I found out just a couple of weeks ago that Frack (of the former Frick & Frack, Frick being the one who made my life VERY difficult while I was working), whose real name is Andrea, is getting married to the shipping and receiving guy at work, Gary. I find this, uhhh, interesting, but I am quite happy for her because she's been wanting to find someone to share her life with for many years. And they're at an age (36 and over 50) where the age difference makes little difference at all.

So I have been invited to said wedding, of course, and what else would I do for a wedding present but make a wedding sampler?? :o) It's just hard to shop for people who are getting married when they don't have a registry. Hopefully, they'll like it; I certainly do. It didn't take me very long at all to do either because it's such a small project. There was a lot of cording to do, though, which is where you twist the thread around itself a zillion times to the point where you end up with a braided looking piece of thread that you then tack down to the sampler. I've only ever done it once, for a banner that I made for my mother for a housewarming gift.

I have been slightly bad and have gotten several more charts and kits. There are the two I won off eBay, then I won another kit off eBay, I bought two charts at the quilt store in Williamsburg of images around Williamsburg (one is of the Wren building and the other is the gardens around the Capitol building), and three kits at Michael's that I got for $12 total because of a major sale they were having. Only one kit was for me; the other two are gifts for other people, and one was this wedding sampler.

Now I can't go back to work!! I've got too many cross stitch projects to finish in too little time!! :o)

Anyhow...

Tonight is the Christmas party for Kurt's command. The first time we went, before we were even engaged, Kurt managed to win a DVD player. This is the only reason why we own a DVD player already. :o) I'd like him to win another one tonight because the one we have is kind of wonky, to borrow a word from the British. If we watch Disney DVDs, we either can't get the subtitles to go away, or they'll go away for the speaking parts but show up during the songs. Also, the DVD that my father made my sister and me of the old home videos that he took doesn't work in our DVD player. It just keeps waiting for us to load in a disc. So we need a new one.

I'd bought a dress a few months back at Ross's for a whopping $17 with the idea of wearing it to the Christmas party. It's a short sleeved black velvet dress with a few large pinkish-red roses scattered over it. I also had bought iridescent red heeled sandals a few years back that I had never worn, and amazingly it all matches.

However, I donated platelets this Monday. My iron was actually high enough -- my hemocrit score was 39!! Cream o'Wheat does cool things to one's iron. At any rate, the head lady of all the technicians was the one to stick me, and she could not, for the life of her, get my right arm to give any blood. She tried the middle vein, which collapsed, then she went way the hell out to the outside, and that vein also collapsed. So she got another lady to stick me and they used a tiny needle back in the middle vein. All this caused me to bruise VERY badly in my right arm. It also swelled up some, and you can see the hole where they stuck me because it's white around the hole, and black and purple all around it.

I don't terribly feel like explaining to everyone at the party tonight why I am bruised that badly (especially since few people know about platelet donation), but neither did I particularly want to go out and buy a long sleeved holiday dress. If such a thing actually exists -- most of the holiday dresses I've seen are either short sleeved or sleeveless, because, of course, fashion is far more important than staying warm.

Fortunately, I solved that problem by finding a beautiful black, shimmery cardigan at Target which is actually part of a twinset. The bad thing is I paid $22 for it -- more than the dress!!! At least now I won't have to explain my bruises to anyone.

Be thankful for small blessings, I suppose. :o)