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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tatting: I've made a couple more of those easy hearts designed by Barbara H. Friday is 'appreciate your operator (bus driver)' day & I wanted to give them to my favorite drivers. I ran into an old co-worker and he's having a rough time with his soon to be ex-wife (she's a moron btw, if half of what he says is true), so I gave him one that I had made. He teared up; it really touched him. It really is the little things that mean a lot.

sight of the day: Muslim on his prayer rug, doing his noon prayers.

I got to work just as it started to sprinkle. Turned out to be a false alarm; it's just really windy really.

TV: Watched The Big Bang Theory & Bones last night. What can I say, I like tv shows with geeks in them.

Tonight I'm supposed to meet Dad & Kathy for supper. We'll see how it goes. I copied my pictures from vacation onto a cd to give them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Four Directions Call

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boring day, really.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At 30 minutes before the end of my work day, the fire alarm goes off. I was so tempted to just go home. But no, I waited and sure enough the alarm was shut down with 10 minutes yet to go. I stopped by the little store to get some stamps as I left work and when I stepped out, it was raining.

No big deal; I had my emergency umbrella and it wasn't raining hard. When I got to the bus stop the benches were still dry; sheltered by the trees. I sat down and waited. I had missed the bus but it was only 10 minutes or so until the next one. Then the rain came down harder, and harder, and harder. The gutter in front of my overflowed into a low spot in the sidewalk. And I huddled under my umbrella.

The rain tapered off. After a bit, I brought my umbrella down, hoping to drip some of the water off of it. The sun was shining of course, and the light reflected off the puddles to the west was absolutely blinding. A bus stopped in front of me and I idly watched people get on board, my eyes drifting to the back of the bus, where it was raining. Not three feet to my west, it was raining lightly. In front of me, nothing. And the sun was shining brightly. I put my umbrella up as a parasol to give me shade. And it rained to my west.

My bus came, about 20-some minutes late. But it came. That's when I learned that the ends of my hair had gotten wet from the rain, not quite covered by the umbrella. Welcome to summer rain in NC.

Family: I finished the letters but I can't find what I did with the stamps after I bought them. I looked where I thought I put them & they are not there. Each letter has a little tatted heart in it.

Gaming: Today we played another 2 Greyhawk Ruins adventures. One was a mystery; it started in an earlier adventure. We found one, maybe 2, more clues but did not find out who killed the two people or what the connection is. It was still fun and the way the second one ended was just too funny. The final big bad was finished off by a summoned giant celestial bee. And it turns out that we were able to do a favor for the god of bees, etc.

We would have gone to supper afterward but with gas prices (thanks price gougers & the panicky reacting to Hurricane Ike hitting Galveston) we just didn't dare risk it. As it is, we gave Diana a ride so that it reduced how much she'd have to pay.

I was really tired last night. I slept just over 9 hours and even then had trouble really waking and dozed for a few more minutes.

Tatting: I finished the Valentine Heart by Martha Ess. I did mine in variegated red (red to almost black- garnet) for the block-tatted heart & green for the lacy edging. It turned out pretty good & I only drew blood once trying to get the hook through a lockjoin.

It was almost cool today, almost. It was still so humid I was surprised not to drown whenever I inhaled. I went to the grand opening of a Starbucks today. Luckily it's not very close, otherwise I'd be way too tempted to get a chai tea latte everyday. My waistline (and hipline, thighline, etc) doesn't really need that.

I've started letters to the family but I forgot to put them in my bag this morning. I only have one more aunt to write plus the kids.

tatting: I finished the block part of Martha's block-tatted Valentine heart (heart block tatted & then with edging). I used the red heart variegated red (ruby to deepest garnet) for the heart & plan to use red heart brand green for the lacy edging.

TV: watched some taped shows tonight. It was the first episode of the 2nd season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Wow, what a good episode. I also watched an episode of In Plain Sight. Then ended with The Kitchen Nightmares.

And one picture from my vacation: Rainbow's end (for the first time, I saw the end of the rainbow). Isn't that just neat!

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

I am mind-numb. Why?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

*Dungeon Masters Guide
** Players HandBook