... is people!

Just watched the movie, because sometimes I get on a weird kick and have to see some old SF ... <g>. There's some I still want to get, but ...

Rain? Yes, rain. Hmm. I guess I didn't pay attention to weather reports. Hrm ... don't need to go anywhere, so that's at least something.

The Harry & David folk's website screwed up my order, but a quick visit to their customer service site and it appears to be fixed. Whew.

Looking at box o'slides, and realizing that I need to really look at these. This box of slides was handed to Juan and Rose at Investiture by an anonymous person. They handed it to me. Some of what's in here may be completely unrelated, some of it looks like Ren Faire ... the hard part is that without actually scanning them it's hard to tell. However, I have a slide viewer that I am just loading with batteries, and I will take a look ...

ETA: Um, none of these are SCA slides. They go back to 1968/1973, two sets are Ren Faire, and one is "Waterfront Faire" (held in San Francisco). Interesting to look at, but totally useless for the SCA History website ... sigh.

(On the plus side, I think I know how to run the slide part of my scanner now, although I haven't actually scanned anything with it ...)

Got all of Dierdriana's stuff gone through. I deleted a bunch of photos as being hard-to-tell-who-is-in-them ... and so on. Have the rest up on the History site now. Whew.

Time for the annual address-book update and holiday card extravaganza! Please respond with your address -- comments are screened for your protection.

Was very nice.

We drove up to Sac, with only a couple of slow bits on the freeway (which was weird) ... one of them caused by lookie-loos at the site of an accident (fender bender from what we could tell). The idiot woman behind me (tailgating, swerving to the left to see what she could see around me ...) finally got a chance after we passed the accident to go away (and stop endangering us!).

Got there about an hour after planned. Oh well. Traffic is.

Had a pleasant time. Dinner was ... well, what we tend to expect (pretty traditional Turkey Dinner). Good food. Good chats. Met part of the step-father-in-law's extended family (his brother's daughter and her family ... she was at the memorial, don't recall if her husband was, I seem to recall meeting her before but I can't remember).

Left there about 7ish and drove home. Took care of taking out the trash (weekly chore), pet the cats, cleaned up a couple things, watched Dark City because ... I felt like it.

Herself is staying in Sacramento with her sister to spend the day at the SFIL's going through her mom's stuff ... will be back Saturday morning (time to unwind a bit, and get our stuff together for the Orphan's Thanksgiving party at stella_nordica's ...).

I intend to spend time trying to catch up on some projects tomorrow. Now for bed.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving day ...

TUESDAY

Was up and dressed doing dishes when Sash called; I was supposed to have picked him up for a dentist appointment and I spaced it. He was able to call to get in a little later and I left the dishes soaking while I hustled myself out the door. After we had the appointment out of the way we made stops at Office Depot and Hancocks. He says I'm a bad influence as he bought three hunks 'o fabric instead of the one he'd planned.

Leofwyna had a holiday party to go to tonight. Athome alone so I did three loads of laundry.

WEDNESDAY

I hit the 50% sale at Salvation Army this afternoon and came home with two summer tops, a pair of good black dress shoes and a dozen cotton shirts for quilting. Tonight I made up a Cola-Cherry jello salad for tomorrow then I worked on piecing up a couple more sample quilt tops.

THURSDAY

Went to Sash and Rich's for Thanksgiving dinner with Briganza, Niahm and Tomas. Sash does a lovely moist turkey and fixings and we stuffed ourselves thoroughly. Back at home tonight I worked up a couple more tops. My Rubbermaid tub overflows but I think there'll be an end to this eventually. Now I've got to go up and cook the giblets so Leofwyna can make gravy for our turkey here tomorrow evening.

Turkey with current stuffing, homemade lemon merigine pie (from lemon tree), pumpkin pie (fresh pumpkin from October), apple pie (from apple tree), homemade butter and homemade cheese. Lovely dinner at home, just the two of us. Watched Ice Age 3, Angels & Demons and G.I.Joe. And J even did 6 loads of dishes to keep things caught up in between cooking. He's a keeper.

The turkey I ordered from the local farm was the smallest free-range bird they'd managed to grow this year--15.47# and well more than I'd been expecting. It's been in the oven, stuffed with French bread, local celery and onion, home-made chicken stock and home-grown sage, for the past two hours. There are cranberry poppy seed bread and corn muffins and chocolate-covered pretzels on the table. Have just made peanut-butter stuffed dates--a family tradition.

And we watched "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" on Youtube:

Since I can't hug each and every one of you personally today, please know that I'm honored to call all of you my friends.

DISCLAIMER: The owner of this journal is not endorsing the use or abuse of alcoholic beverages, either directly, indirectly, implicitly, inferentially or ecumenically. Drinking to excess is dangerous and mature adults should not engage in such reckless conduct. Additionally, the owner of this journal is not making light of alcoholism or addiction in general, nor is the owner mocking or making fun of individuals who have over-imbibed, either situational-ly/anecdotal-ly or as part of a pattern or course of conduct. Furthermore, the owner of this journal is not attempting to preach, proselytize or educate. This video ia just a funny video. The conducted depicted in the video can be somewhat dangerous at times, but it is nevertheless funny. If you take yourself way too seriously, perhaps you shouldn't click on the link. In fact, if you have any fear at all about being "holier than though," nothing to see here, just keep moving, the show is over.

