I knew the link for Viv Pickle. I didn't know how to edit the links, that was the issue. So, I had my husband help me with that and now I know how to edit links. So, there is a link to Viv Pickle, and to my other blog.
Making me learn how to do stuff when I have to go back to work in five days. **sulking**
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Best Birthday Present Ever
I was supposed to do this...I forgot. Actually, I am trying to change to my other blog but I haven't figured stuff out on there yet. At any rate.
My friend Beth, who is the awesome-est friend ever (ask her other friends too, they'll agree) gave me the best birthday present ever last week. My husband is even upset about it because "that's the most thoughtful thing he has ever heard of." Requires some backstory:
Beth and I became friends in 9th grade because we had Latin class together. At some point that year or the following, my memory sucks, ask her, we became best friends because of our mutual love of all things Duran Duran. As was required of all Duran Duran friendships, her favorite was Simon and mine was John. You couldn't be best friends with someone who had the same favorite, of course. All Duranies know this. In 10th grade (1985) we even went to England with the school trip.
For my birthday, Beth had a personalized purse made for me with the Duran Duran theme. If I could figure out how to edit the links-I have read the directions and I do NOT find the code it says I will see to edit links- I would post the link to the Viv Pickle site where you can find out for yourself about how to get your own personalized purses. But I can't figure it out because I am fairly computer illiterate and I just don't care all that much about it. But not only did she come up with this idea to have the purse made, she sacrificed her own concert t-shirt and a scarf that she bought on the trip to England so that I could have this purse. The t-shirt was from the time when Roger Taylor was not in the band and since I also love him, she gave up the scarf so there would be a picture of him.
Now, I ask, how cool is that? And since Beth is the only one who reads this blog and comments on it, you can now comment about how cool and wonderful you are! So here are the pictures, as promised, outside, the inside flap and the inside lining. Feel free to tell whoever you want to see them to check them out.
My friend Beth, who is the awesome-est friend ever (ask her other friends too, they'll agree) gave me the best birthday present ever last week. My husband is even upset about it because "that's the most thoughtful thing he has ever heard of." Requires some backstory:
Beth and I became friends in 9th grade because we had Latin class together. At some point that year or the following, my memory sucks, ask her, we became best friends because of our mutual love of all things Duran Duran. As was required of all Duran Duran friendships, her favorite was Simon and mine was John. You couldn't be best friends with someone who had the same favorite, of course. All Duranies know this. In 10th grade (1985) we even went to England with the school trip.
For my birthday, Beth had a personalized purse made for me with the Duran Duran theme. If I could figure out how to edit the links-I have read the directions and I do NOT find the code it says I will see to edit links- I would post the link to the Viv Pickle site where you can find out for yourself about how to get your own personalized purses. But I can't figure it out because I am fairly computer illiterate and I just don't care all that much about it. But not only did she come up with this idea to have the purse made, she sacrificed her own concert t-shirt and a scarf that she bought on the trip to England so that I could have this purse. The t-shirt was from the time when Roger Taylor was not in the band and since I also love him, she gave up the scarf so there would be a picture of him.
Now, I ask, how cool is that? And since Beth is the only one who reads this blog and comments on it, you can now comment about how cool and wonderful you are! So here are the pictures, as promised, outside, the inside flap and the inside lining. Feel free to tell whoever you want to see them to check them out.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Pictures from the Flameworking
It's really hard to take pictures of glass. Without a flash you can't see anything, but the flash reflects off the glass. Go figure. The coolest thing I made was this chain. I have to work on the other picture.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Flameworking
So I signed up for a three day course in flameworking because when I see people doing it I think "that looks cool". Yesterday was day one. It is freaking hard! The booklet said "beginner to intermediate" and when I called I said "so, if I have never done this before, this is ok?" and they said yes. Naturally, there are no other beginners in the class. AND one woman in there has beads in the same book that the instructor has items in. Does she belong in a beginner class? I think not. But that's another story.
The course is at Salem Community College the instructor's name is Sally Prasch. She is amazing. Very nice and helpful. She is just a guest instructor there sometimes.
She decided to start out with the hard stuff first because then the easier stuff is really easy. We received borosilicate tubes, which is hard glass which we were supposed to pull points onto the ends of and make into clear beads. Uh-huh...that didn't happen. My very first attempt I was not turning my hands the same direction so I have a very cool twisty thingie, very cool, not what we were supposed to do. So that was eventually turned into a hanging ornament.
Next, we were supposed to make some little vases and put color on them. I somehow blew the wrong end up. However, with some help, I did manage to get a vase, with color on it. It's got a rather interesting shape to it. All in all from the attempts at hollow beads I have three hanging ornament things...and the vase.
The she showed us how to do some stuff with solid tubing. That seemed a little easier. Since the class was from 8 am to 5 pm, at some point or another I gave up on the hollow beads and such and decided to make a chain out of the solid tubing. When I left last night I had two links completed and the loop started to join the links onto.
So today Sally started by showing us how to make beads with soft glass. The so-called "easy stuff" I heard about yesterday. Yeah, not so much. The problem is that the hard glass you can pretty much not know what you are doing and things turn out ok. Stop working with it, go back to it, no problem. So, there I am, working on my nice soft glass bead, it's looking pretty good and then pop it explodes. Super. You have to keep it hot the whole time. Good to know. So I try again. There is a fine line in the keeping it hot. My next attempt I kept hot, and my lovely color decorations melted right into it. I think I may have gotten it and I may have made three decent beads. I'll see tomorrow when I go back and get them from the oven. But I decided, all in all, soft glass is a pain in the ass.
I went back to the chain. Sally helped me join the two links. It's hard to do because you can only get the one you want to bend hot or else you won't have linked chains, you'll have joined, which is not what I wanted. So then I made two links all on my own, got them linked together with a tiny bit of help and it went really great. So I had two chains of three and I linked them together with another link totally by myself. Then we had a break for dinner. I was going to add three more links but horrible stuff was happening! It was like had no idea what I was doing. I was terribly upset because I had done three really quickly! One of them was all kinds of deformed. I decided it was late and I had had enough of that.
Finally, yesterday and again this morning, Sally showed us how to make "end of the day pendants" using all the scaps you have left over. So I made two of those. It's sort of hard to tell for sure what they'll look like because the color does weird stuff and doesn't show so much until after it's fired. They both looked pretty good though.
So tomorrow it's only from 9-3, which should go fast since I was there 9-8 today and I could not believe it when it was 8! If my pendants look good I think I will stick with that. Give everyone pendants for Christmas! ;->
The course is at Salem Community College the instructor's name is Sally Prasch. She is amazing. Very nice and helpful. She is just a guest instructor there sometimes.
She decided to start out with the hard stuff first because then the easier stuff is really easy. We received borosilicate tubes, which is hard glass which we were supposed to pull points onto the ends of and make into clear beads. Uh-huh...that didn't happen. My very first attempt I was not turning my hands the same direction so I have a very cool twisty thingie, very cool, not what we were supposed to do. So that was eventually turned into a hanging ornament.
Next, we were supposed to make some little vases and put color on them. I somehow blew the wrong end up. However, with some help, I did manage to get a vase, with color on it. It's got a rather interesting shape to it. All in all from the attempts at hollow beads I have three hanging ornament things...and the vase.
The she showed us how to do some stuff with solid tubing. That seemed a little easier. Since the class was from 8 am to 5 pm, at some point or another I gave up on the hollow beads and such and decided to make a chain out of the solid tubing. When I left last night I had two links completed and the loop started to join the links onto.
So today Sally started by showing us how to make beads with soft glass. The so-called "easy stuff" I heard about yesterday. Yeah, not so much. The problem is that the hard glass you can pretty much not know what you are doing and things turn out ok. Stop working with it, go back to it, no problem. So, there I am, working on my nice soft glass bead, it's looking pretty good and then pop it explodes. Super. You have to keep it hot the whole time. Good to know. So I try again. There is a fine line in the keeping it hot. My next attempt I kept hot, and my lovely color decorations melted right into it. I think I may have gotten it and I may have made three decent beads. I'll see tomorrow when I go back and get them from the oven. But I decided, all in all, soft glass is a pain in the ass.
I went back to the chain. Sally helped me join the two links. It's hard to do because you can only get the one you want to bend hot or else you won't have linked chains, you'll have joined, which is not what I wanted. So then I made two links all on my own, got them linked together with a tiny bit of help and it went really great. So I had two chains of three and I linked them together with another link totally by myself. Then we had a break for dinner. I was going to add three more links but horrible stuff was happening! It was like had no idea what I was doing. I was terribly upset because I had done three really quickly! One of them was all kinds of deformed. I decided it was late and I had had enough of that.
Finally, yesterday and again this morning, Sally showed us how to make "end of the day pendants" using all the scaps you have left over. So I made two of those. It's sort of hard to tell for sure what they'll look like because the color does weird stuff and doesn't show so much until after it's fired. They both looked pretty good though.
So tomorrow it's only from 9-3, which should go fast since I was there 9-8 today and I could not believe it when it was 8! If my pendants look good I think I will stick with that. Give everyone pendants for Christmas! ;->
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Dentists
I hate the dentist. I had to get a tooth filled today. My mouth is killing me! I do not understand why anyone ever decides they want to be a dentist. The whole thing is gross and no one likes it.
I think being a teacher is bad enough, no one wants to be there either! But at least there are always a couple of kids who like it enough to make it worth something!
My missing post has appeared. I actually read the troubleshooting and figured out how to fix it. Yay me.
I think being a teacher is bad enough, no one wants to be there either! But at least there are always a couple of kids who like it enough to make it worth something!
My missing post has appeared. I actually read the troubleshooting and figured out how to fix it. Yay me.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
13th Birthday
Alyssa is officially 13. We had a very interesting day yesterday, her birthday. While talking to my son's friend's mother, my call waiting clicks and I see Alyssa's biological mother's maiden name on my call ID. So I tell the woman I am talking to, whose children are also adopted "Oh my god, the kids' mom is calling." She replies "Oh, I'll let you go." "Uh, no...we don't talk to her!" So I didn't answer. Then I was telling Rob about it and speculating that perhaps she has no access to a computer right now because she has left her husband (third one) and if she's with her parents maybe they don't have one. She always sends the kids emails on their birthdays and maybe she called because she can't email. To which my (sucker) husband replies "well, that makes me feel bad."
In the meantime, Alyssa is helping me get ready for her friends to come over and I told her Cara called and I didn't answer and asked her how she feels about Cara calling. I have no idea how I would feel if my mother abandonded me when I was 3 1/2 and I haven't spoken to her since and now I am 13. She said she didn't know. I asked her if she wanted to talk to her if she called back. She said she didn't think so. I told her she did not have to and it was totally up to her but I was sure she was calling to say happy birthday.
Obviously she called back, otherwise, I wouldn't be bothering with this. After some of Alyssa's friends were here, they were on their way out to the pool and she called back. She said "since it was a big birthday, she wanted to call. She wasn't sure if that was ok or not." I asked Alyssa again if she wanted to talk to her, told her it was up to her, she didn't have too; she took the phone. I could tell she was really uncomfortable. The dog was barking because the girls were standing at the door so Cara tried to talk to her about pets. Aly was freaked out I think.
So that was the first event of the day. We were not officially having a party because that stresses me out too much. I cannot handle the kids birthday parties. Too many people here, in my stuff, hate it. So it was just Alyssa's friends K & Z (from the Kelly Clarkson concert), my niece who is 11 and her friend from school. My sister-in-law came with her whole family to bring my niece here. Her husband and 3 sons hung out with my husband. Brandon went to his friend's house after karate. My mom and step-dad, step-brother and his wife came over for cake.
After cake we went to see "John Tucker Must Die". I was absolutely dreading it. It was surprsingly not terrible. There were some really funny things in it, I don't think the girls got it but Bet and I were cracking up. In some ways I guess it's good to go into a movie expecting nothing. Can't be disappointed that way. I was reminded why we never see movies in theatres though. All told it cost me $89.50 for seven tickets, a large popcorn, five drinks and two kinds of candy.
We get in the car and Aly informs me that her money fell out of her purse. She had put her birthday money in her purse. Needless to say this is after she has been told you don't carry all your money around for no reason at all. She "forgot" how much money she put in there. We went back in to look for it but, of course, it was not there. I got her to admit later that it was all of it, she lost $160. Thankfully, she had gotten some checks and those she had given to me so she didn't lose everything. That's a way to ruin your birthday.
We came home and my aunt was here. She called in the morning and wanted to come over. I tried very hard to prevent her from coming but she was determined so I think there was no way around it. She came much earlier than she was supposed to and by the time I got here Rob was totally stressed out because the boys (my jail bird cousin's kids) were running rampant and the younger one had broken something of my son's. My brother-in-law was totally trashed and shirtless. He had tried one of my aunt's meatballs, shoved it in whole, had sauce all over his face and then wiped it on his shirt. My brother-in-law is a piece of work.
After about 15 minutes here, with the lost money, my husband flipping out, the boys running around, I decided I needed to start drinking too!
Before they left the older of the two boys pitched a fit. All in all that visit was a nightmare. That's a whole other issue I have to deal with now. I don't want them coming over if they are going to run wild through my house. And I know my aunt is going to let them run wild.
As far as the rest of the party. The girls swam for a while, ate and hung out. Aly was disappointed because K was supposed to spend the night and like she always does, she changed her mind. Z never called her mom when I told her to. Her mom just showed up around 9:45-just after I said "Did you call your mom!?" After my s-i-l and her family left and we got cleaned up it was almost midnight.
So, it's a good thing I didn't have an actual party. Since I wanted to avoid the strees and the late night after cleaning up the mess. Tomorrow we get to do it all again for Brandon's birthday. Yay.
In the meantime, Alyssa is helping me get ready for her friends to come over and I told her Cara called and I didn't answer and asked her how she feels about Cara calling. I have no idea how I would feel if my mother abandonded me when I was 3 1/2 and I haven't spoken to her since and now I am 13. She said she didn't know. I asked her if she wanted to talk to her if she called back. She said she didn't think so. I told her she did not have to and it was totally up to her but I was sure she was calling to say happy birthday.
Obviously she called back, otherwise, I wouldn't be bothering with this. After some of Alyssa's friends were here, they were on their way out to the pool and she called back. She said "since it was a big birthday, she wanted to call. She wasn't sure if that was ok or not." I asked Alyssa again if she wanted to talk to her, told her it was up to her, she didn't have too; she took the phone. I could tell she was really uncomfortable. The dog was barking because the girls were standing at the door so Cara tried to talk to her about pets. Aly was freaked out I think.
So that was the first event of the day. We were not officially having a party because that stresses me out too much. I cannot handle the kids birthday parties. Too many people here, in my stuff, hate it. So it was just Alyssa's friends K & Z (from the Kelly Clarkson concert), my niece who is 11 and her friend from school. My sister-in-law came with her whole family to bring my niece here. Her husband and 3 sons hung out with my husband. Brandon went to his friend's house after karate. My mom and step-dad, step-brother and his wife came over for cake.
After cake we went to see "John Tucker Must Die". I was absolutely dreading it. It was surprsingly not terrible. There were some really funny things in it, I don't think the girls got it but Bet and I were cracking up. In some ways I guess it's good to go into a movie expecting nothing. Can't be disappointed that way. I was reminded why we never see movies in theatres though. All told it cost me $89.50 for seven tickets, a large popcorn, five drinks and two kinds of candy.
We get in the car and Aly informs me that her money fell out of her purse. She had put her birthday money in her purse. Needless to say this is after she has been told you don't carry all your money around for no reason at all. She "forgot" how much money she put in there. We went back in to look for it but, of course, it was not there. I got her to admit later that it was all of it, she lost $160. Thankfully, she had gotten some checks and those she had given to me so she didn't lose everything. That's a way to ruin your birthday.
We came home and my aunt was here. She called in the morning and wanted to come over. I tried very hard to prevent her from coming but she was determined so I think there was no way around it. She came much earlier than she was supposed to and by the time I got here Rob was totally stressed out because the boys (my jail bird cousin's kids) were running rampant and the younger one had broken something of my son's. My brother-in-law was totally trashed and shirtless. He had tried one of my aunt's meatballs, shoved it in whole, had sauce all over his face and then wiped it on his shirt. My brother-in-law is a piece of work.
After about 15 minutes here, with the lost money, my husband flipping out, the boys running around, I decided I needed to start drinking too!
Before they left the older of the two boys pitched a fit. All in all that visit was a nightmare. That's a whole other issue I have to deal with now. I don't want them coming over if they are going to run wild through my house. And I know my aunt is going to let them run wild.
As far as the rest of the party. The girls swam for a while, ate and hung out. Aly was disappointed because K was supposed to spend the night and like she always does, she changed her mind. Z never called her mom when I told her to. Her mom just showed up around 9:45-just after I said "Did you call your mom!?" After my s-i-l and her family left and we got cleaned up it was almost midnight.
So, it's a good thing I didn't have an actual party. Since I wanted to avoid the strees and the late night after cleaning up the mess. Tomorrow we get to do it all again for Brandon's birthday. Yay.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Things I Don't Need to Know About
I was pretty sure I could get through my entire life not knowing that if one is arrested and not bailed out quickly enough one gets sent to county. Also, one can only call a number so many times before needing to call someone different. But because I have a cousin who no one understands, I now know these things.
My children have directions not to answer the telephone unless they recognize the number on the caller ID. My parents did not have this luxury. Neither do I, because my children do not follow this rule, especially my son. So yesterday he answers a call which is a collect call from my cousin. Now, I know she has a cell phone so I cannot, in good conscience, not take the call, obviously something is wrong. She's in jail. She is such a dumbass. Unpaid traffic fines and outstanding warrants.
She did not call her mother, we guess because her mother told her last week she had had enough and was "done with her". Believe me, she knows damn well her mother would not leave her sitting in jail, but whatever. She made her choice and called her loser boyfriend instead. Maybe if she had started with mom she would have gotten her out in time and she wouldn't have spent the night there.
So, I got to be the one to tell my aunt. Very tactfully I might add, "Um, yeah, did you know your daughter is in jail?" I sort of assumed she knew, otherwise I'd have at least told her to leave Boscov's and sit in her car so she wouldn't have to break down in the store. She called me this morning on her way to try to go get her, but she hasn't called me again. I assume she got her.
Aren't families fun?
My children have directions not to answer the telephone unless they recognize the number on the caller ID. My parents did not have this luxury. Neither do I, because my children do not follow this rule, especially my son. So yesterday he answers a call which is a collect call from my cousin. Now, I know she has a cell phone so I cannot, in good conscience, not take the call, obviously something is wrong. She's in jail. She is such a dumbass. Unpaid traffic fines and outstanding warrants.
She did not call her mother, we guess because her mother told her last week she had had enough and was "done with her". Believe me, she knows damn well her mother would not leave her sitting in jail, but whatever. She made her choice and called her loser boyfriend instead. Maybe if she had started with mom she would have gotten her out in time and she wouldn't have spent the night there.
So, I got to be the one to tell my aunt. Very tactfully I might add, "Um, yeah, did you know your daughter is in jail?" I sort of assumed she knew, otherwise I'd have at least told her to leave Boscov's and sit in her car so she wouldn't have to break down in the store. She called me this morning on her way to try to go get her, but she hasn't called me again. I assume she got her.
Aren't families fun?
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Whoa, it is seriously hot
I like summer. Partially because I am a teacher and I have off. But I also despise being cold-so I like summer and generally do not care about the heat. However, 97, feels like 105 is even too much for me. I actually went in the pool yesterday. In addition to not liking cold, I don't like to be wet (yes, I take showers) so for me to go in the pool, it's hot.
Yet for some reason, I am going to go to the boardwalk tonight with my cousin. We'll see how that goes. Mainly I want to see if she has any explanation into her "issue" with not getting a medical procedure done. That is her thing, and she has her own blog about it on MySpace so I am not going to detail it. But when I was in Florida with our other cousin and she bailed out of getting the procedure, again, the two of us were completely baffled. She makes no sense.
Oh well.
The other thing I wanted to mention was the NJ DMV and my pleasant surprise today. I had to get my license renewed and I was dreading it because we have this new 6 point identification thing in NJ and every woman I know who has gone to get their license renewed since it started has had a problem with the marriage certificate. The DMV tells them they can't accept "that one" because "it's the pretty one they give you at the church" they need the official one from city hall or whatever. So, they have to go to city hall and get another copy, with a seal. Fun.
Well, I was married in Barbados. So, I was worried, because if they don't like it, it's kinda too bad. I can't just run over and pick up a new one! The girl kinds rubbed her fingers over the one spot to check that it was an actual raised seal, which it was, and that was that. The woman who took my picture and all looked at it and laughed because it has my status as "spinster". Yeah, I was thrilled with that at the ripe old age of 25. My husband's status was "bachelor". So anyway, in addition to not having any issue with my documents, I was out of there in 15 minutes!! Unbelievable! And my picture is not that bad. So, all in all, a good day at the DMV.
Yet for some reason, I am going to go to the boardwalk tonight with my cousin. We'll see how that goes. Mainly I want to see if she has any explanation into her "issue" with not getting a medical procedure done. That is her thing, and she has her own blog about it on MySpace so I am not going to detail it. But when I was in Florida with our other cousin and she bailed out of getting the procedure, again, the two of us were completely baffled. She makes no sense.
Oh well.
The other thing I wanted to mention was the NJ DMV and my pleasant surprise today. I had to get my license renewed and I was dreading it because we have this new 6 point identification thing in NJ and every woman I know who has gone to get their license renewed since it started has had a problem with the marriage certificate. The DMV tells them they can't accept "that one" because "it's the pretty one they give you at the church" they need the official one from city hall or whatever. So, they have to go to city hall and get another copy, with a seal. Fun.
Well, I was married in Barbados. So, I was worried, because if they don't like it, it's kinda too bad. I can't just run over and pick up a new one! The girl kinds rubbed her fingers over the one spot to check that it was an actual raised seal, which it was, and that was that. The woman who took my picture and all looked at it and laughed because it has my status as "spinster". Yeah, I was thrilled with that at the ripe old age of 25. My husband's status was "bachelor". So anyway, in addition to not having any issue with my documents, I was out of there in 15 minutes!! Unbelievable! And my picture is not that bad. So, all in all, a good day at the DMV.
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