h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yeah, Washcloth filled me in on the details yesterday in the end. I do hope she's happy about it.

She appears to have gotten used to the idea....

Sent Clive back to England yesterday, very, very early......

But the good news is, Amy+ uploaded some pics to her yahoo photo album today.... (just ignore the ones of me.. ugh)

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/dragonwings_73/lst?.dir=/Visiting+Ostrich&.src=ph&.view=

Yes, that is a gabble Clive is holding.... it has since been spray painted silver, though ..... so !!!

Now why should I ignore them? Is it because you refuse to look the camera in the face?
I've had a couple of lengthy chats with Eris since that last posting and she seems very happy about things really doesn't she?
Hope you're enjoying having your house back to normal.

I had no idea cameras had faces.... perhaps I'll have to rethink my tendency to shy away from them.

Yes, Eris does seem happy about it all - which is a good thing!

And the house is entirely too quiet. Too normal.

I'm going to be gone for a few days or longer, really don't know how long yet. I'll explain in a journal entry before I go, but since that won't be for several hours and you may read this earier, I'll just say my Dad is having another brain surgery and I want to be there for him - and to help my mom out. I'll stay at least till he's out of intensive care, hopefully till he's out of the hospital - he'll have to go to a nursing home for a while again when he's released, so obviously I wont' be staying all that time - could take months and months for him to return home. I won't have regular internet access from Mom's - but I should be able to go to my brother's house to check email, and I'll keep my kid's updated on Dad's progress, so they can post updates to the journal entry for anyone who's interested.

Okay, hope all goes well. You have all my best wishes, and a couple of s chucked in for good measure.

Thanks, just posted an update to my journal... can't stay on long, since I'm at my brother's house though.

Hokay, will read it in a mo...

You wouldn't believe the number of doilies I crocheted while sitting around in the hospital waiting rooms...

I'm guessing....... 42?

uh.... no, actually only about 6 or 7 - they do take quite a bit of time to make, you know, and I was only there 10 days.

Yes, 42 would have been a better number - might have been a good sign!

Always is, I got back this morning to find out that there were exactly 42 messages waiting in my Inbox after my weekend away, and I'm now convinced it's going to be a good day because of it.
I had no idea Doilies took that long to make, but then I've never made a Doilie in my life.

I have started to make yet another doily - this one from a book that my grandmother had in her collection when she died over 20 years ago. As it turns out,the book was from England. Now, I know this won't mean much to you, not having had any experience in crochet, but the names of the stitches are different over there from what they are here. What's really confusing is that you use the same names over there for different stitches, so I've had to translate as I go along - messed up more than a few times already.

Which means I had to frog my work a few times.... Oh, what does frogging mean? Rip it out - rip it, rip it - get it? (I can't help it, it's a term I picked up from some of the internet crochet sites)

All this brings up the question of how in the world my grandmother ended up with a crochet book from England since she never went there in her life, I'm quite certain, and there's also a stamp on it indicating that it was bought at a store in Washinton, DC, where she lived at the time. Now, why a store in DC would even stock a book from England, knowing full well that the stitches were different, I don't know, since there was no equivalency guide with it. My poor grandma must have been totally confused by it, and thought it was full of misprints, because I know for certain that it would not have worked using the US stitches. So why it was still in her collection all those years later, I have no idea... but I'm glad it was still there because it's got some very interesting, if old fashioned items in it. Judging by the styles the models are wearing, I'd say it was from the 50's.

Anyhow, it was such a pretty little doily that I figured it was worth all the hassle of having to translate the stitch names as I did them. I guess I'm about halfway done with it now... to add to my growing stack of doilies that I dont' have any idea what I"m going to do with them...

I thought you got frogging on military jackets and suchlike? And I've also always wondered exactly what a doily is for, what do you do with them?
The 42 was a good omen btw, had plenty good news yesterday, woohoo!

So tell me about your good news... or provide a link or something - don't keep it all to yourself!

What is a doily for? hmmmm..... nearest I can figure, it is purely decorative. Perhaps useful as a dust catcher.

However I do speculate that they might have some practical uses though, like when you set a bowl or lamp on a table and the bowl or lamp has a rough bottom because the pottery or glazing was not smoothed properly when it was made, the doily would provide protection to the finish on the wood by keeping the rough edges off the table to keep the table from being scratched. On the other hand, if the finish on the furniture is already scratched or water spotted or stained for some reason, the doily could possibly hide that from view, making the table usable ( as if it wouldn't be usable because of a spot or scratch, but you know how some people are about the furniture needing to be perfect).

I've taken some of my doilies and mounted them on dark fabric (the doilies are white or off white), then mounted the fabric in an embroidery hoop - I"m sure you don't know what an embroidery hoop is - think of it as a round frame for the fabric, with the doily mounted to the fabric. Very interesting - a little bit of old style quaint beauty in a thoroughly modern looking treatment. High contrast colors (dark fabric, white doily) do have an eye catching appeal for that sort of thing. Some doilies do have intrigueing patterns in them, best viewed at eye level, rather than hidden by something sitting on top of it on a table. My favorite one is an unusual older one that has a bold pineapple design - very unique, really. I found a picture of it here :

http://www.angelfire.com/sc2/DeniseCrochets/pabouquetdoily.html

I hope the link works! It's actually more eye catching viewed straight on - at eye level, rather than from an angle like that.

I just realized I must not have been subscribed to your journal.... although I have tried to make sure I was subscribed to everyone's journal who is linked to my page.... ok, done it now.

And I'm so glad to hear you've got a girlfriend! That's wonderful news!

Oh, and the frogs on uniforms reference.... I have a couple of frogs someplace.... they were on a full length hooded cape I'd made when I was a teenager, and when the cape was no longer usable, I kept the frogs. (I like the legs - they taste just like chicken )

I can't believe I just went to look at a doily website It is a fine doily though. I use old beer towels for much the same purpose (hiding scratches on my furniture) especially when the relatives who donated their lovely antiques to me in the hopes that they would become heirlooms one day visit. I seem unable to not scratch stuff, too many pointy things around the place I suppose.
I'm sure I've heard military clothing described as having "gold frogging" on bits of it somewhere, or maybe I've gone quite mad again.

I thought my girlfriend was old news by now, but if I've not waxed lyrical to you about her yet, I shall just say that I am mindlessly and inanely happy at the moment, and have been for a month and a half now, and will be for the foreseeable future. WOOHOO!
As to my good news, it's not that exciting, it's just that my beloved Telecaster (it's a guitar in case you're not sure) is finally coming back from the guitar hospital today, after two months of long arduous waiting for it to be finished. Many have wondered why I have been missing it so, as I have another 14 lying about the place, but I just love that one, and will even more once it's had all this work done on it, though I can't afford it at all (it's costing me 7 times what i payed for the thing in the first place ) and the other bit of good news was that my girlfriend's kids are going to portsmouth for a week on the 9th, definitely, so I get her all to myself for a bit, fantastic

Man, I never write posts that long normally, I think I need a lie down...

Yes, go rest... You really outdid yourself...

And yes, gold frogging is another way the term is used. Frogs are also similarly twisty-turny thingies used as closures on clothing (a knot formed on one side acts as a button to go in a loop on the other side). You could use the term knot-work, I suppose (a particular artform - celtic in origin). Even though I majored in fashion in uni, I never researched the term, but it wouldn't surprise me if frogs were the original closures on military uniforms, and when buttons became commonly used, the gold braid was retained for decorative purposes.

I do understand very well about the fine junktiques your relates gave you to furnish your apartment - our first apartment was furnished in early attic too. Actually, we still have a couple of pieces of it, after almost 28 years. Turns out some of it really was antiques, not just junk. There was one piece we got in trouble for throwing out when it fell apart on us because it was actually an antique too - how were we to know? It looked like junk! Perhaps it's not you who is scratching your furniture at all.... animals are notorious for destroying furniture - cats and dogs tend to scratch it with their claws or teeth - even our rabbit will gnaw on the furniture if we let her.

So your girlfriend comes with a ready-made family... I know you want time to be with her alone, but I have to wonder how you feel about having her kids around so much too... Are they nice kids? (I'm a nosey mom, aren't I?)

And the return home of one of your favorite guitars - yes, things are going well for you! (I know this is not your *favorite* favorite - I've lurked around enough to find out you had to sell that one - unless I missed something and you got it back again?)

Are you going to be ok moneywise having to pay so much to have it fixed?

We have a couple of acoustic guitars around the house - one has a bent neck - I don't know if it's even possible to repair something like that, but no one plays that one anyway. Actually, the girls hardly ever play the one Lord Scott got for them for Christmas one year either... And I am the proud owner of a banjo-uke () that came from my father's family - it has the wrong kind of strings on it - the local musical instrument repairman was working on one when I was in his shop one day and I told him about mine - he said unless I was planning on learning to play it, I shouldn't bother to fix it. Not exactly a high demand instrument these days, so I'm taking his advice.

Ok, I sometimes write posts this long... still a nap would be good...

Lordy, that was a long post, I'm back again, been having a nightmare of a week, will add a journal entry about it later, honest.
The ready made family are pretty cool actually, I like the idea of having a girlfriend who already has kids, as there's less likelihood of her going all broody on me. They're pretty nice kids as well, which helps as it's all new to me, I haven't been around kids since I was one.
And that guitar I had to sell did come back to me yeah, which was good. Hopefully my cash supply will be alright despite the unfortunate events of the weekend, I should recover from it alright, but I had the money for the repairs saved anyway, it was set aside for that very purpose.
Anyhow, I'll most likely be back online this afternoon, as I have today set aside for doing nothing but this pretty much, WOOHOO!

Read your journal.... Sorry things aren't going well right now except specifically in the girlfriend department, but this is how it is.

The band thing.... surely there's someone else out there you can play with. Does your singer play anything? Could be kinda hard to get gigs with just a guitar and singer - not impossible, though, I"m sure...

Sorry to make you read so much I tend to get a bit verbose, I'm afraid..

Just got back yesterday myself, but no rest for the weary - had to take Rachel to make subs for youth group, then back to pick her up about 2 hours later, then back home, then wolf down the subs for dinner, then out to get haircuts, then to flute lessons.... never made it back home till 9:30ish last night.... today I suppose I'll just do laundry all day (that never ends here it seems), and see what we ran out of grocery wise while I was gone....

s off to take care of stuff (well, after I play a while longer on hootoo of course!)

Frighteningly busy life continues, and hootoo gets more and more neglected, sorry.
Things are very sorted now, I quit the band, and have set up a 3-piece rock band again with the old bass player and a lad he knows from work. Should be just what I need. Also I'm going to do the duo thing with the former singer, mostly very laid back lounge music which you can get away with having less backing on, and I'll probably be playing a lot more piano than guitar on it as well.
Hopefully all will be sorted soon, and I'll have some cash again.
Ain't life just way too hectic?