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.