Sad News: I have just learned that Eartha Kitt died. I never knew her, but I was a fan of her work.

Work has been so boring. Without many people around, I just have a lot less to do. The buses have even been running on time. Ah well, that will change next week when things pick up again.

Thursday, I'll be playing more Living Forgotten Realms. Friday, I'll be shopping again; picking up a few last presents. Then that night, Chris & I are off to the annual party.

Chris insisted I watch Hot Fuzz. Man, I really enjoyed that movie. It was a little slow to start but it was very funny. It's good enough to watch again.

Gaming: By the way, Menace of the Icy Spire (Living Forgotten Realms) is rough with only 4 players. We survived, barely. That does mean that it took a little longer. That first fight was the roughest (14 rounds of combat, with only one opponent on either side for the last 2 or 3).

On the bright side, my dragonborn cleric is now 3rd level. On the dark side, that means that she's too high to play Spellguard. I now have 2 third-level characters and three 1st level. Sigh. Whoops. I'd better play a 1st level character to get her to 2nd.

There's some bad news on the gaming front. Lost Goblin is closing its doors Wednesday. It's another victim of the crappy economy.

Family: Breakfast this morning with Chris's parents, and sister-in-law and niece. I felt a little sorry for the niece. She was probably bored silly.

After breakfast, we went to the grocery store. Finally. We've only been stopping by, 'to pick up one or two things,' for months. We got some of the staple items today. Then off to Best Buy for Chris to spend his gift cards.

I bought a game for myself; Polly Pride: Pet Detective ($10, whee). It's another find the hidden items game, with a variety of mini-games.

And tomorrow it's off to work again. I am not looking forward to it.

Gaming: We're worried about Diana. She never came to gaming last night & she didn't call or email. That is very unlike her. She didn't answer her cell or her home phone (okay, sometimes she doesn't do that, but still). Hopefully she'll be at the game this afternoon and we'll find out that she's okay.

The game (4e D&D) itself went pretty well last night, but that penultimate fight got kind of rough. Half the group was bloodied by the time it was over and everyone had used their encounter healing. We even took a long rest before dealing with the final encounter. My cleric is 2nd level now and I plan to play her again today.

I'm off to see my friend, Mitra. She's in town this weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing her. We're meeting at the bookstore nearby.

Crafts: I've made another cotton potholder. I need to make another one & I'll be done, for now. It's also blue & white. I suppose I should take a picture..but how interesting is a potholder after all?

Christmas-y stuff: One thing that I forgot to mention about the drive home from Dad's. One of his near neighbor's has those cement deer in his yard, three of them. As I was making the turn, sweeping my headlights over those cement deer, the fourth one leapt away and into the darkness.

Mom got off work early on Wednesday so I drove down to her place Christmas Eve. I still haven't found her present, but she's okay if it's late. We spent Christmas Day watching my Mae West movies, John Wayne movies and Casablanca (which I had never watched all the way through before). We also spent time sorting mom's stuff into 'keep' and 'give away' piles. The give away stuff went out to her car, so it's really ready to give away.

We got up really early this morning and went out to breakfast before Mom went to work. I drove home, unsurprisingly traffic was pretty light. When I got home my smoky stuff went into the washing machine & I washed my hair. I love my mom; I do not love the smell of cigarette smoke.

Instead of baking the Amish friendship bread, I split it up & gave two of the starter bags to my neighbors, along with a woven potholder. I still have two neighbor presents left to give. I have enough loops to make at least two more potholders, thank goodness.

This afternoon, Chris is running a Living Forgotten Realm game; Barrow of the Ogre King at David M's house. Joe is riding with us, saves gas.

Movies: The Bachelor Mother is one of my favorite Christmas movies. It's just so funny. I could see it really well because Chris went and got the new tv last night.

We'd been talking about it since the last one died in July but we had a workable one (that Dad gave me last year) so just couldn't bring ourselves to do it. Then a friend of ours had her tv die and frankly, it's her 3rd breakdown (equipment-wise) this year. So she gets the workable tv and Chris bought a new flatscreen LCD 40". It was really eye-opening.

Christmas stuff: Went to see Dad et al on Sunday. I forgot to take dessert though. *sigh* I remembered Friday & forgot afterward. I was late because just as I was about to leave, I dropped an open 2-liter bottle of soda. That took half-an-hour to clean up, it would have taken less if I'd remembered my sham-wow. Chris did remember & when he got home he finished cleaning up the soda. I'm just glad that it was diet. It reduces the stickiness; a little.

The presents that I gave mostly went over well. The block of initial post-it's went over really, really well (much to my bafflement). So did the cellphone charm (hers had just broken recently & the one that I got went well with the phone bling). Hopefully she'll read the copy of Good Omens that I gave her. She needs to read more.

Dad loved both parts of his present. Since I didn't get the information to Mike in time (to have the Koshare album made), I went & bought a photo album with the Marine Corps emblem.

That was part 1. Part 2 is for me to spend the weekend with Dad as we go through & set up the photo album/memory book. He is to pull photos and I'll put the pages together. I got a pad of Marine paper, US emblems and other additives; plus a strip of palm trees. That last is because he was stationed at 29 Palms. I may have to cut the strip to get 29, but I think that it will work.

Kathy liked her pendant, which is good since I've had it September, the same time that I got the cell phone charm. I'm uncertain about how she liked the book of knitted bags.

I need to go get Mike's present & mom's present today. It was just so cold yesterday that I couldn't make myself go out.

I have been reading a lot. I've read the 1st two Stephanie Plum books and about three other books.

Weather: 3rd day of fog. Whee. How very...seasonal. Somewhere.

Chris made me almost squee today. He gave me the final present from him; Manga: the Monster Book of Manga Girls. Of the presents from co-workers, one and only one has not been chocolate-based food. One person just came back from visiting Hershey so that really should not have been a surprise. Actually, I lie, I got 3 non-food gifts. One is a lovely ornament (handmade and dated) and the others were hand lotion & scented liquid handsoap. But the latter came with candy. So I'm undecided whether to really count them.

I gave Chris the tin of ginger cookies tonight (after he gave me the book). He likes ginger cookies and there are at least 6 packages/tubes in the tin. He usually gets a single one from the booth at the State Fair and makes them last a couple weeks.

I gave out the hangers that mom made yesterday. They were a real hit. It's not cheap to get good hangers. Mom takes good metal hangers and then weaves/covers them with yarn. That pads them and makes them quite pretty. She also puts tubing or something similar over the hook. I gave out 3 per person, but Emily got an extra 3, child-sized ones. She announced, last week, that she's pregnant.

Mom called tonight. Thank goodness. I've been trying to reach her unsuccessfully (once was a busy signal so I wasn't worried or anything). I'll be seeing her Christmas Day. All her friends are working (yeah, nurses) so she's free. And I had hoped to see her Monday & Tuesday (go see Dad on Sunday, then spend the night with her Sunday and go home Tuesday) but she's working.

Saturday I go get Dad's present & wrap everything. I really meant to wrap stuff last Friday but just didn't get it done.

Plans are made for the New Year get-together. I'll need to make certain that we have everything for that. I haven't bought Keith's calendar yet. I've been buying him a T&A calendar for over a decade. I'm not certain how he'd react if I didn't give him one. I have most of them but I need to check that I haven't forgotten anyone.

Gaming: I've registered for WuKon. I changed one game; in part so that the game that Chris & Rosemary are playing will make. I emailed one of the organizers and it looks like I will get a chance to play Witch Hunter. He asked for games that I had not played, as suggestions for what to get.

Tatting: I'm still doing snowflakes but Jane, that naughty Jane. She has tempted me. She has a new technique for beaded picots & I soooo want to play with it.

Donation: successful! My arm hurts like the dickens (worse than the time that they hit the nerve bed under the vein in my arm) but it's like 2" from the stick site. How weird is that. I wore my I Bleed Carolina Blue t-shirt under my turtleneck. I knew that I'd need short sleeves for the actual donation & the turtleneck is 'cause it's supposed to drop temperatures all day (& has).

Donation went fairly smoothly, no dizziness, bled quickly, etc. Then once I was done, I checked in as a volunteer. I helped steer the people (1 woman, rest were men) who were donation double red blood cells. I'd do that myself but I'm 2" under the minimum height requirement for women.

I saw some people I know (big surprise, right?) and met a couple more. I picked up my free t-shirt & back to the office.

Work for an hour or so & then off to the department holiday luncheon. Really good food again this year. I sat with some of the folks from the Card office. Mike (Department Head) joined us. He's been sick again, poor guy.

Back to the office, where it's really, really quiet. I managed to get one point of a snowflake done today. That's it. It's hard to tat with only one hand and well, I needed to pay attention when I was volunteering.

Oh, but how cool is this! LadyShuttlemaker is giving away one of her fabulous shuttles. She makes the most delicious hand-dyed threads, too.

Christmas party was on Saturday. I finally met Rosemary's nieces; they are so cute. We made decorated cookies and ate them. We also exchanged presents.

John & I already gave Chris his camera. I also gave him a Blue Planet t-shirt. I gave Rosemary her "Help, my dice are trying to kill me" t-shirt and Diana her "Pwnage" t-shirt. Alas, Thinkgeek's women shirt sizes are just a lot small (XXL is 16-18? WTF?). Chris gave me a cute little soft plush kitty, couple cute t-shirts, and Rosemary gave me Mae West Glamour Collection and the latest Pink album. David R gave me a DVD of classic Loony Tunes. Chris & Rosemary, together gave me the complete set of Elfquest comics. Mine were destroyed by water and I was devastated. How fabulous that they found the replacements. You can't see me, but I'm squee'ing.

Maya seemed to like chewing on her present, or at least the case. We got her a Backyardigans DVD. David M got FE gift cert & a 4e book for Christmas & birthday.

After the party, some of us stayed and ate supper from Olive Garden. Alas, I fell asleep on the couch (clutching the kitty that Chris gave me). Hey, I was tired!

Sunday we played LFR. David R ran it; his first time ever. He did a pretty good job. He's run games before & that helps a lot. Rosemary & I both wore our new t-shirts.

The weather was very seasonal. Cool to cold at night & almost warm in the afternoons.

Today was very slow at work. But tomorrow I'm donating blood & then volunteering so I'll be out of the office most of the day.

Website of the day: list of shops participating in bookmark drive in 2008. I will look back & see if they participate again in 2009. I have some bookmarks to make.

Okay, winter is back. And the moon is gorgeous. I tried to take a picture but every shot was blurry. *sigh* I also want some steamed milk & honey.

John came by and we gave Chris his birthday/Christmas present. He's thrilled. We gave him a digital camera, extra memory card & batteries. It's just in time to take pictures at the party tomorrow.

We gave John the cd, Gaelic Voices. We got lucky; he doesn't have that one.

I finally got registered & signed up for games at Wukon. I'm mostly going to be playing LFR with one game of Witch Hunters.

I ordered some presents from hungersite.com today and picked up a few things from the Student Stores (today was their end of the year sale).

It's almost 70F, 87% humidity, we've had almost an inch (.82) of rain since midnight & yes, this is December. Theoretically, this is winter, no matter what it feels like outside.

Gaming: Mutants & Masterminds tonight. I had completely forgotten, so it's good thing that David sent his reminder email on Monday. Now if he'd just review those changes to Totem, I'd be ready for tonight's game.

David is running his first LFR game on Sunday. I think he's nervous, but he has no reason to be. One) LFR is the closest thing to a pick up roleplaying game that I've ever seen. Two) He's running the game for friends, who will gladly help him.

I found my Palm Pilot. Now to locate my phone & my iPod mini. My shuffle decided to freeze up Tuesday but letting it run down & then charging it up fixed it.

Saturday is Rosemary's annual cookie party. She cuts out the sugar cookies (or these days, just buys the precut ones) and we spend the time decorating, baking & eating them. She serves mulled cider, mulled mead (for those who aren't driving), and soda. It's a nice, quiet party. We often unwrap presents, too.

I've mailed off two cards to Holidays for Heroes, including a small snowflake in each one. Now I need to finish & mail the cards going to relatives.

The contractors who handle the dining/cafeteria had the luncheon for their office staff today. Since they're just down the hall from us, they invited our office to join them. OMG, what wonderful food. Apple & raisin salad with some kind of vinaigrette; pumpkin & something bisque; pork medallions with sweet bbq sauce; mashed sweet potato with honey & pecans; 'mac & cheese' (bowtie pasta) with lobster; greens; dinner rolls with apple butter; and pear tart and chocolate cookies for dessert. Yum, yum, yum. Plus, one co-worker brought in some Danish pastry that someone sent & someone else brought in a baklava platter. I am so full. *burp*

tatting: I've been trying to decide what variation to try next. I may do another Cebelia size 30, but without beads this time.

Facebook kitty

It's warmer today, above freezing all day. One of the ways that I can tell is that I have not needed to turn on the heater in my office.

Bitten By Books is running a contest, 15 Naughty Nights of Christmas. Lots of fun ebooks.

I've been busy all day today. What did I do? I don't remember.

I think this should be a dragon egg. I think.

Chris was stroking my arm and commented, 'you're so soft. You're even better than Sears. And they have Craftsman tools!' I still don't know whether to be insulted or complimented.

Very cold last night & this morning. Chris was trying to cheer me up & took me to Kanki's. The water in the fountain outside was starting to get a sheen of ice, at about 7pm. Brrrr.

I saw a woman who works down the hall from me, so I stopped by early this morning to ask how she'd enjoyed Kanki last night. She had the most delightful 'um, how did you know that?' expression on her face.

Should I? Write or Die!

Tatting: snowflakes, all of them are Ribbon Floss snowflakes from Sunderman's Tatted Snowflakes. They aren't blocked or fully finished yet.
perle 5 thread, no beads

same thread, with pearl beads


Size 80 DMC, variegated blue

variegated blue thread, but I've lost the label


size 10 thread; it's from a ball that I picked up at a thrift shop in a bag with others so I don't know the brand.

