Rainbows, rainbows everywhere! Rainbows, rainbows, in my cupboard!

Yay! Between Christmas and my birthday (which did Not happen this year...nope...just a figment of someone else's imagination), I got two more settings of my wonderful Fiesta dishes. And my rainbow is complete now! Wheee! I now have a set each of red, orange, yellow, green and blue dishes....my flatware has purple handles. It truely is a thing of beauty and so me.

Christmas also saw me with a Belgium waffle maker in my hot little hands. I promptly tried it out the next day. This could be a bad thing...but oh so good! They really are just too easy to make, and so very very yummy. It isn't even bad to clean out the waffle thingy.

I was very surprised to see my fallen tree (well, its not fallen over any more, but it sounds nicer to call it a fallen tree) still had water in its stand when I got back. I was away for 4 days, so I was expecting it to be a dried up crispy dead thing-like usual. That meant I didn't have to take it down right away. Yay! I think its trying to make up for its attempt to break everything.

Got my hair done last night after work. Its fantastic! So shiny and what a lovely shade of red! Yay! This cut is fabulous and I love it. Its been tamed back into the same cut I had last time. I'll be keeping it this way for a while. Wheee!

Hope eveyone has a lovely and safe New Year's Eve! I'll be rocking out to Paul and Lorraine at Charlie's tonight. But I plan on leaving before midnight. I just can't stay up that late, plus I'll be able to avoid the majority of drunken fools who are driving when they shouldn't be.

Wreck the halls with falling trees....fa la la la laaaaa...

That's right, falling trees. Which, by the way, make Big Messes. In other words, my Christmas tree (which is quite large this year-reaches up to the ceiling-and my ceilings are fairly high) decided to take a little nap.

Fortunately for me, it lasted through my Christmas party on Saturday. (The party was great fun.) Sunday afternoon, it had enough standing around and very slowly tipped over. That was a new one for me, I've never had a tree fall down. Of course, you'd think that there had been an animal or kidlet climbing in it-or pulling on it...but you'd be wrong. It had also been up for over a week, so its not like the branches relaxed and pushed it away from the wall-and I didn't have it in the stand at an angle. So its a mystery to me why it fell over-other than just being tired. I still haven't picked up the ornaments that fell off. I did put the tree back up though-this time at an angle in the stand-pointing towards the corner-so if it decides to nap again-it should just lean into the wall. I also anchored it to the wall. We'll see if I managed to foil its evil plans. I'm tempted to take all its ornaments away and force it to wear ugly old socks instead. Cause I'm that sort of person.

On a brighter note-I believe I finished most of my Christmas shopping...now I just have to hope that the delivery dates are right, and I actually get the presents before I need them. My cards are still sitting in a stack. Perhaps this year they'll be New Year's Christmas cards......again.....Hmmm...that seems to be a bit of a habit of mine. I'll bet the stuff I have to box up yet and get to the post office really don't make it in time. Yay me!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

or something. Bit icy out there today. A little snow has finally come, and its really sending the message home that there's Not Much Time left.

Over the weekend I was very brave and actually went into some stores for the Friday sales. It wasn't horrible, and that really surprised me. (I went before once and it blew in all possible ways.) I bought a few presents for other people...and something very big for me. Now I am rather poor. And also the happy owner of a keyboard. Yay! I can re-learn to play pianoy stuffs. I don't have the full 88 keys like a real piano, I've only got 76, but they are full-sized ones and have the touch sensitivity stuff (plus you rarely need all 88 keys anyway)...so I can control the volume by how fast I hit the keys. Its been years and years since I played with a piano, and I've remembered and am able to play a bit better than I thought I would...but I have a long ways to go to get to where I was. It'll be an interesting ride though. I did find that I don't have all my old music at my place like I had thought. Some must still be at Mom & Dad's. Pity. I'm going to have to make Mom look for it now, since I don't want to wait until Christmas to get it back. I really could use some of the stuff they have there-I only took the harder stuff with me, and I just can't play it now. Luckily for me, the keyboard came with a book of easy little songs to play...so I can fool around with those.

Whooosh!

That's the sound of this last weekend shooting by. It was full of fun things. Yay!

Mom came over, and rather than just sitting around and maybe watching some sort of crappy little movie I pick out from Netflix, we did things...mostly driving back and forth between my place and Stillwater (which isn't that far away).

Friday night we went out with some people that I work with, to Acapulco's (in Stillwater). I always like the Tex-Mex food.

Then Saturday we went to a Holiday Market thing, and bought some nice hand painted glass stuff, all with flowers and pretty things on them. Some I'm going to keep for myself and some are for presents. I got the lady's card who paints them. She sells them so unbelievably cheap, she just wants to get enough money from them to buy more materials and keep painting stuff.

Then we went to the Victorian Christmas at the Old Courthouse in Stillwater. The building was neat. And we we got there a brass quartet was just finishing playing. I wish we had been there earlier and could have heard more of them. Made me wish I was playing in one. That was always my favorite part of band, when we'd be working on small groups. We'd have the best players in it, and would be playing fun chamber music. I miss that. After that, we wandered around a bit doing a little shopping in Stillwater. Then back home.

