Try, Try Again

Thanks to all of your comments, I now know that I'm not alone in my frustration with Blogger f***ing up my last post. That thought is somewhat comforting, even if it doesn't fix anything. Maybe it's a sign that I spend too much time on one post. I'll stop analyzing and just move on.

First, here's how I spent some of my free Friday hours.

I know! I resurrected something from the WIP drawer (ok, ok, one of my WIP drawers) and finished it. Yay me! Exercising extreme self-control, I chose Small Sampler, 3rd in a Series, by Ewe & Eye & Friends. I can remember charting this one way back in the olden days, so it's kind of an old friend. I stitched all but the lazy daisy leaves and sheep wool way back in 2004! So why did I wait five years to finish it? Sadly, that's probably a question for a trained mental health professional, and there's no use discussing it here.

Anyway, 3rd Small Sampler is stitched as kitted with Anchor floss on 40-count Sandstone, but I changed the stitches for the sheep wool from Kam's coils (pains in the ass, IMHO) to large, loose French knots. Because of Murphy's Law of Changing Kitted Stitches, I ran out of floss, and it was one of the few colors not in my stash. That issue caused two things to happen: 1) blog reading/commenting sucked up some of my morning, and 2) I had to go to the LNS and buy other things along with the floss. So it turned out rather well!

For those of you keeping score, I returned to Shores Block 3 on Saturday. I'm making rather slow progress, and I'll have a pic for you next time. I'm gonna have to hold the Broncos partially responsible for my lack of progress. Their games have been so unexpectedly exciting that I find myself sitting in my chair with my needle in the air. Sometimes I even have to jump out of the chair and holler. All of that fan action tends to distract me from my stitching! That's my story, anyway, and I'm sticking to it.

My TUSAL picture for the month was technically on time, because it was in the post lost in internet space. I was so proud of myself for doing something on time! Take a look at all those perle cotton orts from Reed's Stocking. They take up a little space. huh?

I was at Mom and Dad's a couple of times over the weekend, and look who's been hanging around over there!

These turkeys have absolutely no idea how determined my dad (alias, Mr Gun) is to remove them from the premises. The abundance of droppings they've left on Dad's wooden deck and paved surfaces could eventually motivate him to use extreme measures. So far, he's only used the leaf blower and pellet gun, but he owns quite an arsenal. I'm a little worried that one of these birds is gonna end up on my Thanksgiving plate. Before I shooed them out of harm's way, I pulled out my phone camera to get a shot (so to speak).

A few of you have been kind enough to ask (via comments and emails) about Mom. I decided back in June that I was going to try to give only good news, especially since Mom reads here from time to time. Sadly, there hasn't been much good news to report. Mom's been pretty sick (dizzy, weak, feeling generally shitty) for more than a month. After her last scan received less-than-shining reviews from the docs, they decided that they'd gotten all the good they could from the first chemo recipe, and they gave her a month off. She's on a new chemo recipe now, and it's much harder on her. Dad's taking care of Mom, and the rest of us are trying to help, and we're all hoping that this new recipe does some good work. If you have any prayers/good words/positive thoughts left in your hearts, we'd very much appreciate you sending them Mom's way. I know for certain that she'd welcome the help.

Hope you're all having a good week. Tomorrow it'll be half over! Make some fun.