Monday miscellany - 19Feb2018

Last week I completed another path around the sun. Another year older but the wiser still remains to be seen.

What I've been reading... I'm on page 1145 of _Oathbringer_, with just over 100 pages to go. Hopefully I'll finish this week, and decide what to read next. My unread queue is rather epic, so there are many choices.

What I've been crafting... I didn't spend as much time stitching this past week as I'd initially thought I might, but I did work on Violet Mandala when I could. I haven't quite reached the stopping point I'd set for myself, but hopefully this weekend.

Fumbling toward fitness... Another suboptimal week - I started off strong, but toward the end of the week I was too drained most evenings to feel arsed to exercise. Fortunately this week is better so far - I had more energy today than I did most of the days last week. And I am still keeping up with Lumosity and Duolingo, so at least my mind is getting exercise.

One Little Victory I did have a great birthday weekend, including lunch and beer with my stepdaughter, and a trip to see my daughter and her boyfriend for dinner in her college town. Life is good indeed.

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'...

Without my even noticing, two months have slipped on by since I last blogged.

Not that I haven't been busy...far from it! Several of my 101List items have fallen into the 'complete' bucket.

Such as #35: Finish four smalls. I have actually finished two smalls since last blog:

A quick 'Pi Day' finish (from Tor Rhuann Designs)

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Sweetheart Tree's "Baby Shamrocks Fob", on mint lugana. This is my best attempt to date at cording and tassel - I'm very happy with how it turned out. And it was a fun stitch.

Next was #51: Knit a pair of socks. I have indeed! Ok, so I cheated a bit and used worsted-weight, but I actually Have Knit Socks!


I also finished #63: Read _Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell_. I enjoyed the book, but it was a bit of a dense read so it took me a while. I've been on a reading binge since - I've read #5-#9 of Jim Butcher's _Dresden Files_ series, and am working on #10 right now. I may have to borrow #12 from someone, since I tend to buy most books only in paperback....

Last, #81: Sing solo in front of at least 10 people.. This one has always been more of a 'step outside my comfort zone' goal, but since I've started taking voice lessons my confidence in my singing voice has grown exponentially. So I cantored Stations of the Cross one Friday during Lent, when DH (who usually does it) was on travel. I think I did okay.

I hope at least one more goal will fall this year: #92: See RUSH in concert. We *will* be seeing RUSH, we just haven't decided yet whether to go to Tampa or to West Palm Beach.

So that's the goal wrapup. In other news, DD got a new parakeet, a pretty yellow-thru-indigo named Sunny. (or Sonny, depending on what gender you think it is!)
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Sunny has been rather more affectionate than either of DD's two previous 'keets, and seems to have taken on the role of homework helper and fellow couch-potato. She sits on DD's shoulder a lot when she's out and about. And oddly enough, within a few days of getting her, her other 'keet, David, went from Mr. Antisocial to Mr. Lovebird, and would also hang out with DD.

Unfortunately, David died last week, so we are again a one-keet family. But we had David for about 5 years, which is longer than I remember my sister ever having any single one of hers, so I guess it was just his time.

Five years...

No fooling, today is the 5th blogiversary of Alternate Dementia!

Certainly my writing frequency has tapered off since that first post, and my readership has doubtless changed. Still, it's been a fun ride so far.

Today is also, of course, April Fool's Day, and DD managed to pull one over on me this evening. On the drive home, she told me she needed a particular dish washed, and somehow over the course of the conversation I'd convinced myself she must have put a fake roach in the cup or something, so I had the dish in question fully expecting a bug of some sort.

No bug in the dish, so then I thought she might have put something up under the faucet, and was expecting that then I turned on the water...

....and got my shirt soaked! She'd taped down the handle on the spray-hose that many kitchen sinks come with, and had focused it to spray right where I'd be standing! We had a good laugh at that....and another one when DH also got a shirt-full when he came to see what we were laughing about.

As for me, I don't have a true trick, but more of a variation on things...

Tonight's dinner is.....albino chili!

Albino Chili
2 lb ground poultry (I'm using 1 lb turkey and 1 lb chicken tonight)
5 cans of white beans (tonight: navy, chickpea, great northern, white kidney)
1 packet leek soup mix
2 cans cream of chicken soup
green chile powder (I also have jalapeno seasoning somewhere but can't find it...)

Brown the meat, drain. Add the chile powder and leek soup mix until meat is seasoned, then add the beans and cream of chicken soup. Let simmer for 20 minutes or however long you like your chili. Heat can be increased by adding more green chile powder or green chiles or jalapenos as desired.

Looks innocuous, but with much room for trickery.

Woof...

How to end up in the Mommy Doghouse:

1. Take DD bowling while DH drives DsS and his GF back to college.
   
2. Tell DD when asked that Mommy is not very good at bowling.
   
3. Bowl the best game of one's life.

"Best game" is only a 110, but it was distinctly poor timing to do well...

Rhapsody in Green

I just received word that my SIL's wedding gift has safely arrived at its Texas destination, and was quite well received! (Thanks A & T - love you guys! *hugs*)

The mystery project was In A Gentle Fashion's "Rhapsody Sampler", except I used shades of green instead of the charted neutrals:

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Again, I'm beyond thrilled with my framer! And I'm so glad I can finally show it off ;)

Framed!

Seasonal insanity is well and truly underway, so I hope that I will be forgiven for my latencies in posting.

I picked up two pieces from my framer over a week ago. One of them is Passione Ricamo's _Make A Wish_:

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My apologies for the quality of the photography, but I'm very pleased with this. My framer cut little gold stars into the matting, and they look stellar (npi).

The other is the wedding gift for my SIL, and as the gift is already in the mail, there may well be a pic here this week. I'm thrilled with that one as well, and I'm *dying* to show it off but I must wait...

Thanksgiving was good here. In the morning, we helped serve at my parish's annual seniors Thanksgiving dinner. Lots of fun as always - large meal with 200+ of my oldest friends. Although 55+ doesn't necessarily make one old.

DsS and his girlfriend are down this weekend from college, and for Thanksgiving evening we met at DsD's house. My grandson was, as always, the center of attention, the cutie. DsS and his GF have been staying here since then, and DD has been enjoying having other folks around. They go back tonight.

So all in all, I have much to be thankful for.

The main monkey business...

Busy times here at Alternate Dementia! My grandson was baptized this past weekend, and he is now a year old! He's growing up so fast, and DsD and dBF can barely keep up with him!

DsS is enjoying college life so far. Hopefully not so much that his grades suffer!

As for me, I've been busy stitching! I'm very close to being done with the center part of _Fortunate Traveler_ - right now I'm working on background greenery. Check out the once-forgotten dragon, now at 150 hours!

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And on top of that, I just found out I'm excused from the jury summons I was supposed to have tomorrow. It's almost pathetic how happy I am about that...

Laziness is the mother of invention...

This past weekend was fun but exhausting. DsS graduated high school, and we're very proud of him. The graduation ceremony had some nice touches traditional to his particular school. I think the amount of speaking before the actual commencement could have been shortened by half an hour, though - there were *nine* student speakers, and while some of the speeches were short and sweet and clever, there was one in particular that ran rather long. The idea of using quotes from Disney movies was initially clever, and might have been okay if the speaker had been the only valedictorian, but after about 10 minutes or so, we were beginning to expect (and dread) quotations from every Disney animation ever released (and there nearly was!). Really, with an outdoor ceremony toward the end of the day, the speakers really should have been given a time limit. But it was a nice ceremony all the same.

Yesterday was the family cookout/grad party, which I think was a huge success. While chopping vegetables for kebabs, I had the idea that instead of preparing the kebabs beforehand, set out the veggies and meat separately, with a bunch of skewers, and let folks create their own. That proved quite popular - everyone made something different and got to experiment. There were even a few surf-and-turf kebabs, borrowing some of the cocktail shrimp.

And this all happened because...I was too lazy to want to do up the kebabs myself! Sometimes laziness is good.

Cast party!

DD got her cast today, and boy is it PINK!

As you can see, it didn't stay solid pink for long.

The backstory: DD fell off the monkeybars last Tuesday afternoon, landing wrist first. Fortunately only the radius was fractured (instead of the radius *and* one of the growth plates in the wrist), and the orthopedist set the bone on Friday morning. It seems to be healing well so far, and DD's not in much pain at all. Mostly just annoyed at the inconvenience of being shorthanded for a while.

Thinking outside my box....

DD has complained lately about how hard it is to be the only child in a household of adults. Hearing some of the specifics, though, it occurred to me that there's another factor in play that makes things tricky as well...

DD is a lone Extravert in a household of Introverts. (More specifically, in Myers-Briggs terms, she's a lone Extraverted Feeler in a household of Introverted Thinkers..) With DH, DsS and I all being both adult and introvert, she really can't help but think it's an adult-or-child thing when that's not the whole story. No wonder DD feels so left out sometimes!

I can find plenty of info online on how to parent an Introverted child, but I haven't found anything on how Introvert parents should interact with an Extravert child.

DH and I need to start thinking *way* outside our boxes!

The Accidental Employee

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

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

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

All in all, not a bad shopping trip!

The Great Sneaker Conspiracy!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life comes at you fast...

As of around 4:30 this afternoon, I'm now a grandma! Well, a step-grandma, technically, but still...

DGS came in at just over 7lb in a fairly easy birth. DsD was only in labor about 7 hours, and delivered a mere 5 minutes after getting an epidural. DGS is healthy, with all appropriate appendages and such. And he looks a lot like Bilbo Baggins from the animated Hobbit.

All this time, though, and I never thought about what DGS should call me - since he has both biological grandmas down here as well, I need something a little different. I'm open to suggestions :)

Diplomacy...

DD and I went for haircuts today, and as I picked her up this evening, the following exchange took place:
Yours truly: We need to get your bangs trimmed tonight.
DD: Can we go to a professional? Cuz I'm not saying you're worse. You're just not as good.

Carpe diem bonum!

Today was a very good day, and not just because it was Friday. I got good news at work, and when I did my weigh and measure at Curves today, I'd lost 4 pounds and 0.8% body fat. Go me!

More money + less fat = very happy Belinda

Now I have a tough decision to make. For my celebratory dinner (which will probably be Sunday since tonight and tomorrow are otherwise planned), do I want....

a local BBQ place that has great ribs, and samplers of their very own microbrews

my favorite Irish place that has great music and food, and pints of hard cider?
(and DH will laugh as he reads this because he knows it has nothing to do with the food!)

Decisions decisions...

When weekends attack...

Sometimes long weekends just aren't long enough.

We had a 4-day weekend - DH and I get every other Friday off work, and Monday was Memorial Day here in the US. Friday was DD's last day of school, so life began as usual. After school, we drove over to the Zellwood SweetCorn Festival to meet up with friends, including DD's bestest friend H and her family. Other than the blazing heat, we had a good time, and enjoyed seeing Christian rock band MercyMe in concert. Loud, but enjoyable. And the corn was good, too. Our main purpose, though, was to rendezvous with H's family so we could get an early start Saturday on taking DD and H to Disney's Magic Kingdom, which was DD's birthday treat in lieu of a party.

We arrived at Disney not long after opening, and made the rounds. We hit the Haunted Mansion first, and had a very short wait. Most people tend to go for the popular attractions near the entrance first, so hoofing it to the further areas of the park first can sometimes pay off. That, and FastPass is a wonderful thing - you can only have one FastPass active at a time, but it really does help with the waits for popular rides. All told, we did about 17 different attractions, including Splash Mountain (DD and DH did - H didn't want to so I stayed with her), Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain (which ROCKS!). The girls went on everything they wanted to do, which was good. Most of our waits were half an hour or less, which was pretty good considering Memorial Day weekend is probably when summer tourist season kicks into full gear. Our longest wait was for the Dumbo ride, which was a simple carnival thing, but we were stuck in the middle of the line when the ride started having technical difficulties, and what could have been a 20 minute wait was nearly an hour. Not my idea of a good time, personally, but DD and H had wanted to go on Dumbo, so we waited.

Despite living only an hour away from Di$ney, I've only been a handful of times, and this was my first trip to Magic Kingdom in 12 years. Many of the items were new to me. The Hall of Presidents has been massively updated since I last saw it - it's quite different now, and I really liked the little 'fidgety' touches that some of the animatronic presidents performed while others were speaking. PhilharMagic was new, and very cute. DD and H really liked the 3d effects. Space Mountain rocks, but then I am a professed adrenaline junkie when it comes to coasters. And the Buzz Lightyear ride was pretty cool as well - each little car comes with a pair of laser 'guns' that you use to shoot at the passing scenery to defeat the Evil Emperor Zurg. I got a modest 5300 points - DH got a whopping 132400!

So all told, we survived a 10-hour day in the beating sun schlepping along two giggly 7-year-olds, with minimal dehydration, and the only sunburn victim being yours truly. (How I got burned and my equally-fair DD didn't, I don't know. Especially since I forgot to sunscreen her). I admit it was fun, although I think next year we'll just stick with the party. Cheaper, and much less time consuming.

We got home late Saturday, just in time for me to catch the third period of the Oilers-Ducks game (I bet Christine's and Nicole's ears are still ringing over the Oiler win!)

Sunday and Monday were spent trying to recover from the previous two days! On Sunday DsS, DD and I saw _Over the Hedge_, which was pretty funny. DD got so into it that she didn't even eat all her popcorn. Normally she finishes hers and mooches off everyone else. Not the best movie I've ever seen, but still quite enjoyable. Yesterday I finished reading Terry Pratchett's _Going Postal_, and started _Monstrous Regiment_. Very enjoyable - Pratchett is always good for a quick and funny read. After _Monstrous Regiment_, I'm going to be rereading Sharon Kay Penman's _The Sunne in Splendour_ in preparation for our upcoming UK trip, especially since there will definitely be Ricardian sites on our tour list!

I need a weekend...

No respect!

Yesterday afternoon, I finished Paw Printings "Butterfly Waltz". I started this when DD got her tonsils out last month, and once it gets back from being framed, it will go in her room.

I finished this mid-afternoon, about two hours before the hockey games started. I spent most of my TV time working on DD's First Communion veil - I'm up to 11 little squares now, with a long way to go! Good thing I have almost a year...

Anyway, despite my making pretty things for DD, I apparently am a mean mommy for usurping the TV to watch the aforementioned games. Halfway through the second period of the Devils-Hurricanes game, DD presents me with a ticket for the offense of "Hoging [sic] the TV". (Talk about the pot calling the kettle black...) My reaction to said ticket garnered me another one for "Laphing [sic]". Too cute!

Even if Mommy gets no respect.

Odds and ends

Random ups, downs, ins, and outs the past week here.

The biggest news is that DD had her tonsils and adenoids out this morning. She was a very brave girl about it - she wasn't very nervous at all, and even less so after going on a tour of the outpatient surgery center. Her tonsils (and apparently her adenoids as well) were rather enlarged...when an ENT says "Oh my gosh those are huge" to your tonsils - you know they're big! She's recovering pretty well, although she's still rather groggy and a tad cranky. But that's to be expected. I've laid in an ample supply of popsicles and other soft and cold goodies for her.

I also started Pawprintings "Butterfly Waltz" for her while DH and I were in the waiting room. I had some purple Soie d'Alger of similar color to the DMC, so I've converted it to all silks. It's going pretty quickly - perhaps another thing to be framed with that gift certificate that expires next month. If I can get it done in time.

In the meantime, my stitching timetable has been compressed - I'm working on a wedding present for our friend M (DH's oldest bud and DD's godfather) and his future wife J....and the wedding has been moved up from September to June! Which means I need to get the gift stitched by the end of this month and off to my new framer so it can be framed in time. I think I only have about 10 hours left, so it shouldn't be too big a problem to finish.

Otherwise, life is mostly random spots:

I've seen fire and I've seen (not much) rain: For the second time in as many weeks, a large brush fire has consumed part of the local park - about 200 acres each time. We did have about half an inch of rain on Sunday morning, but in the past 6 weeks or so we've had less than an inch total. Very dry - I hope this isn't a repeat of 1998, where we had so many brush fires there was threat of a firestorm up north at one point... WE NEED RAIN!!

Automotive alchemy: I sold my poor trusty Saturn wagon today. DsD and DH had gone in on a car with the assumption she'd take over payments with her military pay. Which never happened because DsD ended up not shipping, so she gave the car back to us, and with one car too many, it made more sense to sell the car that was already paid for. So I'm now the proud (?) owner of a gold '03 Saturn ION. So in a sense I've seen automotive alchemy - turning my wagon into gold! Like any new car, though, it'll take me a while to get used to it.

Lost in the Old Forest: I haven't been walking as quickly to Rivendell as I should - been a wee bit of a slug the past two weeks. If I meet my goal this week, though, I'll be spending the weekend with Tom Bombadil!

So that's my week in a nutcaseshell. We just got the Narnia 2disc set, and I'm off to watch it. Prayers and good thoughts for DD's speedy recovery would be greatly appreciated!

Born to be wired??

DD is currently running laps around the central part of my house, and every time she passes me, she jumps and says "I had caffeine!!".

Ah, what comes from part of a Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino...

Decisions, decisions...

So I have two big decisions to make within the next couple weeks, and I am struggling a bit with them.

The first and more pressing matter is...what do I want for my birthday? DH asked me last week what I want, and I had to answer honestly that I had No Idea. Seriously. A glance at my amazon or stitching wishlists reveals that there are a LOT of things I wouldn't mind having. But none of them are pressing wants or needs at the moment, and there aren't really any particular things that are calling louder than any others.
A query of friends brought forth the suggestion of a spa day - after all, every woman deserves a little pampering. But honestly, I feel a bit uncomfortable with the suggestion and I can't put my finger on why. Maybe it's that I would feel uneasy knowing a large sum was spent on me for no tangible reason. Or that I've never had most of the services before - facial? manicure? pedicure? Never had any of them in my life. Now, a deep tissue massage sounds good, as does a hot mud bath like I've seen on Dirty Jobs, but I also know I'd feel guilty about it. Don't know why. I'm just not a high-maintenance type gal. And the kind of money involved would buy a number of things off my wishlist.
Another popular suggestion is jewelry, especially with my birthday so close to Valentines Day. DH has given me a number of beautiful pieces worthy of a Duchess over the years, and I cherish every piece, but I rarely wear them - they're too elegant for daily wear and I'd be afraid of losing one of them. I don't really wear much jewelry on a daily basis - just my rings and my cross and medals. Occasionally earrings, but less often than I used to. DH keeps threatening to get me diamond studs but I'd be deathly afraid of losing them! And he already got me a beautiful amethyst and diamond necklace for our anniversary anyway, which fulfills my desired jewelry quotient for the next several years!

So I don't know. I've toyed with the idea of a bike, that's more of a Christmas-sized item. Gift certificates to needlework stores, maybe. Chocolate or tea are always nice little items - suitable suggestions for my kids.

But really, just a nice dinner out with my family and a decadent dessert or a pint would suit me just fine. Good food and good company, what more do I really need?

My other big decision is what to do for Lent, which starts on March 1 this year. The past few years I've been both trying to give up something, and start something. Last year I gave up sweets (which was tough while we were in Germany!) and said I'd do an examination of conscience daily (which went right out the window due to time constraints). Previous years I've given up caffeine (done that multiple times), and swearing (just once, but my language is much cleaner). I don't eat all that many sweets, so I don't think that would be much of a sacrifice. Caffeine would be, but I do that almost every year.

My latest thought is to give up...the snooze button. I confess my use of the snooze button borders on abuse some mornings. So setting my alarm a tad earlier and NOT hitting the snooze button would certainly be both sacrifice, and a good thing. And with getting up earlier, I could do the daily readings in the morning instead of cramming them in at the end of the day. And then I could be better about making time to walk in the evenings. That would be a good thing.

Anyway, I'm open to suggestions for either of the above...