Car Free Day and as usual for me, I took the bus to work. I managed to catch it this morning. Good for me, right?

Tatting News I'm 3/4 through that Konior cross. I would be farther but I had to retro-tat an entire chain last night. And I've just noticed that I've tatted about 2 rings & a chain too far. *sigh*

today's outfit: light grey Dendarii Mercenaries covert ops polo, black jeans, black ~trouser socks (these are only ankle-high, thicker & have flowers woven into the texture), black tassel loafers (the brown ones are the ones that disintegrated), moonstone earrings & ring, trimoon moonstone pendant, fem-power ring (female figure) & my hair was braided but I unbraided it after lunch.

Today has been a good day considering it started out as a morning after. What's really sad is that I didn't have a night before. We just played Mutants & Masterminds (rescued my character's homeland from an unscrupulous archealogist). I had no alcohol, just water & diet soda.

Since I get 10 minutes of walking, before & after work all I have to do is get an extra 10 minutes somewhere during the day to get 30 minutes. I managed to do that at lunch today. Yay me.

Books: I just finished Kick @$$, an anthology. Speaking of which, what happened to my ability to underline? I really enjoyed all 4 stories. I wasn't certain about Jacey Ford but her story grew on me & I'm glad that I read it.

Now I've started Death Waxed Over, a mystery by Tim Myers. It's the 3rd in the Candle Shop mysteries. I rather like them.

Okay, either the bus has been running late all week or it was definitely early this morning. Result? I missed it. Since I had a spare 20-30 minutes before the next one, I decided to walk to the next bus stop. By the way, people notice if you aren't at your regular stop. At least two people, one of whom is a 'bus acquaintance' asked me about it. Since the next stop was only 7 minutes away I was going to walk to the one after that but when the sidewalk crossed the road (ie instead of on both sides of the road it was only on 1), I decided to turn back. Turns out the next stop is at the shopping center. Now I know.

Today's Tatting: I screwed up the Mary Konior cross. I tried 'adjust' it to eliminate the thread ends & ended up with something very odd. It will take some examination to fix & since I'm on a little time crunch, I put it aside & started over. I'm still waiting for Karey to reply to my question about my UFO. Hey, some people don't check their email every, single, day.

today's outfit: plaited hair (black elastic); dark green Geoff polo, black jeans, black trouser socks (it's cool enough), black fabric flats (as yesterday), black stone ring & my one really good set of jewelry. The emerald & gold earring/necklace set that Chris gave me. Okay, the emeralds are really small; but they are visible.

Looks like I'll be working on Saturday. It will be overtime at least. I need to clean up my office/desk area and face it, during the week there are too many interruptions.

I finished cards to all of my maternal aunts, I need to address envelopes & mail them. My problem is that I have the wrong address for one, since her last card bounced. I need to fix it before I mail the next one (enclosing the bounced one).

Woohoo! First really cool day since May. It really feels like autumn approaches now.

Tatting Projects
I finished the cross for the family reunion door prize (I'd like to know where the button to upload photos disappeared to). I've resumed work on a UFO, the button bag from Palmetto Tat Days. I've emailed Karey with a question so it's stalled again. In the meantime, I'm using the thread left on the shuttles to do a burgundy cross, one of Mary Konior's this time. Problem: I tried to make an alteration in the pattern to reduce ends & screwed it up. So I'll be cutting some off & then resuming tatting.

I finished & mailed the two bookmarks for the bookmark exchange. Wally should get hers by Monday (I think) but I'm not certain when Lynn will get hers. Wally's in Puerto Rico & Lynn is in Hong Kong.

Today's Outfit: burgundy, sleeveless, v-neck t-shirt (neck edged in double row of single seed beads); burgundy crocheted, long-sleeved sweater; black slacks; black, flat shoes (the cloth ones with sequins & beads); black tatted earrings & necklace, with beads; black & red stone rings & hair in a ponytail, mostly for the sake of not getting it caught in my messenger bag strap.

Books: I read Gunpowder Green yesterday. It's part of tea-themed mystery series set in Charleston, SC. I also read volume 8 of Rurouni Kenshin. Today, I'll read volume 9.

Okay, it's been a month. I'm sorry.

