Curled Up Wat

I did have to ask, "Is that rat even alive?" which of course made her uncurl and run to me. 

Lego Klingon Bird of Prey

This is a Klingon Bird of Prey from Star Trek. 

And the boys' version in Legos! 

Here's an old picture from back when this Legos thing was first getting started.

America, Freeeeest Land on Earth

It started when I was reading on Wikipedia about Matilda of Flanders... and how did that even start?  I mean, how did I get started reading it.  

According to legend, when William… sent his representative to ask for Matilda’s hand in marriage, she told the representative that she was far too high-born to consider marrying a bastard. After hearing this response, William rode from Normandy to Bruges, found Matilda on her way to church, and dragged her off her horse by her long braids, threw her down in the street in front of her flabbergasted attendants, and rode off.  Another version of the story states that William rode to Matilda’s father’s house in Lille, threw her to the ground in her room (again, by the braids), and hit her (or violently battered her) before leaving. Naturally, Baldwin took offense at this but, before they drew swords, Matilda settled the matter by agreeing to marry him, and even a papal ban on the grounds of consanguinity did not dissuade her. They were married in 1053.

And then what happened?  A clickable encyclopedia is sure a fun thing. 

There's a hundred reasons why America is not a free country.  I don't think many even claim it is, any more.  The phrase "it's a free country" it still used to make a point. 
I don't mind America!  I'd rather live here than anywhere else I know of.  Only I prefer things to be labelled AS THEY ARE.  
No patience with pretense, unless it's obvious pretense... and don't let that one get started.

Anyway.  Something I clicked led to something which led to something else and here we are:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allodial_title

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fee_simple

There can be no pretense of freedom while we're under the feudal system. 

    Allodial title constitutes ownership of real property… that is independent of any superior landlord. In common legal use, allodial title is used to distinguish absolute ownership of land by individuals from feudal ownership, where property ownership is dependent on relationship to a lord or the sovereign… “allodium” is “land which is absolute property of the owner, real estate held in absolute independence, without being subject to any rent, service, or acknowledgment to a superior. It is thus opposed to “feud.”

    True allodial title is rare, with most property ownership in the common law world– primarily, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland– described more properly as being in fee simple. In particular, land is said to be “held of the Crown” in England and Wales and the Commonwealth realms. In England, there is no allodial land, all land being held of the Crown; in the United States, all land is subject to eminent domain by the federal government, and there is thus no true allodial land.

    In English law, a fee simple… is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. It is… ordinarily the most complete ownership interest that can be had in real property short of allodial title, which is often reserved for governments. Fee simple ownership represents absolute ownership of real property but it is limited by the four basic government powers of taxation, eminent domain, police power, and escheat…

Stop paying your property taxes and you’ll find out quickly enough who owns that land.

My daddy always told me that a true RIGHT is not subject to taxation or regulation. We still have the right to breathe. There’s no oxygen tax and no limit to how much we can do it, no regulation, no license required.  For anybody else to interfere with us breathing is a crime.  Okay, then breathing passes the right test.

Does anything else?

Barbie "Be a Real Fashion Designer"

I had a $20 coupon from Mattel. What to spend it on? Well, it would have to be something that we would never buy otherwise!
So Andrea got this kit. I never would have spent money on this. It was kinda fun though. We had a good time decorating. You get five simple dresses and a bunch of stickers and glitter to put on them. It's a good concept. My biggest complaint would be that the dresses aren't very well made-- photo of back of the purple dress is to prove that-- if I made a dress that came out like that I'd call it a do-over!
I'm going to make a few more simple Barbie dresses so she can use up the rest of the stuff that came in the kit. That's the plan anyway, don't hold your breath for it happening :-)

PS, forgot to mention how I got a $20 coupon from Mattel! I bought Apples to Apples for Christmas, and the bottommost card in one of the decks looked like it had been through a machine. I sent it to them and asked for a new one (it was the "chocolate bonbons" card or I wouldn't have bothered) and they sent me the coupon instead. 
Hmph.

Free Motion Quilting - I got it!!!

My attempts at free motion quilting before have had bad results.  It was all tangled thread and broken needles.  I managed to make it work, once, a little, which came out very awkward looking, as if a wrestling match had taken place between me and the machine (which isn't far from the truth).

Was thinking of taking a quilting class next month.  I wouldn't usually, because there aren't many things I can't figure out on my own, but I was seriously having no luck with this and decided to actually pay for help.  Reading the supply list for the class, and it says I have to have a walking foot and darning foot.  My lovely gift from God, that Pfaff, has the IDT built in, so I don't need a walking foot.  It came with a darning foot too.  Light bulbs started going on.  I knew the Pfaff had a "free motion quilting foot" available, but I hadn't gotten to the point of purchasing it yet.  But what about the darning foot? 

I hadn't carefully read the instructions in the Pfaff manual for darning before; I read them now.  "Darning" is free motion, that's the whole idea.  There's a special setting on the Pfaff for darning, wherein the presser foot is half lowered and the thread tension is engaged.  Lower the feed dogs and away you go. I tried it and it worked perfectly! 

Can NOT believe how simple this is.  Amazing once you get it right.  Amazing what the German engineers built in there for our stitching pleasure (that's my favorite part).

It's a breeze!  Just like one of the Youtube ladies had said in a video that didn't help me at all, "It's just like doodling."

Mike's quilt is done!

Done, bound and quilted.