Natal musings

The sheer surreality of Christmas never ceases to amaze me. Up till the wee hours of the morning playing hysterical cards with favorite people I see a few times a year, watching the more vitally advanced ones fill stockings for their kids, waiting for Mama to get home so we can start wrapping the multitudes of presents we'll still be progressing through in the later Christmas morning...

I just took the dogs out, so I'm awake, but my feet and hands are numb and the street was wreathed in bone-white haze, making every set of headlights (there were two on the 20-minute walk) as threatening as can be, with Hershey leashless... The culs-de-sac were less enticing, but man are there a lot of warm snuggly couches here. And I wish somebody besides annoying 10- and 8-year-old cousins had been here to appreciate The Pouring of the Handle.

We started it. It's going to take a lot of filing and possibly some more melting, but we made a crucible out of a piece of steel pipe, a handle out of rebar, and the bottom out of a steel sheet, to contain the liquid copper to pour in the mold. So my dagger has a bloppy handle (one side of the guard has broken half off, but we'll put it back when we melt some more copper). Maybe we'll fill the holes with molten brass and it'll be metallically mottled when it's filed smooth... oo...

Enough about the knives. I ought to sleep before Mama gets here and I have to start wrapping presents. But I could sleep tomorrow... no, never mind, I couldn't, cause the Wurmy kids will be up and in full decibel attack mode.

(no subject)

Oo, oo. Yayay.

I got bright blue leather welding gloves, about six books, a bunch of copper jewelry (from mama, one is sooo cool a snakey bracelet wide and shiny), a brass torque, a purrrrple skirt, a set of vise-grip pliers (David, of course), a shiiiny tiger-stripe metallic box, a randomly orange t-shirt (Glasers don't know me very well), a set of leaded-crystal candleholders (but they do know I like fire, as does everybody in the family), a silver wrist-chain, a small set of fimo (yay I ran out and it has glass beads, too), and a bunch of candy from my stocking (I ate it all).

I drooled at them for awhile, rather distractedly (I stayed up till 5:30 helping mama wrap presents), then had a nap piling on Allen til I had to take the dogs out. Dumb Hershey wouldn't come when I yelled at him and I looked everywhere for him when the van hit him (it didn't stop and wouldn't come back when I ran after it cause I thought he might be dragging under it), but he had gone back to the garage where Andy was, and wasn't hurt. It was scary, though.

Dinner's about to start, and then we might finish the knife. Ooo. Oo. Yayay.