In which many things are planned
Look, new yarn! This one was dyed for some friends, as part of their baby blanket. I’m quite excited about this one as it is so subtle and beautiful and just glows.
It is part of my Neil Gaiman “Death and Dreams” series, and it is called Stardust.
I haven’t written anything on the novels in weeks.
I’ve been stressed, sick, and overwhelmed.
Even just last week, I started a dental emergency. Anyone who’s been a long time reader of mine knows that I’ve had problems with my teeth for years. Well, I’m finally getting things sorted out. Not in the way I want of course. This is more of an emergency situation.
Last Wednesday, I started having severe pain. Then I woke up on Thursday and my face was swollen.
I did what I could do to help the swelling go down, but on Friday it was again swollen and I had been up all night in pain. I hadn’t experienced that pain in many years, not since I had been living in Boulder and I had my wisdom teeth extracted and they hadn’t given me my syringe and I needed it.
Well, on Friday I managed to get an appointment at Peak Vista. Which I must say is an awesome place. I didn’t have an appointment, but they squeezed me in. And if I had gone to the emergency dentist I would have paid 300$. Well at Peak Vista, I paid a total of 29$, and that was including the prescription for antibiotics to get the swelling down. Yeah I had to sit around waiting a while, but that was fine. It wasn’t like I was going to be doing much that day anyway.
Due to the swelling they weren’t able to try extracting the tooth, which actually is fine. They couldn’t have given me more than just a local anesthetic shot, which from past experience… would have been bad. The last time I had a tooth extracted, a baby tooth mind you that they just used a shot.. it took 4 shots and I still felt every single tug and it hurt like a bitch.
So I’ve been referred to an oral surgeon. Which is most likely who I needed anyway since there isn’t much tooth for them to grab onto, and they have to remove the post that was left over from the root canal.
The tooth that has been giving me fits, was one that I wanted to have extracted years ago. But I was naive and I let the dentist convince me to just get a root canal done. Well, that was my mistake. I should have gone with my plan, my own gut instinct. My plan was to just get them pulled, and wear my retainers to keep my teeth from shifting, and then get implants some day. Good plan right? Well, the crown immediately broke on the tooth, and then I was generally in too much pain to wear my retainers, which means my teeth have shifted. Not much, but its noticeable to me. And means I’m most likely going to have to get braces again. I am going to start wearing my retainers again anyway, as theoretically the pain I was having that prevented me from wearing them will be gone. Now it’ll just be a matter of seeing if my teeth that have shifted slightly, will shift back in to place. (I’d be happy with that)
The hubs2be knows what plan we need to have for my teeth, and that I would rather have my teeth fixed than a sparkly necklace.
My cheek as of today is back to normal. Yay.
Now back to writing.
Yesterday I wrote over 2300 words. I am quite excited about this since I hadn’t written in weeks. Unfortunately it was all on The Q2-Files, and not Aether Horizons like it should have been, but you write when inspiration hits.
I’ve also figured out a lot of the direction that I want to take the Q2-Files in. So that makes me happy as well. My first set of readers who have gotten the few measly pages, love it. Which makes me believe I have a real hit on my hands.
Oh, and the Minion and I are planning great things for Baking After Midnight; there will be a contest soon. We are just working out the details right now. OMG, the month is almost over. We really need to get cracking on getting those details sorted so that ya’all know about it.
Alright, I guess that’s all for now. Cheers!
In which a star falls
Today I did something that I hadn’t done for a while. I took myself back to my childhood. There were these cookies
from Trader Joe’s, they in my mind are the original “Two Bite” cookies. They were crunchy Chocolate chip cookies.
They were wonderful. They came in a tub. They remind me of the sail boat.
Well the last time I was at Whole Foods, I saw in their bulk area they had cookies that mostly reminded me of the Trader Joe’s ones. So, I got myself some. And literally just moments ago, I poured myself a glass of milk, loaded up the the glass with the cookies and let them turn to mush. Mind you, I didn’t do it proper. I should have put the cookies in first, THEN the milk. But oh well. I should have broken the cookies up with my spoon. I didn’t. But the memory was still there. It took me right back to the days of my youth. Mushy cookie soup. Yum.
Now onto a book review:
Stardust by Neil Gaiman My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I absolutely loved this story.
I had seen the movie first, only because I had not gotten the chance to read the book first. I am sorry that it took me this long to get around to the actual book.
To me, this is a book that I can completely see myself reading out loud to my future children.
Neil Gaiman is an absolute genius when it comes to delivering us into an amazing world. He really is my hero.
Now as I said I had seen the movie first. It was quite easy to imagine the characters as their movie counterparts. There were also some changes that were made betwixt the page and the screen, but the changes that were made in my opinion enhanced the story. I guess it helped that they actually had Mr. Neil Himself on hand to help with the changes.
But this review is about the book, not the movie. All in all, I thought it was absolutely wonderful and amazing.
On to other news:
My minion and I are hard at work on the Labyrinth Club. I honestly couldn’t do this with out her.
We’ve also got lots of things planned coming out of The Asylum. Most of the things we are working on won’t actually come to fruition until after the Grand reopening. It’s a timing thing. I can’t work for those 6 months. But I can get stuff ready before I do close up shop, and then once the shop is reopened, it will be as I said… Grand. I can’t talk about the plans yet. Not till they are more firm. But when they do become more firm… ooh boy you’ll be getting some teasers at the very least.
Last Friday I went to the Unsurpassable Prince and Pauper’s Steampunk Ball in Colorado Springs.
I decided to go Ricepunk instead of the classic Victorian Steampunk.
There is apparently not a solo shot of my anywhere. In fact, there are only shots of Tory and I together. It’s alright, we were Representin’ the multicultural minorities at the party… we had to stick together.
The party was a benefit for Myles Pinkney who is a fabulous artist here in Colorado Springs. He went into a coma immediately after an event in March, and we honestly thought he wasn’t going to survive. Mere days before the benefit for him, he was finally up and walking around. We are all so happy about this.
I bought my kimono at a thrift shop for like 3$. I fell in love with the colors and couldn’t pass it up. The belt is one I traded with The Twisted Gypsy for a shawl that I had knit.
The goggles I made in about the equivalent of an afternoon. They were so simple to make. I call them my Copper Goggles since I did a verdigris patena effect instead of a brass one. It fit the kimono better thank brass. I tell you, I got so many compliments on those quicky goggles. It’s actually quite amusing to me.
I haven’t been able to work on any of the novels like I’ve been wanting… but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been formulating plots and working out kinks behind the scenes. I just wish I have been able to get more words written. Oh well. I am going to be dog sitting for 2 days, which means I’ll have peace and quiet. I’ll focus on writing then.
Random: It’s been a very interesting couple of days. The Royal Wedding finally happened. Which I was quite sad that I was not in England for. I know it’s silly, but for me I wanted to see the people. Experience the street parties. Feel the surge of national pride that comes about during those times. The Wedding was beautiful. I will admit the 13 year old girl in me cried about the groom being who he was. Then the 27 year old woman in me took up notice at what a very handsome man the brother (Harry) has turned into. (Okay, notice was taken years ago… but it was just quite noticeable. He looks damn fine in a Royal Uniform)
Then the week became even more emotional when it was announced that Osama Bin Laden was dead. I will not touch on this much, as I know not all my readers share my opinion on the matter, and I am working on keeping this blog more reader friendly. But I will say that it was very emotional for me to hear about this. I remember exactly where I was when 9/11 happened.
At first I feared what would happen to the plans the Hubs2be and I have, as our major milestone we were waiting on WAS the Royal Wedding.
The next milestone (okay, it’s not a very big milestone time wise) is in 2 days. The election. Whether he wins the election, or looses… we are submitting the paperwork for my VISA. Thats right folks, after 4.5 years of plotting and waiting… it’s finally happening. It feels quite surreal.
And so of course with the death of OBL, and the threat of retaliation and heightened travel concerns… I was naturally worried. The hubs2be has allayed my fears on this, but I will of course take the advice of my immigration specialist (I am going to be going through the same people who helped with my visa last October. Though my visa didn’t arrive in time, that was not their fault and they did a great job at taking care of me.). But as near as we can tell, it is full steam ahead.
I’ve got a lot to pack up. I’ve got business to close. And I’ve got to actually start saying goodbye to people that I now don’t want to say goodbye to.
Why is it that you can keep yourself from making new ties for nearly 4 years, and then just weeks before leaving, you meet a whole bunch of awesome people that you actually would like to remain friends with and are now sad that you are leaving… thank goodness for Facebook, otherwise I really would be quite sad.
I guess I shall leave this here. I am going to try to be better about blogging again… I might not be able to do so directly during the move weeks, but until then, I will try to be better.
Bugs and Hisses everyone!
Sometimes you fly…
Happy Imbolc to everyone who celebrates it. For me it certainly has been poignant. It’s about rebirth and renewal. Getting rid of the old, and bringing in the new.
Today I took a leap. I’ve decided I’m going to have a table at the Anomaly Con here in Denver this March.
This is big for me. Very very big. Like, starting tomorrow I need to dye my bum off so that I’m ready. I’m sure I’ll either be far too overstocked, or I’ll be understocked. I’m okay with being overstocked. I’ll be thrilled though if I sell out of everything and am understocked. I of course won’t expect this to happen, so I will be presently surprised if it does.
This will require me finding my costuming that I’ve packed away. But it will give me a chance to wear the awesome awesome new hat I have that was given to me as part of the Pay It Forward 2011 from my dear friend Kristen.
Isn’t it awesome? Don’t you wish you were me right now with such an awesome hat? Well, you can buy one of your own from her brand new shop (I’m so proud and excited for her) on Artfire: Copper Dragonflies. You really should check her out. She doesn’t have hats up in the shop right now, but send her a message and she’ll make you one.
