Seasons are changing again, it makes me a little sad. I love summer, being tan, going to the pool, playing golf. Golf has been relegated to the weekends now. More time after work, since I was regularly playing a good 2-3 times a week after work this summer. I guess I should start going back to the gym. Seems it's been a mass exodus from my old gym to my new one! Not that I can blame them, it's a whopping $7 more a month and sooooo much nicer. More classes, racquetball courts, 3 times as many elliptical and treadmills (and they all actually WORK!) and a (get this ) POOL!!! So far I've seen quite a few people from the old gym - the tall skinny black guy with the grey hair and all his workout friends, the guy that looks like the Clark Kent version of Superman, the lesbians that play football for Ickey Woods, and that guy my friend took out with us on NYE a few years ago.

I've been making it there about once a week but you know that's really not enough. I hit it there last night, usually it's not so crowded when I make it there on the weekend and I stay in the pool and don't do much else. Well, I'm stepping it up and doing 30 min or so on a machine before swimming. I really need to get online and DL some masters workouts - I find a get a whole lot more done when I have like, actual SETS to do instead of just aimlessly swimming back and forth. And it may look like I'm showing off, but I NEED to do some speed work in order to feel like I've actually gotten something out of the workout. It is fun coasting by the rec swimmers though...

This weekend I'm going to jump on a jet plane and heading down to Chucktown (Charleston for those unfamiliar) to visit A. It might be a train wreck full of shame and regret, but I think everyone needs a day like that every once in a while. I won't be flying back though... I'll be driving. YAY! Need to find a good knitting project for that drive. I was thinking about making a orange and black cowl for my dad because I could pretty much make it without a pattern, but I'm sorely tempted to work on my Apres Surf Hoodie instead.

Too cute right? I'm making it in this great cyan color from knitpicks.

Yeah, it's really kind of bright but I like it! I really look much better in colors like this than the color the model is wearing anyway. I'm (finally) through the back section and I plan on starting the front tonight. I'm making a few mods to the pattern though, I think it would end up way too short on me to begin with, considering my loooong torso. And the sizes are between a 39-1/2 inch and a 43 in bust. Being I'm 40", I figured I would make the 39-1/2" and block it to the right size I need. And if I need it to be a bit wider than design, well, it needs to be a bit longer to compensate. So the directions will have you decrease at a rate of once ever 8 rows for the waist and increase once every 10 rows for the bust, so I decreased at every 10 and increased at every 12. I also knit an extra inch before starting the waist shaping, but I have the same amount of plain knitting at the bottom. Thankfully I think I took good notes! It was a little heartbreaking - I should have been finished with the back Saturday, but turns out about halfway through I messed up the lace pattern and had to frog! All that work *sob*. Oh well, rather have it done and look good than just have it done 3 days sooner!

Reminds me I really need to take and post some FO pictures... Maybe next time!

So it's been a while?

Yes, I see now my last blog post was in February. Yes, I see this is post #5 in my blog. I guess you could say my dedication to blogging is a little lax. And yes, that would be a massive understatement!

I've been apathetic about computers lately. I spend 95% of my 40 (yes, 40 max!) hours at work on a computer, so about the last thing I want to do when I get home is get back on the computer. But, my friends, I have found a way where I can blog with my apathy - yes, blogging at work. Let's be honest here, of the 95% of the time I'm on the computer at work, 100%$ of that time I have some sort of Internet browsing going on. I may not be actively browsing, but you can be damn sure it's open. And now that lovely Sonic Shield has blocked facebook, I can't even get through with a proxy server! Which is too damn bad, I used to have a mad rush going on in BeJewled over there. Luckily for me though, I can still get on Ravelry through the proxy server. Anyone interested in website construction or knitting should mosey over there and request membership. Seriously, I work for a company that produces a web-based application for manufacturing environments. I have 4 full time programmers and one systems administrator on staff. Ravelry pretty much kicks our website's ass. And the whole thing is coded by ONE GUY!!!! I don't think most people over there get how freaking unbelievable that is. My website is constantly crashing, producing internal server errors, and corrupting data. Oh, and all our data is either entered by us or is entered by a user and extensively filtered by us. His data is all user entered and hardly ever crashes! I wonder if Casey (yes, everyone on the website knows his name, and he's constantly on the boards answering posts and emails) is just that good or if my guys suck THAT BAD. Probably a little of both I guess.

Speaking of work, yeah, work sucks. I get way too little pay, not enough vacation, and way too few interesting and engaging things to do. I feel brain dead at times, like I once knew how to think but the grey film has clouded my eyes and my brain and I can no longer think or see clearly. We have business planning meeting at the end of the month where we set budget for next year, i.e. how much we're going to try to make and spend. I don't know why we're going to bother with it though, basically my boss Dash is going to make all the decisions and we're going to have conversations that are 4 times as long as they should be just for him to come to the same conclusion as he had in the beginning. In preparation for this illustrious event, we've been ordered to read Strengthsfinder 2.0 and take the personality quiz. I'm not going to reveal my actual results today, or ever maybe, but it was interesting. Apparently the quiz goes in different directions depending on how you answer, but mine didn't even ask about numbers. Which is interesting given my BS in engineering. According to my top 5 strengths, I should have gone into either marketing or journalism. 2 of my strengths specifically said either journalism or marketing, and one said media. Apparently my grasp of the English language and my propensity to use large words (which I admit I am more apt to do in speaking, because I'm a terrible speller) leaves people impressed and intimidated, motivated to go into action but lacking in understanding of what I'm actually talking about. Yeah, that kind of made me chuckle. Of course, I know he had us take this quiz so he can decide what role we should take in this company, but I do believe I'm hoping in vain that my job description will change. I'm pretty sure he'll make up a couple of tasks for us to do in the upcoming year and then promptly forget about it. Which I feel is fairly accurate because one of my coworkers indicates that's exactly what happened last year. Oh well, I'm not planning on staying here forever, but someone please remind me when I'm job hunting next time to negotiate 3 weeks of vacation for sure!

Love life.... Well there's not much to talk about there. I'm hanging out and having fun with this guy I met last year who lives in Florida. Nothing serious there, he's just up here for like, a month, working and doesn't really know anyone here so we're having a good time. He's fun, and maybe a little crazy, but hey, it keeps me occupied.

Well, that's enough for now. I don't want to exhaust all my topics and not post again for another 8 months!