For better or worse we'll be moving before November 30. I'm not exactly sure where we're going to end up, but if everything goes as I hope and pray I will be a real home owner come February. Regardless, I don't think there'll be any more opossums involved. Because, yes, there have been more of them and not just in the cupboard.

Either that dratted opossum is back or there is now something else in that cabinet. I'm leaning toward the something else because I can hear it walking back and forth in there. I barely ever heard Mr. Opossum. I'm afraid to look. Is there a sign or something under my sink that says "Vermin Hotel. Reasonable Rates."??

I managed to catch that pesky little opossum last night. I feel such triumph! Quite a scraggly looking little thing. Can't really tell, but in the second picture he's "playing dead". Quite convincing. Laying in the food was a very nice touch! I dropped him off in the woods a quarter mile or so from my house -- across two canals and a fairly large swath of marshland. Hopefully, he won't be back! Now I get to clean out the cupboards he was in. Ewwwwwww!! Not really looking forward to that!

Is that a provocative title or what? Unfortunately, you can take it literally. I am trying to catch an opossum that is living in my under sink cabinet as described here. It's not working. But I'm hopeful that it might since I don't want to have to rent a trap. So here I wait for the stupid thing to climb into a garbage can!

Here is more background on Rose. Background stitching is one of those things that I just have to love while I'm hating it. It goes so quickly, but I never feel like I accomplish much because when I'm done there isn't really anything to see.

I also started Bent Creek's The Red Thread.


I'm not entirely happy with how it is turning out. I think I made a mistake with the fabric. I choose Silkweaver's Desert Sky. I was expecting it to be a more peachy tan with blue highlights but it's mostly gray with some very faint tan. The GAST slate thread is practically invisible against the fabric and none of the other colors seem as vibrant as the WIPs I've seen. I'm not sure if I should start over or just replace the one color. I don't know why I worry so since I plan to give this as a gift and the recipient won't have a clue what it should have looked like and will certainly love it even if it does seem washed out to me.

Well, I am tired. So, opossum or no opossum, I am going to bed!

I’ve been lax once again. You’d think that I would have found some time during my four day holiday weekend to update my blog. But no. I don’t understand it, but when I get blocks of time like that with no obligations to others I go on a stitching frenzy. And that is exactly what I did.

This update on Taj Mahal is actually from the week before. I finished up the third side of part 3. One more to go and then I can finish up on part 4. It doesn’t seem like a lot of progress, but a bit is better than nothing!

Next up was supposed to be Sea of Roses but I discovered that the new chart I ordered with the background removed was not the same as the chart I had been working from. Ack! So I e-mail HAED about it and decided to move on and start (well, restart actually) Rose Fae . I decided to restart this because I thought I had made an error and used the wrong floss color. It seems I hadn’t, because that weird blue is still there in the leaves. No matter, I like the way things stitch up on the antique white and have pretty much decided to restart almost everything I have on anything else. Another testament to my complete insanity.

When I was finished with that, I decided to go ahead and restart Sea of Roses. I had determined that I had enough fabric to do so and figured more colors can only be better right? I only worked on it a day. Early on I came across a chart error (wrong color) and decided to put it away before I become even more frustrated. I’ll make a decision on whether to continue with the restart or continue trying to remove the background myself when it comes up again. Right now I’m equally torn between the two and figure some distance will help.

Tuesday was the first day of school. I took the day off and got close 1500 or so stitches done on Rose while they were in school. I’m not done with her yet, so a picture will have to wait. And here’s my youngest dressed in her finest and ready to go. She’s very excited to be in fifth grade this year. My son (who deigns to be photographed) is a senior and is gearing up to start applying to college! So there will be “endings” for both of them this year.

Not a happy dance, but a bunch of progress on Song of the Dead. I was enjoying working on this so much I kept on it a couple of days longer than I was "supposed" to. Once I got started I simply had to keep going until I had the bird's head stitched.

In the interest of not falling too far behind, here is a quick update on my most recent projects.

Once again, at the top of my rotation, is Victory. For some reason, this was not the pleasant stitch I have become accustom to with her. The threads seemed to be bunching up in a bulky and unattractive fashion. Probably because of the #4 braid. I was too far into this design before I realized that it was really too thick and mucked up the rest of the stitching.

And I have finished page 7 of Tower of Stony Wood. That makes the whole top row of pages done. Woo hoo!

I still can't quite believe it. I went with my daughter and she bought a car. Is she really that old? Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and she wouldn't let me borrow hers so I could take some lame (her word) pictures of her driving it off the lot. She is very excited and I've noticed a bit of a boost in her self esteem since she knows that she's doing this herself. It's all in my name, of course, since she's only 17, but she's the one who is going to be paying for all of it. And I realized today that I'm not at all worried she won't be able to handle it and I'll end up having to take over the payments. I am so very proud of her. And this time it's not just because she's beautiful!

I made great progress on A Rose Among Thorns. Over 4000 stitches in four days (plus a bit Tuesday morning)! I so wanted to start working on the horse and I was able to get a wee bit of his forelock done.

I've now made it through this rotation 3 times. A bit modified from when I first started, though. Next time around, I plan to space the non-HAED projects evenly among the HAEDs. And in order to get the numbers to work out right, I'll have to add three more HAEDs to the mix. Well, okay, I want to add them. I'm also going to try switching projects on Tuesdays and Saturdays, so projects on the weekends will only get 3 days. And finally, I'm debating whether or not I want a focus piece that I'll work on the beginning of every month.

I've now got cold water. And hopefully I'll have a new water heater by the end of the day. It's going to cost me every single cent I have. Lovely, huh? I guess I'm stuck here for a while longer.

Okay, my life isn't so bad. Probably the worst thing that ever happened to me was being separated from my son when he was born. Personally, that was pretty bad, but compared to what other people have to go through it was a walk in the park. But it's all the little stuff that seems to keep me from ever getting ahead.

I came home from work today to discover my hot water heater had sprung a serious leak. Water was just gushing out of it. I've had to turn the water completely off and now I'm waiting for my gas company to get back to me to talk about getting a new one.

But, once again, the timing of my misfortune is quite fortunate. I've probably got enough money saved to pay for it. I just hate to have to buy a new one since I want to be out of here by December and I'll have to use my moving money. Maybe I can return it when I move? Plus I bought a whole bunch of bottled water to take on my trip last week and only drank about 1/3 of it. So we won't go thirsty.

So, not a disaster, not the end of the world, just one of those annoying bumps. But it seems like I'm always hitting them just when things are starting to get better.

And maybe it's a good thing -- I got the USDA loan application and they have raised their minimum credit score 20 points. So maybe by the time I'm ready to apply again, my score will have gone up some more.