I know some of the folk on my FList will have seen this on either etaine_pommier and/or mermaidinblack's posts, but ... this is a riot if you like the original (maybe even if you don't). The only thing I can think of that beats it is Weird Al Yankovic's Bohemian Polka (the original song done to a Polka with accordion ...).



ETA: Here are some links I saved to other Muppet YouTube videos ...:

House of 1,000 Muppets
Pulp Muppets
The Bear Wit Project

There's probably a lot more out there.

I've suffered with a sore throat since Sunday evening and sinus pain since Monday with discharge since Tuesday morning... called into the doctor yesterday afternoon and meds are available for pick-up this afternoon. Yesterday evening after my evening ride (Sedona did remarkably well in half shadow/half light that is the outdoor arena), I did my final shopping for Thanksgiving. I need to be able to bake a couple of pumpkin pies tonight for my boyz and do some light house-keeping to clear out the dining room. Thanksgiving Turkey Lunch for the family on Thursday: mixed stock soup with meatballs and pastinas, turkey breast, ravioli stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy... and after cleaning up, driving to Southern California... and on Friday and Saturday, there's that whole Disneyland thing!

I finished my first piece using the klosterstitch technique (I am planning on doing another piece using different ct linen). As those of you who know me, I keep trying a technique until I get it correct. This piece did work up quickly, but my yarn is a tad too wide for the material used. All in all, I do not think it is "that bad" for my first attempt at learning a new technique. Hopefully my next piece will be better.

I thought I would pass this along, particularly with the holiday shopping season coming up – be careful when ordering from most merchants out there – there is a nasty and insidious practice happening that can cause a merchant to be allowed to take $10-$30 per month from your credit card …:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10403767-261.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

The article is interesting in that this has been going on for over 10 years with some merchants. (Of course, one wonders where the press and oversight has been …)

Hope you find this interesting and useful.

To my protege who soars confidently in her own sky... or any other sky for that matter... happy birthday Arianwen and many happy returns!*



*By the way, I just noticed that this didn't get posted yesterday because I am so STUPID... as such, happy belated birthday to my protege. I am a disaster when it comes to the internetz.

Seriously, there must be something in the air or in the water.

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Yesterday, I found out that another co-worker picked up a DUI after an evening out last Friday. If all of the fines, fees and costs (insurance, attorney and otherwise), someone in my position can lose their job or lose a pay grade over a DUI. It would appear that this individual didn't do anything stupid like "badge" the arresting officer or take a swing at the arresting officer. I know that the individual made a mistake, but I feel for them. Driving under the influence is dangerous to oneself and everyone else on the roadway... and it is for that reason that we treat it so seriously... and driving a motor vehicle is dangerous enough, but I feel for the individual all the same.

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Had dinner with an old friend last night. Funny, but even though we don't hang out as much as we used to, we had a good time drinking chianti and eating penne pasta with meat sauce... and we had a blast. The fact is, we are getting older and the evening was over by 8:30 p.m. because he lives out of the area. Nevertheless, it was great to have him over and it just underscores how we end up getting too busy and missing that oh so important "friend time" that gives our lives that warmth.

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Went to lunch today with another old friend who used to work in my office. I recently had occasion to pick his brain over a civil matter a few months ago and we've been to lunch twice at my favorite Chinese place. While we could only afford an hour, it was good to visit about old times and talk about what is going on with our families. He has three sons where I have two sons and a daughter.

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Speaking of teen girls, I just about died when I saw my daughter wearing her "home-coming" dress. It's hem was above the knee and it was sleeveless. I'm obviously becoming a cranky old dad. Seriously, she had a great time with a girl-friend.. going to dinner and then going without dates to the dance. She's very confident and she is so not boy crazy. For all of the flashy blond hair, the sapphire blue eyes and a figure that should be covered by yards and yards of heavy dark fabric (speaking as her dad), she really enjoys being a home-body.

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Speaking of enjoying hearth and home, I savor each and every moment with the kids. Sometimes I feel guilty about spending time away from them (SCA, horse stuff and down time with friends), but I feel like all of those aspects of my life makes me a better human being and a better dad. I just wish they liked the SCA.

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Thanksgiving meal is planned out and under control.

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D-Land will be relaxing and slow paced.

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I think I have a sinus infection... call placed to doctor for meds... don't want to be sick in D-Land.

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For a little bit of holiday humor...

...and many happy returns, Your Grace!

I am learning klosterstitch from a friend in Drachenwald. I should have worked on something larger, to get the technique down better, but as usual, I started something small. I am making a guild badge (Drachenwalds Dragon's Needle Embroidery Guild), 3 inches in diameter on 32 ct. linen and Paternayan yarn. I have it about 2/3 completed and am please with how it looks thus far. Although, I will not know how "well" I did the technique until it is examined properly. (I have noticed a couple minor errors, but this is my first attempt)