Just some photos of the last sunset of 2004.
B and I will be spending New Years Eve at home. It seems the older we get the lazier we get. I like being a homebody. B is making us a nice dinner along with dessert and after that, who knows.
Have a safe and happy New Year!
I was feeling better today and decided to go in to work. My group finished our training early so I don't have to go to work tomorrow (Friday) after all. I am very glad about that. So I will get my usual 3-day weekend. As of January 3rd, there will be no more Fridays off so I had better make the most of it.
Today was not a very interesting day. I left work about an hour early, dropped off some library books and came home. B and I just finished watching Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy. Dumb movie but if it makes me laugh then it is not a waste. I laughed. I must say though, Will Ferrell is either naked or in his underwear no matter what he is in (well except maybe Elf).
Now I may get some scrapping done since it has been awhile. I do have to finish my sister-in-law's gift tomorrow as we are getting together on Saturday. I will post pictures when I am done.
So what is everyone doing for New Years?
Today I stayed home from work. I am hoping I feel better tomorrow as I have to go in and cannot miss another day. At least the weekend is almost here. Since I have not been feeling well I pretty much slept most of the day. Why is it when I get tons of sleep I am still sleepy? I feel like my day has been so long when it really has not. I feel so blah.
I worked on updating my template a bit and even though the preview shows a nice patterned background, the actual webpage does not. So I am back to the drawing board. I finally got rid of the icky orange color for my titles though so all is good.
B and I watched a couple of movies tonight that I thought were really cute. We saw Skipping Christmas and Laws of Attraction. I must say I really liked both of them. I tried to work on my sister-in-laws Christmas present (yes I am still not done) but I just could not get into the mood.
Well if anyone wants to help me figure out why my background is not showing or if you can help me change my archive pages to a list of links that actually link to my posts and not blank pages please leave me a comment and help me out.
As for me........I am going back to bed.
This is the afghan I made and gave my mother-in-law for Christmas. It did not take me very long to make. I used all the yarn asked for in the patterned and did not make the fringe so my gauge may have been a litttle off.
Crochet
Pattern – 5 ½ hour throw
Yarn - Lion Brand Jiffy "El Paso"
I am finally able to post photos like I used to. Here is a shot of me that was taken on Christmas with my new camera - Yay!
I started my morning by having to go to training for a couple of hours. It was supposed to take all day and then we were to work a couple of hours on our queues. I am supposed to be working 50 hours this week but I do not see that happening. Training today went very quickly and since I skipped my lunch, I was able to leave work at 3pm instead of my usual 6pm. It was very nice to get out of work while the sun is still out. I am hoping I can do this the rest of the week as well since I have to work on New Years Eve. As for the training, there were not any plans to train us (my group of 4) until much later. Everyone agreed to coming in for the overtime and I thought this was the reason we were being trained early. I found out today that this was not the correct reason. My department has merged with a different department. Because of this, all the employees not making the minimum for this department get an automatic raise. I will not be getting a raise. I already make over the minimum for this department. Out of the 4 of us on my team (myself included), only one will get a raise. The rest of us are already there. Now the raise cannot be put thru until the training is completed. This employee really pushed for the training so he can get the raise before mandatory overtime. So it is purely for selfish reasons why we have to do the training now. One bad outcome is that we now have to take these calls during our busy season where as before we were not going to be taking them. It should not be too bad, as we only need to take calls for our 10 hours of overtime a week. So I can handle about 2.5 – 3 hours a day with no problem. I say that now but I have been off the phone (for inbound calls) for 8 months now. It will be an adjustment I am sure.
For Christmas, my in-laws gave us a check and an advertisement for us to buy a 32-inch TV. B has wanted one for a long time. Me, I really don’t care. LOL! Well he spent the whole day looking for one at the price (amount) his mom gave us. He found a TV but we ended up spending about $100.00 more that we did not have. Then because the TV did not fit in our entertainment center, we had to buy a new TV stand for around another $100.00. I am not too happy about it but what can I do. My Dad and B brought the TV home in my Dad's truck but B and I went to pick up the TV stand at the store warehouse. We were waiting for over 1.5 hours. Finally, the idiots working there realized that our item had been sitting in front of them the majority of the time. Each time B had gone up to ask about them they gave him a different answer. After B wrestled to put it in the car and the 2 of use carried it inside, I take that back …he did most of the carrying and I was the weak one. He spent this evening putting it together and getting the monstrous TV on it. Now we have to get used to this thing. It is too big for me. Instead of looking straight, we have to look up.
Now I am exhausted and it is late and I am still up and I don’t know why. I can be falling asleep but I always force myself to stay up late.
Are my thumbs supposed to hurt? Is there something I can put on my thumb (like a thimble) so that they don’t hurt? I must be doing something wrong. I did attempt another swatch using thicker yarn and thinner needles. It seems to be coming along much better but when I get to the ends, I have a problem. I know that I am supposed to wind the yarn around the 2nd needle from the back to the front but it is not working out when I do that. Is there something different that needs to be done on the first stitch of a new row?
I gave up on hello and just uploaded my photos the good old fashion way. Here is the result of my trying to learn the knit stitch. I have no idea what I am doing. I have never watched anyone knit before and do not know anyone. I am thinking that maybe I need to go to the yarn store so they can show me but I really don’t want to wait until February when I will get a day off of work (Mandatory overtime sucks!).
I guess I just don't understand where the tension is supposed to be. Is it the yarn coming off the skein? The tighter I did the stitches the nicer it looked but I was pretty much wrestling with the hooks to get the yarn off. The looser the stitch the easier it was but the end result was icky. It is hard to hold the needles too. I guess I am just not used to two. J I am also using thin cotton yarn and maybe I should use something thicker?
I have included a photo of each side as I sure as heck cannot figure out which is the right side. LOL! See how where the stitches are looser, the piece is bigger? I just want to be able to get the rows straight and close together. They are supposed to be close together right? The first couple of rows are close together. If you click on the thumbnail it will open a larger picture.
I wanted to share a photo of my crappy knitting but Hello will not post my photos! Urgh! I don't want to use my photobucket account because I know that one day in the future I will forget the photo is on my blog and delete it.
I wanted to change the template on my blog and that is not cooperating either. So instead of looking the way I want it to be it will look blah. The blah template should appear sometime soon.
I tried knitting tonight and so far I can cast on and I am working on the knit stitch. I have a big problem with tension. I am so used to wanting the tension to be tight when I crochet and it is hard to know what to do when knitting. I started out with tight stitches but I found it hard to get the loop off the left hook. The directions state not to work too close to the end but it is hard not too. I started to loosen up a bit and it gets a bit easier but I am not sure if I am supposed to tighten after each stitch. I have never watched anyone knit so I think I really need to do that. My first swatch is not coming out very well. I think I will work on it more in the morning and then see how it looks. At least I am getting a bit used to the different way of holding the needles.
I am very happy to say that my Christmas was good. I spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house and Christmas day with the in-laws. Now I am finally home and relaxing.
Santa brought me a digital so now I can share pictures right away without having to wait for the film to be developed. It will be fun.
I had planned to share some photos I took with my new digital but Hello does not want to cooperate.
Santa also brought me a "how to knit" kit I asked for. I am a bit bummed however, as the advertising on the cover showed up to date projects yet when I opened it none of those projects were in the book. In fact, the company just put a new updated cover (not even attached) over the original book. It should be okay though as I am used to how this company formats the instructions in the book. Now I just need to figure out how to start. I think I may make a basic scarf or something to start with.
Well once I get this internet to work for me I will upload a few of my finished projects (well the ones that I gave away after I got the digital).
Me panic? No. Never!
Leave it to me to procrastinate. I had it all figured out that I would finish my mother's present (only 3 rows and a flower) and then felt the darn thing and be all done. Well I have run into a problem. The pattern calls for one 50-gram ball of 100% wool yarn. The only wool yarn in the entire store was from Patons. It is kind of a chunky weight. Since the rest of the bag is done in a chunky weight, I thought it would be no problem. I bought one 100-gram ball. This should have been plenty to finish my project. The pattern calls for me to use 2 strands. No problem right? Well no problem until I realize that I am running out of yarn. Now I am wondering if there are different types of wool yarn and maybe I should have been using only one strand instead of two. I am also wondering if the yarn company did not give me all my wool. So at this point I am at a stand still and do not know what to do. I can see the need for using 2 strands as I am crocheting the handles but if I use 2 strands I will need to see if I can find another ball of this yarn (I will not tell you how long it took me to find this one).
So basically the goals I had for today of finishing my mother's present, buying my brother's present and something a bit extra for my father may not go as planned.
To add to all that I am feeling a bit blah and realize I have to wrap some of these gifts. LOL! Luckily I really do not have to worry about the gifts for my brother or B's brother as we will not be seeing them until after Christmas. I just have to wrap the gifts for my parents and B's parents.
No more Christmas? Is it over and no one told me?
Well at Target it appears to be. I went last night to buy a couple of boxes I had not realized I needed. As I expected there were no boxes. What I did not expect is that the Christmas trees and holiday decorations would no longer be up on display. There was not a Christmas tree anywhere on display in the store and in its place were the huge Rubbermaid storage containers. It is not even Christmas and yet Target is already done with it.
What stress level?
I still have Christmas presents left to make. I have realized that since the only person in my family that I will see on Christmas will be my Mom - then maybe I should finish her present first and forget the rest for right now. How slow am I that I did not realize this before? LOL!
NO Amazing Race!!!!
I was so bummed last night. Amazing Race was on at a different time and I missed it completely. I hate when that happens. Usually it will be announced the week before that the next showing would be at a different time. This is one of the few shows I do watch and since it was not on I was at a loss of what to do.
Christmas surprises. NOT!
So since I had nothing to do and B was out (this is critical), I started wrapping a couple of presents last night. Well I wrapped a total of three. I need to get busy. Two of the presents I wrapped were for B. I cannot wrap them when he is home. I am sure that by the end of the day he will have squeezed and shaken the boxes to figure out what is in them. Buying him presents is no fun. His family has always been big on lists and you get what is on your list. So of course you know exactly what you are getting. His mom is good at wrapping stuff in something else in an attempt to trick you. B is famous for knowing exactly what is in the boxes and it bugs me to no end. I told him that it is not fair since he hates surprises and he told us what to buy. This year there was no list given to his family so he will be surprised. He did give a list to me though. I found 2 different sized boxes to use and in fact present I wrapped in a couple of kitchen towels so that it feels like clothes but also does not move. He is usually onto that trick though.
The Christmas Fake Out
My in-laws have always brought our presents over before Christmas so that we can have something to open in the morning and usually because my father-in-law has to work. One year she had us pick up the presents at her house on Christmas Eve. This was years ago when PlayStation 1 first came out. His brother had gotten one the year before and B wanted one this particular year. His mom called to tell me that this is what she bought him. When we went to pick up the presents there was a huge box wrapped up for him. He immediately started feeling the box for seams to see if it maybe was a smaller box inside a larger one. He did not feel any seams but kept insisting that it was his PlayStation. His mother did not say anything until we are ready to drive away. Her last words were "I sure hope you are not disappointed in your gifts this year". That is what did it. We are driving home when B gets upset and says 'all I wanted was a PlayStation. He ticked me off so much that I wanted to yell at him 'it is a Play Station you idiot!!!' But I did not. I just smiled inside. I had to make him open the present the next morning. Then of course when he found out it was a PlayStation he tried to play it off like he knew all along. I ratted him out to my mother-in-law and so far she is ahead on the Christmas fake out. Of course she also got us that year by handing me a very small and very heavy wrapped gift. She told me that it was extremely fragile and to be very careful. When we opened the present I reminded B that we had to be careful while opening. And what was it that was so fragile? A set of COASTERS!!!! She sure did trick us good that year.
UPDATE
Okay. Update while typing this. B just called and asked if the wrapped boxes were for him. I guess he did not believe the little tag on them that says To: B From: S. It appears that he knows exactly what is in each box. He is no fun!
Today was a long day. I got stuck on an escalated that lasted over 3 hours. We found more problems and so I am calling the customer back tomorrow. I have been light-headed ever since. It has been a long time since I have had to deal with a huge technical call. I have been off of the inbound phones since April 1st but do make escalated callbacks (at least one a day) and sometimes if we are very busy I take a call or two to help out or when a customer requests a callback. The calls that I usually do deal with my department (Merchant Accounts) or customer service etc. The call I made today was full blown out techincal with a very damaged file where I had to figure out what was wrong with it. Of course what I found out to be the problem was not helped any by my peers as I had been told could not be possible (Yeah right). So now I am just plain tired. I am so glad I don't take all the calls I used to. I don't think I could handle it anymore.
I have an update all ready to send about my icky week last week dealing with B's idiot ex-boss - but I will have to save that for another day.
Yesterday while washing our clothes someone stole B's jeans. I was so upset. I had put the jeans in the dryer and walked to my apartment next door to take the load that just finished drying. I was not gone that long. The jeans were soaking wet and someone still took them. So now poor B who only has 2 pairs of jeans and no other pants is less one pair. And they were the pair he wears when we go out. Good thing they were stolen the day AFTER the holiday party or he would have had nothing to wear.
On the crochet/Christmas present front....I feel as if I have accomplished something. Yesterday I printed out gift certificates for all of my customers to include in their holiday cards. I got some of those mailed out today and some of my personal cards out today. I usually send the cards going out of state first. I will be sending the rest tomorrow. Well that is the goal anyway.
Tonight B and I watched Collateral. Tom Cruise does not look real in the gray hair - it was very fake looking. It was a decent movie and kept our attention. Well enough of it anyways. B had his entire HeroClix collection spread all over the floor and table. Did I say all over? It covered what little free space we have. Have I mentioned that I have married a child? While he played I started crocheting the 2nd tote bag for my other sister-in-law. This time around, it is going much smoother and I made terrific progress. I think this one looks nicer too. I am using Lion Cotton in Morning Glory as I could not find any purple yarn anywhere in this city. The Morning Glory is close enough. It really is a pretty color. I worked on it for about 2 hours and I think I could probably finish it in a couple more hours or be pretty darn close. I will be sure to post pictures once the projects are done and presents given out. Oh and the film developed.
I am looking forward to the holidays being over only because I want to be able to do some of my crafty things without a deadline. January is our busy season at work so I don't really see myself starting anything - or if I start I doubt I will finish anything. Maybe in February I can be Super Crafty Girl!
I found myself to be very busy this past week but just not busy with the right things. I have not finished any Christmas presents and the shopping for the men in the family (except my husband) is not going too well. I bought stuff but I knew B did not really like what I chose (heck neither did I) so I changed who the gifts were going to and I am happy with that but now I am back to needing to buy some more presents. One funny about Christmas shopping for Nephew #2, since he is the oldest boy currently in my brother's house and my brother and sister-in-law have their hands full with all the little ones I wanted to get him a game he could play himself. I got him a mini Simon. I was telling my mom about it and she got a look of shock on her face and asked me what size I got and was I sure. Come to find out she had bought him the big one (which I had planned to get but had changed my mind). My sister-in-law had suggested to my mom that he needed a game he could play himself and that is what she got him. So now, I have to go back to Target to return the one I got. I already have a different game for him so at least I do not have to buy anything new.
I can say that I have at least printed out my Christmas envelopes for my personal cards and my business cards. I have also printed out my Thank You gift certificate I give to my customers so I just need to fill out what I want on the cards and send them off tomorrow. That is one huge task off my mind.
Last night (Saturday), B and I went to my company's Holiday Party. We sat next to a nice couple and had a good time. I did feel however that this year was the most boring. Usually they have entertainment (like a magician etc). This year they had some staff members do a skit about work related stuff. What is sad is that no one knew it was being performed at the time. The lights were still dimmed and no one could hear. It appears that the company is not spending as much on the party as they used to. B and I were kind of bummed when it came to the raffle. There were 3 couples at our table, including us. The other two couples each won a raffle prize but B and I were not so lucky. My friend sitting next to us won a computer. How cool is that? Oh well there is always next year. I find it funny that we have the party all planned out when we go. We check in, get our free photo taken first thing (this is the main reason I like to go) and then we eat. We go home after the last raffle, as you must be present to win. A close friend was selected for the top prize ($2000 travel voucher). He had already left. He will be so bummed tomorrow and I am sure everyone will let him know he missed out on the prize.
Today is cleaning day so I guess I had better get busy. Maybe later tonight I can work on the Christmas Presents.
If Santa is good to me this year I will get goodies to learn how to knit.
(Click for pattern and cool website)
Of course leave it to me to choose a pattern that is not fit for a beginner so I will have to save this one for when I actually learn how to knit. *Ü* I am now searching the archives for the easy peasy patterns.
All you knitters out there do you have any suggestions on what would be a good starting project?
Today is going very slowly for me. There is not much work to be done in my queues so I am being given escalated callbacks which I do not enjoy doing. Is it mean to say I hope I get an answering machine? The call I was given does not give too much info except to say that the customer called 3 times and is not happy. I hope it is an easy call. I don't think I can procrastinate much longer.
Only 4 more hours and I will be free and starting to enjoy my 4 day weekend!!!!!
My co-workers and I have come to the conclusion that this picture just may not be real. However I still think it is clever and funny. Ahem.....I think that Santa may be a bit late in his deliveries this year! *Ü* Ouch! That must hurt!
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How exciting to be able to update my Christmas gift list. Of course I still have a ways to go. My plan is to photograph all my projects before wrapping so I can finally share. Well that is after I get the film developed. I sure do hope Santa is good to me this year and brings me a digital.
Grrrrr........ I have been trying to make my archive pages have links for each post instead of having the entire post. The directions to do that are here and they are understandable to me except the Archive section. Where the heck do I put that? So if things look weird (like my archives disappearing) it is due to me trying to edit my template and being unsuccessful. Help?????
Update: Okay! I finally got the archive page to show the links. I just now need to customize it. However when I do click on the link my post is not there. I seem to have lost them. So I guess it is back to the drawing board. Wish me luck!
Update Update: Okay so I guess I did not get it to work. I got the listing but when then I lost all of my posts. I guess I better learn css and these templates are not HTML. I just decided to go with a different template for now and will probably customize it back to have all of my personal stuff. I think I better get back to work now.
Final Update: I Suck. Therefore I am back to using the old template and my archives are icky.
I have completed the tote for my sister-in-law! It feels so good to have one more present completed. While watching EarthSea, I was able to work a little bit on my nieces GameBoy holder but realized I was sewing it wrong. That will teach me to watch a movie until midnight and try to work on a project at the same time. I will try to work on it more tomorrow. I should have all of my in-law gifts completed by this weekend - just in time for me to mail them. It will be weird to mail gifts. I have never had to do that before. Usually I see them before or after the holiday but this year I do not know when it will be. It is sad that my in-laws are not that close. I love my sister-in-law dearly but the last time I saw them was Jan 2, 2004. I hate seeing them only on New Years (if that).
Okay...... it is past midnight I better get my butt to bed.
Today I am working alone. Well kind of alone I do have someone helping me a bit in one of my queues. One of the guys has a vacation day and the other one changed his day off to Mondays - starting today. So I am working like a little busy bee today.
And needless to say I am a bit ticked about the mother-in-law but since I cannot remember if I sent her the link to my blog I don't want to say what is upsetting me. I could call her but then B would get mad because I am not supposed to talk to his mother. That is a big pet peeve of mine!
Needless to say it does not look like I will have any Christmas photos this year because we are going over there and I never get to take photos. I am very upset I will not be spending Christmas with my family!
I better get back to work and get rid of some of this frustration.
I have not been near my computer lately. So much for my countdown to Christmas. Stayed home sick on Thursday and have not really done anything since then except some house cleaning. I have done nothing when it comes to making my Christmas presents. I am not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.
I had dinner with some old friends on Friday. There are usually 6 of us but 2 ladies were not there. One now lives in NM and the other just was not there. We are really worried about her. It was nice to sit and have a nice dinner and exchange gifts. I have known these ladies for over 10 years and it is so nice that we still get together. Now that we have had our dinner I am starting to feel that Christmas is almost here. I think I have pushed Christmas to the back of my mind so that I would not realize how close it is. I have already received 2 Christmas cards so I know it is coming.
B is out Christmas shopping. Well he says that is what he is doing but he took some of his toys....ahem I mean HeroClix with him. So I think his telling me he was going Christmas shopping was a thinly veiled excuse to go to the gaming store. LOL! As for me......I was thinking it would be nice to do some holiday decorating while he was gone but since I don't think I could finish it completely and there is a ton of housework I could do I am at an impasse. I can say that I feel I have accomplished at least one thing this weekend. I have printed out my year-end sales flyer and I just have to get it in the mail. Wish me luck with my sale!
I have a secret to tell. I don't have my tree up. I don't know if I will have a tree this year. There it is out. Now those of you that know me personally and read this blog please quickly forget that I wrote it okay? Maybe later I will make my blog more Christmasy to compensate.
A friend sent this to me today. It may have already been around the internet but it is new to me and I thought it was funny just the same. Read the info below before looking at the photo.
Step 1. Tie balloons to car.
Step 2. Drive like a bat out of hell.
Step 3. Watch people freak out!!!!
Last night I decided I better get my butt in gear and pick up all the yarn I needed to make the rest of my Christmas presents. Balls of yarn purchased = zero. As in None, Zip, Nada! Mission failed! Mainly I was looking for purple cotton. There is no purple cotton. I have been looking forever and last night was no exception. I drove to the opposite side of town to look. I may have to try the closer places this weekend. I still could not decide on what to make the babies. Can you believe that the stores I went to (Joann's & Michael's) did not have any magazines/books on crochet? They had the basic pattern books but I wanted something new. I have as yet to find a magazine in this city that has to do with crochet. While I was out driving around B was home making a yummy spaghetti dinner. (Leftovers in fridge for lunch but not sure if they will last that long). Because of my driving I got nothing accomplished in the creative department. But I can say the twins and my youngest niece (that is not a twin) are all taken care of. Each time I have been to Joann's I have seen a cute felt blanket rolled up in a felt bag and at 60% off that is what I got. I don't even know what the blankets look like. How is that for making a decision. I am usually one that rethinks things constantly but this time I just spent the time deciding on colors (oh and a quick phone call to mom) and those blanket sets were mine. So I need to update my Christmas list so I don't feel like too much of a slacker. I did manage to get out of there with Christmas cards but who knows when I will have time to send them out.
This morning my car was frozen. I got out my trusty drivers license and started scraping away. It did not take long and soon I was on my way. Of course dummy me rolls the window down and in this car when the window is wet it stays down. So lucky me got to drive my 30 min to work with the window down. It was cold - thirty degrees is considered cold right? I am sure not as cold as some places but cold enough for my butt. In my office someone likes to play with the thermostat and turn the heaters WAY up. Because of this I have to dress like it is summer and today was no exception. Needless to say my ears are frozen due to my decision to wear a ponytail today.
Today should be another quiet day at work. My entire team is in training. It will just be me and two other people (only one sits next to me). Speaking of work maybe I should get started on it.
Woke up to a very rainy day. I am not used to it being so dark while driving to work. The sun usually is rising during my drive but not today. It felt as if I should be driving home and ending the day and not to work and the beginning the day.
I am expecting my work day to be very long and because of this I am not looking forward to it in any way. I have been here just a bit over 2 hours so far and I am already ready from my lunch break. Maybe if I work on my project during lunch I will feel better about the day. I will try and scan my progress here at work later today. That is if my finger is not being all icky.
I think the stress of only having 19 days until Christmas is starting to get to me. Christmas will be very very bleak this year and it will be hard not to get presents for everyone in my family.
Gross alert - you do not have to read any further.
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Okay. Sorry for the gross post. My finger will not stop bleeding! I am so tired of this! It had started to heal but would bleed occasionally. The top skin will repair itself but then it will fall off and the bleeding will start again. Very frustrating as it is hard to type and do anything at all that requires this finger. I cannot wear a band-aid when it is like this so now I have a napkin taped around my finger. This is the 2nd one in the past 30-45 min and I think it is time for a new one.
My Dad is good. He is home. I guess the doctors don't know how to fix him so they just put in a shunt.
Today has pretty much been non-existent. I woke not feeling very well and spent most of the day in bed. I finally got up sometime in the afternoon and I have not done anything. Usually on days like this, I never leave the house but I can say I did go outside and drove to the bank so I am not a total slacker. My plan tonight was to watch Desperate Housewives and then go back to bed but Desperate Housewives is not on tonight. Talk about disappointed. B was looking forward to watching it too, which I think is cute.
I have done absolutely nothing of my Christmas presents the past 2 days. All of them are pretty much on hold right now.
I only turned on the computer to download my email. I am glad I did because I had over 15MB to download. I do not know where it came from. So far it has not been anything big.
I have not been feeling too well this past week. I think it is all the overtime I worked this past week. So last night I took some Nyquil before bed. It did not help. Someone's car alarm went off all night until after 7am this morning. It was not your basic car alarm. At first, I thought someone was just honking for someone. This was at about 9pm or so. But it continued. If it was not the honking then it was a sound like a phone ringing – just once but it continued with a few seconds of silence and then it would ring again. Just as I would drift off it would ring and wake me up. Even though I knew, it was not my phone I guess it is just a subconscious thing. I finally got some good sleep after it went away.
I was all ready to go to the hospital this morning but woke up sick. I knew I would not be able to see my dad while I am sick and called my mom. Good thing I did because they had changed the surgery to 7pm tonight. She told me to go back to bed. I just called her a bit ago and she says that the doctor changed his mind and my dad is currently in surgery now. She told me she does not want me to come because I am sick and that she has two of my aunts with her (my dad's 2 sisters).
I need to find something to do to keep me from going stir crazy. It is rainy outside and I so love to read on the rare day like this but I don’t want to put myself to sleep again. Do you ever have one of those days when everything that normally interests you just bore you to death?
My Dad is back in ICU. He just got the staples out 2 days ago and he is now back in the hospital for the same thing. He was in Emergency from 3am to 4pm and they finally put in him ICU. His doctor still has not shown up. I don't know how many times we will have to go thru with this. So I think since he is having the same problem the doctors only drained and did not repair a thing. You see the doctors still have not told us what they did during his first surgery. He is scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning at 7:30.
I think I am burned out on making presents. The tote I am making for my sister-in-law is almost done and does not look right to me. It does not look long enough. I think I need to revise my list.
Yesterday the servers went down at work. I have literally over 100's of cases to complete today. I had no worries until the power supply in my computer went out. So I had to wait a couple of hours until I got a new one. During that time I was tasked with getting a fellow employee away from his phone and to keep him occupied between 9-10. He was to get an award and needed to be free to do so. I am lucky this guy loves to talk but it sure was hard trying not to get his suspicions up while I just stood there and chatted about non important- non work related things. LOL!
Now on the Christmas presents front it is not looking too good. The tote bag for my sister-in-law just does not look right. It looks too short. I am starting to work on the handles now but even with following the instructions I am not ending up with the correct number of stitches. I have come to the conclusion that this pattern is flawed. The pattern has me make a decrease in 2 dc, then make 19 dc and then another decrease in the next 2 dc. This leaves me with a total of 21 dc right? The pattern says I should have 23. Do I count the one decrease as one dc or two dc? I am wondering if I actually need to make 2 decreases. This is what the pattern says. Please someone help in figuring out how I am supposed to end up with 23 dc at the end? With this pattern the the ch 3 is supposed to count as a dc.
Here are the instructions:
Ch 3, dec 1 dc in next 2 dc, dc in each of next 19 spaces, dec 1 dc in next 2 dc, dc in next space - 23 dc.......................OKAY I am an idiot! As I am writing this I realize that it does equal 23 dc. Urgh!!!! Maybe my problem was trying to work on it after 12 hours of being at work!
Okay! I need to get away from this computer. My butt has not left my chair for 4 hours and I need a break!
Yesterday I worked alone in my group. Everyone else was off. Since I knew I would probably be stressed I decided to not spend my lunch at my desk (which I usually do) and brought my current project to work on during that time. Let me tell you crocheting a project in the very bright light of my office is different than working in my dark living room. Since the living room is the brightest in my house I thought I saw all, how wrong I was. I am working with 100% cotton. That stuff just picks up all kind of lint! I keep all my projects in plastic bags to keep them clean and yet my project looked like I threw it on the floor and hat the cat play with it. Okay maybe not that bad but it was annoying. So between me picking lint off my work and having to spend the entire time to undo a giant tangle I did not get any work done on it. Last night while watching The Best Show Ever! (aka The Amazing Race) I was able to untangle the yarn and start working on it again. I got past the point where I had to undo it the other day however the project I am making is a tote bag and it sure does not look long enough. I have a feeling that once I am done with this project I will find out that it is not written right and will have to end up buying my presents.
It was quite amusing to hear my co-workers while I was working on my project. I was away from my desk and in a corner on a couch. Women are in the minority so all my comments were from the guys. After about the 5th one commenting on my 'knitting' I just started answering with 'yep'. LOL! I don't think they understand the concept of crochet being different. We will have to see what they say today.
On a funnier note.......I have a co-worker that is trying to come up with come on lines to get a date. He has it all mapped out on how he is going to get women to date him while shopping at Target. He is such a hoot! He has me laughing all day and it gets quite dull when he has the day off.
Christmas is almost here. I need to get busy on the gifts. I don't think I have realized how many gifts I plan to make and how many are completed. I figure if I write it all down I may come to realize that time is getting short.
My Christmas Projects/Present list (updated 12/23) :
Heart purse for Niece #3 (N) - DONE
GameBoy holder #1 for Niece #2 (J) - Just need a snap button and to weave in ends - bought the snap button and need to sew it on.
GameBoy holder #2 for Niece #1 (B) - 80% done
Niece #4 (M) - Gift purchased 12/06 - DONE
Country Market Felted Bag for Mom - 75% done (just need to crochet handle and felt)
Afghan for Mom-in-law - DONE
Tote bag #1 for Sis-in law - DONE
Tote bag #2 for Sis-in-law - I have made a good start - give me a few more hours and I will be done.
Brother - buying gift
Brother-in-law - DONE
Father-in-law - DONE
Dad - DONE
Nephew #1 - DONE
Nephew #2 - DONE and wrapped - just need a bow
baby blanket for Nephew #3? (50%) or toy animal (0%)
twin #1 - Gift purchased 12/06 - DONE
twin #2 - Gift purchased 12/06 - DONE
I am thinking I need to start wrapping completed presents and put them somewhere other than my table. I am thinking I need to weave in all extra ends and not save until the last day. I am thinking now that I have a list that I may not have time to make everything. I am starting to panic! But will I let DH know? NOPE! I am super Christmas Present Buying Wife!!!!
I had hoped to have my sister-in-law's present (one of them)completed by yesterday (Sunday). Well I can tell you now that.......it did NOT happen! I will have to take out and re-do about 10 rows. All was going well until I got to a row where I had to start decreasing and I should have ended up with 72 stitches but had way too many. I do not understand how I get extra stitches when I just stitch on the same stitch. So I am going to undo those rows and start them over and count every single stitch and hopefully I will be able to keep the correct amount of stitches and have it look good too. It is a bag/purse done in dc so I don't want any big gaps. I am using Lion cotton and this is my first time using cotton yarn. I love it and it works up quickly but it is so thin you can see if there are gaps. I am kind of obsessing over the purses I made for my nieces. The pattern suggested using cotton yarn but I used acrylic since my store did not have cotton in the color the girls like. I am hoping they like their gift. It is getting to crunch time with these gifts. I may have to re-think a few and change what I am making. The guys should be easier as I am buying their gifts. I have to wait until it gets closer until Christmas until I can go shopping though. B has a habit of not waiting and buying stuff on his own. I so hate that! And now my oldest nephew is getting the same way. Last year he told me what he wanted and then went and bought it on his own. I told him he was lucky I had gotten him something different and not to do it again. LOL!
Either I am really lazy or my life is really boring. I took Wednesday off because it was day before Thanksgiving and I really did not want to be at work. I cannot remember what I did on Wednesday but I am sure it was not much.
For Thanksgiving Day, B and I went to eat at my parents' house. Thanksgiving has always been at my parents. I am so used to having all my cousins there and there being no place to sit. Now that I am older (and my cousins too) there are less and less people there. It is just the way things go as my cousins have their own families so my aunts/uncles have their kids over to their place. This year we had a small group. Only 31 people this year. It was pretty quiet. My one uncle who is the life of the party was not there this year since him and my aunt were not well. They were missed. I got a huge surprise that made my day. My one nephew is 'different' as my mom's says. Everyone in my family is used to being passed around as a child and used to tons of people. Well my one nephew takes forever to even warm up to immediate family. He doesn't speak (a whole other story) and likes to just stare at everyone. My surprise is that I walked in the room and the first thing I hear is him say 'HI' with a big smile. Then when I walked over to pick him up, he let me. Big surprise since he usually acts like Stewart from Mad TV. Well the whine and the pulling away part of the character. He is only two and instead of being a brat, he would rather sit and watch. I guess that is a good thing. That day he would only let me and my Dad hold him. Not even my brother (his dad) got to hold him. Life is good. After a couple of hours at my parents, we went to the in-laws and watched a movie. All in all, it was a good day.
On Friday, B and I went to Target and bought a vacuum cleaner. Is it silly to get giddy about a new vacuum cleaner? This thing is good. We live in an apartment with really old carpet. It is so old it is flat and no matter how much we vacuumed with our old icky vacuum it stayed flat. The only time I could get it to fluff up was when I steam cleaned it and then it only stayed that way for a day or two. Last night I vacuumed the living room and the carpet looks new! Well that is if you don't pay attention to the stains. J We also watch the new Harry Potter movie. I liked it.
Now today is Saturday. I had hoped that B would go somewhere so I could be alone to clean and yet when he was getting ready to leave, I end up wondering why I get feelings of being left out. I mean why should I be upset if he goes out – especially if I want him to go out so I get some time to myself. So I am actually in the middle of vacuuming the stairs. I came upstairs for the duster and found myself on the computer. It was not as if it were already on. I turned it on, waited for it to go online and I am still here. LOL!
On a very good note, I have finished Christmas present # 5, the afghan for my mother-in-law. I just have to hide all the little ends. I started Christmas present #6 last night and it is working up very quickly. I wish I had a digital to share but pictures will have to wait until I develop the ones of my finished projects.
Darn B is back home and it has only been 30 min.
Update: Okay scratch that.......he left again. Now I really get back to cleaning.
So fruitcake has been banned at airports this holiday season. If you have it you will be searched. I thought it was funny when I caught just a bit on the news last night. This morning my co-workers did not believe me and I had to prove it to them. I so like being right. LOL! I am sure there are lots of webpages that have info on this - just in case you have'nt heard here is one article.
That is okay, I have nothing against the ban .........I don't like fruitcake anyways........ but don't you darm ban cheese or chocolate!!!!!
Okay we finally get some weather that is something other than the same old hot in the desert and my weather pixie is broken. Well it looks like the entire weather pixie website is down. Now that is really sad.
And of course there is lovely blogger. Who knows when I will be able to post this. Could the bad weather here be causing all of this I wonder? I mean it is supposed to SNOW in the desert! How freakish is that? Of course the weather man always gets my hopes up and it never snows.
Finally! A recent layout. Why am I excited you wonder? Well it has been 4 months since I have scrapbooked. I started this page about 4 months ago but ran out of printer ink so it was just sitting there. I was finally able to stick everything down (because I have some anal reason that I cannot glue anything down until I have it all together). I am hoping to get at least a couple more pages done before the holidays so I can share with family. My family (for the most part) is used to me taking tons of photos and put up with me (being I was a photo major in college). Lately I have one uncle who is bugging everyone not to let me take photos because I never share. Of course he took photos the last 2 big events in our family and I still have not seen those. So the last couple of Thanksgivings and Christmases I take the two most recent albums (this year will again be 2002 and 2003 as 2004 is not even started) and hopefully they will shut-up about me taking their photo and just smile and let me take it. LOL!
This page is 8.5 x 11
Supplies used:
I am almost finished with my mother-in-law's Christmas present. The afghan has 40 rows and I am on row 29 ( I think). I am sure I will have it done by the end of this weekend if I can keep myself working at it. I scanned some of the pattern. Since it is worked using 3 strands and a Q hook the pattern is quite bulky and hard to see. Although the scan makes everything look crooked the rows are straight. :-) It will end up being a pretty thick blanket and I am looking forward to finishing it so I can finish up my other gifts.
Another one from the sideabar. I hate how it looks so blurry when I upload it. If you click on the pic you will see a much clearer version.
Thanks for looking.
This layout is 8.5 x 11
Supplies used:
I know that I have had these layouts posted on my sidebar for quite awhile but I never posted what supplies were used and plus since I am going to be updating my sidebar and adding links to my pages I needed to upload so that I would have a link. Like you really were interested in knowing that right? LOL!~
This layouts is 4 pages (8.5 x 11)
Supplies used:
Cardstock - Bazzill
Birthday stickers and letter boxes - DoodleBug cardstock stickers (I think)
Letter stickers - Provo Craft
Negative holder painted with Cornflower blue paint
This is an old layout. If you have been to my site before you may have seen it in my sidebar. I decided to post it so I could then type in what I used and plus I am changing a few things.
Layout is 2 pages (8.5 x 11)
Products used:
Cardstock - red Bazzill
Vellum - Over the Moon Press "Hot Blocks"
Making Memories - Metal words and swirly clip
Fiber
I painted the metal word 'Celebrate' with Making Memories 'Monarch' paint
Thanks for looking.
My dad was released from the hospital on Thursday. He is now home and driving my mom nuts. LOL! I am so happy he is home. Yay!!
Now I am off to update my site. So if something looks weird while visiting it is because I am playing around with my template. I will make the archives have each title listed separately if it is the last thing I do!
My dad is out of surgery and so far is doing fine. The doctors were able to drain the bleeding and as my mom said "his brain bounced right back" – isn’t the brain a lovely thing? Talk about a load off my shoulders.
Thanks for all the emails of support and thanks to Beth (who I met thru blogging) for the supportive comment that you left). It really helped. Now that I actually got to sleep a bit more last night I am back to work (oh boy .... how I want to be back at home).
Last night I started on my mother-in-law’s Christmas present. I was going to make her a purse/bag but B just was not too excited about it when I showed him the photo. I told him I would make her an afghan instead. So, I looked in my stash of free patterns and found the pattern for this throw.
Since this should only take me about 6 hours I am thinking it is do-able. I don’t like fringe and was planning to make it without but when I mentioned it to B, he said ‘Why can’t you do the fringe?’ So I guess I am making the fringe. So, with pattern in hand I went to buy some yarn. It was not until I was at the store that I realized I needed 23 balls!!!!!!! Sheesh! I bought out Jo-Ann’s, then went across the street and bought all but one ball at Michael’s! LOL! I did not buy any extra and I am not checking my gauge so I hope it is not enough. If I don’t do the fringe, I am sure I will be fine. Since my mom-in-law is very into Southwestern stuff, I chose the following yarn:
Lion Brand Jiffy – El Paso
The throw is crocheted with 3 strands so I am using 3 balls at a time. I started on it last night but the 2nd row gave me so much trouble I had to keep starting over. This is my first time working with this type of yarn and it just did not look right. By the time I stopped to go to bed I had been working on it for about 3 hours and I think I am now only on row #5. There are 40 rows total. I have some work to do. I think I was just distracted by the return of The Amazing Race!!!! Yeah!!!! I am so glad that this show is back on the tube! It just cracks me up that the race went for 2 days before the first person was eliminated. The team eliminated kept going on how it was the best experience ever etc. I find it funny that they sounded like they have been in this race for a long time and yet it was only one night and 2 days. LOL! I was so into watching the show that I messed up a couple of stitches and had to do a row and a half over again. LOL! It is all good though. Tonight I plan on sitting on my butt and working on it like crazy. It is a very simple stitch and should work up very quickly. Unfortunately, I don’t have a digital so I cannot share my progress.
I had planned to go to bed early tonight. Instead, I am online surfing Blog Explosion even though I am not finding any good ones (well except for one I will have to share later). I am just surfing because I wanna win some darn credits! So far, I have won 4. Whoop-dee-do!
B is asleep and I am trying to scrap. I finally got some new ink cartridges and I am ready to start printing to my heart's content. As long as I don't wake up B with my typing, I am good to go.
I think I am just trying to keep my mind on other things. My dad was admitted straight to ICU today for bleeding in his brain. Talk about scary. I am trying my hardest not to think about it. We find out in the morning what type of action they will take.
I am pretty much done with the Country Market bag I am making for my mom. I just need to find a nice solid color for the handles. Once I get the right shade of brown, I can finish that bag right up. I really need to finish the bags I am making for my nieces. Well I really only have one bag left to complete. Once it is done then I need to buy snaps for 2 of them. I have no idea where to find the snaps and how to sew them onto my project but hopefully it won't be too hard. Now I just need to purchase the pattern for the purse I will be making my mother-in-law. B is really funny and excited about picking out the yarn for his mom's purse. I also need to figure out what to make my 2 sister-in-laws. I am thinking of making them bags as well, but have not really decided yet on a pattern. I have one I would love to make but I believe it would take too long to complete. So in my searching I cam across this bag. What do you think?
In my job we require 2 forms of identification in order to make personal changes to an account. We have a listing of what we will accept. Why is it that the troublemakers like to send everything but what we accept. Why do people like to think that what we require does not apply to them?
For personal identification we require one of the following:
* drivers license
* passport
* military ID
* notarized document with your name and address
We need to verify that the address on their personal id matches our files. So yesterday I get a request that has a college id. The only info on this id is the college name (not even in the same state as the business) and a photo. There is no address on the id which is what we need the personal id for. So I sent this customer an email stating that what he/she sent was not sufficient and that we need one of the options from our list. This customer then called and told us that he/she did not have a drivers license because he/she was not old enough. Now I ask you....how can you be the accountant manager/bookkeeper for a company and still be in high school yet have a college id? I also got to thinking that if this person is under 18 years of age there is no way I would make the requested changes as they would not be liable. Later I got an email response from him/her. This is what he/she wrote which I edited out the cussing etc:
"I do not have my drivers license right now. I lost it last week. My school ID should be sufficient! "
Now please tell me which lie he/she has told today is real?
Then I get customers that do not want to send the business identification we require. This identification is needed so that we can match the company name and address. This also tells us that if the customer has access to this information then they must be legit. Below is what we require. Customer just needs to send in one of the following:
*company utility bill
*company phone bill
*company business license
What we usually get:
* Envelopes with the address on them (now come on you can get this just by breaking into a mail box)
* Business cards (okay - anyone can get a business card printed)
* Demands telling me to go to a website to verify who they are (again...anyone can have a website)
Many customers like to give threats that they will no longer do business with our company if we require them to send in two forms of id.
Then there are the customers that make a big deal that they will not send the utility bill because they are afraid of credit fraud yet these are the same customers that send us a very legible copy of their credit card!
Then we get the over achievers. They send one of everything we request with some extra documents thrown in.
So that is basically what I have to put up with during the main part of my work day. Thanks for reading.
I like Jones Soda and I am so happy that Target now sells cans. I have not tried their off-the-wall flavors like Green Apple or the blue colored one (bubble gum I think) but I love their vanilla coke, cream soda and rootbeer. Well I don't know where they came up with this idea but I came across this news article today. I do not think I would want to have my Thanksgiving dinner given to me in soda bottles. How about you?
I am so ticked right now I cannot even see my computer screen. Here at work we use an online database for just about everything. When someone sends out the link to the database the person who gets the link has to request access. This is a not a new concept. This is not anything new. Every database you want to access you will need to request access. The owner will then give you access and set you up at a certain level.
There is a database that I used daily that is specific to my job. People on my team ask me questions where I have to go and look in the database. I have been speaking to my manager about allowing the entire team access for a few months now. He thought it was a good idea but never did anything (he is the owner of the database). Today I sent an email to my entire team giving them the link to the database and telling them what they can use it for. Everyone loved it but one. Of course this jerk had to email me back that I should have the access all set up prior to telling people about the database. Clicking on the button to ask for access is a daily thing. This is nothing new. I do not know what his problem is. This is not the first time he has send an email that could be considered rude. I tried to talk to him but he was a jerk about it so I sent the email to my manager stating that I found the email response rude and I know he has been talked to about this before. So get this. My manager who likes to drag people in his office while talking to the other is making me feel as if I am the one at fault! I told him I will not speak anymore about this. I told him that no one will get access to the database and we will continue doing things the way we are doing them now. They can all thank the jerk who has been on my nerves ever since I had to teach him in a training class he attended. He thinks he is so above everyone else and is a big 'know-it-all'. I have pasted the emails below. Tell me what you think?
Here is my email:
Hi team,
I wanted to share this database with you. This is the database for customers that request email changes. If you have a customer that is asking about the status of their email change you can search in this database to see if they have submitted anything and if so read the case notes of where we stand with the customer's request ( need additional documentation, etc.). Please be aware that if the customer only faxed in their request and we have not gotten to it yet it will not show in this database. If you need any help concerning email changes or have any additional questions feel free to speak to any of us on the E-team.
And here is his response to me:
Just a thought dear lady. If your going to invite someone to a database, it might be helpful if we have the permissions. In this case, you might have given Mr. (Manager name) the request to allow our team to view the database before sending out the below email. Just a thought.
As for my crafty update: I first saw a finished Country Market Bag on Vera's Blog. I loved the colors she picked so I had to pick the same. Well for the Landscapes yarn anyways. It is the "Autumn Trails" yarn. If mine looks half as good as hers I will be happy. So far mine is coming along. I got up to row 9 and had to redo it a few times before I got the right count. I had to break away from the pattern repeat and just put a hdc in each stitch at the end but I finally ended up with 90 stitches all around. I should be good to go from there. I stayed up late on Saturday doing just re-doing that row so I was surprised to realize today that on Sunday I did not pick it up at all. Sunday B played his video game (Forever!) and I finished reading Metro Girl - Gotta love it! I sure did! I did get to watch Home Makeover and Desperate Housewives before heading to bed. I never turned on the computer and never picked up any crochet. Sunday seemed to have flown by very quickly. Now I am hoping that Monday does the same.
I am very frustrated. I decided to start working on the Country Market Bag while watching my chick flicks tonight (Raising Helen and 2 episodes from the first Apprentice). It was my first time working with yarn that had any wool in it and the needle was new and sticky. I finally got the hang of it and really started working. I was counting my stitches but then stopped since it was all good. My project was not looking right and I was already into my 2nd ball. I counted the stitches and there were too many. So I started to take it apart. Some rows had too many stitches and some not enough. So by the time I got to the row with the correct amount of stitches I was back down to row #3. Needless to say, I am not happy to have gotten up to row #11 and now I am starting over at row #3. So here is a scan of where I am with this project. I am hoping to get more done but I don’t know if I want to work on it anymore tonight.
So Friday I put in Raising Helen. Of course, B comes home right in the middle so off went the TV. I still have not finished watching it and I hope that he does go out with the guys tonight so I can. We did watch Soul Plane this morning. Another dumb movie but it did make us laugh.
I woke up today to an overcast sky. No blue anywhere. Because of this, I am in a blah mood and cannot decide what I want to do. B is downstairs playing his X-Men game and I am upstairs at the computer. Either I can finish Christmas present #3 (which I don't feel like doing), I can start Christmas present #4 - Country Market Felted Bag (which I don't want to do upstairs with nothing to look at while I crochet), or I can read Metro Girl. I am a few chapters into this book and I love it! I am worried if I get started reading it my day will just fly by and it will make me want to take a nap. My favorite thing to do on a rainy day is read however, it is not yet raining. I was surfing on BlogExplosion but one of the sites tried to download an .exe to my system so I think I am done with them for now.
I usually do not post on Fridays as it is my day off. It is my day to run errands. However if you ask B he would say he would expect me to clean the entire house since I am home. I usually end up not doing by errands but today was different. I went to the library to pick up the new book by Janet Evanovich, Metro Girl. I am very excited to read it. I am the first person to check it out and when I went to pick it up I was so excited. It was a downer that no one clapped. LOL! I then went to pay the cable bill (whoo hoo! NOT!). Warning now that time usually spent updating my blog will probably be spent reading. I then decided to drive to the other side of town to check out the local yarn store. I was impressed with the different yarns they have and one of these days would so like to make myself something using them. I have only made one thing for myself and all others have been gifts. The prices were pretty high however and for the projects I am making I did not see any colors I would want to use. Now don't get me wrong they were beautiful colors if the project was for me but since I am making something for someone else, I had to choose just the right colors. I left the yarn store without buying anything. As I was driving back to my side of town I planned to stop at the new Michael's but there was a new super JoAnn's on my side of the road and that is where I stopped. This store carries every type of LionsBrand yarn. I was impressed. I found the exact yarn I wanted for the purse I am making but did not find the right color for the handles so I will have to keep looking. I must tell you I am very picky about spending money and even spending a couple of dollars at the scrapbook store will cause me to think about it for about a ½ hour. I seem not to think when I buy yarn. LOL! My total for 7 balls of yarn (one extra just in case) and a new crochet needle (even though with my gauging I probably won't use it) came to over $47.00. So now that the credit card is maxed out I have to make a decision. I was making this purse for my mother and mother in law because I wanted less expensive gifts this year. If I am making 2 purses at $50.00 each that is not cheap. I am trying to decide if I will just make the purse for me and make something else or buy something for my mom and mother in law. I would love to give this to my mom but if I spend this much on my mother in law and she hates it then I will be upset. B likes everything to be even so if I make one for my mom (who I don't care how much I spend) then I will have to spend the same amount on my mother in law. Decsions. Decsions. I may need to find a cheaper pattern as the ones I am making call for 100% wool so they can be felted.
Well this update is long. I hope it was not too boring. It is now after 3pm and I better get something to eat since I didn't eat yet today and had to drive the Devil car (that is a whole other story) and it was hot outside. I also want to watch Raising Helen before B gets home but it is so late now I don't think I can. As I was searching online before posting my update I found out it is cheaper to buy yarn from JoAnn's online than at the store – I am not too happy about that so I better get offline before I think about it too much.
I am excited. Yesterday I purchased 2 purse/bag patterns online. I got them this morning and I so want to go and buy some yarn! I almost went to buy some yarn last night without the pattern but I am glad I didn't as I will need a lot more yarn than I thought. LOL! I am trying to decide if I want to chance going to Michaels (since I am buying LionsBrand Homespun yarn - I love working with Homespun yarn!and they do have a good selection) or trying the yarn store here in town. I guess it depends on if I want to drive over 45 min. to get to the yarn store. I think I may call ahead and ask about pricing and what they carry so that I will be prepared. It will be hard to just buy the yarn for one project at a time. I think if I do that it will keep me sane. I have way too much yarn (not as much as some people but too much for me) that is just sitting around because I never got to the project I wanted to do. Oh I think I will spend my lunch hour checking out the colors of the homespun yarn. They do have the colors online right? It will be hard not to go out tonight after work to buy what I need but tonight is good t.v. night. It is the only night I watch something so unless I can get B to tape my show I am going straight home after work.
Update: Blogger is such a pain today. But it is free so I should not complain. I am looking at the LionsBrand yarn and was so wanting to use the Homespun but that is not wool and from what I am reading it will not felt. Now I do not know where to buy my yarn as Michaels does not have the Landscapes yarn. Landscapes does not have the same pretty colors as the Homespun. Bummer. In order to felt does the wool content need to be at least 50%? I think I am heading to the yarn store this week. I just called and asked 'do you have yarn that I can felt with' and the response was 'Yes. Lots and lots and lots...' Now I am doubly excited!
Sorry. Nothing interesting to report. Well I guess turning the heat on today in the apartment is big news. It has been very cold and they finally (after 3 weeks) turned on the heat. It will be very nice when I go to sleep tonight. No more turning on the oven to warm the place. I also bought a couple of crochet patterns online but have not received them yet. I am anxious to get them so I can buy yarn and get started.
Each time I try to write an update I would get distracted. I guess that tells me not to try to write my update while at work. We are still down 3 people and were quite busy. On Monday we did not have a closer so I stayed an extra hour. I was at work from 7am to 7pm. Talk about exhausted. Then when I got home I ran to Target and then finally ate dinner. Today I left work 3 hours early since I had to vote. My work gives us 3 hours and so I took the 3 hours. I had to drive to the opposite end of town where I am registered since I have never changed from when I was 18. I got right in and did not have to wait. There were more voting booths this year. One thing I found interesting is that there was a boy in high school running to be on the board for the school district. He was on the ballot - not a write in. It will be interesting to see if he wins. Another interesting thing I think about. What will happen to all the political blogs?
After voting I stopped to visit my mom and nephew #1. Nephew #1 has another dog. He does not have good luck with dogs. It is not his fault but the fault of others. I got him a cat a couple of years ago and that cat is sticking around and is the best pet. Well now he has a baby golden retriever. This is the cutest puppy and oh so tiny. I really need to get a photo soon. I am hoping that this dog ends up to be a keeper.
I then came home (stopped off at KFC on the way). I ate dinner and then ran to Walgreens where one girl made me wait for my RX because she did not believe I had insurance (even though they have sold me my RX for the last 2 months using my new insurance). Then she tells me that even if I had my card it would not work because their systems were down. Now every time I go to this new Walgreens their system seems to be down. I do not know why she did not just say this to begin with and not make it seem as if my insurance was no longer. She didn't even offer to help. She just said 'come back tomorrow' or 'pay full price'. Now this is why I have insurance. So that I only have to pay $10.00 and not $50.00. This girl could not understand. I made a fuss as that is not acceptable to me. Then another girl came in and did not see what the problem was. So the new girl says 'oh I can call the insurance company. No problem'. Well duh why didn't the first girl want to do that! So she calls and lo and behold I have insurance. Duh. So they give me my RX and I finally got to go home and here I am on the computer even though I already spent my entire day on the computer.
Maybe tomorrow I will have the update that I want to send.
I updated the look. Nothing much but it is something. Of course B says it does not look like 'Fall' but since we do have seasons where I live it is good enough for me. I worked all night to get the orange to go away from the post title and finally got it to be the blue I wanted. Now darn it when I pasted it to the blogger template it is orange again! Well it is too late to fix it now. I am going to bed. If anyone knows what I have to change to make the titles blue please leave me a comment.
I am not really happy with it but I am sure it will grow one me. It does NOT look like the picture in the book and I am bummed about it. It is pretty much done, except for sewing a snap on and cleaning up some of the ends. I have now started on Christmas present #3 which is just another one of these purses/Game Boy holders but with different colors. I don't have a digital so this is just a scan of the completed purse. I plan to take photos as soon as I am completely finished.