It means also that if you don’t hear from me for the next 2 months, it’s because I’ve fallen into a vat of dye and drowned myself. This is very possible people. Yes, I realize that I’m possibly biting off more than I can chew, especially with still needing to finish the Sherlock club.. but I’ve never been one to do baby steps. I dive into that deep end and learn to swim. Wait.. no.. I’ve got a better analogy. One quite fitting.
“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.” – Neil Gaiman
Well, I’m determined to fly. I never thought I’d get the chance to do an event like this. Certainly not in the US. I might not get something like this in the UK. So I might as well take that leap. After all, this witch just might prove that she can defy gravity. (Alright, how many more analogies can I throw in this paragraph structure?) (Oh, and photograph taken from here.)
I’ve got many big plans for this year, and this wasn’t even one of the original plans! This year is definitely going to be my year.
I’ve lost 21.6lbs as of writing this. I don’t know if I’ll reach my goal before the end of this diet, but I am okay with that. I am happier with my body, my self, my business, and my life. The only aspect that I am not happy with is still not being with my hunny. But there is nothing I can do about that.
My hunny though is striving to make me happy. He bought a rug for our place. Oh yes, we found a place. It’s small and dinky, but it’ll work for us right now. But as I was saying, he bought us a rug. A rug I had said I liked. When I first saw this rug, I fell in love with it. But I told him I liked the gray one, and not the purple one. I told him this because he is not fond of purple. The gray was nice, and would look nice in the house (our main carpeting is a dark blue). So I was fine if he wanted that one. What did he do? While he was shopping in IKEA (which by the way, I love IKEA. I grew up in Ikea. I am sad that the Ikea here in Colorado will not open till next year… I’ve been wanting this store to pop up in Colorado the entire time I’ve lived here) He got us the rug. He got us the rug for a mere fraction of the original cost.
And he got me the purple rug. I love him for it. He knew the purple would make me happy. And it would look good with the blue carpet. (The other choices besides gray and purple was this “sand” and a yellow green)
To any men reading my blog.. it’s little things like that which win over girls hearts.
As the first month of the Sherlock Holmes Yarn Club is now over and done.. (and I’m scrambling to get this 2nd month in the mail asap!) I can now share with you photos of what you are either enjoying in your house or missing out on.
Photo thanks to Reni LeBard
Dr. Watson in shades of mustards, curries, browns and gunmetal. When I think of our dear Doctor, I cannot help but think of him in those colors. Some might think it odd, but that’s the impression I always have. It is mostly due to the very first impression of him meeting Holmes for the first time. He is on my new base, a 2ply SW Sock
Hound of the Baskervilles was not originally planned. When I planned this club, it was going to be a 3 colorway club and that was it. (2 skeins of the same colorway each month) But then I had a customer ask for Hound of the Baskervilles to be included, and my imagination went from there. Hound of the Baskervilles was one of my favorites of the stories growing up. And whenever I think of it, the image of those haunted moors. So while designing this one, that’s exactly what image I used. The purple and greens and browns, the ever shifting mist of those moors. This one is shown on my 4ply SW Sock
I hope you like what I created… Also in the months package is:
An Absinthe Lollipop, after all that was one of his vices. (Though Watson will tell you otherwise) They are from Lollyphile, but it does not appear that you can get them anymore. I guess it’s a good thing that I have an extra stash left over from this club. Muhahahaa
A random assortment of Holmes inspired Pin Badges (before anyone gets huffy.. each customer got 1 pin badge, certain people got 2 for their help in the project)
A tea strainer that is rather neat! (it’s got its own drip pan even!)
A pattern designed by the awesome Christina Scovel from Serenity Stitches.
Today I went to the printers to get this month’s pattern. It’s beautiful. But you’ll have to wait a month before you can see it! I’m also working on getting the last of the swag done, which hopefully will be tomorrow. Then it’s back to the dye pot for me. I’ve only got 1 more colorway that needs to be designed and dyed. I have the other colorway 99% finished. It just needs one last little treatment done to it before I can call it done.
I have been truly blessed by my loyal customers, and amazing friends. This club was a huge leap for me, and it has taught me a lot, and enriched my soul while doing it.
Oh, I also had another Big Ass Order during all this… It was for a Sock Kit that is being put together by one of my customers.
“Bold As Texas”
I had carte blanche on the colors, so I chose: Red, White and Blue for the state flag, not to mention the patriotic tones that Texas has to begin with! Bluebonnet Blue, and a Yellow that matched the Yellow Rose of Texas.
I’m very happy with it. She’s very happy with it, and apparently the people ordering the kit are happy with it! Yay!
Well, I have more that I can announce, but I’m awfully tired. I should have gone to bed before I actually started writing this. So I guess I’ll just have to announce the rest tomorrow. Goodnight everyone, and may your Imbolc fires burn bright!
Books, Nine, and here fishy fishy..
So today I was actually up and out of bed when I wanted, and I was at the gym at like… 7:03… roughly.
Now as I’ve said before, I’ve never been one for exercise. I’ve never found that elation that comes with it. I still haven’t. But today something happened that I had never thought would happen.
I got on that hellish elliptical machine, set my timer for 4 minutes (remember I’ve been building up in 30 second increments) and before I knew it the 4 minutes were over! How the hell did that happen? I wasn’t dying, I wasn’t coughing, there was no burning sensation in my lungs. Sure, my legs felt it, they had since I stepped on it, but I didn’t feel like I was going to collapse.
Shocked is certainly an understatement.
Feeling good, and still having plenty of time I did a few of the machines. Not much on those, then I moved over to the rowing machine. I did a whole 30 minutes on that. Oooh boy. It didn’t kill me.
After that it was time for the bike, and I did my 20 minutes.
Aqua class time, this time it was a killer. You know those 30 minutes I just spent on the rowing machine? Well, our (sweet) instructor decided to have us do quite a few movements that were mimics of that action.
After class I headed across the street to Barnes and Nobel. Now this was completely a research trip. I had originally no plans on buying anything. Damn it just happened to be payday as well. And I have no willpower.
The trip was to look at Moleskine journals so that I could go online later and know exactly what size etc that I wanted.
There I was drooling over the leather bound copies of Wicked, and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and a few others… I was a good girl though and did not get any of those.
Though, there was one thing I did end up buying. I couldn’t resist it.
It’s called “A Sorcerer’s Cookbook” and it is something that made my inner Foodie, and not so inner Witch go “Buy. Now.”
When the move happens, I won’t be taking my 5 Anne Rice books (4 paperbacks, and 1 hardback), I won’t be taking any of the LKH books, I won’t need most of the paperbacks I have upstairs, so having 1 more book that I will actually read again and enjoy shall have space in my moving boxes. (Speaking of Anne Rice, if I do ever replace my Vampire Chronicles that I mentioned above, it shall be the nice leather bound all in one set that yes… is also from Barnes and Noble)
I skipped down the parking lot to Whole Foods, and once again spent too much money, but in my defense I bought flour and honey, and those two items took up a third of my bill and won’t run out for a good long while. (Well… the flour I can use up rather quickly with my bagel making.. but the honey… Will last)
Another third was taken up by my apparent need for fish. Perhaps it is because I’ve stopped taking Fish Oil and my body is finally protesting that… But this week I have been absolutely craving fish. Monday I found myself contemplating buying some crab meat (real not imitation) as it was just on my mind. I resisted. I was a good girl (it also helped that Monday I was absolutely broke waiting for my paycheck). But then today as I was in Whole Foods, they taunted me. Jones’ Crab Claws for 5.99 a pound. Now these claws are the big ones with lots a meat.
Yeah… I got them. I mean 1 pound gave me like 7 claws. I shall be having me some yummy crab tomorrow.
The downside to today, is that all of the awesome workout I had this morning must have pinched something. My left thumb which has been giving me lotsa problems this winter, is bugging me again. Can’t tell where the pain is actually originating from, but my thumb clicks and feels tight, and depending on how I move it, I feel it in my wrist, or all the way up to my elbow.
This is horrific to a writer and a knitter.
I did work on my knitting today even with the pain. Got 4 rows knitted on the Doomsday Cardi.
This evening I amused myself by putting myself on Neil Gaiman’s website. It is his blogiversary of 9 years. He put a call out to fans to submit photos of themselves, with something to do with the number 9. My submission was not clever simply because I had a slight headache from damp hair being in a bun all afternoon and the wrist/thumb issue. (Alright, I was downright cranky from it) I was photo #361. And all the submissions can be seen here.
If you don’t want to check out the page and see all the awesome submissions, here is my image that I put up: (which, it’s very neat seeing all the different fans, from young to old)
The photos will most likely be made into a collage at some point in the future as he did with another event.
Oh, and I just realized it’s Wednesday, which means I should be doing a Wordless Wednesday… Oh well, it’s hard for me to do Wordless Wednesdays since Wednesday is one of my busy days, whereas Tuesdays and Thursdays are not.
Well it’s time for bed now. There was something I wanted to mention, but I’ve completely forgotten it.
Night!
My sincere apologies
Wow. I cannot believe it is already the 16th of January.
And wow. I cannot believe that my last blog posting was LAST year.
I haven’t forgotten you. Really, I’ve just been… busy yet not.
I finished one super sekret knit project. But I can’t talk to you about it yet.
I gave up on one project, as it was kicking my ass and I’ve sent it to it’s room. That was my Ishbel project. First Lace project. It could be that the yarn just didn’t want to be that project. We’ll see when I come back to it.
I started my Doomsday Cardigan. No photos as of yet, as I’m only like 8 rows into 117. (Link goes to Ravelry)
I am theoretically starting my first aqua aerobics at the gym on Monday. Which of course means I’ll be having a gym membership for the first time in my life.
I have been writing every day. Which is a very good thing. And I have noticed it has helped. Only one day in the last week or so did I not write much, but instead did brain storming. I do not feel guilty for this, as brainstorming is a much needed piece of the machine. Especially since I was quite unsure where the story was going.
I have to admit it is odd working on two pieces at the same time.
But, the Blitz novella is almost done! I’m in the home stretch of the 1st rough draft.
Small aside on that. Today I started reading M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman. In it is an introduction explaining things a bit. On the subject of short stories: “In the beginning they were a great way to begin to learn my craft as a writer. The hardest thing to do as a young writer is to finish something, and that was what I was learning how to do.”- Neil Gaiman.
This made me exceedingly happy to read. I often forget that the things I am going through, are things that the greats themselves have gone through.
When I had to stop writing a few months ago due to work, and I realized that I was giving up finishing the novella in time for the contest, I was quite… put out. Truth be told I was down right depressed. It had been a deadline that quite literally went wooshing past. Then the last few months, with no deadline… no work stopping me, I found excuses. “I’ve got company coming!” “It’s the holidays!” Before I knew it, it was the end of the year.
Well, the time for excuses is over. I don’t have a deadline. But I do have a commitment to writing every day. I’ve been finding myself writing more and more each day. Mind you, this is written long hand in a spiral bound at about 10:30 at night when I’m in bed.. But I’m getting more use out of the time I am writing.
(Generally I try to shut off my light by 11:30)
Last night I found myself in a very short span, writing 2 pages. This made me exceedingly happy. I could have written more, but I had reached a point that I needed to ponder on, and as it was the end of my writing time, I decided instead to call it a night.
Yes, I realize I’m rambling. Deal with it.
Today I did some dyeing.
I dyed 3 different colorways.
Nothing that I had planned, as I was simply working on technique.
I will photograph them hopefully tomorrow, and post photos.
2 of the skeins are already spoken for, but I’ll have one skein up for grabs.
I received a wonderful gift from a friend of mine in Nova Scotia. You’ve heard me speak of her before, but Crystal is just absolutely fab.
The little bag of Cheshire Cat fabric was made by Pheelya.
The shawl is “Traveling Woman” based off of the character Angela Montenegro from Bones.
The yarn is amazingly soft, and I absolutely cannot stop petting it. I love it and I want more of it.
Other than that, there is not much new. The library is doing it’s 8 books in 8 weeks program like it did last year. Not as many sponsors which is a bummer. But oh well.
My life right now gets divided up between “Write, Knit, or Read?”
I don’t know if this should worry me or not lol.
I promise photos of new yarn soon!
Edit: Details of the shawl project can now be found on Halifax Mommy’s blog: Knitted Things for Knitting Friends
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Yes, I realize I’ve used that title before, but not on this blog. (I am forgetting most of my Myspace years, so if ya don’t like the title repeat, just get over it.)
Disclaimer- No, do not take the title to mean that I’ve quit my job. I have not.
Speaking of work… this week was… slightly on the hellish side.
Monday was calm and easy and as it was a DOE holiday, but not a VOLT Holiday, I worked it. (not willing to take a non paid day off if I can avoid it)
Unlike my days on Postal… I don’t get yelled at if we watch something on Youtube. (My gawd Martin the jackass used to have a hissy fit about any flash or streaming material.)
So, I spent the day watching Doctor Who season 4. Only got two episodes because I could not get a good link for Episode 3, so I spent the other time surfing. Calls were moderate and not too annoyance filled.
Monday night on the other hand, I was sick as a dog. Either I ate something that did not agree with me, or I caught whatever was floating around. (Lots of people have been elsicko at work, and it is less easy to avoid dealing with people and human contact on the new desk.)
Finally around 2 am I am no longer getting up every 20 minutes to do things that you really do not want to read about, nor do I wish to type. (I’ll type it for a novel, but my blog… nah)
But, that means I’ve gotten no sleep. There is no way I could go into work like that. If I didn’t just start getting sick again (while at work of all places… ugh) I’d end up snapping due to lack of sleep.
So, I spent Tuesday curled up in my chair (no longer the couch, though I wish the couch was downstairs again so I could have been stretched out on it), watching Season 1 of Angel and me reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
Speaking of Good Omens. I highly enjoyed it. Can’t tell who wrote which parts, mostly because I’ve never read any Pratchett novels yet.
I rather liked Crowley and his Angel counter part who’s name is escaping me.
And there were a few other characters I rather enjoyed.
There was one character that annoyed me for the most part… But it wasn’t his fault, he was just written that way. His name also escapes me. But he was the one in charge of the Witchfinders. He was an idiot, he bugged me.
Wednesday I was back at work, Thursday too… oh, and today… what a concept.
None of the days were fun. Not at all.
Oh, and somewhere in those days I finished reading Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs.
Highly enjoyed this one. All the uncanny coincidences were missing from this one. There was really only 1 coincidence, but it worked and didn’t actually feel forced. There was actually reason behind it, and plot was setup in the third book.
The plot of this one was focused around an Airplane crash, and everything that goes into dealing with the aftermath, then a horrible twist added in. Once again I did not see the “Whodunit” until it was actually revealed.
It’s honestly that aspect which made me forgive all the “uncanny coincidences” from the first 3 books. Kathy keeps me guessing right till the end. Generally when I watch a movie or read a book, I can figure out who the “killer” is in the first 10 minutes. Half way through at the latest. But so far, I’m along for the ride right along with Tempe. Lets hope the latter books remain that way.
Today at work, I was dealing with the official aspects of “Oh my god this place is killing me” and had a sit down with Manager R.
Convo went as such:
Me: “Doode, something’s not right with the priorities you’ve got me at. It’s killing me. We’ll have 14 avail, I’ll be on a call, as soon as I hang up the call I get another one even though we still have 14 people sitting there waiting for a call. Please tell me why.”
Him: “Thats impossible. You are set to being in the slow queue.”
Me: “Pull the data. I’m getting more calls than anyone around me.”
Him: (pulls the data) “WOW. You weren’t kidding.”
We pull up the individual data, he’s right though. I’m in the “slow” queue.
We’ve got 3 queues.
My highest priority is in the Outlook queue.
My middle priority is the Primary queue (which is also known as “every thing”).
My lowest priority is the password reset queue.
Password resets and Primary gets the most amount of calls per day.
But, I am so kick ass at my job, that I end up taking on 3 times more calls than everyone else because I’m just so quick.
My stats from yesterday.
48 calls.
6 minute average on those calls.
ACW (After call Work) – less than 30 seconds
Yup, I had the highest amount of calls for the entire DESK. Not just my team, but the entire desk.
Lowest call time average as well.
And rocking ACW. (They want you to keep it under a minute)
Manager R was quite in shock about my stats. He was impressed.
In his words “your cooking.”
In my words “but I’m also burning…out.”
He is now aware of just what I’m dealing with. He knows I can’t purposefully slow down my work, and this is killing me.
And if I need to take a break, I can tell my team lead that Manager R needs to see me, go into a special aux code. Walk over and tell him I need a break and just take a few minutes for myself.
He knows I will use it sparingly, and only if I’m about to go postal on someone. He knows I am trying to avoid loosing my temper, and to keep my attitude “cheery”.
So at least he knows now what is going on. And he says he’s going to bring it up in the next meeting and push to get me on the equivalent of Backlogs.
And once again, I have proven to myself that as long as I don’t snap and tell some principle to shove it where the sun don’t shine, I’m not going to get let go any time soon. This should be comforting. Why is it not?
Today I stop at Sunflower Market on the way home. So brain dead I pick a few things up, but nothing that actually will constitute a meal for the evening.
I am craving Sushi.
The sushi at Sunflower doesn’t look that appealing.
Head home with my few wares.
Talk to Mother of Mine about sushi for dinner. Can’t really afford it, but Sushi is comfort food for me, and generally saves the world from mass destruction at by the will of me.
We decide to go to a place we’ve never tried before. It was near the fabric store mother of mine needed to go to.
It is not one we shall ever go to again.
How hard is this?
Cucumber roll (which is really what i was craving)
Tuna roll
Salmon Skin hand roll
2 pieces of Mackerel
2 pieces of Salmon
Simple right?
They were out of Mackerel.
The were out of Salmon skin.
So we replaced the Salmon skin hand roll, simply for salmon
We replaced the Mackerel with shrimp
We also decided we wanted some little Roe (the name I’m forgetting right now)
Here is what we got.
No cucumber roll
2 rolls that we honestly couldn’t tell if it was tuna or salmon.
2 pieces of Shrimp
2 pieces of very salty salmon
2 pieces of little Roe
1 very salty and weird salmon handroll. (we had been expecting our salmon roll to just be a regular salmon roll instead of a hand roll.. cause that was just… weird. Should have gone with tuna instead.)
The miso soup was luke warm… like everywhere.
The edamame was amazing. Honestly the best I’ve ever had.
The price was…. well shockingly less than I was expecting.
But the old adage is true… You get what you pay for.
Oh, and there was lots and lots of waiting.
We have crossed the place off from our lists of sushi places around town.
I can’t even recall the name of it right now. It is on the corner of Austin Bluffs and Academy on the East side, north of the intersection. (In the same place with the Underwater Connection)
The last time I blogged about Sushi saving the world from destruction, I was living in Denver. Still working at Transfirst. That place was good.
I have started reading Digital Fortress, which I’ve already seen the formula. Honestly, Dan Brown has 1 formula, and so far it only generally works for his character of Robert Langdon. Mother of Mine and I discussed that while at dinner, it’s because Robert Langdon is a character we can like.
Personally, he’s a character that I’ve always looked at as what I like in the male species if I could find one. – What can I say, I’ve academia in my blood. Though my specific generation of the family tree has been unable to attend the ivy covered walls, “Professor” was always on the list of acceptable professions of my non existent future husband. The one caveat being of course that I don’t care how sweet the little coeds are, there is no way in hell that he’d get away with any dalliance. Which I’m going to stop that paragraph right there, because my views are quite different than any of the normal views when it comes to that discussion.
I digress, Robert Langdon is a character I like. So I look forward to reading the next book. Won’t buy it. Nope I’d rather Diana Gabaldon get higher on the list than him. But Katte already has the book, has finished the book, and it will most likely be coming home with Mother of Mine at the end of this weekend, which it will take her 2 nights at most to read it, then she’ll pass it to me.
Where was I?
Oh yes, Digital Fortress. I’m reading it. Most likely won’t like it, as I can already see flaws in the actual guts of the theory. (which is sad, since I’m no where near proficient in mathematics to ever actually work with crpyto at all. Even though it fascinates me, and always has. But if I can already see the flaws, that is sayin’ something.)
The plans for the weekend as of right now: start organizing the house to be able to clean the carpets.
Possibly dye yarn. My dyes arrived today. I’ve got yarn.
Last night I was once again inspired to dye some Avalanche inspired socks.
I think I have decided that my sports team yarns shall be self striping. We’ll see how it goes.
The reason for the Avalanche inspiration, was because the 1st game of the season was last night, and I caught the first 5 minutes.
It was also the Farewell tribute to Joe Sakic, who retired. *sniff sniff*
By the way, the Avs won against the San Jose Sharks. It’s cute because one of my Ravelry friends is a huge Sharks fan. She’s the one who actually reminded me that the game was last night.
I hadn’t planned on catching the game at all, because I never actually do. I generally miss it for various reasons. But I finished watching a recording of Cyrano De Bergerac with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner (and Eric Sarandon..) whom all were fabulous. But I just happened to flip channels right and landed on the hockey channel. (No I don’t actually have the hockey channel, but last night was hockey night so whatever sports channel I was on was hockey-centric. Saw the last few minutes of the Toronto game before the start of the Avs game. I will admit it revved my inner hockey gal for the season.)
Last night while watching Cyrano, I got a bunch knitted on my Legal Assassin sock. I’m happy with it so far. Don’t think it needs any tweaking at all. So we’ll see what people think of the finished product.
Wow. Look at all this rambling. Didn’tcha miss me?
I won’t say I’m “back” yet. But it looks like I’m starting to get there.
Just gotta survive October at this point.
Alright, I’m done. The tummy is not happy with all the lack luster sushi (prolly all the salt from the salmon.. seriously… I’ve never had salmon that salty and there was a lot of salmon)
Oh one last thing. Absolutely adorable. It got cold enough last night that Pan was huddled against me right from the start, and almost even crawled under the covers at one point. It would have been even more adorable if he hadn’t been waking me up for the petting that was him nearly crawling under the covers.
Thats it. I’m done.
Night folks.
Echo in the Tardis… err.. Bone. Diana Gabaldon book signing.
I am such a bad blogger. I promise, when Hell is over I shall be back to my overly verbose writing updates.
Work has been killing me. I kid you not.
I even had to take a mental health day this week. Before one of my superiors reads this and fires me, I very much felt sick and had the start of one of my poundy headaches. You know I don’t call in sick if I’m not, so please don’t fire me. I couldn’t come into work because I was not physically capable to do so.
Speaking of work, it has gotten easier in the aspect of the actual work. Today I only had to ask for assistance twice, and it wasn’t actually “what do I do” type questions, it was the “This is how I think I should code the ticket, and I do not want it bounced back, is this correct?”
I’m on the Approved Escalation List, have been for a week now. I could have been on it as of 2 weeks, now but I had chosen not to. I did not feel I was ready. Now I am, and so far nothing has come back as a feedback. My current team lead is not the kind to hold or delay “coaching” someone, so I’m pretty sure that there hasn’t been one.
But yes, work is killing me. The mad rush of beginning of the school year is starting to calm a bit, but then the politics come into play, and still makes tons of work.
I’ve realized one of the reasons I dislike my job…
I am good at it.
What do I mean by that? I mean that I actually know what I’m doing, and how to do it. So I get through my calls rather quickly. Which means I am doing 2 to 3 times as much work as everyone else on my team (and I have the daily stats to prove it.)
This means I also burn out faster. But I cannot slow down, I cannot purposefully make calls last longer, it just is not possible.
It was just like how I started on Postal.
The thing that saved me was actually getting onto Backlogs, I was able to pace myself a bit more, and even then I still did more work than everyone else, but I didn’t have the constant beep in my ear, and I was able to research the problem before I ever had to speak to the client.
It was my manager’s wish here on DOE to eventually get me on “Contacts” (aka Backlogs), but there is nothing they can do to get me started on that till after September is over at the very earliest.
I digress, lets move along.
Wednesday, after a particularly bad day (back was tweaking, people were horrid… the usual.) I get an email from Mother of Mine stating that we didn’t have a choice, we were going to drive to Denver for the Echo in the Bone release and book signing of Diana Gabaldon.
Mind you, all I had wanted to do was curl up in my jammies and sleep. If I closed my eyes for a moment, I would honestly fall asleep.
But, Katte had gotten us tickets for our spot in the signing line.
Mother of Mine and I drove to Denver and went to Baja Fresh for dinner before going to The Tattered Cover in Highlands Ranch.
We got good seats in mad crowd of people, and as Katte so elegantly put it “Well at least I’m touching butts with girls I know” – mind you, she had the benefit of being wedged between Michelle and Myself. So every boob to elbow collision and cheek to cheek bump was nothing new for us. (Come on, we’ve known each other for about 10 years now) Katte was lucky sharing bum space with us, as I unfortunately had to touch a half tock with a stranger! Oh well, at least here was no boob to elbow collision with the stranger.
Diana aka ‘Herself was absolutely amazing.
I learned something that I did not know.
Outlander, when it was in it’s original blank pages of “What do I want to write about”, was inspired in part by an old episode of Doctor Who.
“There was this image of a fine figure in a kilt. And at that point, I thought “hmm… Scotland would be nice”” (I’m paraphrasing of course, but I was rather exhausted and cannot be required to remember every word. I just don’t have the mental ability. -I honestly can’t wait to get the full use of my facilities again)
Diana is a talker. She loves her digressions. (and that, is her verbage)
She did a reading from Echo, which to be quite honest had all of us blushing in our seats. (Thank goodness there were no small ears in the crowd!)
I shall share a line from the reading, it’s in truth the only line I can remember… well.. other than the last line.. but I’m not going to share that because… well.. I’m ebbbil.
“I haven’t seen you naked in 6 months. Which means you’ll be the best thing I’ve seen in 6 months.” Jamie to Claire. (And forgive if I got any wording wrong, it’s past my bedtime, and read the disclaimer above)
Oh, I bought a copy of course. I couldn’t not. I have all the other books signed…. Oh shoot.. I don’t. I forgot that I do not have a full collection, as I do not own a copy of Fiery Cross, nor Breath of Snow and Ashes. Those are Mother of Mine’s copies. Oh well, it’s not like I could afford to buy them that night as it was.
Hunny of Mine is jealous that I got to go to the signing. Mind you, he’s currently in Singapore at the Grand Prix. Jealous? Moi? Never. 😉 (He keeps sending me messages while he’s in the Executive Lounge of the hotel eating sushi and drinking Gin and Tonics… the lucky bast… lucky bloke)
I politely informed Hunny of Mine, that we will of course just have to go to Scotland when Diana is in on her yearly visits. I shall of course by then have my full set again. And of course Hunny of Mine will have actually been introduced to the books properly. (I can’t recall at the moment if he has actually been able to read them or not, but if he hasn’t I do know he is intrigued by them.)
All in all, I had a wonderful time at the signing. For photos, and other anecdotes you can go read them at Mother of Mine’s blog here.
One last note before I go. Diana has given me hope. She didn’t start writing Outlander until she was 35. Mind you, she was very lucky when it came to landing an agent. In fact, she got what every author dreams of. I doubt I’ll ever be that lucky, but at least I know that even at 35, one can start a persons dream. Oh, and she was amused that the last time I saw her was when Drums of Autumn was coming out, and it was in California and I was like 12 or 13.
Oh, big news involving “The Wedding”, so I didn’t blog about it, which I’m glad about. But with Guy coming to town in December, there had been chatter about having a handfasting while he was here. Just a small intimate thing with a few friends. Then of course as these things do.. it spiraled. No.. snowballed. Suddenly it was becoming an actual wedding.
Between the stress from a wedding I wasn’t wanting to deal with and work, I snapped. I reached my breaking point. There were constant tears, fighting etc.
I finally reached a decision.
I called it off.
Back to what was Plan A.
IF there is a Handfasting, it will be at my going away party in June. It will be casual, it will not have any pomp and circumstance, and it will just be Myself and Guy getting handfasted with my family and friends.
The actual wedding will happen in October, and will be in England. I feel bad that a lot (most) people in the US won’t be able to attend. But unfortunately, I’m not going to feel too guilty. I do not have the ability to pay for the plane tickets of everyone I want to be there, so I am not going to stress out over things I have no control over. If someone really wants to be there, they will make it happen. I cannot. If they cannot be there, they will be there in spirit, and will be in my thoughts.
I have a wonderful Hunny to Be, who is being wonderful and is researching places for us. He’s got some favors tucked away in his sleeves, but no matter where we end up having the wedding, it will be fantastic. (Alright, just heard Christopher Ecclestons voice right there… Can this blog get anymore Whovian? Oh yes it can.. stay tuned)
I am contemplating the Doomsday song as my down the aisle song. It’s beautiful, it’s mostly instrumental, and it would be quirky at a wedding, just like me.
Which of course means, Song for Ten would need to be played at the reception, and if that is played, then Love Don’t Roam also needs to be played. Ah, the “Ten” song trifecta.
Oh, completely random. Mother of Mine just finished watching an eerie British show from the 70’s called “The Children of the Stones” which even if we hadn’t just come back from a book signing of Diana’s, and both are champing at the bit to start reading Echo in the Bone, would have still immediately gone “oh my gawd, this reminds us of Outlander”
Standing circle of stones.
Buzzing coming from the stones.
when you touch the stones, you hear screaming, and get flung multiple feet away.
Time being manipulated by the stones.
Some people being “sensitive” to the stones.
Honestly, thats the quickest synopsis of the show. But it screams of Outlander. And it made us wonder since we just found out that Outlander was originally partly inspired by a British show from the 70s..it made us wonder if also this little obscure show was also partly inspiring it. Or even if she knew about it at all.
Alright, I guess I’m done babbling for now.
Current book:
Fatal Journey by Kathy Reichs
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
I have to admit, I really do like both covers. I’m not sure which one I like more. I know of course the US cover is the one Diana has been wanting for years.
Ramblings of the insane, and a few reviews.
Last night Mother of Mine and I watched Australia.
I must admit, that when I originally saw the trailers for it… I thought “hmmm looks like something I want to see.. but it looks like something I’d need to be in the mood for”
Which is why it hadn’t been watched until now.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a HUGE fan of Baz Luhrman. I do in fact own the Red Curtain Collection, and Strictly Ballroom has been one of my all time favorite movies.
I’m also a huge fan of Hugh Jackman. I mean, heck… I once recorded a PBS showing of Oklahoma! because he was in it. (I managed to somehow not watch it before I accidentally recorded over it, but you still get the point.)
Now, one of the reasons I was meh about watching it, was because I just have to be in a mood to watch one of her movies. I’m not saying she’s a bad actress… I’m just saying I tend to have to be in a mood.
But Australia finally came in last night at the library.
Now, the first thing I will say… is if the trailers had actually shown what most of the movie was about… I would have watched it a LONG time ago.
The trailers made it seem that the movie was ONLY about War coming to Australia.
And also, that it was because of the war that Lady Ashely (Nicole Kidman’s character) goes to Australia for.
Without giving away the movie.. I’ll say, that only about the last half to last quarter of the movie has anything to actually do with the war.
Ironically, I’m glad that I’ve watched McLeod’s Daughters a bit prior to watching Australia, because if I hadn’t… I think all the Droving, would have just made me think of City Slickers (you know… Billy Crystal). Which, though there were a few times I snorted thinking about that movie… I was glad my mind was flicking more back and forth between what was on the screen and the droving of McLeod’s Daughters. (Mostly, I was just thinking about the “Station House” and how something can in fact have been around for over 100 years, and doing the exact same thing as it was built for originally.)
The movie, very much had Baz’s signature flair. OR at least, the very beginning did. There was no doubt in my mind watching the first 30 minutes of the movie that this was in fact a Baz Luhrman film.
The music was very gorgeous, and of course I ended up going to bed having “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in my head. Which, if you see the movie, you’ll understand.
The cinematography was absolutely without a doubt breath takingly gorgeous. And they did such a great job with the Green Screen, that you can only tell it was employed in very few scenes. I don’t know how many it was actually used in, but there are some where you could tell. Which, there were obvious reasons for it.
Wicked’s vote: I’ll own this someday. (And thats saying something!)
Moving along…
I quickly read over the weekend, the latest book by Joanne Fluke.
Cream Puff Murder.
I have to admit, though this book was slightly annoying in the aspect that it was mostly centered around Hannah’s waistline and the need to loose a few pounds.
The person who died in this one… I, like others am very glad to see dead.
Mike, one of Hannah’s two boyfriends… I have decided I do not like. Originally, I used to be more Team Mike rather than Team Norman. I mean.. who wouldn’t want the hot police detective as opposed to the slightly normal looking dentist. Dentists have the highest rate of suicidal tendencies per year. Perhaps I’m the only who thinks about that in the grand scheme of things when it comes to choosing a partner.
Yes, Mike has more danger when it comes to his profession, but is less likely to kill himself when it comes down to it.
Right now, I’m definitely more in the Team Norman camp. I’d kill for his house. lol.
Almost through with Sandman Volume 3 by Neil Gaiman.
Started reading Summer Knight again by Jim Butcher. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish it this time before it’s due back at the library or one of my other “gotta read this now because there is a waiting list a mile long” books comes in.
That means Sookie has been put down for the moment.
Oh, on completely random news. I got something really cool, and I don’t recall if I had talked about it yet or not.
Leslie over at Dv’yne Writes, has a contest every month for those who subscribe to her news letter. As I have known Leslie for years thanks to the Colorado Ren Faire… and I’ve owned at least one of her notebooks, and have lusted over many more of them.. I of course would be a subscriber to her latest news. I mean, I never would have known about her awesome leather covers for say.. Harry Potter, or the other books she has.. I mean amazing work.
Well, I happened to win this months free journal give away.
It arrived quickly, as well.. she lives only about 70 miles away from me. Ironically, the journal via the post office, would have traveled more than that, because though she lives in Littleton, I’m willing to bet it had to go to Denver (north), then back south to me.
I opened up the box, and was BLOWN away. I mean absolutely blown away by what I found.
I was expecting one of the little soft sided refillable notebooks.. (like the one I have) I mean, it’s one of the less expensive books she sells (which is why I have it. I mean I bought mine at least 10 years ago, and I could never afford any of the more expensive ones), and one generally figures that for a free give away, it would not be an expensive one.
Well, the journal I got was a 60$ slightly hardsided non refillable journal.
Sad news is that Leslie will not be at CRF anymore. She officially sold her booth, and is moving on to other things. I wish her luck though, and I don’t blame her for wanting to move along. CRF was not a money maker for her in the recent years (I know this due to having a friend who worked her booth for a few seasons) I’m sure she also has other reasons for moving along. She will be missed.
Moving along…
Yesterday.. or was it the day before? I got an idea into my head. This is always dangerous. As I should have been writing or knitting. Not painstakingly editing a photo so that I can maybe make it work in a chart, and then attempt to knit it up.
If this works, it will be FREAKING AWESOME.
If it doesn’t work… I will be once again reminded why I do not like socks. lol.
I won’t really say what I’m working on yet… but I will say this.. “Wuv… True Wuv”
Hmmm I wonder if this can count as part of my Read/Knit Along? I’ll have to see.
Alright. I guess I’m done rambling for now. I guess I should try to write.
Oh, and I must say.. .even though I put down Alex and her world of vamps… they are still talking in my head. Constantly.
Which recently has come up a lot it seems. Marissa commented on her blog, how writing is an acceptable form of schizophrenia. I agree with that statement. (Mind you, I was paraphrasing) It reminded me of the introduction in the first volume of “Comedity”, where Garth talks about his friend’s experience when it came to being a writer.
His friend had a high paying job (he delivered payroll in his own car, through nasty parts of town.. so he was really really well paid due to the danger involved). He quit his job to become a writer and work on his novel. Well, of course when Tax time came around, he went from reporting a lot of income to reporting 0 income for the year. He of course was audited. He went in sweating and freaking out, and having everything he could possibly have ready to explain his expenses for the last year, and when the taxman asked “so… why did you go from reporting _____ much, to reporting nothing”
Friend: “Well sir. I quit my job to write”
Taxman: “Oh.” *scribble and rubber stamp* “We’re done.”
Friend: “What?”
Taxman: “You are crazy. And this crazy is explainable. Have a good day.”
Apparently, per the IRS, writers are insane, as we will willingly go from having high paid careers (ha i wish) to having zero income for a year or more.
(Again, paraphrasing.. but the words crazy, and insane were actually used, and the convo was that short. I’m not willing to dig out my copy of Comedity right now as it is upstairs)
So not only are we schizophrenic, but we per the taxman are also insane.
This makes sense to me. As I remember sitting in my 2nd period class my Sophomore year of highschool working on a play I was writing.. my first one “Just an ordinary day… like no other”, and my friend Nikki (not the crazy Irish one, but slightly Hispanic one) asked me how I could write what I was writing. I mean, 70 pages of dialogue? She wanted to know where it came from. I couldn’t explain it other than “I just hear them talking.” And it’s true. It’s also the reason I only wrote plays for the longest time.. Because I could hear the voices, but I sucked at the “The color of the mountains at dawn reminded me of a glass of sherry held up to the light coming in from the window.” That kind of stuff.. I sucked at it back then. I wrote poems and plays. That was me.
I’m partly still sucky at it, I have to force myself to do description, and thats partly why I end up putting down somethings I’m working on. Actually, that is one of the reasons I had to put Alex down, Denver and it’s descriptions were kicking my ass lol. I digress..
Is it insanity, when I clearly hear entire conversations of people who do not exist? If I never put my pen to paper, and I only just spoke of the convos… would I have been forced to undergo meeting with psychiatrists? No, I don’t think so. Mostly because I come from a family where we tend to embrace our creativity in all it’s forms. (or at least we do now)
I was never a child who had “imaginary friends” or at least none that I remember. I don’t consider the voices I’ve always heard my imaginary friends. Though, these voices in my head tend to be best friends. So, I guess in fact they are the epitome of what one would call an imaginary friend.
Well.. I’m rambling.. so I guess I’ll leave it here. But yes, I guess I just confirmed what all of you have thought of me for years. I’m absolutely bonkers. 😉
I think the only thing that really drives me crazy, is not only do I have Alex, Daniel and Kit talking in my head right now, but I’ve got my people from my new novel chattering as well. It can get confusing at times lol.
Oh and the final note. My gods… homemade chocolate chip cream cheese rolls.. are just still so wonderful.. no matter how many times I make them.
Twice cursed
Okay, lets just say that if I think of something to post, and don’t post it that day… I for the life of me cannot recall what I wanted to post. So yes, you all are missing out on some witty quips because I’m too exhausted when I get home to post them.
This one I remembered.
Yesterday Mother of Mine and I were twice cursed by the same curse.
Mother of Mine made Lemon Bars as a little while ago we mentioned them and then went “Ooooh that’d be really good right now, and we have all those lemons”
Well, as Mother of Mine puts it “The bottom was cooked too much and the middle lemony part was not cooked enough.” (We forgot to adjust anything for altitude, and I honestly don’t believe we’ve made Lemon bars while living in Colorado. Having a daughter who is allergic to citrus like that tends to not make them high on the list.)
They were still quite yummy, they just require a fork to eat them. And my craving for lemony goodness has now been sated for another 10 years. The remainder of the bars will go with Mother of Mine to her quilt guild thingie today so that they are out of the house.
Also yesterday when I got home, I had been craving cream cheese filling/frosting. Don’t ask why.. I just was. This was before I knew mom was making Lemon Bars.
But so I started whipping up a batch. It didn’t taste right. I didn’t do anything different than I ever do. (Mayhaps it was that I didn’t measure the powdered sugar??)
No.. it was the curse.
For those who don’t know… I am cursed. If I have a craving for something, it will inevitably taste… wrong. It does not matter if I make it, or go out and buy it. Or heck.. have it at a restaurant. If it’s something that I’m craving (and yes, it has to be a craving.. you know… the kind that just stay with you until you give in.. that kind of craving).. it will just not be right.
This is highly annoying for obvious reasons.
The frosting, I have decided I will make the other part of it’s original purpose, and that will be to make my chocolate chip cream cheese rolls. The frosting/filling, on my tongue tasted odd, will be just fine paired with the rolls it is originally meant for. Perhaps it was just my tastebuds being funny.
So this weekend, I shall dust off the bread machine and whip up some of the dough.
This week at work, (and yes I realize it’s only Wednesday) has been… well not off to a good start. Thanks to the pesky earthquake in California on Monday, over 700 email servers went down. That meant.. I was busy. Everyone whining that they don’t have their email.
We have finally caught up, but thats only because I worked my ass off and have already worked 241 billable tickets. Lets put this in perspective… Normally, I try to make sure I have 80 tickets… for the entire week. Anything above that is just gravy. So yes… I am exhausted.
At home:
I’ve been reading Absolute Sandman vol 3- don’t know how I feel about this one yet. It’s good.. but I don’t know about the story.. Delirium is not my favorite character… Neither is Despair.
Also been rereading Dead Until Dark. It’s amazing to remember how much I liked Bill at first.
Haven’t been knitting the last few nights because I’m just too tired to deal with it mentally.
Been watching some of McLeod’s Daughters (season 3) I really do need to go back and watch the earlier seasons, as I never ended up seeing them whilst my mom had them from the library. The show is good, and now I’m hooked. So back to the beginning it is for me. And by the way.. Season 3 is like… Sigh.. they were evil.
The heat is becoming an increasing issue. I can tell already that it will be a brutal summer, and my sleep is already becoming sporadic.
Okay, I guess I’ve rambled enough for now.
Bugs and Kisses people.
Sandman… bring me a dream…
So last night, as I was crawling into bed…
I got a thought about a colorway I’d love to do when I start dyeing.
It was quiet appropriate as I dreamed it up in bed, as the colorway involves Sandman himself.
I won’t go into details about it, because well.. I don’t want people to steal my idea before I get the chance to dye him up. But if he turns out how I thought of him… it’ll be gorgeous.
Unfortunately, it means I will definitely need to buy the Absolute Sandman, as my reference images are no where to be found online.
Hmm… perhaps if I actually wait till after I start my business, I can do it as a tax write off? Sigh.. I’ll keep those thoughts at bay till I actually move. I will definitely need to consult a tax person over there, as I know nothing when it comes to the taxes of the UK.
I have decided that I will in fact be signing up for the Dyeing class at my local yarn shop, as I really do want to make sure I’ve got some talent for this- and I’m a visual person.. I can only glean so much from tutorials etc, I need to get my hands dirty so to speak. So, for 30$ I can get class instruction and dye up a skein or two. I think I have some ideas for what colors I want to play with in the class. Well, thats if they let me. I don’t know if they’ll let me do the stripey style in the class or if they will be having us do non variegation yarn.
Well, if I don’t stop yapping now, I’ll end up babbling, and I’ll most likely end up babbling about the colorway.
So… Bugs and Hisses everyone.
Frogged and A Hot Fairy Tale
I do feel like such a slacker for not having written any of AHDB recently, but the stress of normal life, was making me unable to write as my cathartic release.
I’ve been knitting instead.
I started to teach myself how to do Cables, so that I could get a leg up on the Alexandra coat that I’ve been talking about for months.
I’m very, very glad that I decided to give it a go with normal yarn as opposed to my Lucien. (Which, I know has been dyed, but I have not received due to the “club” nature of it. I’ll get my first two skeins of it in the next few weeks)
I was banging my head against the wall trying to do the cable chart, and then I finally said screw it, and cast on the entire project, as if I’m doing it entirely.
Well, I discovered my first problem. I was counting the chart as 26 stitches, instead of the 25 it actually was. That was just my mind merging a symbol that looked like another symbol, hence getting 26 instead of 25.
But, once I got past that, I discovered other problems. I didn’t get 7 rows before I ran into this problem.
After frogging and putting it back on at least half a dozen times, I gave up and started poking about online.
Thats when I made a significant discovery. Everyone (minus one person) has had extreme problems with the pattern. There are many bugs in it, and entire parts missing from the instructions.
Woohoo. This means it’s not me messing it up! It means that it’s just a bad pattern.
Well, one of the girls I was chatting with, talked about picking up the project again and completely rewriting the pattern, but she hadn’t thought about that in forever (really not since she had put down the pattern in the first place)
But, me chatting with her reminded her how much she loved the sweater and how it looks, and thus is inspired to possibly pick it up again. If she does, she’ll send me the pattern. Which at this point, I’d trust her pattern over the original author any day. (The author put errata up on the pattern site, only after the girl I was chatting with pointed out the mistakes, and it doesn’t count all the mistakes)
I’m about to start Marissa’s project, as I picked up the last skein of yarn I needed today.
This, most definitely might count as the “neat thing” & holiday gift, as it is quite a well.. it’s a good project. I hope she’ll like it.
Everyone else is just getting a little small item.
I am also, starting a “Princess Bride Read-Knit-Along”
I’ve never read the Princess Bride.. I remember starting it in the 5th grade, but that was the day before school was ending, and I couldn’t borrow the book from my friend. So I read a total of 1 page before I had to give it back, and somehow it has managed to not make it in my reading pile all these years. So I have till June 21st to finish reading the book and knit something related to The Princess Bride.
I now have a copy of the book, as I finally checked out “Hooked on Books” which is not far from my house. I like it much more than The Book Rack. But still not as impressed. I guess I’m just spoiled thanks to The Bookworm (Boulder).
The version I have is amusing. I think it was a cover that was directed towards the adults rather than kids. It’s got artwork from like the 80’s. But the back… the back is amusing..
“What Happens-
When the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince in the world and he turns out to be a son of a bitch?”
I also picked up:
Death Du Jour by Kathy Reitchs, it’s the next in the Bones books.
Shakespeare’s Landlord by Charlaine Harris, first in the Shakespeare series
Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris, 4th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series – mmm Eric. love him.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, woohoo.. finally gonna get to read it.
I was able to justify buying the books, because I only spend 23$ for all the books, and they are all books I plan on sending to Guy to read during the summer break and books to get him through exam times etc.
We ended up going to the bead store, and I’m honestly surprised how much I got for as little as I spent. Mother of Mine had a 5$ gift certificate, so with buying a bead for her, I only ended up spending 3$ (and 1.60$ of that was the bead for her)
Oh, random knitting note (sorry, typing past my bed time.. what do you expect?)
Having figured out how to DO cables, I have now accomplished one of my two main goals for the year. The next is to tackle simple socks. Woohoo.
Mother of Mine and I hunted slightly for Easter dinner. Which I can’t recall if I’ve spoken of or not.
Now as you all know, I do not celebrate the christian holidays as I am not christian. But as Mother of Mine is connecting with her church and stuff like that, I am supportive of her. So I was sitting there thinking what we might want for Easter dinner, because she’ll want to have something nice.
And really, the only thing that came to my mind was “Hmmm.. Rabbit would be nice.”
Yes, I am that twisted.
Rabbit on Easter. bwhahahahaha
Unfortunately, the rabbit is not meant to be (this year). We left of inquiring about it till today, and the only kind we would be able to get would be whole (ugh) and frozen.
Nope, won’t work for this year.
Oh, random jump.. sorry again..
I finally found the damn buttons. Remember the quest for the buttons? I hadn’t gone to JoAnn’s. Honesty I just should have looked there first. Perfect purple buttons, and I’m slick enough that they are the perfect size. Again, they were 50% off. SWEEET.
They are even stitched on to the leg warmers. So, as soon as Mother of Mine finishes weaving in the ends (i did the buttons, but it was her knitting project) i’ll get to wear them, and will also post photos.
The purple was a grand choice and goes well with the blue. Woohoo!
Random: watching Alias season two.. and it is just always weird to see a Russian Cowboy bar and Russian cowboy songs it is not new, but it still amuses me (First time I ever saw it was of course James Bond, Goldeneye. But that was still in english)
Work: It was a rough beginning of the week just because things were changed and other things were in the spotlight. Nothing was my fault as I wasn’t there. But it was blown out of proportion due to it being something that really NEVER happens. It just happened to happen and it bit us. (Mostly, the only reason it happened at all, is because one of our agents screwed up in the first place. Then things just slipped)
So that lead to meetings, and more meetings, and more meetings. Which just made it an unbelievably tiresome and hectic week, and made me freak out about my job. I really do just need to remember to take a deep breath and remember that I am a good worker, and I do my job, and that I’m not one of the people they want to let go.
It didn’t help my mindset either to find out that another one of my Ravelry buddies ended up being let go this week as well. It was completely out of the blue, which is another reason everything that happened made me so freaked.
I should stop rambling about it. As I am rambling as I am quite tired.
Later peoples…
Oh, one last note:
Doctor Who season 4… FREAKING AWESOME!
We just finished watching it. And OH MY GODS.
I still don’t like Catherine Tate, but I do like Donna a bit more.
And everything else… just… wow.. wow wow wow wow.
Another random note:
I have an entire rant to post soon, but I’m too tired to try to rant about it now, and when I first went to rant about it, Blogger didn’t want to work on my work computer. So, I’ve got it sitting waiting for ranting.
Dream, Snow, and Sookie
Alright, while it’s fresh in my thoughts..
I just finished reading The Absolute Sandman Vol 2.
And I say just finished, as I also just started it. I quite literally read it all in one go. (Okay, not just one go as I did get up and use the ladies at least twice)
But I gotta say wow!
Vol 1, took me at least a week to read. And that was with skipping an entire section because the art and the story was absolutely of no interest to me.
But Vol 2 I just zoomed through. And I didn’t skip over any of the stories.
I can’t wait to own it. Because yes, I will own it some day.
And actually, it has made me ponder some colorways that would be awesome. Nope. Not allowed to start dyeing yet. Nope. Won’t do it. But I know I’ll look through the book again later when I do start dyeing and such like that.
Also I really shouldn’t ponder a project after reading that book, as it’s making my brain go into many different paths of ideas.
A friend of mine posted a 5 People Gift giving Pay it forward type thing. The gist of it is, you post the note, and the first 5 people to respond will get something made by you. Rules are though that they must also post the note, do the same for the first 5 people, and also make something for you. So, she is making something for me, and I am making something for her.
As this was done on my facebook, if I don’t get enough people responding, I will post it here for all my non facebook people.
Now onto Sookie…
I made a project that I have dubbed “Sookie Stackhouse Laceup Sexahhness”
Jen at Fresh from the Cauldron sent me a ball of her Sookie Stackhouse colorway, which is a silk base. It wasn’t much, it was roughly… about the size of a Leprechaun’s ball. (Oh yes, that just gave you a mental image you won’t be able to escape from)
The yardage wasn’t important, it was simply so that I could knit it up, see how my hands react during the knitting, and then also how the swatch would be against my skin.
Well, me being me.. I couldn’t just do a boring swatch.
So instead I did a laceup wristwarmer.
Seed Stitch because I think it’s so pretty.
And, I also taught myself how to do something I didn’t know how to do before.
a 3 row buttonhole. I can honestly say, that this is my most favorite buttonhole that I have yet done. It was so simple.
Now, of course I will post photos, but unfortunately my camera sucks, and there is no way to turn off the auto focus, so there is never any way I can take a good photo of seed stitch at all.
So the photos do NOT do this little wrist warmer any justice.
Now on to my discussion about snow.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that this portion of the country has had some extreme weather.
We had a Blizzard.
No big deal right?
Well, this is the first time in more years that I know, where they called it a Blizzard before it hit. Previously, they would just call it a “severe storm” and then when it was over they would call it a Blizzard.
All day long while at work yesterday I was watching the weather reports…
At 9:00am I went outside, and it was sunny. You couldn’t see the mountain (Pikes) but that wasn’t uncommon.
By 12:00pm, apparently it was snowing.
I went out at 12:30pm and it was really snowing.
I flicked on the traffic cams, and saw that things were getting worse.
So at 1:00 I made the decision to leave early. you all know how I feel about driving in bad weather …
Well Janice and I did the buddy system driving home. Which was comdedic.
Oh well, first I had to clear off my car, which was a miserable experience. Because I didn’t wear a hat. So my hair was drenched and my ear was frozen. My hair wasn’t just drenched, it was frozen.
Janice and I forgot to exchange phone numbers. Mistake. Whoops.
The plan was, that we were taking the safest route home, and she was going to break off from following me at Academy and Woodman. (where I turn right, and she would go forward)
Well, we get to Academy, and she’s turning along with me.
I’m making hand signals out the window because I was like “dude did you miss it? that was woodman!”
then, I notice she’s got a sign in her front window she’s holding up (yes, this is all while we are driving on very bad roads with cars) that says “Call me” and her number.
Which I could not for the life of me see the number. Even when we were stopped at one point I opened my car door leaning out to look at the number. I was of course blinded by the snow so I couldn’t see the numbers.
We pulled off into a parking lot (the first chance we had) and she informed me that a friend of her’s had just been on Powers (the road that runs parallel to Academy for the most part and was going to be her route home to avoid the bad hills) and that there was a huge accident. So she was going to go down Academy with me and cut over after the bad hills.
Back in the car I go, and once again we start making the trek. The weather is getting worse and worse, and it’s just about to become 2pm. Then I run into traffic before Dublin. There is this little bit of a hill there. Which I had forgotten about, but there is no good way to avoid it. It’s the least of all the hills going that direction.
Well, in my previous car, I remember having problems on that little hill before. So I was nervous for good reason. Though, so far my car Byron had done fabulously on all the little inclines we had. Mind you, I had been coaxing and praising and encouraging my car the entire time. Yes, it would have been amusing if anyone had heard me.
But so Byron makes it up the hill without giving me any fits at all. Though, there were newer and fancier cars that were abandoned in the middle of the road at the median, and one that was being pushed up the hill by a nice guy with a big truck.
So I was honestly shocked that my car did so well.
I didn’t want to risk the hill on the street before my neighborhood, as that is the one where I had my first experience of not making it up a hill and having to maneuver back down. So I just went around to the only other option on getting into my neighborhood. It worked though because it let me out at the top of the hill instead of at the bottom.
Yup, I got home safely. It only took me an hour and 15 minutes instead of the normal 7-10 minutes it normally takes me. But man am I glad I did leave early.
I slept restlessly, as I could hear the storm and my neighbor’s wind chime all night (seriously.. I hope that stupid chime might ‘disappear’ someday. )
So at 4 am, I got out of bed. Looked outside. Saw the 3-4 foot drifts around my car. (Thats what happens when you have a end of the row parking space)
i fire up the laptop, and check the traffic cams.
Not many cars on the road, and the roads don’t look bad. At first glance. But I noticed that there was a suspicious gleam.. that meant ice.
I make the decision that I’m not going to risk it. Not at 4am with no other cars on the road.
I go back to bed.
Janice texts me around 645 asking me if I was going into work.
I tell her my reasons why I wasn’t but that I hadn’t checked the roads in a while. She was going to see if her fiance made it to work then make her decision.
Daniel then texts me 730 (or something like that) asking the same things. Only he doesn’t have inet right now so he can’t check the cams himself.
So I get out of my nice warm bed and fire up the laptop. I really did need the update so I didn’t mind.
I see more cars on the roads, but they are all 4wheel drive type vehicles. And things still looked icy.
Janice then texts me again after I’ve gone back to bed, and informs me that she attempted to go out on the roads (in her big 4wheel drive suv) and didn’t make it far before she gave up. Apparently it was really slick. At this point, I’m not feeling guilty about not attempting.. I don’t have 4wheel drive. And I have to replace one of my wiper blades. Specifically the driver side one. The rubber has decided disconnect from the metal. So really, it is useless. Which means if the roads turn into Splashback, I’d be screwed before I could even get to the store.
And guess what happened after the sun came up? The ice started melting, and splashback is the huge issue right now.
Yeah.. I’m not going anywhere until tomorrow at the earliest.
Yes, the sun is out and things are melting. And I possibly could have gone to work after 12.. but I still wouldn’t get all the hours I’ve lost due to the weather, and it would also mean staying till after the sun set. Which no… not doing. So the amount of hours I could actually make up.. wouldn’t be worth it.
So yesterday and today I’ve been watching Andromeda season 1.
Oh and finished Witchblade. lesigh I miss that show. Though yes, season 2 got WEIRD.
I still love it. And I will still own my buell. And I think I’ve mentioned this already.. .
I’ve got a stack of dvd’s to get through… and I’m sure I think of a new knitting project.. and I can also finish reading the Sookie Stackhouse short story “Unusual Suspects”
Methinks I’ll finish it this afternoon. I would have finished it when I first started it, but I decided to put it down and then yesterday I was simply knitting.
I’m rambling.
Repo! and Coraline
So I know I’ve been a total slacker and haven’t posted anything recently, but I’ve been honestly busy, and exhausted.
So just a quicky about Repo, this shall be the very watered down version…
There I am, dressed, as the Grave Robber (I mean after all, he is the coolest character!)
I see someone dressed as Pavi.. I go to take my photo with him. There is someone standing in front of me.
That person turns around and looks directly at me and my knees went weak.
It was Terrence!
I completely did the speechless fan girl practically pissing herself with excitement.
He was highly amused with my reaction (you could tell by his expression)
He loved my costume, and we got many photos together (yes, I will link to photos when I finally pull them off my camera.)
I got to chat with him for a moment, and informed him about my plans:
1) I’m moving to the UK in 17 months and I want to do a weekly Repo type showing situation so I want to talk to him about that.
2) I got inspired to make a scarf inspired by the GraveRobber and when I’m finished it, I want to send it to him (honestly, you should have seen the expression on his face, it was so touching. He looked like I had just given him a puppy)
And 3) a bit about my novel, as there is a character homage to the graverobber (its a Steampunk novel) and I wanted to make sure that an ‘homage’ was alright. I don’t want to get sued.
Had to go inside, time for the film.
Got to hear all the stories from Darren, Terrence and Bill (yes, Bill Mosely.. Luigi himself!)
Watched the movie. Sang with every song.
After the show was autograph time.
Terrence was so cool and wrote a note about my costume on my poster. And he gave me some more info about another Road Tour going to the UK hopefully in the next few weeks, but thats still in the works.
All in all.. I had a fabulous time.
Pictures will be added soon. But I’m at work and don’t have access to them right now.
Alright, on to Coraline. Book was by Neil Gaiman
Mother of Mine went and saw it this past Sunday. I am so glad we did. Though my only real complaint is the 3D glasses they gave us were out of a hard plastic and therefore hurt both my mother and I in different places (pinched my ears, hurt her nose)
The movie was amazing. And it was MADE for 3D which was so cool. They did stray a little from the story, but all in all they didn’t do too badly, and the changes they made are understandably necessary.
Of course anyone who plans on seeing the movie I recommend to read the book first. It’s a quick read and won’t take you long at all. But it will make some things so much more amusing if you do.
The only MAJOR change they made was the addition of a new person. But, I see why they did it as to get it out of just being all Coraline all the time.
There was some amazing knitting in the movie, which yes.. those WERE real pieces of knitwear. Made on tiny needles by a person with far more paitence than I shall ever have. Think about it.. the scale was 1:8 (they were expecting 1:10, but she gave them 1:8!!!!!!)
Someone has already made the gloves, (in adult size) which I might have to someday make, and the sweater was neat as well.
All in all I had a lot of fun.
More posts to continue when I can finally function. work has just been insane, and I cannot wait for 16.5 months from now. Cause I’m just exhausted.
A Hard Days Bite, book reviews, and happy knitting.
So tonight, I did what I said I was going to do.
I sat down, without anyone around and worked a bit on the miscreant chapter 5.
Well, in truth I only worked on it a little. I worked on the end of it, which is where I was the most stuck.
I’ve got more I’ve got to work on in the middle of it, and bridge a few key areas, but the end is what was making me feel guilty- I just didn’t have a good feel going on the end of the chapter.
I moved on to chapter Six, which was written months ago… Honestly months ago. Like I had this chapter started before I even finished chapter 1. I might have to tweak 5 a little bit more to make 6 work a little more smoothly, and there are a few kinks, but we’ll see what James has to say about it.
It was a quiet evening in, which is what I needed.
Yesterday, I was stuck at the auto shop getting my car worked on. I was a good car mommy, and finally got the O2 sensor repaired. Gee… all in all, I’ve only got just over 800$ worth of work left on my car for it to be “spiffy”. But thats all normal stuff, like I need a new battery as mine most likely won’t last me to the summer. Or certainly not next winter. I need my coolant changed, as apparently it is Chocolate milk like right now. And a few other various things, but all in all no big deal. The expensive part is always the “labor” sigh.
Today I went out and bought myself a spiffy memory foam pillow, hopefully my neck won’t feel broke in the morning.
Went to the dreaded Walmart to pick up some sinus meds to avoid getting sick *knock on wood* and had a most horrible interaction while there. Seriously, employees were called over, and end result was Mother of Mine speaking to one of the managers to
inform them of how upset we were. I’m not going to go into details, but it’s all due to some crazy bitch who even went so far as to bust out and start screaming at me that she was going to “pray for me” WTF?! I didn’t do anything other walk past her.
Again, not going into it, but it was just bad.
Came home after that, and just chilled. Started laundry, took a shower, and started watching a few flicks.
Mother of Mine borrowed my car and drove to Denver (Littleton actually), for a Blair supper night with some of the clan members. Which allowed me to work on my knitting, and also work on my chapters.
So, quick little reviews:
Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke:
This one seemed a bit odd, as the story went everywhere but the investigation. Yes, there was investigating.. but it just seemed a bit scattered. You got to see more of the real Mike, and also more of Norman, and again I can’t seem to want to choose between the two of them. For a while there, I was very Team Norman, but now Mike has shown a side of him that really makes me like him more. The recipes were a little meh… I certainly won’t be frying candy bars any time soon, but the book was all in all enjoyable. Though one thing, yes the story seemed a bit scattered.. it didn’t seem like “filler” like previous novels.
Midnight Brunch by Marta Acosta:
I had the same issues with this one as I had with the first one. It feels like “wah wah wah. Everyone thinks I’m a slut because I’m Latino.” Where in truth, seriously.. if you dress like a slut.. what do you expect people to think?
The reason for her to stay at the spa was so plot contrived it was ridiculous. I don’t care how desperate someone is to prove themselves in a working way, if I was being treated like a doormat by some egotistical actor, and practically being blackmailed.. well they could kiss my ass. And for the main character who is supposed to be some “strong female” she did absolutely nothing but cave and give into every whim and demand of every man around her. The story was passable. And I still really _want_ to like the books. I may or may not give the 3rd book a try. It all depends on my mood. To be honest, the only character I have really grown to love is Edna.
The Day I Swapped my Dad for two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman:
Absolutely adorable and fantastic a story.I cannot wait to own it and read it to my future children. Neil Gaiman is once again brilliant with his story, and it was a very endearing story on how sometimes what you have is better than what you think you want, and what you’ll do to get what you want. Most certainly a brilliant read for both adults and children alike.
I know i have a few more books that I’ve read recently, but meh… just ask if you want to know about them.
I’ve also been watching a few things recently:
I just watched “The Incredible Hulk”
Okay, I actually enjoyed this one. Ed Norton is always meh in my opinion. But the fact that they had a cameo with Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark (Iron Man) was totally awesome. It wasn’t nearly the garbage that they did a few years ago. Including a cameo with the original Hulk. Come on.. you gotta love that!
Tim Roth is like as always the best baddie in the world. I love him.
The Journey to the Center of the Earth:
I also enjoyed this one. I only saw it in 2D, but it was cute, and very family fun entertainment.
Get Smart:
Yes, the new one. It was.. surprisingly enjoyable. I was a huge fan of the telly show growing up (and i’ve got season 1 on my library queue), but honestly, this wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Yes there were a few more fat jokes than necessary, but they were actually done in a tasteful way. Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 bothered me, as I didn’t remember Agent 99 being such a bitch, or so competitive. So yeah, I was not fond of that.
Rescue Me season 4:
I was shocked at this season, so much happened, but at the same time not. It wasn’t like previous seasons where they went for the shock value. It was more… “real” to me. The season finale was also unlike any season finale I’ve seen in a while as it was just quite, and yes there was something “drastic” but it wasn’t the main character in a house fire for once.
Hu$tle season 3:
I love this show, and season 3 was just as good as previous seasons. Seriously if you have not seen Hustle go and see it. Great British tv.
Crap, there are a ton more things I’ve seen recently but I can’t recall them at the moment.
I know I know I’ve promised a report on Repo. But I want to do it all justice when I type it up.
Knitting news:
I feel very accomplished!
I have successfully mastered Seed Stitch at the moment. YAY! Seeeeeee pretty huh???
I also, have successfully (today even!) completed a swatch of the Moorish Tile pattern. Woooooooot. It’s a bitch of a pattern for a noob like me. But I was determined. I’ll get photos up eventually.
The good news, is that SquibStitcher (or Pygstiches she’s known as one of the blogs I follow here) over at Ravelry is being totally totally awesome for me. She’s a dyer. And she’s totally willing to play with Bamboo yarn for me to get the nifty colors that are not available in most shops. It’s a battle. I guess people don’t think that those of us who are allergic to wool and most yarns, actually you know.. LIKE colors, and cool looking yarn. But so she’s totally awesome and is going to make me cool yarn. I foresee her getting a lot of my “splurge” money lol.
Well, I guess I’m done rambling for now. Kinda just enjoying watching Ranma 1/2 – I’m so glad they put that on DVD. I love that show.
holy crap. It’s 10:10 at night. It’s sooo past my bedtime. Sheesh. I’m pathetic. lol.
Well, wish me luck on getting more chapters written, or at least bridging the gap between the chapters I already have written. I do have quite a few chapters already done that fall after chapter 6.
Rambling again.. Sorry.
Happy Solstice!
Last night after I had attempted to fall asleep, I was struck with a bit of inspiration.
This was after writing a really cool introduction to a character I rather like.
WOOT. And the best part is, all the pieces work so smoothly. That really makes me happy. It’s logical, and is a great way to introduce one aspect I had been trying to figure out how to make happen.
I also have figured out the very important question of what happens to the vampires in my world when they “bite the dust” so to speak.
No, I won’t tell you how. But lets just say, it’s not the classic-been-used-to-death idea. In fact, I think I’ve only seen even part of the idea used once. Hmm I guess I can give that away, as there are so many Vampire deaths in The Lost Boys, as who knows which one you’ll think it is. Especially with the “no vamp goes out the same way” in The Lost Boys. So no, the Vampy death is not exclusive to any of the ones in The Lost Boys, just one little aspect of it reminds me of at least one of the deaths from that movie. I hadn’t really thought yet of how the vamps in my novel would die, as it hadn’t fully come up yet, and my brain hadn’t kicked in that much. But now it has. Woot.
Today is the Solstice (winter obviously).
Ironically, today I made a decision to change something, to start a fresh, and I hadn’t at the time realized it was the Solstice. So it is very apropos.
I went to Whole Foods today, bought a new kind of deodorant. No Aluminum. Also, more importantly, I bought myself some B-12 vitamins, and Omega-3 (Fishy oil). Both of these are mood uplifters, and the Omega 3 will help with joints etc. So, hopefully it will help with my back, and if it does that unto it’s self will help my mood.
The B-12 is also one of those ones that help with mood and other things. So we’ll see how it goes.
Tonight, I will light a candle for the Solstice, as there isn’t much of a chance of having a bond fire.
My hair is cold, still chilled from the shower I took hours ago.
Hopefully today I’ll get those pages typed up. If not, mayhaps I’ll type them up at work tomorrow while I’m trying to not slit my wrists from boredom (the days will be very slow and dull leading up to Christmas. Thats what happens when you do tech support for the Post Office)
I picked up The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman from the library today. It finally became available. We’ll see how that goes. I’m avoiding reading my Joanne Fluke, or the next Charlaine Harris that is available, simply because I am waiting on those until next month. The library is doing a little contest thing of 8 books in 8 weeks. HA. I’ll have that done in maybe.. 2 weeks? I’m saving all the Murder She Baked, and C. Harris’s for that, as they are quick.
Well, I’m done babbling for now methinks. I hope everyone is enjoying their Solstice, however you celebrate it.
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