LosCon Was Wonderful. Wish I Was There.

Ahh, scifi bliss. But too short of a bliss this year. I only arrived at 11am on Saturday, but I made much of my time. :)

First things first though. Ok, so you're a meetings/convention hotel and you are scheduled to host 2500-ish people for the Thanksgiving weekend. Why would you choose that weekend to have the stone entry paths that lead to your front doors and that cross your main driveways resealed? Now 2500 people can't enter through the main driveways and only have one entry door available. Hmmm. Planning not your forte? And also before I actually get in the door... I'm being dropped off by my family who is headed to the airport and back to their own parts of the country. Since I'm not valeting a car I get no porter assistance for the large suitcase, three large and heavy tote bags, the computer case, and the purse.

One last hotel thing. Just one, I promise. This wa the first and only modern hotel I've ever stayed at where: 1) you get off the elevator in the middle of your floor with rooms to infinity in either direction (lugging 2 sherpa's loads because you weren't valeting a car) and there are no signs tellign you which rooms are in which direction. Yup, I picked wrong the first time. 2) there is no sign/map *anywhere* on the floor or in my room that tells me where the ice machine is. When I mentioned that last bit on checkout I was told that the door to it is made to look like all the other rooms and if I'd just walked most of the way down the other side of my floor I'd have found it just fine. I think not.

Oh one more thing. Let me show you the least-restful hotel room floor in the Western world:

Tell me how that's a calming influence? No wonder they upgraded all their bedding and added chenille throws the the room... they had to counteract the carpet.

This year's GoH was William Tenn/Philip Klass. He was quite darling. I must say I did like his comments when He recieved the Forry Award -- after all these years "it's about damn time I won one!" and "Don't tell Forry you gave me this." lol

As for the panels I attended:
My personal winner for best visual/coolest tech/ok-I'm-a-geek-whatcha-want-to-make-of-it panel: the Rebirth of the Griffith Observatory.
My winner for most notes taken: the 2007 Hugos panel -- very useful! At least a couple books hit my shopping list because of it and I have it firmly in my brain to check in a week or so to see if the online nomination forms are up. The books that made the shopping list: Novik's His Majesty's Dragon and Stross' Glasshouse. I also have made an effort to locate the sampler chapter of Lynch's Lies of Loch Lamora that was handed out at WorldCon and to read my copy of the WorldCon book, Space Cadets. For best related book, the Phillips book, James Tiptree, Jr.... remains on my radar.
Best everyone having fun panel: Doctor Who
Best audience interest panel: the Eaton Collection {If you haven't heard their presentation, you should catch it sometime. Also, they *will* treat you with respect. They don't snort at genre fiction or genre ephemera. They *like* scif and are proud of it. And, they won't sell it in a garage sale like your grandson/niece/first cousin would if you left them your collection. They'll let you visit too!
Coolest new innovation: The Stitch and *itch Room! Too cool -- THANKS!

Aside from the winning panels, I went to other panels (we won't mention those); I chatted with my friend John and his mom and congratulated him on getting the turkey sandwich boxed lunch again this year {good show, Marion-- you make him so happy every year with that lunch bag!}; I went to the masquerade -- nice year in masquerade land---how many liver snacks do you need to convince a dog to wear a full-body turkey costume???; chatted with Juli from the Eaton and books and general collecting [She just got a new light sabre which she's most fond of. If you need a dose of perky, Juli's your woman!!!!! She does the shopping for the Eaton -- ain't that the coolest job in the world!?!]; I bought books-- mostly as gifts [See, I showed some restraint! What did I get? I can't really say because they might be for you. ;-) ] and I stitched.

At the Con I got one ornie stitched, a BS poinsettia wreath like this one only the flowers are red overdye:


I also made more headway on the M Designs Sampler until I was stymied trying to figure out what to add -- I have a whole extra row's worth of space on the fabric and I just can't give up on it!

Being Thankful

I need to be thankful. At 1:32am it's hard to see why. But today was nice. Dinner was fantastic. My sister cooked the perfect turkey breast. My BIL made outstanding cheddar cheese biscuits. I got hors d'oeuvres of olives, carrots, and deviled eggs. But then again, my dining pleasure may have come about due to the large snifter of Pomegranate martini my BIL made me. I was very thankful for that. Then he went and made me cry over the dinner prayer. I don't feel that was very nice.

Today was a draw.

I may have been more useful today. It's still rather unclear to me though. I opened and set out jewelery sets for my sister to photograph then put them back in their bags; I hauled and sorted the top shelves of mom's walk-in closet; I sorted through the button collection with my sister; I ran errands with my sister; I did social director duties making calls to set up "dates" with my aunt and uncle and a church friend; I deleted a bag of books from my inventories and got it ready to go to UCR; and I restaged all the UCR donations to a new locale. See. stuff, but not much.

Want to see a touch of what we're up against?
This is the "family room" -- most of what we've got here is pictures. Oh and that's grandma's piano:


What I personally am up against--- I like to call this my scifi alley:


Here's my sister at work on her photographing odessey. This was yesterday -- china and glass day. And, because we're a family of documentors, that's my BIL taking a picture of my sister taking pictures of glassware. :)

And yes, the floor is textured and yellow and the cabinets are painted apricot -- no, my mom didn't have a vote in it! Beyond my BIL you can see a bit of the hideous wallpaper that graces half of that one wall. It's a lovely white with giant flowers and bamboo lattice in shades of brown. I'll have to take a picture of that for you tomorrow. Hmm, I'd better write that down or I'll forget.

Back to what we did today --- The closet stuff was a hoot. There were my high school graduation pics, old pics of our hometown, quilt blocks, my grandparents wedding book (think baby book, but about a wedding -- Keep in mind that they got married 1905-1910 --- someone gave my grandmother a book entitled A Thousand Ways to Please Your Husband. Dollars to donuts it included instructions on properly startching cuffs, and how to say "yes, dear" in all sincerity. lol), and the flag from my father's coffin. But also up there was a bag of the big bows on stakes that come in floral arrangements, a large quantitiy of tacky craft things bought at craft fairs and church sales for samples for my church's crafters club to use, and an unopened, giant puzzle of a pizza.

Say, wanna see what I collected from the button boxes? I figure these will be handy for biscornus and family samplers:
They are so very pretty!!!!



Speaking of biscornus, I also worked on side one of my first one today. I need to be working on my stitcher's exchange piece, but my sister says she can show me how to easily bury the knot on the buttons for the biscornu so I want to get that lesson before they leave for home. I picked the simplest pattern I could track down then edited out 1/4th of it. I may stitch part of the other side tonite. We'll see how the evening progresses. Hmm. let's see if I can track down the camera for a quick pic.....


Are you ready for Thanksgiving? I doubt I am. We've got all the groceries though. We're doing a turkey breast, dressing, frozen peas and onions, brussel sprouts, cheddar cheese biscuits, salad, carrots, celery, olive, deviled eggs, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. We're figuring to give pie leftovers to the guys next door and to take some to a friend of mom's.

I'm getting chuckle out of the Friday plans -- my BIL and sister will be up and at Best Buy at 4am so they can hopefully get a number to enable them to buy a large, flt screen TV at a $500 discount. My BIL needs it for the museum he's on the board of directors of. A few hours after they get back from that adventure, my sister and I will go to Joann's for ornament supplies---fabric, felt, stuffing, ribbon, and styrofoam. The foam is because I've been thinking that if I can get/cut small enough hunks of fom, I could do "cube-its" as ornies. Oh, guess I better get pins too. :)


Oh yeah, right.... lol

You Are Jean Grey

Although your fate is often unknown, you always seem to survive (even after death). Your mind is your greatest weapon, literally! Powers: telepathy and telekinesis, the ability to project thoughts into the mind of others, communication with animals

Which of the X-Men Are You?

Words are our friends! So go make a new friend today !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your Vocabulary Score: A

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

As usual... misc.

Did you know what the first thing taken out of a decomissioned military plane is? The ejector seat due to its explosive charge. This is the sort of thing that makes me wonder and wonder and get nothing accomplished.


I think I really like this one. I wonder if Bruce would believe it. :) :

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Ok, I like this one...

