Better Late than Never? Even very late?

I was working on this blog post and I got a cold. Pretty much wrecked my Sunday and I took Monday off to recover. Then I worked a short week as I took some time off work to go see my Mom. One of her sisters is visiting and I wanted to see her, too. Plus, Mom had some paperwork/estate stuff she wanted to settle now, before I'm left to deal with it.

Then, the events at The Pulse in Orlando, Florida. It just wrecked me. I'm cishet (het for heterosexual and cis means my gender experiences match the gender I was assigned at birth) and I feel devastated.  One note about the opening paragraph, it's the largest mass shooting in modern US history (Wounded Knee, for example had 300 dead).

I'm finally to a point, I can write in my blog again.

I went to the demo at the Mordecai House in Raleigh with other tatters. I worked on a bracelet; it was the first time I'd been tatting for awhile, considering my wrist. I made sure to stop and do something else every once in awhile. I've finished and it's a cute, summery one. I need to block it and photograph it.

I had to get a new cellphone. My carrier said it wasn't supporting my phone anymore. So now I have an android. And I have to learn how to use it. And program all my contacts into it. Not fun.

I went to my last Employee Forum meeting as a delegate on June 8, my term ends June 30th. We held the peer recognition awards (I helped review nominations) and at the end, the Kay Wijnberg Hovious Distinguished Delegate awards. To my surprise, I was one of the three people honored. Looking at previous winners, I'm in impressive company.

Friday was my supervisor's last day at work, as he is taking vacation for the next two weeks until his official retirement. We had a big retirement party for him on Wednesday afternoon. There was cake, punch, chips, and M&Ms with his face and name on them.

Friday, we had a little potluck for him in the office. We had cupcakes, chips, dip, cookies, little ham sandwiches, and punch. I'll miss him, he's been a good supervisor.

Saturday was Free RPG Day so I went to a local game store to pick up some of the freebies and play Pathfinder's release. It was another Goblin adventure; We B4 Goblins. It was fun.

I wanted to play the Doctor Who RPG, too, but it turned out that was a miniatures game. Which is not the same as an RPG.

Sunday morning I called my Dad to wish him a happy Father's Day.
Here, have some pretty pictures.

I hate colds

I woke up yesterday with indications of sinus drainage. I went to work anyway, but got worse as the day progressed. I felt even worse this morning, and since I'd like to enjoy Christmas, I took the day off.  I spent it on the couch, napping, watching tv, etc. I didn't even have the concentration to finish re-reading a novel.

I had my co-workers' presents, too. I guess I'll take them with me to work on Monday. Better late than never.

Have some nature photos:

Pretty sky

 

 

I'm not sure where this squirrel is going, but it's quite intent

vintage tin

What's inside the tin

just kind of creepy

December blooming flowers

print, cut, and fold (& glue) paper box

CH gave me the tin of her grandmother's tatting supplies. Wasn't that sweet of her?

Saturday was the tatting meeting and I showed it off.

RG's dog died on Sunday. He was 15, and had been ill for quite some time. She took steps to keep his quality of life up, with tasty foods, etc. He was loved and we will miss him.

I cancelled my platelet donation tomorrow. I should not be donating when I feel like this. And since I got sick, I didn't get my Christmas cards out either.

Sorry this post is so incoherent. I realized I missed last week and wanted something out.

Tragedy and Hope

We played Pathfinder, Wardens of the Reborn Forge, on Saturday. We started late, because we talked about the Paris events (one of the players has a sibling in Paris and he was late as he checked on the sibling's safety). That lead to discussions about 9/11. Of course, that really depressed me, because it makes me so sad.

It was soon after that, I heard about the incident in Beirut and the heroism of Adel Termos. I mourn with his family over his loss, but rejoice over the people he saved.

And here's some info to keep in mind whenever there's a major news event.


I'm almost at 19000 words for NaNoWriMo and I've tatted another bracelet (variegated purple with pink and purple seed beads). I attempted a new earring pattern but all I got was a hot (beaded) mess.

Last night was my date with Autumn Breeze. She was sick on our usual Tuesday and had another commitment last week. We met at our usual diner and then went to see the bartender at the sports bar we used to go to regularly.

Events two weeks ago in Charleston, SC

And the recent arson of historically black churches in the south

If you're wondering why I'm not saying anything, it's because I'm listening. All I can do is grieve with those who have suffered, and let their voices be heard.


Remember the names of those who we lost; let the name of the shooter be 'some asshole.'

• Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd
• Susie Jackson
• Ethel Lee Lance
• Depayne Middleton-Doctor
• Clementa C. Pinckney
• Tywanza Sanders 
• Daniel Simmons
• Sharonda Coleman-Singleton
• Myra Thompson 

Jury Duty and other matters

Do you like to play board games? Are you uncertain about what board games to get or play? Here's a flow chart.

Do you want impetus to try more games? Or just to play games more often? Try 51in15; play 51 discrete games in 2015. These games can be tabletop, board games, card games, played a thousand times, never played before, published, unpublished, playtested, etc. You only count each game once. There are badges, to post, to gloat over, however you choose to use them. The site I linked to has the badges and some ideas. Enjoy.

C got a KitchenAid for Christmas. Now we need to find a place on the counter to put it. We have a possible place, if we get rid of his knife block and do something with our hot chocolate collection. Since we've been trying to eat healthy and I started having problems with milk, we haven't been drinking as much. We had a couple different flavors, and been getting some as presents. We need to decide what to do with it. Unopened boxes will probably go to the food bank or something similar.

This just makes me want to scream. (article about San Francisco seeking exemption from the ADA for police interactions.)

And in case you missed it, Muslims did react to the shootings at Charlie Hebdo. 

Tuesday I had work thing, a half-day retreat. I didn't go. Instead, I had jury duty. Whee?

First, photogenic, project from my new Japanese tatting book. 

The one on the right is the one I did first, and my tension was too tight. I did better on my second try.

And here are the first two bracelets I made this year.

 And I finally finished my lace wristlet. And its a leeeeetle too small.

And here's a picture of a neighborhood in Greensboro, NC. They hang these lighted balls for Christmas.

Someone else's contest & family stuff

A wonderful artist is running a contest on her blog. It's a tiered contest so I'm going to let you in on it, despite my own desparate desire to win. If she get 33 individual entries, then she offers up a $33 certificate to her etsy shop. She makes gorgious cuffs, collars, sleeve garters & earrings. See, take a look. If she gets 66 entries, the certificate goes up to $66.


Another day, another way to help Haiti

I had a nice time visiting my mom & her older sister this weekend. I pulled out my laptop to get family info. My mom & two of her sisters were brunettes, while the youngest was blonde. No one could remember what color my granddaddy's hair was before it went white, and Other Mother's hair was dark (yes, I called her Other Mother, because she was more like another mother than a grandparent; I was 5, I thought it was An Other).

I finished my Ren faire blouse. Mom and Aunt Shirley took one look and were aghast. It's kind of shapeless because, duh, I'll be wearing a bodice over it, which will provide any shaping. So yes, it hangs like a sack. I did run into one problem with using the old sheet; the machines hated it. I wasn't using industrial machines and the tight weave of the sheets did funny things to the stitch evenness. As they say, I won't be wearing it to meet the queen after all. Not a real one, anyway.

I also fixed a not-quite-antique beaded & embroidered sweater vest. (note: I need pictures of these 2 projects,don't I?). I had to replace one pearl, I let one bugle remain missing and I fixed some loose embroidery threads. It took about 10 minutes & the difference is remarkable. Mom & Aunt S were amazed. They'd been letting it sit for months, waiting for me to fix it. They didn't realize that it was so simple. Admittedly, it was simplified by Aunt S having a pearl on hand for me to use.

The weather, by the way, is remarkably warm. It started Sunday with temps in the 60's. And it was sunny. Same thing yesterday, and today. I wore a polo shirt today, atlhough there was frost on the ground this morning. My neighbor's poor pear tree though, it's put out blossoms. That won't last. We had a thunderstorm Sunday & that means that winter weather is likely in the next 11 days. It sounds like superstition but it has a scientific basis. If the conditions are right to have a thunderstorm in winter, then they're right to have 'wintery' weather (around here that's code for snow/sleet/freezing rain), too.

Haiti & other matters

Here are two other craft people who are doing a little something for Haiti; Shore-House Chic and Reclaimed Home. Both are running auctions, the former for a tote & the latter for a necklace, in which the winning bid goes to a charity for Haiti. Proof of donation sent to the artist has her shipping the item to the winner, at no further cost to the winner. Isn't that just nifty.

I could not find any solid Olympus #40 thread to go with the multicolor that I used for the 1st 2 days of the Jane's TIAS. Talking with A on the phone, I had the brainstorm to just start over; in a thread that did match. I found some multicolor size 10, along with a couple balls of solids color.

Here's original Day 1

And here's the new Day 1 & 2

Along with Day 3 & Day 4

I'm in a Funk

Which is soooo much fun for the people around me. Luckily, that amounts to none, right now. I'll do what I can to get out of it by the time C gets home tonight.

I'm 2 days behind on the TIAS. I suddenly realized that I don't know if I have any solid color thread the same size as the multicolor that I used. Some days it doesn't feel worthwhile to have gnawed through the straps. I have thread that might be the same size, but it's a different number, by a different company, from a different country...so I just don't know. My eye isn't good enough to see more than obvious differences.

I could moan & groan about the little things that have gone amiss today, but next to what's happening in Haiti, I have it so good it seems ridiculous to complain. By the way, if you're wondering what you can do; here are links to the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. If you have text capabilities on your phone then you can ext "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to RedCross relief efforts in Haiti ($10 posts on your bill, Std msg rates apply). Or you can text YELE to 501 501 and $5 will be donated to help those in Haiti.  

There are a lot of people doing little things (this week, $5 from each sale by this Etsy vendor goes to help Haiti)  and that will add up to a lot. And Jeri Smith is donating a copy of her book, Bad to the Bone, to the 1st 20 people who donate $15 to MSF (Doctors w/o Borders).


Speaking of 'I don't really have it bad', a friend of mine has been spending time since New Year's at hospital etc. He's the primary care giver for his mother. She's in good shape, for her age; and that's the key phrase. Anyway, she fell December 30th and broke her other hip. As a result, she was in surgery New Year's Day. Now isn't that a crappy way to spend a holiday.



I'm driving down to see Mom this weekend. She's staying with her sister at the coast and hopefully her sister from Miami has come north (kinda bad timing, temperature-wise). I have Monday off and that means I can stay 2 nights instead of just Saturday night.


My namesake has been enjoying her Wednesday presents. Although her father is not too happy about the glow in the dark (plastic of course) scimitar. She's not quite old enough for live steel, although she should get her own pocketknife soon, IMHO.


I've been reading The Double Daring Book for Girls. I wish I'd had this when I was kid. As it is, I'm sorry, niece, I'm keeping this copy. I've already used one bit to use an old map (instead of a paper grocery bag) to make a book cover. I'd forgotten how to do that, which seems a pity, because it's soooo easy.


I'm worried (not in a tear-my-hair-out stress and panic way) about my iPod mini. It's 5 years old, or maybe more, years old and I think that battery is on its last legs. I had it fully charged yesterday but it only lasted through about 5 songs this morning and died. Maybe, just maybe, I had it accidentally turned on in my coat pocket. I'll keep better track tonight and we'll see.


No pictures today. Maybe in my next post.

Apparently I failed my Perception roll
(it's a gaming joke) As I watching the news this morning, to catch the weather, I heard about a couple local housefires. There was one, a big one, not too far from where Chris works. The other one really surprised me; it's on my street. I was quite puzzled, because the fire took place yesterday afternoon and I saw no sign of it when I came home. How tired was I yesterday?

Turns out, to see the places (2 townhouses) that burned I had to take a half-dozen steps past my door. They are down the hill and around a curve. One place is so badly burned that it's been condemned. The other is not as bad, more scorched.

I'm going to send a note to the ones in the badly burned place. After all, I know their address. I'll see if there is anything I can do for them.

I'm still coughing but not as badly and most of them aren't as deep. I still do not have any energy, though. I'm going to have to call my mom and cancel my visit.

I worked on my project last night. Too bad I sewed the layers in the wrong order. I had to take it apart again. I got some done tonight. I'll finish it tomorrow and add the (tatted) olive branch & wreath.

After stressing about it for a little for over a week, I finally found a V-Day present for Chris. We don't do the stereotypical cards & flowers (although Chris did buy me a personalized 1# chocolate bar once). We try to find something that the other really, really wants. I found copy of Jim Butcher's Princep's Fury.

Spring Break is in full effect & the campus is about dead. Luckily, I have leftovers to eat for lunch. Tomorrow, it's lunch with my old supervisor, my current one & two other co-workers. Don't know what I'll eat on Friday, yet.

Tatting: 5 shamrocks done & 6th in progress. It's Rozella Linden's Celtic knot shamrock. Cute, huh.


website of the day: etymology online

books: reading The River Knows, again.

gaming: Chaos Fields was interesting. It was a fairly short game but we got started late because my bus was late. The early bus's transmission broke and it never came. The next one was about 20 minutes late. Thus, I got home about the time that I should have been showing up at the game. Isolde went through all of her 1st level spells and a couple 2nd level spells.

news: they've arrested 2 people for the death of Eve Carson. Did they really do it? Only the cops know for sure.

clothes: black half-boots, black jeans, grey polo, moonstone jewelry & braided hair.

book: Down Home Zombie Blues by Linnea Sinclair.

tv: Kim (the one with Errol Flynn & Dean Stockwell) & more Coupling.

games: Chris made it past the Wonder stage of Age of Empire. I'm going to try tonight.

music site: J-something

I'm crying off & on about poor Eve. I never even met her. She could have come up to me & bit & I wouldn't have known who she was. But I'm crying over her death.

clothes: black usual from waist down, sage shirt, grey cord vest, emerald pendant & earrings, class ring, brass hair clip & braid.

Weird stuff. They identified the girl who was found yesterday. She's the student body president. It's not like I knew her personally or anything. It's more like she was someone that the entire campus knew. And for her to die like that.

Kinda makes my usual blog frivolous.

End of an era

Gary Gygax has died. He was so young (okay, nearly 70, but people live lots older than that)

News: Oh, Myanmar worries me. I worry what will happen to all of those monks & protesters. I weep for the family of Nagai, the Japanese journalist who was killed.

I managed to miss the bus this morning. I got halfway & realized that I'd left my id & pass in the car last night (it was the 1st time I'd driven my car in a month, I think). By the time I made it to the stop, it was too late. I caught the next one and got to work only 20 minutes late. Short lunch for me today.

Tonight I'm going to see my mom, who's visiting her sisters down at the coast. Then Sunday afternoon, we'll go to the reunion for descendants of Eugene & Suzy Johnson (my great-grandparents). After that, I'll be coming home. And frantically doing laundry & packing for my trip to Virginia. I do not have enough clothes to get through 10 days without laundry. None of us (Chris, me, Rosemary), so we'll be spending part of one day of our vacation, doing laundry. Whee!

Knee still hurts but not as much as yesterday morning (I can go up & down stairs, bending it, without screaming agony). I even walked from FE to Jimmy Johns for lunch yesterday & survived. I was limping a little bit by evening, but still. It was better than it had been.

Movie: Went to see the Harry Potter movie last night. It was only showing at 7pm, didn't really get started until 7:15 (7:30 if the credits are included in the movie running time), and out of the theater by about 9:50 pm. The girl playing Luna is indeed, reallllly good & Mrs. Umbridge was perfect. Their casting staff is excellent; not just on the main characters but on the bit parts as well (like Nymphadora).

The trailors for Enchanted make it look interesting. At first, it looked really cutesy, then they had a clip of the cleaning scene. The fairytale princess calls upon her 'forest friends' to clean the NY city apartment. Picture this: rats using toothbrushes to scrub the toilet. 'Nuff said.

news of the day: Homeowners make a grave discovery

sight of the day, or rather yesterday: men's shorts that look like a pair of dress slacks cut off just above the knee & hemmed.

tv: watched a lot of G4's San Diego Comic-con coverage. From 300 to 123,000 (sold out on Friday but at least that many) in just 38 years. We also watched some of 1st Season Buffy on DVD.

reading: I read the prequel comic to the new series The 99. Okay, so it's new in the US.

Gaming: with Chris's help I have the plots for my Ironclaw games this weekend. Now I just have to write up NPC's and organize the information. I also wrote up Caskashihar "Cas" Mil'Tiaion, my Greyhawk Ruins ranger.

One of my co-workers is back from visiting his family. His father had a heart attack a couple months ago & then they found cancer. They couldn't operate until his father's heart condition stabilized, which was last week. The doctors operated but were unable to remove all of the cancer. It doesn't look good for my co-worker's father, but the family is waiting to hear what the oncologist has to say.

clothes: black ~slippers, jeans & belt; white polo, no jewelry (woke up late thanks to the late night) & my clip watch.

great news of the day: This journalist decided to live up to her training & try to actually cover news! She tried to ignore the faux-news of Paris Hilton's release from jail. Frankly, I don't care about Paris Hilton & I do not know why she's famous (other than media nonsense).

Being unable to get any of my posts to show has really made me reluctant to bother. But I saw this news article & had to post it.

1944 Miss America stops an intruder

books: Mamotte Lollipop vol 1, Chibi Vampire vols 2 & 3, Tactics vol 1, Millennium Snow vol 1, and a host of others (I haven't been keeping track).

today's outfit: denim skirt, crochet blouse (over white knit tank), brown suede loafers, lapis flower ring, hematite ring (finally replaced it at Roundcon), blue & brassy earring, quartz pendant & moonstone in Celtic knots pendant necklace. I have my hair parted on the side & a braid to help keep that way (no elastic of right side so it keeps coming unbraided).

Apex Chemical Fire
Okay, so my only connection (that I know of) to Apex is that it's where one of my family reunions is held. Still, it's not that far from the family farm. Luckily, only 18 people (at last report) have suffered ill effects, unless you include being evacuated.

Platelet donation: went smoothly yesterday. Since I've had time crunch issues in the past, they went ahead & did the faster version, that you apparently cannot do if you've given whole blood within the past 8 weeks. Sure enough, with the yogurt two hours before donation, I didn't even need the Tums. Yay! The movie, Dreamer, had started when I sat down but I didn't feel like watching it. Instead, I meditated, watched it without the earphones, a little. I was proud of myself. I recognized Oded Fehr, even if I couldn't remember his name.

Mutants & Masterminds: The game got started a little late. Between my late arrival and Diana's late, her new job lasts until 8 pm & the game starts at 7 pm. It was her first day on the job & maybe it won't always be until 8 pm. Maybe.

Anyway, we did a little clean up from the last session; raided the villain's secret identity apartment with the police. Of course, it was really a cover & not her home or hide out so only some stolen artwork was found. Although the magic formula letting Green Ronin find Totem's valley & getting her past the valley defenses was a good find. Those went into the Freedom League vaults.

Then we started the next story. It appears that the former warden of the Blackstone prison (supervillains only) has gone a little nuts & has taken Freedom City's mayor, deputy mayor & the senior Federal Judges hostage. Now it appears that maybe it's him & maybe it's not. We had to stop in the middle of the fight; that whole 'have to work the next day' thing.

Today's outfit: I decided to dress up a little; basically because I don't really like the last pair of clean slacks. Anyway, I'm wearing the bead & sequin black flats; navy knee-hi's (which just look dark); black, ribbed, short-sleeved sweater; ankle/floor-length crepe skirt, more-or-less vertically striped, printed to look sort of like zig-zag strips of different fabrics in brown, olive, tan, black, tan, dark teal & burgundy; silver cobra-link bracelet; female figure ring; silver band of flowers ring; silver fairy & flower pendant on silver chain; silver 3-hoop earrings; & my hair is in a bun/ponytail held by a carved, almost purple, wooden hairstick.

Tatting: I managed to fix my error from the other day. It only required completely unwinding one shuttle & one thread winder...twice. Once to unthread the misplaced ring, then again to re-thread it once the missed tatting was completed. Whee!

Mild Rant: Stupid pedometer! It's reset itself. I just don't believe that it only took 85 steps to get from home to the work. Now it's at 60 steps. Grrrr!

Gah, how can people do stuff like that!? I'm talking about the bombed trains in Madrid. Almost 200 people killed, hundreds more hurt. And why? So some political/religious extremist can get his rocks off?! All those poor people, I think I'll just sit here and cry for awhile.