Same thread, with silver beads

I've made a couple other snowflakes, but I haven't taken a picture of them yet. I've also made some butterflies & flowers from the leftover thread on the shuttles.

Yesterday at work we had the annual Jingle Bell Jog. It was a mile and a half walk (or three mile jog) with snacks to follow. I didn't win anything in the door prize drawing but I did give some stuff to the Food Bank. I don't know if that's why but I was so tired last night that I went to bed at 9 pm.

I planned to get more done, like another Viking wire knitting bracelet, my Christmas cards, or wel, anything. So far, I've done diddly and squat.

Unusual, old style, doll
This is one of three or four that I have that were made at the Harmony Hall Heritage Day
This one is a square of muslin, with the edges cut and tattered. Then tie a knot in the center of the square and reverse the fabric of the knot, concealing it inside. Take a scrap of other fabric and tie under the knot; that forms the head. The rest of the square forms the dress. If desired, tie a knot in two of the ragged strips, to form ~hands.

Okay, this is kinda silly, but there's this game on Facebook and I tried something but it didn't work.

shopping: I didn't make it to Staples in time. I did get to K-Mart but I should have bought one of those robes on sale. I need a good warm, robe. They were out of the flannel sheets that I wanted. I got a couple new 2GB flashdrives ($7.99). They are kept locked up so the cashier had to page the person with the keys.

The same person also keeps the keys to the cameras, games, etc. Needless to say, she was in high demand. Between her getting my flash drive and getting me to the check out line, she got things for at least two other customers. After I was finally in line, I just stood there, smiling slightly. After all, why not? Being irritable wasn't going to make the line move faster. That really struck her, that I was shopping on Black Friday & looked happy.

Since the other stores that I wanted to visit were on the other side of my house, I went home for lunch. The mall was a little much but Michael's wasn't bad. I had read the sale wrong though & the case I wanted wasn't on sale yet. The thing that worried me is that I as I was parking my car, I saw a sundog. I love my mom, but I didn't want to get trapped in Greensboro by bad weather.

Mom: I had a nice visit with mom....except for the fact that I woke up with a migraine on Sunday. She and I did a little shopping on Saturday. She bought my Christmas presents early; things like very nice earmuffs, a new pedometer, etc. I also have two new, very soft & fuzzy towels. They are so soft they feel like velvet. Mmmmm.

She packed stuff to give away and I helped her sort things. We ate leftover turkey for supper and watched tv. It's pledge week on PBS so her usual shows were not on, but they did have Celtic Women. For that particular show, we both want to have a long, possibly violent, talk with the costumer.

Mom doesn't keep much pain medicine in the house so we had to stop and get some on the way to breakfast. I think mom goes to that restaurant a lot (it's good and inexpensive and real food). The waitress came by to refill her coffee and when she saw that it was not necessary, commented that mom wasn't drinking as fast as usual.

Mom told me more about her teen and college years. I knew some of it; like her dorm had no real doors. It was a hall with the dorm rooms on either side & the hall was open to the elements. The rooms had louvered doors and even the bathrooms had only curtains for the shower stalls. It was built in the early '30's and even though it was in Miami, it still got cold at night. For warmth, she & her roommate put their beds together. The girls in the rooms on either side joined them & all six slept crosswise on the beds, with every blanket that they could gather. Brr. I did learn that my mom worked in a bank until she was old enough to get into nursing school without her parents' permission.

We picked up a couple things at Walgreens on the way back to mom's apartment and my head still hurt. I left a few painkillers, including that bottle of migraine meds, at mom's; for the next time I visit. I get headaches, etc more than mom does. She gets headaches less than a handful of times a year. She's in remarkably good, and pain free, health.

I stopped at KMart on the way home but the robe sale was over. At Michael's I found the case on sale so I got one. I also bought some colored wire and as I was checking out, the woman in line behind me asked about it. She's an art teacher and always on the lookout for new arts to teach, especially that will appeal to boys. She liked the sound of Viking wire knitting; I recommended Lacemakers for the kit.

gaming: Chris was still playing the Living Forgotten Realms game and he didn't get home until late. I finally put my halfling character on a character sheet instead of a page of notebook paper. I think I will add a post-it note with her attack information with all of her weapons and powers. There's not enough room on the character sheet for that sort of thing.

Bus: Monday was the first day of the new bus schedule. My stop is now ten minutes earlier in the morning. Monday, it was on time. Yesterday it was more than ten minutes late. It took quite awhile, after I arrived at work, before I warmed up. At least I had my new earmuffs and I wore my leather jacket.

Tatting: I've made another snowflake. I'm sticking with the same pattern, oddly enough for me. I'm varying thread & beads, though.

Thursday, I'm meeting Dad for supper. I finally found his scrapbook. I really wanted to get it scanned but I don't have the money for that right now.

Have you ever seen a character on tv and gone, 'oh my god, I know that guy/girl!' I don't mean, 'I know that actor', I mean that you know someone just like that character. Sometimes, if you're unlucky, you are that character. There are two characters, one on The Big Bang Theory & the other on Criminal Minds, that really remind me of a friend. Even though he will never read this, I'm still being discreet and not mentioning names. Reason for discretion? The two characters are Sheldon & Reid.

It was cold this morning again. Frost limned the grass and I really needed my scarf & gloves. For once, I didn't wear the multiple layers, though. Gosh, I'm talking about the weather a lot recently.

I did get home a little early today. So I watched some of the older (October) shows that I have on tape.

Happy Thanksgiving.

It's still cold and it feels even colder when it rained; despite the fact that it was actually a little warmer. It was warm enough tonight that I didn't need to wrap my scarf around my head. I have a lovely blue & white scarf that is long enough that I double it & pull the ends through the fold to wrap around my neck. When it was really cold on Monday, I pulled one layer up over my head & ears while the other layer stayed around my neck.

Mom gave me two new knit caps when she stopped by on Saturday. One is a little small but very tightly crocheted. The other is longer but loosely crocheted. She ran out of thread on the 1st one. When it's cold enough for hats again, I'll probably wear the tight one inside the loose one. At least until I fix the seam on my fleece cap.

I've made the same snowflake in size 30 Cebelia, with silver-lined seed beads. I'm working on a second one with beads on the chains, too. I need to take pictures of the ones that I've made so far.

I think that my fingernails are committing suicide, now. I had one tear off at the cuticle. Even with a bandaid on all day, it still hurts. And the ones that remain are so thin that I can't even open 'open this with your fingernail' fasteners. *whimper* Maybe I need more sage & gelatin in my diet.

Mom stopped by on her way home today. She couldn't stay long though, or she'd get caught in football traffic. And that is not something that anyone wants to mess around with/in/etc.

I managed to get the entry way a little better. And fill up one small box of books to take to the USB. Plus another small box to go to a thrift shop (shoes and Christmas lights). Now I can find my rack of shoes, instead of one small portion. I still need to do something with the books there, though. I need to do a more thorough gleaning.

Who turned on winter? It's about 20F below seasonal right now. That's just 'unnatural' for an excessively loose definition of 'unnatural' of course. I've been cold pretty much all day.

I need to go now. I still have a character to create for tomorrow's game.

Fingernails: I have broken four, or more I kind of lose track, this week alone. I wonder if it's the dryness in the air. Goodness knows I've been drinking water like it's about to be banned.

Health: I'm torn, is there really something wrong with my jaw (it hurts a little and it's more painful when I open my mouth wide to eat) or am I being a hypochondriac again. And which is worse; to be a hypochondriac or to be a self-aware hypochondriac? This is also my third day with this headache. Or maybe it's been three different headaches, just sequential.

Saturday, mom is stopping by on her way home from visiting her sister. I hope that she found me some sheets to use for chemises (old cotton sheets are the best). Sunday, I'm going to the used book store before having lunch with friends and playing some more LFR.

Gaming: Living Forgotten Realms on Sunday. I almost forgot. I need to have my halfling,ahem 'scuse me Drow, rogue, Black Raspberry Chocolate Tracks, written up by then. Looking at halflings in 4E, they are wimpy. They're small and their weapon damage sucks. So Chris & Rosemary had the idea of creating the Tracks family. It's a large family of halflings who claim to be really, really short drow. One Rosemary's character is a warlock with the Dark Pact (pact made with Drow, I think). Chris's ranger has burnt cork smeared, unevenly, over his face and I can't remember if his white wig is constantly crooked, or if he bleaches his hair. I'll find out Sunday. I haven't fully decided upon my rogue's peculiarities yet. Although I think I'll have her jealous of her cleric younger brother (he's already 5th level, or so I hear).

Weather: It's almost warm today. It's clear, hit 50F and very little wind. It's not going to last, though.

Additional information

Holiday cards should be mailed to:
Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD. 20791-5456

All cards must be postmarked no later than Dec. 10. Cards should not be mailed or delivered to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

For more information, visit www.wramc.amedd.army.mil or www.redcross.org/holidaymail for Holiday Mail for Heroes program guidelines.Walter Reed is not accepting mail addressed to "A Recovering American Soldier."

Thanks, Kathy for the heads up.

Weather: Gah, it's cold. Yesterday only hit the 40's (for those used to colder weather, yeah, that's nothing but for us, it's cold for this time of year) with a wind chill making it feel like the 30's. It even snowed yesterday. Of course, it was mostly just flurries and nothing even made it to the ground but it's not even Thanksgiving yet.

And yes, the walking group met & we walked outside, all three of us. We did the Gimghoul route. We just went along Gimghoul Road, not up to the castle. I wore my sweater, even though my coat's heavier, because the sweater has a hood; a vital necessity considering the wind.

Christmas cards: it's about that time. And here's a little something to think about when you are making out your Christmas card list this year; send one to the following:
A Recovering American Soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue,NW
Washington,D.C. 20307-5001

Carolina Troop Supporters were in the Pit last night, gathering letters for our soldiers. I stopped to write one. It meant that I missed my bus & had to wait half an hour for the next one, but I think that it was worth it. My toes disagreed (until they warmed up).

Tatting: I have finished one small flake in perle 5 and started another one, with pearls. The pattern is from Sunderman's book, p 12, Ribbon floss snowflake.

I took advantage of the rain on Friday, I wiped down my car. I used a shamwow that I bought during the State Fair. I may have ruined it, as it's now quite black. We'll see how it comes out of the washer. On the bright side, my car looks much better. It's no longer black & I got all the leaves off of it. That did not last of course, it's right under a Bradford pear, but it did make a difference.

I got 9 hours of sleep Friday night. Guess I was tired, huh? Then I took a 3-hour nap Saturday afternoon. Needless to say, not much cleaning. Managed to at least get the kitchen to where we can cook again. We've been on the go so much, the house is just plain cluttered.

Gaming: Sunday, since one of the player's bailed on Rosemary's game, I ran Nature's Wrath, a Living Forgotten Realms game. Only one of the player's had ever played it. Since there were only 4 players, two who had planned to come got sick, the fights went quickly. They had no healing so the fights got quite challenging. At some point, all four characters got bloodied (1/2 hit points). Rosemary won't be running her home game again until January. It's just too difficult to arrange a time around the holidays.

Last night was Chris's game. We didn't have a fight; our characters delivered the magic artifact to the elf queen, got the treaty from and got the chance to do some research done in her library (working on a dangling plot line). Then the characters managed to sneak back through enemy lines to their own side.

After our characters had two weeks leave, and got paid for rescuing the Baron's children, they got their new assignment. They get to go sabotage the enemy supply depot and supply line. That's what happens when your characters are 12th & 13th level scouts; not the character class, the branch of the Imperial army. If we don't play again after Thanksgiving, then this will be the last game of the year.

Tatting: it's past time to start tatting snowflakes and stars for Christmas. I've pulled out my Oh My Stars book and the Sunderman snowflake book.

I spotted a redtail hawk on my walk to the bus stop this morning. How cool is that?

Remember

Weekend at Mace:
Friday’s schedule: Do reports that usually take 8 hours in 4 hours so that I can leave at noon. Wait about 5 minutes too late & miss the bus. Catch the next one about half an hour later. As a result, I was too worried about being late to stop to get a drink or gas. I arrived, about dead of thirst and running the car on fumes, but right before registration opened.

I played Nature’s Wrath, Living Forgotten Realms game, in the 1st slot. If Rosemary’s voice doesn’t recover by this weekend, then I’ll see about running that adventure on Sunday instead of her game. Chris & Rosemary arrived while I was playing.

We all played Graven Images, a Witch Hunter game that we had heard good things about, in the 2nd slot. It was a fun game. One player was brand new to the game and we all had a blast. Solange-Marie, my character, learned a new spell, sort of alarm spell. She immediately used it on the cursed book that she’s been carrying around. It’s already sealed with twine & wax, to keep out the unwary. But she was glad to add the additional security.

Saturday morning, Rosemary & I were both in the same LFR game, Elder Wisdom. It was
entertaining. My half-elf Warlock, with the fey pact, is finally 3rd level. She’s my highest level character. For the 2nd slot on Saturday, all three of us played another LFR game, Rotting Ruins of Galain.

For the evening game, I played a Witch Hunter adventure, Red Tide, that Chris & Rosemary played at Wicked Harvest and Solange-Marie is finally Tier 2. It was nice to see a connection to an earlier adventure.

Sunday was the double rounder (2 slots) of the last Living Greyhawk adventure. What a meatgrinder. It was almost the shortest LG adventure ever because the way the plot hook is presented at least 3 of the characters were of the ‘this plan sucks & screw you’ mindset. meant that we almost walked away without actually playing the adventure, just credited for it (& thus unable to ever really play it).

Frankly, surviving to the final encounter was a bit of a victory. My character, Nadia, my first LG character, died in the first round of attacks in the final fight. I wouldn’t have been upset about it,
well not very much, but she exploded which hurt the other characters. One of the others would probably have survived if it hadn’t been for that. As it was, three of the six characters died but the goal was achieved. Our characters were so outclassed in the final fight, that just surviving a round was a victory. Surviving 3 rounds and achieving our goal was a massive victory.

I drove home after the game to do laundry. I had to. I wore my last clean pants at the con.

I did get some bad news. Animazement & ConCarolinas are the same weekend. That really sucks. I was going to run Jadeclaw at Animazement but I told Chris last year that I’d go to ConCarolinas and I told John B (Animazement game coordinator) that I’d run games for him. Now I have to cancel with John. At least it’s not at the last minute; considering that they conventions are not until late May.

On the bright side, I ran into someone unexpected, a fellow tatter. She spotted me
Saturday and spent the rest of the day trying to remember my name. Then she found out
which game I was playing on Sunday & came looking for me. Wasn’t that neat?

It’s another NC autumn day. There’s frost this morning & it’s supposed to hit 60F this
afternoon. I accidentally dressed in Christmas colors this morning, at least from the waist
up. I’m wearing a red & white striped top but then I thought it might a little cool for
that this morning, so I added a forest green corduroy vest. I realized that it’s a little
Christmas-y but hoped that no one would really put it together. It’s not even
Thanksgiving yet, after all. Alas, my hopes were in vain. I won’t be wearing this
ensemble again until after December 1st. It’s a quirk of mine. I like for one holiday to
be over before I start celebrating the next one. Although I do admit that I start buying
Christmas presents as early as September.

Gaming: We did not reach the elf city Monday night. Instead, we ran into the previous diplomatic group. Sort of. Two were undead & the other four were somehow broken, via magic, etc. Since they had very similar abilities; a warmage, a cleric, etc plus a bard, it was not easy. We did try to capture one but that was a failure. They were too far gone. At least we know what happened to them, although unless we find some clues we won't know who did it.

This weekend is Mace. I'll be playing the last Living Greyhawk, with my bard Nadia; some Living Forgotten Realms & some Witch Hunter again (finally). I have to be packed tonight because I'll be leaving from work tomorrow.

Politics: The election is OVER! Finally, the campaign ads will be gone. You have no idea how happy that makes me. It got to the point where I had the urge to do laundry twice a day, just from the splash caused by all the mudslinging. Blyech.

I voted in October, but on Monday, November 3rd I saw an ad that made me almost made me wish that I could vote again. I saw an ad for a Judge on the appeals court that only talked about her qualifications & what she wants to do. It said absolutely nothing about her opponent. I am so glad that I had already voted for Linda Stephens. Unless she changes, I will vote for her again.

I wrote letters to my Mom's sisters on Tuesday. Since they are all at Aunt Shirley's, I just put them in one envelope & sent them together. Hopefully, they have them by now.

I was so tired yesterday that I laid down for a nap before Chris got home. He woke me at 9:30 and an hour later he woke me up enough to eat supper. We ordered Domino's and half an hour later, I went back to bed. I got about 10 hours of sleep and was still sleepy this afternoon. I have no explanation. The weather is sunny & gorgeous. I had two cups of tea.

Gaming: The main villain Thursday night was Derailment man. We got a little playing done but not much.

The game Sunday went a little smoother, partially because we really, really want to get through this phase of the adventure. We're all sick of wild magic.

Ren Festival: We drove down to Christopher & Alyssa's on Friday and watched Bubba Ho-Tep while we talked. The next morning Christopher went to work while the rest of us went to the Festival. We got there about the time that the gate opened. Alyssa had to leave early to get some stuff done but she watched a couple shows with us. She loaned me a chemise to wear under my bodice, plus a scarf to give my some waist definition.

She recommended the Nun show and poor Chris's face was hurting by the end. He literally hurt himself smiling so much. We bought a cd; it was that funny. I think I found someone's present.

I also saw part of London Broil, more of Don Juan & Miguel, the artiste du jour (Ceol Leinn), Cast in Bronze, and part of Dexter Tripp's show that I had not seen (the link takes to a YouTube video of the set that I saw). Cast in Bronze absolutely rocked. I have heard of Carillons but never seen one, much less heard one.

Miguel's birthday was the 31^st, so I gave him the black fast heart that I made on the way to the Festival. He seemed to like it. We saw the Royal Piper (Royal because she was the only piper), and she piped Happy Birthday to Chris (I volunteered him) and another woman in the audience.

I ran into Alex, her father & her friend at the Festival. They had been watching Dexter Tripp's show (The one with the duct tape & firecrackers). That was fun.

