Swirl Bookmark

The thread Marie sent for the shuttle exchange was completely used up making this swirl square bookmark. The Swirl is a pattern I made up more than a year ago. It has more rounds than this one, but I didn't want to use up all the thread before I got the tail made, so I only did three rounds. The tail is pearle tatted. I like doing that because it's a chance to just fiddle with the thread. No rules, and any pattern or non-pattern will do.  OH -- I forgot to say this was also made with my new hand-carved shuttle from Marie.  It really holds a LOT of thread!  It's just the right size for my hand and even though it's smooth, it doesn't slip out of my fingers.  It's lovely!

This one might go to my niece's teacher for Christmas. I offered her one of the Christmas mouse bookmarks, but she's pretty certain her teacher doesn't like mice.

This is also the same motif I used for Diane's doodad challenge. I said then I'd post the pattern. Uh-huh. It's been more than a year, but I do have a .pdf of the file. I've put it in Keep & Share but I only have a trial account, so I hope it works.  If anyone is interested better get it soon.  ☺

*sigh*  It has been pointed out to me that I uploaded the .psp file instead of the .pdf file.  I fixed that, so it should be okay now. Ooookaaayyy--apparently I'm doing something wrong.  I think it's fixed so anyone can download it now.  If someone would try it and leave me a comment if it works, I'd appreciate it.

Mice!

HA! That got you all worried and stuff, right? No? Oh, well, not everyone is that concerned about mice. These are really too cute to be concerned about, anyway. They are Wanda Salmans' "Morgan Mouse" pattern. I added some little round ears (because my niece insisted!) but I don't know that they improve the look of the mouse. Morgan Mouse is made around an eight petaled flower doodad, but I did them on a button because I wanted to add color. I'm giving these to someone who's doing a fundraiser and wanted them to be Christmas mice. 

The first one is a bit of a stretch as a mouse -- it's green. How many green mice have you seen? I accidentally picked up the ball of size 40 thread to make this one, and it's a bit wimpy around that big button. Besides that, the eyes want to slide down over the stitches. It was only after I was about halfway around thinking, "what is wrong with this thread?" that I realized it was not the size 20. The tail is made of double double-stitches (or balanced double stitches), then tied in a knot with a little frayed end.  That avoids having to sew in any ends (always a plus).

The next two mice are little white mice. The thread is size 20 and works better with both the buttons and the beads. I changed where I joined the rings in the button on these two. They look more balanced and the tails join in the right place for Morgan Mouse. Their tails are pearl tatted very tightly without making long side loops. The no-ends-to-sew in was too attractive, so these also end with little frayed brushes. I took the option of cutting open the whisker picots because I didn't use a gauge and they were so terribly uneven. The one on the green button has blue eyes because I couldn't find two more of those big black beads. There are in the house somewhere, but at 1:30 in the morning, who wants to hunt for beads?  {update: Now I've realized that so late at night I'm much less clever than I think I am. The pattern numbers the rings. The nose is ring 8. Yup. I used 8 as the stitch count instead of 3. I guess this is Morgan Mouse's cousin Reginald Rat.}

State Fair

The State Fair is over and I'm starting on entries for next year.  So far what I have are really ambitious ideas!

I demonstrated tatting at the Bonneville Tatters table in the Home Arts building four times during the Fair:  twice with Tonya, another Bonneville Tatters member, and once with my sister and my niece (and once with Judy, but I don't have a picture with her).  My sister has been tatting for 5 days (not all this year!), and when we went to tat on the last day of the Fair, my niece, who is ten, had been tatting for about 2 hours.  She made a lot of little short chains -- she called them worms.  Some guy asked her what their names were.  She gave him a strange look then said, "Wormy and WormyTwo."  She proudly placed them under the clear plastic cover on our table with all the other tatting bits and bobs.

This is the first year I've entered as "Advanced Amature" -- according to the Fair rules after entering for five years you've got to move up.  I did it a year early because I figured if I was going to enter stuff I'd designed, that had to be advanced.   I entered eleven pieces of tatting and came home with nine first-place blue ribbons and two second-place red ribbons.  It cost me $11 to enter, and I also came home with a check for $31.  Not a high-paying proposition, but certainly a lot of fun.

