Tag: random

random hump day post

Managing a day when Mercury goes into retrograde…

When I woke up and was about to take a shower, I noticed for who-knows-how-many times that a button was missing off my pajama pants. (I have a tendency to call procrastination “don’t sweat the small stuff.”) This time, I did something about it before my shower.

I found this coloring book recently, and as it was within my sight, I looked through it.

Most of the pages are pretty detailed, and this one appealed to me. It makes me think of my fictional Texas town, Coventry.

Then I was all NO! You need to get ready to write. So I grabbed the yellow book that has all the notes for the first chapters of the seventh book. And that’s the CD I ordered and will be listening to next of various artists performing John Prine’s songs.

I had to make a decision. Start writing, in which I would get lost for the day and into the night, or do some of the holiday things that need to be done soon (mostly mailing things out).

I spent a few hours in the kitchen pre-cooking tonight’s dinner and prepping the dough for cheese straws, some of which will be shipped.

Little dough balls for the cheese straws for Tom later to season with pepper and form into larger dough balls for pressing through the cookie presser.

They look like this pre-baked.

And then like this.

Sometime during the day I ran a shopping errand and an impulse item I grabbed was this little metal tray.

So that I could make the dining room table more festive and NOT a catchall place for the stuff I’m trying to get done.

I filled the tray with unshelled pecans, and I usually put those with Hersheys Miniatures as a snack for anyone who’ll sit with me and shell pecans. Since I had no Miniatures, I dropped in Kisses. (Shelling pecans is a zen activity in that it relaxes me and makes me reminisce about good times when I was growing up.)

There are picks and nutcrackers in that cup. That beautiful maple bowl is one made by Tom’s father and gifted to us. The table runner is a gift from Lynne (the reverse side has a fall theme).


Added an older dish to the other end of the table.

For the time being, it has the favorite candies of Tom, Tim, and Debby in it. This will change at Christmas.

Throughout the day, I worked on addressing Christmas cards. I’ve been sending them out in groups every other day. Now I have a few more and a package ready to go out, as well as contents for seven packages that I’ll box and ship tomorrow.

And…no writing got done, but a lot of other things did, and we had a good home-cooked meal, so it was time well spent.

Tiny Tuesday!

The kilt looks are finally completed, with some shirt exchanges once I sewed a new shirt. Now all the dolls are wearing belts I made, and I made and added their chains and sporrans (note the houndstooth), some embellished with their emblems. If you didn’t care about any of this to start with, I’ll put only one doll here and the rest behind a cut to save real estate on your monitor. If you do look at them all, thanks. I learned a lot of new things and spent my time on this project mentally plotting the rest of the Neverending Saga. That also gave me the opportunity to make good changes to the sixth book before diving into the seventh.


The Mogul

Continue reading “Tiny Tuesday!”

Button Sunday

For good or ill, below is a list of November 19 trivia.
Courtesy of The History Calendar.

Today in History – November 19th

1493 – Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico, on his second voyage.
1805 – Lewis & Clark reached the Pacific Ocean –first European Americans to cross continent.
1850 – Alfred Tennyson became British Poet Laureate, succeeding William Wordsworth.
1861 – Julia Ward Howe wrote “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
1863 – President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address.
1893 – The first newspaper color supplement was published in the Sunday New York World.
1916 – Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn, one of the most successful independent film makers of all time.
1928 – TIME magazine published its cover in color for the first time.
1969 – Apollo 12 made man’s second landing on the moon.
1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to set foot in Israel on an official visit.
1980 – CBS TV banned Calvin Klein’s jean ad featuring Brooke Shields.
1985 – President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time.
1997 – Septuplets were born to Bobbi McCaughey. It was only the second known case where all seven were born alive.
1998 – The impeachment inquiry of President Bill Clinton began.
1998 – Vincent van Gogh’s “Portrait of the Artist without Beard” sold at auction for more than $71 million.
2001 – President George W. Bush signed the most comprehensive air security bill in the country’s history.
2002 – The U.S. government completed its takeover of security at 424 airports nationwide.
2003 – Eight competing designs for a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center were unveiled.

SCIENCE, INVENTIONS, PATENTS
1895 – The “paper pencil” was patented by Frederick E. Blaisdell.
1954 – Two automatic toll collectors were placed in service on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey.

MUSIC HISTORY
1968 – The Supremes performed at a Royal Variety Show with Queen Elizabeth in attendance.
1971 – B.B. King marked his 25th anniversary in music by opening a European tour in London.
1990 – Milli Vanilli were stripped of their Grammy Award because other singers had lent their voices to the “Girl You Know It’s True” album.
1995 – Bruce Springsteen’s thirteenth album, “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” was released.
1996 – Prince released the 3-CD set “Emancipation.” The release was on his record label NPG Records.
1997 – The American premiere of Paul McCartney’s “Standing Stone” was played in Carnegie Hall by St. Luke’s Orchestra.
1998 -Motley Crue’s retail store, S’Crue, opened in Los Angeles.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS
James Garfield 1831
Tommy Dorsey 1905
Indira Gandhi 1917
Larry King 1933
Dick Cavett 1936
Ted Turner 1938
Calvin Klein 1942
Meg Ryan 1961
Jodie Foster 1962

It’s the little things


Here’s a silly product post for which I receive no free stuff or financial perks. I just feel like talking about it, and I’m not really even suggesting it for anyone else.

