New Year, Old Me. Or something like that.

The New Year is upon us!  Well, ok, it’s been upon us for a few days, but hey, I am not known for jumping right on things…

First off, I wish to send my belated condolences to Mr. Chatterbox.  It seems like 2016 was the time to lose family.  I hope all goes well, and that you can get all the details sealed up.  May all your memories be happy ones.

I haven’t written, because I have not been near the computer to speak of.  I can use the phone for a lot of things, but not blogging.  Perhaps if I were a Millennial, that can speed type with two thumbs, and can make the phone do all but make coffee…

But I have now made a spot (a real, you know, desk type spot!) to type with the computer.  It was going to be in my craft room, but I found that the area I had picked didn’t work.  So it’s now in the other room.  This all works out.  Except possibly for the fact the heat isn’t really great back here…

Hmm.

With the New Year comes resolutions.  I normally don’t make those.  This year, I have decided to try.  What’s the worst I can do, break them?

Meh.

So, to that end:

1. Lose 5 pounds.  See, I figure, geez, 5 pounds in a year?  I should be able to do that.

2. Write my blog once a week.  I reserve the right to write much more, should I want.  I also reserve the right not to do the A to Z challenge, or do, depending on how chaotic life is at that time.  I have quit some groups and things that distracted me from writing, (No Nanowrimo, that I had planned on doing...), so we shall see what a revised activity level will do.

3. Lose more papers and junk in my craft room.  If I can remember how to up load the pictures from the phone, I will show you the before and after photos of what I’ve accomplished so far, with help from Husband and Family. (Trust me, envision an overflowing dump, and then lower it to a slightly stuffed living room, and you have the general idea.)

Not any earth shaking things, but we shall see what it adds up to at the end ‘o this year.
Hope all of you had a nice Christmas.  I had one gift that was a not quite Christmas gift, but was very nice, all the same.

I love Decaf Vanilla Tea.  To wit, I can get rid of a 20 count box in a week, if I am in a mood.  Well, the store I bought from regularly, quit carrying it. (This was back about August).  I asked if they could buy by the case, and get it that way.

Nope, not carrying, no special orders. Huh.

So, I went on the hunt for my tea.  I try to buy local, when I can.

Store A. Nope.

B. No.

C. Uh, tea?

D. Sure, if you contact Soandso who works the evening shift on Friday.

I call on Friday. Oh, he’s not working, can I take a message?  I leave a message.  Nothing.  Call again. Nothing. After the third time of leaving a message for this non-existent person, I gave up.

I started looking on line.  I mentioned this to my Mom, who said something about waiting ‘til the New Year.

Why?

About a week later, (see how quick I am about ordering stuff?), a box arrived for Husband.  I took it in the house and ignored it.  He comes home and hands it to me. “Open it.”

Oooookay…

Inside was 6 boxes of tea.  Then I lifted up that, and there was ANOTHER six underneath!  So I am good for tea, for a bit.  And the funny thing, we think that we might be able to buy it locally, because the website he chose, was for the one local store I forgot to check.

And, I hope most all of you are doing well weather wise.  It is now breaking, sort of, but we had way low temps, (went almost to single digits...) then freezing rain, then snow, then freezing rain again.  It is now raining, which is sllllloooowwllly getting rid of the ice.  I have basically stayed in the house for about 2 days, Husband gingerly walking out to care for the animals.  I could probably do it, but he has much better balance than I do.  In fact, poor Rudee went out for a bathroom break, he walked very gingerly out, and his back feet slid out from under him a couple times.  He went potty, then walked gingerly back to the kennel, and glared at the ice.  We will all be much happier when it goes back to normal Oregon rain...

Speeches, kitchens, and chicks.

So.

Haven't written for a while.  I managed to survive my presentation on scam prevention, much thanks to several people in the justice system!  It went pretty well, except that the computer that was going to give little vignettes to reinforce what I'd spoken about, didn't work.  That is, the VIDEO was fine.  There was NO AUDIO.  So, I improvised on the first one, since I could actually remember most of the dialogue from it, then skipped the others. (Too bad, too, one had some good info in a cartoon format...)  And no less than the Under Sheriff  tried to help me get the blasted thing going again, to no avail.

I love tech, sometimes... snarl...

I think it went well, but the funniest thing.  One older gent fell asleep during my talk.  I don't take this personally, he falls asleep during most of the meetings.  But after, he came up and told me "That was an excellent talk!"  I grinned, thanked him, and went on.

