More nalbinding and stuff

I started a 2nd nalbinding hat, same yarn. But this time I started at the top. As a hat, it is less than successful. As a bag, it's not horrible. I do have a gaping hole where I missed a stitch or something, but I used some of the leftover yarn to make a lucet braid & just tied the hole shut; but semi-decoratively. I still need a drawstring for it, though.

I am working on a new card case for my gift cards, etc. It's a simple pattern, but I couldn't resist some changes. And I think I left out the seam allowance, so I did some piecing to add extra fabric to create seam allowance. Until it's done, I mended my current card wallet. 

I started a pair of nalbinding wrist warmers, in acrylic again (yay knots), but smaller yarn so it's likely to look lacier. I think I need to work on my tension, I keep finding holes.

I am finished retro-tatting on the round robin doily from the online tatting class. Forward progress again. 

I took a bag of stuff to Scrap Exchange this past weekend. Some of it was 'get it out of the house, I'm not going to use it' and some of it was 'if I don't take this, it's going to be thrown away.' While I was there, I found some fleece to use for a plush toy (I have the pattern, I just need to actually work on it) and some more Formica samples for Tri-Tatters luggage tags.

Three of us took the day off from work yesterday to hang out and go see a matinee of the Dungeons and Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves. The theater has reclining seats; very comfy. Happily, the movie did crest the very low bar set by earlier DnD movies and there were a couple Easter eggs for long time DnD folks.

Another week, another post

Thursday was Deadlands again. We had another combat and my character, Alis got in some good shots, and got poisoned. It was fun to use her magic gun to shoot the bad woman's bow out of her hands (hey, she used it to shoot Alis with a snake arrow).

I'm still working on my Blue Rose character. I am reading the world background to fine tune her. I think I will end up changing a couple things, make them into goals instead of accomplishments. I do have most of her family plotted out and her immediate family have names.

my mom crocheted the dice bag, yes there's a metallic filament

 Saturday was Tri-Tatters. Leigh (of somethingunderthebed.com fame) had the second newsletter, with my article about the Bath Tatting Book. I hope someone who reads it finds it helpful. We had 12 people at the meeting, including two people who are learning to tat. One of them brought some of her grandmother's lace. She had some lovely hairpin lace, crochet lace, and a bit of tatting.

I finally figured out TotusMel's pattern she's letting me use. The problem isn't with her pattern; it's that it works really well with needle tatting and take some adjustment to make it work with a shuttle.

However, I cannot find my pink squares for Belgium. Argh! I know what container they're in but I can't find the container.

I haven't started on the 2018 TIAS yet. I've been distracted by my other projects (including CD's scarf, up to 20"+ now).

Sunday it was chilly and rainy so I didn't work on my car. I hope I'll get something done on it, soon.

CD and I watched a movie with Herman's Hermits. He likes the band. The movie was kind of 'meh' but it had some good music. However, quite nicely, it did not have a villain. It was very nice.

Today was part 1 of of a training, Mental Health First Aid. It was mostly what to look for and some of the risk factors for depression and/or anxiety. Tomorrow is part 2, practice and practical.

There were snow flurries this morning. And my neighbor's Bradford pear is blooming. And I think I saw a cherry tree blooming, too (it was pink blossoms and a tree).

Triangle Tatters and other matters

Deadlands went pretty well. We didn't die and we made progress. Well, we made progress until we were intercepted by bad guys. We left mid-fight because we have to work the next day.

Saturday, I ran the next session of Tears at Bitter Manor, the first one with the remote player. The host and he ironed out the technology in the week before the game. We discovered the kindle with skype worked really well, both for sound and image quality. The phone worked pretty well but when it got hot (after a couple hours of use) signal quality declined markedly. I did send the maps to the remote player via email, just in case, but he didn't need to use them. The high contrast of printed maps also probably helped.

I prepped for 3 fights. Of course, they did 2 of them at once, skipped the 3rd one and then went after one I had not prepped at all. Despite that, it went smoothly.

I had the maps printed out. The big ones (~14-19) and the two smaller ones for just under $50. They worked so well that we all considered that money well spent. And RG said she plans to have me take her maps to get printed the next time she runs.

You don't often think 'military base' and 'nature conservation' together. It turns out to be a thing.

Not connected to anything else, but these (still experimental) bio sensor tattoos are so cool.

Sunday was the second day of Cary Lazy Daze and I joined Anitra and three others demo'ing in the Young Community Center. Anitra managed to get my ring to open; turns out a knot was so tight the thread wasn't sliding. She retrotatted half of it and then I finished retrotatting it and started over. I'm up to a dozen repeats on that bracelet now. I really need to get it done.












We shared the room with the leatherworkers and gourd artists, and twisted fibers (crochet/knit/spin) were supposed to be there (they were there on Saturday) but I guess something happened and they weren't there. I knew one of the ladies, and she introduced herself to Anitra. I've been trying to get Danielle to the tatting meeting for a few months.

The gourd folks and leather folks were really nice. I bought an ornament for mom from the gourd makers. It's a gorgeous painted egg gourd. The leatherworkers had set up little stations for folks to make a little something.

I watched this movie, Mr. Right tonight. It's not the best movie ever, but I enjoyed it. It had some really funny moments amidst the violence, and it's a lovely romantic story, too.

It's Cooler this Week

It's not cool; just cooler. And it finally stopped raining.

Went to see Mom. We had a nice lunch and then I had to rush home to try and beat the rain (I failed). I cannot seem to find a floor lamp for her. I did find some beige socks (she can't stand white socks with brown loafers) and some other things she wanted.

Sunday, CD and I ran errands. And we went to see  Guardians of the Galaxy, vol 2. It was entertaining. I don't think it passed the Bechdel test, but there was at least one conversation between two women, not involving a man in their lives.

 I delivered the bouquets I made for Kathy. She seemed to like them. Yay! I didn't tell her I included 21 instead of 20.

I  started another ice drop. It's going to be...colorful. I did work on the red linen thread bracelet but my hands really need to be dry for that.

CD's mom gave me a box of old tatting thread.

The power cord for my tablet that I use overnight isn't working very well. I'm lucky to get a few percent points of battery charges (like 14% to 18% is good). I think the part that actually plugs into the outlet is dead.

Here's the knit cat I made. I finished knitting an icord for the tail. I haven't attached it yet.

assorted photos

more coloring

Missed a week, oops

We played Deadlands after my last post. The GM, DR, says our game is between 2 and 20 sessions to go before the final resolution. We were debating what game to play next and decided on Blue Rose. I had mentioned on social media that I had a concept for my next fantasy character, inspired by Mrs. Pollifax. I want to play a middle-aged woman whose children are grown with their own lives and she fulfills her young dream of becoming an adventurer. With Blue Rose, she can become a government agent, a la Valdemar Herald. The GM had gotten his copy of Blue Rose and he thought that character would work fabulously. We're still playing the Deadlands game (although CD will miss this week's game), though.

Saturday (the 3rd) was the Tri-tatters doing their part of living history at Mordecai House in Raleigh. We were on the house porch this time instead of at the visitor center. I took a break to talk to the cook/soapmaker. The theme was roses and she made rose short bread and rose scented soap. She's very nice and I look forward to talking to her again. Unlike us, she was dressed for the era.

I did finish an ice drop and finally made good progress on the sea glass pendant after another false start. I used the technique from Anitra's turtle but had to play with the stitch count to get it to work.

Tri-Tatters at Mordecai (I missed getting KV)

Tri-tatters at Mordecai (can you tell where I was sitting?)

sea glass pendant

 Sunday, CD and I made a flying visit to mom to fix her phone. And her DVD player. And her Kindle. They all had the same issue, no power. The outlet the phone charger was plugged into was controlled by a switch, which was frequently off. So the phone wasn't charging. The power strip where the DVD player and Kindle were plugged had come unplugged from the wall. Easy fix, luckily.

Afterward, CD and I went to DSW. My sandals broke on Memorial Day and I needed a new pair. In theory, I could have fixed the broken strap, but that wouldn't fix the other problems (sole wearing out, etc). I bought new sandals, and on mom's advice I bought two of the same.

Tuesday the 6th was the big Blood Drive at UNC. I volunteered at check in and then grabbed a bite to eat before going to donate. It meant I was out of the office most of the day but I was helpful. My donation went well.

The same evening was my monthly date with CC. We went to DSW. I wanted to see if they had the multi-color sandal in the same style in my size. Alas, they did not. But I did buy a pair of shoes to replace my tennis shoes, when they finish dying. They were really expensive shoes, but on clearance meant they cost as much as an expensive (for me) tennis shoes. CD said she bought a pair of shoes of the same brand and they lasted 25 years. Breaking down the cost per year, they'll be cheaper in the long run.

I also fell to the croc side. They're work suitable and really comfy. Except if  the 3rd time you ever wear them you walk 10+ minutes in the heat and then get sand in your shoe and you don't immediately rinse them out, they are not so comfy.

Wednesday night we went out for my birthday supper. We were going to Casa San Carlo, but they're closed for renovations. Instead, we went to Tokyo House. JJ came, CD of course, RG, DR, SR and her husband SR, and at the last minute I asked CC and her SO came, too. I will say, Tokyo House did a great job and the service was very good.

However, right before I left work on Wednesday some stuff came up for mom's financial stuff. Very stressful. Thursday, I thought I got it temporarily resolved, at least until they got my POA processed. Except, they apparently didn't. As I found out late Friday.

Saturday, I just rested and relaxed. I desperately needed a recuperation day. Sunday, CD and I went to pick up comics, manga, and game books. We hadn't been to our FLGS and had orders to pick up.

Later, CD, CC, her SO, and her friend D all went to see Wonder Woman. There were a couple 'why did they do that?' moments but overall I really liked it. There were not incompetent characters, just competent at different things with different strengths and weaknesses. Even Etta wasn't played for laughs. She had some very funny lines but she wasn't comic relief.

Monday, I took a long lunch and took care of mom's stuff in person. There were phone calls to make and I did some follow up today and I'm doing more tomorrow. But there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Palmetto Tat Days registration is open. I need to do that tonight.

Here are some random photos. I've done some coloring pages and isn't this a huge thistle?

And if ever wonder what manspreading is? This is it. That's a 3 person bench. You can see a woman squeezed at one edge and this guy is taking up 2 spaces. If the bus wasn't crowded, I wouldn't care. But it was quite crowded that day.

And here's an ice drop in the Spice Cake (like the sea glass pendant) and a heart.

Freeze Warning...and now it's over

We actually had low temps in the 20s (Fahrenheit) this past weekend. And today the high was in the low to mid 60s. Yep, that's autumn in NC.

I'm still trying to get the photos off my iPad. I took some pictures for my Indie+ game jam entry and resorted to posting them to a private G+ list and pulling them from there. I wrote a game based on barbecue and kind of anime battle shojo. Sort of. It's a cross between a tabletop rpg and a dice game. The materials are easy, scrap paper or index cards, dice, writing implement, and imagination. I've posted the game and game contest rules at the end, so you don't have to read them unless you make an effort.

There's been a problem with a leak outside my office for more than a year. They patch it, they work on it, they patch the wall, and the leak reappears. The leak got really bad recently, to the point another office was flooded. Monday, they took a jackhammer to the hall floor. And I started the day with a migraine. The jackhammer and drill noises did not help. But migraine meds however, did.

Our Saturday Mermaids game got canceled. So C and I went to see Doctor Strange (not Dr. Strange) in 3D. We hit the matinee so it was a scoche cheaper. 

I've had my 1st follow-up physical therapy appointment. My next one is tomorrow. The 1st PT appointment is to set a baseline and course of treatment, so in some ways it doesn't count. I've been doing the stretches and exercises and ooof, my knee hurts.



Your Vinegar is no match for My Organic Vine-Ripened Heritage Tomato!
A game of battling barbecue chefs in a manga-style cooking contest, using a set of polyhedral dice, a minimum of three players, a pen, and an index card for each player. The number of dice will govern the number of rounds of play. Sample barbecue cuisines: Western NC, Eastern NC, Memphis, Kansas City, Texas, Vietnamese, Korean.

Each player writes what order they plan to roll their dice along one side of the index card and the other player names across the top. They can also write the name of their barbecue sauce on the back of the index card.

Example: Mary, John, Rich, and Joyce are playing and they decide to use the set of 6 polyhedral dice.

Mary's card has the name of her barbecue on the back and on the front she writes d4, d10, d8, d20, d12, and d6 down the left of the card. Across the top she writes John, Rich, and Joyce.


John's card – different die order


Each player chooses a barbecue variant and the challenge begins. The players can select who goes first is or they can roll for it. The players go in order of roll; highest goes first and lowest goes last.

The player opens with some aspect of their chosen barbecue (heat, sweetness, tartness, etc) and the other chef(s) counter with an aspect of their own.
Example; Mary: “Your sauce is no match for the heat of my Texas Swagger Barbecue!”
Rich: “Ha, your heat is no match for the sweet of my Memphis Morass Molasses.”
Joyce: Neither of you can possibly defeat my tart Vietnamese Phi Pho Phum!”
John: “And none of you can equal my savory Brazilian Bangkok Bites!”

This establishes the key notes and theme of each barbecue (which may or may not bear a resemblance to real barbecue recipes/cuisines). The players counter each others' ingredients, complete with grandiose titles. Recommended, each player has a maximum of two minutes to describe their ingredient. Other players make a note under the round's row and the player's name for the description they liked the best or they thought best fit the sauce's theme.

