I Wish

I've been thinking that a lot lately, those two little words, I wish. When I was a child, those were almost sacred words, to be used most judiciously, lest the wishes wouldn't come true. Now that I'm grown up (most of the time), I think I might want to start wishing for my desires and as many as possible.

Like, I wish we'd had these cute little cartoon graphics on sandwich baggies when I was a kid...



And I wish that every Western Gulf hurricane goes in just like Dolly...

...not that today's gonna be a walk in the park for my part of the world. Just look at that radar image, above. That's as of almost an hour ago, 5:30 a.m. See the Houston area and all the rain we are getting? It's going to be like that all day long and maybe all night. The Houston news this morning is already predicting definite street flooding for today, since Houston floods at the first sign of spit. Brownsville and Corpus are getting the hurricane, but you hide and watch, if any rain band training occurs, some areas around me will be impacted almost as badly.

There is some weird-ass "black hole" type meteorological explanation for it, but we often get pattern "grooves" like El Nino a few years back, where storm clouds travel over and then are caught up in. So, certain areas get 10x more rainfall than other areas just blocks away.



I felt the first outer bands of Dolly exactly at 3 p.m. yesterday. I was walking out the back door to go drop off some mail and a gust of wind almost pulled the door out of my hand. It was a dry very hot wind. The second I got into the car, it began to slant rain. It squalled the entire time I was travelling, and then died down the moment I pulled into the driveway. Talk about timing!

Now, as the sun is coming up, I have been up all night and am on a naturally-wired Hurricane high, even though the dang storm is going in 300 miles to my South. It never fails. I've been this way (my "hurricane high") for every storm I've lived through since my first in 1961. I'll collapse later on and sleep, no worries, but for now, I'll just be grateful that in my alert state I've decided that I want to blog, LOL.

So, I also wish I can get back into regular blogging again. It's really tough when you're out of the habit.

Hm, I wish I could continue to create like I've been recently. I'm still working on creating organization more than anything else, but I am pushing myself to do my little art like daily exercise. Sometimes I finish in a day, sometimes in 3...




The first atc with the little boy was one that Tina liked on my Flickr. Thanks for the comment, Tina! And Reba likes the Bird of Pair-a-Dice (LOL, you know how I like my puns, thank you, Reba). I made the backgrounds for all of them: 2 of them with my new crayon pastels, distress ink sponging on one, and acrylic paints on one.

As for my organizing, my little homemade Clip-It Rack is growing and filling in...



Remember the 3-ring binder spine label I made, and said I'd probably have to change it out once I found a better use for the binder? Well, haha. It happened. I just turned the label over and made a new one on the back side. Here it is:



Then, I finally found a great yahoo group to join for trading and swapping 4x6 APC's (altered post cards). That made it necessary to create a template for this new size of art, so I worked one up (got a little silly, too):





I bought one of those templates for my ATC's at European Papers, and I like it so much, I tried to replicate the idea...really helps me visualize how an image will look on smaller-sized art.

And now, since I am seeing little lightning pops and hearing the rumbling of thunder, I'll close before we get any power interrupts, with a birthday photo of the most gorgeous young woman:



I am continually amazed I gave birth to this girl. Isn't she WOW to the 20th degree? Even though summer semester college algebra here at the local junior college is currently eating her lunch. Mega-homework and killer quizzes for a subject she doesn't really like and probably won't use much in advertising as a copywriter. 57 on the first quiz, yup, that's my Missy, LOL. I'm smelling a C, hopefully. Which is fine cuz the grade doesn't count, only the credit earned, if she passes. If she doesn't, she just tries again next summer. Since her aptitude in math is plenty high, having to take it a second time should be motivation enough to pass...

Happy Earth Day!

In fact, the next few days contain Earth Day celebrations globally, so perhaps it's Earth week, LOL. And when I Googled for info, I saw a couple of celebrations that were on Saturday, the 18th, but that might have been for the sake of weekday workers who wanted to plants trees or some other day-long venture.

