterday. I'm glad that I did. A couple of the other people already there, pointed out a rainbow overhead. I just don't see enough of those, so the opportunity to see one shouldn't be missed.

I got another 2 rings done in Your Grape Big Heart. I do tat slower with size 80 thread.

I learned a lesson last night. No more watching episodes of Harper's Island while I'm alone in the house. It's just too creepy.

Met someone interesting at lunch yesterday. His vocation is with Fisher Scientific, but his avocation is storytelling. We had a nice discussion while I ate. He's still in the area, so I'm going to try to meet him for lunch today.

My attempt to cut down on soda is not going so well. Ah me, habits can be hard to break. If I brew the tea the night before, I'm more likely to drink it chilled the next morning. However, I have to remember to brew it.

Weekend plans: Tonight I'm playing an LFR adventure. I don't remember which one. Saturday, I'm running one and then we're having buffalo burgers on the grill. These will be Chris's stuffed burgers, with the 'toppings' inside the burger. They are so nummy. And Sunday I'm going to try to donate platelets at noon. Wish me luck with that.

Me Love AC
Yesterday's game got cut short when Rosemary's AC froze up. It was still cool, but it was dripping water into her closet. Those who could, stuck around 'til it got repaired. Luckily, it was under warranty so she didn't have a huge bill.

It's really good that she got it fixed. It's supposed to hit mid-90's again today.

Unfortunately, it took long enough that it meant that supper was at 9 pm and we did not get back until almost 11 pm. No stop off at B&N to pick up my ordered book. Ah well, these things happen.

The game was going okay. We stopped right before another fight started. It's going to be an ugly fight. They know that we are coming and they include a very ugly looking undead.

Saturday night I went to Quail Ridge Books. Jaye Wells was there, giving a talk on being published. I had mentioned it to Toni on Thursday so she & Rick were there, too. It was a good talk, very interesting. It was also nice to meet Jaye and I got her to sign a copy of her book for me.

Afterwards, Chris & tried a new restaurant, The Flying Biscuit. If Jaye was still in Raleigh, I would have recommended that she try it (assuming that she had not already).

I've gotten the letters written to my aunts, niece & namesake. Now to get them mailed. I used a pack of notecards with quilts on them.

I picked up two new manga on Sunday (before gaming). Since they're doing all that roadwork in front of FE (the road was completely blocked one day), Rick (different one) has had a a bad week. The one doesn't have anything to do with other but it made me glad that I paid for everything in my bag.

Plans are underway for the weekend. LFR and cook-out at Rosemary's on Saturday. I'm running so I need to finish reading the mod. It's low-level and D&D 4e is really easy to run, so I'm not really stressing about it.

Poor Snead's Ferry (small Onslow Co town at the coast). They don't have enough money in their budget to pay for a fireworks show this Independence Day.

Odds & Ends
Triangle Tatters met on Saturday. We had two new people; new to us & fairly new to tatting. They're in an on-line tatting class and were thrilled to find local tatters. I finished the brown edging (I ran out of thread) & finished the tatting on Melinda's bookmark. I need to do the finishing work though; tending loose edges, etc. Luckily, since it's butterflies & flowers, that just leaves the ends on the flowers to hide.

I started something new, the grape heart from Martha's Tat's Amore. I have some lovely variegated purple, pale purple & pale green in size 80 to use. I'm on the 3rd ring & I've made 2 mistakes on it. The first mistake was from not reading the pattern closely enough. The other mistake is from not paying enough attention. I haven't closed the ring yet, so I just need to untie the knots & re-tat it, correctly.

I'm going to miss next month's meeting at Katie's house. I'll be in Georgia. Oh well.

I finished book 8 of the Stephanie Plum series. They really are good.

I'm reading the book that Richard & Kathy gave me for my birthday: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. I'm going to need to re-read Pride & Prejudice after this. And possibly Seducing Mr. Darcy.

