I'm Melting - Not Really, It's Still -13 F, But It's Getting Warmer

It's -13 F (-25 C) right now, a whole 5 degrees warmer than yesterday morning, and things will continue to improve throughout the week. By next week we'll be back into "normal" winter temps and I won't have to turn on the portable heater to keep my water pipes from freezing. That's the goal, now we'll see if Mother Nature will cooperate. 

We'll eventually get to the point where our ice will 
melt and Spring will return. That's out a few months, 
however, so right now we just want to keep the 
pipes from freezing. 

I tried to add DH to Voodoo as an alternate user yesterday because he wanted to do a few things on-line. Normally that wouldn't be a problem. On the one program that we share, he would just switch the user name and sign-in code to his instead of mine, and then he would be off and running. I guess Win 10 acts differently on this program, because instead of just changing the user name, he actually needs to have a totally separate account on the PC. Although I tried, it wasn't working properly, so I'll try and give it a bit more of a serious look today. It shouldn't be this difficult, so I'm probably missing an "I" to dot or a "T" to cross. 

The waterfall in the first photo is this 
stream on Greenland, caused by glacial 
warming. It's quite lovely, isn't it? That 
incredible blue in a sea of white. 

I ordered several e-books from Barnes & Noble last night, using my Holiday and Valentine's Day gift cards. This morning I had a message that the order "did not pass our order verification process". Needless to say, they will be getting a phone call from me today as soon as their phone banks are open. In the decades I've been buying B&N books and ebooks online with them, this is the first time I've had a message like this. At least I know what I ordered, so I can re-order them, but it's VERY annoying. Just one more thing, I guess. 

This glacial melt is from the opposite end of the world 
from Greenland. This photo is from Antarctica, where 
glacial melt is once again creating a stunning 
waterfall. Here you can see how the ice is undercut,
so the waterfall cascades out into the sea. 

I'm hungry, so I'm going to call this done, plug in photos, and start wrapping up my morning chores. Have a truly excellent day and remember, please, be kind, stay safe and please wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

I'm a Dinosaur and a Bookworm and That's Not All Bad

Generally, electronics are my friend. I live with my phone, my laptop and the internet in various ways, but we're in touch every day for hours on end. I might mutter now and again as I stumble through the hoops placed for me to jump through, but I force myself through or find a workaround. Most of the time. Every once in a while I get caught up in an electronics maelstrom, though. Yesterday and early today seems to be one of those times, and I'm not sure I'll manage to get out of this one. 

I fully admit I'm a dinosaur, and I'm OK with that. I'm 
closer to the end of my life than the beginning of it, and 
I suspect that when I die, I'll be grateful in many ways to 
leave the stresses behind me. But leave my books 
behind me too? NEVER. There better be books in 
the afterlife. 

I've had an e-book pending at B&N for months. It came live on Monday, but B&N's e-books were under malware attack at the time and no orders were able to be made or completed. Finally, yesterday in the late afternoon, my shopping cart was live once again and I was able to complete most of my order. Except the one book I had been waiting to read for more than two months. 

There's nothing wrong with being a dinosaur. If Earth 
hadn't been hit with a dramatic climate change, mammals 
might still be small little things weaving in and out 
between greenery, trying to avoid being eaten by very 
large and hungry lizards. I'm old, so I don't mind being 
a bit more dinosaur and a bit less darting young thing. 

Even though it was supposed to have been available beginning on October 13th, and I purchased and downloaded it on October 15th, it was still locked with a yellow "Pre-Ordered" banner, keeping me from opening the e-book. I didn't get charged for it, so after trying a few more things this morning, I went onto their website and "cancelled" the pre-order (and one other book that was hanging on for the ride). Now the big question is ... can I actually purchase it, and will it appear in my NookBook library as a book that I can read. 

Age is relative anyway, My nieces and nephews, although 
they are considered to be "middle aged" by now, I still 
remember as small children. I know they're older with 
children of their own, but sometimes it just doesn't seem 
like it's been that many years. 

I've had on-line friends suggest other reading formats to me - basic ePubs from a variety of sources, as well as Kobo and of course, Kindle. I'm rather stubborn, and I enjoy staying with my NookBook formats. One of the main reasons is my library - I have more than 1800 ebooks now, almost all of them purchased at B&N. I usually am reading two different readers at any given time - one for fiction and one for instructional. But the big thing I love is if I try to order something I already have and I forgot about, B&N won't allow me to repurchase it. It tells me that I already own it. That feature alone has probably saved me several hundred dollars. Even when I was reading paperbacks, I would sometimes find myself with more than one copy of a book I wanted to read but forgot I owned. 

The benefit of being a dinosaur is that my friends of 
many years are also dinos, just like me. In this fast-
moving, ever-changing world that we live in, that's 
a constancy that I'm embracing today. 

So, I'll continue being a dinosaur, I'll hope that I can get the book I want to read purchased and downloaded properly, and I'll eventually wander into the sunset, my library clutched in my hand, all held within the few square inches of my phone. What a wonderful thing for a bookworm. Have a great day, be kind, stay safe and please wear your mask! I'll be back tomorrow. 

I'm Addicted to Reading

I've often said that I'm a reading addict, and as I moved my unread 2018 books onto a new listing and counted up the books I read during last year, I was a bit astounded. I guess I do always have my nose in a book! LOL. I read Nook books on my phone, and I almost exclusively buy e-books because they only take up virtual space. I guess you'll get an idea of why I insist on non-physical reading materials now. My grand total of e-books read during 2018 - 139! I also listened to more than 8 audio books, and read a variety of magazines, newspapers, and various articles (not counting surfing and researching on the internet and jumping down that rabbit hole). I've already started my 2019 TBR list of books. 

I didn't read TJ Klune's "Into This River I Drown" in
2018, I read it years ago and re-read it and re-read
it again and again. In 2018 I listened to the audio
version,  and loved it. I wept as much as the first
time I read it. 

It was a year of wonderful offerings by some of my favorite authors, and there's something so satisfying in getting a release notice about a new book in a series I've been enjoying. I have approximately 50 e-books that I carried over to my 2019 list. I already finished the first of my carryovers yesterday, starting the next in the series last night. I usually don't have that large of a carryover, so I'd better try and get caught up! 

For an outstanding audio book series, start with
"The Lightning-Struck Heart" by TJ Klune. There
are four books in the series, this is the first one,
and the rendering by Michael Lesley will have you
laughing (and crying because you're laughing
so much).  

I mention audio books because I really enjoy them too. I've learned that there are certain narrators I adore - their individual talents at separating character from character, adding appropriate sound effects, and generally making the words come alive are above the pale. Two that immediately come to mind are Greg Trembly and Michael Lesley. Both of these men are so talented, and anyone who can make the ending renditions of title, author, sound effects used, etc. interesting to listen to are talents with a capital T. 

The Broken Earth series - a trilogy - was a set
of books that I recommended to all of you last
fall. It was outstanding and worthy of the
many accolades it has been given. 

I never start the year with a reading goal - my only goals stretch to books that I know are in the process of being written, not to an end number. When I was young and my schools and local libraries did reading contests, I always won. They got to the point where they requested that I not participate "officially" so that others could win. I was pulled from a book into class roll call many times. Books suck me into their worlds and my happiest times are days when a book and I are joined in new worlds and adventures, with munchies and a beverage nearby and a comfortable place to sprawl. 

The basic story of my life since I first learned to read back
in the days of stone tablets and chisels. Once introduced to
the written word and the imaginations of authors, there
was no looking back. 

May you read something that catches your imagination today - book, magazine or audio book. May you expand your world and exercise your powers of inner vision through the words of others, enjoying that small piece of escape from the world as a whole. Sometimes escape is a necessary evil in today's tense and angry landscape. Enjoy your Friday and I'll return tomorrow. 

Back Into the Groove For a Few More Days

I'm back after three days off and I missed all of you. Did you miss me? Of course, your lives (as mine also), were taken up with friends, family and food. The dreaded trio. But I had a great three days off, and I hope your holidays were equally pleasant. 

