Spring Flowers

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

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

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

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

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

Love this!

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

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

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

Dammit!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reevaluating

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

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

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

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

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

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

Snow Day!

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

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

Bad choices, all around.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to school again!

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

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

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

*Sigh* Off to another day of babysitting ;)

Christmas

Thank goodness it's done for another year! I'm not quite a Scrooge, but it's close. I enjoy the food at the holidays, and music of my choosing. But the music at work has been making my ears bleed since Black Friday. And I am absolutely sick and tired of grumpy people who waited until the last minute to do everything and now suddenly it's my fault that they can't get what they want....

We did have a lovely weekend though. G was off Christmas Eve & Christmas Day and I have a three day weekend with Monday off as well. Saturday evening we drove around looking at the holiday lights and actually spent sometime together (much to my daughter's chagrin. She wanted to go read in her room, lol).

All presents were gleefully accepted and loved, although my mother threw a monkey wrench in things by not buying Isabel her traditional Christmas pajamas, and buying her a robe instead (which we had already bought as well!). So the robe we bought will go back at some point. I had originally planned on taking it back today, but decided I really don't want to stand in a line for ages at Wally world. The patience just isn't there, ever.

I got my Kindle Fire for Christmas, and I love it. The problem is getting it away from the kiddo!

Anyhoo, off to snuggle under a blanket and read for a bit.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, see you in the new year!

NOTE: Lost all of my blog links when I changed layouts, so if I missed you, please let me know as I can't remember all of the addresses (that's why I have a blog list after all!)

Caramels. Take 2

Actually, don't take any, they are so good I don't want to share ;)

This time I used this recipe:
1/2 C butter
1/2 C light corn syrup (dark will not work!)
1/2 C light brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
1/2 C sweetened condensed milk
1 t vanilla

Melt butter in large microwave safe bowl. Stir in syrup, and sugars, mix until dissolved. Microwave on high for 3.5 minutes. Scrape down sides and stir. Microwave on high another 3.5 minutes. Add vanilla, pour into buttered pan.

For easy clean up, I lined my 8x8 pan with parchment paper and buttered it, the caramels just lift right out of the pan that way. I left mine on top of a cooling rack long enough to cool then tipped it out to cut with a pizza cutter. I'm thinking next time I will refrigerate it a bit before I cut them, since they stuck together as I cut them, haha. Also, once I did put them in the fridge, they went hard as rocks, but they soften up quite nicely if you leave them at room temp for a bit again.

These were soooooooo easy, and I am very pleased with how they turned out. I will definitely be making them again. We always have sweetened condensed milk on hand since it's G's favourite treat, lol.

Venting

My caramels sugared and sucked, so Black Friday will be cake day instead of candy. I was very annoyed at the end of the entire process.

Anyone want a slightly used, tween, cheap?? Little Miss Attitude informed me that she won't be able to clean her room today because she has to write an ENTIRE story (I swear, you could hear the capital letters in her tone of voice!) today. Because yesterday her Word program was acting up and she couldn't do it.

Well, then I guess I don't have time to go to the library and get the book you've got on hold that you have been waiting for, since I had to work yesterday and this is the only day I have to run errands, since my next day off is Thanksgiving when nothing is open.

In a household with 5 computers and only 3 people, she couldn't find one that was working?? Dad slept most of the day, and I was at work, so why didn't she use the newer computer? Oh that's right, she was too busy playing games on it to do her homework.

So since I don't have to go to the library, I shall just do my errands without a sulky preteen along and she will have time to write AND clean her room!

Isn't she cute??

Baking day!

Tomorrow (after I hit the yarn store and the grocery store) I am going to attempt to make these:

Sea Salt Caramels with Vanilla Bean
Ingredients

1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 vanilla bean pod, split and scraped
1 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup Lyle's golden syrup (or light corn syrup)
1/4 cup water
Instructions

Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then lightly butter parchment.
Bring cream, butter, vanilla, vanilla beans, pods, and sea salt to a boil in a small saucepan, then remove from heat and set aside.
Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan, until mixture is a light golden caramel.
Remove pods and carefully stir cream mixture into the caramel (mixture will bubble up) and simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel registers 248 on thermometer. Pour into baking pan and cool 30 minutes. Sprinkle another pinch or two of salt over the top of the caramel for a nice salty crunch and let sit until completely cooled. Cut into 1-inch pieces (I buttered a pizza cutter), and then wrap each piece in a 4-inch square of wax paper, twisting 2 ends to close.

If they work out, this may be what I take in on Black Friday. Then again, I have a tub of pumpkin chocolate chip cookie dough that the owner of Mary's Mountain Cookies gave me because she knows I love them. Maybe I will share...

And this:

Pumpkin Spice Sauce

Ingredients

For the pumpkin spice syrup:
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 cinnamon sticks or 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
3 Tbsp canned pumpkin
For a single latte:
1 shot of espresso or 2-4 Tbsp very strongly brewed coffee
6-8 oz skim milk, heated or steamed until very hot
1-2 Tbsp pumpkin spice syrup (or to taste)
Whipped cream, optional
Salted caramel sauce, optional
Instructions

To make the syrup: Cook sugar and water in a small pot over medium heat until the mixture is completely clear.
Whisk in the remaining ingredients and continue to cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Do not allow mixture to come to a boil.
Allow mixture to cool for 10-15 minutes.
Strain syrup through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer into a large jar or bottle of your choice.
Keep syrup in the fridge, it will last a while.
To make the latte, combine espresso with heated milk, and 1-2 Tbsp of pumpkin spice syrup (add to taste).
Top with whipped cream and salted caramel sauce, if desired.

Last year I tried several "copy cat" recipes for pumpkin spice lattes. This is the first that has a sauce, rather than just adding pumpkin and vanilla to milk (Blech!).

In knitting news, sadly Dot the Sparkle Monster is no longer with us. I got distracted by something on TV and missed several decreases, dropped a stitch somewhere, etc. Tomorrow I go to the yarn store to see if I can find a 16" size 7 circular needle in an attempt to save my sanity :-/

So tired

of staying late, coming in early, skipping breaks, missing lunches and especially of having to babysit my freaking employees! I'm sorry I didn't say thank you to you for doing your job, for getting your work done, for coming in close to when you were scheduled (only 10 minutes late) and for leaving the moment your shift was done. I am sorry for saying thank you to the other person who came in on his days off and came in early every frickin' day to help me while slighting you....

And did anyone fucking thank me for coming in early, staying late, missing lunches and breaks to do my job?? No. Am I upset about it? No, because the best damned thank you I get is that big fat bonus check next month. It's my job to make sure my clients are happy and if that means I miss a meal here and there to kick an order out the door, then that's what I will do, and most of the time I do it without whinging (though missing lunch does make me cranky, so watch out!).

Seriously though, why should I single you out just because you did your job without putting in a bit of extra effort when your co-worker worked his fanny off and did it whenever I asked him to??

And instead, I have to play nice and apologize to my employee in order to keep fucking harmony. What I really want to say is "GROW UP!" but I can't. I have to say BS like "You made yourself so invaluable to the team on a regular basis that we forget to thank you." Blech. And now I am going to have to go to my boss and restore harmony by asking him to make both of my employees Employee of the Month next month, even though only one actually deserves it.

Crazy

Crazy busy week. We had huge order after huge order which just gets stressful after a while. I have one employee who is awesome and will come in early and on his day off. I have another employee who always bitches about not having enough hours and says she will come in, until you actually ask her, then it's "Oh sorry, I have plans." I have stopped asking her, and just giving J. all the hours he wants. Thank goodness he was scheduled all weekend, because honestly, if it was up to the other person, I don't think stuff would have been done on time. And yay, everything should be done now, so I can actually spend tomorrow relaxing, or knitting Dot the Dress Up Box Monster, one of the two...

Yeah, about that... Dot take 1 was a nightmare. The Magic Loop is not magic for me. All I ended up with was a tangled mess that I ended up throwing away :( Take 2 ended up a mess when I somehow twisted my stitches. I finally gave up and stopped for the moment. I think I shall Kitchner Matt's leg instead. (Matt is ninja #2, since at the moment he has no arms and no legs and just lays there, like a matt, lol).

There has been no progress what so ever on the crazy quilt because I have been distracted with cuddly toys ;)

Meet Stumpy

Stumpy was named Stumpy during the regretful period where he only had one leg. Unfortunately for Stumpy, I had to go to work the next day, and just had to stop knitting. And unfortunately for Stumpy, the name stuck, even when he got his second leg. Although DD keeps calling him Bob.... What the hell kinda name for a ninja is Bob??

By the time I am done, I shall have knit an army of ninjas, and they may just band together and take over the world. Or maybe just the entire Tri-State area!

Seriously though, all my co-workers think he's adorable and for the low, low price of $5 each I have offered to make them their very own ninjas! The $5 covers my yarn cost, between them the little extra will pay for stuffing and felt. Honestly, they are fun and easy to knit, so as long as I am paid for supplies, my time is well spent. And when I am done I do believe we will have to take a picture of our virtual rainbow of ninjas taking over my copy center, before they head off to storm the castle.

What do you call a ninja with no arms & no legs?

A1: Mine!

A2: Nearly finished!

Hahahaha.

