Saturday would have been my mom’s 61st birthday.

At first, I wasn’t going to put a number to the birthday; she wouldn’t have wanted me to if she were still alive. When I first started putting together this post in my head (what – don’t y’all do the same thing?), I was thinking of putting down something like “50-mumblesomethingth” birthday. Then I realized I wasn’t actually sure what the number would be, so I did the math. For some reason, it didn’t occur to me last year when she would have hit one of the birthdays that end in a zero.

I can’t imagine my mom being 61. Not that it’s that old or anything, but I just can’t imagine it. I mean, I know she was getting older the entire time I was growing up, but it just never seemed like it. To me, she was always just Mom, somehow eternally ageless. Older than me, sure, but without a specific number applying. Probably helps that even up to the end, even after rounds of chemo and radiation and the ravages of cancer, she still looked good; she could easily have passed for at least five years younger, if not more. And it’s not just me thinking that – I’ve heard the same from others who didn’t look at her through a daughter’s eyes.

I wish I didn’t have to try and imagine my mom being 61. I wish she were here, so I could see for myself that my mom would still be ageless in my eyes. I’ll have to settle for her being ageless in my memories.

In the last year or so, I've become more adventurous in the kitchen. Part of the reason is I've been inspired by Tom, part of it has been necessity. And in New Zealand they just don't eat out as much as we do in the States, so there's a bit of "When in Rome..." to it, too.

There's nothing quite like having a limited supply of groceries to work with. I may have precious little counter space in my kitchen, but I do have a pantry that has typically been pretty well stocked. But when you're traveling and have to carry your groceries with you, you get good at keeping things to a pretty bare minimum. Even when I settled in Christchurch and was living in a house, I still didn't have that much space to keep things, plus I didn't want to stock up too much since I knew it would only be for a couple of months.

Not all my experiments have been successful - I don't recommend tuna and ramen noodles, for example, even with the addition of Thai Sweet Chili Sauce - but nothing has been inedible (so far). And a couple of things have been downright tasty, such as when I tossed some bacon in with my stir fry 'cause I needed to use it before it got too old and realized it was good. Or earlier this week when I went on a bit of a fridge/pantry raid and put together a chicken and lentil soup for lunch. It probably would have been even better if there had been leftovers, but I polished it off in one sitting.

I finally got a gig freelancing which starts in a bit over a week (hooray!), so I won't have as much time on my hands as I've had the last several months, but I think I'll still stick to cooking at home rather than eating out so much.

I just finished my first necklace using beads I made! It's a pretty simple one, but it's got two types of beads - half from polymer clay, half from fabric. (Technically, some store bought beads are involved, since I put gold tone beads at each end of the fabric beads, but I'm still claiming as my creation. Heck, it's not like I made the wire, either.)

Now I just have to figure out what I have in my closet to wear with it.

No, not the one with the tiny furniture - the one airing Friday nights on Fox.

Generally, I have a lot of faith in Joss Whedon. Plus, I'm not exactly the pickiest TV watcher around; I overlook/forgive/tend not to notice a lot of the things others complain about. I've read reviews that say the acting isn't that flash - I hadn't really noticed. The questions about Alpha and why Caroline actually volunteered for the Dollhouse have been enough to keep me watching. And, well, I have a lot of spare time on my hands, so I can afford to be forgiving.

Most of the episodes have been decent in my book. I'd even say the one with the survivalist was pretty darned good. But last week's episode... even I have to say it sucked big donkey balls. And the more I think about it, the more I realize it stunk, and the stench is permeating to previous episodes that I didn't have a problem with before.

I won't go into details in case you are planning to watch the episode and haven't yet, and I'm too lazy to do the formatting for spoiler text. But the writing, oh the writing. I have no aspirations to be a TV writer, so I'm not going to claim I could have done better, but really, it was just weak. I saw the "big shocker" towards the end of the episode a mile away - plus the whole build up to it was rushed. It's been in the works for the last several episodes, but considering the pace it had been going, it leapt ages ahead in one show. And one of the characters was being far more stupid than he/she had any reason to be. I hate it when somebody I like does something completely stupid and out of character - that's why I have trouble making it through most sitcoms.

Anyway, I hope this week's episode will provide some redemption. I'd hate to give up on the show in disgust.

So, E! Online has this show on right now called Hot Girls in Scary Places.

I kid you not. But I guess there's something to be said for truth in advertising.

Though I would have expected that sort of thing from the Sci-Fi channel first.

I did, I did!

And I have to say, it wasn't as rough an experience as I expected. But then again, I expected it to be very graphic and gory - and it delivered, believe me - but it wasn't as dark as I feared it would be. I actually found The Dark Night more disturbing. Even though the heroes did some very disturbing things, I felt like there was still some hope for humanity by the end of the movie. That was something I didn't expect. (As a quick note, I haven't read the graphic novel. I stayed away because I thought it would be too depressing. Now I might actually read it.)

Please don't get me wrong, this isn't my usually happy, cheerful escapism I want when I see a movie. While I was pleasantly surprised, that's mostly because I had been forewarned that it would be very, very, extremely dark and violent. So shy of a total bloodbath that wiped out most of the human race - or at least the main characters - I was going to be pleasantly surprised. Blood, broken bones, brutal killings, a rape scene, that I can handle. Monsters suddenly popping up out of nowhere is another story, and that wasn't a feature of this movie.

And even now, a couple of days later, I find the film is still on my mind, and it doesn't bother me. I wouldn't necessarily say I loved it, but at least it didn't disturb me on the level that The Dark Night did; I refused to let myself think about that one too much once I got out of the theater, otherwise I got depressed.

Oh, and insert typical rant about parents bringing their young children to totally inappropriate movies here. Somebody behind me had a 6-8 year old girl with him watching the movie. That's just not right, and there was no reason to believe for a second it would be. Heck, the main visual for the movie is the smiley face icon with the drop of blood dripping down it - how in the world would somebody think this might be child-friendly?! And if that didn't clue him in, the R rating sure as heck should. People astonish me sometimes.

But the movie was good. I'd even be willing to see it again.

I have confessed in the past that The Girls Next Door had become my guilty pleasure. This past Sunday was the season finale, and most likely for me the end of the series, since the original Girls are no longer Hef's girlfriends, and I have no interest in watching the new crew. It was the Renaissance Faire episode that sucked me in, and Bridget has been my favorite Girl since. I even came to have some fondness for Holly, though I still say she was seriously delusional if she ever thought Hef would marry her or have kids with her.

I still can't stand Kendra, she of the horse laugh. I wanted to smack her every time she said "I've matured/I'm a real woman now," in that last episode. Sure, she's mature... and I'm gonna be Hef's next girlfriend.

Naturally, who gets the spin-off show? Yep, Kendra. I won't be watching that, either. E! Television is 0 for 2 on getting my eyes on their channel. (I will, however, give Travel Channel's Bridget's Sexiest Beaches a watch, even though I have no interest in their beach shows. But I'll give my favorite Girl a shot before I write the whole thing off.)

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Why is Entertainment Tonight featuring the Ocotmom every single freaking night? I don't find her in the least entertaining. So I'm not watching it. To be fair, I was only watching it because I couldn't be bothered to find something else to watch after the evening news, but now I'm putting the effort in to avoid the annoyance.

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I admit, I came into Sex and the City late. I never watched the show when it first aired, 'cause I'm too cheap to get HBO, even for my beloved Flight of the Conchords. My first exposure to Carrie and the gang was the movie last year, which I liked well enough, and now I'll catch reruns on TBS when I happen to run across them.

They've announced a sequel to the movie. Um, what are they going to do? I thought the movie summed things up nicely.

I won't bother asking why they're doing a sequel; I already know the answer. (It sounds suspiciously like "cha-ching!")

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Last House on the Left... seriously? Is it even supposed to have a plot? Dramatic tension? Isn't the concept of parents beating the crap out of anyone who tried to kill their daughter when handed the opportunity kinda obvious? There isn't even the suspense of "will they realize these are the ones who did horrible things to their kid?", since the girl didn't die and managed to point them out.

Did Hollywood really need the excuse to put out another snuff film? Couldn't they have tried just a little harder to cloak it in some kind of plot so it isn't quite so obviously a snuff film? Or do the just not have to bother anymore?

(Note: I haven't actually seen the movie, or the original they're remaking. I'm just getting this from the commercials, but I think I learned more than I needed to know about this flick.)

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On the other hand, my happy little self is greatly looking forward to Up, naturally. I even want to see Monsters vs. Aliens, even though DreamWorks has an uneven track record with their animated movies, in my opinion.

I'll go see Watchmen, just to keep my geek cred with the gaming group. I'm looking forward to Wolverine much more - an X-Men movie, with Hugh Jackman, and introducing Gambit? I'm so there.

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It's a bit early, but happy weekend everyone! Don't forget to *sigh* spring forward on Saturday night/Sunday morning if appropriate to your locality.

Okay, batteries are charged and photos have been taken. Here's what I've made in the last week or so:

That's four pair of earrings and one necklace. (I plan to make a ring to go with the set but haven't done it yet.) Apparently I was in a purple mood.

Here's a closer view of the ones I made to go with my necklace. I'm still happy.

I quite like these - I made the bead in the center of the shell ring. It's actually that glass paint stuff; you can use it to make window clings. I just spread some of it out on a piece of cling wrap, added a swirl of color, let it dry and cut it into triangles that I then rolled up to make the bead.

And here's the set. I really love those coral beads - aren't they pretty? I may change the earwire on the earrings, but I can do that at some point in the future. I'm not sure what I would use instead, but I don't think I like the kidney wires for them...

So that's what I've been playing with so far. Now I can get back to posting about much more boring things.

Well, actually, don't. It's kinda cool, though I'm being selfish and making things for me.

So, after the earrings pictured in the previous entry, I've done two other (random) pairs, plus one necklace and earrings set. Oh, and I went to Austin this weekend, otherwise I may have done more. As it was, I had to force myself not to go to a really lovely bead shop that's not too far from my brother's house - the last thing I need is to buy more beads right now!

I'm really excited about the necklace. While I was in New Zealand - Stewart Island specifically - I met this lady who runs a coffee shop and sells jewelry. All her jewelry is just basic bead stringing, so I didn't feel particularly compelled to buy anything, until I saw this one set that was fluorite (if I remember right), rose quartz, and something called fossilized coral. The fossilized coral was just gorgeous - almost like little flower designs in the stone.

Now, I don't buy coral beads, no matter how cheap they can be. I know just how fragile coral reefs are from my diving background, and I'm just not willing to support their destruction in any way. But, I told myself, this coral was long dead before it got made into a bead; it's a fossil, after all. So if I ever got some of these beads, I wouldn't be violating my no-coral code. So, while I managed to talk myself out of buying the set - just barely, I might add - I knew I wanted to find those beads at some point.

But, me being me, I got to chatting with the gal who owned the place. Funny thing, she's an American who's been living down there for like nine years, and we ended up having quite a bit in common. I have a feeling if I'd been able to stay there longer, she and I would have become really good friends. But I settled for having some really good conversations with her over the course of a few days. On my last day there, right after she got a shipment of beads in, I asked her if she happened to have an extra strand of the fossilized coral she'd be willing to sell me. And I came home with some beads.

I wasn't sure what I'd end up doing with them, but I knew I'd do something. I liked her combination, but I don't have any rose quartz in my stash. So I put the beads away, but kept them in the back of my mind to do something with.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a new interview outfit. Conveniently, the colors in the outfit go well with my fossilized coral. It was time to make some jewelry!

I went with a combination of the fossilized coral, smokey quartz, and some emerald chip beads I bought because they were so cheap but I had no idea what to do with them. And I am very, very pleased with the result.

I'll charge the batteries for the camera and get some pics posted of my handiwork in a day or so, 'cause I want to share. And frighteningly, I came up with a few more ideas while driving between here and Austin, which I've sketched out so I don't forget.

I really need to find a job soon, or my already-full jewelry box is going to explode.

I've actually been pretty good about playing with my jewelry supplies lately. I don't necessarily do it every day, but I have gotten a number of little projects completed.

I'm excited right now because I actually managed to shift a failed experiment to a success. I always love it when that happens.

I bought this book on beaded chain designs - I've played around a bit with making chain and really enjoy it. Nothing too fancy, but I like it. I started trying to make this one pair of earrings the other day, but I didn't have the right size mandrel to make the jump rings called for in the directions. I did, however, have one that was just a bit smaller, so I thought I'd give it a try and see how it went.

Um, yeah, it didn't. Well, I was able to get a couple of rows completed, but when I went to do the last row, which included the beads, there just wasn't enough room on the inside a ring for two other rings plus a bead. Fine, lesson learned; I started to take apart what I had done to salvage what I could.

I discovered that, when I removed the two rows that were one on top of the other from the larger ring that shaped them into a semi-circle, I was left with a straight chain. Huh. Well, since I wasn't going to use the small rings for anything else, maybe I could use the chain for something. I let them sit for a couple of days.

Now, I have this one necklace I made ages back - like two years ago at least - that I love, but I had never been able to figure out what to do for coordinating earrings. I'd fiddled with one or two ideas in the past, but I just hadn't come up with anything I liked. But today it hit me. I could use the little dangles I had come up with ages ago and hang them from the chain I had from my experiment the other day. It might look okay. So I gave it a try.

I think I'm pleased. What do you think?

Sorry, I was going to get a shot up close of the earrings themselves, but the batteries in the camera gave up the ghost after this pic.

I feel so Martha Stewart now.