April 23, 2013

Good morning! I got up a little too early this morning. The phone woke me up & I tried to go back to sleep & I think I did for almost half an hour, but then woke up again & just decided to stay up since there's so much I'd like to get done today. Today is the day I start Mandala Crochet & I'm very excited about it which is probably why I woke up in the middle of the night last night & also why I couldn't get back to sleep this morning. My biggest question to myself is how large to make these things. I've seen them anywhere from potholder

sized to afghan sized. I think all of mine will be 1-hour sized (however large it gets in 1 hour). As far as colors, I've been trying to decide on that too. Use only the primary 9 colors, use the 39 colors of primary + tints + hues, or use the full color palette of Red Heart which is currently 107 colors? I'm guessing I'll go with the 107. The way this will work is I'll choose the colors for this week's mandala which will be my shopping

list for next week's mandala, then use what I have available here for this week's. Next week I'll make the one I planned this week while planning the one for the week after. I'll be able to stop planning ahead a week when I have all 107 colors available here at the house. :D What I'll most likely do is come up with 3 versions. 1 using 9, 1 using 39, & 1 using 107. I've already decided on a pattern & can't wait to see how it comes

out. I'll post pics this afternoon / tonight on facebook of the 1st completed mandala & then again in tomorrow's blog. Yesterday was an insanely busy day for me & I'm looking forward to today being a little less hectic. More crafting withOUT working at the same time on installs, tech calls, & de-spyware work. JUST crafting. Sheesh! I made egg salad for breakfast yesterday, crocheted for a bit, spoke to Kyle & Pete on the phone, surfed eBay, checked facebook & took my game turns, got an hour's worth of my inbox processed & made great headway with it, was unable to go w/ the FD to the viewing, took the dogs out, made sure the link from my personal Web site to my Pinterest page worked (it didn't, I was missing an "h" in the link which is WHY I periodically check these things), machine knitted for a bit, talked to Pete on the phone, & quilt crocheted until Pete got home from work. My Sims game yesterday was the culinary career. I got a message in the game that someone had sent me a gift & to have my Sim check the mailbox to put the gift in their inventory. It didn't say WHO it was from so I can't return the favor. After having my Sim check the mail, the gift turned out to be Evil Mr Gnome (3rd pic). That's different. LOL! Since this game was pre-Seasons, I decided to start them off in the spring. My 2nd gen Sim aged up as soon as the game started & gained the friendly trait. He went to school, chatted with someone on the PC, cleaned the house, & then it was time to find him some space. This house is a 1 bedroom & he had no bed. I decided to use the athletic room as his bedroom & only had to delete a Foosball table to make room for his bed. I also added a rug, nightstand, lamp, & toy oven so he can start working on his culinary skill (2nd pic). I don't usually let the children go on field trips because they don't serve any purpose in the game when they could otherwise be working on their relationships with their future mate in school, but this time there was a field trip to the Bistro & sure enough, he increased his hidden cooking skill while there. He's also been baking muffins in his toy oven each time he eats at home, so his cooking skill will be doing very well by the time he ages up into a teen & the skill starts to show. I believe he'll start off at level 3 instead of 1. Back IRL, this morning I've taken the dogs out & checked my AT&T / Yahoo page. I'm playing the Journalism Sims game today (4th pic). This game too was pre-Seasons so I started them off in the summer. My 3rd gen Sim is Olivia Tenderlove & she had just aged up into a toddler when I last played, so now in addition to working & book writing, my 2nd gen Sim Edward has to teach her to talk, walk, potty train her, & read 3 books to her that will give her a head start w/ her writing skill. All this has to be done in 4 game days. That's 1 day for each thing assuming he has the time around work, sleeping, eating, showering, & housecleaning ... which they usually don't & the children get a random trait due to the failure of the parents to be able to keep up. Olivia is artistic (needed trait) & grumpy. She's a Pisces who likes R&B, vegetarian lobster thermidore, & the color hot pink. So far all Edward has been able to do since I started the game is make autumn salad for dinner & sleep. Not looking promising for Olivia's development. Back IRL, today marks 2 years since the we lost out Grandson Daniel. I don't have the words to accurately describe being woken up early in the morning by our daughter running into our bedroom screaming that she can't wake her 7-week-old son up. He would have been 2 years old now & even though he isn't with us physically, he will always be in our hearts & thoughts.

Ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person. Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, bu conditions, but their environment. Proactive people are driven by values - carefully thought about, selected & internalized values.

Best-paying jobs in America top 10:

1. Surgeon
2. Anesthesiologist
3. Oral surgeon
4. Orthodontist
5. Obstetrician / gynecologist
6. General internist
7. Physicial
8. General practitioner
9. Chief executive officer
10. Psychiatrist

Clean out basement drains. Basement drains should be cleaned annually from the house to the street. If the drains are still slow after cleaning, then clean them more than once a year.

Fill the area at the bottom of the snack machine with shaving cream.

I was in a drugstore yesterday, to show you the way people are conscious of Earth Day, & a a man was ordering some condoms. And the druggist said, "Will that be paper or plastic?" -Johnny Carson 1990

Looks like "dressing for success" will require wearing a white coat!

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Sailors used to tattoo a pig & a rooster on their feet for protection against drowning. Neither of the barnyard animals can swim, but the crates they were housed in on merchant ships would gloat & carry them safely to shore if the ship sank.

String together chains of cans from the recycling bin & tie them to the back of a co-worker's car.