Macs & Cats

GIVE THAT WOMAN A DICTIONARY!

2008-04-05T21:21:00.003-05:00

After reading my last post, I had to go back and make sure I actually have a college degree. My spelling is atrocious! I is a college gragiate. Please pronounce that word phonetically. See, that's my problem, I'm a victim of phonics. That's what happens when you're a '60's baby. That was the age of "experimentation" which evidently included the brains of small children trying to learn to read and spell. I still count on my fingers! I'm waiting for the 1-800-Sue-Meee lawyers to advertise for a class-action suit against school systems who taught phonics. I mean, really, when you are 8 years old and see the word "fatigue" AND you were taught to "sound it out" then it's no wonder we all gave up on books and started writing video games. Fah-ti-goo (that IS glue with no L). How were we supposed to know it was a French word? Last I checked I don't live in Canada! I think I was in college before I discovered it was pronounced Fa-teeg. OK, I'm going to disclaimer at this point. I am typing with a handicap (in addition to my mental issues) since I have the bird finger wrapped in Co-band (I REALLY don't know how that is spelled, but it's that stretchy stuff that sticks to itself, for those of us allergic to adhesive). Have you ever tried to wrap your finger with one hand? It's HARD! Evidently hitting the right keys is harder.

Now, I want you all to know that a miracle happened to me today. No, it doesn't take much to qualify as a miracle in my eyes... Today, my DH VOLUNTARILY walked into Hobby Lobby with me! Can you believe that? AND he actually wanted to buy something!!! I about passed out and died right in the middle of the garden statues. Sadly, if I had, no one would have known for a week or two. Cliff would have rolled me right onto the lowest shelf and whistled right out the door smiling at the thought of liquidating my craft room and selling all my hardware/software. I think the rest of the girls at HL about passed out too. They thought my DH was a myth, like Sasquatch (no smirking if I spelled that one wrong--spell check didn't know it either). I think ulterior motives were in play. This IS March Madness time, final four college basketball. He was sucking up to me so I wouldn't complain all the way through a full day of basketball.

I was the beneficiary of some really cool gifts for my birthday this year. My friend Candy made me the cutest mini lunch tin with note cards and a Sakura (don't even think about it) Stardust pen. PLUS, all my favorite candy and a handmade card. My life is complete! What could be better than that?! Well, I'm here to tell you that not only did I get ONE handmade card, I got TWO!! I'm on a roll! My friend Lori made me a cute card and gave me the Garden color set of Ciao Copic markers! OMGoodness, I had to run for the Depends! When you get over 40, jumping up and down is NOT a good idea unless you are on fire and need a quick way to put it out. [Smirk] Yeah, you ladies know EXACTLY what I mean. We go from diapers to Maxipads and then back to diapers with grown up names like Depends. Huggies just doesn't sound right if you're over 5. Add that zero after that number, and it's a whole new ballgame! Some ad exec made a killing when he suggested that someone re-brand diapers as "adult peace-of-mind" wearables. Probably the same idiot who suggested they put "Have a Happy Period" on feminine products. Dude! Give that beer back to the girl at the bar! You don't deserve it.

So, after I put my walker and defibrillator away when I got home from Hobby Lobby and changed my diaper, er, Adult Peace of Mind disposable, I promptly kept my appointment with the librarian, then worked feverishly on a logo spot to go on the SCS anniversary newsletter. After that was the loonngg walk into the living room to watch my cat watch basketball and my DH sleep through it. I don't think things are going well in his bracket. Normally, we would have at least three sets of broken TV remotes by now. The living room was a big snooze, so I came back here to the home office (aka, Master Bedroom) and took up surfing again. What an eventful day! Any more excitement like that and I am liable to have a heart attack. Or cough up a hairball, whichever comes first. For my parting nightime thought, sound out critique...

I FEEL LIKE A BI MONTHLY MAGAZINE!

2008-04-04T22:21:00.013-05:00

I can't figure out why it is so hard for me to post on a regular basis. I think it is a character flaw,or, more likely, a memory deficiency. I get so distracted by life in general, that I don't take the time to get up here like I should. So much has been going on, that when I think to get up here with a few words today, they won't matter tomorrow (which is probably the point...)

Lately I have been helping a close friend of mine who owns Clear Dollar Stamps, a clear photopolymer stamp company. This company puts out a variety of clear stamps, from whimsical to Alphabets, but with a special emphasis on Christian stamps. If you are looking for some really nice Christian stamps, CDS has them! www.cdstamps.com She also sells the largest selection of rollograph stamps and we are now designing for that as well. She has never advertised, but you'll see a lot of her stamps in the gallery at SCS (SplitCoastStampers.com). Look for our ads there in the next few months.

I do some stamp designing and all around moral and technical support for CDS. I don't know which of us leans on the other most, we're both married to accountants, let me tell you ladies, hiding the stash has reached an art form in my house! If I could get my cats to hide brads or glitter in their mouths, I would have my own mule system to get my embellies down and out of sight. I'm thinking of buying some fatigues to run my missions with...it would only take me five minutes to look like another cat in the house, just go around and rub on everything and PRESTO, I've furred up another cat!

I am "the Geek Behind the Curtain" who is otherwise known as Cathouse on the SCS board. Designing stamps sets is new to me, although graphic arts are not, I've been doing that as long as I can remember, right before the Mac came out. That may even be farther back than I remember... That's why I am a true Macavist. I've dabbled in the dark side and it hurt my brain. I retreated to the ease of use, no virus worries of my Mac and only go to the PC when I teach Photoshop Elements classes. You can read about those on my Fix That Picture blog. I'm going to start offering some free seminars on Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 at the Hobby Lobby stores and off-site and talk about hybrid scrapbooking. If you're in to that, or would like to try it, or get advice on hardware, software, digital cameras, etc., we will have it (even for PC users!). Start looking for my flyers at the end of this month. I've also got some AWESOME classes coming up for Mother's Day, Graduation and Father's Day, so be watching for those! (Heavens, I should be posting this on my Conquest Keepsakes blog...sell, sell, sell!) There will be more information about those things, and the Children's Miracle Network crop, next week. We're going to be there!

If you want to read some more totally innane stuff about Macs, our cats, and us, you can check out my archives. Be prepared... to see lots of cat pictures and goof ball stories and my rants about why the Mac is a superlative platform compared to the PC. I can war on subjects better than Rome (sports reference there). The best pics and stories are the ones about me in the hospital for two weeks in June of 2006. Whacked out on morphine and blogging! I couldn't eat, but I played the air keyboard a lot, only to wake up mad that all that work I done was just a druggy dream. With pantomime. Much to my chagrin. I'm sure I was the patient entertainer of the month that year.

I need to take a new pic of my slightly dented MacBook Pro 17" that my cat dumped on the floor a couple of weeks ago. We almost had flapcats for breakfast instead of flapjacks. Two big old scratches on the top, it literally did a half pike, flipped over on its back and landed right on the feet of my table. I swear I saw three of my cats holding up signs, 9.1, 9.3 and 8.5 (I think the last judge was bribed to low-ball his vote). I think I instantly killed three flies, and retarded a fourth cat from oxygen deprivation with the large, sucking noise my throat made trying to breathe (the other three voters were already retarded). And it was ON when it happened (I'm SURE there were bonus points for that). All I could think of was ripping up the house to make it look like a tornado hit (it would fly I'm sure) and I could cry to the bean counter about what it did to my laptop and how lucky it was that almost all of us escaped (I think I would have flattened a cat just to make the story stick). Lucky for me, when I picked it up, I got mail! heh heh heh OK, maybe not, but it was still running and so far no hick-ups yet. I dodged a shovel (we don't have guns).

Well, I am getting back to my creative roots. Creating stamp sets for Clear Dollar Stamps has been an awesome experience and has resulted in tendinitis of my middle finger. I've been offending people left and right. My DH says I have "bird" finger. Anyway, I especially like working on the new line (that I can't say much more about) that is having it's first few sets introduced this month. Most of my designs focus on vintage or classic styling, or bolder Christian themes. I'm not a "whimsy" person. At least a cat set is in the works! And I am obligated to do a dog set. Sigh.

Our first set in the Clearly Christian Line, Set Apart, was released this month along with an Antique Seals set. Appropriately called "Set Apart" and "Antique Seals." The Set Apart set is going to be different than any other line of Christian stamps you have ever seen, and the guys are going to love some of these stamps (judging by all the tats I see on those March Madness basketball games). I even put a set of flames on there! You can view all of Lori's stamps by clicking the link on the right-hand side of this page, and view samples of all the stamps in her Idea Gallery.

We are working on a restructuring of her site, trying to tackle one thing at a time. She's a stay-at-home mom and runs her business out of her house. She's an amazing person and I feel privileged to work with her and her other design team members. They are some of the most talented people I have seen, and I've spent twenty years plus in the graphics industry. One of our card designers is Kristi VanDoren; who has had her articles and works published multiple times in Scrap-N-Stamp magazine, among others. The upcoming July issue will have an article from her talking about that fabulous Princess Mirah self-adhesive Batikit fabric paper and stamps from Clear Dollar Stamps and Prickly Pear. She is a 30-year veteran of stamping. Sorry about the "Veteran" word. You know I'm as old as you are, if not older. BIG sigh.

CDS also sells other stamping supplies, and if you don't have a Zutter Bind-It-All or Round-it-All, or, heaven forbid, you don't have a Cuttlebug, then you need to pick up that phone (or keyboard) NOW and get them! At the moment, we are the only company stocking them (BIA and RIAs) in southwest Missouri (that we know of) and CDS also ships internationally (yep, that means you Canadians). We're keeping them in stock, along with all the coils, covers and accessories. We've also started stocking the Copic markers all the stampers love and we are trying to get some Nestabilities so we can play some more! :-) Evidently, the whole crew aboard the slow ship from China is playing with them at the moment.

BACK TO THE STAMPS
If there are any of these stamps sets that you would like to have, drop me an email and I'll arrange to get them out to you. I stock them so I can sell them at classes to make it convenient for all of our Hobby Lobby friends who want more clear stamps than they carry! So here they are (in order I hope...). I should preface this with some info on the first stamp collection. It is called, collectively, the Perpetual Planner set. This set is made specifically for use with 6 x 6 binders, whether you ring bind or coil bind with the Bind-It-all. It stamps beautifully and all the sets coordinate not only to it, but to my other vintage stamp lines. I will post samples of these sets tomorrow after I recover from this gargantuan post. You can start it at any month and put in as many or little as you want. A perfect gift for mom!

And the order is:
Vintage Flourish Perpetual Planner Collection (there is a discount if you buy whole set)
Vintage Flourish Script Alpha upper and lower $22.99 (108 stamps)
Vintage Flourish Months $7.99 (30 stamps)
Vintage Flourishes $14.99 (18 stamps)
Vintage Flourish Calendar (includes individual numbers and phases) $14.99 (37 stamps)
Gothic Alphabet Upper Case $29.99 (38 stamps, about 1 1/4" tall each)
Gothic Alphabet Lower Case to coordinate with the large letters $17.99 (43 stamps)
Cherish Valentine Set (works for weddings and anniversaries too!) $14.99 (28 stamps)
Antique Seals Set (great for stationery!) $14.99 (15 stamps)
Set Apart Set (first in our new Clearly Christian Line) $14.99 (19 stamps)
Family Heritage Set (great for scrapbooking family history) $14.99 (17 stamps)
Old Time Christmas $14.99 (20 stamps)

Keep in mind, these are just the ones I have worked on. There are tons of other really cute stamps that rival any other stamp companies' products or designs. We use high quality photopolymer, which makes for non-yellowing stamps. Buy some now! My cats have to eat...

SNIFFY CAME HOME!!!!

2008-02-20T12:48:00.002-06:00

A miracle! Sniffy walked into the house this morning, through a door I KNOW was closed! We had been leaving our outside door open a crack to our work/John Deere room, but not the door to the house. Cliff found that door open this morning about an hour after he got up for work. He said he felt cold air coming up from downstairs and went downstairs to check. The door was open and Sniffy ran right by him! He picked him up and went running through the house screaming and crying "Sniffy came home!" in his underwear and t-shirt! He was laughing and crying at the same time. For those of you who know my DH, that is NOT a personality trait common to him. It was totally amazing! Sniffy and I promptly curled up together and took a nap!

