You Have to See It

I'm not quite sure what it is about this picture that makes me love it so, but I do.

Temptation

 Y'all know I love my boots.  Fancy ones with sequins, embroidery --- you've seen the pictures posted here.  These are a bit out of my range, though.

Don't get me wrong --- zhuzhed-up boots look great peeking out from a pair of boots or a skirt, but these are a bit "too."  Watch me wind up getting them one day...

These I genuinely like, but I'm not a fan of short boots.

Yet, the more I look at them, the more I'm inclined to go grab my debit card.  Boots are my Kryptonite.  More than yarn, even.

First football game here tomorrow.  ☹️.  All around town (ALL), there's been road construction at every single major intersection, ramp, and any other important part of any important street all summer.  That should have been wrapped up by the football season.  Tomorrow's game is against Marshall, so there won't be SEC-level traffic, but still.  It's tricky enough for me to just get to the few places I go.  If they don't pick up the construction pace, it will be a madhouse.

Big Ol' Day

This has arrived:

 It's a spiffy little paper cutter with a gloriously sharp blade.  (I seem to be on a good cutting roll.)  Best of all, it's marked as

Who wouldn't want a mini guillotine at the ready?  "Guillotine" is an excellent word, don't you think?  It looks and sounds like what it is.  I keep a list of my favorite words, and it is on there.

My long dental nightmare is over.  (🤞)  I got my permanent crown today, and it's white gold.  I know!   I'd take a picture, but, again, impossible with the bum fingers and it being the very last tooth in the bottom left.  Remember, this crown is what I was going to the dentist for when the top tooth sheared off and that whole implant drama kicked off.  Two years?  Three?  Far too long and far too expensive.  Here's hoping my next visit is for a plain, routine cleaning.

It's All in the Color

When you are a knitter who can't knit, and that fact eats away at you more and more every day, you have to find other things to do.  Like trying to perfect an air-fried grilled cheese sandwich.

I'm gettin' there.

 

Topics of Conversation

It's weird what people will reach out to you for.  Anything Gibb-related, anything about cowboy boots or knitting. . .  Today, so many people have sent questions about what a "cushion cut" and/or "old mine" diamond is.  I didn't know that many people remembered my father was a jeweler.  Plus, don't y'all know about The Google?  Do you not have some World Books somewhere?  I'm happy to be of help, but. . .  If any of you are going to write a paper, please give me proper footnoted credit.

(This is one of my favorite winks ever, and I am a bit of a wink connoisseur.)

Another addition to the Things Kim Has GREAT Difficulty Doing With Two Numb Fingers: polishing her fingernails.  All I've managed so far is a base coat, and my left hand is a femortal mess.  I'd take a picture to show you, but a photo with a phone is also rather impossible right now.

Therapy tomorrow, then back to the dentist Thursday for the placement of the permanent crown.  I'm trying not to think about brutal things were last time.

Simple Things

It's a slow day when the most interesting, electric news to publish on your blog is, "Guys!  I got some new scissors!"

They aren't technically new;  they've been in a drawer for a while.  It's just that I had sharpened the ones I was using so often that they wouldn't hold a sharpening anymore.  How nice to cut so crisply again!

You probably see there under the scissors that I'm still collaging.  Knitting and cross-stitch are still impossible.  Thing is, though, I love to cut things out.  I know I've said this many times, but it is still so very, very, very true.  Something so simple, but I enjoy it so much.

Rider Up

Ron Turcotte rode Secretariat, which had to be THE most exquisite experience any jockey has ever had.  He rode other horses, too, of course, but this (and note the arrow pointing at the horse) had to be a dream.

Ron has died, and I for one, thank him for what he did.

Reading Signs

MONTHS ago, I got a couple of old books from a thrift store to use in collages.  Today, I pulled one of them off the shelf to see what could be done.  Well, reading the front flap of one made me decide to hold off.

That sounds kind of interesting, huh?  The back half of the dust cover can still be used...

The front cover is pretty:

The tragedy mask is so much bigger than the comedy one --- does that portend a sad story?

Out of the Ordinary

I don't know why this didn't occur to me one of the other dozens of times I've been through my people stickers.  This has always appeared to be just a boy blowing bubbles, BUT

that bubble looks like a skeleton's face!

Quiet day here, after beginning kind of oddly.  Apparently, Briton and one of his co-workers were discussing the difference between "sex" and "gender," and he messaged his Sociologist Mom to weigh in.  Not expecting to come up with lecture on the spur of the moment, I pulled out a couple of pithy sentences:

"Sex is biology, gender is belief."

