Memories

So I was cleaning off the old computer tonight, trying to get anything salvageable off just in case we need to do a reformat. Some of my old recipes are in a Works database format that I can't access with the new computer, so I was printing some out and copying others into a readable format when I ran across a recipe I hadn't thought of in years. As a kid it was my favourite desert ever. It never had a name that I could recall, other than Grandma's Bars.

I swear, I am going to make some soon, even though I know no one else in my family will eat them. I'll take half in to work, lol. But I just have to have them!

It's a very simple recipe. Smooshed graham crackers, brown sugar, butter, and coconut are all mixed together and boiled, then spread over a layer of graham crackers and topped with more graham crackers. Then you frost the whole lot with frosting with a touch of lemon juice in it. Sounds so damned weird, but they are soooo good, lol.

And of course I found the old Christmas recipes. Recipes I haven't made the last few years because we haven't been doing the turkey and stuffing routine. See, I have a secret...

I go into my local grocery store and I order Christmas dinner ;) This year we had a lovely spiral cut ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole and a truly tasteless apple pie. Everything but the pie was delicious. We ate every last bit of the ham, making ham and bean soup with the leftovers. And the only dishes I had were the pan from heating the ham and the plates we ate on. Brilliant! No one spent the day in the kitchen and we had an amazing meal.

Tonight I am using up the massive container of dates that I bought because I hadn't had dates in years and had to have them (yeah, I do that a lot) by making date bread. It's a new recipe, hopefully it will be good.

Anyhoo, better go check the bread. Catch y'all next year!

Edited to add: Bread was not so good. I love allrecipes.com most of the time, but occasionally no matter how good the ratings are on a recipe they turn out to be stinkers. :(

Post Christmas Consumerism

Apparently the new Black Friday is the day after Christmas now with stores offering deep discounts to after Christmas shoppers.

Me, I'm not really planning on taking advantage of any of these sales. But my dear big brother sent me some money for Christmas and I plan on hitting the yarn shop. I originally started knitting the free smaller size version of this pattern. I was quickly distressed by how small everything seemed. I mean I was using the shortest circular needle I could get and I couldn't join my stitches, even following the hint to use two needles together for the cast on. So I switched to DPNs and it still seems very small. And it's supposed to be felted...

The whole thing is tucked away in a Ziplock bag where I glance at it now and then and shake my head, lol. I think I decided a while ago that it was never going to be completed in its current state. So thanks to my brother I can go buy the full sized pattern and more yarn. I'm not worried about matching dyelots, since I am working with two strands held together. I'll just hold one of each dyelot and it will all be good ;)

And now that the weather is cold again I am thinking of picking up my needles and starting my socks again. I actually wore my wool socks the other day and loved them. This next pair is going to be a normal sock though, instead of just the footie socks. My ankles get cold lately, lol.

I've also promised the kiddo we could scrapbook tomorrow. We got my mom a digital picture frame for Christmas, so scrapping for her isn't such a big thing, but Nanny and Granddad haven't gotten a page in over a year. And we've a new scrapbook just waiting for them. (It was actually supposed to go home with Uncle Andrew last Christmas, lol).

Anyway, have a lovely Boxing Day ;)

Happy

Christmas y'all! Hope it's been a lovely one for everyone!

Exploding muppets

My daughter has a couple of eyelash scarves that I knit (my first knitting projects actually). One is adult length because it was originally knit for someone other than my munchkin. That is of course the one she chose to wear to school last week when the temps were below zero.

So long story short, she was carrying it home one day and her hands were full and it was dragging and sploosh! Right through a muddy puddle. Hubby washed it yesterday. It's acrylic. It's machine washable, right? Lol. All the clothes in that load look like an orange muppet exploded on them. We will be picking orange strands off of things for a while. Luckily the black pants I wear to work escaped with only two strands that were quickly picked off.

Baby it's cold outside!

On Saturday the temp was in the 50s. On Sunday the snow was falling and the temp had dropped to 3 degrees. Yesterday it was -15 when the kiddo went to school. Brrrr. Today looks a bit better. We actually have a chance to get above freezing, lol.

It could be worse though. I talked to some WoW guildies that live in Canada. Temps are 30 below in places there (an apparently in some places in Montana too). Yikes!

We didn't let the cold keep us home though. Hubby and I went out and did what I hope is the last of our Christmas shopping. Gifts are in the mail to my mother. Cards will soon be in the mail to those that I could be bothered to send them too, lol. And last night was the dear daughter's Christmas show at the school. So we all trekked out to that.

We certainly didn't stay outside any longer than we needed to, that's for sure.

Anyhoo, I'm off to get dressed for work. See yas!

Tribute

Y'all might not know this, but I love pin up art. I especially love art by Olivia, and particularly those she's done of Bettie Page. So I was dreadfully saddened to hear that Bettie Page passed away today.

So here's my little tribute to Ms. Page, the quintessential pin up girl. (I almost feel this is too modest to do Ms. Page justice, my favourite pic ever is this one followed closely by this one).

Mellow Black Friday

Every year I dread the day after Thanksgiving. Shoppers are crazy that day, as evidenced by this and this. So working on Black Friday sends a chill down my spine.

Last year I worked in a mall that decided opening at midnight would be a great idea (this year the mall opened at 11 pm on Thanksgiving night for crying out loud!), so we had to spread out our employees kind of thin throughout the time period. Which really wasn't a good thing, since we were also going out of business at the time and everything in the store was on sale so things were nuts.

This year I work for a company that's a little different. We opened at 6 am, so I did have to be there by 5:30 but that's not terrible. Yes we had a line. Yes we were busy. But things ran so smoothly that by 7:30 am I was able to break out without anyone freaking out. (Last year was, "break? What break? Lunch? We've got goodies on the counter, graze!").

And luckily for us, we've got really nice patient and polite customers :) Lines moved steadily and no one seemed to mind. But boy am I glad another Black Friday is behind me :)

Best WoW commercial... EVER!

*Grin*



I love Ozzy, lol.

Wool!

I bought some lovely green wool yesterday so I can start knitting today. Of course, I bought the wrong size circular (I don't know what I was thinking buying the longest cable length, lol) so I shall have to exchange that this morning.

And for once I actually dread going into a craft store. Why? Because JoAnn's has cinnamon scented pine cones at the front door that stink the entire store up. It's absolutely overwhelming. I don't mind the smell, in smaller amounts but this is just awful. It's no wonder they are in the entryway rather than the main store, the employees would keel over, lol.

Anyhoo. Gotta go run herd on the munchkin. See yas!

Not Knitting

*Sigh* I haven't picked up my knitting in days. I'm bored with it, lol. There is a reason many people keep more than one project on the go at a time and I've found it. It's funny, because I cast on for Cherry Bomb because it was so simple, but I have to say the straight stockinette is boring me to tears. Yes I can knit and watch TV at the same time without any thought, but blah. Not to mention the fact that we're hardly in tank top weather now, eh?

I do want to go to my LYS on my next day off. I've seen a pattern (Flowers on the Go) that I liked and need to buy some wool for it. I'm falling back on the old felting fun ;) I need a new purse, my poor little Sophie is looking a bit worn.

Ohhh, WoW is me...

Ass in, woe is me. WoW was to do their normal Tuesday maintenance today, be back up by noon our time. Ummm. Now it is 8 hours later and they are still not up. Of course, I had today off work and thought that between this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon when I have to go to work I'd be able to make a big push toward level 70 with my Alliance druid, Morticia. I hit 69 with her yesterday. Not bad, from level 62 to 69 in less than a week. I jokingly said to my hubby last week that we had seven days to get seven levels and we've nearly done it. Now if WoW would just cooperate. *Sigh*

Remembrance Day

The 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month. Today is Veteran's Day, or Remembrance Day as it is known most of the rest of the world. Whether you support war or you don't, remember that our military folks are just doing their jobs and give them a pat on the back. And maybe at 11 am today, where ever you are, stop and take a few minutes to remember all those that have died serving our country.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae

Go and

VOTE!!!

Roflmao

So I got home from work tonight to find a box sitting on my chair. It was from the Beverage Gourmet. The company I ordered my Pumpkin Pie Sauce from. I was amazed that it had arrived so quickly, as it only shipped yesterday. I actually ordered through amazon.com. So when I found an actual web address for the B.G. on the invoice I went there, they had to be close since it shipped so fast.

Umm. They're just a few streets down from us, lol. I about died when I saw they were local. I paid them ten bucks to ship my sauce, hahaha.

So we are having 'puter issues, AGAIN. So the new 'puter goes off to work manana, where my boss said he'd have a look at it. Yay, my boss is a brilliant tech. And he's a sweetie to look at the stupid thing for no charge. I'm so glad he likes me, lol (all the managers do apparently, since I got employee of the month last month, lol. Never got my 3 month review, but I figure that means I'm doing something right).

Strangely enough (and I am almost afraid to say it for fear I will jinx things...) the old 'puter seems to be behaving quite properly at the moment. So... *Knock wood*

Anyhoo, I think I am going to call it a night. We are all off tomorrow, so I may actually get to sleep in a bit. Yeah right. I almost always wake up at the ass crack of dawn, lol. The good news is, come Sunday, 5:30 am comes an hour later, and wouldn't it be nice if my body decided that that was ok and continued on like normal? Lol. That sounds ever so convoluted, but you know what I mean. Or maybe not, but oh well *grin*

For crying out loud

I'm getting absolutely fed up lately with WoW. It's up and down more often than a fiddler's elbow. Tuesday it was down from before I woke up until at least 1 pm. Then there have been the rolling restarts, which normally only takes it down for a few minutes at a time, but always in the morning, which I'm sure is their low traffic time, but it's my prime playing time, lol. And now this morning they are having a "brief maintenance" that should only last about 3 hours.

I realize they just put out a huge content patch and that's why all the issues but I also find it absolutely amazing that they would release something so blasted buggy! And just think, in about two weeks we get to go through this again with the expansion. Yay.

Really my biggest annoyance is I pay a monthly fee to be able to play this bloody game. When it's down, I can't play. Where's my recompense? Okay, to be fair there is a post on the message boards about giving us credit for time lost, but no one is saying how much at the moment. *Grumble*

So anyhoo. I ordered me some Pumpkin Spice Sauce for my coffee. Yum. I've decided that I adore Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice lattes and since I can't go there all the time, I'll make my own, lol.

Okay, gotta go find a pic of Snoopy rising from the pumpkin patch so I can carve my pumpkin this evening. See yas all later!

Jeez

Where does the time go? And I've had so much more of it lately too (I just had three days off, you'd think there would have been some productive time in there, wouldn't you?).

And yet all I've really done is read a little and WoW a lot. I actually hit saturation point yesterday afternoon though. I logged out in the middle of a very frustrating battleground and only went back in occasionally to Trick or Treat, lol.

Saturday was actually a lovely family day. We headed for the zoo. Boo at the Zoo to be exact. The kiddo wore her costume and trick or treated whilst we enjoyed the animals. It was a madhouse. Sooo many people, sooo many kids, lol. Note to parents: If you plan to take your babies and young toddlers, maybe waiting until after their nap would be a good idea rather than instead of a nap? I saw so many tired and cranky kids and surely that's not what the day was meant to be.

Mind you, my kiddo actually fell asleep on the way home, and hubby and I would have liked to have napped as well, haha.

Anyway, it's back to work for me today so I had best go get ready. See ya all later!

And now for something completely different....

I don't usually use this space as a political forum. But with less than three weeks from the election I feel as though I must speak my mind.

First, I feel strongly that it is every American over 18's duty to go out and vote. If you don't vote, don't you dare come back to me and start bitching about the government, our economy, the war, whatever. Don't tell me you don't have time, or you can't get to the polls. Most states have mail in ballots available to everyone now, especially to those who won't be home to vote (The state of Colorado offers a mail-in ballot to everyone. They also offer early voting to those who can't vote on election day. Early voting begins Oct. 20th. I will be making my vote count Monday).

But most importantly I feel the need to urge everyone in Colorado who values choice to vote NO on Amendment 48. Amendment 48 proposes amending the Colorado Constitution to:
* define the term "person" to "include any human being from the moment of fertilization"; and
* apply this definition of person to the sections of the Colorado Constitution that protect the natural and essential rights of persons, allow open access to courts for every person, and ensure that no person has his or her life, liberty, or property taken away without due process of law.

What all this legal speak means for women is that a fertilized egg is a person. Therefore any form of abortion would be illegal. There is no out for the other person involved (the mother) in the case of medical emergency.

But the biggest issue I have with this amendment is that it would make many birth control forms illegal!

You all have a right to your opinion on abortion (though I do ask you to keep it to yourself here, thank you), but NO ONE has the right to tell anyone that they can not take reasonable steps to prevent an unwanted pregnancy! No one should be forced into parenthood. No child should be made to endure being unwanted.

Amendment 48 is intolerable. It's also unconstitutional and will result in an expensive, drawn out, legal battle that will cost the taxpayer.

VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 48!

I started

to blog the other day. I got one whole sentence written before my attention was diverted elsewhere, lol.

It's been very Autumn-y here lately, 40s and gray and rainy until yesterday. Yesterday the sun came back out and we made it to 50 degrees. It was absolutely lovely :) The cool, wet days reminded hubby of home and he's battling a touch of homesickness at the moment. He and the munchkin wet walking in the misty rain a few days ago whilst I was at work and in the damp the next day as well.

The Cherry Bomb is moving again. I've knit a bit here and there over the last few days, most especially whilst we all watched The Princess Bride last night. Now I love me a good fairy tale and a cheesey chick flick, but this has never been one of my favourite movies. But hubby loves it and well, on Talk Like a Pirate Day I ran into a bunch of movie clips containing pirates and The Dread Pirate Roberts moved into other clips online whilst the daughter sat next to me which lead to the promise of watching the entire thing some time.

We all had a lovely time and enjoyed the movie. Still not one of my favourite movies (there's no chemistry between Cary Elwes and Robin Wright! The scene where he is leaving Buttercup to go off and make his fortune and he's talking about true love, he swear his stare is totally dead. But anyhoo...) but we all giggled our way through.

On the reading front, Eightfoldrabbit asked if I'd read Patricia Briggs. Funny you should ask, as I just finished Cry Wolf. What seems like ages ago now, I picked up an anthology called On the Prowl, purely because it contained a Monere story by Sunny. I read the Patricia Briggs story, liked it and that was that until I was wandering through Barnes and Noble one day and happened across Cry Wolf on an end cap. I picked it up and realized from the blurb on the back that it was the continuation of that short story.

Loved it! So I now have the first two books of her Mercy Thompson series on hold at the library. Yay. And thank goodness for libraries, I tell you. With a voracious reading appetite like I have I'd never be able to afford to keep myself in books with out my local libraries! And one library has this cool system called Prospector, which connects to a bunch more libraries and allows me to get books from them if my library doesn't have them. They send the book I request to the local library and I just go pick it up, read it and return it like a regular book. Brilliant! And it's FREE! I think at any given moment I have at least 10 books on hold ;)

Anyway. I finally found me some guild love in WoW for Alas. Joined yesterday, so hopefully I will have better luck with this guild than I have in the past. Why is it so blasted hard to find a decent guild Horde-side on my server?? This new guild is just what I am looking for though. They are all pretty casual, though they do raid. But I don't have to do anything. My main interest is in making some friends before the expansion comes out so I can go explore then.

I had to laugh though, the person I was talking to about the guild before I joined was all, you can't raid unless you are geared up first. Ummm. Did you not look at my character on the Armory? The only top of the line piece of gear I am missing is a new axe. But since I am primarily a long distance damage kind of girl, that's not a big issue. Yes, all my gear is PvP rather than PvE, but it's just as good as any PvE gear and makes me rock in any setting, lol.

Well. Better finish breakfast and hit the shower. Today is one of the few shifts I actually work this week, so I had better get to it!

Yeah well...

Still no knitting going on, but I did buy myself a set of cable needles and now I am looking for a decent (read: simple) cable scarf pattern to knit for someone for Christmas. Not sure which stash wool I will use, most likely the Plain & Fancy, because while I have no idea what I am going to do with the Brooks Farm, using it on a scarf for someone else is not in the plan ;) Yeah, I'm feeling totally selfish about that yarn!

The good news is I did find one book in my stack that kept me enthralled all the way through. One Foot in the Grave was a much better book than the first in the series and now I am eagerly awaiting the release of the new book, At Grave's End, in December.

And I finally finished the Kitty book, along with the next in the series, Kitty and the Silver Bullet, (which I enjoyed more) and now I'm eagerly awaiting the next two books in the series, due out in January and February. Yay.

And of course the old stand by authors are coming out with new books soon (see my wish list) as well too, so that part of my ennui will hopefully end soon ;)

Anyway, I've the day off, so I am going to go see what kind of trouble I can get into today ;)

Yum!

I love October and Halloween. We've got our smashed witch on the front door and our ghost lanterns lit.

And this evening we baked a lovely apple pie. And soooo simple. Just preheat the oven to 350 and get out a medium saucepan. In the saucepan mix a 1/2 cup of each: White sugar, brown sugar and butter, add 3 tablespoons of flour and a little water and slowly bring to a boil. Simmer. Then take 6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced and layer on pie crust in your favourite pie plate (mine's a deep dish, 10 inches so you might want to do less apples). Pour the caramel over all the apples, top with a second crust, vent a bit and bake. I recommend a cookie sheet under the pie plate in case of bubbling over!

We baked ours for probably 45 minutes 'til the crust was golden brown.

Things we learned: with juicy apples you really don't need to add much water to the caramel mixture, next time I may not add any. Maybe toss the apples in the caramel before pouring in pie plate. Add a bit of vanilla to the caramel for an extra bit of flavour. And have ice cream or whipped cream on hand to eat with the pie, yum! Lol.

This pie was wonderful though, just the tart tang of the apples with the sweet caramel, not hidden under all the cinnamon flavour you usually get in apple pie. Hubby liked it so much he threatened to eat the whole pie right then and there ;)

Ennui.

I can't get into anything right now. I don't believe I've knit a stitch in more than a week. I have several books on the go at the moment, none that holds my interest for longer than a chapter at a time.

I've got the "at work" book, Kitty Takes a Holiday, the after work books, Death Perception (this is one of those authors that has more than one series and I like the other series better, but...), Hungry Ghosts (ok, I have to be fair, I only just started this one tonight and I'm only a few pages in) and somewhere in this house I have my traditional spooky-ooky-it's-Halloween-ghost-book, along with the latest Christine Feehan book, Dark Curse (I'm losing interest in this series unfortunately, they are all so very similar now and I'm really starting to get tired of the overly macho dominating males, I've not really enjoyed one of these books since Dark Melody), another called One Foot in the Grave, which I've not even opened yet, and umm, another in a series that I was half-hearted about at the best of times and now have really lost interest in. Nothing has grabbed my interest and held it since I finished the last Odd Thomas book.

Not one of them am I any farther than a few chapters in, well, except for the spooky-ooky-it's-Halloween-ghost-book because that's all short bits and interesting ;)

TV isn't really doing it for me either. Even good ol' Ghost Hunters is paling this season. *Sigh*

And WoW. Well, I hit 44 with my gnome mage. She's out of rest experience, so she's in the inn for a bit until I get that back. Alas is 70. Got my last top tier item last week. I made the guys at work freak when I jokingly mentioned that I'd had to do some dailies to earn some money back after I got my new helm and had to gem it, which dropped me under 10k. "10K? You're freaking out about dropping under 10k? I've barely got 100 gold!" Ummm. No. But they don't seem to grasp that I've been 70 for quite some time now. There's nothing more I can spend money on in game, so of course I have the money. I'm bored. I actually took up fishing in the game, just for something different. I'm really looking forward to next month and Wrath of the Lich King.

*Sigh* This too shall pass. Soon I hope.

Under construction!

Pardon the mess whilst I change over to my October look ;) It's going to stay a bit messy for the rest of the day as I don't think they'll let me work on my blog at work, lol.

Happy October, y'all!

Sad and silent

We just can't win

Our new computer arrived early last week. We thought that was a good thing. But honestly, it has been trouble from day 1. It constantly disconnected from the wireless network, froze and gave us USB errors, causing bad shut downs similar to the old machine we were trying to improve upon. So we did some reading online and followed the instructions. Some few hours and another $20 later things seemed more stable.

Until my hubby went raiding in WoW that night. Then it froze and we had to power down. Again, USB errors and aggravation. I went in to work the next day and bitched to my boss that Vista sucks and it's a power hog and he looked at me like I had grown a second head. "Bring it in."

I wish I had been able to convince my hubby to heed my boss' advice. Instead the problem grew steadily worse. We finally called Dell who had us run the diagnostic and told us it had to be software and that we needed to go back to factory settings and start again. *Sigh*

Guess what? It's even worse now! I started up this AM and no sooner had I established my wireless connection than it just crashed. No freeze this time, just a blue screen and error code. It then restarted itself, and seems ok now, but I wasn't going to push my luck, I'm on the old computer now.

So basically what I have learned is that Vista is conflicting with one of the three programs I have put on the new machine, but not entirely sure which one:
1. Firefox
2. Thunderbird
3. World of Warcraft. Now that would just be brilliant, seeing as how this machine is literally built for gaming and it won't run the one game we want it to. And unfortunately, up until late last night this seemed the most likely culprit as the crashes occurred most often whilst WoW was running.

The damn thing is going into work some time today. I would quite honestly love to box the bloody thing up and send it back to Dell and call it good :(

Good news and bad news. Bad news is it was Warcraft that was conflicting. Good news, it wasn't conflicting with Vista. And it didn't have to go into work with me after all. Bad news, it's conflicting with my virus software. Good news, all I have to do is turn off it temporarily whilst playing. All in all, it's still a pain in the arse. I'm tempted to put McAffee on instead...

Ahoy!

By the Powers! Ye didn't think I'd let Talk Like a Pirate Day pass without notice, did ye? Grab yer grog and some dubloons, matey and plunder!!

If ye be a WoW fan, head yerself to Booty Bay and party with the Dread Captain DeMeza, where it be Pirate Day. And don't ferget yer pirate togs and grog! See, there be the Dread Pirate Alastrine. Ye don't want to be tanglin' with that wench, do ye? I have me a big axe and I not be afeared to use it! ;)

And go get yerself a pirate name. I be the newly named, Pirate Val the Staggering Drunk. Yo ho ho and a bottle o' rum!

Chugging right along

The knitting is going. That's all I'm saying, lol.

I've been reading a lot lately too. A co-worker introduced me to Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas series, I'll start book 3 tonight. I used to read a lot of Dean Koontz in high school and early in my marriage. Somewhere along the way I just stopped reading for some reason. So when my co-worker offered to loan me the first two books I jumped at them.

One reason is because it's a series. I love series books, I love watching the characters develop through out the books, learning more about them.

And of course, it's fall, with All Hallow's Eve approaching, my favourite time of year. So the ghosty books have hit my reading list as well.

I've started keeping an Amazon wish list again. Mostly to remind myself of which authors I like are coming out with new books so I can remember to request them from the library ;) But Amazon also has a Universal Wish List now, so I can add links from anywhere I like, lol. So now I have knitting things on my list as well. I've stuck the link in my sidebar so y'all can see what I'm reading and what I'm lusting for ;)

In other news, we've bought a new toy. It will hopefully arrive next week. Our computer hard drive is dying. It keeps freezing up, leaving us no choice but to shut off at the power source. That inevitably screws with Windows XP and we have problems.

So now I shall be switching to Vista. I've played with it a bit at work, we shall see.

I think perhaps

I should just not blog about my current knitting project status. It seems that every time I do, I end up in Frogville.

This time it wasn't because of a mistake, at least not that I know of. This time it was because of the way sets of stitches were lining up funky. I noticed that every once in a while a small section, usually for an inch or so, the stitches would look off. And if I flipped to the wrong side of my knitting, you could see that the purl stitches were absolutely lined up.

Instead of looking like this:
- - -
 - -

They looked like this:
----
----

Which in the grand scheme of things wasn't really noticeable to anyone. Except me. And it finally got to me enough that I frogged. So we will see if it's something I did unintentionally or if it's the funky twist of the cotton yarn or what. I just know I couldn't let it continue without at least trying to fix it. *Sigh* The joys of perfectionism, lol.

Lovely

What a difference a week makes! Labor Day weekend was truly the last summer weekend if this week has been anything to go by. Last weekend was hot and I remember wishing for fall to hurry up and get here ;) Come Tuesday, autumn arrived. The temps dipped and I am loving it. This next week should stay in the 70s as well. Of course, this means I need to tidy the spare bedroom up a bit, so I can move my geraniums indoors before the first frost (Which I am begging for now. Just one hard frost to kill off all the weeds that are making me miserable, lol).

I'm thinking it could be a long winter though. The high country had its first snow a few weeks ago, actually leaving several inches behind in the lower mountains and it has certainly snowed above tree line since. But that's ok, I have plenty of knitting to see me through ;)

Speaking of knitting, I'm plodding along on Cherry Bomb. I've reached the first repeat of waist shaping on the front (so about 5 inches, lol). I joined the Big Girl Knits group on Ravelry last night and went through the posts on Cherry Bomb whilst I was there. I am now very glad that I added an inch to the length, since the biggest lament of CB knitters was that it needed to be a bit longer. I tend to like my tops a bit longer anyway, and looking at pics of FOs on Rav made me decide to add a half inch. Fortuitously, I lost track whilst watching TV the other night (new Ghost Hunters) and when I checked length it was 4 inches instead of 3.5. I didn't have the patience to unknit for half an inch, so I left it and just changed my notes on my pattern. I think the extra half inch is better.

My next plan is to pick up a cable needle tomorrow and try my hand with some leftover yarn at cabling. I want to make sure I can turn out a nice cable before I commit myself to yarn for the Susie Hoodie ;) I've priced the yarn though, and figure I can get it for a reasonable price, so that's good.

Anyhoo, I have to work today so I had best get moving. Ciao!

No laboring on Labor Day here

For the first time in years I have Labor Day off. We haven't planned a bloody thing, other than I know I have to go to the grocery store at some point today.

Not sure what I will do today. I've been doing very little knitting. I've only just begun Cherry Bomb (nothing like waiting until autumn to start a summer tank, lol).

There's been a lot of reading. Nothing spectacular that stands out though, just quick reads, like a bunch of cozy mysteries. I do have Acheron in the bedroom, waiting to be cracked. It's a tremendous volume, 736 pages, and I just can't seem to be too terribly interested. *Sigh* I will read it soon though, it's a library book and must go back soon.

As always there's been a lot of WoW. I've got Alastrine kitted out in top gear, although she could use a new helm at some point, I think I will start work on that today in AV.

I've started playing one of my old Ally 'toons again yesterday. Gnorma is a level 32 gnome mage who needs a lot of help, lol. But at least she's high enough to have a mount to ride instead of running every where. I sadly don't have the patience for that any more, Alas has spoilt me, with her flying mount and her very fast Cobalt Riding Talbuk. Gnorma's mechanical chicken mount is almost too slow for me, (And so incredibly stupid looking!) lol. It's been a bit tough getting used to soloing again, after having a pet to help Alas kill things, and the whole magic thing is odd too. Gnorma is an incredible squishy compared to Alas at this level, so I have to be careful about what I take on or she ends up dead.

Anyhoo. It won't be long before the family is awake, so I think I shall take the last of my quiet time and head for WoW. Ciao!

Well what do you know...

I was looking for a recipe on the 'net this afternoon and as I went to close out my browser I got a pop up window that said "Warning, your computer is infected!" And it claimed to be Windows XP Antivirus 2008. When I tried to close the window without installing it tried to install the software anyway. I hurriedly turned the computer off.

McAffee is running on it now, just to make sure, but I think I caught it. This is the evil virus I was talking about. It's not an anti-virus program like it is claiming to be.

Unfortunately, most people don't know that and they immediately click on the "Remove all threats now" button.

So word to the wise, don't visit web sites you don't know and don't trust anything that tries to download automatically.

Since I've not done one in ages...

Snagged from Pollyanna Rainbow Sunshine and the Needles of Doom

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison and elk.
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding I know what this is made of ;) Likely no, never.
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht Not a big beet fan.
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi- haven't tried it, but I love curry so I'd likely eat it ;)
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle- it's a shroom, and an expensive one, chances are no, never...
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes Grapefruit wine from the Amanas.
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries Itty bitty baby wild strawberries! Yum!
23. Foie gras Goose liver. It's the entire animal part thing again. But I have had pate and it's good so I'd try it.
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese There's a reason this is called head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper I've tried dried ones. Made me sneeze, lol.
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters Do Rocky Mountain Oysters count? ;)
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas Yuck!
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi Sweet Lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float Black Cow, anyone?
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea Yum!
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo I would try this given the opportunity.
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects Not intentionally, but I've had bugs fly into my mouth while outside ;)
43. Phaal This I would try, as I love hot curries!
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu Sorry, I don't feel the need to tempt fate by knowingly eating something that is poisonous if not prepared just right...
47. Chicken tikka masala Brilliant!
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear I'd try this.
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV Don't like beer.
59. Poutine I'd try this given the opportunity
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads Sorry, but I have enough problems eating regular cuts of meat, innards are not happening.
63. Kaolin Hah, if you've ever had Kaopectate you've had this ;)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian Ha, I saw this one on Bizarre Foods. I don't know that I could get past the smell.
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis Animal parts again.
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe HATE anything black licorice flavoured
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill Well, maybe if I were starving....
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef Can't afford it.
86. Hare Wouldn't order it on a menu, though I'm not against trying it.
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse Nope, never.
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish Yum, mud.
95. Mole poblano I would try this given the opportunity
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor Can't afford it and really wasn't impressed enough by the lobster to order anything with it again.
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee YUM! A restaurant in Moab, UT used to serve this with breakfast. Brilliant.
100. Snake

I'm a pretty fussy eater. I tend to stick with what I know. The few times I've gone out of my comfort zone I've found things I really liked (curries) and things that were nasty (why didn't Rocky Mountain Oysters make this list?). But I do occasionally try new things.

As for the alcohol related items, I'm not a big drinker. I don't like beer at all and usually only drink sweet white wine (travesty, I know!).

Watch out!

I work in a store where we provide tech service and computer fixes. There's a nasty virus out there that seems to be spreading quite rampantly in the last week. Update your anti-virus and get yourself a spyware removal tool. Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy are both free and easy to use.

We have at least 10 computers hooked up, waiting for spyware and virus removal. Each owner originally came in to buy a brand new computer because theirs were so screwy. But virus removal isn't cheap. $100 will get your computer cleaned, but you'll still have to buy an anti-virus (or renew your original one), so you're looking at $150 at least. Save the money and get the anti-virus now and keep it updated!

And speaking of computers... We got a new monitor a while ago. It's a lovely thing to behold. Lovely vivid colours, all in a fairly compact package. It's a larger monitor than my old one, yet we gained more space, purely by losing the huge bulk that was the old monitor. Yay!

But because of the new monitor, this blog looks sad. It's overly bright to me, and oh so dull. And of course with a different resolution than this was built in, and fixed spacing, there's way too much "white space." So look for a change soon. I just have to decide what I want. That's the hard part, lol.

Technical Difficulties

I can't connect to Blogspot, so I can't see my own blog, and I can't get to my blogrolling list or see any other blogspot blogs. No idea why, but it's pissing me off. Hopefully be fixed soon. See you soon!

Speaking of Big Girls...

I decided that the tank I am going to knit is Cherry Bomb, from Big Girl Knits. I love the shaping on this pattern. I've tried store bought tanks before and by the time I get one to fit my chest I end up feeling like I am wearing a sack. So I am quite hopeful that this one will fit nicely. I am going to add about an inch of length to it though.

And I found another pattern I really like too. The Susie Hoodie, from More Big Girl Knits. I've always loved the Rogue Sweater. But now I've seen the Susie and I think it would work better for me. I rarely wear sweaters. A jacket I could just pull on, now that's the thing for me! The cables have me nervous, but I've been wanting to try them anyway so why not on something like this?

I've started to post several times now...

And each time I get a few sentences in before I run down. Work is turning out to be ok. I like the people I work with, I really like not having to deal with the unemployment jerks, but I am already tired of sore feet at the end of my shift.

I have cool shoes. They really do help. But there just isn't any escaping the fact that I'm on my feet seven hours a day and I'm a big girl. I guess I still need to be looking for that dream job, the one where I surf the internet all day and only deal with people through email

I've done absolutely no knitting in the last few weeks. I just don't feel mentally awake enough by the end of the day to knit lace and days off are spent running errands and such. I need to start something simple, I guess. I have some lovely red cotton that I was going to use for Soleil, but for some reason the lace on that killed me. Maybe a more simple tank? This maybe? I really like the Flow tank the Harlot did, but I can't pay $16 for the book A.t.M.

Anyway, I'd better go. The family will be up soon and I'll never get any WoW time, lol.

Irony?

I don't have a problem with alternate religions. In fact, at one point I researched Wicca and thought seriously about becoming a Wiccan (I will admit now that it was mainly to freak out my mother, though I find many of the Wiccan beliefs appeal to me still, but anyhoo...), I don't post this out of malice but it did tickle my funny bone.

"A woman accidentally stabbed herself in the foot with a 3-foot-long sword while performing a Wiccan good luck ritual at a central Indiana cemetery."

Was this an example of her luck and the reason she was performing the ritual?

WTF?

This morning started like any other day. I got up, put the coffee maker on (it turned out to be clogged and we cleaned it at home rather than sending it away, yay!), and then booted up the 'puter.

I got a message from McAffee that my virus protection was expired, so I deleted the old and went to download the new from my ISP. In the process I restarted the 'puter and lo and behold no wireless connection. It didn't exist. Somehow, some way, our wireless disappeared.

And not just on the desktop. Neither laptop would connect either. Not a provider issue, we still have tv and phone. Several resets later and the dragging of tower and monitor to the physical connection to the internet and resetting the network later we have the 'net again, but... It's still odd. Still can't connect on the laptop. The networking card doesn't want to work. And well, the settings of the network aren't right. Like we missed a step along the way?

I'm tempted to pick the brain of the compu-geek at work if he's there tonight but I don't know him very well yet, and it seems a bit presumptuous, lol.

Speaking of work, so far so good. I am hoping I can finish all of my certifications there tonight, I've only been doing exactly what they are for for a week now, I should be able to pass easy enough. ;)

Uh oh!

Abby says it's not polite to knit or crochet while attending a meeting or social gathering... What say you?

I say if it's a small meeting, yeah maybe. But if it's a huge conference room and you aren't bugging the person next to you and you can still pay attention and contribute then you are fine.

Weird

This morning I went out to the car to get the login for our daycare pay site and the glove box was open. Was someone in the car? Hubby wasn't in the glove box and neither was I. But there was $40 in cash in the car and it was still there. But now hubby's phone seems to have gone. The phone would have been right on top of the cash, although the cash was a little tucked under some other stuff.

But he can't swear the phone was in the car. We've tried calling it to see if it's in the house, but it goes straight to voice mail. Now, it's just a Net10 phone, so it's not like someone can run up hundreds of dollars worth of calls on it, so we aren't worried about that. But it does have some numbers in the contacts that hubby doesn't have anywhere else.

And maybe as hubby says I'm being paranoid. Why would they take the phone and not the cash? But maybe they were interrupted? I don't know. Just seems odd that we can't find his phone.

Anyway... I need a new look for my page now that the 4th is over. No idea what I want now. *Sigh*

Vacation

We decided to take a trip down to Santa Fe before I start working again, figuring it would be our last chance for a bit. So we spent a lovely several days down south eating and playing.

I love, love, love the Blue Corn Cafe! We actually ate there twice this trip and both meals were sooo good. The first night I had their "Carne Adovada, tender pork cubes marinated in red chile and slow cooked. Covered with melted cheese and served with flour tortillas." Enough there to feed two and so yummy. I wish I could get my red chile sauce to taste like that!

I love Santa Fe, from the lovely adobe style houses to the food. Where else can you sit in the plaza eating ice cream and listening to buskers playing the harp and violin?

And of course much time was spent in the hotel pool. I have the sunburned shoulders to prove it! (Always remember to REapply sun screen before going in the pool. Oops)

While we were there we headed into the mountains to check out Bandelier National Monument. The ancient cliff dwellings are interesting, but the fact that they also had ground level buildings make the site unique. We'd all been before, but the munchkin was in a stroller then so hubby wandered the cliff while the munchkin and I watched ants. This time was much better as we were all able to explore the cliff. And yes, I did manage to climb a ladder and stick my head in one of the cliff homes, despite my fear of heights and claustrophobia.

We saw several little lizards and to my delight, a blooming Jimson Weed ala Georgia O'Keefe. The picture turned out much better than I thought it would, we had to respect the park and stay on the trail and that was the only bloom on any Jimson we happened across. They are quite a bit larger than I expected and very beautiful.

Anyway, off to nag my hubby to go get coffee as our 3 month old fancy espresso machine is not grinding properly and needs to be sent back!

Busy few weeks?

Nah. Not really, just too lazy to blog, lol.

We did go to our first drive-in movie last week. We saw Kung Fu Panda and Indiana Jones. Kung Fu Panda was better than hubby and I expected. Indiana, well it was okay, definitely the worst movie of the 4, but okay.

I've been on a non-fiction kick in my reading lately. See, I love the show Wild West Tech. I live in what was once the wild west, after all. So I've been reading about the history of the wild west, specifically, the women of the west.

Denver and the surrounding mining camps had a rolicking past, lol. In Denver there's the aptly named Market Street, once the home to high class brothels run by such infamous madames as Mattie Silks and Jennie Rogers. Mattie's "house" at 2009 Market St. in Denver is now an historical landmark. Just down the street at #1942 was the House of Mirrors, originally owned by Jennie and an object of great jealousy for Mattie. Mattie bought the House after Jennie's death and immediately had her name inset in the tile entrance. The building was restored in 1998 and is now houses a restaurant called Mattie's House of Mirrors.

Of course, it's not just the soiled doves I find fascinating. There were cattle queens and lady doctors, too. And of course, suffragettes. Colorado was the first state in the Union to approve women's suffrage in a popular election, a full 25 years before the 19th Amendment was passed.

Anyhoo. I've changed the sock pattern to Monkey. When I actually read Chevrolace and discovered it was knit on circulars I pouted and found Monkey instead, lol. I will start the lace pattern today.

OH! And I got a job! It's retail again, sigh. But it's an office supply place, so I am thinking clientele is likely to be very different from what I've seen in the past. I start on July 8. Mixed feelings abound. In one respect I am hideously bored, but in another I like not having to be somewhere. We shall see how things go. Wish me luck ;)

Friday was a bad day!

I woke up Friday morning, wandered into the kitchen and turned on the computer then wandered to the coffee maker. A few minutes later, armed with my Cinnamon Dulce latte, I returned to the computer. The wireless network was having issues, so I went to restart. The big freeze. So shuddering as I did so (Premonition? Too much past experience? Both?) I hit the power button and held it until the computer shut down.

A few seconds later I started it up again. Did you know that on my computer the blue screen of death isn't actually blue? It's evil black. System error. Windows cannot load because a file is missing or corrupt. Please insert Windows start up disk to try to repair.

Now, years ago the lovely people at Dell stopped sending out system disks. In fact, my computer came with not one damned disk. Which means if a complete reformat is called for, I've no way to rebuild. Much hair was pulled out.

Finally it was 10 AM and the calls began. Geek Squad wanted over $300 to come out to my house and try to fix it, more if a backup and reformat was required.

The next repair place wanted $80 to come out, plus the labor charge to fix it and even more to back things up and reformat. At least $160.

All to stick in a Windows disk and repair (I've done that myself, takes just a few minutes, really. Not worth that much money.)

Third place we called said bring it on in. It would likely cost under $60. Ding, ding, ding!!! We have a winner! And so hubby disconnected everything and drove up the road to the shop. That left us with no computer for the day and major concerns about data that we may or may not get back. Luckily almost everything was backed up on our external hard drive so it wouldn't have been a major loss. The main concern was software. I don't know where all my disks are. In a box somewhere. And of course this computer never had disks for the software that came on it, so I'd be without Word Perfect or Word if it couldn't be fixed.

But by 4 PM they'd fixed it and sold us a Windows Sys disk ;) All for $40. A very good thing!!!

And everyone who worked there plays World of Warcraft, so that was kind of funny. They thought hubby was lame because he plays Alliance side, but apparently I am cool because I play Horde side ;)

PS: The moral of this story is that if y'all don't have Windows set up disks, look it up on the internet and create one!

Whew!

Sock the Second v. 2 is complete! I have a finished pair! No second sock syndrome for me.

The next pair, Broadripple from Knitty.com, was begun in time for the Estes Park Wool Market and Worldwide Knit in Public Day. (It was also frogged later the same day, but that's another story...) I'm excited about this pair, because it's more than just a plain Jane pattern, and really, if I could just pay attention, a simple pattern to memorize.

Unfortunately, my attention span seems to be shorter than a gnat's. On my first attempt, I was three repeats into the cuff when I lost it somewhere on the pattern line of the 4th. since then I've been unable to get any farther than one repeat and lose it in the second. Last night I couldn't even get the first row completed. Sigh. Hopefully I can get out of the house for a bit today and clear the cobwebs from my brain and get back on track. And today, there will be lifeline involved.

But anyhoo. You don't care about my sock trials and tribulations. You want to hear about the wool market! As in the past it was lovely. I do think the number of vendors was down this year, as were the number of animals being judged. Gas prices screw everyone

But the few vendors I wanted were there. Brooks Farm Yarn and Plain & Fancy Sheep & Wool Co. The lovely lady from Interlacements was also up from Colorado Springs.

So I bought the place out right? No. I did finally buy from Brooks Farm, I've drooled over their yarns for three years now, and this year I bought a lovely hank of Solo Silk in graduated blues, despite the fact that I went in wanting reds, lol. I liked the color changes on the blue, the red was a lot more subtle and while lovely just didn't grab my attention like the blues.

As for the other vendors, they have lovely things as always but I still have two skeins from Plain & Fancy from last year. And the lovely spiderweb from Interlacements as well. And being that I am still unemployed (and enjoying it for the moment) I just couldn't see spending a lot of wool.

I will say that the Yak yarn tempted me greatly. As did the Bison (especially since we just returned from South Dakota where we viewed many, many Bison in Custer State Park). As did the softness of the Angora (but the large price tag vs. the small quantity did this one in).

We also found a booth that carried needle felting things. The kiddo had a grand time making a pin. Those felting needles are SHARP. And they have barbed ends, so if you stab yourself with one it's going to hurt. But she did brilliantly.

All in all we had a fine time, although the kiddo started to get fussy when I wanted to go back into the yarn barn again. So instead we got into line for grub. I bought 2lbs of frozen ground lamb for $5.50 and had a nice lamb kabob as well. Last night we turned 1lb. into samosas to go with our Chicken Tikka Masala. Yum.

The next several days are going to be spent on crafts, I think. I finally got the spare room walkable, now I just need to clear off the craft table so the munchkin and I can scrapbook some of our many vacation pictures! And of curse, I intend to work on the Broadripple. Ciao for now!

Minutiae

Sock the Second has gone the way of most knit projects in my life and been frogged. I cast on again last night, but I've only completed a few rows. Sock the Second was less than two inches from decreasing for the toe... I thought I had it made. *Sigh*

I dropped a stitch along the way and when I slowly tried to unknit down to it, I got fed up and decided unraveling would be faster so I did. And then could pick all the tiny little stitches back up. After unraveling way more than I'd planned due to losing stitches here and there, I finally lost patience when I got all the way to the last stitch and it unraveled before I could pick it up, destroying the last of my patience.

I was really angry, because I got some lovely new red sock yarn last week and I want to play with it So I unraveled StS and rewound the yarn. Then I pulled out the new sock yarn. My LYS has a brilliant selection of sock yarn, I was almost spoilt by choice. The people who work there are so friendly. BUT, they never offer to wind yarn.

I wish they would. I undid the band on my skein and proceeded to set up my winder, skein loosely draped over my knees as I did so. Things went fine, with me slowly unraveling the skein and winding the yarn. Until I dropped about a third of the loop and hopelessly tangled it up. Took me well over an hour to hand ball from the other end, weaving the yarn in and out until all the tangles were gone. And of course, the cat decided whilst I was untangling things, that was the best time ever to come sit in my lap.

But the lovely yarn is now rewound properly and no worse for wear. Of course, there's a second skein waiting to be wound...

Pissed off

First, I went to drop my kiddo off at school. Today was Field Day, so I walked to her class with her, to be told to come back at 11:15 am by one of the room parents. So I did, and missed the whole fucking Field Day. 11:15 was lunch time. I'm so not happy.

Second, I got a call from the stinkin' Colorado Unemployment people telling me that there's been "an issue" with my account since April 23. Umm. That would be over a month ago. And my guess is it has to do with the week I filed a day late. Thought that issue was cleared up. Lady told me it was... No wonder I've not received any money since then. Damn them.

ARGH!!!!!!!

UPDATE: So I talked to this guy about my unemployment, of which of I have received all of $200 so far, after having been out of work since March 14th. And you want to hear the biggest goddamned joke ever? I have to pay the $200 back, because some stupid dip-shit misrecorded my severance pay so I was over paid! Ok, fine, but where the hell is the money for the more than 6 weeks following that???

And hubby's telling me to keep filing because I'm entitled to the money but he's not the one that has to deal with the frustration. I've done everything I am supposed to have done. And I get nothing but hassle from it. And to call and complain requires sitting on hold for hours waiting to talk to a real person. Meanwhile, I just have to scream, because they just can't expect a person to live on $200 for 6 weeks and then take the money back!

And now I am going to spend the rest of the day with sore, puffy eyes and a snotty nose because I am so frustrated I'm crying.

I thought about buying myself

a new T-shirt for the Estes Park Wool Market. But then I decided that I could just spend that money on yarn at Estes!

I plan to go up to Estes on June 14th, which just happens to be Worldwide Knit in Public Day. I shall of course take a project with me to knit in the park as my kiddo plays and maybe even whilst watching the sheepdog trials. Or maybe I will find some sock yarn at the market and cast on right there! Socks are so nice and portable...

i'm a terrible sport

I do not like to lose. In fact, I hate it. So why the hell have I been running battlegrounds in World of Warcraft?? ARRGH! I hate dying every few minutes. It pisses me off. I finally had to stop because I was going to either burst into tears or break my keyboard.

So it must be time for some nice calm knitting. I think I shall go pick up some stitches for my heel and finish my non-aggressive sock...

What a pile of poo

The state of Colorado Unemployment system sucks big time. They make me go out and apply for a certain amount of jobs every week, then every two weeks I have to file my claim. I was one day late several weeks ago and they had a hissy fit. But they finally supposedly approved my claim.

Meanwhile, my last check was for the huge sum of $200 (that's the amazingly livable amount of $100 per week, woo hoo!). That was a month ago. I've not seen a penny since. Absolute crock of shit. How the hell can they expect anyone to live like that?? So I must file in a timely manner, but they don't have to pay me in a timely manner? Bullshit.

And then, as if it's not hard enough, now they've decided that checks aren't safe enough for us, and they've issued us each a Chase debit card that they will automatically deposit to. Someday. But the problem is, Chase charges you to take the money off the card. And they won't let you have it all at once. Meanwhile, I need the money in my checking account so I can pay bills...

So, I filed last Sunday, and ya know what? I'm not doing it again. It's a big fat waste of my time for very little return. Which of course is what they count on. They make it a pain in the ass to do, so that you will get so damned frustrated that you just give up.

It's worked, because I just can't take it anymore. So I am going to sit on my fanny for the first few weeks of June and enjoy some time with my kiddo. Along the way, if a job comes up that sounds interesting, I will apply for it, instead of applying for shit jobs that I don't actually want because I have to.

And the state of Colorado can kiss my ass.

Too much

going on. I can't really even begin. All I can say is I've been on an emotional roller coaster since Mother's Day.

One thing I know for sure. We aren't moving right now. It's not what is best for everyone in the family, so we will stay for now. And honestly, I see the point. If we were to buy a house now, the Midwest would certainly be the place to do it. But to rent, it's exactly the same. So why spend the money that moving would cost us and uproot the kiddo?

The job thing has me worried though. Both of us being unemployed as of June 2, scares me to death. And while he comes off pretty casual about it (money in the bank, blah, blah), I know that inside he's messed up about it as well. He just doesn't talk about it.

It's one of those things. He hates the job, but he's been there most of his adult life. So while on one hand there's the sense of relief at not having to put up with all the politics and such that has made his job ugly, on the other hand, he used to love his job. He loves where his job is, he likes not flying a desk.

He thinks I don't understand, but I do. I may not have been at my old job as long, but I was there 6 years. And I went from loving my job to absolutely despising it at the end. Not the people I worked with, but the crap coming down from above. And I also loved the safety of it. I had a job. My boss was brilliant about things like time off, or me leaving to get a sick kid.

So yeah, I know about mixed feelings. But I also know that he should be feeling damned proud of himself. Because since they announced he was leaving the company he's gotten email after email saying, "Wow. You will be missed." From both people he knows well, and from people he barely knows, but who's jobs run easier because of the things he does. And the coolest thing is, he's had group leaders, people who have been there year after year and worked with him, tell him they're sad to see him go. So he knows he's done his job well and that he has the respect of a lot of people.

I actually feel bad for his assistant, because she has huge shoes to fill when she takes over. (Although personally, I really don't care for her and part of me feels great relief that he will no longer work with her, but still I do feel for her this time. I can afford to be generous now, yes? )

Anyhoo. Sock the Second is still in heel flap stage, though I only have 6 more rows to knit on that. I expect I can finish it by the weekend. Though I must say, I am thinking that it may not be a good thing to not have a project on the go once the husband is done with work, lol. But again, that could be the motivator I need to cast on for my shawl. It scares me, you see. Or I could cast on the kiddo's socks. Hmmmm.

Men!

What do you do with them?

Birthday Butterfly

Okay, here it is, the butterfly cake I made. I did have to ummm, repair a bit at the tip of the wing as it didn't want to come out of the pan (the rest came out fine). But since the butterfly pan doesn't hold the entire cake recipe I had extra cake to work with, so it was ok.


Not bad for a novice cake decorator. Next time I will outline the actual cupcakes first, then fill in with frosting, rather than doing the entire thing in white. Now you can't tell which bit is a cupcake, lol. But the dear daughter loves it, which is most important.

The 4 undecorated sections are for the munchkins to do this afternoon. I have visions of frosting and sugar granules all over my just mopped floor, lol. Then again, that's why the mop hasn't gone far.

These are a few of my favourite things...

(A.K.A Mother's Day hint list for the hubby and child, lol)

1. New body pillow. My old one is flat and my back is getting achy again. Got it! Yay for the hubby who listens and loves me


2. Socks that Rock, light weight, Ruby Slippers. Yes, I know it ends up a $25 pair of socks but it's red, and I love it! Though I could live with 2 balls of Volcano Twist from KnitPicks. (But really, could someone tell me why red sock yarn is so hard to come by??)

3. Harmony wooden dpns, #90303 Size 2 (2.75mm) - 6" from KnitPicks. I love wooden needles and these look lovely and sharp.

4. Options Interchangable Harmony Wood Circular Needle set. I love circular needles, and I really do need a 24" US 10.5, but KnitPicks doesn't have a single one, so why not buy the entire set and I could fill in an awful lot of my Ravelry needle chart...

IN other news: Sock the Second has been cast on. I'm actually getting close to the heel flap.

And the kiddo turns 8 tomorrow, so the house is filled with the scent of chocolate cake. I'm trying my Butterfly Pull Apart Cupcake pan that I bought for a pittance from that place that I used to work. It's cooling now.

If I have learned anything about silicone bakeware, it's that when the directions say, "lightly spray pan with non-stick cooking spray," you spray the bejeezus out of the pan. And when it is done baking, you let it cool completely. If you do not, the cake will stick. And you will become incredibly pissed off.

It's a clever idea. When you bake them, they kind of rise over the top of the pan and bake together. Then you frost it as one piece, but each bit can be pulled off as a cupcake. The plan is to frost it and decorate most of it, but leave a few pieces for the ladies to decorate themselves tomorrow. I will post photos as soon as my battery recharges. Bloody thing isn't holding a charge well at all.

Presenting...

Sock the First, version 5. I grafted the toe this morning. Once I learned how to actually read, the heel was not bad at all.

Catch 22

With the number of foreclosures going up daily, companies that own apartments were looking to raise rents due to the influx of people needing a place to live after losing their home. (Nice isn't it? These folks are obviously broke, they've lost their house and now the landlord wants to gouge them.)

But now the landlords are finding that might not work so well. Because people who have rented for years are taking a look at the housing market and realizing they can buy for less than rent if they buy a foreclosure property. So the landlords are now in their own Catch 22. Waaa.


Although, I'm not convinced that is the case in CO where folks are still convinced they can get they same amount they would have last year, banks included. Wake up y'all.

Take for instance our old house. I see it's on the market for $210k. Ummm. I lived there y'all. And I took every last appliance with me when I left (Oven, fridge, washer/dryer, dishwasher even. Hey, the dishwasher was brand new). Sprinkler system doesn't work and there's no lawn because of it, unless you count the dandelions. HVAC system makes funny noises. Pillar out front is cracked & pulling away from the roof due to settling. Carpets are trashed and need replacing. And that's just part of it. That's why we left. There repairs needed were crazy. (Mind you this house was a fixer upper when we bought it, we didn't do most of the damage). So now they expect someone to plop down $210k plus at a guess around $40k for repairs and such? Yeah, Colorado folks are crazy.

I love the Discovery Channel

It's no secret that I am addicted to Deadliest Catch. Or that I love to watch Mike Rowe do things that make me cringe. Or that I love watching Adam and Jamie blow things up. And a have a major crush for Bear Gryls So of course, I love the new "commercial" on the Discovery Channel that shows blurbs of everyone singing. The boom de-ah-dah is something that sticks, lol.

So of course I had to search YouTube ('cause you know I have high speed now and I can watch 'em, hahaha) and found this:



It's worth watching just to see Sig, Phil, John and Andy singing

The Plan

Breakfast. A bowl of cereal.
Lunch. Half a ham sandwich and some carrot sticks (no, I am not that good, the carrots will be accompanied by lite Ranch dressing, lol) and a few reduced fat gingersnaps for dessert.

Exercise. Going to ride my bike twice today, hopefully. I'd like to go once this morning and then take the kiddo to the park and ride while she plays.

To Do:
1. Take the kiddo to school then swing by the post office and see if I can find a damned box big enough to put my gift baskets in so I can get a weight and actually load up my auctions;

2. Email the landlord and ask him how in the heck we turn on the sprinkler system (yes, the lawn is the size of a postage stamp, but I don't want to stand out there with a hose every day);

3. Divide up the chicken from Sam's into portions and freeze;

4. Put together dinner;

5. Clean house and do dishes;

6. Do laundry. Always.

6. eBay.

7. Turn heel on Sock the First, v.5. Hmmm.

I'm sure there are 8 million other things I should do today as well.

Spelling test

Each week my dear daughter has a spelling test. They get the words each Friday afternoon and then take the test the next Friday. So this week one of her words is "wool." She's been told she's so grounded if she misses that one.

PS. She got a 100% on her spelling. Yay little Cheeky Monkey Girl!!!

So long...

Sock the First, version 4. It was lovely while it lasted. But the turning of the heel was too much for both of us. He ended up with the top of the foot off to the right and I ended up frustrated and sad.

Sock the First version 5 will be cast on today. This time I am going for an ankle style sock. Why I was knitting a full sock for myself when I only ever wear ankle socks, I know not. What I do know is that there's less to frog on a screwed up ankle sock.

I also know that I need a decent first sock before I start knitting with the new Corntastic yarn I bought last week. It's very soft stuff, and I am not sure just how well it would take to repeated rippings, lol. I've yet to see anything written by someone who's actually knit with it, although it does make a lovely soft baby blanket as seen at my LYS, but the lady working couldn't tell me how well it worked up. (Please don't let it be like cotton...). By the way, Corntastic claims to be a worsted weight, but my LYS had two different weights, one a sport weight and the other a worsted. I picked up the sport. It's not a cheap yarn. I paid $8.50 a skein, and there's only 105 yds per skein. Call this one an indulgence brought about by lust for the softness and curiosity.

PS. I seem to recall the old banana seat on my first bike being much more comfortable than the rock on my new bike. Can we say numb bum? But I am riding it, even if I can't go too far before my old, out of shape, body starts screaming at me.

Anybody want an ancient cat?

'Cause mine is making us all crazy. One reason I wake up at 6 AM no matter what the day, is him. It used to be around 6 he would start yowling his head off. I could bring him up on the bed with me and pet him and then he'd bugger off, still yowling. But now it's 5 AM. So I decided it was time to do something to break the habit (it's a learned behaviour after all).

For the last week or so I've been getting up and putting him out of the bedroom. Negative response to negative behaviour. So he sits outside the door and meows. This morning he was so bad that he woke the kiddo up. So then she gets up and pets him and he stops yowling. ARGH!

I swear, the sticking him in the other room will work, as long as everyone just ignores him. We just have to live with the noise for a bit :(

In other news... I bought a bike yesterday. The plan is to ride every damned day. I can barely make it around the block before me legs start screaming at me. Apparently one's inner upper leg muscles (the Sartorius muscles) work as much as the calf muscles. Decent calf muscles I have, but apparently my Sartorius muscles have lain dormant for years. So it's around the block for me for a bit.

And this weekend, the kiddo and I are going to load her bike into the truck and head over to the school parking lot and by golly, I'm determined she will be riding by the end of the day. We'll take the bike with no training wheels, as I think the training wheels are actually keeping her from learning to balance herself, as she relies on them too much. I didn't need no stinkin' training wheels when I was her age, just an older neighbor boy that I idolized holding on to the back of my bike (in all of it's banana seat glory!).

And hey! Sock the First is in heel flap stage. Now if I could just translate the instructions for the turning of the heel into plain English...

Tweaking. Again.

Title says it all. That gray line bugged the bejeezus outta me...

Update: Still not 100% happy. This layout looked so much nicer when I orginally designed it for WordPress. *Sigh* The gray line is gone, but I want the space between the girl's shoulders and sidebar "body" to be together.

Change of plans

The yarn shops didn't happen yesterday. I spent most of the morning screwing around with this blog layout, trying unsuccessfully to removed the gray line to the left of my chick. It's times like these I wish I hadn't switched to the new Blogger. I miss being able to code manually, and put things exactly where I want them, and dammit, in the size I want them.

I'm really thinking about paying for web hosting again. But that's $100 I could spend on other things. And the Estes Park Wool Market is coming up in June

Sock the First is still going. I hesitate to say anything that may jinx it. But I will say I am already looking at more sock yarn.

I'm tempted to try this stuff, as the fiber intrigues the hell out of me, growing up surrounded by fields of the stuff. And which I can get at MSK. But I really like the colourways in the Socks That Rock Watercolour Waves. I'm especially partial to the Ruby Slippers colourway.

Anyway, better get moving, the kiddo has to be to school early today for a field trip. (This is fun, by the way. She's been ready to go since 6:30 am, haha. Keeping her busy is a challenge.) Ciao!

Updated: Changed link to correct fiber and link for Corntastic, not Maizy.

Have you tried this?!

KnitMap! Thanks to KnitMap I have a new yarn shop, Nanytutu's, to check out today during my wanderings. I want to hit my favourite, My Sister Knits, as well.

The sock thing is going ok. I've frogged it about 4 times, the last on our trip home from my mom's, which sucked and left me with no knitting for the car. Why? Because I have long nails for the first time in years and I use a long tail cast on. This results in bleeding palms. To get 'round this, I've an old sock that I cut the toe out of and a hole in the heel for my thumb. There's just enough fabric that my nails don't bite. And of course my little sock friend was somewhere in the suitcase in the truck of the car and I didn't want to take the time to look through the whole case.

I have to watch my time though, since the kiddo gets out early today. Or at least she would if she ever got ready for school! Sheesh. Better get her moving'. Ciao!

PS. If things start looking wonky later, don't worry. It's just me changing things around. The green is bugging me, lol.

PS jr. Wow. The prices on Istock photo have really gone up. Sorry, but $13 for a single image? Not.

Feeling bitchy

I really dislike this web trend of animated glittery images. I wish it would stop.

I hate when my Warcraft realm is down, and they tell me it's up. It bloody well isn't.

Another thing that I greatly dislike is when some of my favourite blog reads stop blogging. :( I know it is best for them and I wish them well, but I sure do miss them.

I've switched blogs myself several times. Either grown tired of the "persona" or just needed to clear things out. I original blogged under an old game name. Then I switched to blogging under my own name. Until I ran into a harassment issue and decided that being a bit more anonymous was better.

The last blog switch was brought about because I really got the feeling that most of my so-called blog friends... weren't. After years of blogging together, emails and even phone calls, I discovered that most of the web folk I was in contact were too self-interested to care about anyone but themselves. The relationships were great, as long as I was the one supporting them, but turn it the other way around and no one was there.

So I let a few select people know I'd moved and the rest, I poofed on. Sadly, I only actually got two emails from people asking what had happened to my blog (I changed my blog, not my email...). One of those two, I had actually planned on giving the new blog addy, you know who you are ;) The other I just thanked for their email and went on my happy way.

Anyway, enough whinging. I need to go wake up my sick kiddo. We have to go to school today for at least the first hour as we have play practice. I wonder if any of them actually practiced over the holiday? I know mine didn't. Lol.

Lost

If I ever lose my desktop computer I am screwed. I have a password list saved on it and not so honest folks would have a field day. Yeah, not real smart. But I have to say, I am absolutely lost without that list. No Ravelry, because that was the one place that I forgot to update my email, so I can't even get in a change the password.

Blogger I managed after several tries to remember my gmail address, lol. And then this morning I realised that since I am using web mail this trip, I don't even have all the email addresses I need.

But the worst piece of info I don't have with me is the pin number for my unemployment benefits. Some time this week I am supposed to get online and request benefits. Without that pin, I'm so screwed. :(

Ain't technology great??

Geez Louise!

We are leaving for a vacation tomorrow. And so of course our laptop, slated to be keeper of all the vacation pics, decides to go wonky. Everything was fine when we booted up yesterday morning then midway through the day we lost our internet connection and then slowed down to molasses speed.

At first I thought that maybe it was because I had put McAffee on there and the firewall was messing with stuff. So I opened that up. I had also put Spybot S & D on there and I am now wondering if Spybot didn't trash something it should not have. Meanwhile I can't even run McAffee to see if there's something on there that doesn't belong there because it just runs and runs but never fully loads.

*Sigh*

See, the big art of the problem is this computer started off life as my brother in law's. He Rebuilt the bloody thing then loaded it with crap. We've removed a lot of it, but... He'd had some sort of free virus checker, but never had a spyware remover.

So back I go to removal mode.

PS. I've cast on a sock. I would really like to be finished with the cuff before The Harlot starts speaking tonight, which shouldn't be a problem, since I don't life a lot of ribbing and only plan to go about an inch.

The horror!

I'm a coffee addict. Both my husband and I are. So imagine our horror when we popped on the espresso machine yesterday, and all it did was spin, instead of grinding the beans. It had worked fine the day before, and even yesterday morning. But now it just hisses at us.

So online we went, looking for a replacement. Now, our machine is, or rather was, a super automatic espresso machine. Meaning it grinds the exact amount of coffee, tamps it and brews it, all at the touch of a button. Touch another button and the steamer comes on so I can steam my milk.

It cost a lot. But since if you add up the money that we would have spent at Starbucks instead, it paid for itself many, many times over in the nearly 8 years we had it. Think about it. A drink from Starbucks is at least $4.50. I would buy one a day, my husband, 2. That's $13.50 a day. That's $4927 a year. And that's not counting the cost to go out of my way to drive there. I know it sounds crazy, most people would just buy a regular coffee maker or give up their coffee. But I know us. We wouldn't.

When we bought our first espresso machine, I was in the habit of drinking two iced mochas each night after work. That espresso maker paid for itself in under 4 weeks. The next machine we bought was a step up, and made far superior coffee, but my hubby was still buying coffee on the way into work to save time. Espresso Maker Number 2 still paid for itself rather quickly though. Then we bought the Saeco. Since it does everything on it's own even my hubby has time to brew himself 3 shots.

So to make a long story short, a refreshed Saeco is on its way. (No, we didn't pay that much for it, lol).