Purchases: mug, canvas bag with Celtic knotwork, mug strap, cloth bag, leather mug, hair spiral with clip to fit over elastic (elastic was included in purchase of spiral), and cd's. I bought two from Cast in Bronze, one from the Nun Show & one from Ceol Leinn. I also bought a sticker from Ruth Thompson. I really need to look through the pieces I have bought from her to see what I already have. There are pieces that I would like to get but I do not know if I have them already or not. Rosemary owed me a t-shirt, for pilling her cat while she was out of town, and bought me a Ren Festival tee.

After gaming, we're taking John out to supper for his birthday, much belatedly. He's decided on Crazy Fire.

Tomorrow night is Chris's game. Will we reach the elf city safely?

Okay, someone explain global warming. This is the 2nd morning in a row that we've had frost & it's not even November yet. *grumble, growl, grumble* I should still be wearing light jackets, not pulling out scarves, hats & gloves. I know, I know, it's really part of the natural cycle, but I claim my right to complain about the weather. Nyah.

The Bradford pear by my front door decided to split. This isn't the first fork that it's lost, just the biggest one. It was a bit startling to come home to on Tuesday. I'll try to get a picture of it.

I haven't been sleeping well recently. My cold, aka Fair crud, is partly responsible. When your throat hurts so much that it wakes you up at 3 am, you're not sleeping well. It got bad enough that I took a nap yesterday at lunch & went to bed half an hour early last night & still overslept by half-hour or more.

Gaming: Mutants & Masterminds tonight. At least one person won't be there, I'm betting on Nate. Basically because I would have heard already if one of the other three wouldn't be there. Sunday is supposed to be Rosemary's game but she's already prepping a 4e module, just in case.

Ren Festival: Saturday, Rosemary, Chris, Alyssa & I are going to the Ren Faire near Kannapolis. Christopher & Alyssa are kindly opening their house for us on Friday night so that we'll be there bright & early on Saturday. Christopher is working so he won't be with us but we'll have supper with them both Saturday night. I need to decide if I'm going to dress up or not. If I do, then I need to find a blouse and maybe skirt or something. I have the black & red piratical pants so that's an option, and my bodice is blue reversible to black. Unless the weather changes, I'll need my cape, too.

Politics: I voted Monday. I had the day off anyway, to recover from the Fair & to pick up my entry. I can now ignore all political ads with impunity. I've cast my vote. I'm done. There's been so much mudslinging, by everybody (as far as I can tell) that I feel like I need to do laundry twice a day just to get rid of the splashes.

Mom called on Tuesday. She got the scam info that I mailed her last week but I missed the message that she left for me over the weekend. We caught up a little. I won't get to see her until Thanksgiving, so phone calls are going to have to do.

Tatting: my bookmark (at the Fair).

Okay, recipe for tired: 1) cough late into the night, 2) get five hours of sleep, 3) walk around the fair grounds from 10 am to 9 pm (except for lunch, supper, a few minutes watching the male Boer Goats judging, a few minutes learning about saving energy & a couple minutes talking to a merchant), 4) drive home and haul stuff out of the car, 5) get up at quarter to one am and throw up supper.

I have confirmed; no ribbon for my bookmark. The blue ribbon piece is very pretty, a tiny, intricate bobbin lace place in something like size 80 thread.

I did buy a few Christmas presents. I also bought a couple things for myself. I tried some pain reliever cream. It smelled strongly of menthol & camphor. The salesperson said that the smell would fade in 5-10 minutes. When I hugged Carrie (she has a cold) she was sniffing me for the menthol...an hour later. I showered and can still catch the occasional sniff.

Tonight I'm off to play LFR, These Hallowed Halls. whee! Who needs sleep.

One Fair weekend down, one more to go. Yes, two 12-hour days of tatting. Anitra is there for all 11 days. Whew. But she loves doing all that tatting so it really is a vacation for her. It was so cold that I wore my Colonial era outfit. I just wish that I had not forgotten my fichu; I really could have used it.

Incidents of note- an ambassador, either to or from Japan, came through & bought 2 Trantham cds. Cool, huh. A tiny turtle, either a painted or a yellow-stripe was rescued. I learned that someone who's observant and is truly interested in what you're doing is just as pleasurable as inspiring someone to learn your hobby/craft/obsession. No one that I've talked to in the Village has seen the embroidery hoop/trivet (wagon wheel rim/rug) weaving. Dad & Kathy came by and we had lunch on Sunday.

I have heard that I did not get a ribbon for my bookmark. I'm not really surprised. It has color.

Discovery yesterday: Monster brand energy drink keeps me up for hours. I drank it about 7 am & was still awake at midnight.

I've started reading the Aurora Teagarden mysteries. Thanks Steve for the loan. I also read Nation, Pratchett's new book.

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.