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).

Why, oh why

can I not find any cute knitting patterns for kids? Not babies and toddlers, but kids! My kiddo is almost 8. Most patterns I have found don't range large enough for her. The idea of knitting a sweater for my kiddo is much less daunting than the idea of knitting something for myself. And I have always done better at things meant for others. Things meant for myself tend to sit ;)

Although, I have to say the scarf I was making for my daughter bored the hell out of me, so it sat too. What can I do with 400 yards of sport weight pink wool that won't bore me to death? Something with cables, maybe.

I need to learn a simple crochet chain. My shawl calls for a provisional cast on, starting with a chain. Eek. And really, I need to learn it anyway, since I made a summer tank for the kiddo that really needs the crochet edge to stabilize the arm bands. There has to be a site somewhere online like knittinghelp.com for crocheting, right? ;)

PS: Have I mentioned that I think it's the coolest thing that Denver is only the 3rd stop on the Yarn Harlot's tour? She travels on the 3rd, too. So hopefully she will actually have some time to see more of Denver than just the airport (with its slightly odd looking Bison art, lol) and The Tattered Cover. Speaking of which, I need to check on Ravelry and see if there are any meet ups planned for the day. Ciao!

Maybe?

I am going to cast on today, really. Well, maybe. ;) It depends on what I really get done today. I know I need to go to the grocery store. But first I need to plan next week's menu.

My scale should arrive today, just in time to portion up all of my ground beef into 1/2 pound packages. I should also portion the chicken breasts as well (2 per package), and get it all in the freezer.

And since I will now have a scale, I need to find my wax and soap stuff, so that I can start making some candles and soap.

The best laid plans...

I really was going to start my shawl today. I have the provisional cast on bookmarked at knittinghelp.com and my needles and pattern out, my yarn all wound into lovely cakes of wool.

But there's a slight flaw in my plan. His name starts with G. He's still laying in my bed, instead of at work. He's staying home to keep me company. Isn't that sweet? ;)

80s Music you're ashamed to love?

So I open up my browser and see on Yahoo, "Ashamed to love '80s music." and a list of 20 songs. Nope. I'm not ashamed to tell you that I knew almost all of them, and liked them too. And I'm not ashamed to say that of VH-1s 100 Greatest Songs of the 80's, I have most of them in my iTunes. In fact, it would probably be easier to count the ones I don't have, since I have over 11 hours of 80s music alone. There's around 20 I don't have that appear on the list. Can you guess which ones?

Let's put it this way... I never liked New Kids, or Michael Jackson. Or any kind of rap. Well, unless you want to talk the Beastie Boys, lol. We all had to fight for our right to party back then, after all, hahahaha.

I loved The Fixx, the boys in Duran Duran were the be all and end all as far as I was concerned (And dammit, Save a Prayer was originally released on Rio, not Arena, boo!). Dr. Noah Drake (Rick Springfield) on General Hospital was one of my first crushes.

I proudly admit, I am a child of the '80s. I came of age in the '80s and I see nothing wrong with liking the music I grew up with ;)

It's Done

But not without casualties, lol. We were trashing some old fixtures that no one wanted to buy, and the entire bloody thing decided to fall over on me. There were boxes behind me on the floor, so I couldn't get out of the way. I'm one long bruise on my right leg, starting with a palm sized one on my thigh and working down to my calf where I've a lovely series of scrapes to go with the bruises.

I was very lucky really. My thought as I went over was, "Well, doesn't this suck. Last day and I'm going to end up with a broken leg." But only my foot got caught under the thing, and it's not even bruised.

So it is done. I had a few weepy moments. Mostly as we all said good bye to one another. I had a few malicious moments, like when hubby and I (I drafted him for the heavy work yesterday, lol) were packing our Piece of Shit registers into the boxes they provided. They are 20 year old pieces of junk that never should have replaced the system we had prior to them. I really thought about just dropping them into the boxes and saying to hell with the peanuts. But they know where we live and the last thing I want is for them to hold my severance because their PoS system was trashed, lol. So I behaved.

Today I am planning the week's menu and getting ready to do some grocery shopping. I'm bidding on a scale on eBay, since my old scale got left behind in the move and if I am going to cook I need it for some recipes and if I am going to eBay again I need it for shipping weights ;)

We need to go to the library in a bit, and then we need to tidy up a bit.

I want to spend the afternoon scrapbooking with the kiddo. I asked my hubby last night to take the old broken bed rails out to the garage (since they are laying across the floor of the spare room, our craft space), but he didn't, so I guess I will just stand them up out of the way for now. All of my planters for my gift baskets and the acorn dishes I bought for container candles need to be put out of the way into the closet for now.

No work

As of Friday afternoon I am officially unemployed.

Saturday the munchkin and I will work on my mom's scrapbook, and hopefully finish that.

Sunday is family day.

But on Monday! Monday, I plan to begin my Flower Basket Shawl to celebrate (see Gilneas' lovely finished shawl here). Sometime before then I do need to go find the pattern and make sure I have needles and such ready to go. I believe that I may drag the shawl along to see The Harlot. Lifeline and hair-tearing, here I come!

I will try to document the life of the shawl here, lol.

I do need to see what I have for soap/ candle supplies as well, so I can make some for my Mother's Day gift baskets. Hmmm, maybe I need to go look at my wholesaler's for scents *g*

Owwwwww

Around 12:30 am yesterday I woke up with the worst ear ache I've had in over 20 years. It kept me up the rest of the night after that, since neither Advil nor Alleve would touch the pain.

Hubby went off to work with the promise of coming home as soon as he could and I little while later I woke the kiddo and we went off to buy a heating pad, cotton balls and over the counter ear drops.

Around 8:30 my ear started popping and the pain increased ten-fold. I called my hubby in tears and told him that when he got home I was going to urgent care because no way in hell could I wait until Monday. He left work right then.

I decided that maybe a shower would help, since my sinuses were pretty stuffed too, and hopped in. I pulled the cotton ball out of my ear to find fresh blood. That moment of seriously nasty evil unbearable pain was when my eardrum ruptured.

I am now on some pretty hefty antibiotics for the sinus crap and to try and avoid anything happening inside my eardrum.

The good news is that after the thing ruptured the pressure was gone and so most of the pain has gone. There's a bit, but the over the counter pain stuff works on it. Between it and the heating pad, I slept most of yesterday.

Unfortunately, that means I didn't do any of the stuff I planned to do yesterday, except return the library books that were due on the way home from the Sam's pharmacy.

No grocery shopping, no house cleaning, no scrapbooking with my daughter (we need to finish my mother's scrapbook, since we are going there over Spring Break). *Sigh*

There has to be an easier way...

A friend gave me a baggie of Amish Friendship Bread Starter. I wish I'd been thinking at the time. I'd have bloody well just baked it that day. Instead, I went through the entire 10 day process, which while not hard, it just a pain, trying to remember what day you are in, haha.

But now I have 3 baggies of starter to give away. I think I shall just give them away with the baking instructions, lol. All the people I know are really busy right now and I can see the starter hitting the trash because of that.

It looks like we will be closing soon. Our store has shrunk to 1/3 its size and the stuff we have left is exactly the stuff I expected we'd have in the end, haha. And some of the prices are just crazy! Hint: If you see a Pfaltzgraff boot planter or watering can on eBay, don't pay a lot. The slob selling them probably paid little to nothing for them ;) Oh, and beware Pfaltzgraff listings on eBay. Check their web site first. A lot of the stuff I see on eBay is going for more than Pfz sells it for!

Now on the other hand, if you see me selling gift baskets made from boots planters, well, then you should certainly buy it, hahaha. You're paying for the gardening goodies inside, after all. The planter is just a bonus. Look for those mid to late April, perfect for Mother's Day.

Hmmmm

The Harlot is coming to Denver again. On Friday, April 4. I will be unemployed by then, so you know what that means... I'm going to Denver ;) Well, Highlands Ranch to be more precise. Yes, there is a difference. Highlands Ranch is on the south side of Denver, which means hitting Denver right about rush hour. Oh happy day. Then again, I will be unemployed, so I could leave early ;) Well, if I could get the hubby to be home early to pick up the munchkin after school, anyway.

I've posted in the Colorado Bloggers group on Ravelry, to see if anyone would be interested in car pooling. I know there are other knitters in my area (Loveland is home to Interweave Press, after all lol).

A need to knit

I have not picked up my needles since the horrifying trip over Vail Pass. I really need to take some quiet time and just sit and knit. I'm going to do a few more plain knit rows, but then I need to start the pattern of hearts. I am thinking I very much just want to do one heart each end. The munchkin won't care, and really, the sooner I finish this scarf the sooner I can start playing with the yarn that has been teasing me for months...

I think this will drive me insane, but I really want to try it.

I also want to try cables. I went to my favourite knitting site, Knittinghelp.com, and watched the video on cables and it doesn't look hard, really. We shall see.

"Bust" Buy strikes again

I'm glad to see someone is finally taking a stand against them.

We bought a computer from them. Once. They talked us into buying the extended warranty. It was an HP. After a while, we started getting messages that warned us of imminent hard drive failure. We were glad at that point we'd shelled out the extra money. It's amazing how similar our story is to that woman's...

We loaded the CPU into the car and headed for the closest store, about 45 minutes away. They boot it up, and there's, of course, no message. Finally after booting it about 5 times, the message appears. OK. We have to send it to the service center in Denver and it will take about 3 - 5 weeks. (Now that I know better, I think, "What?? Three weeks to replace a plug and play hard drive??") But at the time we didn't think anything of it, and after all, we were heading to London for 3 weeks, so it was perfect timing.

We get back and no computer. For the next two weeks we hassled the store. At one point they freely admitted that they had lost it, but never offered us compensation. Finally, we discovered that our computer was in California. It had been placed on the wrong truck and had gone to Cali with a load of computers that were to be recycled.

So. Let's think about this for a second. The original store was in a town that was home to a huge HP plant. HP computer... One would think a hard drive would be easy to get a hold of. But no, we had to send it two hours away to Denver to have it fixed. Yet it ended up even farther away, in CA.

They truck it back to Denver. And we wait again, because it still needs a hard drive. Finally they put the new drive in. It doesn't work. They have to send for a new one. Days later the new one arrives, they put it in. Oh, and by the way, we can't seem to recover the data off your old drive. It's finally ready and they tell us that it will be another week before we can have it back because we've missed the weekly truck back to the original store. WTF??? Give. Me. My. Damned. Computer. BACK!

My hubby and I decided we didn't trust another truck anyway, so he drove down and got it.

I guess we were lucky, they found ours. But this article makes me wonder how many people go through this every year?

We boycotted Best Buy after our computer run in, we continue to do so to this day.

Statistics

Nationwide, foreclosures were up nearly 80% last year. That's scary. In my state, one out of every 314 households had a foreclosure filing. In E's parents' subdivision more than 20 houses were in foreclosure last year.

The housing market has stagnated. You can't drive down a residential street in this city without seeing at least a few houses for sale. The prices keep dropping, but the houses still don't sell. And yet builders are still building new homes. They offer massive incentives to get buyers to buy their new properties, rather than older homes (Older is relative, in some cases the houses are less than a year old). But even new home sales have seriously slowed.

And now the government is talking about helping out. Of course, this being the government, they'll talk the subject to death, while people continue to lose their homes. Too little, too late.

My mortgage payment was almost twice what I'm now paying in rent. So why the hell would I buy again? Not here, anyway. We are talking about moving back east of the Mississippi, where the cost of living is lower and strangely enough, the wages are still comparable! What would it be like I wonder, to be paid the same amount I make now, and have a lot less in bills??

My kiddo asked if she could take gymnastics lessons. I had to say no (you know, that out of a job at the end of March thing). I want to be able to say yes someday....

Moving

Bear with me. I need to spend my spare time packing, rather than playing.

Catch y'all on the flip side.

Dammit

The Rat Bastards have done it again. Just after Christmas we were told that we'd find out more about how our unused vacation time would be dealt with before the end of the year. So on Tuesday since we'd heard nothing, (Surprise. Not. Typical company crap, blowing off people they think don't matter) I emailed the head of HR about it. All I asked was whether the days had been rolled over, or if I was going to be paid for them, soon.

My answer (which surprised the hell out of me given this woman's track record...) consisted of, "All non-exempt employees will be paid for time owed on this paycheck."

Ok. What's a non-exempt employee? Apparently not me, since after checking my bank this AM, I see that my check is for the 81 hours I worked this last pay period and not a penny more. If they had really paid me what I was owed, this check would have been double.

So today we shall try round two. Because quite frankly, I don't give a rat's arse about non-exempt employees. I made damned sure that the one part time employee I had that had paid time off coming to her got it before the end of the year. She's fine. But I want my fucking money or my vacation time.

We have to move by February 25th. That money would be most of our first month's rent. Or an anniversary gift, lol.

So like I said, Round Two begins today. This time I am emailing my former regional manager, the head of HR and the damned VP who is supposed to be acting as our Regional now. And I may get a bit snippy, lol.

It's over!

Yay! My last retail inventory! And they can all bite my arse from now on, lol.

We still have people trying to return non-returnable items. And I must say, I am incredibly tired of, "Are you closing?" "Where's the store moving to?" "When are you closing?" And my personal favourite, "What are you going to do now?" One of these days the answer to that question is just going to have to be, "Mind my own business..." I find a nice glass of wine at home in the evening works wonder for my outlook. Mostly.

The stupid vacuum at work clogged and we couldn't get it unclogged. Enter the Superman of vacs, my hubby. "Honey, will you come out and fix my vacuum tonight?"

"What's wrong with it?"

"It spits everything back out."

"You guys are morons. Yeah, I'll come fix it." Grumble, grumble.

But he did. Yay, Hubby! And we both decided since we were there, and neither of wanted to cook, that we needed to hit Carino's for dinner. Yum. Two entrees, all the soup, salad and bread you could want, plus a dessert to share, all for $19.95. Brilliant!

Hey! Guess what? I actually knit the other day!!! I knit on the way to Moab, I knit whilst stuck on I-70 on the way back from Moab. And tonight, I may just knit as well! I re-vamped the pattern for the D.D.'s scarf. Revamped for travel through beautiful scenery and a short attention span, lol. I'm going to knit for about 5 inches, then go to the heart pattern. Then knit until I get close to the end, throw another row of hearts in there, and knit for 5 more inches. By then I should have a decent scarf, lol. D.D. doesn't care, she just wants a pick scarf, lol.

I've decided I need to buy a cable needle and teach myself cables. I'm bored, y'all. Bored, but not ready to commit to my lace shawl. Lol. Cables are new. Cables open and entire new world to me ;) Some day, I may even get up the courage to knit the Rogue sweater that has been calling my name for years...

Anyway, off to eat chocolate cannoli. Ciao!

My faith in humanity

was sorely shaken today. Driving along I-70 just beyond Vail the roads got really crappy. Traffic slowed to a crawl. Eventually, traffic stopped and we lost all momentum. We spun and pushed our way to the side of the road and sat there, pretty shaky.

After trying several times we finally gave up and called for a tow. We needed to get to the pass, and we were never going to make it on our own. Meanwhile traffic was still crawling by us. No one even offered us a phone or asked if we were ok.

The screwy tow company went looking on the wrong side of the pass, so they never found us, but they sure managed to charge us $50 to look. Meanwhile, they closed the pass. Another tow company pulled up in front of us. By then a plow had been by and the road had been sanded. They got us back out in the best lane and sent us on our way.

For a while we did fine until we caught back up with traffic and it stopped. At that point we were slowly spinning and making a little headway. That's when a pick up truck pulled alongside us and told us to stop where we were. He pulled in in front of us and offered us a tow. CSP finally stopped around that point and the trooper was all for the tow as long as we got out of the road.

This wonderful man restored my faith in people. He towed us to the top of the pass, even stopping in a rest area so our daughter and I could use the facilities. From there we unhooked, since the worst was over. The roads were snow packed instead of pure ice. We had a few more moments on the way down, but we'd still be on I-70 now if it hadn't been for one very nice Fed Ex driver out to save a foolish family.

So if you happen to know a Fed Ex driver named Ray who was just heading home to his family in Denver over I-70 one snowy Saturday afternoon, pat him on the back and thank him for us. The family in the white Honda will be forever grateful.

Happy New Year

May it be a better year for all.

"JUST FOR TODAY: I will live through this day only. I will not brood about yesterday or obsess about tomorrow. I will not set far-reaching goals or try to overcome all of my problems at once.

I know that I can do something for 24 hours that would overwhelm me if I had to keep it up for a lifetime.

JUST FOR TODAY: I will be happy. I will not dwell on thoughts that depress me. If my mind fills with clouds, I will chase them away and fill it with sunshine.

JUST FOR TODAY: I will accept what is. I will face reality. I will correct those things I can correct and accept those I cannot." --Pauline Phillips, adapted from Al-Anon

Oh there's an idea!

Dear Harlot thinks we should all call in sick to sit around in our jammies, drinking tea and knitting. Now in my case it would be coffee, but I'm all for the idea. Maybe that's what I shall do when I am unemployed *g*

And the number one reason I hate retail is...

The people. Pure and simple. Most people are fine, but some people just make you want to slap them, or worse.

The other day for example. We are closing. There are bright yellow, large print signs up in several places throughout the store stating this and that all sales are final. And there are at least two signs right on the counter by the registers, and another on the pillar next to the register, just in case you missed the fact.

So a woman comes up to the counter with her things and E rings her up. The woman signs the credit card slip and starts to walk away when something obviously finally begins to register in her tiny little brain. She comes back, gets right in E's face and says, "All sales final? What do you mean? Does this mean if I change my mind and want the larger set that I can't come back and change it? That's shitty." And goes on in the same vein, not actually allowing E to speak.

The woman points to the signs on the counter. The one which reads "Returns and Exchanges" in large letters at the top and ALL SALES FINAL in large bold text at the bottom. In between it says that all sales after 12/4/07 are final. Items bought prior to that date may be returned or exchanged with a dated receipt until 12/16/07. But of course, this woman only reads the part she wants to read, which is the first line. E finally gets to speak and calmly reads the entire sign. With a few more swear words the woman stomps out.

An hour later the phone rings. I answer and it's that woman. She begins immediately yelling at me about our shitty policy and states that she's calling her bank and canceling the charge and she'll bring back our crap and dump it in front of the store. Now I am thinking, a) You signed the charge slip, agreeing to the charge. The bank can't do anything, and b) it was a debit, which means her account has already had the money electronically removed anyway.

But I say, "I'm sorry ma'am, but we do have big yellow signs clearly stating all sales final throughout the store. That is our policy and we have to uphold it."

She starts spewing at me again, finally ending with her favorite phrase, "That's shitty." I again politely apologize, but in my head I am getting heartily sick of her poison. And that's when it really got ugly. She then informed me, "then I'll call your district and get your ass in trouble, fucking bitch S___!"

That's when I said, "Oh you're nice." And hung up.

Get my ass in trouble. *Snort* She's not the brightest crayon in the box. What part of store closing, out of a job does she not understand? Oh and by the way, I don't have a district any longer, I have a liquidator who is responsible for my return policy, try and contact him. Call and complain to corporate. They've shut the door on us and hung us out to dry already.

But neither I nor E need to put up with behavior like that. All the woman had to do was be nice about it. Had she not immediately begun spewing vitriol at E. and instead had nicely said, "Oh, I didn't realize that all sales were final. I'm not really sure this is the set I want after all. May I return it and think about it for a while?" And I can promise you E would have said, "Absolutely." And we'd have bent the policy. But you can't scream at someone and then expect them to turn around and put their ass on the line for you.

Holiday Baking List

Even though my Christmas spirit flew out the window recently, I need to try and keep things wonderful for DD. Which means following traditions such as baking cookies.

Apparently my brother in law hates turkey. So I guess I won't buy one for dinner this year. No point, as we can't eat the whole thing, just DH and I. That's one tradition that will have to change.

And because of that, I shall make him join in the cookie making *smile*

I want to try Stained Glass cookies this year. I think they look lovely. And I think that B-i-L and DD will have a grand time with them, haha.

We will likely make regular cut out cookies this year as well. I will cheat on both of these cookies and buy the dough in sheets.

We made peppermint bark last year, and while the ladies at work loved it, we didn't eat a lot of it at home (I was trying to be good and it was too minty for DD). We also made Peppermint Patties, but really, they were soooo messy.

K has a recipe for microwave caramels that were just delicious, so I will try to get the recipe out of her (I asked, but she, like the rest of us, has a lot on her mind right now).

I do think I need to find something with chocolate, as B-i-L loves chocolate as much as his brother, haha.

The rest of the story

Ok, so our former Regional still has 6 locations, she's not doing too badly after all.

But all in all they are closing 30 locations, mostly west of the Mississippi. That's roughly half of all our locations. Of that number, 27 are our company, with 3 being our sister company. That leaves us with 8 locations left in the U.S., while our sister company retains almost all theirs. Favoritism, much?

As of Sunday we became the ugly step-children of the bunch. Left to twist at the hands of a liquidation company, of which we have three total reps for all 30 locations, so we will likely not even see that rep much.

I have however, decided to try and remain until the end, solely because of the severance package. We will each receive a month's pay, plus pay for all unused paid time off. At the end, we become eligible for unemployment, which will actually get me through until we decide where the hell we are going in June. So I'll be a stay at home Mom for a few months. I'll likely go stir crazy on my own during the day, but on the bright side, I'll get some knitting time ;) Maybe I will actually start my Flower Basket shawl.

Merry F-ing Christmas

I just found out about 30 minutes ago that corporate is closing us after the first of the year. Maybe 4 months. Whoopie.

Now mind you, I was planning on leaving this spring anyway. But now I have to find some kind of stop gap to get us through. No, I will not stay 'til the end. I feel bad saying that, because I hate leaving my boss, but I'm not working my fanny off for them for nothing.

And we aren't the only location that got the ax. Both Colorado locations are going. All the Texas ones except for one. Our Regional boss will likely lose her job, since she loses all but 3 of her locations.

Anyway, I'm off to eat dinner. Ciao.

"Simple" Lace

Is there really such a thing? I'm knitting a scarf for D.D. She picked out the wool at the Wool Festival last summer and informed me she wanted hearts. So I found a pattern with three lace hearts at each end, the rest is all garter. Easy enough. I've frogged the bloody thing 10 times.

This time I've set a damned lifeline and I will manage to get at least the first heart done by the weekend, I swear. I guess I am just too much of a perfectionist when it comes to my knitting.

Speaking of... While my mom was here we headed to the LYS and bought her a skein of Cascade 220 so she could try her hand at a ChicKnits Felted Bucket Hat. It about killed me to watch, haha. End of first pattern row, "I've got two too many stitches, what should I do?" And all through the rest of the brim the same thing. She'd miss a decrease here or there and have too many stitches to be going on with. (Yes, 110 stitches is a lot to frog and re-cast on. I'd have done it. And in fact, I am pretty darned sure I did with the first hat I knit!)

When my mom left she was into the simple knitting in the round portion of the crown. I expect to get calls as the decreases begin again for the top *Smile* Look out Roggey, I told her if she really had problems to take it out to the Yarn Shoppe and ask the folks in there. I will get her hooked on good yarn yet, I swear! And yes, she was very surprised that a skein of wool actually cost less than the cheapo acrylic novelty yarn she was using. Of course, I did point out that it's all in the choice. Me, I have caviar tastes and immediately fell in love with the $60 skein of silk ;)

Anyway, it's breakfast time and I need to get D.D. up for school. Ta!

Whew

The week from Hell is nearly over. Today is the last day of the holiday weekend. Mind you, things won't slow down a lot, but at least the evil Black Friday is done and gone.

Now I guess I need to start shopping. What in the world I am going to get D.H. and D.D. I haven't much clue. D.D. is easiest. She wants toys and any clothes in pink, haha. D.H. wants a new laptop, but that's not exactly something I can get him without his knowledge and sneak under the tree.

And this year I have one more to find a gift for. The Brother in law will be here this year and goodness only knows what we shall get him! Something portable, as it has to go in his luggage when he goes home.

My mom is mostly done. Well, at least the gifts from D.D. I still need to find her something and get her a gift card to Borders as well.

Sometimes I wish we could just stop exchanging gifts. She doesn't really need anything and every year I end up returning the items she give D.H. and I. Her taste just doesn't jibe with ours, hahaha. Last year I tried to tell her I didn't need any clothes and that we'd really prefer that she just give us money so we could apply it to a larger gift. She gave us money and still gave me a gift card to Penney's (a place that I just don't shop at often). I finally spent the last of that the week before Thanksgiving!

I know what D.H. could give me for Christmas though... I want this coat in the Crisp Blue/Blue Horizon. I need a new winter coat and if we are going to be moving back to the Midwest, I need a warmer coat than the one I have now. And this one is called a 4 season coat, since the liner zips out and I can wear the outer shell alone in wet weather or the liner in colder weather. Then when it gets really cold I can wear them together and be as snug as a bug in a rug *Smile*

And honestly, I am sick of the bright yellow coat I have now. I've had it for probably at least 15 years and it's just blah. Not to mention the liner for that coat is permanently covered in pet hair and it's kind of yucky. It's also not waterproof, as I discovered on the 4th of July! Plus, I want a more girly coat, haha. I looked at wool coats, but the dry clean only thing lost me. I need pretty and practical.

So Dear Darling Husband, if you read this that's what I want for Christmas ;)