Spaced Last Week and Forgot to Post

I played Deadlands again and caught up with what happened in the session I missed. Our characters are now in Sioux territory so the white characters are at a distinct disadvantage, my character at a lesser one. We made it to town at least.

My Starfinders book came in. I've been reading it a bit and creating a character. I haven't gotten through as much as I thought I would. 

Saturday was the mini maker's faire at Wake Tech. We had a good time. I made a bookmark to take to the family reunion as a door prize. The coverage Wake Tech had used our picture as the 1st one (see the link). Pretty cool, huh?

The bookmark pattern is from the Moonlit shuttle packaging. The fabric triangle was made by Katie (3rd from the right in the photo). She made one for each of us to catch our thread bits.

Sunday I made the apple and sweet potato dish for the family reunion and went to take a shower while it baked. I was all dressed and about to go out the door when suddenly I felt sick. I felt bad enough I wasn't up to going. I called my cousin Joy so they wouldn't be looking for me and getting worried.

The following Monday was the big sustainability event at work. I helped Claire man the table. Her husband made a really cool frame for the poster, out of bamboo.

I missed the 2nd exercise class. I missed the 1st one because I wasn't dressed appropriately. I made it to Thursday's class, and it was body sculpt. The instructor did a good job of providing instructions for the less fit (like me). She did occasionally use terms without defining them.

This past Saturday, I went to see mom. I took her a few things; some nuts, some chocolate, some chamomile tea, some soda, etc.

We went to JoAnne's. I'm looking for some j-hook beading needles. Michael's near me doesn't have them. Neither did the JoAnne's near mom. We picked up one or two items, because they were on sale, and stuff I'd get anyway. But mom got tired pretty soon, so we sat down and looked through the costume patterns. Some looked really good and some you'd have to pay me lots of money to make. And some I still wouldn't.

We also went by a thrift shop. Again, Mom got tired pretty quickly. I told her she needs to start walking the halls to build up her stamina again. 
 
Sunday,  CD and I ran errands. We also went with RG and her dog to the park to go walking. Well, they went walking. I wasn't wearing the right shoes to go walking. So I sat at a bench and tatted and read while they walked. When they came back to me, I went to the bathroom. RG's dog was very upset by this. From the noises she made, you'd think I was torturing the poor canine.

I'm almost finished my 1st Fair tatting project. I have about 10 chains or so left. I made progress on my beanile necklace. I don't know if I'll get my 3r project done or not. We'll see.

POLITICS
So #45 made more stupid comments, about Puerto Rico, NFL players, etc. Although his statements re: the NFL players were actually illegal.

And how many more mass shootings and terrorist attacks like the one in Las Vegas will it take before Congress grows a spine and stands up the NRA or the NRA gets some common sense instead of knee jerk 'all guns good, all gun control bad.'


I called the office of one of my senators (I called both, but left a message on one but no one ever answers in that office). I was upset when I called. By the time I was off the phone, I was furious. The person who answered the phone really needs customer service training. I started the call saying "I want to express my opinion" and he wanted to debate. When I interrupted him to tell him I wasn't finished and to let me continue because my time is short he interrupted me. I actually got rude and told him to shut up and stop interrupting me. He got snippy about me not being civil. I told him to stop interrupting me and I would be. I actually called back and told him that him interrupting me like that made him look sexist (which I doubt he believed, but since I doubt he'd do that to a man, I think it does).

Later on, I called the same office to leave a message and told them he needed customer service training on how to deal with upset callers. After all, Republicans are in the same dog bed as Trump and those who lie down with dogs will get up with fleas, so they need to be prepared to deal with flea bites.

Long week was long

Okay, really it was normal length, but after last week's short work week, it felt long.

I had my monthly date with Autumn Breeze on Tuesday. I'm so glad we started doing that. It keeps us in contact the way phone calls, letters, and emails don't.

Oh, here's an interesting band (links to YouTube videos) a friend recommended, Veronica Veronico. Makes me wish I wasn't so close to monolingual.

Saturday is back to the mines, as we resume our Wardens of Reborn Forge game. Or actually, we're leaving the mines as we seek the source of the mystery.

I made another bracelet; shades of purple with dark green beads. I don't have a picture of it yet. I may use it as a gift. Or, I'll make another one, same thread with those silvery gold beads. Chrissie loved the bead petal earrings with matching bookmark. They turned out really nicely, but the photos I have are not good. She promised to take a better photo for me. The heart is adapted by one from Be-Stitched newsletter. I used fewer picots on the clovers and added beads to the chain picots.

both ends of the bookmark, used lockchain for the middle

bead petal earring (pattern by Karey Solomon

in process (using a drill at this point)

Tuesday evening as I was leaving work, I saw this. They were doing a menorah lighting ceremony. They were making the menorah.

ice menorah, in progress

Alas, it rained overnight, blurring the details

What light pollution? (fog reflecting lights)

fog amidst the trees

 Sunday was the Tri-Tatters' meeting. It was the only day in November we could get the meeting room. We had someone relearning to needletat. Thank goodness, our most skilled needletatter was there to help her. Somethingunderthebed brought her latest find; 100 year old women's magazines. She's working hard at scanning them to add to her page.

fun with colored lights (I took a whole series)

Update: one last photo, new tablet game: Monument Valley

Rain! Finally!

We got some rain this weekend. We're still almost 7" below our normal rainfall for the past year, but considering we've gone about 10 days with nothing appreciable, I'll take it.

I finished another half-braid bracelet. This one is Lizbeth size 20 in Caribbean, with bugle 11 in Purple Iris and 11/0 Aiko in Iris beads. this picture is from when it was in progress. I still need to hide the ends on it.

I've made a couple bookmarks recently. One of them used the same thread and one was black and white. I need to get photos of them before I mail them off.

size 20 Lizbeth thread, Caribbean, from Tatting Times, from A Tatter's Workbook

Same bookmark as below, but different background for contrast

size 20 DMC tatting thread

 I went to the bead show with a friend last weekend but I didn't buy much. Here's most of what I bought (except for a strand of black beads, obsidian, maybe?).

Bone disks and lapis beads, to go with my earrings

charlottes and seeds, for my bracelets

I've made some progress on my sock. I'm past the heel now, so it's finally starting to look sock-like.

We were supposed to go see the Captain America movie this weekend but we had a small mishap concerning movie times. Instead we went to see Cowboys and Aliens. On the fortunate side, we discovered that the movies at the hour we went (4 pm - 5:30 pm) were about half-off.

I had to get a new car key cut this weekend. Friday, I got my key caught in a metal mesh and it bent. I managed to start my car and get home but I was worried I would break the key off in the ignition if I tried more than that. The new key works fine. Whew.

Our Forgotten Realms game is progressing. We've gotten rid of the big bads in the castle, now we need to get rid of the guards in the barracks. We did have one faintly humorous moment during Sunday's game. My character is a sword-dancer of Ellistraee. For the non-gamers, I'll explain. She's a half-drow (dark elf) who worships the only good-aligned drow goddess. Most of them are some flavor of evil. Part of Ellistraee cleric (& sword-dancers have some cleric) mission is to convince drow to give up their evil ways and return to the surface and be good people As part of this, my character has been making this offer, via monologue, to every drow we've met. We're currently in a drow city and it's gotten to the point where the other characters can recite it along with her.

In Sunday's fight, we're facing a vampire drow and my character spent part of action trying to decide: does vampire trump drow? If she's undead, I'm not making the offer, but I'm supposed to make the offer to all drow. Hmm, nope sunlight and vampires don't mix, so no offer. I can just kill her. Yay!

This Thursday will be our first Traveller game back in the GM's house. The repairs (post-tornado) are done and he's moved back into it.

Pictures, Finally

Because I've had a hard time loading them. I finally got the camera to work and to find the reader, now I can't get them to the blog; or anywhere else.

Here's the bookmark that I made for the literacy program at work. The pattern is by Karey Solomon, from an old Tatting Times. The thread is DMC size 12.

The bracelet that I made for my namesake. I bought a little bracelet with plastic beads for $1. I still have a few flowers left, but the rest of the round beads. The thread is perle 5, by Star. The pattern is my own, using Jane E's beaded picot method.

Bookmark, from DMC Book of Needlework. I made a slight error, the center chains are supposed to be twice as long and join in the center. I like it better this way. DMC size 12 perle.

Cross bookmark from Rebecca Jones's Complete Book of Tatting. Same thread.

Third 'great weekend' Post

Last weekend (June 4th & 5th), I took off early from work on Friday and drove to see my mom. Her older sister is visiting so I got to visit with both of them. I drove home again Saturday afternoon.

This past weekend, we went to the DC area to visit Mike. We did it to see him again, to celebrate his recent work success (his company made a tremendous announcement last week, the reason he hasn't been able to talk about work for months) and his new girlfriend. We drove up Friday and she met us for supper at the Indian place that Mike likes so much (they have southern Indian food and their tv shows Indian music videos & movies). Crossed fingers that it works out for them.

Gaming: We played four games of Pathfinder. Each of us took a turn running. Chris went all out for this, "Mike-Con". He made badges for all of us, had con programs printed up and schedules for each of us. Plus, he had shirts available. Mike-Con: The ultimate in dining & gaming experience. The only disappointment was the free breakfast that the hotel provided. It wasn't absolutely horrible, but the less said the better.

Tatting: I started on the Tardis bookmark for Rosemary. I got all the way to the split chain and realized that I didn't remember how to do it. Since they charged for the internet access at the hotel, I wasn't going to look it up. I've made pretty good progress, though, if I do say so myself.

I have about 3 feet of navy blue edging. I'll try and post a picture later today.

Oh, and despite my less-than-healthy overall eating over the weekend and almost complete lack of exercise, I've lost 2.5 pounds in the last week. Yay!

Trip to Mom's et al (with pictures)
I should have taken a picture of the succulent, probably a cactus, that I gave Mom for her birthday, but I forgot. Of course, I needed before & after & after photos. I bought the plant at the Flea Market, and it was sort of a rosette, just about the size of my palm, perfect. I left it out overnight, in the rain, figuring what could be better than Mother Nature's watering can. It 'sploded. It filled the little pot that it was in, and doubled in size and also put out additional rosettes. I had planned to repot it anyway, but now it was demanding a larger pot. I bought a ceramic coffee cup pot painted in bright colors. Now, the plant has room to grow. Mom really liked it, too.

I also had a book of NC humor essays for her & some odds & ends that I thought that she'd like.

I read a couple books while there; I finished re-reading Pack Challenge by Shelly Laurenston & a Judge Dee. For some reason, that did not give me mental whiplash.

She found some fabulous children's books for me to give to my namesake. I'll probably mail most of them to her. I think that I'll wrap them individually & tell Namesake's mom to let her have one a week. Mom also found a nice pair of clogs for the child.

I think, though, that cigarette smoke might be one of my migraine triggers. I started getting one Sunday afternoon. I left a little early because of that. Even with two migraine pills & some headache balm, I barely made it home.

Dad's birthday was last weekend. I drove down Sunday afternoon and got there just after my brother and his family arrived. Here's a bad photo of the cake that K (my stepmother) made. She had a hard time transforming a Harley bike cake to look like a Moto Guzzi, but it looks good, doesn't it. The gravel is rock candy.

After supper with the family, the neighbors came by. I finally got to meet some of the neighbors that my dad has talked about. They were nice folks. I had to give my dad an IOU for his present. I'm still working on it.

My edging is coming right along. I managed 5 and a half repeats this morning and it looks like I'm getting near the 3rd corner.

Here's the edging, by itself.


And here's the edging against the hankie that I'll be attaching it to. The color is not a perfect match, but it does go together well.