You scored as Arwen. You're Arwen Evenstar! This elven princess may not get in on too much action, but she's always optimistic and hopeful for the future. She does what she can to help her love, Aragorn, who is off fighting, and is always supportive of him. "I would rather spend one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone." Arwen 75% Samwise 75% Gandalf 69% Aragorn 69% Frodo 56% Pippin 56% Faramir 50% Eowyn 44% Gollum 31% Which LOTR character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

and this one's pretty funny-- who knew this would be my mythological critter--certainly wouldn't have been one of my first dozen guesses!:

You scored as Faerie. Faerie: Aren't you a cute little flying person? Faeries are earth spirits. They live among each element completely hidden. They have cousins called Pixies. Pixies however, are very mischevious. They enjoy tormenting other creatures for fun. Little pranksters.. I hope you never meet one. Pixies have a bad reputation for finding a creature and clinging to them until death. Faeries can be somewhat close to a Pixie, but mostly they are loving, playful, and carry with them a child-like enthusiasm for life. Hide among the pedals of a Daisy, you are a Faerie. Faerie 84% Angel 67% Dragon 50% WereWolf 17% Mermaid 17% Demon 0% What Mythological Creature are you? (Cool Pics!) created with QuizFarm.com

Oh give me a break. It's hard to pack up everything you own for storage. I'm hating pretty much every minute of it.

STRIP for 2006

STRIP List {Stash Reduction Implementation Plan}
2006:
Stitcher's Exchange
CSRR Fantasy RR2
CSRR Christmas RR
12-14 ornies
mustard kimono needlepoint
Radko RWB star
M Designs personalized sampler
2 biscornus

2007:
4 ST Fruit of the Vines
2 inserts for needlepoint clock
N&T pillow
Vierlanden Mystery Sampler by Martina Dey
Personalized sampler by Nouveau Encore
30 ornies
patriotic thing for Tigg
Mirabila RR
house RR
12 biscornus
1 CSRR RR
Chatelaine Egyptian Mandala Garden


Should I make a reading STRIP-ish plan? Let's call it a book a month shall we. Currently I'm reading:
Connie Willis' Fire Watch short story collection (she's a wonder, did you know?)
and
Marilynne Robinson's Gilead

What I'm listening to:
Terry Pratchett's Mort -- he's brilliant
and
Pratchett's Thud -- simply brilliant

What I wish I was reading:
1. some of Glen Cook's Garrett, PI series
2. a Chelsea Quinn Yarbro something or other
3. a Jack McDevitt novel
4. lots of Irish things

What I want to listen to soon:
1. something by Tony Hillerman
2. a Nero Wolfe..... God I love Archie! lol

Have you visted the badgers?

You really should....
http://community.webshots.com/user/rbehling1916

These are part of my collection. I love them. I guess I must have 40 of them. They represent the direction south and the color red. Yes, I know that I have one that's more than likely a mole. What can I say, he was an early purchase. :)

The BIL Has Landed

He's on his way to pick up a car now. Did you know that LAX is busy? No, really? :)

I'm packed and ready to roll.... I think. I have enough stash so that if armageddon seals off my town I can keep stitching until FEMA gets it's act together. I have enough work with me to keep me awake for the same amount of time. Lord knows there's plenty of cleaning to do.

today I got my first "countdown to Christmas" cookie recipe from Cooking Light. A nice looking raspberry bar. I think you need a recipe a day for Christmas cookies, don't you? You can sign up at:
http://www.cookinglight.com/cooking/cookies/2006/

So, help me out here. I'm trying to think colors for my impending mystery sampler:


My first thought was purple and green. Overdyed of course. All options would be overdyed! But that's what I did my Emerson in....


Granted with that one I did medium tones of both colors and this time I'd do darker shades and not do it on green, but.....

