A Professional Dilettante

Where does one buy an inexpensive laser pointer?

So, here he is:



Theodore. Aka Theo, aka Teddy.

Hopefully we'll get to take photos of Ivan again soon.

Warning, girly things below:

How much I hate insomnia? Which I am blaming on menopause, right or wrong.

Given that AFAIC medication or hormones for it are completely out of the question, and none of the relaxation/nighttime routine things have worked, I'm pretty frustrated.

To expect that when something goes wrong with my cell phone minutes (I'm on a cheap $15 automatically charged to my credit card every month gives me 200 minutes and 30 days burner cell phone, because $50 a month is too much to pay for a cell phone I use maybe an hour a month) and I have to call Net10 to actually get the minutes I paid for because every six months or so there's a glitch and they have to be downloaded manually, I should be able to use my cell phone to call and get this straightened out?

This time when it happened, apparently the rules have changed because they now say I have to call from another line to get my minutes (and my days -- I can't get one without the other or I would, because I've got almost 2500 minutes on my phone right now, but if I don't get the monthly minutes I don't get the days). This pretty much enrages me. Yes. I have a land line. But what if this was my only phone, like cell phones are for a lot of people? Would I have to go try to find a pay phone or something, or borrow someone else's phone? At this stage of the game it's the principle of the thing.

Is this utterly ridiculous or what?

I really don't want to get rid of this phone because I don't think I can transfer a burner phone number and all my clients know this number. Also I don't want to lose all those minutes I paid for. Also, see above about not being able to find a phone contract for less than $50 a month.

Although if anyone knows how I can solve those issues and get away from Net10 to a company with real customer service that doesn't overcharge, I'd be grateful (and you can quit laughing now).

ETA: I guess I shouldn't have taken it for granted that my "you can quit laughing now" would signal that this was mostly a rhetorical question. If there's one thing I don't want to do right now, it's go through the hassle of switching cell phone companies, or lose all those minutes I paid for, or buy a new phone. I just want things to work the way they're supposed to.

But thanks for the suggestions.

My first reaction to the issue was to complain to my state consumer advocate [g]. Not that their response time will be timely enough to do any good even if they can do anything which they probably won't. But it made me feel better.

Another piece of my redecorating the living room project:



I actually stitched part of this on my trip, two parts of which involved actual, real bison [g] (Yellowstone, of course, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park).

I'm going to wait to frame it until I have all the animals I want to stitch stitched. This is from a booklet that I bought thirty-odd years ago (the first project I stitched from it was a bear on a shirt for husband #1 at least two years before we left California, and we left California in 1983), and had the good sense to hang onto through umpteen moves. The patterns are based on paintings in the book Album of North American Mammals. It's stitched on 18 ct. Fiddlers Cloth (basically beige Aida cloth with brown slubs in it) with DMC thread. It's a bit over 6" square, finished.

I have started a pronghorn pattern from the same booklet.

The night before I left, in late May, on my trip to Montana, North Dakota, and Yellowstone, I put the last stitches in this:


This is the sofa throw part of my living room redecoration project, swapping over from lighthouses to critters and outdoors-type stuff. The five center star panels are cross-stitched.


Here's a closeup of the quilting in the plain squares.


And a shot showing a couple of the critter fabrics and one of the cross-stitch pieces.

To see kittens again.

Saturday. Less than 48 hours.

But still three more weeks after that till I can bring them home.

Sigh.

First, the chapter. A whole chapter, in one day on Monday. Almost 2500 words. And it actually read halfway decently after I let it ripen. Charley used to let go like a firehose on full blast fairly regularly, but I think this is only about the third time Karin's done it. Normally getting her to talk is like pulling teeth. As in 250 words is a very good day. NOT.

I may finish this thing by the middle of July after all -- I think I've only got about seven chapters to go, with any luck.

Second, we have Pompey's Pillar and a Very Distinguished Graffito. Not to mention the sheep in the campground:

http://mmjustus.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/three-weeks-ago-day-11/

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the north unit.

Badlands and birds, among other things.

P.S. kk1raven, you wouldn't happen to be able to tell from my bad photo on the blog what one of those birds is, would you? Pretty please?

Well, I did it. I just put a deposit down on two kittens with a fostering lady I met yesterday at PetSmart. We had a nice long conversation then about how she fosters them at home and socializes them and all that, which was extremely reassuring from my POV, but none of the kittens she had (a pair of orange tabbies and some black and whites, and a gray one) seemed all that interested in me, although the little gray fellow who apparently got adopted after I left yesterday did purr at me a bit. I went back to PetSmart this afternoon on a whim, and this time she'd brought a different litter of kittens along with the ones I saw yesterday -- two solid grays and two gray tabbies, all shorthaired. They're only four weeks old, though, and she's still bottle-feeding them (they're orphans), and won't let them go until they're eight weeks old and have had all their necessaries (shots and neutering and tests for leukemia, etc.). The only reason she brought them with her today is because the partner who normally takes care of the babies while she's doing the petstore adoption thing wasn't available.

Anyway, I will be getting one of the grays and one of the tabbies, both males. She named the gray Ivan, of all things, which I took as an omen [g]. The tabby is named Domingo (after the opera singer, Ivan is because he looks sort of like a Russian Blue). I think I'm going to keep both names, since Domingo is Spanish for Sunday, and I met them on a Sunday. Besides, I like the names. They are really, really adorable. I got to see them being bottle-fed. Ivan's got a cream-colored shirtfront, and Domingo's got really strong tabby markings. Anyway, they're going to be mine soon.

I'm going to go back to PetSmart for a visit next weekend when they're there again. I will take my camera. It's going to be a long four weeks...