dang the weather

(note: this post ended up being really long... just don't say I didn't warn you.)

so here I am sitting at the computer. das is in bed sleeping. he's supposedly getting up to play flag football tomorrow; all my bets are on "yeah right". :) but I'd like to get caught up...

so first let me show off the final product of the "hanukkah lights" project. not too shabby if you ask me... considering I haven't paper pieced in ages.

as you can see... it's rather long. the rules were 6" x 12" centers for a table runner and 12" x 12" for a table topper. mine's about... 6"(ish) by maybe... 18"(ish)? it's an invalid entry. :( but I hope that people will make due. it's my first round robin ever. please be gentle.

and yes, my tablecloth is bright yellow. I'm surprised you can't see all the hair on it from the cats.

so my friend storey called this morning while I was working on my project and we made the executive decision that ultimately it may be considered "bad parenting" to subject her two and a half year old son to the epic rainstorms we were expected to have here in CT. understandable. we were disappointed, but such is life. she got her son's hair cut... and I decided to go anyway. yeah, you heard me. I decided to go... in the weather that was potentially going to require a large boat and sets of two of every species (except mosquitos... I can do without them thanks). so I packed up my stuff... prepped for the elements... and went to the post office, dunkin donuts, and michaels (for some stamping supplies). THEN I went to the fair. up to this point, there had only been slight drizzle so I was expecting to get there and have torrential downpours greet me instead of cows and goats and fried food. I get there... shuttle in from the off-site parking lot... still nothing. I walked around the fair for three hours. NO. RAIN. AT. ALL. which was awesome for me since I was currently at the fair... but disappointing all around because storey totally could have come. was it muddy? yeah sure... but it would've been dirty anyway. it's just wet dirt so who cares? :)

so about the fair. it was great... as expected. I very much enjoyed myself and am glad I went since I wasn't sure if I'd get out there again this weekend to really look around. it was perfect, too, when I first got there as no one had realized that it wasn't going to rain and we were still in that apprehensive "oh well do we risk it or do we stay in and go tomorrow" phase at home. there were hardly any lines or congestion typical of a fair scene. that changed later, as people realized that no, it really wasn't going to rain even though the weather forecasters (AND weather.com) said it was 100% chance of rain today. but I digress. I visited the swine/small animal/poultry/goats section first. I saw THE cutest little black goat. I do so much want a goat, but das for some reason is highly against that. I'm just trying to be green... a natural lawnmower? :) anyway, I went to the llama/sheep section next. most of the sheep were off-limits because, I believe, they were doing some showing still so they wanted to avoid pedestrian traffic as they loaded and unloaded sheep. the llamas were mentally preparing for their obsticle course section. the handlers were still setting up, so I opted to continue walking instead of waiting around. besides, the wet llama is a far more grotesque odor than many things I've smelled. wet wool = oh HELL no (gag). so I moved on to the photography section. I mentioned before about how I forced das to enter some of his work... well, of the two things he entered, one didn't place and one was honorable mention (which might I add is honorable considering there are about 250 photos entered into the competition and not everyone gets a "hey thanks for playing" ribbon). I personally think it's a sham, but it's all in the hands of whoever is judging. who knows what their criteria is... same with quilt judging. one person may count off more for one thing than another and so on and so forth. he tends to get deflated after his work is judged, but I keep trying to get him in again and again. anyway, my submission (at the end of this post) was an honorable mention, too. so I moved on to the needlework section. I had entered my irish chain (which I was SO hoping didn't have as much cat hair on it as I thought it might). and I got a blue ribbon! I am very excited. I just like having my work validated sometimes... I am very (ok... very to the infinite power) picky about my work. I think that is why sometimes I don't want to work... I'm worried I'll mess up. but I was proud of this work. I put love into it because I was making it for my husband to commemorate a great time we had together in ireland. that alone was worth the blue. :) I don't know yet what any commentary may exist so we'll see. maybe there will be something about "ok seriously... shave the cats". maybe. the next stop was the canning area to scope out how my pickles did. this was a huge experiment for me since a) I've never entered canning before and b) I've never canned anything before. I always like a stressful challenge... ok not really but in the end it's usually ok. just not those several weeks leading up to the deadline or the 12 hours just before where I'm frantically scraping everything together. at least with the pickles... I had to have them done at least 10 days before I entered them so that they could, well, pickle. :) though I ultimately made three styles (level three hot, level seven hot, and level ten hot), I submitted the level threes since those were the only ones I had made and tasted prior. I searched up and down... and found them... I got a third! which, for me, is so great. some pickles hadn't even placed, so to win a ribbon on my rookie pickle entry is so cool. I don't know if I'll do more in the future... it depends. I hope that there are some comments so I know what to do... not just for the entering portion, but to make the pickles better in general. so moving on... I checked out the craft areas, which are usually the same as they always are at the local fairs, and got some food, and just walked around some more. I found the farm museum, which was quite interesting. there was documentation on all the local farms from their humble beginnings to where they are now. the sheer number of older and antique farm pieces was just astounding. they even had an antique treadle there, too. after a while, though, my feet were acting up and I decided to head home.

I started to work on some stamping stuff, but das got home from his poker night early so I ultimately just futzed around. such is life. I did find out that our soccer game was moved due to the potential field closings. what really irks me about this is that the coordinators are moving the games and then wondering why we can't field a team. that's because people plan to have the games at a certain time... which is why you give the schedule to us at the beginning of a season. then the games are changed for whatever reason (usually rain) and now it interferes with plans that people have already made. our team is having enough issues fielding a team without the issue of overlapping schedules interfering. it's just frustrating to have to deal with a team of women who should all know better, but complain about it anyway. well, not everyone complains, but all it takes is one. I so don't want to be rep anymore; I'm a player and a rep, not your mother. wow... thanks for that vent, internet. I needed that.

so I leave this dissertation-sized post with this photo: the sham ShamWOW (note: sound auto starts with the page load). hilarious.