Mom's kitchen is coming together, albeit slowly.  Poor Husband had X'ed out a month in April.  Then he wanted to do this, that, something else, and Mom made some suggestions.  Then there were a few bugaboos.  We are now finally on the home stretch, however.  I will ask Mom if I can post a pic when it's finished.  It really is coming together spectacularly.  Mom says she went a bit overboard with the cabinets, but I figure, storage always seems to be an issue, so more cabinets is better than less!

Mon Ami is a daddy again!  We had about 16 chicks, sadly a couple didn't make it.  But, one that I wasn't sure about pulled through so far, I have named it Bullet (for dodging one), and then the others, well, I intend to sell some, so I have decided to refrain from naming them for now.  (Pictures soon.)  Bullet will most likely stay, but we'll have to see if she is a she, or if he's a he...

I think things will be a tad slower this month, perhaps I can get more than one blog in... (eye roll)

I hope all my blog friends are doing well, I keep hearing about rabid weather in the center of the country, and we are just starting into 90+ days here.  (Sorry, this little fat chick does NOT like that kind of warm...)  So, hope all of you are safe and well, and here's hoping I can get some decent photos of cluckers and counters soon!

Crazy weather, research, and fountain pens.

This morning I woke to frost.  It was frozen this morning.  This is May, and I just read that two or three places had SNOW.  Er.  I am so confused... It's spring, right???

The weather for today was mid 30's this morning, mid 70's by this afternoon.  Then up to mid 80's by this weekend.  Parka in the morning, followed by shorts?  Yoiks...  I think all of my plants have made it, however.  I have some flowers and shrubbery out for decoration, they seem to have hardened off pretty well. (Pics soon...)

I have finally bought all the books recommended by one of the Detectives for my writing.  I was waiting for the price to go down on Amazon (used-$182).  It didn't.  I was griping commenting about this to Husband, and he said, well, check eBay.  EBAY?!!?  I nearly dropped my teeth.  I have rarely, if EVER found something on eBay that wasn't usually as much as new.   I had looked at some of the college libraries, local libraries, used book stores, nothing.

Sigh.

So, I looked on eBay, without much hope.  Hey.  There it is... $25?  I cleaned my glasses, carefully, then read again. $25.  HUUUUSSSBANNND!

So, I have the first of the books, now I am able to read them in order, and some of the material in the later books I was reading might make some more sense... And I have to admit that Husband was right.

See, it's in print.  Husband was right.  And he isn't even smug about it...  :)

Well, today should be nice, I think.  I have my receptionist bit, and I am writing a letter to my Grandmother, haven't written to her for a bit.  Mostly to thank her for letting me use her fountain pens, I have three pens with storage, and one dip style pen of hers.  I also have one that I found, that I'd used for drawing in college.  So, now I just need to get more ink, and I will be able to start using them again.  Hopefully without the inked fingers I seem so good at making for myself...

Oddly I have found when I write with a fountain pen, I don't press as hard, and I can write longer, as my hands don't cramp.  It also looks cool,  and we all know that's important, .  I just like the idea of a different way to write.  

I am not quite ready for clay tablets yet, but you never know...

Picture is unrelated...

The snow has finally melted.  We now have lots and lots and lots of rain.  I have been away from the computer a lot, but thought I would just post a nice picture.  I thought I did well with this shot.  I might have even put it up on my blog earlier, but hey, a nice picture is a nice picture, right?

I will try and get a photo up pretty soon of a messenger bag I knit and felted.  It came out... okay.  Not bad, but not quite what I expected.  What else...  I have just been out and about, I will be on jury duty next week, and trying to keep all the animals from floating away.

Yeesh.

(And, oh, joy, the weather folks said that the front with all the rain is stalled over us. Again.  Does anyone know where I can get water wings for llamas???)

See what the day brings...

I keep listening to the weather, and they are talking storms with high winds for this area. (Oh, joy...)  I am on shift, right when they are supposed to pick up.  Husband decided I shouldn't drive, (big surprise...), and so he will take me in.  We have firewood put up, and some fuel for the generator, the emergency supplies, so we are set if the power should quit.  I sincerely hope it doesn't, but we shall see... 

Or not see, if the house is dark. 

Heh...

On the bright side, I will also be getting my first haircut since... Uh... Well before Thanksgiving!  I don't quite look this bad yet, but I think that my creative methods of keeping the hair out of my eyes are getting more and more limited. I haven't quite come to the point of rubber banding the bangs over my eyes like my MIL did to her shihtzus, but close.  

