A window into the life of a professional geek, wife and mother (and nonni), stitcher/designer, bibliophile, old-school gamer, and whatever other roles she finds herself in.

Friday, December 31, 2004

The Year in Review

It's the last day of 2004, and time to look back at the year. And coincidentally, today's Friday Forum seems well-suited to do just that...

Friday Forum 12/30/2004: Happy New Year!
1] What was the year 2004 like for you? How would you describe it, in just a few words/sentences? Are you glad that 2004 is ending, or are you sad to say goodbye to yet another year? Do you feel that 2004 went by quickly?

2004 was rather eventful, both in good ways and in bad:
The up side:
  • A vacation to Italy!
  • A business trip to Ottawa
  • I started this blog
  • Several stitching finishes: Amethyst Elegance, Floral Swirls, Futurecast, several ornaments

    The down side:
  • Ugly situations with DsS, and his running away
  • September: Month of the Hurricanes

    I find I'm neither glad nor sad about 2004's passing - my emotions wouldn't change its departure anyway. I suppose I am looking forward to the new year and a new start, but every year provides that opportunity. And the older I get, the more quickly each year passes.

    2] If you could plan the ultimate New Year's celebration for yourself, what would you choose to do and why? What are your actual New Year's plans this year? Is New Year's a big deal to you, or is it just another day?

    The ultimate New Year celebration....hm. A group of friends, in the great hall of a castle, with plenty of good food, good drink, and comfy chairs. And perhaps a big-screen TV and a DVD player!

    Our actual New Year's plans this year are rather modest. I'll be spending most of the rest of the day sitting around watching bowl games and stitching. We'll probably have a toast at midnight, maybe light off a few fireworks, but nothing particularly noteworthy.

    3] What are some things that you hope to accomplish in 2005? Do you ever set resolutions for yourself? Does the end of the year usually cause you to reflect upon your life and become introspective?

    I often set resolutions for myself - the past few years I've tried to be a bit more realistic. In the past I'd been rather too aggressive with my yearly goals , and never came close to meeting them all. At first I'd get down on myself about that, but after DD was born I realized that I'd just been too unrealistic. So now I try to be a bit more reasonable.

    I guess I need to come up with some goals, then! I think I'll set some basic goals, and some bonus goals that it would be cool to meet but not a failure if I don't. So I have something to strive for, anyway.
  • Finish stitching Last Supper (bonus: by Easter)
  • Get below 30% body fat (bonus: 28%)
  • Read on average a book a month (bonus: two books)
  • Clean up and organize back bedroom and contents (bonus: entire house)
    Part of me feels like there should be more. Those four are easily quantifiable, at least, so I'll go with those.

    4] What's the worst New Year's that you've ever experienced? Which one was the best? Do you have any special traditions on New Year's Day?

    I don't know that I really have a single one that jumps out as 'worst'. All the New Years Eves from my youth were nothing memorable...I was either asleep (as a child) or babysitting (as a teen). There was one year my babysitting plans had gotten cancelled at the last minute, and I hadn't been invited anywhere, but that was one among many unmemorable evenings. Oh, and one New Years Eve party in college where I had a bit too much rum too quickly, and was queasy for several hours, but the night in general was okay.

    The best...now *that* is much more easy to identify! In December 1999, DH and I and our family friend M were over in the UK for two weeks. (Once in a lifetime chance to get stranded overseas due to the Y2K bug.). New Years Eve we were staying at the home of M's friends (C&C) in London. They had a nanny for their two young children, and so 7 month old DD got to be babysat as well, while the adults hopped on the Underground and headed for millenium celebrations at the Thames. Awesome fireworks, and between us and friends C&C that we met down there, we polished off 8-10 bottles of an excellent champagne. Then back to the house of C&C's friends for more champagne, munchies, and general pleasant socializing. A great time was had by all. Best New Years Eve of my life so far.

    Special New Years Day traditions - other than sitting around watching bowl games, we follow Southern tradition and have black eyed peas and ham for dinner. I've already got the black-eyed peas soaking, and the ham is thawing.

    5] Which year of your life so far has been the best? Why? What do you think you'll be doing five years from now, when the clock strikes midnight and we ring in the year 2010?

