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OK, first note: for those who find this newsletter through search engines, the Blue Sheep is a creature of FayryLand, formerly my SF writers' BBS, defunct since, oh... 1996 or so. I inherited it from Elven Highlord, who ran it as a gamers' and writers' BBS, and my successor was Sandman, who kept up the writing parts. For more information, read the Fayry Tales and the footnotes on the Blue Sheep. The Blue Sheep has come a long way from simply being a woolly shadow on the edges of someone's narrative, seen or heard only when someone grins sheepishly, to being the sacred animal of FayryLand's salvation. I love how stories turn out when more than one person is writing them. :-)
As of November 8th, 2005: Archived entries in the journal have begun. If you're wondering why the page is so short again, it's because I put the older stuff away, off the main page.
New pictures of my family and doings here! From now on, as of March 7, 2007. This page will mostly be static. If you're looking for real sheep, you're SO lost...
Elven Hands, my new business, is online! Yay, me. This is not up everyone's alley, but Etsy is an online venue, like a giant craft fair, and there is bound to be a seller there who has something you like. Even if you don't want my stuff, check out other people's stuff.
Java Test
We now continue with our reruns. Thank-you for your patience.
New pics of kids! Updated August 29th, 2005.
Hellion 54, Mom 2 This ain't pretty. It's a log of various repairs (and damages we've just let be), thanks to our favourite little boy in the whole world. It's straight text, no pictures. I don't want to encourage my Hellion by taking pictures of his aftermath. (Updated January 23rd, 2005: toilet clogs, ER visits, carpet stains.)
The Garden has been raked over a bit. (Updated August 29th, 2005.)
A pic of the latest sewing project.
This page is a sort of newsletter for my distant family and friends, a way for them to keep up with me and my nuclear family. If you don't fall into the "friends" or "family" category, you probably won't find my life very interesting. If you do, you may flatter me in email by telling me so. :)
End Introduction to my Homepage.
Check out the piece of turf I'm hoping will one day be Elfland!
View the Damage. It's not a pretty page.
See the Latest pictures of kids! (Updated August 29th, 2005.)
See the SEWING PAGE! Includes images of some completed works, and some quick tips I've picked up for sewing clothes. You can't afford to have me make anything for you, so don't ask.
See the Toilet Duck episode, from November, 2001.
Experience the
Blue Sheep. For Stuffers and others. This part has been mothballed, and needs revival. Read it and let me know if you want to pick up where we left off.
Read about my
garden. Includes a neighbourhood garden collage, and my usual anti-weed killer grandstanding.
For the updated Family Portrait, check out my new photo site: Flickr! Angelfire's 20MB just doesn't seem to be enough, after 4 years. :) I'll still update here, but the new pics will be over there. And chances are, they'll arrive maybe half again as frequently as updates here. Check both, if you're that much into my life.
Family Update, November 7th, 2005: We're all fine, we're alive, we're well, and I have pictures. Just not uploaded yet. My brother is safely married to his long-suffering sweetheart. We all survived the wedding and road trip, despite a horrible virus knocking out the Y-chromosomes for the weekend. I didn't think I'd be able to put on a decent set-up in my garage this year for Hallowe'en, because of time constraints, but the kids declared imminent heartbreak if I didn't do it, and it looked great! I completely forgot to carve our large pumpkin, our only pumpkin, but no one else seemed to notice. We have been gorging ourselves on candy for the past week, and on the first day of "candy supper week", my Tiger asked me, at 7:00 p.m., after a solid three hours of candy-munching, if I would make "a healthy supper" for them now. Aaaah... I love being the eccentric mom. :-D Pictures soon... promises, promises...
Picture Update, August 29. 2005: NEW PICTURES! From the month of July.
Family Update, August 28, 2005: We're still fine. I have 15 rogue cantaloupe intumescing on my front lawn that I didn't plant there on purpose. I have ZERO cantaloupe intumescing in my community garden, where I DID plant them on purpose. I've decided to be miffed, instead of grateful. I was really looking forward to eating an heirloom cantaloupe, not compost-sprouted produce-aisle product. Ah, well: the vines are covering the bald spots on the lawn.
Spock has rediscovered stress in the form of building a deck. I think we'll still be married by the time it's finished...
Tiger and Dragon Boy are both fine. I'm trying to think of something cute they've done that I can share on the internet, but I'm coming up blank. There was that thing with the cats... and the other thing with the computers... Oh! We bought 6 boxes of Cheerios just to get the free CD-ROMs, and now I can't get them to even LOOK at a bowl of Cheerios. We haven't even worked halfway through the first box. Grr. And then there's the thing with the caterpillars: we hatched two more black swallowtail butterflies -- GORGEOUS creatures that ate all my carrots to the ground. Not much of a harvest for me this year, damnit. Two days after the last butterfly was released into the thistles, a tiger swallowtail larva literally dropped in on Tiger's head. We brought it in, and we're waiting for it to complete its metamorphosis. So much for eating at the kitchen table without insect company.
Dragon Boy had another birthday. If we were living in the Middle Ages, he'd have beaten incredible odds against his survival to reach his 5th birthday. He's quite the artistic gentleman now, too. A very sensitive soul, he loves butterflies (couldn't possibly have anything to do with all those caterpillars in the carrots), he accurately and consistently paints and draws different kinds of flowers, and he's raring to start the Fall semester of piano lessons, in addition to senior kindergarten. We took him to Canada's Wonderland to celebrate his birthday, just family, as it's difficult to scare up guests for a party when everyone else is away on holiday, or at the cottage, or having their own birthday parties... Poor guy. He loved it, though. He got to pick every ride. We lasted from 10AM until 6PM... when Mommy and Daddy called it quits. :-D
Cats are fine, and we're down to 3 tetras in the fish tank. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can finally drain the tank and put it in storage, or get a gerbil. ONE gerbil. Not two. Just ONE. Preferably a male. I've already done the "Christmas gift that keeps on giving" thing with the gerbil and its supposedly same-sex friend.
Oh, and cuddle satin is 40% off at Fabricland, but I've already purged my stash at home, swearing to work through it until I literally cannot make another garment with the fabric I have at home. I CAN'T STAND IT!!! :-( It's cuddle satin! It never goes on sale!
Oh, and Revenge of the Sith is no longer in theatres. And I haven't seen it yet. *shrug*
Family Update, July 5, 2005: New Pictures! Not quite another "way too long", but since June's update, Spock has turned 40, the new cherry tree is in the ground, the kids have grown some more, the tomatoes are almost shoulder high (thank-you for that rain, Gulf states!), school is out... help me! help me!, the community garden is lagging behind everything else, and I'm almost always hiding in either the basement or the garden because of the heat. More Garden Stuff with pics, too. Cats are fine. Kids are fine. Spock is fine. I am fine. Yep. Fine.
Elf Update, June 2, 2005: HAPPY BIRTHDAY PERXIE! I know how old you are! [evil GRIN]
OK, another "way too long" between updates here. But I've been busy, especially with the spring. There are new pictures in the works, but not uploaded yet. Kind of like candy behind the glass, isn't it? :-) Haven't seen Revenge of the Sith yet, and I intend to see it on the big screen only for the music and the fight scenes. And Mace Windu, and perhaps Shaak Ti. As for the story, I already have heard it, and don't much care.
Kids are fine. Cats are fine. Spock is turning 40 this year, so he's not fine. Everyone must let him know he doesn't look a day over 39, OK? I am fine. I just ripped out the crabapple tree in the front yard, bought myself an axe, hacked out the stump and rootball, and emptied my composter into the resulting pit, layered with the original clay. I am FINE. Oh yeah. :-D Spock and I have been working on that tree since Friday. And as the happy owner of an axe, I may now fulfill all those lumberjack fantasies, and reinforce that Canadian stereotype, in addition to the crazy housewife, the PMS woman, and the nightmare neighbour. Oooooh, yeah!
Elf Update, January 23rd, 2005: Yep, another couple of months since the last update. I've been idling on a few message forums (fora?), instead of idling over digital pictures and page updates. I've been busy with sewing, writing, going nuts early because I've discovered online seed catalogs, going even more nuts because seed orders now arrive when the hard-copy catalogs arrive, because I've already placed my orders online... Oh, January is the cruellest month! (For me, it is. See, in February, it's time to start onions from seed. That makes it the very, very start of the gardening season, and the beginning of the end to eating at the kitchen table.) The kids are fine. The cats are fine. Spock and I are fine. And we have New Pictures to share! Mom, Brother, Sister: WHEN DO I GET MY COPIES OF DAD'S BIRTHDAY SHOTS??? We also have a new episode to share: Da WABBIT TWAP! I take my gardening very seriously. And there's a tiny sewing pic update -- nothing special, just a scrappy-do for Dragon Boy done up with remnants of other projects. Skippable for everyone but those who want to see yet another adorable pic of my son. :-)
And now I return you to your regularly scheduled life.
Other notes that may be of interest
Experience the Blue Sheep.
REALLY. It's fun.
Last updated on March 8, 2007. You who follow this soap opera know which bubbles are new.
Family Update, February 12, 2006: Another "too-long" since the last update. We're all fine. Spock's fine. The kids are fine. The cats are fine. The fish are all dead. The spiders are thriving. And so is the common house centipede population -- I'm assuming, anyway. We just ate the last garden tomatoes from the freezer the other day: I'd skinned them and popped them in mighty Zip-Locs, and the lasagna was good. Don't think I'll make another lasagna myself, though: too much work for the kind of appreciation I usually get from my family. "But Mom, you're supposed to cook for us! Why do we have to thank you for doing your job?" Oh, I don't know... maybe because that's what they said would make me a better Mommy in Mommy School? If you're wondering why I sound kinda grouchy, well, it's because I had a birthday. I like birthday parties, and I don't mind getting older, but when it's my own birthday, it seems kind of awkward to do my own birthday party. My mom's got the right idea about birthdays: go on a CRUISE! YAH!
Links to other sites on the Web Jean-Paul Sartre's Raisin d'Etre. It
explains why philosophers are really Goth.
Find your friends on the Internet White Pages. (Find your enemies. Find yourself!)
Dialectize ANYTHING. This page is a MUST HAVE for any recreational surfer. I personally like the Swedish Chef dialect on my page.
If you are into squishy wet skin things, this is the place for you! Pure luxury! (Expensive luxury, but we can all dream...)
This is my husband's page. I think it CLEARLY demonstrates his interests and hobbies. If only he'd update it!
Bad Candy. You will love this page.
Experience the Blue Sheep.
For Stuffers.