I'm right back into my routine today and the weight I gained
should be off by the end of January (it would be sooner,
but I still have my family New Year's Eve get-together
to eat my way through, as well as a lot of left over
prime rib and ham). 

Despite the holiday cheer, I'm really looking forward to diving into work once more. I gained five pounds over the past week! It'll come off quickly, but I have another three-day weekend coming up, so it'll be a bit harder than usual. I can't wait to get into the pool today. I almost broke down and went for a swim yesterday, but figured the extra two days away from the pool would actually be good for my body. The occasional down-time can be beneficial. 

I made Prime Rib (Standing Rib Roast) on Monday for
our Christmas Day dinner. It turned out really lovely
and I have a bunch left over to eat over the next few days. 

My refrigerator is stuffed with food, but the chex mix is eaten, and I don't really care about cookies. DH made a lot of chocolates and some truffles, but I can easily eat one - or none - and ignore the rest. I have prime rib and the last of the ham in the fridge, though. Those have to be eaten or frozen. I also have pasta left from last night's dinner when I took DH out for Italian for his birthday. 

Chex Mix is always my downfall, but it's eaten
now and we're not making more until next
Christmas. It's soooooo good, but I'm happy to
have it gone for another year. 

Santa Claus was very good to me, as he always seems to be. I have cash and certificates for the next year, and I got enough Barnes & Noble gift cards to stack my account with more than $100 for e-books. It won't take me long to have that spent, but I'm going to have a delightful time choosing and then reading my books. 

DH and I went to see "The Last Jedi" yesterday. I really enjoyed
it and recommend it if you're unsure about seeing it. 

DH wanted to see "The Last Jedi" for his birthday movie, so we bundled up in the sub-zero cold and headed to the cinema yesterday. Chickie wanted to see the movie a second time, and it was $5 Tuesday, so all of us ended up at the same show, although her seat was a bit farther down the row. No spoilers from me, but I really enjoyed it and I like where they are bringing the story line. 

So, I now dive into four days of our "Year-end Four Day Sale" at the shop, then I run my year-end reports and collapse for three days off as I begin a new year. It's nice to be back! Happy Wednesday - tomorrow I'll start showing all of you some of the really lovely holiday cards I received! 

Clocks Are Ticking But I'm (Almost) On Time

I'm actually somewhat on time for sending out my holiday cards. My list is complete, and the cards and envelopes are almost finished. I'm super happy with this year's holiday cards. I think they are festive and cute and very much one-of-a-kind. My goal is to have them out in the mail either Wednesday or Thursday next week. I think I'll manage to succeed in that. 

What a cute image of this little girl straining
to mail a holiday card. I love her muff
and the bow on her hood. 

I have a bunch of items residing in my Barnes & Noble on-line shopping cart. Most of those are e-books that I've put in for myself, I tend to purchase those about once a month. There are also calendars for the upcoming year which have to be ordered soon. Then I'll have to revisit the website once again and order DVD's for DH for Xmas and his birthday. With his serious hearing issues, the captions on DVD's allow him to enjoy movies. Captioning options in the movie theatres haven't been as successful. 

I really loved this Holiday Card image. Isn't that
the human condition - always believing that
something wonderful will happen? If it's
not, then maybe it should be! We all need a
little magic and hope in our lives. 

I have eight repairs pending, including the pearl restring that I've been fighting with. I tried a medium -thick silk and wasn't happy with it. Although the pearl holes were small (they traditionally have among the smallest holes), I still needed to double or triple-knot between each pearl to get the right look, and that would have been crazy difficult over 42 inches of length. I grabbed a thicker silk from the shop yesterday and started restringing them onto it last night. This will work better, but offers other challenges including my having to redrill three or four pearls to allow for double-passage of the thread where the strand will be joined. However, that's something I can do. I have the proper tools. So onward with this repair. 

I loved this holiday card featuring the line of kids waiting
their turn to mail their card at the old-fashioned
mail box. Delightful! 

Between the repairs and the usual end-of-the-year deadlines, tax reports, inventory checks, etc, I now work on Sundays. Only three Sundays and only four hours, but still, I'm away from home and in the shop. Usually we're not busy, but you never know. I'll get two three-day spans of days off at the end of the year for the Christmas holiday and the New Year's holiday, but those are broken up by our massive end of the year sale. Ugh! 

I have always loved this card. In fact, I actually
had one of these sent to me in a prior year.
It's elegant and uses negative space
beautifully to make the form of the
woman clear against the fencing behind her. 

So, here I am. It's Saturday and I'm wrapping up my blog for the day. It's been a fun week, and even though I still have to put my nose to the grindstone, I am actually seeing progress. I can't wait to send out my cards for the year to all of my friends and relatives. So much fun!!! Have a great weekend, I'll be back on Monday. 

May the Fourth Be With You!

I'm officially going on notice that I'm ready for Spring. Yesterday I had leaping and gamboling lambs, today is the first day when we might return to nice temperatures and no rain for a while. Spring is knocking at the door and I'm so very willing to open it to her.

The city requires that the shed be six inches above ground level
with enclosed sides and a roof. He's been studying the specs for
a while now and has a pretty clear idea of what he wants to
make for our firewood storage. 

DH is chomping at the bit for Spring. His outdoor building plans are pretty extensive this year, and he's actually on a bit of a tight schedule to get everything done by the end of summer. It'll be tight. Although the castle walls are almost totally completed (capstones remain to be set, but that's minor work), the eastern side of the yard remains as this year's job.

I think he's planning to set the pavers in a herringbone pattern, but
he could always change his mind. There's a lot that needs to be
done before we're at that point in time. 

The trees that we had taken down last fall have larger pieces that he had them leave. He's been cutting those up for firewood and shredding the smaller remnants. This summer he plans to build a structure for the storage of our firewood that will meet the codes for our city, arrange for a pre-made Tuff-Shed to be installed on the east side (a concrete foundation will be poured onto leveled ground, then the shed will be assembled on top of that), and finally he needs to strip, re-level, and repave the patio with new brick in a different pattern. It's a LOT of work and he needs warm weather without a lot of rain to get it all done.

I've seen a lot of bookstores close in the past twenty years. It's
always a tragic thing when another one closes its doors. There's
something magical about browsing through the stacks and seeing
what's new, or just choosing a volume at random to see if it
might be interesting. I have to rely more and more on internet
review websites to choose my next books. It's not nearly the same. 

I got a notice that another Barnes & Noble Bookstore physical location has closed in my extended area. I always think it's a pity when a bookstore closes. My own neighborhood B&N seems to be doing fine, but I think that all bookstores are hurting now - less reading and more Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. I still read like crazy - love it almost more than food. But I admit that I read ebooks most of the time. I purchase my ebooks from Barnes & Noble as much as I can, though. To me, Amazon feels like Wal-Mart - an evil empire trying to take over the world.

Yoda has my favorite always been! 

And on that note, "MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU". Have a wonderful Thursday and a fabulous Fourth of May. I heard that one of the television stations is celebrating The Fourth by showing the movies non-stop today. It is unfortunate that they are also including the second trilogy. *sigh*. Enjoy your day!

A Missing E-Book and Artist Assignments from LJ Friends

It's Friday, and that makes me smile through my exhaustion. I'm one step closer to the weekend and Sunday is always a sleep-in day (happy me!). I hope my swim today wakes me up a bit, otherwise I'll be asleep on my feet while I'm tagging new beads and stringing samples for our customers to choose from. It's not the most exciting aspect of my job, but a very necessary one. This time I'm stringing and tagging more than 25 colors of new 2mm round beads - itsy, bitsy bits of glass. I drop one of these and I'll never find the missing one so I'll need to be careful when I start the stringing this afternoon.

The finale of Project Runway Junior is a two-episode one, with the second episode scheduled for next week. No photos of Teiler and Hawwaa's walk-off yet. I was intrigued by the differences in their two collections and have to agree with the judges' decisions on who of the two gets to go on and compete next week for the win. It was a 90-minute episode last night, so I'm drooping a bit today with a loss of that extra 30 minutes of sleep.

I like this series a lot. This book is the 44th
novel in the series, and there are some shorter
stories in a few anthologies. By now I'm totally
invested in the characters and the setting. I'd
really like to read the darned thing! 

Last year I pre-ordered J.D. Robb's upcoming Eve Dallas novel entitled "Echoes in Death". I had it along with other Nook books on the same order. The other books went through just fine on the day I placed the order, but between the time I pre-ordered and the time the book was released, Discover sent me a new card because of a data breach. Fine ... except not so fine.

The pre-order was never processed or charged, because when the system attempted it, the card on file for the book was the old one. But, I am not allowed to purchase the book "again". Last week I spent far too long on the phone with B&N customer service (must be a help desk in India, by the accent). The agent ran my new card for the book, and said I would be getting a confirmation email. No. Hasn't happened. Still can't get the damned book downloaded into my Nook library.

So I just added B&N to Wednesday's schedule. I'm going to hop over to my local store and talk to a human being about the issue. I want to read the book, it's already been out for a month and I haven't opened the virtual cover of it yet. I'm EXTREMELY unhappy, and they're going to make it right. This will work, one way or another. Grrrrrrrr.......

Onward to some artwork instead - something pretty to brighten my day.

The following two illustrations are assignments by two LJ friends - two artists I wasn't very familiar with, so it was a joy to research and find good examples to share. The top piece was assigned by Curious Wombat who gave me an artist named Sulamith Wolfing. She paints some really lovely and evocative images. The second illustration is by Berthe Morisot who was assigned to me by Samtyr. I really loved the interplay of light in this one.

Many of this artist's paintings featured angels, but there were a few that
brought the wings in through butterflies and moths. Here, the couple are
framed by a lovely night moth. To me this is very Tolkienesque - perhaps
in the days of the Two Trees in a secluded garden. 

My second artist was Berthe Morisot, an artist from the mid-1800's. Her
works feature a lot of female figures, but I really loved the way she used
the light in this one: "At the Window". 

Here's hoping your Friday is free from frustrations, filled with joy and smiles, and that one act of kindness makes your day. Have a great one!

A Tuesday Redo - Pool, Movie - Haven't I Tried This Before?

Yesterday was a bit of a wash - although I was a good girl, standing in front of the doors for the YMCA at 5:00 am when they were unlocked - the pool was closed. I'll find out more about why later this morning, but suspect it was a chemical issue. In any case, they said the earliest it would open would be 6:30 am, so I blew off the pool, went home and showered, and went out for breakfast. It was amusing to see the three guys who swim in the lane next to me on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, sitting in a nearby booth having their own breakfasts.

Perkins Restaurant and Bakery is my usual breakfast
spot. I like their coffee, and they have some really
nice meals for $4-$8 that I usually choose from. 

Unfortunately it was the beginning of a carb-heavy day which is reflected in my morning weight today. Ugh! The pool should be back up and running today and I'll be there, working off all of my poor food choices from yesterday.

I'll be back in the pool today. I really growl when my schedule
gets messed up, and yesterday was a total miss! 

Tonight I am going with Chickie to see "Moana" after work. This looked really cute, and I'm totally willing to spend $5 on it along with some free popcorn. Popcorn's not the best dinner in the world, but actually, not too bad. It should be a fun time and make up for last week's snow-shortened movie trip. The weather shouldn't be much of an issue tonight.

I'm looking forward to "Moana". It's getting high scores on
"Rotten Tomatoes" in both critical and audience reviews. 

My favorite bookstore, Barnes & Noble, were kind enough to send me a $10 gift card as a membership reward. What a nice thing! I'll be loading that onto my B&N account on Wednesday and it'll be eaten up within two e-books. What a wonderful gift, I'm very happy indeed.

I'm not sure they'll use a cherry picker (getting on down into my
lower yard could be difficult or next to impossible). I know they
are going to use some equipment, though, because they'll be trimming
the yew on my corner to get it in position. 

Today several of our trees will be taken down. We opted for half of the trees we originally wanted cut, but it's still going to be quite the job for them to get to the ones we need removed. They are supposed to phone DH when they are on their way from a small job that will start their day. Ideally they should be out working in my backyard around 10:00 am. It'll be loud, and the neighbors will all be looking out their windows to see what's happening. It's rather funny to be the center of attention for all of the retired folks living on the other side of the creek from me. I just hope everything goes smoothly.

Have a happy Tuesday, all!

Reading, Movies and the Weekend

It's the weekend and most of you have the days off. Up here in the frozen northlands it's going to be a hot one - 90's today and upper 80's tomorrow (32.5-29 C). I have a feeling people will be flocking to the parks, the zoo and, if they want to be cool, to the movies. Chickie wants to see "Finding Dory", but that's one movie I'm really uninterested in. "The Secret Life of Pets" will be opening soon, though, and I want to see that one - maybe more than once.

I'm really looking forward to "The Secret Lives of Pets". 

There was a legal settlement called the "Apple Settlement" that revolved around fixed prices for bestsellers and for electronic books published by specific publishers during an 18 month period. The settlement funds were allocated and assigned to purchasers this week based on their purchase history of books falling within the parameters. Chickie got $1.50! Whoopie! On the other hand, I ended up with almost $75 put into my Barnes & Noble account. I'm a seriously happy person with that! Unfortunately, DH didn't get anything. He started purchasing his ebooks after the termination date. The way I buy ebooks, I'll probably have the settlement used up within a month or so. But I'm pretty happy right now.

I read mostly from my cellphone. It's convenient and always
at hand. I love carrying something so light and small that
holds 1000's of books. 

Sometimes a character in a book can get under your skin. Of course Tolkien did that to me as a child - I've been deep into his writings since I was twelve years old and have re-read some of his books more than 100 times. I have other authors that I follow, though, and am currently re-reading one of the series I really enjoy because the final volume of the series just came live yesterday. I rarely deviate from my TBR list, it grows regularly as I find out about new books I'm interested in reading. But when it's a good book, it's always a pleasure to re-read. I'm enjoying this revisit through the characters very, very much.

I love re-reading books I've loved in the past. 

Enjoy your weekend and try to stay cool. Next month is the last week of June - have you made a good start on your summer (or winter) projects?

Happy Monday! - Recapping My Sunday

Sunday was a really nice day for DH and me. We went out for breakfast, and then spent almost two hours shopping at Barnes & Noble books. We picked up one of our favorite British shows on DVD (at least a few seasons of it) for a good bargain, and DH got the cookie cookbook he's had his eye on. I had a coupon for a good price on any e-book and purchased the last one in a series I've been steaming my way through (JD Robb's "In Death" series). I'm totally entrapped by the series and am reading them through in order, but I'm only allowing myself to buy four at a time. With book #40 coming out next month and my reading #9 now, I have lots of happy reading ahead of me.

I'm totally addicted to JD Robb's "In Death" series. Once I started reading
them, I pushed all of my other books to the back of the pack. I'll catch up
with everything eventually, but I'm having fun with murder mysteries in
a future, semi-dystopian New York City. 

I've heard from a few other friends out there who will be doing NaNo this year and have sent out appropriate friend requests. I spent a bit of time trying to work on the cover of my novel. I've seen it in my head from day one several years ago, but I had never actually worked on making it real before. I decided to play with photoshop a bit and make it happen. It's turning out easier said than done, and I think I have to review using layers before I really get it nailed, but it's at least in the working stage.

I work in Photoshop for my photo and design work and I love the program. Layers
are always tricky, though, and I need to merge several layers to get the image
and effect I want for my book cover. It's at least fun, but it is taking time away
from my other projects. 

I also entered the next phase of my beadwork project while watching DH's Minnesota Vikings pull out an overtime win. The project is actually starting to look like something and I'm quite pleased about that. The real challenge will be the bottom shaped drop and I'm riding by the seat of my pants on that. I'll have to squeeze some of it in alongside NaNo to get it finished on time, but I'm quite determined that I won't miss the deadline this year.

This is one of last year's Toho Challenge pieces. This necklace by Alyx
Alyxander was one of my favorites. I was unable to finish the challenge
because of the death of my father-by-marriage, so I'm quite determined to
finish this year's challenge on time. 

After an afternoon of football, we took a quick run to Target. Certain essentials such a toothpaste, toilet paper and paper towels were purchased along with miscellaneous munchies, soup and yogurt. Returning home we ordered pizza and I picked up a Barnes & Noble giftcard for DH on my way to pick up dinner. He wanted a few more books, but had brought his balance down to <$10 so wanted more. Hey - you give me money, I happily buy for you. Easy.

Since I finally got DH to read on his tablet, he's finally reading a lot again. He really
missed reading, but the text in paperbacks was too small and  too blurry for his
comfort and he had to put the books away. Reading e-books had brought it
back for him. 

After eating, he loaded the new card into his account and bought his books, I worked on my beadwork again for a while, and we ended the night watching an episode of Inspector Lewis on DVD. All in all, a really nice Sunday even if I did eat too much pizza.

I know other parts of the world just don't understand our love affair with pizza, but
it's good - really good! I ate way too much last night, but I don't regret it. 

Here's hoping you all had a good weekend and that your Monday will be fun and fab.

Dreams

I awakened this morning in a really good mood, music playing in my head from my dreams. That made me wonder - When all of you dream, do you dream in color? Do you hear music? Do you remember your dreams?

Dreams - almost all of us have them, and those who do not are often
traumatized by their lack of ability to dream. 

I dream in color, I hear music, and I remember my dreams. What I don't do is dream of people that I know. It is very rare for me to have a dream that has anyone I know featured in it. I could probably count the number of times on my two hands, it's that rare. So I wonder about other people. I know my DH dreams about people he knows very often. When I don't act the way he thinks I should have in one of his dreams, I hear complaints about it the next day. Such a silly boy! So chime in here and let me know your thoughts. Color? Music? People you know?

I had my eggs scrambled (Egg Beaters because I'm trying to be good
about my cholesterol), but breakfast was quite similar to this. Nom nom. 

Sunday was a nice, lazy day for me which was needed. We went out to breakfast, then a bit later went to the art supply store. I was VERY good and didn't buy anything because I didn't need anything and DH only bought a set of paint brushes for watercolors, so he was pretty good also. We then proceeded to Barnes & Noble and Michael's.

We ended up with two different Mucha calendars because we both love
his artwork. Calendars are inexpensive art and both of us love art. 

At Barnes we looked at many things, but ended up with one magazine and several calendars for next year. I'm bringing my Dragons calendar over to the shop with me this morning. The Dragons by Ciruelo calendar is the official store calendar. That's the one where we keep track of vacation dates and workshop dates. It's also so pretty to look at - LOL.

A new toy for less than $20 that will solve a major dilemma for this
year's Solstice cards. I couldn't be happier. 

At Michael's I wanted some spray adhesive. I had a 50% off coupon and I'm working on my solstice cards. I wasn't happy with some of my experimentation for my cards, so I thought spray adhesive, although a bit messy, might be the answer. While looking at the selection, though, I saw several different Xyron machines. I remembered hearing about how great these were for adhesive application and one of the smaller ones was the perfect width for my project and it was only $25. With my coupon, that would make it less expensive than the spray and far more functional. SCORE! I happily walked out of Michael's a short time later, Xyron in my hand, and I will be working with it later this morning. Just call me HAPPY!

One of the things I was looking at while at Barnes was several
books about Steampunk including this one. I really want to make
some Steampunk items. I think it's a novelty that has settled into
some excellent work and a good, solid genre. I think it's time
to play in this sandbox. I've got plenty of bronze and copper...

After we returned home I did some work on the laptop to get ready for this year's NaNoWriMo. I want to put all of my writings - years one and two - together into a single unit before I begin year three on "Face in the Window". I'm not 100% sure how best to do that, since year one was written in WriteWay and year two in Scrivener, but I emailed Tech Service at Scrivener for advise. It's not a rush, I still have a bit of time, but I want to make absolutely sure I don't lose the first part of the book into cyberspace. That would totally freak me out.

DH and I are major "Inspector Lewis" fans and are in seventh heaven
with the start of Season 7 here in the US. It's only three episodes, but I'll
love each one and buy them on DVD as soon as I can to add to our collection. 

So today the Bead Stops Hop continues, I'm putting adhesive onto components for my Solstice cards, I'm listening to great Rock music, and I'm ready to fact the week head-on. The Broncos won their game on Sunday, "Inspector Lewis" season 7 started last night, and all is well with the world - LOL. Here's hoping you have a wonderful Monday.

I Was Lazy (Kindof)

I admit, I was lazy on my Wednesday. Of course, that's relative since I had a long list of errands and accomplished them all. But I was home before 10:00 am, ran out once more to do my grocery shopping, and then was home doing laundry, and laundry, and one more load of laundry. In fact, I'm just finishing up my last load right now, at 5:00 am on Thursday, because I allowed one really dirty sweater to soak overnight and washed it earlier this morning.

When I have something really dirty, I rely on
OxiClean to get the stains and dirt out. I wear
my cardigan every day - my phone is a perfect
fit for the pocket. But it's a white sweater and gets
dirty quickly. An overnight soak followed by a
wash results in a pristine, white sweater for an hour
or so until I get it dirty again...

But lazy is a non-specific term. I didn't go onto my emails or Live Journal at all after my morning post. I needed a day away from the keyboard and writing and I allowed myself the opportunity to take it. So I'll be responding to your comments today and I'll catch up with yesterday's at the same time. I apologize if anyone needed an immediate response because you (quite obviously) didn't get it.

Sorry I didn't respond to emails or comments yesterday. I really needed
a day away from my social media and I'm much more refreshed today. 

I did revise my drabble for the week late last night, massaging and tearing it apart, then building it back together again. I'm almost happy with it and I'm only one word away from count, but I want to take another look at it tonight before I put it out there for my readers.

I often find that knocking a story down into its components'
and then rebuilding it creates a stronger, more cohesive tale. 

I had a totally FABULOUS conversation with Aearwen yesterday afternoon. I was actually so caught up with my workload that I was able to make a nice cup of tea and actually settle down with my phone and my tea for a wonderful talk about Tolkien's world view, his audience, his successful and lesser forays into world-building, his vocabulary, etc. Before we knew it an hour had gone by and we had to hang up and rejoin the world at large. My weekly talk with Aearwen is always one of the high points of my day off and always leaves me with a smile on my face and a bounce in my step. A shout out to her - a dear and treasured friend in words!

Some of my best friends are people I've never met in RL. Aearwen is
one of those really special people with whom I felt an immediate
connection. She's like the sister I never had. 

I played a bit of my computer game. It's crazy how much I'm still enjoying Might & Magic 6 - it's an ancient game and very dated in terms of keyboard commands, graphics, etc. But I remembered it as something I had loved and I still do. My DH insisted that I download it onto his computer also, and he's been playing it since. He's a bit more directed than I am (and has a lot more time off) so he's WAY farther in the game than I am, but he's also enjoying this visit back to our earlier days.

Might & Magic 6 has a huge world for the characters to roam
through. Each square has at least two major dungeons or caverns and
they are extensive. The game starts in the square on the bottom right. I'm
now one square to the left of that. I'm really slow......but it's FUN! 

I got a credit on my Barnes & Noble account as part of a large settlement about ebook pricing. It's not a large amount (considering the amount of ebooks I buy, I really think it should have been a larger amount, but I don't buy best-selling novels and those had the largest percentage of refunds). Still, it was quite nice to see that my two purchases this morning were covered by gift card. I'll probably blow through the credit in a week or two, but what fun!

Having the settlement money deposited directly into my Barnes & Noble account
was like Christmas in March! What a nice way to wake up this morning. 

Enjoy your Thursday. Make it a productive one so that you can relax a bit on Friday. *Hugs* to one and all!