Harry Potter Birthday Party.

First of all, let me just say, a huge risk involved in having a child in your life (even if it's a friend's little one), that no one ever tells you about, is that they will inevitably fall in love with something, at some point, that is no longer popular with anyone else. For example - Lyam's obsession with Harry Potter.

Now before you start rolling your eyes and yelling at the monitor, I know, the last movie JUST came out on disk. But they're already getting set up to do the Disney thing and "vault" the collection. Which means everything Harry Potter has suddenly gotten even harder to find and more expensive even than it was before.

$5.79 plus shipping for 12 napkins with Daniel Radcliffe's picture on it? I don't think so.

$7.99 for 8 plates with the logo on it? Forget it.

The old Wilton Harry Potter Bust pan that retailed for $11.99 and could be gotten cheaper with a coupon, now is discontinued and only available used starting at (I'm not kinding) $34.50 + plus shipping! And there's no guarantee that a used cake pan won't be too warped to use.

But Lyam had to have a Harry Potter Birthday and Lisa and I were determined to make it happen. So we went online and we found a Hogwarts Cake Set, complete with figurines of Harry, Ron, and Hermoine. And it was a decent price and eligible for free shipping from Amazon! Jackpot!

Then is showed up in the mail. 3 days before the party and it is the saddest, most pathetic thing you have ever seen - with no instructions or suggestions about cake size or anything. But the figures are good. Like, really good. Good enough to make it worth the money anyway. So I figure I can work with this.

I bought the Wilton "Romantic Castle Set." It's meant to make a fairy tale princess castle, but also has intructions for a "Medieval Fortress" and at this point, I'm feeling like anything would be close enough.

So after about a million false starts and a last minute realization that I was short a box of cake mix, we finally get the cake going.

With the last minute addition of Rice Crispie Treats for the top layer, we're in business.

Then I realize I don't have my little round detail tip. And I'm at someone else's house. In the middle of not much. Miles and miles from any legitimate cake or candy supply store. So we head to bed with the decision to hit Walmart early in the morning.

I bought some icing writers and a cheap ass, good enough to get through round tip and we're back to finishing up the cake.

Decorated with banners to match the streamers around the house and everything. With the addition of our heroes, it turned out to be an impressing castle and a pretty passable Hogwarts.

The figures really were very good, it's a shame I couldn't just get them without the crushing disappointment that was the rest of the set they came in.

And while the decorating was a bit hurried in places and a little clumsy due to the belated realization that I hadn't brought all of my tools with me, the cake was a huge hit.

My Mother-In-Law

I love my mother-in-law. She's a sweet grandmotherly type, who almost makes me feel guilty about not being the type of woman who could her son into kids he doesn't want. Almost. Her name is Dot. (I'm not kidding.)

She called us up the other day and asked if I wanted to take her arts and crafts supplies off her hands because she wasn't going to be doing anything with them anymore. Because it's no fun without Lois (the neighbor lady across the street who has also given up doing arts and crafts). Because she doesn't like to shop for supplies without Lois, who won't tag along because she'll be tempted to buy something that she won't use anyway because it's cute.

So the husband tells his adorable mother that I said yes, I''ll be down to take a look at what she has. I called her back later when I had my work schedule handy and told her when I'd be down. I get the in-laws house and I can't hear the pugs barking (Ollie and Ruby) and Dot is talking absolutely forever to answer the door.

Just when I've almost decided that "Something Terrible" has happened, she finally opens the door. Turns our she broke her foot. I can't hear the pugs because she let them out that morning and the porch steps are a giant pain in the ass with the huge orthotic boot she's wearing and she hasn't bothered to let them back in.

So I look around the living at the half dozen or so totes and decide that I'll just take it all. Then Dot points out that there's more totes down the hallway (which is about three more, plus a pile of grapevine wreaths). So at this point I'm thinking no big deal.

I asked Dot if she wanted me to go through the stuff at their house or bring it home and return what I don't want or what? She says that anything I don't take she's just going to throw out. I said, do you just want me to take everything, and if I can't use it, just find another home for it?

Dot says "Could you?!?! I mean I don't want you to be stuck with stuff you won't use. I don't want you to take it home and then tell everyone that your mother-in-law stuck you with an incredible pile of shit and that you don't want any of it and don't know what to do because you couldn't say no, but it's a bunch of useless shit and you don't want it."

I said confidently, "No, no problem, I can find homes for anything I won't use." Secretly wondering how I'm going to do this, but I've already volunteered to take it all.

Then Dot says "There's more in the spare bedroom."

"That's okay, I'll just have to make a bunch of trips, we'll have an excuse to visit."

Then she shows me the spare bedroom. Then she tells me there's more in the closet.

****

So at this point, we've made nearly a dozen 45 minute round trips to my in-laws, 4 of which it took to even make a dent in the stack of totes Dot had. I think we're about 2/3s of the way through getting it to our house.

I have no idea where I'm going to store all of it, or how I'm going to get rid of what I don't want/need. What I originally thought was 12 or so totes, has turned out to be more like 40. But I finally have a wreath for my front door and so does Lisa, and I have another to give to Jess & Mike and I have a heart-shaped wreath to hang between the sconces in my living room. I'm also a long way toward replacing all of the Christmas ornaments we couldn't keep after the fire, and I'll be able to get Jess & Mike a good start for their first Christmas in their own apartment.

I ended up spending $12 on specialty floral picking pliers (that was after 50% off) and I'm sliced open 4 of my fingers (I'm running out) with the stupid steel picks for the pliers. There's styrofoam fake berries all over the living room. My back, third floor room looks like a floral supply warehouse, and much to my husband's delight/dismay, I'm happier than a pig in shit and so is his mother!

That being said, anybody need any floral supplies??

Looks who's back!

So after all this time, we're finally getting settled back into the house. We've been living in it for almost 3 weeks, but it's only now starting to feel like ours again. All the damage from the fire has been repaired at this point but we haven't started to unpack yet because the bathroom remodel isn't done yet and repairing the living room floor and redoing the kitchen come after that, as well as the touch up painting in the whole house. When things are finished up, I'll post some pictures.

I haven't been totally lazy while I haven't been online, although admittedly, my dislocated kneecap is slowing me down quite a bit. But... I do have a few recipes to get posted over on Live Like a Hippy, including two for awesome salads, both using variations on Good Seasons dressing mix packets, and I've been crocheting for charity, and brainstorming a really cute draft blocker for you all.

I have my follow up with the orthopedic on Thursday, wish me luck.

I know, I know

I know it sounds like I'm making a ton of excuses all the time, I really am working on stuff for the website. Unfortunately, I'm having a terrible time with coding anything or getting patterns typed up. I do not have a functioning Number One key.

I have a nearly impossible time entering my address for anything online too. I have 3 ones in my house number and 2 more in my zip code. Awhile ago, I bought 2 of something that I didn't need a second one of just to avoid the key that doesn't work.

Anybody know a reliable way to fix a buggy laptop keyboard?

Finally.

So, after what? Like a month of no new anything in the way of crochet, I've finally got started working on something. I've got a good portion of the next "Fishin' Buddies" pattern done, with some pretty solid ideas for at least one more.

I have managed to get a couple of more t-shirt designs done, but I haven't uploaded them yet. I've been seriously considering pulling my shirts from Printfection and hand screen printing them as people order them. It's would be a lot more work on my end, and possibly a pretty big up front investment, but at the same time - the biggest stumbling block that I've hit with Printfection is the fact that I have to purchase one of each shirt to see how the printing works out before I can offer them for sale and at the rate I design shirts sometimes that can get very pricey.

The biggest evidence of this is the fact that after all this time of talking about offering shirts, I have what, one design available. Best laid plans of mice and men, I guess.

I'll keep you posted. But be aware, my wrist is healed enough now that there will be some patterns coming.

Slacker!

Ok, here's the deal, February turned out to be a pretty crappy month around here. I wasn't slacking so much as I just didn't get to things between fixing the radiators and so on. I also found out that I have a degenerative knee problem and I broke a tooth. In other words, February was Awesome!

I'm hoping I can start to get caught up now and I do want to sincerely apologize for the lack of meeting deadlines and such. Thanks for your patience.

Major Pattern Edit Posted

First of all, thank you to Peggy for bringing this to my attention.  I appreciate that you let me know.  I can't express how much it means to me that you all enjoy my designs enough that when there's a problem, you email me and give me a chance to fix it, rather than deciding that I suck and finding something else to do.

Peggy emailed me with a concern about the Oh! Danny Boy doily pattern.  Turns out, I somehow managed to leave out the entire "notes" section, which details the specialty stitches used in the pattern.  I've gotten an update posted now, and I believe it covers all of the issues.

Thank you, again, Peggy!

