Year of Change.

2009 was a year of Change.

At first I didn't think it really was. After all, 2009 was feeling a lot like 2008.
I still had to get up every morning and go to a job that I hated.
I was still too tired at the end of the day to do what I wanted to do.
But then change creeped in.
Layoffs became more and more. The ground felt very shaky.
I in effect, started a new job. True I stayed at the same company. True, I still answered the phones, and did tech support for people who should never have a computer. True, I was still underpaid. But I still had a job. For which I was thankful.
In 2009 I gathered around me some people whom I truly count as best friends. Sure, I can't go over to their houses for tea at any time that I want. But they are there for me when I need it. We have our virtual Stitch and Bitches (Crystal, I can't believe how adept we both are at typing and knitting at the same time lol). I get random and high-larious messages of key singing on my phone (Yeah Marissa, I'm looking at you.). I have friends that I'm already making plans with, to wreck havoc upon London (Yeah Kels and Jo... London isn't going to know what hit them when we come around!).
I started a business (as it is), and have loyal customers, who have become friends.

I reconnected with family, even if thanks to facebook.
My sister cousin came to town and I actually got to spend time with her.
I've seen my grandfather more this year than any year in the recent past.

My wonderful Hunny2Be came to town, and though the universe decided to be mean to us... We managed to have a wonderful time even still.

I lost my job, which was the best thing that happened to me.
I've been able to pick back up my writing, which I had unfortunately had to put down due to that hellish job.

As of last night, I roughly outlined the last part of the novella. I'm almost done I think. No, it's not the original word count I was looking for, but that word count was only for a contest that I didn't get to enter into.

I don't have any New Years Resolutions.
I have goals that I've been thinking about setting for myself, that just happen to fall at this time.
One goal, to finally start working out more and more.
One goal, finish my novella.
One goal, write every day.
One goal, start learning another language.
One goal, knit and finish my Doomsday Cardigan in time for the wedding.
One goal, get more prototypes dyed up for my business.
One goal, start organizing my stuff for the move.

See these are not resolutions. These were things I've already been planning.

For the majority of 2009, my year sucked.
Then it started to get better.

My finances suck. My car broke down, and I got a speeding ticket that will cost me an arm and a leg all in the same week.

I'm determined this next year will be a better year.
It will also be a year of change. A big move. A wedding. A Marriage. I'll be going to school, even if it's just free classes till we can afford proper school. I'll be pushing to get my work published. I'll be getting my official business licenses and be all official with the govt. I'll be doing everything I can to help get Hunny2Be into the political position he wants.
It'll be a scary year for certain. But a year I look forward to.

I hope that everyone is having a good and safe start to the new year.

2010 Allons-y!

'Twas the night before Christmas, my way.

'Twas the night before Christmas, and I'm spending it in quite the mundane way.
Mum is in Denver, having driven her there just yesterday.

Snuggled on the couch in blankets and socks
Trying to avoid the numbness in my 'tocks.

Words glaring at me from inside it's file,
of angels and demons and a foggy British isle.

On the telly it's whispering Ghosts and Jennifer Love Hewitt,
Ironically, as I write this, just started the episode "Holiday Spirit".

Knitting sitting unknit,
A shawl almost done, simply just waiting for me to finish it.

The shower is being avoided, due to the indoor crisp winter air,
Frankly I don't want to get sick with wet frozen hair!

Homemade GingerRoo Cheesecake and Oatmeal Chocolate Chips are drawing me in,
Which is evil and wicked and an unavoidably delicious sin.

This little ditty has gone gotten rather long
Avoiding the real writing I should be working on.

So once this episode is over, avoidance is gone.
The shower, the dishes, and back to writing shall be done.

It'll be a quiet couple of nights, just Pan and little old me
So to everyone a good season, and I end with Allons-y!

Productive day

Yesterday I made a decision.

I was sick and tired of not having a writing space.

Laptop on the couch was just not cutting it. Specially since I cannot write with my mother doing her thing around the house. This is not her fault. I do not blame her at all. I certainly am not the only writer who needs a quiet space where they can shut the door and be away from the world and enter into their own world.

I had avoided having a computer in my room... well for the entire time that I have lived in this house. Over three years now?

Why? Well... possibly having had my computer less than 2 feet away from me at all times in my previous bedroom, and by that statement I don't mean I'd move it around, I mean that the room was just that small and crowded. Also the fact that I suffer from insomnia and having a computer in your bedroom is one of the factors that doesn't help. Also I know I'd end up getting up when my insomnia hit and turn on the computer. All of that are just some of the factors.

Now that it doesn't matter if I have insomnia or not (which, I haven't had a bout in a long while), I've decided the only way I'd get some writing space and not have to have it on my bed would be to setup a desk in my bedroom and put my mom's antiquated and slow laptop (which isn't a laptop even more so than the one I am typing on now. Mum's laptop has a display that is dying. So it really needs to be hooked up to a monitor (which I have all the tools for) at all times, or it's not usable. Don't even get me started on the battery or lack there of. Which this laptop also shares that little joy.).
So I spent the mid morning/day creating a tornado in the upstairs.

Had to move a small chest of drawers, small bookshelf (as opposed to the large bookshelf that also needs to be moved but I've decided to do it at another time), even smaller bookshelf, and a piano. Not to mention all the crap on the floor in front of all those objects.

Then, had to move a futon mattress out of my way as Mum and I haven't put it in it's proper place. Lets just say it was in my way most of the time. This went INTO my bedroom basically where all the crap I just moved came from. You will see the logic soon.

Then, had to uncover Mum's sewing desk. (We had discussed this prior to me doing it)
You'd think this would be easy. Not at all. Did I mention there was a shelf on top of the desk? And lots of sharp pointy things.

Now one thing I forgot to mention, was that the upstairs loft was in complete disarray to begin with, so really I had no place to put all this stuff.

Had to next take apart the sewing desk so that I could get it into my room. Thought that moving the desk into my room would be simple. Not so much, as of course it was too big to slide in the door.

I get the desk in the room. I slide the futon mattress out of the room back just in the walk way.

I put the desk back together.
I get the desk into place.

I have to now uncover my computer desk of all the sewing crap I had just buried it with.

Ah.. the dust. Considering I hadn't worked on that computer upstairs in over 6 months (power source failed.... ) there was many inches of dust on the desk and everything on it.

I spent at least an hour cleaning everything.

Mind you, the can of compressed air had run out, as Hunny2Be had used it all up (or nearly all... I had one squirt of air left) when he took the hard drives out of the two desktops from the desk (remember the failed power source? he ripped out the hard drives so that he can recover all the info off them back home since I don't have the tools for that.)

So I get most of the computer accessories cleaned and hooked up. I uncover a path to the stairs so that I can go find Mum's laptop, and the docking station for it. Oh my god. Since the docking station had been sitting in one spot basically since Mum moved in (under a chair out of the way) I kid you not, there was a coating of dust so thick on it I had to take it outside and blow the top layer of dust off before I could even think about taking a rag to it to get the rest off.

Got everything plugged into it. Started having issues. Mouse didn't want to work, neither did the keyboard.

Even outside the docking station the mouse didn't want to work, but the keyboard did. So it took me a long while to find another random mouse in the house. I swear it wasn't even the one I was looking for. How many mice do we have in this house!?!
Either way, it worked.

At this point in the saga, the laptop is hooked up to the monitor, the keyboard, and the mouse. But not any of this is running through the docking station. I feel rather cruddy and gross so I call it quits for the day. Hop in the shower.

The upstairs is still an absolute mess, but right now I don't care.

Tomorrow I'll see if I can get the laptop connected to the internet. (I'm not kidding when I say this laptop is old. Do you remember those giant red NIC ports that you had to plug into the computer? Yeah... it's got one of those. Not to mention if my router is locked for direct connection as well then I'm screwed, as the key for my router is in the hard drive that Hunny2Be had to take with him to recover. I can't remember what setting I had my router on. We shall see.) If I can't get it connected to the internet, it's no big deal as the plan is just to use it for writing. But it'll be a bit of a pain as occasionally I do have to go research something. I'll survive though.

Tomorrow Mum and I might tackle the sewing area. Though if it doesn't happen before she leaves for the next bout of House sitting, it's no biggie. I've got a path from the door to the stairs, and I have access to Pan's food. Also we don't have any houseguests coming to town, so honestly the only person who would be hassled by it would be me, and right now I really don't care. I'll just be happy to have a writing space.

Mum has cheesecake baking in the oven. Tonight is just gonna be leftovers. Remington Steele season 2 is on the telly.

I am frankly exhausted. So I'm done for the day.

Still had my headcold all day, and the dust hasn't helped, so unfortunately didn't get to go to Jes's party today. I wouldn't be very sociable right now though with how tired I am...

More knitting updates soon!

Gretel Lost in the Poppies

Been meaning to post this for a long while now but it got lost in the limbo of drafts for the last month.
And Drat. I just wrote an entire post and it got eaten by the wireless connection. Sigh. Frakking internet. Lets try this again. It won't be nearly as witty or insightful as the previous one.

Project: Gretel Lost in the Poppies
Yarn: Fresh From the Cauldron "Field of Poppies"
Pattern: Gretel by Ysolda Teaque

I absolutely love Ysolda. She is a 20something student who manages to make a living off of her designs.
Ysolda will make it into the Hall of Great Knitters.
Elizabeth Zimmerman, the GrandMamma of Modern Knitting is in that Hall.
Stephanie Pearl McPhee will make it. Not necessarily because of her designs (I'll be honest, I'm not familiar with her designs) but because of her voice in the knitting community. Stephanie leads Knitters Without Borders (which donates to Doctors Without Borders), she has been on a late night talk show because of the fact that she started the term "Kinnearing" (or Kinneared) (Greg Kinnear and the host called her to talk about it) - which if you are not familiar is the act of inconspicuously taking the photo of someone. Generally a celebrity. Which I myself Kinneared Howie Mandel in Vegas during my last trip. I didn't even know about the term at the time.

I digress.


I have learned a lot thanks to Ysolda.

I learned to "Trust Ysolda." If she says do something.. Don't over think it. Just do it. (Actually I learned this on another project from Ysolda.. but it worked on this one as well)

I learned how to do a Tubular Provisional Caston. (Come on.. you know you wanna say it like a surfer. Tubular dude!)

I learned that no matter how many times I do the Tubular Provisional Caston (which I have done a lot now), I still need to watch a video of it each time as I don't trust myself enough to do it from memory yet.

I learned how to do Twisted Cables. Which are not easy. But also not entirely hard. But they can be.

I learned not to do Twisted Cables when I'm tired.

Oh... and did I mention that this was my first project with cables??? Yeah. It was. Awesome huh?

I learned that I will be making many of these hats as I love them.

I guess thats all for now. Hopefully this will post and not get eaten. (I'm also going to be smart and copy it into a word doc first) (And thank goodness I did that.. as yes.. it got eaten since it still thought firefox was offline.)

Antiquated Regality

I'm a horrible blogger. I realize this. I used to be so good about it. But I've gotten lazy about it.

I've been really meaning to post a blog the past couple of days, but then things just come up.

Well, now I've got a major headcold.

So this shall be quick.

Guy's Christmas Pressie (which he now has, which is why I can talk about it)

The scarf is called "Antiquated Regality"
The reason for that, is the yarn is called "The Antiquated"
And the stitch pattern I used was "Snapes Stockings" and well, to me the combo just seemed a bit regal.

I wanted to knit Guy a masculine scarf that could be worn with both jeans, or when doing more special outings such as political functions.

So there you have it.

More updates hopefully soon, as well as the discussion about Guy's trip out here.

Such a busy time!

Alright everyone, it's been quite a busy little time for me.
Well, busy and yet not.

Lets go in order shall we?

Sunday night:
Had dream I was laid off. This was not me panicking. This was me happy, and deciding how best my day was going to proceed. I had decided in the dream that I was going to walk to the library every day, which is up quite a good sized hill. This urge to walk it every day, meant that I was skinny (less jiggly) by the time 1)I moved to England next year, and 2) the wedding.
It was a good dream.

Monday morning:
Come into work to find that 5 people had been laid off.
Go have a chat with the bossman.
He tells me that 3-4 more people needed to be laid off by the end of this week (err last week by the time I'm writing this)
Casually discuss with bossman that I've got contingency plans in place if I were to be laid off. Saw his eyes light up at that. Assured him that I was not volunteering to be laid off.
Go home, double check my contingency plans just to make sure.
Have some important discussions with family.

Tuesday morning:
Have discussion with bossman again about the whole layoff situation. Can't go into details, but I just level with him more about my personal situation.

Wednesday:
Day off of work. Spent the day cleaning. Seriously cleaned my bedroom.

Thursday:
Work a 10 hour day with no lunch.
Was informed by bossman that I was in fact being laid off. Don't worry, this is a good thing. I've got it all planned out, I've got contingencies, and I'm also leaving the country in 33 weeks. It just means that Pan (my kittah) will have to wait 6 months (That is of course if the vet tells me that he's healthy enough for the process).
Drove home with a sense of calm. Which is odd after a 10 hour shift with no lunch. Wasn't cranky. Didn't want to cry.

Friday:
Good day at work. Another 10 hour day. Pack my desk up. Drop off my badge at the end of the day. Said goodbye to my favorite security guard.

I'm one of the few people who got to know ahead of time that I was getting laid off. Mostly, it was because I had given so much to my job, and been such a loyal worker for so many years. Not to mention all the s*** I had put up with.

It was a good Friday the 13th in my opinion.

Saturday:
YAY. It's my birthday.
4:30am attempt to email from my phone- doesn't work. Drag my butt out of bed and turn on the laptop. Quickly email Guy to call me.
5am he finally calls, when I'm supposed to be getting out of bed and getting dressed. So I talk to him for a moment.
6am we leave the house. Drove up to the Boulder Tea House (with a stop at Walmart first to pick up a few needed items for the house as it's snowing and things like toilet paper are things you do not want to run out of in a snow storm)
I order a pot of my Russian Caravan. Nom. Love that tea. If anyone is ever curious what you can get me... Russian Caravan from the Boulder Tea house (yes, they are online) is a good bet. Lapsang Souchang is also another one. (There are a few that peaked my interest after I had ordered, but I wasn't going to try it on that day. Mayhaps next month)

Katte and Mimi show up shortly thereafter. It was supposed to be a huge surprise that Mimi was in town. It was great to see her. I did know she was in town, which I"m glad I knew... if only because it allowed me to make my bedroom livable while she is here.

Mark, Darla, and Aidan joined us.

We had a grand old time, and breakfast was quite nummy. And I have the coolest friend. Crystal (of the Vampire Halloween Swap rescue package fame), sent me the coolest birthday pressie. A necklace of Wicked. I loved it.

Mother of Mine then dragged all of us to a yarn shop in Boulder. Which... to be honest... I wasn't impressed with. I mean, it was alright... but... meh. I knew exactly who one of her suppliers was, as she didn't even bother changing the name.

Then we scooted down to Denver so that Mum could be entered into the Wicked Lottery.
Mum gave up her ticket to Mimi so that she could join us for the show.
Unfortunately Mom didn't win one of the spare seats. (You show up 2 hours before the show, and you get the chance to win a seat to purchase.)

We walked over to the Tattered Cover, and looked at books etc.
Then Mimi and I had to head over to the theater again.

Don't worry, Mum had her own adventure with friends so it all worked out. And next year Mum and I will go see Wicked in London, so it will be fine.

The show...

The show was FANTABULOUS!
The girl playing Elphie was just... amazing. Honestly.
The girl playing Glinda.... was a bit nasaly. Which bugged me to be honest. But she was still good.
The boy playing Fiyero was good. Much better than the previous performance I've seen. (Though towards the end he played it... lets just say "a little less than straight". Which frankly I prefer to the previous Fiyero who played it "ghetto prince")

Everyone else was quite good.
Went and picked my Mum up at another LYS (which was not the original plan, but as I said.. she had her own adventure)
Drove home in the snow storm. (Started snowing in the middle of the performance)
Stopped at Petsmart for kitty food.
Stopped at Whole Foods for the dinner fixings. Homemade pizza with Chocolate Chip Angel food cake with homemade ganache for dessert.

Quite a splendid day all in all.

Sunday:
Was spent in jammies and a Firefly marathon, as Mimi had never seen it.

Which brings us to today:
This morning, I went to look at my phone to get out of bed, and dropped my cellphone on my face, busting my lip. Joy.
I was highly afraid it would set the tone for the day, but in fact it didn't.
Started the unemployment process.

It was amusing, I didn’t get the phone call over the weekend, so I panicked, and I called my employers (not the bossmen, but the people who actually handle the contracts) as I had a few questions in regards to the form I had to fill out for the unemployment benefits…and I got a hold of her before she checked her email. And the convo went like this:
Me: Hi, I was laid off on Friday, but as I didn’t get the phone call, I was just checking in to make sure everything is copacetic.
Her:My computer is still booting up, it’s rather slow.
we chat about other things
Her:Just got the email from (Bossman). And it says ”I’m emailing you to inform you that I had to lay off Erin G*****. Please call her in the morning to inform her of this.” So, Erin… I have to tell you (trying not to giggle as it was amusing) you’ve been laid off.
Me: Phew. And yes my desk is already cleared out, and my badge was already turned into (bossman).

The reason for the amusement of the convo was 1)I’ve been aware that I was being laid off since pretty much last Tuesday. (Can’t talk about the details of how or why I knew. But lets just say the entire decision was not only bossmans) 2)It was now Monday morning, and I was laid off on Friday. 3)I was the calling her instead of the other way around.
But yup, she confirmed that I was now in laid off status, and that I am in the “Rehireable” status, and that all I needed to do was send her an updated resume. (which counts towards my UI weekly requirement.)
So I was able to finish applying for UI this morning, already made 2 out of 5 of my requirements for the week.

After that we decided to head to Garden of the Gods as the snow was finally starting to melt and the Sun was out.
Stopped at Colorado Mills to look at fabric. I finally found my wedding fabric. Of course, I've got taste. So it shall be highly expensive. Must see if I can find it online. But... I've decided on White Crushed Silk. As I will be able to dye it after the wedding, and thus my wedding dress will no longer look like a wedding dress, but instead a fabulous silk dress.

Then we get to Garden of the Gods, even stopped at the Nature Center. Which was neat.
Went through the hike on the path, it was quite a beautiful day.

Apparently they were filming The Biggest Loser in the park there. And I managed to slip on the one bit of ice right in front of about 10 of the contestants. But I spectacularly caught myself and didn't actually fall. They applauded.

Came home, been watching Inspector Lynley. Just been enjoying the rest of the day.

I can now officially do the ”I’m Free at last” dance (Which I was doing a lot this morning while I was taking the hike through Garden of the Gods)

The weight is already off my shoulders. :-)

Tomorrow I have to drive Mimi to the airport in Denver.

Don't worry, there shall be lots of photos of the Garden of the Gods, and the Birthday enjoyment, uploaded here and onto my FB.

Have gotten lots knitted.
Current book: House of Many Ways by Diana Wynn Jones

Bugs and Hisses everyone!

Too many things to list them all- Happy Halloween

I realize it's been a while since I last blogged. Or mayhaps it just feels that way.

Sadly I don't have much new to report. (Well, a few things)

Just been trying to get through the days at work.

Down to 35 weeks.

I have the best friend in Canada ever. Halifax, Nova Scotia to be more exact.
Here's the story.
I was part of a Vampire Halloween Swap.
It was supposed to be secret. Meaning, we victims didn't know who was "spoiling" us.
Well, right off the bat the secret got spoiled by my spoiler as she messaged me to make sure I was her partner. That took out a lot of the fun on my part right away.
Then the package finally arrived.
Lets just say I was less than enthused by the contents.
The colors were not colors I would choose at all, it was yarn I stated I was allergic to... and there was not a vampire related item in sight.
She reasoned that I didn't want to have to ship things.... *head desk* Thats fine, but she could have included something that was vampire related.
So, to be honest. I was disappointed. I was well within my right, as other people noticed how lackluster the package was.

What does this have to do with my friend in Nova Scotia?
Well, a package arrived to me from my friend Crystal that knocked my socks off. It was to make up for the lackluster package I had previously gotten.



The yarn alone had me drooling. It is Seacell and Silk. Meaning it is HEAVEN to smoosh.

Honestly, I was so blown away and touched by the kindness of the package.

Moving along, here are some things I've made over the past couple of weeks.




Hoot is a little hair clip designed by Ysolde Teague. Whos work I absolutely adore. Hoot knitted up in like 10 minutes, I've actually made 2 of them as I couldn't find the first one.

The stitch markers were little metal bobbles I found at Michaels craft store. I loved them so much that I went back to get more so I could make myself a set. These, and Hoot were going to my Halloween Vampire Swap partner, so they are no longer in the house.


I just made some new stitch markers for the Flirt and Flounce custom order that I have.



Yesterday I made myself exceedingly proud.
I made homemade bagels from scratch. Sure, a bread machine was involved, but that was just to save my hands from all the mixing and kneading. I do after all have early arthritis (or darn near close) in my hands, so I have no qualms about using my bread machine.
I made Cinnamon Raisin bagels.
And let me tell you,
No, they were not hockey pucks like I feared.
Yes, they were absolutely delicious.
No, they weren't beautiful store bought perfectly round bagels.
Yes, they had the perfect crust, and the perfect texture inside.
No, they weren't a pain in the ass to make.
Yes, it was amusing twirling the dough on my fingers.

I was absolutely shocked at how easy they were to make. The actual making of them... took far less time than I imagined.
The boiling in the pot was not as scary as I imagined it to be.
The only thing I might try differently shall be to use actual bread flour instead of regular flour. But pretty much.. thats the only change I'll do for next time.

Eventually, my goal is to also know how to make Pumpernickel, as Cinnamon Raisin and Pumpernickel are my two favorites.




Other than that, we had a very quiet Samhain/Halloween.
Mum made a pumpkin sauce with black pasta for dinner which was very good. You can read all about it over here. (Once she posts the blog that is. So if it's not up, just be patient.)

I guess really thats all I've got to say right now.

I guess I'll end it on the note that yes... I've had the weird realization that this time next year, I'll be in the UK and finishing up my wedding.

OOOHh! Just remembered one thing. Had an awesome dream last night. The kind of dream where in the middle of it, I was awake enough to go "Oooh this would make a great novel". Can't recall it at all, I mistakenly fell into the cocky writer mentality of "Oh, it's so vivid and I'm awake enough right now... I'll remember it in the morning." - Yeah. How silly was I.
I know it involved fast cars... A theme park... a roadway quite like the autobahn, a sinkhole that swallowed a pickup truck, and promptly repaved it's self (alright, someone repaved it.. but in the time it took me to glance away) with the truck and a body inside. A dying car crash victim, a lot of questionable money, the disappearance of the car crash victim and her body, and over all the entire sense of intrigue and "who can I trust" sensations. - Mind you, none of this is in the order it happened in the dream. It also no where near covers the depth of the dream and the complexity it had. By typing all this out for several times, I'm hoping to recall other details.. But no... no such luck.
I know, I know. I should have woken up and grabbed the dust covered notebook I have on the floor. But sadly I did not.

The only good thing that this is telling me, is that possibly the creative spark inside me that I feared was being killed by work possibly isn't fully dead. This gives me hope that next year when I can actually sit down and write, I won't just end up staring at my keyboard in vain.

Well, thats all I've got for now.
Ta everyone. Have a safe and happy start to the new year if you celebrate it.

Flirt and Flounce!

I'm such a spaz.. I totally forgot to post photos of new yarnie goodness!

This shall be a quickie..

Flirt and Flounce

This is on 20 Silk, 20 Bamboo, and 60 wool






It was a custom order that I decided to cleverly name and add to one of my colorsets as it was just perfect for it.

I'm quite happy, and it's soft..

Crazy Holidays and other randomness

First I want to say, Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends. (And of course all it's territories)

Though I do not celebrate Thanksgiving, because in the US it's all about Turkey... and well... I'm allergic to Turkey. I don't do cranberry sauce, I don't do stuffing, I don't do gravy on my mashed potatoes. I don't like marshmallows on my sweet potatoes (or yams). I don't like almonds on my green beans... Yes.. I am a freak.

Oh, I'm also not a Football (US football) fan either. I don't like to go shopping at the crack of dawn for christmas pressies... Really... I'm just not big into the T-Day.

But I've still got more than a month before I have to deal with the US version of it.
Moving along.
Today is Columbus day.

Which means, once again the kids in NY are not at school. Which means I am once again having to make up time throughout next week. I'll actually be working on Saturday to make up for the pay.

Well, this weekend we got a new couch. Spent 45$ on it.. and so far, my ass does not fall asleep. My body is objecting to the new positions, but thats alright.
We are also in the process of rearranging the house completely.
The stuff currently in the dining room area is going upstairs to the loft area (which was a bitch to clear enough space for)
The stuff currently in the living room (meaning our Dining room table) was moved to the dining room. (What a concept)

Still not done yet of course. But we are getting there.

Unfortunately in the aftermath, I broke one of the Harmony size 4 needles that currently are holding my Legal Assassin socks. Luckily, we had a random size 4 around the house, not to mention 2 other sets floating around as well. So we actually have "matched" sets. Which is all good.

I have discovered that shopping on any holiday.. even if it's not a normally celebrated holiday in this state... is never a good idea.
People are freaking crazy. Seriously crazy.
Never again. I don't care if it's National Smile Day... I'm staying home.

Which thinking on that.. means I'll never leave my house as there is a holiday for every day. Shoot. There goes that idea.

Oh.. I totally forgot.

I dyed this weekend.

New colorway called "Flirt and Flounce".
No pictures as of yet as it is still drying and well.. we had an Ice Storm down here in Colorado Springs so it's cold and there is moisture in the air.

The colorway was for a custom order, which is why it got bumped up before continuing with either the Repo series, or the Moonlight series.

I guess that's all I've got for now. Gotta go make dinner. Tomorrow is going to come very early. Sigh.

Bugs and Hisses peeps!

Stupid snow.

The first actual snow happened last night.

Which meant my ass had to get out of bed 30 minutes early. Which means yes, my ass was out of bed at 4:30 in the morning. That means my first alarm went off at 4:00 am, when I took 2 caffeine pills instead of my normal 1.

Yes, I hate my life.

But wait, it gets better.
The snow stopped in the middle of the night. The roads were clear, just had to scrape off the car.
But, it didn't matter, I was still up 30 minutes early.
Not like I could go back to bed.
Drive to work, mom is going to borrow my car today so she tags along.

I'm at work by 5:20 in the morning.
I figure I could start working at 5:30 thus leaving 30 minutes early this afternoon.
None of the managers are here to ask. Damnit.
I call my manager on his cellphone to get his A-Okay.
He doesn't answer.
Goddamnit.
Now I'm stuck at work 40 minutes early twiddling my damn thumbs.
My back is seriously tweaking already from having to get up before my normal time. I've taken all the drugs I can for it, and none are working.
Every single person I've dealt with on the phone has been a cranky bitch, and I'm not in a happy mood. I've only been "working" for an hour now and have dealt with just too much crap.

Moving along..
I'm currently reading Diane Mott Davidson's "Catering to Nobody"
Which, is set in a fictional town that vaguely resembles Evergreen, Colorado.
It's nice to see a book set in Colorado, even if it is filled with the classic Mountain town cliches. The cliches bother me, mostly because I never see them, so I sit there going "thats not what Colorado is really like."
But... thats not actually true. I just happen to live in my little world in Colorado, and I end up not seeing half the cliches that are even a block away from me.
What can I say, I live in the slightly posher area of town, I don't have farmers for neighbors, none of the people I know where fringe clothing or cowboy boots.
Yes, the town I live in is the Republican city of Colorado (seriously, if you try to register Democrat here, they actually ask you "Are you sure you want to do that? I mean are you really sure?"
This is a "military mountain town" so it's an odd mix of everything and thus does not fall into any cliches other than being the "nexus of all evil" in my opinion.
Sigh... I miss Boulder. In Boulder you got looked at funny if you were Republican. (I had a friend who was borrowing her fathers car while hers was in the shop, her father was uber republican, but did not live in Boulder. My friend was afraid to drive around town due to all the republican bumper stickers. lol)

In Evergreen, I'm pretty sure it's slightly more on the Democratic side of the spectrum, which is both in the book I'm reading, and also what I've witnessed from the town it's self.

Moving back to the book it's self, I'm just over half way done.
I'm very torn about the characters.
The Main character Goldy... is alright.
Her 11 year old son is a twit whom is making me not want to bother having kids if all 11 year old males are like that. (Suddenly.. I'm seeing Dogs in my future instead of children)
The 20 year old female that is renting a room from the main character is such a dumb ass twit that I want to scream if she is mentioned on the page.

The book is alright.. if not repetitive.
Yes, she left an abusive marriage.
Yes, she is afraid of loosing her income due to the attempted murders that happened at one of her catering events.
Yes, the cop likes her.
Yes, she needs to "calm" down (seriously every single person has said this to her at least twice)
Do we need to be reminded of this every single page? No.

I will reserve actual judgment until I have finished the book. I could just be cantankerousness in my review due to my sleepy cranky nature at this moment.
I do like some of the recipes that are in it.

Sigh. I guess I'm done for now.
I think I'm going to dye yarn tomorrow.

I hate snow.

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.

Made it through day one of Hell, and the neatest thing

I survived the first day of hell.
I can honestly say I'm shocked at how unlike Postal it is. We were in the hole pretty much all day, I mean not just some... it was a constant 60-150 calls waiting for 30 minutes or more. But some how, I made it through without wanting to cry, without hitting my mute button and wanting to call someone something I shouldn't repeat... None of that. And I didn't have to ask for much help unless it was one of the issues that we supposedly never see and aren't supposed to ever happen in the computer world in general. My team lead still needs to learn the art of talking to people without making them feel like idiots.. but... whatever.. he's not going to learn it anytime soon. And I've only got to survive 9 months. Less than that actually.

But I'm not going to go on about work. I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune about it by the end of the week, so whatever...

The reason I am blogging right now, is I can honestly say I have had tears brought to my eyes.

I started a phenomenon on Ravelry... seriously epic. I started a little group about doing a Pen Pal exchange. I figured no one would sign up and I'd have to beg people. Round 1 had 150 people officially sign up (and a quite a few more that didn't actually sign up but thought they did).
It was a major headache to be quite honest. For the most part everyone who signed up was really great and helpful, but there were a few... well... calling them snarky twits is being reallllllly polite.
It all got to the point where I was ready to tell everyone to effff off and someone else gets to organize round 2.
I had even started composing the notice informing everyone that I was stepping down from organizing round 2. But I have not posted it and I don't know if I will. No matter what though, I will be adjusting how the signups and partner assignments are done.

Today though, I got my first letter. A woman who when she signed up specifically asked to be my partner (if that was alright by me). Neat!
I can say it brought me to tears reading her letter. I was smiling, and most of all.. I was amazed.
I've been keeping my personality on the downlow for a while now due to the whole 'incident' on Ravelry, and I know that she doesn't have access to my Facebook, and though she admitted that she has checked up on my blog... she hadn't prior to me actually saying "sure I'd love to be your partner" I swear it's a situation where I think I was destined to know her.
She owns a costuming business... (hmmm how many years have I been costuming now??)
She has a sailboat... (hmm... entire summers spent on the family boat when I was a child... sailing? me? never!)
We have a lot of the same taste in books, and movies and music. (Well, other than the fact that she hates The Beatles.) She even mentioned one of my favorite movies of all time. ;-) Won't mention it here since I'm not entirely sure she's not still stalking my blog.

I can officially say, all the headache and frustration was worth it. All because of one letter. How absolutely neat is that?

Well, time for bed. I worked over 9 and a half hours today, and I'll be doing the same tomorrow. I'm going to curl up with Tempe Brennan and my cat.

Being Human, Repo the Gentic Yarn, and many other things

So my previous post was a little well... for lack of a better word... emo.
But hey, I'm a writer... it tends to be what we do at times.

After writing my blog, I went and scrubbed 2/3rds of my bathroom. This makes me happy.
I had a dust bunny, that honestly I thought he was the Prince of the Dust Bunnies, and was going to start plotting war against me.



For those who don't know, this wood burning is from Catharsis Comic, which for the most part is on permanent hiatus, but it is still fun to go back and read through.

I kid you not about the dust bunnies in my bathroom. Colorado Springs is a dust bowl, and to be honest the dust drives me absolutely bonkers. By tomorrow my counter will once again have a coating of dust on it, but at the very least it will be a while before the grandeur of the Dust Bunny Prince decides to show his bunny self again.

So, I've been catching up on a lot of telly... but I'm not going to go into most of the things, cause I can't remember most of them right now. This proves once again I need to take the time to blog more often to do my reviews.

But here is one that I am sooo ready to pimp out cause it's like AWESOME.

Once again, a BBC production.

Being Human.

Blogger hides most of my photos no matter what I do to it in the upload, so to see Annie the Ghost, just click on the image and it will get larger. I'm annoyed at blogger for this. -.-



A Ghost, a Vampire and a Werewolf trying to live a "normal" life in Bristol.

What can I say, other than Freaking Awesome. The writing was witty, and refreshing, and well... human!
There were nice twists at appropriate places, and the episode 5 and 6 (meaning, second to last and last) had me literally going "Ohmigawd!" and squeeing and being quite creeped out at times.

I like their take on the Vampires, which it is amusing as it mimics a few of the "rules" my own vampires in "A Hard Day's Bite" had. Ranging from sunlight to religion and the symbols of power. I liked it!

I'm never fond of the "Wolfman" style of werewolves, but I think that they pulled it off very well.

The Ghost, also had some great rules.

Mostly I liked how the stories intertwined, flowed and how you actually connected with each character. I actually cared about the characters which recently I haven't been doing so much in regards to telly.

Oh, and it was great seeing in the first 2 episodes not 1, but 3 Doctor Who people.

Annie, played by Lenora Crichlow was in Season 3 of Doctor Who in "Gridlock"

George, played by Russell Tovey was in Season 4 Christmas Special: Voyage of the Damned (and actually it looks like he'll be reprising his role of Midshipman Alonso Frame for at least 2 more episodes of Who, so.. WOOT!)

A character who's name I cannot recall, was played by the actor who played Shakespeare in season 3 episode "Shakespeare Code"


I very much am looking forward to Series 2 of Being Human, I hope that it lasts for a good long while as it is a very good show. If you haven't gone out and seen it yet.. Go do it now!

I'm actually getting inspired for some colorways from this show.
Sigh, I wish I had time and money enough to dye up all the yarn I want to dye right now!

Speaking of yarn...

I am currently knitting up a pair of socks called "Legal Assassin" which is a pattern completely designed by me! Don't have photos at the moment since I'm still in the "working out the kinks" phase.

This sock pattern is to match the yarn "Nathan Wallace / Repo Man"


I'm quite proud of this yarn, it was my first time working with wool.
And it will be for sale. I've got only 1 skein left for sale at this time.

Which reminds me, I've been officially made into a Yarnie on Ravelry. Woot. I'm official.


What am I currently reading?

Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs

I can already say that I'm going to be pretty opinionated when I finish this book. Not necessarily about the story, but more about the over all books in general. I will be spoiling a bit for those who have not read, so when I do post that post.. don't read if you don't want a bit of a spoiler. Don't worry, I'll give warning.

I guess I'm done yammering for now.

I give up.

Universe, you win.

My writing time is very limited right now. Meaning, I have approximately 4 days of uninterrupted writing. After that, who knows when I'll get to write. As someone will be home, or I'll be too brain dead from work.

Right now, during 2 of those days (yes, one of them was yesterday) someone has always managed to piss me off to the 10th degree to the point where I cannot write anymore.

That means, I'm giving up. I will not finish this in those 3 days I have left.

So.. You win universe. I am not going to bother working on this novella until after the move.

That is now 3 pieces of work put on the backburner.

Starting next week, all hell breaks loose at work. I'll be doing everything I can to not have a nervous breakdown, and or get fired. This period of hell will last about 5 weeks, and then hopefully start tapering off.
The week after next I have to order yarn for the goddamn wedding sweater that I've decided to knit so that I look freaking half way decent in the goddamn photos. (Thats a freaking joke.) Which, I'll have to have finished by December.. DECEMBER. Again.. what a freaking joke.

I'm done. My back hurts, my head hurts, and I want to cry. Universe, you win.

Such a bad blogger...

Work has been killing me, hence the lack of updates.

So this one is gonna be quick.

I am sorry if the updates are sporadic for the next 5 weeks. I'm gonna be brain dead. This I already know.

Here is the yarn I dyed a few weekends ago...



I'm quite happy with it. I've already sold one skein of it, and I've got plans for the others. One skein I am keeping for myself. I'm actually in the process of knitting socks to go with the yarn. Yup, a pattern of my own creation. Woohoo. I unfortunately had to frog it last night, as part of it was supposed to zig zag, well.. there was zig.. but there was no zag. Back to the drawing board as it were.

Writing has been non existent right now because of work. I'm hoping that when mother of mine heads out of town this week, I'll be awake enough to write. I think I've only got a few thousand words to go. Then I'll hand it off to my editor and we'll see if I can get a rewrite done in time for the contest. If I make it, neat. If I don't.. I'm not going to freak.

I've been crazy recently, and organized an massive Pen Pal exchange. Seriously over 150 signed up for this. I wasn't expecting that at all. But now the signups are over and all the assignments handed out. This will be fun.

Also to note, I'm finally officially a Yarnie over on Ravelry. Yup, I've taken the plunge. Woohoo.

Well... I guess thats all the time I have right now to write.

Ta peeps! Bugs and Hisses.

Massive Update!

Alright. I'm a bad blogger right now. You all knew I'd be busy, and I have been. I've also been brain dead. I've been meaning to blog.. really I have. Something will happen, and I'll think "I should blog this" or "I really need to update them..." but then I find myself in bed not having done it.
So quick sum up of my life right now.

Went to Highland's Ranch Highland Games Festival.
It was fun. Clan Blair (thats us) was the uhh... whats the word I'm looking for.. Honored Clan. Yeah that works. Basically it means we got to walk at the front of the parade. Not that I walked. I don't do parades anymore.
I got to see Scott, a fellow clan member. It was good to see him. As soon as he heard I'm moving to England his eyes got all big and you could see the wheels turning then the "Hmmm there are things I shall have to have you send me."
I have been hearing that statement a lot recently.
I did not get to see My EMT. Yes, I said MY EMT. Whose name is escaping me right now. Short story is that he is one of my Festival Buddies. Meaning when you've done so many of these over the years you tend to see the same people, and develop friendships with them. You never see them any other time of the year, and everything is nice.
Apparently he was there on Sunday when I was there on Saturday. He asked after me.
It was the Clan's Annual General Meeting (AGM for short) which meant members of the clan from all over the country came to attend.
I will admit, I preferred it when it was just Scott, his father and his brother, my mother and myself. Much more relaxed. Quiet, and just.. much nicer.
There is a running joke that every year at Highlands, I end up asleep under one of the tables. This year it did not happen. But hot damn you can sure bet I was exhausted enough that I looked longingly at the nice soft grass under one of the long tables and wished to be laying there. But Scott would never let me live it down. Not that I let him live down the Yellow boxers with Blue Seahorses. (Long story... but basically... he has finally learned how to sit in a kilt after all these years)
I only went the one day and didn't stay till close. It was worth it though, as I obtained my final Fidget.
What is a Fidget you might ask?
Well, it's a stone.
And as Curtis will call it "damn stones I keep finding everywhere."
The story of the Fidgets goes back many years, to when I was still in Highschool. Katte Beth taught me to drive as we were driving up to the Mabon Music Festival (The Ren scots were there doing the event)
There are many stories from that weekend, including Katte Beth's 4 year old daughter scrambling my eggs. (If I cannot have children in the future it will entirely be Jenny's fault. She knows this. We laugh about it.)

But here is the best photo I can find right now of what a Fidget is:

The ones we have are colored glass from a glass maker.
But, Katte Beth and I in our Witchy ways got our stones and blessed them at Mabon.
The first one we obtained is a Celtic Knot Heart. (which, you cannot get the same hearts we had, as the individual who made them has changed the design)
That, is to bring love into your life.
The second fidget is that of a Claddagh.
That, is to bring marriage into your life.
The third and final stone is the Family Tree (tree of life) (it used to be a celtic 4 knot, but you cannot get them anymore)
That, is the Family stone. To bring a safe and secure family.

These stones you are to sleep with. Only one at a time.
I had the first 2 stones, but I did not have the 3rd (hey, when I bought my stones I was 16 and not even thinking about marriage! okay I might have been 17?)

As I am leaving the country we needed to get me my last stone before I left.
Luckily, our stone guy was there! Huzzah!
I have my full set. I am happy.

Moving forward
Last weekend,
Mother of Mine was out of town and I was attempting to write. I couldn't get a thing written on Saturday and was feeling quite like the failure.
So I decided to do something productive.
I did some dyeing.
I am SO glad I did. As it is absolutely gorgeous. I will post photos soon.

Work:
Work has been... interesting. Good days and bad days. I'm still in training but I'm taking calls on my own, and slowly not having to ask for help on every call. See... I can learn things. We are already starting to see my fellow class members dropping in number. 2 quit this week. Once School starts, there shall be more.
As long as I can get through September, I'll be fine. Thats all I'm really going to say on that right now.

Misc:
Most of my spare time has been spent working on various Asylum things. Just doing things behind the scenes to drum up more business. I also reopened a group on Ravelry for my yarns, and so far.. no stalkers. This is good.

I have a custom order which will be fun and exciting, and I'll be working on a new Base, which is already drumming up interest. This makes me happy.

Writing:
I feel like a fail there. Work has been zapping my brain power, and when I do get some time to write, I generally can't. I don't think I'm going to make the deadline. But that doesn't mean I'll give up on the novella.
Who knows, mayhaps one of these weekends I'll get a burst of inspiration and finish it. I'm only... half way there?



So.. interesting little happenings today.... This is how my day started:
I was downstairs in my kitchen (which has line of sight to my front windows) and I heard a bang, and then I saw a flash of light.
My first thought was “hmmm car backfire.” my second thought was “I didn’t see a car.” my third thought was “not walking outside right now.nope.” I heard sirens, but they sounded really far off, and isn’t that uncommon a thing for me to hear. (I live tucked behind a very busy main road, so I can sometimes hear sirens and such when they are flying down Academy)
So I continue about my morning routine and 10 or 15 minutes later I’m walking out the door. The entire time though I was thinking how odd it would be if I had to leave a message at work saying “yeah I’m gonna be late, one of my neighbors was shot.”
What can I say, I have odd thought processes.
Then I back out of my parking spot, and immediately see a cop car, and a cop talking to one of my neighbors. Now, this was down and to the left of my house, but incidentally coming from the direction I thought I saw the flash come from.
When I get to the T intersection of where the cop car is, I see two other cop cars. I inch past them as it was a tight squeeze and I leave the neighborhood. So, after about 20 seconds thought, I turn around. There was no way I was going to be able to chill at work without knowing what had happened.
I talk to a nice female officer and she informed me that one of the neighbors reported that someone was banging on their door. They were searching the neighborhood, but found nothing, and the flash I saw was most likely them. (Hmmm didn’t hear the sirens until after the flash… so that doesn’t seem right.)


Well... I am half way done with my work day. I've got to decide on the dyes I want to order next, and all in all... just survive.

Later peeps!

All's Quiet on the Western front...

Alright, so my beloved readers, you may (or may not) have noticed it's been a little quiet over here in my little journal of impossible things.

Well, there is a reason for it. A reason I went into vague detail about in a blog I have not posted. I do not know if I will post the blog or not.

Lets just say, it involved drama. Not just roll your eyes type drama, but the Erin coming home from work in complete tears drama, including a massive dose of cyberstalking just because some people thought it was amusing.

My profile from Ravelry has not yet been deleted, but it will be shortly. (oy, i've got over 700 items in my queue, so I don't want to loose all that, and transferring them over to the new profile takes time.)

I've pretty much been hiding on the down low for the last week because I was sick of the stalking.

I may or may not have to change the name of my shop. (there was slander against me and my shop)

For now I am leaving it as it is. I did have make arrangements to have my group on ravelry shut down, because that's where the bulk of the stalking occurred. I do not yet know how it has affected my etsy store (thank goodness you can't leave comments on someones shop unless you've purchased something, and for the record, all my product is Excellent, and I do not cut corners on anything. The materials I use for my yarns are tried and tested materials and the company I buy my dyes from has been in business doing what they are doing for over 100 years.)

I will have my shop minion open a new Group for me on ravelry when I feel it is safe to do so.

All in all, the whole situation has sucked.

But it did show me just how many friends I do actually have.
Okay, thats all I'm gonna say about that for the moment.

Moving along,
Knitting: I've been bad on the Fangtasm sock. I haven't been working on it. Mostly because I have been working on creating original patterns.
I have the start of the pattern down for a certain Repo Man sock.
I have 1.5 parts of a pattern for Blind Mag down. She's complicated, and is requiring to basically defy laws of nature here. So she's going to take a while, but I'm getting closer with each try. Once I get this one little part down, then I've just got 1 more element to figure out, and then it's just writing up the pattern to work with the over all construction of the project. (The over all shape is gonna be easy, but it's just the pattern elements in the design that are taking a while.)

Writing:
Well, due to all the emotional crap going on, I was slacking when it came to writing.
But this weekend, I did manage to get nearly 2000 words done. Not the full goal, but nearly.
I've also done the math. If I actually do 1000 words a "day" (which is not impossible for me), it will take me 11 days to complete the minimum required word count. So I really do need to make this next week count. I will have the house to myself for the next week (or is it 2 weeks? I can't recall exactly when Mother of Mine comes home) I doubt I'll be able to get 1000 words every night with how exhausted from work I generally am, but I quite possibly can get a couple of hundred. If I can get 500 done on a work night, then I'll be getting really close. I'm also going to see if in the slow times at work, if I can get even a sentence or two added.

I'm at quite the juicy part if I do say so myself. My minion Jo is enjoying what I've got written, and once I get it all done I'm going to put a call out for readers/editors.

Work: Right now is being odd. We are getting more inbound phone calls then we have been recently. But we are no longer getting Backlog tickets (my job), basically we get a handful a day, and I pretty much twiddle my thumbs to be able to work them. (Most of them are in Hawaii so I can't call until a certain amount of my day has passed)
I am taking advantage of this down time for me, as well... for the last year (and yes, I say year because it was a year ago that the desk started downsizing and our volume started dropping off) I have been the busiest person here. I have always had something to do, and generally a minimum of 4 times as much work as everyone else. The only exception to that was my work minion Pat who did the same amount of work as me. (Though, but for one month, I always beat him out in the amount of tickets I did, and really the month he beat me out was my "Hmm the desk is going away, I don't care anymore" month. He beat me by 5 tickets lol.)
So since the next 48 weeks are gonna be hell once this one ends, I'm taking advantage of the quiet now.

Oh, in other news:
The whole drama that happened... was so bad that Mother of Mine and Hunny of Mine had to divulge a BIG secret just to cheer me up.
Guy is coming out to visit in December. I cannot even express how happy this makes me.
They were going to surprise me, but unfortunately thanks to the major unpleasantness that occurred, they decided to tell me to cheer me up.

Dyeing:
Is going well. Well,I mean for the fact that I haven't dyed in a while. Squibstitcher from Fresh from the Cauldron (whos yarn I love) gave me a few secrets, which was really awesome of her.
I am going to venture into wool dyeing, as 1) I have beautiful handspun that needs to be dyed, and 2)people still prefer wool. Personally, I think they are crazy, but thats just me. I have very good reasons for not liking to knit in wool. And I am very annoyed that I can't get the same weights of yarn in the non wool stuff.
But just because I don't like to knit in wool, doesn't mean I won't dye it. I only started with the non wool stuff because I happened to have it. And with the way I plan on running my shop, I strive to make sure I can recreate any colorway I make on both wool and and non wool. So people get a choice.

I am actually going to participate on a swap on Ravelry, which I'm hoping works out. Basically, it's for new "yarnies" (people like me who dye yarn), we will get paired with a Knitter (or Crocheter), and we will trade 1 skein of dyed yarn for a skein of Undyed yarn. So we won't be out anything other than our time/the cost of dye/the cost of shipping, but in return we will get the publicity of our yarns being out there and used in a project.

Random note #2:
Finally got to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
I must admit I highly enjoyed it. I enjoyed it much more than the last 3 films.
Yes, they changed things.
Yes, they left things out.
But in the end, everything they changed made it work without feeling forced. At no point did I sit there feeling disgusted at how they had changed the over all story. (*cough* POA *cough*)
There was really only 1 scene that they left something out of it that I was annoyed about.

Yes, there were other scenes they omitted that will make the next 2 films a bit harder to make work. (Okay, gonna spoil here. There was no Bill and Fluer. So, if there is no Bill and Fluer in this one, the whole "wedding" from the 7th story is going to feel completely out of left field. Which, I know the wedding is going to be in the movie. Oh well, I'm sure they will make it work somehow.)

I think that the kids they got to play Tom Riddle were absolutely BRILLIANT. Little Hero is actually Ralph Fiennes nephew, and then the older one... just... perfect. Seriously.

I'm gonna stop talking about HP because I really don't want to spoil it for those who have not yet seen it.

Alright, I guess I've killed enough time. Time to do a little work.

bugs and hisses.

A most disgusting sight.

Another quick post because right now I'm quite frosted and so I must keep it short and simple. I can't even write right now, so I'm just going to work on my knitting.

Posting this before I forget about it.

Wanna know something that absolutely disgusted me yesterday?
I was driving home from the festival. Stopped and Whole Foods.

What do I see? I see a huge ass Hummer parked up on the curb outside the Whole Foods. And this woman loading groceries into the back of it.

Was it Military? Nope. Just a housewife. In a huge ass hummer, parked half way on the curb. Loading groceries from a grocer that is all about being "earth friendly" I wanted to smack that woman upside her head for having the hummer.

There is absolutely no reason what so ever that any civilian should ever have a Hummer.

And there is no amount of Local Grown or Free Trade groceries that will make up for what that person I saw yesterday was doing to the environment.

I'm going to go work on my knitting now.

Joss ripped off SeaQuest...

DUDE. Joss Whedon ripped off SeaQuest DSV!

I kid you not.

And bear in mind, I write this as still a card carrying member of the Mile High Browncoats (alright, I admit.. we didn't HAVE cards... but if you ever meet a Mile High Browncoat and mention Wicked.. well, the stories you'll hear. Yuppers folks.. thats me. Now mind you, you'll be opening a can of worms, and by the time all the stories are told about Wicked and Bree... you'll prolly end up with UV (Ugly Virgin, whos name.. i don't recall if I ever knew or not... Oh Jeremy.. thats it.. right?) dropping his pants and Moon laughing her tocks off- at you.) sorry.. lost track there. Yes, I am a Browncoat. I did my part to resurrect our beloved show, and get the movie. So please.. don't flame me for posting this. I'm just giving ya'll my observations.

Alright, we all by now know the basic plot of Serenity, which was Joss' Firefly resurrection. If you'll remember, the plot was basically this: (avoid if you haven't watched the movie, as I'd hate to spoil for those who haven't seen it)


Miranda - a planet where they attempted to manipulate the "Aggression factor" in the population via atmospheric chemical enhancement. - This was bad. It resulted in all but 10% of the population falling dead where they stood. The 10% Became the dirty little secret of the Alliance. This dirty little secret was known as the Reavers. Ravers would eat you alive, then kill you if your lucky. They terrorized space and were really bad.
This movie came out in 2005.

Now, go back to October 1994, Season 2, episode 3 of SeaQuest DSV (before it became SeaQuest 2032) an episode called "Sympathy for the Deep"

Underwater colony called "Miranda Colony" where after 10 years of peace suddenly started going homicidal on each other, including hallucinations and majorly violent psychotic episodes.
To top it off? Telepaths, were involved as well. Telepaths that decided to go homicidal and start killing each other. (River anyone?)

Alright, I'm going back to writing, though I'm exhausted from the Festival (blog to come) I'm apparently awake enough to be able to write. And going back to watching my beloved SeaQuest. Nothing like watching not one, but two Deluise boys when they were at the prime of their adorableness. Not to mention a slew of other cuties. Suddenly, I'm back in the Westlake house.. I'm in elementary school, and it's Sunday night and the family is sprawled around the family room enjoying some good SciFi.

I really need to stop watching tv shows from my childhood.. they are making me all nostalgic. (Hey look at that, spelled it correctly on the first go. Woot.)

Writing, Knitting and Dyeing- an update

Alright, so on top of the whole "someone trying to steal all my money" situation of 2 weeks ago. Last week my employer decided to over pay me.
Now I can hear you already saying "Woot. more money right?"
No, this is a bad thing. Why? Because the last time a company over paid me, it took over 6 weeks for them to correct the error, and Murphy is not my friend. It would not matter how long I would sit there and not spend the money, something would happen, and the day/hour/minute before the employer would get their act together and retrieve the money they over paid, something would happen ans *poof* it'd be gone from my account, thus making me extra broke and generally negative in my account.

Thankfully, I was pretty on top of the situation this time, and I notified my HR person, she sent the appropriate email, and instead of the company retrieving the funds from my account, simply took it from the next paycheck.

Sucks because this paycheck that I got today now has a whole lot less than it normally would, which of course puts me mentally into a not so happy place. Luckily, I had not had any bills clear, nor really buy anything I shouldn't have, so the funds were still in my account, and I'll still be golden for the week.

What does this mean? Well, once I finish paying bills for this month, I will more than likely be able to afford to buy some more yarn goodness.

I plan on finishing up my Moonlight colorways, (2 more planned for the series, Josef and Coraline) and starting on a little custom project that I have in the works. Here's a hint... when I finish it.. it will be part of my Wicked set.. and it shall be called: "Little Ways to Flirt and Flounce"

So thats the update on the Dyeing front.

Knitting front:
I'm almost done with Sock #1 of the Fangtasm pattern (which I've dubbed my sock project to be "Playful Bites")
I'll most likely finish tonight and then cast on Sock #2. I'm terrified that they won't match for whatever reason, which is very much making me want to start 2 at a time on the next pair I do. I didn't do it this time because 1)I was still new to socks, 2)I had never done Magic Loop socks, 3)I had never done Toe Up.
Now that I've accomplished all those little things, I think I'm safe to move on to 2 at a time.

Next up: Writing.

Alright, the past two days have been a little crazy for me. But on Monday I did manage to write some. Which makes me happy. I'm hoping to spend this weekend busting out even more on the word count.
Mother of Mine is going to be out at the Elizabeth Celtic Festival (formally known as Kiowa Celtic Festival), and that means I'll have Friday from Noon till I fall asleep, Saturday morning. Saturday Afternoon I'm going to go to the festival for my "very last time". I'll spend a few hours there then come home (thankfully, it's not like I'll be driving to Denver at all) and write till I fall asleep, and then I'll have the bulk of Sunday till Mom comes home to write.
Hopefully I'll be able to bust out my goal for the week and a whole bunch more past that.


Work: My backup who really was the only other person at work who
did anything broke his leg last week. I can't recall if I wrote about this or not.
Well, Tuesday he went to see his doctor to find out if the surgery is a "go."
And I don't know what he did to piss off his doctor, but he is now banned from coming to work until the end of the month.

This leaves me screwed. Now, I'm the only one doing work until this desk closes. Yes, I have the other backloggers, but they do not get nearly as much accomplished as my backup.

This means I'm brain dead when I come home from work, and cannot write at all. Sigh. We'll see how it goes.


Other news: I'm totally geeking out. I bought a new printer. It is a spiffy one, that is an all-in-one. Most importantly, it has a flatbed scanner (last year my scanner that I stole from the ex broke.). This means I can now scan all the photos from my childhood and not be without them when I make the big move. I am happy.
It's spiffy. It's new. It's wireless. It will so pay for it's self in like a month. (now I can do business stuff easier. Color printing.. woot! etc etc)

Alright, I guess that's all I've got for now.
Talk to you later people.

Bugs and Hisses.