Woot!

The last box has been dealt with and I even cleaned house on Sunday. Now if I can just get some of the pictures up and the ones that we aren't putting up, tucked away. (Some of my older pictures just don't go with the current decor. The walls in the living room and master bedroom are sage green. My old master bedroom was done in blues so the pictures I have just look hideous, lol).

I want to buy a decorative clock for the living room. There's a niche above the fireplace that needs something in it to make the fireplace the focal point. Right now the TV is the focal point, not so much what I want.

I've discovered that even though the condo is smaller than the house we were living in, the only space we lost was a spare bedroom. We actually gained cabinet space and drawer space in the kitchen, even though we lost an island. I actually have two cabinets with nothing in them at the moment (3 if you count the weird cabinet that goes all the way back into the corner, but only has a little skinny door. If anything fell over into the corner I would never get it back out again!).

The master closet is big enough to use as a craft room (my old kitchen table in in there at the moment!), or even put a bed in for the kiddo should we have visitors. it's absolutely HUGE! You get to it through the bath, so there's a little nook with shelves for linens and towels. So nice to have the towels right there!

And my bathtub! Oh I get tears of joy when I think of the tub in the master bath. After 2 1/2 years of a hideously uncomfortable tub in the hall bathroom at the old house (there was an odd ledge that hit right in mid-back. Ouch.) the new tub is heaven! It's larger and deeper than most kid's wading pools and comfy enough that I can quite happily take a book in there and read in the bath for hours *grin* And conveniently, water is the one utility we don't pay!

There are actually cabinets, and even drawers in the master bath. I can keep the toilet paper right there instead of in the hall closet, where I kept the towels and linens as well. And I finally have a place to keep all the junk that one has in a bathroom. There are even *gasp* towel racks!!! (The master bath in the old house didn't have a single towel rack!)

I find that the longer we are here, the more I realize how much I actually disliked that house. (I said from the day we moved in that it was obvious it was owned by a single male, just by looking at the master bath. It was small, only had a shower and had NO storage what so ever). The layout of the house was odd as well. The layout here makes much better use of the space we have and the rooms feel larger, yet more cozy (that's the paint I think, no stark white paint in this condo, except for the kiddo's room).

And you can't beat the view from the back deck. I our last two houses we rarely sat outside, though at one point we ate dinner outside on the deck of the first place a lot the first summer, until the weather got unbearably hot, then never got back into the habit. In the last house I don't think I ever sat out on the patio.

Here though, we sit outside every morning and have breakfast and watch the lake with its ospreys in the nest, pelicans and geese, while listening to the red winged blackbirds calling (talk about a sound that brings back wonderful childhood memories!). We even saw 2 Great Horned owls one morning.

The other night we sat out there and heard coyotes yipping and howling. It truly is lovely and makes all the trips up and down the stairs while moving worth while!

Anyhoo. I will try and take some pictures and post them soon, since I need to send some to my mother anyway, haha.

PS. Speaking of pictures, my external hard drive just gave up the ghost. It has every photo we've ever taken on it. My boss is going to try to recover them for me, but it's maybe a 10% chance. But I don't have $1000 to send it off for data recovery. So keep your fingers crossed for us that it works, please!

A soggy 4th

was very, very wet! We spent a lovely morning and early afternoon just puttering about, the kiddo and I went to the bookstore and then we grabbed the hubby and went out for a late lunch, early dinner. Then the wind came. I had to move my poor plants down so they were out of the direct line, it was so bad. Finally, clouds that had been threatening all day opened up and poured. I had to tell the kiddo that if the rain kept up we weren't going to the fireworks.

Even then, I thought maybe we could find a spot to park and watch from the car so around 8:30pm we set off. We got to the golf course and parking nearby was nearly empty and the rain slowed to a slight trickle, so I pulled in with the though of just standing in the parking lot to watch. Then the rain started again and I told the disappointed kiddo it was time to head home.

We got stuck at a stop light while the police let massive crowds of people cross the street and I thought I heard an officer yell, "If you're here for the fireworks, go home!" But he never said they'd been canceled and between the radio, the rain and the windshield wipers I wasn't positive that's what he said.

So we drove home disappointed.

The good news was that they rescheduled the fireworks for the 5th and we all got to go see them. And it was a really good show. Short, less than 30 minutes, but the fireworks were different and fun. My favorite was a purple spiral, followed closely by the fountains that literally hung in the air for ages and slowly trailed into the lake (which reflected all the colors beautifully, I wish I'd had my camera and tripod, but I'd never have done it justice!).

The bad news was that traffic was an absolute bitch going home. I've never lived on this end of town before, and apparently most of the fireworks viewing population lives over this way as well! Next year we are taking back roads home lol. Anyway, hope y'all had a nice holiday!

Thank you

Thanks to y'all for your sympathy and kind words.

It's been a crazy week, trying to get ready to move (Tomorrow!) And of course there's today...



;)

Today is going to be the day from Hell

I have to have my sweet little boy cat put to sleep today. I've had him for nearly 20 years, since he was a tiny little kitten. He was my first pet when we got our own home, and he has outlived the other three sweet animals I got after him. But he limps so very badly when he walks, and throws up nearly every day. He's gone from the big nearly fat cat he was in his prime to skinny as can be. He has very few teeth left and has a hard time eating. Wet foods make him totally sick, so we never had that route. I wish they'd never done away with Tender Vittles!

