No time to post much right now as I am about to head out the door to meet some people at Beaverton Al’s…
I got creative with my nails today – I’ll write about that either late tonight or tomorrow!
Latest
Wow. Just…. Wow.
*insert heavy sigh here*
This day brought a heavy dose of frustration. Not such a cheery post from Boo today, although I refuse to remain in this frustrated not-so-happy state because that’s just not my nature.
Posting here is not high on my things to do right now. I think I’ll go exercise my frustration out. *trots back to the Pro 2 machine*
Fun With Friends
Last night I spent around 4-12 hours at Big Als, a bowling alley/arcade/sports restaurant/bar…. doing my usual thing (since I’m a horrible bowler) – playing Pump It Up Pro 2.
It was much needed fun and exercise time – I played for four hours straight… boy did I need that. It’s been a stressful week.
My friend Quinn who works there was actually working a shift when I was there! It had been around two weeks since I had seen him, and spending fun time with him definitely made my day. About halfway through the evening, Jeremy, Daniel, and then Carl showed up, all within 5 minutes of each other. Alex came last, and I decided to film a bit of the fun.
I decided to take video of Daniel and Alex playing the song Monkey Fingers in Routine mode. (ugh, a song that I strongly dislike, but it has an interesting chart) At this point, anyone reading this is either a PIU player or knows about PIU, but on the off chance that anyone else is reading this who has no clue what Routine mode is I shall explain.
When dance games are played by two players, they traditionally stay on their own set of pads… in Routine mode, players switch sides according to the step patterns displayed on the screen as they scroll upwards towards the target arrows at the top of the screen.
Take a look at the video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8r4yktlz1g]
No Post Yesterday!?!?!
EEP! I ruined my (small) posting streak! Today I will post twice – right now about today and later about yesterday.
Today was a not-so-great day, but I’m turning the evening around! I’m relaxing now while dinner cooks… well, as much relaxing as you can do while your’re having to go back to the stove.
Weather was practically warm compared to the last couple of weeks of temperatures in the 30’s. It must have been 50-something today, and I was absolutely craving a nice long hike.
Nope, I don’t even care that it would be muddy up on the trails. A long, strenuous hike is exactly what I needed and wanted today, but that will have to wait for a new pair of hiking boots. 🙂
Project Update and a Visit From A Ball of Fur
This evening was not super productive in regards to “the project”, but I DID kick my sewing machine into gear! YAY I WIN!
It seems that I had ONE little thing wrong with how I had my thread run from the spool down to the bobbing arm thing… once I fixed that, the thread stopped slipping off the the bobbing arm thing. Go me. Whoooo.
Earlier today I met the CUTEST ball of fur! I think her name was Sophie? She’s a mini-Maltese, and that is TINY. She’s tiny ball of fluff that won’t sit still and likes to use my long hair as a pull-toy. She also used my pen as a pull toy and tried to carry off a small pad of paper that was actually twice as large as she is. SO CUUUUUTE! If she’s at the office again tomorrow, I’ll get a picture… if she will hold still long enough.
See, I’m NOT Crazy!
So… remember the jellyfish cloud I mentioned in my earlier post tonight? WELL….
It so happens that my friend Karl Chavarria has a friend, Jim, who works with him in Downtown Portland, not terribly far from where I was at lunchtime today, and HE (Jim) took a picture of said cloud!
I think the cloud next to it looks sorta like a Metroid. Take a look at the JELLYFISH CLOUD!
More Sewing Machine Woes And A Few Other Tidbits
This post marks evening #2 of sewing machine problems – I thought I had it all figured out. Guess again!
I went back to “the project” thinking that a full day of not working on it might make all the difference in figuring out exactly what my darn sewing machine was doing, or not doing, as the case may be.
Yesterday evening, I realized that my thread kept slipping off of this metal arm thing that bobs up and down and that the tension must not be correct. This action kept resulting in the thread bunching up and feeding down underneath the panel directly under the needle, thus making a tangled mess. (I really should find out what all those parts are called)
So…. after a couple of times of this, plus a few other mishaps (sheesh, this was supposed to be an easy project compared to Sock Monkey!) I decided to call it quits for the evening. Fast forward to today…. I deduced that the tension problem must be caused by the bobbin somehow, perhaps because it didn’t have enough thread? VOILÁ! Problem solved!
Bobbin re-threaded and put back into place, threads ready to go, I started sewing. WRONG! Same bunching of thread. WHAT?! Okay…. un-tangle, check the tension, try again… same problem! Still not knowing what is wrong, I abandoned “the project” for yet another evening and ran to the solace of my computer. After a little look into the sewing machine manual perhaps it will become clear. (ha – perhaps I should have done that in the first place!)
Something non-sewing related would be the un-usual clouds I saw today… cirrus clouds, mostly. Cool and crisp are a couple of good adjectives for the weather today… it was also very sunny.
One of the clouds looked like, I kid you not, a jellyfish. I have no proof of said jelly fish because all I had with me was my iPhone and it was just too small of a cloud to show up well on an iPhone photo.
It’s on days like this that I kick myself for not hauling my heavy camera gear around with me everywhere. If I had my SLR handy, my lunch hour would have been filled with delightful picture snapping, but the camera remained at home, lonely in the solitude of my townhouse. Poor thing. I think it gets lonely when I don’t take it on outings.
It wasn’t until I went back inside from my lunch hour that I remembered my little Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, the ELPH. Bah. Silly Boo – it’s always in your purse. *sigh*
I may have opportunity in the next couple of days for some nice snowy pictures, and perhaps some spectacular (or perhaps less spectacular and more average) icy photos, as we are expecting a snow storm followed directly by freezing rain. Bad conditions for driving, excellent conditions for photography!
Until such time, I leave you with a small glimpse of “the project”…
Ooooo, what is this?!
Sewing And A Dash Of Frustration
Sewing was again the theme of the day, but this time all did not go as planned.
Numerous problems with my sewing machine made things very frustrating and resulted in me not finishing today’s project. I did end up correcting the machine problem, but lost the desire to continue with the work. Probably tomorrow night I will finish “the project”.
I’m not naming “the project” for fear that the intended recipient of said “project” will read this and have a surprise spoiled. Once it’s finished and shipped and I have confirmation that the recipient has received, then I’ll post a pic or two. 🙂
I ended up spending the last two hours watching The Scorpion King, which I did not watch when it was released. I wish that I had watched it with Chris because the two of us would have had good fun mocking this horrible movie. It’s not even good in a campy way… I do have to wonder if it was written with the intention of being humorous or tongue-in-cheek, but they failed miserably. Ah well… it still has the entertainment value of mockability.
Relaxing Day
It was nice to take a day to do crafty things.
I had a sock monkey body started earlier in the week, so today I sewed on all the extremities and such – I think he turned out rather cute despite his obvious flaws! I suppose that’s what gives him character.
The monkey liiiives!
Blogging Again
I used to blog all the time… every day, even several times in a day. I used my blog as a way to remember special moments, catalog ideas and sometimes just express creativity or the emotion of the moment.
During a not-so-happy period in my life, I lost the desire to blog, and with that diminished desire also faded a creative part of me that I thought I could never find again.
Fast forward a few years from that time and you will find me a much more happy, well-rounded individual with a renewed desire to be creative and expressive once again. Will I post anything personal here? Perhaps. Mostly I think I’ll record thoughts and opinions, with perhaps a bit of creative writing for public consumption, if I feel brave enough.
For now, I am making a commitment to myself to blog at least once a day, even if it’s an un-important and drab post about a menial task or a passing thought. I think sticking to this discipline may give me the boost I need to motivate myself toward a more productive and thoughtful blog perhaps.