Weekly Stitching (I actually did!)

Well, it wasn't much, but I FINALLY figured out the big secret to fixing my contacts. I tried all the tricks they taught me throughout the years...the official cleaners and the unofficial ones like baking soda and cola and nothing worked. I had gotten to the point where I had just started wearing them long enough to get me to work, then putting on my glasses to get me through the day. But Friday night, I just decided, while I was washing my hands, why not give hand soap a try. The spots on them seemed grease-like anyway, like I was looking through vaseline, so why not? And sure enough, I could see out of those little puppies again, grease spots all gone! Granted, they are starting to cloud up again today, but I now know what to do and I think I know why it's happening. I've been using the knock off stuff for years, but only ever the Wal-Mart kind, not the Target kind. Apparently there is a difference. So I'll try to make myself go to the store this week and get the "good" stuff. Stupid gas perm contacts require very expensive juice, so I try to save where I can. Apparently, not all knock-off juice is the same and Target skimps more than WM...who knew? At least I managed a couple of days worth of stitching!

I left off on Hook here, where you could barely see the white:

And after muddling through a row of the white, I decided to move down to Killian's head, something I don't ever do in projects like this...I do typically go in order from top to bottom:

His head looks so tiny in that sea of future white.

I still need to order paper to print Snow and Charming on before I can buy thread and new scroll rods, but once I get them all kitted up, hopefully I will have the row done for Hook and I'll be ready to go on them!

I also got my new computer in this week and got it mostly built up with my stuff. I still think I need to probably split off a section and Boot Camp it (if I can get my hands on a Win 7 license, therein is where the trouble lies, but it's not totally impossible). I have too many Windows specific programs that I use for various things like editing pics quickly (Windows Picture It, which they haven't made in years...I have Lightroom too which swings both ways, but that is not an "in a hurry" kind of editing product). I like to use ProShow Gold to make photo DVDs of trips. ProShow is the ONLY software that doesn't have a limit of how many pictures you can use in a slideshow. That's a big deal when you take thousands of Disney pics. I have cross stitch software, family tree software, collection cataloging software, YouTube snagging software, British disc reading software and about a half a dozen others that I've used for years. I could probably find Mac comparable versions, but they won't be exactly the same and I like what I like. That's where Boot Camp comes in handy. I don't want to ask for more money for Parallels and I definitely don't want to deal with Windows 10 which Parallels is very friendly with now (besides, most of these programs won't work even in compatibility mode with Win 10). Boot Camp does fine with Win 7 and it's free, I just have to give up a section of hard drive space (good thing they sprang for the 2TB drive).

I'm gonna try to get to the doctor again next week too to get those stupid boosters so I can "officially" be a student of Arkansas State. Then I get to start the scary part of advisors and scheduling classes and then the "fun" part can begin. The hell I'm already getting from work now about school will probably triple once classes start, but that's OK because I'm ready for it since, when all is said and done, no matter what direction I end up going in, once I graduate, I'm out the door. I can stomach a lot of torture if it means there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Here's to a better week of vision, of work, of health in general, and of stitching, but my hopes aren't very high. As my new sticker on my new laptop says...Team FreeWill. There is something to be said for being a total fangirl...you can kick certain people directly in the teeth and they have no clue what you are talking about. I mentioned that I almost went with "damn the man, save the Empire!" and they thought I was talking about Star Wars. Seriously? I also have a button in my office that I bought in Disney World that has Scar saying "I'm surrounded by idiots"...it gets pushed a lot too.