Randomness

Eight days until the premier of Project Runway on the Lifetime channel. Wonder if my DVR will find it?

I'm collecting MyCokeRewards points, those codes on the inside of bottle tops and cartons. If you're not collecting them yourself but are a coke (or related product) drinker, email or text me your codes. I'd appreciate it. It's like collecting S&H green stamps, remember those?, except I don't have to paste them into booklets before cashing them in. I'm saving up for a shiny new mixer. No, wait, that was for the green stamps.

I've volunteered to bring in bagels to the office tomorrow so I had the secretary take everyone's order so I don't have to stand there in the morning trying to decide which ones to order.

I'm in need of a large table or clean floor so I can finally baste my mother's quilt. I can't find a 9 x 9 foot table. The tables in our conference rooms are 5' x 10' but there are too many people around and I'd need to drag in tables from another room to make it big enough and there are too many people around.

I'm still so far behind with girl scout badge sewing, probably about eight or ten vests in the queue. This summer has been full of activities and when I do have evenings at home, there is Top Chef Masters and Better Off Ted to watch.

The fabric shop where I bought my sewing machine is closing at the end of September. The repair guy there has a fabulous reputation, I'd like my machine to have its annual cleaning before he's gone. I called Monday about machine service. At that time, there was a line of 35 machines waiting for service, they would stop taking machines on Saturday. I asked if there was a waiting list so I can bring it in when it's my turn. No. Fabric is 40% off though, might need to visit the shop anyway.

School starts in a week and a half. Both kids will be out of the house by 7:30. Unless buses are missed. I'm not sure about the stress levels of getting two teenagers up and out at the same time. Which saint covers things like that? Probably St. Jude.

I learned about remote-controlled golf carts yesterday. I want one. Look here and here for examples. Of course I really don't need one, but wouldn't they be fun? But why stop there, I could go to the grocery and Fern could drive this to school. If I let her.

I think I need a snack. And maybe a coke.


 

The Passing of Time

A couple weeks ago my Kodak digital point & shoot camera died. I can't stand to be without a easy camera to use. I like having my big Nikon DSLR, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't fit in my purse or back pocket.

So I bought a Nikon S560. It's a middle-of-the-line 10 megapixel camera (but I never set it that high. I figure: A. I hardly ever need to make any prints that big; and 2. I can get twice as many pictures on a memory card in the 5 megapixel mode). It's got a lot of cool features I haven't learned how to do yet, but the thing I don't like about the Nikon P&S cameras is there is no auto-rotate feature when you take verticals like the Kodaks did. Blah. You have to turn the camera side ways to look at the portraits. Blah!

I've written this before: I like time-lapse photography, have ever since those films in science class back in elementary school. Last night I found out this new camera has a time-lapse movie mode. Way cool! This what it captured this morning from my office window. Until the battery died, that is. I will definitely have to play with this feature more.



This little movie was done by taking a picture every 30 seconds.

It's a bag

Here is my finished tote bag I made for the exchange we had in my quilt guild. I added a few more swirls of beads since the photo I posted a few days ago.



It turns out the woman I drew, drew me and we both listed the beach as one of the things we liked. Here we are with our new bags.





 

Copy Cat

I stole this from Lorraine who stole it from Sling: my customized signature at the bottom of my posts.

Get yours here.

What do you think?

A Night for Day

The League for People with Disabilities celebrated their new Day Habilitation Program for Adults with Autism and other Developmental Disabilities last night. They're the folks who run Greentop, the special needs summer camp Kevin goes to. They do tremendous things for folks of all ages with disabilities. Dan and I support the League so we're on their mailing list. That's how I got the invite to the celebration.

The invitation was for me and a guest, but I ended up going alone. The League's offices are in north Baltimore, which turned out to be a longer drive from my office than expected, about 95 minutes. In the rain. And tolls on the Harbor Tunnel. Both ways. Thank-you EZpass.

Anyway, the event was for women to "refresh, re-energize, and renew" and featured vendors to do just that. When I arrived, I made my way around the room counter-clockwise. The woman at the first table displayed facial care products. I can't remember the name of the company, I didn't recognize the brand, but I put my name in the hat for a door prize drawing. A woman from Merrill Lynch was next. She gave out packets of information. It wasn't the typical financial planning stuff, but more a planning sheet where you could record pertinent information about you, like bank accounts, credit cards, and accounts you might not even think of like EZpass, so it's all in one place.

Smashbox had a large set-up along the back wall with three make-up artists working. They looked busy and crowded so I kept going. The lady at the next table had a pile of pens and desk paraphernalia spread out. She said she wasn't selling the mess, she is Ann from SOS and helps you get organized. I told her she had my attention and she got me a chair. I spent a long time chatting with her.

My whole life needs reorganizing but we talked mostly about my sewing room. I got some superfantastic help I hope to put into action soon. The coolest tip is for decluttering and purging. Say I'm going through a bin of sewing supplies. First I'll sort by functionality and put like things together. Then I'll "shop" in one pile. If I have a pretend limited amount of money, what would I buy right now. I would not buy the 30 yards of laces and trims now, I don't sew with that stuff. Then, she says to put away what you didn't buy, either get rid of it now or store it out of sight for a year. If you don't miss it, get rid of it. I know the 30 yards of trims will be out the door soon.

Her "shopping" technique works for everything, especially clothes. She says it's also good to have a impartial friend hang with you while you sort, to keep you anchored and focused.

After I took up enough of Ann's time, I toured the rest of the room where nothing really grabbed my attention and got a snack at the wine and cheese table. I ate and listened to the welcoming speeches and missed having one of the winning the door-prize ticket numbers by one digit. I didn't need a $200 gift certificate to Neiman's anyway. Pout.

Then there was an empty seat at Smashbox. I don't normally wear make-up much but it's always fun to be pampered. I ended up staying there the rest of the evening. The make-up artist, Timber (interesting name, huh?), spent a lot of time asking what I like and what I'm comfortable with. So many make-up folks doing demos in department stores do way too much and I always feel I need a mini skirt and stilettos when I see the results. Not Timber. He was great. He talked about each product, the ones he used and the ones he didn't, and why they were right or wrong for my skin or style.

I looked really good and was so pleased with the result I ended up ordering several items in the Smashbox line. I love getting goodies in the mail and I'll have them tomorrow if I'm lucky. Most of the vendors were packing up with I was finished with Timber. I told you I was there for a long time. I stopped back by the first table. I won the door prize: $100 of products. She was out of catalogs so I'll have wait until she sends me a catalog in the mail to choose my booty. I love winning things.

I got home a bit after 9:00 feeling pretty good, it was a fun night.

The thing I learned today

Whenever my grandfather saw me he'd ask, "What did you learn today?" And I had to tell him. It was a good exercise. He died 17 years ago this month. My nickname for him was Doc-doc Buddy, or just Doc-Doc. (He was a doctor, did you guess that?) I still miss him. But I digress.

Fern is not being the model student these days. She has taken "missing assignments" to new lows, dropping a 95 average on tests to something a lot lower when you factor in zeros for homework grades. Her teachers are more than happy to email progress notes to me, but usually they only remember when I email them first, easier for them to reply that way. They are busy and I understand that. That means I'm the one who needs to remember to write them first.

So, being a programmer, I learned how to program a cron job to email them once each week so I don't have to remember myself. This is the code:

00 12 * * 5 (echo "This is an automated weekly email to check how Fern is doing in your class this week.";echo;echo "Thanks,"; echo "Anne";)|/bin/mail -s "Fern" teachers@middleschool.org

So, what this does is send an email every Thursday at noon to her teachers that says:

This is an automated weekly email to check how Fern is doing in your class this week.

Thanks,
Anne

Pretty cool, huh?

What did you learn today?