Example: Mary is making Texas Swagger Barbecue so she has that written on the back of her card. Her first ingredient is Ghost Town Ghost Peppers. John likes that description and think it fits both the heat aspect and the Texas theme.

They each roll a die. Each player writes down their result. They continue in rounds until every die size is used. Each vote for an ingredient gives a bonus to the die roll for that round.

Example: On the third round Joyce uses the ingredient Transparent Vietnamese Pho Noodles Cooked in Lemon Juice. John thinks it's a boring name but it fits the theme better than the others that round.

The one who wins the most rounds wins the game.

If there is tie, then have a tie-breaker: the secret ingredient round. Each tied player should take a few minutes to create and pitch their sauce's secret ingredient. The other player(s) vote on the best description

Variant: die size governs how long the player has to describe their ingredient, with the longer die giving the player more time.

Optional: write the down the ingredients, complete with grandiose descriptions and look at the resulting recipes.



Announcing

Indie+ Game Jam - Let’s Get Cooking!

This is a game Jam where the purpose is to make an RPG about Cooking.

Theme: You have to involve cooking in some fashion. Whether it’s a short game where you describe sumptuous feasts from prompts, a game where you pass recipes down generations, or an adventure game where you’re hunting down a rare ingredient for a dish in a dangerous locale - as long as it involves cooking in some fashion it’s good.

Specifications: You should have a complete game, aiming to be short (around 2 pages) but no longer than 4 pages in length.

Time: You will have 60 days to complete your project (final submissions are due midnight 11/13/2016 EST). If you are interested comment in the post below, and post in the Indie+ Community if you need help, ideas, or someone to try out your game!

How to submit: Post your entry in the Game Jam Entries category in the Indie+ community!

Purpose: Whatever you submit will be collected, and shared among all the creators, and put up as PWYW on DriveThruRPG with all profits being put forward to the IGDN scholarship fund.

Car Shopping

Looking for a new (used) car is not really my idea of entertainment. I know something about cars, but I don't remember when put on the spot. I've been looking on-line but you can't get a feel for the cars. Plus, I want a standard transmission and that's getting harder and harder to find; unless you're buying a new car and make it part of your build.

However, my 22-year-old Saturn broke the timing chain. It can be repaired but at this point, it's cheaper to buy a new car. I spent about a week shopping around on-line. It gave me an idea of prices, at least. But I all the sites I looked at wanted me to narrow to manufacturer and make first thing. My wants are quite basic: electric or hybrid (which are still too expensive for me or the ones I can afford won't do what I need them to do), sedan/small car, four-doors, cruise control, anti-lock brakes, and a good maintenance record. I finally just landed on one that had a good maintenance record and looked at those.

On Saturday, C and I went to Crown Honda to see what they had. The salesman was good, he took us to one that was in my price range and below my mileage limit. I test drove it. Cars have changed in the 17 years between the manufacture of my Saturn and the 2010 Honda Civic I drove. The one I dislike, but accept, is the larger bar between side window and windshield. Apparently, that's where an airbag is stored so it's not going away. I'll just have to duck and bob when looking that way. It's smaller than my Saturn, both in body length and in trunk.

Having the speedometer right below the field of view through the windshield is great. Daytime running lights are a good thing, although no substitute for using headlights in poor visibility conditions, like fog or rain. As a new(er) car, the gas and brakes are more sensitive than on my Saturn.

Here's my new car. I had my Saturn for 20 years. It's going to take time for me to adjust to the new car. And hello, car payments.

I have 32 inches of my edging made. Soon, I'll have to start comparing it to the scarf to make sure it's the right length. I'll have to make a decision then, sew on one end or leave it until both ends are ready.

I took part in the spring walk/run at work on Friday. It's 1.5 mile walk or 3 mile run. There was a group of 4 people behind me. Everyone else was in front of me. At certain points in the walk, I could have been completely alone. I'm glad I took my iPod. And while it was raining a bit, it never poured. I don't have any pictures from the walk because my iPad would have been awkward.

Despite the fact I missed seeing Ironman 3, I went with friends (C, R, & JJ) to see Avengers: Age of Ultron on Sunday. We went to an Irish pub for supper. We had quite good service, even with the less than obvious stuff, like turning down the music when we asked. I quite enjoyed the movie, even with some problematic stuff, which is open to interpretation by the viewer.

New desk phones at work. Something else to get used to. These are computerized, to the point there's a way to restart them.

And I hop everyone had a good May Day.

Month of Letters, and other matters

From the title, you may have guessed this but..

So far, so good. I've mailed out a letter every day. I've also earned some achievements; first letter, week of letters, Girls Love Mail (send a card to a woman newly diagnosed with breast cancer through the organization Girls Love Mail), and parcel post (I sent the late Christmas present for my niece, must remember to email my brother for confirmation that it arrived).

I've tatted one of Anne B's dragons. I have a picture of it, but it's completely untrimmed. I'm going to trim the loose threads, take another picture, and post that.

I need to locate my baby booties pattern and the appropriate thread. One of my friends is expecting a baby in July.

I have a cold that just won't quit. I've been coughing since Jan 8. I went to the doctor on the 9th and he said it was a cold; nothing to do but palliatives. He quite literally prescribed rest, push fluids, no sudafed, steam, and no whispering. The sinus drainage was giving me voice issues and the sudafed and whispering are both bad for that.

Still playing Pathfinder. R is running Dragon's Demand and we're playing about once a month. It looks like we'll be finished around June.

I did go to a local con, met Mary Robinette Kowal and found out one of my friends went to high school with her. I've been reading her Glamour series and quite enjoying them. The first one is Shades of Milk and Honey. If you like Jane Austen, I recommend them.Got interested in Month of Letters and found out she's behind it.

I've been watching Sherlock and Elementary and Marvel: Agents of Shield and Foyle's War and The Big Bang Theory and The Crazy Ones and Castle and CSI and um, I forget. Thank goodness for DVR.

We watched the movie, Warm Bodies, the other night. It's a little lame, perhaps. But it's funny, and sweet, and even a little romantic. Psst, spoiler: it's Romeo & Juliet with a happy ending.

Mom is recovering pretty well from her broken elbow but she's been having trouble seeing very far since she had her eye surgery (was it cataract? Or something else? I don't remember). At first, her eyesight was better than ever. Now she's having trouble reading road signs.

We had snow a couple weeks ago. That was interesting. It's been a few years since real snow, as opposed to a powder sugar snow, fell around where I live. Thanks to public transport I made it work just fine. I did leave early, to get home before the slush started freezing. It was...interesting enough walking on the road when a car went by on snow. I didn't want to repeat the experience in the dark, on possible ice. They're predicting more snow on Wednesday. We'll see if it amounts to anything.

Still Alive

But it's been a very busy 6 weeks, or so. Let's see.

IOLA (you know about that), then I went to see my mom for Mother's Day weekend, then off to Tennessee for Diana's graduation party/wedding reception, my birthday weekend and Tri-Tatters meeting, off to Maryland to see a friend and his wife, and this weekend back to see Mom, weekend after is Maker's Fair, play We Be Goblins, Too, and Father's day, the next weekend is prep for Contemporal and finally Contemporal. Don't ask me about July yet. I know I have a small con at the end of the month, but I'm not thinking past Contemporal yet.

Mom loved her Mother's Day present. I found a copy of Best, Exotic Marigold Hotel on DVD, on sale. A movie she loves and I got it on sale. I swear, I think she was in heaven. We both watched the movie and enjoyed it massively. All the actors are quite good, even the four I'd never seen before (the Indian actors, I'd like to see more of them). She bought me my Christmas present, an iPad. I was a little surprised, but I love it. Just in time, too. My newly installed anti-virus software was fighting with something I thought I'd turned off and it crashed my laptop. My friend in Maryland fixed it for me, fyi.

The trip to Diana's graduation was long but it was great to see her and Chris again. They've gone to Canada now where she has a job. Guess it's time I buckle down and get my passport. Since we were uncertain if it were a one-day or two-day party (there was a typo on the invitation), we ended up being at loose ends on Sunday. We went to Gaitlinburg. We went to the Ripley's Aquarium. We saw a baby penguin and found the sea turtle (she was napping, I think).

On Saturday following, my dad, step-mom and brother drove down to take me to lunch. C was able to join us after all. His car repair was going to take long enough that he had time for the courtesy van to drop him off, him to do some shopping (cooking store for the win), and have lunch with us, then catch the van back. They brought a lovely shell disk bead and turquoise chunk necklace and tea accessory kit from Ikea. The set has a lemon squeezer, honey wand, and a combined tea ball and tray. The tray suspends the tea ball over the cup or mug, then gives you a place to put the tea ball when you withdraw it. Very nifty. It was great to see them and I really enjoyed it.

The Tri-tatters meeting was loads of fun, as always. We had a couple new people as well as familiar faces.

Then it was off to Seoul Garden for some Korean barbecue. That was quite tasty and I may have overeaten just a little. The rest of the weekend was quieter and I got some things done.

This past weekend wsa the drive to see M and his wife, B. She is such a good cook. Her blueberry pie with marscapone is incredible. She also made salmon with kolbi marinade. Must look for some of that. We played two Pathfinder modules, Scene It (both teams won once), and Munchkin. We went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness. My expectations were not high, so they were met quite well.

I should try to add some pictures, but they're in my iPad. Maybe my next post will be more picture heavy.

Movies and Used Bookstore

Movies
We went to see Despicable Me in 3D this weekend.  It was a really funny movie. I had heard good things and it lived up to what I heard. There was one little joke in the movie; very subtle. But from the laughs you could tell where the adults were sitting. Very few children would have gotten that joke.

We also saw an trailer for a movie that looks even better in 3D than in 2D. The one about the owls. In 3D it rocks; like Elvis Presley's hips.

Tatting
I finally finished the Angelica butterfly. I need to do some major blocking for it to look proper. I think I'm doing my lockjoins wrong or something. It won't lay flat.

I registered for Palmetto's. There went my money (what the car repair didn't take).

Used Bookstore
I took a bagful of books to the used bookstore. I spent some money, but took home fewer books than I took. I count that as a success. I got two of the Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books, Five Red Herrings, a gamebook, and at least two others.

Gaming:
My Dresden Files game books came in (yes another place that my money went, but not nearly as expensive). I've almost finished reading Spirit of Century. I'm so tempted to run a 1 or 2-shot game now.

Viral Video and a Car Scare

Net Stuff
Do you know who Isaiah Mustafa is? If you watch TV, you probably do; even if you only know him as 'that Old Spice guy'. There's an entire YouTube channel devoted to his videos (including a wedding proposal and one supporting libraries).

Here's a parody of one, by New Spice guy. It's really, really funny.

Life Stuff
Last night, I met some friends and we went to see The Last Airbender movie. It's sort of obvious that they were squeezing an entire season of half-hour shows into 1 hr 45 minutes (including credits, I think). Certain characters were whitewashed, too which I found distracting. It's still not the worst movie that I've ever seen and the action sequences were entertaining.


When we got back to my friend's house, my car was no longer parked in front. All that I had with me: my journal, my tatting, my wallet, and my phone. My laptop, camera, work id, checkbook, house keys, and bus pass were all in the car. PANIC! Distress! Then Chris and I both spotted it, a couple houses down the street, on the other side and up on the curb. I checked it. All the doors were locked and the parking brake was on. It was not in gear and the brake was not pulled up to its fullest extent. My best guess? The brake didn't hold and it rolled to where it stopped. Here's the incredibly lucky part: no damage. The car is fine. It didn't hit the mailbox that it landed right next to. The only 'damage' was some crushed grass between the curb and the sidewalk. Blows me mind.

Ironically, I need to pay the property taxes on my car. Today probably. I plan to get my car inspected tomorrow.

Tatting Stuff
I've gotten more tatting done. I'm more than halfway through the Angelica second wing. It's going to require some major blocking.

I'm trying to decide what to make for my State Fair entry. Ideas: doily, necklace/bracelet, framed heart. I bought some DMC 12, three balls of coordinating colors and some coordinated seed beads last night from Lazy Daizy.

Weekend of Gaming and a Movie

Saturday, we played another Pathfinder adventure. This one was part 4 of a story arc. The game was a lot of fun but somehow the 'I'd love to play on Saturday but my tatting group is meeting 1:30 - 4:30 & I want to go to that' got missed. I ended up missing the meeting entirely.

Sunday was Rosemary's game. Thanks to Chris's character getting a speak Undercommon language pearl, he was able to handle scouting the wizards' tower with minimal back up (mine & Mike's characters). The roleplay was so entertaining as he pulled the whole 'poor, put upon male' act to question the guards in the tower (including the 'do you think you'll have any openings here in a couple months?').

Saturday, after gaming, we went to see Knight and Day. It's not a great movie but there's some great dialog/banter and it's very entertaining. It has a lot of Hollywood physics, so if you want realistic action sequences, look elsewhere. I was expecting Cameron Diaz's character's name to be 'Day', though & it wasn't.

Tatting: I'm still tatting Angelica (from LadyShuttleMaker's book). I'm a good way into the 1st wing and I've noticed a problem a couple rings back. I've been toying with the questions: Open the 2 rings? Cut and add new threads? Start over? If I start over, I'm probably going to put it aside and make another bracelet. I really want to start anothe bracelet.

Rainy Morning Monday

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

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

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

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

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

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

TIAS, the weather and gaming

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

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








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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nightmares, ugh
I almost had one last night. I don't remember anything about it, thankfully, and I managed to wake up before it got really frightening. Unfortunately, as I have learned from past experience, I had to stay awake for a few minutes or when I went back to sleep, I would drop right back into the nightmare, as if I had never interrupted it. And it's a lot harder to wake up the 2nd time. As you can imagine, I'm feeling tired this morning.

