May 18, 2008
Hello!
Well, it's been very busy around here lately. I'm in a knitting slump again. It's weird, but whenever I get really busy at work, I turn into SuperSloth at home. It's not like I'm busybusybusy, going places and doing things. It's more like I'm mentally busy, and I just have to do nothing when I get home in the evenings.
But I did have a little fun last week. On Friday, I had a visit from none other than Wendy from Lanas de Lebilula. She was on her way back home, and only had a few hours to spend, so we hit Rumplestiltskin's, had some lunch and hung out a bit. Rena and Picabou LOVED her. I liked her quite a bit too. And also, without her, I would have a parking ticket right now.
Auntie Wendy gave Rena a stuffed Kangaroo, and so far he has most of his stuffing. She must like him a lot to keep him around so long:
Thanks for stopping by Wendy! Let our home be your official Sacramento pit stop!
April 23, 2008
Yummyness
I have to say that the Dream in Color yarn used in the Babay sweater is some of the nicest yarn I've ever knit with. It's Beeyooootiful!
I started knitting again last night. Woo Hoo!
April 22, 2008
It...is...Alive!
Let's start off with a pretty picture:
(Click for big) This photo was taken on the American River levee, one day before all the trees, grasses, and flowers were turned into dirt. Levee upgrades are in process.
Whoo boy, that was quite a break, eh?
There is absolutely nothing to blog about, and I'm starting to question the wisdom of paying for this domain.
March zoomed by, yet took forever. I have no idea what happened in March.
April came in and whacked both me and Sean with the Flu. The hideous flu, that hangs on forever and makes you exhausted. Six days of fever, 12 days of not being hungry, 14 days and counting of the hacking cough. I'm at about 95% recovered, and had to come in to work for three very busy days of meetings at day 7, 8 and 9, which extended my illness and gave it to everyone else. Good times! Everybody loves me around here!
I have not knit a stitch in forever. But, I did buy a sweater kit, the Sweet Baby Boy Sweater kit from Coldwater Collaborative. My niece is due with her second boy in May so I need to get hoppin' on this sweater! I also have nothing but good things to say about Coldwater. I ordered the sweater on Friday, and received it Monday. That's pretty darn good!
So soon, I will start knitting again. Soon. As soon as I have the energy.
February 23, 2008
Triumph!
Finally! I got my eBay account restored today.
After chat yelling (in all caps) at like, the tenth customer service chat person, they gave me an email address, and told me what to put in the subject line to have it "elevated" (Attn: Management Team, in case you're wondering.) and my account was restored the next day.
Now I can't remember what I wanted to buy.
It was the principle of the thing.
February 05, 2008
Helloooooooooo!
Ohmygosh! I've been locked out of my MT installation for a few days (not that you could really notice, since I rarely update, but still) and have finally had the time to a) correspond with my webhost via the support ticket system, and 2) poke around on the movable type site for clues, and c) remember how to use my ftp client.
Whew! But now I appear to be up. Let me know if anything weird happens.
I had a moment where I thought I might just pack it all in with MT and switch to WordPress. Anyone know how hard it would be to convert?
Anyway...
I had another needle mishap the other night. My fault entirely. I was using my Denise needles to knit on Arian now that I've finished and joined the sleeves, and was using one of their extenders to connect to cords together. The cords aren't really bendy enough when it comes to the sleeve part of the equation, and in forcing my stitches around I snapped off the end of my cord.
Dropping 3 inches worth of stitches.
You gotta love sticky wool though. Even though the stitches were hanging in space, they all stayed together enough for me to get them back on an emergency needle.
Looking around for a non-Denise size 8 with a cord longer than 24 inches proved fruitless and so I decided to order me up one of those KnitPicks Harmony needles with a 32 inch cord. And a sock pattern. And yarn.
Oh the rationalization that went on!
So now I'm waiting on a needle for the homestretch of this sweater.
Rena is back in gulag (crate) during the day because of massive destruction. I just don't know what the change was, but we went from a perfectly good dog with no destruction, to a dog that in 2 hours destroyed Picabou's new special orthopedic bed, a library book (mostly just the paper cover), cord to a lamp, cord to a surge protector, a couch slipcover and the lid to our new coffee pot.
But, Sean got a new car (Honda Element) and her crate (which used to be Picabou's crate so it's XXL) fits in the back and on the cooler days he takes her to work with him. She's just in the car instead of the garage, and he can visit her periodically throughout the day and take her for a walk at lunch. It's fun for him and nicer for her.
So that's it. I worked long long days while sick all last week, and worked Saturday, and then worked a 12 hour day yesterday. Today, I'm taking it easy. Hence this quick mid-day blog.
Now back to work!
January 24, 2008
My own fault
Here you have a portrait of stuff from my knitting basket.
Almost two finished sleeves for Arian, Some earphones, my Creativ Zen player that I use for listening to audiobooks.
But let's take a detailed look, shall we?
There used to be a needle here...
Um...this used to be one continuous cable...
Two ends...chewed.
Decorative teef marks...
I never liked these headphones anyway...
But Mom, I was booooooored...
Oh Rena McBeana.. I can only blame myself for leaving my knitting basket out and on the floor. And thank you for sparing the yarn and only decorating the mp3 player.
January 09, 2008
January 07, 2008
Stop, Rewind, Erase
I actually knitted last night!
I know!
I'm working on the sleeve for Arian. It took a little while to get back in the groove, and then I got stuck in a rut. Knit, tinK, Knit, tinK, Knit, Knit Knit, tinK, Knit, tinK. I stopped when I realized I would need to tinK again.
The table incident is fading into memory. We shall never speak of it again. It went back in it's box and back to the store where it can fool someone else into thinking it's smaller than it actually is.
Today I'm using a new keyboard/mouse combo that I bought for work. Of course, I hate it. Can I ever get something new that I like? Why am I so averse to change?
I'm sure it will grow on me...
That's it for now... I need to get back to work.
January 05, 2008
Knitting funk: Still in effect.
There is absolutely no new knitting to discuss. If you only like the knitting content (such that it was) feel free to move along. I got nothing for you.
In other news, the new year is starting out with a mixture of good and bad, but mostly good.
Good: We had a rockin' New Year's Eve party this year, people seemed to have a good time. You can see pictures at my mySpace page (LINK). There is also a nearly idential blog post to this one, except it has links to other mySpace people and the pictures they took. But mostly, I think this picture from the party sums it up pretty nicely:
(Photo by Erika Thomas)
Good: We survived the BIG! STORM! just fine and had a nice day at home because both of our offices closed for the day. So, that means I was off work from Christmas Eve through January 2, went to the office for one day, then had a three-day weekend. Sweet!
Good: I won an iPod shuffle in an online contest! At least, I think I did. Whenever I click the link to check my prize status it takes me to a page that says "Thank you for entering the Post It® Tote Bag Sweepstakes!" So, I might have won a tote bag. But I really think I won the iPod and they just forgot to update the prize status page. I guess I'll have to wait and see which one shows up.
Bad: I also entered an online contest to win a car for Sean. I think I might just have wasted all my winning luck on the iPod (tote bag).
Bad: My 10-year-old eBay user account was deleted by eBay. I don't know why, and they don't know why. The sequence of answers from three days of Live Chat help (the only help they provide) went something like this:
1. Sorry, I can't find your user name. Please go to this link and tell them your problem…they will be able to help you.
2. Sorry, we can't find your user or registration. Nothing we can do about it.
3. Sorry, I can't find your user name or any record that you were ever registered. Just go ahead and re-register.
4. Your account was deleted by request.
5. Sorry, but I can't find your user id or registration. Please sign in and change your email address. (Oh eBay, if I only could…)
6. Yes, it I can see that you had an account, but it's gone and can not be retrieved.
7. Oh yeah, you know, there was a glitch in the database recently and some accounts were accidentally deleted. All but a few were restored. I guess yours was one of the ones that wasn't restored.
8. Maybe we can restore it…we'll call you back.
So now I'm waiting for a call back to see if my account can be restored. I'm not thinking my chances are very good.
Good: I've been looking forever for a new kitchen table, one that was counter-height and could maybe double as a kitchen island. Let's just say I had a vision of what I wanted, which is rare for me because my mind's eye is usually blind. After months of looking, and trying to find the best table at the best price, one that wasn't rickety, and not fugly. I finally found a deal at Costco, and bought it today.
Bad: After putting it together I'm not sure I like it. It does not fulfill my vision (I think my mind's eye was just a little farsighted) and I'm the tiniest bit depressed about it, because it was a total bitch to get it here, unpack it, get it all set up, and now… I think I made a mistake. There is no way to get it back in the boxes to return it. And it's huge. And now I have to sell the previous kitchen table somehow, and there is so much Styrofoam and cardboard to deal with. I know, "poor me, I got a new kitchen table." I feel like a total jerk.