My second inspiration was to use navy fabric and stitch in red and white. I'm still tossing that around. Then again I think white or ivory with red and blue might be nice too. But I've also been jonesing to do a piece in browns and pumpkins. Then again, someone in the group mentioned making it a rainbow sampler and that's kinda cool. I hadn't thought of that... possibly because I had it in the back of my mind to do for Jan Houtmann's "Patchwork" when I get around to ordering it. I know, I know. Enough with the ordering already! Believe me, I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!! no more ordering.... until tomorrow. ;-)

Planning and Scheming

Ok, I'm spending the week at mom's for more cleaning, sorting, and packing. Hopefully I will *not* be at the Long Beach Turkey Trot 5K which my BIL thinks would be a wonderful thing to do on Thanksgiving morning. Frankly, I think mornings are for napping, but that's just me. I packed for my week's adventures last night and even with having to switch suitcases 3/4ths of the way through packing clothes and stuff I still spent more time packing stash than packing everything else! lol
I have the makings of probably 20 ornies withe me. yes, I think I only need 14, but I might get bored. ;-) I have my M Designs personal sampler which I've been doing ok on:


I also have 2 RRs, a stitcher's exchange piece, and my Beau GEste/Christopher Radko needlepoint star ornie along...


Oh, and I have ST's "Fruit of the Vine" along so my sister cn vote on the bead colors I got -- she wants at least three repititions of the pattern in a bell-pull-like coloum for a space between her windows in her bedroom.

I have high hopes for the week, but then again, I had high hopes for the day today and I've been stymied by the continuing non-functioning copier here at the office. Maybe this means that away from the office I shall be tres productive. Productive or not I still get to go to LosCon. [See http://www.loscon.org/ ] I'll be missing Friday, but I'll be there for Saturday and Sunday which means I'll be able to make it to the masquerade and all the most of the other fun and excitement. [You know, on of these days I need to get/make an appropriate dress so I can go to the Regency Dance.] This year they are even having a "Stitch and Bitch Lounge" -- apparently someone on the committee got a room for all us stitchers to gather in between events. How cool !!!!!!! I feel it is a brilliant plan and I hope to make great use of the space and fellow scfi stitchers.

And in case you were wondering:

You Are Curling

What you lack in athleticism, you make up for in concentration. And while curling isn't much more of a sport than bowling, you *can* win a gold medal for it!

What Winter Sport Are You?

And... lol....

You Are a Blueberry Margarita

Honestly, there's no one quite like you. And believe it or not, most people think that's a bad thing! You're open, wild, friendly, wacky, and tons of fun. You have a big personality... and a big heart.

What Flavor Margarita Are You?

And finally... :)

You Are Austin

A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. You're totally weird and very proud of it. Artistic and freaky, you still seem to fit in... in your own strange way. Famous Austin residents: Lance Armstrong, Sandra Bullock, Andy Roddick

What American City Are You?

Stop me before I join again.

So my recent sampler compulsion may be getting out of hand. First I planned (and am still planning) my order and my sister's order for personalized samplers from Nouveau Encore, then I took Mary of M Designs personalized sampler class at the Cross Stitch Pals Fall Fling last month. Then last week I joined the yahoo group "The Sampler Life." Yesterday I joined yahoo's Weihenburg Samplers group. Today from the Weihenburg group, I joined Vierlanden Mystery Sampler. Wanna see the teaser for the sampler?????........

See? I need an intervention. lol

Ok, back to cleaning I have a corner of the living room and a cabinet in the kitchen to get through between now and tomorrow at 5-ish pm when I head off to the train station to go back to L.A. I was planning aon staying until Tuesday for a few hours today until Lebnnie pointed out I'd be back this Thursday with my sister and BIL. And I'd be here for a whole week then. Silly me! I thought I had another week before they arrived for Thanksgiving.

Sigh.... clutter, here I come!

Wanna see how far I've gotten...

.... with my M Designs class sampler?


Wanna see my crafting heritage? These are great grandmother's need crochet/knitting:




Yes, she was amazingly talented. :)

I guess you know I ***had*** to take this one!

You're 45% Irish

You're probably less Irish than you think you are... But you're still more Irish than most.

How Irish Are You?

OMG I just saw the cranberry drink ad with the "holiday hawk." ROTFLOL


P.S. I was up until this morning at 6:30am, slept until 11ish, cleaned all day, and I don't expect to go to bed until 6:30am Monday morning, and I have to be at the train station at 5pm tomorrow. If I seem disjointed and weird, I'm allowed... dontcha think?????????????

:) Ain't this cool :) Of course, they are kinda wrong...

You scored as Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica). You are leery of your surroundings, and with good reason. Anyone could be a cylon. But you have close friends and you know they would never hurt you. Now if only the damn XO would stop drinking. Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 88% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 81% SG-1 (Stargate) 81% Moya (Farscape) 75% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 75% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 63% Serenity (Firefly) 56% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 56% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 50% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 50% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 38% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 31% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

Happy, happy, happy!!!!!!!!!

On the train to mom's today I finished the backstitching on my Christmas RR. Yahoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's done, it's done, it's DONE!!!!!! I suppose that when I get back to work, the next pack of RRs will arrive on my desk instantly. They are due at any point. :) Oh well. Now on to my exchange piece. .... I'd tell you what it was, but then I'd have to kill you.

Well, I'm here to clean and prep and organize so the place isn't a disaster when my sister and BIL arrive for Thanksgiving. My packing and alleged organizing foiled my sister's plans last time she was out so this time I really need to be out of her way. I hadn't realized how many books I had sorted out for donating last month when I was here. I suppose I'll need to try a run to the library while I'm home. Oh and I need to remember to take the rest of the cookbooks I'm donating back with me to L.A. God bless the head of the Science and Patents division of the LAPL for being willing to try adding my cookbooks to their collection-- and not giving me lip about it either. I try to tell "my" librarians, be nice to your donors, and bo I can't tell you how nice (and rare) it is to find places that are nice to donors. And these institutions wonder why hermit-like-widow-raising-57-cats never leave them their secret stash fo $68 million in her will.... they were probably ungracious to her on the phone one time when she tried to donate something.

off soapbox... temporarily

Hey, guess what?! The neighbor who essentially accused me of be idiotic, heartless, and cruel is speaking to me again. I guess either absence makes the hert grow fonder or he decided I wasn't really trying to kill his cat afterall. :)

My train got in around 3:30 and Lennie kindly picked me up. We toddled off to the bank (so I can pay the gardener) and then to Barnes and Noble (there was this thing I simple had to get for Chris.... and I did! Of course, for some reason I got me one too, and a book on pigeons [someday I'll explain], and two of the big, annual reviews of spas for work-- one for my office and one for Chicago. I really should have gotten one for SF. sigh) Then we dined at Ruby's who makes darn fine burgers. I let Lennie chose in honor of her impending bday. It was quite a feat to get to dinner since my completely insane mall (that wouold be the Galleria at Tyler in case you want to make a list of completely and utterly asinine developers) started construction projects along about one-third of the parking areas of the mall. The parking structure is mostly closed, two main sections of the parking lot are closed (one of the closures cuts off access around the mall so you have to exit the lot to get to the other side of the mall). Can you imagine? They are only just beginning construction and it's Christmas shopping season!!!! COMPLETE MORONS!!!!!!!!!!! This summer when they started the work there was already no parking, now it's Christmas for Heavens sake!!!!! The men (cause you know it had to be men who planned this) who scheduled this should be forced to drive shuttle buses to the mall all day long, 7 days a week, until the second week of January. Did I mention they are UTTER AND COMPLETE MORONS???? Yeah, I hate stupid people.

Ok, I'm going to go clean something. Wish me luck!

P.S. Too funny -- I swear I didn't look anything up and I didn't change any answers:

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

Hmmm... possibly...

You Were a Coyote

Brutally honest, you encourage people to show their true selves. You laugh at life - none of it can be taken too seriously.

What Animal Were You In a Past Life?

shoot me now

I'm dead tired. I've been working on a few hours of sleep a night to get a project done for work. So I've finished... I rewarded myself by ordering stash. A significant lot of stash. Sheesh!!!!!

More tomorrow, I'm off for reheated pizza and tv!

I don't know why.....

