Thermalgal’s Temperate Mumblings

I know I’ve been bad

I haven’t written to my blog since Sat. But not much has been happening here. I’ve been off work (yeah for vacations!) and working frantically on some last minute Christmas gifts. I had too many planned so I had to delay some until after Christmas since I won’t be seeing my family until New Year’s Day, tomorrow. Sometime this weekend I’ll post stage 2 of the gifts.I tried to go to a LNS yesterday with a friend. We got there, opened the door and got screamed at. The lady scream, “We’re closed for Inventory,” in such a way that we just shut the door and ran. Needlewoman East will now be known as NastyWoman East from now on. They were too far away and mostly Needlepoint anyways, and that they have this big attitude toward cross stitchers. So we ended up at a real LNS, The Hang-up. The lady is super nice, I found what I wanted and she always remembers me. Can’t beat that. I should go there more often and buy stuff. She is only ten minutes from work. Gotta support the LNS to keep her in business. I just wish the store was bigger. It is half LNS, half frame shop. I got TW’s Wedding Sampler framed there and she did a great job. Wish I could afford to have all my stuff professionally framed.

Is it only Saturday?

Not much happened yesterday. We spent most of the day fiddling with our new computers. I got the DirecTv DVR service activated (yeah!) and we went shopping. The stores were all a mad house. We went out to get whole milk and heavy cream to make ice cream in the new machine… three hours later we came home. We also went to a bunch of other stores. I bought new gloss 4×6 paper for new printer. I used one of from the sample pack to print a picture and wow! It looks almost as good as a reprint from the store. I also got the Ott clip lite! Yeah! I spent the remainer of the evening working on more Christmas presents while DH fiddles with his new table saw. It was actually a present from last year but he just got one of the barns cleared to use as a workshop so it was sitting on the porch still in its packaging.Today I clean up my old computer and have it on my new computer. Not an easy task getting infor from my iMac to an XP box. They got rid of Appletalk on XP so I had to copy everything to a zip disk and then copy to the new computer… and I only have one zip drive. Next up… learning how to use my new CD-R to archive the iMac stuff. I’m also going to install my new DirecTv dish. I had to upgrade to get the full capabilities of the DVR so I got a three LNB on Ebay for a good price. Too bad it didn’t come with all the screws, so back to the hardware store I go.

Boxing Day?

Not that my family even knows what Boxing Day is… but that is today. The downstairs is a wasteland of empty boxes. I didn’t take a picture before all the gifts were unwrapped and now I have a naked tree. Oh well, a naked tree is better than no tree.My computer didn’t come with speakers since I upgraded to a flat panel monitor (at least I think that is the reason), so DH gave me the pair from his desktop. Since he now has his laptop he doesn’t really need them. So, I have the two stereo ones and one at my foot (forgot what that one was called). I think I’ve assembled and installed all the gifts so far. The last thing was connecting the new printer to the new computer. I even tried out the direct print from my camera. I have pictures of Pushkin everywhere.Today’s plan is to start working on the Christmas wave 2 gifts and to make ice cream on the new machine. I also have to figure out how to get a phone line to the new DVR so we can get that all working. I really like this new keyboard. For the past 4 1/2 years I’ve been living with the tiny keyboard that comes with the iMac. Using this Dell keyboard feels nice and spacious.

Merry Christmas

Grr… I thought I hit draft and then post and what I really did was delete my entire post… I had a nice list of everything I made. Christmas wave 1 is over. I have pictures of most of the items I made. I might have some on my old computer (yes I got my new computer and it is up and running). So, here is the first list of items. This list is only for items I made for my in-laws and friends. My family is getting together on New Year’s Day.

• 8 handknit catnip mice (picture of 7 of them)
• DNA Scarf
• Cross stitched cat butt in boot
• Cross stitched Coffee is Magic in the morning
• 3 painted stained glass pieces:

• Cats in window
• Baby dragon with teddy bear
• dragon

I had a very techno Christmas. I got a new computer, a new printer, a DirecTv DVR, compact flash card for my camera and a drive for the compact flash card. This was a highly unusual Christmas. We were going to buy new computer in October but we decided to just wait until Dec and call them presents.I’ll leave you with a picture of Pushkin enjoying a new catnip toy from friends. Ack! I took so long and now it isn’t even Christmas Day anymore! But I figured out how to change the time and date, so it is now fixed!

Christmas Eve!

Tomorrow is Christmas! And I’m almost finished making all my presents. All I have left is to finish up the DNA scarf. I’ve stayed up to midnight for the past three nights to finish stuff up. And I’m really glad I did, otherwise I don’t think I would have finished in time.Tonight I’m heading to friends to help assemble their kids’ toys. Being the engineer I am, I love to assemble thing. Ikea is one of my favorite places. How much better does it get than combining shopping and assembling.My Christmas presents are being given in two waves. We see the in-laws tomorrow and my family on New Year’s Day. So, after each wave, I’ll put up a list of everything I finished as presents this year. I think I went a bit crazy on making things. I have items that are glass painted, cross stitched, and knitted.I’m off to make a pumpkin roll cake and finish the scarf. Happy Holidays! See you tomorrow from my new computer!