He wasn't matted at all, no injuries, didn't even look like he had been outside. All I found on him was sticktites, one small scratch behind his ear (probably from trying to get by Pekoe) and a small bit of paint between two toes on one hind leg. There is new construction behind us, but I had already gone through all the open houses several times. But I couldn't get in to any of the locked ones. Maybe he was in one of those that was just painted, and got shut in accidentally. I don't know, and the construction guys swore they hadn't seen him. I don't know what to think other than God's helping hand opening doors for Sniffy! We had so many people praying for him and God answered our prayers! I hope Sniffy has had enough of the outdoor world! Thank you to all of those who prayed and offered tips and resources on finding Sniffy. We are truly grateful and humbled.

SNIFFY, WHERE ARE YOU?

2008-02-20T00:03:00.005-06:00

If you haven't heard by now, our gray medium long haired goofy cat has disappeared. He ran out the door the day after the ice storm (2/13/08). We just had our old cat Coon put down and were grieving him and now Sniffy too. We've put up fliers, filed a lost cat report at the Humane Society, checked with Animal Control, listed him on PetFinder, and spread the word to the other shelters, vets and pet stores in town. I'm posting some additional and some older pictures of him. Of course his Christmas picture is below and there are some in last years' archives. He has had kidney stones so requires special food. He is semi-long haired, looks like a bit of a ruff, hair is long the back of his haunches (he looks like he has baggy pants) and his tail looks like he got the short shrift--not long or short, kind of a scraggly inbetween. He has a squeaky meow, when he chooses to talk, but he mostly trills and hums when he purrs when he wants something, an unusual sound and loves to bump his head on everything (got to spread that sexy scent of his I guess).His eyes are a greenish gold color, they can look either color depending on the light. We really miss him a lot, especially to loose him so soon after Coon passing. My DH is taking it pretty hard. Sniffy was everyone's buddy, the sweetest best lap cat ever (besides Coon). Maki and Pewter miss him, they know something is wrong.

We do have a new member of the family. We adopted one of my parent's barn kitties and her name is Pumpkin (Punky for short). It is a female tortie with lots of dark pumpkin color on her and black. She's just been spayed and had the unfortunate issue of having one of her ovaries separated and they had to do exploratory surgery to find it, so her incision was 3x the size it normally is. She had to wear an e-collar for 10 days. Didn't bother her a bit and she plays with everybody and everything. Especially strings. I've caught her several times dragging my sweats and tennis shoes by the strings. Nothing seems to be off limits to her, literally. She dumped my MacBook Pro laptop onto the floor this morning. All I could do was watch and scream "noooooo" in slow motion as it whacked the floor. It was running at the time no less. So far the computer is still functioning, with a couple of dents on the top but nothing broken. She just about became an embellishment.

We did get Coon back today in his little cedar box. I cried all the way home from the vet. I never though I would live long enough to see him pass on before me. Anyway, here are the pictures.

IN MEMORY OF COON

2008-01-14T17:03:00.000-06:00

Well, the dreaded day is coming this Thursday. That is the day that my beloved cat, Coon, my 16 1/2 year old black and tan tabby, is going to meet his Maker. Coon has been sick for almost a year and we are lucky God allowed us to keep him as long as we have. Coon has been my "Bubba" since he was born in my hand back on July 24, 1991 in Virginia. He lived with me in Virginia, then Missouri, and did the cross country trip in a U-Haul to California. While we were in California, we added Cliff, Kahlua and Mocha to our family, and then lost Mocha before we moved back to Missouri. Since being back here, Coon has been the head dog in our cat family that includes Pewter, Mr. Sniffy, Maki and Kahlua, who is now almost 10 years old. Thursday she will be the oldest cat in the family.

Always my buddy, he would curl up at night and sleep next to me with his head on the pillow and his paws across my arm. For whatever reason, he thought nipping at your nose was affectionate. Or he could have been showing me he was the alpha cat. Coon is one of the smartest cats I've ever had. He understands "No", "Down", "Out", "Stop", "Come" and "Go" and always comes when you call him by name. With "down, out and go" Coon goes in whatever direction I am pointing. Truly a well-minded cat. He can open cabinet doors, sliding doors, and has begging down to a fine art. One time while we were in California, just after Cliff and I got married, I started shutting Coon out of the bedroom. He wasn't having that, so he started pawing at the door incessantly. After 15 minutes or so, we'd get up and shoo him away, only for him to come right back. So we started spraying water on him. That worked for about two weeks. Then, one night we heard a thumping noise downstairs. We didn't know if someone was trying to break in, so Cliff grabbed a tennis racket from our closet (all we had at the time) and we opened the bedroom door and slowly crept down the stairs. We could still hear the thumping noise coming from the kitchen. So we slowly inched our way into the kitchen and didn't see anything at first. Then, we heard another thump right above our heads, where Coon was sitting with his paw under the door, pulling it open and letting it thump closed. As soon as he saw us look at him, he chirped and was off the fridge in a flash, and by the time we got back up stairs, he was curled up on my pillow waiting me to come to bed. We gave up, and learned to sleep with our hands over our noses.

Still the alpha cat, all he has to do is "give the paw" to the other cats and they back down, even though they have their claws and fangs and Coon does not. He just raises his right front paw and give them "the look" and they either pull their heads back or physically step back. He's still the Alpha Cat for a day or two more. Thursday we will put him to rest and end his pain. He'll always be my Bubba Coon. Bye Coon, I'll see you on the other side.

NEED KNOWLEDGE!

2008-01-03T20:02:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I wish I knew more about web stuff. Like, how to get my paragraph text to line up with my images on the blog, and then make a break between elements.

I guess I need to re-educate myself. There's no excuse for ignorance. I have DreamWeaver CS3, just need to get busy and relearn a new version, it's been way too long since I did any web work!

Now just to find some of that spare time...

AND A MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE CATS!

2007-12-16T21:10:00.001-06:00

These pictures are from a Christmas or two ago, but they haven't changed much and neither have we (except for Coon, but you wouldn't want to see how he looks now). If you compare me to the Christmas photo in the last post, you can tell I've lost weight, but not so much. So, I guess I will go from oldest to youngest. First is Coon, 16 year old male tabby, born in my hand (literally), so I'm the Momma. Well, really Cliff calls me the Cat Whisperer as usually at any one time most of the cats are sleeping or sitting around me when he comes home. That goes for their hair too. I haven't figured out how to create a static distortion field to deflect cat hair.

Next oldest is Kahlua, the vapor cat. We call her that because she pretty much has lived under a piece of furniture most of her ten years. She's a tortie shell Himalayan with the most beautiful blue eyes. She has finally come out of her shell when she is in our bedroom with Cliff and I and as long as Pewter or Mr. Sniffy aren't around. Pewter has a hate-on for her. Not sure why. Otherwise, when we're in there she cries to be petted! Go figure! At night she paws at the blankets, and if we put her out of the room and bring the troublemakers in, she beats on the door wanting back in the room. Will wonders never cease! She likes to sleep in the sink, and only plays when no one is watching. And she watches to see if anyone is watching. She's a very odd cat, but most torties are.

Third in line is a neck and neck tie between Pewter and Mr. Sniffy. Pewter was born in October 2001 and we got Mr. Sniffy at Christmas 2001 as a rescue so we don't know his exact birth date but he is about the same age. We'll do Pewter first. He's a Lilac Point Himilayan and a very beautiful cat with blue eyes, OK, they all have blue eyes. His are a steel blue and he always has this mad look because his brows are prominent. He did NOT appreciate the Santa hat one little bit. But he's like one of those movie stars. He KNOWS he is beautiful. He thinks it's all about him. If you don't pay attention to him when he wants it, he starts knocking things off of whatever he's sitting on (which is usually the coffee table, kitchen island, bathroom counter, or table). He'll look at you, look at the item in question, look at you again, then, while he is still looking at you, takes his paw and whacks the item right off the surface. Then he looks over the edge and looks back at you. At this point I pointedly ignore him. Doesn't matter. After about the fifth or sixth thing, and all that's left are candles, I get up. He also likes ice tea and ice water. He doesn't drink from a bowl, OHHH NOOO, it's the faucet or a cup of ice water for him. Snob.

Mr. Sniffy, the rescue. Also known as the Poodle because he has baggy pants on his back legs. He has an identity crisis, he doesn't know if he is long haired or short haired. When he purrs, he trills, kind of like a tribble (any Trekkie's?). And he has kitty nightmares. He growls in his sleep! He's the most affectionate cat, lap cat, head butts you until you either pet him or throw him across the room out of annoyance. He knocks over lamps, pushes just about anything around you just to wipe his sexy smell all over everything. He's too sexy for his tail. He thinks a LOT of his backside. If you have a cat, you know, it is all about the butt. No kiddin'! You have not bonded with your cat if you have not been given the tail once or twice. He's also Mr. Jumpy. VERY entertaining. The hat freaked him out. It kept touching him...

Then there's Maki (Macciato), she's our seal point Himalayan. She's as dumb as a box of rocks, and one very jealous little kitty. She thinks her name is Coon. Since he has been sick, every time I call for him, she comes. If he comes, she whacks him. But first she starts by grooming him, then she whacks him. Then she growls and hisses and spits and acts like she is evil incarnate. Coon just looks at like she's lost her marbles. He doesn't understand she never had her marbles to start with! tee he hee She hated the hat too. But she's so cute with her little tooth sticking out. She loves to be made over and petted. She's pretty social too. She's the door greeter! I had to do some extensive 'shopping on this picture. Let's say, don't believe everything you see in the Sports Illustrated Swim Suit issue.

And then that leaves the "squatter" cat, Pekoe (aka Pekoe Orange Tea). He showed up the winter of 2002 on our deck, he was probably about 5 months old, neutered, obviously someone's pet, but we couldn't find the owner. It was Thanksgiving and below zero outside, so I put a box with blankets and water and food and he hasn't left since. He's an orange marmalade tabby, weighs 13 lbs, and drools when you pet him. We did eventually take him to the vet and get shots, FeLuke tested, etc., and keep him on anti-flea stuff. That would make him about five now. He was so happy to be inside for a picture, he could have cared less about the hat and drooled all over my jeans the whole time. He'll lay on his back and drool while you clip his claws. The rest of the cats think we are cutting off their paws and it's like shoving bamboo slits up your fingernails to clip their claws. Maki gets eye infections and turns into Linda Blair, who knew a cat could turn their heads around like that? :-) But Pekoe lives outside. In the winter when it gets really cold or lots of snow or ice, he stays in the John Deere room, much to the consternation of Mr. Sniffy. He didn't get that name for nothing! (Note that double-negative, we're famous for those down here in tha steeks).

And that's the brood. Merry Christmas from all of us! One more week til the big day. I really NEED to start making my Cinnamon fudge before I start getting hate cards instead of Merry cards! Soooo much going on, for once, I have a ton of stuff to talk about, but not enough time!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

2007-12-15T22:43:00.000-06:00

Well, the Carol Jones Christmas party at the Chateau on the Lake at Branson is over and what a good time it was! Of course I had to stretch the DH's nerve to the last inch by having my hair done at the last minute, so we barely got there in time to eat and missed the schmoozing hour. We had the priviledge of sitting with Cliff's boss Jim and his wife Chris at Carol's table and I found out that accountants are all truly alike. As long as you aren't talking about money, they are the funniest people at the party! Jim kindly loaned Cliff a Grinch tie which was so appropriate! I'll have to go find one for him, can't have him borrowing it for every Christmas party!

Of course the rest of the office clan was there, I'll have to post some more pictures of that, but I'll post a picture of Cliff and I that one of the other DH's took for us using my XTi. I sent the picture in an email (since I knew I wouldn't get a card out before Christmas) and forgot about my yellow eyes. Creepy. So then I 'shopped it and I've posted a non-yellowed version of it. Ho ho ho! And no snow either. So much for the 8" to 10" of snow that we were supposed to get last night that had everyone else flocking the supercenter for milk and bread!

MO pics later...

CHRISTMAS 'SHOPPIN'

2007-12-09T19:29:00.000-06:00

I've been playing with my Photoshop working with some layering and montaging. I haven't done anything fancy in a while, so I thought I would show you how I Christmas 'shop! All the babies are represented (including the DH), except for Kahlua. I don't have a good picture of her that works well in this grouping. But here they are, Front and center is Pewter, then clockwise, sleeping is Coon, the kitty with the bow on her back and the attitude is Maki, and the cat with the Santa hat looking like someone just told him he was a dog, is Mr. Sniffy. That's a pretty normal look for him. He can be fast asleep in your lap and your stomach growls and he'll come up off your stomach three feet and land in the floor looking at you JUST LIKE THAT! Like an alien is going to pop out and sing "Rag Time Gal!" Enjoy.

ASLEEP AT THE SCREEN

2007-12-08T22:37:00.000-06:00

That's me. Asleep at the screen. How bad is it when you're typing an e-mail to a friend and you nod off? I can understand when you're riding in a car, the droning of the road noise, nice warm heater blowing, music playing that you can sing in your sleep.....ackkkk I just ran off the road!!! Good thing I'm wearing Depends! Ooops, my secret's out. And I don't even have an embarrassed smilie to put here. How about this one?

I had to steal this one from one of the stamping forums I like to visit. It's a classic. For those of you who have IBS, I KNOW you KNOW what I mean. Are you smellin' what I'm steppin' in? Thought so... or, since I just ran off the road, it's probably what I'm sittin' in. ROGL! Kiddin'! Or am I? Hmmm? Someday your day will come, trust me. And if it isn't one, it will be the other. You women KNOW what I mean. One day, something really funny will happen and you'll go to laugh or you'll sneeze and whoops! What was that? Uh, huh. Yeah, we're reverting back to our childhood. As you get older, you have the potential to become a one man (or woman) show. Laugh, pee, toot. Burp, pee, toot. Run, pee, pee, pee, toot, toot, toot. Get a rhythm going and you could be the red man team. Because I would be turning red if this happened to me...in public. What goes on at home, stays at home, YKWIM? Uh-huh girlfriend, I thought you would.

So, how tired do you have to be to nod off at your computer? Especially when you are doing something you really like and you want to do. There's no road noise. My laptop is so quiet I have to stick my ear on it to see if it's still running (who knows, maybe static electricity is running the screen...). No music. If I play my iTunes, I'll get sidetracked up to the iTunes web site and start surfing for music, then I'll be mesmerized by my visualizer graphics and that will definitely put me to sleep. FOCUS, VICKI, FOCUS!! It's not warm in this house, thanks to the Grinchmiester, I mean DH. He feels that 68 degrees is a comfortable temperature to live in. IF YOU'RE A BEAR! So, I'm sitting in the chair, with three blankets over my sweats, with my scuffies, a t-shirt, a sweat shirt, and a fleece shirt on, trying to work. I think the reason I nod off is because I can't move. I'm motivated to type that email, but my fingers are frozen. Sorry Amy, I'll have to finish that email tomorrow...kitty kisses your way!

HERE I AM AGAIN....

2007-09-24T20:10:00.000-05:00

Maybe some day I'll get better at posting more often. With three blogs, it's hard to do any one of them justice. There's so much going on right now, that I think I'm getting ready to have a BOD or a SBBD (for you windoze users, that's Blue Screen of Death, for the Mac user's, it's the Spinning Beach Ball of Death). There aren't that many sightings of the SBBD for us Mac users, but occasionally, it happens. At least I don't have to waste three hours a week doing virus and spybot checks. I had to do it for my PC's the other day and was astonished at the number of different things it has to look for. I'm glad the only thing I'm running on the PC is FireFox and Photoshop Elements 5. My hubby runs Quickbooks and Office occasionally on the desktop unit. The whole virus thing is such a non-issue for Mac users and has been for eons. Even in the OS 9 days, viruses were few and far between.

I must say I am LOVING my MacBook Pro 17" Wide-Screen. The glow-in-the-dark keyboard is totally kicker. Oh, it's fast too. Like that is an afterthought. I had to bite the bullet and upgrade to CS3. Adobe CS2 ran like a dog on the Intel chip. CS3 purrs like a kitten. Hate the new icons though. Somebody at Adobe lost their imagination. I think they went to work for Oracle. When I worked there, you could have a complete conversation that looked like text messaging. Alphabet soup. Acronyms Anonymous would have been a great self-help group to debrief ex-employees working in high-tech. No more WISE, CRM, SQL, VM, SME's, TTT, T3, CCM, SPM, blah blah blah. Now Adobe is all Ps, Ai, Id, Fl, Dw, Br, Ac, Pr, Ae, etc. Of course, Microshaft does them one better. No second letter, just one. W, X, P, E (Entourage for you Windoze people). If Mac had Access, it would be A. We have FileMaker Pro instead, FM. Then there is Apple. It is all about I. iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, iWeb, iWork, iPod, iPhone, iMac, iBook and eventually you get to iPoor. Of course I LOVE all the OS X iterations, they are all cats. Puma, Panther, Jaguar, Tiger, Leopard, Lion, Cougar, Bengal (OK, a Tiger or a bad football team), Housecat, Fluffy, Mr. Sniffy...you realize I'm making up the ones past Leopard. No insider info here. At least they are tangible things of strength. Windoze? XP. Extra Poor, Cross Purposes, Cross People. And Vista? What's that? (As all the PeeCee IT people are still asking themselves.) Such a vague term for a piece of software that is still behind the Mac OS X by several iterations. An OS X wannabe. Been there, done that, wrote the OS about it five years ago. Where ya been there, Bill? Hello!

Remember, the name of this blog IS MACSncats. So today is a Mac day. I just love it when some PeeCee owner tries to blow smoke about how much better a PeeCee is than a Mac and how a Mac isn't a business machine. I just love poppin' the hood on my little beauty and blowing their doors off. Speed wise, design-wise, usability-wise, support-wise (no techie hubby for me, don't need one for a Mac—actually I don't need one at all, but that's another story), application-wise, best of all, fun-wise. Do you EVER hear a PeeCee owner say, "I LOVE my PC!"? And who said the Mac isn't a gaming machine? Come on dudes, get your head out of your floppy slot and check out the list of top notch games ported to the Mac these days. AE just released Madden NFL '08, Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, Need For Speed Carbon, and Battlefield 2142, six of it's hottest titles. Finally, consider this, can you run both Mac OS X AND XP/Vista on the SAME computer? Nay, I say, only on an Intel-based Mac. Two ways too. Boot into it, or install Parallels and run both simultaneously. I'm all over THAT!

Of course PeeCee users whine about how Macs are more expensive than PCs. Let me postulate this. I'm still using, with current OS and current software, a Mac G4 AGP that I purchased new in 1999. Count it folks, that's an 8 year old computer. I've made some upgrades, a daughter card to speed it up, some RAM, larger hard drive, DVD-R/CD-R (it had Wireless). How many PeeCee's, let's say a stock Dell machine off the shelf 9 years ago. Anyone still running current software and using it daily as a production machine (not just to surf the net)? Now that is a good investment. PeeCee's are throw-aways. You buy it with the knowledge you are going to have to replace it in two years, at the longest, to keep current with hardware and software. Not so with a Mac. Besides, if you bought a PC comparable with a Mac, speed for speed, feature for feature, oh yeah, you can't, because you are still running an antiquated OS. Sucks to be you! OK, I am admittedly PC bashing. I have to do that every once in a while because I do occasionally get tired of the smug PC people talking about how much better their computer is when they have NEVER EVEN USED A MAC! How can you say something is better if you haven't used the other? You know why PC users won't try a Mac? They're afraid they'll LIKE it. They'll be taken in by how EASY it is to use. That you can walk into Panera Bread, boot your Mac and it automatically finds the wireless network and asks you if you want to join it. No plowing through the Control Panel to set up to a different network. Sigh. You just don't know what you're missing. BTW, Office came out on a Mac first. I was using Word and Excel in 1986. You don't realize how unproductive you are on a PC compared to a Mac. How many man-hours you lose to virus issues and toubleshooting. How shallow you use your programs (i.e., you don't use most of the features of the software you do use). It's not fun to work on your PC. The Mac is FUN and it is also ALL Business too. You CAN have BOTH! No need to feel guilty having fun on your computer while you are "working". Mac users do it every day. And don't bash on me about loving my Mac. I've built three PC's and I train people on PCs and PC software. I've walked on both sides of the street. I've had jobs where my only work computer was a PC (ah, those old Oracle days...). So I DO know what I am talking about. I troubleshoot, to a limited extent, other user's PCs. So I'm not a part of the PC ignoranti. But I do live in Missouri, the Show-Me state, so if any of you would like a demo, just swing by Springfield and I will be priviledged to show you the way to iHappiness.

THE ERRATIC POSTER POSTS, DETAILS AT 11

2007-07-31T21:39:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I'm a pathetic poster. I just haven't had much to say lately, too busy sleeping. This has been one of those summers where I have been motivated by the lack of motivation. It doesn't help when you get up and, after an hour or two, you look around and all the cats are laying around in various contorted positions, snoozing (or snoring, in some cases) away. An hour or so of watching and listening to that and it's like water torture tapping out "nap, nap, nap, nap." I fight it like a woman on drugs (which I am) and finally succumb to an afternoon nap after a strenuous morning of watching cats sleep, surfing the web doing research (yawn), and working on some of my personal projects (nodding off).

Eventually I realize it's 2 o'clock, I haven't eaten lunch, I'm not hungry and I AM going to take a nap. So off I go, detaching my cell phone, my iPod, and my glasses and slithering in between the covers. Slithering is about all I can manage at that point. No jumping into bed. Just slithering. At some point, several of the cats feel somewhat sympathetic with my plight and curl up on the bed with me, and pinion me between the covers. Now, who could get out of that and not stir those sleeping little angels? Little do I know, it's all a part of their plan...

You see where this is going. Nothing better than an afternoon nap with a fuzzy, purring, stuffed toy, that eats, yaks, sleeps, poops and cries. Who needs Mattel? Or, for that matter, kids? Tidy Cat and I are TIGHT! Those folks at LitterMaid are on my Christmas card list. We own stock in NutroMax and Science Diet. My geezer cat and I share a bottle of steroids. My vet goes to Aruba every year, twice. OK, maybe he doesn't, but I am still waiting for my multiple cat discount. People should get a price break at five. And that doesn't count the squatter on the deck. I guess I should quit calling him that. He's been there about five years now, and he has a name and he has made an official visit to the vet for shots. His name is Pekoe (he's an orange marmalade tabby, orange pekoe tea, get it? ok, it's a stretch). He came to us previously neutered, so we didn't have to invest in that procedure. He naps too. It's a conspiracy. They think one day I won't wake up and then they can chew up all my scrapbook paper, the corner of my laptop and chew all my silk flowers. There'll be no stopping them. They'll be drinking my tea (yes, my cats LIKE ice tea), eating my Ritz crackers and sliming my ribbons. It will be chaos and all because of a nap. Its a diabolical plan that I am sure they took all night thinking about. I really need a life. Oh, and an iPhone, if any one has one they want to get rid of. Maybe? Just thought I'd sneak that in there.

NOW, HERE'S THE VERSE...

2007-04-19T17:31:00.000-05:00

I found it a few weeks back but just haven't taken the time to post. Then, this afternoon on Hank Hanagraf (sp?) a woman called in asking about the new heaven and new earth, and another right after that asking about pets in heaven. Hank gave the same proof that I gave in my previous post about how the new heaven and earth are the heaven and earth as it was created in the beginning, perfect and without sin, and WITH ANIMALS! Hank didn't take a stand for or against whether our petted pets will be in heaven, he did say that several respected Bible greats, such as C.S. Lewis thought that they would be. Anyway, for the verses that describe the animals in the new earth, when Christ reigns over it are in Isaiah 10:6-9 (NIV):

"The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.
They will neither harm or destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea. "

In Romans 8:18-23 (NIV), Paul talks about how the earth itself groans and waits for it's new birth with the return of Christ:

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. "

If God created all of these things the first time, perfect and good and without sin, why would they not be a part of the new heaven and earth? We don't know those answers now and can only go by the hints the Bible gives us, as we can not fathom what heaven is—John describes it as best he can in terms we can understand, but as the Bible says, who can know the mind of God? Here is what John says in Revelation 21:1-5 (NIV):

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things have passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." "

So one thing we do know, we will again walk with God in the cool of the Garden! Amen, come Lord Jesus!

