Do you like my beads

Thursday, May 8 - Blisters! Big ones on the back of both heels. Andrea, you know the shoes. We bought them together last summer when I was in Lohne. They're cool brown leather with stitching on them that looks like the British Union Jack.

All winter long they've been sitting in my closet; no sense in getting them ruined by all the salt and snow, right? So I threw them in the suitcase without a second thought because they were so comfortable last summer. On Sunday morning we walked up and down the street in downtown Las Vegas. It was beautiful and warm and there was so much to look at! I didn't feel any pain - not until that evening when I sat down on the bed in our hotel room. Then I noticed two huge blisters on the back of my heels that had already broken. Damn, how was I going to walk in any of the shoes I packed for the trip? The answer was found at the ABC Store for only $10.99: A cheap pair of slip on sandals that had NO heel! Thank God for ABC Stores!

"Hey," you might be saying, "When did this Las Vegas trip come about?" Well, it was a top secret trip to celebrate DH Don's 50th birthday. He didn't know about it and I couldn't risk telling too many people for fear that he would find out. We had a very nice time but won absolutely no money. I couldn't believe how un-lucky we were! But we did see Penn & Teller's show at the Rio and enjoyed sitting by the pool/shark tank. And with a statement like that, I think some pictures are in order:

The left photo is of DH Don sitting in the pool, behind him is the shark tank with 16 sharks plus many other fish. The tank is completely encircled by the pool so you can swim all the way around it. The right photo was taken from the back side of the tank. Everything is back lit but you can see the size of that shark with the people right in front of it. That tube thingy in running through the picture is a slide! It was three stories tall and the last park of it went right through the tank of sharks! Don slid through it a few times but said that he was moving so fast and there was so much water splashing about that he couldn't see any of the sharks and he flew through the tank.

The left photo shows the last of the slide as it comes out of the tank and ends in the pool. The right photo is so cool because you can see all the teeth in that shark! Yikes!!! You can click on the pictures to get a better view.

We stayed downtown at the Golden Nugget and got a good look at the Fremont Street Experience. It was something to see. At first I didn't know what it was. It looked like a canopy over the street and we wondered about it. For the rain, Don guessed. But I said it doesn't rain in the desert. Then we thought for shade. Duh, I guess we're pretty stupid!!! It was a five-block long TV screen suspended 90 feet over the street. Awesome:

The left picture is just before dusk and the first show. You can see the ceiling suspended over the street and if you look all the way down you can see the night sky where the screen ends. That's our hotel, the Golden Nugget, at the right of the little palm tree and it's about at the middle of the five blocks that the screen covers. All the hotel lights are on and there were bands playing and street vendors working all up and down the street. It had a carnival-like feeling. In the right picture you can see the screen in action. All the hotels have turned off their lights while the show is on. It's really quite remarkable. What they showed was kind of lame, if you ask me. But the colors and size of the thing make it spectacular in itself. The first show is at 8 p.m. and it lasted for about six minutes. Shows run on the hour from eight until 11 p.m. We saw the 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. shows and missed the later ones. I guess we were too busy losing all our money to see the later shows! LOL!

Okay, enough updating for one day! Next time I'll show some beads!!!

Thursday, April 17 - Where does the time go? The weeks have flown by since I've updated and I was surprised how long it's been. Hmmmm, guess I'm going to have to make a real effort to update more often.

Last Friday I took a class on lining beads and capping them. What fun! It was with Jeff Barber and he let us use two of his beads plus I was able to do one of my own. Now I just need to buy the equipment and make some focal beads! The equipment is relatively cheap so I should be able to swing it in a few weeks.

I do have an auction up on ebay. It ends tomorrow night . . . already. I don't know why I only did a five-day auction. Normally I have it last a week. Change is good, right?

Our neighbor had their baby last week. A little boy they named Logan. He's adorable and I've visited him a couple of times already. He's very happy to be held and sleep. I haven't even seen his eyes yet. One of these days he's going to open them!

I'm taking another knitting class this week and next. I've got a good start on a petal bib which will most likely land around Logan's neck eventually. It has some features that will be good to know how to knit. I'm especially happy to learn how to apply I-cord. It makes a very finished looking edge that I know I'll be able to use on other projects in the future. I hope Logan likes green

Tomorrow I've got time carved out to sit at the torch again. Plus I have a plan! Love it when I know what I want to do! I have a small focal set rolling around on the dining room table which will most likely find it way on to ebay soon, too. But for now click on the picture at the right for this week's auction . . . Ciao!

Thursday, March 27 - It's a boring night here. No Survivor night . . . DH Don has the flu . . . an Australian strain according to his doctor. He's miserable but is sleeping at the moment. Whew! He didn't sleep at all last night - cough, cough, cough. The cough syrup he got from the doctor today is working pretty darned good as of now. Don also got some flu medication and I hope it will make him feel a bit better tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

What's new here? Well certainly not the snow were getting; that's all too familiar!!! I don't think spring well ever get here. We're expecting another 3 inches tonight. Well lay it on us, I say, and get it over with! We're not even going to shovel a measly 3 inches. We can drive and walk through that without even noticing it any more.

What else is new? DH Don got into a car accident last Monday and completely ruined our car (a silver Grand AM). He's having a busy week, isn't he? Luckily he only got a little bruise/burn on his arm. The car is gone; I didn't even get to see it or take a picture of it before it was taken to some scrap yard north of Milwaukee. Maybe it's better that I didn't see it. I would have freaked out thinking what could have happened. So . . . now we're looking for a new car. Just what we wanted to do . . . NOT! The old car was paid for, had low miles and in great condition. The insurance company (ours because the guy who caused the accident didn't have insurance, ack!!) didn't give us enough to replace the car, only what they thought it was worth. Car payments are in our future bless it all!

No beads, I've got some ideas but no time at the torch. We've been test driving cars this week in hopes of narrowing the field down. Tomorrow night I want to visit my cousin Daniel who is going back to school on Saturday. I'm hoping to find some time on Saturday.

Don us up . . . well, at least a little bit. He was talking in sleep and now telling me to get his flu pill (Tamiflu). . . I gave it to him but I hope this is when he should be taking it! I don't know when he took the first one today. I think he's sleeping again. That was fast. I hope to heck I don't get this bug! Where's my hand sanitizer????

Sunday, March 23 - Happy Easter! Sorry for the delay in updating here. I've been visiting with relatives from Germany and haven't had time for much else. No beads. No updates. But lots of fun stuff for me behind the scenes.

On Friday we went to a hockey game in Milwaukee . . . during a raging snow storm. We got more than 12 inches of snow. And I thought that Thursday was the start of Spring??? Oh, well.

We're off to my sister's house for Easter dinner but I thought I post some pictures of the Germans and what we do here on the day before Easter. They had a blast yesterday . . .

Monday, March 3 - How'd you like those elk pictures? There have been some comments sent in to me (a rare thing), and I love it. It's nice to hear from people who are regular visitors here.

And speaking of visitors - we've got a batch or two of Germans coming to visit us again this year, though our house won't be their base as in the past couple of summers. They're staying with my parents but I plan on taking some vacation while they're here so I'll still get to do lots with them. It will be a ton of fun and I'm really looking forward to seeing them again. If you're interested and don't know who's coming, here's the run down: Theresa, Daniel and Theresa from the Eiken family. That's second Theresa is a girlfriend and not technically "family" - though she'll be treated as if she is!!! Then later in the year we have Carlo Runnebom - a sound musician and, believe it or not, horse trainer. I wish his parents would come with him, but I understand that having Mom and Dad along makes the trip a bit less desirable for most young men! Mechtild and Allo will have to come on their own some other time!

Beads? Yep, I've got another auction going up tomorrow night - sneak preview tonight. They'll start around 9:30 p.m. central time on Tuesday. I was in the mood for dots and I saw a dress in a commercial with the same colors. If you own that dress, these beads are a must!!! To be honest, I don't even remember what the commercial was for; I just remember the dress. I guess the cost of that commercial was wasted on me!!

Tomorrow night I'm taking another knitting class. This time I'm learning how to make a Nordic sweater which will include a lot of new skills . . . one of them actually cutting the sweater for the arm holes. I know that's going to be nerve wracking!!! Ciao for now!

Thursday, Feb. 28 - Squeamish Alert!!! If you're not into hunting, you might want to skip this week's update! I finally have the pictures I promised from my Dad's elk hunt last fall. There was a bit of problem with my Mom emailing them - I had to teach her how to do it! That done, I now can show you the humongous beast plus she can now email pictures to whoever she wants. Watch out, family!

Here's my Dad. Look at how big that animal is! If you know my Dad, you know he's not a "little" guy and he's wearing all kinds of big, fluffly clothing and that elk still dwarfs him! There's a lot of steaks in them, thar critters! (Double-click on these pictures to see a larger version.)

Here's most of the group. My Dad, my brother George, a friend I don't know and the son of another friend that I do know! They all had a great time, too. My Dad would go back every year if he could!! And elk steak is a lot like beef except it is very, very lean. In fact, there was no fat on the steaks we've had . . . nothing at all! But seared with some onions, a few mushrooms and some rosemary . . . ymmmmmm!

Okay, let's talk beads! I have another sparkly set of beads this week. Very snowy in nature - I guess art imitates life and since my life is filled with snow, it was only a matter of time before it showed in my beads! I love them, too. They sparkle (especially in the sunlight) so nicely. My Mom will be getting a larger size one for her change-a-pendant that I gave her for her birthday! Her bead is even more detailed - it's bigger so there was more room to do stuff on it. Click on the picture to go to the auction.

More snow is on the way tonight . . . only 3 or 4 inches. But there's still plenty around so it will ad to the growing piles in our yard. I read a while ago that we had gotten 72 inches of snow this year and we've gotten 2 or 3 snowy days since then. You metric people will have to figure out for yourselves how many centimeters 72 inches is - I don't even want to know!

Tonight was Survivor night at our house so I'm kind of tired now. But I wanted to do this update because I didn't update earlier this week. DH Don had some tests done at the hospital on Tuesday - we spent the entire day at the hospital. He slept off the anesthesia most of the day and I knit socks. The nurses were amazed and had to bring their co-workers into Don's room to see the freak knitting socks. But it was all worth it! Don got an all clear from his doctor and won't need that particular test done again for three years! Yippee! He's had a great round of tests this year - all of them came back perfect and there was no need to see any other specialists! 2008 is going to be a good year!

Monday, February 18 - Haven't I been good about updating once a week lately? I haven't had any complaints from readers (or family). I have to admit getting one call from my cousin in Germany asking if I was ok! On my end it seems as if no one really sees this; I just write it and who knows if/when anyone actually is looking. I guess that isn't the case at all.

I have another auction going up tomorrow night. It's so pretty in pale Springy colors. Maybe it will cause a Spring wind to blow into our little corner of Wisconsin. As of yet Spring isn't even on the horizon so these beads will have to keep me until the snows melt. The auction will start on Tuesday night (Feb. 18) so if you're reading this on Monday or Tuesday during the day, you get a sneak peak at the auction.

A storm hit us over the weekend but we only got rain. We have so much snow here that it didn't even dent the piles around the house or on the lawn. What it did do is turn to ice, making a walk to the car or out the mailbox a treacherous event. Our street wasn't plowed all that well since the heavy snows came. Now driving down our road is eerily like driving out on a froze lake - and I have some experience with driving on frozen lakes when my Dad used to take us ice fishing when I was young. He did the driving but I remember how the car felt as it drove over ice and packed snow; I never felt scared with my Dad at the wheel either. I had complete faith in him and I was young enough that I didn't even give it a second thought. It was actually exciting! I wonder how I would feel driving over the ice in my own car . . . somehow that seems different to me now. Maybe if my Dad was with me???

Here's a picture just so you get your money's worth on this update. Can you believe that a mail truck caught fire and our mail was on it? Yep, I can't wait to mail this bill back to my doctor's office. What are they going to think? Ciao for now!

Wednesday, February 13 - I'm not even going to mention snow . . . doh!!!

Check out the way cool beads in my latest auction. I l-o-v-e these beads. Plus I have the start of another set in the works. Something Spring-like with colors that are out of my normal range. I'm getting my mojo back again and it's a good feeling.

Tomorrow is Survivor night at Patti and Dave's place. Anyone watch it last week? Can you believe that Johnny Fairplay was the first one voted out? No one could have predicted that and least of all me! I was trying to predict what his big scheme was for this season . . . oh, well. He was a let down.

