Bald Eagles vs. Vegetation = One Fine Day

A few years ago I lucked into buying a Nikon D50 DSLR camera.  I've been taking bird pictures ever since.  My nemesis bird was a Bald Eagle.  I would go somewhere people had seen them and be told, "Oh, they were flying around an hour ago" or "They usually fly on the other side of the lake/river/etc. this time of day."  Today, Mom and I went on a short train excursion down the Susquehanna River.  I saw them.  Not only did I see them, but I got two good shots of them!

This one is sitting pretty in his or her nest.  I knew Bald Eagles like trees on islands in the middle of the lakes or rivers, so I kept an eye out for a likely candidate with a huge nest.  Found one!







And this eagle decided to fly alongside the train for a bit.  This was the best shot I got of it.  I'm happy.  I saw a few other birds, all birds I had identified and photographed prior, but this was a fun trip.








I ended it spending time snuggled up against a really awesome tree at Riverside Park in Tunkhannock, taking oddly-framed shots of it.

















The tree is old and gnarly and the bark is cracked and broken in some places with wonderful shapes running through them.

We ended up going to Kettel's afterward and got plants for our garden.  We planted our potatoes, a host of veggies, and we'll take care of the herbs, tomatoes, and cucumbers tomorrow.

Baby anole!

Well, my Green Anoles had a hatchling.  It seems to be a she.  I see a light colored line running down her back and she has the snub nose my female does.  I swear I have no clue where Kel laid the egg.  It must be under the Dracaena.  Now I have to look for any others.  I bought Repashy to incubate any she laid because I didn't think they'd hatch in the tank if she laid any there.  I guess I was wrong about that.  I woke up today and looked over at the tank and saw something small hanging from the grate.  All I could think at first was, "How did they poop there?"  Then my sleep-muzzled mind cleared a bit and I realized what I was looking at.

I've ordered small phoenix worms to feed her and they should get here in the next few days.  Hopefully she'll eat the springtails in the tank and any tiny crickets until they arrive.  Also, I'm hoping the big lizards leave her alone.  She is about a third the size of Dom's head.  That's the two of them in the picture.  I put a whole bunch of crickets in the tank to (theoretically) keep the adults happy and fed so they won't go after her.  I'm just going to keep watching as I can.  Once the phoenix worms get here I'll try to catch her and put her in the smaller keeper I have.  The adults don't seem to know what to make of her.  They keep staring at her.  When Dom gets too close, I'm spraying him with water.  It works for cats, right?

She seems to be claiming the little ledge between the tank and the grate as a good place to hang out.  I'm glad.  I don't think the adults can get to her there.  And I discovered a new use for my Halloween Jack-o-Lantern washi tape: covering the corners of the cage grate where she might escape.

Oh, Dom(itan) is my male, and Kel(adry) is my female.  Mom wants me to let my niece name the baby if she ends up taking care of her.  She'd probably name her something lame so I'm likely going to have to be mean and put my foot down.  I'd prefer to have them all named after some kind of geekdom.  If I can keep her alive until adulthood or at least past the true hatchling stage, then I'll name her.  Although, Stella sounds good to me.  Maybe T'Pau?  I've done Tortall names, the next would have to be either Star Trek or Valdemar.

Some more old friends

Last post saw me re-reading one of Tamora Pierce's series.  This last week I've been reading Mercedes Lackey and Julia Quinn.

The Mage Storms trilogy by Mercedes Lackey is another old friend.  The majority of the characters in it are from prior series based in Valdemar.  However one of the new characters and the main character of the series is a young priest from the country that has been the traditional enemy of Valdemar.  Karal is sent to Valdemar as the secretary of his mentor, and former Black-robe (demon-summoning) priest, Ulrich, the first ambassador to Valdemar from Karse in hundreds of years.  Once there, poor Karal experiences a massive case of culture shock as he meets people from societies and religions that he would normally consider heretical.  He makes friends of some of those wildly different people, and starts to adapt to his new life and accept the differences surrounding him just in time for the world to turn topsy-turvy on him.  The energy from a magical disaster that happened over two thousand years before is returning to the world in the exact opposite manner and Valdemar and the Dhorisha Plains are located right where that energy is returning.  Now the mages have to figure out how to stop it from destroying everything their civilizations have built in twenty-four hundred years.

Storm Warning is the first and the introduction to the major players.  In Storm Rising they find a stopgap measure that gives them time to try to figure out their last move.  Storm Breaking is the last and the final solution to their problem takes its toll on the characters.

I moved from fantasy to romance Saturday, probably because Mom and I took my niece to Cinderella.  I read two of Julia Quinn's Bridgerton books: An Offer From A Gentleman, and Romancing Mr. Bridgerton over the last two days.  The first is basically a retelling of Cinderella, so you can see why I read that one.  I've always enjoyed it.  Sophie is the bastard daughter of an earl and has been reduced to servant by her stepmother after having been raised as the earl's ward (a neat way of taking responsibility but not having to acknowledge Sophie).  The Bridgertons give a masquerade ball and Sophie is given a one-night makeover by the servants of the house, who are sick of seeing her treated badly when she's really one of the family.  She and Benedict, the second Bridgerton son, share a wonderful evening and they fall in love.  Ah, but this is a novel and thus conflict is required.  Sophie runs off without telling Benedict who she is.  He tries to find her with the monogrammed glove she left behind (it was her grandmother's).  He fails but Sophie is turned out of her house because stepmother is mean but not stupid and figures out what happened.  The story picks up a few years later when Benedict manages to be at the same house where Sophie has found employ and he saves her from an Unfortunate Fate (translation: the son of a bitch son of the owners was about to gang rape her with a few friends of his).  Benedict feels responsible for the little maid he saved, promising her a job in his mother's household, and things progress from there.

The second is my favorite of her books and features my favorite of her heroines, Penelope Featherington.  Penelope popped in and put of the earlier Bridgerton books and it was always obvious she had a massive crush on the third Bridgerton brother, Colin.  However, Penelope is a tried and true wallflower and Colin is one of the most popular men of the ton.  Not exactly the match of the century.  Colin has wanderlust that takes him all over the place, usually about the time his mother starts bugging him about getting married.  This time when he returns, Penelope is firmly on the shelf and Colin has finally grown up enough to see what he has right in front of him.

I guess I should go back to reading the non-fiction books I have, but I'm just not in the mood.  I feel in the mood for happy endings lately.  I may go back and read all of the Bridgerton books.  I may not.  Looking at the tags for this post, I noticed Harry Potter.  I just may go through all of them again before anything else.  Also, I've turned the list post into a page.  Hopefully it'll be easier to maintain and read that way.

Re-reading old friends

I decided to re-read a few old friends instead of playing with the new and unread books I have on my pile.  I went through the Protector of the Small quartet by Tamora Pierce and have started in on the Mage Storm trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.  I think I'll actually read a few other Lackey and Pierce books before I go back to the new stuff.  It's been a rough few weeks and I need the visit to some of my favorite worlds.

Here's my basic review of the series, bearing in mind that this is my favorite of Tammy's series.

It has been almost two decades since Alanna, the Lioness, earned her knighthood while disguising herself as a boy.  It has been over a hundred years since women made up any portion of the knighthood of Tortall.  The king has decreed that girls can now openly try for their knighthoods and Keladry of Midelan is the first in a decade to try.  She faces steep opposition.  In the first book, First Test, she is allowed to join the pages (the first step of a knight's training) on a trial basis.  If she can prove to the training master, Lord Wyldon, that she can hack it, she can stay on permanently.

In the second book, Page, obviously takes place after she has proven she can handle to duties and has promise as a knight.  Kel and her friends declare war on the hazing that happens among the pages.

The third book, Squire, sees Kel becoming the squire to Lord Raoul and serving with the King's Own.  She has a romance and ends up being the caretaker of a gryphon, much to her dismay.

The last book, Lady Knight, has Lord Wyldon, who had been impressed by her performance and skills taking advantage of the fact that Lord Raoul basically trained Kel for command and giving her command of a refugee camp.  The country is at war with their traditional northern enemies, the Scanrans.  The Scanrans have a new weapon made with necromancy by a mage called Blayce.  Kel is given the task of ridding the world of the man by the Chamber of the Ordeal (it's basically a magical being that sorts out the squires who fail and those who become knights).  The only problem is that she has the refugee camp to take care of and can't do both without becoming foresworn.

These are the basic plot points and I hate giving spoilers.  As is usual with Tammy's books, the characters are pretty well-drawn.  Animals have a prominent place in the books.  They're getting pretty intelligent after the events of Daine's series.  I especially liked Peachblossom, Kel's warhorse.  He sounds so sweet and innocent from that name, doesn't he?  Ha!  Peachblossom's interactions with Kel's friend, Neal, really get me giggling.

I love this series.  It is my favorite of hers.  I could read it once a month and not be upset.  I like the characters so much that the two Green Anoles I have are named after two of the characters, Kel and Dom.

Another re-read and the monster Granny Hex

I really enjoy Bianca d'Arc's Dragon Knights series.  I love the world she's built, so I read it quite a bit.  The other day (last Wednesday) I re-read Keeper of the Flames.  It has gryphons in it.  Yay!  My favorite fantasy critter.

I bought two new history books in my unending quest to avoid going back to LOTR.  They're in the vein of Kurlansky's Salt, which I really loved.  They're about spices and their influence on history.

As for other stuff, I figured out I'm going to need 481 hexes for my Granny Hex afghan.  I frogged most of my progress on the ripple that nuked itself and balled the yarn to recycle.  Obviously, I did nothing wrong.  I didn't miscount or anything.  It was the afghan that went wonky by itself.  He he.  I have five hexes done completely and sewn together with a whip stitch.  I'll keep doing that rather than have to sew a pile of 481 hexes in marathon sewing sessions.

Also, Mom and I have most of the plans in place for our vacation to Canada and the World Cup!  Regrettably, we won't be able to get to any USA games, but the games we got tickets for look like excellent match-ups.  And there will be whale watching!

A rare miss by Stephanie Laurens and driving debacles

One more book to add.  I stopped at the bookstore before work and ended up reading a hardcover I've been eying up for a few months, By Winter's Light, by Stephanie Laurens.  This was one of her winter/Christmas Cynster stories.  It wasn't bad but it was a bit boring.  It seemed to serve less as a romance and more of an introduction to the next generation of Cynsters.  Which is fine, but definitely not hardcover-price-worthy.  I'll wait until it comes out on paperback to actually buy it.

Last night when we got home from my brother's house we talked to the neighbors and found out that there is a long wait time to schedule driving exams.  I went online just a bit ago and found out the earliest I can take mine is September 2.  Five friggin' months?  They only test on Wednesdays at my local troopers barracks.  That is absolutely ridiculous.

I've scheduled it because my permit expires on the 12th.  This should be interesting.  Mom will bug and badger me to drive as much as possible and I still want to just curl up in a ball at the very idea.  I now have to find an instructor and that means sopending more money I don't have to get something I absolutely want no part of.  Lovely.  Maybe the area will suddenly get metropolitan-rated public transportation in the next month and I can forget all about it.  What?  It could happen (in a mirror universe).

Star Trek and Birdies

Today I finished a book about Star Trek called Star Trek and History, a collection of essays (shockingly enough) about the role history has played in the development of the Star Trek universe and how Star Trek has also influenced history.  I enjoyed most of the essays.  Each of them at least made me think, even if they didn't all teach me something new.  I did learn some new things about the fictional universe that has shaped my life.

The other book I'm adding to the list is The Unleashing, by Shelly Laurenston.  I picked it up on Wednesday and really liked it.  It's the first book in her new world that features mostly Viking gods and the people they choose to fight for them when Ragnarok comes around.

The first one is about Kera Watson, a former marine who is killed and becomes one of the Crows, women chosen by the goddess Skuld, one of the Norns, to be her soldiers.  Regrettably for Kera, the other Crows aren't exactly big on discipline or military efficiency.  They are all women who, thanks to Skuld's intervention, have a chance at living their lives all over again.  The fighting they do for her is their night job.  Kera has a bit of trouble meshing with their craziness at first.  As this is a romance, she finds her soul mate in the form of one of Odin's Ravens, Ludvig "Vig" Rundstrom, whom she originally thinks is a vet with PTSD, not a skilled blacksmith who can fly.

I know that sounds strange but it's really fun.  Laurenston's characters tend to have one trait that I absolutely love.  They are completely nuts and they make me laugh.    

London Under, Peter Ackroyd

London Under by Peter Ackroyd was interesting but it didn't go far enough.  It had some interesting facts, but it was really thin on them.  I'd like to find more books about the various series of underground catacombs around the world.

It did give me a germ of an idea for a story, but I'm not sure where the idea is going.

New afghan for myself

I have decided that the combination of Pinterest and Ravelry is completely evil.  Yesterday, I was looking for a little granny square pattern I could use to make a bookmark with some crochet thread I have.  I ended up finding a pattern for a hexagonal granny that I'm now working up using the yarn I picked out for my personal afghan.  I had been making it in a ripple, but I screwed up in a couple of places and I've kind of abandoned it.  So now I'm going to use the yarn I had gathered and make a ton of little granny hexes and stitch them all together after a while.  They work up really easily and are great for television stitching.

The pattern I'm using is this lovely one from Eggbirddesigns.  I'm stopping at the fourth round using yarn that is no longer being made, Caron's Eco-soft.  All but one of the colors are at least still available in their Simply Soft and Simply Soft Paints lines, so if I need to buy more of a color, I'll be good.  I know I need to buy more black.  I used up most of it on a scarf for a friend for Christmas.  The one color no longer available is the one I'm using for the smallest round, so I should be good.  If I have to, I'll frog the progress I'd made on the ripple afghan.  I was making it out of double crochets with no gaps, so it's a very solid piece that used a lot of yarn.

The colors I'm using are:
Aqua Mist, the discontinued one :(
Spring Brook, the variegated Simply Soft Paints
Ocean, the dark blue Simply Soft
Black

These are the colors I'm going to be using for my bedroom when I get around to painting it and rearranging it.  I need to buy a few more bookshelves, a few floating shelves, and a new lamp and then I can commence the massive project.

Four more books/stories - two good, two not-so-good

Well, I have four more for my list.  One was a re-read because I just liked it.  I'm also making slow progress on LOTR.  I'm reading it mostly at work on breaks.

Stardust Miracle by Edie Ramer was the first read chronologically.  I'll admit to more skimming it than closely reading it.  It was one of my free downloads so I'm not to sorry about not liking it as much as I'd hoped.  It just didn't grab my attention well.

Love Potions by Michelle Pillow was the re-read.  I get a kick out of the family and am looking forward to more books in the series.

The Werewolf Liaison by Vivi Anna was a teeny, tiny, short story that I really didn't like in the least.  EMT gets kidnapped by the big bad wolf, is tied up and interrogated, but the minute he turns all wolfy, instead of scaring the shit out of her, she's turned on?  WTF?  No.  Just no.  I'm very glad I didn't pay for this one.

The Naughty Never Die by LL Kellogg was another free read.  I liked it.  The characters didn't fall in live at first sight.  In fact, he kidnapped her and scared the shit out of her, too.  He was under orders from her Governor father to get her to safety and there was a miscommunication about him scaring her so she wouldn't ditch her security again.  He had flaws, she had flaws.  There was a mystery that had me guessing for some of it.  I think I'll pick up the first book in the series on payday.

