Month of Letters and other matters

Heh, found this and out of curiosity, filled it out. There is one that I shouldn't have on there, I only dipped into that state while traveling. There's a couple more I've been to but I don't remember so I didn't count them.

visited 22 states (44%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or Like this? try: Caerfai Chemical Simulation

Someone decided that February is a month of letters. Every postal day, mail something; a letter,  a card, a package. In February, there are 24 mailing days (no Sundays & 1 Federal Holiday). Some friends on a forum decided to have a list of people who wanted to receive (&/or send) letters. So far, I have written 5 letters to them and two letters to family. I have received one letter, a reply from my first one.

I still haven't set up my Etsy page. I'm stressing a little about my store policy and stuff like that. Plus, I want 2-3 really good pictures of my bracelets.

I finished a scarf and sent it off (part of a Pay It Forward challenge). The recipient likes it and said it's quite timely considering the current weather. I have 4 more things to make. One person wants a face scrub. I've been waiting until we've had colder weather to make & send it. I'll see if I can over night it. I may send the ingredients separately, for her to mix, to avoid expiration problems.

My sock is progressing. The heel looks good and I'm working on the ankle. I went ahead and took off the scrap thread used to start the toe. Thank you, tiny, sharp, Gingher scissors. That's the heel, there.

I don't have a picture (because it's not blocked) but I finished my tatted chicken. Here it is, close to finished.

And just because, here's a sky picture.

The timing chain on my car had slipped, although not broken, so I got it replaced last week. Yikes, that's expensive. I also got some other, needed, work done. Now it's showing signs of wanting a new battery. Greedy thing.

We played Pathfinder all weekend. We played one of those sanctioned modules on Saturday and it was hard. We had 2 paladins, an inquisitor and an oracle. Did you see arcane? Healer? Rogue? No? We went through some cure light wound wand charges. Lucky for one thing, we were dealing with fatigue but one of the paladins had the 'gets rid of fatigue' mercy so he dealt with it.

Our Sunday 3.5 got cancelled so we played Pathfinder instead. It ran a little late and we missed the 1st half of the Superbowl. I didn't really care, since, as they say, 'I don't have a dog in that fight.' Although I am going to have to go see what commercials I missed.

Friday, I went to see Red Tails with a friend (John J). It was a good movie, although if you don't enjoy war movies you won't enjoy this one. I found out the next evening that another friend had worked with a Tuskegee airman. Apparently there had been a show about them about the time the two were working together and this fellow would provide commentary. "This guy? Oh, he was pretty nice. That one? Complete womanizer. The other one? What an @$$hole." and so on. Red Tails is more fictionalized.

This weekend, I'm going to see my mother. It means I miss a great sale at the local game store. But c'est la vie.

Christmas Season Has Begun

And by that, I mean I've gone to my first Christmas party. It was supposed to be my second one but I got sick and didn't go to the first one. I gave Chris the latest Edge book by Ilona Andrews. He had just learned it was out and hadn't gotten a copy yet. I still have his other present but I haven't wrapped it yet.

This one was mostly getting together with friends, playing games, eating supper and then opening presents. It was very low key. My SO bought three books from my wish list while one of my friends found the perfect journal for me to use as a character journal for an upcoming game.

I made some serious progress on my sock. I have about another half inch before I start on the heel. Again.

I am waiting for my brother to call or email me. I have a questions for him. Shopping for my niece is getting harder and harder. She's 16 now and very different from me or my brother, in many ways. She has her own interests, which is as it should be. She should not be a clone. But it was so much easier to shop for her when she was 6.

Short Post

Cause I'm not feeling so hot. But here's the shuttle I won (see, it's even an action shot).

It's a David Reed Smith shuttle, made of white oak. Isn't it pretty? It feels good, too. (I really should link to his webpage, he has really pretty stuff, not just tatting shuttles, but like I said, I don't feel very well).

I got the family letters written again. Now I just need to mail them.

I have restarted my sock. Wish me luck.

I finished reading The Meaning of Everything. Very interesting. I really want my own copy of the OED now. Too bad it's 20 volumes, plus 3 addenda. If I could get the CD set, I'd be happy.

Wanna see the yarn bomb? It's grown.

Sock (in progress) Picture

 

My sock, the heel is done and I'm on my way

I'm on my 3rd contrasting (light in this case) stripe past the heel. I still have a lot of yarn left. I have no idea how tall to make this sock. And I'm not certain it's going to fit my foot. That's the drawback of the toe-up version. I can't try it on what I've already done.

The contrasting stripes are about 3 stitches tall. My gauge, on this loom, with this yarn, is 9 stitches per inch.

It's still egregiously hot, and humid. I spend enough time in AC that I'm not becoming acclimated so every time I go outside, it's like getting slapped, full body, by a warm, wet, flannel blanket. Yesterday, even the wind was hot.

I'm doing some writing exercises, or trying. I'm feeling unimaginative when I compare what I've done to the samples in the book. Is it brevity is the soul of wit? Or is it just a sign that I need to practice more?

Here's a pen (2nd photo) that I got for my birthday. Note the difference between the 2 photos (other than the addition of the pen)? That's how cleanly the ink erases.

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.