Christmas and stitching

Hi there folks. Long time no see, right?!? It's been a good week though. I didn't get a lot of stitching done, though. I got very little done, to tell the truth. I actually have been playing quite a bit. The new expansion pack came out the week before Christmas, and there are two new character types in it. Of course, I immediately had to start one of each. They are Black Wizard which is the male version of the Incar Magician, and the Half Bagi, which is the female version of the Bagi Warrior. Both are fun to play with. Wizard is weaker, but has some cool skills. Half Bagi is really strong, and she uses a big, BIG blade. (She has a LOT of points to strength, so she can pick the darned thing up and swing it, lol.) I named her Weapon of Destruction and him DToddesq, after my friend Dani who picked which one I should play with first. His weapon is an orb, which is kind of weak. And she has a huge blade, which I'm playing with now, and the other option is a Katar, which fits over the hand and has long spikes attached to it. (The blade is a Falchion, but I don't know if that's a real word, or if they made it up. Also, I don't really care, lol. It is there in game, and that’s all that matters.) So I haven't done much stitching. I stitched a little bit at Christmas (not even twenty stitches), then didn't even pick it up on Wed, Thur, and Fri. I did about fifty stitches on Saturday night, which I thought was pretty good. I worked on Dad's Memorial this week. (Well, on Saturday night. I didn't work on it on Monday either. Glad the expansion came out during break, lol.) Not much progress, but I'll show a piccy anyways. I worked on the leaf on the right hand side at the top. I did actually get quite a bit done. And then I worked with a really dark brown (3371 for those who are familiar) for a bit. It's almost black in color it's so dark. I didn't have near the trouble with it that I usually do. I have trouble usually cause I can't see through the towels, and so I can't tell where the needle is and where it's gonna come up. I guess I was just lucky on Saturday night, but who knows. It turned out good though, so I'm happy with it.

And my other project that I worked on this week was Beach Romance (Janlynn). It's coming along nicely. I really like the colors in this, although I almost think the legs are too brown. I put in the rest of his leg today. Well, most of it. I still have to put in about ten stitches, and then cross some of the others, but it's mostly in. I thought of Amy and David when I worked on it, which is unusual. (I usually only think of football, lol.) And speaking of, my team won today, but it was our second string versus their second string, so it wasn't a great game. Both teams are already in the playoffs, so this game didn't really have any strong reason to win. They could have gotten the third seed, but they didn't want to play us first week in the playoffs, so they let their second string play. We're the sixth seed, so no matter who we play, we're playing away. Okay, just checked and we play in Houston, against the twelve and four Texans. We're only ten and six, but I know my boys are good enough to beat them, if they play up to their potential. Y'all help me in cheering them on to a victory!!!

And I'd better say a few words about Christmas. It all started Christmas Eve Day. It was horrible. If I had purchased that firearm I was thinking about, I would have shot my computer. There's no doubt in my mind. It would have been dead meat. I was so ticked off at it. IDK what the problem is, but it was driving me crazy. Even Tora couldn't help me, and that's rare. I was trying, and not succeeding, at installing SQL Server 2012. My Database Management I class uses that particular software, from Microsoft. It drove me insane for about six hours on Monday. I tried everything I could think of, and it insisted that I don't have administrator privileges on my PC. I tried everything I could think of, then I tried everything Tora could think of. Nothing worked. I was ready to kill it. It still insists that I don't have privileges, and I don't know how to fix it. But the professor said there would be support for it the first week of class, so I'm not as worried as I was. Still, when I went to bed, I was laying there turning it over and over in my head. I would get away from it and try to go to sleep, and in ten minutes I'd find myself going over it again. It was awful. (I hadn't heard from the professor yet. And it was pissing me off, so I couldn't get it out of my head.) I was supposed to be there for Christmas at about ten o'clock. At eight I finally got up and did something to take my mind off of it for a couple of hours. (I was reading. I'm collecting the Carpathian series by Christine Feehan, and I was reading the second book, which I had never read before. It was awesome. Totally got my attention, and I was hooked lickity split. I went over at ten, and when I pulled up in my driveway, Jerry was walking the dog. I stopped to say hello, and he told me Rhonda moved out, so if I wanted to come up, I was more than welcome. I kindly declined. (I make a joke everytime I get out of the shower or bath to a phone call that he must be outside looking in the front window cause I came in the living room naked to get the phone. It always makes Julie and my mom laugh.) At David's house, I was the first to get there, followed by Amy's parents, then mom and Beth. Lastly, Jim and Cathy got there. About one thirty, I took the dog out back for a potty and to cool off. (It was HOT in the house.) And who came walking down the street but my son, Patrick. He stayed for a little bit, but no one wanted him to stay when we didn't have any pressies for him. I feel like we kicked him out though, and I feel bad for it. So I think I'm gonna invite him over next weekend to play with my X box 360. He's dying to get his hands on it. I took him home, and went back to David's house for pressies. We opened. I got some good stuff. Mom got me my pair of shoes. (I didn't mention that at the time, I don't think. We went out to Kenwood Mall during school so she could return something to Easy Spirit. While we were there, she wanted me to try on a good pair of shoes. I found a pair of purple and gray ones I loved, but they didn't have them in my size. So I tried on another color, and they fit. So mom got them for me for Christmas.) They're wonderfully comfy at first, but I have to get used to them because they have an insert where the arch goes. I have no arch support in my current shoes, so it can get uncomfortable. But I'll get used to them. I'll probably keep them for school when I'm walking around with heavy things. She also got me a bunch of charts (she paid off two of my HAED layaways, for nine charts) and a pair of winter jammies. They're pink and black with white letters, and they say sleep is good on them. They're cute, and I can use them for when I dogsit. (Mom said warm ones for when you dogsit, and David grimaced and said I could turn the heat up. My mom laughed and said it obviously pained you to say that. And I said, "Which is why I don't turn the heat up. I just can't wear my shortie pjs there." It was funny. David is a tightwad, lol. And Beth got me an Amazon gift card (and I came home Christmas day and ordered four books for twenty four ninety, lol. The gift card was for twenty five. For some reason, though, dumb Amazon only applied the gift card to part of the order. The rest it tried to put on my Mastercard, which needs to be paid before I charge anything. I was ticked about that. I finally got them all charged to the gift card, and they should start arriving tomorrow. Or maybe the next day cause of Christmas. David and Amy gave me a gift card to the grocery store, and a gift card to my favorite pizzeria. Yum!! (Yes, I already have had pizza from there since Christmas.) My sister gve me a gift card for the pizzeria too. (My family knows I love that place.) Everything I got people went over well, so that made me happy. My mom's pressie was broken though, so I need to send it back and get it replaced.

I came home from David's house, managed to drag myself and the gifts inside, took my pills, and hit the hay. I slept for five hours, then had a dream so weird it woke me up. (I had been awake for over twenty six hours, and I woke after five hours. It must have been a mighty strange dream, lol.) I was up till about two AM, and then I went back to sleep and slept all night. I felt a lot better when I got up on Thursday morning. Bright eyed and busy tailed. (At ten AM, groan. I hate to wake up before noon.) It was a good week though. I hope everyone else had a good Christmas, and I can't wait for the new semester to start!! (I feel a little lost without homework to do, lol.) Y'all have a good night, and thanks to all of you who left a comment on my last blog entry, and those of you who will leave a comment on this one!!

Progress and Christmas Wishes (and More)

Hi folks. I'm trying something new with my HTML, so I hope it works. I hope you're all having a lovely holiday. I'm actually in the mood, finally. I got a great Christmas pressie today with a Bengals win over Pittsburgh, ensuring us a spot in the playoffs. (Whoo hoo, I was too excited by that.) I also got another nice gift, on the phone. I was watching, and listening to, videos on youtube.com yesterday. I was looking at Christmas carols, and on the list at right, I saw… The Nutcracker. It's a BBC release. I was so excited by that, I had to watch it. I like ballet all right, and this one is one I have personal experience with. My godmother, Aunt Jackie, took me several times when I was a little girl. I was fascinated by it, of course. I was thinking of her with the ballet, and so I decided I needed to give her a call, so I did. I called today to see if it was the right Jackie, and it was. I got to talk to her for almost fifty minutes. We played catch up. She caught me up on what was going on with her, and I caught her up with my family. It was nice. I told her mom and I will have to take her out to lunch. It would be nice to catch up with her in person, ya know? It was nice to talk to her though. She's doing pretty well, and so I'm happy to hear that. Still independent, and that's a good thing! I told her mom would call to make arrangements with her. And I've been stitching and chatting and playing a lot these past few days, too. I got quite a bit done on Shore Patrol. (Since I'm not using the huge rose as a Christmas ornie, I'll never get them done in time. Of course, there's always next year. So I'm back to working on my regular schedule. It's Beach Romance Sunday, Time To Go on Tuesday, ornie Wednesday, Noah's Sub Thursday, and rotation Monday, Friday, and Saturday.) I started working on them as of Thursday of this week. I really, REALLY enjoyed having different things to stitch on again. It was great.

The first piccy I'll show you is Shore Patrol (JCA Creations). It's coming along well. I got quite a bit done on the fox, and he's almost finished except for a few fill ins. I also got lots of the dark gray done in between the two foxes. (I did play quite a bit, though. We just had a new expansion pack come out, and it had two new character choices in them. Of course, I started one of each right away. I now have a thirty seven Half Bagi (the Bagi Warrior is a big, touch character that utilizes his strength. He's a male, so the Half Bagi is his female counterpart) and a twelve Black Wizard (the Black Wizard is the male character to the Incar Magician. She uses a wand or staff, and he uses an orb). The Half Bagi is much more fun to me at the current moment. I can't wait for the other characters to be released. We still need a male Segita Hunter (bow, crossbow, or dagger character), and male Aloken (spear character), and a female Azure Knight (male character using great sword, great axe, great mace, or sword and shield). I love new characters though, hence the starting one of each right away.) Anyways, piccys. That's where I was going with this, lol. As you can see, I did get quite a bit done on Shore Patrol for only having had two days on it. I think it's looking great, and I'm so glad my mojo came back with this piece. Moving on from the fox for a short time helped, I think. So now I'll be working on my next rotation piece, Dad's Memorial. (Fitting, I think, for the week of Christmas since he died during the Christmas week two years ago.) Hopefully, I'll get some decent progress. I have trouble with that with this piece, because I can't see through the towels like I can see through the evenweave I usually use.

And then I'll show pics of the almost ornie (which I've decided to frame) that I've been working on on Wed. It was gonna be my sister's ornie, until I figured out how big it's gonna be. (Almost seven inches in diameter. It was supposed to be stitched over one, oops.) I really love the way this is looking. The confetti is a pain, but it looks fabulous, I think. I've started the leaves to the left now, and they're moving right along. I tried to do all the reds first, but found the confetti was making me so slow, I was chomping at the bit to do more than a few stitches at a time. So I do several colors of three stitches at a time, or whatever it happens to be, then I do a color of green which is a lot of stitches at a time. It keeps me going at a fairly good clip and I'm grateful that it's not all confetti. I may, I haven't decided yet, give this to Julie for Christmas next year. She has room to hang it, and red is her fave color. But I don't know if I want to keep it or not, so I'll be making that decision when it gets done. I'd like to frame it round, but I don't know if my framer can do that. I may take it out to Keepsakes, as they have a whole room devoted to framing, and lots more options than Hobby Lobby has. So I have that thought firmly in the back of my mind while working on it.

Next up is Noah's Sub (Stoney Creek). I really enjoyed working on this piece this week. It was the first thing I had worked on besides ornies in a long time. And I got quite a bit done on it. I'm getting closer and closer to a first page finish on it. And I'm excited about that. I love the colors in the sky. I worked with purple, then blue, then purple, then pink. (The middle purple and blue were only a few half stitches of each, so I didn't really get THAT much done on it.) It's looking good though. And I do feel like I made good progress. It was so nice to work on something not a rose, lol. Gave me a great lift, and that felt good. I did have to frog a few stitches, but not many. Maybe between ten and twenty? It was just a little frog, lol. I wasn't sure I liked the color I was using though. Compared to the other blues and purples, this one looks brownish to me. But I've decided it blends in just right. (It doesn't look as brownish in the piccy as it does in real life, I don't believe.)

And my last project to show is Beach Romance (Janlynn). I got some good work in on it today, while watching the football game. It's nice to have lots of progress to show. I put in parts of his left leg. (LOL, it's his left leg which is on the right of the project cause he's facing the camera view. It sounds funny to say his left when it's on his right.) He's coming along nicely. I will work on some more sand when I finish this leg, as there's still lots of sand to go. I'm glad to work on it again, as I know Amy is anxious for updates. I still love the color of the fabby I'm using. It's such a pretty color! It will show off the words beautifully, and I think it will look great all finished on that particular color.

And last but not least, I'm gonna need to learn a new HTML skill for this last paragraph. I finally (last week, a week after Feast of Carols was over) got the link to the audio files from our November UC Choruses concert. I'm gonna try to upload a few of them here, so y'all can have a listen. I really think we sounded great, except there was a small hiccup in the key change of Vindo. It's not bad, but it's not great. (It's hard to do a key change when you're a capella, cause there's nothing to follow. You just have to nail it in midair, so to speak. (When I say midair, I mean with nothing to support it.)) Anyways, here are the files. Okay, maybe not. The darned video files don't want to embed. And since I've never done it before, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. But after five tries, all of the failures, I give up, lol. I'll link you instead.
O Pastorelli Adio
Out of the Morning
Vindo
Those are the three songs we did alone. Then the men did a song, that I love, and I uploaded that for you as well.
Gaudete
And here is the combined piece. It's Beethoven's Opus 80, and be warned, there is a lot of music to be had before you get to the choral part. The orchestra and piano play for almost fifteen minutes before the chorus sings. So if you don't like classical music, give this one a skip. Otherwise, it's a beautiful piece. Okay, never mind the combined piece. Youtube.com says the video is too long, which is stupid. I just watched an hour and forty seven minute video of The Nutcracker, and this is only twenty minutes long. Stupid website. Anyways, I had to add a piccy of me (and of the men) to make them video so I could upload them to youtube.com so that I could embed them here. Just ignore the pics, lol. The music is beautiful. My fave is Gaudete, then Vindo, then O Pastorelli Adio, then Out of the Morning is last on my list of what I like to listen to. I hope you enjoyed them (or will enjoy them). Also, I really hope all my blogger friends have a wonderful Christmas, and a happy and profitable year for 2013. At this time, I'd also like to say another thank you to all my friends (blogger, messenger, phone, in person) and family who were so supportive of my dream of going back to school. I don't really consider it work yet, as I've enjoyed the learning way too much to call it work. Hopefully, this next semester will be the same. But your comments, your love and hugs, all of your prayers, they mean the world to me. So now, so close to the end of the year, let me tell you thank you, from the bottom of my heart. The support I have means everything to me. I thank you for sharing of your lives with me, and for leaving me all the comments you do. Here's to a great year next year, for ALL of us!!!Oh, and greetings and rubs and Merry Christmas from the ever lovely Yes Dear too. She's mad cause I didn't put up a tree, lol. (She likes (no, likes is not a strong enough word) adores playing with the ornies she knocks off the tree.)

Another update

Hi again, folks. As promised, I'm catching you up with what's going on in my world. (I have so much in my head, I don't know where to start, lol.) I guess Sunday is as good a place as any. Well, actually, Saturday. Well, actually, the UC Choruses concert. I'll start there. We had an orchestral rehearsal for the UC Choruses concert on Sunday. Then we had dress rehearsal on Tuesday, regular rehearsal on Monday and Wed, and the concert Wed night. It was busy and hectic, but fun. We did a very beautiful piece for the finale, one of Beethoven's Opus 80. It is gorgeous, but very long. (There are almost fifteen minutes of music by the orchestra before the chorus even opens its mouth. It's beautiful, but still you have to listen and be engaged in the music or you look like a dork standing there.) I love the piece, and it came off really well, but I had a little problem with it. All of dress rehearsal was standing, and most of orchestral rehearsal was standing as well. I managed, but then when it came time for the concert, I was a mess. I had to sit down on the riser during the first part of the Beethoven, because my right knee was shaking so badly. So during the orchestral rehearsal for Feast of Carols, I sat. And during the dress rehearsal, I sat. And during the combined rehearsal, I sat. (Do you see a pattern here?!?) And the first concert was on Saturday night. It went really well, but I was really sore at the end of it. I went home and soaked in the tub, then took a sleeping pill and went to bed. (Well, I did chat with Dani on messenger for a bit in between. But not for too long.) I had to get up early the next day because of the football game. My brother's friend Rusty invited us (Amy and I) to tailgate with them. I was a little bit nervous, but if I can handle talking in front of a class of thirty, I figure I can surely handle eight people or ten or even fifteen tailgating, right? Well, I woke up at nine AM on Sunday morning, and was absolutely in agony. My back had tried to go out on Saturday before the concert, and I refused to let it. But after sleeping a full night, it had tightened up on me and it was extremely painful. So I begged off. I watched the game from home (they played badly and lost, but I like Dallas so it wasn't too bad) while sitting on the cornbag. (For those of you that don't know, corn holds the heat really well. It's sort of like sitting on the heating pad.) I did go to the concert on Sunday night, cause I needed to for the grade. It worked out all right, though. I was sore and in pain afterwards, but not in agony like I was in the morning. I was happy about that. I was pissed cause I missed the game, and I cried about it all morning. I laid on my bed and had a good cry, and then was teary all day. I teared up when I told my friend, Rebekah, that I didn't get to go, too. It was awful. Amy went, and gave the other ticket to a friend of hers and David's. He apparently had a good time, and so did she. (Not in a getting together type of way, in a getting drunk kind of way. Amy was apparently sloshed when she got home, lol.) So it all turned out all right, but I was really disappointed. And mad. Mom says I must really be hers, cause when she was little, she used to often have that happen to her. Not the same malady, but that she got sick whenever she was supposed to go somewhere. We say that a lot, lol. That I must be hers. It's actually kind of funny, when we say it. Oh, I must really be yours. I'm gonna try again, of course. Someone told me about stubhub.com, and I was able to find good seats there at great prices. So maybe sometime before the end of the season, I'll get to go to a game. I'm hoping, anyways.

And I have some more stitchy progress to show, too. I have another ornie to show you. I'm working on ornies pretty much all the time now, lol. (Well, not all the time, but a lot.) I have Amy's done, Mom's done, and several of mine done. Rosa's is also finished. I still have Cathy's to do, and David's, and I'm working on Jim's atm. It matches Cathy's, but they're both gonna be very large. Mom picked them out, as I've never seen Cathy's tree. They're both roses, and very pretty, but… I didn't read the instructions, and so they're gonna be huge. They're supposed to be stitched on twenty eight count fabby, over one. I'm doing them over two. So they're gonna be nearly six inches in diameter, which is quite large for an ornie, imo. D'oh, lol. But, on the plus side, they're pretty. Thanks again, Vicki, for getting me the Anchor floss. I appreciate it. (The floss came in the mail on the day I finished up Amy's ornie, so it was like fate!) It's coming along, but there's a lot of confetti. I don't help matters, cause as I work I sometimes skip a stitch here and one there, so then I have to go back later, and fill those in. I like the way it's looking though, so that's good. I've got a leaf done, and a large part of the rose, as you can see. I'm filling in as I go now, instead of looking all over the place to see if each color has any more stitches that aren't done, which can totally be a pita. Eventually, I'll get all the little holes filled in, and boy will I be happy then. I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna finish up all the ornies for Christmas this year, so they will have to wait till next year. I'm okay with that. (Mom has yet to make up the ornies that I stitched for her several years past, lol. I'm not rushing these.)

And next up, I'm gonna talk about my grades. I should have straight A's for this first semester, which I'm very proud of, but not. Let me explain, lol. I've learned a lot from my first semester in school. I learned I can pay attention to homework the same way I pay attention to stitching and playing and whatnot. (By that, I mean I can do one kind of homework for an hour, then switch to another kind of homework, and even though I'm still doing homework, I feel like I'm doing something different. So my attention doesn't wander, which is really good to know. I often switched off between stitching, and playing, and blogging before I started back to school, and I'm so pleased that the principle applies to homework.) I learned I do have some discipline. (Not a lot, but more than I thought.) I can harness the smart that's in me, which is also good to know. I'm more confident when I have to speak in front of people, and I know that comes from having to raise my hand and ask a question in class. I'm more flexible than I was when I started school, and I've lost over twenty pounds. (Hopefully, I won't gain it all back during the break.) I feel better physically, and that helps me out quite a bit. So it's been good for me. Next semester, I'm taking more classes, and so it will be more of a challenge. These are the classes I'm taking next semester, in the order that I take them.

• UC Women's Chorus
• College Algebra
• Database Management I
• Fundamentals of UNIX
• Implications of IT

UNIX is an open source (meaning the program is created and given away, and that each person can see the source code and make changes to it if they want to) Operating System, similar to Windows and Mac OSX. I saw it listed somewhere for Spring semester, and then couldn't find it in the listings for classes. So I called the IT adviser, and he had them offer it. (Pretty cool, huh? Of course, if I hadn't seen it as listed, I would never have known to ask for it, so…) I'm quite excited about it. And Database Management I is gonna be fun too. It's my first actual programming class, so I can hardly wait. When you query a database (I'm hoping most of you know a little bit about Access), you write the query in English. You add criteria and fields to your query to ask the database a question, and it returns the fields you requested along with filtering based on your criteria. But when you query a database, the system communicates using a computer language called SQL (well, most frequently SQL). It stands for Structured Query Language. DMI is the class where we start learning to write queries in SQL rather than plain English. I'm excited about it, as I said, and so I'm waiting eagerly for classes to start. Implications of IT I'm not really excited about, but it's one of the classes I feel like I should have, so… (Actually, there are a lot of classes I feel like I should have, lol. My schedule is packed all the way through.) I think I'll do well though. In my Fundamentals of IT class, I have half a point more than the total points allowed at this point. (He gave us a bonus assignment, and so I did it.) I'm still waiting to get my final grade back, but with this professor, I’m not holding my breath. In my other class, I already know my final grade. I have a total of 1,108 points out of a possible 1,105. (That professor gave bonus points as well, for being there on certain days.) And in chorus, we are allowed to miss two days and still keep an A. I missed a total of five days (three classes, and one concert) and did three make up opportunities. So I have an A there too. I'm very pleased with how it went, and can't wait for next semester to learn even more. Yes, I know, I AM a geek. I've always loved to learn though, so it's no surprise to me!

And lastly, Vicki has asked me to share her wordsearch on my blog. She created it with the names of thirty of her patterns in it, and to three lucky winners will go a free card pattern. (Her cards are lovely, so this is truly a really cool prize.) If you want to compete with me, you can go to her blog here. Good luck finding all the words! (And wish me luck as well. The letters look all tiny and such, so I'm putting off doing it atm. They really aren't, but I'm usually wearing my glasses when I’m not looking at the screen, so…

Anyways, that's all I can think of for tonight. I hope you're all having a great morning (it's five thirty AM, holy crap. I need to get to bed, lol), and I also hope you all have a great day!! See you around!

Another long overdue update (very long)

Hello folks, as I promised, I'm trying to blog more often. (And NOT succeeding either, lol.) At least for now, I'm good. I've been busy, but I'm taking a few minutes for a study break to blog. (It will probably take several study breaks to write it all, but hey, might as well get started today, even if I don't finish till tomorrow. Heck, my last blog was so long, I started it on Saturday afternoon, and finished it late on Tuesday night!!!) I guess I'll start with school again, as it's the current important thing for me. (Actually, there is one thing more important, but I'm holding that back for now. It makes me smile, though, so I will share with you in a little bit.) I'm still getting straight As, so that is great. I have a grade coming (soon, I hope) for my test on Friday in Computer Applications and another for my midterm which I took on Tuesday the ninth. He told us that he would have midterms graded by the next class, which is in three and a half hours. (Still no grades up. I've been checking every day.) Who knows when he'll get them done. As for my other class, he told us yesterday he finished up exams late Sunday night, and would be putting the grades in sometime on Tuesday. He's never been as late as my other professor, so I trust that they'll be up today sometime. I'm eager to see my grade on both. (They should both be A+, but I'm hoping for perfect scores, sooooooooo...) I know, I know, overachiever. I am, and I freely admit it. (Tora called me that on my last blog, and I totally admit to it. But she's an overachiever too, so :p, lol.) Anyways, on to more fun things. There are two wonderful things I'm going to tell you about, but I'll pace myself so the excitement doesn't get to be too much, lol.

The first exciting thing is... Well, some background first. My mom went to a Breast Cancer fundraiser on Sunday. You could enter raffles for all kinds of baskets. She entered for a couple, but put most of her tickets in on the one with (are you ready for this) a pair of tickets to... (Drumroll please)... The Bengals vs Dallas game. And she WON!!!!!!!!!!!! She's not a Bengals fan, but she knows how much of a fan I am, so she put in for the tickets for me. I was so excited Sunday when I found out. I was all thrilled about the whole thing. For a while... Then, after I called her on Monday morning, I realized... The tickets to the Bengals game are for the same day that our winter concert is scheduled. Feast of Carols has one concert Saturday night, one concert Sunday afternoon, and one concert Sunday night. To go to the game, I would have to miss the concert Sunday afternoon. I'm willing to do that, as long as he doesn't flunk me. I really badly want to go to the game, though. So if it just drops me down from an A to a B, I'm okay with that. And he seems to be a nice guy, so I'm hoping he'll be willing to work with me on this. Plus, it's not like she bought the tickets and could change them to another game, ya know? So I asked Amy to go with me. (She's not a huge football fan, but she's savvy and I enjoy her company, so it's all good.) I really thought hard about asking Dani to go with me, but she's planning to come in during Rosa's visit, and I didn't want to ask her to come in twice within a few months of each other, plus there are other things as well. Amy's already planning to come to the concert, so we could go up together and she could meet up with David and Aunt Carol and mom at the theater, and then we're going out to dinner afterwards. And if I took Dani, she'd have to go to the airport instead of dinner, and the whole point of everyone going to the concert in the evening was so that we could go to dinner, so that would be bad. And I really don't want to deliver her to the airport for a late flight (concert over at six, get to dinner at six thirty or seven, get finished at eight or eight thirty, get to the airport at nine thirty or ten, flight leaves at eleven thirty or later...) She would get in in the middle of the night, and someone would have to pick her up from the airport... It just wouldn't work, although I would love to go to the game with her. So Amy and I are going, and I know we're gonna have fun. I have two Bengals blankets to bring, and I'm gonna wear a pair of long johns, jeans, and sweatpants on my bottom and a short sleeved T, a long sleeved T, a sweatshirt (all Bengals of course), and a heavy coat. So I'll need to bring a bag with me so I can change clothes, and put all my layers in it. (No hardship as I have several Bengals bags I can bring, lol. Yes, I AM obsessed.) I'm so excited about the whole thing, and now I can hardly wait for December to come. Mom should have the tickets on Wed or Thurs, and we can check and make sure it WAS Dallas, and see where the seats are. Since we don't know who donated them, they could be anywhere in the stadium. First row (season ticket holder donation), last row (random pair of tickets) or anywhere in between. So we'll have to see what the tickets say, and then I'll talk to Mike about it. I really hope he doesn't object too strongly to me missing the one concert. I suppose if I have to, I could drop the class, but I really don't want to. I'll just have to see how it goes. But I'm going to that game. It's been twenty years since I've been able to go to a game, and I've been so good the last few years, I deserve a treat. I even finished Jesus, and that deserves a treat (I had one picked out, but it will have to wait for something else. Maybe when I graduate). So yay for mom (she spent twenty dollars of which sixteen went on the Bengals basket) and yay for me. (Mom doesn't like football enough to go to see a game. Especially not in December, when it could be miserably cold. I totally do, and I know how to bundle up. I am sooooooooooooo ready.) So that's my one good news. The other is even more exciting (only because I'm impatient and I have to wait for the Bengals game), but you have to wait for after the stitchy stuff for it. Stitching is up next.

For stitchy prowess, I don't have much. (At first I didn't, but since so much time has gone by since I started this, I have lots more.) Honestly, I hardly had time last week what with studying for my midterm exam the first part of the week and my Excel test the second part of the week. I had my exam on Friday, so I did get to stitch some Friday night. And then I got an hour or two in on Saturday. I worked on Desert Landscapes Mandala this week, and I've only done a few colors in part nine, which is the border around the whole thing. I started with the browns at school on Friday. I studied hard Wed and Thursday, so I didn't feel that I needed to study Friday before class. Also, I do all of the assignments in the book, even the ten projects that aren't assigned. I get a lot of practice that way, and I feel like I know what I'm doing and can pass the test well. I got a ninety eight on the last one, out of a hundred, and I hope I did as well on this one. I had some trouble getting started with this part though. I hadn't printed it off yet, so I had to do that on Friday morning (Monday I overslept, and got there just in time for class). Then, I had to take it off the Q-snap twice while waiting for the shuttle. When I finished up part eight, I left the Q on around that part. So I pulled it all off, positioned it so I could start at the top left corner of the piece, and put it back on. Then, I realized there was no point of reference. It just started, without anything in the frame to tell me where to start. So I had to pull it off again, and move it into the center of the piece on the top, since there IS a reference point there. (Yes Dear must have been standing on the puter again last night, as there are random sevens throughout this paragraph. If I missed one, I'm sorry. It's just a little hello from Yes Dear!) Then I was finally able to get started.

I do have a little bit of progress on my ornie too. (I'm showing the final piccy of the ornie, as I've finished it in between now and writing this.) It's coming along, but not very quickly. I have done less stitching on Wed since I started school (and I've had to frog this several times), so it's not coming along as quickly as I'd hoped it would. I don't think I have a chance at getting the ornies all done for Christmas now. I still have four to do after this one, sooooooo… I really wanted to pick up the 2012 JCS ornie issue, but I had just bought all those ornie kits and I convinced myself not to. Now I wish I had, lol. Not that there is anything specific in it that I want, but I like to have LOTS of options. I will get some work in on Rosa's ornie today too. Maybe she and I could stitch together for a while. That would be nice. She works most of the time on Noah, since she wants to get caught up to me, and I work on whatever that day's project is. Makes her feel better about catching up, and me feel better cause I love to get together and stitch. I am loving the colors in this. They're really deep and rich, and you can't exactly get a feel for that in the photo. Definitely worth the money for the overdyed floss.

This week is Impossible Love, and I did take a piccy of it, even though I've hardly done anything on it. Last time, I really didn't get into it, so I didn't know how this time was gonna work out. I'm not totally into it, but I did manage to get done with the ten by ten row I was working on. Since I did, I took a piccy. I just love the colors in this one too. Peachy, pinky, orangey colors to simulate sunrise, sort of. (The sun is actually fairly high in the sky to have the sky be those colors, but it is still very pretty, so…) On Friday, I'll get a start on the next row of ten by tens. I need to put in a grid line, but that's no big deal. It shouldn't take me long at all. And then I'll be ready to start again. I'm hoping starting a new row will help me feel excited about it again. I really didn't on Monday, but maybe starting new will help me get that feeling back. We will see how it goes!

And I have more projects since I wrote this. I was going to do a two week blog entry, but it got lost in the shuffle. Here it is three weeks after I started it, and the darned entry is still not finished!!!!!! Anyways, last week was Rosa and I don't have a piccy of it. I didn't get much done. I started, slowly, on the Bullion Knots. They are easier than I thought to do, but harder to place. So I'm pulling out the ones I already did, cause they don't look quite right. (They're placed funny. I followed my instincts, and I should have followed Vicki's design, lol. I'm not creative enough to just make a rose!!!) So no piccy of that this week. I have a possible cheat on the Bullion Knots. A lady in my EGA group told me that she does hers the hard way. You come up and go down where you normally would, but instead of leaving a loop and wrapping around the second time you come up, you pull taut and then come back up and start looping around it that way. You're actually wrapping the floss around the layer of floss you already laid down, instead of wrapping around the needle and pulling through. Vicki tried the cheat and said it works, but it takes forever!!! I think if I can get the placement right, I'll easily be able to make the roses. So we'll see how it goes. (Considering I've been dreading them for a while, they're not near as bad as I thought they'd be. Score one for Vicki who said they're fairly easy.) Also, she "shared" something with me the other day. She saw a child in a stitchy shop the other day. Eight to ten range of age or so. And she said, "I love blanket stitch because it's so easy to do." I was flummoxed. I simply can't get mine to turn out right, no matter what I do. I told Vicki that I'm just sad, lol. If eight to ten year olds can do, I should be able to do it too, lol. SAD!!!

I also worked on a couple of other things. (I uploaded the current piccy of the ornie, instead of the one I was going to upload.) I worked on both Noah's Sub and Time To Go over the last few weeks. I forgot (because I'm a dork) that I planned to work on the ornies on Thursday as well as Wednesday. I thought I might have a chance at getting them done, but then when I went shopping with mom (she wasn't sure how to find the mall), I took Noah. (I'm too tired to go take another photo, and I can't find the one I already took in my pictures file, so we're gonna hold off on a photo of Noah. After all, it's five AM, and I need to get some sleep tonight!!!) He's looking cute, of course. I did a couple of stitches on the zebra (Literally, I did two stitches in light gray, then went back to the bands of the sky). Then I worked on a big band of the sky at the top. It's 3742, I think. It looks kind of brownish next to the other purples. I'm hoping it will blend better when I get it finished. But we'll have to see. I've seen things that look awful when you put them in look great when all the colors are in, and I'm hoping that happens in this case (Jesus's spray on tan (thanks for that giggle Claudette) is what I'm thinking of.) I think it's just a wait and see thing now. I'll be ticked if I have to pull it all out cause I don't like it though…

And Time To Go is actually coming along quite nicely. I have a Tuesday night class. I have to be there at six and so I usually leave at five in case there's traffic. I generally get there at five twenty or five thirty, and I sit there and wait the rest of the time. So I take my stitching, and work on it while I wait. I've finished up the first two pages on it, and am working on the third. You can almost see the candle that's providing the light in this case. And in the row of ten by tens that I'm working now, you get to see the beginning of her wing. She's so pretty. I love the chart, although I would never do it for myself. Too overtly sexy. I like the sexiness to be very subtle. Not falling out of her bustier in your face, lol. But he's a man, and you know how they are!!!

I also got some work in on Country Bloomers. It's looking good. I got quite a bit of the new pair done, almost one whole leg. And it's solid stitching, so I put a lot of stitches in it. I love that shade of blue. I think it may be my fave color in the whole piece. I got quite a bit done on it at my brother's house that Saturday. I went out to his house cause he was having a big bonfire. He is a great host, and he loves to have people over. He invited a bunch of folks over. I went over early. (It was actually at my dad's old house, which my brother now owns.) I got there about four, but no one else got there till about six. It was just David, Amy, Amy's friend Abby, and myself. The dog wasn't there, because he gets all het up and wants to follow everyone everywhere. He has to keep track of his people. David and Amy (and quite a few other people) stayed the night there, so they could drink. I left at about seven or seven thirty, cause I was dogsitting at his other house, lol. I got there around eight or a little bit after, gave the dog his pill, and settled in for an evening of stitching. We had a good time, as always. So I got a lot done (both at the party and afterwards).

And the next project gets the award for quickest project ever, lol. I started working only on ornies in November, to try and get them done for Christmas. I'm not sure if I'll make it or not, but I'm sure gonna try. (I just have to bucke down and do it. I'm tired of confetti though, so it's hard.) Anyways, I finished up Rosa's ornie on a Tuesday, and started Amy's ornie. That Tuesday night, I was looking (every freaking place I could think of) for the ornie pattern for David's and Amy's ornies, and I couldn't find it anywhere. There were still component boxes everywhere, and I decided to do a little cleaning and organizing. I worked for over two hours, y'all, and still hadn't found what I was looking for. I went through every cubby on my desk, twice. Finally, I found it (in a cubby, of course), and put it on my desk. I looked at the clock, and low and behold, it was after six. (My class starts at six.) So I decided, since he doesn't take attendance, and I was very comfortable with the subject matter, I was gonna skip the class that night. I wouldn't have gotten there with twenty minutes left anyways, so it was no big loss. And I went up to Hobby Lobby instead and got floss. I started the ornie that night, and finished it that Friday. I was so impressed with how quickly it got done, especially as there are quite a few fractional stitches in it. I did have some extra time that week though, for Thanksgiving break. That helped.

That's all the stitching I've got to show you. Now on to my other big news. I'm getting… A new computer!!!! My desktop is old and cranky, and it really doesn't deal well with Microsoft Office. Lots of Not Responding messages. It's a PITA. So I'm going to borrow some money from mom, and I got myself a new one. Well, sort of. It's not up and running yet, because I've done something wrong, I think. I bought the components for a new computer. I'm actually building it myself. I tried running it for the first time the other day, but it's not working. It makes a sort of hollow click sound when I press power, then nothing happens. So I need to figure out what's wrong with it. I'm gonna try it again in a little bit here. I'm backing up some files I did today (Carbonite Backup in the cloud), and then we'll hook it up and give it another go. Hopefully, it will work this time. I got some great, superb, amazing components too. It was expensive, but I would never have gotten such a great computer if I hadn't built it myself. Hopefully, I can figure out what's wrong with it on my own. I was so proud of myself for building it, and then it fizzled on me. So now I have to figure out what the problem is. (UPDATE: The problem is the motherboard. It's not POSTing (Power On Startup Test), and it should be. So I have to return the motherboard and get a new one. No wonder I can't get it to work!! It's still fun to build though. (Except for the CPU fan. That's horrible to get on. I hate it. I had to put it on, then I had to take it off to get the CPU part number, then I had to put it back on again. I have to press so hard my fingers get bruised!!! And now, I have to take everything off the motherboard, and get a new one to put everything back on. Which means I have to put the CPU fan on AGAIN!!! What a pita, lol. But still, I'm happy that I know enough to build one, so it's all good.) I'll definitely update you on how it goes when I get the new motherboard.)

And other updates. I'm finished with school except for one exam, on Tuesday night. Since I'm out, I'll probably be blogging more soon. I'll have lots of updates for you, including what happened Sunday (football game and Feast), but this is already way long, so I'm gonna end here, and I'll put up my pics for now. Then, in a few days, I'll come back and do a better update. Hope you all hagn, and sleep well tonight. (It's already almost one o'clock, geez. I've been studying for hours, lol.)

And I forgot one more thing. I have a couple of piccys of YD to share! I took them while she was sitting in my cubby. I pulled out my box of discs, looking for a startup disc for my computer. (I don't remember which one, lol. I have a lot of them.) And while I had it out, she noticed that there was space where there's not usually space. So she had to climb up there and see what was going on! (She may actually be nosier than I am. I'm not positive, as it's a bit of a toss up, but she may be.) I took a piccy of her taking up space, as she's very cute when she's being, well, cute, lol. And then I used the zoom and took a piccy of her cute little face. There is no body in it, just that cute little face. I think she's just adorable, but I'm slightly prejudiced, lol. I hope you love the piccy just as much as I do. I've added these and a few others to her album on Photobucket, so if you want to see the other new piccys, you can follow this link. And again, hagn. Thanks to all my blogger friends who've supported me throughout my first semester. It's been awesome of you to let me know you think I can do it. So thanks to everyone who left me a comment on my school posts, or said I think you can do it. You all really made my day!!!