I've finished 2 bookmarks (Kersti's Tabatha), forgot to take a picture of one. That's for the etatter sponsors' bookmark exchange. I also made one for Ira Simon as a good-bye present. And I made a third one as I lost one of the ones that I made. So I made one in variegated blue with a burgundy tassel (Carolina blue, Western Washington navy & Alabama red), the one for Ira.

One in variegated pink, almost white to dark pink; no tassel. Then in buff & burgundy, with burgundy on the inside & lined with buff. Then I did the reverse for the replacement. The only tassel I put on those are the loose ends, tied off.

I was going to finish a ufo next but decided to try & use up the thread on the shuttles first. So yesterday & today I worked on a cross by Lyn Morton. That will be a door prize at the Johnson family reunion in Apex. That's on Sunday.

I've lost 10 pounds in the last 6 weeks. Yay!

New Bus Pass:
This one lasts until July. I just hope that I don't lose it like I did the 2 semester passes that I bought when I first started riding TTA. I went at lunch yesterday to grab the pass. Since it was the last day before new parking, etc went into effect there was a line.

Sleep:
After gaming I finally went to bed at a reasonable time last night. It sort of helped me get up this morning. At least, I don't feel as tired today.

Books Read: I re-read the first MaryJanice Davidson werewolf story in the Secrets anthology #6. Then I read Valentine's Day Is Killing Me. It's another romance anthology. It's three stories of awesomely bad Valentine's Day dates. In the first one, she shows up for her blind date to find him being arrested on suspicion of murder. That's by MaryJanice Davidson. I can't remember the 2nd author but I should. I will be looking for her books. Her heroine got arrested for all sorts of things, starting with disturbing the peace (loud party). In the third story, all she wants is a perfect, if scaled down, Valentine's Day date. She has a history of truly remarkable bad Valentine's Days. This time she's the murder suspect.

Then I read Trouble in High Heels by Christina Dodd. I finished that on the way to work this morning. A romance & suspense; she's a lawyer, he's an accused jewel thief. I really like her character. She learns & grows throughout the story. He mostly gets his education at the end (on the advice of his father 'grovel, son, grovel').

At lunch I started Bad Boys of Summer, another anthology. I finished the first story, by Lori Foster & the second one, by Erin McCarthy. I hope that Ms. Foster writes about the heroine's sister. I think I'll keep my eyes open for Ms. McCarthy's work, too. I enjoyed her story. With a short story, there's limited character development; just not enough time. But she did well in the constraints. I still have one story left in the anthology & then I start Black Powder War by Naomi Novik. I can't wait

Car Update: tonight we pick up the rental vehicle, after work. Then we grab some sodas & things like that. After that, we pack the vehicle. Cross your fingers that everything fits.

Today's outfit: I dressed in a hurry this morning. It's mauve slacks, cotton, with my "Dendarii Mercenaries Covert Ops" grey polo (letters in white on light grey) & black loafers (I need new ones). Jewelry is my moonstone set, ring, earrings & the plain cabochon. Plus I'm wearing the one that looks like a silver 2-strand twist, but flattened.

iPod update:
Good news! It's not dead. On my way to visit Steve & Anitra on Sunday, I was going to stop by the Apple store to see if I could buy a new battery from them. On a whim, I plugged it into the car outlet. Whee, it worked, immediately. When I got home, I plugged it into a house outlet & let it finished charging.

Yesterday's outfit: lime green 2006 Palmetto Tat Days shirt, blue jeans, sandals, dragon pendant, Celtic knot earrings, etc.

Today's outfit: new black polo, black slacks, black loafers (heels survived), dangly Celtic knot earrings, star/tree/moon pendant, ring, flower band ring & braided hair.

Errands: mailed Liam's present
Left Mom's card at home, so I'll mail her present tomorrow
finished laundry yesterday
Mostly finished packing clothes
Mailed Hailey's letter
Picked up new bus pass
Put covers on game books to make them easy to ID at con

Mood:
Irritable. I'm voraciously hungry and Chris wasn't able to bring food home. He had to pick up Duncan & without ac he couldn't stop to get anything without endangering the dog. I've been starving since 4 pm & it's almost 7pm. Supper won't arrive until 7:30, if I'm lucky.

Fun with Steve & Anitra:
Steve let me read his latest novel. It's a first draft but very good. He also had a bunch of books that he brought back for me, including one signed one. Anitra & I complained about our jobs and discussed about our current tatting projects. She has glow-in-the-dark thread. It looks like lots of fun.

Tatting:
And now that I have batteries for my camera, I can take pictures of the tatting I've done recently. For example, my teacup so far; the tat-along (which came out very different); & the triangle motif.

Errands run:

• Go by post office to mail Liam's present - not done
• Build-a-bear to get snow leopard - done
• Get padded envelope to mail Mom's present - done
• Ditto for Mitra's - done
• Mail Mom's present & Mitra's present - not done
• Mail Hailey's card - not done
• Apple store to investigate getting new battery - not done
• Laundry - in progress
• Pack for trip - once laundry's done

Today's outfit: I was wearing black shorts & my black 'Warning Mood shift in 5 minutes' t- but it seemed to cool for that. So I changed to blue jeans (not one of my favored pairs), purple 'Fear the 4, Busch Gardens' t-, sandals, dragon pendant, silver fem-figure ring, silver band of flowers ring, & three layer earrings (patterned ~silver upside down teardrop base, brassy patterned crescent moon & coppery elephant on top; small ball hangs from teardrop & tiny coil from crescent). I've just pulled my hair into a ponytail with a navy elastic.

Plush snow leopard: I named her Frivolite, for the French word for tatting. Hey, it's a lovely plush & $1 goes to World Wildlife Fund. And that never sucks.

Tatting update: I ran out of thread on the shuttles while working on the teacup. I did 2 sides & part of the 3rd side before it happened. So I worked on this triangle that I printed out on Friday, in the same variegated blue.

While we were at the mall, I stopped by Sears & picked up a couple of polo shirts. They are lighter weight than most of the ones that I already own. I really wanted a new pair of navy blue slacks or black skirt. No luck there. I found one black skirt that was close, but the bottom 2 layers are unhemmed nylon. Ick.

More Tatting stuff: Wally aka Needledreams has started a Tat-along project. So now I have to decide what I'm going to do. What variant?

1st attempt: failure. The thread is/was an experiment. Result: not entirely suitable for tatting. Thread doesn't slide very well.

iPod Disaster
My iPod mini remains blank. It charged not at all in 24 hours. I weep, I moan, I wail. I may be about to spend $60 to get the battery replaced.

Car Update:
They have ordered the parts to fix the AC in Chris's car. They can get 6 of the 10. The other 4 are on back order. Guess who's renting a minivan to go to Tallahassee. Time to make phone calls & double check websites.

New Taste Sensation (for me):
Nestle Crunch Dark Stixx; I bought a package last night on the way to my Mutants & Masterminds game at David's house. I finally ate it for my morning snack. They're small but tasty. I love dark chocolate, that makes a difference.

Today's Outfit:
Burgundy slit/keyhole neck tank with a double row of single seed beads lining the neck under (indoors where it's cool enough) a v-necked, black, crochet sweater with diamonds of 4-petal flowers on the torso & closely crocheted rows on the sleeves, over lightweight black, cotton slacks and the leather sandals again. The sandals don't really match, they're buff & tan but until my heels heal.... Right now, my hair is loose but I will braid it again later. I'm wearing the silver Celtic knot earrings (the dangles, not posts) with the smaller Celtic knot ring (4 loops), silver flattened, ~rope band, and the silver pendant with Celtic knot, tree, moon & star tangled up together on a short silver chain; so the pendant rests just at my clavicle.

Tatting
I did some tatting last night. I started the tea cup from Contemporary Tatting by Judith Connors. I made the saucer from variegated blue (the same blue that I used for Dad's cross for Father's day). I didn't have enough thread on the shuttles to start the cup so I made some flowers instead.

I worked on it again at lunch (after reading a little of Oath of Swords by David Weber). I've wound thread onto the shuttles & done 3 of the 6 rings that go up one side. That leaves the top, the other side & as a separate stage, the handle.

CC, a gentleman who works for facilities, came by while I was working. So I showed him what I was doing. He had never heard or seen of it before. I also gave him a little 6 picot/7 knot flower.

