Sight of the day: Cross Pattee tattoo (the one on the far left) between ankle & Achilles tendon on a young man's foot/ankle.

site of the day: worth 100 is a gallery of photo shop artists.

Contest of the day: Science Idol; enter a cartoon or vote for one.

fingernail update: Wearing the band aid salvaged the nail long enough that I could clip it this weekend without doing further injury to myself. That fingernail is now absurdly short. It's especially noticeable since the other nails are long enough to project beyond my fingertips.

books: Started Glossed and Found. Maybe I'll finish it at lunch.

tatting: Finished up the multi-color Lyn Morton flower that I started yesterday. Finished off the thread from the shuttle by doing two butterflies & about 4 flowers. Pulled out a spool of burgundy silk. I've done the central ring but I've run into trouble on the 1st set of chains. I need to play with the picots on the ring, they're playing games.

clothes: black loafers, socks & jeans with white polo (chain edging on collar & cuffs), Celtic knot earrings, small pendant & ring, hematite ring, & spoon ring with patronymic initial etched on it. It's from plateware so it turns my finger green. That's why I don't wear it often.

It's been said that I have a beak of a nose.

Watch me turn into a
Eagle at YouWild.org

And others say that I'm a little batty

Watch me turn into a
Bat at YouWild.org

Seriously, it's cool stuff.

books: I finished The Dreamers series. I've read most of Eddings books so I was not surprised to see some familiar themes (& scenes). However, what I was not expecting was the repetition within the books. I didn't actually count but some scenes were repeated 3, 4, maybe 5 times as they were recounted from different points of view. When that happens once or twice, it's okay. It happened again & again, very rarely was the scene summarized. When the scene took place in an earlier book, I understood (then it's a recap), but in the same novel? Helloooo, I just read this scene 30 pages ago. I have not forgotten it. And while there are good points to the ending, it some ways it was a cop out. Overall, I enjoyed the series but I don't think that it's one that I will read again & again.

Today I read Blush with Death by India Ink. I was relieved to discover that this is a pen name & not something foisted on her by cruel parents. It's a pretty good mystery series. I have yet to try any of the recipes, though. I have the next book in the series, too. I'll probably read it tomorrow.

Harmony Hall: I had fun at Heritage Day. The weather was gorgeous & there was a steady crowd. The couple with the oxen were giving hay rides, plus there was a 'Civil War cavalry officer' there as well. Judy was at the other end of the porch making corn shuck dolls. Her husband kept us company, too. The chicken folks didn't come but someone did bring a goat. The candle maker was there & some women cooked hominy over a fire. It was pretty good. Lots of people took Squirrel's picture. She was quite cute in her outfit. Liz & I both had our picture taken a few times, too.

Almost as usual, I got lost on the way down there Friday night. I will not be taking that particular route again. I have adjusted my directions that I have saved. Maybe I'll be able to drive down in 2 hours next year. I would have been home in 2 hours this year but something disagreed me & I got stuck at a rest stop for an hour. Ick. I got home & collapsed into bed.

Music: Chris told me about a song called Bomshel Stomp. I think I want a copy. I'm interested enough that I'm going to look at other songs by this duo.

Tatting: I started some hen & chicks, thinking to trim my white shawl/fichu. However, I got tired of it & made another of Lyn Morton's 3d flowers, in white this time. I sold one that I had made in multi-color. I also sold some butterflies, three made per requested color. Since Judy was making corn shuck dolls, personalized with ribbons, trim, etc upon request; some of the kids decided that they wanted butterflies on their dolls. I only charged $.50 for the butterflies. I wish that I had had more to sell but maybe next year.

clothes: Yesterday it was my purple calico c.1810 dress & today it's t-shirt ('Cleansing of the Oytwood', grey with green letters), jeans, green socks & brown loafers. I'm wearing pretty much the same jewelry both days; Celtic knot ring, earrings, & small pendant, plus hematite ring & flower band. Today my hair is loose, yesterday I kept it under my tatted snood.

Memory, or lack thereof: I managed to not get much of anything done last night. I put the load of whites into the dryer. I found out where I had stopped on entering Reed's AR access in the Nyrond database, and entered a couple more AR's worth of access.

I did not: eat supper; iron my clothes for tomorrow; locate my c. 1780 outfit; find where I'd packed my fingerless gloves; look for my copy of Flitting Fingers. Guess what I'll be working on tonight. That's all before I leave for the coast.

wish list: My birthday is coming up. So I've started working on my wish list on Kaboodle.

bookshop: Bull's Head is moving back into their old quarters today. When I stopped by, before work, to pick up the next Dreamers book I got a look at it. It's looking good.

books: I am reading Games of Command & The Elder Gods: Bk 1 of the Dreamers. I waited to pick up the other 3 books in that series until I knew how I liked the first one.

clothes: blue 2005 NCAA men's basketball champs polo, navy slacks, brown belt, brown trouser socks, brown suede loafers, silver ladybug clip watch, blue Hungersite silicon bracelet, hematite ring, lapis flower ring, quartz pendants & moonstone pendant necklace, chainmail & silver rose earrings (Roundcon purchase), & ponytail.

Fingernail: I didn't mention that the first thing I did when I arrived at work yesterday was rip a fingernail. I don't mean just a 'oh dear, I'll have to file that', I mean, 'ack, that's a spot of blood where the nail has tried to part from the nail bed'. It's a little sore but I immediately put (& kept) a band aid on it to keep it from getting worse. It won't actually heal, but maybe it will heal enough that I can clip the nail someday.

blood donation: I failed. My hemocrit was a full 3% too low. Then I suddenly realized why. I'm a post-puberty, pre-menopausal female & it happens once a month. For me, it started yesterday. Very bad timing.

Retail therapy: I indulged in some retail therapy. I needed the light bulbs, yes. The gel pens? Sort of. The children's cardboard books? At a dollar, it's nice to have some small children's presents on hand. The doll? It's perfect for Kelly's baby (fingers crossed, due any day now). The shoes? The ballet slipper type go with gauze skirts better than loafers do (I'm wearing them today). The document holder? It was $1 & even if it doesn't hold the steel sqwire spell templates better than the other holder does, maybe it will hold those 'campaign documention' stuff I need for LG.

Books: I finally read Framed in Lace (I've had it for months). In this one, the important clue was bobbin lace. They also mentioned tatting, knitted lace & crocheted lace. Very nice. I also read vol 1 of Shugo Charra!.

Tatting: Saturday I'll be at Harmony Hall doing a Historical Demo. I need to find my copy of Flitting Fingers. I also need to check my clothes. I know where my c. 1810 outfit is but it desperately needs ironing (& maybe some febreze due to a laundry room accident). I need to know where my 1780ish outfit is, too. I should wear that; it's just so warm.

clothes: turquoise skirt (tiered, cotton), lighter turquoise net/crochet sweater over poly shell, black ballet slip-ons, moonstone ring, hematite ring, rainbow moonstone pendant but forgot the earrings. Hair is loose because I just didn't want to bother.

I have a new toy to add to my template. Spam poison. Yay!

Dentist: Started the day with a dentist appointment. This is the 2nd reschedule but this time I was able to make it. I got my car fixed (April 6th - water pump - ick). We did all the x-rays, exams & stuff to plan my treatment. Not so fun but I didn't throw up and it only took an hour.

Podcasts: I listened to a bunch more of Carry's podcasts last night (they certainly beat anything that was on tv). I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm caught up.

books: Buso Renkin vol 5, Deadly Advice by Roberta Isleib & What's a Ghoul to Do? by Victoria Laurie. There are more but those are recent & I remember them.

Tatting: I have finished the tatting for the brooches, now I need to do the fixtures part. Almost there. I also made a flower pin for my assistant. Today is her last day working for me.

clothes: black slacks, lilac polo (Carolina Ren Festival embroidered in white), black & crystal bead bracelet, silver dome ring, hematite ring, purple Czech crystal earrings, small black labradorite pendant & my hair up in a ponytail/bun. That's affixed with a butterfly hair stick w/ pink crystals in the wings. (Note: spell the ruddy stone right if you want to find it on a search).

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).

Gaming Ahoy! We did two zero rounds this weekend to prep for Roundcon & we have one more to go. Then it's do laundry & pack for the con. We travel down on Thursday (taking Mike with us).

whoops, gotta go.

blog issues: In case it's not obvious (& it probably won't be for 2 reasons: no one else reads this & you can't see something's that not there), I'm having posting problems. I haven't been able to get a post to go up since Friday. Monday's post was a little long but Tuesday's was really short. Neither one will post. I'll keep trying.

movies: I watched Only Angels Have Wings on TCM last night. There was nothing else that really drew me & it's a Cary Grant movie after all.

books: I'm still reading All Hallows' Evil. I'm about half-way through it.

clothes: Another warm day but they said it was supposed to cool off & get breezy this afternoon, so I packed a light shirt/jacket (black). White polo with crochet chain edging collar & cuffs (quasi-lace like), black slacks, black belt with gold tone buckle (it's larger than the other one), black socks & loafers. For jewelry it's my silver harp pendant (Nadia's), Celtic knot earrings, black stone ring, & dragon band. I'm still trying to re-train my hair for a side part so I did the side braid again today.

Gaming: We played Freak of Nature last night, all 5 of us (plus Doug as GM). I played Zavin, my druid. We ended late enough that I didn't do more than sign the AR & do the quick math (experience, cost of living, etc). I did remember to re-set my alarm clock, just as I was falling asleep.

A lot of earthworms this morning were out & about. Does that mean that we're going to get some rain? We really need it, if only to wash some of the pollen away. It's certainly supposed to get warm today.

I manage to get something in my eye this morning. I almost think that I've washed it out & then it seems like I feel it again.

clothes: plaid texture white cotton blouse, black slacks & belt, black trouser socks, black sequin/bead flats, white shell earrings (almost nacre-like), flower fairy pendant, flower band ring, ~rope band ring & side braid in my hair (opposite side part). I'm still tired & didn't feel like putting a lot of thought into what I'm wearing today.

Panic of the day: My alarm clock reset for the time change & I didn't realize it. So I woke up at '7:45 am' & absolutely freaked. I realized that I couldn't catch any bus earlier than 8:30 & I'd be an hour late for work. Then, as I rushed downstairs to call my boss, I saw the clock on the stove: 6:56 am. Whew. What a relief. I still forgot to pack my leftovers for my lunch, though.

Sad news of the day: Tsunami in the Solomons

YouTube of the day: chicken-fried bacon strips

sight of the day: bracelet made from pop tops. It's a double row of overlapping pop tops on elastic cord.

Last night it was the sight of the 'snow' underneath our Bradford pear. The rain had caused the tree to shed a literal carpet of white petals.

gaming: We've finished the 1st two parts of Red Hand of Doom. Started about 10 am on Saturday, played 'til late. Started again by about noon on Sunday & stopped about 8 pm. We have 3 clerics & that's a good thing. One is a healing cleric, one is a buffing cleric & one is a damage dealing cleric. That's kept my barbarian, the only front-line fighter, alive. As it is, one of the clerics died.

The rogue bought a deep hound (large mount/fighter) to help for the 2nd part. That's been a big help. Even if the hound never actually does damage (which he does), just having another body there to take the hits makes a huge difference. It's a very well-written mod overall but the last encounter that we had predicates a certain pattern of behavior that seems, well, foolish. I can't go into detail, I don't want to spoil it for anyone who plans to play it themselves.

Tonight we're playing Freak of Nature; another zero round.

books: I read The Woman at Belguardo, one of the books from the sale last week. With all the gaming, I haven't had time to read anything else. I only finished that today. Next I'm starting An Old Faithful Murder. There were several books by this author at the sale so I hope that they're good. After that, I'll probably read All Hallows' Evil, the next book.

Radio show: I finally finished listening to episode 17 of The Scarlet Queen. I only needed about another 5 minutes, but first I had to listen to the 1st 20 or so, again.

tatting: I just made more butterflies. As soon as I've emptied this shuttle, I'll start on the next brooch.

clothes: This weekend it was t-shirts & jeans. It was remarkably warmer than I thought it was going to be, so I never needed my jacket. Today it's black slacks, socks & loafers, green/black Harrington Steading polo, black belt (w/ silver tone buckle), quartz feather pendant, feather & quartz chip earrings, flower band ring & loose hair. I still have it in a side part, too.

Living Greyhawk game: Played City of Malice (core adventure). Whoof. I now see why Mike made Rosemary take an oath, vowing NOT to play up (for non-gamers that means the adventure difficulty is set by the average level of the characters at the table & your character is below that average level - the average party level, or APL, of 3 1st level characters & 3 3rd level characters is 3 because the formula is (1+1+1+3+3+3/6) +1 [for a full table], which yields 3 so they could choose to play APL 2 or APL 4. Unless they're very stupid they'd choose APL 2). I played Reed, my CatTail, while Chris & Rosemary played her cousins, Grawl & Araby. We also had a halfling wizard/arcane trickster, a human bard/sublime chord & a human cleric. And this time, Grawl proved that Wall of Thorns is a wonderful, nasty spell to throw at someone (especially when you're a druid & can ignore it). Reed proved it last time.

The only problem was that Chris & I didn't leave until 12:30. That's very late for me, especially considering my late night on Wednesday, too. I was so tired, that from one eyeblink to the next I was asleep & didn't wake until the last stoplight before home. Waking up this morning was veeeery difficult.

More Living Greyhawk: Tomorrow we start Red Hand of Doom! We'll be playing most of Saturday and then Sunday afternoon. We hope that will take us halfway through it.

Heh, I forgot that I have a Frappr map. I wonder when I signed up for that.

Weather: There was actually %#$*&^%* frost on the ground this morning. Wednesday it was in the 80'sF. Today there's frost. Okay, it did rain yesterday which was almost a transition but still!

books: I'm still reading Rapture in Death. Next I'll start Held Accountable, it's one of the books that I picked up on Wednesday from the used book sale. It's a mystery set at a mental health center. The setting alone sets it apart.

tatting: I got very little done; just a couple shuttle-clearing butterflies.

clothes: black loafers (I have all the mud off from yesterday I think), black socks, black jeans, black belt (gold-tone & black buckle), black shirt (Origins), and same jewelry. I braided my hair today because it got into such a rats' nest yesterday from the ponytail.

I'm on Frapper

Website of the day: want to know a little about Keeshonds? They are a rockin' cool dog breed.

2nd website of the day: work with wood? How about some info before you buy or decide to work.

Dental app't: I screwed up and John didn't give me a ride. So I came into work late. I rescheduled for next month. Maybe by then I'll have my car fixed and I won't need a ride.

Gaming: Looks like we're playing Freaks of Nature tonight at Rosemary's. I'm catching a ride with the gm so there's no way I'll be late. Chris has my gaming stuff.

books: I finished The Cove last night. I stayed up too late doing so, too. Ah well, it was a good suspense/romance. Frankly, the only reason I knew the heroine wasn't nuts was that it was a romance & the genre predicates happy endings. This morning I started re-reading Rapture in Death. It's been a while but I'm starting to remember whodunit.

clothes: black: loafers, socks, jeans & polo (w/ purple embroidery [ 2001 Ren Festival]), black glass bead bracelet, silver hashmark ring, fem-power ring, onyx earrings & pendant on long silver chain. My hair is up in a ponytail for lack of anything better.

Today's Excitement: There was a fire alarm in my building this afternoon. That gave me the opportunity to go the library students used book sale. I bought some books while I waited for the alarm to be over. Never did find out what caused it. I started reading one of the books I bought at the sale.

gaming: Looking at playing a slot zero game (pre-con games that get enough gm's to run games at the convention). It depends on whether one guy is sick tomorrow that determines which game we play & where. After all, if he's sick then 1)he won't be up to gaming & 2) he might be contagious.

weather: I'd like to find out if the weather set a record today or just tied it. The record high for today is 86F, set in 1945. If it didn't get that hot today it was gosh-awful close.

books: I also read the 3rd volume of R.O.D.: Read Or Dream. I forgot to pack Creeps Suzette this morning so I didn't read this morning. On the bus home I started The Cove by Coulter.

clothes: white, notched mock-turtleneck shirt, crepe skirt in black, cream & tan, triple hoop silver earrings, ring with circles, fem-power ring, flower fairy pendant & hair up in the ponytail/bun affixed with two black & tan chopsticks.

Gaming: Chris's game was last night & we (our characters) learned some things. 1) Mimics are nasty beasties, 2) don't hit them with electrical attacks (they spawn) & 3) grappling a dire lioness is bad for mimics.

website of the day: What's that actor's Bacon number? Ask the Bacon Oracle! And funny website of the day: stick figures used to make science jokes (& literature, etc).

Lunch today is leftovers from Sunday. I'll be having a crabcake, glazed carrots, and mashed potatoes. We ate at Red Rock Canyon Grill with Mike. The food was yummy.

books: I read Innocent in Death last night & learned that I'd missed an ..In Death book. So I'll be looking for that today. I brought Creeps Suzette with me to work but I'm very early into it.

clothes: black loafers, black socks & jeans, burgundy tank/plaid blouse set (tank is burgundy embroidered with a band of leaves along the neck, & over/attached to it is a plaid shirt in burgundy, grey, tan and light variants, with the same leaves embroidered randomly in green), feather charm/quartz chip earrings, quartz point feather pendant on long silver chain, ~rope band, silver dome ring, & my hair is loose for lack of anything better to do with it.

Raptorcon! It was fun. I played two core LG games & the rest were Geoff mods. Unfortunately, the first mod of Sunday (core) I (& the rest of the table) had to deal with the notorious JC. Gah. And the people at Trinic-con can blame me if he comes. I wore my 2006 shirt & he saw it. *sigh* He may be a very nice man but he's, how should I say this, less than accurate in some of his statements. And he ignores what other people say, interrupts, etc (ie Rosemary said, 'even with the web spell there, can I step to get the cleave?' and JC said, as she stepped into the web that he cast in her way, 'if you had cleave, you could just hit that guy.'). Just a very rude guy.

Zavin, my first level Geoff druid, finally made 2nd level. It took 2 more intro mods to do it. I 'met' Eric's new 1st level PC. His old character is currently plugging some portal, so he got a cert to play a fey. He's playing an ice fey warleader, female. She's been informed that she should go scout (to get her out of the tribe/clan's way).

The roleplay interactive on Saturday night was lots of fun. There were games, mini-missions & some good roleplay. I played one game; smash the candy man. I need to find a copy, maybe 2 or 3. It's a Candyland variant where when you pass the other players you can 'hit' them. When they take 6 hits in one area, (head, limb or torso), they lose that area. If you use gingerbread men & frosting tube to score; you can eat your opponent's limb when you finish it off. Delicious.

As usual, I didn't get enough sleep and napped on the way home. I got to sleep late this morning, too. Unfortunately, the hotel didn't manage to get the number of towels right at any point past the first day. Luckily, I learned that I can dry off with just a hand towel.

tatting: I finally picked up my shuttles this weekend. I made the two apology brooches (all I had was white thread), now I need to work on the primary ones. Here's what I made:
I managed to get them done, starting Friday night and finished Sunday morning. I started another one with more beads but I screwed up on the first round of chains & just put it away. I'm not even going to bother posting a picture of it as it's only going to be cut up.
I started to make a silver/white choker with clear seed beads:
It's from Lyn Morton's book (as is the brooch above). That thread is really pretty but it's a pain to work with; eventually I screwed it up & gave up on it. Can you see what I did?

So I used the rest of the thread on the shuttles to make a couple butterflies & some simple flowers.


books: I finished both books that I took with me. Quelle surprise. My Fair Temptation I finished today on the trip back. So I read more of The Pillow Book.

clothes: Obviously it was jeans & t-shirts this weekend. I wore white tennis shoes all week because my left loafer sole tried to come off. It was half-off by the time I got halfway to Maryland. I couldn't wear those shoes. That left the black tennis shoes that I packed, both left ones. Or the white ones. I wore them with black jeans (red Meepa Con tee), blue jeans (Geoff 'Against the Giants' tee & 2006 trinic-con tee). I finally wore my 'strawberry' with dangles earrings on Saturday.

Today it's blue jeans, black 2003 NF conference Panthers champs, feather charm & quartz chip earrings, quartz point/feather pendant on long chain, ~rope band & fem-power band.

3 websites with green (ecologically preservative) focus & 3 cleaners that are cheaper & less toxic than storebought:

http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/

http://lesstoxicguide.ca/index.asp?fetch=household

http://www.glamour.com/news/articles/2007/03/bestecosites

Discount Cleansers There are several ways to cut the expense of manufactured cleaners. Not only are they cheaper, they are also environmentally friendly and child-safe.

For Glass cleaner, mix 2 tbsp alcohol to 16 oz of water.

To clean hardwood floors, mix 1 cup vinegar per gallon of water.

To make furniture polish mix 2 tbsp olive oil, 16oz water and 1 tsp of lemon oil.

As Iraq Casualties Mount, So Do the Stories We Must Tell

Four years ago we invaded Iraq and today the occupation continues. A new project is working to tell the stories of the service members whose lives have been lost -- in the words of the people who loved them. A growing, living memorial by those who knew those who fell.



read more | digg story

First day of spring, my Aunt Fanny! While a pretty day, I would not call it spring-like weather yesterday. I did pick a daffodil to put in a vase in my office, though. I love those flowers. They smell nice, they're bright & cheerful after the grey days of winter, and they appear early, like the forsythia; heralding spring's arrival.

books: I read Vampire Doll, #2 and sort of re-read part of Devil's Bride. I haven't gotten very far because I have not been taking lunch; since I'm off Friday & Monday for RaptorCon (in Gaithersburg, MD). That will cut down on the vacation time that I'll be taking.

Interesting book of the day: The author is coming soon to speak at my alma mater, so I looked up her book. It sounds fascinating. The book is Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel & the War on Terror. She grew up in Cairo; the daughter of man who died after leading raids on Israel. She was considered the daughter of a martyr of the jihad & thus was honored.

Con: I finished my laundry last night & packed. Then we packed the car, since Chris will be picking me up from work & we're leaving for Maryland then. We're not going back home, so if I haven't packed it, I'm not taking it. That did mean that I brought my laptop to work with me. It's a heavy sucker, this morning.

Music: I loaded Try This & I'm Not Dead (P!nk) into my iTunes the last couple days. I've sync'ed my iPod & put some of the songs onto playlists. I also loaded a couple more episodes of The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen. I checked the dates on the episodes last night & I'm missing (or rather Radiolovers.com is missing) at least half-a-dozen episodes by #20. Bummer.

clothes: yesterday it was grey 2002 Carolina Ren Festival polo, black slacks, black socks, black half-boots (that really need to have the heels replaced), black belt (gold-tone buckle), & moonstone jewelry. Braided hair yesterday & today.

Today it's forest Geoff polo, black slacks, same belt, black trouser socks, black loafers (I finally found the smaller pair), emerald earrings & necklace, & fem-power ring.

Bruises: Remember that fall on Friday? I do; I have a nice collection of bruises to remind me. There's one about hand-sized on my left hip; it's big & ugly. There's another, about the size of a quarter, on the inside of my right arm & a small, only nickel-sized, one on my right thigh. That's probably from hitting myself with my umbrella.

TV: The Riches was on last night but it started about the time that I needed to be heading to bed, so I didn't watch it.

website of the day: boing boing, a directory of wonderful things

guilty food(s) of the day: milk chocolate covered mint Oreo cookies, Reese's Brownie & Hershey's Brownie (very rich, almost too much so).

books: I finished Hana Kimi #16 & Chibi Vampire #2. I started New Moon by Rebecca York & Punch #3 but just wasn't in the mood.

radio show: I finished listening to episode 15, The Huntsman's Quarry & the Dead Chinese, of the Voyage of the Scarlet Queen this morning. I'm really enjoying that show. Funny thing, according to Old Radio, that's episode 21.

clothes: white turtleneck, black poly-suede shirt, purple slacks, black trouser socks, black sequin/beaded flats, Celtic knot jewelry & ~rope band. My hair is loose because it was falling out of the braid & I forgot my hairbrush.