I enjoy...being a geek! Er, girl!

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Teresa guessed it first...it is, indeed, the Catherine Theron piece (Quaker Sewing Case, to be precise). It's still not done. The thing is requiring a Herculean effort to finish, and my continual mistakes are not helping. Things should be smooth now that I've reached the point of yesterday's picture, but when you're clumsy like me, you can never tell.

Today, however, I do have a finish! I finished another Ribs and Ruffles (I always want to say, "Ruffles and Ridges") scarf like the ones I did for my nieces, only this one is for myself. I wore that fluffy pink sweater to church this morning with a sparkly embellished skirt. Someone actually told me I looked like a fairy! *blush* Or, at least, was dressed like one. ;) After all this girliness, what did I come home and do?

Why, I fixed the can opener, what else??

Michael took it apart yesterday, because he was convinced its state of only working intermittently was caused by a mechanical problem. When I say, "intermittently," I mean that 1 in 20 button presses results in actual motion and an open can, rather than fruitless clicking or brief whirring. After looking at it and manipulating the internal button, it turns out I was closer to the truth when I said it was a short. It wasn't actually a short...it was even better. Let me show you the crazy:

Now, let's leave aside the stupid way that that tiny black button gets pushed. That tiny black button presses down on the tiny black spring, which causes contact 1 to...um...make contact with contact 2, thus completing the circuit and making the canopener "go". Wanna see the spring/contact 1 piece from the top? Too bad, here's a shot, anyway:

If you're thinking it's kind of rinky-dink, you're thinking like me. I tried bending contact 1 to make it hit contact 2 better, but that wasn't really the problem. The problem was that half the time when they did make contact, there was a spark!!
That is not inherently a problem, but it had aparently sparked so many times that there was carbon built up on both contacts. So, chick that I am, I grabbed a metal nail file (and yes, it is pink, too, but I really don't own that much pink stuff, I promise!!) and made the contacts all shiny again.

And now it works like a charm. ;)

JiffNotes
I can bring home the bacon...wire up an electric frypan....

Coming soon...

Moving Day

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To answer questions from my previous Disney post, yes, it did "snow" during the Osborne family Christmas light show. I felt very clean afterwards. =) (In case you didn't know, most fake "snow" is really mild soap suds.) The zepplin is from the original "Journey to Imagination" ride in the Imagination! pavilion. I can't believe nobody got that one! Teresa was close, but she didn't seem to remember the ride...that's where Figment was introduced. Sing with me now..."Eeee-mag-i-nay-shun, ee-mag-i-nay-shun...a dream can be a dream come true, with just that spark...in me and you...."

Back to your regularly scheduled recap...Tuesday of our Disney vacation, we had to change hotels, because there was no one hotel with space available for our entire stay. Luckily, Disney has a service that will transfer your luggage for you...we were envisioning spending a couple hours of the day lugging suitcases onto and off of various buses. As it was, we grabbed a couple cups of tea and headed off to play miniature golf:


We started off at the course nearest us, Winter Summerland, near Blizzard Beach.
The story goes that it was the perfect vacation spot for the North Pole gang, since the freak blizzard that dumped snow in Florida (the backstory of Blizzard Beach) created a comfortable environment for the elves, while Santa got his tan on at the beach (*shudder*...now that's a scary mental picture). As a result, half of the course is beach-themed...

...and half is snow-themed...


...and most all of it is Christmas-themed. This picture is just as I'm making a most disturbing putt landing the ball stuck on the tracks of the train that was traveling around the base of the tree. Several failed bank shots later and my near-course-record score had gone the way of dense and plaster-like fruitcake. When I say, "half the course," I mean, obviously, 18 holes.

After doing the 36 holes, we went to lunch at Beaches 'n' Cream, which was way smaller than I remember, but still had great hamburgers. As a bonus, we got to see a family order the "Kitchen Sink". It is, as the menu says, "scoops of vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coffee and mint chocolate chip, smothered in every topping we have" (emphasis mine). A red flashing light goes off as the creation is escorted to the table. I jumped up and took a picture of the family with the pile-o-fatty-goodness, since the cast members seemed to harried to suggest such a thing. Michael and I shook our heads sadly as we looked over later to see the amount of ice cream left over. If only they'd invited us to share, we could've saved all that waste...oh, the starving kids in China! (Or wherever they are currently. That's where my folks always said they were when I couldn't choke down my salmon patties.)

After lunch we walked to The Dolphin and checked in, then we had a pleasant stroll to Fantasia Gardens for another 18 holes of mini-gold to round out our day. Sadly, I have no pictures of this fantastic course...since we've played it so many times, it didn't seem "novel" enough to photograph. But if you're only going to do one course at Disney, I recommend this one. The holes are much more challenging than Winter Summerland, but the fantastic themeing is so worth it.

This might sound like a lot of miniature golf, but by my count, our record of 108 holes in 48 hours in Gatlinburg remains unchallenged.


That night, we went to the luau at The Polynesian. I was disappointed to learn that there was no poi on the menu, but the food was fabulous! Our server (who was adorable and reminded me of Hazel) brought us extra pineapple, which we devoured. The ribs were awesome! Take a look at the spread:

Michael decided to order a drink...he really couldn't help himself...

Pele's Fire Punch The Volcano Goddess' (sic) blend of Light Rum, Dark Rum, Banana Liquor, Blackberry Brandy, Pineapple Juice, and Grenadine served in an authentic souvenir hand-carved Monkey Coconut. YOU KEEP THE COCONUT!

I mean, come on. Coconut monkey??? How can you resist that?

I'm not sure if my favorite part of the coconut monkey was that it was stamped "HAVE FUN", had a label telling you it was also a bank and you should "TAKE ME HOME!", or that it was "hand carved" in the great Polynesian locale of China.

What a ham.

JiffNotes
Mini golf and coconut monkeys...now that's a vacation.

I'm sotally tober, why do you ashk, osifer?

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This is a picture taken outside our office building. Sadly, I did not see it in person.

Yes, that is a pedestrian bridge. Yes, that is a car. Yes, the driver was intoxicated, why do you ask?? I'm wondering how she managed to not go in the drink (so to speak), and why it did not occur to her she might be driving somewhere she shouldn't when 1) she drove down some stairs (click to make the picture bigger and look through the tree branches), 2) she was driving across a wooden bridge in a Metro Atlanta office park or 3) the "siderails" on the bridge were mere inches from the sides of her car. Aparently she got the clue when she realized she'd need to drive up some stairs to continue. And by "got the clue," I mean, "passed out in her car to be found by a security guard the next morning."

JiffNotes
Turn down the stupid. Please.

Resolved

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There are posts in the queue, but before it's no longer "the new year", I felt the need to say this. I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, but I'm not going to buy any stash this year.

Pick yourself up off the floor.

I made this decision after attending (and heavily participating in) a 25% off sale at The Whole Nine Yarns.

Suddenly, all my Christmas money was gone. I had plans for that money. These weren't the plans I had. But how could I resist the Vogue Knitting mag containing that awesome Norah Gaughan sweater that I thought was sold out everywhere, or the new Norah book with that awesome shawl (and many other awesome things as well), or the yarn to make said shawl, or the cotton denim yarn that's been on my list forever to make this, or yet again the Koigu I fell in love with when I was going to knit those sachets for my nieces, or even the "just one skein" (evil store display) that will make these? Well, clearly the answer is "not very stinkin' well"!

Then, I came home and thought of what I wanted to start first, and realized that was a list of about 10 things...and that's just in the yarn category. Forget about the needlework stash and the beading stash.... So I decided: Any time I feel the need to shop, I'll just start something new! Yeah, this should work fine.

Immediately after I made the decision, I found out about this. Oh. my. gosh. I already have the Lady Scarlett box (which I have not done!), and, you know, I love the bees. Maybe I can get a special dispensation from Michael for my birthday....

JiffNotes
Wish me luck as I try to stay on the wagon....