Bender is finished!

Well, the bad news is, I never did find the leg that I'm pretty sure the cat stole. Either that, or it walked off on its own. The good news is, I finished Bender anyway. Dan is thrilled with it, although I told him he can't have it until I figure out whether I can make Fry or not.

Ah, well.

finished with bender, sorta

Wee! So the bender doll is finished. Kinda. Everything is crocheted and it's all sewn together. Except his left leg. Which I'm pretty sure the cat stole. Damn! Ah, well, I guess if a bit of straightening this morning doesn't reveal its whereabouts I'm gonna have to make a new one. Damn.

Age

Glen Onoko and possible new pattern

We hiked Glen Onoko today. It was really nice, and I feel at peace again.

In crochet news, I crocheted a little flying piggy today and I anticipate getting the pattern posted to Age's Crochet Pages within the week. *hopes*

Also, the plumbing is all fixed. YAY!

Age

camping, plumbing and bad pics

Hrm, so the camping trip looks like it will be just me and Dave after all. Of course, not if I have jury duty.

With a little luck, I come home today to plumbing that doesn't leak, yay!

No pics of Domokum yet, the batteries were dead in the camera, which is a little bit of a foreign idea to me, my camera is fully manual and I don't use the flash. *sigh* Oh, well. The bigger disappointment really was how many of the pics looked really good on the camera's lcd, and even better on the screen at the photo center thingy, but turned out to be crappy blurry prints. That cost 10 cents more than they should have cause we went to Walgreens and then are sticking together because the guy stacked them before they were dry enough.

This on top of having to wait all day because they have the only photo center in the world that doesn't print automatically plus the fact that the photo center software promises you pictures at times of day when you can't actually get them, plus doesn't give a claim slip sometimes, plus having the least helpful woman on the planet help with photo stuff while the lab isn't actually open.

Yea! Bottom line, don't go to Walgreen's for pictures!

Age

*Edit* I had to go back to Walgreen's today for a refund because my prints had adhered to each other. *sigh* (6/22/07)

In other news...

Woo! The other day we emailed Jeff Diamond (the creator of Orbit) the pictures of the Traxxian doll I crocheted and he emailed us back pretty quick to ask if it would be ok to post the pics on his site. Check out my mention here. --It's under orbit players are superior human beings--

Should have pics taken, at least, of the Domokun by tomorrow. Not sure if I'll be able to get them posted or what, have to see, I guess.

Dave and I took Jessy hiking today, and didn't get quite as far up Glen Onoco as we wanted to, but I think my pictures will turn out pretty good and we had a lot of fun. We also have made some tentative plans to do two-day Appalachian Trail hike in July. I was surprised, Carl is actually interested in coming with us if he can get off from work. Of course the entire trip is dependent upon my not having jury duty that week.

All in all, it so far promises to be a reasonable good summer and on that note I think I'll gonna cut this short, because we also went swimming in the Lehigh, so I smell like the river and don't want to go to bed that way.

Age

Domokun is finished!

Yay! I finished with Domokun and he is currently sitting on top of the monitor. As soon as I can get digital pics I'm get them posted. He's cute. I'm pleased.

Guess I have to call Sarah!

So, um, Dan's an ass, but he's helping us fix our house.

Bless his heart, I love the guy, but last night, our friend Dan came over to look at some stuff around our house, because he's going to help us fix up some stuff. But then he goes and says, "hey, you should move to Lebanon with us." And I said "what, are you nuts? I can't do that!" He looked right at me and said "Why not?"

So now I'm all worked up because as crazy as it all sounded at first, the more I'm thinking that it kinda makes sense. Not too move out there to be near them, but the idea of at least considering that area when we decide to sell the house we're in.

*sigh* This house has so much history for us and so much of it was bad and it really bums me out anymore. I think that maybe, if there's any cash left on our giftcard after all the plumbing stuff, I'll buy the yellow paint we've been wanting for the living room. Jen's red paint has to go. It depresses me. Carl calls it "Satan's whorehouse red" cause it looks like the walls are painted with the blood of sacrificed virgins.

But, the garden is going well, and I'm getting a chance to give some of the plants away which is great. Tomatoes for Sonja and maybe Julie, spearmint for Katherine and Kathy, mums for Katherine and Julie - yay! Oh, and I planted the chocolate mint plant I bought at Somerset in the yard 'cause it wasn't doing very well in the 3rd floor. *sigh again* Almost all of my herbs have died.

I'm wondering if I can pull up some of the busted concrete by the back steps and start a kitchen garden. Might be more than I'm bargaining for, but I think I might try anyway. Need to get a hose reel or a hook or something, though, if I do that.

Decided to get the $2/month membership to Slime Forest, but I'm gonna see if Carl will do it through his paypal account for me. I don't have one and don't want to set it up.

Working on a crocheted Domokun (a Japanese TV character) . It was tricky to figure out how to get the body to be a cube, but now that I figured it out, I think it will be cute. I'll post pics when it's done.

Need to finish Marty and Dee's afghan and then Dan's Bender doll. I need to study armature a bit before I finish Bender, so I kinda put him to the side for a while. Still debating if I want to make Frye to go with him. (hee, would you like Frye with that?!)

Oh, and I found an awesome webcomic. Check it out. It's called Questionable Content and it's crazy funny, but not for kids.

*sigh* It's late. Off to bed. Have to get up for my walk before work.

Age

Still learning Japanese

I've been making sure to play Slime Forest every day because otherwise I know I won't remember anything and I've learn 83 katakana, 51 hiragana, and 209 kanji, and I saved the princess. Woo! Now I think I need to buy a membership so I can get the rest of the adventures and stuff.

Oh, and I started walking every day at Trexler Park, in an effort to get back into shape. The commute to Pottstown didn't agree with me very well and my asthma and allergies being bad further complicated things. I initially lost 20 lbs. when I transferred to Bethlehem, but then I kinda plateau'd there. I haven't been weighing myself, instead I've chosen to judge my progress based on how I feel and if my pants have started falling down. So far, so good. A pair of bootcuts that I love cause they're cute but always had a tendency to sag a bit, have started to become a serious issue. I need a belt or I won't be able to wear them at work anymore. Yay!

Not much happening on the crochet front, sorry. But I'm still working on that site update. I hope to get in live (short a few pics, though) shortly, possibly by the end of the weekend. No promises.

Age

You're learning what?

So, it kinda happened by accident, but I'm trying to learn Japanese. We watch a lot of Japanese horror movies and anime and I realized that I'm starting to pick up things without subtitles from time to time. Then the other day on one of my favorite webcomics, Something Positive, there was a link to a game I had found a long time ago that actually teaches you Japanese. It's called Slime Forest and it's available here. It's free for the basic game and pretty cheap to buy the registered version.

Age

It's about time

Well, after years (literally) of knowing that I didn't have a photo for the girl dammit doll I finally got another sample made and as soon as I can get my scanner working or get ahold of a digital camera I will get it posted. The original sample may or may not be owned by a little girl named Lily (long story, thanks, John).

I also have a sample made of the ring-centered granny and that photo should be posted along with the doll. Jessy is helping make up the other samples I'm missing, and I'm going to ask Sarah about pictures of the things that just don't have photos.

And even better, I'm finally getting the patterns that were sent in the newsletter, but never got posted coded up and ready to be uploaded.

I'm excited, the site is actually getting to where I'd like it to be. I have a template for my pattern page now so I don't have to worry about trying to remember what the hell I did with the others every time I need to add a new pattern. I know that page views on the site have dropped off because of a lack of new stuff and general laziness on my part. I'm trying to remedy all of this but actually staying on top of things. Woo!

Thanks for hanging in there with me,
Age

Age's Crochet Pages Update/Overhaul

Been working on some minor layout changes on Crochet Pages. It's sort of a continuity fix, to make the pages more consistent in appearance. I'm also working to remedy the severe lack of photos. Jessy will be helping by making some of the samples that have apparently gone mixing/been given as gifts.

I'm looking forward to getting everything "together" so speak, finally.

Age

In the meantime

I've been waiting for the sun to go down a little so that I can plant the afforementioned little tomato plant and water my teeny backyard and garden. In the meantime however, I've started working on archiving the Age's Crochet Pages newsletter onto the website. As soon as I've gotten everything swapped over from Word documents to HTML (web) format, I will borrow the hubby's thumb drive and upload everything to the site.

No, I do not have any current plans to start up the newsletter again. Sorry. This doesn't mean I'll never consider it, it just means not right now.

Age

Current Projects as of June 1

Currently I am working on a Bender Doll for my friend Dan in exchange for helping us fix some things on our 3rd floor. (pattern can be found here)

Also in the works, and nearly finished is a star quilt afghan (not the one on my website) for a housewarming gift for a couple I know. Their apartment building burned partially a couple months ago and they are currently living in another apartment while theirs is renovated (it only took water damage). I'm hoping to have the afghan done in time to give it to them when they finally get to move back into their original apartment.

I've got lots of things I'm brainstorming sitting and waiting for me to have the time and ambition at Kayuda. (www.kayuda.com) If you've never heard of it, Kayuda is a web-based, nonlinear thinking/planning/writing tool. I think it's great. I brainstorm supplies for my projects there as well as using it to organize my thoughts for the cookbook I'm writing. Lots of people use Kayuda for things like writing and programming and though it's pretty new, it seems to be a big hit.

Oh, I bought a 3rd tomato plant for my garden. I've gotten tired of looking at a completely empty tomato cage on the end of the first row. It's a Bonnie plant, which I've never bought before, but it came in a peat pot and supposedly you just take the wrapper off, tear the bottom off the peat pot and stick the whole thing in the ground. I've planted from peat starter pots in previous years and they work pretty well (ask my husband about the Sunflower Massacre - all the grass died cause it didn't get any sun past the sunflowers), so I have high hopes for this little plant. Of course I had high hopes for about $25 of starter herbs and herb seeds and most of them have since died. Only the basil and the 3 varieties of mint are still doing well.

ah, well.
Thanks for reading,
Age