Progress and something Wicked this way comes

     I don't remember (shock, shock) if I've mentioned it here before, but for Christmas mom got me tickets for her and I to go see Wicked.  I was excited about it.  I hadn't seen it, but I had heard many good things about it, mostly from my friend Vicki in the UK.  She's India Grace Designs, the hardanger designer I like so much.  So a few weeks ago, when I found out it was here, I started checking into tickets.  We got two some view obscured tickets for a decent price, and not too much of the stage was obscured.  However, she was in the hospital again till Thursday morning.  She had another Angioplasty done.  They didn't place any more stents and just basically made sure the arteries were clear with the balloon.  It went well till they were done.  They couldn't get the femoral artery to stop bleeding.  After half an hour of full pressure (nurse kneeling on the edge of the bed putting all her body weight behind it pressure) they were able to put on a pressure bandage and get her more comfy.  She was okay with that, and the doc kept her only for two days.  On Wed, I went and picked up the turkey and brought it home.  I put it in the freezer, thinking she wouldn't be home for Thanksgiving.  But when I talked to the nurse that night (around midnight, because my sister again didn't call me with an update), she said they would be releasing her in the morning.  So I got the turkey out to thaw.  Then at ten mom woke me up with the phone (luckily, as I usually sleep through the phone) to tell me to take the turkey over to her house so Beth, my cousin who lives there, would be able to put it in the oven.  I got back home and went back to bed.  At five thirty, the phone woke me again.  "If you don't get over here soon, we're gonna eat without you."  So I jumped up, washed up, brushed, and got dressed.  We had a really good dinner.  With some odd dishes, lol.  We had butternut squash risotto, which was really good.  It was my first risotto, and I liked it a lot.  We had mashers and gravy, of course.  They had dressing and jello salad too.  We had pumpkin custard for desert.  It was all delicious.  Oh, and we had asparagus with red peppers (steamed and then done in the skillet for texture) and that was delicious too.  On Friday morning, I still hadn't found someone to go to Wicked with me, as mom didn't think she could hack it.  I had called a friend from High School, Barb.  We don't talk much, but every once in a while, we do.  I called her at about ten PM Thursday night to invite her, and her dh gave me her cell phone number because she was out hitting the black Friday sales.  I called that, and got a message.  So I left her a message, and called back the next day at about ten thirty.  (Yes, I was up that early.)  We made our plans, and we had a great time.

     We both got a program (I'm sentimental about stuff like that), and there was a notice that Elphaba (the wicked witch) was being played by an understudy, Mariand Torres.  And we sort of looked at each other at intermission and said, "If this is the understudy, what must the real thing be like?!?"  Ms. Torres was FABULOUS!!!  It was amazing.  I always forget how much I like musicals till I go to another one of them.  And then I fall in love all over again.  For those who haven't seen it, and like musicals at all, this is a must see.  It's totally amazing!!  Totally!  I was thrilled with it, and really enjoyed the whole thing.  Superb!

     I got home and called mom up.  It was hard to tell her anything because I didn't want to give away the story line.  I"m hoping eventually, she'll be able to see it herself.  But I was thrilled to have gone, and told her so repeatedly.  It was lovely.  She was happy, I was happy, it was great.  I IMed Vicki too.  It's Vicki's fave musical, so I had to tell her how much I enjoyed it.  I went to bed late that night.  Too excited to sleep, lol.  (I'm still on that really late schedule.  Mom hates it, lol.)

     I've had some progress since I last blogged too, on everything I'm working on.  Yes, this post will be just full of eye candy, if you like stitching.  I'll start with Fred, since I haven't taken a piccy of him yet.  I've not gotten a whole lot done on him.  I did get some decent stitches in on him Friday night when I dog sat for David.  Vin and I hung in the basement and chilled for several hours on Friday night, and then again for several hours on Saturday.  I worked on Frederick the Literate from Dimensions (artist Charles Wysocki).  I really like his art work and have his Maggie the Messmaker, Max in the Adirondacks, and Too Pooped as well.  My goal was to finish up two books and part of the shelf they're on.  

So far, so good.  I got a lot of shelf done Friday night, and got a whole book done on Saturday.  I was there till about four or five o'clock when David and Amy arrived home.  So I packed up and headed home.  I had just started on the second book when they got there so I was doing good.  Pic is here.

     I was pleased with it so far.  Of course, it's hard to work on because of the dark fabby.  It hasn't been too hard though.  The light gold color is the first book and then the dark red and mauve are the beginnings of the second book.  I still have two more days to work, so we'll see how far I get.  The fabby is working out beautifully.  The pic is actually pretty true to the fabby's color.  I hand dyed it myself, years ago, just for this project.  I like how it's looking so far.

     The next day, Sunday, I worked on Jesus some.  I've stopped calling him cursed Jesus as I've not been frogging him very much.  You can see what I got done here.

  His face was much harder to do than his hair and clothing have been.  As you can see, I still have a few small spaces to fill in for his hair and face.  He's coming on though.  I really don't think I'll get him done for Christmas.  I work on him again tomorrow, and hopefully, I'll get more done than I did on Sunday.  I got up Sunday at one to watch the Bengals game only to find out that, surprise, surprise, it was blacked out.  I was ticked.  They've done really well the last couple of weeks against real contenders and are becoming a force to be reckoned with.  But still no one wants to buy tickets to the game.  So I didn't get to see them play yet again.  (I think the only home game that has been televised was Pittsburgh, and only then because Pitt's fans are fanatical and follow their team everywhere.  There were lots of terrible towels in the stands at Paul Brown Stadium when we played them.)  So I went back to bed.  I figured to sleep till the four fifteen game was on.  Unfortunately, I was very tired and slept till seven thirty.  Ugh!!!  Guess I should have set the alarm.  So I only got to watch (and stitch to) one game.  I was happy that game was a win though.  Pitt barely beat KC.  It wasn't a hold your breath at the end game, but KC kept themselves in the game till the very end.  So it was pretty exciting.  The Bengals won too, so I was happy about that.  For a rookie QB and a rookie WR, we're doing really, REALLY well.  I can hardly wait for next season.

     Tuesday was ToS day.  So far my tree looks okay.  It's not as advanced as I wanted it to be, but hey, you can't have everything, right?  This part is Eyelets.  I'm using one strand of floss.  I took it to the hospital with me on Tuesday night last week, and didn't have time to print out the instructions.  When mom called, I just got dressed and left.  So I did one with two strands, which is what Abi recommended for the Smyrna stitches.  I didn't like the Eyelet though.  Too bulky.  So I picked it out and started again with one strand.  I like that much better.  So this week, I had already done the trial and error of Eyelets.  I went to work and watched the movie my brother's girlfriend, Amy, recommended to me.  I didn't get a lot done though.  You can see progress here.

It's a little bit blurry, but the Eyelets are coming along well.  It's sometimes hard to place them.  The movie was really crazy.  It's called The Strangers and features Liv Tyler as the heroine.  Really scary.  If you like scary movies, you should definitely give this one a try.  It's very creepy.  There's nothing magical about it though.  No fantastic creatures, or men with wings and fangs or anything.  Just good old fashioned serial killers and creepiness.  I enjoyed it, and could hardly look away from the screen as it progressed.  Hence the not getting much done on my Tree of Stitches, lol.  So more Eyelets next week and then we'll have to see what happens next.

     And lastly, I worked (a lot) on my ornie SAL tonight.  It's coming along.  I got more done than I thought I would.  Tonight was the last Harry Potter night for mom and I.  We watched Deathly Hallows two, which was much better than the book, I think.  It was more of a battle than in the book, and it worked out well for us.  I thought of taking Fred with me in case my hand was too cramped to work on it for too much, but it wasn't a problem.  Here is a piccy of my progress.  I finished up the darker blue, put in all the lighter blue and grey, and started (barely) on the right tree.  You can see it here.  I hope you're all having a wonderful sleep except for the early birds who are already up.  Happy Stitching!!  And to all a good night, lol.