dianec42

And now for something completely random

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 02:37:09 GMT

I just had a Facebook comment liked by Edgar Winter. Yes, the rock star.

Well, I thought it was cool.

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Leaving the house

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:24:30 GMT

Borrowing a page from a local introvert friend: Without some outside impetus, it honestly does not occur to me to leave the house.

Luckily, yesterday I was planning on going to the 2:00 open knit/craft session at the local yarn shop, and the aforementioned friend texted to say she was going to the 5:30 session. My brain defaulted to "go out, come back, go out again" when Mr Diane sensibly pointed out I could just go out and stay out.

So in no particular order, yesterday I:
socialized
had tea
got a TON done on my out-and-about stitching project
went to the library
chatted with my friend who works at the library
am now on HER list for a Friday museum outing Real Soon Now (tm)
told several people about the upcoming Paul Simon concert & am assembling a MASSIVE posse for same
went to the quilting store, chatted with the owner about hand quilting, bought supplies for same
browsed at Goodwill (did not buy anything)
shopped at Ocean State Job Lot (bought a purple sweatshirt and some almonds which I ate in the car)
accidentally happened on a not-normally-scheduled movie night at the yarn shop
petted the shop dog (Winston) lots
had cake
had random potluck foods brought by folks who DID know about movie night
sang along to Wicked For Good

and somehow utterly failed to send a postcard to a work friend for his kid's school (they're trying to get a postcard from every state)

Why am I sitting inside playing WoW again?

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A very "squirrel!" weekend so far

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 22:58:01 GMT

I'm not saying we have a chronic attention span shortage in this house, but... oh, whom am I kidding, the only reason I've never said that is because I never noticed.

Yesterday Mister Diane and I did our traditional Friday-night grocery shop. Among other things we bought blueberries and a couple pounds of cherries (I like to make the most of cherry season).

Today we made the trek to Costco, which is close to 90 miles, and about an hour and 40 minutes of very scenic driving. Where we ALSO bought blueberries, strawberries, and Even More Cherries - all in Costco quantities of course.

I'm not sure how, but we got everything to fit in the fridge. (He's going to be a little surprised when he finds the BabyBels in the produce drawer under the tomatoes.)

Thank **** we got eggs at Hannaford last night. Costco "yet another size of egg tray" would NOT have worked.

The best bit? While at Costco WE FORGOT TO GET GAS. We rolled into our local magic Citgo on fumes.

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Expense tracking throws the occasional curvball

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 02:02:04 GMT

Today I topped up the gas in my car, and bought lunch (for 1) at Burger King.

Lunch was more expensive.

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random what's up with me

Sun, 11 Aug 2024 14:56:09 GMT

I am working on making some bullet journal layouts that are cheerful, functional, and dead simple to update once they're created. I got some stickers and some washi tape to aid in the effort.

I am occasionally pecking at a cross stitch project, currently the Mill Hill "Haunted Graveyard", now featuring TWO shades of purple!

I *should* be working on the memory quilt but my brain has been massively uncooperative for a couple of weeks now. Sigh. Luckily(?) Mom's life is just as disorganized as mine at the moment so there is no real time pressure to get it done before I go visit.

I survived the first week(*) of my job! I'm struggling (see above about brain). Hopefully I will get my groove on.
(*) 3 days. bad enough.

I was supposed to go to a concert. Found it was cancelled AFTER driving 3 hours. Went to Micro Center as a consolation prize; tried to set up my new PC and it is a dud and has to go back. It's a good thing I like driving. (If I keep telling myself that maybe I'll start to believe it.)

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Ugh, email down

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 17:30:44 GMT

If anyone has my email at (my_last_name).net, it's broken. Please message me for a working alternative.

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Sewing (functional) questions

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 20:57:10 GMT

I've been sewing off and on (mostly off) for lo unto 40+ years now. I was taught by my mom and a little bit by my grandmothers, but I definitely have ADHD and I'm pretty sure my mom does too so the process was a bit hit or miss.

I want to sew my own clothes for lots of reasons. I'd love things to be the right length, to have lots of pockets, to be purple, to be what I want rather than what happens to be in stores at the moment.

It's a bit frustrating though because despite having worn clothes for over half a century, I don't have a good understanding of how clothes *work*.

There are so many mysteries! Most of these are inspired by clothes I've bought, but I have the same questions about things I want to make. because I want to make them work well and there are some things I want to optimize for.

A few examples off the top of my head:

What's the purpose of all these seams on my cargo pants? Which ones are functional and which ones are just there because REI feel the need to change things up every 6 months?
Why does some terrycloth survive the dryer just fine, while other terrycloth gets snags and loose threads if I just look at it funny?
How come I can carry a smartphone in the pocket of my fishing shirts just fine, but the same smartphone in my bathrobe pocket makes the whole bathrobe slouch and migrate southwest?
What would happen if I put cargo pockets on jeans? What would be the best placement and optimal construction?
Why do shirt patterns call for the yoke to be cut at 90 degrees to the rest of the garment? My whimsical cats will be sideways!
Why do hoodies all have drawstrings? Do fashion designers not have cats?

I'm sure I have others. And yes, I could google any or all of these. But what about the questions I don't even know to ask?

I wonder if there's like a "fashion engineering" course I could take...

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In other news

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 01:03:55 GMT

I've been playing a little bit of World of Warcraft again. There's an event on where you get +17% bonus experience and reputation. I still only have one character at max level. The latest expansion is still a linear boring grind and I've seen it all.

The kittens are growing like little furry weeds. They've just passed 6 months. Nimbus (6 months) briefly outweighed Findo (17), but Findo promptly regained almost a pound and is once again in the lead. I was briefly keeping my bathroom door open, but now Nimbus can jump up onto the counter and apparently toothbrushes are FASCINATING so oh well. That was nice while it lasted. Loki was spotted trying to chin himself up onto the counter by his claws. It didn't look like it was going well. We are already planning to transition them onto adult food in the next few months.

We both took Thanksgiving week off. I have hauled out my main sewing machine (a Brother Strong & Tough) and re-repaired the husband's bathrobe pockets. Sadly the machine is not a Strong & THICK so I had to improvise on some of the more layered bits. Still beats doing it by hand.

Still have not cut out the first skater dress. Will still need to clean & oil the serger as I don't think I've used it since about April. What is time anyway?

I need to post more cat pictures. And get a paid account so I can have more icons.

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Dear Past Me

Sat, 20 Mar 2021 21:40:12 GMT

I recently saw one of those writing prompts going around, "What would you tell your 10-years younger self?"

Some wag responded with "Invest in Bitcoin" which gave me a giggle.

My career advice to younger me, maybe MUCH younger than 10-years-younger me, would be this:

Don't try to do everything on your own. You may enjoy being the Lone Ranger; but trust me, you are putting yourself at a severe disadvantage by operating this way.

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