    Hm. Another hard question...practically every year has its good and its bad points. 1990 was good - I met and married DH. 1999 was good - DD was born, and we had that wonderful trip to the UK I mentioned earlier.
    Five years from now - hard to say exactly. Probably much the same as this year, just we'll all be older. I'll be staring 40 in the face, so I may be a bit more introspective...who knows. Guess we'll find out when we get there!


    We spent all day yesterday at Epcot, and had a good time. There are booklets for kids to encourage them to travel to all the countries in the World Showcase and collect 'charms'. DD had a lot of fun doing that!. It was also neat to look around and see the holiday decorations at each country, and hear about some of the traditions. We had lunch at the German place, and dinner in Norway - both of which were buffets. Lots of good food, and surprisingly reasonably priced. We rode most of the rides (except for Mission:Space (too jarring for most of our party and too long lines), Test Track (too long lines), and Living Seas (didn't get around to in time). DD *really* liked Spaceship Earth and wanted to ride it again but we didn't have time. I have noticed they've updated the rides since last time - Spaceship Earth now boasts fiber optics and updated info toward the end. And Imagination! is completely different - instead of the animatronics, there are screens and fiber optics. The "I-maaaaa-gination" song has been updated too - some vestiges of the original are there, but it's more upbeat and less "Small World"ish. They still have Figment the purple dragon, though - Figment is cool. (Trivia: I used to call DD Figment when I was first expecting, before we saw her on the ultrasound)
    So other than my feet aching most of the day (poor choice of shoes on my part), it was a good trip. Better than I'd been expecting, actually. (I have opinions on DisneyWorld that I'll save for another time - this entry is already too long to support a rant)

    Anyway, that's it for this year! Happy New Year, everyone!

  • Wednesday, December 29, 2004

    Late-night fantastic visitors

    Just a few days after Santa came to call, we had another imaginary visitor...

    DD lost her first tooth yesterday! It was tricky to get her to sleep, because she was so excited about the tooth fairy. But she did eventually nod off, and the tooth fairy was duly summoned, leaving her gifts of a letter (which she got off BillyBear4Kids.com) and a Sacagawea dollar (tooth fairy gold, ya know...).

    DD has another loose tooth, but her adult lower front incisors have already started coming in behind them. Hopefully with one of the baby ones gone, the other will have more wiggle room. So the tooth fairy may come calling again soon.

    Meanwhile, her representative (me) needs to score a few more Sacagawea dollars...


    It's been a pretty restful time off work so far. Sleeping late, stitching, watching bowl games. We had our teen music director and his wife and daughters over for dinner Monday, and that went well. The older daughter is just shy of 2, and DD had fun both playing with her, and holding the 6-week-old baby. And we adults had a good time too.

    My inlaws are coming over today, and we're all going to Disney tomorrow. DsS had gotten some Disney tickets from a concert he was in last year (one park/one day tickets) that he gave to us last week. They expire tomorrow, and another friend of his in the same predicament had asked him along to use hers. So we need to use these tickets. We'll probably be going to Epcot, which in my opinion is the coolest of the Disney parks. Not too big on the others. I'll let y'all know how it went...

    Saturday, December 25, 2004

    My first animated gif!

    It's not much, but it's a start!

    Our goose is cooked....

    ...and eaten, in fact. Neither DH nor I have ever had goose before, but we decided that goose would be a cool main dish. Being traditional, and all that. We did a modified version of a roast goose with port gravy recipe I found on Food Network. It turned out VERY well, even if it was a lot of work. DH, the resident gravy guru, made the port gravy, which was delicious. He did comment, though, that were he to make it again, he'd not add the water it calls for - the gravy was a bit thin by our standards. Not that it stopped us from putting it on everything gravy-able. Right now we're letting dinner settle before we tackle the Baileys cheesecake.

    It has been a very good day. DD was very well behaved at Midnight Mass, and even stayed awake through the whole thing. We got home around 2am, and didn't really get to bed until after 3. DsS surprised us at 9:30 this morning, bearing gifts and a rather large teddybear for DD. After opening presents, DsS and DsD went to their mom's for Christmas lunch. They came home and DH, DsS and I played LotRisk while preparing dinner. The kids are all watching Mr. Holland's Opus right now (DsD's present from her little sis), and we'll all watch Return of the King in a bit.

