Tatting: I finally loaded the 70 beads, plus 10 for safety margin, for the next round of the snood. I've even done the first set of rings & chains. All the rings are the same, 3 b 3 j 3 b 3, but the chains alternate one bead and 2 beads.
And since it's been requested, I'll go ahead & post pictures of Mark's flower, or at least my interpretation. First, here are the 3 flower elements.

Then there are two of the three flowers, attached to the main leaf.

I think my leaf is a little odd. It has 2 veins for one thing. Ah well, It will take practice. I still need to add the other flower and the assorted other greenery. I used the some size 30 that I have and some valdani borrowed from Mark.

weather: 16th day of June with temperatures in the 90's. Last year we only had 13, and it's not even the end of the month yet.

I wonder if anyone really reads my posts. This is after all an on-line journal. It's more for my own thoughts and memories than for anyone's perusal. Still, I wonder.

Anyway.

Tatting: I am working on the Workbasket snood again. My first attempt, after 3 rounds, is suitable for a doll and nothing else. It fits quite well over my fingertip. It will nowhere near hold my hair. This time, I'm doing a better job of reading the pattern & looking at the picture. That makes a huge difference. Right now, I'm tatting off the thread on the shuttle. It's not enough for the next round so I'm making some butterflies.

I wanted to join Jane E's Tat It And See but I didn't have a button. I may well try it later.

Mark Myers, aka Tatman, will be in the area in 2 weeks to teach his Jacobean Flower Spray. I need to send my money to the organizer for my share of the costs (including food and his travel).

Books: I am so ashamed. I broke down & bought 4E D&D books.

I've been reading Thrift Score & re-reading old favorites recently. Despite have 3 spiffy birthday books to read, I've been going to standbys instead.

Family: I went to visit Mom this past weekend. I hadn't seen her since April. May was a nuts month for me. She bought me a birthday present, despite the fact that I reminded her that my TomTom was a Christmas/birthday present already. She bought me a couple 1gig thumb drives ($8 at Big Lots) & a hands free earpiece for my phone.

I've been helping her clean out her apartment. She's a child of the Depression and has the hoarding mentality so common in that generation. However, she's come to the realization that she's 70 & will not live long enough to use all that shampoo/soap/etc. So we've been packing up stuff to go to charitable organizations (nursing home, Salvation Army, etc).

Mom's getting older. She got tired after only an hour of sorting and cleaning. The heat may have contributed, as her AC still is not fully functional. Despite all that, we got a lot done.

I talked to Dad on the phone, he called Sunday after I got back home. He & Kathy bought me a case for my TomTom. I've dropped it a couple times; that's why I asked for a case. I don't leave it my car, so it's often going back & forth and risks being dropped again.

Weather: I've been wearing skirts recently. It's been a record setting heat wave, hit the century mark in the heat index and sometimes in actuality. It's too [string of expletives deleted] early for it to be this hot. Even my handfan isn't helping, maybe I should carry a spray bottle.

Squirrels aren't carnivorous, right?
Because I'm not certain what I saw. It looked like a squirrel carrying a small, furry object. Maybe it was transporting a baby squirrel? If so, why? Why couldn't a young squirrel that size move on its own?

I tried to save water this morning; I tried a camper's trick; I combed corn starch through my hair instead of washing it. My hair isn't greasy (it was at the edge of wash/don't wash) but it does look dull from the white powder. After all, isn't that one of the tricks actors use to replicate grey hair?

tv: Watched a couple episodes of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Yes, we've been reduced to watching Reality TV. *sob* It's not bad, though. Last night was this neat little vegetarian restaurant in Paris. A question about prices led us on-line to compare prices at other restaurants in Paris. While there, I looked up the restaurant in the episode. It kind of spoiled the ending, though.

tatting: AAAARRRGH! I just compared my red snood/bun cover to my white one. I messed up the 5th round. I joined it to every ring, not every other ring. No wonder it's not cupping properly.

books: kind of re-reading Then Comes Marriage by Kasey Michaels.

clothes: black loafers (oops, those are crapped out, change to beaded flats), knee-highs, black slacks, black belt w/ silver buckle, white waffle polo, small labradorite pendant, hematite bead earrings, hematite band, black stone band, flower band & hair up in a knot/bun/ponytail affixed with a white chopstick almost decorated with a blue dragon.

My hand still itches. I'm afraid to put anything on it for fear of making it worse.

