Do two hamsters make a gang?

Hubby came back in last night, from the garage, to let me know he heard some scurrying from the area where the furball he found previously, was headed to. Lovely. Unfortuanately, it's not an area that can easily be gotten to, but I think I'll be leaving out some food in the garage and see if my daughter can manuveur herself back there to find it. Oh please let it be another female and not a male or babies.
Have I ever mentioned how allergic to fur-bearing animals I am? I don't want to put the hamster in my kid's room only to have someone claim it, but it has only been 24 hours and even tripling my allergy meds, I'm miserable.

We moved the hamster to a "permanent" cage (it's bigger) and she (yes I checked) filled up her cheek pouches again. I'm voting on calling her Queen Cobra. You can see here ,why.


And without food in her mouth:

What's in your wallet? Errr...Garage

Last night, at my bed time, my husband starts yelling for me from the garage. I'm assuming he (or one of the kids have locked him out of the house when he went out to smoke. So I start yelling back at him, teasing, but he yells back that his hands are full and open the door. SO I do, I have have this little furry butt pointed at me, and hubby asking "Is this a hamster or gerbil?". (It's a hamster by the way)

It turns out he was sitting out there smoking and reading (best place to keep warm and dry, he has it setup with a heater in the winter and fan in the summer) and out of the corner of his eye he saw a little tan furry thing squeeze its way under the garage door. I'm thinking someone lost a hamster, and by chance we still have supplies in the house for it (cage, bedding...FOOD). As the cage needed to be cleaned out, we made a temporary cage. Also the furball looked on the thin side (and cold), so I got it a bowl of food. It then proceeded to put half of the food in its cheeks. When it was done, it looked like a cobra about to strike! ROTFLMAO

I'm assuming it has escaped from someone, so we're putting up signs to see if the owner comes forward. If not, looks like we have a new pet for Christmas. My daughter is ecstatic! I'll post a picture when we officially claim it. I haven't even checked to see if it's a girl or boy.

Monday Madness for the Holidays

Let's talk about holidays... Depending on where you live and what religion you are, you may celebrate different holidays and at different times of the year than others. But most of us do celebrate at least one holiday a year. Let's share! =)

1. Which of the holidays that you celebrate, do you feel is the most important?
All the holidays my family celebrates is important, to us. There is not one the stands out from the rest.

2. Which holiday do you most enjoy?
I’d have to say Yule. The excitement of the kids spills over to everyone else. Plus, between Yule and Mother’s Night in my house and Christmas with the Grandparents, my kids celebrate the season for a week. Even longer this year, as my mom will be out of town visiting her parents and in-laws, and she still wants to have a celebration for the kids when she gets back in January.

3. Is there one holiday that your family tries to get together every year? If so, which one?
No, not one; several. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Easter, Memorial Day, 4th of July, birthdays…did I miss any?

A little here...a little there.

I've just realized that it's been a couple weeks since I posted any stiching updates. I finished the piece for GhostStitchers:

I love how the Hungarian flame stitch turned out.

I also finished the tree ornament from M-Designs "Christmas Duo". This was one of the classes taught at the 2006 PALS Fall Fling. On 32ct linen in Moonglow from Picture This Plus with JAR Designs thread.


And here are the pieces I've made progress on.

"The Enchanter"


And from the JCS 10th Anniversary Collection:
"Sadie Snowflake"- This is a color conversion from the original colors. My son picked these out.

"Snow Kitty"

Ornament SBQ

Do you stitch Christmas ornaments? If so, how many do you stitch each year and for whom? If not, why not?

Yes, I do stitch ornaments. Each year, everyone in the house picks an ornament for me to make (so only 4 a year), and if I have time after finishing those, I'll start working on ones for other people.

Monday Madness November 20

Fill in the blank time!! Have fun and have a fabulous week!! =)

1. In order to protect my computer from viruses, I use Norton AntiVirus.
2. I also use SpyBot for protection from spyware.
3. I don't spend nearly enough time exercising.
4. The first person I usually talk to in the morning is my husband.
5. It takes me about 20 minutes to get ready in the morning.
6. I keep all my appointments in/on Outlook, Palm Pilot, and a Calender.
7. It takes me about 10 minutes to fall asleep at night.

How hot you want it, baby!

Our awesome, A/C and furnace guy installed our new furnace yesterday. Just in time for the cold front today. In fact, he put rush on the delivery of the furnace so we would have heat today and didn't charge extra. Iosef is a great guy. He'll be at my parent's house tomorrow replacing their furnace. Let's just say we got a bulk order discount.