Mugged?
The squirrels & sparrows around here are quite bold, almost tame. A squirrel came up to my table while I was eating lunch. He was about a chair-length away and kept watching me, to see if I was going to drop anything. Then another diner started throwing bits of the tortilla from her wrap and the birds went wild. I was busy tatting so I don't know if the squirrels manage to grab any.

Okay, this is odd. The little 'upload photo' button is gone from my toolbar. I must go hunting, now.

But I did manage to shrink the picture, a little. It takes up most of the screen but it no longer overfills it. Yay!

TV show:
Final Fu a reality show with real fighting..okay, sparring. It's a really cool show. One: the competitions are all based on martial arts techniques (like use a staff to throw clear boxes & cans from an area or go throw this bar set & grab flags from boxes you have to punch open). You get points based on how quickly you accomplish the task(s). Two: you spar with another competitor in a point-based fight. The points that you accumulate in the fight are added to your total score. So even if you screw up in the task portion, if you do a good job in the fight you can pull ahead. They had a marathon of them on Sunday.

Today's outfit: black jeans, very wrinkled salmon pink silk blouse (guess who didn't have time to iron this morning), sandals (leather flipflops really) to save my poor heels. My hair is braided again while I'm wearing dragon jewelry. The silver pendant was a gift from Steve & Anitra & I bought the earrings (Welsh dragons) when I was at Disney in 2000. I've had the two silver dragon rings for years. One is a band with the dragon almost hidden in fancy scrollwork. The other ring is almost plain with just the stooping, breathing dragon. The funny thing is; I've seen the latter ring several times; I even have two versions of it, differing only in size. But I can't find it on the web anywhere.

My attempt at a weight-loss diet:
Well, last week I averaged less than 1200 calories a day. There were a couple days that I hit 1500 calories but mostly I ate around 1180. If I just got more exercise I'd be certain to lose weight. That's one reason that I take the bus. It forces me to walk twice day, to & from the bus stop. Other reasons for taking the bus: price gas, insurance, traffic & pollution. As inconvenient as I sometimes find the bus, it beats dealing with the traffic & the gas prices.

My iPod news:
It's not charging. It's completely blank this morning. This is bad. This is very bad. I will do a search on Apple's webpage, maybe they have a clue about this.

Another hot one, what a surprise. First thing, had a run to South Building. Too bad I had to detour, very much, to avoid construction. By the time I was done, I was soaked.

Today's outfit: black jeans, forest green Duchy of Geoff polo (Living Greyhawk thing; embroidered white letters around silver/black griffon shield), braided hair, black loafers, emerald pendant & earring set (2 of my very few pieces of gold jewelry).

Yesterday's shoes really tore up my heels. I wore, or tried to wear, bandaids to cover the raw spots with little success. I even went barefoot most of the day & that mildly helped.

Convention planning
I've almost finished preparing my characters in case they level at the con. Only Nadia is left, and I just need to pick a 4th level spell & two 5th level spells. I still need to plan what clothes I'm going to wear; shows my priorities, huh?

Problem?
I have a potential problem. My iPod isn't charging. This is bad. I have it plugged in, we'll see how it looks in the morning.

Car Update:
Hopefully, we'll know on Thursday. The company is paying for parts, Chris just has to pay for labor. His entire AC system has to be replaced. Once more, he's gotten a malfunction that has a bigger cost in parts than labor. We just need to see if the parts are available.

TV:
Watched Biography channel's show on Robin Williams. I did not know that he came from an afflucent, conservative family. The commercials mentioned that he's a gamer but nothing in the show did so.

Then it's Criminal Minds followed by CSI: NY. It's gotten late and it's time for me to go to bed.

My incipient headache has dimmed without medication this evening. It's still there, just subdued.

Weather
Another hot one, but not quite as hot. It's just sad when I go outside, the temperature is in the high 80's, the humidity is higher & I think, "hm, it's cooler today."

Clothes: navy slacks (the ones I really need to just get rid of, but I don't have another pair to replace them), navy Tricon polo, navy loafers (new & just little tight). I'm also wearing the rainbow moonstone earrings, the moonstone ring, paui shell ring, rainbow moonstone cabochon pendant on a silver chain & ~wide silver ring with a double row of hash marks on it. I braided my hair because I'm sick of wearing it up. I'm also sick of skirts, which is why I'm wearing slacks.

PDA
Chris managed to find the key to get my Palm (it's an m105) to hotsync with my laptop on Sunday. Yeah! I have since downloaded a free eReader and some free eBooks. Thank you, Baen books & the authors who contributed. They're books that I have in hard copy, but now I can carry four or five of my favorites all the time (or rotate 4 or 6 favorites). I stayed up until midnight Sunday downloading & looking for free stuff (database, a couple games & so forth).

Ironclaw
Last night's game went well. My character is, in fact, a loose woman (she even has the flaw). But it was established last night, that she has standards. She slept with Brak, finally. And depending on circumstance may sleep with Tereck. Neill's out, he has a fiancee. Hey, none of them are the same race so there's no worry about pregnancy. And it does serve as an adventure hook for the game host, Diana. 'why are we doing this, again?' 'Because Clara thinks he's cute & wants to sleep with him'. Last night we were trying to figure out how to get this double agent (maybe triple, ie 3 sides) killed. Brak took over a small spy ring (all kids) as he told the boss to get out of town.

Soda pop, soda pop
New flavor: Pepsi Jazz. It's strawberry & cream flavored & by looking at the web page there's a black cherry French vanilla. I've only tried the first one, the diet variety. It's very sweet but since I have a sweet tooth, that's not an issue. Yum!

Car News
Chris's car's AC is still out. And it's not the simple little fix with parts on hand. Instead, it's the 'replace the entire compressor+' type fix. Ugh.

So, it's possible we may be renting a car to go to Tricon. Not great, but better than trying to go to Florida with no A/C. Thanks to my employee discount, we can get a minivan for a little over $200. Better than $400 from some agencies.

Today's outfit: blue jeans (duh, it's the weekend), tan 'Battle for Gorna' t-shirt (if you don't play Living Greyhawk, you won't understand) and either barefoot or loafers. The t-shirt has touches of blue (a giant's skin, banner, etc). Quartz chips & silver feather charm earrings, quartz point carved with a feather pendant on a longish silver chain, flat twisted braid/rope silver band, silver ring set with paui square & braided hair.

Soda Pop News: Okay, I love vanilla sodas, preferably diet. Straight vanilla soda is a little sweet. So I fell in love with diet vanilla Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper & berries & cream Dr. Pepper. Now, it's getting hard to find any of them. They're 'fad' drinks. *snarl* Oh, black cherry vanilla coke; I don't like cherry so it's out. However, Chris found diet strawberries & cream vanilla Pepsi. It's yummy.

Recent books: I read Wizard of Karres last night. I stayed up way too late to finish it, but it was good. It's by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint & Dave Freek. It's the sequel to Witches of Karres by John Schmitt. Today I read John Moore's 3rd book, I just can't remember the title. It's about a country needed a bad prince. I've already read Heroics for Beginners & The Unhandsome Prince.

Now that I've posted for today; I have to go back & edit the picture of the blue roses so it's not ginormous. Which, by the way, is pronouced Ji-nor-mus.

Three Blue Roses

Diana, a dear friend, and her BF Colt, have a custom of giving blue roses, made of unusual materials, to Colt's mother. After seeing me tat one of Lyn Morton's flowers, Diana asked if I could do a rose for her. Here are the three, hurriedly photographed before I gave them away. I also plan to do a couple in Lyn Morton's design.

Update: After 2 attempts, the picture is not loading properly. I have hopes & will keep trying. Now I'm off to check the help topics.

Okay, I can the picture to load. It's visible but um, just a little big.

That's it; I'm massively confused. I've asked a forumite (aka friend from a specific forum) to look at my blog. She can see all the updates, including the one I made earlier. I can't. I can't even see the template change that I made.

Can anyone explain this?

Update: I still don't have an explanation, but I read through the blogger help forum & found someone with a similar problem. I put '?' at the end of the address & there's my blog! Whoot!

Update the 2nd: Now if I can just figure out why the Archives link doesn't work from that page....