Let's Get Serious.

Ok, so, now I have my laptop back, and unfortunately, in the meantime, the battery pack for my digital camera went bad. The good news is, it should be pretty easy to find a new one. The bad news is, they're like $50.

But I still should be able to get website work done, although, a good deal of what needs to be done at this point is behind-the-scenes type stuff. I also need to get working on the Project Wonderful stuff - like deciding where on the site I want to allow ads and designing my ad banners and the like. I also need to get registered with a new host.

And then there's Because We Care. I didn't know this until the other day, but the Lehigh Valley has a local blankets for kids charity. I talked to the founder at length and I will be participating the best I can given that I can't get to any of their meetings. (They meet one Monday night a month at the Hickory Hills Clubhouse, and I work every Monday night.) But at any rate, I talked to the founder at length and they appear to have no internet presence at all, so I told her that I would put together a mention for my website and try to help her get their name out.

That being said, I forgot to get permission to give out her phone number, so if you want more information, email me and I'll get in touch with her and get the info to you.

I am not considering this the formal write up, because I would like for that to be a permanent addition to the site.

On other topics, I finally got a decent night's sleep, thanks to (I think) an aromatherapy pillow mist that I finally broke down and bought.

And, I finally got almost enough clothes for the new dress code at work. Maybe corporate should have looked to see if there even was such a thing as long sleeve oxford-style, white, women's button-down shirts before they required them. Everything is 3/4 sleeve, or has that weird open-neck thing where the buttons stop just above your cleavage and the collar is more open and wouldn't fit around your neck even if you added your own buttonholes. Or they have frilly little ruffly stuff as the top for wearing it under a vest. And I'm not allowed a vest, first off, and secondly, I don't do frilly.

All of that being said, I think things might *crosses fingers* be getting under control around here. We've got beautiful tomatoes coming in in the garden and we're finally gaming again. If only the house would paint itself.....

With a little luck.

Hopefully, *crosses fingers* my files will be pulled from the Dell one day this week and I can actually get started on posted some patterns. Maybe I can even make that new patterns every month thing a reality!

I do have a few patterns waiting to be posted, but the downside of the site looking really good is that I can't really post anything without access to my templates. I know that sound like a huge cop-out, but there's a lot of code for that link bar and that sidebar, and unfortunately, grabbing the code from Tripod isn't that easy, either, because they embed a lot of crap into the site for their banner ads and stuff.

I feel bad about all of this, because there was a time when I would have hand-coded everything and all that code would still be living in the bad of my mind. Unfortunately, I no longer have access to Dreamweaver and the incredibly cool split-screen feature it has.

I know, I'm a nerd, but here's the thing. In Dreamweaver, with the split screen pulled up, as you type code, it displays the finished result. No such feature in FrontPage. I can switch between HTML-view and WYSIWYG editor, but you don't get that immediate correlation. You have to find what your code did.

It's really easy to find yourself giving up on hand-coding altogether in favor of the WYSISYG when it's a pain in the ass to see the effect of your code. Also, I've slacked really badly about keeping current with the HTML standard. I badly need a new book.

At any rate, hopefully, I'll have my files back this week. It would be great, because it will be something I can do. You know, keep me occupied while I have no car.

By the way, if you haven't heard, I think we've had it with the Corsica. It was never a pretty car and I never cared because it got me from Point A to Point B. After having it towed FOUR TIMES this year, I think it's safe to say I can no longer count on it getting me from A to B.

Like I've posted in a few other places, anybody know someone selling a reliable car for cheap?

Aw, shit! or You'll never guess what I did now.

So, I was waiting to post this until I had pictures, I figured the evidence would be appreciated, but as I just discovered that the battery pack for my digital camera has gone bad and I'm currently waiting for the dryer to finish so Hubby doesn't have to go to work pantless tomorrow, I figured, "Heck, what better time to post this story?"

Last weekend, after I spend a day feeling, well, quite sick, actually, we decided that it was finally time to put the air conditioner in the dining room window.

Now, if you've never installed a window air conditioner, there's a few things you need to know.
1) They're really friggin' heavy.
2) The bastards don't have anything resembling handles or a piece you should hold it by.
3) It's really, really awkward to put something out a window and then slam the window shut on it so it doesn't fall out.


If you've never seen my house, there's a few things you should know.
1) My dining room is on the 1st floor, but the window is still about 6 feet off the ground.
2) The sidewalk leading to the basement door runs along that side of the house.
3) The basement door is one of those outside slanted kind with steps under it.


