Which bear face?

The clock is going back. It's just not loud enough. It was too much money to compromise on what I want and free return so back it goes. But, did I save money? Heck no. I bought the new Echo Show. Nope, Do no need it. I have two regular Echo's that I really under use big time. But these just look too cool to pass up and, maybe, one day... they will chime like I want! A girl can dream.

The ChickCam is making me so happy. Those little buggers are just so cute. Last night, before I went to bed, they were snoozing away in a little chickpile. Their 1 week birthday is Thursday.

There are a few errands I have on my list but, I think I'm going to save them all for tomorrow when the house cleaner is here.

So today will just be the usual. Some sewing - a couple more 'flingers' maybe? Some piddling around and baseball at 4.

I've been playing around with the bear pattern. And with a new bear face. I'm now conflicted. The purple one looks more like a bear to me. The pink one looks happier. I can't decide which one I like better.



Here's the full shot of the latest bear. He's the one that I did from the head down instead of the toes up.

My tweets

• Mon, 12:57: HOLY MOLY! The new @the60dB android beta is fabulous. All kinds of new stuff, fun tricks and it's very pretty https://t.co/17WlYy3WzD
• Mon, 14:41: Just posted a video https://t.co/bThwRVx3Qv
• Mon, 14:54: This was such a good deal.I have one tablet and one chromebook on the plan. They are my goto emergency devices and… https://t.co/192jz3FUWF
• Tue, 08:54: Which teddy bear face is best? The purple one looks more bear-y to me but the pink one looks… https://t.co/eGW0LIdgUw

Continued

When I got married, I gave a lot of thought to my name. My name was Susan Schubert and I was never happy about that. It was always misspelled. No one ever put the 'c' in. It was mispronounced all the time - Shumpert, Shuford, Shumbert? It was a mess. I did not like the idea of taking my husband's name on feminist grounds. I didn't want to be Mrs. anything much less a Mrs. who belonged to a man.

I seriously considered making up a entirely new name. I thought I'd keep the Susan part but maybe Susan Caldwell or Susan Marshall or Susan Grant. I wanted something without any ties to me or my husband or family that was easy to spell and easy to pronounce. I got the impression that my husband to be did not care but I do remember his telling me that no one ever didn't 'get' his name or its spelling.

In the end, I just got lazy. The default, at the time, was to assume your husband's name. Anything else took explanations and constant corrections and caused trouble at the bank, the doctor's office, all over the place. I had one friend who tried it and gave up and urged me not to even try. So I didn't.

Hilariously, it turned out that Susan Dennis - as a name - came with its own set of issues. For some reason that I have never been able to noodle out, a good 60% of people get it wrong right out of the gate. Here's a conversation I've had thousands of times - lately the references aren't hitting home just because they are so old but the names don't change.

Me: Hi, my name is Susan Dennis.
New Person: Sandy! So nice to meet you.
Me: Actually, it's Susan. Susan Dennis.
New Person: Oh, wonder where I got Sandy? Oh wait wasn't she that Wheat Thins girl?
Me: Actually, that was Sandy Duncan. Sandy Dennis was an actress - Up the Downstairs?
New Person: Oh right. Wow. Well, Sandy, it's still really good to meet you!

When I was working at the performance theater and on TV doing promotional interviews a lot, the chyron guy would always get it right - so on the screen under my face it would say Susan Dennis - Spirit Square. But the interviewer would always get it wrong "So, tell me Sandy, what's the best show at Spirit Square this season?" It was never not awkward.

Plus it took me forever to get used to it. I was signing checks (olden days) with my maiden name for a year. By the time I actually did get used to it, I was divorced. And by then WAY too lazy to change it to anything else. Fuck it.

The custom at the time was for divorced women to use their maiden name as a middle name. So tradition said I should now call myself Susan Schubert Dennis. NFW.

What I did do was drop my middle name. So then I became Susan Dennis or Susan NMI Dennis. At the time, in North Carolina, all that was required to change your name legally was to use the new name for a year and produce postal proof (letters, preferably an bill - like electric bill) of you new name and it was a done deal. I suspect that they may have changed that a might in the past 30 years.

To Be Continued

More of Tuesday

I just went downstairs to walk around the block because too much sitting. Yesterday a contractor burst a pipe that flooded (?) or at least caused water damage in 3 units and maybe 4. This afternoon the president of the home owners association was sitting in the lobby with the owner of the unit and a guy who was apparently the perp and a couple of others. I got my mail slowly so I could eaves drop. The perp was dead meat. The HOA president is intimidating on a good day but she had his ass in a vice grip today. We are sooooo lucky that she's running the joint.

I walked through the lobby to go out the front door and she called me over, and asked me if I was going to be around this afternoon. "I want to call you, I need you help." Ohhhhh shit. That could mean that I've committed some grave error (she's the kind who would 'want my help to never ever ever do that again') or she wants me to do something very hard or tedious or uggy and I will not be able to say no. She's done so much for this building, I could not possibly refuse.

So now I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. [Edit 10 mins later: She got a new mesh router and wants me to help her install it which means, probably install it since all the mesh networks I know about practically install themselves. Anyhoo, I'm fine with the request. At least it's something I can do.)

I did walk around the block. The music festival prep is in high gear. There's this giant (like 3 stories tall and a jeep wide) blow up thing on the corner that makes no sense.

(I finally figured out how to successfully embed instagram videos but this was an instagram story and that's not embedable as far as I can tell. Also linking to a video in Flickr seems to be an unsolvable mystery. Sigh.)

There is lots of action out there.

I'm grateful for all the bear face input. I think the next one is going to be knit from the head down with a face that is more sloped than the old version but not as much as the new version and a bigger nose and smile than the new version with the eyes of the old one. Could work or could fail. The nice thing about knitting, however, is that you can always rip it out and start again. No harm/no foul.

The Mariner game is at 4.

Oh and I sewed two things.