    I am mildly jealous of a woozle wrangling friend who actually had a white Christmas. In South Texas. I know the chances of snow are astronomically low here, but I'd still like to see it once in a while. What's bad is that I actually dreamt last night that it snowed here, and I was running around with a digicam taking pictures because nobody would believe me. Oh well. I will probably be heading north on business in a few weeks, and I'm sure I'll be sick of snow after that.

    DH got me Paint Shop Pro 9 for Christmas!! I'm very excited - I've been playing around with it off and on all day. There are a lot of features I need to figure out, but hopefully soon I'll be making my own animated images! Much better than MSPaint!

    Ah, and here comes the cheesecake. Merry Christmas, everyone!

    Friday, December 24, 2004

    Twas the day before Christmas...

    I have at last finished the final two ornaments I'm making, for our priests. I'm pleased with the way they turned out. I must admit, though, that I'll be glad to work on Last Supper again - all the over-1 for the ornaments was a bit of an eyestrain! But here they are:

    Ornament 1: "Celtic Triple Braid and Holly" - Moss Creek Designs (JCS 2001 Christmas issue)
    Ornament 2: "Peace Tree" - M Designs (JCS 2004 Christmas issue)

    This was also my first attempt at cording, for the hangers. Kreinik #4 braid probably wasn't the wisest fiber for a first attempt, but I think they turned out okay.


    So the visible areas of the house are clean, including the computer room. All the presents are bought and wrapped. The goose is thawing, and all the other parts of Christmas dinner have been bought. DsD made a Bailey's Cheesecake (Thanks to Kristen for the recipe!) for dessert tomorrow. DD's stocking is hung by the garage with care (we don't have a fireplace). We're about to head out to a social for a few hours, then back home for a bit, then to church for music (at which DH is singing!) and Midnight Mass.

    Thanks to some fellow stitchers, I have some Wine Gums and Smarties to put in DD's stocking. She's become quite the Wine Gum fiend!

    To all of my readers, may you have a wonderful Christmas, and if you celebrate something other than Christmas, may you have a happy holiday!

    Wednesday, December 22, 2004

    Fourteen years and counting....

    Happy Anniversary, DH! May we have many more!

    Tuesday, December 21, 2004

    4 days and counting....

    Well, 3 more since today's nearly done. All the presents have been bought, arrived if ordered online, and been wrapped!

    I realized today I wasn't quite done, as DD had not yet gotten a present for her older sister. So it was off to Best Buy - I knew pretty much what we were going to get, and it took us quite a while to find a parking space. More time than it took to get the gift, get in the cattle-corral line for the registers, pay, and get out. Then off to a gift-wrap stand (conveniently sponsored by the softball team at DsD's high school) to get the gifts wrapped so as not to spoil the surprise for DsD.

    I also have stocking stuffers for DD - Nestle Smarties, and Maynards Wine Gums, the latter as a gift from a friend who needed me to remail to her Secret Stitcher victim.

    So, other than the procrastinated task of cleaning house, and finishing a couple of ornies, our holiday preparations are DONE! And there was much rejoicing (yaaaaay)...

    Monday, December 20, 2004

    Jack Frost nipping at my nose...

    ...and Father Time nipping at my heels.

    It's certainly chilly by Florida standards - we had freeze warnings last night, and even at midday today it was about 45F (at the time of this writing my weatherthingy says 50F). A good day to sleep in, and lounge around the rest of the day drinking hot beverages.

    I did sleep in a bit, since I'm off work this week and we stayed up rather late last night watching the extended-edition Return of the King. I loved the theatrical release (and indeed the whole trilogy), and I loved this edition even more. The new scenes (and extensions of existing scenes) helped to fill in more of the story. Little things that some people might not necessarily care about, but I really enjoyed. Well worth the drive to UPS to get before its scheduled arrival of today. And I will be doing the marathon at some point!

    But back to the original plan - slept in, but lounging around isn't really possible. I took DH's car in to the shop for a warrantied cosmetic part swap (he took my car to work). I've also balanced my checkbook, cleaned the fishtanks, and I really ought to be working on cleaning up the computer room. We'll have various houseguests over the next week, and my inlaws will be coming down for a few days toward the end of the month. Now, the amount of housework that needs to be done to accommodate our various and sundry guests varies. Dinner guests are only likely to be seeing the main areas of the house, and are likely to be more forgiving of a little clutter since they have small children of their own. My MIL is another matter, so the house will need to be in rather better condition for that. Well, at least I've got over a week before they arrive. I might get the house presentable by then.

    I'd really rather be stitching. I finished JCS 2001 Moss Creek Designs "Celtic Triple Braid and Holly" for one of our priests, and I'm doing JCS2004 M Designs "Peace Tree" for another. That one seems to be shaping up pretty quickly. Then to figure out how to ornamentize them.

    Well, I'd best get off to doing housework so I don't feel quite so guilty about stitching...

    Friday, December 17, 2004

    Quest for the Lord of the Rings

    The Foibled Ship of The Rings
    As I've mentioned previously, I was very much looking to the extended edition of Return of the King. DH had ordered it online along with some textbooks for his next theology course, and since Barnes&Noble can't ship before it's released, it shipped on the 14th.

    So I was very excited when the UPS tracking report on the 16th said "Out For Delivery". And last night I waited excitedly for my DVD to arrive. And waited.

    And waited. At 9pm I figured with all the holiday shipping that the truck was running late. It was 11pm before I reconciled myself to the disappointing reality that My DVD Was Not Coming. It had gone off to the peculiar limbo of lost socks where the transmogrification to wire hangers occurs.

    The Two Tortures
    Today I monitored the UPS tracking info, hoping that somehow my DVD would emerge from the Land of the Lost and once again present itself to mortal eyes. And around 1pm it did...it somehow had not quite made it on yesterday's truck. Or today's - it was found after the truck left, and so was not scheduled to be delivered until Monday. Oh, the agony...

    Well, I know where the UPS distribution office around here is. And I knew that my DVD was in that office. And that I only work about 6 miles away from it. So I called UPS, hoping that I'd be able to arrange to pick it up today instead of agonizing over its fate all weekend. UPS said they would contact the local office (since the local number wasn't published) and they would call me back within the hour. Which came and went, and by 5pm I still had not heard from the local office.

    Return of the DVD
    I decided to drive down there in hopes that I'd be able to recover my shiny circular preciousssss. As I was driving there, I got a call from the local place, and they said they had found my package! Such joy!

    So now all is right with the world. And I can look forward to an "extremely extended edition" sometime over the holidays!

    Thursday, December 16, 2004

    Freezier bunzoff

    Having been out of winter-prone areas for a while, I had forgotten a few of the cold harsh realities of winter weather until I was surprised by them last night.

    Let's just say "cold toilet seats" and leave it at that.

    Wednesday, December 15, 2004

    Seasons

    This morning was the coldest day of the year so far. When I left to take DD to school this morning, it was about 40F, with a wind chill in the mid 30's. I'm mostly enjoying the brisk weather, which is supposed to last for about a week or so. Now this is more what December should be like...I'm not holding out hope for the snow so this is as close as I can get.

    On the subject of seasons, here's yet another quiz - I got split results (I hit a tiebreaker question, and retook with both options).
    You scored as Winter. You are WINTER. You're more introspective, thinking deeply, feeling deeply. You love nothing better than to enjoy one on one time with those who are important to you. You are cautious, and sometimes second guess yourself. Dreams, though you have them, are a luxury, because life is not a plaything You scored as Fall. You are FALL. You appreciate all that you have, and are willing to share with others. You are a friend in the truest sense of the word, and can easily focus your attention on those who need you, placing yourself on the back burner. You make sure your responsibilites are met before you allow yourself 'free time'.

    What Season Are You?
    created with QuizFarm.com

    Tuesday, December 14, 2004

    Money can't buy happiness...

    There was an article on CNN today in which the wife of the biggest lottery winner in history wishes the win had never happened. Reading in the article what has befallen the family since then, I can't say I blame her. Combine that with the sad, sordid lives of many celebrities and it often seems that large sums of money are not worth the trouble caused.

    Like I'm sure many people do, I occasionally muse on what I'd do with a monstrously large lottery win. Donate a large chunk to charity, pay off debts, set up very nice college funds for the kids, travel to Europe.... And then what? Deal with myriad "friends" and "relatives" we never knew we had? Spend the rest of our lives trying to protect our kids from would-be kidnappers?

    No thank you. That's attention I'd really rather do without.

    I admit, I do occasionally get in on the office pools that tend to start up when the lottery rolls over into the $20M range. But at that point, my take after lump sum would only be about $1M which hopefully wouldn't be enough to attract unwanted attention. Enough to do most of what I listed earlier, but not enough to really even alter our lifestyle much, though it might facilitate a career change for DH if he were interested.

    When I think about it, though, I already am wealthy in what truly matters - I have a wonderful DH and kids, and we have a roof over our heads and food to eat.

    Everything else is just gravy.

    Monday, December 13, 2004

    Monday mayhem

    Amazing how the weekend seems so busy, and yet there's very little to show for it. This weekend we went to a party on Friday and a parade on Saturday, I did laundry, bills, and made two rumcakes, and we played LotRisk.

    DsD and I also decorated the house. Well, mostly she decorated, while I provided the financial backing for said decorations. We decorated the outside of the house for the first time ever, and I think it looks nice. Not too overdone, I hope.


    Today had its bummer moments - most notably, my attempt to donate blood. The Bloodmobile came around at work on its normal rounds. I went out to donate, and my iron level was great (yay!). But on the first attempt after getting the needle into my veins, it popped out and got air in the blood bag, so they had to ditch the whole setup. Take two, right arm this time: my veins are hard to find on that arm (which is why I always donate from my left) so it took them a while to get to the point of trying to stick me. While that's happening, I'm chatting with a coworker who is also donating...and I started laughing at the wrong moment, and they missed my vein. One strike each arm, and I'm outta there. Two sticks, and no pint to show for it. *sigh* I could use a pint right about now. Hard cider might do the trick.

    I did get a wonderful CD in the mail - Alchemy by Purest Green, a relatively new folk band that's garnering quite a following up in the Indiana/Michigan area. When I get a chance to give it a good listen, I'll post a review.

    And wonder of wonders, we're actually getting a "cold" snap of sorts. It's supposed to get in the low 40's tonight, and even down in the 30s by Wednesday. We have a "Winter Weather Advisory" for wind chill for tomorrow. Cool! Literally. Closest thing to a real winter we're likely to get here.

    Saturday, December 11, 2004

    Cold logic

    Another quiz, courtesy of the weather goddess:
    Your Dominant Intelligence is Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

    You are great at finding patterns and relationships between things.
    Always curious about how things work, you love to set up experiments.
    You need for the world to make sense - and are good at making sense of it.
    You have a head for numbers and math ... and you can solve almost any logic puzzle.

    You would make a great scientist, engineer, computer programmer, researcher, accountant, or mathematician.


    Given that I am a software engineer by trade, I'm not at all surprised.

    Speaking of weather, we're in a bit of a 'cold snap' right now. It's down in the 50F's at the moment. DsD was leading her high school JROTC unit in the local light parade tonight, and DH and I went directly to the parade from Mass (DH was cantoring this evening) so neither of us were particularly dressed for standing for an hour or more in windy 50-degree darkness. (I was wearing a short-sleeve dress and sandals - it was much warmer when we'd left the house). It was a nice parade, even though we left after DsD's unit had passed.
    Probably a good thing, though, that Florida girl DD is spending the night at her bestest friend's house tonight, and wasn't out in the cold!

    Thursday, December 09, 2004

    Finding my Muse...

    You scored as Clio. You are Clio, the muse of history. You love academic pursuits, but still know to have fun. You're a bit of a tease and a prankster.

    Clio

    69%

    Euterpe

    69%

    Calliope

    62%

    Polyhymnia

    56%

    Erato

    44%

    Urania

    38%

    Thalia

    38%

    Terpischore

    25%

    Melpomene

    25%

    Which of the Greek Muses are you?
    created with QuizFarm.com

    Heh. Appropriate, given my netname, though it was not intended that way!

    Wednesday, December 08, 2004

    Sin on a plate

    Holiday baking has started here at Alternate Dementia. In the oven as I type is a double-chocolate rum cake. I first found the recipe a few years ago, and tweaked it a bit. It's gotten rave reviews whenever I (or DsD) have made it, and I often get requests for the recipe. I've also started getting hints about making one - today a coworker gave me a bottle of Haitian rum she'd gotten while on a trip!

    A wondering friend refers to it as "sin on a plate", after she tried the recipe I passed along. I suspect she'll be making it again this year as well.

    Ah, but let me not keep you, dear readers, in suspense any longer. Here is the recipe for my rum cake (maybe I should name it "sin on a plate"?)

    Double-Chocolate Rum Cake (aka "Sin on a Plate")
    1 pk Chocolate cake mix (18 1/2oz) (I use devils food)
    1 pk Instant chocolate pudding
    4 Eggs
    1 c Dark rum
    3/4 c Water plus 1 teaspoon
    1/2 c Vegetable oil
    1 pk Chocolate chips (I use mini chips or chocolate chunks)
    1 Jar Raspberry preserves (10 oz) (I use seedless black raspberry)
    2 tbsp Shortening
    1 oz Vanilla baking bar (Or white chocolate)
    1 shot Chambord or other raspberry liqueur, if desired.

    Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 10in tube or bundt pan. (I use a 12-cup bundt pan) Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, 1/2 c of the rum, 3/4 c of the water and the oil in a large mixing bowl. Beat at low speed until ingredients are moistened, then two minutes at medium speed. Stir in 1 cup (about half the bag) of the chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan.

    Bake at 350 for 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Remove from pan, finish cooling on a wire rack.

    GLAZE: In a small saucepan, heat preserves and remaining 1/2 c rum (or rum and Chambord, if desired) to make glaze. Strain through sieve to remove seeds (if you didn't go seedless...). Place cake on serving plate. Prick the surface of the cake with a fork or a tooth pick (great stress relief!). Brush the raspberry glaze evenly over the cake. Use all the glaze, although this does take a few minutes.

    ICING 1: In a bowl, combine remaining 1 c of chocolate chips and shortening. Microwave on high 1 minute. Stir to make a smooth icing. Drizzle chocolate icing over the cake. Let stand about 15 minutes.

    ICING 2: In a small bowl, combine vanilla baking bar and remaining 1 teaspoon of water. Microwave on high 30 seconds (or until melted). Drizzle vanilla icing over the chocolate icing.

    Serve and enjoy. It's very rich, so use in moderation.

    Tuesday, December 07, 2004

    All that glitters...

    I did finish my web updates last night, but instead of stitching, I steamcleaned DD's carpet (or at least the worst parts of it). The grand plan for tonight is to switch the beds. Hopefully we will indeed get to that...and *then* I'll get to stitch some. Even with my Christmas shopping done, I still feel insanely busy.

    Not much new to report, so I'll throw a few memes at you


    Sunday Brunch 12/05/04 - Jewelry
    (Note to DH - no, this is not a hint...)
    1) Which stone is your birthstone? Do you like it?
    My birthstone is amethyst. I do like amethysts - the darker the better, but they're all pretty. I also like sapphires, emeralds, and tanzanite, although they're not my birthstones. (I also like my birthflower - violets. February must be purple month or something...)

    2) Do you prefer silver or gold?
    It really depends - I like both. Gold doesn't tarnish, but silver is less expensive.

    3) Name the jewelry that you wear whenever you leave the house.
    As of this moment -
    Left ring finger: Wedding band (plain gold band), anniversary band (9 diamonds in channel-cut gold), emerald/diamond channel-cut gold band.
    Neck: Silver Celtic cross, blue cameo of the Blessed Virgin that DH got for me in Rome, and silver St. Isidore of Seville medal, all on silver chains.

    I have several other rings (family birthstone; silver knotwork; gold Claddagh; tanzanite/gold; black star sapphire/gold; black opal/black hills gold - I like unusual stones) that I used to wear all the time as well, but I need to lose a few more pounds before they'll fit comfortably again. (I need to lose the pounds anyway, so I haven't bothered getting the rings resized.)

    4) What is your most precious and valuable item of jewelry?
    ....My preciousssss....
    The most precious to me is the wedding band. It may not be the most financially valuable item, but its worth to me is incalculable because it represents our commitment to each other. It's also the ring he gave me when we got engaged (which is a story for another blog entry). I've only ever taken it off for the necessary evil of resizing.
    As for most financially valuable, I honestly don't rightly know. DH has gotten me some very beautiful pieces, including an emerald/diamond necklace he got for me the year our DD was born (her birthstone is emerald) and a diamond bracelet. If I had to place bets, I'd put my money on that emerald necklace.

    5) Do you carry insurance on any of your jewelry and if not, why not?
    Nothing beyond normal homeowner's insurance. I hope none of my pieces are expensive enough to be separately insured!


    And a few back Stitcher's QotW:
    What has been your most interesting stitching related injury?
    Most of my stitching 'injuries' have been pretty mundane - poking myself with (or accidentally stepping on) a needle, accidentally banging my leg/foot against my lap stand when I've set it down, stuff like that. If you open it up to any sort of needlecraft, I did get a sewing machine needle through my nail once (was rushing to finish something up and didn't watch my fingers closely enough.)

    Do you know it all or is there something out in the stitching world you still want to know how to do?
    Yah right - I am nowhere *close* to knowing it all, even about cross-stitching. There are a lot of stitching techniques and styles I'd love to learn, especially regional specialties like Carrickmacross or Mountmellick embroidery. I'd also like to learn tatting (both shuttle and needle). I'll never presume to be an expert in any style - I learn and do for my enjoyment.

    Hand-dyed fabrics - love 'em or hate 'em? If you love them, what kind/colours do you have?
    I'm still pretty new to using hand-dyeds - many of them are quite nice and I think they add interest to a piece, especially ones without borders or backgrounds. I tend to go for the more subtle colored ones, but I love neutrals and cool colors (especially blues or purples!) Most of my hand-dyeds are from Silkweaver, but I also have a few from Sugar Maple Fabrics and a few others.

    One of these years I may get to the MarBek Nativity, perhaps on one of the Blended Needle fabrics for that purpose, like perhaps Enchanted Night.

    One of these years.

    Monday, December 06, 2004

    In the clouds

    It must be "Spoil Belinda Day" today! I got home from picking DD up from school to find not one, but TWO packages of goodies for me.

    The first was a selection of chocolates, candies, and a stitching kit from a weather goddess (Thank you Glenda!):

    DD had designs on the roll of Maynards Winegums, and within 15 minutes of my opening the package they were gone!

    The other was from my Secret Stitcher - a Silkweaver Santa Bag with fat quarters of "Mountain Rose" 32ct Belfast, "Meadow Mist" 28ct Cashel, and "Polished Brass" 32ct Opalescent Lugana...and all of them are simply beautiful....(Thank you very much, Midnight!)

    I am feeling completely spoiled today!


    Despite currently being on Cloud 9, I was actually productive this weekend. DD's room is clean, and I only have a couple of boxes of toys to weed through. I moved my bins of craft stuff (mostly yarn) to the back bedroom closet, which makes more room for DD's stuff. We're also going to swap her toddler bed for the twin bed in the next room sometime this week (the toddler bed converts to a full, and the back bedroom will evolve into a guest room). I'd like to steamclean her floor first, though.

    I also started Moss Creek's "Celtic Triple Braid and Holly" ornament (JCS 2001) for my priest. Got hit with a plague of frogs on my first two starts - the first because I didn't think it'd fit where I'd initially started, and the second because I belatedly realized I needed to be doing it over 1. It's well underway now, though, and shaping up beautifully.

    I have some web updates to do tonight, then back to stitching during Monday Night Football....

    Friday, December 03, 2004

    Rapunzel, Rapunzel...

    I hate getting my hair cut. Not because I've had a bad style or anything - never really had anything particularly fancy done with my hair - but because I'm trying to grow it long. I don't know why, but my idealized image of myself has a hip-length cascade of copper tresses.

    Unfortunately, my hair seems to have other ideas. I've never been able to get more than perhaps the longest lock lower than my waist - my hair grows so slowly, it seems, and the ends get damaged and thin all too quickly.

    Common wisdom says "get a trim every 4-6 weeks and it'll grow better". I tried that wisdom about 5 years ago, but abandoned it after a few months. My hair is just now getting back to the point it was when I started. I've tried gelatin capsules, but those just seem to end up on my hips. (Maybe that's why I have jello-butt.)

