That being said, I had a very busy, if very uneventful day. I spent a lot of time coordinating the moving of various parts of my office and cleaning adhesive off of windows, desks and overhead cabinets. It all became super fun when the adhesive remover started melting the plastic knife that I was using.

I am looking forward to this weekend though, as I get to see some folks that I haven’t gotten to see in a while. Also, it’s Jade’s birthday party, so I get to give him his presents. I really love watching people open presents that I’ve picked up for them. I have a lot of fun picking things out for my friends and family, so it’s kind of like another present to me when they open them.

I’m only sorry that I wasn’t there where Matt opened his birthday presents this year. Mom said that she talked to him for a good while today (or yesterday?) and he said that he was really exited about them. I only got a quick IM conversation with him in which he was telling me how much he enjoyed them. Poor guy had to run directly to a meetup directly after I talked to him, so we didn’t get to chat for very long.

Well, I’m going to go go and turn my attention to the show again. I don’t want to miss Jack kick all these people’s asses…

Oh wait! I forgot to tell you that I saw a funny away message today: “When Jack Bauer files his taxes, he has to claim the whole world as dependents” Have a good one!!! XXOOXX

I hope that everyone is doing well! I haven’t really gotten much done today. I woke up, ate, drank some coffee, and read New Moon (Stephanie Meyer again), laid on the couch, read some more, took a shower, read a little more, and then re-arranged my room.

And people wonder how I read so much. I only hope that I don’t finish this book before I get home to the third volume…

Tonight, we’re having a lovely dinner with Mom, Daddy, Larry, Wendy, and my Aunt Barbara. In fact, as soon as I finish this (and comb my hair), I’m heading downstairs to set the table. It’s been a really nice trip – very relaxing

Ok, I’m heading down – talk to all of you later!!!

Listening to: “Nadie Se Salva de la Rumba” Los Naranjos

Ok, I think that I’ve actually reached my quota for exclamation points today.  On to other stuff before I wear you guys out.

I made it to Katy safe and sound this morning.  I managed to hang with Daddy a bit, and then ran over to the mechanics shop and sat for several hours. My breaks were making a really loud squeak in the back.  They took everything apart, and put it back together all over again, and declared nothing wrong.  Apparently the old pads used to be made of asbestos, then someone decided that this was bad for the environment (much to the annoyance of every mechanic that I’ve talked to), so the auto parts industry has been experimenting with new materials – none of which seem to be as quiet or to work as well as the asbestos one.  That’s really frustrating, but understandable; I don’t want to negatively impact the environment any more than I already do, but I must admit that the squeak is loud enough to be very embarrassing, and I’m so tired of every male I know telling me to get it fixed – which is just because they care about me and my well being, so I guess I should really say that I’m tired of explaining over and over that yes, I really did take the car to several mechanics about this, and that they all really did say it was fine.

I’m not wasting my money on it anymore, so I guess that I’ll just script out the explanation

I was there a good deal of time, but I scarcely noticed it. I’ve been sucked in by the highly addictive novel by Stephanie Meyer – Twilight.  It’s really good!!!  I can’t believe that I got tricked into reading it, but it *is* really good.  Oops – used exclamation points again. Damn….

Well, I’ve stolen my Mom’s Mac to write this, so I’d better give it back (I had forgotten that I was on a Mac and was wondering why my copy and paste shortcuts weren’t working – d’oh!).  She hadn’t read my pillow post yet, so I actually had sat down to just pull up the page, but then I realized that I hadn’t posted today, and I probably should just in case SOMEBODY actually decides to call me and ask me if I’ve lived up to my promise (or in case Donncha is checking on me again ) TGIF, y’all!

So what happened today? Well, someone stole my credit card number and started making charges in another state. My bank caught it really quickly (two hours), but I still had to go in to a branch and fill out a whole bunch of stuff, get a new card, and do some bank stuff that I’d been avoiding doing for a while. So, yay me! I was productive and protected.

I’ve been working 10-12 hour days so that I can take that weekend trip to Houston/Katy to see Mom and Dad. I had promised them that I would help them take down some Christmas decorations, but my weekends started clogging up unexpectedly. It looked like I was going to come back Saturday afternoon, but then this weekend cleared up yesterday, and I can now relax and hang out until Sunday. Maybe I’ll be able to catch up with some of the friends that I’ve been neglecting – sorry guys!!!

So, I’m going to head back to work and finish all this stuff…maybe I can go home early, and enjoy these lovely Texas temperatures for a little bit before they plummet! We’re in the upper sixties, sunny and bright. Just think of this time of year when you decide to make fun of our summers! Talk to y’all tomorrow!!

Lets flashback to the year 1983…

My Mom had just found out that she was pregnant, and my world suddenly became a very exciting place. I was staying for a few days with my Grandmother, completely underfoot, and a little peeved that my parents were paying all this attention to my little sibling, and he wasn’t even born yet! My Gram was getting fed up with my fidgeting and incessant talking, and my uncle was a senior in high school, so he didn’t have the time or the inclination to play with me! I was totally annoyed by all of this, and was determined to blame it all on the impending intruder. All the adults had said that this was a glorious thing, but I was unconvinced.

One day, I came to my Gram with a pillow. There were a few of them on the couch in the front room, all with different patterns on a grid, all with different initials and years embroidered in them. I must have been playing in there with the piano or the light brite, because that room was usually reserved for holidays. I asked her about it, and she told me that my Uncle Colin had made it on his very own using a kind of sewing called needlepoint. I had fifty questions about this (and everything else), and she showed me how it was done, and the different patterns and textures that you could make with it. Next thing I knew, we were buying yarn. I started to make a pillow for my new sibling-to-be, but we didn’t know the sex yet, so color choices were difficult.

I remember digging through the bins of Red Hart yarn, picking mint green, and yellow and pink. I remember wanting cream instead of pink, but I don’t know why I didn’t use it. I remember her picking the stitch that I would be using out of a book, and showing me how to do it. I remember her showing me the wicker chest to put it in when I was done sewing, and how to pack it all together so that nothing would get lost. I remember that I was rubbish at threading my needles, as big as they were, so she patiently threaded each one for me. I remember her showing me how to roll my yarn so that there were no snags, and when – inevitably – I did get snags, she showed me how to undo them. I remember her teaching me how the back of the embroidery is just as important as the front, and how to care for the little scissors that she used.

I still use every one of these lessons weekly, if not daily. Later, I would learn cross stitch from my Aunt Sandy, and move on to a giant cat piece. My cousin Patricia spilled a coke on it while we were on vacation in New Braunfels, and I cut a small hole in it the very next day. I cried a good deal and took it to Gram, and she showed me how to patch it, and helped me to pick out a background color to cover all that weekend’s flubs…It’s STILL not finished; maybe I’ll do that next year….

September, 2005…

My little brother is all grown up, and I finally stopped blaming him for everything right about the time that he turned 15. He had moved to San Francisco, and I live near Austin, but Gram still lived in the exact same house. She had gotten diagnosed with cancer the month before, and I started driving to Houston every other weekend to see her. I had told her that I was her cheerleader, and she told me that I had the sweetest heart of them all.

I remember sitting at her kitchen table at one of the rare moments that I got alone with her after she got sick, and we had split the newspaper. She asked me to go and get a bag out of the wicker chest behind the couch, because she had found some owls that she had made, and she wanted me to have them. As I was digging through the wicker chest, I found the canvas that I had made. I brought it back into the kitchen, and showed it to her.

“Look at that,” she said, “we were supposed to make this into a pillow. I completely forgot about this. This was your first project.” There was a small unidentifiable stain on it, and I joked that maybe Trish had gotten coke on it too. We remembered the tantrum I threw a decade ago, and had a good laugh.

We packed everything carefully into a Whole Foods bag, and I took it home. In the turmoil of the following months, I forgot all about it.

October 2007…

I was organizing all of my closets to get ready for winter, and to make some room. I pulled out a quilt that I’d washed to tatters, and packed it to take to my friend, Janie the SuperSeamstress, for repairs. I ran across a Whole Foods bag, tucked into a corner behind my luggage, and pull it out. There was the pillow, tucked among the needlepoint owls. It still smelled like Gram’s house. I didn’t want to let it go, but I packed it with the quilt.

Janie loved the pillow, and the story that went with it. She said that she would be happy to make it into a pillow, and even managed to get the unknown stain out (a bug, by the way – Trish’s reputation is saved )

I gave the pillow to my Mom – 23 years late – for a baby gift, and she loved it. I don’t even think that Matt has gotten to see it, so here it is: