Rediscovering Old Friends

Right now I'm reading David Eddings' The Belgariad, and am on the third book, Magician's Gambit. I first discovered this series close to 20 years ago (my, how time flies) when I was in college. I own all five books, as well as the sequel series, and have Eddings's two series about Sparhawk too. I have probably read all of them at least once a year since I was introduced to their worlds.

I love to reread favorite books. My dad always says "haven't you read that before?", but that's the whole point, to once again enjoy something that gave you pleasure. I collect books in several fantasy series, but I rarely buy one of them until I've borrowed it from the library first. This has kept me from paying good money for something I wouldn't read again (even if I buy them used), such as Anne McCaffrey's Dinosaur Planet series. I like a lot of her work, but not those. There are some series that are hard to find used, like Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, so I have to settle for requesting them periodically from the library.

Last year I was bored and did an inventory of nearly all my books. As I mentioned I have 4 series by David Eddings, plus a couple related books. I've got all of McCaffrey's Pern books up through The Skies of Pern, plus the Lady in the Tower series and a few assorted others. Mercedes Lackey is well represented in my bookcase with all the Valdemar books except Sun in Glory, which is hard to find. I have most of the Deryni books by Katherine Kurtz as well, and I'm waiting for her next one about Morgan's past. Christopher Stasheff's Starship Trouper trilogy is great, as is his Wizard in Rhyme series. My latest collections are the Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold and the Prince Roger and Honor Harrington series by David Webber.

I could go on and on about my favorite books, but I think I'd rather go reread them. :o)

And so it ends

Tonight we attended the parish's farewell party for my brother. Tomorrow he moves on to another, bigger parish in a larger town, and assumes the responsibility there on Tuesday. After 9 years at St. Ann's, Joseph will be missed by many people, and will miss them in turn.

There was a potluck dinner for at least 200-300 people, followed by cake and presents. The gifts ranged included a gigantic bottle of bubbles from some of the children (I think), pens, crosses, a couple portraits of him at the church, and a wonderful scrapbook created by several of the women, who stayed up until 1 a.m. several nights to get it done. Of course, there were lots of cards, many with dead presidents and the occasional ambassador to France. LOL He even got a birthday present (his birthday was Friday) of a rolling bowling ball bag, complete with his name in large red letters on the front and the name of the givers (the parish secretary and family) on the back.

The piéces de resistance were a photo of a bass guitar that had been ordered for him, and a wonderful mountain bike ---- both of them what he had been planning to get for himself! Now he knows why his secretary told him not to buy himself anything these past few weeks. :o)

Now Joseph starts another chapter in his life. We wish him the best as he goes.

Cool tie crazy!

This past week I decided to cut out and seam about 2 dozen cool ties from some new fabrics. Not satisfied with that, I hauled out the drawer of already seamed ties and started ironing. And ironing and ironing . . . . .

So far I have ironed and turned 62 ties! About half are ready for filling, and the others need one last pass of the iron (NOT my favorite crafting activity). And there are about 30 more left to begin ironing on. :o(

Fate works in mysterious ways. I woke up today to a sale of four (!) cool ties on Etsy.com, all different. I had three in my inventory, and just luckily the fourth fabric is in the 75% done pile --- just needs filling and sewing and then all four are on their way.

She ordered the brown, the green frogs, the ladybugs on yellow, and the purple/blue swirl.

And if I hadn't been bored to the point of ironing, I probably wouldn't have gotten the sale. :o)

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Hold the wire!!!!! While I was blogging here, I got ANOTHER order that included the ladybugs and swirls. Now I have to dig out the fabrics, because I don't have another ladybug in the pipeline (I've got a swirl in process). That makes 7 ties sold today.

YIPPIE for multiple sales!!!!

Update: I found out that I don't have a purple tie in the pipeline, but I do have some more fabric. Whew!!! Thought I was going to have to get her to make another choice or refund her money for one tie (and I've never done a refund).

French onion biohazard

Almost 3 weeks ago (!) my dad made some french onion soup. He made extra (I don't think it's possible to make only enough for two) and put it in the fridge.

And then he forgot about it.

Tonight we transferred the biohazard formerly known as french onion soup from the fridge to the garbage with the help of a freezer weight zip bag. It was covered in blue-green mold, and we had to cut it out of the dish. Ugh! Luckily tomorrow is garbage day. :o)

The fridge ought to smell a lot better now.