Bad news, even when you expect it, still ranks.

 

Current Mood : Feeling a bit helpless - and still kinda hot, drat that A/C unit !

 

With nothing new on the Alphabet XPress question - that must be one busy lawyer ! - and temperatures in the low 100s today, I scrapped my plans of going out and stayed in for some intense, small cleaning. Got the last few ‘corners of clutter' cleared in the Lab, which surprisingly took nearly two hours to get sorted and stored. Another bagload going for donations, too. It's always more work than I think, and now that it's done, I know why I always put that off. Didn't gain a lot of space, but it's nice to not see the piles and think, ‘I really need to clean that' anymore.

 

Repurposed a now-empty storage box for kitchen rags and a wooden felt-bottomed cigar box for Beloved Hubby's tattoo supplies. Last week, I found the plastic pantry shelves I'd bought at a yard sale - they expand to fit any shelf, and look like stairsteps, so the stuff in the back is visible. I'd intended to use them for doll photos, but they'd been sitting around for a year. They look surprisingly ‘at home' holding Beloved Hubby's collection of inks and paints in his Man Cave.

 

Finally rounded up all the washed-but-not-stored fabric scattered all over the house and got that bundled, too. I am seriously suffering from my own version of affluenza - I have too much, it was all too cheap, and it takes too long to clean and sort and store it all ! But I love every millimeter of it. And just looking at it makes me feel good, secure, and rich !

 

Which is good, because it doesn't look like I'll be doing any more spending soon. After the landlord had ‘her' repair person out here twice to look at the A/C, it's still running nonstop, and it was 85 degrees inside at noon yesterday. So we called a repair person of our own, who told us the compressor is shot, it's an old system, and can't possibly cool anything efficiently. No repairs possible, whole system will need to be replaced. Since landlord futzed around with the broken oven for over a year until we replaced it at our own expense, and ‘her' repair person said the A/C was a filter issue, we kind of know she's not willing to pony up a couple $K to fix it. After the rent's paid, we'll tell her what our repairman said, but I think she's 1)not gonna care that our power bills will be $300 - $400./month, and won't do a thing,  2) will tell us we can leave if we don't like it. So you may get to hear me whine soon about packing and giving up my Lab. (sigh) Not very happy right now...

 

Well, not much I can do right this minute - and I'm gonna go use our new-to-us oven to make dinner. Hope your Thursday was great !

Still shuffling. And being shuffled.

 

Current Mood : Happy and busy

Current Image Notes : Here's the frame mat I designed for Beloved Hubby's 'Blood-borne Pathogens'  class Certification. Shh - don't tell him yet !

 

As the proud owner of a licensed copy - no longer the trial version ! - of Alphabet XPress, I want to share my questionable taste with the world, using it as the medium. You may recall that I made a ‘naughty' Christmas ( or anytime !) ornament using a fairly generic swear word - yes, the ‘s' one. I reserve the ‘F bomb' ornaments for close family members and those who deserve it. Anyway, finding out if I can give the ten-minutes-to-make design away has been a comedy of errors so stupid, I'm seriously considering sending AnnTheGran one of my little  ‘bombs'.

 

First, I did what could be construed as extremely dimwitted. I read the sketchy Help files, which don't really deserve the title ‘help', but I was willing to let it go. Then the bog-standard Byzantine licensing agreement. Which basically says, if this program blows up your computer which activates Skynet and brings about world devastation, well, it's your own fault for choosing to download it and install it, ya bum. Not our problem. We'll sue you and disable the program you paid for if we find you using it any other way than what we intended it for (not that we'll actually tell you what we intended it for anywhere in here), so there. Please enjoy our product, and tell your friends.

 

Okay, nothing there. They have a forum, so I'll see if it's been discussed. Surely someone besides me will have asked. Even just out of sheer intellectual curiosity ? After two days of listening to folks complain about how AnnTheGran went from offering 5000 free easy-to-download with ads designs to maybe 50, and made even access to those a PITA (this happened back in February, but they're still snipin') , I again found squadoo. Lotsa people had trouble getting AX to work with Vista, so I must be supremely lucky. But not in finding what I was looking for. So I asked. Several days pass. And then...somebody responds !

 

Yep, they tell me to e-mail Support. Um, the site asks for program owners to use the forums first, Honey. And it wasn't a site moderator or anyone in charge or on staff - just another forum user. But, what the heck, I'm about to give up anyway. I sent a brief (amazing, me being brief - you'd think that'd bring about world devastation, right there !) note again, and send it off into the ether. I get a form note back, saying that if I was writing concerning a licensed-to-me product, they'd respond within 24 hours. If it was to whine about the freebie situation, it'd take three days or more. Guess they're tired of the sniping, I figured they were simply ignoring it.

 

So today I get a response ! Well, not really. In response to ‘As a licensed user, can I give away or sell designs made by your product using your font ?', I get four inches of ads and a greeting, then, "I will verify this and get back to you." And a business-like sig file, showing that I've just ‘talked to' Person's Name on the ATG Support Team.

 

Um, what is she verifying ? That I'm a licensed owner ? I had to give the order number and the serial code to send the note to Support to begin with. There's nothing here to verify - yes I can, with permission and within limits, or no, I can't, so I'll just make ‘em and give ‘em away instead. This has never, in their history, come up before ? Unbelievable.

 

I'm starting to think I wasn't far off when I joked with Beloved Hubby that the reason I got no response on their forum - before I wrote Support - was that their lawyers were already out of the office for the weekend. It may be that they're contacting them to get the answer !

 

I got all the piled-up doll clothes put away, finally. Opened up a few more inches of space ! Now I'm looking at other piles ‘o stuff, and thinking of where they'll have to go. Some of them, I'll have to decide if they go or stay, since I'm at about max capacity in the Lab. I'm thinking of setting up the nearly-vintage Sears ‘Olympic Gymnast' set I got last year, taking some great photos, posting them to the main site, and then let the actual set go. It's all kindsa cool, but aside from the 70s box and Malibu imagery, it's not really something I'm interested in, or even really like. It was a great find, but I don't appreciate it enough to keep it forever, ya know ? I got at least another boxload of stuff that's much the same. I hate to let it go, but I already got boxes of stuff I really love, and I can't keep it all...

 

That's why I've not been seriously yard sailing this year. My space limits are far more severe than the money ones. Nearly every time I go out, I find something amazing I just have to have, and heck, I already have stuff darn near suspended from the ceiling ! Closets are packed, shelves are crowded, floor space is darn near at a premium. I gotta draw the line somewhere, or I won't have time to play because I have too much to play with !

 

But at least I got some stuff put away. The interfacing, stabilizers, and such that I use with Brody have outgrown the yard-sale Disney Princess trash can I scored last year, so I figured I'd look for new storage alternatives when we went grocery shopping today. Turned out that the 50^th Anniversary "When You Look This Good, Nobody Cares If You're Plastic" Barbie tote holds it all perfectly, and it fits into a small unused nook, which uses less space than the can did. I was also gonna look for a new desk-side trash can, since my old kitchen one is too big for the new space in the living room. But with the Princess one freed up, I can use that instead. So I got new, improved storage and a trash can without spending any more money ! And the Princess can uses Mal-Wart sacks perfectly. I'm happy how that worked out.

Fun with PaintShopPro

Current Mood : crabby with tummyache

 

Aaand it looks like Tripod's out again tonight. No warning on their user blog this time. (sigh) There are times I really wanna take my lousy $5./month elsewhere...

 

After all the furniture shuffling and cleaning yesterday, I got lazy today and sat back for a bit. Plus my tummy hurt off and on all day. I got some ‘admin' work done - balanced Beloved Hubby's work checkbook and addressed a difficult personal issue I've been avoiding - but not a lot else. Getting that done will probably help me sleep a bit better, though.

 

We put Dearest Son's old bed and a semi-busted office chair out on the lawn with ‘Free' signs on ‘em, and just now, they vanished. Alleluia ! Took longer than I thought, but I'm happy to think someone has a good, if rather stiff, bed with drawers beneath, for free.

 

Putting Dearest's computer and mine in the living room is actually more fun than I thought it'd be - I spent more time with him, and he was very giggly and affectionate. Only downside was, I had to watch Benji one last time, since it goes back to the library tomorrow. Did a bit more laundry, but not much. It's too hot to use the dryer, so I'm back to the clothesline for the summer. I've been so lazy about hanging it out.

 

SiCK has a new patriotic set, and it's mostly stars. So I used some of my points. They've changed the cash prices on the sets - they were $4. last week, then there was a dollar sale, and when the sale was over, the price went to $5. I still have enough for 1.75 sets, but it should be a while before I want another. But it was darn nice to buy what I wanted for free ! 

 

Found a small unused ring binder while we were sorting through stuff, and claimed it. I've been wanting one to store my stitched-out design print-outs, but had decided to wait until funds and back-to-school supplies were more readily available. So today, I got that organized, and found a box for all those Barbie ‘iDesign' cards I bought from Dollar Tree. I still have a burgeoning box of doll clothes that need sorting and storing, so I'll do that tonight. It's so nice to be in the Lab, when it's dark and quiet.

 

While I was going through design print-outs, I pulled the Barbie one aside, and worked on the colors for it. In the original image, she's blonde and wearing pink (of course) and grey, with leggings. As you can see on mine, when it's stitched out, she'll be almost completely different. I'm hoping her eyes won't be so... thick, and that the red the design calls for actually shows up on her mouth. Once I get the colors finalized, I'll start stitching the multi-part panel I have in mind, probably as soon as this weekend. This project will be all about learning how to place and center various elements. As usual when I'm doing something new to me, I'm a bit nervous, but it should go well. Heck, even if it's off, no one will probably notice unless I point it out to ‘em. If it really goes well, I'll probably put it on a t-shirt or sweatshirt. Maybe both !

 

Tomorrow's busy. Got groceries to shop and library to visit, a boy to teach, and laundry to work on. It's amazing I still have insomnia !

Summer shuffle...

Current Mood: Increasingly frustrated with Tripod - this is my eighth attempt at getting this posted. Why are the entries vanishing ?

 

Slight Update : Some days, ya just can't win. I'm making an extra effort to keep on top of my meanderings here, so I don't do another ‘week in a day' catch-up... only to find out that the Tripod blog builder is down until 6am tomorrow. So I can't post this on time, as the previous seven tries have already shown me. Gee, thanks for the notification, guys. Ever hear of a little thing called e-mail ? Well, back to what I wrote yesterday...

 

Busy day. Beloved Hubby called in a mental health day and it was Rearrange Everything Day. His hobby is tattooing, and he did that grapefruit for me this weekend. While I don't have one - just can't wrap my head around scarring m'self on purpose when Life's already given me several real bad ones - he has several, and as you can see, he's quite good at it. His supplies and such have overflowed a corner of the dining area, so we shuffled the Office around, with most of it ending up in the rarely-used living room. He now has a man-cave much like my Lab, and a place to store all his tattoo and art supplies. Yup, he paints and draws, too.

 

My computer and Dearest Son's desk and laptop ended up in the living room, and we repurposed a coffee table for his Lego, provided he keeps it cleaned up. He even has an underbed storage box for pieces beneath. I lost a bit of desktop space, but it's kind of nice - I can watch a movie, keep an eye on traffic and the front yard, and be a bit less isolated like I was in the Office. And when Dearest and Beloved do art lessons, they have a special space for it !

 

Of course, to shuffle two and a half rooms of furniture, there was a lot of preliminary cleaning. Took me 45 minutes just to get the DVDs back shelved, and it's not like I put them in any real order, besides ‘Dearest's here, everything else there'. I've gotta talk to my guys about putting discs back in boxes, and boxes back on shelves. Also got two loads of laundry done, and some dishes. We cleaned out the weekend's leftovers for lunches.

 

I'm happiest because to do this, Beloved finally had to clean off his desk ! And he calls me a packrat - I didn't have two boxes of loose receipts to store. It looks so much cleaner in there now. This fall, he hopes to have time to texture and paint in there - if he'd decided on a color, or had one he already liked, it'd already be painted. Right now, his Studio/Man Cave is the same ugly blue that my Lab used to be. Ick.

 

Tomorrow, we may head up to the Library in the morning. After the last Thursday fiascoes, I won't be wasting our time for ‘Drop In Crafts' again. I found a ‘You're Already Pre-Approved !!!1!!!' catalog in the drifting piles of paper, so we're gonna do ‘make your own TV program' cards with the images of big-screens and computer monitors.

 

After all the cleaning and moving, I'm pretty tired. Too bad our bedroom is still a wreck. But now that there've been changes, I'll be more motivated to freshen up our other living spaces as well. And that'd be nice !

Hope all you Dads had a good day ! :)

 

Current Mood : Relaxed

Spent on embroidery designs : $1.50

 

What a nice, relaxing Father's Day. I've made sure Beloved Hubby hasn't done a thing all day. Right now, he's taking a nap !

 

And, as promised, there's Ballerina Belle. I have no idea who made her, she's a 2003 edition, from what I've seen, and a Disney Store exclusive. Only markings on her are ‘Made In China', and her graceful hands are nothing Mattel does. She has fingers ! On both hands ! They're all separate, but soft - there's no way they can poke, they bend at a breath of pressure instead. Very nice ! This doll could wear rings if she wanted to. I cut about an inch off her hair, because the ends were just too tangled, split, and bushy to save. Despite the heavy-duty conditioner, her hair's still a bit dry and flyaway, but it's much nicer than it was. She's wearing the Sweet 16 dress I got that day, too. I love that dress.

 

(snort) I need to line up all my sixth-scale Belle dolls for comparison. Maybe dress ‘em all in Sweet 16 pink dresses. Heck, all the toddler and bigger Belles, too. I got a bunch. And I can call the photo ‘Dorrie's Belles' !

 

In other news, I now own my copy of Alphabet XPress. My trial version runs out Tuesday, but since we had the money stowed in Checking, Beloved told me to go for it. It's my birthday present. A bit early, so I'm happy. I asked the support board if I could give away designs made from it and the included fonts, but while the moderated board posted the message, there's been no answer. I searched the whole board, all the licensing agreements and the Help files before I asked, to no avail. Hard to believe no one's thought to ask whether selling or giving away designs made with it is permissible. Maybe they're talking to their lawyers on Monday first ?

 

Dearest Son was too entranced with the Peter Pan record album to ask much about the huge new doll car in the Lab. Anything that brightly colored is hard to miss ! He's still happy with the pink Caddy he got last week, and with the Lego set we had to mail order - it should be here tomorrow, according to UPS.

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the Roadster is missing the ‘convertible' top. But it doesn't bother me at all. Heck, I may make one ! Wouldn't even matter what color it is, it'd either clash or blend, either way is OK !

 

SiCK had a dollar a set sale all weekend, and when 'Happy Hour' rolled around, they went to 50c each. So I snagged three I've been on the fence over - a famous landmarks one, the free-standing lace July 4th one, and the wine set I've wishy-washed my way in and out of buying for two months. And the July 4th one, I really only wanted one design, since I already had the other two in the set I liked. But for 50c, what the heck. 

 

And I was finally able to access that site I joined for a month, the one with all the alphabet sets. I kept getting 'timed out' messages ever since Friday. Even restarting the modem and computer didn't resolve it. So I asked the SiCK board if it worked for them, and learned that yes, it was only me. Restarted everything that plugged in anywhere near the computer, and for some reason, that worked. Snagged five new alphabet sets ! So my need for 'new' has been sated for another weekend, without much expense.  

 

Wonder what I'll get cookin' this week...? 

 

Amazingly outrageous !

 

Current Mood : Stunned

Spent on Doll Amazement : $6.

 

Days like today are why I keep going. To flea markets, yard sales, and the like, even when I have a big $5. and change in my wallet. Sure, it's nice to get out of the house for  a bit, but I've had the most amazing finds, and I hardly go out at all...

 

Screwed up my courage when I saw the Flea Market banners up once more, and took in the bag of culled Barbies to the car set seller. We chatted a while, and I left the bag with her - her name is Brenda - and toured the booths, so she'd have time to see if there was anything she wanted. I know, I'd intended to donate those dolls, but she had a Little Disney Princess Cinderella in a dress I wanted, and if I could trade her for it, it wouldn't cost anything. Besides, I'm sure to garner more Barbies for philanthropy later. But I still feel a bit bad ‘cause I didn't donate them.

 

Went to one of my favorite sellers first- she has trunks of pre-loved dolls for a buck each, with clothes and accessories for 50c. And I could not believe my eyes. She didn't have that last week ! My astonished vision was captured by a near-perfect Jem Rockin' Roadster ! While I'd have preferred the white ‘Glitter and Gold' version, this first-year model was inches away, and looked to be in great shape. I asked, and she handed it to me - wow. All the stickers were intact, as was the steering wheel, clutch, and hood ornament, all stuff that typically is missing or broken on yer average toy vehicle. The chrome-colored parts showed little wear, and all four tires had the big pink hubcaps, and the axels were straight and rolled easily.

 

Confession Corner : I have wanted one of these since Jem debuted on TV. In 1986. But I was ‘too old' for dolls and stuff (snort !), and there were other ways a near-broke 20-year-old could spend $30. back then. Like on groceries. When I got back into dolls, especially around 2002, I haunted eBay for them. And the shipping alone put them out of my reach, much less with the $20. to $50. they often ended on.

 

So I was trembling a bit inside when I asked what she wanted for it. I was trying to think of a way to come up with whatever she asked, recalling bank balances and change-jar funds...'Oh, that ? How about five bucks ?" I nearly fell through the concrete floor. Yes, yes, I'd take it ! Fumbled for my wallet, and had the cash out before she'd opened the bag. Mine. Minemineminemine...mine !

 

And then I found a fantastic Peter Pan record album, complete with storybook, that Dearest Son would love and a ballerina Belle doll, still in her gold-dress tutu. Luckily, the change was enough for these goodies, too. Wow. Belle's hair was a solid three-part wooly dreadlock, but I didn't need another doll, I only wanted the dress, ya know... mmhmmm....

 

Looked around the rest of the sellers' offerings in a daze, then floated back down to a sweaty earth and drifted back to Brenda's Barbie booth. She loved the dolls, what did I want for them ? So I got the Cinderella I wanted, and two other Barbies - one in another Sweet 16 pink dress, another for her cool blouse, and that was all I wanted. The one I wanted last week had sold. Oh, well. Happily, I gathered it all and headed to the car, the Roadster clutched in my arms snugly. Seller didn't have a bag big enough for it, but I didn't care who saw me carrying it. It got several stares.

 

Broke and still slightly stunned, I came straight home. Popped open the trunk on the Roadster and added a 9V battery. I can see I forgot to close it for the photo shoot, darn it. Radio works, but not very well. An antenna would probably help. The hood storage space held a small surprise - the oversized jacket that went to Barbie, when she was Barbie and the Sensations. Since it was slightly oversized on Ken, I wasn't surprised to see it stored with a Jem prop. I'd scoured the seller's doll trunks for Jem misc, but didn't even find a single shoe. Like all the Sensations jackets, the ‘leatherette' sleeves had decomposed badly, and looked leprous. I may have to play with that a bit later.

 

Nibbled on some leftovers for lunch, then got a better look at Ballerina Belle. This was gonna be a challenge. Her hair was beyond wooly and matted, and I tried to convince myself to let the doll go, I just wanted the tutu. But I didn't believe that, and the slightly worried expression this line of dolls has just pushed me over the edge, so I grabbed some conditioner samples, the brush and comb set, and a good pair of scissors and got to work. You'll see her tomorrow - I think I did a good job on her.

 

I'm still amazed when I look over and see it. I've watched the commercial for it on YouTube - otherwise I would have tried to open the hood from the windshield, not the 'Jem' hood ornament' - numerous times, and had fun looking at Jem sites. What a nice day !

We got our Wii back !

 

Current Mood : Happy Friday ! 

 

Beloved Hubby fixed the Wii ! About two, maybe three months ago, we had a power outage, and when everything came back on, the Wii didn't. We both meant to look at it, but it's been one thing after another, as usual, so neither of us did. Since he was home early today, Beloved had me look up a few things on Wii Support, and it turned out that the power supply just had to be reset. It now works perfectly, and I can't wait to start Wii Fit again. I hate that it calls me fat, but heck, it can't really say I'm not. And maybe one day, it won't be able to say that anymore.

 

Plus, the new Ghostbusters game is out, and I wanted to play it. So sometime this summer, once the rush dies down a bit, I'll rent it and give ‘busting ghosts a try. I've been intrigued by it since I learned that my younger self's crush - Harold Ramis - not only wrote it with Dan Akroyd, but starred in it, too. Ya'll can have Venkman, if I get Egon !

 

There's been some updates to the Wii since ours was deemed broken, too. Nintendo added a new gyro to the controller, so it now responds better to wrist motions. It's not on just an X-Y grid anymore. The new Motion Plus device attaches to the old controllers - which I think is great. I would've hated having to buy all new ones.

 

A new game set is due out next month, and it has Beloved intrigued. Wii Sports Resort has fencing, jet skiing, Frisbee, golf, ping pong, bow, parachuting - twelve sports in all. It uses the Motion Plus sensor, and comes with one packaged inside. While researching it, I discovered that Wii Sports recently became the top-selling video game of all time. And yes, we have it. I'm looking forward to playing. As soon as Dearest Son is done. (sigh) It's like a new toy now.

I may be taking this 'lazy days of summer' thing too far this week...

 

Current Mood : Lazy Beyond Belief

 

After last week's library fiasco, I decided to stay home and do our own Art. So we drew, and I printed out some coloring pages. Renewed our DVDs online, but I hope to drop them off Monday or Tuesday. The two books I grabbed while a seriously impatient Dearest Son tugged at me both rank, so they're ready to go back, too.

 

And as is usual for Thursdays in Summer, ain't nothin' going on. Made brownies, though. Goss, it's great to have an oven again. I gotta do dishes, so I'll catch  ya'll later !

Does editing all the heck out of published designs count as 'making your own' yet ?

 

Current Mood : Too sleepy to be as curious as I am.

 

I'm still doing the SiCK website's ‘Free Hunts', even though I now have nearly a thousand points - enough for two and a half free sets - and haven't spent any of ‘em. What can I say, I'm a sucker for free stuff, even though I rarely keep any of the hunt targets or free designs. It's just kind of fun to play this semi-high-tech Memory Matching game.

 

Yesterday, though, I got the patriotic free-standing lace star I liked from one set, and a project from another. It was a bib design - a simple floral two-color heart, with ‘I Love Grandpa' circling it. The words made it too big for Brody... but I already knew what to do with that ! Saved the design, took it to Explorations Sizer, and quickly removed the words. The floral heart was nice and small, and I could even get two in the 4 x 4- inch hoop Brody does.

 

So I had some more fun with it. Sizer can also reassign thread colors, and flip, mirror, and duplicate designs that are small enough. So that one heart soon yielded six different designs, not counting new color combinations. Not bad at all for a freebie. I think I'll even switch the order of colors, and do the 'centers' first, to cover up all those jump threads. That'll be a challenge - never did that before. Not sure how it'll work, either.

 

Then I began to wonder. The ‘name snowflake' had kinda failed in Alphabet XPress because it couldn't do flip or mirror functions. But... What if... I created a small name design in AXPress, and saved it. Then flipped or mirrored it in Sizer, and saved that. Then brought it back up in AXP, and duplicated it, saving as needed ? It'd be a lot of repetition work, but I could probably do a name snowflake that way...

 

Just some other time. For some reason, my insomnia is raging again, and I'm really sleepy. Maybe after a nap...

It's nice when the Lab is so cool...

 

Current Mood : Overheated

 

It's another scorcher, so I noodled around for a while. Wrote up a quick tutorial on how to use alphabets (single designs shaped like letters) as graphics in Alphabet XPress for the SiCK site, which sells alphabets. Not sure if I was really understood or not, but there's a bunch of folks who bought many, many letter sets without having any way to use them, except as one-letter monograms. I put a simple name and border together while writing it, and I've already gotten requests to stitch it out so they can see how well it works.

 

So I eventually got off my can in the Office and on my can in the Lab in front of Brody, and stitched it out. Not too bad. It's on the right side of Brody's cover, so this time, I don't have to wonder what to do with the trial stitch-out.

 

With that done, I meandered back into the Office and played with AXPress again. I'd been looking at ‘name snowflakes' on other sites, and wondered if I could do them m'self. Goss knows I got lots of software now ! Several sites offer to take a name, repeat it several times in a suitably swirly font, and shape it into a snowflake for ya, for a few bucks. I wouldn't mind doing that for our tree, so I gave it the ole college try.

 

And learned that AXP doesn't have the necessary ‘flip' or ‘mirror' function to do that very well. I could make a circular cascade that sort of looked like a flower, but not really a snowflake. Since I'd about gotten tired of the sight of my own name by the time I realized where I was failing, I settled on making a curly, six ‘petal' flower out of a nearly generic swear word. Four letters, starts with ‘s'. I saved it, because the very idea of stitching several of these up, and ‘donating' them anonymously to various public Christmas displays makes me laugh like an idiot.