This is going to break my heart. Which is why we've kept him around probably a lot longer than we should have. So now it's time to think of him first, but oh it is sooooo hard. I barely made it through work yesterday, knowing what the next day would bring.
He's put up with a lot of the years. And very seldom did he ever really get mad.
I will miss the fact that he talks to me, every day. A lot. I saw on tv once that American Shorthair cats are quiet animals. Whoever said that doesn't know my Merlin. He has a lot to say, and if he thinks you're not paying enough attention to him, he lets you know.
He was my cat from day one, following me around the house and crying if he lost sight of me. But he's been remarkably tolerant of the kiddo as well. Our female would just take off and hide under something or up on something. Merlin would let her poke at him for ages before he would just jump down and find a kid-free spot.

I will miss you dreadfully, sweet cat.

Good grief, y'all!

People really need to start taking responsibility for their own actions. I'm so tired of they way people blame others for things that they're responsible for.

Case in point: Our assistant manager was on maternity leave. Before she left she showed another woman how to do certain aspects of her job so that when she came back from leave she wouldn't have piles of work to catch up on. The other woman never did a thing, so sure enough the a.m. came back to a large pile of paperwork. When she sarcastically thanked the other lady for not doing it, the other woman said,"Oh I forgot and [the manager] didn't remind me."

For crying out loud, you're in a position of responsibility and you're a grown woman. you screwed up. Admit it and it ends there. But because she tried to blame it on someone else it just upset the a.m. even more.

And now a group is trying to sue McDonald's because it says Happy Meals are making their kids fat because, '"McDonald's marketing has the effect of conscripting America's children into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers, causing them to nag their parents to bring them to McDonald's,"' said the leader of the group bring the lawsuit.

I don't know about the rest of you parents out there, but my kiddo can nag all she wants, it's still my decision to give her the Happy Meal or not. And frankly, if you give in to nagging all you are doing is reinforcing bad behavior. In which case, as a parent it's your own damned fault that your kid is not only fat but a brat as well!.

It's ok to say no to your kid. And if you stick to your guns and let them know that no means no, they will get the picture soon enough. (By the way, the lesson that NO means NO is a really huge lesson that everyone needs to learn and you're doing your kids no favor but letting them think that no means maybe, and if they whine enough it means yes!).

No one makes you eat at McDonald's. (Just like no one made that infamous lady take the lid off her HOT coffee in her car. Traditionally coffee is served hot unless you ask for an iced coffee, if you take the lid off while driving then, yeah, you'll probably spill it. And holding it between your legs, pure stupidity, but god forbid she should take responsibility for her own actions... See? We're teaching people to be stupid!)

Argh!

Ack!

The guy who was going to help us move just broke his elbow. Poor bastard, that has to hurt. But now who's going to lift my couch?? ;)

Hmmmm...

So the Wool Market was a bit of a let down. The weather was atrocious, chilly and raining. I made the mistake of going with something specific in mind and couldn't find what I wanted. Don't get me wrong, there were some lovely yarns spun from some amazing fibers and the prices were for the most part reasonable (although I think one of the more local stores had a pretty hefty markup for what they had to offer).

But I just couldn't get the perfect skein of red wool out of my head and nothing else compared. And to be honest, I don't have the money to buy a ton of wool just because it is pretty, with no plan on how to use it. So that lovely skein of hot pink silk with sparklies that was ever so soft was nice, but what to do with it? I need another scarf like I need a hole in the head (I've got the feather and fan scarf coming along nicely on the needles, and only one neck. Not to mention pink's not really my color...). And to buy enough for a "real" project is hard since I've no idea what I might need.

So I walked away empty handed. And the weather was so crummy we just went straight home. Scary, wet drive really for nothing (although I did get my ground lamb *grin*). Scary enough that when we were heading home we saw one heck of a wreck. We came 'round a bend to see flashing lights and of course your first thought goes to, "Ha! Someone got pulled over!" But then as you get closer you realize that there's an accident. This was a single car accident, and they managed to roll the vehicle (SUV) over onto its side. When we got close we saw someone jumping from the "top" of the vehicle to the ground, but I'm not sure if it was a passenger, or just the good samaritan that stopped.

There was heavy police presence in the area because of a marathon that day, so my guess is the State Patrol officer just happened to be in the right place at the right time, because he was right on it. I didn't stop since the officer waved me on, and I'd have been more of a hindrance than a help anyway. As I drove by I saw that the driver was still stuck in the vehicle. Never did see a news report about it, so I hope he was ok.

Just a word of warning to anyone who might be driving Highway 34 to Estes Park: It's a tough road at the best of times. And while I admit to frequently getting pissed at slow moving tourists when I am behind them (but I commuted up and down that road for years, I know the road very well and I still don't go crazy), if you don't know the road, slow down! Then use the pullouts to let people like me around you ;) If you need to be there by a certain time, leave home early. Some of the curves just aren't very forgiving, with solid rock on one side and the river on the other. And when it's raining it's even worse. If you want to watch the scenery (it's a lovely drive), let someone else drive.

Anyhoo. My current landlord is kind of being a pain. He has new tenants who want to be in as early as possible on the first. Well good for them. But we have until midnight on the 30th to move out and frankly, we're not even supposed to be in the new condo 'til the 1st ourselves. I think they are going to give us the keys on the 30th, we need to double check that today when we sign the lease. The new tenants here aren't my problem since my lease gives me til the end of the day, sorry but that's how it is. Hard to be concerned for them when I am concerned about our move.

Almost here!

Just have to get through today, then tomorrow is all about the WOOL! Sadly, the weather is abysmal (49 degrees and scattered thunderstorms tomorrow), so there will be no outdoor knitting in public for me(Worldwide Knit in Public Day has become a week now, it starts today. Does the break room at work count? I'd knit up front too, but they won't let me lol) 'til maybe next week.

This will be the first time in years that we haven't gone on the Saturday, but when we were planning my vacation time I wasn't thinking that by agreeing to work the Saturday after I came back I was hosing myself, I was just thinking about the joys of having 8 days off in a row, lol.