It's been hot, seasonably so for the season, around 70F at 7am and reaching almost 90F in the afternoon. We haven't had more than scattered showers, though.

Dad had an appointment in Durham last Thursday, so I met Kathy & him at the mall with the Our History display. I showed it to them, especially 'my' images. We had Chinese food for supper & then they headed home. He liked his Father's Day present: Voices of Valor. When I called him on Sunday he said that he's been flipping through it and really enjoying it.

Next month, Diana and Colt move to Tennessee. I'll miss them. She might, depending on her schedule, be able to tele-game once in awhile.

Also next month, Richard is being sent to Japan for some training thing. I told him that I was already starting my shopping list. I was kidding. But if he brought a tatting book back for me I wouldn't say no to it.

Morning Oddities
So humid that my glasses fogged, after I'd been walking for a couple minutes, not as soon as I stepped out of the AC.
Someone took out a light pole, and the front end of their SUV, near my house. I don't think anyone was hurt because I saw two people filling out paperwork for the tow truck.
The bus windows were open and it was so humid that water had condensed on the handles and grips.

I had a very annoying phone call. The guy was so busy telling me what he wanted me do to help him that I couldn't get a word in edgewise about what I could do for him.

I got Dad's present wrapped. I suddenly realized that we had no non-kiddie/non-Christmas paper in the house & no bag the right size. I bought him a book about D-Day, it includes two cd's of oral histories of the day. I hope that he likes it.

One of the IT guys reads romances, I think. He recognized the title of the Krentz book I just finished re-reading. Or he mistook it for something else. One or 'tother.

Wildlife sightings
I don't know who was more startled this morning, me, or the rabbit running towards me. It was just hopping along the sidewalk towards me. As it neared me, it veered off into the trees.

My follow-up doctor visit was today. Not fun or comfortable but unless there's something wrong, I'm done with that for a year.

Dad has a doctor visit of his own on Thursday. He's going to be in the area so we'll have supper here in this area. I want to show him the display, my 15 seconds of fame.

I managed to scratch my left thumb on the joint, enough to draw blood. It really, really stings.

I'm about halfway round on my scrunchy. I had a long wait at the doctor's office. I showed someone else waiting; she had never seen anyone tat before.

I feel sick but my thermometer disagrees
I woke up with chills and sweats and full-body aches but when I measured my temp a few minutes ago, I was a comfortable 98.5F. So apparently, I'm a hypochondriac. Of course, I did take some aspirin. I'll call Rosemary and ask how comfortable she feels about~sicky at the table.

My 15 seconds of fame

I finally saw the season finale of Dollhouse. It rocked.

The DVD player decided to give me fits yesterday. I wanted to watch an episode of The Shadow (a movie serial, I think) but it skipped around, making an hour+ movie about 5 minutes long.

Been Very Busy
Animazement (manga & anime convention), ConCarolinas (sci fi/fantasy/speculative fiction/media/gaming convention), weekend with mom, and everything in between.

Animazement went pretty well. I ran three games of Jadeclaw, played one and played Qin. Chris bought me a skirt as a slightly early birthday present. It's a great skirt; floor length, double ruffle, fully lined, high-waisted, zipper closure on the side, cinch lacing in the back & double drawstring in the back for a faux-bustle. I now have the right skirt to make my Susan Sto Helit costume. I just need blouse, vest, lock of black hair & to make an omega cameo pin.

Memorial Day we went to see the Star Trek movie and then to Red Lobster for my birthday. It was a nice time.

It was a short week as I took Friday off to go to ConCarolinas. I played Witch Hunter & Living Forgotten Realms all weekend. I started a variegated purple scruncy, perfect for sleep-deprived tatters. I got to see Nina & Gwen again (saw them at Animazement). Mitra made it to the convention, too and we got a little time to talk.