WHY I THINK THERE WILL BE CATS IN HEAVEN

2007-03-19T20:48:00.000-05:00

Now there's a topic! You would be surprised how many people either agree or disagree with this theory, but here goes my theory about why I think there will be cats in heaven (and please notice I did not say my specific pets will be there, I hope so, but I have nothing Biblical to support that wish).

So, I'll start out by quoting Genesis 1: 24-31. A long passage, but it all goes together to make the point I am shooting for.

24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds; livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

First off, notice that in verse 29 that God gives "everything that has breath of life in it" green plant for food. So this means ALL the animals, INCLUDING man and woman, were initially vegetarians, they ate only green plants, fruits, etc. Not that I am advocating vegetarianism, but I want to point this out as some people use the argument that there won't be animals in heaven because they eat meat. They only started eating meat, AFTER the fall of man and when sin entered the world and the world was no longer perfect as God created it.

So then, let me point out that animals were created in God's perfect world, the world where in verse 31 "God saw all that he had made, and it was VERY (my emphasis) good." So animals were very good. They were not carnivorous. In Genesis 2:19 God brought all the animals to Adam to see what he would name them. No man eating lions there.

So this is why I think there will be animals in heaven. If God created them for his perfect world the first time, why would they not be a part of heaven? If man is going to be in heaven, and we are a fallen race that had to be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, why can we not expect to see animals there? The Bible says after the end times Lion will lay down with the Lamb in heaven. Whether this is a literal reference or figurative, I'll go for literal as I feel that the Bible is to be taken literally whenever possible. I think it clearly denotes when it starts referring to something figuratively. I'll endeavor to look up the specific reference for the Lion and the Lamb. I guess if I were to postulate, I would say that when Jesus returns and begins his millennial reign here on the new earth, I think the new earth will be what God originally intended this earth to be. Animals, plants and all. My opinion on this, I don't have any specific verse to support this. If it happens that way, great, if not, whatever God has in mind is fine with me!

So, I hope I have a kitty in heaven to give me as much joy and comfort as the ones God has blessed me with here. Of course then, I won't be focused on that I am sure. But I still think there will be animals!

NOW THAT WE'RE PERSONAL AGAIN

2007-03-18T10:45:00.000-05:00

Now that all the craft stuff is over at conquestkeepsakes.blogspot.com, I guess I need to think of something else to talk about, get personal again. You know I work on a hanky rating system. Just thought I would warn you.
In life you have so many choices, it's mind-boggling. I'm watching my oldest nephew go through college and I can't help but think of all the things he has ahead of him, all the choices, some right, some wrong, some neither. There are some choices that take you in different directions and me, as a controller type, I want to know where that is before I go. Sad to say, we don't get that privilege. Only God knows that. So how do you know what to do? I'm in my mid-40's and I'm still trying to figure that out, because I'm still having to make those same blasted choices! Do I do this or that? What does God want me to do, what does the hubby want, what do I want? My problem is, I don't really know the answer to any of those questions right now. Do I even have to choose at this juncture? I would like to have an email from God. The burning bush thing might bring out the fire department, and the handwriting on the wall didn't have the best message when it was said and done. A dream would be OK. Most of those worked out well.
I know I have Lupus for a reason, but it sure seems to want to poke it's head out at the wrong times. Or is it the right times? See what I mean? I'm a firm believer in all things happen for a reason and that God really, truly does have a plan. If I had a copy of it, I must have lost it somewhere in one of my super-secret hiding places. I have lots of those. Some day I am going to hit the jackpot and find all those things! Not sure why I would hide the plan though...
So, I guess the best we can do is to pray, and then step out in faith. If it's the wrong path, God will shut the door and open a new one. I sometimes have problems with that. I really like some doors that God wants to close. I'm pretty stubborn and I bet you He knows that about me. So, He has to break out the big stuff every once in a while to get my attention. You know, the bright light on the road to Damascus stuff. Here's hoping I'm paying better attention because the Casa De Cox was not on my list of vacation destinations last summer. Nice people but the accommodations were a bit sparse. Drugs were good, food, BAD.
Letting go is hard. Change is hard. Getting use to a disability is hard. Losing friends is really hard, but making new ones is an indescribable joy! Especially this late in life. You need all the friends you can get. Hopefully with some of the same ailments you have so there is plenty of inappropriate, "too much information" chatter over the speakerphone.
I want to do all the things I used to do as I think I would be more useful to the Lord, but maybe He thinks I am just as useful this way. I don't always feel very useful, but it's not about a feeling, it's about a doing. Someone told me once, "You don't feel yourself into doing, you do yourself into feeling." He's opening a door and sometimes I am too dense to see that the door is meant for me to take. Or, I don't want to take it, because I don't know what is on the other side. Now there's another personality trait I bet you He knows I have. He's got a big boot, too.
I LIKE knowing things. The unknown scares the liver out of me (didn't need that organ anyway—Lupus will eventually want it, so might as well get rid of it on my schedule and not his). Since I was never coordinated enough to be good at sports, or gifted enough to be good at music or arts, I didn't have the looks, so pretty much all that's left is smarts. So smarts it was, or is, sorta. I'm finally getting tired of the "smart" thing. I'm ready to be dumb. My drugs are making me dumb. Half the time I can't tell you what I had for lunch yesterday, if I even ate lunch. Very questionable. So, even if I'm not as smart as I once was, I still love to learn new things. God knows that about me too. He also knows that regardless of whether I am smart or dumb, coordinated or uncoordinated, beautiful or homely, stubborn or malleable, He made me this way from the beginning and He knew what I would be and what it would take to keep me looking up to Him. And if I haven't said it, thank you Lord for Godly parents and grandparents. I saw a quote from T. L. Cuyler, "Never despair of a child. The one you were the most for at the mercy seat may fill your heart with the sweetest joys." I know my Mom spent a lot of time at the mercy seat over me. I know God heard her prayers, but I don't know if I bring her the sweetest joys now, but I hope so.
Anyway, I know He knows EVERYTHING about me. Big WOW there, can I get an AMEN?! Psalm 139. One of my MOST favorite chapters in the Old Testament. For those of you who think abortion is OK, that unborn babies are just blobs of tissue, and that you have the right to terminate a life that only God can breathe in, in any circumstance, you need to read this (I can hear that can of worms popping open):
Starting with verse 13 and ending with verse 15 (NIV): "For you created my inmost being: you knit me together in my mother's womb, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
There are so many other verses in the Bible where God says He knows the number of hairs on our heads, right NOW, and tomorrow too, and that He is waiting for opportunities to bless us when we are obedient to Him and His Word. Yet another thing that is hard for me. Being obedient. Boy, that's why He needs the big hammer sometimes. And I'm glad He does!
So I've decided that the drugs can heave out the old, unimportant, "I don't need to know that anymore" stuff to make room for the new stuff God is trying to teach me. I love to read and learn, I love to watch others and learn (except TV, we all KNOW that's not real, right? Who does House think he is anyway...) and then, if I don't put all the new knowledge in my super-secret hiding place, I might be able to share that with others, and also share some of the "smarts" I still have that count, the God-given smarts. Maybe that's what the Lord has in mind. Learn something new and share it in perspective with what you already know. Creatively share who He is in all that I do, even if it is just making a paper craft. Love your imperfections, use them for His glory, and move on (or "get over it" as my SWEET hubby likes to say). Learn to deal, prayerfully meditate, incorporate, create and give and love the process as much as the outcome.
Whew! A lot to think about. Every day is a new day and a new opportunity for me to sleep in. Ha. OK, do something useful. Like praying and not worrying about my choices, but accepting His choices, and not having to wait to hear "You've got God" when I log into my email. OK, I don't have AOL. Who needs AOL when you have a Mac? I'm pretty sure God has a MacBook, both OS's on one machine, no tower of Babel for Him! Just like I think there will be cats in heaven, but that is another discussion for another day.

New Blogs

2007-01-24T19:22:00.000-06:00

Well, the time has come. I'm going to move my craft information over to my new blog, conquestkeepsakes.blogspot.com. That is where you will find all the latest information on my classes at Hobby Lobby and other events and classes here at the home studio.

I've given the craft side a more official name, Conquest Keepsakes. If you are attending the Red Hot Crop at New Covenant Academy, you'll see an ad in the directory and some slides on the big screen promoting Conquest Keepsakes. I am also giving away two free classes during the crop, so come and crop at the Red Hot Crop and support the fundraising event for New Covenant Academy. What could be better than 15 hours of cropping? Make-n-takes by the Paper Princesses? Vendor booths to see the hot new products? NOTHING is better than that!

My other new blog covers the other side of my existence, digital imaging. I've been teaching Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 for quite some time now, but took some time off this summer and fall. Now we are ready to rock and roll with the new training center. We are up and ready to go and I have a new blog to cover the class schedules, equipment recommendations, hints and tips, etc. We'll soon have a full-fledged web site up, but this will get us started. The new blog is fixthatpicture.blogspot.com. New classes start in February. I am also giving away two free Photoshop Elements classes at the Red Hot Crop, so one more incentive to sign up for the crop! Email Sandy Higgins at shiggins@newcovenant.net to sign up. Registration has been extended to the day of the crop, February 3.

So check out the two new blogs (which I am working on tonight as well).

We're in the news!

2007-01-12T19:05:00.000-06:00

Sony Hocklander's story on "Find a New Hobby" ran in today's paper. She interviewed several people about quilting, knitting, beading, leatherworking, and photo arts, where we fell in. We had the last paragraphs in the article, which I like being the last thing people read, they tend to remember it! Here's what she put in from our conversation:

"The flood of digital cameras has led to a growing interest in hobby photography—and using photographs in projects. That includes digital scrapbooking, says Vicki Conquest.

Conquest, a photographer and graphic artist, teaches classes in Photoshop Elements 4, a photo-correcting program that includes digital scrapbooking capabilities.

A lot of people also are interested in what Conquest calls heritage projects: Incorporating photos and mementos to create items for homes or gifts.

That's the kind Conquest likes to teach in her home or at Springfield's two Hobby Lobby stores.

"We try to do projects that make you think of family ties," she says."

Altogether very nice, I thought! Talking about both things I love to do, digital photography and crafting, all mixed together. I guess this means I need to get my collective self together and make some business cards. I seem to be able to do that for everyone else but myself!

Also, the boards are up at Northside as well. The individual letter and the Valentine Box are different than what is pictured here on the blog, so check them out to see a different look for the same project.

Well, everyone get ready for the big ice storm!

Nothing Like the Newspaper Business

2007-01-09T18:08:00.000-06:00

Due to space constraints, our lovely little article isn't going to run until either Thursday or Friday. Newspaper speak for, "Whenever we can fit it in." Unless you've ever worked for a paper, you don't realize how hard it is to juggle articles, ads and other items and to do it in a day. Working with Laura on her two newspapers in Ash Grove and Willard sure gave me a good perspective on that, and they are weeklies, not dailies. So, we'll read it when they get it published! It is supposed to be the feature story in the Life section, so at least we know where to look now...

In other news, the sample board is up at Hobby Lobby Southside, so if you want to take a look at the new projects in person. I'm still working on Northside. Doing two sets gets a bit time-consuming and sometimes those creative juices just run out of me all over the floor and get licked up by the cats. That's when they get their hair-brained ideas to hop all over my projects, chew on my papers, track through the paints, and lick the adhesives, those little varmits. Their ideas aren't half as good as mine. What's creative about gnawing off the paint on the edge of my laptop screen?

And, oooohhh, iPhone. Apple announced it today. I'm waiting for the iWallet so I can afford to buy some iToys.

Crafting Alive & Well In Springfield!

2007-01-07T23:09:00.000-06:00

I had a reporter from the Springfield News-Leader call me on Friday regarding an article she was writing on picking up new hobbies. She had heard that I was teaching the papercrafting classes at both Hobby Lobby's and wanted to talk with me about it. We talked this evening and we not only talked about papercrafting, but also about digital photography/digital scrapbooking. So, you'll see some comments on both. The article is going to be published in Tuesday's News-Leader. I'm pretty excited and a bit humbled that someone would think of me to comment on the craft industry. My, how life comes at you when you get out and enjoy yourself! Scrapbook Generations is also in the article, with some pictures, I think, so it should be a great article.

Anyway, we had a great time chatting and it looks like we may do another article closer to summer on digital photography and retouching images. I'm not sure if they could get me to shut up about that! We'll wait and see on that one.

Don't forget, buy Tuesday's paper! Crafting is alive and well in Springfield!

January Hobby Lobby Classes

2007-01-07T19:54:00.000-06:00

Well, Christmas is over and it is time to get serious about crafting for the new year. What better way to start the new year than a holiday celebrating love! So, along those lines, here are a couple of new projects to celebrate love in our lives.

Our first project is "Love Letters" and it is truly LOVE in letters on a wall plaque. We'll be using decorative papers to cover wood letters, stickers, stamps and flowers, and a new technique with Gel Medium to give an artistic look to our wood letters. In the center of our piece, there is a plaque quoting parts of 1 Corinthians 13, all about love. Hang this on your wall and remember what love is truly about. This project is a kit class. Tools you need to bring are glue stick, exacto knife, cutting mat, paint brush, glue dots, pop dots, and sand paper.
Class Cost: $12
Class Dates: January 18 1:00-3:00p Northside
January 19, 1:00-3:00p Southside
Other dates/times by arrangement (vconquestcrafts@mchsi.com or 350-4569)

Our second project involves customizing a single letter for a family member. Use it to pick up on a favorite hobby or personality of the person you want to honor. There are many techniques we can use to decorate your letter and we'll have several examples on hand. Purchase your 9" letter in the wood craft section and paper or embellishments you would like to use on your letter. Bring a paint brush, Exacto knife, cutting mat, scissors, and glue dots and we'll show you all the things you can do to decorate your letters. We'll have plenty of scraps, rub-ons and embellishments as well. This particular example is one honoring my neice Delaney who passed away last January from SIDS. This class is by arrangement. Give me a call and we'll schedule a date that works for you. Class Cost: $5
Dates/times by arrangement (vconquestcrafts@mchsi.com or 350-4569)

Our third project is a familar project brought back for Valentine's Day. Yes, the Valentine's Fantasy Box! Pick out your favorite Valentine's paper and let's make a box that you can stuff with candy or jewelry or lovenotes, or all three! As usual, your imagination is required! Supplies you need to bring are 2 pieces of patterned paper (inside and outside of box), 2 pieces of card stock (lid and boxes inside), glue stick, folding bone, scissors, and a trimmer. Class Cost: $10
Class Dates: January 25 1:00-3:00p Northside
January 26, 1:00-3:00p Southside
Other dates/times by arrangement (vconquestcrafts@mchsi.com or 350-4569)

Future Projects and Past Projects

2006-12-07T04:01:00.000-06:00

Please be sure to scroll down the blog to see the current projects.

I'm posting the past projects for posterity. If you would still like to do some, do a group or just buy one already done (in my copious spare time), give me a call.

I'm working ahead on some pretty purrrrfect projects. No pictures (yet), but they include a fabric covered pail recipes box. Fabric, ribbon and chipboard along with some other embellishments will be a pail of a project.

I'm also working on a Birthday book with a couple of surprises. You'll have to wait to see it. You'll never forget another birthday (although I wish I could forget mine...)

I'm also ruminating over a yearly planner. I should have scheduled this one sooner, but watch out, I may be able to squeeze this one in the December schedule between Christmas and New Year's Day. This will be a workshop class (which means you will be my slave for 4 or 5 hours). Watch the blog and the store sample board. This is a kicker nice project and we will be using the Basic Grey notching tool for this project (if you haven't used it before and wondered what it was for). It will be a 3-ring hard-bound fabric cover with lots of ribbons and the calendars will switch out so you can use it year to year.

An last. but not by any means list, the will be a new version of the purse! Can't let the cat out of the bag (no pun intended) quite yet, but you will love it and it has SO many possibilities.

And, in case you didn't know, I DO teach Adobe Photoshop Elements classes for all you digital photographers (and those of you who get a digital camera for Christmas). You will not be able to find these classes ANYWHERE else. I've been working in Photoshop (big expensive brother) for over 20 years as a graphic artist and have digital gear up the wazoo (yeah, that's gonna hurt). We start with the basics and move on to advanced lessons like image collaging, vignetting, painting effects and making your own brushes and stamps. We are currently using PSE4 as the need to go to PSE5 hasn't made a case for me yet. Maybe later. These classes are offered in my home. I have a complete training set up (projector, screen, lessons, some laptops for those of you who do not have your own), and best of all, I'm bi-platform. For a former MacAddict, it was a bit of a change to work and teach from the PC, but I think Adobe Photoshop Elements is the BEST program, BAR NONE for image editing on any platform, PC or Mac. Adobe has done color image editing for 20 years and they know what they are talking about when it comes to color. They eat every other programs for lunch (I won't mention names, but MS wouldn't know color and calibration if it slapped them silly--don't bother). I'll be getting up my own website on this training soon, called FixThatPicture. It will feature my recommendations for hardware, software, printers, cameras, scanners, etc. Of course you know soon is such a vague and nebulous term...

Butterfly Wall Clock

2006-12-07T03:41:00.002-06:00

And our last project.

The Butterfly Wall Clock
Dates: Dec 7 Northside: 1-3pm, Dec. 8 Southside, 1-3pm Cost: $10

This 8" x 8" clock is the perfect size to either display on your desk/table or to hang from the wall (hanger included). With a "Time Flies" theme with butterflies, it is right on target for the holidays, as we know how "Time Flies" when you are trying to find that perfect gift for a friend, colleague or family member. All supplies are furnished (including the clock movements). Tools and supplies you need to bring are (of course) Terrificaly Tacky Tape (red line tape), thicker is better for this one, ideal would be half-inch and 1" tape. Also bring pop dots, scissors and a paint brush. Also a Crop-a-dile might come in handy but an old fashion eyelet setter will work too. If you have some needle nose pliers, they would be handy as well (something with a small tip, or jewelers pliers). Have I dropped enough hints about the Crop-a-dile?

"What Christmas Means to Me" explosion box

2006-12-07T03:28:00.000-06:00

OK ya'll, this is THE project of the season. You DO NOT want to miss this one! If you have to arrange an alternate date, do it, but you will WANT this project.

"What Christmas Means to Me" Explosion Box
Dec. 14 Northside: 1-3pm, Dec. 15 Southside, 1-3pm Cost: $12
This WONDERFUL heritage Christmas box is one you will want to keep and look at every year. When you take the lid off, the box falls open revealing an ornament place card holder for you to put your family name and year on it. There are a total of twelve tags in the four sides for you to pull out with a ribbon to put a picture of a family member and name, and on the back of the tag, they write what Christmas means to them. This can be adapted for other holidays as well. You can put in new tags each year, then sit back and reminisce about holidays gone by. All paper and embellishments are provided (although some substitutes for paper may be made). Tools and supplies you need to bring are thin (really thin) Terrifically Tacky tape or a glue pen, corner rounder—if you have one, pop dots, glue dots, any size stapler (color staples provided), and scissors. And, of course, yourself!

December Craft Classes—Post One, Yippee!

2006-12-07T02:54:00.000-06:00

FINALLY!!! Here are pictures of projects. Blogger Beta hasn't let me upload for the past week, the littler bloggers! I'm starting with the Accordion Hearts and Blocks class. Here is the description for this class. It's a two-for, so a real deal and so easy to do!

Accordion Hearts/Photo Cubes
Dec. 16, 10am-12pm Northside Store (only opening) Cost—$7 for BOTH classes
The Accordion Heart ties up with ribbons into a heart shape, but when you untie it, the heart becomes an inspirational piece with words of encouragement on every side. You can set it on a table or pull it all around into a circle and tie the ends for a fully open hanging ornament. Beautiful ribbons, beads and paper make this a cute gift for a friend! Supplies are provided for this class. The tools and supplies you need to bring are scissors, folding bone or similar, and a 1/8" hole punch.

The Photo Cubes are a fast and fun way to use some of those smaller pictures to display family and friends. We'll use cardstock and embellishments (stickers, rub-ons, letters, etc.) along with our pictures to create a cute set of photo cubes. The tools and supplies you need to bring are 1 package of 1 1/2" wooden blocks (they come 6 to a package for $2.99 in the wood craft section), a paint brush, pictures that can be trimmed to about 1 1/4", a square punch about that size ,if you have one (McGill has one in the tool isle at the 1 1/2" size and smaller), if you don't, then an exacto knife, ruler and cutting mat. If you want to age them, bring a brown chalk ink pad. (Just a factoid for you die-hard scrapbooker/crafter types, you may have seen the BE wooden block photo cube sets at your local scrapbooks store—for—wait for it—$13.00! Unbelievable! Nothing else with them but nine 1 1/2" wood blocks. Buy the Hobby Lobby blocks, with a coupon, two sets to make 12 and you still haven't spent more than $3.60 plus tax.) We're not that gullible are we?

The cost for both classes is only $7! You pay $7 and get TWO projects!

All the new projects can be seen at both Hobby Lobby stores. I've reschedule the Accordion Hearts/Photo Block class to Saturday, Dec. 16 from 10a to 12a at the Northside store (only slot available at the stores).

Of course those of you who have already taken my classes know you can schedule a class time to suite your schedule, just give me a call (350-4569 my direct cell phone, you can still call the other number, but it forwards to my cell). We can still do past projects and also I can do groups, and to a limited extent, kits. I've been doing a lot of groups on weekends, especially Sunday afternoons, so if you have some friends, come on over and have a good time! Just give me a ring (or email) call to arrange a time. Some people have been asking me if I will sell the projects (as they don't have time to make them. I will sell them, but the cost is higher since I have to do all the work and no one to keep me company but the cats, who want to hole punch my paper and eat my ribbon. If you would like to do this, give me a call and I'll see what I can do.

This month's classes have an extra surprise with them as a THANK YOU for coming to take the class. It might be edible (although I always have cholates and drinks if we here at the house) or it may be a surprise mini project. You know me, I am full of surprises!

Long time, no blog

2006-11-05T11:44:00.000-06:00

Story of my life. I start something and then life gets in the way. When did we all get so busy? I can't believe it is November and I haven't posted since August. Wow. That means one of two things, too much going on, or, I'm just not that interesting. It's probably the second but I'll look on the bright side and hope it's the first one.

My inlaws came down and spent a couple of weeks with us. They live in Canada up on Lake Huron, but they are British and still have a pronounced British accent. It is always fun to go shopping or out to eat with them as the looks on the other people's faces as Christine and Peter talk is priceless. Some people just flat can't understand them. They do use a few different words for things than we do. A washcloth to us is a flannel to them. A secature to them is a pruning shear for us. There are others but those come to mind first. When someone from England tells you they are going to "spend a penny," that's their way of telling you they are going to the restroom. Long story to explain that one. We really enjoy their visits as we don't get up to Canada very often to visit the family.

The kicker part is that we try to send all our Christmas gifts for the the neices and families (no nephews, the Conquest line on this continent is at an end) back up with Cliff's parents, which means getting them done by the end of October. Last time we tried mailing them (in November) they didn't get them until February. I foolishly made a decision several years ago that I would make all my gifts because no one remembers a gift card. And it is even harder to buy a gift card for a store here that will work in Canada as well. No Hobby Lobby where they live. So I lived in my craft room for two weeks. Christine even helped me make some of my projects (can't say what they are as those kids are too web literate and I think someone up there knows the blog). So mum's the word. Although Mum is what we call a flower but what the British call their Mom's. Confusing, eh? NOW we're speaking Canadian. :-)

I've been teaching some craft classes here at the house and having a great time doing it. Nothing like a bunch of women with chocolate and glue and ribbon! The cats aren't liking it much as I won't let them jump up on the tables and show off their butts to everyone. I know they are pretty proud of their backends, but if I got up on a table and wagged my butt in everyone's face, I wouldn't have any friends! Heaven forbid if it was a bare butt like the cats have! LOL! OK, too much imagination. I have a magnet that says, "You aren't anybody until you've been ignored by a cat." I guess we are all somebodies as our cats are waving their tailends at everyone 5 minutes after our guests have had a seat. I guess that's encouraging. It gives "Cat-Friendly house" a whole new twist. Maybe we need a sign that says, "Beware of Cat Butts" as you walk into the house. Forewarned is forearmed. I could go on, but I'm sure I lost you at the part about me wagging my butt.

I was remiss...

2006-08-27T22:49:00.000-05:00

I should have said yesterday that my Dad is doing very well since his two surgeries. Yes, they had to go back in a second time to remove a disc but he has felt virtually no pain from either surgery and was doing so well, they sent him home, not to rehab. The back of his neck looked like a zipper but they took the staples out this past week. Now he will start some low key rehab but we are so very thankful that the Lord showed us mercy again and gave him healing in a way that can only be attributed to His glory and grace and the prayers of believers, those we know well and those we don't. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for our family this summer and know that God has heard your prayers. We've run the gamut but God has been good and continues to hold us in His hands. We are humbled and give all the glory to God. He is the God that heals. Jehova Jira!

Mashed Potatoes!

2006-08-26T21:24:00.000-05:00

I was coming out of Hobby Lobby the other day, having scored a handful of those $2 note journals (the ones with Philippians 4:13 quoted on them with a cross on the front) and as I was getting in my truck, what came to mind was, "Mashed Potatoes!" I scored a deal for something I had been looking for and identified it with a TV commercial for Progressive Insurance, the one with James Brown doing his interpretation of the "customer who made it home in time for Thanksgiving Dinner." Who knows the mind of a shopper? Especially a hobby shopper. We are a weird breed. We'll pick up the last item of some coveted embellishment (and not necessarily one that you coveted, just one that "someone" has coveted) and proudly stroll up and down the isles with it prominently displayed in our basket. We'll show it to everyone who wants to see it and explain why it is such a great product. "Yeah, these Basic Grey magnetic discs are great for closures for notebooks, blah, blah, blah" and while you are yapping away, you're thinking, "how am I going to use these? But I HAVE to have them, so-and-so couldn't stop talking about them!" Or, we'll buy the same product over and over and tell everyone why they should have multiple packages of them too. "This is the only chipboard set of letters that includes numbers! You HAVE to have them!" (BTW, those are EK Success Letterpress Sticko Chipboard Letters & Numbers--I KNOW you want to buy them!) I have personally convinced at least two people and one salesperson that they had to purchase several sets of these for any number of cool projects. And really, they ARE the only set of chipboard numbers that I know of. If anyone else knows of any others, let me know! I COVET chipboard numbers. Making my own sucks. Especially when you would really like to have them 2" tall.

I've been working on some craft projects that I will be teaching soon. If I get my digital act together, I'll post some pictures. One of them even includes the chipboard numbers. My DH can no longer say that I don't do anything with my craft stuff. I've actually completed several projects and have had a couple of play days! WOW, Vicki gets out of the house and socializes with something that says something other than "Meowowow!" It's good to have an adult conversation again (nothing against the DH, but he isn't FEMALE and doesn't understand that a conversation involves two people talking to each other, not him talking to the TV). I'll probably have to start singing him to bed too...

What happened to summer?

2006-08-08T09:34:00.000-05:00

Boy, time just seems to fly by. This summer has seemed like one of those black holes that just keeps sucking things down into it. The harder you resist, the faster you go in. "Grab the cat, grab the cat! Oh, there he goes, and his hairballs too. Sigh." I had so many things I wanted to do this summer (I started to write simmer, and that is probably a Freudian mistake because simmering we are). As I write, my health seems to be on an uphill swing but my Dad had surgery yesterday for paralysis in his arm. Today that are talking about taking him back in because now his OTHER arm is showing more weakness than the original arm. Go figure. He had severe compression with 4 vertebrae in his neck and had nerve damage and some spinal cord damage. They put in two rods and 8 screws. He was liking the drugs though. He was cracking jokes left and right last night. I though I was going to PMP several times (it didn't help that I had just drank a huge glass of soda). It was good to see him in good spirits. Our whole family is keeping the medical industry in Springfield in business this summer. My sister had her gallbladder removed several weeks ago. I'm waiting for one of the cats to have a "tailectomy". teeheehee! I don't know which one would look the stupidest without a tail. I might have to do a little Photoshop work and see how that comes out...

So, for my last thought, we've been talking amongst friends about how we get our cats to come to bed. We run a tough bedtime schedule because of personality clashes. We can't leave Pewter out at night with Kahlua (he don't like her ONE little bit, don't know why). So, Kahlua stays in our bedroom during the day, and at night Pewter and Maki sleep in our room and Kahlua stays out with Mr. Sniffy and Coon. We used to try to chase all the cats down to get them in the bedroom. This got old as Maki had her game whiskers on and just about the time you would reach down to pick her up, she would run away about 6 feet and sit. We would go around the room this way three or four times. It sucks when you realize your cat is smarter than you are. So, I started singing "Mary had a little lamb" in the highest most squeakiest voice I could. I was like the pied piper of Hamlin. She followed me wherever I went. And surprise, surprise, so did Pewter. So that is how I get them to bed, I stand at the bedroom door and start singing "Vicki had a little cat, little cat, little cat..," and here they come, Pewter sashaying and Maki jogging down the hall as she is sure there must be a dead animal in the room she could eat because it sure sounded like it was dying...

Craftin' Pincushion

2006-07-06T20:45:00.000-05:00

Boy, have I been at it! The erstwhile pincushion (I'm surprised there is any blood left in me) has actually completed two (yes TWO!) craft projects this week. That is a new world record! Usually I manage one every couple of years. Even my husband was excited for me. Just kidding. I did a mini album and an explosion box (pictures of box at left). I had to do a little original thinking (boy was the smoke rolling out of the house, I am sure the neighbors thought I was shooting bottle rockets at the cats!). I was following a pattern on a Mini Book class I missed and realized that they had skipped a letter (A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,K,--no J). Being the perfectionist that I am, I HAD to add the letter. I thought I was going to have a panic attack with the thought of having to come up with something of my own. I finally came up with something and felt like a pretty fart smeller (uh, pretty smart feller). Then, as I got ready to put on the last page, I realized I put in one too many pages. Lord have mercy, I had to come up with ANOTHER letter (L) and page design. I've moved up to smoke bombs by now. About the time I had the last idea, the DH starts up the riding lawn mower inside our "John Deere" room, which has a smoke alarm in it tied to the rest of the house,and yep, off they all went. I thought it was a message from the Lord, "I gave you one original thought, two is pushing it." Normally the DH doesn't start the mower in the JD room, but he said he was tired of pushing it out of the room through the double doors (aka, LAZY). Amazing how long alarms can go off when carbon dioxide is involved. He had to stand on a stool for about 15 minutes along with two fans and fan the alarm so it would stop. As soon as he would quit, they'd start all over again. Bet he doesn't do THAT again.

So, I finished the book and decided to go all in and do my explosion box kit. As usual, I had to make adjustments. One of the precut pieces was the wrong size. I actually had to use my math skills (OK, the calculator on my Mac) to figure out how much needed to come off. I only had a picture to go by, so there was a lot of winging it which almost cost me a bottle of valium. I decided I wanted the lid sides thinner, and the kit didn't come with the ribbon or the rub-on letters so I actually had to make more creative choices from my stash. The room was spinning. Cliff says it's not a stash, it's a store. Whatever. I pulled out some cute flower ribbon for the lid, some bubble letters and decided to put "kitty friends" on the top since the letters were a lot smaller than the rub-ons (it was supposed to be "friends"). Then, for my "coup de gras" (my hubby speaks French, those silly Canadians have to be bilingual) I used punched retro flowers covered with Mod Podge on the box sides. Too cute. Even the hubby liked it, and he wasn't lying this time, I don't think. It's so hard to read those British Canadians...

But wait, there's more!

2006-06-27T22:39:00.000-05:00

Life is strange. All things happen for a reason, but occasionally I wish God would send me an email and spell it out. "Vicki, you twit, that's not what I want you to do, do this instead!" I'm pretty hard headed. It usually takes a couple of whops to get my attention. I guess I've had those this month. So Lord, I'm listening. Just for your entertainment, here are a couple of pics from the hospital. One is of Stephanie, one of the lovely ladies that made my stay at Casa Cox South bearable. The other is of me doing what I do. Work on my computer and look yellow (Atabrine folks, makes the skin look yellow but my eyes are still white, no liver problems here). Me and my Mac are not soon separated. Note the stuffed kitty. My momma loves me, she got me a kitty because she knew I missed my babies. I probably have that goofy morphine look. Oh well. I think you can see Spike and Buster off to the left, just hanging out like the gang should be.

The arm is doing better, the second clot was up around ye old armpit but the pain is better. I did end up having to take Lovenox shots in my stomach for 6 days and they doubled my rat poison intake. Evidently I must have sludge for blood. They wanted me to give myself the shots and, after I woke up, I said I didn't think that was a good idea. Luckily I have an awesome friend in the medical profession who was kind enough to give me my shots. The most comical setting was the Sunday shot at the hospital (no, it wasn't me in this time, but my grandmother). My friend came over and visited with my parents, sister and I and then we adjourned to the restroom to get my shot. We had my friend's Dr. ID in case someone came in and saw us shooting up in the girls room. There was lots of giggling going on. Luckily, we had no witnesses. I thought my Sunday shot was my last one (it started originally with 3) but after bloodwork on Monday, we got another round of 3 plus a double on the rat poison. Guess I'll be on that for a very long time.

For those of you who want a piece of me this week, forget it. I'm booked. I'm living at Ferrell-Duncan all this week. Everyday. Doctor hopping. Bloodwork schmoozing. Everyone knows me by name at the cashiers desk and lab. They are all very nice, too. Of course, since Hobby Lobby has a 40% off coupon this week, I printed 10 or 15 of them and I use one a day and hand them out to everyone I see. It makes the trip to the southside of town worth it. After I found out I had the blood clots, I called my husband and told him, and of course he was upset, so I told him I was so depressed that I needed to go spend some money at a couple of craft stores. I was hoping I could squeeze three out of it, but I evidently didn't work it hard enough. Opportunity lost. Bummer. Dumb bean counter...

Clots R Us

2006-06-22T19:45:00.000-05:00

Just when you think things are getting back to normal, there always seems to be something to throw off your game. A normal day for us is to get up, clean up the midnight cat yak (someone ALWAYS yaks during the night—5 cats, 4 long-haired, they groom each other, ya know where I'm goin' with this...). Since I've come home from the hospital, things have slowly progressed to normal, I can now sleep to 6:30A, I can eat something besides Cream of Wheat (Tuna Helper is my friend), still can't do soda (THAT is 6 weeks and counting without Code Red, another two weeks and they'll have to lock me up), and I am getting used to that whop that liquid hydrocodone packs. In fact, I thought to myself on Monday, "Self, I think you can now do without momma's little helper, you're doing pretty good." Well, nothing like a self-righteous statement to give you a little kick in the patootie. I wake up Tuesday morning, start working on my computer and think, "wow, my left elbow hurts, I wonder what I hit it on?" As the day wore on it started hurting more like a toothache in my arm. Still, I'm a pretty clumsy ditz, so I figured I had clocked it somewhere along the way and didn't think much more of it until I went to bed. By then, it hurt for my clothing to touch it, and needless to say, there is no comfortable way to sleep in bed when the inside of your elbow hurts except for flat on your back with your arm up in a swastika move on a pillow. By Wed. AM, me and momma's little helper are connected at the hip and I called the Doctor. As if I hadn't had enough of that this month. Upshot is, one "venous doplar" later and I have two blood clots in my left arm. Who knew they hurt? Dang, it's a real buzz kill. I need a slave to carry my arm around for me. Just the weight of it stretching those poor little veins is enough to drive me to drink Code Red. So, now we get to add another pill to the cadre of medication. I have officially eclipsed my Mom on the number of pills taken together at one time, which I thought was a complete impossibility (she has Rhuematoid Arthritis among a host of other things—Lord lover her, she's a trooper). So, my arm now comes with instructions, "don't rub it, don't put heat on it (but it hurts mamma, please?), just don't use it unless you have to." Duh. Run that one by me again. Don't use it... Nothing like an IV to give you a few blood clots. And just when I thought all the real fun was over...

Home Again

2006-06-15T17:36:00.000-05:00

Home sweet home! Ah, never a better cliche than that! But now that I'm here, I just a bit ticked off. First, I wake up every morning at 5:30A (blood taking time), expect someone to bring me my pills and stuff when I need it (hey, getting waited on, even by the institution is nothing to sneeze at--no pun intended), start looking for breakfast at 6:30A (and I never used to eat breakfast, if you call Cream of Wheat breakfast), and then the finger-poking (blood sugar), vitals every hour it *seemed*, and then there's lunch (soup, pudding-like stuff, jello), and then more drugs, a nice nap or chatting with the nurses and the PCA's (GREAT bunch of folks there on 9 East), read a bit (morphine really inhibited my ability to stay focused for more than three minutes, so I am sure I read the same thing over and over and over... Then there's supper, more vitals, more poking, more pills (slid down courtesy of viscous Lidocaine--great tasting stuff with a texture to die for...), Cliff came over, watched me pick papers and gnats out of the sky (hey, I'm telling ya, that morphine stuff makes things seem REAL! I could have been the Velveteen Rabbit!) and then some TV. Now, here I sit at home, no one to tell me when to take my pills, feed me Breakfast, Lunch and Supper (I really miss the part where they brought my food tray and I had to tell them to take half of it back because it did meet the dietary requirements PRINTED ON THE SHEET!) For example, soft liquid, bland diet, no acidic or spicy foods. What did I get? Orange juice (insert other fruit juice here too), tomato soup, stuff with chocolate, bulky foods, etc. So now I have to figure all that stuff out myself. Bummer. The worst part? No one to talk to but the cats. I really enjoyed talking to the nurses and PCA's. I really miss them. They made what would have been a very crappy two weeks into something with fond memories to go along with the "what the heck is going on with me?" memories. I tried to take pictures when I became lucid enough to realize I should make a mini-book or something about this event. I'll try to get some posted.

I had some really great friends stop by and see me, I was really surprised. I'll apologize now for anything I said that didn't make sense. Everyone was so thoughtful, I had some beautiful flowers and cards, and my friend Rebecca brought me this most wonderful bag full of goodies and 2 (and I said TWO) scrapbook magazines to read--and TWO I hadn't read. I am sure I read them three times but as I look at them now, I don't remember a thing...

I'm still here....

2006-06-13T11:01:00.000-05:00

Yep, still sitting in the hospital but doing much better. I'm off my morphine pump and off the IV and various other bags of stuff they hung up on old "spike" (my name for my IV pole). Buster is gone too (so no more urges to go wee wee in the wee hours of the night). Buster was my saline/potassium bag--I figure he'd bust if he got dropped, so he got named Buster. The rest of the little bags (there had to be 50 if there were 4) were referred to as "the gang". I had more infusers going, bleeping, ringing, etc. Now I just have a port and I get anything I need by IV, they use the port. So I am wire/tube free. There's nothing worse than needing to make your bladder gladder when you have to unplug two electrical plugs for the infusers, gather all your tubing and morphine dosing cord and get you and Spike to the bathroom without peeing your pants first. Too much anticipation. I'm looking around the room for some Depends (geez, they have everything else in here!), but no luck. I made a suggestion on the form for Cox to sell them like tampons in gas stations. I don't think they listened.

When they pulled the old port last night (we tried to do an IV infusion and the vein was blown) that was a pretty painful experience. Not much you can do when they are pulling off all that tape. I thought there was going to be a fight as it I was wriggling all over the bed like a worm on hot concrete. Cliff's watching like a 3yr old in gross fascination. Luckily Jeff was very good at getting in a new port in my other arm, which I probably only need for today. Seems silly. Like waiting here for doctors to show up so I can go...

2006-06-04T19:38:00.000-05:00

Well, I hate to say this post is coming from not my favorite place. The one place I have never been before. The place where you Willa probably see lots of typos because the Morphine is messing with my head and fingers. The dreaded HOSPITAL. Yes, I've been a guest of the Hotel Cox Guest Room 913 since last Friday. Not sure when I getting out. The colonoscopy on Tuesday seemed to go well. They took two biopsies to make sure there was nothing there. I ate the next day and out it came thirty minutes later! But I don't think that the colonoscropy is related to what is going on now.

Since Wednesday was a no go for food I though Thursday would be better. With that in mind, I got a sandwich. So to my surprise, I couldn't even swallow it or the drink it came with. Several years ago I was diagnosed with Achccalcia, but it seemed this one was different, I couldn't eat or drink last time, this time I couldn't eat, drink or swallow without excruciating pain. But like a dope I kept trying to eat and drink and it got worse. I sat up all night and when Cliff got up Friday at 5A. I told him to take me to the ER. And so it begins,,,''

One endoscopy later and I was escorted up to floor 19. Evidently my esophogus is very inflamed, they took some scrapings and biopsies. They don't know why it is so inflamed, so they put me on an antibiotic and an antiviral, along with some morphine to control the pain. And I've been on a saline drip the whole time because I was very dehydrated. They came in to weigh me a while ago and OF COURSE since I haven't eaten REAL food to eat since Saturday A WEEK AGO (courtesy of the Colonoscopy that was done Tuesday) I figured it had dropped but NOOOOO, that wasn't the case. I had lost down 12 lbs and gained 10 lbs back in water weight. THAT totally sucked! So here I sit, Sunday evening and still don't know how much longer I'll be in here. I brought books but if you knew how long it took me to write this, you'd know reading is a loss.

Well..that's it for Sunday...the day of rest...

Mac Talk

2006-05-28T19:09:00.000-05:00

So here's part of the Mac set up. I'm an old die hard Macintosh fanatic, I've been using and supporting them since 1984, mostly from a publishing/advertising/graphic arts focus. I never understood how Jobs (and Amelio and those after him) could never get a marketing campaign together that really focused on the core of the Mac experience, EASE OF USE! Criminy, what does it take to get a clue at Apple marketing? After 20 years they FINALLY come out with a two button scroll mouse?! They almost got it a couple of times (like the two guys setting up the PC and the secretary walks by a several times throughout the day and as she leaves for the day she says, "You should have bought a Mac!"). Yes, yes, their beautiful to look at, but even in the early days, when everyone whined that Macs cost more, they weren't even doing an Apples to apples comparison. Macs came with networking, sound, video, modems, microphones, etc. and those were all add-ons for PCs. By the time you added it up, Macs weren't all that more expensive (maybe $100-$150) at a time when personal computers cost $3,000 ENTRY level and you were lucky if it had a HD. Now, they get it. The new ads are AWESOME. My very special favorite is the Virus ad because it is so stinkin' true. How much productivity is lost in the PC world while IT and home users pull out their hair over viruses, spyware, malware, etc. Guess what folks--never been a problem on a Mac. Unless you want to talk about the WDEF virus and ony the old and worn among us probably remember that. You could get rid of it by rebuilding your desktop on bootup. We're still working away while your PC has the blue screen of death or has just performed and illegal operation (now that's a scary one, first time I saw that, I was looking for the cops...). Now, I know there are those of you peecee owners that sniff about how we have less than 10% of the computer market, but we're still at the top when it comes to service and reliability. How many pc's do you know that are 6 years old and still pumping out huge graphic files at print shops? Eh? None, because they died of E. Coli four years ago. And do you think PCs are doing all the compositing for X-Men, Chronicles of Narnia, The Hulk, (insert blockbuster film name here)? We may only have 10% of the market but Hollywood is a pretty large chunk of 10%. And as a reminder for those who don't know the storied history of the Mac, Microsoft Office came out on a Mac first. Before Windows ever existed. Yes, that's right, Macs ARE business machines! We can read, write and format PC disks, open practically any PC file and you're darn tootin' for sure that PCs don't do the same with Mac disks and files. With the advent of the Mactel machines which can dual boot into WinXP, who would want a computer that can only run one OS? (ok, technically two if you stick Unix on it in a dual boot--but Mac OS X is already BSD Unix.) Of course, with XP your still back in virus hell, but hey, that's your choice now, because you *could* be running the OS X side and being productively happy finally learning why Mac people LOVE their Macs. You don't hear PC people going, "OH, I just LOVE my new PC! It hasn't crashed in the last four hours, WOW! Hey, come over here and check out the movie I just made this morning."

I am not completely antagonistic about PCs. I've built 3 from scratch, I currrently own three (one desktop and two laptops) along with my other Mac gear. Since I do software training, that usually involves both platforms so reality dictates that you have to do both. The applications work the same so it is really a non-issue in most respects. I do however draw the line at working with critical color. Bill Gates wouldn't know a color engine if it slapped him in the face, whupped his rear and sat him down. Color calibration without expensive software for the PC is a joke if you have files that are headed for offset printing. I positively pee my pants when I hear people using Publisher who think they're going to take that to a commercial printer and get it printed. I will say, for those who scrapbook, I am positively impressed with Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 for the PC (and yes, I have it for the Mac too, along with the Adobe CS2 suite). Adobe has been doing color for 20 years, they know how it's done. There is no other product or manufacturer in the PC marketplace that has a image editing product that touches what Photoshop and even PSE4 can do (which, by the way, is based on the CS2 code). I've been teaching a lot of scrapbookers how to fix their pictures using PSE4 and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I've decided that I think I could do that most of the time and really get a kick out of it. That's the teacher in me who loves it when people find out they can do something they didn't think was possible. It's so cool to see their faces light up when they see the results of what they've done. Epson has some great printing products that make using PSE4 with digital cameras and scanners a joy. Add a Wacom tablet, a media card reader, a nice Belkin USB powered hub (the one wit the slot on top for slapping on that flash drive we all have without picking up the hub and flipping it over)--assuming you're using a laptop where USB ports are at a premium. Arharharharharh! Love the gadgets!!

So here's the rundown of the current set up: PowerMac G5 Duo 2.0 ghz, dual layer dvd, 2gb RAM, Radeon 256MB video, 160MB HD with a 250MB external Seagate, external 52x Lite-On CD-RW, Stratitec media card reader, Wacom Graphire3 6 x 8 tablet, D-Link Print server, Epson 2200 wide-format printer, Epson PictureMate Deluxe printer, HP 3800n Color Laserjet, Epson 3400 Photo Scanner, Yamaha speaker system, HP 23" LCD monitor (rotates to portrait), Belkin USB Hub, PowerBook G4 15" 800 mhz laptop with 768mb RAM, CD-RW/DVD ROM, external LaCie DVD-RW, and Canon EOS Rebel XT digital camera with an additional 300mm zoom lens and external flash. There's more but that's what I use on a regular basis outside of the aforementioned PCs with their own tablets, Epson scanners and printers, etc. I also have some historical pieces like an orignal Apple Laptop, the first Apple Powerbook (100), the first color PowerBook, a 11ci, 300baud modem, etc. Now, if I could just kick out a few cats and start a museum in the "cat" room (aka, the room with more than one litter box). A couple more years and someone will have to check me into the museum room...

Craftin' with Cats

2006-05-27T22:45:00.000-05:00

I just had to post this picure of the paper purse I made at a Creations class. It wouldn't be me if it wasn't anything but cats or Macs. And since I am pretty sure Apple hasn't published Macintosh scrapbook paper, I had to go cats. I guess if I had time, I could make my own Mac paper (ohh, what a great idea, I know I could get to this before I turn 50). Anyway, this is my favorite cat paper, it's from Flair and it has cats doing all the things they actually do, including using a cat box, showing their butts, licking their private parts, clawing up the furniture, rubbing their pheremones all over every last surface in the house, sleeping, grooming and getting into bags and boxes. MY kind of cat paper. If I'm lucky, it won't get hole punched or dragged around the house or squatted in. Or groomed. That fringe looks pretty inviting to the fuzz balls here.

Cat Mania

2006-05-27T21:42:00.000-05:00

Since I gave it up for Maki, Coon and Pewter, I thought I had better post some pics of my other darling babies. Yes, having cats is like having babies, they make "messes", they puke, get eye infections, bite, kick and scratch each other (or morph into Tasmanian Devils), yell at you when they don't get fed when they want to be fed (we refer to Pewter as "Firetruck Pew" during feeding time as he goes Merwowowowowowowower", about a ten second hang time there). They're almost as bad as spouses when you come home. Pewter gives us "the business" when we get home which includes the Firetruck meow, the barking meow and the meow he does that sounds like meow with a burp in the middle--we call it a chirp. To top it all off on the babies scale, they seem to be teething all the time. There is not a book or magazine in this house that has not been "hole punched" courtesy of Maki or Pewter. Pewter has also chewed on every corner of furnture we have. What's worse, he looks right at you, waiting to get your attention before he chomps. And they KNOW what they're doing, I think they spend all that time sleeping faking it while they think of things to annoy me. But I digress. Here is a picture of Mr. Sniffy.
It's a kind of sad story about how we got him. We found out four years ago at Christmas that our seal point Himi, Cappy (Cappaccino) had a very rare cancer and was not going to make it through the holidays. He wasn't even a year old and we were heartbroke. So we decided we needed to get another kitty. We went to the Humane Society and found the cutest gray tabby kittens. So we took home two, a boy and girl. Well, it was quickly evident that the girl kitty was very sick, so we took her back. Because we still had Cappy, we kept Mr. Sniffy (whose name was King at the time) separated. A good thing too, as he also turned out to be real sick, but we ddn't have the heart to take him back, too. So he lived in my craft room for three months, sneezing blood, sneezing in general, but VERY affectionate. Because he was so snotty for so long, and you could here him sniffing around the room even when you weren't in the room, he got the name of Mr. Sniffy and it stuck. We also ended up getting Pewter at the same time, and when the people we purchased Cappy from found out he was terminally ill, the gave us the pick of their next litter. So, we lost one and got three. Plus two (Coon and Kahlua) made five, about two more than we had intended on. Luckily we have a pretty big house or it would be chaos.

Now, let me tell you, Mr. Sniffy thinks he has the finest butt in town. He shows it to EVERYONE. He has a sucker punch, he comes up and head butts you, and when you reach to pet him, he whips around and presents his butt. We have the weird habit of talking for our cats, so we know Sniffy is thinking, "Check out my fine looking butt. See how my tail makes a perfect question mark over it and how my _____ makes the punctuation? It's the best tail in town. I KNOW you're gonna like it. Come on, take one more look, maybe two--did you see my baggy pants? Yes, all the girl kitties call me Hamma', 'cause I be down with the baggy pants." Well, we find it a humorous pasttime. Yeah, we're lame.

Our other cat is Kahlua, she is a tortie Himi. She has spent most of her life under the bed. She's 9 this year and only in the past year or so has she finally come out from under the woodworks and begged to be petted. She's still afraid of everything, but when there aren't other cats to terrorize her, she can be downright demanding for the loves. She likes to sleep in the sink in the bathroom--I'm not sure how that factors into the 'fraidy cat psyche, so I can't talk for her. Looking at her is like looking at an empty bubble. I got nothin'.

So that completes the Cathouse. Five cats, six boxes (two auto boxes), one squatter (that's Peko Orange Tea--I'll post one of him next time). You know it's bad when your neighbor's kid introduces you to her friends at church as, "This is my neighbor Vicki, she has 5 cats!" And then later, you're talking with someone else at church and you mention that the Pastor is your neighbor, and they say, "oh, so your the one with the five cats." Yep, that's us. We can't have kids so we've over compensated with cats. But at least they are all very nice, agreeable, affection cats, not like the Satan cats my Mom keeps getting. And that is another story...

One of these days, I need to talk about my Macs. I'm a certified MacAddict, a Macavist to the core (ha, no pun intended!).

Also Starring in the Cathouse...

2006-05-26T13:38:00.000-05:00

These are pictures of Pewter, our Lilac Himi. This is a cat with Catitude. He doesn't walk around the house, he sashays. The hair on his tail is about 8 inches long, looks just like a duster. He has had several names since we got him. He started off as Pewter (because of his gray points), but then it was Pew-Pew as he had a major gas issue as a kitten. At the same time we also called him the "little Eeper" because his meow was more like an eep eep eep. He never walked anywhere--he ran, in circles around your feet, back and forth from the bedroom to the bathroom going "eep eep eep" the whole time. I just had to sit down, he made me so tired. Then, with the switch to the new dried food, he became Poo-Poo as his stomach took some time to get used to it and the big D word was the norm for a week or so. When he was younger, he liked to fetch. But it was only one certain mouse toy, one that was spotted like a Dalmation with a hot pink tail. All you had to say was "Mouse?" and up he'd come and you could throw it 20 times and he would always bring it back. By then you're like, "I'm trying to go to sleep." So then he'd throw it up in the air himself and off the bed and bring it back up etc. There was little sleep to be had during that time.

Now, he sometimes is known as Puker. When he gets too nervous about something, or a hairball that's too big, he just pukes and pukes and pukes. Like 7 or 8 times a day. Sometimes we have to take him to the vet and get him all waxed up. But mostly, he's our boo-ti-ful Pew-Pew. He so soft, he feels like a huge cotton ball. He rarely mats up and he loves to give kitty kisses. In fact, he likes to clean your teeth, so kisser beware. You always know when he wants to give you kisses. He gets that goo-goo look when he looks up at you with his eyes half closed and his ears turned sideways. Well, we think it's cute. Except the teeth cleaning bit.

Cats & Spats

2006-05-26T12:17:00.000-05:00

It's getting real catty here in the Conquest household. Not that having 5 cats wasn't catty enough. I'm going to *try* to post some pictures of the purrpatrators involved in the latest catcaphony (please pardon my intentional misspellings).

Of our 5 cats, Coon, our black and brown tabby, is our oldest at 15 years. He IS the keymaster. He is the master of a thousand paw-slaps. If you're not *in* then don't even look at him. When he gives you "the look" (and ladies, we all know how to give "the look" so you know what I mean), all the cats visibly pull their heads back and blink, some are even known to step back and even run away (chickens!). The only cat Coon has ever let near him is Maki. She's a seal point Himi with a flat face and a tooth that sticks outside her left lip. She's like the brain dead kitty. He could give her "the look" all day long and she would be thinking "Oh, he loves my butt!" You all DO realize that the most important feature of a cat is their butt, right? If you have cats, you should be smellin' what I'm steppin' in. Coon even let her groom him.

So, to make a long story longer, Coon has recently decided to lick all the hair off his right hind leg. And I do mean all! That leg looks like it belongs on one of those hairless cats (perish the thought). So after a week of wearing the cone head collar (that's another story) and making "messes" (polite word for the big D and I don't mean Dallas word) all over the place because of the medicine that I had to pry open his jaws to give him (yet another story), we decided there had to be some other solution. So, the vet gives me this spray-on stuff, supposed to be part antibiotic and mostly stuff that tastes bad to cats so he would quit licking it. So I get home, have the obligatory wrestling match where I try to get Coon to give me his back leg, I spray it on him (an me, and the couch, etc.), and then he jumps off running and shaking his leg like he's doing the Hokey Pokey. And being the smug, fart smeller I am, I thought that was pretty easy. I was about to be given the hair raisin' of my life.

Since Maki has butt-sniffing down to an art form, she proceeded to run behind Coon trying to sniff his butt. She has to run because her legs are shorter and stretch up her head because Coon is taller. This itself is entertaining, especially when you get the butt train going where three or more are in line. This has to be seen to fully appreciate how she gets her flat face right up under the tail of the other cats--if it were any other cat, it's nose would be buried a half inch up the other cats rear. Then, after a good long whiff, my dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks, sweet-as-sugar-pie cat Maki turned into Damianna Omen herself. She started hissing, then growling then went into some high-pitched screaming and then I am sure it was the Devil himself howling in the most unearthly sounds I have ever heard come out of a cat. She jumped right on top of Coon and was clawing and spitting and yowling and he was running down the hallway with her firmly attached to his back like he was going to run out from under her. He was dumbfounded. Cliff and I were running down the hall trying to catch them to pull Maki off his back and she was still moaning and howling and hissing. Poor old Coon couldn't even defend himself, he's declawed and lost both of his top fang teeth several years ago. Maki has all her equipment (well, excepting the reproductive parts). But when it first started, Cliff and I couldn't figure out what that noise was, we were thinking maybe the Tornado Siren was going off. Then we finally realized it was coming from the smallest cat in the house. Let me tell you, the other cats split the scene so fast, they left their whiskers behind! Now it's kind of like one of those Cialis ads where Maki has gained some new-found respect. Everyone is giving her a good wide berth. She's still growling at him and she positively hates it when he sits by me. She jumps up there and starts whacking him on the head with her paw, like Chinese water torture until he gets tired of it and leaves. Then she leaves. What's up with that? You can't have her but I don't want her? I'm starting to get a complex. I'm just not sure where I stand in the household pecking order...

Flying Face Plants

2006-05-15T22:08:00.000-05:00

No, it's not a new genus of flora, it's my new impromtu acrobatic act. My partners—a HP Color LaserJet 4500 and the DH. The DH and I were performing our balancing act with the printer as we were attempting to nimbly prance down our brick stairs from our porch. Well, let us say that somewhere our act got out-of-balance and I flew through the air like a bird in flight (possibly a pigeon) and proceeded to firmly plant my right jaw into the concrete of our driveway, closely followed by my right shoulder. Somewhere along the line my right knee clocked either a stair or the printer. I'm sure I was a vision of grace and beauty as I slid across the concrete and laid there like a gutted fish. Do fish see stars? This one did. My DH just stood there and looked at me like, "Hey stupid, what do you think you're doing down there? Get off your butt and help me get this thing in the truck!" He did finally ask me if I wanted help up but I was still doing the fish mouth "what just happened?" impersonation. I finally rolled up to a sitting position and let him help me up. We picked up the #$*&@! printer and put it in the truck. No more printer dances for me. They're brutal. Our neighbors will be reporting spouse abuse when they see me with my chin shiner. And for those of you looking for the Timex of printers? Buy an old HP 4500. They take a licking and keep on clicking out those color pages. What REALLY sucked was having to cancel my class at Creations. We were doing this nifty explosion friends box. I was afraid that if I had sharp tools I might go wild and cut up the place while trying to get up and get a drink from the fridge. They should thank me for not showing up. I'm a loose canon.

Power Tools R Us!

2006-05-13T13:42:00.000-05:00

I almost love them as much as I love my G5 Duo with the 23" LCD. Almost. I'm trying to finish tiling my downstairs snack area. I did half of it as the house was being built, 4 years ago. I just never got around to doing the other side. So it has sat there with the hardibacker on it collecting cat hair, cat toys, various cables, routers, magazines, and the tiles that were supposed to go on it 4 years ago. Minus a few, of course, as they were casualties of the cat wars. Today I was inspired (by a looming deadline of some in-home PSE4 training for some friends) to clean it off and relayout the tiles to see what i needed to replace. Then it came to me why I didn't finish it. I cut the hardibacker a half inch larger than it needed to be for the counter top. I suddenly lost interest as I couldn't think of a quick way to fix it, so there it sat, taunting me for these past 4 years. Thanks to several Lowes gift cards we finally stocked up on some REAL power tools. I was told my Dremel tool didn't count. So now we are powered up, table saw, miter saw, circular saw, power stapler, shop vac, orbital sander, AND, a Jigsaw! Still waiting on a router, saws-all and a drill press (hint, hint, hint to the fam). Pretty much if it plugs in or uses batteries I'm all over it like Tim the Tool Man, ARH, ARH, ARH. So, ignoring every saftey rule about using tools I commenced to shaving off that extra half inch with my new favorite hand tool. In walks the DH. "You should be wearing a mask," he says. Well, duh, of course I am. But I am a Mac user, and not only do we not read manuals, we don't read directions on power tool safety. We ALREADY KNOW about power tool safety and we know when we can break the rules. I did get it done, but I blew out a couple teaspoons of mortar dust out of my nose (I did use my safety glasses), and I'll probably be coughing up premixed mortar for a few days. But it's done. Now, I have to go rent a tile saw from Home Schelpo...ARH, ARH, ARH!

Where's the Easy Button?

2006-05-12T13:20:00.000-05:00

All I wanted to do was post to a friend's blog and somewhere in the registration process, here I am with with a blog of my own! That is just about how my life goes. You start out doing one thing and end up with something entirely different. It keeps life interesting. Once I figure this thing out, I'll have to put up something more intelligent. It's like being caught with your pants down. You didn't plan it and neither did the other party, but there it is and you're all standing there with your mouths open, totally berefit of anything to say that would sound remotely normal. "Hey, I uh, like those little cats there, uh, on your underwear..." Duh. As soon as I pull my proverbial pants up, I'll try another post.