The Wheel Turns

Blessed Samhain, all. :)

And for those not celebrating that particular part of the holiday, Happy Halloween.

I'm playing the part of Quiet Urban Pagan today. One of my coworkers who knows me quite well took a look at me and asked "So where's your bling for the day?" She saw me in non-descript autumn clothes. The only trace of my Witchy side is my knotwork pentacle pendant around my neck.

But that's who I am.

Over the years, I've found myself distancing from the over-the-top gaudiness that I used to covet in Salem. Sure, it's fun to dress up and "Go Witch" every once in a while. But for the past three years or so, I've moved into a quieter, contemplative type of faith. It started when I stared down at the garnet-jeweled pentacle that I always wore around my neck and wondered exactly what I believed. Was all of my practice just an act to hide who I was? Had I really grown as a person in my faith? Where was my Path going? Did I even belong on a Pagan path anymore?

The answer to the last question was answered for me- a deciding yes. I also discovered, though, that I was resistant to truly digging down in my beliefs and challenging them. It's harder than one might think- but I needed to do it.

I took my pentacle off. I've possibly worn one a handful of times since- and today, I felt I needed to. It feels strange and heavy around my neck. I keep fiddling with it, rubbing the pentacle medallion as if it's charged with something (even though I know that it's not).

I plan to sit for ritual tonight, and see where these quiet thoughts are leading. I don't expect to get answers-- but hopefully I'll get a nudge in the right direction.

Monthly Stitching Goals

October has been a productive stitching month for me-- made possible by the fact that all of our spare spending money was spent at King Richard's Faire. :)

Here's my monthly goals recap... I think it's safe to determine my progress for the month at this point. I won't be stitching tomorrow night.

For October, I wanted to...

1) Grid and ship my Floral RR to the first person Done!

2) Finish Home is Where the Cat Is Nope- didn't touch

3) Work 20 hours on UFO RR for Jenni Done!

4) Work at least 10 hours on Apache Done!

5) Complete my portion for Autumn's flower RR Nope- Doing that next weekend...

6) Update my stash organizer Nope- postponing until Yule

So... for November, I want to..

1) Complete my portion for Autumn's flower RR

2) Finish Home is Where the Cat Is

3) Complete 20 hours on Goldie's UFO RR piece

4) Work 10 hours on Apache

5) Cook a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner and enjoy the day with family and friends. :)

Halloween prep

For those coming to visit my Thursday Thirteen-- welcome! Just scroll one entry down. (but I hope you'll read more!)

It's been a crazy, frustrating week here. I'm muddling through okay and hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel to arrive shortly... but yeah. *sigh* It's involved some 'ritas and yummy food at the Texas Roadhouse and some serious half-talking, half-crying to Erich so I can get my thought settled. (please note: The issues are NOT about our relationship at all- we're doing fantastic).

On brighter, happier things... we did a ton of Halloween decoration shopping last night. After last year's crazy turnout for trick-or-treaters (and confirming it with the neighbors), it seems that ours is THE neighborhood with candy. I've dreamed for years of being able to really have fun with the whole neighborhood Halloween thing. I grew up in a great neighborhood for it too, and despite the changing times... I'll hang onto the illusion that kids still go out for candy on October 31st.

Samhain or not, this Pagan enjoys the campier side of the holiday. :)

The thing I discovered last year is that our front door is crappy for Halloween. Our front steps go straight to the door with no landing. So in order to open the door, then open the storm/screen door, I had to have kids back up. And of course, I was also trying to keep cats *in* the house at the same time. It wasn't good. Frustrating, in fact.

So this year, we'll start using the mudroom, which is a secondary front entrance. It started as an outdoor porch- we know this because both the outer door to the mudroom porch AND the inner door into our pantry has a brass mail slot in it. We figure that when Anna (the previous owner) had the house resided with vinyl, they took the leftover amount and just closed in the porch completely to use it as an old-fashioned lean-to shed. There's no heat out there. It's used for mail collection and keepng things really cold in the winter. We have a few random boxes out there of stuff not yet sorted plus the spare styrofoam coolers for when they're needed for travel. We can prop the door permanently open for the evening for treaters while keeping the rest of the house shut. It's the perfect space.

So the plan is to put black tarping paper on all of the walls inside our mudroom porch, add some cobwebs in there, and then put a blacklight in the overhead socket so it looks a bit eerie (but not completely scary). We'll cobweb our box elder bushes. It'll be fun and easy-- and over the next few years, it'll probably go a bit over the top. But hey... it's Halloween. Why not? :)

Erich's taking the day off for a mental health day, so he'll start with the first rounds of treaters while I make my way home. Based on the traffic I saw last year, he might take the brunt of them. Traffic was hellish last year. Even with my train arriving at quarter to seven, I doubt I'll be home much before seven thirty.

But it'll be fun. I'll take photos as we put this together this weekend.

Oh... and because I forgot to post them on Sunday as promised, here are the answers to last week's Thursday Thirteen songs. I'm not surprised at the ones that were recognized (especially #3 and #8). I would have been shocked to see someone get #10 or #12- considering #10 was from an obscure album, and #12 is an even more obscure ELO song from Xanadu. I was surprised that no one got #5, but maybe it's just me from my generation who grew up watching American Bandstand on Saturday mornings... :)

1)A Kind of Magic – Queen
2) Make Love to You – Etta James
3) Cult of Personality – In Living Colour
4) Send Her My Love – Journey
5) Bandstand Boogie – Barry Manilow
6) Bad – U2
7) A Question of Time – Depeche Mode
8) Dreams – Fleetwood Mac
9) Runaway Train – Soul Asylum
10) The Earth Is – Air Supply
11) Mea Culpa – Enigma
12) The Fall - Electric Light Orchestra
13) Closer to Fine – Indigo Girls

Thursday Thirteen #8: Halloween Purchases

Thirteen Things we bought for Halloween Decorating 1. Fog machine 2. Juice for said fog machine 3. 100 feet of black tarp paper (to cover the walls of our mudroom) 4. two large packages of the stretchy spiderwebbing for the front bushes 5. glow in the dark "trick or treat" headstone 6. Black plastic cauldron to use as the candy bowl 7. Three large bags of candy- about 8-9 pounds in all (which we'll most likely use up) 8. Two blacklight bulbs 9. Three purple glow sticks 10. Three blue glow sticks 11. Three mini rubber duckies - a witch, a mummy, and frankenducky (I just had to... they were 75 cents each) 12. A fake jack-o-lantern carved with the outline of an arching cat 13. (this weekend) real pumpkins for carving/decorating Needless to say, I firmly believe in being the Cool House for trick-or-treating. :) Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Friday morning musings...

I'll do my Friday Feast entry sometime this afternoon... I only have a few minutes before I need to dial into a tele-course to learn how to generate bar codes. (whee!)

Random thoughts today...

I was asked when I'll post the answers to the lyrics. I'll be doing that on Sunday. :)

It's one of those rainy, dreary transition weather days here in New England. We're supposed to get gale-force winds this afternoon. Which means that we'll have lots of raking to do this weekend. Thankfully Mother Nature was able to put on most of the peak color show before this year's big wind storm showed up.

Menstrual cramps + Indian food = lots of intenstinal ow.

After seeing an advertisement on TV a couple days ago (plus an email from Erich), I had a need to purchase the Sims 2: Pets expansion last night. I'm already highly amused. Some poor Sim is going to be taken over by a pile of animals, I think.

I have sooooo much stitching to do this weekend, it's not funny.

Back a bit later.

Thursday Thirteen #7: Random iPodding

Using another meme (the "list the first X songs that come up on your iPod..."), I bring you lyrics from random songs on my playlist. No two songs are by the same artist. :)

So... who can name them? :)

Thirteen Random Songs from Measi's iPod 1. “There can be only one/ This rage that lasts a thousand years / Will soon be done” 2. “all I want to do is bake your bread / just to make sure you’re well fed / I don’t want you sad and blue” 3. “Neon lights, a nobel prize /?The mirror speaks, the reflection lies” 4. “The same hotel, the same old room / I'm on the road again / She needed so much more / Than I could give” 5. “Hey I'm makin' my mark / Gee, this joint is jumpin' / They made such a fuss just to see us arrive” 6. “True colors fly in blue and black / Bruised silken sky and burning flag /Colors crash, collide in blood shot eyes” 7. “Well now you’re only fifteen / And you look good/ I’ll take you under my wing / Somebody should / They’ve persuasive ways” 8. “Like a heartbeat.. drives you mad / In the stillness of remembering what you had / And what you lost... / And what you had... / And what you lost” 9. “Call you up in the middle of the night / Like a firefly without a light” 10. “There’s a man with the smallest of worlds in his hand / And a tear fills his eyes as he tries to hang on / Holding his world together” 11. “I want to go to the end of my fantasies / I know it is forbidden / I am crazy. I am letting myself go” 12. “I see the early glow, I hear you say hello / I watch the shadows fall, I don't see you at all” 13. “There’s more than one answer to these questions / Pointing me in a crooked line” Links to other Thursday Thirteens! Momish - Alyson Noel - Sadie - Christina - Brony - Andrea - Colleen - Lisa - Tug - Heather

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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King Richard's Faire 2006

Meet Hercules the Liger
Originally uploaded by measi.

Saturday morning dawned crisp and bright for us as we prepared for our annual outing to King Richard's Faire. Erich and I were anxious to head back to the Faire - we were forced to skip last year due to the new house expenses. This year, we were greeted with perfect weather - mid 50s, sunny, just a hint of chill in the air (which brought out that wonderful woodsy autumn smell). Some heavy rain midweek caused a few muddy puddles here and there, but it also prevented the massive amount of dust that often plagues the faire by late afternoon.

A good thing, too - all of New England apparently thought it was the perfect Faire day. If there were less than 5,000 people there, I'd be shocked. The place was packed.

Erich and I have gone to the Faire every year we've been together (except last year). Sometimes we've gone twice. Our first photo as a couple is at the Faire- it sits next to my desk at work. I think Erich has his copy at work, too. :) We look forward to it every year. As Labor Day weekend rolls around, we get that 'itch." But we generally wait until late September to this weekend in October, once the last bits of summer heat and humidity have disappeared. We go in full garb every year, and anything warmer than the mid-50s we had this weekend, and we're both dying of heat by the late afternoon.

This year was a bit different for us at the Faire. Normally, we have gone just as a couple or with only one or two other couples. This year, a conversation at Erich's birthday BBQ with The Usual Suspects led to a conversation about everyone going to King Richard's Faire. Many of our friends had never been, but were very interested in going. I offered to organize a weekend, and it turned out to be a very large - but successful - group outing. By the end of the day, we had about 17-19 people (including one very excited 11 month old boy). A few of us were in full garb all day. Several others started their garb with cloaks or hats (the easy stuff to justify).

We started the morning with me being my klutzy self - before we even went through the front gates, I took a spill in the parking lot, managing to twist my right ankle in its yearly downing. It hurt like hell and swelled up quickly. But if there's one thing I've learned about my ankle, it's that I do need to immediately see if I can walk on it. I could. And did- almost all day. We did, however, immediately take to medieval painkillers once we were in the gates:

a glass of mead. It's what's for breakfast. And great, I might add, for eliminating ankle pain. Over the course of the day, I had a couple more glasses. It wasn't until perhaps 3 that I really *needed* to sit down for a while to rest it.

Once we'd had our first of the morning booze, we headed over to the tiger show. We got there just as it started, so we were standing in the far back. It's the most popular show (save the joust) every year, and normally people get there about a half-hour beforehand just to get a seat. This year's show was slightly shorter than in years past, but they still showed some beautiful tigers, leopards, and every year's showstopper, the liger.

For those who haven't heard of a liger, as their name suggests they are a cross between a lion (father) and a tiger (mother). The mixture creates a giant 900 pound, 11+ foot long beast of a cat that is the largest cat on earth. If a female lion mates with a male tiger, the result is a tigon, which is the opposite - a dwarf that reaches a maximum of 350 pounds. And unlike mules, which tend to be sterile, ligers and tigons aren't-- they can continue to cross-breed (into li-lis or ti-ti's, etc).

The boys joined together to do some axe throwing. Many of the group headed to the jousting ring to watch the medieval horseback games. We all took a break later at the field to watch the birds of prey show, including some beautiful training work with falcons and owls.

The one thing that I didn't do like years past was mill through all of the shops. With all of the people in our group, I just didn't wander in. We were chatting and roaming most of the day. A few people purchased items, including me. But for the most part I stayed out of the shops I normally would go "just take a peek" in. Perhaps I subconsciously protected myself from putting myself in a position where I'd be pulling out the wallet. :)

It was a fun-filled day of goofiness that left us so exhausted that we were both sound asleep by 9:30 that night.

Next September can't come soon enough... although I think I'll have to buy a new bodice for next year. My seven-years-running tartan one was rather tight, leaving me extremely well... and high... stacked.


;)

Thursday Thirteen #6: Thank-Yous

Thursday kinda flew by... so I'm a little late on this. (moo.. moo moo). I'll be doing a couple editions of this T13 because I actually have a LOT of these to say. Some are directed to a very specific person. Some apply to more than one person. If you know me and don't know if it does apply to you (now, or in the past), presume it does. :)

Thirteen Thank Yous from Me to Friends 1. You are so passionate about my life, my continuing growth, and my experiences. You may think I'm a bit out there at times, but you are always supportive of me. For this, I thank you. 2. You listen to me as I verbalize and worth through my mental confusions. You do not judge. You give suggestions when asked, or when necessary to do so. For this, I thank you. 3. You make me laugh every time we're together. I miss this laughter when you're not around me, and celebrate it when you're here. For this, I thank you. 4. You accept and love me for who I am, and do not demand me to become some image of who I "should be." For this, I thank you. 5. You taught me that a family is not bound only by blood or marriage. It is also bonded through friendship and shared experiences. For this, I thank you. 6. You showed me how to step outside the box that confined me when I came to college and explore who I really was under the layers of high school-induced gunk. You encouraged me to stop worrying how others thought about me, and to learn to be true to myself. For this, I thank you. 7. You give tremendously warm, encompassing hugs. Sometimes they are the most important thing to brighten my day. For this, I thank you. 8. You take me on crazy little adventures that create the most amusing memories. For this, I thank you. 9. You enjoy that I'm a geek, and that we can be geeky together. For this, I thank you. 10. You nurture my love of creativity and allow me to explore new hobbies without any discouragement. For this, I thank you. 11. You have such an incredibly out-going, friendly personality that it immediately makes me feel happier, even if I've had a horrible day. You are always inclusive. For this, I thank you. 12. You trust me enough to talk about things incredibly intimate and important to you that could not be trusted with any random friend. It surprised me when I first learned that I was on that short list of trust, but I am incredibly flattered. For this, I thank you. 13. You complete my life - an expression I always found hokey until I met you. Words honestly can't express it, and I hope that I communicate the small snippets that I do find along the way. For this, I thank you. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! Tiggerprr - Jenny

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Hockey hockey hockey

The Sign the Taus Built
Originally uploaded by measi.

The Agganis Arena at Boston University fully justifies my four years of tuition. It is beautiful. It's bright. It's clean. It has spiffy jumbotron screens surrounding the stadium.

Oh, college hockey, how I've missed you so.

As I'd mentioned last week in my Thursday Thirteen, the Sisters of Tau Beta Sigma were being honored for their contribution of the Goalie/Sieve sign to BU Hockey Lore. When the new arena opened, the building & grounds folks didn't know where the sign would be placed. And so it didn't go anywhere. It sat in storage as students (and alumni) who came to games became upset at the dismantling of a tradition.

With the help of a flagpole and some ingeniuty, this year... the sign is back. It's hung from the rim of the Student Suite. Over the course of the year, a couple Sisters will be held responsible for trekking to the other side of the arena during the break between periods, and flip it over.

But Saturday night, the alumni Sisters were able to enjoy the swankiness of the student suite and took one last round at flipping the banner. The suite was fully stocked with burgers, italian sausages, chips, and other yummy munchies-- and of course, the suite sponsor, Snapple. Lots and lots of Snapple.

The nine of us in this photo wasn't reflective of the number of people who were in and out of the suite all evening. At one point, it was standing room only.

We laughed. We cheered on the game (BU won over the University of New Brunswick, 3-2). We introduced our required suite chaperone to the joys of the band community (and even made her a temporary honorary as we invited her back to the band room for celebratory cake).

Many of us agreed that the unofficial motto of our chapter should be "Join TBS - We Have Cake." Let it be known that the band director agreed with it, too. So the sisters should start giving out flyers with it! (partially kidding)

All very good times. I seriously need to get to more hockey games and introduce Erich to the addictive insanity that is Hockey East.

Friday Feast #3

It's that time of the year again... but shocker of shockers, I'm not participating actively in NaNoWriMo this year. The bottom line is just free time. I don't have a lot of it, and I just don't feel energized to write this year. I literally have ONE free weekend in November, and I expect that will be taken up by raking leaves. I may sweep myself into the moment and throw some words on the screen next month from time to time, but I just... don't feel like it. My interests have moved in another direction for the time being. I'm enjoying my cross stitch. I enjoy knitting, although I don't do that much of it due to the cross stitch. And I enjoy playing World of Warcraft, which is a huge timesink.

Maybe I'll do NaNoStitchMo. But I'd have to adjust the total- the idea of 50,000 stitches in a month makes my brain hurt. 100 stitches a day, perhaps? It's a good goal.

In any case, the weekend is looming. Along with the TBS event tomorrow night, I just plan on stitching. Lots and lots of stitching. I really need to get to work on the UFO Round Robin piece I received in mid-September.

But to go into the weekend, here is this week's Friday Feast:

Appetizer
Name a song you know by heart.
I know several, actually- I have a knack for remembering song lyrics. So... I'll just pick a couple of the longest ones- American Pie and Bohemian Rhapsody (complete with obligatory head banging)

Soup
What will you absolutely not do in front of another person?
Oddly, the first thing that came to mind to me was... pray. Of all the things that could be said here, how did this come to mind first? But it's the truth. I always, ALWAYS pray only when I'm alone.

Salad
How often do you use mouthwash and what kind do you like?
I don't use it that often- it tends to be a bit too strong to me. When I do use it, I prefer old-fashioned mint Scope.

Main Course
Finish this sentence: I am embarrassed when...
I jumble my words. (and I do this a lot when I speak)

Dessert
What was the last food you craved?
I have a perpetual low-craving for Indian food. Give me a nice medium-heat curry, some naan bread and some mint chutney, and I'm a very happy woman.


Happy Friday,
Mel.

Thursday Thirteen #6: Band Geekness

This Saturday at the Boston University hockey game, Tau Beta Sigma will be honored for its contribution of a little piece of BU hockey atmosphere- the Goalie/Sieve sign. Until this weekend, I don't think many people outside of the band know where it came from and who "owned" it. However, it's always been a big hit. Even I didn't realize how much until I started doing quick surfing this morning on Google for "Walter Brown goalie sieve sign." I was trying to find a good photo of it from "the good old days." I did, however, find an amusing comment on Inside College Hockey where they mention it should go into a not-yet-created College Hockey Hall of Fame.

THAT made me crack up laughing... having dealt with the sheet personally for a couple years.

The sign is very simple- a white bedsheet, folded in half, with "GOALIE" written in large felt cutout letters that were glued (and later... tacked... more on that in my thirteen) - and arrows pointing down. The other half had "SIEVE" with the same arrows. The sign was hung over the railing near the ticket entrance to the arena, placed just so in order to be over the net.

During the break between the hockey periods, two Sisters would quietly go over, and flip the sign around to appropriately identify who was occupying that net for the following period. When BU was at that end, naturally, the sign read "Goalie." When the visiting team was down there, it appropriately read "Sieve."

Since moving to the new arena, I guess the original sign wasn't able to be used- but new developments apparently are underfoot because it simply ISN'T a BU hockey game without that sign present.

And so, this week's Thursday Thirteen, relating to my experiences in Tau Beta Sigma.

Thirteen memories I've created through membership in Tau Beta Sigma 1. The sheer amusement I get from people giving me two looks when I say I'm in a sorority (because apparently it is just a cookie cutter world for sorority girls)... and even more when I say it's a sorority for band members. And (now as an alum) that it's now co-ed. That gives them a bit to wrestle over. :) 2. Season tickets to hockey, junior year. My class schedule was such that I couldn't commit my schedule to pep band that year, particularly with playing a majority of the basketball games. So I got together with Ivy and two other Sisters who had graduated at that point, and bought hockey season tickets. We wound up with amazing seats- first row behind the home team bench. We learned a lot about conversations on the bench that year-- the people who sounded like they had Tourette's. And I will be honest-- those are very, very stinky seats by the end of the second period. But we had a BLAST. 3. Ritual. There's something very special about going back as an alumna to a sorority ritual. The faces in attendance change year after year, but the words and the traditions don't. I didn't understand the concept as much when I was an undergrad, but now I realize how ritual really is the tradition above all else that bind a sorority together. 4. Sisterhood Nights - the night before the final initiation ritual, the Sisters get together for a goofy last night of celebrating the pledge period. Games, stories, lots of food. Can't go wrong. :) 5. Picnics on Memorial Drive. Every year we had a spring picnic to celebrate the outgoing seniors & have a last fling with area alumni. Everyone brought something. We snacked. We watched rugby players from BU and Harvard battle it out on the lawn. Along with sisterhood nights, those were the events where I really got to know other sisters outside of the band. 6. My pledge class rode down the several stories-high escalator at the Porter Square T stop, sitting down with our arms raised, screaming as if it were a really long (and really slow) rollercoaster drop. :) Just 'cause. If you've ever gone down that escalator, admit it-- you've been tempted to do the same. 7. Band trip to Maine, sophomore year - we stayed overnight in Portland, where the brothers of Kappa Kappa Psi from UNH came to hang out with us. Alcohol was, of course, officially banned from these trips. Unofficially, Brothers and Sisters of age found a way to bring supplies for the hotel. Good times were had by all. 8. Memories of the band community. No matter what college you go to, the members of a college band have a very strange little community going on. And it often translates to other colleges. It's comfy, it's cozy. It has its own drama. I miss that sense of belonging sometimes. 9. Painting The Rock. At the corner of Comm. Ave and the BU bridge, there's a rock about 2x3 feet that every fraternity and sorority spray paints with their letters. It used to sit for a few days with the same paint on it- now it seems that it gets painted at least once a day. I never painted it as an undergrad, but I finally got my chance on Sisterhood Night two years ago, when the chapter was celebrating its 20th anniversary. I've suggested (only half-jokingly) that the actual rock under the layers of spray paint is about the size of a baseball. It would be fun to be able to peel the layers back to see what's on there. 10. Missing the Damn Boat for the 20th Anniversary Cruise. In the end, it worked out for the better. :) 11. Having alphabet problems - on my final quiz before being initiated, I was asked to write down the entire greek alphabet. I wrote down every letter- except the letter that indicates my pledge class (Xi). It was the ONLY thing I missed on the quiz. 12. Transitioning from being known as "Klutz" to "Aunty Klutz." I no longer have active line of little sisters in the chapter, but by the branches of the family tree, I'm an aunt to everyone now going through the chapter. What was a quick little silly comment about me being an aunt has now transitioned my nickname. :) 13. Ah yes-- the Goalie/Sieve sign. This one is a story, which I know I've shared with a couple people... but we'll now get it in writing... As a senior, I was the one responsible for the handling and care of the sign. I kept it in my apartment, and brought it to every game. Over Christmas break that year, I decided to take a crack at washing the sign - a suggestion that had been made many times, but never actually attempted. By this point, the sign was at least a decade old. It was not quite white anymore. It had some traces of grime of unknown origin. Due to the felt, I decided that it really should be gently washed by hand, rather than thrown in a machine. To my surprise, ALL of the letters immediately began peeling off the sign as soon as it was dunked in my bathtub - the letters had been glued to the sheet with water soluable glue, but never otherwise attached. With a HUGE amount of swearing, I quickly ended my attempts at washing the sign, pulled everything out of the water and hung it to dry. As it dried, most of the letters completely fell off. I'd managed to kill the Goalie-Sieve sign. Thankfully, though, the felt letters had been outlined on the sheet with red markers. Once it was dry, it was fairly easy to place the letters once again. I first reglued, then TACKED the felt to the sheet. Close call. Hopefully no one ever tried that again! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! Chaotic Mom

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants