I'm a gLeek! (Spoilers Ahead!)

I broke down and started watching Glee the other day. And I couldn't stop! I watched all 21 episodes in 2 days, lol. Now I'm jonesing for the season finale on Tuesday ;)~

I just adore Kurt, I wish they would give him more solos. I almost cried when he sang "Defying Gravity" (and then threw the high note, waaaa). I would have really have liked to have seen a bit of him singing with the Cheerios at Nationals.

Honestly, they all have great voices, and frankly I would like to see someone other than "Rachel" be featured a bit more.

I don't like Rachel, she's a whiny little diva, but I wanted to smack Jesse for being such a jerk. I knew the little sh*t was up to something, lol. A small part of me was hoping for a bit of redemption, when he told Rachel's mom that he actually liked her, then he smashed that egg in her face after telling her he'd loved her. Boo. I loved it when they got Funked by New Directions in the end.

"They did a funk number. We've never been able to pull off a funk number"

"That's because we're soulless automatons."

"I'm so depressed."

Is it Tuesday yet??

June is here!

And guess what happens in June?? The Estes Park Wool Market :) This year I will be going up on Sunday, since I have to work all day Saturday (blech, but I can't complain too much, since I'm on vacation at the moment!).

No idea what (if anything) I will buy this year, but it is always worth a look. I'm hoping the lamb vendor will be there again this year as I could use some more ground lamb. Gordon Ramsey says the secret to an excellent Shepard's Pie is using lamb, and we make Samosas out of it as well. Yum, I'm getting hungry, lol.

And of course Brook's Farm Yarn. Last time I bought their yarn I went in looking for red yarn and came out with a lovely hank of Solo Silk, in blue! Hmm, maybe I should spend some of my vacation time actually knitting up that Solo... (Goodness knows I am all out of wedding shows to watch On Demand. Where this new addiction came from, I do not know!)

Anyhoo, we won't discuss that other thing that happens in June (my birthday *cough, choke*), but at least it's a good reason to buy wool ;)

Cross your fingers!

I've got a call in to a Realtor to go see a condo that is close to work and very reasonably priced. If it's available when we need it to be (NOW!) I will send in the paperwork. But I would like to at least talk to the Realtor about the availability before I apply, since it's getting annoying having to pay non-refundable fees for applications.

I know our landlord will give us a good reference, because he did on the last place but the wait is killing me! I need to have this settled soon.

Edited to add: Went and looked at the place this afternoon, and sent in the application. Crossing my fingers that we get it, since it is available right now rather than the 1st of the month. I really, really want it, because that would be a load of stress off right now. But it will be at least 24 hours before we hear anything, likely longer, since they'll have to talk to our current landlord.

Well Hell

The apartment we thought we were going to get fell through. Now that hubby has a job we make too much money. WTF is that?? We still make crap wages, and yet now we make too much because they are government subsidized. When the hell is the government going to realize that one single poverty standard does not fit all? The money we make may be a good living in say, Michigan where you can buy a house for less than the cost of buying a new car, but not everyone lives in Michigan or a place like that. I love living in Colorado, but the downside is that the cost of living here is much higher than it is in Iowa or some other mid-western state.

My wages would have paid for the apartment, and hubby's would have gone to paying other bills and for once we would have actually been able to save a bit of money. But apparently if you can save money, you make too much. And what if hubby wasn't working nights and we had to pay child care? We'd be right back where we started, broke all the freaking time.

I'm not looking for welfare or a handout, I just wanted a hand UP. Just a chance to pull things back together, get our feet under us again. A chance to be able to let my kiddo do something fun for a change, rather than having to worry about every penny we spend.

Now we are in full blown panic mode, trying to find a cheaper place to live in less than a month.

Argh!!!

Just when I thought things were looking up. We were moving into an apartment that is a boat-load less in rent than what we are paying now, and hubby got a job.

But hubby HATES the new job and we're still waiting to hear about the apartment, which is stretching our last nerves, since we're supposed to move in the 1st of June!

Part of hubby's hate is the schedule, it's nights and he's having a helluva time adjusting. He's surviving on very little sleep and a lot of caffeine right now. And of course the current landlord wants to show the place every 5 minutes, or the handyman shows up to fix the sprinklers (and then fails).

And it doesn't help that school is now out so the kiddo is home and already bored. Right now it's not such a bad thing, because she can go out and play with her friends. But when we move, we're a bit hesitant to let her roam around by herself in a new area where we don't know anyone.

But really the biggest thing for me is seeing my hubby absolutely freaking miserable. It hurts to see him this way, and frankly at some point if things don't get any better for him, it's going to hurt our marriage.

I have been so very lucky with jobs. I've ended up working with such awesome people in each of my jobs. And awesome people can go a long way toward making a shit job a decent one. My previous job for instance. I stayed for 7 years because of the people I worked with. I stayed until the very end because of the people. It had nothing to do with loyalty to the company (because at that point I owed them none).

My current job is great. My boss stands up for me when I need it (he just got me a raise, because he felt like my previous raise, when I got my promotion wasn't enough. I'm due another raise in July after my yearly review. That's pretty cool!) Yes, my job can be stressful and yes, there are clients that I want to smack upside the head. But the people I work with make it better.

The people my hubby is working with are all miserable. So when things get chaotic at work, it's not in a good way, because no one talks to one another except to tell him to go do something or ask him why in the heck he's doing something (because the other guy told him to). Everyone is just there, grudgingly putting in their hours so they can go home.

I'm holding on to the thought that things will get better once he gets used to the hours, but I'm thinking too that I may be deluding myself. Hell, I know I am deluding myself.

So send some positive vibes our way. We need to hear back about the apartment, and we could really use one of the other jobs that hubby continues to apply for to pan out and be better. Honestly, I'd rather pay daycare and have a happy family.

Book blog

I read. A LOT. Like at least three books a week (ok, we aren't talking War and Peace here, but still...)

Mysteries, Fantasy/ Sci- fi, a good old Romance. There are certain areas of non fiction I am fascinated with, like ghosts and Old West histories, especially tales of woman in the west (I live in the west, afterall.) I don't read Westerns though. Not my thing.

So last year I participated in 52 Books in 52 Weeks through Ravelry and blew it out of the water. So now my book blog just sits. So I've decided to start blogging over there more. Mini reviews maybe. So anyhoo, look for me over here every once in a while.

Spring!

Playing with depth of field at the Sculpture Park

Reading Challenge Update

How am I doing on Pollyanna's Terry Pratchett challenge?

Well let's see. This was the plan...

1. Read a biography of someone who isn't dead. Started that one today. I found this one at my local library quite by chance when I went to pick up some books I had on hold. It's called I Am Ozzy, and it is of course by Ozzy Osbourne ;)

2. Read a book about an animal, or with an animal as an important character or plot point. This was supposed to be Cat of the Century by Rita Mae Brown. I couldn't even get through the first few chapters and returned it to the library unread and very disappointed. I will not read another book by this woman. So I guess this part of the challenge is a fail at the moment.

3. Still haven't picked a book for this one.

4. Read a book with an anti-hero or anti-heroine. Read Guards! Guards! and then followed it up with Men at Arms, just to be sure that I covered this part of the challenge ;)

5. Still not sure on this one yet.

6. Read a mythological book, or a book of myths, or a book about mythology. As previously stated, I re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

7. Go to the library and wander into an aisle you do not usually frequent. Pick a book from the shelf and read it. One way to do this is to look in the new books section, and pick something from a category you don’t usually read. Haven't really made it down any new aisles. Too many new books by my regular authors right now. But I will eventually.

8. Read a book about money. Read the only Grisham book I've read, The Testiment. On the recommendation of a co-worker I read this book and highly enjoyed it.

9. Read a book about politics. Nope not there yet. Unless you count Rita Mae Brown's skewed political views in Cat of the Century. But I didn't finish it, so it doesn't count.

10. Read a book about a protagonist going through a mid-life (or later in life) upheaval. Highly enjoyed A Year in Provence. So much so that I then read Toujours Provence and enjoyed that as well.

11. Read a book about the truth – a non-fiction book, in fact. What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures. Mostly a very interesting read.

12. Read a book about a strange new land, or a travel book – fact or fiction. Stuck with Pterry on this one and read The Last Continent. As always, a wonderful read. I find something new to giggle over every time I read a Pratchett book.

13. Read a book about sex, sexuality, and/or sexual politics. Read The Heretic Queen and Nefertiti. I liked them both, though I have to say I thought The Heretic Queen the better of the two.

That's as far as I am going today ;) So that leaves me with 2, 3, 5 and 9 left to tackle so far.

*sigh*

Got a book from the library the other day that I had really been looking forward to. I'd had it on hold pretty much from the day the library ordered it. I got two chapters in and couldn't read it anymore. The author has now decided to take her books and turn them into her soapbox where she passes along her ideologies. It would be fine if it were actually relative to the plot or did anything to move the book along, or even was a bit more subtly slipped in, but it's just right there, shoving the author's beliefs down the reader's throat. And frankly, some of the ideas are so unrealistic that I had to laugh while I cringed.

If you want to write a book about politics, then do so. Don't try to hide it under a cozy mystery book jacket. Sorry, but I won't be reading this series anymore. :(

Edited to add: I guess I need to start reading the reviews on Amazon a little sooner. Apparently I'm not the only person to feel that Rita Mae Brown has crossed the line in The Cat of the Century

And yes, I hesitated to name names yesterday, but really, what's the point of "reviewing" a book if you don't tell people what it is? If I save one person some cash or even just some time, by cluing them in to the fact that this book may not be their cup of tea then it's all good.

Randomness...

Where in the world is my Monkey sock?? I know it must be in the house somewhere, but I can't find it. And starting the other sock isn't an option, because of course my needles are in the missing sock. Grrrr. I'm being forced to knit the never-ending knitting bag.

And speaking of grrrrrs. Would someone please tell Disney that most of their acting talent really can't sing? They make me crazy.

Baby quests for rep in WoW suck, especially when the items have seriously low drop rates.

Working on a Sunday when you've become used to having weekends off sucks. I'm already dreading tomorrow.

And a completely personal question... Is anyone out there taking Seasonique or Seasonale? I recently read a medical report that having fewer periods is actually more healthy for a women and goodness knows, it's a lot more convenient as well. So if your are taking them or have taken them, I'd like to know your experience.

Sad but true...

I talked to my former boss last week. She stopped in at work just as I was about to go on break, so I pent the entire time chatting with her. Her youngest daughter and her husband are going through a tough time right now, financially. Before they got married they decided they were tired of renting and decided to buy a house. And why buy a pre-existing home when they could build one?? So they got approved and had the house built. Odd little things have been happening since they moved in. All the little things have added up and since then the husband, who made really good money, has lost his job.

So they decided to get their loan amended, because of course everyone knows that the powers that be want families to keep their homes now, right? They struggled through the process, which included sending in their paperwork 4 times, and finally got approved. Their amended payment? $70 less a month than it was. And when the daughter talked to a friend who works for the bank that handled everything, she was told to consider herself lucky that they'd even been approved and not to bother appealing, because they'd never get more off. Apparently it's a long drawn out process in which most are not approved, if they aren't so frustrated by the entire process that they give up!

With one in every 136 U.S. housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the third quarter of 2009 (realtytrac.com), you'd think that banks would finally be willing to take something rather than getting stuck with another property they can't sell. After all, half a mortgage payment for a few years is better than none, right?? But banks don't see it that way.

I don't know about elsewhere, but here in my town, banks have to pay for upkeep on homes they own. Lawns must be maintained or the city will send a company to take care of it and bill the bank. And of course over the winter at least, banks have to pay for heat or pipes will burst and they'll never sell the property!

Seems like a lose, lose proposition for everyone if you ask me...

Lovely weekend

Saturday was quiet and lazy. But today we went for a nice little hike in the Bobcat Ridge Natural Area. It's a lovely area, and full of interesting things. You can still see the area that burned in 2000, leaving the mountain bare and charred. Yet closer to the trail they had a controlled burn just a week or so ago and it's already greening up. Strange contrast.

I was a bit sad though, it brought back just how much I miss horses and riding, since there's a horse trail that runs close to the hiking trail and the old familiar scent of dusty trail combined with horse took me back to my early years in Colorado. Sheesh, it's been 20 years since I was that young kid out working for a summer, leading horseback rides through Rocky Mountain National Park!

but all in all it was a nice day. After our walk the kiddo played with her friends and I finished a new book, A Single Thread. it's one of those books that I'd never heard of but it caught my eye as I walked past the Staff Picks table. I quite enjoyed it, though I found the plot very similar to Debbie Macomber's Blossom Street books, with a quilt shop instead of a knitting shop. Like I said though, I enjoyed it and will be putting the next in the series on hold.

Anyhoo. Off read for a little while longer then to sleep. Back to the work grind in the morning ;)

Almost complete

My knit backpack just needs a bead and a button to be done. I thought I had the perfect button, a lovely Mother of Pearl(!) button that a friend from work gave me. But sadly, the holes on the button are just too small to even get the yarn through to sew it on. Oh well duh, that's what thread is for!

So now I just need a bead. I'm wondering if I can make a faux MoP bead out of polymer clay. I shall have to pick D's brain tomorrow (he's Mr. Crafty and the donor of the buttons) and see what he thinks. Then again, JoAnn's is just about next door...
Yay!

Twitter...TMbI

That stands for Too Much BORING Information, lol. I don't like Twitter. I will not Tweet, I will not follow anyone on Twitter. Honestly, blog posts may not always )or ever, lol) be filled with amazing info, but at least they are fewer and farther between. So far all the Twitterers I've seen make me think, "Who the hell cares??"

Sample Tweet of the sort that makes me crazy: Made a ham sandwich for lunch.

Then, two hours later: Have heart burn from sandwich.

Another couple of hours later: Heartburn is gone. Need another sandwich.

So???

It's either boring mundane stuff or honestly too much info (Demi Moore comes to mind when she posted that she was off to join her boy toy hubby naked in bed one evening. I read that on some gossip page on Yahoo! the next day, lol).

Anyhoo. Now that I've bored you stupid with my little rant, I'm off to work. I will be sure not to Tweet every last little thing that happens to me today ;)

TGIF!!!

I am so glad it is Friday. I have been so stressed for the last week. It's not good when you go from loving your job to stomach cramps every time you even think about work. (I even ended up going home early one day because I was nauseated all day long, a total stress reaction, I'm sure). And all because of one obnoxious client. It's a couple that have absolutely no clue, and frankly no taste. They call and we all cringe because we know they are going to send us something with a crappy clip art background with hard to read text and then they are going to want it blown up in to a size that just isn't proportional. And we've explained the concept of proportion a million times, and either they don't get it or they just don't care (I think it's that they don't care). They don't listen to anything we have to say, like, "hey, this is kind of hard to read on that background, can we change it or lighten it?" (Hard to sell a product if no one can read what it is, but they like the pretty picture, lol).

So anyway, they placed a large order with us and it's been an absolute pain in my arse. Especially since I know when the product arrives that they aren't going to be happy with it, because that's how they are. They are so damned picky and they just don't grasp (or frankly give a damn) just how much work and time goes into fixing their design flaws. I've tried charging them a design fee (then my boss killed that by offering our services without fees on the big job, argh! The amount of hours I put into that! Frankly, the $30 in house design fee I wanted to charge was still a freakin' bargain, since the company actually prefers that we send out things that take longer than 5 minutes for us to create.)

So now I've decided that I have done my best, and done everything I possibly could for them, they are never happy and I knew that going in, as did my boss, so to heck with it. I just don't care any more. Now I am ready for the weekend to arrive so I can sit back, relax and put work out of my mind.

challenge!

I absolutely love Terry Pratchett. So when Pollyanna offered up a reading challenge based on pTerry, I was in ;) Go here for the entire challenge, I've taken out most of the quotes and things for brevity ;)

The Challenges in absolutely no particular order whatsoever:

1.”I aten’t dead.”
Read an autobiography or biography of someone who is still alive. Terry Pratchett book suggestion: “Witches Abroad” (when Granny’s sign reads: “I still aten’t dead.”)

2. Read a book about an animal, or with an animal as an important character or plot point. Terry Pratchett book suggestions: “Moving Pictures” (featuring many animals plus the Librarian [don't call him a monkey!]), “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents”, “Pyramids” (learn why camels are so smug) This will likely be the newest Mrs. Murphy mystery, Cat of the Century

3. Read a book about something you’ve always wondered about. Terry Pratchett book suggestions: “Pyramids” (mathematics, philosophers, and what really happens to mummies), “Monstrous Regiment” (why military intelligence isn’t always an oxymoron)

4. Read a book with an anti-hero or anti-heroine. Terry Pratchett book suggestions: “Guards! Guards!”, “The Fifth Elephant” (you could make an argument for any of the books with Vimes in them). “The Last Continent”, or any of the books that include Rincewind. Reading Guards! Guards! right now

5. Read a book of poetry, or a book that contains poetry (the whole book doesn’t have to be poetry). Lyric poetry like “Le Petit Prince” definitely counts. So does Shakespeare. Terry Pratchett book suggestions: “The Wyrd Sisters”, “Maskerade”

6. Read a mythological book, or a book of myths, or a book about mythology. “The Hobbit” and the “Wrinkle in Time” series spring to mind. Terry Pratchett book suggestions: “Guards! Guards!”, “Witches Abroad” Just finished re-reading the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy.


7. Go to the library and wander into an aisle you do not usually frequent. Pick a book from the shelf and read it. One way to do this is to look in the new books section, and pick something from a category you don’t usually read.

Just don’t interfere with the nature of causality while you’re there.

Terry Pratchett book suggestions: “Good Omens”, “Nation”

8. Read a book about money. It can be factual or fanciful. It can involve someone making or losing millions, or it can be instructions on how to make your own millions, or how to manage the millions (or less than) that you already have. Terry Pratchett book suggestion: “Making Money” The Testiment. A John Grisham book about the "evils" of money.

9. Read a book about politics. Or political history, or political theory, or political satire, or a biography or autobiography of a political figure. Terry Pratchett book suggestion: “Thud!”

10. Read a book about a protagonist going through a mid-life (or later in life) upheaval. “King Lear” instead of “Hamlet”, if you will. “Under the Tuscan Sun” would count. Or read, not an author’s first book, but one written later in their life. Terry Pratchett book suggestion: “Unseen Academicals”. A Year in Provence. The husband says it's better than Under the Tuscan Sun ;)

11. Read a book about the truth – a non-fiction book, in fact. Alternatively, read a book about reporting on the news, or about something that was once believed true but has been proved not to be true. Terry Pratchett book suggestions: “The Truth”, “The Fifth Elephant” What the Dog Saw and other Adventures This book fits into this category in more ways than one.

12. Read a book about a strange new land, or a travel book – fact or fiction. Books about space and other planets, including science fiction and fantasy, count for this. Terry Pratchett book suggestions: “Witches Abroad” (featuring Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlic traveling), “Jingo” and “Thud” (featuring Vimes), “Interesting Times” and “The Last Continent” (both featuring Rincewind), “Pyramids” (not like Egypt at all). Bill Bryson. Not sure which I will grab yet ;) And just to add to it, I re-read "The Last Continent" too.

13. Read a book about sex, sexuality, and/or sexual politics. I think y’all can find one of these on your own. Terry Pratchett book suggestion: “Equal Rites” Just finished The Heretic Queen, and like many an Egyptian queen, Nefertari certainly knew how to use her sexuality to get what she wanted. Loved this book by the way, I'm absolutely fascinated by ancient Egypt and while it is fiction, it is based on real historical figures and things that happened during the reign of Ramesses the Great, though perhaps loosely based on their actual lives ;)

14. Read a book that most people would be embarrassed to read in public, because of the title, the content, or the cover art. And then read it in public. Don't make me do this again. I read all the Twilight books in public, that has to be enough....

15. Read a book about a strong female protagonist. Terry Pratchett book suggestions: “Sourcery”, “Equal Rites”, “Monstrous Regiment”, and any of the books about the witches. Again, The Heretic Queen falls right in here, and I am waiting on Nefertiti to come in at the library.

17. Read a book with an inanimate object as a character and/or an important part of the plot. Terry Pratchett book suggestions: “Sourcery”, or any of the books with the Luggage in them. Rincewind and I have a date, lol.

18. Read a book that teaches you something. Something that will not come in handy in your everyday life. Learn something completely impractical. Absolute Beginner's Origami. The kiddo loves origami, so I thought we'd go through this together.

19. Read something spiritual, mystical, mathematical, or amazing. Something that will remind you of how magic and unbelievable the universe and everything in it really is. Terry Pratchett book suggestions: “Small Gods”, “Good Omens”, “Wee Free Men”… really, any of his books…

20. Read a detective novel, a crime story, a mystery, or a thriller. Terry Pratchett book suggestions: “The Fifth Elephant”, “Thud!”. Ummm, too many to name, since I love mysteries. Reading Cook the Books right now, and have several more on hold at the library.

It's home, lol

After messing with my old computer for days, T., our head tech, informed me that I wasn't allowed to bring my computers in anymore 'cause they always had something weird with them, lol. (My boss told me that's because I know enough about computers to fix the non-weird stuff *g*)

But anyhoo, it's fixed, it's now wearing Windows 7 (thanks T!) and we even managed to get WoW loaded on just in time for a weekly quest run with the alt guild so the hubby didn't have to be banished to the 9 year old's room with the "fairies and furry toys" as he describes it. ;)

Computer problems strike again!

Yesterday was one of those days. It was bad enough I had to work my first Saturday in two months which really confuzzled me all week long, lol. But then my electric tea kettle decided to die while I was making breakfast. So I booted up the older computer to do a search and see if I could find a reasonably priced one. Less than a minute after it booted it froze, so I shut it down and started it again. Or tried to.

I got a corrupted file error. We tried to fix it, but no joy. So I dragged it into work with me. They fixed that error but now the usb connections won't work, as in, no keyboard, no mouse. So then one of the guys said, "We think it's a virus." Ummm. No. And T. (Our head tech) backed me up. I use the exact same software they use, and I have a damned good anti-virus. Not to mention we are careful in our surfing habits.

But just to be on the safe side, they ran the scan and guess what? No virus! Still no explanation for the usb not working... I'm thinking it's time to reformat. Which means it's time to put 7 on .

The hardware checks out and that was the one thing that was keeping me from buying 7 for it. And now T. says he has an extra license he'll give me, woot!

In other techish news, I won something! Working at a place that sells and fixes computers, I belong to a program called Nortonzone, which gives me free anti-virus for spending 5 minutes learning about their products. Easy-peasy. Apparently they have drawings for free stuff. I won a $50 prepaid Amex card. Yay me! Lol.

Woo HOO!

Sweater For Baby Tess,
originally uploaded by zukeeper.geo.

I did it! I completed my Baby Jiffy Knit Sweater, aka Sweater for Baby Tess before the end of the Olympics. Yay me!

Progress!

I sat down and read and re-read the instructions for the baby sweater and it finally clicked in my little brain. So now I have two sleeves and a baby shrug, lol. Seriously though, it is starting to look like a sweater :) Not convinced I will finish in time, but at least it's looking better!