So all you wool addicts in Colorado, please leave me some *grin* There are 3 booths on my must visit list (as always!): Brooks Farm, Plain & Fancy Sheep & Wool Co. and Interlacements. last year I was a very good girl and *Gasp!* didn't buy anything but a felting kit (which I never got to use because my daughter snagged it while I wasn't looking and messed it up, waaa) and a couple of pounds of ground lamb.

This year I still have to watch my pennies, since we are moving at the end of the month, but if something jumps out at me, I'm buying. We shall call it my reward for winning $74 at Safety Bingo at work!). I hope the lamb vendor is there again this year too, because I need more.

gLee!

Ooooh, I just knew Quinn was going to go into labor! I also knew tonight was going to be a tear jerker, since "Will" said he had to battle tears all through filming in the behind the scenes.

Oops gotta go, it's back on lol.

K, so am I the only one who felt a bit let down? I guess after some of the awesome episodes this season, this one just didn't live up to the "finale" label for me. And Rachel's mother adopting Quinn's baby just felt too pat. (Yes, it made me tear up, but still... *g*).

It was a good episode, don't get me wrong, but I guess, knowing that Glee had been renewed, I expected them to do better at Regionals. And dammit, I wanted to see Jesse get served ;)~ (Don't get me started on Bohemian Rhapsody, sorry Jonathan, you're no Freddie Mercury!) And wow, what the heck happened to Olivia Newton John? They made her into such a bitch, rofl.

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!

Help!

Calling all knitters! I'm stuck. I have never knit a sweater before, nor have I ever had to use stitch holders. I am to this bit in the pattern and I just can't wrap my brain around it:

Next Row: K25, put these sts on stitch holder for front, K30 (sleeve; divide remaining sts onto 3 stitch holders – 49 for back, next 30 sts for other sleeve, and remaining 25 sts for other front.



Sleeves: Work in Stockinette st for 4 inches, after last P row, decrease 6 sts evenly across row (every 5th st). Work remaining 24 sts in K1, P1 ribbing for 1 ½ inches. Bind off loosely.
Pick up stitches for other sleeve from holder and knit same as first sleeve.

Did the bit I italicized, then stuffed the rest of the stitches on stitch holders. So... Does this mean I am to only knit on the first sleeve now? Then cast off the sleeve and go on to the next sleeve, leaving the middle bit untouched?? Then how the heck do I pick up the stitches for the next sleeve? Honestly the words just fry my brain, I'm too visual for this lol.

Update

Woot! I am to the point in the pattern where I need to start placing stitches on stitch holders. Stitch holders?! Missed that part of the instructions. I own two holders, I need 4. Sigh. I shall be stopping on the way home from work today. I have momentum going, can't stop now ;)

By the way, I switched patterns after the third time I frogged the first pattern. By the third time I came up with one stitch too few I decided that the stated stitch count had to be wrong. So I went and looked at similar patterns, found one that used the same size needles and the same weight yarn and I was off again. And guess what? The first few rows on the new pattern were the same as the old pattern, just one stitch fewer ;)

I don't know what you are talking about...

Ravelympics? What's that? Halfway mark? Don't know a thing...

Err. Yeah. Not a single stitch has been knit. First there were the two frog puddles opening night, then there was a tummy bug that made me not want to move again, ever, let alone knit. And then there was real life and yikes! So this weekend is catch up time. But frankly, I knew that time was going to be an issue and chose a project that would reflect that. So I still believe I have a chance to finish ;)

Err.

I used to love Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels. Then they started turning more into bad erotica than paranormal mysteries. The last book, Skin Trade, was better. But I have to say, if you want to read Flirt, do what I did and get it from the library. It's a two hour read, easy. To call it a novel is a huge exaggeration. Really, it should have been released as a novella in a collection.

It wasn't bad. But it wasn't either. And it reads as a slightly regurgitated version of The Laughing Corpse (not my favorite early book anyway) crossed with a college girls' night out. And while it only had one sex scene, surprise, surprise! Anita now has a new man for her harem. Joy.

Sad thing is, I will be first in line to put Bullet on hold at the library. But no longer first in line at the bookstore...

Oh. My. God

So far the Ravelympics have not been a good time for me. Aside from the frogging issues of day 1, day 2 was spent feeling sicker than a dog and absolutely no knitting was accomplished. Blech.

And today I have to work (double blech!), so there may not be much knitting accomplished today either. And really there shouldn't be any knitting since today is my 19th wedding anniversary and my dear hubby's birthday and should be spent with him :)

Let the games begin!

And the frogging... I have frogged my 5 Hour Baby Sweater twice already. At the moment my needles are absolutely barren and I am tempted to pick up my sock instead. But I would probably mess that up as well at this point. My head just isn't in the game :(

I'm set for the Ravelympics,

are you? This year I am going to try and knit a baby sweater for a friend that is due next month. I hope she gets some use out of it before the weather gets too warm, lol. I'm also going to try to finish my Monkey sock that has been on my needles for well over a year now lol. I do need to go look through my needles and see what sizes I have,the baby sweater pattern calls for size 10.5 needles and I am pretty darned sure that mine broke somewhere along the way. I keep forgetting to look for new ones when we go to Walmart. *Sigh* Now it's only a week 'til the Olympics, I guess I had better remember soon, lol.

*Sigh*

Farmville and Fishville are addicting. Until a few days ago I'd never wanted anything to do with Facebook. But then I read a blog post about Farmville and got curious, lol.

But I need more neighbors! Please won't you be my neighbor? ;)

Good grief!

Is there anyone out there besides me who thinks that TV has to cook up something juicy all the time to keep our attention? Previously it was Jon and Kate (and thank God that's almost disappeared from my news now!). Now it's Leno/Conan. Shut up already. I don't give a flying flit who gets the Tonight Show spot, but I imagine Johnny Carson is spinning in his grave over this mess. But I don't particularly like Jay, and I never liked Conan, so I never watched either of them. And with all of this bru-haha I think even if I were a devoted fan I'd be so disgusted I'd never watch either of them again.

NBC has a public relations nightmare on their hands. Or do they? When I think of NBC I can't think of a single show on there I watch or have watched in the last few years. Yet it's amazing how Conan's ratings have sky rocketed since this all hit the news... Is it cynical of me to be sitting here thinking that this whole mess is just a giant publicity stunt to gain NBC viewers?

Remember that book when you were a kid...

...Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day?

Well that was my day to a T. I've been on the verge of tears all day long (thanks PMS, you suck!). I finally had my interview today for the promotion I was supposed to get. It was pretty lame. Then the boss said he wanted to talk to me when the next person came in to cover me. She was late, and by then the boss was busy with our Loss Prevention Audit and couldn't talk, so I never got his take on the interview. And now I won't even see him until Tuesday. And then joy of joys, we get to do role-plays. Fuck role-plays, do I have the job or not??

So I cried the whole way home from work, totally frustrated and really heading for pissed off. I'm starting to feel completely jerked around about this job. If I don't get a solid yes or no answer soon I'm applying to work for the competition.

I used to like my job....

Isn't it cute?

Got a special someone you want to send a valentine to? From February 1-14, 2010, more than 60 volunteers come to the Loveland Chamber to lovingly hand-stamp each Valentine card sent to the ‘Sweetheart City,” Loveland, CO.

To have valentines re-mailed with the Loveland postmark, enclose your pre-stamped, pre-addressed envelopes (add extra stamps/postage for heavier/odd shaped valentines)and mail in a large stamped envelope to:

Postmaster - Attention Valentines
446 E. 29th St.
Loveland, CO 80538-9998

Deadlines for re-mailing and delivery by Valentines Day, Feb. 14:
Valentine cards/envelopes destined for re-mailing outside of the U.S. to other countries and international destinations should be in Loveland by Monday, Feb. 3.

Valentine cards/envelopes destined for re-mailing within U.S. and outside of Colorado should be in Loveland by Saturday, Feb. 8.

Valentine cards/envelopes destined for re-mailing within the state of Colorado should be in Loveland by Tuesday, Feb. 11.

The Olympics is coming!

In one month it will be time for the Winter Olympics. This year I am captaining Team Colorado for the Ravelympics 2010. I'm also hoping that The Yarn Harlot will put together the Knitting Olympics again this year, as it was a lot of fun 4 years ago :) (I knit a Dayflower Scarf then. This year I hope to knit this baby sweater as my main project as well as enter with my red Monkey Socks in the UFO category, lol.

The baby sweater claims to be a 5 hour sweater, but I know my knitting skills and speed and the amount of time I will actually have time to work on it and judge it a worthy project for two weeks ;)

Dammit!

The most comfortable bra I have ever owned just broke! I've only had it since Aug. and the underwire just snapped in two today. When I put it on this afternoon I thought it was fitting a bit odd but I was in a hurry and just shrugged it off as an oddity. It wasn't uncomfortable so I didn't think of it again until I got home and took it off. I thought maybe the wire had just shifted and I was all set to move it back. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered it was broken.

I loved that bra, darnit. And I've never had an underwire break that soon after buying a bra. So I rated the bra on the store's web site and sent off a peeved email to customer service. I guess it's time to start looking else where for bras now if the quality has gotten that poor.

Woot!

Red sock now has a cuff, lol. And a lifeline so I can frog back to pre-lace status if need be ;)

I was going to start knitting a baby sweater tonight, but then I remembered that somehow my size 10 1/2 needles got broken. And it snowed today, leaving the roads rather hellish so I didn't want to stop on the way home from work. (Hellish as in, 4 wheel drive and I was still having traction issues, no acceleration. Not that I wanted to go much faster than I was but....).

So I guess I will stick with the socks for the moment. Now that I have been knitting them I am antsy to get them done, lol. Guess we will see what the weather and roads are like tomorrow, maybe I can get a new set of needles then. Luckily, Baby Tess isn't due 'til March and even a slacker like me should be able to finish it by then. *knock wood*

Anyhoo, got a headache so I am going to head for bed.

Happy New Year!

Hoping for some changes this year :) Good changes. The biggest change will hopefully be change in my job situation. I'm still hoping for that promotion, but it looks like it may be sooner rather than later. The woman I would be replacing will be leaving (if all goes well) at the end of January, rather than waiting until March. Which means hopefully by the end of January I will have a new job, a higher wage, paid vacation, better benefits, etc. *Crossing fingers*

I wish you all a happy, healthy 2010.

Knitting again

I've really slacked on the knitting front lately. Mostly in favour of reading. I've read a ton this year. When last I left my reading blog I was at 98 books on May 20th. By now I have easily hit the 200 mark.

But now the weather has turned colder and I'm actually wearing my wool socks and wanting another pair. So today I turned the bedroom upside down trying to find the Monkey Socks I cast on in 2008 (lol). In the process I broke a light bulb in my lamp, shelved numerous books that had been piled on the floor and found a stash of candy wrappers in the bed that I believe the dear daughter stashed there after surreptitiously obtaining them from the Halloween stash.

I did, or rather the hubby did, find yarn and needles and I found my pattern binder. But I think I shall have to frog, since I've no idea where I left off in the pattern! Luckily, I've only really done the cuff ;) So that's my plan for the evening. See y'all later :)

Just a reminder...

With the New Year coming, why not start it off with a faster computer? Run your defrag program (windows has one built in). It may take a while, so start it before you go to bed. Fragmented files take up a lot of space on a computer and if that's something you don't have a lot of any way, reclaiming that space will help your computer run faster. (My defrag is STILL running, at 84%. I had 35 gigs of fragmented space, eek!).

While you are at it, download all the recommended updates for your system. And make sure your anti-virus is up to date. If it's expired, go buy a new one. I hear so many people grumble about how anti-virus is a money sink, but it's amazing how much worse that grumble is when they find they've a virus and that it's going to take 72 hours to clean their computer and a whopping $110. Buy the anti-virus. Most software comes with multi-computer licenses. Split the cost with another family member or a good friend. When the subscription comes up for renewal at the end of the year, you only have to renew it once, so you can split the cost again ;) It really is a wise investment.

And don't forget to back everything up! External and portable hard drives are cheap now, if you don't have one go get one. I can personally tell you how heartbreaking it is to have your hard drive fail and lose every photo you've taken over the last 5 years! I was lucky, most of them had been copied to a disk for the grandparents, but some of them are lost forever :( Not to mention if you move some of those photos off your computer you can open up some valuable free space on your computer again :)

Happy Holidays!

Happy Christmas to all and a very Merry New Year :)

I have to work Christmas Eve, but only until 6 PM and honestly, I'm not really convinced it will be all that busy. I mean really, who needs copies or stuff printed on Christmas Eve?? Maybe last minute photos as gifts, I suppose.

We are mostly done with Christmas shopping. Just have to wrap our little bounty now. Thinking about nagging the hubby to help me with that in a moment, whilst the kiddo is still at school. (Last day before break, bet the teachers had a great day, lol).

We are rolling out and cutting our cookies tonight and I made Peppermint Patties to take in to work with me. Yum!

Anyway, have a lovely holiday and I will see you in the New Year!

PS Lesson learned: No matter how tempting the idea to use powdered sugar instead of flour when rolling out cut out cookies, DON'T. Even if a television cook says it is a good idea!

Glaring!

Typos that is. I get most of my news from the internet. I have a journalism degree and it really makes me crazy when I find typos in an article. Today I've found at least three.

This is the headline I just found, "No school! Alabama calls of classes for title game"

And then this one, "Different courts have came down on different sides on what exactly should be said, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said." from an article on Miranda Rights.

This one was at least caught and fixed at some point, but a note was left at the bottom of the article saying, "[Editor’s note: The original version cited the wrong year twice.]"

There was at least one more that I found this morning but can't remember which article it was from.

All I can say is, why is no one editing these articles? Why is there no proof reading, no fact checking? Why is grammar not important to internet news? Grrrrr.

Glad it's over for another year

Black Friday is over and done, and I believe we all survived pretty much in one piece! It was a bit hectic, when they put me on the schedule as "runner" they weren't kidding! I'd start off to get something for a register and a customer would grab me on the way. And since we had a line all the way to the back of the store, the register could not wait. So unless the customer asked for an item in the same area I was heading to I had to ask them to wait.

The good news is, most people were very good about it. In order to keep the cashiers from getting too stressed and to keep an aisle clear we actually formed a single line about 5 feet before the registers, then funneled people to the cashiers as we could. We only had one woman (that I know of) try to bogart her way into line. I politely informed her that the end of the line was toward the back of the store, she turned around, looked at the line, looked at the one item in her and and said, "You've got to be kidding me." But she went to the end of the line and still only waited about 5 minutes 'cause we rock ;) We had every register in the store running.

We sold a crap ton of computers and would have sold a crap ton more if we'd had them. In fact most of our computers were sold before we even opened the doors (Yay for the voucher system!). We sold a crap ton of GPS systems too. And software. And... a whole heck of a lot of other stuff lol.

The one regret I have is that our system was down so we couldn't pre-ring transactions. We have a system kind of like Sam's where we zap everything, stick all on a little card and all the cashier has to do is zap the card at the register. Very handy with long lines, but I'm guessing that due to high volume, the system crashed, just when we needed it. *Sigh* But like I said, we still rocked it without it. And our lines we done by 7:30 AM. After that it was just a steady flow all day, enough to let us breathe again lol.

Frankly, the days after Black Friday were worse! Mostly because that's when people come in expecting to get the items we had on sale on B.F. and of course we sold out of them.

Here's a tip for you bargain shoppers out there: At Christmas time, go the day the ad comes out! Supplies are limited. After the debacle of being stuck with too much stuff last year stores ordered lower volumes this year. And when you come in 3 days after the ad (when sales have changed over completely!) and someone tells you they are out of that item, please don't yell at the employees. We have no say in the matter. We don't do the ordering. We would like to have the product as much as you would like us to have the product because we can't sell what we don't have and that hurts us too! We will do what we can to get you the item, but it may be that it's just not out there to get.

Wish me luck!

I've applied for a promotion at work and I am interviewing for it today. This would make me full time, better benefits etc. It also would add more responsibility. Honestly, there are three of us applying for the position, 2 of us whom I really think actually have a shot at it. Although the 3rd person could surprise me and interview very well. He has a charm about him (don't get me wrong, I like him for the most part but the man is a snake oil salesman and would do very well selling used cars...) that could be in his favour. But, I think that he would be the most disadvantaged if he got the job, because frankly I think the others would have a hard time working for him... Then again, they may have problems working for me, as I am not a proven entity in sales.

Honestly, if I don't get the position I won't be crushed. It's basically sales leader, and my sales skill are rusty and I've never played team sports so my coaching skills are non-existent! But then again, the other two have zero coaching experience either, lol. I've applied because I need the sales experience if I am going to get anywhere within this company. And well, full time/better benies, you know.

If I don't get the spot, in a few months another position opens up and my boss has already told me he wants me training with the woman now. I'd still have to interview for it, but being trained for it already would give me a huge jump on anyone else who might apply within the company, and already being in the location and part of the team is huge ;)

I've huge shoes to fill with either position. But like I told my boss, I don't want to be a cashier forever. Of course, he told me I was selling myself short, 'cause I'm not just a cashier, and that made me feel really good. I have had a minor promotion to internal key carrier (no extra cash, just a lot of trust and again, that makes me feel good) so my time as cashier is actually quite limited lately. And I don't have to run a register on Black Friday, yay! But I digress...

Seriously though. If I don't get the spot I'm interviewing today and the one guy gets it, I will be thrilled for him and wait my turn in February ;) And since I at least have that option and the other two don't, I consider myself pretty lucky.

Anyway. I had better get moving as I need to finish my coffee and get ready for work still, and I'm down to 10 minutes, lol. Ciao!

Update: Little bit pissed off still. The guy that was doing the interviews decided to do phone interviews and between he and my boss (who just days before told me he thought I would be good for the spot) decided that I would be better suited to the second spot that would be opening up and therefore decided not to interview me. But a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and the future job opening is still unsettled. The woman who is leaving may decide not to leave or something. So that bothers me. I'm glad to know the job is mine if it happens, but...

At the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month

On this day in history...

Veteran's Day is no longer just about remembering the dead of WWI, but about remembering all our veterans who have served our country and protected our freedom, especially those who have died.

No inspiration

After Halloween I needed a new design for the blog. And I just can't find anything that inspires me to design something myself. My creativity is at an all time low. Part of this is a lack of decent free image sites. Years ago, I used to make a bit of extra money by designing Moveable Type websites. Back then there were wonderful sites, run by talented photographers and artists who just wanted to share their art with others. I still have images from some of those sites tucked away, and I have over 100 old blog designs saved (not all designed by me, I had a partner at the time and I still have all her designs as well).

Out of all those designs can I find anything that grabs me and makes me want to use it? Heck no. Mind you, part of that is pure laziness on my part. They are all coded for old MT, not the new Blogger. So there would be a bit of work involved to redo them for this blog. And I just can't seem to find the drive to do so.

Especially not when there are some amazing premade templates out there. In fact, I've not designed my own blog for ages, because I have found so many fun templates out there already.

I do know I need to get out of this creative funk. I knit for a bit the other night on the bag that will not end. Got bored. So no knitting. No writing in years. Now no design. (Which is especially bad when someone asks me to design something at work! Oops.).

Anyhoo. Guess I'll stop whinging and go take advantage of someone else's creativity and read ;)

Boo!

I love Hallowe'en! The kiddo and I had a crazy day. We went downtown for the safe trick or treat, then out to the area where I work, for the Halloween Hullabaloo.

Then it was home for some lunch and a nap for me, lol.

Tonight we trick or treated all over our neighborhood and even went back to our old neighborhood. I'm pooped, lol.

Sweet 16

Or maybe not. We've had a bit of snow 'round here lately. Hubby just measured the snow on the car and there's 16 inches of snow on the roof. In the back yard there's a snow drift that is probably 4 feet deep! It started snowing Tuesday night, and snowed all day yesterday. Luckily, the main roads were mostly just wet, a little slushy in places, by the time I got off work. We shall see what they are like going into work later today.

The kiddo is happy though, because we decided to keep her home yesterday, rather than have to take a chance on crummy roads in the afternoon. She didn't get to play in it til later in the day tho. She's off school today and tomorrow too, so she will have plenty of snow time.

Windows 7 is here!

I installed Win 7 nearly two months ago, and I have to say I love it. My computer is snappier, it seems a lot more stable (*knock wood*) and it's got some cool new things without the weird and annoying things Vista had. And the good news is, if you have more than one user on your computer or if you let a guest log on, your data doesn't all disappear! Sorry, just my little dig at the holier than thou Mac users out there ;) There are a few ugly bugs on Mac's Snow Leopard, lol.

And with Microsoft offering a 3 computer version of 7 for only $149.99, it's a pretty good deal. Which is why no one can keep it in stock! Hopefully more will be coming soon, 'cause I want it for 3 more of my computers, too.

Snow!

Forget fall, we've headed straight into winter, lol. Tomorrow we're looking at a high of 34 degrees! And yet the analysts are saying we're going to have a milder than normal winter. Ski areas in Colorado are already opening.

I think they've last year's data mixed up with this year's, lol.

Update: It's snowing pretty good right now. Hubby asked if I thought we should cover my geraniums, and since we moved them right up close to the house under a covered porch I said no. But then I said, "Really they should just come in." So I went off to make room for them and when he brought them in they were literally covered in snow. Poor things, I hope they survive :(

Meanwhile I have to be at work at 8 tomorrow so I guess I'd best set my alarm a bit early just in case. It's sticking to the road out front, so I may need to leave a bit early.

Er, um, well...

Woot! It's Autumn! And wow things got hectic. We've lost our assistant manager at work, she's been given her own store now. Which is great for her, but boy it's weird at work. So our keyholder is picking up some of the slack, but there's still too much to do. So I've been made an internal keyholder now, along with one of the guys I work with. Our GM comes in, lets us in the building, hands out keys and goes home so he can mostly have a day off.

We'll be getting a replacement, but the person is coming from California, so needless to say it'll take a bit for him to get things worked out.

So anyhoo. I'll be around sporadically. I haven't even bothered much with WoW lately.

Take care y'all!