Getting there, but not knocking off categories

I finished Before Midnight by Jennifer Blackstream last night.  I liked it.  I'll be picking up the next one in the series.  My only quibble is that the end seemed rushed.  I liked how it ended, but the book just felt a bit easy, which had its own charm.  I hope the next book in the series is a bit more complex, though.

As an aside, I'm trying to re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy as part of my reading challenge.  I remember now why I disliked it so much.  It's BORING!!!!!  Yes, I am that nerd/geek that hates Tolkien.  I actually gave away the copies of Peter Jackson's trilogy, unopened, a few years after I bought them.  Maybe after I finish this slog I'll borrow my friend's copy and try to watch them.

I've been working on my printers' mark research more lately, as is evidenced by the long list of printers' marks and early book history books.  Walking into the Rare Books room at the NY Public Library the other day was like walking into Nirvana,  The smell of the books just rolled over me the moment I walked in the door and I turned to the librarian whose name I didn't get and said with a sigh, "I love that smell."  He smiled and said he did, too.  It felt so good to be doing research again.  Just sitting there, trying to find information about men who lived hundred of years ago, was just amazing.  I really need to figure out what I have to do to get back to college.  I felt so at home and at peace.

Oh, and a shout out to the librarian, Meredith, who helped me so much.  She actually found, in their holdings, the two books printed by Gerard Van Wolsschaten (or however he wanted to spell it each day) that I was able to hold.  I held two books printed in the early 1600s.  I teared up, I'll admit.

Make It a Double, Sawyer Bennett

I've been adding way too many ebook freebies from Amazon and Kobo to my TBR pile thanks to Bookbub lately.  One of them was Make It a Double, by Sawyer Bennett.  The second book in a series, it works perfectly well as a standalone read.  In fact, I haven't read the first, although I think I may need to go back and do so.

The story is about a man named Brody and a woman named Alyssa.  He is an ex-con who was convicted of vehicular homicide and she runs a no-kill animal shelter.  He ends up volunteering there to settle his community service requirements.  There is, of course, external drama, but part of the conflict of the story is of a man adjusting back to life outside of prison.  I liked how the routines established in prison life are both subtly and not-so-subtly touched upon.

My only problem with the story is the person.  I fairly loathe first-person stories, and this one was written not just in first person, but in alternating POV, as well.  It was well done, though, so I was able to get past that.  I can definitely recommend this book.

The Pox and the Covenant

Last night I finished The Pox and the Covenant by Tony Williams.  It really isn't a long book and it left me feeling the way a good history book should, wanting to know more about the subject.  I knew from other readings that inoculation was a touchy subject in Colonial days, but I hadn't realized just how touchy it was.

I must confess to also being one of the many Americans that knew Reverend Cotton Mather only through the lens of the Salem Witch Trials.  I had no clue he was actually a learned scholar and could legitimately be called a scientist.  I figured he was simply a hidebound theologian.  My mistake.  I think I'll be reading more about him.

The book seemed to end a bit abruptly, as if the author didn't quite know if there was more he should put in there, but he did show how the kerfuffle over the smallpox epidemic of 1721 and the inoculations championed by Mather and his friend Boylston sped up a disconnect between the Puritan Covenant and a rapidly modernizing Boston and New England society.  I will definitely be looking into this more.

Children of the Night

Usually when I'm sick, I spend most of my recuperative time reading.  For some reason, this stinking cold/flu/sinus infection, whatever it actually is, has left me not even wanting to read.  This is when you know I'm on my proverbial deathbed.

I did manage to read, well, reread Mercedes Lackey's Children of the Night.  It's an urban fantasy written back in the 1990's, before urban fantasy became big.  I liked it then and I still like it.  The heroine, Diana Tregarde, is definitely not perfect.  She gets injured, has panic attacks, and drinks way too much.  Too many of the heroes and heroines in sf/f are either perfect or virtual machines.

For shits and giggles, it's set during the Watergate era.  I don't know why, but that has always really amused me.  The setting also makes some of the jarring bits of the book make sense.  This isn't modern day, with our modern slang or sensibilities.  There are terms used in the book that are annoying, but they weren't looked askance upon in the early 1970's.

On the whole, while it may not have stood up as much as I liked from my earliest purchase of it, it still does stand up better than I hoped.

The Immortal Who Loved Me by Lynsay Sands

One more book read.  You would think I would have read more during this time being sick, but I just want to sleep and watch Hogan's Heroes.  The Pox book was definitely put away because who really wants to read a book about fatal illnesses when one feels like crud warmed over?  I listened to half of the audiobook/radio program for America: Empire of Liberty.  I'll listen to the rest on my commutes to and from work.

I finished The Immortal Who Loved Me by Lynsay Sands on Wednesday.  The Argeneau series is a lot of fun.  I figure most vampire books should be written in a humorous vein (no pun intended).  Serious vampire books tend to put me off.  This one was not as funny as the majority of the others, but it was definitely not the most serious.

The jist of this series, and this is not really a spoiler, is that the immortals (vampires) are originally from Atlantis.  Their society was isolated and developed into an extremely technologically advanced one before it was destroyed by a series of earthquakes.  There had been an experiment to heal wounds using nanotechnology that went awry.  Instead of the nanos disintegrating after healing the cancer or injury they were being used for, their lack of specific programming made them run amok inside the body of the patient and heal everything.  Since the human body is assaulted by UV rays, pollution, etc., there is always something for the nanos to heal.  Since the nanos used blood as fuel, the patients needed to constantly renew their blood supply since the little buggers were using it to keep them at the peak physical state constantly.  Before Atlantis fell, transfusions were used.  After it fell and the survivors made it out, if they were immortals, they needed to use other means to survive in the non-medically advanced world they found themselves.  The nanos adapted their bodies to grow fangs when necessary.

The world she's built is pretty cool.  It's mostly set in Canada, for anyone looking for a book set somewhere not the US.  The people are also interesting.  Basil is one of three brothers who escaped Atlantis' fall.  He works on the Council.  Sherry, the heroine, owns a kitchenware business, and is brought into the whole world when a character from a previous novel ducks into her store to hide from one of the villains that's been popping up in the last five or six books.

This really isn't a stand-alone novel.  Too much of its plot is contingent on having read earlier books.  A person getting into the series with this one would possibly be a little confused.  The nature of the events mean there are a lot of previous characters popping in and out and things are assumed to be known.  Ms. Sands definitely explains things for the newbie to the series, but I would still be disappointed by the immediacy of the romance between Sherry and Basil.  Relationship growth happens after she basically accepts that they are life-mates.  Basil, knowing the way things work, immediately accepts that Sherry is his life-mate when the two characters who seem to be turning into the match-makers of the series just say, "Here she is.  Have fun, you crazy kids."

Also, the plot-line with Sherry's father bothered me.

If you want to start the series from the beginning, read A Quick Bite.  To tell the truth, this newest one of hers probably won't be re-read much, even if it does go on my keeper shelf because it's part of the series.  Here's hoping the next one in the series is much better.

Hidden Dragons by Bianca D'arc

Today's addition to my booklist is Hidden Dragons, by Bianca D'arc.  It's the latest in her series of fantasy romance, Dragon Knights.  They feature love at first sight/instant soul mate connection.  Most of the series also features a menage a trois, but it works with the world she's built.  But most of all, they feature dragons!  The heroes are knights that ride dragons into battle.  The dragons are intelligent and telepathic.  The heroines can generally speak with the dragons, too.  The end of this one brings a new twist to the future of the war between Draconia and Skithdron (home of basilisk-like creatures with acid-like venom).  I'm hoping she'll finally bring the North Witch, Lorelei, into the next book.  I'm also hoping she'll one day make a female one of the knights.  She has featured some warriors females already, but I want one of them to actually have a dragon to ride.