At home, we cooked lunch. And afterwords I amused her by showing her the noises I could make with my wonderful whistle. She even recognized some of the songs. Yay! I'm getting better. Then it was time to play some games.

And back to Stillwater again, to hear Paul & Lorraine and eat. I was happy with that. I knew Mom would like to hear them, but she's already talking about going back again. To hear them again, and to hear other people there. It was really fun. She liked sitting at the pretty table, looking at the beautiful old room, having a tasty beverage or two and something to eat. We stayed through the first two sets, which surprised me. She's not a fan of sitting around for very long in one place, and gets chair butt really fast. I didn't expect her to last that long.

Sunday involved exciting things, like soup and cleaning off the patio. Wasn't that nice of me, to let Mom use the snow shovel to scrape frozen wet birdseed off the cement? I sure know how to show people a good time. I also let her put away the Halloween decorations. She let me pick up the mushy tomatoes that were still out there.

Sucess!

I foiled the plans of the evil Sims and resisted their calling from the spare room. (They sounded rather like the Tech pep band taunting the goalie...there was a steady Aaaaaaamyyyyy coming from that room...soft and creepy.) I even went in there (that was the room that needed to be picked up yet), I taunted them...walking close to the computer. I even picked up their disk. Only to giggle madly and put it away. Ha ha! Take that you dastardly pretend people!

I managed to resist the new set of dvds I got in the mail from Netflix, and another disk of Torchwood was in there. Mmmm....Torchwood. They wanted to be watched. Perhaps tonight they'll get lucky. But I wouldn't count on it, I have Things to do yet.

I'm back on caffiene again...hopefully only for a bit-I do try to limit how much I drink of it. But this whole dark out when I get home from work is just killer. Makes me lazy and feel like I should just go to bed. So last night was Mayan Chocolate coffee stuff. The fake kind that comes in the little tins-that you just have to add water to. It was yummy and sugary.

Then this morning, I opened up the Spiced Plum tea I picked up from the grocery store. Its sold looseleaf and is one of those bulk things where you can scoop out how much you want. I'll be going back for more. It my new very favorite thing. So good. The best tea ever. I want to buy them out of it, and ignore all the other teas I have at home.

Curls, Curls Everywhere! Curls, Curls, In my Hair!

Yay! Since I haven't blogged about it yet, I figured its time. About a week and a half I chopped off all my hair. Well, technically Shari, from Design Affair chopped off all my hair. And to my surprise, this time it turned curly!? What's up with that? I've never had curly hair in my life! (She did tell me that happens to some people when they get older. I refrained from crying cause I'm turning old. It was hard.) So, now its a lovely shade of red again...instead of that icky natural color, and curly! Wheee! Its cut to about chin length, with layers and fun stuff. And I can do Things with it again. A little gel and let it be curly...a flat iron and make it straight...or some sort of mysterious thing and flip the ends out (which sound way too hard for me). I absolutely love the cut. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the haircuts that flappers had. Which makes me very happy. I really feel like I should go do naughty things and hang out in a speakeasy. Hee hee!

I've been working on getting some Christmas presents together for people. Making ornaments and stuff like that. So far this fall, my obsessive tendencies have really come out. First was the whole crocheted dishcloth thing. I now have 43 of them. (Which is ok, its not like they go bad.) Then I made 3 crocheted bags. This week so far, I've been making lace angels, 17 of them...and I ran out of lace. I'm not planning on buying more though, even though I have lots of the other bits that go into the angels...cause how many do I need? (And they're made out of stuff that mom had sitting in her garage...I'm trying to use it up.) Oh, and the count on dangley beaded ornaments is at 3 right now. I had to stop with them, I bruised the palm of my hand-my wire clippers are rather dull and I was using a thick wire on them. I have other wire clippers, but it involved getting up and finding them.

Then something bad has happened. Sort of. I was at a Goodwill last weekend. And I bought something I shouldn't have. The deluxe version of Sims (the first one). I started playing with it on Monday night. That game is a horrible time warp. I've made two people so far...Hunca Munca, and Peter Piper. Hunca is boring, apparently I didn't set her personality right. Peter is much more fun...plus he managed to burn down his kitchen already. I don't think I'm going to play with Hunca anymore. In reality, I shouldn't be playing with any of them...I have other things to do. It has really cut into my sleepy time. So no more Sims this week for me.

Must clean and try to get ready for Christmassy fun times! Yay! That will be fun for me too. For some strange reason, I don't mind cleaning...even though I don't do it much. Its more of a satisfaction thing, when I see how nice it is. One room to go, then I can start on the floors.

I'm a quitter!

I've decided to give up on the attempt to write a novel this month. Its just not going to happen. I managed almost 5,000 out of the 50,000. I don't have the time to do this right now, and it would have been a struggle to make it happen if everything had been going right. Since things have not been going right, I came to the decision that I need to focus on other things, and not even see how far I can get. I can always do this on my own some other time...just pick a month and do it myself.

I've had a bit of a lingering cold/cough for the last 6 weeks or so (since I was on vacation). This weekend it came back and then some. So another trip to the doctor, and heard more gibberish about this just having to run its course. But at least this time I insisted that they give me some medicine and now I have so super cough syrup that actually keeps me from coughing. Yay! (Well, at least most of the time.) So that should help with the rib damage that it caused...it'll at least have a chance to heal. I've never hurt my ribs before...its not pleasant. I don't recommend that.

Help help!

More Nano posting! Yay!

I've fallen horribly behind on my schedule of how many words a day I need to write in order to get my 50,000 in time. In fact, as of this morning, I'm about 7,000 behind where I want to be. *sigh* It probably doesn't help any that I'm doing this in sort of drafts...this first run through, I want to just get the basics of the story out, and then go back an fill in details and descriptions. I was hoping to have the story done by the middle of next week, but unless I spend almost all weekend working on it, that won't happen.

I'm having a very hard time forcing myself to write when the words are struggling. Especially when I'm at home and there's all sorts of fun things to do there. (Its not fun writing when its a forced thing.) I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to catch up very well. I've gone so far as to ban myself to my room with the computer in it, thinking that would help. Not so much...there's closets in there. Closets full of neat stuff. A quick break to look for something, or get up from the chair turns into hours that are lost. I think there's some sort of black hole time warp in my apartment. I honestly don't know where the time went.

Tonight I'm going to start setting timers. So long writing...then a few minutes of doing something else. Like laundry. Which is not fun. But to make up for that, I get to go see Paul & Lorraine play Friday and Saturday nights. Whee!

Mmmm....Cardboard

Started my book for nanowrimo. (Yet another nano post...get used to it, its going to be occupying me all this month.) So far, its veered off the path I had started it on. Bright side, I think I came up with an idea for it to dash back to where its intended to go...and have it match up. In fact, its a rather brilliant idea...if I do say so myself, brings in a lot of continuity and motives.

Sad side, I still have no name for my main character, I'm not sure if she even has one at this point. I haven't got a clear idea of who she is yet, so all the dialog is very wooden, and the characters are all cardboard...and there's no emotion in it all. In fact, its a decent idea that's being ground down into a pile of crap. But that's ok, I went into this intending to write a steaming pile. The whole idea isn't to create something good, but just to create something. The nice thing, is I won't have time to go back and edit it as I go...that can come later, after its all written. Though in reality, I'll probably never do anything with it. I'm not intending to show this to anyone, just prove that I can do it. Its all for my own amusement. Its a good thing I'm easily amused.

I am a bit worried about my hands being able to take the abuse though....that's an awful lot of typing, after putting in a bit over 3000 words last night, my hands were aching and I couldn't get to sleep. I can see pain killers will become my friends this month.

Adventures with Whistles

As promised, a UPS box was waiting for me when I got home on Friday. Inside was my shiny new tin whistle. I've been playing with it a lot since then. I've progressed to make fewer horrid screeching noises out of it. (I knew my neighbors were going to love it!) Its quite different and harder to play than I had thought it would be. It'll take a lot more practice to get it under control. But, its do-able! And so much fun! The problem I'm having with it right now is that I used to play brass instruments...and with them, volume is controlled by how hard you blow. (Ha! Sounds so dirty.) And your embouchure controls the tone. With the whistle, tone is controlled by your breath. So far, I haven't been able to hear any difference in the note by changing the embouchure. Its turning out to be great fun. Once I master this one, I'm planning on getting more whistles in different keys. (They're made to play in one key-you need a different whistle for a different key.) Keys of course meaning which notes are sharp or flat. Should I turn out to be proficient in whistles, the ultimate plan is to try out a lovely wooden flute. Whistles being my gateway instrument to the flute. (I'm a touch afraid of the flute...it will be so very different from anything I've played.)

All this whistling (I probably put in about 9 hours of it over the weekend) has put a damper on my attempt at nano though. Well, I still could have made time to write more...but it just wasn't a priority for me this last weekend. I had better things to do...things like watch tv (the winner of everything I watched was Tin Man-I saw the first two parts-if you haven't seen it, go find it-its brilliant), take naps, read books, curse at the fact that I hardly got any trick-or-treaters, spend hours taking apart the treat bags I had assembled for them, play with yarn and eat candy. I think I'm going to put most of the blame on the candy though...I'm sure it put me into a sugar coma of some sort where all I was able to do was lounge about. It wouldn't have had anything to do with my laziness or habit of procrastinating with everything. Nope. Couldn't be that. So far I have a grand total of 3 words. Ha! Even worse...it isn't even 3 words that are going to stay, just a little reminder to me of what I picked to write about. (I've been tossing ideas around for a few days, and finally just picked one and will be going with that.) Since I'm sure you're curious now...my three words are Sleeping Beauty Sucks. I've always hated that bitch and its time she got what she deserves!

