Moving. On up. Into the mountains. For real.

I actually called Benton "civilization" this week. I brought my laptop with me so that I could get online for a few glorious seconds to look for a job and it had been an eternity since I could do anything larger than the tiny, slow window on my iPhone. To be sitting here, in front of my laptop, in my new home using the real world wide web makes me nearly giddy with connectivity.

Cell phone reception here is crap, usable, but not reliable, and I get voicemails on a serious time delay. And it's just right here, in this house. When I go to town (yes, I said it), cell reception is great. After a glorious visit to the phone company, I now have a landline for local calls AND DSL. Hallelujah! Praise Jesus and the phone company, prayers have been answered! I would say I'm not serious, but I totally am. I knew I would survive after the DirecTV guy came, 6 hours late but who really cares? I have eleventy billion channels, DVR, and now an internet connection.

I think I'll survive, even here in the wilds.

Where am I?

Come on over to the new blog for more...it's in the building stages still but I'll be posting there from now on.
Goodbye, Living in a Material World. Hello, www.read-write-rewrite-repeat.com. COME SEE ME!

I have internets!!

I have internet again! I can surf the web again! I'm alive again!

I'll tell you why I've been all disconnected and approaching the depths of despair over my lack of web surfing time tomorrow. I have only this to say:

God bless AT&T, iPhone, and even spotty 3G access. It has been my despair and my salvation. Yes, I exaggerate and it's just perfectly wonderfully absolutely fine because I HAVE INTERNET AGAIN!

Jack's Valentine's Day

Jack had another class last night. He should be at the point by now (or in about 3 weeks) that he should be able to move up to the first Rally class. I have my doubts. He has had two pretty good weeks in a row, however. Last night he had to sit and stay out in the middle of the ring all by his teeny, tiny self while a row of dogs (and owners) watched him. I walked away in front of him, about 5 feet, and kept that distance while I made a circle around him. And he stayed there. Even when I was behind him, he didn't move. I would have bet money he couldn't do it. I would have lost money.

On the other hand, I would have won money on the bet on what would happen to the cute Valentines dog toys that the trainer gave out last night. Jack's said "Too Sweet." And it still does, but it's considerably flatter and a great deal less squeaky than it started out when I gave it to him in the backseat on the way home last night.He enjoyed it just as I enjoy every piece of chocolate handed to me on the same day. For your video enjoyment (turn down the sound, it comes complete with a Glee song soundtrack):

A Good Monday

So, what did you do today? 

1. I did not have to get up and commute in the dark and snow and freezing rain. It didn't amount to much but I would never have believed that while I was out operating expensive heavy machinery or trying to work with one eye on a computer screen and the other on the window.

2. I had three far-away friends make suggestions on places to contact or send a resume, friends who know people who know people, you know? I appreciate that they're thinking of me and will shamelessly name drop at the first, second, and third opportunity.

3. And another, closer-to-home friend contacted me because she'd been asked by someone at one of the few other publishing opportunities in Little Rock for my information. It was out of the blue to her, but I think I can see the hand of another far-away and long-time friend at work.

4. I actually spent two hours in the service area of a car dealership and did not want to kill anyone by the time it was over. Saturday I was out for my Sonic Route 44 run when my car acted up, flashed me a message (because we talk like that) and then refused to turn off the check engine light. Last week, I would have been stuck worrying about which meetings I'd miss and how to make up the time. This week, I plopped down in the chair and watched supercute Ty and The Revolution show. Thanks to my fabulous brother and his negotiated extended warranty, I had no worries. The service guy said a lot of words. There was a bulletin regarding a random misfire, they had to reset my EM-something, and everything should be fine now.

5. I left just as General Hospital was starting up. This picture made me laugh. I'm pretty sure I shouldn't laugh because it's intended to be serious and that made me a bit uncomfortable. It just strikes me as wrong on so many levels.

I also discovered the answer to something we've often talked about over lunch. Why do people who don't have to eat from 12 to 1 (e.g., ladies who lunch) go out then and clutter up the restaurant? Or buy groceries at 5? 

I think I understand. Not having 10 hours of the day devoted to somewhere else takes a big burden off. I couldn't hear the ticking clock as loudly today as I sat in the dealership as I normally do.

I need to get back to work ASAP because that feeling's pretty awesome.

To my friends

I've been thinking about what to post here because I feel like I should put something up. If you're reading this, we've probably been friends for a long time now. It's just hard to know what to say.

As of yesterday, I changed my Facebook employment info to "Will Work for Money" (as opposed to food. One look makes it clear that food I have.) I don't work for Leisure Arts today. I will miss my friends, people that I've worked with and enjoyed for a long time, but I will only miss seeing them daily. We are still friends. We have too much in common not to be friends forever. When I think about the things I'll really miss about going in every day to Leisure Arts, the list looks like this: Jean, Mary, Lisa, Frances, Susan, Celia, Jane, Rhonda, Lora, and Sheila. If I list all the people I'll miss in Knit and Crochet, Prepress, the rest of the Art department, Tina, Accounting...this post will turn into a roll call because the place is filled with good people. The best part of working at Leisure Arts was working with talented professionals who are also genuinely nice, smart, funny, and fun to be around. That's a big loss.

There's a fairly decent list of things I won't miss too. That eases the sting a bit!

In my job, I enjoyed working with designers. That would be a long list, too, so I won't list all the names, but it was fun to work with such creative people (*waving to my friend Pat*).

I was lucky enough to start at Leisure Arts 16 years ago and to work early on with people who encouraged me to do things I'd never done before. I grew up there and I'll always be thankful to Leisure Arts for giving me that.

So, now what? This is a very good question. I'm going to keep the blog up, but make some changes. The whole Material World thing was clever for the quilting connection, but it exposes my early Madonna fascination and some things you'd just rather keep quiet, you know? When I make the change, I'll put a post up here. Please follow me. I'll still post one zillion Jack pictures. I may actually craft more now. (If I truly understood how to use "busman's holiday" I'd throw it in creatively there, but I don't. So I won't.) Thank you for reading my blog. I can't make any promises about where we're going, but I think it's going to be good.

Please save me from Food Network

I go through television phases. For a while, I was all TLC all the time. And then there's HGTV. My most recent obsession is Food Network. I watch Pioneer Woman's show but don't really feel an obsession. Rachel vs. Guy was kinda fun with all the celebrities, but it was pretty clear all along that Lou Diamond Phillips was just too cool and too skilled to lose.

What gets me? 1. Cupcake Wars. 2. Challenge. I have no idea why. Neither results in edible food. Cupcake Wars is about the race against the clock and the sometimes-crazy elements they have to use to produce something that might be edible somewhere. Challenge is the one that gets me hooked. Cakes that are four feet tall and have moving parts? The chance of utter disaster is as big as the cake. And there's the sugar challenge. Four feet of molded sugar in crazy fantastic design? I can't look away. If I do, a crackle, a gasp, or a shatter draws me back. I would get more done if I'd never seen these shows, I'm pretty sure of it. At least it doesn't give me the urge to cook anything. That would be unforgivable.

10 things about CHA

I made it home from sunny Anaheim on Tuesday. Except for the creeping crud I contracted somewhere, it was an easy trip.

Here are 10 things that happened:
1. My immune system was compromised by a shocking lack of soft drinks in general and Diet Coke in particular. I am still working on restoring my blood to the proper levels of carbonation.
2. It was down right hot in Anaheim. In January. The pool looked so good.
3. How do I know how good the pool looked? My room was in close-range shrieking distance of the pool. And the video arcade. And the self-serve laundry room.
4. There was a  Coke machine in the hall. It had no Diet Coke.
5. I spent a lot of time thinking about Diet Coke.
6. We had a duct tape make-and-take in the booth, presided over by Patti "Duct Tape Diva" Wallenfang. She's famous, made the newspaper in her duct tape dress.
7. We had book signings with Drew "The Crochet Dude" Emborsky, Shannon Mullett-Bowlsby, and Kim Novak.
8. We had Knook demos running at the same time. And it was really interesting to see the reaction to the Knook. Lindsay did a great job of showing how easy knooking can be.
9. We were included in the Innovations show, where 20 products were chosen by judges. Each spokesperson had 60 seconds to sell the product in front of the group and then 30 minutes to demo. Afterwards, there was voting. And our Knook won Honorable Mention (one of the top 3 spots). Woo. Hoo! There have been a lot of people working hard to make that a success so it was nice to win.
10. I had multiple birthday celebrations. And there ain't nothing wrong with that.
Thanks to all my Facebook friends for all the birthday wises. I was trudging through airports but it was great to see all my posts.

11. What did I see? Painted canvas make-and-takes featuring happy little trees and cupcakes (not a fast hobby, that painting), feathers (peacock, purple, real, and so very fake), bling (chandeliers, metallic papers), words and words and words, birds, dark and moody color ways featuring black line drawings and the tattoo-look, bright and clean colorways with stylized art that looked pretty cheerful, yellow and grey, orange and orange and orange, a toned down, softer turquoise and red/pink, and lots of gadgets (sewing, paper crafts, tape), and celebrity lines for just about every crafty item you can think of.