Friday-4pm

We've had blue skies (and freezing cold) for several days.  Wind chill warnings of -35F and lower.  Brrr!

I have been dealing with laptop issues and almost wasn't going to even try to post today, but decided to see if it will work or not.  My laptop keeps saying my hard drive space is low or full, so I have been deleting and deleting for two days--to no avail.  The boxes still pop up and it says dropbox can't download pictures for me--even though I have deleted from dropbox, too.  Awk!
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I did get a few pictures and videos from Leah before things went completely haywire and my laptop froze up a few times.  I had to leave youtube open all night to get four videos uploaded.  I have been missing out on pics and videos because of my too full McLap.  So I have videos that are new and old that I have been getting randomly.  I guess when I have deleted enough off my laptop I'll finally get them all.  Good grief!  Anyways, McFamily plans to come over tomorrow to put my spacesaver together for my bathroom, so I'll have Dagan investigate.  Maybe things can be functional again soon.  :)

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Karma catches the morning sun and wonders why I look cranky--LOL! 

I forgot to show you the latest stacks of chick mysteries that Caroline brought over last time she was here!  I already had almost that many here, so I am set for a good long time...as I mostly read them in the bathroom, truth be told.  ;) 

I've even had pen problems lately--LOL!  I drug (the grammar police will be cringing) out some Preppy fountain pens again a couple months ago.  I forgot how much of a hassle they are with dripping from the sides of the nibs as I am writing with my hot little hands.  I went to open one that had a Diamine Grape sample in it and ink had even leaked all over inside the cap and got all over my table--so I brought it over and dumped it out on to an art journal page and blew the heck out of it with an air can.  (Felt good!)  So, while I was at it...  

...I had been suffering along with a Prera pen skipping and stopping a lot, right?  (Some inks are just too dry for fine and extra-fine nibs.)  So, I dumped that Noodler's Liberty's Elysium sample on the other side and blew that all to heck, too.  Ahhh!  I needed that.

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I really have gotten spoiled using better than $3.00 plastic pens and some better inks that don't run dry in fine nibs, I guess.  With the inks--thank goodness I can get small samples at Goulet Pens!  :)

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Let's see--I also cleaned out the fish bowl...again.  A regular thing when you have fish bowls.  All three fish are still alive.  You can see the two tetras...and center bottom is the tiny ottocinclus sucking on to the front of the glass. 

OMG!!  The ottocinclus almost went down the garbage disposal!!  I was pouring the bucket of water into the clean bowl (rather than catch them with nets again) and the otto went sailing out of the bucket, into the sink, bounced and flipped down the black disposal rubber thingie!  Oh no!  
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I quick set down the pail with the tetras and went to fish the fish out of the disposal, right?  Well, they have those spiny fins and it had splayed them out in angry, frightened panic--and caught itself precariously on the edges of the rubber flaps!  Whew!  I couldn't even see the tiny dark fish against the black rubber (my eyes aren't that great, to be fair), but I immediately felt the poke of the pointy fins and scooped it up in a flash.  Why it decided to try to fly out of the water this time...who knows?  Has the 2 gallon bowl made it suicidal?  I hope not.  Maybe it has learned not to try that again!  But just in case, I have learned that next time I will lay a net over the disposal.  ;)

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Meanwhile, I have felt so tired and sore that bigger projects have just felt overwhelming (took me four days to clean the fish bowl--LOL!).  But this current state of my body may not ever go away...so...it occurred to me that maybe I should break down bigger projects into very tiny steps.  Actually write them down so I can check them off and feel I am making progress, you know?  

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Do any of you remember "baby steps" from What About Bob?  I was thinking of that movie and chuckling to myself as I was writing out my long, extremely detailed list.

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So, that's what I did with the tweaking and sewing the rest of the first set of pads project.  I'd tell myself...well, you can just pin the sides together...okay, you can just sew around one lap (lol!)... or you can just turn them right side out...etc, etc. 

 I would do a step or two at a time and I finished them in two days--tada!  They still need snaps, but Leah is the official snap attacher.  :)
Baby Steps!!  ROFL!!

You may have noticed Karma stole my sewing chair as soon as I got up in that above picture.  She's been randomly in a wild and most foul mood lately.  Itching for a fight, as cats can be.   

Here we're playing try-to-catch-my-fingers. 

If she gets a bit too ferocious... 

...it's time to quit.

Cats are excellent pouters. 

One reason Karma's been in such a bitchy cranky mood is that I quit letting her get her cat treats in the living room.  She's used to me tossing them for her to race from one side of the room to the other (and burning off some of that "shades of the lioness" energy).  But I knew we would soon have a crawler in the family and Caroline only cleans once a month because she's getting groceries for me the second "visit".  I didn't want little pieces of cat food (Karma is not the neatest eater) to be going into Ian's mouth.  Not that it would kill him, but...well, you know.  ;)  
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Miss Karma thinks I am truly a cruel master at the moment.  LOL!

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But this is the reason for all the cat cruelty.

There are three more videos of Ian you haven't seen here that are on my youtube channel, if you're interested.  I wasn't going to try to post them in this blog because I'm not even sure it will publish in the first place.  But I know there are some of you who would like to see them all (like great grandma and grandpa Johnson).  ;)
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You can click here for more videos.
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McFamily plans to be over tomorrow to put together my bathroom spacesaver.  Gramma will be trying to corral Ian while Mama and Daddy are busy.  ;)  Ian is already thinking about how he can pull himself up to stand against furniture...so it won't be long and Miss Karma won't be safe up on "her" chair anymore--LOL!  Ian is on the move now!
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There have been so many people sick this winter.  Caroline just had strep and ear infections.  I have been very lucky that I have been feeling cruddy for totally unrelated reasons.  They had a cyclone in Australia.  Boston had more snow.  Spring will come.  (Or fall, depending.)  We can always count on change, right?  Take care, everyone.  I hope I get computer issues sorted out and that I will see you again on Tuesday.  :):)
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"Take care of yourself — you never know when the world will need you."
Rabbi Hillel