I started using Purpose® face wash back in the 1990s, and the reason I remember this is that a friend who I was around mostly in the 1990s asked me if I had a favorite product for cleaning my face, and this was it (and she had another friend who’d highly recommended it to her). For years, I used it, primarily because it’s so basic and doesn’t have a scent that bothers me.

Then suddenly, even before the pandemic and the supply chain problems, no one locally carried it anymore (I mostly bought it at Walgreen’s, and once they took it from their shelves, I looked at other places with no luck).

I tried other gentle cleansers, but most of them had scents I couldn’t tolerate–I felt like Goldilocks with my “too strong,” “too soapy,” “too perfumy” judgments and kept giving those soaps away to anyone who’d take them, or used them in my foot bath, because at least the scent wasn’t right under my nose. I wanted my “just right” Purpose®.

I rarely wore makeup in the pandemic years, and even when the public decided the pandemic was over, since I’m one of the stubborn people who continues to mask, because there are SO MANY different viruses and bugs and flus, and I don’t care if people think I’m weird, masking when I’m in public makes me feel a little more secure. If half my face is hidden, who cares whether I’m wearing makeup?

However, a few days ago, I decided to put on eye makeup, and then I thought about Purpose® and how much I missed it. So I did an online search and–BAM!–I could order it online, including this packet of four.

I don’t know. I can name so many horrors and problems in the world and among people I know, and I ache for all that and stay awake at night because of it. I recognize how utterly insignificant a face soap is in the larger scheme of things. Yet I also understand it’s not about the product. It’s about something that gives you comfort or brings a little normalcy to your life, whether an emotion or memory or moment of laughter or act of kindness, and yes, even some simple, tangible thing that has the power to make your world feel more like the world you want it to be.

I wish all those things for everyone.

Tiny Tuesday!

Below are tiny charms I used to embellish kilts.

Longhorn ram.
Grand piano.
Crow.
Flower set with stones.

I ended up with six finished 1:6 scale kilts. Then I realized the trouble I’d had modifying the pattern I found (for a human kilt) contributed to how I misread the actual arrangement of the kilt. Kilts open or fasten on the wearer’s right side, what we see facing it on our left. I got that reversed in my brain, so all my dolls’ kilts open on their left side and are incorrectly fringed on their left side. Since these are dolls representing characters in the Neverending Saga, Tom advised me to accept that I’ve created a mirror universe in my fiction. It’s always good to have a science fiction buff around.

Here are the six. From left to right (real left as you’re looking at it, not some fictitious left), their characters’ initials are AC, MA, DFS, BW, PA, and CA. I tell you that so I can give credit for the pieces I didn’t make.


I made AC’s white shirt (in the 1990s), vest, kilt, and socks. The shoes are Mattel’s.
I made MA’s kilt and socks and the strap with the ram charm. The green over-shirt, black long-sleeved tee, and shoes are Mattel’s.
I made DFS’s gray shirt, kilt, strap with the piano charm, socks, and necklaces. The shoes are Mattel’s.
I made BW’s kilt, fly plaid, belt with the crow charm, and socks. Black shirt and shoes are Mattel’s.
I made PA’s red shirt, black belt (many years ago), kilt, and socks. Shoes are Mattel’s.
I made CA’s brown shirt, kilt, socks, and chain holding flower charm. Boots are Mattel’s.

I can bring a little life to these characters by imagining dialogue. You might have to zoom in to read it.

Definitely a learning experience, and not only will my next kilts and shirts be better, but I’ll make sure they open on the dolls’ right sides. Literally.

Button Sunday

Today is National Chinese Takeout Day.


This button available on Redbubble.

Here are a few takeout/restaurant buttons (most from my personal collection).


Vintage Burger King button.


Vintage McDonald’s button.


Popcorn used to be my takeout snack from Target, but they don’t have machines anymore.


I don’t remember what restaurant advertised with this button or campaign. Maybe Lynne does. Same applies to this one. Maybe the Omelet Shoppe?


Vintage Arby’s button. Ironic, since I never ate their roast beef sandwiches.


Guessing somebody grabbed this button for me back when the peach shake was introduced by Chick-fil-A in 1995.


Vintage button from Morrison’s Cafeteria chain, which originated in Alabama, expanded throughout the Southeast, and now is closed down. Though I eventually overcame a childhood fear of cafeterias and ate at Morrison’s, Picadilly, and Luby’s, these days meals I don’t cook are only takeout, not dine-out, for me. And the single item that still comes home to me on a regular basis is liquid…

Do you have a favorite kind of takeout or a favorite Chinese takeout menu item? My default is cashew chicken, though I’ve been known to choose sweet and sour chicken, too.

Why?


Tom and I got our early voting done. Some people ask why, and if for no other reason, it’s a continued effort against cynicism. I might be a skeptic, but I hope never to be a cynic. Maybe the choice to hope is part of that.

A Google search on the difference between cynicism and skepticism:

While both skepticism and cynicism involve questioning assumptions and evaluating evidence, there are key differences between the two mindsets. Skeptics are open to new ideas and are willing to be convinced by evidence, while cynics tend to be closed-minded and mistrustful.

Hump Day Humor

A few things I’ve snagged from friends I follow on Instagram. I can’t always attest that I’m aligned with the original sources, because I don’t follow them. But these amused me, wherever they came from.

The horror!

On behalf of my French or French-speaking characters.

Mickey knows what he did.

I related way too well to this.

This is like the quicksand on shows I saw as a kid, but this one was more a part of adolescence.

ETA: Found another one (very) early Thursday morning.