Mortaine’s Blog

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Please do not open a support request. We know about it. We don’t know why it’s happening or what’s happening, exactly, but we have a bunch of requests already about it, and are contacting the site admins to fix it.

Your patience is appreciated.

You can still post recommendations for my Halloween costume.

– and I don’t know what to wear!

Seriously– post suggestions here for Halloween costumes for me!

Remember, please, that I am a pudgy short chick. Don’t suggest things like “sexy fairy” or “Elvira” because I will look like a fat fairy. And for Elvira, I’m most likely to look like a sausage stuffed into a black dress wearing a wig. Basically, anything that you envision in a size 5 is Not Going to Happen.

Anyone suggesting “pumpkin” will be killed outright. I have no patience for bullshit.

The best costume I did at or around this weight was a construction worker, and I’m tempted to do it again, because I still have the hardhat and the costume worked really well.

I went as Trailer Trash Medusa last year– it didn’t work as well as I would have liked, but ti was a great idea.

Oh, and I might have red (and possibly purple) hair by then, so keep that in mind.

I taught John how to hem a pair of pants yesterday. He was very careful, methodical– perfectionist, even.

If you’ve ever sewn anything, you know that perfection just isn’t realistic, you know?

When it was all done, he decided that the second pair of pants didn’t really need to be hemmed, after all.

I’m working on crocheting a very pretty rainbow-colored blanket. I originally started this one for my nephew, Austin, but he just got a gorgeous hand-made quilt from my stepmother, so I might finish it for Lizzie and give it to her when I give Austin his “Austin’s Room” wall-hanging. But then– I have a similar pattern (with big flowers) that I was thinking of making for Lizzie, and it wouldn’t be considered “appropriate” for a boy (stupid gender-typing).

Of course, Austin now has to share his room, which makes this a difficult wall-hanging anyway. . . . . . . hrmmm.

Anyway, I have finished three squares of the crocheted blanket. I have started the other 32 squares by making the center popcorn clusters. I’ve also done 20 of them to Row 2– I’m kind of taking a production-line attitude and doing all Row 1s, all Row 2s, etc., instead of each sqaure on its own. It feels like it’s going faster, even if it’s not, and even if it’s more repetitive, at least I’m not getting confused or forgetting the directions anymore.

I have learned that I’m not wild about blankets where you make a bunch of squares. I realize I should be feeling a sense of accomplishment with each square, but really, I’m just annoyed. I think I would enjoy a straight-line style of blanket instead, so that’s what I’m going to work on next, using the green and purple yarn I bought. Unfortunately, that blanket won’t “go” with anything in my house, so it’ll be a gift for someone in my life.

Also, I need to finish the cotton bag I was crocheting a while ago– I’m doing it all “wrong,” but I don’t care, and I just want to work on it and finish it, because it’s going to be a really pretty bookbag when it’s done.

My NaNoWriMo novel idea is coming along. I have some ideas for Obe’s biology, and realized last night that he most closely resembles a cephalopod (octopus or squid), and I therefore need to figure out what kind of world he comes from that encouraged intelligence from cephalopods (a prevailing theory is that marine critters don’t develop intelligence– dolphins and whales were once land-dwellers), as well as why he “floats,” how he moves, and how Earth is different from his world. I already know that he’s going to be having trouble with the chemical composition of our atmosphere and how it affects his lung, but I haven’t figured out how different our world is, really, compared to his.

I need to figure out his tentacle system– I know his tentacles have his primary sensing organs on them, particularly the eyes, but I’m also thinking that giving some or all of them specialized functions, such as for manipulating objects, would be handy. [ha ha ha ha-- okay, bad joke.] I have a dreadful feeling that there will be sketches involved for this alien’s biology, and I have to wonder– how serious do I want to be, anyway?

Ah, well. All in the name of science fiction, right?