Where does the time go? It’s almost 9:00 pm, but it’s still Friday, so here’s my cold salad recipe for today.

Ranch Tuna Salad

18 oz. canned tuna, drained
5 hard boiled eggs, diced
5-6 Tbsp. sweet pickle relish
1 cup elbow macaroni; cooked, drained, and rinsed
1/2 cup Ranch salad dressing
1/2 pound frozen sweet peas, cooked and drained
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and stir well. If salad is too thick, add another Tbsp. of relish and a Tbsp. of salad dressing. Mix well. Chill in refrigerator overnight. Serve cold with a glass of hand-squeezed lemonade. (Recipe next week!)

It’s not good for your body, mind, or soul. Let it out somehow. Have a good cry; scream; throw something [soft] at a picture of the person who stresses you out; crochet; knit…um…wait, no sharp pointy things; tear paper; squeeze something. Do whatever it takes to destress. There. Don’t you feel better now?

Now that you’re destressed and relaxed, ponder this: what right does anyone have to tell you what you can and can’t write about in your personal blog? What right does same said person have to threaten consequences when you express your thoughts on your blog, many of which are now paid web sites? What right does same said person have to pass judgement on others while calling herself a devout Christian? (I believe it was Matthew who wrote in Jesus’ words: Judge not lest ye be judged. Correct me if I’m wrong.) What right does the administration of a site that will remain unnamed have to stalk bloggers because there might be something derogatory about said anonymous site? Are they so insecure in their community that one or two derogatory comments may hurt their status or stability? Why do the rules change so often and only seem to apply to certain people who post there?

I could go on for a long time about this, but I think you all get the damn point. Our blogs are ours for expressing our feelings and thoughts. You (you know who I’m talking about) have no right to stifle our creativity and feelings by saying we can’t post a derogatory comment when it is true. Slander and libel are never excusable, but what I’m talking about is when people are oppressed and censored for speaking the truth.

Grow up, people, and look around you. Don’t make threats just to get someone off your back because you’re going to rile up a whole lot of people that you don’t want as enemies.

The Beauty Bar Bag is now available at my patterns site. This is a small soap saver designed especially for a Dove Beauty Bar and holds a new bar snuggly. Click the pic to get to the pattern. Enjoy!

That’s my new class at Michaels. I’m teaching four classes plus the corporate “Crop, Stop & Shop” event for July. Three of my classes will be “regular” scrapbooking classes, where I’m there to help place pictures in settings and such, and one is a techniques class. Next month, instead of a techniques class, I’m doing a Card Shop class to show other uses of scrapbooking. My first day at Michaels went well. The events coordinator had me replace the Crop, Stop & Shop sign corporate sent down–she didn’t like theirs and wanted something that would better reflect the scrapbooking event. So what did I do? I made a scrapbook page and mounted it to a poster board! We’re all happy about it, and it made my demo time go well. Next demo I get to make new ID tags for the sample displays. I love scrapping!

I’m thinking “Hook and Chain” for my crochet class, since the other instructor just does “Crochet with Diane.” I found out today that the Front End Manager is the current crochet instructor and she seemed defensive about my starting to teach crochet in August. She asked what I crocheted! I about laughed myself off my stool but kept my composure and told her: freeform, bags, wraps, and my own designs. I’m not there to compete with her; we may offer our classes at times when different people can attend or we may offer different projects that would interest different people. Besides, the events coordinator has seen my work and personally asked me to be crochet instructor.

I’ve got some ideas for my crochet classes once they start; some are multiple week courses, others are just a 2 hour class. All the 2 hour classes will run $15 per student.

• Molly Sweater by Elizabeth: 6 week course, $80 plus supplies
• Econo-Shopper by Natalie: 1 class
• Crochet with Wire: 2 individual classes
• Freeform Workshop: 3 week course, $40 plus supplies

I think those will get me a good start, but the Molly Sweater is going to have to be one of the first ones I teach as the weather gets cool up here around mid-September and the course will run until about then. Everything else can go year-round, so those aren’t a big deal for scheduling.

I can honestly say that I’ve found a job that I thoroughly enjoy. I’m teaching the crafts I love to do and I’m meeting new people. I’m getting paid to have fun! Yippee!

I promised pics, so here they are! Me and Stacy at the Trout River, the whole group of us, and the kids playing on the cauldron in front of the farm house. We really had a lot of fun and I’d love to get out and spend time with Stacy and her girls again!! All pics are clickable; the Trout River pic is rather large once clicked, so be forewarned.

This is copied and pasted directly from the e-mail I received earlier today from the older boys’ deadbeat father:

I’ve tried everyway possible to come up with a solution to my summer visitation. Unfortunately, I will not be able to get Trace, and even if I could, I’m sure he would get homesick after a week or so, since William doesn’t want to come. I still am planning to have the boys for Christmas. I’m thinking that the best way to handle the travel arrangements for Christmas would be for each of us to pay for the round trip ticket for one of them. Have you gotten a new phone number yet? I would like to call and talk to William and Trace. When would be a good time to call? Please let me know.
Thanks!

First things first: William made a decision about his own visitation and it shouldn’t affect Tracey’s. Tracey still wanted to go and was upset when he found out and wanted to know why–I don’t think telling him that his father is a prick would be the right thing to do right now. I also don’t think that Tracey would get homesick without William there. It’s just an excuse for the deadbeat to avoid seeing his less favored son.

Second: He has our phone number and has called it already to spew a bunch of bullshit about why he didn’t tell me about the summer visitation before the deadline I set. We had that date set for a reason. It’s not my fault that he can’t keep a deadline. I sent the same phone number (our cell phone and the only phone number we currently have) again in my reply to him.

Third: There is no way in hell that I’m paying for a round trip ticket for one child and rely on him to pay for the other. The only way that would even happen is if we pay for Tracey’s airfare and he’s forced to pay William’s. The big problem here is that if the kids fly, I want them to sit next to each other. That’s nearly impossible to swing if the tickets aren’t bought at the same time and by the same person.

Another thing about Christmas: we’re not going to be home! It would be impossible for us to get the kids to a nearby airport since we’re going to be spending Christmas at my mom’s. If the son of a bitch wants the kids for his Christmas visit, then he can drive all the way to my mom’s to pick them up and drop them off. We’ll be driving more than that distance just to get to my mom’s–and we still have to drive back home. Fuckwad.

I wish some people–namely the boys’ father at this moment–would get their heads out of their asses so they could see what’s going on in the real world. It’s not all fun, games, and casual sex. He needs to wake up and see that his current wife is on the verge of leaving him and taking their daughter with her–she already spends more time in Canada with her parents than she does with him. I’ll say it again: fuckwad. Grow up and live in the mess you’ve created.

I got to meet Stacy and her loverly girls today! We live fairly close to each other here in northern NY, so we met at Almanzo Wilder’s homestead for an outing and getting to meet each other face to face. We had a great time; the kids all clicked immediately and chatted and played like they had known each other forever. Check out Zing’s Things for pics until I can get mine posted tomorrow. (The camera is in the bedroom where Sami is sleeping and I’d rather not disturb her.)

Oh, yeah; Tracey and Em hit things off really quickly–they think they’re a couple now! They exchanged flowers and held hands while we walked through the farm. It was sweet in a 2nd grade romance kind of way.

Hey, Stacy, how about High Falls for the next trip?