"Sex is an assignment, gender is a role."

Amazing how some things come right back to you.

What Can You Do?

This morning, I woke up feeling what I can only describe as "claggy."  Gunk in my throat, nose threatening to go all crazy...  Y'all know.  It all wore off by mid-afternoon.  So this lovely, non-stormy rain, any of my teas, and my cozy blankets have sort of all gone to waste.

Lucy? Luna? Where Are You?

Things like this fascinate me

Frankly, I  don't see the name of any pet I've ever had on either map.  I'll have to lobby for "Tap," "Barrymore" and "Zen" next year.

I'm disappointed in Tennessee for its lack of creativity.  

Time

With regard to a comment on yesterday's post: Pekingese are a peculiar breed, no doubt about it.  Shanghai was smart, intuitive and well-behaved.  The boy wore a bow tie for our Christmas Open House one year, and would rise up on his back launches to show anyone who asked.

Rupert --- well, Rupert was long on personality but short on brain.  Or maybe he was also long on "Whatever. . ."  (Not a sarcastic one, but a "I can roll with that" one.)  He was a handsome, fuzzy shrug.  

I had to get a new bread machine, and broke it in today with Milk Sweet Bread.

The pan on this machine is deep, but not very wide, so the loaf is really more of a column.  The bread turned out to be really, really good, by the way.

Over the weekend, I found and texted my children this photo with the caption, "Hannah is OVER IT."

She was 1, and her brother took the picture.  My hair was significantly darker.

Today is the birthday of, when you get right down to it, my Crush of Crushes, Mr. Redford.

89.  Eight.  Tee.  Nine.  Time has not been as kind to him as it should have been, but he's still who he is.  

*ssshhhhh*

Dale and I had a Pekingese named Shanghai, and, of course, Hannah had Rupert.  This is a face I have seen personally:

Tread lightly, people.

Free Shop Promotion

Twinnie introduced me to Land of Nod Studios on (in?) Etsy, and I've been a kind-of-regular customer.  Her stuff is amazing --- I recommend you go to Etsy and look for her shop.  Be prepared for some weirdness, though.  😉

Anyway, here's a bookmark I made today using one of her stickers:

Sometimes you have to make yourself chuckle, at least.

The State of Stuff

How beautiful is this?

You find wonderful things when you spend Too Much Time on Pinterest.  The colors, the capture of the moment. . .  Also, the weathered wood.  I even have a board titled "Weathered Wood."  There's also one titled "Old Doors."  My tastes are eclectic, I know.

One of my boards getting no filling is the knitting one.  I haven't been able to knit for two months, and it's beginning to eat at me.  I'm not looking to make Christmas gifts for anyone, so there aren't any deadlines.  It's just that I can only collage so many bookmarks, you know?

Freedom!

Today marks the first day in eight weeks that I am free, free, free from any upcoming obligations.  Nothing until my next therapy (mental) in two weeks.

In purple crushed velvet hip-hugger bell bottoms vernacular:  OH, YEAH.

I know most of you out there have real lives and clean up and dress nice and go out into the world every day.  And good on you.  For me, though, having places to be 3 or even 4 days a week is unwelcome.  Take a shower, wash my hair, put on clean clothes and make-up?  Eeeewww.

Granted, almost all my trips were medically necessary, which takes the fun out of everything.  If I'd been walking on a beach or strolling through yarn shops: different tune. 🎶

Knitting is still out of the question, which is the only thing in this whole deal almost as bad as the still numb fingers.  I keep collaging, just to feel productive, I suppose.  Some of them I like a lot, some I toss soon after I finish them.

Today was the first day of Fall classes at UGA.  The first football game is in 23 days.  This I know only because a liquor store I drive by often starts the countdown to the next kickoff as soon as the last game is over.  Many, undoubtedly, consider that a public service.  Me, not so much.

Oh, and if you're wondering about me driving by a liquor store regularly, it's a college town.  They are, let's just say, common.  Also, there are something like 80 bars in the roughly three block area of Downtown Athens.

Snaps

Y'all know that periodically I go on sorting/thinning out spells.  Here are a couple of things from one of my latest --- going through photographs.

I don't know which birthday this was.  Usually these old-time pictures have some sort of date on them, but this one doesn't.

My mother wrote in my baby book that I had long, slender fingers like my Aunt Louise.  They do look long in this photo.

Also, note behind me purple crushed velvet hip-hugger bell bottoms.  

OH, YEAH.

I wore those things until they were practically threadbare.  There was a wide purple crushed velvet belt, too.

And finally, look at my Beagle, Country.  She's waiting so patiently for some cake.  She stayed with us well into my college years.  I got her when I was in 3rd grade.

On another pet front, here's my pony, Star.

She's with foal, plainly.  She had 3 little ones: James, Rosie, and BG, in what some might call fairly close succession.  Her fertility is what led us to let her --- and them --- go.  I miss them to this day.

I Got Nothin'

Sometimes I Thinks

 Still sort of reeling over Tap and Sister Twin.  I was scrolling through news stories, stopped to read one, leaving the top of her head visible in the next story down.  In my head I'm thinking, "That looks like Tap's head..."  Crazy.  I know there were girls in his litter;  I'm just saying.

Sometimes something comes your way and makes you have to just sit down and ponder.

My tooth is feeling better, though when the gel and/or Advil wear off, it acts back up.  I've worn my mouthguard a lot just to keep the teeth apart.

Funny story about mouthguards.  When I was first diagnosed with TMJ, I went to the dentist and had an expensive (hundreds of $) mouth plate custom-made.  I bit through it within two weeks.  Ever since, I've bought plastic/rubber/whatever ones from sporting goods stores or online.  I haven't had a single one break or tear.

A Break From Teeth

This is Tap. 

This is a dog just identified in St. Louis because of her microchip.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!?

Me and My Troublesome Mouth

 Before, or very early in my whole tooth replacement saga, my "regular" dentist told me that a crown on one of my lower teeth (last one on the left) was beginning to crack, and would have to be replaced.

Yesterday, the process began.  I have never screeched and waved my hands during a dentist visit.  Yesterday, SCREECH.  And she couldn't stop, because this was removing the old crown.  It.  Was.  Excruciating.  The tooth itself, of course, is cracked (hence the crown), so there were two sources of misery.  But she got it done, and she warned me that it would probably be tender for up to a week.  I was given some gel to put on my gum, and released into the wild.  Last night, I was primed to call the office this morning and ask to be seen post haste.  If my upper teeth even grazed that one, there was ⚡️nerve pain.⚡️

Today it's better, which saved me a phone call and some money.  All my chewing has moved to the right side, as the left is obviously tender.  I go back in three weeks for the permanent one.  It may be gold, which is apparently stronger than porcelain.  These left side teeth take a grinding from stress.

Well, That's Weird

Sometimes I'll start a post because an idea comes to me, and keep it in the posts "line" until I'm ready to publish it.  One had been there for quite a while, and I decided yesterday to put it up.

Only it didn't publish like it was supposed to.  If you're interested in checking it out, scroll down and back in time  to July 7th to read "Am I the Only One?"

Here's something super cute to take our minds off of all that:

Everything inside is equally cute, and for some reason, this Samoyed got a solo shot:

Time Spent

 Today I got some super-cute bunny crafting paper:

Can you stand it?  I must be extremely choosy when picking projects for it.  I certainly don't want to waste any.

Quiet day.  I just finished a biography of Sargent Shriver, and have begun a book Briton's been recommending forever.  It's called Pachinko. 

It's a thick one, so it will take me a while.  So far, the writing is simple, kind of spare, and simply mesmerizing.

Honorable Mention

I have failed to let you know that my Twinnie, when I wondered about birds and spider webs, did some research and found out that webs are duct tape for building nests.Particularly hummingbirds.

THANK YOU.

So, I've added some size to my collaging, though I'm still churning out bookmarks.  This is one I really like:

The necklace is from a longer piece of trim, and the jewels in her hair were taken from another length of that.  For some reason, I am so, so proud of that necklace...

All On Account of the Numbness

This sticker 

has tasked me.  It's a clear one (PET, technically, I think), and these are difficult to separate from their backing.  I usually get them apart eventually.  This one I worked with for 35 minutes.  35!  Did I give up and go to bed?  I did.

A lot of that was my index and middle fingers.  Their "paralysis" makes fine work a bit tricky.  I've also noticed that I'm dropping things really often.  That "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" thing is true.

Pinterest, as if you didn't know, very obviously employs algorithms.  "Have you seen THIS picture of Robert Redford?"  "Here's another angle of the Bee Gees on stage."  Well today, this showed up:

It's a print for sale.  The thing about it is that three of those boots are boots that I own!  Starting from the left, #2, #3, and #4.  My feet are famous!  Sort of.