I think I finally realize why women's hankies are smaller than men's, usually. It's not because women are 'daintier,' it's because women's hankies often have decorative edgings & men's don't. It's just easier to make an edging for a smaller handkerchief.

And here's the butterfly bookmark that I made for M (my co-worker). She really liked it. I can't remember where I found the pattern, but I found it online (thank you, designer).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Out of the Office get-together
I think it was only my 2nd ever, that wasn't held at work. A student in one in our offices graduated, after working for us for over 2 years (much joking that if she had worked for us for 3 years she would have gotten a car instead of a watch). We gathered at a restaurant/pool hall/sport bar. We were in the bar area so yes, there was *cough, cough* cigarette smoke. Blech. I fabreezed myself when I got home.

But we had fun. We played (5 of us, 2 teams of 2) 3 games of pool (my team lost all 3 times, I'm a lousy pool player). I also got to know the folks in that office a bit better.

Power was out in my room again. By the time I found out, I just didn't care about resetting it. I pulled out my emergency alarm clock and went to bed by flashlight. Didn't matter. Woke at an hour early, starving.

Tonight, meeting John & Chris for supper. I suddenly realized, when will I get my laundry done? I may be gaming tomorrow (it's up in the air because the gm's mom is sick). Saturday it's down to Bath for the memorial and Sunday it's Rosemary's game.

tatting: I continued the brown perle 5 edging that I started at Harmony Hall until I ran out of thread on the shuttle for the 3rd time. I started the butterfly bookmark for Melinda. I found a cute pattern that alternates flowers & butterflies. (I made one butterfly last night & about freaked the graduating student, she had never seen tatting before).

I Found Black Ice
Luckily I was on foot and there were no cars coming when I did. For those who don't know where I live & haven't noticed the weather there, it snowed on Sunday night. I came home early last night to avoid black ice but I had a focus group to go to tonight. I got home long after dark; and what I thought was wet cobblestones was slick with ice. There were more ice patches but I manage to navigate around those. My knee & hand hurt but they don't look bruised.


Tatting: The other tatters gave me enough bookmarks for this literacy class and enough to get a good start on the next class. Carolyn has been taking crochet classes so all of hers are crocheted. There's a nice variety, thank goodness. Katie took a picture.

Bad news, though. Really bad news. The man who taught me how to tat died yesterday. Chris had to go down to see if he has anything that he has to do; arrangements, etc. His health has been bad for years but it was still a shock to hear that he had a heart attack.

As part of a local history project, I had a heart that I had tatted scanned and added, plus a little bit about how I learned & the connection to UNC. I also did an oral history interview. I got started on a writing project but had to go back to work. The others seemed to find it interesting. It needs some polishing, though.

Gaming: Sunday's LFR game went well. It didn't even run very late. Black Raspberry Chocolate Tracks is now 3rd level. Whee. I need to do her level up stuff, now.

MY Mardi Gras 'celebration' & other recent events
Since I turned 35, I've been meaning to get a mammogram. For my New Year's Resolution, I promised myself that I'd actually get one done this year. So, this year for Mardi Gras, I bared my breasts. And had them smashed by the radiologist. Yay me. In some ways it was not as painful as I feared; in some ways it was. Ouch.

The doctor that I saw later siad that my cough was probably a residual, 2ndary infection from the flu. She doesn't think that I had bronchitis but that I probably had the flu instead. Huh. Guess my flu shot was useless this year. Glad I stayed home from work for a week. At least that way, I didn't infect anyone.

Tatting: I did have time, between/during appointments to finish another bookmark. I have made three, found an older one and I'm on yet another one. That will bring the total up to 5. I still can't find the first one I made. It's variegated blue and it was my first, ever, successfuly split chain. This tan one is the exact same motif pattern but the tail is different. I made it in one round by using split rings and a split chain.

I made a spiral for the tail of the blue one (Josephine knots). I need to take pictures of the other ones. The green and burgundy ones are also from Lindsay Rogers' Tatting Collage. I took a motif and added a tail. The yellow one that I'm tatting now is from Rebecca Jones' The Complete Book of Tatting.

A note about split chains; they are much easier to do when the thread is a tightly twisted one. I gave up on the perle 8 one that I tried to do. I kind of fudged it.

Triangle Tatters will be meeting Saturday. After that, I'll know how many more bookmarks I need to make. I promised a total of 24. *crosses fingers*

Bad News: I somehow broke the cover of my Palm pilot this morning. I'm not sure how, but only one hinge is still attached. If both hinges were gone, then I could just re-insert it. If both were present, I could clip the cover back onto them. Soooo, it doesn't look good. I won't know how bad until/unless I find the cover.

I may be shopping for a new one. I don't want the latest & greatest (I don't need a cellphone PDA). I just want one that I can move my stored info to and that recharges instead of using batteries. Is that too much to ask?

Family: off to meet Dad & stepmom for supper tonight. I'm not looking forward to the drive, but I am looking forward to seeing them. I'm going to give 3 Cups of Tea to Kathy for an early b'day present.

Still no pictures
I was gaming last night so I had no time to look for my card reader. It was go home, get game books & character sheet, get to game. Game for 3+ hours and home again to sleep.

Tatting: And I have somehow lost the first bookmark that I made. I'm hoping that it's merely disappeared into the depths of my bag. I hope. I finished the second bookmark but it still cups a little, even with the extra 2 ds per chain. Maybe I need 4 extra ds? OTOH, I did manage to do a creditable split chain again.

Gaming: It was more fun with Rosemary's character, Lady Celtic, last night. We thought that the 'revived' Allies of Freedom (Lady Celtic, her husband The Human Tank, his brother Gunner, Sgt Shrapnel, Spitfire, & Red Fox) might be clones but it turns out that they were nano-robots. We had fun fighting them. We didn't get far into the fight but we got a surprise. Lady Celtic's (the previous incarnation) son showed up and shot the fake Lady Celtic. Since he went a little out of his head recently and attacked our Lady Celtic, it was good to him on the side of Right again. Although Wraith wants to see if Troy was let out or if he got out (look for the red stamp 'Sane' on one hand). We'll finish the fight in 2 weeks.

Rosemary liked her blanket. I wish I'd taken a picture of it. But it's a good size and her old fleece blanket was losing its border.

*grumble* Where's my card reader?
I have some great photos to show but no way to download them from my camera. I have to find what I did with my card reader before I can show off.

Tatting: I finished the Eritrean flag & it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. There's a flickr group & I plan to post the picture as soon as I get it downloaded (notice theme?). Since that was finished and even mailed off, and I don't know how many bookmarks to expect from others, I started on the bookmarks for my company's adult literacy class. [I really want to finish AnneB's dragon. I have 2 of them started who just need wings.]

I decided to do something simple for my first one, so I chose the square motif from p 58 of Lindsay Rogers' Tatting Collage in variegated blue (I have a picture, honest) Olympus 40. I adapted the pattern with a split ring so that it's one round instead of two. But then when I got the end, I'd have to cut & tie and then put the tassel elsewhere. Ick.

Instead, I finally mastered split chain. I've only been trying to for 2 years. I am not kidding. I remember trying to take Karey Solomon's morning split chain bag class and just. not. getting. it. Then Mary S. at last year's Palmetto Tat Days showed me her cabochon ring trick for learning split chain. Nonetheless, when I tried it with thread my attempt yielded your basic rat's next. Yesterday, I finally got a chain instead of something that the cat threw up. See Arlene. See Arlene do the happy dance.

I am making the same bookmark again but in variegated brown Red Heart size 20. I am also adding 2 extra ds, at the beginning & the end, to the chains. My blue one cups a little and this will fix that. I tat tighter than Ms. Rogers, I guess.

Other craft: Technically the flag goes under this, too since I quilted the flag and only tatted the olive branch & wreath.

I made a quick fleece blanket for Rosemary's birthday. I bought 4 yards, 2 each of 2 different fabrics, of poly-fleece. I laid them out on the conference room table during lunch. Then I carefully trimmed them (to get rid of the selvages), clipped and tied them. It's a fairly simple way to make a reversible fleece blanket. One side is a dark tartan; navy, forest, garnet, thin yellow & thin white stripes. The other is a cheerful red with multi-colored snowflakes. It's big enough to cover her completely, and should be very warm.

Gaming: tonight is Mutants & Masterminds. Yay! I get to hit things and not think much. The funny thing is, my character Totem is very intelligent. But her ignorance of modern technology lead people to drastically underestimate her.

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).

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.

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!

Flattered & angry: Someone like the picture of the tatted scrunchy that I made so much, that she swiped it for her own tatting gallery. The funny thing is, if she had asked permission or just given credit/given the source, I wouldn't be upset. I would gladly, thrilled & flattered, have given her permission to use the photo, just asked for a little credit ('tatted by' sort of thing). As soon as I found her address, I sent her a polite email requesting that she remove the image. She does have a nice collection of patterns and she's selling a cd of patterns (from what I can tell) but using my image, without credit, is a form of false advertising I feel.

Family: Tonight I go meet Dad & the stepmom for supper. It's just as well. Chris leaves early tomorrow for Ottercon, with Rosemary, so he's sleeping in Raleigh tonight for an earlier start. I have Dad's Father's Day present, I wrapped it this morning. I used one of the 2007 calendars that I bought for a $1 to wrap it. I arranged it so that the lighthouse image is just off center of the front of the package.

Tatting: I finished the Maltese Ring bookmark this morning, despite a broken hook on one shuttle & running out of thread 1 ring & 2 chains short of the end. The rest of the thread on the shuttles will become the bookmark tassel. I'll try to take a picture & add it to my blog tonight. However, that will be after supper.

Gaming: I've almost finished the 4e character that I made as I read the PHB. She's a half-elf fey pact warlock. I went with the deceptive warlock build; a little stereotypical but not bad.

Tatting: I'm taking a break from the snood to work on the eTatters June challenge from the monthly challenge group. I'm trying to make a Maltese ring bookmark. I'm not certain that I'm doing it right. It looks a little odd. 

  Weather: It's 'cooler' today. By that, the weather folks don't think it will hit triple digits, just the mid-90's. Whoop ti freaking do. Still skirt weather as far as I'm concerned. At least we're not getting hit with tornadoes. 

  Poetry: I entered a haiku into a little contest, haikus were on a specific theme. I entered three & they chose one to compete against other entries. I got runner up. Not bad for a haiku about records management. And the people who got them said that they really enjoyed them and they will probably show up in the newsletter. (haikus are below) 

  Computer game: I'm playing Virtual Villagers 3. I lost 1 & 2 when my hard drive crashed but at least I'd finished them. I also have the other usual suspects; Diner Dash (almost done, again - new link with the demise of Flash - https://www.crazygames.com/game/diner-dash), Fashion Solitaire, all 3 Carrie the Caregiver games and a couple find the object games. I really like the ones that I can try first. I've only gotten burned twice in that after an hour the game sucked. One was Nanny Mania. The other 2 levels were basically repetitions of the 1st one. Bleah.

Retention schedule? What is it and where is ours? Oh; this is quite old.

These records are old. Check the retention schedule, Then shred what should be.

one entry:

Shred these records, now. Can't, schedule says they're not old. Two more years, then shred.

And the winner:

We have a schedule? Yes, we do; have you seen it? Do you follow it?

Just finishing Witch Hunter game. I am soo tired. But it was fun. I'm at Roundcon in Columbia, SC.

Reading Witch Hunter book. Gaming all weekend, no time to read. Working on April challenge, and almost figured out how to do ends for a hen & chicks bookmark. Almost. I did finish one of Kersti's on Thursday.

clothes: Tricon 2006 t-shirt & black jeans & tatted jewelry (that I made) yesterday. Today it was black jeans, Celtic knot jewelry, Lost Colony t-shirt & two new Celtic knot rings, one with a red stone.