Those of you who've been reading my blog for a year or more know I like to make something to honor this day that incorporates the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle theme. This year I wanted to add bestowing an award to someone special who is environmentally aware and pushes for it on their blog more than anyone else I know.

The choice for me was easy. I immediately thought of my friend Vicki Cook, who never fails to commemorate days of action on her blog, whether it be to celebrate the beauty of trees, to plant flowers, install a bird feeder, or coax new birdie visitors with a nesting house.

Vicki, I salute you for being a 2008 Earth Angel and all around Nature Girl Extraordinaire! Here's your award, for displaying on your blog sidebar (I hope!):


Ok, so on to my Earth Day creation. I wanted to make Vicki a piece of hanging art-iness, and I wanted to include my ATC "Patchwork Earth" that I'd made weeks ago, because I'd originally made it with Earth Day in mind. Although I'd been excited about making this ATC from little slivers of scrap paper to look like a quilt, I wasn't 100% happy with it when I finished it. It was missing something.

So, I laid it aside and forgot about it for a while, hoping and knowing deep down that I'd come up with something to make it more acceptable to my tastes. Picking it back up recently, I decided to do the back with a map of the world stamped image (one of those background stamps from a previous post that I mounted cling cushion on and created storage in the VHS tape cases). I then let it sit some more and thought about adding some rhinestones and jewels and maybe some little stamped cut-out birdies to finish that side.

Turning to the front of the CD, I decided to go over the red gel pen with black, blue and green, thereby toning the red down some. That helped. And, I coated the entire top with my favorite Diamond Glaze, which always makes things look better. I also filled in the bottlecap earth with some Glaze, and then I applied some Crystal Stickles to the inside perimeter. Now, I was getting happy with this little card.

Next, how to hang it? Well, I killed two birds with one stone by using an old CD -- I was able to recycle, plus I'd be able to get out my alcohol inks and paint like I'd been wanting to. That done, I went looking for other elements I could add that were sitting around waiting to be re-used. I had some skinny green satin ribbon that I'd looked at for a few months on my creating desk, so I grabbed it and curling-ironed it straight, then stitched it through holes I'd punched with my Cropadile. Then, I found some beads that were the perfect colors and started stringing two tails on the bottom. (And I might add a couple of "arms" on the side.
I think those beads are so pretty, like porcelain or that turquoise kitchen ware from California in the 1940's (with the drink pitchers that look like a tire-shape with a spout and a handle?) Uh, yeah, obviously, I don't collect dishware, right? ROFL!

Anyway, I'm terribly later than I wanted to be with this post, because nothing went anywhere near a timetable today. So, I'll close with a cool thingy you can make to funnel rain water from your gutter to a rain barrel. And, it hangs, too!You can then re-use the water for feeding and watering plants and birds. You'll find instructions here, courtesy of Lowes.

Big Red Scores Again!

Good morning. Well, today my money assignment is to watch MSNBC's key political shows and list all the advertisers. Seems there are quite a lot of folks who would like to write these companies...but let me save it for the paycheck and just say "I told you so" and get on to the art...

It may be clouding up outside my window, the economy may be heading into the nearest ditch, and the Democratic National Committee may be writing its own suicide note, but HEY! I hung onto my Big Red Sizzix instead of chucking it when I bought a Big Shot, and I am so avenged cuz I discovered that I can smash bottlecaps with it!


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The 3 photos above show how I did it. First, the right sandwich recipe: from bottom to top, I stacked 2 white platforms, 1 sheet of chipboard (paper pad backing), and then 2 black Sizzlets adapters. I laid the bottlecap with the inside of it up, and I made sure that the Sizzix system converter was OFF the machine. And the last photo shows the bottlecap before and after. Sweet!

I was so jazzed I grabbed my old-school Crop A Dile (it was easier to reach for than my Big Bite) to see if I could punch a hole in my bottlecap, and yes, we can (as they say in yadayada-bama land). This further excited me to the point where I quickly used a couple of smashed n punched b-caps to secure some woven ribbon onto my card box for a handle that I've been meaning to make for forever.

"Patchwork Earth" atc


"Sunflower" atc

Of course I had to make some art with my smashed caps, right? So, here are 2 of the atc's I created.

Now, why would I suddenly start using bottlecaps? (You know I'm Old-School 24/7, but still...). I should fess up: I've been really into the challenges at Bringing It Back blog. It's been fun to re-visit even more of my vast giganta scrap-stash than I've thought to use. I mean, the bottlecaps that have been sitting in my stash drawer for oh, about 2-3 years kinda frightened me. But the challenges give me courage to just experiment and play (I mean, what's the downside? This stuff is so old that if I ruined it, no loss at all. And if I don't and actually make something I like, that rocks.) And I don't have to worry about stupid peer pressure...working with materials in the BTDT category...because my "cover" is the challenge! So, hey, join us if it interests you.

Now, onto the other flowers before I get to the dirt. Been reading. A Book. Don't faint now. I do this from time to time, it's just that my tastes run towards historical and political, not Oprah-bot best sellers, so I rarely even mention them. But I want to mention 2 of them today. The one I'm reading is


Valerie Bertinelli's Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time.
It's a great read! Highly recommended, if for nothing more than all the dirt on her and Eddie. Which is pretty much why I'm reading it. I dunno though. She is brutally honest and just a nice, level-headed girl. I've always liked her and I always will. You can read a little of it at the link I provided and see for yourself.

The other book is one I ordered today:

Adam Shepard's Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream
I should receive this one Monday and cannot wait. It's brand new and I saw Adam interviewed on CNN. He basically took $25, his college degree and the clothes on his back and hit the road to find the American Dream by trying to build a life from scratch, to see if it could still be done. Everyone and thing in his life up til then had indicated to him that life cost so much to live that he might never be able to. He found out that old ways are still possible. It just takes saying no to all the spending, and in the bargain you learn and receive so, so much more.

Not only does that sound like my kinda story, but I want them to be Missy's, too. I plan on giving her both of these after I am through with them. Lots of great, great lessons. I probably shortchanged Valerie's book greatly, because it's biggest impact is in her learning to rely on and believe in herself and in not being tricked into not seeing yourself clearly.

Oh, been meaning to let you all know, I am continuing the RAK'ing, but I decided to do it privately. No deadlines, and from the heart. I've already contacted my next batch and totally aim to continue it cuz it makes me feel good and I want to give back. But I don't want to make a fuss over it, like it's a competition and that's how it was feeling to me. I am also preparing a box of handmade cards to send to soldiers, Mother's and Father's Day cards. It really makes me feel like I am making some little difference.

You know, we don't need any outside force or source to "give" us change and hope. It's within each one of us and only we ourselves can produce it. I am blessed to have known that my entire life, as I see an awful lot of younger people who have no clue of this truth.

Wearing of the Green

Hope everyone had a great day today, and nobody got pinched. I didn't. I wore my green. Here are the rest of my Irish creations before we swing into Spring and Easter.

First, some cards:
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And, some ATC's:
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I actually made somewhat of a dent in some of my supplies categories, as in, out of ten drawers of green embellies (flowers, brads, eyelets) I probably used up half of one drawer, LOL. Yeah, ok, not fast progress, but being that anyone knowledgeable about our craft would take one look at my stash and join my Hubs in asking when is my store opening..... I tried. Gotta keep on pluggin", square inch by square inch, LOL.

And, the reader who gets used to that many art candies being shown in one day, week, etc., is on the path to a letdown. Had I posted on Saturday and Sunday as was my gameplan, I would have been able to show a few a day. Which makes me realize at this moment, I could have shown some of them during this week, strung it out. Oh well, too lazy to change that now.

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I've been quite busy at my money-making chores. The tax returns around here have heated themselves up and I must attend to them. And, I got a paying job writing for a political blog. You guessed it, ghost writing again. I must be destined to never seeing my name in lights. And, it doesn't pay much, but hey, I'm doing what I enjoy.

So, that's why I haven't been talking about that subject here. I also applied to be part of the creative team at a new blog aimed at women my age and older, and I really hope I get to be a part of that.

I can tell you that I realize and am pretty accepting of the fact that Obama will be the nominee. Accepting and approving being two different things. Hubs and I both have spent a good deal of time finding our beliefs and opinions based on the circumstances, and I've really learned a lot about how I really feel and how much (or little) my so-called beliefs really fit me. (Same with Hubs).

We discovered that we are thoroughly disgusted with the Democratic party and what it has morphed into. This is based in part on what we experienced at our primary, how skewed the rules have become. It's obvious to both of us that abandoning the winner-takes-all tradition has been disastrous, as well as making policies that punitively disenfranchise voters, particularly the one state that the GOP used to disenfranchise our voters in 2000. Even the super delegates is a ridiculous manipulation. Everything is a manipulation. To the point of smothering the voice of the people through their vote. And we lay this at Howard Dean's feet. He is an awful chairman. We should have known, too, because he was such a divider back in 2004, a fringe sitter who got his 15 minutes.

And, I have to shake my head in amazement at this: the thing that sent Hubs into orbit was the way that Geraldine Ferraro's comments were just blanketly dismissed as racist. He's one of those white guy swing voters who lost out on good employment opps back in the 1980's Reagan Recession because blacks had to be hired first. After seeing Hubs' visceral reaction, I've no doubt there are going to be other white men remembering those similar times and they are not going to be saying, oh it was for the best. Noooo. I think there is something in those Rev. Wright tapes (coming out the end of the same week) that also gels this reaction.

It will be very interesting to see how it affects Obama. I heard that one poll from this weekend had him 17 points down in his favorability ratings. Whoa. Like I said, we will see. Hubs and I know we will be voting for McCain in November if Obama is the nominee, and for all Dems on the rest of the ballot, in hopes of electing a weakened McCain, one who will be forced into having to compromise. If Dems control Congress, McCain will be a good compromiser and it should be fine. We don't want change, we want specifics and security.

Edited to Add: Correction - we have nothing against change, but we don't want change for change's sake without specifics. Further, we have no faith that it'll work because we've seen no proof for placing our faith in his hands, aside from good speeches. God and loved ones are the only ones we give leaps of faith to.

Anyway, that's just a little "I digress". I have to save my ideas for when I'm on the clock, LOL. You can imagine that this is huge amount of new revelation for me, but I see now I've been loyal to something that is not there anymore. I certainly never saw this coming, but it sure helps calm the political despair I've been feeling the last several weeks.

Poppin' in to update

Feels like I been away from here for a week or so, but I think I posted Friday. Aren't these pretty roses? Hubs bought them for me as a birthday week pretty to enjoy. I thought that was very sweet, but it could also be a pre-emptive olive branch since he is off work all week and that means home all the time. :-(

And here is Missy's newest tattoo. Hubs did not even bat an eyelash on this one. I never thought that would happen:

We are fine. The vigil/rosary Friday night and the Saturday morning funeral went well, but it was more emotionally exhausting than I aniticipated. I practically bolted for home the first chance I got. (We took separate vehicles at my suggestion.) It felt so good to just put jammies on and crash, in the middle of a sunny afternoon.

And I am still not over it. The only thing I remember about Saturday night was enjoying SNL more than a human should. I've been waiting for months for them to put the political parodies on the other foot, and I finally got my wish. The skit about the Dems' debate was just hilarious. They totally nailed the media's Obama hard-on, IMO. And Tina Fey's News Update commentary was perfect. Perfect! I did sleep well.

Sunday went by in a quick blur, although I made sure I did my annual viewing of the Oscars. I stayed engaged for the first hour or so, then went back to concentrating on my tiny little collages.

I wish I had some wonderfully cheerful humor to sprinkle, but I can only think about taking some non-existent vacation somewhere away from here, so I make do with escaping into my art (which is what I've been doing). The feeling of a bleak future is back haunting the rear of my head, but I'll deal. Always have. My blog, though, right? So I'm sharing the bad with the good.