If you have seen my house, you probably know where this is leading already.


Anyway, Carl wrestled the a/c unit up from the basement and then we proceeded with the suck-tastic job of actually putting it in the window. It went really well, sat right into the window frame, pulled the window, started adjusting the little accordion thingys on the sides to close up the extra space around it.

Then Carl noticed that lip on the window frame was on the wrong side of the thing on the bottom of the a/c. And here is the part where we should have communicated a little better.

I thought that I was only helping him guide the thing back into place. He thought I was actually holding on to it tight enough to support the weight. Then he let go.

And the air conditioner tore right out of my hands and FELL OUT THE WINDOW!

Now, remember the part about the slanted basement door? That door is right below that window. And for a brief moment, it was right below the falling air conditioner.

The good news is, when the a/c hit the door is bounced slightly and sort of rolled onto the sidewalk, no harm done. The bad news is, the door didn't fair so well.

The thing is, the door is, correction, was, old beadboard plywood. When the a/c hit, it cracked along one of the grooves, almost the whole length of the door.

And that's not even the best part. Replacing it is a pretty big project, not huge, but most of a day. The problem is, due to a coworker of mine being on vacation, Carl and I have not been home at the same time long enough to fix it yet.

Here is the best part. We've had 3 thunderstorms since the door broke. I never thought I'd be glad for that nasty old drain in my basement floor.

Some updates

My knee is feeling better, but the laptop is still busted. I start therapy tomorrow for my knee and I'm thinking that later today I'm going to start getting the website off the 'net and onto the other laptop. You know, since I can't get it directly from the old one. I'll still need somebody to snag the unpublished files off the Dell, but at least it will be a start.

I'm really itching to get these pattern books going and also the new patterns every month idea. In between that, I do still have to finish a wedding present and a baby afghan - although I do have until like November for the latter.

I haven't forget about the website, believe me. There are still several patterns to be uploaded.

Moving the Website.

So, I hate to say it, but it looks like there's a good chance that Age's Crochet Pages will probably be relocating to a new domain sooner than I originally planned. Apparently, (the trouble ticket is still pending, more when i hear back) Lycos thinks that every outgoing email I send is UBE - unsolicited bulk email. Nice, huh? The strngbn account linked at Crochet Pages is still ok, so far as I can tell, but my personal email is a mess.

As a result, I'm seriously thinking about pulling all of my accounts from Lycos. The downside is, since I host the website with Tripod, it's on a Lycos property and will have to be moved.

I refuse to deal with somewhere that is denying me a very basic aspect of the service they're supposed to provide.

So, um, oops.

I was typing up some pattern-age for you all last night and I ran into a little issue. I was using the old template and NONE of the new patterns have the correct proprietary info at the bottom. DAMMIT!

Ah, well. At least it's an easy fix. It's time I hadn't thought I'd need to spend, but at least I caught it before it's posted.

Due to plans the next few days, it will probably be a bit before I get everything ready to update. I'm the florist for a wedding this weekend, and I've got their unity candles, too, so it would be a really bad idea for me to skip that.

Ah, well. It's getting late and I have to be up at 6am to go in to work early for a special project. It's gonna be a lot of early mornings for the next week or so, but then we should be back to normal. Or as normal as normal gets when you work specialty retail.

Patterns in Progress

Well, I got to spend sometime working tonight and I've gotten 4 of the new patterns typed up so far. All I need to do is pull the photos from my camera and they're ready to post. There's two squares and two coasters.

I've got another pattern or two for the website and a couple that are going to go into a pattern booklet, but I think that the granny square layout is going to have to wait until I can get the bitchy temperamental scanner working again.

In totally separate other news, Alanis Morissette has a new CD coming out called "Flavors of Entanglement" that got a really good review in Rolling Stone and I looked up a couple of tracks online and it's good stuff. I might actually have to buy this one.

Yay! Laptop's back.

You wouldn't know it, because I'm still posting from the desk, but I do have my laptop back now. I'm probably going to have to start transferring files to the Toshiba soon, because the keyboard has issues, but at least I can start getting something done about all these patterns I've been promising.

The next project is to get the scanner working again, that's always touch and go. Plug and Play, my ass. More like Plug and Pray. Cause sometimes it works. And usually it doesn't. At least not the first try. But I've gotten it working before, and have no intention of unplugging it once it's set up this time.

Some things to note.

Apparently Twitter is busted. They're working on fixing it, something about systems not being redundant enough to handle massive peaks in usage, but it's hard to get info since it's on Twitter.com, which won't load most of the time. From what I got, they're trying to be as streamlined as possible, both in software and hardware, and usage is increasing much faster than they can increase system capacity. So, don't be surprised if my Twitter badges don't work.

**edit** Apparently, Twitter is up and running again. It wasn't working when I started this post, but after I finished I checked again and it is indeed there. **edit**

Also, Dan and Robyn loved the flowers, I have one more corsage to make and a couple of minor tweaks to Robyn's bouquet. Otherwise, everything there is set.

As far as Crochet Pages goes, updates are still on hold, pending news from the tech about the laptop. Hopefully, I'll have an answer today. I will have a Granny Square layout to add when I get the laptop back, in addition to a couple of small patterns, coasters and such.

Back to a more or less normal work schedule this week, excepting a meeting on Wednesday that I'll probably have to read the materials for at home tomorrow night, because Kelly hadn't read them yet as of Friday. I'm hoping that I can read them tonight, at work. I don't have much time to get the wedding flowers finished up and I really don't want to lose what I have to work stuff that I'm not getting paid for.

Thursday's a little flaky, too, because I have a follow-up with the allergist at 10:30 in the morning and then I'm working my 8 hours after that. (Probably 12-8, yuck)

Missing you

I miss my laptop. I try to pretend that I don't rely on technology more than I have to, but I have to admit, these last 4 days (yes, only 4) without my laptop have SUCKED! I have so much website work to do that I can't until I either get the laptop or a copy of my files back. I'm painfully aware of the fact that the laptop may not be fixable, and I'm ok with that, mostly, but I really need the files for my website. So that I don't have to download all 487 of the from the web. So that I can get working on some of the pattern books I'm trying to put together to put on LuLu. So I can get back to designing sarcastic crochet-related t-shirts. So I can keep researching print on demand services.

So I don't have to wait until Carl leaves so that I can get on the Internet!

Rest assured, however, in the meantime, I am working on new patterns!

Technical Issues

So, the laptop apparently has a design flaw where the jack for the power cord is soldered directly to the motherboard. It's been going bad (ie coming loose) for quite some time now, but the other day with no warning, it broke completely. As a result, once the battery goes dead, I can no longer use the laptop until we get it fixed. Oh, did I mention, it's out of warranty.

The guy who usually fixes that kind of stuff for us probably won't touch it, apparently it's attached to some very intimate parts of the board circuitry and could destroy the motherboard if not done right.

What this means:

Site updates are on hold for a while. All of the most current versions of the files live on the laptop, including a couple that I didn't get the chance to back up. We do have another computer I can use, but it'll be a while before I can either get the files pulled off the hard drive on the Dell or get them downloaded from Tripod so I can keep working.

Yes, I'm on vacation this week. That doesn't mean there aren't a million things that have been getting put off that I need to handle.

ARgh!

So I slept late today, and I'm feeling pretty good, like I'm finally caught up. I'm thinking clean up the front yard and maybe if it's nice, do a little in the back. Then I'll probably do some work up in my studio. Set up the laptop and stuff. Maybe take my printer up and set up the nicer one for Carl. (We have a 3 in 1 and I have a printer and a scanner that work together as a 3 in 1.)

Maybe some laundry after that, you know, have a productive day.

The plan is: check my webcomics, drop a line on Twitter, and then get busy. The catch? Twitter isn't working today. At first I assumed it was just glitchy because it was a little funny yesterday, but today I can't get my tweets to go through at all.

So I'm thinking it's probably a Firefox issue. Lots of stuff is only barely Firefox compatible. Which sucks, cause it's an awesome browser.

So I go to the help discussion cause I'm thinking maybe they did an update and it has a bug that makes it not work with Firefox. I'm not sure if what I found is encouraging or not. Apparently since some time yesterday, Twitter is either completely broken for the time being or it just isn't working for something like 10 different OS/browser configurations.

I'm bummed. I love Twitter.

Bug Fix!

Woo! Finally got the fixed links uploaded. Took longer than I had hoped, I should have been in bed by now, I work at 5am. Ah, well. One thing to note though, because I've put so much time into fixing the buggy links, I don't have the photo pulled down from my camera for the Chrysanthemum Coaster yet. That's for tomorrow.


Hope everybody likes the redesign as much as Sarah does.