 The ornaments and the butterfly are the same ones I entered in the County Fair, but I had to add a bookmark tail to the butterfly to enter it in the State Fair.  I added a coil-less safety pin to the back of the Grapes from Karey Soloman's class at Shuttlebirds to qualify it for the wearable (flat) tatting category.


There are more categories in the state than the county, so I made some new things for the State this year.  In the jewelry category I entered a necklace and matching earrings which are really Patti Duff's lanyard pattern with smaller thread and bigger beads.  I found these beads that look like crumpled tinfoil, and really like the way they turned out.    For the Halloween suncatcher, I used the center of Linda Davies' new Classic Doily fitted into a bangle with black thread.  Then with invisible thread (it was 3:00 in the morning on entry day!) I sewed on my Ripley the Ghost made from Jeff's Hamilton's pattern. (Thanks so much for sharing, Jeff!)   It turned out really well (especially for 3:00 in the morning).

The other new things I entered were a Tatted card (I sewed the Celtic motif on a card with invisible thread about 2:30 in the morning), and the swirled square motif I made up a few months ago.  The comment I got on the card was that white on white was not a good idea (lots of things seem like good ideas at 2:30 in the morning), and it was not evenly blocked -- too true.  The comments on the motif were that I pulled some of the rings too tight.  It probably looks a little warped, but second place is still cool.


The Classic Doily by Linda Davies that I test-tatted for her was large enough to enter in the centerpiece category.  It was very well received by the judges -- they like classic and white, and they liked the pattern of this doily.  Thanks, Linda!  I also entered the two-toned purple doily in the "doily" category.  Unfortunately the pretty sunset doily I entered in the County Fair was in the same category as the purple one in the State Fair and it's one entry per category.  I would have entered the other as an edging, but the only edgings categories are for hankies and pillowcases.  (Gotta get working on those for next year).

The lovely Utahraptor got a nice blue ribbon.  I got a note on that one, too.  It said if I'd done a better display it would have been considered for sweepstakes.  Well, rats.  I didn't do this display.  The people who took in entries at the fair pinned it to this board with big "T" pins -- I didn't have any choice in the matter (boy do I sound grumpy and unappreciative and sour-grapeish or what?!).  Anyway, next year I need to make a stegosaurus and put it on a proper display board with invisible thread, not with "T" pins. 



Finally, there's my lone piece of crochet.  I chose the pineapple doily after fussing about it for a while.  Pineapples are my favorites, after all.

There now.  Aren't you glad I'm done blathering?


Oops, not done -- someone asked if there were any categories I didn't enter.  Yes.  I didn't enter the ones with the red "x" on them in this list.  I need to get busy if I'm going to enter in every category next year!

Marking Time

I belong to the Bar.  Yeah, I know, scandalous.  It's not an interesting bar, though -- it's the Paralegal Division of the Utah State Bar.  To keep belonging to the bar I get to do 10 hours of Continuing Legal Education every year.  Usually I go to the free "brown bag" seminars.  That way the boss can't complain that I cost anything -- they're free and during lunch hour.  I take my lunch and am gifted with a cookie, a drink and some esoteric knowledge.

Once a year they really splash out and give me $100 to go to the Fall Forum.  I can get 80% of the hours I need in an evening and one day.  This year I went to the evening performance of "A Midsummer Night's Mediation Tragedy."  It was, too -- tragic that is.  There's a reason lawyers become lawyers instead of actors.  Don't get me wrong, they did a very nice job.  However, every one of those litigators does a MUCH better acting job when they're standing in a courtroom, NOT in a dining room! 

I take my tatting with me to these events.  Everything I need to know is on the handouts which I can download from the bar website.  I listen very closely, and I have a pen and paper in case I want to write something down, which I do now and then.  Now, there are occasionally people who don't think I should be tatting when someone else is speaking.  Not meaning to sound sexist or anything, but it's usually men.  I don't believe they can multitask after all.  I thought it was a rumor.  I've told them before, "I listen with my ears, not my hands!"  Every year I have to tell a new person.  I'm wondering now if some of them do listen with their hands!  Besides, tatting keeps me from getting up and wandering around the room, or talking on my cell phone, or playing sudoku on my smart phone, or doing my office work on my iPad -- which would be much more rude, and which I saw quite a lot of those same people doing.  This year I made four bookmarks.  I've only got three, though, because I gave one to another of the attendees who was interested (more interested in my tatting than in A Midsummer Night's Mediation Tragedy -- really.  Hard to imagine, eh?).  

I like Jane Eborall's butterfly bookmark because it's so adaptable.  I know the basic shape and stitch counts and it can be done without beads.  Now dropping a container of beads, THAT would be distracting!  These are made in Lizbeth size 20 Golden Yellow, Medium.  Yeah, I know.  It surprised me too.  Funniest yellow I ever did see -- that's what the label said though.  So, I don't really know what color-name is assigned to this red, white, blue and purple, but it makes good bookmarks!

What? August!

It's hart to believe it's the end of November already -- I've been AWOL for 3 months!  I don't even have a really stellar reason.  It would be nice to say I won the lottery and have been on a world cruise and just too busy playing to blog.  Nope.  I didn't win anything; I've been right here at home; and I've been too busy working to blog.  Borrrrrrring!  On the good side of that my assignment at work has changed so that I just get to do the part I like -- all the rest of the stuff I used to do someone else is now doing.  Lovely.  Now I have to step into the Wayback Machine and show you what I've been doing for three months -- because I have done some tatting.  :)

How about the Fair, for starters?  I got some blue ribbons (1st), some red ribbons (2nd) and some pink ribbons (4th).  In ascending order then, I got a 4th place ribbon on my ankle bracelet and my hat (which for some reason shows as a pillowcase on my "premium statement" from the fair).  The ankle bracelet is the same one I entered in the county fair.  The hat is all new.  I made the initial just for the hat, but the top is decorated with one of Jon Yusoff's snowflakes.  Both are made in size 80 thread hand-dyed "Oh, Baby" by my sister.  The judges comments -- that I was hoping would be helpful -- just said "nice" and "precise tatting" for these.  *sigh*

The Heart's Desire bookmark is also the same one entered in the County Fair.  It got a second place ribbon at the State Fair.  I also entered my little crocheted Cthulhu toy which got a red ribbon.  The funny little guy has wings, arms and legs, but he's buried here in someone's quilt, so it looks like he's only a head.  He's being shipped off to the far reaches of the world, as soon as I find a spare minute to stand in line at the post office.







I got nice first place blue ribbons on the button doily, and the Easter and Christmas ornaments I also entered in the state fair.  The coaster I entered got a blue ribbon as well.  It's the square I designed in Sharon Briggs' Design Tat Class.  She teaches well!  I made it again in purple size 30 DMC Cebelia.  I've made four now so I have a small set of coasters, but I only entered one.

 

I was very pleased to have gotten a first place ribbon on the large centerpiece I adapted from a Jan Stawasz pattern.  I left out all the picots except the joining ones.  What made me so happy is that entry morning when I took it's picture, I noticed that I had missed a couple of joins -- there were the picots just hanging out there.  It's such a large piece that either the judges didn't see them or figured they'd cut me a little slack!  It's the same doily on which I reported not much progress last June. 

The first two pictures are those I took the morning we were taking things to the fair.  It did turn out really pretty, I think.  I was just upset that I had missed the joins.  I still haven't decided whether or not to try to fix it, or just figure, nobody's perfect and a man on a galloping horse won't notice anyway.  The second pictures are the ones I took at the fair,  after  I convinced the fair people to move it .  It was originally displayed draped over a white knitted something, and it completely disappeared -- not to mention I spent hours getting it blocked just right and they rumpled it all up.  I have no idea how the owner of the afghan they finally placed it on felt about having her work covered up.  *sigh*  I wish they had a bigger building!

The last thing I entered in the fair was over in the Creative Arts area.  It's a bit of Calligraphy in the Celtic style.  It got a blue ribbon, too. 

All together, it cost me $11.00 to enter this stuff in the fair, but I came home with $22.00.  Not too bad -- it bought me a nice lunch one day!

More from the Fair

Back in April I made a bookmark from my own button decoration pattern with a long perle-tatted tail.  I called it a Pink Diamond bookmark because this year's fair theme was "Diamond Days, Country Ways".  It didn't matter, though.  The only "theme" brownie points being given were for quilt blocks.  *sigh*  Fairs seem to have a love affair with quilts.

I did get a nice first place ribbon on it, and a "high blue" which means it was considered for sweepstakes -- even without the brownie points.

It's also made of size 20 Lizbeth pink thread -- but it's a pink variegate.

County Fair

Last Sunday we took the long trek out to the county fair grounds and entered our ...er... stuff (can't think of a more elegant word).  We had a dozen things which meant we could purchase a parking pass for all four nights of the fair for the price of parking for one night of the fair.  That was good. We used it tonight -- just to see how we did.  Though we looked through the whole fair building we did not venture outside except to go home.  We'll save the animals, food vendors and carnival for the weekend.  There were some pretty interesting things at the fair, and some really strange ones.  I liked the little beings and bugs made out of vegetables. 

All the tatting is in the glass display cases, so my pictures aren't very good.  That's why I made scans or took pictures before entering the stuff in the fair.  In the category "other" (so descriptive!) I entered this pink Heart's Desire bookmark designed by Wanda.  She did such a good job, I got a blue ribbon.  Now, that's a mark of a great design!  Anyway, here it is as displayed in the case (under somebody's ID card) and the scan before it was entered.  I made it with pink Lizbeth size 20.  It needed minimal blocking -- another mark of a good pattern for me.  Thanks, Wanda!

Speaking of Bookmarks...

Exchanges are so much fun.  I like getting things from other tatters -- they're always inspiring.  These are the bookmarks I received this year:
The top one (with the card and pretty tatted strawberry and bee) is from Tattabugg.  It's Mary Konior's Black Magic made in size 80 black and a lovely bluish turquoise (yummy!).  It's very delicate looking, and beautifully blocked.

The flower lattice bookmark in variegated pink, green and brown is from Anika.  I got a little note with it that has single-ring picot flowers on it in matching colors (and one little blue flower).  It reminds me of the climbing rose trellis in our backyard when I was little.

The last one is from Catriona (it even came with a huge "Royal Mail" stamp -- Queen Elizabeth II is looking quite young on it).  The bookmark is  a stretched out "Stumpy" from a pattern by Kersti.  She made it in size 10 Lizbeth Caribbean -- that's one of my favorite variegates from Lizbeth!  For someone who says she hasn't been tatting very long, the stitches are certainly even and well tensioned.

My books will be happy to have such lovely bits marking 'em.

Since this was an exchange, I made bookmarks for other people and sent them on their way.  I did that about 10 days ago, so I hope they've all arrived.  The turquoise butterfly string is made from Lizbeth 20 "dark sea green" and "wildflower" from my own pattern.  I made it without buttons -- which don't do well inside books.  But I like it a lot, so I made another with the little tiny buttons in size 80.  I made a really, really long tail so none of the buttons have to actually be inside the book.  The last one is also size 80 made of "Midnight Escape" variegated thread my sister dyed for me.  It's from Edging Pattern No. 8902 in "The Tatter's Treasure Chest" edited by Mary Carolyn Waldrep.  The tassel and it's hanger were added on with separate threads at the end.

I was very tempted to add a second bookmark to each package to divest myself of all those "Made in Hawaii" but they were a ONE bookmark exchange, so I practiced restraint.  Perhaps they'll find their way into a Holiday Exchange package this year.

Made in Hawaii

 It surprised me to find that I had very little time to tat in Hawaii.  We were busy, busy, busy.  Even on the ship there were things to do.  My tatting went with me wherever we went (well, okay, I didn't take it snorkeling!), but I did small things.  In fact I did all the same small things.  I even did the same small things in the same colors.  *sigh* 

All these bookmarks (but the obvious one) are made from a modification of Jane Eborall's Butterfly Bookmark.  Her butterfly has long beaded picots and beads on picot joins which make it nice and shiny (I like shiny!).  Working with beads while standing in line or riding in the car or on a boat or walking up a trail is just not within my ability.  I left out the beads and the long picots.  I couldn't carry a picot gauge doing any of those things either. 

The odd-one-out is a modification of xstchntat's Flower Bookmark.  It's a modification because I didn't take the pattern with me and lost track of where I was.  It's got that really big flower on the end because I miscounted.  Ah, well, I like that one too. 

The tails are mostly perle (pearl, purl??) tatted.  There's just one that's a long Josephine spiral.  I used xstchntat's tassel technique for those with tassels.  The rainbow thread is size 30 Cebelià that my sister dyed for me.  Everything else is Lizbeth 20.  The length of the tail just depended on how much thread I had left on the shuttles.

There -- these are my haphazard vacation tattings!

Marking Time

Bookmarks are good things to have.  Many, many are required -- unless you only have one book.  They don't work very well for a Nook, but not everything is electronic.  They work really well for marking places in tatting books.

The pair of bookmarks to the left are "Flower" by xstchntat.  The first one was made with size 30 Cebelia thread that my sister dyed for me, and size 40 white Lizbeth.  That was weird.  I thought I had picked up a bobbin of size 20 white.  I had to make more stitches in the chains than the pattern called for because of the difference in thread size.  When I made the second one, in size 20 that too-many-chain-stitches carried over.  These aren't quite according to pattern, but it is a really fun and simple pattern.  I played with the tails and managed my first real tassels using the technique xstchntat showed in this video.  Works great!

The bookmark on the right is made in size 20 Lizbeth.  It is my own pattern and is supposed to represent a string of butterflies.  The one at the bottom is also size 20 and is made from my pattern for a button shirt decoration.  I figured as the button part would stick out of the book, it would be okay and not make a lump in the book.  (click on images to enlarge)

Ribbons from the Fair - part 5

Julie Patterson's "Hearts and Flower Cross Bookmark "was made for a friend of mine (she's still waiting for it). You can see how it looked at the Fair -- sorta rumpled up in the case. Poor little thing (it got a smudge on it too, so I'll be washing and reblocking it). I entered it as a Wedding Accessory -- a bookmark for the bride's Bible.

That's its second place ribbon just about overpowering the bit of tatting. I'm not certain why it got that, because the comments just said "nice work." Yeah, Fair judges -- way to keep me humble. (Ooooo, I sound like a whiny brat!)

The pink background over there is what it looks like stretched out on my scanner. I don't do tassels well, and it has to be shipped off to another state. I wanted a tail that would lie flat in her Bible and not get too bent up during shipping. This one is made of button cotton in perle tatting over an inner thread, and ending with a tiny split ring cross.

Rings 'n' things

I've been tatting -- really I have. I just didn't seem to have anything I could show. My InTatters exchange partner has informed me that she received the pendant I sent, though. I thought sure the poor thing had disappeared behind some monster machine in the Post office or something. Nope, it made it safely. It's made with Oren Bayan silver thread and purple mini-seed beads (a whole pot-load of 'em). The necklace part is a twisted metal cable inside a purple protective casing. Really, it matches better than this picture makes it appear.
The other things I've been doing I'll trot out when they're finished. I'm still emptying bobbins, too. I've been making more butterflies -- the little four ring ones. But, I've also made a couple of Jane Eborall's Butterfly Bookmarks without the bookmark tails, and one tiny one with a tail for really tiny books! I've got a few more bobbins with enough thread to make Butterfly Bookmarks, if I mix the colors. That should be interesting. I might very well end up with a Christmas Butterfly, because I've got a bobbin each of red and green that are about evenly matched in amounts.

As for the ornament challenge...it has foundered. *sigh* It will get back on track pretty soon though. I ordered covered styrofoam ornaments and they've been received! I think the plastic ones are going to end up with my nieces. They can decorate them by gluing or sticking things on 'em. My patience with them (the ornaments, not the nieces -- hmmmmm, wait, some days it's them too!) has been exhausted.

VACATION!!

Yup, I'm taking one. I know it looks like I've been on vacation for a while, but I've just been busy getting things done at work so I could leave. I'm off to Disneyland with my sister and my two nieces. :) I'm taking a nice little supply of tatting threads, shuttles, and lots and lots of patterns. The patterns are all stored in my Nook, so that's how I can have lots and lots. I'm also taking two colors of size 10 thread because Bonnie said teaching her would give us something to do while waiting in lines. I hope it works, because she's a lefty and I'm a righty. I'm not much of a teacher either...we'll see. I'll report on our success (or lack thereof) when I come back. Maybe I need to learn left-handed (I did that to teach her to crochet many year ago -- and I can't do it anymore).
As for tatting -- I've been doing some! I've got some UFO's (one of which I'm taking with me) and I've been emptying shuttle bobbins by making lots of little butterflies. Some of the bobbins have quite a bit of thread on them, so I tried making something a bit bigger. This is Jane Eborall's newest butterfly bookmark -- with some oops things. I didn't load any beads first, and miscounted the ones I did add. Duh. It's made of one strand of variegated quilting thread and one strand of yellow Cebelia wound together. I also didn't have enough thread to make much of a tail...it's for marking tiny books, maybe.

Whhooooose There?

Owls are night creatures, so they show up best against a black sky. Of course, the evergreen branch he's perched on doesn't show up so well. Once again, this is from Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo.

This is my second attempt at making this pattern. It really isn't difficult, it just requires that you pay attention. I did something weird on the first one: it's horned tufts were turned upside down and one eye was bigger than the other. My sister said it looked crazy. I think she insulted it, because it's flown the coop (I can't find it anywhere or I'd show you how weird it looks).

This second one turned out rather nice. It's made of Lizbeth size 20 Ecru and medium Harvest Orange (you'd think I was trying to use up the entire ball of that stuff) with Christmas Green for the branch. Isn't it interesting how many animals look good in brown?

AH-HA! I found the crazy owl! Those weird threads at his shoulders are where the pattern finished and didn't hide the ends. I don't know that I will ever hide the ends. I think this will go in my drawer full of what-can-I-possibly-do-with-this-? stuff.

Swan

Swan on the water. Pretty, eh? This one is also from Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo. I like the idea that the bookmark tail is water. I made this one from size 30 Cebelia, white and "Singing the Blues." I had some problem with the scanning, because the blue doesn't show up really well on black, but the swan didn't show up at all on white. All the other colors just looked weird, so black it is.

Tabby Cat

You know why this cat looks so grumpy? I cut the whiskers off one side of the scan. Oops. They really are all still there on the bookmark. This one is for a friend who owns a tabby cat, so I thought she might like it. Like the snail, it is made from Lizbeth size 20 medium Harvest Orange, and a size 20 Omega orange variegate. It has a really long tassel tail. It can tease the cat while it hangs out the bottom of a book, right?

This is another from Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo. There's a lion in there too, but I don't think I'm going to make it. Too many picots! I think it would prob'ly shed.

Snail Trail

Look at that speedy little beast go! He's going to get away -- in about a month. This is the Snail bookmark from Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo. This is the only kind of snail I like. The snail is made from Lizbeth size 20 medium Harvest Orange, and a size 20 Omega (which seemed larger) orange variegate I got from Aileen (Wickedtats) as a runner-up in her Halloween give away. It was perfect for this little snail. The tail is done in pearl tatting with encapsulated threads to simulate a snail trail on grass (with Lizbeth size 30 Christmas Green grass). The pattern didn't call for that weird ring cluster at the end. I was just getting...uh...fancy, yeah, fancy.

Tatty Turtle

Isn't that just the sweetest little thing? This is my niece's favorite of all the bookmarks I've been making lately. Bet you thought it was from Dianna Stevens again. Nope, this one is Tatty Turtle from Mark Myers. This is such a clever pattern and it made a really nice little bookmark. I used a different color for the bookmark tail because I didn't want any one thinking I thought turtles had really long tails. The butterfly at the end is so there were no ends to hide when I finished (well, not in the tail, there were ends to hide in the turtle). The turtle is made of Lizbeth size 20 Christmas green. The tail is size 30 Cebelia "Day and Night Rainbow". I like that nice flat pearl tatted tail for bookmarks.

See Ya Later, Alligator!

You're ready to run out and get a copy of Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo, aren't you? This little beastie is another from that book. The pattern is fairly easy, and the results are so much fun. I think I might have done a better job on the lower jaw, though. I just decided this is a mama alligator, and she's carrying baby ones in that puffy mouth. :) Yeah, that works -- I wonder if they'll grow up to be bookmarks too? I was going to make something creative like a pink and purple alligator, but decided on these more earthy colors. These are medium Harvest Orange and Christmas Green from Lizbeth in size 20. I was going to get all creative and put a bead in the eye, but decided not to chance that bead-bump-in-the-book problem.

I've got this and some other posts set up to pop in here automatically while I'm away for the Holidays. If you decide to share a really interesting, fascinating, well-written, insightful comment, be assured, I'm not ignoring you. I'm just going where I don't have an internet connection. :)