I Got Frustrated

I had a nice, long post all mentally composed for you about my trip to Texas.  It was a wonderful post.  It would have made you laugh.  It would have made you cry.  It would have moved you.

Alas, when I was trying to download my photos from my camera, for some reason, my computer decided to act like a butt head.  I'm not sure what was going on.  I plugged my camera in with the USB cable as usual, and the computer kept saying "Device Not Found."  I finally got them to download by hunting down my external card reader -- an exercise in frustration in its own right -- but by then, I was too aggravated to edit all the photos and get them ready to upload to the blog.  Oh, you're still getting a post, just not the one I originally intended for you to have.  

While we're on the subject of me being a doofus, I actually published a post on Christmas Day.  I'd written it before hand, and scheduled it to post itself that morning.  Which it did.  Just like it was supposed to.  I was halfway to Texas before I remembered I don't have that thing that automatically shares my posts to FB and Twitter any more.  So, even thought I posted, if you come here from a link on some other site, you wouldn't have known it. 

A bit of good news -- all but one of the packages I've been waiting on have finally arrived.  The one that is still missing is a little something I'd ordered for Cody's girlfriend.  It's been wandering around somewhere between here and Oxford for 8 days now.  Oxford is less than 50 miles away.  A turtle could have carried it on his back and it would have gotten here sooner.  I know the post office has gotten behind and all, but that's just ridiculous.  

One of the things that did arrive was some yarn.  I was kind of hoping it would get here in time for me to take it on my road trip, but I really wasn't in that big of a hurry for this.  I've got plenty of other knitting projects going.  

Anyway, if you'll recall, I'd cast on a scarf, and quickly realized I wouldn't have enough yarn to make it an even halfway decent length, so I'd ordered more.  I figured it wouldn't be the same dye lot or anything, but honestly, I didn't expect that big of a difference.  It doesn't even look like the same yarn.  You can clearly see how much darker the first ball (on the far left) is.  Even the labels are different. 

I may just make a couple of hats out of the odd ball, and use the new ones for the scarf I'd planned on knitting. The pattern I'd originally cast on was Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf, but it seems the yarn doesn't want to be this scarf.    I might have to find it something else to be. 

So, I'd gone to Texas for Christmas, and my cousin Judy surprised me with a little gift:  

My other cousin Beverly gave me this:  a china teacup and matching saucer. 

Isn't that  beautiful?  

What made it so special is that it is part of a set that once belonged to my great-great grandmother Adeline Winfree.  

Her son Joseph was my Mammaw's father.  It may not be worth much monetarily, but to me, it's priceless.  The sad part is, I don't have a safe place in which to display it, so it's going to stay wrapped up and tucked away in the back of the closet.  Maybe someday, I'll find me a sugar daddy and actually have a nice house with nice things.  

Speaking of, I deleted my dating profile.  I decided I wasn't quite ready to sacrifice myself and who I am, just for a little financial security. But that's neither here nor there...

In other news, I used my new light and book clips when I practiced my piano today.  

It was so nice not having to turn on that big, overhead light and heat up the whole room just so I could see my music.  It's going to be even nicer when summer comes and it's already unbearably warm, even without the light. And with the clip to hold my book open, I actually practiced my dexterity exercises.  

Oh, and I took a better photo of my Navy ornament, which was a gift from my sister and her family.

Speaking of ornaments, I found these two on Etsy. 

I thought they were highly appropriate for this year. 

I'd planned on giving them as gifts, but I think I might be selfish and keep them.  Especially the one showing the Land Mass -- which was in the cone just as much as Louisiana, but nobody even noticed.

Finally, I tried to watch the new show on Food Network called Candy Land, but Kristen Chenowith was like fingernails on a chalkboard.  Seriously, that yodeling thing she was doing...if I'd been a contestant on that show, I'd probably have slapped the mess out of her.  

It would have totally been worth the jail time.