The Accidental Employee

DsS needed a new pair of shoes because the soles on his current pair were falling apart. So off we went to the shoe store.

The shoe store is right near the fabric and craft store, which I also needed to hit at some point in the not-too-distant future. Since I'm not a big fan of physical shopping and prefer to minimize trips if at all possible, I decided to drag him with me into that as well. My mission was to get fabric for DD's First Communion dress and for an evening dress for me for an upcoming formal affair. We came out with that...plus a job for DsS.

DD had picked out some white satin jacquard, and I had chosen a hunter green satin, and as we were at the counter getting our fabric cut, DsS struck up a conversation with the clerk. After she had commented about being short-staffed, he asked if they were hiring. She produced an application, and to make a long story short, while DD and I finished our shopping and checked out, DsS interviewed, and got, his first paying job.

All in all, not a bad shopping trip!

A flurry of activity!

Another Thanksgiving gone by, with a lot (perhaps too much!) of good food. But it was also a productive one!

By popular request, I have designed a second seasonal bookmark. And since the design ideas are really starting to overflow my brain, I figured it was time to give a name to my modest design efforts....

Allow me to present...Tor Rhuann Designs!

I've noticed that some of my more observant readers have already located the new Tor Rhuann button in my sidebar, which links to my designs page. That page has now been updated with the images for my third freebie, and the first "official" Tor Rhuann design. So here it is...Assisi Winter:

The scan seems to have washed it out slightly - it's rather more sparkly. I used Victoria Clayton "Glacial" for the overdye, and Petite Treasure Braid PB09 "Sky Blue". I may do another one on an opalescent with a darker blue at some point.

In the meantime, I have an idea or two for Christmas ornaments, so there might be another design by the end of the calendar year. We'll see.

Thanksgiving buffet

Thursday is Thanksgiving Day here in the US, and the cast of Alternate Dementia is travelling to visit family. Before we leave, however, here's a quick buffet of what's going on with yours truly and crew.

The temperature has dropped quite a bit here - at the time of this writing the official temperature is 42F. I'm enjoying it, although many of my fellow Floridians disagree with me!

Georgia Tech is going to the ACC Championship game in Jacksonville...and so are we! We're all really looking forward to it. Not to mention it satisfies #91 on my 101 Things list! GO JACKETS!

The (perhaps) lucky folks who signed up for the Pay It Forward sweepstakes are Michelle, Jenn, Allie, Nicole, and Natty. Thank you all for playing! I have a few ideas, and will work on sketching them out while travelling. I hope to get them all out in the next few months, and certainly before Nicole gets married this summer!

Speaking of sketching things out, my third freebie is complete, but I'm still stitching it. Look for an official release, and more news about my designs, this weekend. Although if you're absolutely burning with curiosity, surfing my sidebar might yield some information....
So that's it from my end at the moment. I've been busy, but not with much noteworthy. Typical for this time of year.

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!

'R' is for Replicating

Another self-replicating meme here, brought to you today by the letter....
R

And by a wonderer who assigned it to me...

Comment to this message and I will assign you a letter of the alphabet. Then go to your journal and post a list of 10 words that begin with this letter and what they mean to you.

I was assigned R, and mine are as follows...

1. Reading - one of my favorite pastimes.
   
2. Redhead - Simply hair color, or personality description? You make the call!
   
3. Rose - one of my favorite scents, and the middle name of someone dear to me. I like the flower as well, although I'm not big on red ones.
   
4. Rosemary - one of my favorite culinary herbs (and another of my favorite scents).
   
5. Raspberry - one of my favorite flavors, known to my family to the point where DD will ask "pretty please with raspberries?"
   
6. Rumcake - I'm told I make a very good one!
   
7. Rush - one of my favorite bands
   
8. Rivendell - an Elven haven in Tolkien's Middle-earth, and my imaginary destination in my walking program.
   
9. Relax - What I don't take enough time to do sometimes...
   
10. Responsibility - Both blessing and curse, depending on my mood.
    

The Great Sneaker Conspiracy!

This morning I spent half an hour looking for DD's sneakers because she has gym today. I never did manage to find them, despite checking in practically every conceivable (and a few inconceivable) locations. Very frustrating. At this point I'm hoping they're in DH's car at the airport.

My DD carpools with another family at the same school, and the carpool was a few minutes late this morning...because the DD couldn't find her sneakers.

