February '06

Feb 28 The dew settled on the tree that had been cut up during the snow storm, while the dancing blue & white lights produced a dotted pattern on the phone, that was sitting beside the ink-jet printer on the bottom shelf in a puddle of water with an old time-piece, at the former bus office....

Good morning.... Last day of Feb... March always sounds so much warmer than February... only 22 days until the first day of Spring! I've noticed that the amount of spam I get on my web base email increases significantly when I am using a hi speed wireless connection, here I get 3 a day, hi speed-wireless I'm deleting 30 or 40 everytime I log on.... I'm not even opening them so if you use Hey or something like that in your subject line you go straight into the trash... sorry!... (Safe subject lines are Multibon or Puffin) Finished my rope last night but think I want something dangly off of the bicone that I used as part of the clasp ... will ask G what he thinks...usually it's safe to do the opposite of what he suggests!!!

Made beads yesterday and worked on the window...

Not Egg McPuffin would really like some more name suggestions... You get one ballot for Paddy and one for Not Egg... Haven't decided how the name will be chosen from the submissions!

Feb 27 The dew settled on the tree that had been cut up during the snow storm, while the dancing blue & white lights produced a dotted pattern on the phone, that was sitting beside the ink-jet printer on the bottom shelf in a puddle of water with an old time-piece, at the former bus office....

Cold and sunny here this morning & the wind is howling.... the second coldest day of the winter! Spent another couple of hours in the dungeon working on the window, got up stairs figured I'd warm up in my new Jacuzzi tub..... WRONG... someone who is currently in SJ took the taps off when he was putting the tiles on..... Tiles are all on but not grouted... and the taps are AWOL.... Oh well so much for that idea! The window is progressing! Decided to make a opera length necklace using the beads I won in January... I discovered when I googled Opera Length necklaces that what I actually want is a Rope... Opera Length is too short... Everything is strung but I have to figure out what kind of clasp I want.....The necklace is a lot of silver with some sort of bead every 3/4 inch..... Stuart phoned last night to say that Emmy can walk through walls... He put him out and then found him sleeping with G in the main house... I'm sure someone let him in and just doesn't remember... however it would be very convenient if he could let himself in and out!

Feb 26 The dew settled on the tree that had been cut up during the snow storm, while the dancing blue & white lights produced a dotted pattern on the phone, that was sitting beside the ink-jet printer on the bottom shelf in a puddle of water with an old time-piece, at the former bus office....

Paddy seems to have gone on holiday from this page ... will track him down and get him back up later.. Sunday is pancake day and I've been paged!

Hope to get 'Eggy" McPuff up later on my home page I'm running a name the easter Puffin Contest... He does not want to be known as Eggy!

Cold and sunny here today.... G is off to SJ this afternoon to play Chauffeur for the week.... I started a thread on Lampwork etc about Postage to Canada...The reason why some people are charging us $10 for postage instead of $2-$4.25 is because Paypal tells them they have too... so it's all Paypals fault.... Paypal dictates how much people have to charge..... Yea...OK I for one won't be buying from them!!!! (Paddy is back! He was part of a table and I was told that some people couldn't load my rant... so I was trying to get rid of the table and lost him too!)

Feb 25 The dew settled on the tree that had been cut up during the snow storm, while the dancing blue & white lights produced a dotted pattern on the phone, that was sitting beside the ink-jet printer on the bottom shelf in a puddle of water with an old time-piece, at the former bus office....

Bright sun today... but a nasty wind! Hope you like todays word.. get your thoughts away from Christmas! Tried to make beads yesterday, my concentrator didn't seem to have any oomph so I gave up and worked on my window...I did make an egg for my Easter Puffin to sit on.... For an extra ballot to win Paddy how about sending me appropriate names for an easter Puffin! (you can send as many names as you want but you only get one ballot per person!) Think he will have a purple beak and purple feet, from trying to turn the grapes on the kitchen table into wine!