7 Squares

Here they are as promised, the 7 completed squares for my crazy quilt blanket.

7 Squares.

Click for a larger view with notes on yarn.

Crazy Quilt Update and other cool things

The weather turned lovely and cool last week, then wham! Shot right back up to 80 today. But it's still very much Fall around here. I have a 3 day weekend to enjoy, so I see much knitting being accomplished while I watch spooky-ooky shows on TV.

I have 7 squares complete, and I plan to lightly block them tomorrow, just so I can see them laid out and pretty, lol. I shall also take pictures! I promised the kiddo a pair of socks, since the very girly ones I knit for her are already too small. *Sigh* I will likely cast on for them tomorrow, but....

I MUST knit this first!

Isn't it cute?? It's Ninja (duh) from KnitWit, by Katie Boyette. So many cute patterns in there, but this guy is first and the DD is asking for a pink one as well, hahaha.

Edited to add: 10-17 I have most of my ninja's head knit, even after having to go back and unknit a row to find my start again after rearranging on my needles to discover I lost my stitch marker along the way, lol. I need to get some polyfill so I can start stuffing him as I knit the rest.

Down day

I've had a rough day today. I can't remember having a day this bad in years. It's not that anything bad has happened, I just feel very down. That's the demon named Depression. It leaves me alone most of the time, but then WHAM! There it is again.

I woke up with a headache. That kind of started it. After a while I started to feel sorry for myself and then I was crying about nothing. The weather outside is beautiful, but I can't muster up the energy to even get dressed today. I don't want to do anything, go anywhere or let anyone see me. I have nothing to wear, my shirts are all stained, I'm fat, I'm frumpy and on and on and on, the voice of Depression goes.

So I take pain relievers for the headache, then cry and make it worse. I tried to sleep, but one of the things Depression brings when it visits is insomnia. So I am more and more tired, and more and more depressed. As a result the demon grows stronger. It's a vicious cycle.

I sent my family off this evening, to an information meeting for a trip abroad that my daughter has a chance to take. I was excited about it, but today I can't dredge up the energy to go. I can't even make myself get dressed and go pick up my prescription at the pharmacy, telling myself that I can take one of my "spare" pills tonight and go get the refill tomorrow. So here I sit, thinking, crying.

Maybe it's good that I only had today off. Tomorrow I will have to get out of bed, get cleaned up, get dressed and go to work. There will be no debate with myself on what to wear, I'll throw on my black pants and my blue shirt, just like I do every day for work. I won't have time to sit and think and listen to the demon whisper in my ear. And for awhile it will go away. Maybe tomorrow will be a good day and it will go away for a good long time again. Or maybe it won't.

If that happens, I will know it's time to talk to my doctor again. Time to think about going on meds again. If that's what it takes to get me sleeping again, and on an even keel, then that's what I'll do.

What's the capital of Ohio?

Just watched the season premiere of Glee. Ok, watched is a bit of a stretch. Fast forwarded, more like. Hmmm. Glad to see more of Blaine, hope it doesn't become the Blaine show. Loved Quinn's new look, can she move along now? Glad to see Rachel taken down a notch, or two or ten. Still adore Kurt.

So far, Fall tv just isn't really doing much for me.

There's America's Next Top Model, re-run edition. Didn't like most of the women on there before, why should I care about them now??

Then there's Project Runway. Or as I now like to call it, Project Extra Sleep. Boooooooring. There's not a single person on there that I am rooting for this season, most of them I just want to see go home! Thank goodness for DVR, since I can fast forward to the end, see the finished product and listen to the scathing criticisms, lol.

As a result of lousy TV and a lack of books, I have gotten some knitting done. One of the ugliest socks I've ever seen, and by the end of today I shall have another square for the Crazy Quilt completed. The sock was done in a yarn I wish I had never bought. Full of different lengths knotted together, and really much better looking in the skein than knit up. And the second skein for the second sock is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more red than the first.

But the square is fun, it's got little bits of glitter in :) Probably why it knit up so fast, since I love it, lol.

Edited to add: Argh. I'll say it again, can Quinn just move along now? I find this storyline personally disturbing and sad. the Quinn-witch is a selfish, spoilt brat and only thinking of herself, not of her child. We have enough me, me, me! with Rachel & Santana. Move along, nothing to see here....

Speaking of Rachel. Really? Like Finn doesn't have enough issues without her trying to plan his life for him, just so she can be happy?

*Sigh* I will keep DVRing it, but I'm not much liking anything to do with the main characters, though I love the fact that there's more Beiste and the fact that Puck really seems to want to be part of his daughter's life. Though again, I would like to see him do the right thing and tell Shelby what the Quinn-witch is cooking up.