Author: heavenlyevil

The froggie is dead

He got his leg stuck in one of the plants right under the filter and couldn’t get away. Poor froggie. 🙁 No more for me for a while, until I can be around more to watch out for things like that.

On a better note, the weekend was fun. We tried going out on the river in an inflatible raft that we bought. It turned out not to be worth keeping, since it was supposed to be able to seat four but could really only seat two, plus the oarlocks were in a really bad spot. You couldn’t oar without hitting your knees, or you had to practically be laying down.

We docked at the Cambridge Rowing Club. It was kinda funny seeing all these accomplished rowers doing laps around us when we could barely make it near the hospital. Still, fun while it lasted. There were lots of baby duckies, which was very cute to see.

We went swimming yesterday, not for very long, but that was fun and nice. Hopefully we’ll get to do that a bunch more times before the children get back. The pool is so much nicer without all the kicking and splashing that goes on when they are home.

Kitty is determined to make friends with Trixie. She keeps “hiding” in the corner behind the plant and hissing like mad whenever he comes in the room. For the first few days Kitty would get scared and hiss back (while running away to make sure she can’t hurt him), but now he’s realized she’s more afraid of him than he is of her and keeps getting ever closer trying to give her a smell. Yesterday he was rubbing his head on the plant right in front of her trying to prove how nice he is. It was cute.


Shock to the System

It’s been a long and hard week. I’m still not sure what I think about it. My mom called me on Sunday to tell me that my uncle died, and I really wanted to go home to be with everyone but I had my accounting midterm Monday night and at that short notice I was not willing to try to get it deferred. I spent all day Monday drowning in books and registration issues, and stayed really busy Tuesday and Wednesday so I wouldn’t have to think about it.

Yesterday my mom called to tell me about the funeral, which went really well. Most of my family showed up and there were very few arguments. My cousins brought their babies and they helped to keep everyone from getting too depressed. Most everyone is still in shock though. I know I still am.


Turtle

TurtleI got bored with midterm studying and started surfing cross-stitch sites, and came across some neat patterns on Stitching the Night Away. This one caught my attention because of its aboriginal style and turtle motif.

My brother loves turtles, so I think this is going to turn into a gift for him. I’m not sure how to finish it though. This was my first attempt using waste canvas. It seems to have turned out well, though removing the threads was a bit tedious. I’m glad I tried it with a small design and not something larger.


PT Update

It’s coming along good. I have all the leaves done in the section I’m working on. I’m starting the pears this morning, and should have those done shortly. After that I need to do the filler-colours between the leaves. Once that is done I shall take the promised progress pic for you all.

Edit: The promised update.

Peacock Tapestry Update


A Different Kind of Test

Well I had my road test today, which I failed as expected. It went better than I thought it would overall though. I learned one valuable thing: I don’t know how to park. Other than that most everything was fine. So really I just need to practice that stuff, and make it more obvious that I’m looking around everywhere. At the current point in time, I’ve got two options available: I can take another road test or I can take the written test again and start over. I’m not quite sure which option to take. I’m planning on taking driver’s education this summer, so if I do start over I would be able to get the G2 in eight months instead of waiting a whole year and could work on highway driving and stuff then. I think if I tried to pass again before the end of the month it wouldn’t help much. If I do pass I still can’t drive very well, so I’d still be practicing the basics. Unless some major improvement happens in the next couple weeks, that is. Which I can’t really see happening. It’s been five years and the sporadic practice hasn’t helped. Cramming in practice shouldn’t help much either. I’m just going to need to take the time to learn things right. I guess this means I’m starting over.


Rebel Against Crafts

Yesterday I started working on the Tapestry again. I’ve been stubbornly ignoring it because a few weeks ago I got a big tangle at the back and I knew I’d have to cut that mess out and start that spot over. After all that work in that area I was not looking forward to taking it out, so I refused to work on the thing at all. It’s all better now. It took about 20 minutes of careful cutting and untangling to get everything back to normal but it was well worth it. The whole snarl looked much worse than it actually was and I lost much less work than I thought I would.

For those of you that are asking why I couldn’t just leave the tangle there, since everything looked good from the front: needlework is a strange thing, your reputation depends on the back of your work looking as good as the front, so a knot or a tangle is a huge no-no. Sure, no one would know once the thing is finished and framed, but I would know and the framer would know and that would drive me nuts every time I looked at the thing.

Once I get some notable progress I’ll take pictures so you guys can see the pretties. Maybe I’ll take pictures of the back too. 😉

For now I’m going to go work on it some more. There’s lots of thunder outside making me happy. Storms rock!


I stashed, no more

Regia Spirit Vine SwatchI went to Cloth & Clay on Tuesday to get some cable needles and ended up buying more sock yarn. I bought some to make Dean a pair, it’s mostly shades of red and grey because his friends keep poking fun at his bright red socks.

The other is a cotton yarn in peach, red and burgundy that I’ve been staring at for months. It’s going to be a while before I get anything else. I tend to say that a lot and then randomly grab something, but this time I can’t afford any more than those. The rest of the money I have goes towards the new computer.Regia Cotton Surf Rosso Swatch

I’m glad that I could get this yarn, I really like it, and it’s a way to try out some of the cotton socks for the summer and see how they compare. Most people seem to prefer wool year-round, but some swear by their cotton socks, so we shall see. They have wool in them anyway, so it’s not like they are just cotton.

I resisted the urge today to buy some cotton/elastic blend yarn from Elann. It’s hard when I usually spend $15-$20 on the yarn for socks and this stuff is going for $6. But it will have to wait until later in the year, or next summer. I’m pretty sure they’ll still be selling it for roughly the same price then.

On a good note, I’m forcing myself to learn combination knitting. I find knitting and purling that way easier than knitting English style, but I got intimidated by the increases and decreases, and the specialty stitches that patterns sometimes call for. Really, the trick is just learning exactly how each stitch its formed because then you can do it any way. Once I get through this, my hands will thank me. It’s a faster and more even way of knitting, and since I’m using circular needles now it will save my hands as much stress as possible. Things are looking up.


Another Vacation….Sort of.

I learned something very important in the two weeks I was at home: It’s boring as hell there. You’d think after living there for 18 years I’d remember this fact and take it into consideration before planning a trip down there, but no, I didn’t. It’s nice to be able to see everyone, but it was to the point where all I was doing was seeing them. My mom and my sister were sleeping all the time or gone because they work midnights, and my brother was at school all the time or working. My dad was home for the first week and we were supposed to spend it fishing and camping on the boat – but it rained LOTS. There were three or four days without rain, but they were cold and so we just stayed in the house. My dad got depressed about the weather wrecking his vacation and slept during the day a couple times too. Basically, for pretty much the entire two weeks I was left to myself to sit on the couch, read my DE stuff, and watch daytime Detroit tv. When Dean got down there for the second week things improved somewhat, but he was mostly stuck watching crappy tv with me. At least we could keep each other company.

Overall the trip would be bad by normal standards, but really it felt like it did when I lived there, and that was a seemingly endless stretch of boredom. In a sense this was a bit worse though, because normally my mom goes a lot of places and you can get out of the house. This time she had no car and works all night so the only place she goes is Sobey’s in the wee hours of the morning. I feel bad complaining so much, but it’s hard to believe how useless this trip seemed. I don’t know, I guess I’m just frustrated because visiting them should be more fun than this was. The fact that it rained pretty much the entire two weeks doesn’t help any.

On a good note, I had a nice dinner with my grandma, and another with Dean. I got to spend a nice afternoon with my cousins, and I leaned to play Bocce ball.
My uncle Shawn came over once and I got to talk to him for a half hour or so which was nice since I hadn’t seen him since Christmas 2004. My friend Meggie saw me outside talking with him and stopped in. I couldn’t get ahold of her to do anything after that though, which kinda sucked. Some things were fun, just mostly the ones where I wasn’t at my house.

Evil Zombie BusterI got to spend a lot of time with Buster, and he was a lot more outgoing and affectionate than he usually is. He was looking evil when Dean tried to take pictures though.


Sock Update!

Exams are done, I had a nice quiet birthday, and I have time to finally do those important non-school-related things….Like show off more socks.

Wiggy Loves Sra's Socks

See? They Fit!

I finished Sra’s socks in February but didn’t have the camera to take pictures of them, and then when she sent me the pictures I was swamped and haven’t had time to do anything with them until now. I’m so glad they turned out well and that they actually fit.


Le Sigh…And Then Some Hair-Pulling

It’s the home stretch and I’m really feelin’ it now. This last essay is not a difficult one, I’m just having a lot of trouble forcing myself to finish it. I’ve gained a lot of admiration for Aristotle over the course of this term, but I’m sick of writing essays at this point and not really up to giving it my all. I’m burned out. It’s been at least six weeks of non-stop assigments, presentations, tests, essays and now exams. I’m tired. I don’t want to do this anymore. I need some time for myself where I don’t have to worry about dredging up arguments for things that I could care less about.