TIAS Day7

TIAS Day 7:

Continuing to say Oink. (But leaving a small possibility that this could be a Sheep!) (Baa!)

And for a little fun, a conversation this morning at my house:

Curly (who's supposed to be cleaning up bathrooms): Mom, there's cat poop on the carpet in front of your bedroom door.
Me: What!?! What are you talking about?
Curly: Yeah, there's a steaming pile of poop!
Me: Then clean it up.
Curly: That's not my job!
Me: Clean it up.
Curly: That's Moe's job!I don't clean up poop!

*pause*

Curly: Oh wait, that's not cat poop, that's panty hose.

 And so it goes..

TIAS Day 6

My results so far:

Oink. Just sayin'.

Oh - I forgot to mention that I had put a widget with all my patterns on it. Look to the right on the blog. Look for My Designs - you'll find it.

In other news:

Filming is going on around my office. Did you know that the state of Georgia is the #3 place for filming in our country? My guess is California and New York are the top two spots. Lots of TV shows and movies film here. The area near my office has been in a number of lesser films, and a spot close to home was in the opening sequence of a zombie themed TV series.

I have no idea what this filming is for. Maybe the vampire series that films here. Do vampires drink coffee?

Vader thinks he's a movie star. "I'm ready for my closeup, Mr DeMille."

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful," sez he. Damn, he's a fat cat. Worthless.

Tonight - off to watch Archer!! This is from last week, when Burt Reynolds was on it.

TIAS Days 4 & 5

I've been tatting Jane's TIAS (Tat It And See for you non-tatters), and have finished Days 4 and 5. Here are my guesses:

Would you fly away, in my beautiful balloon? Or..

I'm still sticking with my first guess - it's a pig!

 

I saw this gorgeous sunset on the way home the other day. Today won't be so pretty. It's been raining for some time. My drive in to work today was not pleasant.

This is what I'd rather be doing today. See how happy Sophie and Cisco are on my messy bed? So warm and comfy. Instead, I'm working on 1099's for my company.

And here is Vader in his preferred spot, perched on my chair in my home office. He has a good view of the world there (and of a tatted heart Jane made). No real work for him!

Now Jane, how about Day 6?

TIAS 2012 Days 2 & 3

I'm still working on Jane's TIAS. Part of the fun is guessing what it is.

Day 2 - Is it a train?

Day 3 - how about a dragon? (Do ya like my fine drawing skills? I should have an exhibition!)

In other news, DH came into my home office/tatting room looking for some container. Like most of you tatters and crafty folk, I have a bunch of decorative metal boxes that I use to hold supplies. He has a bunch of hat and lapel pins he's collected over the years, and he was looking for a place to keep them.Could he have one of mine? Sure, if you can find an empty one.

DH looked in my containers and seemed very surprised that I had stuff in all of them. (I'm only showing you a few of these - I have a zillion.) Imagine that - I have stuff that fills my containers! Am I the only person like this? I don't think so....

In good news, DH is back at work today. First day since late October. He's watched everything on Netflix and cleaned out things he shouldn't have (like my bathroom sink - no!) and made a lot of bread and read books and got really really bored. Plus this has drained our finances, so I'm SO glad he's better. Life should be better.

Here's a sunset I saw Friday - isn't it gorgeous?

TIAS 2012 Day1

I'm doing Jane's Tat It And See, and I suggest you do too. Find it here.

Here's Day One. Hmm... What will it be? Who knows - that Jane's a wily old git!

The comfy chair & progress on TIAS

It's not just Vader who enjoys my comfy tatting chair.

Cisco is trying to claim the spot too. He looks pretty good there too. He's looking at me with kitty love and curling his paw in happiness. Purrrrrr

I made another little basket, an oval one this time. I'm using it to keep remotes in our family room. (We've got a buncha remotes - who doesn't?) These baskets are so much fun!

The minivan that we gave Curly has finally bought the farm. (An aside: I loved watching "A Boy And His Dog" years ago and hearing Jason Robards flatly sentence people to "The Farm.") The van's transmission is kaput and it's not worth fixing. Damn. So we are looking at what we might do next, and how to dispose of the carcass in the most economical fashion. Curly still is unemployed and has been job hunting on the moped, something he despises. Plus. it's kinda cold to be riding it - winter, remember? We may be able to purchase a used vehicle from a relative. We don't have much cash to spend, so Curly may be stuck with the moped for a while. He has been behaving better though. And Saturday he asked me to make him an appointment with his psychiatrist so that he can go back on his medication. Miracle of miracles! Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

I don't expect we're done with the Curly drama, but he does seem to be making some forward progress. I'm eternally grateful for anything positive.

On another note, my blogger friend Melissa has written a lovely blog post on prayer. She talks about it in conjunction with changes in the regimen for her young son, Mr T, who has a form of epilepsy. Check it out here; she speaks the truth.

And I'm still working on the TIAS. Here's result for days 6 & 7, tatted today at lunch. Is it a lizard with funky toes? A type of gecko? I don't think it's an aeroplane any more.

Toodles...

TIAS and other things

What have I been doing? I have been tatting a bit.

Here's the results through Day 5 of TIAS. I obviously picked beads way to small for aeroplane windows. Because this is obviously the back end of an airplane.

I've been crocheting baskets. This one is for an old college buddy of mine. I like these and may make a bunch more.

Saturday, I took Moe to his interview for the IB program. He seems to think it went well, and he enjoyed meeting all the friendly current students. We won't hear from the program until March. Keep your fingers crossed!

I've been very busy at work. Fortunately, the weather has been a bit better here in Hotlanta than in other places, so my drive in is not horrendous.

This lovely sky greated me this morning before I got on the interstate. What have you been up to?

Snow free and TIAS

I am happy to report that Hotlanta is back to its normal winter self, that the roads and lawns are free of snow, children are back in school, and I am back at work. The State School Board gods have blessed Moe and his ilk by allowing them NOT to have to make up 4 of their 5 snow days. Moe rejoices.

I have been doing Jane's TIAS. TIAS, for you non-tatters, is Tat It And See, a little game where Jane gives pattern instructions in bits and pieces, and we follow along, trying to guess what the end product will be. It's kind of fun, and Jane always teaches us a new technique as part of the game.

This is after 3 days. The threads are navy and pearly gray Lizbeth. My guess - a submarine. Or maybe part of a coat, the sticky-up part being an arm. The long picots below are to have beads on them. What do you think?

In other news, Saturday morning Moe is interviewing for the IB school. I hope, hope, hope he gets in. He should do fine in the interview - he's outgoing and charming, and deals with adults very well. Cross your fingers.

Curly news. Believe it or not, Curly is currently staying at our house, under strict orders to behave. Why? Because 1) his car is not working, in the shop with some major issues, 2) he is jobless and therefore has no money, 3) he has no place to stay (I found that he had sometimes been sleeping in his car in Walmart parking lots), and 4) it's winter, and I can't have my kid be really and truly homeless in winter. I mean, it's been deadly cold here! We've told him we will help him with the car expenses IF he can behave and follow the rules. He seems contrite so far, so we shall see.

I'm trying to be hopeful about all things. DH is in Florida all this week for work, so my kitties have been snuggling with me. And I'm cheered by many things, like this gorgeous sky seen as I drove in. God is good...

toodles...

I'm crowing

I finished Jane's TIAS.  Here is the result:

This is Norman, Jane's rooster.  If I make him again, I'll make his neck feather's a lot fluffier. and his leg skinnier.

TIAS was fun.  Jane always adds some cool techniques.  This one showed two good ways to add thread into tatting.  Jane also gave patterns for Norman's wife and kids.  Cute, huh?

Tho I am disappointed this was not a guy and his wobbly bits, as I had proposed previously.  (Jane likes to make people too.  Just not naked people.)

And this is another little something I've tatted recently - a butterfly from LadyShuttlemaker's new book, The Exquisite Collection of Tatted Butterflies Volume II.  I test tatted Lily (that's her name) for Sherry - isn't she pretty?  She's all done in Lizbeth, size 20.  I couldn't show her to you until now, as the book is out and available.  She's a sweet tat too.  Go get the book!

Curly is safe at home.  We've had some major issues, but this too will pass.  Or it won't.  Several times yesterday, he told me, "Mom, I f^*%ing straight up hate you."  And I said (flatly, no reaction), "OK."  He's still mad at me today, just not quite as much.

Guess it IS me.

Coming soon - a giveaway!

Breakfast and TIAS

This was my breakfast.  Really.

A hard boiled free range suburban DUCK egg.  That's a penny next to it.  The egg was big.  But it tasted the same as a regular egg.

We gave out free range suburban chickens to my SIL.  She also has ducks, and she shared. Mmmm

On the home front, Larry is employed again.  Not as an EMT - he's still waiting on paperwork to get his state license - but as an overnight stocker at the local grocery.  Hey, it's work. And he's grateful to have it.

I'm working on producing 1099's for my company.  This is part of my regular duties.  I've done 1099's at lots of places.  (For you outside the States, 1099's are a record of types of income outside of earnings.  Contractors get them, also any payments for injury, attorney's fees, etc.)  Kinda tedious, but satisfying when they get done.  I've never come close to being late with producing 1099's.  But years ago I worked at a place that did - really late.  And to avoid the substantial fine they would have to pay, the company illegally backdated a postage meter and dated all the 1099's with an earlier date.  Bad. 

Things are tough at my firm now.  Because of a significant drop in our major revenue source, we are having to cut our current department budget by 27%.  At the moment, my job is safe.  But other departments are having big layoffs, and if we have to cut more, we could have layoffs too.  I'm trying not to think of this.

I did TIAS Day 7.

I think it is FIREWORKS.  Boom!

I'm looking forward to tatting Jon's Chinese Coin Bookmark.  It looks so good....  And now I'm watching Archer....  It's so bad!

Sky and stooges

This is picture heavy - I apologize in advance.  I Like To Share.

Sunrise driving in today.  Not quite red sky at morning. 

Not enough red to Take Warning.  And I'm no sailor.

Really more orange here, driving into the city.  Or as my family says jokingly, "Ernge."

The Stooges were cracking me up at supper tonight.  Curly was berating me for telling someone about how narcissistic Mr. Curly is (this is the guy who looks in the mirror almost daily and says, "Damn, I'm good looking!").  So he called me mommy meany pants and a poo-poo head.  Mind you, Curly is not 5.  He is 17.  He's just silly.  Then all the boys started calling each other silly names.  "Doo-doo face!" "Monkey head!"  I love it when they kid with each other.  Peace in the world.

In the interest of being environmentally friendly, my company has eliminated paper towels from all the restrooms in my building.  The paper has been replaced by motion-activated hot air blowers, two per restroom.  These things are AWESOME.  They must be bolted into the wall fiercely, because the durn things are like jet engines.  I kid you not.  They displace your flesh when they blow.

See the fleshy-flesh being moved?  Can you FEEL THE POWER?  And they are REALLY LOUD.

Whew.  I'm glad that noise has stopped.

I told the Stooges that they are not allowed to come to my office on account of these blowers.  I know what they would do.  They would put their faces under the blowers and let their lips fly in the wind, deforming their faces gleefully.  They are bad.

Over the long weekend, Moe went camping with his Scout troup in the southern part of our state.  I think he had a good time, but it was hard to tell.  Moe has become cynical at an early age.  He called me several times while he was gone to tell me of his exploits, and I asked him if he was having a good time. "Define 'good time', Mom," he said.  He's trying to be disdainful and erudite, but not succeeding.  13 year olds have their own way about them - one must never appear to adults to be enjoying one's self.  I think he enjoyed it in spite of himself.

For your own good time, I recommend you watch this, which is entirely safe for children to see:


The sky was lovely tonight coming home.  Blues, pinks, lavenders, oranges.  All painted on the dome above.

Very transient, and oh so beautiful.  Takes my breath away.

And everyone rushes by unaware.

And I go home....

I need day 7 of TIAS, Jane - where is it?

More TIAS - days 5 and 6, plus the Curly show

I have the day off from work for MLK day.  Curly and Moe have no school.  But it is quiet here in the house.  Curly and Larry are still unconscious, DH is at work, and Moe is on a Boy Scout camping trip and will return late this afternoon.

I have finished days 5 and 6 of Jane's TIAS.  Here's what I've got so far:

I sent Jane a comment on what I thought it was after day 5. I will spare you the details.  But here's a hint - it involved personal wobbly bits.  And not on MY person.  Jane got a BIG laugh at my guess, and then had to go have a glass of wine to calm herself.  Hee!

On the home front.....

Curly recently told me that his New Year's resolution was to give up drugs and alcohol.  (Yes, I know. Ugh.)  And we went got the results from a drug test that was run over the holiday - positive for marijuana (which we knew about), negative for everything else.  This was a test run by a lab, not one of those tests you buy at the store, so I'm confident and very pleased with the results.

A bit of background info here.  While my side has mental health issues going back to the 1850's (I'm serious), DH's side of the family has chemical dependancy issues.  His brother is a recovering alcoholic and now twenty years sober.  But I saw him when he was drinking and it wasn't pretty.  DH's maternal grandmother was an active alcoholic until she died.  She once came to our house and drank everything we had.  His maternal aunt was a herion addict in the 70's, and I'm told that his paternal grandfather was an alcoholic.

So my children are definitely at risk for chemical dependancy.  I've tried to be really up front about this with them, pulling them aside to tell them of their family history and how vulnerable it makes them.  That they need to be extra careful if they drink, beacuase for them it's going to be very easy to go down that road to addiction.

I really don't drink.  I don't have anything against it, I'm just not interested.  I had a glass of wine with my Thanksgiving dinner and that's the only thing I've had in over a year.  I'm fine with wine with a meal, or a glass or two here and there, or a beer or whatever.  DH drinks socially, mostly with his friend Bubba, who comes over some after work.  (Bubba is not happy at home, and tries to get home LATE.)  My family has always had wine with meals.  So I'm ok with alcohol, I'm just not interested enough to drink much myself.

Saturday in the car, Curly confessed to me (he brought it up) that before New Year, he had been drinking every other day for some long time.  Curly is 17, way to young to legally buy anything.  I asked him how he got it, and he wouldn't tell me.  (All of our liquor is in a locked box in DH's office, also locked.)  I suspect he gets it from various buddies, mostly from his neighborhood buddy T.  T and Curly got into legal trouble with alcohol their sophomore year in high school, and I know T has a drinking problem.  His parents are in denial of this. 

So Curly tells me about this and I freeze.  I'm trying to be non-reactive, the thing I've found works best when he's confessing these things.  I want him to feel free to tell me what's going on with him so I have to be flat in my reactions.  But inside I was panicking and saying OMG OMG OMG OMG!  I try and gently get more information, where does he get the alcohol.  He doesn't give me much.  What he says is that he hasn't had anything to drink in three & a half weeks and he's really proud of himself.  So I say I'm proud of him too.  (Inside: OMG OMG OMG!)  And the conversation trickles off.

So prayers are needed that Curly can resist this and maintain.  We recently added another type of SSRI medicine to his daily mix, and I'm hoping it will help him.  And I don't want to over react.  It's important that he feels like he can talk to me, so I can help him.  He doesn't talk to DH this way at all.  I just pray for continued strength and wisdom for both of us.  But this really frightens me.

Now - baby pictures!

Here's my new neice.  She has the family long toes.  And so much hair!  She was 7 lbs 11 oz, 20", born Thursday night via C-section.

Mom and baby are doing great.  She has her mama's nose and her daddy's mouth.

Babies are so sweet.  They feel and smell so good!  And I'm glad to hand them back to their parents.  Benn there, done that, can't get rid of them!

Funny story with this baby and her parents.  Mom has offered to come and help immediately - my brother lives in Boston.  She came when my kids were born and she was GREAT - did everything needed, not intrusive, wonderful, a godsend.  But my brother and his wife are being stupid.  (FYI - her mother is dead and she has no family here.)  They don't want Mom to come until about a week after they get home from the hospital.  And this after an emergency c-section!  They claim they have their "own local resources to help".  HA!  When I told my Sunday School class about this, everyone fell over laughing.  They'll be sorry......

toodles..