New topic.... rip off postage! I keep seeing on ebay listings garage sales in Forums etc... free shipping to the US $5.00 or whatever to Canada.... I ship from the states to the states regularly... Postage on padded envelopes ranges from 70 - 90 cents and small boxes are $1.11... to ship to me in Canada is $.90- $1.22 small box or padded envelope (parcel Post... anything else is a waste of money since the parcels get hung up at the border ....{customs doesn't care how much you paid in postage!}) So the difference in postage is somewhere between 6 cents and 52 cents... Charge me the difference 50 cents or even $1.00 but $5.00... I want my credit for the US postage.... I doubt if many of the people who should be reading this are... but IF you want Canadians to buy from US suppliers quit ripping us off!!!!!

Feb 24 The dew settled on the tree that had been cut up during the snow storm, while the blue & white lights produced a dotted pattern on the phone that was sitting on..... and someone got very lucky yesterday and guessed the right answer! We have snow here this morning... again... very wet stuff that is stuck to the trees! Watched the movie The Saint last night the beginning and the end are good but the padding in the middle was pretty boring... guess they should have just left it as a one hour program.....Check out my home page later today as I should have pictures of both the Beads of Hope and my felted mitts there....

Feb 23 The answer to the last MB is CAT... everyone got it very quickly!

The dew settled on the tree that had been cut up during the snow storm....

I like tree it's a nice anonymous clue! My parents are off to the Dominican Rebublic today... they should have gone last week, since the weather in the west has warmed up again.... We came home to snow again.. not much but it is back below freezing and sunny today. Tuesday afternoon in SJ the roads got very interesting! Good night to stay at home and hibernate... however the wet snowballs stopped falling about the time we got to the house! Looking at used cars in a blizzard is really fun .... lets put it this way we didn't buy anything!

Might even make beads today... I have another pair of mitts ready to felt... if I can beat some sense into my washing machine!...My Beads of Hope beads are all sorted and ready to string too... Since my mother is away I won't have anybody telling me when my dates are wrong... would someone like to take over that job for the next couple of weeks? Thanks!

Feb 21 Wild Bob looked at the scan and discovered that it was a picture of big bird having a nap with a woman in front of a black house at the edge of the jungle.....

More right answers... I'm off to SJ late today so the new MB will probably be Thursday morning... Stuart wants to test drive a car that is currently uninsured so I have to get a 'day pass' I'd rather he spent more $ on something with lower mileage that might last more than a couple of months.... Yesterday we went to St Stephen... to buy more wool from the store that is closing... only she's closed... suppose to reopen sometime not sure when... guess I'll have to phone every couple of days! I think felted hats and mitts will be a real hot seller in the gallery when it is 28 C...82 F degrees out with a humidity of 95%....We did get groceries and cheap US gas $2.39.9, so not a total waste of time! And I got an entire mitt knit in the truck while we were gone!

Feb 20 Wild Bob looked at the scan and discovered that it was a picture of big bird having a nap with a woman in front of a black house at the edge of the jungle..... I am working on a new MB hopefully much harder! I keep forgetting to post the answer for the last one... sorry, the answer was FARM...which would make a perfectly good clue for this game!

Got the following comment in an email this morning .... I had to share, it's referring to service people and general labourers....

...but whoever you seem to employ to do jobs in the
house here end up being a bunch of THICK plonkers, who SHARE a brain
(but its never their turn) .........

Instead of sorting beads yesterday I made a few more... Will start stringing soon .. But I promise to scan the bead spiral before I ship it! My other excitement yesterday was felting my first pair of felted mitts.... Took forever, but that was partly because my washing machine only produces hot water when it is turned on cold water rinse! All the other cold settings are COLD and both the Hot and Warm settings are warm... But if you fill it up small load on Hot/COld rinse and then set it to agitate... it decides that it doesn't have any water yet and fills the tub with warm water... so the hot is no longer HOT HOT... I took them out once and dried them... but then decided that my hands really weren't that big... actually long... the width was right which is why I had quit.... So take two threw them in checked them decided they were close turned the timer down to a couple of minutes.. but decided it could go through the rinse and spin cycle... pulled them out and took one look and thought oops I think Duddies has a new pair of booties... Actually they are just about right, once i got my hand in... took awhile, as the top and bottom of the thumbs had started to felt togethter... there is a knitted cuff inside the mitts... will stick a before and after picture up ... probably Wednesday!