And the great part about the new furnace; it's got an ignition switch. No more trying to remember if we shut down the pilot light for the winter, or trying to relight the damn thing when the cold blows in, or trying to figure out how to light it (Previous instructions: place match way the hell back there, turn on gas, guess to figure out if knob is turned on, press knob, hold for 30 seconds, cuss because match burnt out 20 seconds ago...). Just flip a switch and HEAT! Now the only pilot light left in the house that we need to worry about is the heater. Unless that got changed when we replaced it about 3 years ago.

Various bits and pieces

Work is killing me this week. By the time I get home, my hands hurt so much that I don't even WANT to stitch. But I have received a new project from GhostStitchers. It's a UFO that is already 3/4 finshed. It is Scottish Band Sampler.



It's the Hungarian flame stitch and 'blackwork' at the bottom that I'll be finishing. The 'blackwork' will be easy, however the flame stitch would be alot easier if the instructions had the entire pattern, rather than a few guidelines and instructions that say "you will see the pattern emerge" and not to worry because "the model stitched is wrong". Let's just say I didn't see the pattern emerging and since I couldn't use the picture above as reference (remember, it's wrong), I had to do lots of research trying to find a Hungarian flame stitch pattern (found lots of pictures). Luckily, one of the ladies on the PALS BB pointed me to a pattern for flame stitches and I was able to figure out the pattern on this one. The repeating pattern doesn't go side to side; it goes up and down. I'll get pictures of my progress on it on Friday before I head out of town for the weekend.
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Work has gotten so bad, in the way some people treat me, that I have almost walked out twice since last Thursday. Hubby "talked me off the ledge" once and a co-worker another time. As I'm sick of my hands hurting, I've taken the stance, if my work isn't finished on time, then someone needs to stop overburdening me. Now to find out if any of my managers in the past year have ever gotten around to filing the workman's comp paper work. My doctor won't let me make an appointment for my hands until they recieve the paperwork.

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Meari, thank you offering to send me my missing DMC skiens, but it is no problem for me to get them. I have a Hobby Lobby, Joanns, Michaels and Hancock stores near me. Next time I'm in one, which should be soon to get fabric for finishing ornaments, I'll pick up the missing skiens then. Even when the are not on sale, they are less than 30 cent for me.

The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer

I finished The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer last night. This book is written more towards young adults (is that what the literaary world calls raging hormonal teens?) but I liked it alot. The book is heavy with Norse 'mythology' and in the appendix, a little bit of history. The end did not leave me asking when the sequel will be available. I like it when a book exists by itself (yes even when it is part of a series). I've handed it to hubby to read and will report his thoughts on if it is written historically accurate, but from what I know, it correctly shows some of how Vikings lived.

Monday Madness

Otto says, "This week's questions all come from fellow participants and it pretty much completes all the suggestions I've received so far. Feel free to continue to offer your suggestions. I appreciate your support and your participation! Have a great week!:

1. From ch'i:If you could only read one blog every day- which one blog would be on your daily list?

Ooo a somewhat hard one as I like to read several peoples. But I guess the one I do look forward to is Woozle Madness. I love the way her mind works. Probably because it's much like mine. I just don't express it here.

2. From kat:What do you do to de-stress from a hectic day?

I cross stitch.

3. From paxil princess:What is your favorite piece of clothing to wear in the winter?

Anything warm. I reall don't like the cold so I'll wear anything to stay warm.

4. From sherle:Do you prefer discussing problems with a sibling, a parent, a significant other, a psychologist, or a total stranger?

Any problems I have I talk with my husband about. Not because I have to, but because he's got the best head on his sholders compared to anybody else I know. My first question to all psychologist and psychiatrist puts them off, so I never talk with them.


5. From trista:How long have you been blogging?

4 months

6. From lisa e:Which side of the bed?

It's my question!
I sleep on the right side of the bed, unless we sleep someplace other than our room (like a hotel room, or in a tent). Then I sleep furthest from the door. It's a protection thing.

7. From elton:How often do you pig out when you eat?

Less than hardly ever.

8. From karen:Do you watch the space shuttle launches?

I haven't watched a space shuttle launch since The Challenger launch in 1986. I take those things too personal.

9. From dawn:What's your favorite leisure-time activity?

Cross stitching and reading

10. From sherle:When is the last time you said, 'I love you' and to whom? What about hugs? Who is the last person you hugged?

Last time I said "I love you" was this morning. I said it to everyone who was awake when I left for work. And the last person I hugged was hubby, last night. It lead to "other things"; that was my plan.

The Complete SBQ

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Jan and is:
How many different brands of “complete” embroidery floss sets do you own? How do you keep track of it? (i.e., spread sheet program, index cards, palm pilot, etc.)