I used to believe in presenting only love,love,love on my blog. Do you read any blogs where the blogger never has a bad day or an impure thought? Everything all the time is cheerful and perky? My goodness, that is so fake to me. Nobody has a life like that. If I am going to invest time and effort in reading a blog, I want the blogger to keep it real. I don't want to drown in gossipy minutia, but I don't mind at all floating on it, LOL.

Anyway, this week is going to be unexpected, as far as being planned out. Hubs is off work until Sunday, and I don't really know what if anything to expect in the way of helping out his mom. I have two atc swaps I need to mail off, and I am only halfway through with them. I need to make 10: 4 for one swap where we have to use a charm from the store that owns the yahoo group the swap is at, and 6 in a swap on my other yahoo group where the theme is St/ Pattys/Easter. Here is a favorite of the ones that I've made so far. It's for the latter group:



These are literally taking me forever! Gosh! That is probably causing me my frustration with Life in general. Hate it like a cat hates a mouse when my art doesn't flow. I'm having trouble coming up with different ideas, since I like to make each one different. No wonder some people make entire batches of identical atc's. At least they don't have to think much after getting them going.

I will say this, though. I am very proud of myself for sticking to my original goals here: using my stash up and doing the holiday swaps to collect cards for my tree. This often means my cards are not the hippest or most intricately beautiful, and whenever I get into doing these, that's a frustration. It's tough using stash up and manage to get a fresh, meaningful card made.

Well, off to lay down a bit. I'm feeling really bad gastrically. All of that funeral food from well-wishers doesn't sit right with my innerds. And let's not even bring up how risky it is to eat pot luck.

My Gosh, just heard Ralph Nader say on CNN that we might need a Jeffersonian revolution. That man won't be happy until we have one, I suppose. I still cannot believe he has decided to run again. And I'll just leave that there, cuz I'm really getting drowsy (medication for the gastritis).
Until tomorrow, I'll answer the question I've gotten about where did I buy my sandals from the other day?
Shoe Mall. Look up the shoes by their names (Adidas and Privos). Hope that helps!

Rubbed the right way, maybe...

This weekend, I ended up playing a bunch with different ways I could use those rub-ons that have appeared to have "gone bad". On this atc above, I had some success rubbing them onto acetate. I had some acetate sheets (transparency sheets) from back when I first got into rubber stamping, so I pulled some out and cut out some atc-sized rectangles.

This atc, "Lovey Dovey Danger", has an entire sheet of acetate on top of the atc. (you can see the glue dots at the corners if you look real close.) Onto the print-wrapped base, I rubbed on the 'Lovey Dovey' text, as well as the 'guaranteed' oval at the bottom. Then, onto the acetate, I rubbed the boy skeleton, the 'danger' text and the skull hand bones.

I could see right off that a nonporous and slightly sticky-feeling surface is one that rub-ons like best. Porous paper and vellum, not the best for a dying rub-on. So, that was good to know. Then, I played even more by brushing Diamond Glaze onto the back of the rub-on sheet itself, letting it dry, then cutting out a shape. Here's an atc I made using that trick: What I discovered when I did that, was that if I cut the shape out leaving an thin outline around it, the top layer of the rub-on sheet came off and I was left with a very thin but sturdy rub-on that I could peel away from its sheet and apply to my project.

So, I'd say that is the secret to salvaging "bad" rub-ons, if one wanted to. Brush a layer of Diamond Glaze onto the back of the rub-on sheet, let dry, then cut around the rub-on shape you want to use, and then let the top separate off to get a very thin sticker of your rub-on. You'll still need to brush on a top layer of Diamond Glaze once you have applied the rub-on, but this worked great. No breaks in the rub-on this way.

Well, now that I've solved this, what's next, world peace? LOL

Linda tagged me the other day and I need to do that tag quiz. So, here it is:

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C: At the end of the post, the player then tag 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 years ago: I was 11 years married, Missy was 10, I was treasurer of the PTO at Missy's elementary school and a board member of her softball league, I had a bustling and growing tax and accounting biz, and we would be moving into a new home later in the summer while fixing up the old one..

Things on my to-do list today: I only keep 3 things on that list (and a long "When I Get to it" list on the side). Today's 3 things are: 1.shower 2.post office 3.bank deposit

What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: provide Missy her dream college career, let Hubs retire immediately & travel to determine where we want to relocate to (based on our conversation yesterday, it may not be America).

3 of my bad habits:

3 places I have lived: Arkansas, Texas, Texas

5 jobs that I have had: library aide, accountant, teacher

5 Things people don't know about me: geez, I don't know that there are 5 things left LOL... 1. I almost drowned in a church camp swimming pool when I was 3; 2. My throat closes up when I eat shrimp, but I still eat it; 3. I like brussel sprouts; 4. I don't like corned beef; 5. I prefer the taste of diet coke to coke now.

I'm going to tag: Lida, Kim L, and KimKT.

Baby Steps All Around

Here's a future project. Hopefully, by the end of the year, they might get altered, LOL.

Well, overall Thursday was a bit better than Wednesday for me. I still have this bug, and I'm very depleted and tired but I really believe the intermittent nausea, cramps, etcetera, is slowing up. Not getting them quite as often. I'm thinking a couple more days and I might be feeling better. I called my doctor's office yesterday to ask if anything like this was going around, and there is an intestinal virus/flu making the rounds. Sounds like this might be that. I'll just continue to take it easy since there is little else one can do for that.

Here and there, I've been fiddling with my Goth ATC's, and applying thin multiple coats of Diamond Glaze over my rub-ons is doing the trick. So is heating the rubon for a few seconds with a hair dryer before applying them. I've also been applying them to vellum and since that is less porous than paper, I believe that helps. So, I contnue to have fun with those.

I'd sent the swap hostess the photo of them when I emailed her to drop out. She wrote back asking me to stay in it if I could and she would give me more time, because she loves my ATC's and they are exactly what she was hoping to receive. So, I'm back in the swap, I think, if I continue to feel well enough to sit long enough to do some work. We will see.

One reason I like doing this kind of crafting is because I'm learning a lot by trying different things out on the ATC's. I have different inks and it helps to know which ones dry faster and more permanently, which ones stay wet longer and can be embossed, etc. etc. I used some copper Brilliance ink to edge some vellum, and it really dried well. OTOH, the Versafine I used to edge another ATC took forever to dry, but I'd really globbed it on there, too.

Seems like I get to experiment more than when I do greeting cards, and although it doesn't have to be that way, that's the way it usually turns out. Anyway, I can take baby steps toward learning more about techniques, as well as getting experience so maybe I'll remember how to do them the next time...

weekend in a glaze

note: my fingers are all puffed out and aching so no caps for awhile...

my mom and i share a weird trait: we both sort of mangle certain words. she does it by mispronouncing them (kay-sette for cassette, woke for wok);I do it by merging two words about the same thing

the latest for-instance is the word glaze. you've heard, 'she walked around in a daze', right? and 'haze', as in 'hazy'. ok, then take it to 'laze', as in lazy. and finally, i must picture something coated on it like a glaze, i dunno. anyway, instead of haze or daze, i always say glaze. hence, my blog entry title. this weekend just went by in a glaze. lol

okay, can't be explained. not well, anyway.

i actually think i forgot to upload something here i did like 6 months ago, so i need to do it now, since i discovered it about a month ago and thought i'd uploaded it then...but i didn't. gosh, my mind is in a glaze, too. {sadly, it's this way most days, i just do a bang-up job of hiding it. lol}
this was done for round robin tag book, and i like it because it's the first time i've ever used an original poem of mine in my art. i really wanted to do a nice page for the recipient. never heard a who, what, when, where or why from them either. what i get for trying, i guess.
i'm reminded of something an art teacher in college said - 'never make art for anyone else. make it always just for yourself.'

my new motto.

It's In The Mail

Hey. How are you? I'm good. Late and Pissed, but good.


Before I get into my vent as to why I'm pissed, here is my Art-Every-Day for today, 11/5. Another box for another niece (I have 4 of them, just to warn you.)

Okay, for the vent: I just got through placing an order with an online scrapping site (who shall remain nameless for 24 hours, as I give them a chance to right this wrong before dissing them to the world). They put out a free shipping promo and their shopping cart was unable to account for it.

Why do store owner people do that? Don't they realize the blood pressure levels that rise? What ever happened to "a happy customer is a return customer" or "the customer comes first"?

Thing is, this was my first order with this site. I first tried to check out Saturday when the cart kept adding ten bucks of shipping in. I was able to save my cart, and I promptly emailed them to explain and ask for assistance.

Heard from them late today. They sent instructs on what to do to coax the cart to comply. (Say, what?) Oh, brother. Well, I wanted some of that stuff bad, so I did what they said.

I even went the extra mile, deleting cookies, restarting the computer, the whole nine yards. I was beginning to get a migraine and that's not good! Every time I went in Checkout, there was that shipping charge added in.

Finally, I think I just snapped, because I thought, well, I'll just pay with paypal and they can issue me a paypal credit. I was also beginning to get nervous that maybe some of the stuff would be out of stock if I waited. So, I checked out.

Now, I'm waiting to see if they will do the honorable thing and issue me the credit, or if that email promo was a scam, or if all they will do is issue me a store credit. The reason I chose to use paypal is that I'll at least have that avenue to complain to if I'm not compensated fairly. And I did save the promo email.

The site looks normal. Like it's been there a while, and their folder in my email prog has a welcome email from them from March which is when I must have signed up for their newsletter.

I probably should be less irritated about it, but it's really just fear on my part that I'm going to get ripped off. And that might be over-reacting, but honestly, it's also a great example of what goes through a customer's mind and why stores don't get return business when everything else was good to go. I'm hoping it's just stupid programming and techno-clueless ownership. Still, don't force the customer to have to suffer because of either of those. All I'm sayin.....

Now, as to why I'm real late posting this: I actually spent the entire day as if I did not have a blog. Weird, huh? I worked on stuff I needed to do all day long. In the very very back of my mind, the word "blog" did sit, waiting a little too patiently for me to get to her. (Yes, if my thoughts had a gender, they'd be female.)

***Weather Alert on the news right now: Dropping temps tonight! Jacket needed tomorrow....HERE! 39 in Amarillo right now.***

Today (though not in this order), I cooked King Ranch Chicken (recipe tomorrow with photos, ok?), I created stuff, I cleaned in the breakfast nook part of our kitchen (the nook where the table is), paid some bills, did some accounting work-work, and then I did some organizing on my Google Reader subscriptions (I about gasped when I noticed I have close 1,000 of them -- eegads, huh?).

Something else I did was keep the radio on all day instead of the TV, and I have to say that I get lost in what I'm doing more with muzak in the background. This is good and bad. Good, meaning more enjoyable. Bad, meaning less control on time management. When I did turn on the TV to watch Heroes and Journeyman as is my usual schedule, the sound sort of assaulted my ears. Whoa. It was refreshing to not have that TV on all the time.

And now I'm sleepy and still need to shower, so I'll close with something that happened this morning. My friend Vanny, who works by day as an office manager (she's actually a VP but I never call her that lest her head grow to the size of a watermelon, LOL -- you hear that, Vanny?), calls me this morning from her office. She does this a few times a week, but today she was really agitated. She starts in with "Can you believe?" A new girl who works for her called in to take a sick day because she had gotten a "beaver wax" (you can figure out what that is, right?) Saturday morning and it was already stubbly! OMG, I LMAO'd just to think someone would tell their boss that so nonchalantly. Yeah, she did, and said it would just be too painful to get out of bed, so...

Well, you really have to know Vanny, but she was quick to trot on this and told the girl (she's newly hired, remember) she was sympathetic but she would have to connect her to the big boss cuz he had to approve it because everyone was needed at work due to some kind of company files problem. So, the girl was weirded out, but Vanny cut her off and transferred her, telling her boss to just play along. A few minutes later he walks into her office and tells her the girl told him she was sick with a rash and couldn't come in, and then was like, come on, fess up, why in hell did you give her to me? (They're good friends and have worked together for over 20 years.) Vanny gave him the 411, and they were both like, what an idiot we hired. And Vanny asked Jim what would he have done if the girl had repeated the 'real' story to him? Yep, she proceeded to rib him good, and he in turn kept answering that he'd have fired both their butts. She pops back that she just wants to know, is that a legitimate excuse in the company manual for a work absence or not, because she doesn't hunt beaver so she doesn't know? Back and forth. Back and forth. That one will get tease-worthy action for months. I've have margaritas with both of them before, so I could just visualize the conversation perfectly.

I'm tellin' ya, Vanny does not let go once she has sunk her teeth in, but I love her. She's about the closest to a sister I have, outside of my closest and oldest friend Cindy.

Well, let me get off of here while it's still November 5th. Have a great Tuesday, everybody!

Friday's Here

My Art Every Day project for today is a cute little 'kinda' matching money box for my niece, to go with that Disney card. This is where I'll put her cash gift. That way she has 2 presents to go along with a book (I buy every niece and nephew one for Christmas just on general principles), cuz these are good for rings and 7-y-o-girl things. Polly Pockety things. Everyone needs a stash box, no matter how young or old, right?

I started about 8 of these almost 2 years ago, in addition to several that I made for Missy's friends in dance team. I got into a zone with my paints and didn't want to quit. The ones that didn't get finished were at least covered with color and could hang, waiting to be embellished. As happens a lot around here at Casa Miguel, inspiration hits me when it's ready to. I needed a little box to decorate and thought, now's the time to finish some of those that I'd started. Gotta love it, no expiration dates. That's how I roll, what can I say? LOL

In other news, I'm feeling calmer now, just about back to my status-quo. I spent last night blog-commenting, researching photo printers, watching some fave TV shows (Earl, The Office, Mad Men reruns), and a little guilty patterned paper shopping pleasure of pretty new stuff, believe it or not. (I know, I'm very bad, but I wanted it, and I'll blog about that this weekend and show what I got, maybe).

BTW, Mad Men continues its first season reruns every Thursday at 10 p.m. EST on AMC if you are interested in catching it. I myself became completely hooked on it, but was incredibly bored by the first episode and nearly didn't give it another chance. So, yes, you missed that episode but it might bode well that you did! You didn't miss anything you can't learn by starting with episode #2 on Nov. 8. LOL Let me just say, except for the Damages season finale (which was par excellence every second), Mad Men's finale was the best show I've seen in a while. Definitely grew on me....my favorite Don Draper quote: "It's not a viewer. It's a carrousel." (Ya kinda have to watch it to understand...)

Anyway, Hubs' attempt to install our new dishwasher went bust, mainly because he was in one of his moods and did not want to do it at all. I see now that this contributed to my no-good-terrible-dayness as much as anything else, by the way. {eyeroll} He did get the old one out and I managed to get all the gunk off the floor of the cut-out, and so Jose the install guy is here today.

There's also a another glitch: the front of the new dishwasher had a dent in it that neither I nor Hubs saw. The install guy pointed it out, what a guy! and suggested that he install this one, then come back with a pristine one and swap it out once they get another one (a few days, as it has to come from another store because my local Lowes is all sold out of this model now). The obvious fix, a new front panel, was not an option on this model.

So, the dishwasher saga continues, except that I have one to use and try out until my undamaged one comes. And, Jose the install guy is very nice, so I'll get to have him visit again. So sad when you look forward to having the install guy visit, huh? LOL

Well, today's blog entry is being posted earlier than yesterday's, but I would like to shoot for posting each day's entry before I go to bed the night before. I'll keep trying to shave off time and hope for the best. Thanks for reading and commenting, guys, you totally rawk!