"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

3/20/15

Cross Stitch WIPs

The replacement pattern for Hummingbirds and Dogwood by Sue Coleman finally arrived this week. Before that, though, I decided to start something new to keep up the enthusiasm so I wouldn't abandon it all while waiting. I'm not going to say what the pattern is. Just watch it develop over the next several months and see if you'll be able to guess.



 I found this on someones blog completely by accident and fell in love with it. I admit I've made some modifications. I've actually combined two of this persons patterns together. I'm looking forward to when it's finished.

I've made some new progress on HumDog.


The background is all one color, one strand, half stitches, and there's a LOT of it. I also need to do the outline back stitching. Waiting until the background is done will motivate me. I love doing the back stitching.

We've had a rainy week. We needed it though. The crocuses in the yard are blooming. There are even some blooming in places I never planted them! The seeds on the plants from last year must have blown around.

I've been having computer frustrations this week. The problem I had last January that I got fixed on my birthday has come back. I'm getting "Windows is not Genuine" messages. In frustration I contacted Microsoft via their web chat service. I was told my verification key has been disabled and blocked. When I asked why, the answer was because certain hardware numbers didn't match my registration. I explained that Sweet Hubby put in a bigger hard drive and upgraded the memory, but the computer is still the same one I've been using for five years.

They told me there is nothing they can do. I have to buy Windows 8.1 to get everything 'genuine' again. Here's the problem. First, my laptop is not Windows 8 compatible. So that ends that right there. But even if it were compatible, Microsoft's web site won't let me buy it. I have to have a genuine copy of Windows 7 (or lower) on my machine and since they've rendered mine blocked, it won't let me buy anything. I am very PISSED, to say the least. We spent a LOT of money on that hard drive and ram. If I'd known this was gonna happen, we wouldn't have done it.

I'm debating whether to call them up and escalate up to a supervisor, if possible, until I get satisfaction. I would think if they can un-validate my Windows key, they should be able to re-validate it, shouldn't they? Or I might just go ahead and use it as is. It's annoying to deal with the pop-ups that keep popping up telling me my Windows is not genuine (AAAAAAARRRGGHH!!!!). I've turned off as many as I can, but I can't get rid of all of them. I also miss having pictures on my desktop. All I get now is a solid black background. Sigh. I also can't download any MS updates. But my office program is so old it probably doesn't matter any more.

I feel like I've been royally ripped off. I have a genuine copy of Windows 7 running on the original machine it was installed on and they've screwed me over because we upgraded some hardware. Sigh.

There's a new doll in my future. Tonner Dolls released a pic of their new male doll for the Ellowyne Wilde line that is coming out later this year. His name is Penn.



I adore him! He's cute as a button. I love the inset blue eyes and the brown hair. So much nicer than Rufus. I am so excited! I am saving up my class money so I can purchase him. I am thinking of making him a Star Trek uniform. Perhaps the Red Shirt one. I need to find out what body style he has. I'm hoping it's the same one Rufus has.

I've been feeling domestic today. I actually made, from scratch, a Banana Cream pie with Meringue topping. I haven't done that in ages. Years, actually. It's a lot of work making a cream pie from scratch. It came out beautiful and if it tastes half as good as it looks, it will be awesome.



I attribute the perfection of this pie to a very happy cook. I discovered Pandora is on our Roku so I was able to listen to my Star Trek Movie Soundtrack channel while working. It's AWESOME!

Live long and prosper. \\//

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