Kvetching to a coworker, another person overheard and mentioned that his son had *also* misplaced his sneakers and had to wear an old ratty pair this morning. Incidentally, he's of an age with my DD and the other girl in my carpool....

A conspiracy is afoot! (As it were...)

So...if you, dear reader, have a young gradeschooler, did they have a sneaker snafu this morning?

Update 6:45pm: The walkabout sneakers have been located! DsS found them in a box on the back porch that DD had occasionally used as a playhouse. That box should have been put out with the trash weeks ago, a situation which has now been remedied....

Alternate Dementia sweepstakes?

I've seen this on a number of blogs now, which means I'm probably overdue for jumping on the bandwagon. It is sort of a neat idea....

The first five people to respond to this post (via the comments section) will get some form of "art" made by me. An original hand crafted item, made with one of the many mediums I use - stitching, crochet, etc. I will work to fit this to you and your likes. After you comment, please email me your snail mail address (click on the button in my sidebar). Think of it as something to look forward to getting in the mail.

My addenda:

My free time is not exactly abundant, so please be patient with me. I will get them out, but it might take a few months...

Not all of my readers are crafters - so I'm certainly willing to consider alternate prizes (books, music, immortality in a blog entry...)

Shoveling the civic doody....

Well, I have been a good citizen and done my civic duty. If you have an election coming up and have not already done so - vote! I personally think that if you don't vote you shouldn't gripe about the results since you didn't put in your 2c (or 2p).

Although I admit, doing one's civic duty is more like shoveling civic doody - so often most of the races are a matter of choosing the least of the available evils. I try to be an informed voter, and I make use of the sample ballots to do research on the presented candidates and issues as best I can, winnowing down the choices until only one remains. Sometimes, though, the choice can only be made by some arbitrary mechanism if all other qualifiers are exhausted. Often, this involves voting against the candidate whose smear ads I saw first, or against those who have left 'vote for me!' messages on my answering machine. Or in the case of a city council race this ballot, the candidate for whom I saw fewer roadside signs.

I will be glad when today is over. I am heartily sick of the campaign ads on television, in my mailbox, and on my answering machine. It's even more annoying that so many of the candidates don't even address their issues, but fill up the airways with "Don't vote for Candidate N"! They sound so much like a group of preschoolers calling each other "poopyhead!".

Although I did see one interesting roadside campaign sign yesterday: "Vote for Joe Schmoe...for the hell of it!". Definitely a different take on things. Joe Schmoe wasn't on my ballot...although I might *almost* have been tempted to vote for him if he were.

For the hell of it.

Why I don't read romance novels....

In the past, I have gone on the record to state that while my taste in books is rather eclectic, I don't read romance novels. And last week I was reminded why.

Earlier this year, my favorite local used bookstore closed up shop, and at the final sale I picked up a number of books. I've been on a historical fiction kick lately, so among the books I bought were a couple by a prolific historical romance author (who shall remain nameless, but feel free to guess or email me to ask...). I'd forgotten about them until shortly before my trip, when I rediscovered them while organizing my paperback bookshelves. I had already started rereading Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman, and since one of the books dealt with roughly the same time and place (13th century England and Wales) I thought I'd give one of the romances a try. After all, everyone needs a little brain candy once in a while. So I packed it for my trip to Albuquerque.

As it happens, I finished Here Be Dragons on the flight over, so that evening I picked up the romance novel, intending to perhaps enjoy some lighter fare set in the same time and place...

And it was clear to me from chapter 1 that I wasn't going to be able to finish the book. While some of the names used were historical figures, it was obvious that the author had not done much research into the actual culture at the time. Perhaps I'd been spoiled by having just read Penman, but the romance author was so far off on the Welsh views of illegitimacy, relations with the English, religion, and even just simple character development that it was absurd. I can suspend disbelief in many instances, but this was just beyond unreal.

And then there were the salacious bits. When I was a teen, some friends had gotten ahold of a romance novel, and one could tell from the well-thumbed pages where the naughty parts were. Back then, it was a thrill reading the steamy scenes. Not so this time. The repeated hackneyed cutesy euphemisms for genitalia and such coupled (npi) with the otherwise graphic depictions was practically nauseating. "Love juice"? Ew.

Needless to say, that book did not make the return trip from Albuquerque.