Oh, back to the tv....I watched the opening of the Legend of the Seeker show. It was crap, I didn't like it...but I sat there continuing to watch it. For some reason, I was taking delight in how horrid I though it was. Then during commercials I was reading the book its based on. So, its a step above the tv version of the Mists of Avalon...which was so awful I couldn't watch it...but still a waste of time. I haven't quite decided if I dislike because its veered so far from the book (I wasn't expecting it to follow the story all that well), or if its also just bad tv. I'm going to have to keep watching it until I figure that out. I'm not a huge fan of the books, I have most of them...but after the first 3 or 4 it really started getting old...the story was just dragging on and there's no end in sight. (Rather the same as Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series...started out fantastic...but just didn't have the staying power for me.) With both of them, I feel like I should read them all, just because I have put in the time reading a lot of them (I read almost all of both of them), but I find myself just not caring what happens to any of the characters in them. Maybe I'm just not a fan of the "big" epic stories.

Things that go Bump in the Night

Halloween has been sneaking up on me this year. I have the treats, but completely forgot about a pumpkin and haven't put up my decorations yet. I'm going to try to get that all done tonight. Along with getting some food cooked and frozen. (And freezing more food is on the schedule for tomorrow night.) Because, starting midnight on Friday, I'm going to be starting my silly little book I'm going to attempt to write. Not to mention playing around with that whistle that is on schedule to be delivered Friday. I won't be willing to cook with all those other things to do. Eventually I'd get sick of oatmeal and start picking up prepackaged food...and I really should be eating up the meat from in my freezer-I need to make room-in case I get a deer this year. (I don't do the hunting, but if they get enough, my dad and brother give me one.)

Last night, I started doing a bit of reading of mythology stuff and fairy tales-just in case I can't think of something original to write my story about-I figured if I'm completely stumped, I could do a retelling of one. I came across the Pandora story. Its never made any sense to me at all. I think something got lost somewhere in that one. The whole thing, is that the gods made Pandora to punish man. She was supposed to be decietful and all the bad things that we women are. *big eyeroll here* All the gods gave her "gifts", and along with that, they gave her a box filled with all the evils of the world...and for some reason hope was in there. Why would hope be in the box of bad stuff? See...doesn't make sense! So the story goes on, that her curiosity got the better of her, she opened the box, and the evil escaped. She saw what she did and closed the box quickly, leaving hope the only thing left in there. Well....if that's the story...then there shouldn't be any hope in the world...right? Its still in the box! Arrrrrghhh! And WHY was it in there?!? I had to yell at the book after reading that. I've never been happy about that...but now, in my old age, it appears to make me furious.

I'm also toying with the idea of doing a retelling of Sleeping Beauty for my book. I was never happy with the way the "bad" fairy was protrayed. I tend to identify with the "evil" people/creatures in those stories. The "good" guys always seem so boring. What's the fun of being beautiful and kind and obedient and all that. Its our flaws that make us interesting. I just can't make myself cheer for some cardboard character.

NaNoWriMo! Eeek!

I believe I did a silly thing yesterday...perhaps even sillier than buying a tin whistle to irritate my neighbors with. (Though I'm sure they're used to it...after all I hit my snooze button for about an hour every morning...I hate getting up.) I signed up for NaNoWriMo. Now, I never really had an urge to write a novel...and haven't really written anything since college. Add in that I'm trying to make a bunch of my Christmas presents, and learn to play that whistle....probably not the wisest decision.

So far, I've been trying to think of some way to be able to have enough story in me to write that many words...and have it still kind of go together. My good idea is to start with a normal story...when I run out of things to say...kill them all off and turn them into zombies. As far as a starting point...I'm toying with the idea of starting with one of my crazy dreams. (Last night's involved stepping into an alternate reality by climbing up the inside of a wall.) Its still an awful lot of words to write. Perhaps it'll turn into generations of zombies. Ha! Actually...that's rather amusing to me...maybe I'll do that. Hee hee hee! Still not sure where I'm going to carve out the time to do this. Granted I don't do much....we'll see how it goes.

Other than that...the swelling in my ankle has gone down some. Wheee! It probably would have disappeared a whole lot earlier if I hadn't been poking at it. It didn't hurt enough to make me leave it alone.

Wheeee!

Two posts in one day! Wow!

Lately I've been really wishing I had a piano or keyboard of some sort. (And I will get one...eventually.) I don't have the spare money to pick up a decent one right now (I blew it all on furniture). So, I started trying to think of some sort of cheap instrument to buy and play around with. And....I just ordered an irish penny whistle thingy in D. Not that the key of it really matters, I'm just going to be playing it by myself. Yay! I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to figure how to play it good enough for me to have some fun. It doesn't look like it'll be too much different from playing brass instruments. As a bonus, I found a cheap one ($15) that has pretty decent reviews and comes with a little book on how to play it. That'll be enough for me to tell if I'll like, and I won't feel bad about if it turns out I don't have whistle skills. If I like it and can play it decently, I might learn to play one of those nice wooden flutes.

Ow my spleen!

Or in this case, my foot. Well, really the ankle.

Friday and Saturday nights I went to see Paul & Lorraine playing at Charlies pub in Stillwater. They're so fantastic and great. If you ever have the opportunity to see them, go. Great music, and funny...it was such a good time. And Charlie's is a great, great place. Good food, really good beer (yay for Guinness on tap!), nice atmosphere. I'm a fan of their kind of music...and am just in awe of their playing/singing skills. At one point I picked up a guitar and it was beyond my abilities to learn (my fingers and hand just couldn't do it-I think they're too destroyed to be able to handle the stress the guitar puts on them). So its always so amazing to me to see someone playing an instrument I wasn't able to. And then to play it so well! Yay! I'll be going back to hear them at every chance I can. At least I will until they start thinking I'm stalking them....then I'll have to go in disguise.

So back to my spleen. Saturday, when I was at Charlie's, my ankle start to hurt a little bit. Not badly...just enough to let me know it was there. I had thought I just had my boot tied to tightly. But then when I got home and took my boot off, my whole ankle was purpley-red and swollen. I must have bumped it funny, or twisted it a bit and not realized it. Its still a bit throbby, but not bad enough for me to have done some real damage to it. My coordination skills have apparently reached a new low...able to injure myself just by sitting in a chair and occasionally walking around a little. (I wasn't drunk, so I can't even say it was one of the mystery injuries drunk people get.)

I've been having an obsession with crocheting dish cloths lately. I've been really bad with it...I even considered taking some yarn in my bag to the pub and working on it there. (Good thing about Charlie's being in Minnesota....no smoking inside! So I could have taken yarn there and it wouldn't come back smelling all nasty. Yipee! That makes it so much nicer to go out...I won't go out to places in Wisconsin anymore-with Minnesota being close and so much more pleasant.) I resisted the urge...but it was hard.

I woke up this morning and hated everything

Ok, so it was last night...and not everything. But it did bring to mind that lovely line from Tomb Raider. (Or at least that's what I remember that line being.) I think I'll have to watch it again and see. Yay!

I couldn't sleep last night, so I decided to put clothes on and see what I wanted to wear today. (Eeek! Actually picking something out instead of just putting on whatever was on the top of the pile?!) Well, I hated it all. Every single piece in there. So, I'd put something on...and take it off in disgust...throw it on the floor and try something else, it all sucked. That means today I went shopping during my lunch time. I ended up with a couple of new shirts and a pair of jeans that I have to try to shrink in the dryer. (They're too big, but the next size down is too small.) I really need to try to do clothes shopping a little more often. I tend to wait until everything I have is worn out and I hate it all...then I have to buy a lot of new things all at once. Bright side-I really love one of my new shirts, its fantastic! Yay!

I've been on an insomnia kick for a few days now. That's been fun....only not so much. Tonight I'm going to try a couple of beers and see if that will help knock me out. Sometimes that works. If not, tomorrow it'll be time to bring out the drugs. I'm starting to look a little more dead than usually. But that's ok, corpse is a good look for me. Yay dark circles under my eyes that no concealor can hide. I've had my nice new comfy bed for almost 2 weeks, so I know that isn't the problem. Its my silly brain that just won't shut off. I'll teach it though...I'm going to kill off those meanie brain cells that just won't calm down. Ha ha ha!

Fun, fun, fun!

This last weekend was super-fun! My mommy came over and we did many exciting things.

She was at my place waiting for me when I got home from work on Friday-she got there several hours before I was home and had already done a couple of loads of laundry and some dishes, as well as peeking around my apartment to see what new things I have since last time she was over. We went out for Chinese, which was very good (surprisingly good for how cheap it was). Even better-the place is just down the road from me-I took home a menu, so I can call ahead for take-out.

Saturday we ran to the library quick so I could send a couple of emails (I have no internet at home). And to our surprise they had a book sale going on! Yippee! I needed two more bags of books. I'm going to have to get another book shelf. Then we moved onto other exciting things...

Like going to thefarmer's market, the apple orchard, and making applesauce. Mom did lots of laundry and washed all the dishes. She also cleaned the ceiling fan/light fixture in the kitchen. Hee hee hee! Its nice when she comes over. We had a good time and the weekend went by way too quickly. Its a pity how that works.

Blarg

More tea has arrived. I suppose there's worse things to collect. It has become rather ridiculous though.

My apartment looks like a couple of garden fairies had a food fight in it. I made some hummus last night...and that always seems to dirty every dish I own. (One day I'll have a food processor and it will be so easy!) Add in remains of lots of cut up veggies....and mixings of the layered taco dip....mail....and stacks of pressies to mail to other people....and its really disgusting. There's a little party thing here at work today...and I forgot about it until about 8 last night...so I had to hurry. Sure, I could have bought already made up hummus...and already cut up veggies...and didn't need to make a taco thing too....but that's no fun.

So...I was up late last night...and finished things up this morning. My hands still smell like celery and roasted garlic. Apparently the scent of them has soaked into them to the point where soap won't get it out. Good thing I have this cold and can't smell it too well.

What a Wonderful Weekend!

Its the first time since August that I've had a weekend to myself. I've really been missing that. I'm really not that fond of being around people. Though, most of it was with mom and dad, and that was ok. They both are able to be around someone and not constantly talk. I like the quiet. Its still not the same as being alone though...I always did like being by myself. But that's because I'm so cool. I always want to do what I want to do.

Well, I completed two doggies sweaters, and I have to admit....they make me happy. Hopefully they'll fit the doggies that they are for. They fit the teddy bear I put them on. He wasn't too happy about wearing girly doggy sweaters.

It was a crocheterific weekend for me. Not only did I make the two little sweaters, I also made a sock. And yay! This one wasn't all deformed! I guess it pays to count the stitches as I go. So I decided to take apart the deformed sock and remake it. They're more along the lines of slipper socks...you'd have to be wearing large shoes to fit these in them. But they are lovely and warm. I hope to finish the other one tonight.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to keep them or put them into my stash of Christmas party prizes. My goal for this party is to have lots of lovely handmade stuff. (For those of you who don't know...I've been having an annual cookie exchange party...with games and prizes.) Mom is going to help me by making a bunch of really cute and fun potholders-out of courdoroy and flannels. There are such cute things in the fabric stores right now...it almost makes me wish I had the patience or desire to learn how to sew properly. Almost. For some reason its just not that fun for me. Maybe when I retire I'll get bored enough to do that.

I never made it to the apple orchard. But only because I went to the farmer's market Saturday morning and there were lots of apples there. I really love being in an apple-growing area. All those fantastic apples! I picked up a nice big bag of Honeycrisps that were picked that morning. So good! It was hard not to eat them all up at once. My digestion really thanks me for that...though it is angry with me for stuffing it full of all the other fibery goodies I picked it up. (Aren't you glad I shared that.) I'm going to be very sad when the farmer's market is over again. Its really a pity our growning season is so very short here.

On to exciting plans for tonight. After work, I'm going to run (well drive) home and change the oil in my car...then merrily jaunt over to the furniture store. A new bed and chair (if I find one I like) are in my future! Woohoo! I've been waiting for the bed I want to go on sale, and it is! I have a bed to sleep on (though I've been on the couch with this horrid cold-it keeps alternating between my head and chest), so there wasn't a desperate need for it.

Great Galloping Ghosts, Batman!

So...there's no ghosts, and I have nothing to say about batman...it just seemed like a nice title.

Well, last night was very exciting. I came home....and proceeded to rest on the couch. I've finally started watching my Netflix movies again...they've been sitting by the tv for weeks now. (Yay for getting to keep them as long as I want!)

I watched Amelie. Now, I'm generally not a big fan of foreign movies. I'd rather be able to listen to the words instead of read them. (I like to work on crafty items while the tv is on.) But this one was really worth it. I didn't want to look away. Its a beautiful movie, and is so charming and completely adorable. I'm glad I finally watched it. I highly recommend seeing it. I've been rather sick, wasn't feeling well...and it still had me sitting there smiling-it was that delightful, I wasn't tempted to turn it off and take a nap at all. I can't think of a movie to compare it with...but if you haven't seen it yet-do. Very good.

I forgot to cover my plants last night though...so I'm not sure if they survived. There was frost on the grass this morning, but the plants are close enough to the side of the building that they might be ok yet. I also didn't pick the ripe tomatoes, so that's the plan for this evening. Pick them all before they freeze. It seems to early for frost...my plants just got going nicely...and now they're going to die.

Tonight, my goal is to put together some packages to take to the post office. I've been rather lax in my mailing of goodies. Also to do a bit of cleaning and perhaps start my attempt at crocheting a pink doggy sweater. Sounds like fun, doesn't it!?

If I'm feeling up to it, I'm going to head over to Maple Leaf Orchards and pick up some apples. They have so many good ones there. And you can go into their barn and just walk the isle of bins of apples, tons of different kinds, and they let you taste them before you buy them. (I buy the seconds...the ones that aren't absolutely perfect...cheaper and almost perfect.) I'm hoping for some pears again this year. Last year they had pears there...so very fantastic! And I don't even like pears. And apple cider! SO GOOD! This year, I'm only going to make applesauce. I still have quite a few jars of apple butter left over from last year. And eat apples of course. At some point my mommy is going to come over and help make good appley things, but I want to get a little start on it first...and check out what they all have this year.

Tea-rifficly fun TV!

Well, the vacation was successful. The weather cooperated and the leaves were starting their shift to the lovely fall colors. They were just starting when we got there, and were in full color mode when we left. Yay fall!

Unfortunately for me, I came down with the plague on Wednesday night. We were leaving Thursday morning, so that wasn't a big hamper on the vacationing fun.

Then Saturday was park wedding time. My cousin had a very casual and fun reception. The coldness and outdoors part didn't help me beat off the plague though.

I've spent most of this week in a drug-induced stupor. I woke up much better today though...I don't have to share my barking cough nearly as much. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I can go back into my bed at night, rather than being propped up on the couch. (It helps me breathe to not lie flat.)

Happy note.....
I hooked up my digital convertor box for the tv. I get more channels now. Yipee! I got in two pbs stations (oddly enough, it doesn't pick up the pbs I used to be able to get in), cbs, and some weather channel that I didn't have before. Now I can watch Ghost Whisperer as its on tv rather than waiting until the dvds come out. Woohoo! Too bad for me I'll be a season behind though. Last year's season just came available on Netflix, and I haven't watched any of it yet. I jumped it to the top of my list now though, so I won't be behind for long. Its strange not to be watching fuzzy shows anymore...or having the picture change based on where I'm sitting or standing. Its rather sad to think that there won't be little kids watching the "black bugs" fighting with the "white bugs" with a glimpse of some cartoon every so often.

Today I'm still attempting to drown the plague bugs that are in me...drinking lots of ginger ale and teas. I've opened a new box of tea here...Lipton's Vanilla Caramel Truffle. It sounded rather tasty. It smells dreadful though. But tastes good. Which is strange, usually things don't taste as good as they smell, but its the opposite in this case. I really need to start drinking more teas. I like to buy them all, and I have an absurdly large collection going. Not to mention, I just ordered another $50 worth from Adagio. They've got really good teas there, and a good price. And they come in such Cute containers! I really love the little sample sized stuff, enough to try the tea, but not a lot of it, so you don't waste it if you don't like it. Lots of it makes really excellant iced tea as well. I'm a little excited about it, because they have thier holiday teas in again...so I can pick up more of the ones I liked...and try some of the ones I haven't had yet.

Vacation...All I ever Wanted! Vacation...Got to get away!

Wheeeeeeee! I have next week off of work. Its a bit pathetic how excited I am about it. I've had that silly Go-gos song stuck in my head for days. Even worse...I only know the chorus of that song. Someone here looked up the lyrics for me, but I don't even know how the melody of it goes, so that was no help.

Anyway...I'll be having exciting times...of a sort. I'm going with my mom and dad to cabin on a lake, on the border between Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. It'll be nice and relaxing. I'm bringing an absurd amount of entertainment stuff with me, but we'll be riding up there in their truck, so there's plenty of room. Even better, its a free vacation for me, mom and dad already had the cabin booked, and don't want any money for me coming with. Yay! Its been several years since I took a vacation longer than a long weekend. I've had to use up my vacation days as sick days...but I managed to remain healthy enough this last winter.

My plan is to fish a little, and play games, attempt to start my excuse of a scrapbook (its really not going to be fancy...just pictures on top of pretty paper...no big designs or anything), and learn how to crochet socks. I really know how to live it up! Yay!

Art or Something like it...

In an attempt to be brave, I'm going to scan some of the pictures I've made and share them. Doing this makes my stomach hurt a bit. I'm not all that confident in my skills. One of the things I would love to learn to do is use color and shading better. One of my friends (hi Alisha!) is absolutely brilliant with that. She can make round things look round. Her water drops and globes are amazing. Her drawings have such depth. I can do ok, if I keep things very cartoony looking. Flat and solid colors, with no interesting lighting. Anyway, here is some of the stuff I've done and haven't burned. Ha!

Here we have a colored pencil. I wish I could lay claim to the design, but I did copy it out of a book of dragon designs. Though I didn't trace it, I still didn't create the idea of it. I have a few of these that I've been playing with...trying to work on actually using colors. I ended up really loving the background on this. Its great how mistakes can make something end up better. I had smeared some of the red from resting my hand on the picture, so I couldn't leave the background white like I had planned. Brown hid the red quite nicely.

This is a watercolor...I really wanted to add a little touch of colored pencil to the leaf shape, but I'm afraid I'll ruin the painting. So far I haven't had any sucess in reproducing something similar yet...apparently I ran into some luck when I did this one. (It was originally supposed to be some flowers...they made me angry, so I smeared them all together, and set all sorts of stuff on top of the resulting mess.) The end result made me happy. Who knew that fall window stickies and Halloween fake spider webs could make something so nice. =)

Those two are the finished ones that are actually hanging on my wall. Later today, I'll make a post about a work in progress...and try to scan it in as it changes...just for my own amusement. (Also will be helpful if I try to do to much to it and ruin it in the process-I'll have saved bits that I can use from eariler.)

Added: The work in progress didn't get posted because it was sketched too lightly for the scanner to pick up.

I dreamed a dream last night....

Even so often I dream something and remember it. Well, last night was one of those. It involved crashing a summer camp. Then camp was boring and I wanted to leave. Ruh roh! No cell phone signal, so I decided to just steal the camp bus...it was raining and I didn't want to walk. I would have gotten caught if I drove on the rode, so I went through the woods. Scattered throughout the woods, were hibernating grizzly bears and it was tricky to avoid hitting them...they were everywhere. As I drove deeper into the woods, sleeping people were among the sleeping bears. The people were very large and looked a bit like they were made out of play-do. I couldn't avoid both the bears and the people, so I ran over the people. The people squeaked when the wheels went over them, waking up the bears...and the bears would eat the people. The poor bears looked hungry, so I tried to run over as many people as I could, so they could have a snack.

It should have been a dream that scared me or disturbed me...but I found it quite relaxing. Rather like a video game. Run over the people, feed the bears. Maybe because the people didn't scream or bleed when they were being eaten...they just kept sleeping. I only remember it because my alarm woke me up.

Alas poor socks, I knew you well!

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away there was a sock. Not just any ordinary sock (after all ordinary socks don't get written about), but a glorious sock full of wonderful dreams and octopi. Even better, it had a twin. A perfect pair. Two wonderfully orange socks, skipping through life, sharing their happy rainbow of smiling cephalopods with world. Life was a fantastic journey for the loving friends, but like so many things truely beautiful, they weren't meant to live long in this world. They were trodden down with many stampings of feet and holes erupted in their heels. Their downfall was so sudden and unexpected. I thought they'd be with me forever. But no, they're off to join their blue monkey companions in the giant dryer in the sky.

I'll miss you socks.

When I was very little....

Cartoons used to be so much better when I was younger. You know, when I had to walk two miles uphill to school, during a blizzard...wearing newspapers on my feet because I didn't have shoes. But I've made a recent discovery. I can actually get in a PBS station on my rabbit ears! Yay! And there's a rather lovely cartoon on it...all about Curious George. Last night I learned all about making apple cider. The squeals and monkey noises he spouts out really make me happy. Though, I must admit...I wonder about the Man in the Yellow Hat. Why does he like yellow so much? Why did he wear an old fashioned yellow bathing suit when they went to the beach? Why does he have a pet monkey?

Its no Fraggle Rock, but its really one of the best cartoons I've seen in a very long time (of course, Fraggles weren't cartoons-for the most part-there was that short-runned cartoon version). I really miss the Fraggles, I'm so glad almost all of them are on DVD now. I've been watching them again, and I'm amazed at how different the show is now that I'm watching it as an adult (or as adult as I'll ever be). I didn't realize it when saw it as a child, but there are so many lessons to learn in the show...but they're subtle lessons. No after-school-special "what did we learn from this" sort of talks at the end. The brillance of the show is completely amazing. I can see where it helped shape me into the person I am today. I think that's part of the problem with so many cartoons, the creators of them don't realize the power they have. Jim Henson was a genius and I'm so glad I was the perfect age for the Fraggles when they were on tv.

Meep meep!

This last weekend was rather exciting. I went to a pro baseball game (Tigers vs. Twins in Minneapolis...I list Tigers first though, because that's why we-me and my mommy and daddy-bought the tickets). It was the first one I've been to. It was quite entertaining, much more than seeing it on tv. Though, on tv I get to see the players up close...and Minnesota does have some lovely eye candy playing for them. We've decided to make it an annual trip. We parked further away and rode the light rail to the Metrodome (I'm so glad I remember that the light rail had a stop there). I felt rather like Harry Potter leading Hagrid through the ticket booths and such for the Underground in the first book. Only I hadn't ridden on it either (except for the bit between the airport terminals).

We also spent time looking at a gardening book. (That I just picked up from a library book sale.) Also looking out the window at the birds on the feeders. I really know how to show people a good time! They are the best kind of visitors, my apartment was cleaner when they left than it was when they came. Mom has a liking of washing and folding clothes. Yay Mom!

I've also learned that steel-cut Irish Oatmeal is one of the best things ever. I had boughten a can of months ago, but just haven't made any-it takes over 1/2 hour to cook. I must say, its well worth the time. If you've never tried it, go look for some. Its fantastic, nutty and chewy. I'll have to buy some more.

Olympic Fever

I have to say, I'm rather disappointed with the coverage of the olympics on tv. They can spend over an hour each night covering sychonized diving, but don't even mention some of the other events that are going on? The human interest stories make me angry too. Seems like they will only talk about people with tragedy or a tearjerking story as a part of their road to the Olympics. Let's completely ignore all the other athletes that have been working hard for a long time, shall we? The media is just sending a big message that they aren't as important as the ones with a "good" story. Same thing with Michael Phelps. Don't get me wrong, he's fantastic and I love to watch him. But does the focus of the cameras really need to be on him all the time? I was so disgusted with the way they had a tight shot of his eyes during one of the gold medal ceremonies that I turned off the tv. They didn't even show the rest of his face...in the hopes that he would well up a bit, and then they could all pounce on him later asking him what he was thinking. I really feel for the other guys on the swim team, they're really good too...but also being ignored or just asked about him. And poor Phelps, he's living in a giant fishbowl right now. There just doesn't seem to be a happy medium, either you're ignored or you're being hounded. It really makes me glad that I refuse to pay for television.

The topic at work today seems to be the story about the older Chinese gymnast (forgive me-I forget her name), who wanted to stop training and go home, but her parent's wouldn't let her. People here seem to be absolutely shocked by that. I wasn't surprised that they told her no. I keep forgetting how so many Americans forget that everyone doesn't have the same rights/live the same way we do. I don't know a whole lot, but at least I realize that I've got it very lucky to have been born here. There are other cultures, and some of them don't let their people have any rights at all. That girl was taken from her family at a really young age, and put into training. She hardly ever saw them. In exchange, her family was probably given some money or something equivalent. They have a better life for themselves because she's being built up as an athlete. Its not fair to her, and its not right what they do, but that's how it happens there. Add in the fact that the government would likely punish them if she quit, and its really not a surprise at all that they told her to stay there. I'm sad that the Olympics are taking place in China, but that won't stop me from watching quite a few of the events.