Nothing too interesting is happening this week; just work and more work. It's been kind of boring. Barack Obama is in Racine tonight . . . that's about the most exciting thing happening in the area. I didn't want to fight the crowds in 13 degree weather to see him. I'm just not that political. The primary is next week Tuesday here and Obama seems to need every state he can get. I've heard he's a good speaker but I'll just read about it in the paper tomorrow!

I'm still knitting but that's been less now that I'm making beads again. I've got a set of felted clogs in the works and then I want to make a sweater. We'll see how that turns out. A sweater just seems like a real commitment . . . unlike the gloves, mittens and clogs which are a relatively small projects and easily completed.

It's late and I'm heading off to bed. Have a good week.

For those interested, especially those who sat on the patio in their t-shirt and had lunch on Sunday (say Ralf), here's some pictures of our neighborhood (note: It's snowed three times since I took these pictures!!! More is scheduled for tomorrow, too!):

Don and Austin (our neighbor) having a snowball fight in our street.

Our pond, fish included somewhere under there!

The path DH Don dug out to my propane tank and our patio from the back door.

Monday, February 4 - More snow! Can you believe it? Yesterday we got at least a few more inches. Today: Rain! What the heck. Starting tomorrow night: More snow - possibly 5 to 9 inches!!! Uncle!!! I've had enough snow.

An auction is up of the blue beads at the right! It's been a while and I've priced them low to attract some bidders! They really are beautiful beads, too!

The Super Bowl was great fun. I'm happy to see that New York won. It was a great game to watch and we had a good time at our friend's party. They throw it every year and it's nice to see the "summer" people who we don't see all winter long. Most of them are softball players that we see every weekend when the weather is nice . . . ah, remember nice weather? Warm breezes and sunshine? It's been a long winter . . . Hey? How did I get back on the weather again? I already wrote about that! Hmmmmm?

I've been at the torch but had a few glitches this weekend. I was not happy with the beads I made. This week I'm determined to get them right . . . I'm hoping the glass fairies are nice to me this week. Wish me luck!

Wednesday, January 30 - Wow! January is almost over already. Winter is just flying by but the cold weather isn't leaving us anytime soon. It was so darned cold last night and the wind was just frightening! Brrrrrrrr! The temperature went down to about -3 the last I looked (Fahrenheit just so you Germans know) and the wind had gusts up to 50 mph!

I'm working on beads!! Can you believe it? Finally I've been getting down to the torch and having some fun again! Whew; it's been too long since I've felt good about working with the flame. My goal is to get an auction together for this weekend. Now that I've said it, I'm going to have to do it!!

OMG! American Idol is on the TV right now - there are some bad, bad singers going on right now. And to boot, they don't believe Simon, Paula and Randy when they tell the contestants that they are bad! Oh, please; when someone tells you that you're hurting their ears, just l-e-a-v-e the building!!!!

See ya Friday with beads to show (said with confidence)!!

Thursday, January 24th - Did I mention that I hired someone to vacuum my house? Yep, I just can't do it with my bad back and getting DH Don to do it was getting harder and harder. I'm ashamed to admit that we went more than two months without vacuuming our carpets! Yikes!! So I decided it was worth it to find someone to come in once a week and do it for me. And it's really made me feel much better. It felt so good the first time she came that I slept like a rock that night . . . do you want to see a picture of her? Here she is:

For those of you who might not know (or recognize her since she's grown so much) it's my niece Anna! She's 14 now and gets ten bucks a week for vacuuming my whole house. Along with the $10 comes dinner and she's been great about helping me make it, too! Tonight we had shrimp fried rice. Afterwards Don went off to pay his softball fees and I straightened up the place while Anna vacuumed. A sweet deal all around but especially for me!

I have some funky heart beads that I made the other night. I'm not entirely happy with them so I'm keeping the sequestered in the basement studio until I have something more worthy of showing off to the general public.

Anna and I are off to wash some felted clogs that I made. They've been complete for a while but it's always a big leap of faith to throw them in the washer with hot, hot water to shrink down. It's all part of fearless knitting I guess!

Have a good week! Ciao!

Sunday, January 20th - We're getting ready for the big game! It's going to be cold up in Lambeau and we're happy that we'll be watching it from the warmth of our own house! Let's hope the Packers send the New York Giants back home with nothing but next season to look forward to!!! Go Pack!

I'm making appetizers to take over to our neighbor's house for the first game today (San Diego vs. New England). But I think we'll be back home for the Packer's game later this evening. DH Don is worried about being too "wired" (and I'm quoting him). LOL! You'd have to know him to realize what a funny statement that is. He's usually so laid back and rarely gets excited - he's my calming influence! For some reason he wants to be home when he gets "wired." That cracks me up every time I write it!!! LOL!!!

No beads to show you yet. I made some that were so-so. Maybe I'll work on some hearts this week. I was hoping to get some made this weekend. But as things worked out it became clear that I couldn't make it down into the studio. Tomorrow night is slated for beads! Yipee.

It was -4 degrees Fahrenheit - it happens every year so it really no surprise. We don't take Alpine for walks when it's so cold and he's getting a little anxious to get out into the world. But that will have to wait; I worry about his little paws on the cold ground. Hopefully it will warm up a bit this week, though I haven't seen a forecast this weekend so I have no idea how long this cold snap is supposed to last.

Oh, Mary V. asked me about New Year's resolutions. I've decided to empty the dishwasher and drain board sooner. I have a habit of letting the clean dishes sit around until I start cooking dinner to put them away. So far I've been a little better at that! At work I've been filing my completed ads every day. The bad habit was letting them pile up and and filing them only once a week or so. This really made Susan crazy, not that I did it intentionally. I'm always so busy at the end of the day getting things out that I just didn't take the time to clean out my filing basket. So far I've been doing great on this resolution.

I'm off to finish up the appetizers and get ready for football! See ya!

Thursday, January 9th - I'm playing catch up again. It seems like I'm always behind these days. I'm hoping things settle down and become quiet and peaceful for the rest of the winter.

Right now it's snowing big, big flakes. It's really pretty but I hope we don't get too much snow and clog up the roads tomorrow.

We've had a strange weather week here. You might have heard we had some tornadoes here in Kenosha on Monday. Luckily DH Don and I are fine and so is the rest of our family and friends. But about a mile from our house there were people who were not so lucky. Buildings were damaged and destroyed right here in Kenosha and out in the county about 27 houses were completely destroyed and 60 others were severely damaged. The miracle of it is that no one was killed. There were some injuries but nothing life threatening. We were lucky here; eye witnesses said they saw one tornado go over Carthage College and out over Lake Michigan. That is less and a mile south of our house. Another eye witness said he saw three tornadoes by Cortese's restaurant, several blocks north of our house, and they also headed out over the lake. It was a close call and something that has never happened in Kenosha before. I feel so sorry for the people who lost everything. It's just heart breaking.

On a lighter note, I have the picture of all the Christmas presents I knitted for people. The kids seems to really like their mittens and reports coming back to me are that they are quite warm and comfortable! That makes all the work worth it! Here's the picture:

Behind the mittens are the felted clogs I made for my mother-in-law. They are knit really, really big. They looked like they were for Big Foot! Afterwards I washed them in hot water; being 100% wool they shrunk down to size, making a warm pair of slippers! I'm making another set right now for my friend's birthday. They knit up quickly and really seem nice. One of these days I'll make myself a pair!!!

On a final, and sad note, we had some bad news on Christmas Eve. One of my cousins in Germany passed away. Gertrud was such a happy and fun person; she is going to be missed by all of us. There was always a twinkle in her eye and a laugh on her lips. So in memory of a dear cousin who is gone much too early, I'm posting a picture of her here.

In Memory of

Gertrud Trumme

1941-2007

Tuesday, December 25 - Merry Christmas!! I'm listening to Carrie Underwood on my new iPod Nano!!! Way cool! Mine is the green one! I love it already. It didn't take long to figure out how to get some music on it either. There's a few cd's on it already and I can't wait to see how the car adapter DH Don also gave me works. It plugs into the lighter and is wireless. How neat is that? I hope all of you are as thrilled with your gifts as I am! Thanks DH Don!!! I'll have to figure out how to get video on it now. There's all kinds of free Podcasts on the itnernet and I even want to try some audio books. But for now . . . "I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped up 4-wheel drive . . ." gotta love Carrie Underwood!!!