Husband asked, well, why don't you just grow out the bangs to the length of the rest of your hair.  Which, I suppose, I could do.  But I had that hair style, and it is really limiting on what you can do. Pony tails continuously, at least to keep the stuff out of my face.  And I have heavy, thick, hair, which gives me neck and head aches if I let it grow too long.  So, no.  Plus, it's starting to look 'ratty', some growing a bit faster, so it's uneven.  All things being equal, it is so time to get this taken care of...

The Case of the Scale Stuff.

On my scale stuff to the side.  I am going to make a change.  It is getting so ponderously long, I am only going to show my last ten weeks.  It will still 'keep me honest' to the fact I need to lose weight, but won't take so much of the side space.  I will put the short goal up top (i.e., I am aiming for 220 at this point), that way it's obvious what is happening...  I am even being honest that I gained 2 pounds this week.  Not getting enough exercise and eating more, yep.  Fairly one to one correlation there... *sigh*  So, I go on, work on dropping it... Rag on me folks, I have been letting this slide.  I know that, even though I can't get out much, I should be able to get the weight going DOWN... Hmph.  

So, I hope to be reading blogs and possibly writing more blogs, but we shall see what Mama Nature has up her sleeve.  the animals are as ready as I, uh, well, Husband, can make them, so we shall see what transpires...  I don't know if it's an improvement for Buzz, she had never been around snow, that I can remember, she HATED that stuff, it was falling, and she'd run on the porch and glare at it, then lick her coat like crazy to get rid of the snow.  She does fine with rain (she is a cat from Oregon, after all), but the snow threw her a complete curve ball!  

 

Alapacalypse... Wow...

After all the warnings of dire bad weather, we had...  Grey skies, and not much else.  They are still warning of impending snow tonight, and there was snow a bit north of us, (Husband and I made a quick run for a Craig's List item he wanted to see), but it was not even frosty to speak of this morning.  It was muddy, for the most part, implying to me, at least, that the freeze level was a bit higher than yesterday.

I didn't walk yesterday, and ended up not doing much of anything, exercise wise.  Today I did.  It doesn't make sense to me, but I slept better last night, and today I seemed to work out better, with less achy-ness. 

Odd...

So, we shall see if I will speak too soon about the lack of an event the weather folks were warning of.  Considering the fact that on several of the blogs I read, there is flooding, snow, ice, and half a dozen other problems, I figure I have got it sooooo easy. 

If I can convince Husband that I can walk when there is frost outside.  I think that is the harder problem, really...

***

11 Things. What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? (Author: Sam Davidson)

At the risk of these sounding suspiciously like resolutions, I will try.

1. Weight.  Lard = pain. Mostly physical, but I hate how I look with the less than delightful areas of overlap on my person.  Getting rid of it (as of this writing more than 20 pounds down!), I will hurt less, like the way I look more, and feel better!  Walking, better choices are working so far, so that's how I am eliminating them. 

2. Unnamed volunteer jobs that are a pain in the butt.  While I won't mention which ones, I have been working steadily on getting myself loosened and OUT of certain things that, while I am the GO TO gal, I just don't wanna be.  I will eliminate them... I guess by giving notice that I am no longer going to do the given job. 

3. Stuff.  When I can't find the floor, there is too much of it.  Find a home, mine, or elsewhere. 

4. TV as a thing to sit passively at.  If I am not using it as background, while knitting, or at least doing something besides sitting, I will have it off.  (And that goes for Hulu, too.)

You know, some of these questions are harder than others...

5. Mouthiness.  I will make an effort to think more before I speak.  Tends to make it a bit less 'step in it' feeling. 

6. Icky crap in the fridge.  Reaching into the fridge and having something you don't know what is, when it was put in, and why it's there, reaching back out, can be unnerving at best...  DATE ITEMS.  I have erasable markers, I need to use them.

7.  Papers.  I tend to hold on to papers that might or might not be useful.  I then have to toss pounds of paper at regular intervals.  Maybe skipping the middle man, and toss them unless I am SURE they are useful.  Betcha I won't miss 'em...

8. Over the top extreme caution to the point of ridiculousness.  I need to work on talking to people, they won't bite, as a rule (unless they are teen and tween Eclipse fans, from what I understand...  And that is only with significant others), and I really find that if I try and start a conversation, most times I find it nice, and occasionally fascinating.