ZERO! The most complete set I have is DMC, but I'm missing two (Yes 2!) colors. Store has been out of those colors the last couple times there has been a sale. I have a few GAST and WDW threads but nothing close to the complete set. I keep track of ALL of my stash in a software program, Organized Expressions. I have the Needleworker version, and love it.

Yea! I got to vote at the library!

If you didn't know already, it was election time yesterday. My presinct had a loooooooong ballot to vote on, and only one of those things was for a proposition (increasing property taxes to bnuild more schools, I thnk). So I trotted down the road, to the librairy to vote. But, in order to multi-task like I usually do, I took some book s back to the library that were due, and checked out some more.

The Story of my Life by Helen Keller - Seen her story on screen (large and small) and stage, but it is always from someone elses perspective. I'm looking forward to "seeing" things through her eyes.

Eleanor of Aquitane : A Life by Alison Weir - Eleanor of Aquitane was the wife of two kings and mother to two kings (she's the mama of Kings Richard the Lionheart and John), and ruled in King Richard's place at one point. That's all I know of her. I'm guessing since queens during the Middle Ages weren't kept track of, some of this book will be based on obscure statements in bigger texts until her actions actually ruled a nation. But I've always believed that women have played a bigger role in history than what we are given credit for.

The Journals of Louisa May Alcott by Louisa May Alcott, Madeleine B. Stern (Editor), Joel Myerson (Editor), Daniel Shealy (Editor) - Alcott is my favorite writer of all time, so anytime I find something of her's I have to read it (well buy it too). I may have read this one before, so if I find myself recognizing it, I'll probably make sure I buy it to put on my shelves. I can't say I've read everything she's wrutten, but I have read everything that has been identified as her having written it. She just didn't write "upbeat" stories like "Little Women". She also wrote under several pseudonyms and anonymously, as women were't supposed to write about some of the subjects that she wrote about during her day (think sex, drugs...no rock-n-roll).

Lord John and the Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon - This author's "Outlander" series was recommended to me by someone who saw me reading R. Garcia y Robertson's War of the Roses series. As I couldn't find "Outlander" in the library, even though it had a status of checked in (I hate it when people hide things, obviously they don't know that they can reseve books in the libriary), I picked up this one to give myself a feel of the author's writing. It is an offshoot of the series I'd like to read.

The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer - Another case of the book I really wanted couldn't be found (The House of the Scorpion), so I picked up another of this author's books in it's place. Imagine hubby's delight that I brought home a Viking fiction book. Now imagine my daughter's delight when that same book is discovered to have been written towards her age group. This will probably be a quick read for me, as it is written at a Jr. High level, but after readign the first chapter last night, I'm looking forward to it.

The little bits add up

Tomorrow is hubby's birthday. Although I had already told him he could purchase Mead making equipment for his birthday, I was planning on surprising him with another present that he's been wanting all his life.
Then this weekend, the problem hit. Our furnace's pilot light will not stay on. We light it, it gets gas, then a couple hours later, it completely shuts down, before it has even finished heating up the house.
Now we don't need heat during the day, as it's still getting close to 80, but some of the nights, it's dropping down to 45 or below, and the house does not hold heat. And when I wake up freezing, I'm just cranky for the day, no matter how quickly I can get hot (arthritic knee is no help here).
So as we don't know what is exactly wrong and needs to be fixed, we have no idea how much it will cost. So there goes the extra money I was hoarding to pay for Hubby's present.
I'll be keeping quiet about it and hope that there is enough for me to get it for him this winter season.

At least my furnace is not as bad as my mom's. Hers has a crack down the middle, and they don't even dare allow gas to it for fear of blowing up the neighborhood. They've got to re-fi their house, in order to pay for replacing everything.

Monday Madness 11/6/06

From this week's Monday Madness:
Using the letters in your name (first, last, both, whatever), describe your life!

Life
Is
So
Adventurous!

You named it WHAT!?

This week's SBQ was suggested by Lee (http://lakestitcher.blogspot.com/)and is:

How did you decide on the title of your stitching blog? Was it random, or does it have a special meaning to you or about you?

The title of my blog was just something random that popped into my head during a break from a very tiring day at work.

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I've also put needle to fabric and made some progress on a couple projects:
Merlin's Oak


AND

Winter White Tree Skirt

Halloween pictures and a finish

Finally got the pictures off the camera from last night. Unfortunately, we forgot to get the pictures before they headed out to trick-or-treat, so the were a little uncooperative.



Also, thanks to Lisa sending me the MH beads I needed, I finished an ornament for myself. It's "Christmas Eve" by Elizabeth's Designs from the JCS Christmas Ornaments: 10th Anniversary Collection. 28ct Ivory Jazlyn, with DMC floss and MH beads. I decided to skip the bunny and moon charms.