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Recent News... Just for Pope Gregory... |
2001-07-23 - 8:25 a.m. Weekends always end too soon. Don�t get me wrong � I mostly love my job, but it�s always hard to shift from home activities to work stuff. I did some more sewing yesterday (I know, Pennsic in two weeks and me sewing � big shock), put together a cotehardie with my wonderful Janome sewing machine which has the smoothest action of any machine I�ve ever used. It purrs along, it�s smooth {insert Southern drawl} like butter. Then my mind wanders to a jitter problem we had on my last spacecraft where the motor that turned the solar arrays shook the spacecraft more than we wanted, and I wonder if the Janome motor could be spaceflight qualified. Engineers � we�re just built that way. Beg, borrow, steal, invent � find a solution to your problem. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Missons�s doing wonderfully even with it�s annoyingly noisy solar array motors, but there�s always room for improvement. It�s a fascinating mission, studying rainfall around the tropical region � more importantly, it�s saving lives. The data�s been so good, weather models for hurricans and tropical storm forecasts have vastly improved - the project scientists estimate we're saving at least 30 people a year with the improve predictions. Besides, this is the mission where I lived through the monkey story (which, yes, Gen, I will post someday � but not today.) Roland�s gambeson has now (a) broken a sewing machine which I got repaired and (b) made me bleed, so it�s officially done. The pattern he likes (and I like it too, I just don�t like assembling the thing) requires pleats where the sleeves joins the body, which makes them a bit puffy and gives full range of shoulder motion. Unfortunately, this means trying to join a pleat (three quilted layers in the cute little fold) to the body (one quilted layer with extra in the shoulder point). Pinning this is nearly impossible, but you can sort of stake it together but poking the pins straight through. This leaves the pointy ends free to bite your arm. Unfortunately, after working until midnight two nights in a row, poor Roland didn�t make War Practice this weekend. He didn�t finish work until midnight Friday, much less get to his two hours of armor repair, so it just wasn�t possible. I was extremely virtuous and productive this weekend. We cleaned the house, which is a boring and frustrating activity, but it feels so nice when your life is in order � the house is clean, the laundry is done, there�s edible food in the fridge. I did lots of sewing and a bit of dyeing (I think I have an obsession with dyeing, but you can blame Kymber and Mitake for enabling and Dharma Trading for supplying.) I realized I�ve custom dyed almost everything I�ve made lately, from Roland�s gambeson to all my cotehardies and underdresses to the hoods I�ve been making. It�s like crayola for adults (of course I still have my 64 pack of crayola lying around the house). The bigger irony is I despise chemistry (ask Mel) so it�s hilarious that I�ve become so interested in dyeing. I finished one of my birthday books. If you like lyrical novels, check out Sharon Shinn's stuff. She reminds me of Robin McKinley and tiny bit of Guy Gavriel Kay. Her stories are well plotted and her material varies widely (no getting stuck in the seventeenth book of a 'trilogy' with this lady - I hate potboiler fantasy.) The weekend wound up with a lovely impromptu cookout by Alan and Gen's pond. (Is that like Walden pond?) Alan cooked me some lovely burgers, the goldfish splashed my feet, and the cooler full of yummy drinks was only a stretch away. Sigh... My nephew turns one today! Happy Birthday Ryan Matthew! I love this kid � he looks like my late grandfather and he�s going to have the same hair (red/brown/auburn/strawberry/blonde) than my grandfather and I shared. I sent him clothes because that�s what mom said he needed, but I had to include a little toy because that�s what aunts do. I love the aunt gig. I must plan to visit my adorable bunny boy [cause his Mom always get�s his picture taken with his toy bunny so we can watch him grow bigger and bigger than the bunny] after Pennsic. He was chasing the cat yesterday, and even catching her occasionally.
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