....., but it's been a blah day. I've just a smidge out of sorts the whole day. Maybe I'm tired-- afterall I went to bed at 4am this morning. What can I say, I was working..... again. :)

I took breaks in work last night to do a little Christmas RR stiching (congratulate me, I got much accomplished!!!!) and to sort my laundry. Yes, I hear you say, that was the plan. Sort laundry and get up early this morning and do said laundry. Yeah, well, best laid plans. I'm hoping the machines are available when I get home. Maybe the excitement of fresh laundry will keep me awake. I think not getting it accomplished this morning just started the day out wrong.

tonight's goals -- to get that dang laundry done (please, Lord, don't let the machines be full and/or flooded) and to get as far as I can through this work project for The Stoat. I say he's my friend, but if he loads me down with this much stuff.....?????????


Blog things had great wisdom to impart to me as to which of Santa's reindeer I'd be:

You Are Dasher

You're an independent minded reindeer who never plays by the rules. Why You're Naughty: That little coup you tried to stage against Santa last year Why You're Nice: You secretly give naughty children presents.

Which'>http://www.blogthings.com/whichofsantasreindeerareyouquiz/">Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

:) I kinda like being Dasher.

But.....

If You Were Born in 2893...

Your Name Would Be: Enm Vuis And You Would Be: A Space Explorer

If'>http://www.blogthings.com/ifyouwerebornin2893quiz/">If You Were Born in 2893

If I were alive in 2893 I should hope I'd be a space explorer, because I'd hate to think we'd still be stuck on this planet dickering about what we ought to do next. Regardless, I'd certainly petition the Galactic Court to change my name!

Awww.....

Your Eyes Should Be Blue

Your eyes reflect: Innocence and sweetness What's hidden behind your eyes: A calculating mind

What Color Should Your Eyes Be?

I *was* going great guns.

"Was" being the operative word there. I was making nice progresson the Christmas RR, and then the phone rang at the office this afternoon. Sigh.

I now need to put together a list of defunct amusement and waterparks and write up a section on the ones in the NYC MSA detailing what they were about and why they closed. It's fun and all, but so much for the RR. Oh well, work trumps free time any day. Heck, almost ever day!

I do deserve a pat on the back. I've refrained from buying any stash for a week. Cna you believe it? :) Ok, so I found a hoard of new freebie sites to keep me occupied and to turn my "wish to start" list into something resembling the WHite House's Christmas Card list, but I have not ordered anything!!!! Ok, yes I did put a hord of Vikki Clayton silks in the online shopping cart almost every day and then just never click "buy," but almost conceding doesn't count! :)


From Blogthings -- What color orange am I?:

You Are Pumpkin

Realistic and practical, you see the world for how it is. You know what it takes to succeed in life... And you're happy to help others reach their goals.

What Color Orange Are You?

And if I were a donut I'd be:

You Are a Boston Creme Donut

You have a tough exterior. No one wants to mess with you. But on the inside, you're a total pushover and completely soft. You're a traditionalist, and you don't change easily. You're likely to eat the same doughnut every morning, and pout if it's sold out.

What Donut Are You?

And, for the record, I'd eat me!


Stuff I want to do tonight:
1. Coalesce all my defunct park info from today; get the table done from today's info; get all the write ups done on the NY stuff based on what info I have right now.
2. Get my laundry sorted and pre-treated so I can get up early and do it before work tomorrow.
3. Stitch some. Just some. I don't ask for much because by the time I get there my eyes will be 63% closed anyway.

Another day, another office.

Yeah, working again. If you work every day it's really tough first of all to tell the days apart and second of all to understand life without working every day. What would I do without the consistency??? lol Yeah, I'd still like to try.

Hot news: I finished the mermaid RR!!!!!!!!! My kelp is done. My kelp is done!!!!! Woo hoo, my kelp is done! I celebrated this grand accomplishment this morning at 2am with a half hour of stitching on my M Designs sampler. I got in half of "F," my rocket, and half a crepe myrtle tree (yes, it was supposed to be an orange tree, but suddenly last night/this morning I realized I didn't have the colors for an orange tree, but I did have the colors for the crepe myrtle mom picked out this spring :) . I only got a half hour of "celebrating" in before I realized I was having my eyes closed more often than open and when they were open I was busy being grumpy that there was nothign good on to watch. So I gave in and went to bed.