Sunny here today and much warmer than yesterday!

Feb 19 Wild Bob looked at the scan and discovered that it was a picture of big bird having a nap with a woman in front of a black house at the edge of the jungle..... Actually got a bunch of right answers yesterday... obviously too easy..... Yesterday morning I noticed that the house was getting cold... guess our oil tank ran dry, glad it was yesterday not today since it's -17 C or +1 F...We also have an Oil fired water heater and G said that it was working.... it might have been working for the 30 seconds he was in the dungeon... but it wasn't working when I tried to take a shower! He wanted to walk to the store to get milk yesterday... I said I'd come too.... I got half way up the driveway and decided that I didn't like the wind so went and made beads instead... I made a bunch of beads for the Hope Bracelet project ( see Rant Dec 22 '2005 or go to Hope Bracelet project http://kimmiles.homestead.com/HOPE.html if you want more info.) Think I have my 85 beads... may sit in front of the fire and sort them today!

Feb 18 ...Saturday morning brrrrr.. -9 C, 15 F OK so that's warm compared to Alberta and SK.... But it was +11 or 52 here yesterday morning! MB.... it was a picture of big bird having a nap with a woman...

Yesterday was such a nice day that we walked to the ferry landing and back...(4 miles return) Had to check out the winter sale at the gift shop there... and we stopped for coffee before we came back... The wind really picked up while we were having coffee and it started to rain about 30 minutes after we got home.... We watched one of the new olympic events for awhile last night... Snowboard cross.... one of the 'heats' we saw was the woman's final... which included two Canadian snowboarders... When two of the 4 participants are Canadian... you assume a guarantied medal... Well they took off first one Canadian fell then the other.... that left the American and the ? Just before the American fell allowing the ? to win the announcer said "and where are the Canadians.....?" One of the Canadians did eventually finish the other was bundled off to hospital.... I tried snowboarding once.... The verdict was I like skiing better!

Feb 17...Friday.... New MB ...... it was a picture of big bird.......

Ended up playing chaffeur yesterday too... so didn't get home until 6 pm too late to do an update. My son's car wiring spontaneously combusted last friday... so he is once again carless.... He's looking at a $1700 car... which he figures will only last 4 or 5 months.... He's currently paying $170 a month for insurance add gas and registration onto that and that comes out to about $600.00 a month... not sure what cabs cost... unfortunately SJ has a really lousy bus system ... I bought him a bike lock yesterday... He claims he can't bike with a book bag though... oh well it's only a 90 minute walk each way he'll be in good shape by June! G thinks he should get a job as a car salesman then he could drive a demo!

Back to the insurance discovered when I went to cancel it that they had charged 6% on the gross amount ... even on the 17% deposit that works out to about 15 - 20 % interest....(standard policy in the insurance industry!) They claimed he owed $3.46... I pointed out that that gave him insurance up to March 6 since it was only Feb 16 we should get a refund... well if they had to send it in then the numbers would be recalculated and we would owe more! How do the insurance companies get away with this???? I really do not understand how you can legally be allowed to charge someone interest on money that you already have in your bank account!

Feb 15..... Final day ....It's obvious! The funny striped animal, that was perched precariously in the tree next to the house (that was a strange red colour) with the large back yard, was gazing down at the fat brown bird waddling along the road towards the boy that was trying to play a game with the mixed breed puppy dog next to the pond.....

Tomorrow I'll start a new multibon .... May be late though as we're off to SJ today and may stay over night.... Yesterday the phones in the house went dead... If you unplugged the modem on this computer the phones went live but there was no modem.... Problem the modem had fallen half way out of the computer ... so wasn't working but was connected enough to upset the phone line! I made a few beads yesterday and worked on the clematis window... actually felt like I made some progress on the window yesterday... got one flower finished! I got an email from Angus yesterday telling me that Puffins are not solitary birds and he is looking forward to family (ie Midas) coming to live with him in SK! Problem is I've lost my address book, don't hink Midas hid it though as he's in a box and probably just want to get cross Canada asap! " Paddy I" was created yeterday haven't looked... but I think he may be a bit too green! The wool store that I have been buying my (felted) hat wool from is selling out.. so on the way home from Maine I bought 5 sets of hat wool and a book with felted patterns... Started on a pair of mitts yesterday, hoped I would be able to turn extra wool from two blue hats into one pair of mitts... Almost but not quite Maybe I'll have one light blue mit and one red & blue striped mit! If the mitts work I'll have to go back and buy the extra ball of each colour yarn so that I can have matching mitts for all my hats!

Feb 14 Happy Valentines Day! It's a beautiful sunny day ... the sun is sparkling on the snow that came while we were away!

The funny striped animal, that was perched precariously in the tree next to the house (that was a strange red colour) with the large back yard, was gazing down at the fat brown bird waddling along the road towards the boy that was trying to play a game with the mixed breed puppy dog next to the pond.....

A few more people got the answer, think I will start a new game on Thursday... running out of clues anyway! Seem to be spending a lot of time trying to despam my fireball email.... They are creatively sticking the spam in back in May of last year... Would somebody like to tell me what the purpose of Spam is.... when it's coming from strangers.... What pleasure do they get out of filling my mailbox up with morgage info and porn? Sue says I'm getting the porn because my site is Fire "ball"..... My Virus checker sent me this message this morning....

Test should not be started as it already does not exist.....

Not sure what it was trying to tell me! We missed most of the snow in Eastern Maine, Just got to watch it on the weather channel in the evenings, however the snow did manage to find our driveway on Deer Island... I think we get most of the snow that falls on our yard ultimately gets blown onto the driveway! Checked out all three of the ski hills... from the parking lots and or chaletes... lots of people... inspite of the lack of snow and rain 10 days ago the skiing was suppose to be great???? For $61 lift tickets it better be! Actually Saddle Back is only $39.00 it doesn't have nearly the number of lifts but it also had very few people! May give it a try next year. Off to make Paddy... both his beak and feet will be green however it's a reverse capillary action thing... He hasn't been sitting in his green beer he's just drunk so much of it that both his feet and beak have turned green!

Still Feb 10 .... we're leaving too early tomorrow morning to update and I won't have access to a computer (at least I don't think I will...) so one more word before I go... Keep sending in answers... . Midas is off to Saskatchewan to join his cousin Angus... and check out Jim's beer cellar.....

Spent most of today putting together all the paper work that has to accompany my sons on line college registrations.... I think filling out paper applications and sending it all in at once would have been faster!

Feb 10 Friday morning Happy Birthday to DAD and Happy Anniversary to ME/US.....& today is the day that Midas learns his destiny....

No more right answers to MB ... a few of the more creative wrong answers... they are all messy.... and they are all nouns Remember all first guesses get a ballot...(doesn't just have to be the first day...) after that you have to be RIGHT .....

Got up this morning to light snow but the clouds are gone the sky is blue and it's COLD! Last night we went to the community college in St Andrews for dinner.. the hospitality class does 5 course dinners once a year practicing on local guinea pigs! Some of the dishes are a bit weird but it is a good meal.. too much food though! We go fairly early so that we can get home before the ferries shut down for the night... As we were leaving we noticed that a bunch of the deserts had been changed... of course they looked much better than the ones we'd been offered! We had to leave on the 4 o:clock ferry yesterday so that I could mail Dad's birthday present.... I asked the woman at CP in St George if it would get there today she laughed..... We carried the box around on the back seat of the truck for a week.. Wasted the extra time in the $ store seeing if there were any bargains..... G found a computer cable for $2.00 that was last seen at an electronics store for $26.... that one was ignored... I got a parcel in the mail yesterday... some beads that I had won on CNCInspirations.... The little green customs label said $10.00 but that was the parcel that they decided to open and she had a $45 price sticker on the beads.... So they used the $45 and I paid $12.76... It's actually an assortment of glass beads, crystals, pearls, agates (in greens, golds and brown)... think augmented it may turn into an opera length necklace... they seem to be the in thing at the gift show this year!

Feb 9 Thursday morning from Home (Deer Island).....The funny striped animal, that was perched precariously in the tree next to the house (that was a strange red colour) with the large back yard, was gazing down at the fat brown bird waddling along the road towards the boy that was trying to play a game with a puppy dog next to the pond.....

Yes we made it home, driving looked more like late April than early February ... There is a toll road leaving NS where you basically go over a pass...discovered that there is a view from up there! Normally it rains or snows or is foggy there... A lot of brown nothing but still a view! Duddly was so happy to see us that he kept coming to make sure I was still there... I put him outside... Gord let him back in... so at 4 am when he wanted me to hold his paw again... I said you let him in...... You can put him out again! It's cold here today, guess the entire East Coast is cold though even in Northern Florida! Need to go make some spacers and pack up a few orders to ship from Maine on Saturday. I got a parcel in my mail box yesterday that had the green customs sticker on it but no value, came in a week if it had had a value it would have taken two weeks I'm sure!

Feb 8 Wednesday morning from Halifax.....The funny striped animal, that was perched precariously in the tree next to the house (that was a strange red colour) with the large back yard, was gazing down at the fat brown bird waddling along the road towards the boy that was trying to play a game with a puppy dog next to the pond.....

Today's word..... is game just noticed that even though I managed to get the date right this week I had the day of the week wrong.... My Lynne@fireballbeeds.com.... email has been found by the spammers I'm getting about 40 a day.. I got an email from the site administrator that my mail box was almost full.... So I did a major delete job last night.. almost painless with a hi speed connection! The spam was being deleted as soon as it came in but leaving it undeleted for a long weekend could have prevented REAL mail from coming in! Yesterday stayed sunny all day... we did drive through one snow flurry but the snow was coming from a bright blue sky! However it was really windy so the waves smashing onto the rocks were impressive... my patience with respect to wave pictures in those winds was limited though... Most of the waves broke just before I got out the camera or just after I put it away! Home today... Duddies needs his ears scratched! I need to make some beads....

Feb 7 Tuesday morning from Halifax.....The funny striped animal, that was perched precariously in the tree next to the house (that was a strange red colour) with the large back yard, was gazing down at the fat brown bird waddling along the road towards the boy that was trying to play a game....

Spent most of yesterday at the wholesale show except for a brief break for lunch... didn't buy much for the gallery but spent a lot of time yabbing with people! Ate supper at our favorite Japanese restaurant Hamachi House (Salmon House in English) Had a selection of Sushi and lots of Saki to wash it down! I commented that Sea Urchin wasn't on the menu and was told that it was out of season... Sound like they only get it here if it's caught in nets... On Deer Island there are a number of people who hire divers to harvest it.... Not sure if I mentioned previously just how revolting I found the delectable Sea Urchin to be!

Feb 6 Monday morning from Halifax... there's even some blue in the sky today....a reprieve from the deluge.....

The funny striped animal, that was perched precariously in the tree next to the house (that was a strange red colour) with the large back yard, was...

Oh and I do have a right answer... I've also had some very creative wrong answers.... But keep guessing ....

We drove through rain all the way yesterday... a couple of areas of fog too.. but it didn't even turn into snow coming over the pass... suppose to be much cooler starting today... right around freezing I might have to resort to wearing socks! I figure the minute the thermometer hits freezing I can turf the socks and wear my Birkenstock hiking thongs... Yesterdays shoes were a pair of holy roller rubber clogs... good for wading through puddles the water runs in and out.... We ate lunch at a German place on the border between NB and NS I had a schnitzel burger the schnitzel was easily three times the size of the bun....

I'm typing this while I wait for Gord to appear, the computers are just off the hotel lobby... He's here off to breakfast!

Feb 4 The funny striped animal, that was perched precariously in the tree next to the house (that was a strange red colour) with the large back yard, was...

There you go... two words... My favorite answer yesterday was... DOG .... "Husbands are frequently in the DOG HOUSE when they borrow their wives tools!!!!" G borrowed the pliers I use for removing beads last week to rip up the corner of a rug... while installing the computer network cables (that don't actually do anything ...yet) and left the pliers under the computer desk!!!! When I asked him if he knew where they were... he insisted that he hadn't borrowed any of my pliers... then said well you have so many pairs I didn't think you'd miss those ones....
I guess the great plumbers got the leak in the tub fixed yesterday but now the pump sprays water all over the bathroom....Guess the hair ball was holding it together.... But the tub holds water and the taps work.....

I'll be in Halifax for the next 4 days... tomorrow's update will be late afternoon or not at all.... I can answer any emails sent to lynne@fireballbeeds.com

Feb 3 (5pm AST) I'm home..... The last answer is/was WHEEL Couldn't figure out how to incorporate it into the new game.... However the first clue for the next Multibon is yesterdays clue....

....next to the house that was a strange red colour...

It started to pour just before we got to the ferry line up coming home tonight... so that will get rid of what little snow we got during the weather bomb that was a non event here! Gord spent the morning getting the switch on his four wheel drive fixed... most of the winter it would only go in if it was put into 4 wheel drive the night before.... Stuart spent the time looking for some parts to fix the 25 year old 'spa' tub in the suite.... The pump ran but had no water pressure.... he took it apart yesterday and discovered a really lovely hair ball... eck... then tried the pump again and the water hit the shower stall... lucky the shower stall was there or he would have ended up with a really wet bed! But once the hair ball was gone the pump intake leaked.... that was the part that had to be replaced this morning... it was broken almost all the way through... not sure what was holding it together... The play ws quite funny it was a musical about relationships... no real story line... just a series of vignettes on life... Emmy got left in SJ so Duddies is now curled up on my lap purring away....

Feb 2 The spinning top came down the Ship's gangway with so much momentum that it looked like it might take off and Fly towards the aluminium beer can sitting on the Steel steamer trunk, which was sitting on the wooden platform beside the train station.....that was next to the house that was a strange red colour...

Screwed up again on dates... only this time it was the day of the week, it is today Thursday that we are off too SJ for the theatre, not yesterday... so the new Multibon is tomorrow sometime, not today! Saw on the news last night that lots of the maritimes did get the weather bomb.... we got almost no snow and it's already warmed up.....we did get the wind though. Spent yesterday working on the leaded glass panel, didn't seem like I made much progress but I worked for a long time getting nowhere... Changed my bunny/egg picture on my home page yesterday... Check out my new Easter Earrings, OK so there is a set of lonely hearts too.... But at lleast they are just lonely not broken!

Feb 1 The spinning top came down the Ship's gangway with so much momentum that it looked like it might take off and Fly towards the aluminium beer can sitting on the Steel steamer trunk, which was sitting on the wooden platform beside the train station.....

Just about commited the ultimate oops yesterday... we were sitting in the ferry lineup when I remembered that the beads that I was shipping from Calais were still sitting on the kitchen table.... We had 7 minutes which is just enough time to get home, break into the house, retrieve the envelopes and get back in the line... It's fairly warm here but we have a really nasty wind... didn't get most of the snow that was forcast either... unless it fell and blew away... Had fun pawing through the books at Marden's in Calais yesterday, bought G some light reading ... two 50 pound books on writing JAVA code... stay tuned for the new improved web site...... (in my dreams!) got a bunch of hard cover novels for me too for about $3.00 each and the best part... duty/tax on books is only 7% so you can bring back a much higher $ value before they care!

I will be starting a new Multibon sometime on Thursday.. We will be in Saint John at the Theatre seeing... I love you, You're perfect, Now change! ... Wed night so if my lap top behaves you will get an update on Thursday morning otherwise check in in the afternoon!

Feb 28 The dew settled on the tree that had been cut up during the snow storm, while the dancing blue & white lights produced a dotted pattern on the phone, that was sitting beside the ink-jet printer on the bottom shelf in a puddle of water with an old time-piece, at the former bus office....