I'm baaa-aaaack...sorta

[victoriavictrix]

Holy crap Nancy. I am so glad you are finally siccing the Hounds of War on that nest of adders. Don't you worry about a thing, you just wade in there and get the Golden Parachute, and as you float safely down to earth, watch their world crumble. Revenge is best served cold.

[dhawktx]

My Dear, I am SO glad to 'meet' you! I shall be cheering you on from the sidelines...

[delbelcoure]

Nancy,
I'm glad you're back. You are an engaging, observant, intelligent person - it shines through your writing. Your wit has made me laugh many times. I'll never forget when you drilled your caps and set in gems before you went into the dentist; I had to share that story with my family, I loved it so much.
Susan

[nancyskitties]

Hi y'all, c'est moi. Haven't been here for awhile; still sorting things out but I am pleased to be able to report that in general these same things seem to be looking up, even if it will take a bit more patience & time. I certainly hope everyone here has been in reasonably decent health & frame of mind: the reverse is not only annoying & intrusive into one's favorite hobbies but expensive in terms of time, boredom, and especially blood. I'm convinced they're actually selling it on ebay, they take so much so frequently. I'm also a little surprised that by now what with all the tests, doctors, hospitals, pills, & who knows what else, Blue Cross hasn't sent out a hit man to off me so they can finally get back to making a profit & pay their hapless stockholders a dividend, small though it may be. So if I'm eventually found floating in the pond at the Lincoln Memorial or wafting face-down the Shenandoah past Harpers Ferry, you all will know to finger who dun it. Or at least contracted for it.

I am slightly ashamed to say I have done absolutely nothing with, for, or about dolls, including my own, for many moons now. The girls are in high dudgeon because they haven't had new outfits for ages, and their social life is suffering because of course they can't go around in the tatty old rags that everybody's already seen. The guys, like most guys, are content to be left in peace sartorially & just lounge around in their jeans & T-shirts. Abner especially is enjoying his current freedom, although he dreads the day I get up enough oomph to get back to his pin-striped "Capo di Tutti Capi Bambini" outfit in his character as Abner "Bananas" Caramanicello.

I lie, but just a little: I have been trying to keep myself occupied knitting or crocheting, mostly 1/3 BJD sweaters of various yarns, cords, or even embroidery thread. So far I've knitted or crocheted 10,985 sweaters and one woman's suit. Or so it feels sometimes. Besides, knitting/crocheting has a multitude of virtues: It's portable and easily hidden quickly in a purse, desk drawer, or behind the computer screen (if you're trying to goof off at work); no one in their right mind will try to attack someone holding 5 or 6 obviously potentially lethal (& painful) sharply pointed projectiles or stabbing implements; the longer ones are very useful for reaching across the table when one's dining companion is distracted & snagging a morsel from their plate; and the 'round' corded ones are good for tying things, or - properly handled - used as bolos to whomp intruding squirrels out of my flower beds. I can't even begin to list the practical alternative uses of yarns or threads. Just use your imaginations & think low, evil thoughts.

I have been fortunate enough to spend Friday nights (once all the way to midnight) at the local IHOP, listening to JanetT spin plots, playing Sheharazade & patiently submitting to all my questions for inane info about the characters, locations, rationales for this or that, & so on. We usually get there around 6, get a booth & annoy the server while we talk for about an hour before actually looking at the menu then ordering the same things we always order. Once the food is scarfed down, Jan takes up her storytelling again & I sink back into the luxury of having my own personal & very inventive storyteller. She offered to give me the written version(s), but I declined because frankly it's more interesting when she tells it in her own voice. Besides, there's more opportunity for me to butt in with dumb questions & get us off onto interesting sidetracks which I wouldn't be able to do if it were on paper. I always look forward to Friday evenings & her latest installments of whatever story she's working on at the time. Lately it's been vampires. Her plot is fiendishly convoluted & the characters are a hoot. I haven't had to do with vampires since Dark Shadows II & Dark Knight. Hers are much more imaginative IMO.

