Check Ya Later

A couple of weeks ago, I turned in my two week notice to Jackson Hewitt. I timed it just perfectly so I would only have to work one more day. I was only working on Sundays, but I really was growing to despise the job. I'm not a fan of whiny jerk off people, and I had to deal with a lot of them there. I also hated losing a day from my weekends. So last Sunday was my last day there.

For quilt club we have something called a fat quarter challenge. (A fat quarter is 1/4th of a yard of fabric, so it measures 18 x 22) This year the project was to submit a "quilt on a stick." We got the fabric and a stick and could make anything we wanted as long as the sewn part was smaller then 10 x 10 inches and we used at least one square inch of the challenge fabric. I had a grand vision for what I would create. It did not turn out as grand as I'd hoped... much less grand in fact. But here it is. The challenge fabric is the shirt fabric. I also used part of my stick to make the tree trunk. There is a hole on the bottom of the square for the other part of the stick to go into. Part of the challenge was that the project needed to me submitted in a pot on the stick, so the stick holds the project up. I have another idea I might try to do. The projects will be on display at the library for all of March and then will be up during the quilt show in April.

Richard correctly named last weeks tune as "The Rain Song" by Led Zeppelin. Nice work Rich. I didn't even know you read this. This week's song is from the first and self titled album of a band that came out in the 70's. Your hynt is thyt the bynd lykes Ys.

Cats?

I haven't felt like I've had anything of interest to write about, so my blog has basically been just naming that tune. In an effort to make it more than just tune naming, I searched through some old pictures to find something to write about. Last summer a cat at my mom's house had kittens. Of the two that were born, one had and odd deformity. The kitten's back legs seemed to have been put on backwards. If you look at the picture, you can see how they are not facing the correct direction. The kitten wasn't tame, but it couldn't move incredibly fast, so I caught it and pet if for a long time hoping to tame it up. I could only play with it that one day since it was at my mom's house and I had to come back up to Mankato the next day. For awhile I daydreamed about adopting the cat and taking him in and making him a wheelchair and all that neat stuff. A couple weeks after I met the cat my mom called me to tell me that it died. The other one died too, so I'm not sure if they were both just sickly or if another cat attacked them, but my dreams were crushed.

So after that nice story......Emily correctly named the tune from two posts ago as La Mar by the Beautiful Girls. The song from the previous post is Burn One Down by Ben Harper. This new song is by a popular band from the 60's and 70's. This song was on the 5th album which was released in '73. The band is well known, but I don't think this song is as popular as a lot of their others. In hindsight I think I messed up on a part, but oh well. I think you'll get the general idea.

Songs

Someone....*coughs while saying emily* complained that the last name that tune was too hard, so I'm posting a new one and adding hints to the previous.

The previous name that tune is by the Beautiful Girls. It is up to you to sift through their stuff to find the name. I suggest using youtube.

This new song was originally done ....awhile ago..... 70's maybe, and then redone by someone else. I guess I don't know much about this song besides that I have one version of it. So GOOD LUCK!

Oh Hi 2011

I guess it's time remember to put a new year on my checks, and other various dated documents. How annoying. But happy new year anyway I guess.

For new year's eve, Andy and I went out to supper with a couple friends and then came home to drink cheaply, play video games, and watch tv. Pretty exciting stuff.

The several x-mas celebrations I attended were nice. I got to see a lot of family I don't get to see regularly. I got a lot of neat stuff, including a brand new sewing machine. I will have to fiddle with it to learn the various setting and stitches, but I can go back the the place it was bought to get some free lessons, which I plan on taking advantage of at some point in the near future.

This Sunday I will officially start working as a tax preparer again for Jackson Hewitt. I'm not sure what to expect as far as how busy we will be. They think it will be a lot more busy than last year because H&R Block lost a program that allowed people to get their money right away, but we still have the option. So for all the schmucks who need their money NOW! we anticipate getting their business. It will be interesting anyway.

I guess it's time for name that tune. Since people have been guessing correctly, I'll just go ahead and name all the songs that I have not yet named. I believe we are at the third song needing to be named (From the post Oh Xmas Tree, Oh X-mas Tree). Mr or Ms. Anonymous correctly named the song as Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day. The last song (from the post Oh X-mas Tree, Oh X0mas Tree Part 2) was (kind of) correctly named by Emily and Andy as Hey Hey My My (Out of the Blue). I say kind of because technically I was playing My My Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) which is the acoustic version, whereas Hey Hey My My is the electric version (which I don't like as much). Get it?

So for this week, and since everyone seems to be getting these all so easily, I picked a song that I don't think most people will know off hand. It's by am Australia band and came out in 2003. You're hint is that the song title is in Spanish. If you guess correctly, you get two gold stars.

Oh X-mas Tree, O X-mas Tree part two.

As promised, here is the photo of our xmas tree. It is pretty pathetic, but oh well. I think it's been around for about 20 years. The stand is broken so it is mostly just propped in the corner, and the tree skirt is an ugly brown blanket I had. I helped a friend's family put up there Xmas tree one year and admired all the fun ornaments they had. My family never had any traditions for ornaments, so we had a random mishmash of stuff that didn't really have any significance. My friend's Mom/Friend, Catherine, decided to start a tradition of giving me an ornament ever year. I have four from her now. Those and three others the ornaments on the tree that are important to me. :)

I also thought maybe none of you thought I did anything crafty anymore sine I never post anything. This is not true, I just don't remember to take pictures anymore. I've made some things for people for Xmas, but I don't want to say what since some of those people read this blog. I will show one thing I've made though. It's a gift for Andy's mom. It's a dish towel with Hello Kitty embroidered on it. She's a fan, and it was cheaper to make one than to buy one.



The song from two posts ago (the MMMM Turkey post) was correctly identified by Emily and Andy as "Landslide". Below is the new song. It's another older song - from 1979- by a well know artist. Please ignore the parts where I biff big time.

Oh X-mas Tree, O X-mas Tree

I bet you are expecting to see a picture of a tree on this post.....Well too bad. I haven't taken a picture of it yet. I will get around to it though. I have a story to go with it.

I got a membership at the YMCA and have been playing a ton of racquetball. I'm also considering signing up for the "lazyman triathlon" in which you have five weeks to do 26 miles of running, 2.5 miles of swimming, and 112 miles of biking which I do not currently recall. I might need some motivation though. So let's hear it..... please.

I guess it is an acceptable time to reveal the title of the first "name that tune." The song is (supposed to be) "Fade to Black" by Metallica. The bit I'm playing is the main verse cord progression. I'll wait one more post to reveal the second song.

Now please enjoy the third: I think this one is fairly recognizable. It came out in the 1997 and was written by the lead singer of a popular rock band.

Mmm... Turkey

For Thanksgiving Andy and I went to visit his family in the cities. We spent Thanksgiving day with his mom, sister, and grandma. We had a nice turkey dinner with all the goodies that go with it and spent time playing cards, celebrating his mom's birthday (nov. 24) and his sisters birthday (dec 1st). On Friday we did NOT partake in any of the black friday shopping sales. We had a lasagna dinner with his dad and sister. Then on Saturday we went to a fancy pants restaurant in downtown Minneapolis to celebrate his aunt's 60th birthday. It was a lot of fun to meet some of Andy's family that I hadn't met, have fancy (free) drinks and appetizers, and mingle with some silly old people who were there. The four day vacation from work was wonderful. I'm not at all excited to go back.

For this post's name that tune, the song is by another well known band. It came out in 1975, has been covered by at least one band that I know of, and has appeared in a few movies that come to mind. I think it is pretty easy if you know music.