It was a beautiful hotel and while it was expensive, they treated us like we were paying a lot of money, too. Rosemary needed foam pillow and mentioned it as we were checking in. When we reached the room, there was someone arriving with the pillow at the same time. That's good service.

I was so tired when we came home that I went directly to sleep. Alas, that means that I missed a phone call that I was expecting.

I spent the evenings looking at laptops online. Thursday I checked the options locally and Friday I bought a new laptop. It was more expensive that I expected, but I bought the insurance and a couple software programs. Alas, I caved, I bought MS Office. *weep*

Saturday I drove down to see Mom but she decided to put off doing the laptop thing. She wouldn't even go with me to look at ISP options. I left her with the assignment to look up her options and get one before I go back in July.

Last night was our Mutants & Masterminds game. We continued with the 2 new players. They will be an interesting addition to the game.

I have been tatting the brown edging that I started at the Harmony Hall Heritage Day. I'm almost out of thread. What I have left is on a thread winder. So I need to unwind it and add more to the shuttle. I decided to put that off and returned to the scrunchy.

I've had three meetings this week at work. Now here's the scary part. All three have been productive &/or useful. Frightening, huh?

Yesterday, we had a celebratory lunch for Angela. She turned 50 on Sunday. I gave her some coffee from Boca Java and Tommy baked her a black icing cake. It was nummy.

Blog experiment
Blogging while dosed with painkillers, and sleep-deprived. Thanks to my toothache (the one that woke me Sunday), I had 4 hours of sleep last night (8 restless Tues, and ~6ish on Sunday). It got so bad yesterday; my ear started hurting; that I called and got my appointment moved up. I have a great dentist.

I took what I needed to get to the app't. Dentists stress me almost to the point of panic attacks and I need drugs to take the edge off so that I can go. I had no brekkers so it was empty stomach. When Chris saw me staggering to my car, he decided that I should not be driving. So he drove me. He was not able to call his work because our phone's out. He was 'a little late.' I got back home at 11 am and still had to grab lunch and get my pain pills. So I emailed my boss that I wasn't coming in. I don't think that he was surprised. I hoped that I'd make it but this root canal just took it out of me.

I had stuff that I was going to write about. I don't remember what though. I messed up my "Bill" edging. I finally just cut that ring & I'll work in a new thread. Theshuttle is almsot empty anyway.

I've been want to go to sleep but the phone people might be senind gsomeone out. I don't think that I care anymore.

good blog for GMs: Gnome Stew

Neat shows: Time Warp & Deadliest Warrior. I don't always agree with some of the statements made in the latter. But it's still a neat show.

Memories
Despite the length of the trip (left home at 11 am, made it to the site about 4 pm, with a brief stop for lunch), the service was nice. Since Bill was such an avid nature lover, it was held outdoors on Pamlico River, or one of its tributaries. We stood around, with Bill's battered hat and a picture of him, uncharacteristically in a Santa hat. Bill, due in part to his size and shape, bore an uncanny resemblance to that famous fat man, which only grew as his hair and beard whitened. As a result, he would not wear a Santa hat & was in fact reluctant to wear a red shirt after Halloween.

We stood around and talked for at least two hours. It was very appropriate. We shared stories of funny things he had said and done; aid that he had given; glares he had dispensed; and some new thing that he had introduced us to.

Chris & I finally got home about 12:30 and it was one am before I made it to bed. Then a toothache woke me at 4 am. I finally got back to bed at 9:30 am. So I had 15 minutes to nap before I had to get up & about my day.

I was supposed to go to a tatting seminar/class this past weekend. Sorry as I was to miss it, this memorial came first. We had five, until we picked up Cameron in Goldsboro, in the van on the way down & back. We talked, a little about Bill but also a little about the sort of thing he would talk about.

I tatted, a nice edging in variegated blue & white size 10. I tatted during the service, too. Since Bill was the one who taught me to tat, it was appropriate.

Aw shoot, I'm getting all weepy again.