And today's clothes; considering the temperature (expected high a balmy 97F), I'm wearing a black tank top under a burgundy, crocheted sweater (roses & webs) with a crepe skirt, ankle length. The skirt is ~striped & floral with teal, burgundy, purple, grey, black, brown & white. I'm wearing the black loafers & my hair is in a half bun (tied in a knot with the remainder left hanging down) fixed with a hair stick (brown with beads & a silver charm at the end). Today's jewelry is silver Celtic knot ring, ~matching earrings, silver Celtic knot pendant on silver chain, sivler flower band, silver chain bracelet & two stone rings. One's carnelian & the other is solid black. I broke my hematite ring recently. I need to buy a new one.

Now for my next trick, I'm going to try & post a picture: ...
which shows up at the top of the post. So new post!

Okay, can anyone tell me why none of my posts since 2003 show? I stopped updating in 2004 because of that. *sigh*

I've check the ftp route, etc. I've played with the log in & password. I keep getting the same error.

Well, I think that I've finally recovered from Origins. I think.

I spent too much money (big surprise) but I had a lot of fun. It was great seeing Sean again. Chris had fun most of the time but 2 of his games didn't make & he was more than a little peeved with those particular companies.

Tonight I go play a round zero of Living Kalamar in Cary. I need to leave on the dot of 5pm so I can pick up supper & reach Earl's house by 6:30 pm.

I forgot to update my character last night so I had to do it at lunch. I finally decided on a feat, took me a while. & I just remembered that I need to check what's required for the gladiator school. Ta for now.


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Well, I'm not packed yet & we leave tomorrow morning for Origins. Wheeee! I still need to do a little cleaning for the house inspection tomorrow morning & we have gaming tonight. What was I thinking? Plus, I need to do one load of laundry & get more airtime minutes for my cellphone.

Saturday's outfit: USAF hospital shirt, leggings & loafers as needed, otherwise barefoot. Mom came by, she showed me some old photo's (from grandmother's collection), we talked & she went home. I got some cleaning done & I got major depressed (as in wailing, crying jag depressed. Yuck).

Sunday: English language t, navy shorts, grey sandals & celtic knot jewelry. Chris took his parents & me to see the latest Harry Potter movie (I got more cleaning done that morning & I felt better). Then we went to Maggiano's for supper. We got there before the rush so we were basically seated immediately. I've never sat in the balcony area before. It was kinda neat. Great food, as usual.

Today's outfit: long-sleeved silk blouse, purple slacks, black loafers, feather & quartz bead earrings, moonstone cabochon pendant, spoon ring, band & my hair in a French braid.

I've been busy getting directions to the hotel in Columbus, plus one a half-hour away & one an hour away. I've also looked up some stuff for Living Greyhawk & finally posted in character about Nadia's promotion & transfer.

Gotta go, lots of errands to run.

I still have a nascent blister on my left thumb from trying to insert grommets through leather (4-6 oz). But the blister I didn't know about, the one on the ball of my right foot burst today. The skin underneath is tender & I'll be glad when that area of my sole toughens up. In the meantime, my shoes hurt.

I was a bad woman yesterday. I bought 4 books after work. I read 2 of them last night. I finished the 3rd one at lunch today (despite running that errand for Chris).

Today's outfit: rose silk short-sleeved shirt, black broadcloth skirt, black loafers, knot earrings (post), pendant & ring, onyx ring & ponytail held with black elastic. Whee, so exciting.

I finished Jordan's manuscript & I uploaded to where he can see it. Do you supposed I should have notified him that it's done? Probably. I forgot to mail Nick Perch. Blast. I'll do it Monday.

Quick post today. It's already 5:15 & I want to go home.

Today's outfit: black loafers, blue/pink/purple/black/white floral print broomstick gauze skirt, black rib knit shirt, silver chain, spoon ring, silver ~braid band, 3 silver ring earrings & loose hair. I washed my hair this morning & I forgot to pack brush or elastic band. I do have a couple hairsticks but I wasn't in the mood.

I worked a little on my Gaelic at lunch. I'm still on chapter 3. Hopefully that means I'm slow but thorough. I'm a lot closer to being done editing Jordan's material. I'm into the appendices.