Sunday, August 10, 2008

Randomness

This Sunday we again met at the pastor's house after church instead of our regular service, plus it was a bit of a going-away party too. One of the men in our church is moving up to Maryland. He's about my dad's age, but he decided he wanted to go to med school, so he's going up there, and I believe he's going to have a job at the same time? He has been working at the med school here, in research and I think that's what his job's going to be in Maryland too. So it was a bit sad to have someone leaving, but with all the characters in our church, no gathering can be too gloomy! :p There was quite a wide range of discussion from the Large Hadron Collider (the particle accelerator that's supposed to either blow up the earth or create a black hole) to politics, moving, pets...moving with pets...buying fish, camping, and hunting. Oh, and shooting watermelons. So it was a pretty interesting afternoon. :p

Including one couple telling about how when they were first dating, she was at his parents house and they were getting ready to go on a hike. Apparently her grandfather had said he wanted a dead crow to hang up to keep the live ones from eating his garden. So anyway, she was in the kitchen packing up some carrot sticks to take on the hike and looking out the kitchen window at the wonderful peaceful view, mountains and trees, and a crow sitting in one of the trees. Meanwhile, her husband-to-be had gone upstairs to change before they went hiking, and she suddenly heard this loud noise and the crow fell out of the tree...because he apparently also saw the crow out there and took the opportunity to just open the bathroom window and shoot the crow to give to her grandfather!

So yeah, as I said, we have some characters in our church...and this was the same guy who was talking about shooting watermelons. :) But despite all the shooting things...this is a guy who bought a fish at Walmart (at 11-ish at night!) because he called his wife to ask her if he should buy a fish at Walmart or not, or would it just die right away? She told him that if he didn't buy it, it was just going to die at Walmart, so it didn't really matter! So he said he bought it because he couldn't just leave it to die there under the florescent lights at Walmart! :p It didn't die, btw, they've had it for about a year now. :) They're so funny, those two... It's her sister I'm working for, and she and her husband are pretty funny too.

I went to Goodwill on Tuesday and found seven pictures, so that we can use the frames for framing cross-stitch instead of having to buy custom frames. Unfortunately, now Dad's not sure if he has the right tools to cut down a frame and put it back together. I thought we'd use his miter box and then staple the frames together, but he doesn't think a hand-cut miter is going to be smooth enough, and (what I hadn't thought about) he has no way to clamp a 45 degree angle to put the frames back together, whether with glue, or staples, or v-nails. So...I'm not sure what we're going to do. I guess he's going to figure out some way to do them...they were only $17 dollars for all seven of them anyway. That's less than the price of one custom medium-sized frame. I also found a really nice black linen shirt-dress. It's Talbot's brand (which is good...Mom and I found a similar one online for $100-something) and it's got a nice lining and everything...and it was only five dollars!

I know I said something a few months ago about not buying more clothes, but I've been finding some really good deals on things, and I decided that it was better to buy some nice, classic things when I find them cheap rather than waiting and looking for them new. Plus I've got a job now, so I'm allowing a smidge more money in my budget, although most of my salary I'm planning on putting in savings.

So I went ahead and got the dress, and I really like it and Dad said it looked nice too. It has extra fabric in the skirt (I'm blanking on what those are called) triangles of fabric inset in the skirt so it swirls wonderfully! :) I tried to get a picture of it, but it's really hard to photograph black things.

We watched some of the opening ceremony for the Olympics Friday night...we went to bed sometime after seeing the US team in the parade of nations. Colin was very disappointed...he was lying on the floor complaining that he thought there was going to be a ballgame!! The president looked like he felt the same way...he was certainly bored...sitting there tapping his feet and checking his watch and slumping lower and lower in his seat. He sat up and put his jacket back on and pulled out a flag to wave when the US team came out.

It was certainly um, interesting to watch the opening ceremony. It was very impressive all the technology used in it, and also where there wasn't technology, like the things that were supposed to look like Chinese printing blocks moving up and down in patterns...and there were actually people under each block, moving them!
But then there were all the things that were supposed to show how wonderful China is. Yes, really, their people are happy and everything's just wonderful! Uh, everyone knows they're a communist country, is anyone really fooled by all that? And their national anthem is called "The March of the Volunteers". *cough, choke, cough*

I don't know, the Olympics are fun to watch, but there's just so much time and money that goes into all the big production that's involved. I mean, the China soccer team is going to have an awesome stadium when this is over, but really... And the commentators were saying that Greece still has debts from when they hosted the Olympics, "but it boosted the morale of the country!"

Simply from a matter of personal opinion... they're taking baseball out of the Olympics?!! That's not fair. *hmph* Oh yeah, speaking of which, we watched the Cardinals play the Cubs on Saturday...the Cards won. :)

Oh, my friends let me borrow a CD they just got, or rather, they let me borrow a copy because they couldn't bear to part with their new CD yet. :) But they made a label and everything for it...I thought it was funny.



























It's a free rental, but my friend would bug me if I didn't get a original hard copy back to her quickly. ;) I'm joking...

Well, I think the Olympics are on...sounds like...gymnastics. I think I'll go see if there's anything interesting.

5 comments:

Will said...

Ah, Altar and the Door. Do you like it? As to your frames you could always glue them and to keep them secure pop some little metal right angle brackets on the back...

Anonymous said...

...the Cards won. :)

Did you miss tonight's game? And Friday's? ;)

I've been watching the Olympics too and am really sick of Michael Phelps...I think they forgot that there are other people there too!

Anonymous said...

Natalie, for your picture frame resizing needs, get thee to the local purveyor of cheap Chinese steel - Harbor Freight!

What you'll be looking for is this $13.99 picture frame clamp.

These picture frame pliers could also help you put your frames back together without mangling them with a hammer.

Finally, shooting fruit is fun (if not exactly affordable); here's a short video of various objects being shot, including a watermelon. The slow-motion effects are very good...

Anonymous said...

It has extra fabric in the skirt (I'm blanking on what those are called) triangles of fabric inset in the skirt so it swirls wonderfully! :)

Godets. I think.

N said...

I haven't listened to the CD yet, Will...my friend just gave it to me yesterday. Casting Crowns is always recommended on Amazon as being similar to Caedmon's Call, so I imagine I'll like it!

Oh yeah, that is one of the methods we thought about...it's kind of the same way a metal frame is put together, although then the bracket is actually inside the frame pulling it together.

Yes, I did miss those games, Rebecca, because we don't have cable and Fox doesn't very often show those teams. I knew the Cubs won on Friday, but I didn't hear what had happened yesterday. :( Yeah, I'm getting tired of hearing about Michael Phelps too! :D

Oh yes, Harbor Freight! Great idea, Uncle Jim! That picture frame clamp looks like it would solve a lot of our problems with this project...I think Dad thought he could get one of his co-workers to cut the frames for us. And $13.99 isn't too bad either!

Cool!!! That video is awesome! :D I like the glass of milk and the apple the best...the way the apple peels apart is amazing.

shooting fruit is fun (if not exactly affordable)

What? Fresh fruit not good enough for you?!! ;P

Ah yes, godets, that's it, Mom.