Random Items from the Junk Drawer of my Mind #2

Warning! Warning! Quilt Content Below! Please make sure your seat and tray table are in the upright and locked position, and brace yourself for the shock. Oxygen will drop from the ceiling if needed. (Ok, that last part was a lie. Unless you're reading this from an environment that is very different from a typical home, office, or cyber-cafe, there is probably no oxygen mask available. I recommend substituting chocolate for the oxygen if you need help recovering from the shock of me talking about quilting. If you don't like chocolate [???!!!] try popcorn. Or wine.) 1. I sewed today! And I don't want to hear about any of you fainting or hyper-ventilating or anything at that announcement because I warned you it was coming in bold orange letters, like your own personal little construction warning sign. And there's also no need to get too terribly excited because what I sewed was small, and it, well...it didn't turn out quite as I planned, but at least started AND finished something fabric-y today. And I'm thinking I may crank out a few fiber postcards in the next few days. The quiltlet I did today was only about 11" x 8" or so and I made it because Frances and I had been talking about doing an art trade and she wanted a small red shoe quilt as her Good Mail out of the deal. So I thought and sketched, and finally decided I wanted to do something dressy and festive, like fabulous red party shoes. Now it's done, and I look at it and I'm not so sure that's what I ended up with. I mean, it's ok. It's fine. Really. I don't actively dislike it or anything. But somewhere along the way I think maybe I veered away from "festive party-goer land" and wandered into "angry hooker territory", and I'm not quite sure how that happened. Take a look: "Red Hot" by a possibly neurotic DebR Frances, let me know what you think. If you like it, it's yours and I'll get it in the mail in the next few days. If you think it's scary, tell me so and I'll go to Plan B - maybe a nice, friendly pair of flip-flops or something. And Gerrie and Rachel, if either of you are reading this, I still want to work out trade details with both of you too, but it may be after the holidays, 'k? 2. On other art fronts, I'm really excited about December's Self-Portrait Tuesday theme of reflective surfaces and have been a camera fiend these past few days. I've already edited and uploaded 12 - yes, that's right, an even dozen - possible shots and the first Tuesday in December is still days away. What, obsessive? ME?? There's just something about this particular theme - the challenge of getting good shots in a reflective surface, and the often-surprising layering that occurs as you see what does and doesn't show up in the final image that is really speaking to me. Stay tuned... 3. My caller ID box on the 'puter desk has evidently been taking some night classes in how to speak Spanish. It used to speak English. The one in the great room still does. But not this one, not anymore. I only just discovered this because I can only just now really SEE the caller ID display again. For months now I've been almost totally unable to read it and I thought it was my eyesight getting worse. I finally said something about it to J and he glanced at the display, then gave me The Look, and then he calmly and silently changed the batteries in both displays and TaaDaaahhh!!...I can see the numbers and letters and stuff again!! It's magic!! Yay!! Yes, that's right, it never occurred to me to change the batteries. I didn't even know those little thingies HAD batteries. I have no idea what I thought was running them. Teeny-tiny invisible hamsters maybe. But now, thanks to Mr. Wizard, I can see the displays again and one of those displays is now telling me things like "privo nombre". I suppose in all my fumbling around during my "omigawd I'm getting old and going blind and whythehell can't they make these damn things BRIGHTER?!" phase I must have inadvertently hit just the right combination of buttons to change the default language. Unfortunately I have absolutely no clue how I did that, so I guess it'll stay that way. I probably have some sort of manual for these displays around here somewhere. I'm sure I put it somewhere very safe. I could look for it, I suppose, but I'm thinking it'd be easier to just learn Spanish. ¿qué usted piensa? PS...There's supposed to be a little upside-down question-mark thingie in front of the above sentence, and a mark over the e in "que", but I can't figure out how to convince blogger of that, so use your imagination. It worked, it worked! Thanks Carol, for telling me the magic code to convince blogger. And it didn't even take batteries! PPS...Did I mention I don't speak Spanish? I got the above sentence through BabelFish, so I hope it says what I meant for it to say. Ahem.