Movies, tv, etc
We finally put in the new DVD player. We've had it for a couple months, ever since the last one died. Well, not exactly died. But I did not enjoy my 75 minute movie lasting 10 minutes, as the player skipped from one scene to the next. Chris also finally used the Netflix certificate his dad gave him for his birthday. We watched the 1st DVD last night. It goes into the mail this morning. It's not that it's bad, it's just that we see no need to watch it again.

Chris wanted (& so did I) to see some Anime but neither one of us knows many titles so he picked one at random. He looked at the adult section because he doesn't like the shows aimed at the younger kids, like Pokemon or Toturo's Neighbor. He chose one called Mouse. It had its amusing moments. And while there was some nudity & suggestive scenes, it's no worse than some rated R movies. Just with animation, some gravity defying is possible.

I'm going to check the Netflix listings to see if there's any anime that I recognize & want to see. I'll probably have IMDB open at the same time, just so that I can check on titles.

Gaming
I didn't go to gaming last Thursday. I still have that stupid cough & I'm trying to avoid infecting anyone. Plus, I just wanted to rest. I also took Thursday as a sick day from work; since I got home Wednesday & went straight to bed. I only woke up long enough to eat supper and went back to bed.

Since I and another player were both sick, Rosemary canceled her game on Sunday. She & Chris went to play LFR and I stayed home & rested. Some more.

However, this weekend is Mace. Considering the way that this cough is lingering, it's probably best that I'm not running anything. I had an Ironclaw plot in mind, but Greg, the game organizer, got a lot of Witch Hunter mods. I'll be playing that all weekend, instead. I might have still run at least one Ironclaw game but the Witch Hunter games are linked, not all of them but there's 2 trilogies & a special.

Books:
I gathered up a couple small boxes of books, and one bag, and took them to the used book store. As usual, I got store credit. Alas, they took far fewer books than I'd hoped. It was enough that the credit paid for half the books that I bought and since I gave them the remainder of the books for their free shelf, I even brought home fewer books than I took.

I picked up a number of Charlaine Harris's books, a couple books about photography, one about art and a couple more books, cheap, that I already own. When I re-read those, I'll release them into the wild.

Gaelic
I'm working on my Scottish again. Now I know a couple people on twitter who speak Gaelic and they can help me, on pronunciation (they spell it out phonetically), vocabulary & word usage. As I get better that will help me speak idiomatically, instead of textbook.

Tatting
And just cause: here's the baby booties that I made 5 years ago & entered in the State Fair (children's clothes) with the ribbon that I won.

Book Meme & Old Movies
'We encourage you to be creative with this! Please choose one or two questions to answer or try to answer all the questions in five words or less. Or choose a picture to answer a question! Brevity is the goal of today!'

1. Do you snack while you read? Only if I'm hungry

2. Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? Um, bookmarks! Use them!

3. How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open? Does scrap paper count, or


4. Fiction, Non-fiction, or both? 99 out of 100, fiction.

5. Hard copy or audiobooks? Hardcopy but sometimes 'reread' audio.

6. Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point? Usually, end of chapter.

7. If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away? Look it up later.

8. What are you currently reading?


9. What is the last book you bought? Above & 2 manga

10. Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time? I used to only read 1.

11. Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read? Whenever I have light.

12. Do you prefer series books or stand alone books? Serial a tad more.

13. Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over? Bujold, Bardsley, Nora Roberts (like she needs it), Shelly Laurenston, Jim Butcher & Terry Pratchett

14. How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?) Um, do stacks & stacks count?

Meme over.

I watched The Trouble with Harry last night. It's not a rollicking comedy but it's definitely amusing. I suddenly realized, Weekend at Bernie's has a vaguely similar plot. Er, they both involve inconveniently dead men. I guess it's not that similar after all.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still sick & coughing (what a surprise)
I've rested. I've drunk about a gallon of hot tea (with commiserate results). I've hacked and coughed. I've taken ibuprofen for the body aches. I've napped. I'm still sick. I'll be going to work tomorrow anyway, I think. but you better believe I'm going to try & make it a half-day. Even though I may have a caught a head cold in addition (sneezes don't go with bronchitis).

Knitting: Out of boredom, I pulled out a couple balls of yarn and the rectangle knitting loom. It's the 2nd to smallest (yellow) one and the yarn is 'bounce.' The yarn is by Premier Yarns, called Bounce, in color D8. Alas, it seems to be discontinued. It's light blue, medium blue and black. So far, the scarf is about a foot and a half long, eight inches wide, and I've almost used one whole ball. I really wanted a longer scarf, maybe I needed a third ball; or put another yarn for the center of the scarf with Bounce ends. It has a marvelous texture; velvety.

We watched L'il Abner yesterday. It's a funny movie. It's really funny, Chris looooves musicals. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. But he can't stand Barbara Streisand. Nothing against her, per se; just doesn't suit his tastes. I have managed to really clear a lot of the stuff saved on DVR (from 53% to 37%). I've also watched my copy of Twelfth Night again.

I finally managed to sleep a full night's sleep Friday night. I still woke up so dry that my lips hurt (that's not an exaggeration), but at least I had enough sleep.

Mom is coming by on her way to visit her sister down east. She should be here any minute. I"m watching Diners, Drive-ins & Dives until then.

Tatting and Movies
Tatting: Saturday's meeting of the Triangle Tatters was great. We had three new people; one of whom came because she needed help getting started. Luckily, she sat next to Anitra; a really good teacher. I knew one of the new people, because she's a student of Anitra's who helped at the State Fair this past year. Then, earlier this week we (because three of us found her through different avenues) found another tatter. She hopes to come to the meeting in February.

They helped me get started on my Eritrea flag project. So far it is not going smoothly. I do have a back-up plan. If I am unable to tat the entire thing then I will sew one and tat the olive branch wreath.

Movies: Over the weekend I saw three amusing movies, none of them less than 20 years old. The last, and most recently made, one was Rustler's Rhapsody. It's a comedy-Western, and it's really funny if you've watched a lot of old Westerns. We also caught part of Beach Blanket Bingo. It's not a great movie, but it's light & entertaining (still blows my mind that Buster Keaton is in a lot of the beach movies). The movie that we watched Friday night, the one that no one in Triangle Tatters had ever heard of (what is that, an instructional video?); How to Murder Your Wife. It's a funny movie; starring Jack Lemmon.

weather & shoes: The weather has turned warm. I'm wearing a cotton blouse and the cord vest over it feels like a bit much today. Monday I wore a pair of shoes that I thought was broken in; not enough apparently. Ouch. My Mary Janes hurt because although they are broken in; they hit the spots that the loafers abraded.

Books: I haven't read anything really new, except an old L. Sprague and Catherine de Camp book (The Stones of Nomuru) that I picked up at the USB. Although I do have the latest Lois McMaster Bujold waiting for me at the bookstore. I am up to October 07 in my Shojo Beat magazines. Sabrina Jeffries was at a library near me last night. I had planned to go but once I got home I was unable to leave again (the reasons are TMI).

Gaming: this weekend will be the first session of Spellguard. I need to make certain the my character is up to date. I know that a couple of them leveled at Wukon but I did not do the update because things were too rushed. I'll be playing my eladrin wizard (the ice queen, or wannabe ice queen).

Last night was the New Year/Christmas party. We exchanged gifts and watched Hogfather. It was fun. I think that I could do a Susan costume, in her governess aspect anyway.

My namesake had a playmate; another little girl, daughter of two other guests. At one point, they were playing together in her bedroom when the other girl's mother stopped by to check on them. She asked a few questions (what are the fish's names, etc) when my namesake popped up with 'you're interrupting our game. Can we go back to it now', or words to that effect. Everyone agrees; she's her father's daughter.

Liz gave me a wonderful scarf that she wove. It feels and looks fabulous. Poor Alisa, she left my present at home. She plans to mail it to me later. A present that is kind of an extra gift; a jar of apple sauce. It's made from the apples from the trees that I gave Liz & James about eight to ten years ago. It's the first year that they've gotten a decent crop. Last year's crop was destroyed by a frost. It probably would have been a good year if it weren't for that.

If it had not rained so much this morning, I'd want to go take a look. But it's a bit muddy and I'm wearing loafers.

James introduced us to a new show; Rough Science. It's vastly entertaining. Every high school, and some elementary & some college, science class should watch this show.

I started AnneB's dragon, with just text directions. That didn't work, as I realized when I opened my laptop to check the PDF with pictures. So I cut it off the shuttle, gave it to namesake, and started again. I've had to stop because I'm using my 2008 wood Palmetto shuttle & I need a better hook to make the upcoming join.

I've decided, emergencies permitting, that my next big purchase is a portable harddrive. I was looking at them last week and that really is the best way to store and protect my data vs hard drive crash. I can get one for about $80 that should be big enough.

By the way, Americanas lay green eggs. Tasty eggs.