Tonight begins the Christmas RR campaign. Let's all cheer shall we --- I just know I'll fly right through the sled bit that I want to do. Yes, fastest stitching I've ever done!!!! Go, team, go!!!! It has to be fast sttiching because it needs to get mailed.....NOW, and I need to get back to work on my stitcher's exchange piece. I've been avoiding the fiddly little bits of that which I have left. Really, that won't take long either, honest!

For a little more humor from Blogthings:

Your Russian Name Is...

Duscha Svetlana Popov

What's" Your Russian Name?

The funny thing about this is in Russian, that wasn't my name. And, I gotta say, I liked mine better. :)

Finishes

Not that they have anything to do with the list. Although I found a couple amazing samplers online that I need to add to the "want to start" list. Sigh.

Anyway, I finished up (for about the 4th time) the British audio of Terry Pratchett's Equal Rites. Good bless, Granny Weatherwax--- :) I've started listening to Pratchett's Mort. I haven't listened to this one in a while so it'll be loads of fun. Death is such a wonderful character, don't you agree? If you don't know enough to agree, you should give him a try. Honest. I mean he has a horse named Binky for Heaven's sake! What's not to make you giggle in that???

I still intend to finish that mermaid RR today (honest I will, Julie!) so it can go out in the post on Monday. Tomorrow I will start ramming my way through the Christmas RR. Somehow I expect that one will go faster. I swer the fish in the mermaid one would swim around while I was stitching -- I had to frog out 5 fish which moved between the time I checked their location initially and when I went back to start the next fish! You know, before this RR I *liked* fish. Now they seem very twitchy and, I fear, they have a sharp sense of humor. If they were your coworkers, they'd be the guys who take your coffee cup and hide it in a plant while your at the printer picking up a memo.

LOL So I checked out Blogthings....

..... Guess what?

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful. You show the world what culture really is.

Who's Your Inner European?

Culture? LOL Can you believe it??!?!?! lol

Making Plans

Part of an addictive personality is, at least for me, the need to make lists. I always feel best when I have a list. I'm possibly happiest making a list. There's nothing quite so satisfying as a good list. :) Mind you, the busier I am, the more likely I am to never consult my carefully crafted list. Go figure.

Today's list.... I think it needs to be on stitching for the near-ish term and for a longer-term Campaign of Accomplishemnt.

What needs doing immeditately:

1. The last few mini fishes and the kelp of a mermaid RR
2. The sled of a Christmas RR (I probably should do the part just behind the "reinmice" but that section includes this little elf child which kinda gives me the creeps. Someday we'll come bck to the topic of stitching that gives me/us the creeps.)

What needs to be done pretty darn quick:

1. I have 14 ornies to stitch for Christmas.
2. The final 5-7 hours of work on a small needlepoint kimono for a friend -- I can't seem to find the perfect threads for the remaining sections. Don't you just hate that?

What I really want to be doing:

1. My M Designs personalized sampler from Mary's Totally Marvelous Class at the Pals Fall Fling
2. Biscornus --- I'm entranced by these!
3. Designing and starting a sampler for a friend
4. Designing the motifs I'd like included on a personalized sampler by Nouveau Encore Designs. Why? It'll take me 3 years to do this... possibly 7 given my propensity to get bored. And I sort of told my sister I'd do her's. I may be insane! lol
5. Playing in my new xs designing software

So, today's goal: finish the mermaid RR, start the Christmas RR, and celebrate this evening with 2 hours of Mary's sampler stitching! :) Ahhh bliss. I might even celebrate again tomorrow by spending a couple hours inputting me pencil sketch plans for the gift sampler mentioned above into my new program. More bliss.

Wish me luck!

It's an addictive world.

At least it is for me.

I'm addicted ot learning things, to history, to stitching, to far too many TV shows to mention, to books (I'm doomed in the next quake), to scifi (don't sue me if you don't like it-- just go grumble to yourself in a corner somewhere). These addictions are concurrently horrible and wonderful, detestable and beneficial. My mom used to say "it could be worse" when I brought home more books or the like. I'd smile and say "yeah it could be alcohol." Oh dear, did I mention my penchant for single malt?

Might you be a bit addicted yourself?