“He was a good fish.”

Well, that’s that.  The virtual fish program to which I’ve been battling an app addiction has a new update that’s not compatible with my device.  It’s an “update or nothing” situation, so…bye-bye fishies.  It’s time to go cold turkey.  Actually, I think BratzBasher is more disappointed about it than I am.  Ah well.  Such is life. 

Of course, I still have the other fish app that I downloaded for children to use.  It’s got cuter fish, but it’s less commitment.  Plus, fish don’t die if you miss a day.  The only thing that bugs me about it is that the mermaids you can buy for your tank bounce.  A lot.  If you know what I mean.  I won’t buy them, but I’ve seen them in other people’s tanks.  It’s a bit obscene.  And weird.  Definitely weird.

By the way…if you can guess what show the title of this post is from…well, it’s probably a sign that (like me) you watched too much television in the ’80s.  Bonus points if you can tell me who said it and what the episode was about.  Hint: the star of the show is a famous comedian.

St Louis Storytelling Festival 2013

There really isn’t a whole lot in my life to blog about these days.  Maybe I should be paying more attention to the clever things BratzBasher says.  Is she saying anything clever these days?  I’m not sure I’d catch it if she did.  She mostly talks about fanfiction these days, and I only listen to that with half an ear.  I’m rather bored by it, but I do need to keep abreast of what she’s reading.

We did attend several events for the St Louis Storytelling Festival this past week.  The storytellers were very good, and I picked up two cd’s by Megan Hicks.  She tells some very good fractured fairy tales — a lot of them feature groundhogs, for some reason.  I think my favorite stories were “Billy Beg”, as told by Milbre Burch; one Michael Parent did about a young boy who idolized the garbage man; and Megan Hicks’ “Davey and the Devil”.

BratzBasher told at the children’s concert again this year (fourth time).  She did a story about a man who goes off to seek his fortune and returns to find another man has assumed his identity and commandeered his life.  There were other good stories at the children’s concert.  One of the return tellers was a girl who recites children’s books word for word.  She’s really talented — excellent voice, gestures, and facial expressions.  All of the tellers get an official t-shirt (the same kind the adult tellers wear) and their pick from a collection of donated books.  BB chose a book on urban legends called The Mexican Pet.  She’s really enjoying it.

 

Happy Birthday, Merkin!

In my sleep-muddled morning state, I let Merkin head off to work today without a “happy birthday”.  This is not as bad as the first year we were married when I forgot his birthday entirely.  (I’m never going to live that one down.  Merkin, on the other hand, never forgets an important date — birthdays, anniversaries, whatever.)

I won’t say how old he is this year because he’s feeling old.  I wouldn’t want to rub it in that he’s five years older than I am.  I think it’ll be another couple of decades before I see Merkin as old.  I’d have to see myself five years away from being old before that happens.  But this post isn’t about me.  It’s about Merkin and his awesomeness.  Don’t worry.  I won’t go on and on and on.  He’s too modest for that.  Plus, I’m pressed for time just now.

Five (because I promised not to go on forever) Great Things about Merkin:

(I apologize for any repeats from previous years, but some things are worth mentioning multiple times.)

1. He’s an awesome dad to BratzBasher.
2. He’s a fabulous cook.
3. He’s an amazing storyteller.
4. He puts up with me even when I’m less than likable.
5. He never forgets to take the trash out.

 

Happy Birthday, Merkin!

Jeans Apron

I love library programs — especially the crafty ones.  I recently attended an evening program during which we all made aprons out of old pairs of jeans.  Here’s mine:

It’s really simple to make.

1. Cut out the back of a pair of jeans or denim skirt.
2. Cut a 4″-wide strip of fabric for the bottom.  Mine was approximately 22″ long, but yours may be longer or shorter depending on the width of your apron.  (I cut two strips and used one to back the first.)
3. Sew fabric strip to bottom edge of apron.
4. Sew bias tape all around the raw edges of the apron.
5. Cut two more 4″-wide strips of fabric for the belt/ties.  I used the full width of the fabric, so my belt was approximately 44″ long.  The selvage on either end made it unnecessary to sew up the ends of the belt.  I just sewed the strips end to end and turned in the raw edges, but you can sew the raw edges right sides together and then turn it right side out.
6. Add any decorations you want.

I got all my materials at JoAnn (though the fabric has been in my stash for a while now) — except for the jeans, of course.  They came from my stash of discarded clothing.  The daisies were originally fabric stickers, but I took the sticky parts off and added buttons.  The ric-rac came from the program director’s stash, but you can find it at any fabric store.

Merkin gets points for not laughing at the fact that I made an apron for myself when I don’t really cook.  Ever.

It was fun and only took maybe an hour to do — at most.  If you make one, I’d love to see a picture.

 

Sewing Machine Diagrams

I was trying to remember what the dial thing on the side of the sewing machine was, so I looked it up.  The term is “hand wheel”; however, I encountered two alternate terms for it when I encountered these two diagrams on Google search:

http://www.electricboogaloo.net/wordpress/archives/2009/07/07/drawrings/

I love the tangled thread and the instructions for the foot pedal.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1/sewing-machine-diagram-t52148.html

“Horn of Gondor” — Ha!  Ten points if you know why.

Just gives me warm fuzzies all over.

Warning: the following post contains a very annoyingly run-on sentence.  Grammarians proceed at your own risk.

Don’t you just love it when the other driver at the intersection smiles and waves for you to go first even though it’s not a four-way stop and he wasn’t supposed to stop at all because he had right of way but he’s still waving for you to go and you’re like why don’t you just drive already before you start holding up traffic and then he does go but as he does he totally flips you off?

Yeah, me too.

I did it.

For all of February, and some of January, I only played my fish app once a day — and only because I had to feed my fish and clean the tanks to keep them alive.  Now if I can just convince myself that I don’t need the app at all.

In other news…it was my birthday yesterday, and my family decided to celebrate it by playing games with me — Yay!  We didn’t have a whole lot of time to play last night, so we’re doing it again tonight.  Last night, we played a card game called No Thanks!, which I think we got from my sister, Bythelbs, years ago.  I won twice, and Merkin and BratzBasher tied on the second game.

The reason we didn’t have much time to play last night is because BB had a concert at the high school.  The seventh, eighth, and high school bands all performed.  For the last piece, they performed all together.  BB enjoyed getting to joke around with the other four tuba players.  Usually, she’s all by herself back there.  Well, there are baritones and trombones, but that’s not the same.  I’m glad she had a good time.