A touch of autumn

Fall is certainly in the air today. A cold front settled in over us last night so we turned on the heat before we went to bed. Just in case. And since the high today is only going to be 51, I'm glad we did. I love the cool weather, but the kiddo freezes at night so...

And this morning I went to search out my slippers (anyone seen the left one by any chance??) Instead I grabbed my lovely hand knit wool socks ;) Hmmm. Might be time to dig out the Monkey socks that have been languishing for over a year now and attempt to actually complete them, lol.

In other knitting news, I cast on for a new scarf in my lovely Brooks Farm Solo Silk. I'm going with Feather and Fan (this version).

Now I am going to go spend this rainy autumn day being a bum (waiting for FedEx to bring me my new phone. They picked the one half hour I was out on Friday to attempt to deliver, dammit). I see some WoW, reading and knitting in my future ;)

Getting into the spirit of things...

Since September 19th is once again International Talk Like a Pirate Day:

My pirate name is:

Bloody Morgan Vane

"Every pirate lives for something different. For some, it's the open sea. For others (the masochists), it's the food. For you, it's definitely the fighting. You tend to blend into the background occasionally, but that's okay, because it's much easier to sneak up on people and disembowel them that way. Arr!"

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network.

Last year I was Pirate Val the Staggering Drunk. Umm. I like this one better, lol.

Remember the Dread Pirate Alas from last year? This year it'll be Morticia partying with the Cap'n in Booty Bay, lol.

This fall is packed with things to do if you're into WoW. The Harvest Festival is just around the corner, followed bu Brewfest, then Hallow's End and Day of the Dead. Then comes The Pilgrim's Bounty and finally Winter Veil. Lol.

Just wonderin'

Anyone seen any good knitting pattern books lately? I love browsing Ravelry, but there's so much there it makes my head pop, lol.

Windows 7

Woot! Working for a place that sells and repairs computers has its perks! Windows 7, 64 bit Home Premium, release version, which is actually an upgrade for me as my computer runs 32 bit at the moment (really stupid, since my comp has 4 gigs of ram and 32 bit maxes at 3 gigs! WTF was Dell thinking??). Thank you, thank you, thank you, Boss Man!!!! I'm trying to decide if I should install it today or wait until I am off on Sunday.

I'm thinking Sunday, just in case anything goes wrong, so we will have more time to deal with it (hubby is raiding in WoW tonight, lol). The good thing is, coming off a fresh install of Vista, there's nothing to lose on this puter ;) At some point we will have to put 7 on our XP machine, but for now it's fine.

Anyhoo. I'm going to go check my laundry and get some breakfast. Ciao!

Things that make you say, "Really??"

Wildlife Detected!

While we were on vacation this year we drove through an area near Durango that kind of made us scratch our heads and say, "Really??" There's this stretch of road and as you enter it you see a sign warning you that it's a wildlife detection zone. And along the road are signs that light up when they detect wildlife.

So of course we had to look it up when we got home. (Ok, it took us a while to remember to look it up, we saw a lot of cool stuff on vacation and this one slipped our minds for a bit, lol). Apparently that is a stretch of highway where the majority of accidents that occur are car v. wildlife accidents. So they installed this system. But what they didn't do was provide any kind of explanation. A sign mentioning heavy wildlife migration at the start of the zone might have made us take the whole thing more seriously. So it may be dandy for the folks that live in the area and know the reasoning behind the zone, but to random tourists like us.... Especially when all the signs are lit because they are being worked on and there's not a glimpse of wildlife anywhere except for a few birds flying above, lol. We certainly didn't notice a big slow down in traffic through there.

Which makes the zone, in my opinion, a $1.2 million FAIL! But who knows, maybe their numbers will prove me wrong in a few years....

Another sleepless night

Ok, not completely sleepless, yet. It's only 11 PM, but I went to bed around 9:30. I turned out the lights a while later and immediately got the sensation that I was forgetting something. But I can't find anything. And then I noticed that Yahoo had tips for insomniacs and had to read them, lol.

Now I am wide awake again. Crap. I thought it was interesting that one of the tips I read was not to think of anything that required brain power. One of my favorite ways to fall asleep is to count backwards (Don't laugh, but 99 bottles of beer on the wall works really well, lol). Or I imagine myself walking down a steep flight of stairs, and count down from 100 that way.

Counting up in Spanish works well for me too. For me it's not as much about taxing my brain as it is about refocusing my brain. There are so many nights that I just can't turn my thoughts off. Thoughts of work wander through, along with so many other things. Things I did that day, could have done, wish I had done. Concentrating on the numbers gives me a focus and wears my little brain out enough that I can finally fall asleep, lol.

And of course, sometimes blogging about things that are bugging me helps ;)

Insomnia has been an issue off and on since my daughter was born. After a while I found myself sliding into depression. The lack of sleep made me grumpy and short with my child, which made me feel like a bad mom, which made my thoughts go 'round and 'round at bedtime. It was a vicious cycle.

I finally mentioned it to my doctor. He diagnosed depression and put me on a very low dose of anti-depressant. A bonus was that the anti-depressant he put me on had a sleep aid as well.

When I lost my long-time job due to location closure, with the company who shall not be named but is going down the toilet now, I also lost my insurance. And that meant good-bye to the "happy" pills. By that point I was down to one a few nights a week instead of every night, so it wasn't a total hardship. I do sleep much better now, once I fall asleep I pretty much am dead. It's the getting there that can be hard.

I do all the wrong things. I watch TV in bed, I knit in bed, I surf the web in bed. All the things that sleep specialists tell you not to do if you have trouble falling asleep. The bed is supposed to be about sleep. But our house is little. There's no where else to stretch out and relax, if the kiddo or the hubby is watching TV in the living room. So the bedroom is it. And I pay the price for it at bedtime. But there's just no alternative.

Anyhoo. I guess I am off to count steps ;) Good night!

*YAWN*

I foolishly offered to go in to work at 6 AM today. The alternative was staying until 8 last night and I was tired. And 2 hours before we open is not a bad thing. No one to deal with, just do my thing.

But that doesn't make me any less tired right now, lol. I had a very rough night last night, couldn't fall asleep until late, and then tossed and turned and woke up every hour or so. I think I finally fell into a sound sleep around 3 AM, 'cause when that alarm went off at 5 it startled the heck outta me.

And it doesn't help that I was supposed to have the day off, so when I ran out of breakfast food yesterday it was no big deal. Until this morning when I went to grab breakfast and remembered. *Sigh*

Anyhoo. Off to work. Have a lovely day. I'll be counting down the hours until nap time ;)

Colorado Vacation

Click on all pictures to see them at 100%

Four Corners National Monument

We started out by going to the Four Corners National Monument. This is the only place in the U.S. where four states meet: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The kiddo thought (and ok, let's be honest, I thought so too!) it was cool that you could be in four places at once. The monument is on the Navajo reservation, and around the edges you can buy goods from Navajo sellers. It was very cool, because while they all spoke to us in English, when they conversed with each other, they spoke their native language. It's neat to hear, since so many Native American languages are on the brink of dying out.

Cliff Dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park

Next we headed into Mesa Verde National Park. Very cool place. Totally mind-boggling as to why anyone would settle there though! The thought of having to climb down the cliff face for water and game, etc. just amazes me. And there is clear evidence that the Ancestral Puebloans farmed as well. Where they farmed is unclear to me, since I don't like to look over the edge so I didn't see what was in the valley, and the mesas didn't look real fertile to me.

One interesting thing I learned was that these peoples used to used human hair to make knotless netting, using a looping technique. This technique was later replaced by knitting and crochet. ;)

Durango Silverton Railroad

After spending a few days in the Four Corners region, we headed to Durango, Colorado. Durango was founded by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway in 1880 and initially existed as something of a base camp to the gold and silver mines of the San Juan Mountains. It's still a lovely town and the steam train is very cool to see. Next time we go we are riding the train from Durango to Silverton, which is supposed to be a fantastic scenic ride.

I really liked Durango (part of that had to do with the fact that they had a Starbucks and I'd had horrid coffee that morning, lol) it was a nice, pretty town. Very obviously a tourist destination, but it didn't have the junky stores a lot of tourist traps have. And some of the buildings are absolutely gorgeous!

Great Sand Dunes National Park

From Durango we headed to Alamosa, CO. Just outside of Alamosa is Great Sand Dunes National Park, one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. Sand dunes is like a desert in the middle of Colorado. To suddenly see this sandy beach-like stretch and then huge dunes at the base of the mountains is very amazing. The tallest dune rises 750 feet from the plains below.

I must say, I could never live out there. It is so incredibly desolate. You go for miles and miles seeing only scrub. The amount of work it must have taken the few farmers to clear enough land to grow crops on is astounding. Even cattle would have a hard time living out there.

There's no place like home

We are heading home today and I am ready to be home. I've had a great time, seen some cool stuff, and some stuff that makes you shake your head and say, "WHY??" I'll post pics later, once I am home and at the good computer, rather than this pokey laptop with a sticky spacebar, lol.

Seriously, I miss home already. I miss my bed, I miss my down comforter, I miss air conditioning that keeps everything a steady temp instead of freezing my arse in the middle of the night, lol. And I really miss my espresso maker, lol.

And my poor old cat is probably missing me terribly. He will yowl for a day straight when we get home, yelling at us for leaving him.

Free sheep??

Saw this sign in Cortez, CO and just had to share it, lol.

Goin' down to Southpark....

Gonna have ourselves a time!

Wow. Southpark, the real Southpark is absolutely lovely. It's this wonderful bowl-like valley that surprises the heck outta you as you come 'round a bend in the road. One minute you are on the mountain in the trees and the next... Whoa!

We were actually on our way to Durango, and Mesa Verde National Park. Tomorrow we head into the park, tonight we played in the pool, lol.

Blah, Blah, Blah

The hubby is on the phone with Dell tech support at the moment. I took the big comp, affectionately known as The Beast, into work the other day after it started being seriously slow to respond. Big monster machine, 4 gigs of ram, quad-core processor, SLI graphics cards. Not supposed to be slow. In fact, at one point it was too fast and we had to dumb down the SLI settings, lol.

So The Beast sat at work from Monday until today, with our awesome techs trying to figure out what was going on. We'd already ruled out virus (I'd run scans with Trend Micro, Malware Bytes and Super-Anti Spyware before I even took it in), so the first thing we did was test the hard drive. It passed all the tests. So then we looked at graphics cards. WOW. They were toasting. But then, just to check, they stuck a different graphics card in and it was toasting too.

So then they installed my SLI on a different drive and they were fine. Hmmm. It was stump the tech week, lol. So then we waffled back to hard drive. Woot, warranty has 37 days left on it. So last night the bossman left it running the in depth diagnostic and 13 hours later it failed. YAY! This is a good thing, lol. Because now we have an error code to take to Dell. It's memory issue, though whether it's ram or the graphics card memory, the code didn't tell us.

And this is why hubby has been on the phone with them for an hour. I'm pretty sure they are going to reformat as he came out a few minutes ago asking if we had operating system disks. But that's ok. Everything is backed up to an external hard drive.

Although, reinstalling WoW will take an entire damned day, lol.

UH-OH. Apparently the phone went dead or he lost the tech, 'cause hubby is pissed now. And trying to call again. Yikes.