Saturday, September 19, 2009

So many things...... (and Time Warner still sucks)

... and so little time. Sigh.

Here it is Saturday night, 8:37pm and I'm at my office having just finished my ***first*** goal for today, namely paying office bills. Another 12 hours and maybe I'll feel good about what I "accomplished" today. I was really planning on spending tomorrow at ***home*** ... working, but at home. Sigh.

Anyway, enough whinging for now. I owe so many updates. Where to start. Where to start....

Just this week I joined a yahoo group, the Friendly Stitchers, and my heavens they are friendly! They are also very inspirational. They have a Thursday night UFO SAL so I joined in and got some progress in two long-dead UFOs and one minorly ignored UFO:
First I bring you My M Designs Bourse from Mary's class at Cross Stitch Pals in 2007!
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that there is the little needle pillow for the middle of the bourse. It had been lacking 3 flowers and 5 flower centers since fall 2007. How sad is that?

Then here's my progress on a 2006 RR. Say, Sassies-- remember this???? lol
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All it has been waiting for for probably 2 years is the backstitching on my section. Kudos to the Friendly Stitchers, now I've begun--
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I got 2 flowers, some berries, 3 leaves, and the basket outlines so far. Woo hoo! It's a verifiable miracle!!!

I also picked up a Shepherd's Bush (Adore, I think) that had been hanging out next to the bed for a few weeks now and he got the rest of his vest, his sleeve, his bloomers, and part of his head piece --
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******
I interrupt this stitching progress to report on the continual suckishness of Time Warner.

Ok, possibly you remember my battle with Time Warner over the installation of digital cable which disabled my VCR, and ended up with the installation guy saying look, lady (a real presumption on his part I must say!) we don't promise it will work, we just promise to install it. Anyway, the corollary story is about my friend Jennifer. I call her Lucky Jennifer. Everything just seems to work out to her benefit. She calls Time Warner to add the Internet to her cable package. When Mr. Salesman wants to know why she doesn't switch her phone service to them as well she tells him how they once disconnected her cable because there wasn't a tag on her wire in the basement of her building so they figured it wasn't supposed to be connected and when they sent out someone to connect her cable he came (in his cable company van) without the tool to connect the cable to the main cable box in the building (sooooo brilliant). Anyway, so she tells the salesman this and he says he's so sorry he's going to give her a free movie channel for 2 years. Me? I get told they don't promise the system will work. Lucky Jennifer gets free movie channels.

At my mom's house when the cable went out I needed up fighting and waiting on hold for forever while they worked out what they could do and wondered how I could have the temerity to have a cable box so old that it didn't have a serial number on it. Eventually we get told we must present ourselves and our certified power of attorney documents and duplicates of the death certificates for my mom which they already had but couldn't find at the cable office to get a new box (at the cable office they wanted to see nothing but still marveled at how old the cable box was). Lucky Jennifer arranges to pick up the internet install kit from their storefront, goes there, puts 23 minutes on the meter and gets back to her car with 19 minutes still on the meter.
Sigh. See. Lucky Jennifer.
*********

Ok, back to the stitching --

There's been some progress on the whiskey piece:
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It's just a little progress, but it's working so much better on the frames. BTW, have I mentioned how much I love Splendor as opposed to floss?

And some progress on Vierlanden:
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Actually there is more progress on this, but the pics are lagging. Sorry.

********
Finally, let me bring you a few more moments of the first North American Discowrld Convention where I:
bought books (and this isn't all of them)--
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Had Sir Terry sign Nation and Once More with Footnotes (yup, that's my fat...err... posterior):
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Got Missy up-close-and-personal with the Death of Rats and the Raven:
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Did NOT eat rat-on-a-stick:
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Had dinner with Twoflower and a wizard from Unseen University:
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Had the honor of taking Twoflower and Miss Tick's family photo:
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And watched Holy Wood Squares (staring Miss tick) with Harpo:
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If you don't understand, go read Terry Pratchett. You will eventually get it all, and in the meantime you will laugh and laugh.

**********************************************
Quotes of the week:
"Do I need a button that says 'Tyrant'?" Lord Vetinari -- Making Money by Terry Pratchett

"If you trust in yourself... and believe in your dreams... and follow your star... you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy." Miss Tick -- Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Greetings from the wet West

Howdy folks! It's lovely if damp here in Tempe. But never fear! I lived (and walked everywhere) through El Nino, therefore these lil ole thunderstorms are nothing.

In the midst of this morning's downpour I hauled myself over to the convention center with my books and suede purse protected by plastic shopping bags. I had to. My Terry signing appointment was this morning at 10.... rain or shine, so to speak. I also went to Esther Friesner's signing, a panel on Discworld cover art, and a reading by Terry assistant with commentary by The Knight himself. Finally I ended the day with the maskerade. It was a nice enough day. I would call it a lovely day, but I spent 3/4ths of it sitting in one room and one spell was 3 hours in the same chair. There's only so much sitting still a body can take.

Ok, since so far I haven't downloaded today's pics, let's catch up on yesterday's.... err and even the day before.

When Karen and I met up, she brought me my Ho Ho HO Exchange ornie --
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Check it out -- over-1 no less!
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and look at the cool fabric she picked for the back--
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The finishing is by Karen -- and she's opened a little finishing business. I'd recommend her fine work any day!

Thanks, Karen! You made my weekend.

As for day one of the convention ....
Here's Sir Terry (apparently knights are entitled to a car with curtains-- he had to settle for a turtle and a Seamstress Guild escort:
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And here's Terry and the S.G. members "at ease" (that's Esther Friesner whispering sweet nothings into the mic)--
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On behalf of The Guild, Esther presented Terry with a small "ergonomically-correctly handled" sword.
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Here's Esther later in the day getting ready to start her reading--
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I missed the making of this Discworld balloon sculpture, but I still find it amazing!
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Of course, you know I'm traveling with Missy (the polar bear). So I introduced her to Rincewind:
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and the Luggage
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(Yes, the Luggage has teeth and feet -- if you don't get it, go read The Color of Magic.)

From the Seamstress Guild Affair --
Here's what happens when you put fans near food:
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(food courtesy of the Seamstresses Guild and Terry)
Me and 900 of my best friends at the Guild party:
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Terry:
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The Death of Rats:
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Lady Sybil
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Anoia--
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Classy entertainment:
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Missy met Death:
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Terry:
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a wizard (or wizzard) reunion:
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Witches group shot:
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Nanny and Greebo took costume awards--
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as did Cheery Littlebottom and a splendid nac mac feegle
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all the costume winners:
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***********

Ok, now that I've gotten all that happiness out of the way.... In case you had a bet on my second tech service call appointment with Dell, no, they did not call. Two strikes Dell you *#)(@)#*%Y#&^#@#*(&%^^#&^@#)(*#(#)^%#^$#* losers!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh so much fun

But that'll have to wait til tomorrow. I'm too tired and Dell is supposed to call tomorrow morning at 7am. They were supposed to call this morning. They did not. They are vaguely sorry. They won't be able to help tomorrow either even if they do manage to call since the fix they told me to do I can't even get the machine to run the first stage of. Sigh. Soooo helpful. Thanks guys!

Anyway, I'll leave you tonight, err this morning with a starting status report for the weekend. Among other things I brought Vierlanden and Beatrix with me and here's where they started yesterday:
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We'll see how far I get.

nite nite

P.S. A quote of the day -- Terry to a pirate amidst the Seamstresses -- "I said 'corsets' not 'corsairs'."

Friday, September 04, 2009

Made it -- Discworld here we come

It's official. Missy and I have left the jurisdiction....
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I met up with Karen and her daughter and had great fun (and food)......
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Say, Karen, enjoy your lunch!

And I got to enjoy a cool thunderstorm--
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Of course, not everything can work smoothly -- I was up for my 7am tech call appointment with Dell's service people. You guessed it, no call. #*(%()#$*@#&@($^#$*(#@@#*@ Dell. After waiting 40 minutes in the tech service chat queue again, they said sorry, and promised to call tomorrow. Definitely NOT holding my breath.

But hey, I'm doing to go live on a nice little flat planet for a few hours.... no worries.

See ya'll later!

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

computer "logic" lol

So today in prep for my Tempe/Discworld adventure I asked google for "cross stitch shop" and "tempe." Here's what topped the page of results:

Local business results for cross stitch shop near Tempe, AZ

Old Town Needlework & Framing
- www.oldtownneedlework.com
7128 E 5th Ave, Scottsdale - (480) 990-2270
1 review, directions, and more »


Meso Tattoo & Body Art Supplies
- maps.google.com
4002 S Wendler Dr, Tempe - (480) 234-1272
1 review, directions, and more »


Family Arts Needlework Shop
- www.familyartsneedlework.com
5555 N 7th St # 144, Phoenix - (602) 277-0694
3 reviews, directions, and more »


Isn't #2 priceless? Do you think they heard about the Grand Canyon Girls Club's trip to the tattoo parlor? rotflol

I should point out I have no time for stashing while in Tempe, but I couldn't stop myself from looking nonetheless. Also, remember how I kinda headed off half cocked to Montreal--- you know little miss never-last-minute .... Well I ended up in Montreal only to realize I only had 2 needles with me! 2!!! That's all. And I only happened to have 2 because I'd packed a kit I shouldn't have and it came with 1. Can you imagine -- 9 days with no stash shop and only 1 (heck, 2) needles!!?!??!?! OMG, I was soooo careful with those needles. I think that might have been why I looked for shops on google. The back of my brain is saying "what if you're a ninny again......"

Ok, you've been very patient. Here's one measly update -- my Beatrix Potter:
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Two whole motifs and one of them tiny have gotten done in the last month. Sigh.

For this paltry progress I deserve NOTHING, but I almost bought this canvas this weekend:
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He's HUGE, but I just love him. I have no reason to do him though. Hmmm.

Ooo, and lookie what was waiting for me on my desk this morning:
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I just love the Vera Bradley microfiber backpacks. Love 'em. Love 'em. Love 'em. Check out the cool lime lining the turquoise one has --
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gotta run -- must find out the ins and outs of plastic grocery bags and the American economy -- I get all the most interesting questions!