What else is new? Ummmm ... well, I've managed to lose 78 +/- lbs since January, mainly because all the pills I have to take not only make me full but somewhat nauseous as well. Even thinking about a 1/3-pounder McGreaseburger is dangerous territory, so I have taken to wallowing in watermelon, which I could live on forever no matter how queasy I get. I must say the foulest of the foul pillwise is Lipitor. Lipitor is supposed to inhibit cholesterol buildup & subsequent arterial blockages, mainly I suspect by making the hapless victim too queasy to eat anything, let alone anything oily, rich, or fried. The pill itself is as large as a big olive. I'm not exaggerating: the damned thing is big enough to choke a boa constrictor. It's also incredibly bitter, with a long-lasting, lingering aftertaste reminiscent of a rusty aluminum can, alum, and a good deal of sea salt thrown in. Horrible stuff. I hope no one else here ever has to have it inflicted on them. Those who have can confirm every word I've just posted. I wrote to the pharmaceutical company that makes it & asked why they couldn't make it in orange, cherry, or grape flavors so it would at least go down with minimum gag value, but so far I haven't had a response. I guess I'll have to send another threatening letter & cc it to the FDA as well as my local venal congressmaggot.

While I was home a few weeks ago for the better part of a week with some kind of 'bug' (read: I didn't feel like going in to work) I decided to finish the hem of a chair cover I'd made about a decade ago, so went in search of fringe. After pawing through the appropriate 9-high stackable drawers on wheels that line my 2nd bedroom, I went into my big walk-in closet, the one with the doors disguised as built-in double bookcases a la House of the 7 Gables (I do come from that area, after all). I started pawing around & discovered that not only did I have microsuede and polysilks in the 2nd bedroom storage bins, but there were drawers packed with them in the closet as well. So I dragged all the stackables in the closet out into the 2nd BR, arranging them in a circle with my swivel chair in the center, & started to dig, sort, and re-sort. In the process I have discovered some wonderful fabrics & other stuff that I'd forgotten I had. Not all of it is suitable for the dolls, but it is suitable for humans. I used to be very, very large, so I had to buy fabric for a dress or pants & top in 6-7 or even 8 yard lengths (now I can make do with 2.5). I found yards & yards of gorgeous microsuedes, corduroys both waled and unwaled in rich deep greens, reds, blues, chestnut brown, and more; velvets and velveteens in various colors & textures, including one very intriguing piece that has very subtle ruby, deep blue, emerald, and black stripes in it - but only if you turn it & look closely at a certain angle, otherwise it looks black. I found 6 yards of real Scots tweed (I can't wear wool, so what the H-E-double toothpicks was I doing with that?), and four whole 'A' grade white plivver lambskins. I could clothe an entire full-size Native American, or construct a small teepee. I found a whole drawer of venetian lace (Misty, don't worry; I'll share) as well as pieces of orphan Victorian/Edwardian embroidery, mostly white on white, which I'd picked up in Antique places to use as doll lingerie. I found an entire drawer of satins & crepe-backed satins in every color, but mostly pastels...and I'm only 1/4 of the way through, because as I find more & more of the same types of stuff, I have to divide & sub-divide it into different drawers in order to pack it all in. So I have cotton prints I - florals & solids, cotton prints II - stripes and plaids; whites I - cottons & non-silkies, and whites II - silkies; satins I, & satins/sateens II, and so on.

Then there's the sari silks & oriental brocades, and being me and therefore a glitz slut, lots 'n lots of shiny, sparkly stuff.
If anybody has something hard to find, give me a shout on the email here & I'll see if I can find it among my stock, but at the moment it's occupying all of the second bedroom and a good deal of the living room in various piles as I go about filtering & "filing" it all properly - and this time, labeling the drawers so I have at least a vague idea what I've got - or at least the general categories of vegetable, animal, or mineral as it were. And then there's the yarns ....

I think I'll stop here. I'm tired & confused just writing about trying to sort it all. It doesn't help to have 4 cats "helping".

Ciao, love 'n hugs to all, with a heaping big amount of thanks for your continuing patience, support, & affection as you 'listen' to me whine, moan, growl, groan & whine some more, endlessly, & mostly about the same garbage. I mean, you'd think I could at least come up with something NEW and different to whine & snivvel about. As a priest once said at Confession, "you always confess the same old sins; can't you do something else criminal for variety?"

Nancy

[Llwynog]

Nancy!!!!!!!!!! (lots of hugs)

Have you tried putting a chocolate coating on those pills?

[Tira-chan]

It's wonderful to hear from you again! I'm glad things are looking better for you.

[Tira-chan]

It's wonderful to hear from you again! I'm glad things are looking better for you.

[Iwa_Hoshi]

Nancey! Glad to know that you're doing better.

[tigerbaby]

hooRAY!!!
our Nan is still kickin'!
::big tibbyhugz::

[maywong]

Hi nancy it's nice to see you posting again. Big hug.