I'm still working on The Pox and the Covenant.  It's not a difficult read and is interesting.  I'm just not in the mood for books about illnesses at the moment.  I have a stupid sinus infection that's kicking my ass.

Cartoons of World War II

I spent some time at Books-A-Million today.  I almost started reading a sci-fi, but I was pretty exhausted from work, so I took an easier route.  I noticed a book called Cartoons of World War II, by Paul Husband, as I was going in.  He collected cartoons, mostly editorial, on papers and magazines on both sides of the conflict.  I've seen some of them before but it was nice getting the juxtapostion of date and source.  My only regret with the book (other than my lack of cash to buy it at the moment) is that it didn't have more in it.  I would love to see a comprehensive study of editorial satire from the era.

I'm not sure what category to put this one in.  It wasn't a graphic novel.  It was both a history book and an art book.  Maybe I'll just add a couple of wildcard categories.  Got it.  I used it for the "book based entirely on its cover" category.

Obsession in Death

Well, one more book down and I'm about a third of the way through one of my non-fictions.

I bought and read Obsession in Death by J.D. Robb today.  Wow.  It was really good.  I've liked most of the books in the series, but I can honestly say this one is going to be in the top ten of them.  It's very personal to Eve and the family she's built over the series.  I like those.  Since it just came out yesterday, I shall say no more, but I can chalk up Obsession in Death by J.D. Robb as my "book published this year".  Started and finished on 2/11/2015.

The other one I'm reading is The Pox and the Covenant by Tony Williams.  It's about the smallpox epidemic that hit Boston in 1721 that seems to be leading to the inoculation trend that I know John and Abigail Adams took advantage of for themselves and their own children.  The surprising thing is that the cry for inoculations was started by a person I never expected: Cotton Mather.  The book is quite interesting thus far and very readable, which is not always the case for history books.

2015 Reading Challenge

Wow.  Three years since I've blogged.  I guess that's actually a good sign as to my mental health.  It means I no longer need the vent.  However, I have decided to do a few reading challenges this year and need something to link back to.  Of course, since I am insane, I can't just do one.  I have decided to mix at least four of them into one massive challenge.  If you want to start one of your own, here's a link to Bustle, which lists a bunch of options.  Here goes.

2015 Reading Challenge, encompassing challenges by Popsugar, Kindred Digital Books, Bookish, Peekabook, Books and Chocolate, All About Books

There is a lot of overlap in the various challenges and I'm going to see how many of the categories I can fill up with my TBR shelves, female authors, and classics.  To be honest, just knowing that at least three of my authors are prolific as rabbits means I'll be able to fulfill a few categories as soon as they publish their next few novels.  I may not fill all of the categories this year, but it should be interesting.  Beside this I'll be working on my NaNoWriMo novel from last year and a short pamphlet for the local libray.  Then there are my crafts.  This will be a busy year for me.

This post will probably get quite long as I will be using it as my central list.

A collection of short stories
A collection of poetry
A book published by an indie press
A book that takes place in Asia - The Rape of Nanking, Iris Chang, 1/15/2015
A book by an author from Africa
A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.)
A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.)
A self-improvement book (can be traditionally or non-traditionally considered “self-improvement”)
A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of anyind
A microhistory - The Pox and the Covenant, Tony Williams, 3/4/2015
A YA novel
A sci-fi novel
A memoir
A mystery or thriller
A 19th Century Classic
A 20th Century Classic
A Classic by a female author
A Classic in Translation
A Classic with a person's name in the title
A humorous or satirical Classic
A forgotten Classic
A nonfiction Classic
A Children's Classic book
A Classic play - Lysistrata, Aristophanes, 3/15/2015
A classic romance
A book based on a true story
A nonfiction book - Children of the Flames, Lucette Lagnado, 1/15/15
A romance novel - Saving Grace, Julie Garwood, 1/30/2015
A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade
A book that someone else has recommended to you
A book published this year - Obsession in Death, J.D. Robb, 2/11/2015
A Classic novella, under 250 pages
A 500+ page novel
A 1,000+ page novel
A novel in one day - The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy, Julia Quinn, 2/5/2015
Something by Plato, Aristotle, or Marcus Aurelius
A novel by David Foster Wallace
A novel by Nabokov
A novel by Mark Twain
A book by Neil Gaiman
A novel by James Joyce
A novel by Haruki Murakami
A novel by Kurt Vonnegut
A book by an author you LOATHE
A book written by an author with your same initials
An independently published by an Amazon author
A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25
A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65
A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ
A book by a person whose gender is different from your own
A novel on an e-reader - Children of the Night, Mercedes Lackey, 3/2/2015
A book that was/has been banned
A book with nonhuman characters
A book with antonyms in the title
A book with a number in the title
A book with a color in the title
A book with a one-word title
A book set in a different country
A popular author's first book
A book from an author you love that you haven't read yet - The Unleashing, Shelly Laurenston, 4/1/2015
A book a friend recommended
A book at the bottom of your to be read list
A book your mother loves
A book that scares you
A book based entirely on its cover - Cartoons of World War II, Paul Husband, 2/18/2015
A book you were supposed to read in high school but didn't
A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit
A book that came out the year you were born
A book with bad reviews - The Immortal Who Loved Me, Lynsay Sands, 2/25/2015 - (Putting this here because I gave it a generally bad review!)
A trilogy
A book from your childhood
A book with a love triangle
A book set in the future - Concealed in Death, J.D. Robb, 2/5/2015
A book set in a high school
A book that made you cry
A book with magic - Hidden Dragons, Bianca D'arc, 2/20/2015
A book by an author you've never read before
A book you own but have never read
A book that takes place in your hometown
A book set during christmas - Festive in Death, J.D. Robb, 2/6/2015
A book based on or turned into a tv show
A book that became a movie
A book you started but never finished
Listen to an entire audiobook - America: Empire of Liberty, David Reynolds, 3/11/2015

The Wolf, Jean Johnson, 3/7/2015
The Mage, Jean Johnson, 3/8/2015
The Mane Event, Shelly Laurenston, 3/9/2015
Printers' Marks: A Chapter in the History of Typography, William Roberts, 3/11/2015 (the link is to a downloadable pdf)
The Evolution of the Book, Frederick G. Kilgour, 3/11/2015
The Book: The Story of Printing and Bookmaking, Douglas McMurtrie. 3/11/2015
The Art & History of Books, Norma Levarie, 3/11/2015
Dragon Storm, Bianca D'arc, 3/12/2015
Big Bad Beast, Shelly Laurenston, 3/15/2015
Early Dutch, German & English Printers' Marks, Jean Philibert Berjeau, 3/16/2015 (the link is to a downloadable pdf)
Make It a Double, Sawyer Bennett, 3/17/2015
Printers Marks and their Significance, Douglas McMurtrie, 3/18/2015 (the link is to an online copy of the book)
Devices of the Early Printers: 1457-1560, Hugh William Davies, 3/18/2015 (the link is to an html copy from Project Gutenberg)
Printers Devices in Dutch Incunabula, W.J. Schretlen, 3/18/2015
Printers Marks, Horace Townsend, 3/18/2015
Printers Mottoes, Bella C. Landauer, 3/18/2015
Sicilia et Magna Graecia sive Historiae Vrbium Populorum et Graeciae ex Antiquis Nomismatibus Liber Primus, Hubert Goltzius, 3/18/2015 (this book was published in 1617 by the printer whose mark it took me years to identify.  It is written in Latin, so it might be more accurate that I looked at every page)
Amoris Divini et Human Antipathia, 3/18/2015 (the same as the one above, but printed in 1655.  The illustrations were absolutely amazing.)
Dutch Printers Devices, volumes 1-3, Peter van Huisstede, 3/19/2015
The Printed Book, Henri Bouchot, 3/19/2015 (link goes to a free downloadable copy at Project Gutenberg)
Masterpieces of the Early Printers and Engravers, Henry Noel Humphreys, 3/19/2015 (the link is to a downloadable copy of the book)
Heraldic Influence on Early Printers Marks, James Moran, 3/19/2015
English Printers Marks of the 16th Century, F.C. Avis, 3/19/2015
Before Midnight, Jennifer Blackstream, 3/20/2105
Stardust Miracle, Edie Ramer, 3/22/2015
Love Potions, Michelle Pillow, 3/23/2015
The Werewolf Liaison, Vivi Anna, 3/24/2015
The Naughty Never Die, LL Kellogg, 3/24/2015
London Under, Peter Ackroyd, 3/25/2015
Star Trek and History, Nancy R. Reagin, 4/5/2015
Keeper of the Flames, Bianca d'Arc, 4/8/2015

Protector of the Small: First Test, Tamora Pierce, 4/16/2015

Protector of the Small: Page, Tamora Pierce, 4/17/2015

Protector of the Small: Squire, Tamora Pierce, 4/18/2015

Protector of the Small: Lady Knight, Tamora Pierce, 4/19/2015

Storm Warning, Mercedes Lackey, 4/23/2015

Storm Rising, Mercedes Lackey, 4/24/2015

Storm Breaking, Mercedes Lackey, 4/25/2015

An Offer From A Gentleman, Julia Quinn, 4/26/2015

Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, Julia Quinn, 4/27/2015

Well, it's been a little bit since I updated this thing.  I've decided it's time to get out of retail, given the fact that I generally want to murder the management staff at work daily.  So, I have a plan.  Get my Pharmacist Technician certification, then get a job that pays enough that I can actually save money for college rather than live paycheck to paycheck.  Once enough money is saved, I'll get my degrees in history and library science and gleefully bury myself in paper for the rest of my life.

I've taken the first test and am on the second book in the course.  I have a plan and for the first time in a while I have some hope for actually getting my degree.  In the meantime, I'll keep working on my crafts and my occasional writing to keep sane and non-homicidal.

Artistic endeavours

Lately I've been expanding my artistic horizons.  I signed up for Swap-bot over a year ago but have just recently started joining the swaps.  I've been focusing on ATCs.  I've also been working on my drawing and painting skills.  They, to be generous, are non-existent.  I 've been making Zentangles to work on the drawing and have purchased a bunch of watercolors and watercolor pencils for the painting.  Since I have so many random papers at home I've been using them for some of the ATCs I've sent out.

I'm enjoying myself even though I'm getting a little frustrated with my lack of skills.  I know I'll get better as I work, but I just feel as if I should be better already.  I know it just takes practice, but I wonder sometimes how I'll find the time in the day to get better at all the hobbies I want to improve in.  Stitching, designing stitching, painting and drawing and throw in the occasional bout of writing.  I need to win the powerball so I can just indulge myself all day, every day.

Stitching and tv

Never try to stitch while watching your favorite team play a game.  It's not very productive.  Man City just drew with Fulham and for at least the last twenty minutes I didn't set one stitch.

Squee!

Happy happy happy!  I just bought tickets to a show I've wanted to see for a long time.  Now I just have to con my brother into letting me take my nephew.

Long time AWOL

I've really been slacking on computer time in the past few months.  First there was a ton of stitching, weird hours and then NaNoWriMo (which I nuked again).

My brother got married in October.  They did it earlier than they had originally planned so their stitchy gift will be give for their first anniversary.  I finished the Eagle Scout even though I still haven't given it to him.  Oy!  I have stitched about 25 ornaments in the last few weeks.  I also finished the Kats by Kelly pattern I had.  The Dragon and Witches Go Riding are still WIPs.  I'll be adding two baby announcements to next year's list for my cousin and co-worker.

Mom and I have stolen my niece and nephew nearly every weekend for the last two months.  Awesome!  Mom's taking them to church, then the four of us go to breakfast.  Last Sunday, Mom, my nephew and I had a four hour, single hand, Uno game.  I have the Star Trek Uno cards and they have a card that makes you double your hand.  It was played a few times that game.  It was hilarious.  My niece watched Mamma Mia and was almost through the singalong by the time I won the hand.

We're going to my cousin's house tomorrow and then we have the munchkins again for Sunday.  I'll have my niece go through my music to pick what she wants me to put on her soon-to-be iPod.  It should be fun.

So, Merry Christmas to the Christians.  I hope everyone else had a happy holiday, whatever it may have been.

New Wedding design

Thanks to one of my cohorts on the LJ Cross-stitch group, I found the perfect wedding announcement for my brother and his fiancee.  He proposed to her on (well, pretty damned near) the beach and the colors seem to suit her decor, so here we go.  I won't even have to wait for her to pick flowers and stuff.  I can start on it as soon as I finish the Eagle Scout, the Wiehenberg Sampler and the Dragon (in that order).  Yay!

Another movie post...

I just watched Destination Mars! on Netflix.  Tee-hee.  It was awesome.  It was such a great send-up of the 50's Mars invades flicks.  The actors played it "straight" with just the perfect imitation of the pacing that the actors of those movies had.  I have a new dvd hunt. 

Of course, I just found 100 Million BC (which is unfortunately on a double feature with Journey to the Center of the Earth - even I have my B movie standards, low as they are) and Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus in the Wal*Mart $5 movie bin, so I'm having a fine movie night.  I am becoming a big fan of the knock-offs The Asylum puts out.  They are just so cheezy.  Ooh.  I just remembered they made this version of Sherlock Holmes, with Dominic Keating and Gareth David-Lloyd.  It wasn't great, but it wasn't the worst, either.  Definitely watchable if you keep in mind it's an Asylum film and the guy playing Sherlock needs to go back to acting school.  Or at least take his hands out from behind his back once in a while.

Piranha 3-D

Okay, before I say anything else, I'll say this: I really want to go see this movie.  It is obviously not going for Oscar nominations (unless the FX are somehow spectacular).  It is a summer horror/fun flick.  Apparently, people are peeved that there aren't going to be any special showings for reviews by critics.  Hello?!  This is the kind of movie guaranteed to make a critic's blood pressure rise and explode out of their pens in a sea of "Ack!  This was horrible.  No, no, blood and gore and 3D!"  Showing it to a critic is a waste of time.  Most won't watch a film and see the fun of it.  They seem to need to find meaning and pathos in every film they watch.  Um, not every film is out there for such a thing.  Some are just fun bloodbath flicks that make you giggle and cheer when the obnoxious git gets eaten and the heroes somehow manage to save the day...except for the egg, of course, which is about to hatch the sequel, er, spawn of whatever the monster is.

I can't wait for this one.  Chomp chomp and Christopher Lloyd thrown in for good measure!

Dragon*Con 2010

I finally found a somewhat affordable place to stay in Atlanta for Dragon*Con but Mom has a lot of travel this week, so I get to wait until next payday to try to book it.  *sigh*  We'll see if it's still available then.

Yes, I'm waiting until the last moment.  However, I didn't realize Misty was going to Dragon*Con until a few days ago.  She never goes to cons I can get to!

Wedding designs

I mentioned that my brother is engaged, now I'm designing he and his fiancee a wedding announcement.  So many of them are way too floral and foufy for my brother's taste.  I found a few on 123stitch that I liked and thought were simple enough to suit their style.  My brother is a cop, I just can't see him really liking an announcement with roses and ribbons all over it.  Sorry, not happening.

So I found one pattern on 123stitch that I really liked part of: To Have and To Hold.  The sepia picture of the couple in the middle struck me as perfect for them.  So I figured I'd probably end up ordering that.  Well, I saw it in Michael's yesterday while browsing.  I hadn't noticed that the whole pattern is only 5 by 5 inches!  Too small.  But I still liked the people, just not the floral stuff.  So I conned Mom into coming to Michael's with me to look at it.

I ended up buying it (plus a frog eraser and felt to make myself a minion from Despicable Me) and spent a few hours last night transferring just the people into PCStitch.  Then I broke into my quote book and found a lovely quote to add to the sampler: "Two souls with but a single thought, Two hearts that beat as one." by Friedrich Halm.  I used the alphabet in the kit to chart that and used the Font function to make an alphabet for the names and date.  I'm going to do that in petite stitch since the only way to make it nice enough was to make it HUGE.

So, the pattern is half finished.  Now they just need to figure out when they're getting married and what colors and flowers they're using so I can finish designing it and then stitch the little bugger.

Bells are ringing...

Well, my brother is engaged.  It just happened today and mom got all huffy when I asked her to pause the movie I was watching when she was trying to tell me about it, so I still don't know how it went down.  LOL.  She did the whole pouty, idiot thing and refused to tell me more, so I'll get the story tomorrow as I go to work.

I hope I have more time for this wedding because I would like to make he and his really quite awesome fiancee a beautiful wedding announcement.  Um, I'd also like to lose a moderate amount of weight so I don't appear too huge in any wedding photos.

She just came down and now that the movie's over she's talking to me about it.  It sounds like his very well-hidden romantic streak came to the fore in a big way.  Alright!  I'm so proud of him.

Interesting article I found

I think, if I ever get married, I'll do what this couple did.  I'm not an atheist, but I do get sick of the constant use of gods and other such higher powers in what, to me, is a legal matter.

Atheist wedding

Fabric dyeing time

I'm happy.  I just bought some fabric to dye for my nephew's dragon and hoped it was big enough since it was a good three inches smaller on each side than the one I bought from Polstitches.  It is.  I guess I bought the other one much larger than I needed.  So a night's work dyeing the fabric and then washing and letting it dry and I can start on a neat-o dragon again.  Wahoo!

Just for kicks, I've been looking at getting a Droid when I can upgrade this one.  I really really really want one.  I've been playing with them and talking to others who have them.  I absolutely do not need one, but I absolutely want one.

WIPs

Well, When Witches Go Riding is on hold.  I found out that my neighbor made Eagle Scout and is having his banquet in September.  There is a really nice Eagle Scout badge free cross-stitch pattern I found online.  I've already started it.  It looks like it'll turn out quite nice. 

As for my nephew's dragon, I just saw the same pattern done on plain white aida and it looked spectacular.  I may forego re-ordering the fabric and just stitch it on that. 

So, I'll only have three WIPs for the near future: the badge, the dragon and the Wiehenburg Sampler.

I'm also buying the patterns from an LJ cohort for some hardanger projects by Victoria Sampler.  They are stunning and I've wanted to try hardanger for a while now.  I just have to get over my squeamishness about cutting holes in my fabric!

*sigh* Of course

I misread the date and time for entries to be dropped off at the fair. They had to be dropped off by last night. Judging closed today at 10am. I'll just put them away and enter them next year. It's just so frustrating. I really wanted to enter them and get feedback from other stitchers live. So stupid.

Here are pics of the pieces I was going to enter, anyway.

Here's my version of my LJ group's last MSAL. It was originally charted for cross-stitch, but I'm strange and just had to do it in specialty stitches and add the border and the motifs in the middle. Kathy designed it as a sudoku puzzle!

And here is my version of Ink Circles' Growth Rings. Finally done. It only took me over a year.

Here is the other thing I've finished in the last three weeks. Tree Frog Trio by Dimensions. I, of course, felt it was lacking something as it was designed so I just had to add the words to it. I have the frame and mat for it, I just have to put them all together.

And just because, here is my current WIP, When Witches Go Riding by Prairie Schooler. I'm doing it over one on 28 count fabric. The pamphlet also includes some designs I might be able to adapt to an interesting biscornu in the future.

I was going to enter the two wall hangings and the blackwork Celtic cross I made Mom a few years ago. I'm so pissed at myself, because I could have had them finished in time. I put it off like the idiot I am because I thought I had time. I think I need to put procrastination on my list of nasty habits to get rid of.

Simple stupidity

Sometimes it amazes me how simple skills elude me.  I'm trying to finish my entries for the Northeast Fair (since I have to turn them in today) and I can't even remember how to thread the bobbin of my sewing machine.  It'll be Mommy to the rescue in a few minutes, but seriously, I'm 34 years old.  In my defense, the last time I used the machine was over a year ago...and I had only used it twice before that, but you'd think I'd remember the basic stuff, wouldn't you?

I'll post pics of the finished entries in a few hours.  One is done.  I had to stitch it by hand since I couldn't find the machine thread for it.  Grandma's thread box had some hand quilting thread I used instead.  It was sort of my experiment piece anyway, since I also misplaced the instructions for the wall hangings and used it to figure out how I'd put the silly thing together.  Now that I know what I'm doing, I'm using the machine to sew up Growth Rings.

My cousin recently joined Facebook.  She is one of the grandchildren that has essentially disowned my grandfather, who only has 3-6 months left thanks to his lung cancer.  I just sent her a letter telling her how he was doing when my mother and I visited him last weekend.  Hopefully, being confronted with the severity of Grandpa's condition she'll start to think that maybe, just maybe, she should visit him.  I hope.

TARDIS Rain barrel

We got a rain barrel to try to save water for the garden we're putting in.  It is the same color as the TARDIS!  I'm trying to figure out a way to con Mom into letting me paint it just like my favorite time travel machine.

Sampler colors. Decisions, decisions

I've been coming up with color combinations for the different motifs in the Bush Mountain / Wiehenburg Sampler contest.  I've decided to use as few colors as possible.  I figure if I use DMC Variations 4045 for the one green I want to use and nine other colors I should be able to make it rather interesting, if simple.  I want to use two colors, maybe four of beads to use in the "unstitched" places in the corner butterflies.  Each of the butterflies will be stitched in black otherwise.  There are 23 other motifs including a dandelion-type center motif that I can't decide whether or not I want to stitch in one or two different yellows.

I have to have this stitched by Halloween.  The deadline is actually November 25th, but I'll be working on NaNoWriMo at that point.  It's all full cross-stitch anyway, so that should be doable. 

Of course, I'm also in the middle of stitching the Livejournal MSAL in specialty stitches instead of cross-stitches and Growth Rings.  Once I finish stitching Growth Rings and the MSAL I have to re-order the fabric for Nick's Dragon so I can get that done before he gets home in August.  Then I can pick up on College of Magical Knowledge at home and the Christmas gifts I never actually finished as my travel projects.

New computer!

I have a new computer!  I'm playing on my new, little HP Pavilion dm3 right now.  I like this little guy.  It has a 13 inch screen, tons of memory and I haven't wanted to pitch it across the room yet.  I chose the computer WITHOUT a cd/dvd-rom.  It's external and this makes this sucker so light it's not even funny. 

Now, I just have to wait for my new version of Family Tree Maker and I can go wild at the library again.  I'm just not sure yet if I want to put iTunes on it or wait until I can afford another 1 TB hard drive.  The current plan is to take all extraneous stuff off the old computer, plunk it on a desk from which it shall never move and just use this one for my on-the-go computer.  The old one will be the gaming/movie/music computer.  I figure I'll add PCStitch to this one so I can design anywhere.  Basically, this one will be for research, though.

That's the plan, anyway.  We'll see how it goes.  I just have to avoid the temptation of ZooTycoon and Civ III, which I haven't been able to play on the other due to memory issues.  If I clear the huge database programs off the old one, though, I should have enough memory to use it for them.  I hope.

Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long and Growth Rings

Well, just for kicks I'm doing something called simply TUSAL (see title for translation).  We just display our ORT jars each New Moon to see the cool stuff we're all doing.  Thread, fabric, beads, yarn, needles and pins are all fair game as long as they are from your stitchy projects.  Here's mine (a bit late) for the March New Moon.

I decided to dress mine up a bit, so I stitched a Celtic knot for the jar lid and a little label for the jar.  Let's see, the major source of Orts right now is Growth Rings, with some threads from the MSAL I'm doing on my Livejournal group.

As for Growth Rings, here's what she looked like on the New Moon.

There's a sort-of new fabric store right next to White's Sewing Center that caters to quilters and I managed to find the perfect fabric to finish Growth Rings into a wall-hanging when I'm done with her.  If things go according to plan, that should be by the end of the month.

Gorgeous Men, Movies, Stitching and Sickness

I've been having a movie marathon today.  I started it and will be ending it with Bruce Greenwood.  Damn, that man is gorgeous.

Star Trek, The Pirate Movie, National Treasure and National Treasure 2

A few more days of prednisone and another week or so of antibiotics and maybe I'll actually feel well enough to go out on the weekend.  The good part is that I managed to stitch enough of Growth Rings to achieve the Bronze medal for our LiveJournal Stitching Olympics.  If I move my ass today and tomorrow I'll get the Silver.  I've even gotten part of the second page done for the Gold medal. 

I'll have to feel well (or at least decent) by Wednesday.  We're going to Celtic Women for Mom's birthday present.

Update

Wow.  Almost two months without a post.  I guess I should update a bit.  I confess to getting addicted to Farmville on facebook and just generally not bothering to get on the computer much in the past few months.

Anyway, for two, brief shining weeks I was a college student again.  My mother mentioned this to my family at Christmas and my brother's girlfriend warned me of something I hadn't thought about.  The college I was going to get my bachelor's degree through turns out not to be accredited by any of the groups accepted by the schools I wanted to go on to afterwards.  So, I disenrolled and am back to square one regarding school.  So much for the affordable option.  I'm back to trying to figure out how to afford Thomas Edison State College and still eat, pay for the bloody car, etc.

My brother is now deployed overseas again.  This time Mom and I got to say goodbye.  In a way I wish I hadn't gone.  He was all sorts of affectionate to his girlfriend (very nice, I like her a lot and hope she sticks) but basically ignored Mom and I.  I mean, he could have at least treated Mom with a bit more love.  I don't expect anything from him in the way of caring for myself, but not to give Mom any real attention was just wrong.  *sigh*  It's him, though.  I shouldn't have expected anything else.

Even being an asshole, he is my brother and if anything happens to the little shit I'll be devastated.  He'd better keep his head down and his butt covered.

I've gotten a new library card and have been using it often.  I'm currently reading The Great Influenza by John Barry.  It's really good.  I like the fact that he seems fair and is talking about both good moves and mistakes made by the government, military and medical people involved, as well as the civilians.  Out of curiosity I looked at some of the Scranton papers for the time and was amazed by the ads for the patent medicines all over the place.  The flu wasn't even the top story, even though Scranton was reporting a ton of deaths.  The war stayed the focus of the media and that's exactly what the government wanted.  They wanted the whole country working as a machine to support the war.  It's really interesting.

I still have to finish my Christmas gifts for a few friends since I just didn't feel like stitching the entire holiday season.  I also have to finish crocheting my Ravenclaw scarf for myself.  I have to restart from scratch my nephew's dragon since it somehow acquired a huge hole in an area I just can't fix.  Once I finish the book, I'll start stitching gifts again.

That's it.  Back to research since I'm at the library doing genealogy right now.

Fandom crocheting

Okay, I've been making myself a scarf for the winter (if it ever gets here!). It's a Ravenclaw scarf of Silver and Blue. Yes, yes, the books call for Bronze and Blue, but I like silver better, so there. I'll stick with the movies' interpretation on this one. Anyway, I figure I should make a hat and gloves to go with the scarf. I found a couple of patterns for gloves that I like. No problems there. The problem is the hat.

I thought I'd just go with a generic skully-type. I just came across this site, with instructions for a crocheted Jayne Cobb hat. I'm tempted. Oh, am I tempted. It's just that doing it in yellow, orange and red would totally clash with the scarf theme I've got going on right now. So, maybe in silver, blue and another color? Maybe a darker blue? Of course, I'm trying to stick with all recycled yarns, so that would limit my selection. Also, this particular pattern calls for chunky yarn and I haven't come across a recycled chunky yet. It really should be a simple hat, so maybe I could work it out myself...

Temptation and fandoms. Now, if I could just find a decent winter crochet pattern to bring in Star Trek, Doctor Who and Stargate, I'd be thrilled.

Fearless Vampire Killers

I'm watching Roman Polanski's Fearless Vampire Killers.  It has some funny moments, but in general this is a very unfunny movie.  I must just not get this humor.

Cake!

I baked a cake.  It's yellow cake with chocolate funfetti frosting.  It's GF and tastes good!  Betty Crocker has come out with yellow and chocolate cake, brownie and chocolate chip cookie mixes.  All GF and made in a dedicated facility.  Awesome!

Of course, me being the crummy (no pun intended) baker I am, I nearly ruined it.  I put the butter in the microwave to soften it and started mixing the ingredients before I remembered it was still in there! 

Next time, I'm thinking Vanilla-Apple Cake.  Mix our homemade apple sauce instead of water, maybe some dried apple bits added to the batter and top it with the cinnamon apple ice cream topping we sell at work.  I think I need to go down and slice myself a small piece of cake before bed.

I just got my iPod back and it has sound coming from both headphones!  Yay!  Oh, and got my phone fixed, too.  So, now back to writing since I didn't at all yesterday.  I still need to crash some day this week.  I'm so exhausted.

8.4%

NaNoWriMo - 8.4% complete, 4195 done, 45,805 more words to go.

One of the shorts is done.  Two others are started.  I think one is going to be longer than a short story, maybe middle range.  I guess it just depends on what trouble Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson get themselves into.  I'm not yet sure what the mark they found on the chest at Anthony Gethryn's house means, other than a plane ride to another continent.  At some point they or another character from Elysia is going to have to encounter flying monkeys and a trebuchet, though.

NaNoWriMo started

Off to a decent start so far. I surpassed the word goal for the day. We'll see how well I can keep it up. However, I have to go do some chores right now. Ugh! I love laundry, don't you?

Heaven and Earth Designs is evil, I tell you. Evil!

HAED is an evil design company. I found a new pattern I really really really want and Mom already has whatever my Christmas present is on layaway somewhere. WAH!

Except for Celtic Cross, this is just the stuff I like from what they've added in the last month. I need to win the Powerball so I can Stash and S.E.X. and then quit my job and do nothing but stitch and read.

Sanctuary of Knowledge - New top of my HAED wishlist
Audobon - I like this one, reminds me of a Klimt painting
My Pretty Blues - I like the smirk on this dragon
Faux Fabulous - What can I say other than, "It's a frog!"
Fablemaker - I want to cover my walls with every single one of James Christensen's designs!
Tinderbox - I have no clue why I like this one, I just do.
Pescatus Mechanicus - Erin, you have to look at this one! Atlantean Steampunk? Here's the artist's site: Ciro Marchetti
Medusa - I've always felt sorry for her and this is an amazing rendition
Dreams of Gaudi - So maybe Marchetti will join Christensen in my "Everything done by them" list


Mom would love this one: Celtic Cross

Anger = exercise

Found a way to inspire me to go to the gym: get me so furious I can't even relax enough to read or stitch to make myself calm down.  It worked yesterday.

cell phone happiness

My brother got my nephew a cell phone for his birthday. We've been swapping text messages lately and now we're swapping voice messages. I love those little buggers so much, even if my nephew's first conversation with me was him pulling a very successful prank on me.

