SirWatson Designs

Projects to Complete by August

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:22:47 GMT

So, I've really been failing on a lot of my planned projects as of late, and I really want to rectify that. By the end of July, I hope...no...I will have the following complete:

Post a few beads in my Etsy shop.
Have 1/4 of the charms made for the SLLS charm exchange.
Complete at least one purse (to sell).
Finish 3 sets for my bead show in September.
Lose 5 pounds.
Get the Metro tuned up (hopefully myself!)

I think those are all very attainable goals, so I guess we'll see if I can actually make them! :)

As for the Metro...it looks like I won't be driving it for a while. :( There was a problem with us completing the back of the title incorrectly, so we need to get a new one made. The seller is working on that, but I won't be able to register the vehicle until he sends me the new title from the State of Illinois. *sigh* This means I'll need to continue driving the Jeep since it would be illegal for me to drive the Metro.

I'll just continue fixing up the car while I wait. In addition to a tune up, I need to convert and recharge the A/C, replace the top, rejuvenate the weatherstripping and (eventually) get a new paint job. Whew!

Well, I guess that's it for now! I hope you all have a great first day of July! :)

-Karla

Today's Random Question

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:51:18 GMT

Can you eat an Oreo without twisting apart first? I can't! It is physically (probably more mentally) impossible for me to bit into an Oreo "sandwich style". I must twist it apart and eat one side at a time. Especially with Double Stuff! :)

Anyone else like that?

Have a great Monday!

-Karla

More Movies and Car Update!

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:41:17 GMT

Well, Dan and I have marked off a few more films from our list. We've recently seen Kung Fu Panda and The Incredible Hulk. Both were very entertaining movies! I only wish that Jackie Chan had more lines in Kung Fu Panda. :) Anyway, next up: Wanted, Hancock and The Dark Knight!

Dan and I began discussing the Avengers after seeing the Hulk, which got me curious about other movies that are slated to come out in the next few years. If everything hits the big screen as planned, we've got a lot of *potentially* good movies to look forward to!

I've already mentioned how Star Trek, Terminator 4 and Transformers 2 are all supposed to come out next year, but supposedly we can also add Masters of the Universe (He-Man). Apparently this epic movie is supposed to have the feel of 300...with no camp or cheesiness. I guess we'll see!

Moving into 2010 we've got Thor and Ant-Man, which are both Avengers. I believe we may even see Voltron at some point! I sure hope Voltron gets made into live action. It was my favorite cartoon as a kid and I've read some reviews about the preliminary script. It's post-apocalyptic, and looks awesome! *fingers crossed*

Once we get into 2011, we're supposed to see Captain America, followed by The Avengers six weeks later. Crazy!

So anyway, I flew up to Chicago on Saturday to pick up my "new-old" car. It was such a short flight, but fun! I just love take off....*happy sigh*. After landing, the car's seller picked me up, took me to the bank and then to his home to see the car. For being 17 years old, it's actually in pretty good condition. The car drives pretty good, and I made the entire 6 hour drive back to St. Louis with no issues. I even averaged 45 miles per gallon! :) Anyway, the car did come with some problems though. The air conditioning doesn't work as the auction claimed, the top and weatherstripping will need to be replaced and there are several pieces missing from the vehicle (i.e., the convertible top's boot, a rear interior panel and some trim pieces on the outside). The lack of A/C is the only major problem, since I'm unable to defrost my windows. It was difficult to drive in this morning from all of the dew on the car...especially since the sun was shining directly into my eyes. Winshield wipers can only help so much! :)

Well, I guess that's it for now! Have a great Monday!

-Karla

Sooooo many movies....

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:45:03 GMT

I knew 2008 would be a great movie year....but dang! I had no idea there'd be this many we want to see! Here's a list of the movies we want to see (so far):

The Forbidden Kingdom (4/18/08) - COMPLETE
Iron Man (5/2/08) - COMPLETE
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (5/16/08) - COMPLETE
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (5/21/08) - COMPLETE
Kung Fu Panda - (6/6/08)
Incredible Hulk (6/13/08)
Wanted (6/28/08)
Hancock (7/2/08)
Hellboy II (7/11/08)
The Dark Knight (7/18/08)
Tropic Thunder (8/15/08)
Quantum of Solace: James Bond (11/7/08)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (11/21/08)

2009 also looks promising so far:

Star Trek (5/8/09)
Terminator 4 (5/22/09)
Transformers 2 (6/26/09)

Have you seen any fun movies lately or think I should add some other ones to my ever growing list? :) Let me know!

Have a great day!

-Karla

Gas Woes

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 06:20:15 GMT

Wow...it seems like you can't visit any news websites or turn on the TV without seeing something about the ridiculous gas prices and how they're supposed to continue rising. It's definitely taking a toll on everyone I know. My work is experimenting with allowing associates to work from home and toying with the idea of 4-10 hour workdays. My friends don't want to drive anywhere, and I find myself grimmacing each time I get gas.

Last June I got my beloved 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, which is currently getting 19 MPG. With it's ~24 gallon tank, it's currently costing me around $75 to fill up; and that's about every 6 days. Driving 50 miles a day between my house and Edward Jones is really starting to cost me big time.

Well, I love my jeep and won't get rid of it. It's fun, practical, and seems like a great vehicle overall. but.....I can't continue to pay $300+ a month in gas, and it's only going to continue rising. So, I decided to do something "drastic"; look for another car in addition to the Jeep. My goal was to find the tiniest car I could, gets great gas mileage and would be perfect for driving to and from work.

I was chatting with my mom about the gas situation, and she told me they were taking their Metro everywhere because it gets great mileage. (My parents currently have my old Geo Metro convertible that I used during college. It's a great little car, but they reclaimed it when I got my Cavalier back in 2000.) Anyway, talking with my mom got me thinking about Metros. They're perfect! Old, tiny, small engines (1.0L, 3-cyl), lightweight...and great gas mileage! I decided to look for a convertible since they're two seaters and get slightly better MPG than their 4-door/hatchback counterparts. I also decided to look for one with manual transmission to increase my gas mileage.

I began searching on eBay for Geo Metro convertibles, and was sad to learn that everyone seemed to have the same idea as me. Unbeknownst to me, there have been many news articles about people flocking to get old Geo Metros and other small "gas sippers" to combat gas prices. I quickly realized this when I saw auctions for 19 year old cars going for more than $4,000! *sigh* I bid on a few auctions, but was unsuccessful. I then found a nice Geo Metro convertible in Chicago that was still reasonably priced. I decided to bid on it (even though it was an automatic), and to my surprise....won the auction! It's more money than I wanted to pay, but I calculated the savings in gas will pay the car off in about 18 months. How crazy is that!? What's even funnier....is that the car is....YELLOW! I didn't even plan for that!

I'll be heading to Chicago next Friday to pick up the car. I'm debating whether I should fly by myself or drive up there with Dan. I'm thinking fly since it'll cost about the same, and since Dan's favorite restaurant in Chicago closed down (Trader Vic's), so there's no reason for us to hang out longer than necessary.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of my "new-old" car:

It's a '91 and has just over 80,000 on it. The seller claims it has hardly any problems, so a 5-hour drive back to St. Louis should prove whether or not that's true.

Well, that's it for now! Have a great day!

-Karla

Jury Duty, CafePress & Picture Promises

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:34:18 GMT

So since I've been back from the bead retreat, I haven't had anything very exciting to talk about. I know I promised some pictures and that I'd get my Etsy shop up and running and have sadly failed at both. :( BUT....I have some very interesting things to share with you all from the past week! :D

About a month ago, I received a summons for jury duty. I was both excited and a little worried since the date I needed to show up was during my quarterly Estimated Tax process at work. I know some of you may think I'm crazy for being excited about receiving a jury summons, but I'd never gotten one before. I believe it's one of our civic duties as Americans, so I was happy to serve!

Anyway, I was instructed to show up to the courthouse in St. Charles, MO on Monday, June 2nd at 8:00 AM. I called the hotline that morning and learned I still needed to show up. A lot of people told me how boring jury duty is, and that I should bring lots of books, etc. So I packed some food, grabbed some books and headed to old town St. Charles.

To my surprise, jury duty was nothing like what I expected. When I arrived, I got my badge and sat in a room full pews. After 30 minutes or so, we watched a video explaining the jury process. Soon after that, they called all 150 of us to another floor to get in numerical order. Once in order, we entered a large courtroom that had a panel of individuals standing before us. The panel included the prosecution, the court reporter, the defense (including the defendant!), bayliffs and the judge. Once seated, the judge read us some high-level information and the prosecution began asking questions to the entire group. We learned the defendant had pled "not guilty" to a murder charge, and that it would be the jury's responsibility to determine if he should be charged with 1st or 2nd degree murder (or to set him free, obviously).

The purpose of the questions was to basically determine if anyone had an issue with being a juror. Some people said and did crazy things to ensure they weren't selected, while others had problems due to their morals, aquaintances, past record, etc. When the prosecution was done with their questions, the defense started with theirs. What shocked me was how people had to expose their secrets and "dirty laundry" in front of so many people.

Anyway, it was a long and arduous process, but we finally got done with the questions around 5:30 that afternoon.

I came back the next morning since jury selection was scheduled to take place at 9:00 AM with the trial starting immediately afterwards. The judge ran through the remaining names, and I actually wasn't too surprised to hear mine called. Since I didn't have any problems with the questions they asked the day before, I figured I'd be selected. I got up to sit in my jury chair, and was shocked that 10 minutes later, the prosecution started with their opening statements. They can really move fast then they want to! :)

Anyway, as soon as the prosecution completed their opening statements, the judge announced a 15 minute recess. Everyone stood when we got up to leave and as soon as I was walking between the defense and prosecution tables, a man screamed from behind the defendant! He yelled all kinds of swear words and I distinctly remember hearing him call the defandant a "killer". All of the bayliffs rushed past me to get to the guy, while his family was yelling "Oh no!" The man tried to climb over the wall behind the defendant to attack him. As I exited the courtroom, I heard a CRACK, and figured it was a stun gun of some sort.

Immediately following the incident, the judge met with each of us individually to recap what we had seen and heard. We then had a 2.5 hour recess and were to regroup at 2:00. At 4:00, the judge came down and informed us that the defendant had changed his plea to guilty for 2nd degree felony murder. As such, we were no longer needed! I was both happy and a little disappointed since the prosecution had put together a pretty impressive amount of evidence. I won't get into the details of what the prosecution said or claimed to have evidence of, but it was impressive. Anyway, below are some links to stories related to the trial:

In other news, I just want to say how cool CafePress is. :) After the bead retreat, I created a composite image of all the retreat attendees (similar to what college fraternities and sororities do). I then made a poster with the image and posted it on CafePress. My poster arrived yesterday, and it looks freaking awesome! Here's a sneak peek of the image:

Lastly, I know I've promised lots of pictures of new beads and other things. I really hope to get them posted on here soon! I even have a new picture of the Jeep?.doorless with the top down! It was such a blast to drive around with no doors! If only we could get more than than one day of sunshine before it rains again. *sigh*

Well, that's it for now. Have a great evening!

-Karla

2008 Missouri Bead Retreat...

Thu, 22 May 2008 09:50:18 GMT

Was a ginormous success! Thanks to ALL OF YOU who attended and helped make the weekend such a blast! I can't wait until next year! Is It May Yet?! :)

I could write a very long post about the weekend, but thanks to our wonderful Marilyn (SLLS Historian), she took enough pictures to capture the entire retreat. She even posted comments for almost every picture!

Here's a link to Marilyn's bead retreat gallery:

http://mrob.smugmug.com/gallery/4984794_bwavS/11#P-1-15

Enjoy!

I'll try and post a few pictures of the goodies I brought back later this week. :)

-Karla

Weather Rocks!

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:31:41 GMT

Weather is just an amazing thing; I absolutely love severe storms (except for when they hurt/kill people or severely damage property)! We got some good storms over the weekend, but I was a little disappointed when the squall line moved just north of us...de-nied!!! I am happy to report, though, my homemade shutters didn't let a drop of water near my shed's window! Success! :D

Anyway, this morning Mother Nature made up for screwing me out of some good storms this weekend! I woke up to some loud claps of thunder and lots of lightning. That instantly put me in a good mood! :) While driving to work, I was following a storm that had some really impressive lightning. It would streak across the sky while another bolt struck the ground. *happy sigh* This continued throughout my entire drive to work...and then it got even more exciting!

When I was exiting from the highway to get to my work, I saw a bright flash of purple to the my right. Then my Jeep lurched to the left a little and....BOOOOOOOM! I'm thinking a bolt touched down so close that the air near me was disturbed, causing my Jeep to move! The thunder was sooooo loud. It was awesome! :) It doesn't get more exciting than that!

Once I made it to the light to turn into my building, it started to rain extremely hard. There were also a few tiny hail stones mixed in, so I was hoping to get into the parking garage before the sky really opened up. Luckily...I did. As soon as I parked, it started pouring. And I mean pouring. There was also lots of pea-sized hail. I think it hailed for about 5 minutes straight. After a brief pause, another storm moved in, and it poured/hailed again for about 15 minutes this time. I was already in the building, but you could hear the ice hitting the windows and see the hail lining the balcony floors.

Well, the storms have finally moved east so it's now boring outside. Oh well. It was a great start to a Tuesday morning!

I hope you have a great day as well!

-Karla

Jeep Accessories are Definitely Addicting

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:36:47 GMT

Since getting my Jeep last June, I've made a few small modifications such as drilling the side mirrors to allow for better water drainage and painting the muffler to prevent rust (and to hide it a little better). I've also built hoists to hold the hard and soft tops whenever one's not being used and a sewed a felt "book" to hold my windows whenever the soft top is down.

But why stop there?! :) I'd also like to get the following items:

Each item above is quite expensive, so I'll have to get them over a long period of time. I think I'll start with the fuel door. Gas is so expensive; I wouldn't put it past someone to steal gas from my tank! You just never know.

Anyway, as for other mods., I'm not into the lifted Jeeps with large tires, lights everywhere and gigantic bumpers with winches. Hardcore offroading doesn't interest me too much, especially with all the damage it can cause to the vehicle. So, I'm happy with my stock JK, though I'd like to customize the look a little bit. :)

Oh! I forgot to mention that yesterday I switched out the Jeep tops all on my own! I was wondering if I'd need help with removing the hardtop, and learned it's really not that hard at all! Once I removed the bolts, I hooked four tie-downs to the Jeep top and garage ceiling and lifted each corner a little bit at a time. Getting the soft top back on wasn't very hard either! Just four little screws hold it in place. I think the hardest part was getting the soft top to close back up. It needed to be stretched out again after being folded up for several months, so everything was a super tight fit. Especially with the windows! Whew!

Sorry for all the rambling about the Jeep. It's just a fun vehicle to own! :)

Now....I just need to learn how to change the oil. ;)

Have a great day!

-Karla

Aftershock!

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:48:04 GMT

Wow....so since the 5.2 earthquake hit early Friday morning, there have been a series of aftershocks. The most notable was one that occurred around 10:15 AM on Friday. I was on the couch, reading about the earlier earthquake when the aftershock hit. It was really strange. I've been wondering if we'd feel any more aftershocks or perhaps another earthquake and read this morning that another strong aftershock hit around 12:00 AM last night. I slept through that one, but I'm guessing some people probably felt it.

Anyway, I've been keeping tabs on the area where the earthquakes have been originating, and it's interesting to see how active that fault line has become. Check it out:

Wabash Fault System - Recent Earthquakes

I wonder if we'll feel anymore. It's both frightening and exciting. Just not your everyday thing in St. Louis, right? :)

Oh! So the night of the earthquake, I thought I heard glass shattering, and was really worried that my studio was being destroyed. Well, I just found out what caused the glass-shattering noise. I have a curio cabinet in my dining room that's full of beads I've collected from other artists (lovingly known as "the CASE"). I was was oogling some of the beads in there and noticed a bunch of them were askew, and some had fallen off their shelf completely. That must have been the noise I heard; the beads falling. Luckily none of them broke. Whew!

So this week Dan is in Las Vegas for another convention. His podcast has become quite popular and he's gotten lots of recognition for the quality of his product. In fact, he's been invited to numerous conventions to speak on panels about Podcasting. How cool is that?! Anyway, I hope he gets the opportunity to do lots of networking and maybe get some awesome offers for his creative endeavors! I think he may even get to go to the Star Trek Experience while he's there! I'm so jealous! :) Have fun, Dan! I miss you!

Well, that's it for now! Have a great week!

-Karla