9. Unrealistic expectations.  I am not in high school, I don't have the stamina  I did, and though I am improving, I doubt that I will be doing the over the top energy things I did then.  It's the drizzly blue baby s***s, but it's the truth.  Trying to deal with this by learning my limits, and trying NOT to ignore them so much. 

10. Leaking money for snacks.  If I stop buying candy bars so often, and put the money back, I can buy more music.  It lasts longer, and looks SOOO much better on my hips... (Well, okay, I wear the MP3 player around my neck, but you get the idea.)

11.  Oh, I am sure there is another thing I could think of to eliminate, but since I am getting to the point of goofiness, and thinking of resorting to potty jokes, I think 10 will have to do. 

Or... eliminating questions I don't want to deal with, by not writing an answer. 

Take your choice.  (Note: this is not applicable on IRS forms...)

Winter prep.

The weather guessers have said that there is supposed to be snow, and by Wednesday, we are supposed to have snow, ice, sleet, and I would gather by the hype, the alpacalypse. 

So, as always, we check if we have fuel for the generator, water, food, that sort of thing.  (Rural area here, power goes out enough to make you need back up...) Other than Husband going into milk withdrawal, I think we are sitting pretty good.  And he keeps telling me he can use the dried milk on his cereal.  He can, I can't.  I think it stinks.  (The taste is fine, but I think it literally has a bad odor.) 

So, if all goes well tomorrow, I will do my usual Monday 'stuff', go to the store and get what I have on the ol' list.  Otherwise, I might hunker down with some tea, my knitting (messymimi, I am started on your sock!), and hope that the weather is over hyped and waaaay under realized. 

Would be much more pleasant that way, for me, at least.  No ice would also make walking a smidgen easier...
And Husband less likely to want me to stay in the house continually (he is afraid I will slip and fall.  Which, while a valid point, makes me stir crazy in very short order.)

So, the only thing left is for me to find my ultra sexy 80's vintage rainbow snow boots, and I am ready for almost anything.

Except the alpacalypse.  Perhaps I should cry llamantations...

(She dives, she runs!  Two, count 'em, TWO horrid puns!)

***

Party.  What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010?  Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.

Ok, this is sort of cheating, but for me, this WAS the social gathering of 2010.  Mojo.  So I put the blogity link things here, below, that was pretty thoroughly covered when I got back...

Mojo
Mojo 2
Mojo 3
Mojo 4
Mojo 5

Told ya I covered it... ; )  And I since I rocked my socks off, I even knitted new Mojo socks. 

Fringe, Scarf, and In-Laws.

Well, now I have finished my fringe on the shawl, I think it really improves the look. I still don't know for sure where I might wear it, but all that have seen it, like it. Husband says don't be so sure I won't have a place to wear it. Hmmmm. ?
Oregon is finally catching up with the rest of the states, it's going to be HOT, HOT, HOT... Does anyone else think of that tune when the weather is above 90 degrees? Eh. Anyway, it's going to be way too hot to knit my other shawl, or much of anything with bulk or size, so what does a devoted, (read: obsessive) knitter do? Switch to a tiny project. I have this scarf, knit in a pattern called Dainty Bess (from http://www.knitpicks.com ) in a grey wool (Galler's Pony, made in Switzerland...) I think the diamonds will really show once it's blocked. At least it won't cook me while I am knitting. The bigger that shawl gets, the more of my lap is covered. At 106 degrees expected temp, I don't need MORE covering.

Father-in-Law and Step-Mom-in-Law are here. We will be entertaining them for a while as they visit local friends, go to various doctors appointments, catch up with kids and grandchildren, and continue to try and convince me of the virtues of Wal-Mart.

I am not convinced.

Oh, well. They are pretty nice people, and we have a seperate bedroom and bathroom for them, so all of us have some form of privacy, so it should go ok. I think. I have noticed a radical upswing in tissue boxes in random spots in the house... (Husband and I use kerchiefs.) Other than SMIL having a cleaning fetish that makes me feel like a slug, (she gets up and weeds at 4 in the morning, because she has nothing to do, since the rest of us don't get up until the ungodly late hour of 5:30... Heh...) But, it's only for a month, then she can head home and she will have lots to do, mostly 'cause they've been traveling for 6 months.

We are still dancing around who does what, where things go, and how the dishwasher is loaded. (SMIL thinks things should be washed before they go in, and no large items, i.e. pots. I figure, it fits, it goes. And why wash what is going to be washed?) So, in the spirit of compromise, I let her wash what she wants, and I stuff everything in when she's gone.

Hey, it keeps peace, and I still end up with clean dishes.