Lists

I've been seeing 101 lists all over the place and some are extremely profound.  I'd like to make one of my own.  I know I make a list of goals for myself each birthday.  I rarely fulfill them.  I've been working on the damned driver's license forever now.  Things are happening right now in my family life that will probably mean I'll have to get it as soon as humanly possible, though.  More on that after the 1st, which is when all of the information will become available to me and decisions will have to be made.

I keep telling myself the gym is important and it is.  Following a strict Gluten-free diet.  Going back to school and actually making something of my life.  Writing a book.  Publishing it might be nice, but the writing of it most important.  Maybe sell some cross-stitch designs.  Learn ASL.  Relearn German. 

I need to sit down and really think about this.  I wonder what it will tell me about myself.

PCStitch woes

Okay, I'm frustrated.  I wanted to do a new design.  Since I now have my computer, I wanted to put PCStitch Pro 9 on it, which is on Mom's computer since this one was acting up when I got it.  The disc has disappeared so I tried to copy the files from one computer to the other and now not even the old version of PCStitch I had on here will work.  Argh!

Time for major fiddling to figure out what's wrong.

Cross-stitch update

I have some pictures to show off.  I have a teeny little finished piece of a scooter that I'm going to make into a magnet using some old Red Barons fridge magnets.  (Name removed to protect the guilty.)  The scooter was in one of last month's British mags, the name of which escapes me at the moment, except that it was supposed to be stitched in pinks.  Ugh!  So, I converted it to greens.

The next pictures are the WIPs I'm actively working on right now.  Herbs & Spices will be going to my cousin for Christmas and should be finished and framed by Halloween.  It's from a very old Cross Stitch & Country Crafts, October 1988, in fact.

This is Crescent Dragon from Joan Elliott's Bewitching Cross-Stitch for my nephew.

And this is Growth Rings by the designer Ink Circles.  It was in one of the American magazines a few months ago.  I can track it down if someone wants to know.  I'm using DMC 4130 and 4140.

Stargate cross-stitch geekdom

One of my fellow stitchers on the LiveJournal Cross-Stitch community made a gorgeous design based on the stained-glass windows from Stargate: Atlantis.  I am so damned tempted to make a large design of the windows myself.  Not like I don't have a million other things to do, right?

Yippee Skippy!

I have my computer back and running!  She's awesome.  I've already done some research at the library and updated my iPod finally.

Now my goal is to clean all the sundry stuff off it and stash it and iTunes on my external hard-drive so my baby runs faster.  Life is good and it's time for me to get off the computer so I can finish cinnamon on my Herbs & Spices sampler.

Stashing

You know, maybe fixing my computer will be a bad thing. Using Mom's once or twice a week or so cuts down on the time I spend looking for more stash. I just made a wish list on 123 Stitch. Eep! It's huge.

But I'll let my family know about it anyway, just in case one of them wants to buy something on it for me. ;p

Saving change makes me happy...

I have enough saved to fix my computer finally! Yay! And it's all saved out of change, which I'll admit to dipping into on more than one occasion. Now to send the computer off on Monday and hopefully see it back here by the middle of next week.

Okay, time to get off the computer and actually do some chores.

We have a new car.  It's a copper Pontiac Sunfire, stick shift.  It'll be interesting to learn to drive on, if not as easy it would have been on the Civic.  I still don't want to learn how to drive.

Test post from mobile phone.

My Dragon ate my car and I had to kill both.

Well, we've lost the car.  It died last night while we were taking the kids home from another failed attempt to play miniature golf at the Red Barn Village in Clarks Summit.  It feels like everything is going wrong lately.  I can't afford to go to Dragon*Con.  I'm going to use the money saved in my special jar to fix my computer.  As for this PIA computer, I just spent an hour or two cleaning caches and getting rid of unneeded programs and such to clean up its performance.

I have a headache.

Beaker - Ode to Joy

You gotta love Beaker from the Muppets.

And just for fun, it's old, but still very cool.

Six Degrees of Star Trek

I've decided I need some sleep.  For the last two days at work, I have been amusing myself and keeping myself from falling asleep) by playing a Star Trek version of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon".  Strangely and scarily enough, I haven't failed to match a person with Star Trek yet.  I even managed to connect Bela Lugosi.  Bela played in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, which has Vincent Price as The Invisible Man, who also played the inventor in Edward Scissorhands with Winona Ryder, who played Amanda Grayson in the newest movie.  So, Bela to Vincent Price to Winona Ryder.  Not bad.

Wendy told me I need a new hobby.  I told her I just need a nap.  I'm just too damned tired to sleep.  I watch too much TV.

Crochet fun stuff

Being newly hooked (no pun intended) on crochet, I've been looking at everything I can do with it. Here's something that looks like fun. It's a crocheted coral reef. briging together awareness of the dismal state of the coral reefs in the world, crochet and mathematics. How awesome is that?

Various amigurumi pages:
Flickr amigurumi pool
Star Trek Voyager cast
Spockboy Sackboy
Star Trek Mirror Universe cast
Harry Potter Trio
A dragon I like
Lemmings!

Iranian elections

Those saying our government needs to get involved in the election of Iran need to read this from Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic.

Bull vs. matador: Bull won

Apparently, a Spanish matador was gored during a bullfight on May 27th. AOL filed it under gruesome sports injuries. All I could say was good for the bull and too bad he missed the guy's heart. In the picture you can see blood all over the bull's hide from the swords sticking out of him. Sounds to me like a little payback was in order.

Star Trek Cross Stitch!

I found something online I really have to share: Star Trek cross-stitch!  She even shared the pattern.

Busy days - work, play and Star trek

I really do exist. Besides work, I've been doing a lot of crochet and glue gunning lately. The crochet for a friend's birthday and Mom's incipient Belle's Blankets and the glue gunning and quilting for a friend's wedding accessories.

Here's a picture of the accessories. I used white, blue and brown ribbon with freshwater button pearls as accents. For the pillow and book I quilted one layer with a design all involved seemed to like from the book 1,000 Great Quilting Designs using DMC 938 and 827. Thankfully, for my sanity's sake, they loved everything...and it was a beautiful wedding, full of laughter - perfect for them.

Here's my version of Dave the Barbarian's pet dragon Faffy. I used the pig design from the book Toys to Crochet and just kind of "winged" it for the alterations I had to make to make it a dragon. Thank the gods for felt. The wings are orange felt in a vague wing-shape stitched onto pipe cleaners and sewn like there's no tomorrow into the back of the dragon. The patches are just single crocheted circles sewn onto his back. Horns are rolled up tubes of felt, sewn like crazy and the eyes, tongue and nose are glue-gunned onto him. Ben really liked it and actually recognized it without any prompting.

As for Belle's Blankets (named after Grandma), Mom wants to start a group of people that make afghans and throws for the vets at the VA hospitals around here. I figure I'll do a massive granny square and use up the rest of some of the skeins of yarn I've managed to collect in the past couple of months. Oh, I also have my Grim Reaper nearly finished. He needs his accessories and a face. I'll take a picture of him when he's finished. For an idea of what he should look like, check out the lower left-hand corner of the cover of Creepy Cute Crochet. Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to alter Cthulu to make him into a Ood for Dragon*Con. It shouldn't be too hard. Oh, I also get to try to catch up on my neglected stitching.

Mom broke her ankle and my new camera on Easter. It's healing nicely and I had to buy another new camera, which is regrettably bubble-gum pink but will do what I need it to do. She's healing fine. We got new cell phones and numbers. I've somehow managed to resist killing my co-workers these last two weeks. Did I mention I got my driver's permit on Friday? We'll see how long it takes for Mom to nag me about the lessons. I may have a week's grace. I also saw Star trek on Friday. It was really good. I'm still in a little shock over some things they did with it, but it was really good. Go see it!