I joined an office pool to lose weight. Whoever loses the most weight by the beginning of June, gets it. I wonder if this is the impetus I need to lose that weight. So far, not so much; I ate 3 pieces of chocolate today. On the other hand, I went for a walk at lunch.

I went to buy my ticket to the Triangle Dance Festival on Friday. No one else is available to go with me, guess I'll go alone.

sight of the day: Muslim girl who has converted to the local religion- basketball. She's wearing a college t-shirt & matching hijab.

books: Finished Only Companion & Pocket Book of Mischief; the former at lunch & the latter on the way home.

tatting: finished 5th round. whoot!

clothes: black beaded slippers; knee-highs; black slacks & belt; dark green Geoff polo; green amber necklace, earrings & ring; black stone band; hematite band; & moss agate bead bracelet.

They've gotten to my office & one more today with the new lights. Wow, they are very bright. Since I like bright lights, that's a good thing.

I did a little writing today. Nothing of any importance, except to me.

Tulip poplars are blooming. The trees are budding, too. The crabapple by work is in bloom, as well. I sat under it for a little while today but I could not smell the blossoms more than a passing whiff or two. I love crabapple blossoms.

books: Haiku U, a very funny little book that summarizes 100 Great books in 17 syllables. I started reading Murderous Yarn but didn't get very far.

tatting: I tried to do some more on the bun cover yesterday but it was too bloody cold. I managed a few rings today. Until I ran out of thread on my shuttle. I need enough thread for another 7 or so rings. *sigh*

clothes: black jeans, half-boots & belt, white turtleneck, red brocade/tapestry vest, red bead bracelet, paui shell pendant (often hidden by my vest), matching ring, hematite ring & filigree ear cuff, oh & braided hair.

Tatting: I finished the 4th round! Yeah! Only took 12-13 yards, too. I thought that it was going to be 16-19 yards. I started the 5th round but put it on hiatus while I work on the eTatters March monthly challenge. So far I've tatted 2 3-leaf clovers, since yesterday. It's Rozella Linden's Celtic knot shamrocks and works up really quickly. It's all chains.

gaming: Rosemary's game went well. We've hit another plot point so we're making progress. We had to call the combat because we were running short on time. We'll pick it up next session.

Tonight is Chris's game and they'll be taking up duties at Flagstaff. Good news, our characters are not being court martialed, for being AWOL. Okay, they didn't come back after leave but they did send messages about what was going on & they did get back in time to report.

Tomorrow I'll be zero rounding some LG. It's gonna be APL 6 so I'll be playing my sorceress probably.

The day flew by at work today. I had the monthly reports to finish & then a billing spreadsheet enter. Plus emails & phone calls about HR stuff.

books: Um, I read something. Dark Melody....and I don't remember what else. I'm still reading the ShadowRun book. I picked up my manga & started reading that. But I haven't finished anything.

clothes: suede shoes, black jeans, black belt with silver buckle, white waffle polo, purple sweater (my office was cold today, I never took it off), feather earrings & quartz point pendant, fem power ring, class ring, hematite band & braided hair.

I have a headache. I took an aleve an hour and a half ago, so it's only painful instead of excruciating.

tatting: finished the 3rd round on my way into work this morning. As I rode home last night I had the opportunity to show it to a couple people. One has seen me tatting before; the other one had never seen tatting before & had never heard of it.

books: started reading Willing, the sequel to Ready, last night. I brought a Dick Francis book to work with me but I may not have a chance to read. I'll be doing my taxes at lunch. Whee.

TV: we watched the 2nd episode of Coupling last night. I hadn't seen that one before. It's funny. Then we watched The Princess Diaries, but I went to bed before the end.

clothes: same old same old from the waist down, black Origins shirt, grey cord vest (that covers up the Origins logo), dragon jewelry (Welsh dragon pewter earrings, silver pendant & 2 rings), and braided hair. So far I don't need a bandage this morning, but if I do, I'm pulling out another fairy one.

tv: Watched an episode of Alias Smith & Jones and then a couple episodes of Coupling. I was laughing so hard that I literally had trouble breathing. Either I'm very tense or that was intensely funny. I think it might have been the 1st episode because it had the group of 6 meeting/getting together.

Books: I read a little bit in a pocket prayer guide (suggestions on positive thinking really) since it was too cold to tat as I waited for the bus yesterday. I tried but only managed one chain & one ring before giving up. I finished re-reading Ready this morning.

Computer games: I finished another stage in Age of Empires & fully upgraded all the equipment in my 4th or 5th store in Paradise Pet Salon.

tatting: I think my thread is size 20, not 10. I need to find some that is definitely 10 & check. I finished the 2nd round yesterday & made a good start on the 3rd round today. The commute this morning was particularly long. The shuttle that I'm using holds 4 yards so it takes 4 yards on the shuttle to do the 1st 2 rounds (plus one itty bitty butterfly - 4ppp4 & 2p2 wings).

I've also gotten the idea to do the snood again, with beads! I can see already where the beads go; on all the free picots. The 1st round would have 8 ~larger beads, 16 seed beads for the rings & 8 seed beads for the chains. No beads on the 2nd round; all the picots are for joins.

clothes: same as yesterday from the waist down but it's lot colder so it's grey cord vest & bright pink turtleneck, same jewelry, except ~rope band instead of onxy ring, and pink fairy bandage over my hand where I scratched it yesterday. I drew blood & it still stings.

Looks like we're going to suffer further water restrictions. We got a little rain yesterday, less than half an inch; it's not enough. We'll be going to stage 3 by the end of the week. And it's quite chilly today (almost freezing this morning).

tatting: finished the 1st round of my snood & started the 2nd.

books: been busy doing my taxes and playing computer games. I haven't read anything more than a few pages of re-reading Ready.

computer games: started playing Age of Empires last night. I'm almost through the Learning (Rise of Egypt) campaign. I've bought the 5th store in Paradise Pet Salon.

clothes: same shoes, duplicate jeans, different forest green polo (Geoff), dark purple sweater, Celtic knot earrings & ring, andromorph pendant, onyx ring, flower ring, hematite band & braided hair.

Chris's game: Last night the fight with the Salt Baron continued. One of Kelis's last actions was to cast sleet storm, which blocked the merchant from targeting our PCs with spells (sleet storm does not do damage, it blocks normal sight and makes it hard to walk). Joe's cleric, Gaius, hit the area with a dispel magic a few rounds (& some healing) later. That revealed the merchant & his closest salt golem, which was half-destroyed. Turns out, when Chris wrote up the salt golem he included a specific weakness: vulnerability to 'create water' & 'sleet storm'. That was also true for the salt merchant's salt staff. It was half-gone, too. That had the unintended side effect that the next time he used it, it blew up. One more destroyed golem later & the fight was over.

We spent the rest of the session dealing with our PCs correct orders (make a 6-week trip in 3-weeks, since they weren't where they were when the orders were cut). Also, the undead knight sent a little 'gift,' 6 black heavy warhorses with matching tack. The dwarf developed a distaste/hatred/antipathy towards riding so he certainly wasn't going to take one. None of the other PC's except for the fey-ish warmage & my half-elf druid took one. They are very nice warhorses. My cavalry characters would be drooling (so to speak).

tatting: I finished the red butterfly that I started, from the Palmetto Guild's book of butterflies, while trying to donate blood. Now I've started another snood, red this time.

dream: I was working at Piece Goods and Louise was the manager. There were just 3 of us working and it was almost closing time. We could see snow falling outside in the lights of the parking lot so we were trying to hurry. 3, or 4, people came in through the back door (storage room) and were stacking up fabric from the remnant tables, mostly camo and heavy fabrics. The handwritten sign on a nearby table said $4/yard. I just knew that they were going to claim that sale price for the fabrics that they were buying. At least they weren't too horrible about it, just irritated.

We finally got everyone out the door & started cleaning up. Someone had left a box of kittens as well and I was trying to put water out for them when this lady barges into the store (oops, forgot to lock the door). We tried to tell her that we were closed, 'but I need this for my job. I won't be long.' Finally we showed her that the register was empty and closed, we couldn't sell her anything. She finally left.

In the meantime, 2 others came into the store but they helped us clean up when they saw that we were closed. We locked the door but accepted their help because we really needed to be out of there before the snow made it too dangerous to drive. First lady came back, pounding on the door, demanding to know why the other 2 customers could buy stuff but she couldn't. We had to explain to her that they weren't shopping, they were helping us straighten & pick stuff up.

Was that an anxiety dream or have I been reading the Customers Suck forum too much?

clothes: black half-boots, black jeans, black belt with Celtic knots, silver belt buckle with Celtic knotwork, hematite band, onyx band, emerald pendant & earrings, dark green Ocean City MD polo, & braided hair.