    Eventually the damage gets too great and sacrifices must be made. I got my hair trimmed today, and I have to admit it does look a lot neater. I lost about 4 inches, but given that most of it was pretty thin, the actual amount of hair lost was surprisingly small - it's still down to about the middle of my back. I'm going to try keeping a leave-in treatment on the ends to slow down the rate of damage, and maybe get it trimmed once every three months or so. Which is how often I've been needing to get DD's bangs trimmed, anyway.

    Thursday, December 02, 2004

    Guilty holiday pleasures...

    I've always enjoyed parodies and comedic songs, starting with Weird Al Yankovic in junior high (I about lost it the first time I heard "Eat It"), and in college I was exposed to Dr. Demento - great stuff! So one year while I was out Christmas shopping and saw his Christmas CD, I just *had* to get it.

    From classic pieces like Stan Freberg's "Green Chri$tma$" and Spike Jones "All I Want For Christmas is my Two Front Teeth", to newer ones like "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" and Weird Al's "Christmas At Ground Zero", the album was hilarious, and a great stress reliever to boot. Sometime after that I heard about Bob Rivers Twisted Christmas album. For several years, those two albums would get a decent amount of play every holiday season...sometimes you just have to laugh at the absurdity of the commercialism and hassle of the season.

    A couple years ago, I discovered that Bob Rivers had multiple Christmas albums out, so I picked them up. It's amazing what a mind can do under holiday stress. There are, as with any album, some songs I don't care all that much for, but there are others that are absolute screams. "Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire", off the album of that name, is practically a must hear for anyone who is heartily sick of repeated bombardment of the Chipmunk Christmas Song, and "Who Put the Stump?", while a bit rude, is a great sendup of the joke of how the angel got on top of the tree.

    The album I'm currently listening to is I Am Santa Claus. The title song is set to Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" - it opens with a voice growing "I...am....Santa Claus!". Another one I like is "O Little Town of Bethlehem", which has the original hymn lyrics, but sung to "The House of the Rising Sun". On amazon, you can listen to clips from any of the above albums, if you're interested.

    That's not to say I listen to nothing but comedy albums at Christmas - far from it. Our Christmas repertoire includes an extensive collection of classical pieces, including Handel's Messiah, traditional hymns (both sung and instrumental), medieval/renaissance, as well as more modern Christmas songs such as David Bowie's "Little Drummer Boy". Lots of beautiful music to choose from.

    But sometimes you just have to laugh and not take things so seriously. Especially in the frenetic holiday preparation season...

    Wednesday, December 01, 2004

    Life and literature...

    Lord of the RingsJ.R.R. Tolkien: Lord of the Rings. You are entertaining and imaginative, creating whole new worlds around yourself. Well loved, you have a whole league of imitators, none of which is quite as profound as you are. Stories and songs give a spark of joy in the middle of your eternal battle with the forces of evil.

    Which literature classic are you?
    brought to you by Quizilla

    Speaking of which, only 13 days until the Return of the King extended edition DVD. I foresee a serious LotR marathon over Christmas vacation!

    Geek moments...

    I had a quintessential Geek Moment last night:

    I had already gone to bed - it was about a quarter of midnight. While lying there, I thought to myself that I needed to remember to change something in my sidebar on Sunday.
    Then I thought, "Y'know, I can just write a javascript to do that, then I won't have to remember."

    At which point I started mentally writing said javascript, and there was nothing to do for it except get up, call up Blogger, and insert the javascript.

    DH agrees that Getting Up Out of Bed at Nearly Midnight To Put A Javascript in One's Blog Template is definitely a stereotypically geek thing to do.

    Anyway, I now have a javascript in my sidebar to insert seasonal or date-specific notes or images. And it all started when I did up an Advent wreath to put there. I'm actually quite proud of them...so much so that I'll inflict them on y'all. (If you like and want to use them, feel free to do so - just save them off to your own webspace...)
    1st week of Advent~ 2nd week of Advent ~3rd week of Advent ~4th week of Advent

    I've been playing around a bit with images from time to time (as you can see from the family in my sidebar). Doing decent transparent GIFs really puts the "pain" in MSPaint, though. At some point I may get a decent image editor. I won't quit my day job though!

    Back to geekiness, today's Foxtrot is pretty funny...