Dreamflower's Mathom-house

Here is Miss Belladonna Took on one of her very favorite sitting places: our cable box!



This has some disadvantages. If she is just sitting, or she is laying on it facing us, no problem. But when she turns her back, it hangs over the front a little bit, preventing us from being able to change channels, pause, or adjust the volume. The DH has taken to squirting her with the "don't scratch the furniture water bottle" which makes her move a little bit. Also occasionally on her journey to her favorite spot, she will step on the buttons on the Blu-ray player and open the disc tray.

Once, in an effort to get her not to sit on the cable box, the DH rearranged the mantel, and placed the cable box between the DVR and the Blu-ray player. Shortly after that, we saw her on the mantel using her paw to try and get the cable box out of the middle! I can just imagine if she had knocked it out. It probably would have knocked all three pieces of equipment on the floor. I could just see us trying to explain that to the cable company!

So, we've pretty much learned to live with it. I don't know why she loves it so much, unless it's just because it's small and square and warm, LOL!

Birthday thanks:

Facebook Greetings:
I got birthday greetings on my timeline from my sister and from practically all of my friends from the Barony of Seleone, and Jo, one of my friends from high school, and from virtuella and kayleelupin.

E-mails and E-cards:
I had some nice ones from
rubynye
blslarner
lindahoyland
pearltook1

LJ Greetings:
hhimring
songspinner9
baranduin (who included a picture of an amazing Bag End cake! )
engarian
gamgeefest
ysilme (with a beautiful flower pic )
shirebound (who also posted for me a lovely screen cap of one of my favorite scenes from TH:DoS-- Bilbo and the butterflies! )
cairistiona7 (including Frodo having a reunion party in his bed in Minas Tirith )
claudia603 ( with a pic of cheerful hobbit lasses)
febobe
mums_the_word
grey_wonderer

And I got two stories written for me:
pandemonium_213 ( ( in which Merry and Pippin learn some things about their barrow-blades in Rivendell)
blslarner (in which Elrond comes up with a way to keep tabs on the Fellowship during the Quest.)

And I wrote a slightly late birthday fic for all of you, following the hobbit tradition of giving gifts on one's birthday, rather than just receiving them: Thain Peregrin's Very Large Birthday Gift In it, Pippin gets a special gift from absent friends and loved ones. It is set in my "Happy AU" Eucatstrophe-verse, in which Frodo is still in Middle-earth, and so is Gandalf! So if you haven't seen it yet, there it is.

The DH and I are actually planning to celebrate my birthday this weekend, since payday is today. But the DH did give me a key lime pie on my actual birthday, and told me he's ordered three items off my Amazon wish list. I will find out what they are when they arrive.

5: 45AM--Woke up early, as the DH has to leave early. He's on the last of three days of special classes he needs for his job, and the classes are in OKC. It's a little over an hour's drive. I fix him some breakfast and pack his lunch and see him off to work. Then I settle into my recliner and go back to sleep.

8AM-- Woke up, got my own breakfast, and watched the last half of "Good Morning America". Then I get dressed.

9AM--I was going to walk the dog, but it looks like the predicted rain is imminent, and I have no desire to get drenched a couple of blocks away. So instead I take Sophie with me into the back yard to check the garden. I've got bindweed growing in the cucumber bed and one of my tomatoes needs caging; luckily I have one cage left. Then I harvest some of my herbs. I sit down in the swing and watch Sophie play until the rain begins, and we come back in the house. Check my email and my flist. Make the bed and tidy up a little.

10:30AM--The rain has passed temporarily, so I decide to go run errands now while the going is good. Two bills to pay--the plumber, and the furniture store. I stop at the local video store, turn in "The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies" and rent "Big Hero 6" and pick up a secondhand copy of TH:Bo5A, so next time I want to see it we won't have to rent. Stopped at Braums, picked up milk, potatoes, bread and a couple of other things.

11:45AM--Got home, put away groceries. Made myself a Caprese salad with some of the basil I harvested this morning. While I ate, I watched "Arrow" on Netflix, and then another episode afterwards. I was curious, since I've been hearing good things about it from friends.

2PM--I worked on finishing up some painted rocks I want to put in the front garden. The ones I did yesterday needed to have a few details added, and sealer, and I made one more, a mushroom. I had two rocks that fit together perfectly. I used E6000 to glue them together.

3:15PM--My son came over to return some things he'd borrowed, do some laundry, and also mow the lawn while he was here. I swiffed, and did some tidying up, and I cleaned up my mess from painting. Then I watched another episode of "Arrow". Son left about 4:45, and the DH got home about a quarter after 5.

6PM--I'd planned on having leftovers tonight, but he asked if I wanted to go out. (Silly question!) So we went to Boomerangs, a regional chain that serves diner-type food. The DH ordered the all you can eat catfish dinner and I ordered chicken-fried steak (the portion's hug, so I always have some left for the next day). I ordered brown gravy instead of white since they always put too much pepper in the white.

7:30PM--Got home; the DH was tired and not feeling well after three long days in a row, so we decided to wait on watching the movie. Instead, we watched the episode of "Brother vs Brother" we'd recorded, and then make an early night of it. While he takes shower, I'll see if I can upload the pics I took of today's projects, then head for bed myself.

Pics behind cut: ( Read more... )

Some of you may have guessed by now that I am moderately obsessed with hobbit holes.

Here are some very interesting links to different projects involving hobbit holes.

This is the one I want to try next:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEs3J74Vu8o

Here's a neat necklace:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjz3ZnuP-fw

This is a completely different medium, but it looks really cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AcEUDRF8eg

This one in Spanish reminds me of one I made several years ago. It got broken when we moved to Oklahoma:

I wish I could find my pictures of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7kBoywZ-XY

Love this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40eAm8LpANU

This is a cute terrarium:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ7aT5WUBlQ

The next two are together; one is the terrarium, the other is the façade of the hobbit hole:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Y-PKOaHF4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vKVLigFaO0&feature=iv&src_vid=8-Y-PKOaHF4&annotation_id=annotation_418162

Not a tutorial, but really pretty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L-7mB-c47k

Not something the average fan can build, but awesomely cool!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X3WnHOEkX8

Today I took a break from the polymer clay, and started on a couple of new hobbit hole painted rocks. I will probably finish them tomorrow and take pics!

The DH and I watched TH:Bot5A tonight after supper.

This time I noticed something I hadn't before: PJ drew some very interesting subtle parallels between Thorin and Thranduil. Subtle characterization is not usually his strong suit, but this was well done.

Alfrid is still an annoying waste of film.

And from the time Bilbo shows up in Laketown with the Arkenstone, I was absolutely riveted to the screen. So many feels.

And afterwards, I'm a wreck. *sniff* "The Last Goodbye" just does that to me. *sigh*

((hugs Bilbo))

I was busy today: walked the dog, worked with my polymer clay (SUCCESS with my hobbit door cane, although it is not quite as pretty as I hoped, it WORKED!), cleaned house, did laundry, got some written on my next chapter of "Invasion" and made the read_lotr_aloud announcement for June, and made out the prompt letters for the June lotr_community challenge (though I won't be actually sending them till tomorrow, as I need to match people up with the prompts).

I also harvested the last of my lettuce. Most of it had bolted, but I had some growing underneath the larger ones that had yet to go bitter. So we had the last of our garden lettuce, and our last radish in our salads tonight. I made spaghetti for supper, and it was really good, if I do say so myself.

The DH and I have been watching TH the last few evenings; we started TH:DoS last night, and continued it tonight, after we watched the first episode of HGTV's "Brother vs Brother" that I recorded last night. But we left off right as Bilbo was trying to evade Smaug. We were interrupted by Miss Sophie, who had to go out. Unfortunately she encountered a rather large cat in our yard and went ballistic. She chased him over the fence, but then would not come in. It took us a good thirty minutes of calling her and chasing her around in the dark to get her to finally come in. (I finally had the bright idea of luring her in with her squeaky toy!) She'd actually engaged with the stranger-cat, but came away with only a very tiny scratch next to her nose. She was immensely proud of herself for guarding us from the trespasser!

I am really enjoying our new schedule, although the DH got a call from another place he applied before. The pay's higher and benefits. But if he takes it, he'll be on the road again. *sigh* And the thing is, he LIKES what he's doing now.

Oh well, as I have always told him on job decisions: I'll tell him how I feel, but the decision's up to him, since he is the one who actually has to do the work.

RL has been a bear over the past couple of months, but things are decidedly looking up now. The DH has a new job. The pay is less, but he's off the road, working M-F, eight hour days.

I'm cutting back to one day a week, which is also a hit to our budget, but I'll have a lot more time to do things at home, and I won't be on my feet for hours on end.

Yesterday I managed to get my challenge story done and posted. Today I was able to do a little more on my "Invasion" WIP for B2MeM.

I've also had the chance to get back into polymer clay. If I can get my camera to talk to my computer, I'll post some pics soon.

This is in addition to being able to pay some attention to the house. Also now that the incessant rain has stopped I've been able to walk Sophie again.

We just came home from the Good Friday service. It was a little different this year; we began in the Fellowship Hall, where we all sat in small groups at tables. Our Pastor led the service, but we were a part of it all; those at each table anointed one another with oil, washed one another's hands and then served one another communion. Then we carried small candles and processed with the lit candles to the sanctuary. The choir sang an anthem while we all prayed silently. Then we went to the front, where we left the burning candles in sand beneath the cross at the front of the sanctuary, and each of us left in silence.

This is the hymn the choir sang. It was new to me: