Time keeps slippin', slippin' away!

Where in the heck does time go?? How can it possibly be Thanksgiving week already? And why didn't my boss listen to me when I nagged him to order our Black Friday shirts last month?

For those of you in a hurry to get t-shirts for an event, DON'T order from 6dollartshirts. They may be cheap, but they ain't fast! Their website says they ship within 2 days, but the fine print says it can take up to 2 weeks. And guess what?
Ours have taken longer than that. I think we are screwed. I plan to try and contact them today, but even then, it's Monday and we need them by Wednesday now. I'm very annoyed, to say the least.

I am very ready for BF to be over with. As always! But at least hubby doesn't work for the Evil Empire anymore. I still can't believe they are opening at 8 PM on Thanksgiving. Greedy fuckers. Sad thing is, there will be a ton of people there to shop. I will be at home, secure in the knowledge that G no longer has to jump to their tune ;) I urge everyone to stay home, enjoy your families and worry about Christmas shopping another day. Don't give the Evil Empire cause to entirely forego Thanksgiving next year, because that's the way things are heading.

I will be giving thanks this year for my family and the jobs that we have in these unsettled times.

And now for something completely different....

I had very strange, sad, dreams last night. I dreamed that my old cats, Merry & Merlin had gotten out and gotten lost. I was so sad. I put up flyers and went around calling for them. Eventually I looked out the window and Merlin was curled up outside. When I ran out to get him Merry came out of the bushes too. Then I woke up in tears.

Maybe it was talking to my mom last night about her dogs and my sister's dogs that made me miss having animals around. Whatever it is, I still feel sad this morning and miss my kitties. I hear the geese on the lake out back and think how much they would have loved this place, with its sliding glass doors looking out over the lake and wide window ledges, perfect for a cat to watch the world go by or just sun itself.

But then the selfish part of me says, who wants to clean a litter box? And where would we put it? We cat sat for a week for a co-worker and the only place to put the box was the master bathroom. Waking up every morning and stepping in grainy cat litter was not fun.

But oh I miss the cuddles. The warmth of a cat curled in my lap, purring away. Lying in bed with a cat on my chest, determined to get one last cuddle before her human goes to sleep. *Sigh*

Changes

My brother is facing some HUGE changes in the next few weeks. Apparently turning 50 and having her babies all leave the nest has made my sister decide that she must take charge of our older brother. He recently lost his job and doesn't have many prospects right now, so being my pushy older sister, she informed him (I wasn't involved so I'm just speculating from the bits I got from my mother, but this is my sister so it's probably close to the truth, lol) that he was moving to Iowa and they would let him live in their basement.

Now, my big brother has been living on his own in Florida for well over 25 years. He's a big boy, but he does have some problems. He suffered a brain injury many, many, many years ago in a car accident and after that began to self-medicate. Also, the part of his brain that was injured is the bit that controls emotions, so he has some anger management issues (which is what caused him to lose the job). So the fact that my sister is pushing him into a brain injury support group could actually be a positive thing. And I don't see my brother in law standing for any self-medicating in his home, either, plus this gets my bro away from his cronies. So again, a good thing.

But holy smokes! Move the guy from Florida back to Iowa, just in time for winter! Poor man is going to freeze his you-know-whats off! Especially living in the basement!

So I decided I would knit him a cap to at least keep his head warm. Something manly, that he might actually wear, hahaha. Viola! The ribbed beanie! We won't tell him it's called a beanie. I waffled between this pattern and a Watch Cap, but I think I like the simplicity of this one more. It's knit in bulky weight yarn, so should be a fairly quick knit. And it will be washable, so that makes it easy on him to care for it.

Autumn, sort of

The trees are starting to turn, but that may be more from the drought than the change of seasons, since some of the smaller ones started turning early. School is back in session and September is nearly here. But the daytime temps are still in the 90s, while the night time temps are cool high 50s. (I think our downstairs former Texan neighbor already has her heat on, because we can't get our place below 65 at night with all the windows open *pout*).

Anyway, if you've read my posts at all you know Autumn is my favourite time of the year. It's time for baking, especially pumpkin desserts (and Pumpkin Spice lattes from S'bucks!) and apple pie, and HALLOWEEN!

I've already made some delicious pumpkin cream cheese muffins. Tomorrow I think I will surprise the husband with a caramel apple pie when he gets home from work. I'm tempted to make some pumpkin apple butter, but last year I didn't use it all (blasphemy, yes??) and felt bad when I had to throw it out :(

And I found the pumpkin bars recipe that was so good last year. (If you make them I highly recommend using a large can of pumpkin and adding some pumpkin pie spice. Sooo moist!) Might have to make some for the folks at work next week, IF I am feeling generous. It's going to be a looong week, since I have to play manager every shift. If I were a nice person I would make something for G to take to work with him, get him on the good side of his new boss (who is my old boss, lol), we know Jeffe has a sweet tooth, mwahahaha. But neither George nor Jeffe like pumpkin. Meh.

The bestest thing about fall? Mary from Mary's Mountain Cookies is bringing me pumpkin cookies again! She knows how much I love them so she's bringing them special ;) Last year she gave me a tub of cookie dough and I had pumpkin cookies for weeks, yay!

Buffalo Feathers!

Sock number one is done and sock two is about to be cast on. I have to say, I love this pattern, and I love this yarn!

Specs: Feather and Fan Sock pattern, slightly tweaked by me, since I prefer an ankle sock and a less pointed toe. Yarn is The Buffalo Wool Co. Tracks, Freakin' Red colorway. I love the feel of this yarn, it's 10% Bison, 90% Merino and I think I may have just spoilt myself for other sock yarns! Honestly, I slipped it on once I finished the toe graft (shudder. I can knit the whole damned sock, not even worry about turning a heal, but grafting kills me, lol.) and I did not want to take it off. I ran around the house this morning with one sock on for ages.

"Mom, you know you look really weird, right?"

Just gives me incentive to get sock 2 done!

And now I have these little pretties to help too.

The large bead is one of my favorite beads and I've had it a while. The other two are new crystal beads.

Absolutely Speechless

For those who senselessly died in Aurora, all because they wanted to have a good time. May you rest in peace. And may the rat bastard responsible burn in Hell!

High Park Fire Knit Challenge

As I reknit the same stinkin' row on my sock over and over this week while enjoying the cooler weather that Mother Nature has finally blessed us with, I thought about my neighbors just a bit to the north who have lost everything to the High Park Wildfire. And I thought, my community is really standing behind these folks, but I can't afford to donate money.

But I have stash! I can donate love! So my challenge is this: Knit or crochet something for someone you don't know, will never meet, but who will be thrilled to get something made with love to help them start rebuilding their lives. Winter's around the corner, no matter what we might think right now with record temps across the nation. Hats, mittens, gloves and scarves are the last thing on their minds right now, but they're going to need them soon enough.

Even a knit or crocheted toy would be welcomed for the kids that have lost all of their treasured possessions.

So here's the thing. My Sister Knits is collecting blankets right now for immediate distribution. They're also collecting hats, mittens, etc. And for the crafters that lost their stash, if you have yarn, needles, etc to donate MSK will take them as well.

If you're local, drop your donation at My Sister Knits. If you're not local, mail your donations to:

My Sister Knits
1408 West Mountain Ave.
Fort Collins, CO 80521

Label your box with HIGH PARK FIRE DONATIONS.

(And for those of those interested in helping the folks in Colorado Springs and the Waldo Canyon Fire, I believe the local Goodwill is accepting donations for them)

So get to it! Let's show them some knitterly love (and crocheter love too!)!

Highs and Lows

Yesterday was the Estes Park Wool Market. The kiddo and I headed up just before 9 AM. It was a lovely drive, but about halfway there the kiddo started feeling nauseous. We rolled all the windows down and opened the sunroof. She was still feeling pretty crudy when we arrived, but we gamely headed for the alpaca tent. Meh.

From there we went to my favorite place, the vendor barn. I have to say, it was a bit of a let down this year. One of my favorite vendors wasn't there this year. I'm sure there were A LOT of disappointed people, since the Plain & Fancy Sheep & Wool Co. booth was always packed in past years.

I did pick up a gorgeous skein of Brooks Farm Acero.

Brooks Farm is always a treat. It's likely detined to become a sunhat for me, possibly Delilah or Windansea.

And I found a new vendor, The Buffalo Wool Co. I bought a skein of their sock yarn, Tracks in the Freakin Red colorway.
It's already on my needles making it's way toward becoming a Feather and Fan sock. I knew bison was soft, but oh my! And they had a blend of bison and camel that I practically had to be dragged away from!

We headed for the food vendors after that, since the roasted cinnamon almonds are always a treat. Normally after that we get a smoothie, but the vendor wasn't doing them this year, just crepes and lemonade. Sad 12 year old girl :(

Last but not least, we hit the Paco-Vicuna tent. They are the sweetest little beasties, EVAH! I loved the "bangs" on this little girl. She was very curious, and came right up to the fence to see us (and look for treats, lol). Her fleece was actually on a table next to her, ooooooooooo so soft! And yes, VERY pricey!

While I left with some lovely wool, I couldn't help feeling a bit let down this year.

But it could be worse. Just north of here there's a huge wildfire burning, 20000+ acres and no sign of containment. It's burning through some beautiful county, filled with historic ranches and buildings, and a lot of homes. We can see the smoke plume from our deck. This evening in a show of terrible beauty, the sunset was glorious. Pinks and purples, reflected in the smoke.

Weird weekday

Instead of being at work this morning, I am at home, on hold with Century Link. I had a rare 3 day weekend, and while it's great, taking care of all the stuff that I have put off because I am never home Monday-Friday 9-5 is taking forever.

The good news is:
-The kiddo now has an appointment to get her last round of immunizations
-There's a gift card for $90 on its way so I can replace my "office" chair that has its left arm hanging by a thread and threatens to tip over whenever you lean back at all.
-Century Link just dropped my bill by $57 a month! And gave me my long distance service back to boot!

So now all I have to do is:
-hit the bank at some point today to deposit a few checks.
-go to the library
-visit my LYS, since it's right across from the library and drool over the Big Bag O' Fun again!

And on a completely unrelated topic, when the heck did OTC allergy meds get so expensive?? My nose is stuffy, my eyes are itchy and I thought I would grab something and see if it helped. OUCH!

We did get some very sad news over the weekend. My husband's grandmother has died. There's absolutely no way he can get back for the funeral (airfare is nuts and then add in the fact that his passport has expired and that's the end of that!). I wonder how much it costs to send flowers overseas??

Spring Flowers

I went out and bought a tomato plant yesterday. I'm going to try growing it in a container, see if I can get some nice real tomatoes, instead of the mushy things from the grocery store. Figure the advantage to a container plant is I can start it inside and move it outside once I am convinced the weather will stay nice. And at the end of the season, I can pull it inside long enough for the last tomatoes to ripen. Unlike my mother, I won't eat fried green tomatoes, lol. Silly cow that I am though, I planned on using a 5 gallon bucket that we already had. It's full of crap and gross to boot, so I am going to run out to Lowe's and grab another bucket in a bit. Then I'll dig out our drill, put in a few nice holes for drainage, throw some rocks in the bottom for more drainage and fill the bucket 3/4 full of dirt, then plant my little baby. It's meant to be grown in a container, I made sure of that, a Better Bush hybrid. My main concern is sunlight. I'm not quite sure it will get enough sun on my patio, but I figure I'll try anyway ;)

I have never gardened at all out here, other than planting flowers, so this will be a new experience. At some point I am going to have to go get some flowers for the patio too, but I think this year I am going to stick to all geraniums. I had petunias last year, that I bought mixed in with a gorgeous little white flowers. Long story short, the plant with the white flowers ended up needed waaaay more water than the petunias, and I ended up having to pull the petunias into their own pot. They never really thrived after that :( But the plant with the little white flowers is still in my kitchen window, flowering away and growing like mad, lol. So I think I will leave them where they are and just get some more geraniums. They do very well here, since they are naturally drought resistant, and seem to thrive on benign neglect, lol. Of course, that means more to bring in in the fall, and more for the hubby to ask why I don't just put the older ones back outside. But I swear they get used to being inside and all the leaves go yellow when I scare them by putting them back out! I usually end up pulling them back in again at that point.

Knitting is going absolutely no where, although I do have an awesome new LYS, The Loopy Ewe. I just had to buy some sock yarn while I was there ;) And they have these AMAZING random bags, The Big Bag O' Fun

that have bits of sock yarn in them. Probably enough to do a square for my Crazy Quilt! too bad for me that it's $80. Which is seriously reasonable but the hubby won't go for that kind of yarn expenditure, lol. When I bought the sock yarn he ran the old, "We'll be living under a bridge" speech by me again. (We won't discuss how much it just cost us to have an oil change done and a tail light changed on his folly of choice! *Grin*)

Anyhoo, I am off to read for a bit, then I should drag my lazy butt out for a bucket and some soil ;)

Love this!

I tried this afternoon and I have to say, I LOVE IT! So easy and a hell of a lot cheaper than getting my nails done ;)

Easy peasy to do:
1. Paint nails a light base coat. Let dry completely.
2. Tear strips of newsprint into pieces big enough to cover the entire nail.
3. Put a piece of newspaper over your nail and with a cotton swab, wet the newsprint with rubbing alcohol. Press down and hold for 10-15 secs. Carefully peel newsprint off.
4. Quickly paint over nails with clear polish to seal, protect and shine :)

I found I actually like the words running diagonally a bit, but they are fun straight as well.

Dammit!

I sat down to start a new square for the Crazy Quilt and cannot find my 10" dpns! I've looked everywhere I can think of. I know they aren't in anything, because I only use them for my squares and I've none on the go. Figures, the first time I actually feel like knitting in ages and I can't find stuff!

I started surfing the web to see if I could find another set (I bought these at the Estes Park Wool Market) and came across these. The Loopy Ewe does have the advantage of being my newest LYS, but.... $120 for knitting needles??? Really? Do they knit on their own? Will I come back to find all my squares done? I said something to G. and he told me that would be grounds for divorce and I said, "No honey, that would be grounds for involuntary commitment to the local mental health ward!" Lol. That's like the glass needles we saw in Estes last year. Pretty, but you wouldn't want to actually knit with them, and at least they were only $60 and pretty enough to have on display!

But I did finally find a set of size 2 wooden 10" dpns on eBay. I had to buy two sets, 'cause I need 5 needles instead of 4, but even then I got them for $6 including shipping!

In other news, Spring has officially sprung here in Northern Colorado! Our ospreys are back tidying up their nest, the trees are leafing out and soon we will get nailed with a big snow storm ;) Or not. But Mother Nature does seem to have that kind of sense of humor!

And speaking of Spring, did I show you my gorgeous new Miche shell?? (Yeah, I got it months ago, but the colors yell "SPRING!" to me.) Love it!

Another eBay find! It's called Izzy, which of course sealed the deal for me, since my dd is an Izzy (though if you call her that she's likely to give you a "drop dead stare" and cooly tell you her name is ISABEL! Lol.

The polka dots make me smile and the little bow is just perfect.

Anyway, off to enjoy this glorious spring day. Temp is supposed to hit 80! Ciao!

Reevaluating

my current knitting projects. I've been reading a lot lately. Blame the Kindle Fire I got for Christmas! And since I still haven't discovered a way to read and knit at the same time, well knitting is suffering. And no, I won't turn to audio books. I've tried them and they bug the crap out of me. Thanks, but I prefer the voices in my head ;)

The Spring Socks- are going to be frogged and I think they shall become socks for the kiddo. She's totally into the colors now, so I think she would love them. But I have no plans to actually cast on for these any time soon.

The White Witch Mitts- Frankly, I'm not even sure where I am at in the pattern it's been that long since I even looked at them. The color work just takes too much concentration and is too messy to take with me anywhere.

Isabel's scarf- This is my "Go To" project when I find myself sitting on the couch watching silly TV shows. Which isn't often enough anymore to make the scarf any farther along than maybe 1/2 way. The unfortunate consequence of knitting while watching TV is I get involved in what I am watching, mess up and end up ripping back to where I was before I started knitting that day, lol. One step forward, two steps back.

Crazy Quilt Blanket- Haven't knit a single square in ages. I have several balls of yarn meant solely for the blanket, just can't be bothered to cast on and get things moving.

So all in all, there is NO KNITTING going on in my house. Or at least not enough to really make a difference.

Snow Day!

Well, not really. I'm off work today anyway and the kiddo was going to stay home sick, sooooo. But the unofficial measurement this morning in our area was 9" of snow. And it's really windy, so it's blowing around a lot as well. The forecast claims we will get more during the day, but honestly, I think it has mostly passed us by. We will see, they are saying another 6" is heading our way. Denver on the other hand, got dumped on! They expect to be close to 18" when it's all said and done!

Fired manager update: Of course she's telling anyone who will listen that she was fired because of a miscommunication and 3 sick days. She's leaving out 2/3 of the info, because of course this makes her look more like a victim than the truth! Why oh why, can't people take responsibility for their own actions anymore?? Most logical people will realize that large corporations don't willy nilly fire people. Most are so afraid of wrongful termination suits that it takes a lot to get fired these days, even though most states offer At Will employment. Of course, most of her friends aren't real logical, lol. And she's not telling anyone that she's only the 2nd employee our boss has fired in 5 years!

Bad choices, all around.

Last week was absolutely dreadful. Our Assistant had a friend in the hospital and called in sick several days so she could sit in the waiting room, doing nothing but BSing with the 30 other people waiting to see if the guy would be ok. She was told she needed to get back to work, because she was almost out of sick time. And the boss was leaving town for the week. So on Sunday, the friend died. Knowing that, I wasn't sure she would come in to work, but she did. Sort of.

She spent the entire day in the office, posting to Facebook and talking on the phone, helping pull together a funeral (never mind that there were at least 30 other people who were probably willing to help who weren't supposed to be working.) So Monday I gave her a pass, told everyone to pretty much leave her alone and just get on with it. Which left me in charge of the store and doing my own job at the same time.

Tuesday I walk in and nothing got done the night before. Shocker! I expected it, I was ok with but... When I came back from lunch I asked her point blank if she was ever planning on coming out of the office. Oh, of course. For like two minutes. Wednesday, ditto. By Thursday I was long out of sympathy. I told a co-worker that it was a darned good thing she was off Friday, or I'd end up smacking her upside the head. By this point everyone was over it. Especially when she made the comment to several people at work that, "Oh, it hasn't really hit me yet." Really, then why aren't you doing your job?? Oh, and Wednesday she had to leave early (after taking an hour long lunch, and screwing me over so I didn't get a lunch, or a break...) and then surprise, another emergency came up Thursday and she had to leave at noon so she could rush right out and pick up food for the Rosary that night.

The funeral was Friday and of course she had to go out that night with the gang to drink away their sorrows. Except then she called in on Saturday because she had the bottle flu. So my boss, who'd just gotten back into town a 1:30 am Saturday, got to come in on his day off to work.

Sunday she was a no show, because she misread the schedule, or something. Guess what? It's only January and you're out of sick time.

Then today she walks in, happy, joking about last week, acting as if everything in life was wonderful. "Haha, just have to listen to J. ream my ass now, haha." Well, guess what honey, I ratted you out. And so did everyone else. Life is not wonderful, you screwed us all over last week and we are DONE. And due to some piss poor choices you made last year there's NO give anymore.

But hey, now you don't have to worry about paying for daycare anymore ;) And now I won't have to listen to your man-bashing anymore.

Back to school again!

Geez. It never ends. I am so tired of listening to so called adults whining and complaining about their lives and never doing anything to change things.

I've got a co-worker that does nothing but man bash on her Facebook page, talking about how she's single by choice and wouldn't have a man because they don't treat her like she deserves, etc. In between those posts she bashes her baby daddy because he's a sucky father. Yeah, he is. But you picked him, and you agreed to the custody arrangements with him and he gives you a pretty decent child support payment each month, so be happy he's not a total deadbeat. And honey, get over him. You can tell us all you want that you don't need him or any man but actions speak louder than words and frankly your actions are screaming (half naked pictures posted on Facebook tell everyone what kind of man you expect, even if it's not what you want!).

Quit bashing guys and think about where you are meeting all of these losers! Quit hanging out with your bimbo friends in the titty bars or the skanky small town bars you frequent. You aren't going to get filet mignon if you hang out at Purina! And if you want a man to treat you better, you'd better start treating yourself that way!

*Sigh* Off to another day of babysitting ;)