W00t!!!

The Boy and I will be going to see Bon Jovi in CT in March. Got my tickets and my hotel reservations all set.



AND I'm fairly sure they will be coming to Boston in the summer, too.




woohoo!!!!

*sigh*

I've misplaced my ATM card again.


This just isn't my best week ever.


EDIT: I think I lost it for good this time. It's not in ANY of my pants. :( I had to admit defeat and call the bank today to have it put on hold until they can send me a new one.

Well....DUH!!

Nathan Fillion sexier than Matt Damon.

I'm such a dumb-ass

The original title for this post was going to be "Oh, crap", but things panned out fine.

Ran out to do errands today: bank (ATM) to deposit some checks, and grocery shopping. Got to the bank, and couldn't find my ATM card. Damn. I searched through my wallet (several times), my purse, my car, my pockets (several times). Tried to think where I used it last. Gas station? Friday? Crap. Well, the bank itself is closed, and I can't use the ATM without my card. Or buy groceries for that matter. Fuck. Oh, yeah, my mom gave me some cash over Thanksgiving. Plenty to buy groceries with, anyway. Cool. So while I'm shopping, I'm thinking about what I'll need to do if the card is lost. Maybe I left it in my jeans pocket when I pumped gas. I know I already checked the pockets (I'm wearing the same jeans, and I haven't washed them. Shoot me.) but maybe I emptied the pockets when I got home the other day. When I get home I'll have to check EVERYWHERE. And check my account online to make sure there aren't any funny transactions. And then if I can't find it, I'll have to call the bank and get it canceled. Which stinks because I do a lot of my online shopping with it, and if it gets canceled it might screw up some pending transactions. Crap. Finished shopping, came home. Took everything in the purse out to search. No dice. Checked my pockets for the tenth time. Checked my coat pockets. Checked every horizontal surface I could think of. Marvel at how I expect to find ANYTHING in this mess, dummy. Checked my account online. No transactions besides mine. That's good. Maybe I lost it at the gas station? Spent 5 minutes trying to find the phone# to the gas station on the web. Couldn't find it. Went over it all in my head again. Checked my pockets again. WAIT!!!! It wasn't Friday, it was Wednesday! See, work was closed on Thursday and Friday, so the last day I worked and the day I put gas in my car was Wednesday! And because it was Wednesday, I was wearing my dress pants, not my jeans! Run to the bedroom where my dress pants are draped over the drying rack, and there's my card!

Phew.

Dumbass.


Oh, and here's the cat 'helping' me take pictures of bracelets:

(The pix are crap because I had the camera on macro.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

My sister sent me this.

Funniest. Thing. Ever.

As God is my witness...

I thought turkeys could fly!



HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hairsticks, part II

My first attempt at hairsticks didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. As I tried out a new pair (not the ones for sale -- I obviously won't sell the ones that I put in my own hair) a couple weeks ago, the wood snapped. [eyeroll] Well, I certainly can't sell hairsticks that are going to break on the wearer, can I? And I was actually never been happy with the color or shape of them (too wide on one end, too pointed on the other). But they were the ONLY wooden, prestained, predrilled hairsticks I could find to purchase. So I guess it's best they didn't work out.

I spent the next week scouring the internet for Something Else To Make Hairsticks Out Of. I was not keen on the idea of wooden dowels, which I would have to cut, shape, sand, stain, and lacquer myself. Waaaaaay too much work for me. Chopsticks were another idea, but it proved very difficult - or impossible - to find some that were the right color, and round instead of squared, and not grooved on the ends. My next idea was bamboo knitting needles. I thought of this one at work and got pretty excited about it, and rushed to the craft store on the way home from work to buy a pair and try them. They did make great hairsticks: easy prep work, pre-finished, and the right shape; but they were too light in color, and too expensive for me to stock up and make multiple pairs. I was out of ideas at this point, so I decided to let the matter drop for a few days and see what happened.

A few days later while I was in Walmart, I stopped at their craft section to check out their knitting needles. Eureka! Here were strong, smooth, bamboo needles, but darker than the ones at the craft store, and half the price! PERFECT solution! I bought up ALL their size 10 needles, and then ran to the other Walmart near me, and snatched up all their size 10 and 10.5 needles. (I do apologize to anyone in this area who may have wanted to run by Walmart and purchase some bamboo needles -- they're now sold out.)

I got six new pair made. Yesterday I FINALLY took new pictures, and today I cropped them and put them up in my Ebay and Etsy stores. Here are a few of them:

I'm Bill Pardy

Which Nathan Fillion CHARACTER Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Bill Pardy The Nathan Fillion character that you most identify with is Bill Pardy from "SLiTHER". Who Is Bill Pardy? Bill Pardy has unusually large BMs. You saved the world from an alien invasion, you got the girl, and now you're just waiting for your talking Bill Pardy action figure. Oh, and you saved Kylie from a deer. Bill Pardy 56% Captain Malcolm Reynolds 48% Dr. Pomatter 48% Abraham Dale 32% Caleb 0%

I knew I was Bill Pardy!

EDIT: The bonus reel, "Who is Bill Pardy?", from Slither.

Busy, busy, busy

I am sooooo busy at work today. It's just crazy.
This morning I made hand turkeys out of construction paper and hung them from the ceiling of our cube.
Then there was a luncheon for whatever their cause of the week is, so we sat around and chatted.
Then I just made a new wallpaper for my pc:


Yummy, yes?

The good news is: I don't have carpal tunnel syndrome

Had my nerve conduction test today, and I passed with flying colors. Though it's really not so much fun at all to have one's arm hooked up to electrodes and have it zapped with electricity at the whim of a mad doctor, it's nice to find out I do not have any blockage or pinching of the nerves in the arm.

The next suspect is my neck. I may or may not be having an MRI. I will be talking to my doctor later this week to see what he wants to do.

And I got my lovely keyboard drawer last week. It's taken a couple days to get used to it, but I think it's marvelous. Go, me!

And I'm still quite stupid.

Carry on.

I've reached my decision!

Thanks, guys, for all your feedback and suggestions regarding the camera. I did look at them all side-by-side, and that helped me really narrow it down. The lucky winner is the Canon SD850IS.

I didn't order it from that link, though. I ordered elsewhere for a lot less. :D

I can't wait to get it now!

And thanks again, I always appreciate the advice!

Hairsticks

As requested, here are some pictures of the hairsticks I've made. I've just listed them for sale on Ebay and Etsy, but not on LollyBeads.com yet. Partially because I've just spent 3 or 4 hours on this computer and I'd like a break now, but mostly because I don't like the quality of the pictures. Hence my previous post.

Anyway, here are some pictures of hairsticks:

And check out my new "studio in a box":
I'm very excited about this, because one of my main challenges with taking pics for my stores is the lighting. And the backgrounds. I've used this "studio" for one day, and I'm already thrilled with the results. Except that I need a new camera. Then, there'll be no stopping me! [evillaugh]

I need a new camera.

I'm hoping that some of you wise, lovely folks can recommend something for me.

• I am strictly an amatuer, so I can't use anything fancy. I just need to be able to aim and fire.
• I mostly use my camera for casual sharing of pics here on teh interwebs, and also for pics of my products for my store and ebay. So sharp close-ups are a must.
• I would like the camera to be not huge.
  
• I am also concerned about ease of access. I currently have an older Sony camera, which uses the Memory Stick. So when I'm done shooting, I just pop the stick out of the camera and pop it into the Memory Stick Reader, which is hooked up to my PC. I also have a Sony photo printer which lets you pop the Memory Stick right into it to print pics. I am very spoiled by this set-up and although I'm relatively sure that NO new cameras still utilize this Memory Stick, I would still like a very quick and easy way to access my pics.
  
• I would prefer to spend as little money as possible, but I also want a camera that will take great pics and last a long time.
  

Does anyone know of a good camera along these lines?

EDIT:

Ok, I'm looking through some Canons. I've found that they do use a memory card and I can get a reader to hook up to my PC, so that's a plus in my book. But now my head is already spinning from all the choices. I've chosen a few based on size and prettiness and price. But I'm not sure about the specs. How many megapixels do I need? What about Optical zoom and Digital zoom?
Please pick one for me!

These are "slim"
One
Two
Three
These are "advanced"
Four
Five
Six

Did I mention the muscle relaxers?

I'm taking them every night for the whole shoulder/neck fiasco. I don't mind. I'm sure they're helping. Only problem is they're making me pretty stupid. Especially since I keep forgetting to take them earlier in the evening, and I end up taking them at like 10 pm, so when I come in to work in the morning I'm really stupid. Really. Today I seem to be feeling extra foggy. And I'm sure I sound like an idiot, because I spent like an hour telling all my cubemates how stupid I am and laughing. So now I'm just trying sit here quietly. And maybe try to do some actual work. I think I can trust the lolcats to sum it up for me: