More than a Song

I heard this for the first time this Sunday at church and I liked it a lot, so I'm posting it here.



Clear the Stage by Ross King

Attn: All Ye Sewing Types

Rae of MadebyRae fame is hosting "Spring Top Week". Officially it's from April 27th - May 1st, but any spring top you make for yourself this spring is eligible.

I started on my first top this weekend and let me say that just because a pattern says "Simplicity" doesn't mean it really is. I'll post pictures when I finish it. So far I've only cut the fabric out.

Things that Don't Eat Canned Corn

First of all, let me give you a short recap of my day.

1. Mercy goes to the vet at 8 this morning to get her annual checkup. She is terrified of the vet's office, so I have to carry her and hold her to make sure she doesn't eat anybody. She poops accidentally and randomly due to aforementioned fear. She weighs 40.1 pounds. Best workout I've had in AWHILE.

2. Today marked an historic event: My first trout fishing attempt. It DID NOT work out so well. It was about 44 degrees with wind gusts up to 30mph. That, my publics, made for a COLD fishing trip. Perhaps cold fishing trips aren't so bad if you're actually catching something (except maybe pneumonia), but we weren't, so it was fairly miserable.

We went to a pond that the game and fish stocks with trout from fall until early spring. Or so they SAY. Like I said, I did not see any of these alleged fish.

Corn is supposed to be a good trout bait, which brings me to my next topic.

Things that Don't Eat Canned Corn
1. Trout, apparently.
2. Cows. We stopped by the side of the road because I wanted to pet a cow that was sticking his neck through the fence adorably. I got out and said, "Hey cow! I've got corn for you!" He RAN like I was shooting at him or something. Then he mooed to all of his buddies and they turned around and stared at me. I kid you not. The whole pasture stopped what they were doing and turned and stared me down. Except for #3.
3. Horses. There were horses in the field with the cows. They just ignored me when I offered them corn. Wouldn't even look at me. Maybe they were just mad at me for yelling, "Screw you, cows!" at their friends, though.

I'm not sure I'll ever recover from today's cold temperatures, but Kevin did just make me some hot chocolate, so maybe that will help.

Telephone Conversation Transcript

*Just for some background- I never hear from my parents unless I pick up the phone and call them. It’s almost as if they don’t care to talk to me or something! BUT I’M NOT BITTER!*

This is from a phone call I got at work from my dad yesterday.

Dad: Hey! How are you a’doin’?

Me (awash in surprise): I’m doing alright. Just trying to look busy.

Dad: Oh, OK. Well, I had been up at the church and when I got back, your momma said that she had been talking to your sister and the call waiting showed that the AR State Police were calling and she didn’t click over in time to see what they wanted. She thought they might have been calling to say you had been in a wreck or something. So when I came back home, she told me to call you and check to make sure you were OK. I told her they were probably just begging for money, but she wanted me to call and make sure.

Me: …Wait a minute! You mean she thought the state police were calling to tell her that I was DEAD and she couldn’t answer the phone in time? And then she couldn’t call me to check on me herself? She WAITED until you got home and got YOU to do it? What the crap is that about? Did she forget my phone number? Are her dialing fingers broken? I mean, seriously! Tell her too bad, I’m still alive! Maybe next time!

Dad: Yeah, I think she wanted to see how much insurance money we were about to collect. Nah, you know her cell phone never works right because she never charges it, so when I got home she got me to call on my cell phone. (They don’t have long distance on their home phone.)

Me: She couldn’t plug her phone in and call me to make sure I wasn’t dead?!

Feel the love, people. Feel the love.

Funny Halo Commentary

If you've never seen Halo or if you are offended by colorful language, don't bother looking at this.

I'm mostly posting this because it cracked me up and I want to be able to find it again later.

30% off at Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic

Just wanted to share this coupon. It's only good for the next few days, so be aware of that. Apparently, 5% of the profits go toward the Boys and Girls Club of America, so you can feel good about spending money. :)

Coupon

Weirdos

I got this company-wide e-mail today (basically a newsletter of sorts) and this line in the e-mail cracked me up:

In an unprecedented demonstration of fundraising moxie, one associate even kissed a pig!

I have never understood what the big deal is about kissing a pig. It seems to be a fairly common fundraising tactic and it's not like they bring in a big, smelly, muddy, foul-tempered pig. They bring in the cutest little (clean) piglets for people to kiss.

If I had a pig, I would kiss it every day and tell it how pretty it was. On purpose.

Newest Sewing Accomplishment

If you ever see me and you notice that there's not a book sticking up out of my purse, rest assured that it's an accident and I'm probably going a little bit crazy about it.

Anyhoo, the bad thing about carrying books around in one's purse is that the covers of paperback books sometimes get a little mangled. It's very sad. Since I'm currently reading a book ray book that came to me in pristine condition, I decided to try to protect it.

Last night I put together a book cover for it and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I sewed a ribbon into the book cover for a built-in book mark.

It only took me about 30 minutes to sew it, so I'll probably make a few more for different sizes of books. I might even make a few for my long-abandoned Etsy store. You never can tell.

I like this fabric. My sister gave it to me from her stash(free fabric is the best fabric!). You might not be able to tell from the picture, but it's even glittery.

I Gotta Say it was a Good Day

Good days start with getting good mail.

Today I got a book box, a book ray, and the title to my car in the mail. Nothing beats free books and the knowledge that if you lose your job you at least have a car you can live in. :) Hey, you can't escape thinking about things like that in this economy.

Maybe my good mail days will continue and I will get my tax checks soon.

Today I also got to hang out with a good friend that I don't see nearly often enough. You can't beat that with a stick.

When we were out shopping today, we ran across these baby high heels. They're squishy and are obviously for babies who aren't walking yet, but have you ever seen anything so over the top? They did have some zebra print ones that were pretty cute, but I wonder if dressing a tiny baby up in animal print high heel shoes would make her look like a tiny street walker? You be the judge. $39.95, in case you were wondering.

Tidbits

I don't have anything earth shattering today, so I'll use everyone's favorite...the bullets!

* I continue to stink it up at Halo 3. I have improved slightly, I think, but my performance is still pretty shameful. I didn't realize there were so many different aspects besides the obvious kill or be killed element. Apparently there are various achievements that you can unlock by performing certain tasks in the game. For instance, I unlocked the Up Close and Personal achievement the other day (for killing 5 opponents in one game by beating them in the head). It's my favorite way to kill opponents.

I was playing a game of assault (a team game where you have to find a bomb, arm it, and detonate it to beat the other team). My poor teammate found the bomb, and hopped on a Warthog (vehicle) and expected me to drive him to the base. I am the crappiest driver. I rammed us into a wall and then I couldn't figure out how to back up. He kept beating me in the back of the head with the bomb. I couldn't stop laughing.

* You can see my game stats (or service record) here. Do you play Halo 3 on Xbox live? Let me know your gamer tag and I'll add you as a friend.

* I am still thoroughly enjoying the Esther study I'm doing. I think we're about half-way through the study and I will be sad when it's over. Here are a couple of quotes I pulled out of it last week.

Sometimes we fear that fighting for what is right will kill us. Then again, it occurs to us that to stand by and do nothing out of self-preservation is to be dead already. Page 94

At times nothing is more consequentially decisive than refusing to make a decision. At critical moments -- even those unrecognizable at the time -- failure to decide is to decide on failure. Page 102