It's Too Late, Baby

Remember The Crab Show?

Well, if the man in your life doesn't get enough Crab Show in his life, there's now a remedy for that (not TiVo).

Battle 40-foot waves, storms, ice and a nearly 100 percent crew member injury rate in the dangerous hunt for undersea riches on the Bering Sea with the new video game Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm, to be launched on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC.

The game was inspired by Sig, Edgar and Norman Hansen -- three brothers who have made their living crab fishing on the Bering Sea aboard their family's fishing vessel, the Northwestern. The Hansen brothers started game development with Liquid Dragon Studios in October 2005. Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm lets gamers captain their own boat in the frenzied search for an undersea jackpot. Gamers select one of five real crab boats, including the Northwestern, Cornelia Marie and Sea Star '' all featured on the series, or create and customize their own boat. Gamers then recruit and lead their own crew from a roster of 20 real crab fishermen.

Selecting the wrong boat or recruiting the wrong crew member can mean the difference between landing a Bering Sea jackpot or disaster. Lead your fatigued, hungry and hardworking crew in the strategic search for king crab and opilio crab, while battling to secure your catch and livelihood before other captains and crews get to the crab first.

Authenticity and realism were critical to the Hansen brothers. The game features four real Bering Sea harbors and 34,000 miles of Bering Sea coastline created from the United States Geological Survey. In addition, Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm is the first video game to feature United States Coast Guard vessels and helicopters.

No kidding. Despite my very imaginative and creative brain, I dropped the ball on this one. I could have made a MINT if I had thought of it.

If you need more verification, go check it out for yourself at Discovery Channel.

Take It On The Run

You take it on the run baby

If that's the way you want it baby

Then I don't want you around

I don't believe it

Not for a minute

You're under the gun so you take it on the run

--- REO Speedwagon

On the way to and from the In Laws, we always pass this little place that has the most amazing horses. This year on the way home, I asked Necropolis to make a stop and let me take some photos.

After a moment of taking photos from the truck and through the fence, I decided to get a little closer and see what I could capture. Necropolis wasn't happy. I'm not sure what he would thought the little horses would do, exactly. There were only about a half a dozen, and they were all small Mustang or Mustang type breeds. In short, gorgeous.

I'm chatting away, cooing to the horses, who are paying no mind and chomping away, while Necropolis is yelling at me from truck. After a moment, I notice I have captured the attention of one of the geldings.

He was a sweetheart and saunders up to the fence. He blows a bit, but then snuffles and sniffs and is ready to be petted. This really set Necropolis off, so I took a couple more photos and tramped back to the truck.

Sometimes I really miss owing a horse.

The stall mucking, not so much.

All I'm Saying Is....

Check it out. It's free.

Register on ArtFire.com

And, yes, I have Six Degrees Arts shop on there.

O Tannenbaum! O Tannenbaum!

This past weekend was Tree Day, otherwise known as "The Third Time of the Holiday Season JPMcD Loses Her Freakin' ........."

It starts with finding the tree. We go live, and The Things think that means they go wild (as in zoo). This year, for some reason, I was really put out with Necropolis and The Things, so we grabbed the first halfway decent tree and brought it home. It wasn't until it was in the living room that I realized we had a mutant tree with antennae.

Now comes the part that no one else in the house can seem to do but me. That would be the lights. We have them on an old cable spool, and I roll them out on the floor, plug them in, replacing any dead bulbs or deleting any dead strings and put the things on the tree. In past years, I would carefully wind the lights around branches and such, having anywhere between 8 to 10 strands, somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 to 1000 lights.

This year, I couldn't find the replacement bulbs I kept (I'm blaming the move), and I had no energy to wind and check and carefully light the tree. I just smooshed (that's a technical design term) the lights up on the tree, trying to hide the cabling as best I could. I was still a strand short.

After the lights comes The Great Decanting. Half a dozen huge and heavy plastic containers filled to overflowing with gee-gaws and doo-dads and all kinds of Christmas regalia are released by The Things. It's almost like watching the little old ladies in their fur coats getting out of their chauffeur-driven Cadillacs at the Day After Christmas sale at Fine's on Broughton in Savannah (that's another story all together).

There's a good side to that, though. I'm so glad The Things old enough to decorate the tree now, I don't even care that most of the decorations are on the bottom half of the tree. All I know is, I don't have to do it.

JenniPMcGyver's Amazing Cotton Spindle

If it can be done, I'm going to figure out a way to do it.

If I'm told it can't be done, I'm going to figure out a way to do it.

If I'm told it's impossible and beyond the realm of plausibility, I will take it as a personal mission to figure out a way to do it.

Behold my latest figuring.

It all started with a cotton plant.

These sorry things show up in elementary schools about this time of year, as the classroom teachers incorporate 'real world' into their lessons. Today, as the unsightly, dead shrub is lying in the back of my co-worker's classroom, I decide all I can really do in this instance is waste some time and dig out some seeds for The Things. I set about my little personal mission, much to the somewhat bizarre amazement of the 5th graders in the classroom.

As I go about picking out the seeds my teacher friend, Ms. E, mentions to the class that I have the ability to spin the cotton into yarn. Okay, this is true in theory, but 1) I have only spun cotton (pencil roving) once, and 2) I wasn't sure it was even possible to spin straight from the boll.

The students, being unconvinced that thread or yarn could POSSIBLY come from that little bit of fluff ("I mean, it's, like, what you clean your ears with"), I take it as a personal mission to prove them wrong. Just to make my day. I'm like that.

There's just one small, inconvenient issue. I have no spindle or spinning appliances with me at school at the time. Never fear, I am a Master at creating something out of nothing. So, I set about on my scavenger hunt. An old rhythm stick (it's good to be the music teacher), a bobbin of jewelry filament (it's good to be friends with the art teacher) and a push pin. And Scotch tape. Lots of Scotch tape.

5 minutes later, I had a working, if slightly unbalanced, spindle.

Now, came the tricky part. Spinning the 1/2 inch cotton fibers into singles. Cotton has its own issues for spinning because of the fiber length. They're just so short, they require lots of twist and some quick finger work to make the fibers stick together. My original plan was to create a supported spindle, but I couldn't work out the weight issues and get a good spin, so I settled on a drop spindle and hoped I could get enough spin to allow me to draft the cotton.

I did.


Of course, I did.

Just call me McGyver.

All I Want for Christmas....

My last post gave the not so subtle suggestion to resist the urge to buy gifts for the holiday season, and instead, to try your hand at a self-created gift. It occurred to me that some people, while otherwise intelligent and brilliant in their own way, irons on the head not withstanding, may not have any idea where to start to even begin to have a glimmer of a suggestion for a handmade gift. So, I did the search work for you.

I found a couple of really nice, informative and quite groovy cool sites out in the ether that may be of benefit to those whos artsy-cratftiness may need some small assistance.

The first is Go Make Something. Not only is this site well designed and easy to follow, but the suggested crafts are fun, useful, artistic, beautiful and generally made with 'stuff' you may have on hand. If you already have a craft drawer (or several rubbermaid containers. Or a whole room), here's your chance to drag out all that stuff you bought but never used, and can now put it to good use, making thoughtful and smart gifts for your friends and family. My personal favorite from this site is the altered books. If you're not familiar with an altered book, take a gander at this:

Another site is Craftster.org. This site is able to be a little more personalized, and you can log in, go to the groups/forums/etc. But, if you putz around, you can really find some neat ideas.

However, if you're still afraid you'll burn your palms or somehow crush every toe you have, then I suggest you do the next best thing: Give to a charity. Buy local. Buy simple. Or Buy Handmade. You can do the last by checking out those of us who sell our handmade items on Etsy.

Happy Holidays.

So This Is Christmas...

So this is Christmas

And what have you done

Another year over

And a new one just begun

~~ John Lennon

While checking through some of my online friends' blogs, I ran across Lisa and Robb's. They have an amazing story all in themselves, but I particularly admire Lisa for her convictions as well as her ability to take some really amazing photographs.

In one of her most recent posts, she had the image you see to your left, and I have to admit, it struck a really chord with me.

I am one for handmade gifts, have been known to buy brown craft paper and create my own wrapping paper (kids hands are great and FREE!), have given to charities in others names as gifts, and just generally disdain what I often refer to as conspicuous consumerism. Don't get me started about Necropolis' absolutely necessary trip to Hot-lanta last year for Black Friday (I spent most of it in the car). And, this year, I read where a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death by Black Friday shoppers. Is this really the image we want for Christmas? I definitely know this isn't the value system I want imparted on my children.

So I checked out buynothingchristmas.org. I encourage you to do so as well. Even if you can't do all your gifts in this manner, think about what you can do.

Seven Bridges Road

One of the many reasons we enjoy our new neighborhood. Hopefully, I will soon have the appropriate equipment to take this picture at night, instead of just at dusk.

To Market, To Market

New items listed in the Etsy Shop. Here's a small preview.

When You're a Jet, You're a Jet

I’ve always known I’m a bit of a geeky nerd. Okay, I’m a LOT of a geeky nerd. And, I’m totally okay with that. My car radio is tuned to NPR. I like to create historic garb. I know what lapidary is, and I enjoy sitting and sweating in the Georgia July sun to take butterfly pictures. I find the gossipy history of musicians totally fascinating (check out Gesualdo) and once considered becoming a musicologist.

In the fibery world, I’m geeky as well. I knit at the pool and the beach. I know the difference between Lord Raglan and Lord Cardigan. I have a spinning wheel and spindle. I even have geeky fibery friends. One of those friends knitted a bicycle helment cover based on this little creature:

It’s a nudibranch, a lovely little sea creature, but I’m just enthralled that someone would knit this.

I also dye fiber and yarn, and have begun the geeky nerdy process of experimenting with my dyeing solutions and processes. No household product is safe. Today, I discovered I am a novice in the world of geeky nerdy fiberhood. On Ravelry, a question was asked about why a particular yellow dye solution wouldn’t stay dissolved, and reverted to a state somewhat consistent to Egg Drop Soup.

All of a sudden, my new friend Brewergnome was possessed. He gave a Chemistry lesson on hydrophobic dye, blah, blah, blah. You can read his ‘findings’ at his blog. It’s actually interesting reading if you’re into it, and has pictures and everything.

All hail, King of the Nerds!

Good Knitting Gone Bad

Remember this?

It was a lovely little sweater. It was lovingly hand dyed, and Thing 2 was so involved in the process. He chose the colors and helped with the dyeing. He decided the order of the stripes and chose his own buttons. He was incredibly patient when I would yell in the middle of cartoons, "Hey MUC, come try this on for me!"

A couple of weekends ago, Necropolis decided to do so laundry. Yeah....I think you know what's coming:

You'll have to excuse the Joker looking expression on MUC. I made him stand in the last of the afternoon direct sunlight. At any rate, with regard to the sweater, I think it might fit my 2 year old niece about now. We're still deciding what to do. We may have another Tomten in the making (it was really a quick knit), or MUC may choose a different pattern. Oh well, easy come, easy go.

On other fronts, the holiday knitting frenzy has commenced. Here are some of the various pieces. I'm not going to tell too much, should one of the recipients happen to read this post. After the holidays, I'll be sure to be more detailed about the projects.

And, no, I still don't know what's up with the photos, but I think I have a solution figured out. I'm just too tired and lazy to change the ginormus pics at the moment.

Cuttin' Up

After searching for pumpkins, The Things bugged Necropolis and I to carve the things. I managed to keep it to a low amount of pumpkin touching by being the one to witness through a camera lens. The Things had a great time, but it was one messy proposition.

Yes Letterboxers, that is my stamp carving lino cutter. It worked beautifully, so next year, I know we'll be doing more elaborate pumpkins.

The end results. We went rather traditional on the Jack 'O Lanterns this year, but the Things had a great time, and I had pumpkin seeds to roast.

Pick-a, PIck-a Pumpkin

This morning, we braved the cold drizzle to get our pumpkins for Halloween. The Things were not dressed for the weather, so the pictures that include them show that they're not really happy campers. So, it was a quick trip, but I did get some pictures.

I have no idea why this pictures turned out so freakin' huge. However, I'm too lazy to fix them today. I'll see what Blogger has done to change their setting and adjust later.

Because I'm a sucker.... (and a dork)

There's a gal out in cyberland who has created a knit-a-long where by you have to solve clues to get the URL for the various pdfs for the pattern and charts. It's called the da Vinci Knit A Long, and I had planned to check it out when I hear about it a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I forgot that the closing date of the clues is TOMORROW, and I've spent the better part of my day hunting down various bits and pieces of extraneous information to see if I could get to the pattern and charts. Luckily, and with quite a bit of reading other people's hints and suggestions on Ravelry, I managed to get all the information printed out.


Now I just have to knit the stinkin' thing.

Jolly Goode Tyme

We made our annual pilgrimage to the Carolina Renaissance Festival this weekend. We took a couple of added kiddos, the offspring of long-time friends who are going through some very difficult medical issues. The Contessa and Danielson are just young enough that I've forgotten somewhat it's like to have ones that need help eating/dressing/bathrooming/car-ride entertaining, so there was a small relearning curve of Necropolis and me. After that, the day, while long, went smoothly and a good time was had by all. I took the camera and got a lot of good shots.

Some of the more amusing and/or those with better composition: