And then This Happened...

I was going to tempt you with some tatting I've been designing...

Or tell you about the lovely gift I got from Wendy...



Lovely tatting! So pretty!

Or even tell you about the terrific place I went on a business trip, staying at the Biltmore Estate..



My room at the Inn on Biltmore Estate

But then this happened.

 

And if you're wondering - yes, that's my house. On fire.

 

Here it is now.

It's a total loss. Nothing is left. The house had been almost 3000 sq ft, plus a full basement. And lots of stuff in it.

 

But there were good things.

 

First - no one was home. This happened Friday morning, I got the call about 9:45 am. I was at work, DH was out of town, Larry lives in Florida now (he's really upset but is ok), Curly was at work, and Moe was at school. So no one was in the house, and we are all safe.

 

And we have insurance to cover us. The insurance company is putting us up in a hotel, has given us a decent advance on expenses, and is finding a house for us to rent while we are out of our home.

 

Plus all my friends, family, neighbors, and church family have jumped in to help, bringing money and gift cards and food and clothes and we have many offers of furniture and appliances for us. Folks are falling all over themselves to help us.

 

And my employer is being so great and supportive during this. My boss's boss insisted on following me home to make sure I was ok, and told me not to worry about work until I got things situated.

 

So, in many ways we are so very lucky.

 

But we lost all the pets.

 

It was 11 degrees F (-11.5 C) that morning, and we had all the animals inside. We are responsible pet owners. But now all our pets are gone.

 

 

My Cisco.

 

 

Mr. Vader.

 

 

My beautiful Lily.

 

Plus the dogs - Rocket and Abby,

 

and Curly's kitten Daisy.

The boys are sad. I'm sad. But we have to comfort ourselves knowing that the smoke probably got to them, and they just went to sleep. They didn't suffer.

They were darling pets. They will be missed beyond words.

We will be ok. God made me a tough lady who keeps her head in emergencies. Do not stress over me. We are being cared for. We will be made whole again.

We will be ok. Really we will.

I needed new flooring in my kitchen. Guess I'll get it now, huh?


PS I've already bought two shuttles and some Lizbeth. You can't keep a good tatter down!

Last days at old job and a new bag

Elvis has left the building. I am now free of my old gig. And Monday I start my new one. Hurrah!

I have to say - I went out on a high note. I gave appropriate notice before leaving (that's two weeks here in the States) and I did excellent turnover of my responsibilities. I spent a lot of time documenting what I did and then I trained people on my old duties. And I think there was some appreciation of what I had been doing.

For example, while going over one large section of my work, my immediate supervisor's eyes started to bulge and then glaze over while he began to comprehend what I was doing. In the past, the guy (who's really very nice) had done basically nothing to supervise me. The sum total of his supervision was to ask me for a report that I gave monthly to my user community, and to ask me to write my own performance evaluation. Really. So he was a little taken aback once he was forced to pay more attention. Heh.

But in the end I turned over everything and no more questions came.

And then there was cake.

My director threw a little party for me, inviting all of the department for cake and ice cream. (The cake was roughly the size of an air craft carrier deck. The leftovers stayed at work.) Some very nice things were said, and I was especially surprised when I received a lovely card signed by the group. And there was money inside, a group gift!! Woo-hoo!! How nice!

And then there were balloons.

Balloons from Accounting

The next day - my last day - my group took me out to eat. They also invited a number of my client base, who came bearing balloons and gifts and cards. And questions like "Who's going to help us now?" When I told them, their faces fell. Oh Dear.

But everyone was super nice and hugged me and congratulated me. And I went on. Time for the new job!

I do feel very good about the way my old job ended up. Sometimes people can't wait to push you out the door. But not this time. What a lovely thing...

And after I ended up at my old job, I found a cool new toy.

For those of you who have a Aldi near you, they have this great rolling bag now for $15. It's nylon and has outside pockets and a top that zips and a long collapsible handle. It would be great as a tatting bag (especially at conferences) or a bag for travel. It's the right size for using as carry on for airline travel too. It comes in several colors - go get one now! I'm going to decorate mine with tatting.

Next week - new job! Hurrah!
 

Some Miscellany

I'm trying to get my head around being back after the fun of Tat Days. I'm in post-Tat Days letdown.

It was great. Really great. But now I've had to jump head first into work, and we are REALLY busy there, including testing on the weekend and fixing problems prior to going to a huge new release of the software package I deal with. Oh well, it makes the time go fast!
 
On the way back from Tat Days, I had the pleasure of Nina Libin's company. Nina is so sweet, and she is a phenomenal tatter, plus a smart, inventive lady. It was a great treat.

One of the things I found out is that Nina's work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Periodically the museum will have an exhibit of the work of staff and volunteers, many of whom are fine artists in their own right. Nina does some work there in the book conservation department.

This is the work Nina exhibited. It is a tatted book cover she made for a friend who published a book, created to be photographed as the book jacket. It's made of the fine silver thread plus tiny purple beads that Nina is so fond of. The writer declared this a piece of art on its own - and I agree.

In the mean time, I've made another set of earrings. This has no doodad in the middle like the prior pair, but does use the same HDT by Karey, plus a super cute charm. I'm wearing them to church tomorrow.

I have been the recipient of a large gift of Workbasket magazines from the 70's, 80's and 90's. A lovely lady in Texas found these magazines in her late mother's things, and wanted to pass them on to someone who would enjoy them. I'm so lucky!

In home news, Lily is acclimating herself well into our household. The other cats don't hiss at her quite as much. And she is making her own fun.

Do you have this sort of toy in your house for your cat? DH created something equally fun - and cheaper - for Lily to play with.

Behold - instead of ball in a ring, it's ball in a basket! All you need is a round laundry basket and a light weight ball, like a ping pong ball. Lily is all over this.

Hope your weekend is good!