Erulisse Dances

So, after being chased by thunderstorms across Nebraska, I arrived back home around 3pm yesterday afternoon and soon sat down at my computer to try and catch up with my f-list and lj friends. I had a wonderful time with my cousin and her daughter and son-in-law, we went all over Lincoln which I had remembered as a very nice city and which confirmed my college memories. I ate far too much and will be watching what I eat carefully over the next week or two to get back to reality. Of course, my birthday will interrupt the good thoughts of weight loss, but most of this should be gone in a few short days. We traveled to a lot of different places, but one of the nicest was to the Joslyn Museum in nearby Omaha. They were hosting a special exhibit called "To Live Forever - Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum". The building all of this was housed in was a wonder of Art Deco - classic and stunning. Everywhere I turned were the details that make Art Deco one of my favorite art styles.

( pics of the Joslyn Art Museum follow the cut )

I'm homesick for mountains today. I moved to Minnesota in the late 1970's and it is a beautiful state. We have lots of lakes, wonderful trees, very green colors, mosquitoes that could probably carry off a cow, and many birds that I adore watching. But the land is flat. Long ago it was covered by a very large glacier that squashed out the high relief. So we have river bluffs, but we don't have mountains. But I was raised in Colorado and spent my summers in the middle of the high mountains. I miss them today. So I am sharing mountain pictures from around the world with all of you today. Just pics - share the beauty.

Catastrophe always seem to happen when I'm out of town. Those "happenings" are part of the reason why my poor DH really hates it when I leave town. This year's conferences were no exception.

( Pic and Crises below the cut... )

1 - Before leaving for Bead & Button Show, my car decided it needed $2000+ of work *head...desk...thunk*.

2 - Before leaving for MCWC I needed a refill on a prescription. That turned out to be impossible to achieve. The doctor's office finally called me with an approval AFTER I was already at my conference. Obviously THAT didn't actually happen until I returned a week later. *head...desk...thunk* again...

3 - And on that note...this prescription used to be part of the $4 generic program at Wal-Mart, Target and other stores. How much does it cost now? $75/tube! WTF??? My three tubes which should have set me back $12 set me back $225! Ouch! (It's a miracle med for me though and already, after only having it for two days, my hands are almost 100% healed with only two applications. Goddess bless whoever invented this stuff.)

4 - When I had called my DH on Saturday while I was attending the final day of the conference, he sounded pretty crabby (not that it's unusual, but...). I later found out that we had 5-1/2 inches of rain in an hour early that morning, and that shrew burrow holes had caused a leak into my craft room and yet another flood. Oy! The water was restricted to his side of the room, so not as bad as we've sometimes had in the past (we've had waterfalls into that room in the past, flooding up four inches or more of water - very nasty), but it was still a pain, requiring wet/dry vac, fan set-up, and the dehumidifier running. And then, of course, he had to get to work since he was covering my shift for me.

5 - The heat! -'Nuff said...

And now, Chickie is off on her vacation. And my luck seems to have followed her to Montana because...

6 - Chickie phoned me yesterday and, while her Mom was visiting her Grandmother in her nursing home, the nursing home cat - apparently known to have "issues" with visitors - bit her mother. Her mom has subsequently developed a raging infection to the bite and is hospitalized, where she will be for at least another day, perhaps two. Since Chickie and her Dad were actually camping in Glacier National Park, unreachable by cell phone, etc., and a cousin had to drive up to the campground to get them. They left everything set up in the hopes of returning in a day or so. I'm not sure I would be quite so trusting...but that's just me.

So...now you see why I am strongly discouraged from leaving town....guess I'll be here for a while - LOL. 

 So...I suppose that I actually should throw my clothing into my suitcase and make sure I have everything I need for my artwork.  I suppose.  But I'm lazy and uncommitted.  Well...lazy. 

( Read more... )

This lovely banner was made by my friend Esteliel. 

Maybe it is the mountains around Gondolin? 

I have had two stories nominated for the Middle Earth Fanfiction Awards so far.  I'm flabbergasted and honored.  I have no delusions that I will actually win in my categories, but it's such an honor in the first place.  And the thing that makes me really happy is that the person who nominated me only knows me through my stories.  She doesn't share any of my chat boards with me that I'm aware of.  So they really were nominations out of the blue.  Such fun!  

 I thought that my car was going to cost me close to $1000, bad enough when I don't have ready money available.  It ended up having more issues than I had originally thought, and ended up costing me $2100. 

( Read more... )

But, sorry to unload on all of you, and I'll move forward.  I brought my glass and my BFAC beads together yesterday, trying to see how they will all work together.  It's starting to pull together, but I think I need to at least start my bezels around the stones and then I'll be able to tell much better.  I'm still unsure about whether I want to bezel or do bead embroidery for this, but I have to move forward and have to decide before too much more time has passed.  And the illustrations for Big Bang are becoming  more clear in my mind.  So I am forging ahead, even if I don't know where the path is leading me.  Live creatively today!