Update

Well, I spent my half day off having breakup lunch with the boy. Then we got smashed. I'm talking jagerbombs at 3 pm smashed. It's cool though, we just weren't good as a couple, much better as friends. Don't worry though, I got some food, took a nap, and rallied for Drunksgiving. We're meeting up tonight for drinks because I want my stuff back (particularly my yoga pants!) and we're actually going to the football game Sunday too. A guy we both know wanted to give us the tickets so that's cool.

And in other news, I finished my Audrey sweater. It's currently blocking but I'll try to get one of the boys to snap a pic of me in it tonight or tomorrow. I've cast on for two other things: Cerisara in burgundy and Vortical in some great yellow and green stripes. It's snowing here so I need some warm snuggly clothes!!!

Wish I was happy about the holiday

But honestly I'm too bad of a mood. I invited the boy over for dinner last night and he didn't show up until nearly 8:30. Apparently he had gotten a call from a lady at the company he was hoping to work for and it didn't go well. The whole call was weird. Usually you don't talk salary on the first call. Usually you don't do an interview on the first call. But she called him while he was at happy hour and it happened. Well, I see now he was pretty distraught about it. Me, I guess I'm not just like that. I'm resilient. If something gets in the way of what I want I'm immediately planning an alternate strategy. Plus the whole description of the phone call was very "this is so fucking unprofessional it cannot even be serious". So now he thinks his shot at that company is completely done. I guess I just didn't see it that way. So when he showed up late, drunk, and more eager to talk over me to my brother and roommate than to talk to me I got a little ticked. Which culminated in about the biggest fight I've ever had with another person. I'm non-confrontational. I go with the flow. I ebb, bob, and flex to meet the situation. I'm not used to this shit. I'm embarrassed – I'm pretty sure it made the boys pretty uncomfortable and half the neighborhood when I made him go outside to smoke. I'm not good at reading people. I can't tell what people are feeling, hell, half the time I don't even know what I'm feeling. That's just the way I'm built I guess. The only emotion I'm adept at displaying is annoyance. Go with the flow people are rarely passionate people.

My coworker is listening to Christmas music in the next cube. Celine Dion can suck it.

See, there it is – annoyance!

Anyway, he was pretty much just drunk mad about the phone call and was taking it out on me, but some things popped up that I wasn't happy about. Mainly, my shortcomings. Including the fact that I feel fat, unattractive, insecure, and not the least bit sexy. I'm not just saying that so someone will counter me, that's just how I've been feeling lately. I've gained 50 pounds since college and my face is breaking out even though I'm in my 30's. If you spent 9 hours a day in your favorite pants that are really too tight, you'd be cranky too.

Anyway, he calmed down and I thought we made up but then after going to bed he flared up again and insisted on driving home. I protested as much as possible (because I do care, as much as he thinks to the contrary) but at the end of the day you can only do so much, and he ended up driving home. I sent a text asking him to make sure he let me know he got home ok and he did.

The funny thing is, before he left he proclaimed "as far as I'm concerned, we're done". Then he came over and kissed me on the forehead before he left. I'm not sure what that means. Right now I'm waiting for an apology, quite frankly. I know I have my issues but he did take his anger over the phone call out on me, and I don't really think I deserved that. I don't know where we're going to go from here though. Thankfully I already decided to take a half day today so I get to leave here soon. And try to make it up to the roomies for that embarrassing display. Oh, that's another thing, I do NOT do well with embarrassment. We'll see how this goes.

The Great Freezer Clearing

I went to the grocery store last night and picked up a few things for dinners this week, as per norm. I also got a couple of other things to have on and for last minute meals. You know, the ones where you find yourself at work and realize that you didn't plan anything for dinner and everything's frozen and what am I gonna make? I just bought some pasta sauce and rolls I can pop in the freezer and now realize I've done it to myself again because I failed to pick up any pasta. DAMNIT. Oh well, I'm sure I'll be at Target somewhere before we have to eat that meal and I can pick some up then.

Anyway I digress. So I bought some rolls and of course, ice cream because I bought half a peck of apples at Pipkin's last week and I thought some caramel apple cobbler was just the ticket. Anyway, I went to put the ice cream and rolls in the freezer and was just about greeted with an avalanche! Seriously, I did find a spot for my ice cream and rolls (THANK GOD!) but something needs to be done in there stat.

So the goal of this is to have to freezer just about cleared out by Jan 1^st. There's piles of meat in there, a ton of frozen veggies, and a smattering of convenience foods. From now on through the end of the year, every home cooked meal will incorporate at least one item from the freezer, and no adding new items to the freezer. It's on. Maybe I'll post later in the week with some pics of the freezer and an inventory so I can keep track of how we're doing.

By the way, for dinner last night we had burgers topped with red onion, tomato, soft goat cheese and raspberry chipotle sauce. Yes it was delicious. No it didn't include anything from the freezer. We also had salad with pecans, craisins, blue cheese, red onion, and a blue cheese walnut balsamic vinaigrette. I'm merely writing this down so I remember that I want to eat it again.

I've finished the ribbing on my Audry in Unst cardigan (yay!) and it was seriously 4" of twisted rib which pretty much made me want to tear my hair out. I timed myself, it took 20 minutes to do two rows in the twisted rib, so we're talking 6 hours just on the ribbing so far.

I've also go a pic in progress on my socks! You'll notice this socks is backwards from the other sock I posted. That's because it's the second sock! True story, the second I had the first off the needles (and on my foot) I had cast on for the second. Maybe I've over the second-sockitis? Let's hope!

Halloween is coming!

So it's time for pumpkin carving! We did ours the other night, as my work is having a pumpkin carving contest (and so far, there are 3 pumpkins entered. The deadline was extended to Friday in hopes of getting more participation but I'm not holding my breath here). Anyway, I figured I might as well save the seeds and roast them for a yummy snack. But what to put on them? Then I remembered a recipe I got from a friend a while back for rosemary almonds. I searched my email high and low in vain and eventually ended up just googling and finding something that sounded about right. I adapted this recipe from Cooking Light magazine to use pumpkin seeds instead of almonds.

Rosemary Roasted Almonds

Ingredients

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon chile powder

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Dash of ground red pepper

1 (10-ounce) bag whole almonds (about 2 cups)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325°.


 
2. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl; toss to coat. Arrange nut mixture in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake at 325° for 20 minutes or until lightly toasted. Cool to room temperature.


 
We ate them warm pretty much out of the oven and man they are addictive! A few things I would do differently next time- first is to make sure your seeds are dry. Mine were pretty wet so I think they spent part of the time in the oven drying out before roasting. My seeds also took a lot longer to be the right level of done than in the recipe and I think that was part of the reason. Plus the seasonings didn't adhere as well as I would have liked. Second is to use a bit more olive oil. I didn't measure mine, but they ended up slightly on the scorched side (I thought so anyway, the boys had no complaints). When my friend gave me her recipe, I think it had me roasting the almonds and then adding the oil and seasonings, but I prefer it this way – the nuts ended up really oily (and all over your fingers) and the seasonings were a little intense. The boys loved these seeds so much one of them mentioned buying another pumpkin just for the seeds! Too bad he over-exaggerates about everything.

I cast on last night for a pair of sock. Shocker, I know, I've completed exactly 4.5 socks in my life, and out of that I only have one matching pair. Though if I do ever finish that other .5 socks I will have two pair. I think I figured out my sock problem though. Knee socks. For some reason I want to knit knee socks until I actually do. And considering it takes at least twice as long to knit knee socks I could have knit two pairs of shorter socks in that time. So this time I'm tackling a shorter sock. It's cold in my office so I need some warm hand knit socks stat! So I have some self striping sock yarn (another thing I used to hate) in Indulgence in a pink and green colorway (it's the second from the bottom on the right) and cast on last night for Anastasia Socks. I love them so far! Thought I started them at knit night last night, got through the short row toe and into the pattern when I got home and realized the pattern was only charted on the even rows. Ugh. I was wondering how it was going to work out though, the pattern states that two repeats of the chart is enough for the foot and it wasn't looking like it was going to work for me. So as I was groaning and ripping back, my brother says "You know you can buy socks at the store?" No sooner did the words come out of his mouth did he flinch and say "Don't hit me!" At least he knows, even if he isn't funny!

So I'll leave you with a crappy cell phone pic of my work in process. Enjoy!

There’s Knitting This Time

So yesterday could be only described in one way – I had a case of the Mondays. I was late for work, and I just started feeling very underappreciated with all I do and with all people just expect me to do and never seem to acknowledge. I wasn't very busy at work so it started festering and before I knew it, I was at Target on my lunch hour looking for a little retail therapy. I decided I need new jeans, because despite having probably 20 pairs hanging in my closet, I only wear 2 or 3 pairs and only one of those is year round work-appropriate. The others are fitted for high heels, and since for some reason they don't make stiletto steel toes (YET) I can't really wear those to work. So since I only have one pair of jeans (tut tut tut we're not talking about the other ones I keep because I might wear them again someday) I needed jeans. So I grabbed a stack of 5-6 pairs in my normal size, along with an adorable dress on clearance for half off, and hit the fitting room.

Well, I bet you can guess what happened. Since I was having a case of the Mondays, not a single pair fit. Should have tried those damn jeans on Tuesday instead!!! Oh, and the dress, it was cute but a not so flattering on me. Damn. So I said to myself, whatever, it's not the number on the tag it's the way they fit, and I bought two pairs in a size larger, and they do fit. Doesn't make me any happier though.

So then I go to pay. I applied for one of those Target cards over the weekend because I spend so much damn money at Target I might as well get my 5% back right? Well, I didn't have my info on the card and they couldn't look it up so I couldn't use it and get my 5% back on my jeans. Which with all the other stuff I bought came to $3.50! Damn.

I go out to my car, and as I head up to my driver's side door what do I see? A shopping cart firmly nestled right up next to my damn door. This had to have been my breaking point. I dropped every obscenity I (and probably anyone) has ever heard before. I mean, what kind of fucking piece of trash lets their cart hit another car when there's a cart return 10 feet away? My hands were full, and I had a full case of pop as well, so I couldn't even negotiate the fucking craptastic cart away so I could get in the door. I had to open up the back doors, put my stuff inside, and then move the cart before I could get in. And to answer your questions, yes, there were other people in the parking lot that witnessed my breakdown. They all gave my very weird apprehensive looks before being very sure to return their carts to the cart return. At least I had an impact on someone.

So I let the boy know I was having a bad day. He asked what he could do to help which made me feel a little better right away. Then after I left work I got a weird phone call.

Ring Ring

Hello?

(woman on the line. This is important later) Hello, I'm calling from Sports Illustrated and I would like to sell you a magazine subscription.

Excuse me? (with disdain in my voice. I'm on the DNC list, how DARE they call my cell to sell me shit. I don't recognize the name of the magazine at first so I think this is a scam anyway)

Hello, I'm calling from Sports Illustrated and I would like to sell you a magazine subscription. Actually, you sound pretty cute so I'm going to give you a free trial subscription, what do you think about that?

(Trying to analyze again whether it's a male or a female calling, but shocked and appalled at the same time) I think I'm not interested *click*

I shoot a text to the boy saying "OMG! It just got worse!" I immediately get a phone call from him at work. I tell him about the phone call I just got. He just says "you just hung up on them?" I'm like, yeah, of course I just hung up on them! WTF did you think I was going to do! Then he confessed he put my number into a prank call website because he thought it would cheer me up.

Boys.

Anyway, in order to cheer myself up (at least I know how!) I went to this wonderful little produce market called Pipkins. A couple of weeks ago I picked up some $20 certificates on Groupon and I figured a pumpkin from Pipkins was exactly what I needed! Since I was there I decided a rerun of last week's Sweet Potato and Black Bean salad was in order. This time I threw in some raw chopped jicama since the ones they had weren't excessively huge (actually, nothing there was. Where does Kroger get their jumbo sized produce anyway?) The jicama was just the ticket, added an extra little bit of crunch to the salad and complimented the flavors nicely.

I promised some knitting content so here goes. I got my first order from a new online yarn place I found, Mr Yarn, and it is exactly what I wanted! Their prices are fabulous and shipping was super fast, I ordered Friday and had my yarn in hand Monday, and the prices are roughly what you'd pay at Webs if you spend enough to get the 25% discount, but shipping is a flat $5 anywhere in the US. Only caveat is that they only stock Malabrigo but I think I can live with that J I got some worsted to make a hat and cowl for when I'm freezing my bum off on the floor in two weeks during our union strike (it's not confirmed yet but I'm kind of counting on it) and I got some sock in red that I have no idea what I'm going to do with, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

I also blocked my Featherweight Cardigan last night. I'm kind of iffy on how it's coming out though. I had to do a sewn bind-off because of the loose gauge of lace on 6's which I think came out a little sloppy. I also have some laddering on the sleeves due to the same issue. We'll have to see when I release it tonight how much I like it in the end though.

I finished my Glorious Cabled Mitts last night and got all the ends woven in this morning! Now I just need to block them and I'll be all done! Yay! I made a few mods, like making the cuff shorter and the fingers longer, which I'll go through when I post them as FO's.

 
Cast-on has also commenced for Aundrey in Unst which I'm making in Silky Wool in Faded Purple. Only 4 rounds in but I love it so far! I did have a brain fart moment already though. I put it down midrow (239 is a lot of stitches!) and somehow managed to twist it when I started back up. Luckily I figured it out before I got to far though.

Now I'm off to enjoy some Baked Potato Soup I made over the weekend on this icky grey rainy day!

So Freaking Late

So I woke up this morning at 7:52. Now many people usually get up at 7:52, but not me. My first alarm goes off at 6:15 and I hit snooze every 5 minutes until 6:30. I get an extra 5 minutes if I'm not planning on washing my hair. I usually am out the door by 7:05, 7:10 at the latest. Ok, who am I kidding, but I am always out the door by 7:20. Luckily given my ability to speed through getting ready for the day, honed from years of "5 minutes in the locker room or the bus is going to leave without you" I was out the door by 8:05. 13 minutes might be my new record.

Of course, I was about thisclose to being even later when some old ass crone in a shiny Jag cut across 3 lanes of traffic and slammed on the brakes in front of me to make her exit. I gave her the one finger salute, nach, but seriously, this is the thing that pisses me off more than anything. People do it all the freaking time too – they slam on their brakes and stop on the highway or put their car in reverse or something similarly utterly stupid to make their turn/exit/whatever. This is a public service announcement. STOP! If you find yourself going the wrong way, and you can't go the way you need to, find a safe place to TURN AROUND and go back. It's not rocket surgery here people. Don't F up traffic for the rest of us because you don't know where you're going/aren't paying attention. Of course I could go on all day about the stupid things people do in their cars but I'll save my other topics for another day.

Let me tell you about dinner last night. It was delicious. It was so delicious, in fact, that although I had the best intentions in the world of taking so pictures and showing it off, all I had were empty plates by the time I remembered about my camera. So you're going to have to deal with a stock picture I swiped off Martha's website instead.

Mine looked a lot like that, only less brown on the meat and more green in the salad. Oh, and I don't use serving dishes at the house, not unless we sit down to dinner and really, most dinners are served in the kitchen and eaten in front of the TV.

But I bet you're dying to know what that is…. It's Roasted Pork Loin with Black Bean and Sweet Potato Salad. It's also the recipe that will completely CHANGE the way you feel about sweet potatoes. I asked both the boys how they felt about sweet potatoes before making this recipe. One grunted and shrugged and the other said ew. I remember eating sweet potatoes as a kid. My mom would bake them and I would have to drown them in salt and butter in order to get them in my stomach. Not these sweet potatoes. I want to make this salad and keep it in the refrigerator and munch on it all day long. Don't get me wrong, the pork was delicious too. Martha claims you'll have enough left over for sandwiches the next day, and I do, but I actually swiped 4 slices of pork and hid it in the fridge before I let the boys eat (muhahaha). Of course, I think my pork loin might have been a little smaller than called for- I bought mine in a 4 pack from Costco so I have no idea how much each individual loin weighed (4 pork loins for $12? Seriously Costco, I love you). But anyway, about the salad. Delicious. And it couldn't be easier. Even if you don't like or want to make pork loin (though I think you could definitely make this with pork tenderloin as well) MAKE THE SALAD. Now. Don't skip the fresh cilantro either (well, unless you hate cilantro. Then I'd suggest learning to love it J). The boys must have had their minds changed too, considering they both went back for seconds of the salad. One said, it tastes like something you'd get at Chipotle. And it does. It's fresh and a little tart and a little spicy and just plain out yummy.

I have been knitting as well, but I don't have any pictures to share, though I hope to by the weekend. I'd heading into the homestretch on my Featherweight Cardigan done in two shades of Cascade Alpaca Lace, 1405 (ecru) and 1411 (turtle). I'm finished with the ecru and it only took one skein of that, so I have a whole other skein of that to play with, and I think I might have to overdye it, just for fun.

Recipe Review – Spinach and Prosciutto Lasagna

The cooking bug is back. During those 100°+ degree days of summer the last thing I wanted to do was fire up my stove and hover over it for an hour. Oh, we still ate, but it was usually some boxed carb concoction with a salad and some form of grilled meat. The days of fall are upon us now and it seems my desire to cook is inversely proportionate to the temperature on the scale. I've vastly looking forward to chili's, stews, soups, and baked dishes.

So I was knocking about on Martha Stewart's website the other day and found a segment of recipes for fast Italian dishes. My roommate mentioned the other day wanting lasagna and Stouffer's in the same sentence, but I couldn't bring myself to that. I did find this recipe Spinach and Prosciutto Lasagna which can be whipped up and ready to bake in seriously, 10 minutes. I made a few mods from the recipe and here it is. The boys each devoured two servings so they must have given it their stamp of approval too! Next time, I think I will use regular lasagna noodles instead of the no-boil ones- they seem to be a bit thicker and therefore, more delicious!

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
  
• 1 1/2 cups part-skim ricotta (actually just bought a standard sized tub and used the whole thing)
  
• 1 garlic clove, minced
  
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
  
• 2 1/2 cups jarred tomato sauce (again, I bought a jar of sauce and used the whole thing, but ran short and ended up using some additional sauce I found in the fridge)
  
• 8 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, finely chopped
  
• 9 no-boil lasagna noodles
  
• 2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella
  

  Directions
  

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make filling: In a medium bowl, stir together spinach, ricotta, garlic, teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; set aside (I also threw in some bread dipping seasoning I had on hand Dean Jacob's Seasoning in the Tuscany Blend).
   
2. In an 9X12-inch baking dish, spread cup tomato sauce. Layer 3 noodles, 1/3 filling, 1/3 prosciutto and 1/3 remaining tomato sauce; repeat twice. Top with mozzarella. Bake until browned, 35 to 40 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
   

Roommates Suck

Ok, not all the time, but I'm super pissed off today so I got to get it out.

Yesterday was knit night (yay!) but it was also the first Reds playoff game. So the boys decided to meet up at Hooters on the river to get some wings and watch the game. When I showed up at home at 9:30ish only one of them was home. My brother showed up about a half hour later with two friends in tow. However, he was also trying to get a couple of girls to come with and party back at the house.

Not ok. It's Wednesday night. I have to go to work Thursday. The other A was also sick, so not like he needed to stay up late either.

So about 11 or so I went to bed. After a few shut up requests via text message the noise on the front porch died down enough for me to fall asleep. About 2 or so I woke up needing to pee. The lights were still on downstairs and I could hear some talking, so I just turned off the hall light on my way back to bed. When I woke up at 7 I could see the lights were still on.

So I get ready, come downstairs, and one of my brother's friends is sleeping on the couch. Fine, rather him do that than drive drunk. However, my front door is standing WIDE open and every single light on the first floor, including the two outside lights (one in the backyard which I don't even think they used) was on. I venture into the kitchen to grab my lunch and it's a train wreck. The burners on my stove have been moved, there's an empty take out container on the stove, half a slice of pizza on the floor, crushed peanut shells and what looks like a brownie on the counter, a sample pack of coffee on the floor, along with various other assorted food item sprinkles and the kitty fountain is moved from its normal location. I can't help it, I cleaned most of this stuff up. I can't just leave my kitchen looking like a train wreck.

So then I go to leave. The handle of Jameson's my brother bought last week is sitting on the front porch, empty, along with a handle of Captain's and a bottle of gin. Glasses are all over the front porch, there's a can of dip on the steps, and 2 or 3 of (MY!!!!) empty Yuenglings, which I had to import from TENNESSEE.

It's like a Saturday night party happened on a Wednesday. Seriously, I'm too old for this shit. Is it overreacting to not want to let my brother's friend back over? Oh yeah, I was informed there will also be a party at my house Friday night. With the way my house looked today after a Wednesday night party I shudder to think what the aftermath of a Friday night party would be. Especially one I'm not planning on attending. Not to mention, it's my house, they just live there and I should at least be ASKED if there's going to be a party going on.

I also told them the toilet had to be fixed before they could have people over. They plan to fix it with duct tape. That is NOT fixing it. I also wanted to get my front porch steps fixed soon and the grass cut. Too bad they are so busy this weekend watching football to be bothered to do a damn thing.

Ask me if either one of them have paid rent yet this month.

If I come home Sunday to my house looking anything like it did this morning, I think they will be looking for a new place to live. I'm too old to be putting up with this shit.

Yes I suck at Blogging

It's hard to blog when you're not even sure if anyone is reading it. Yeah, you could consider it "getting it all out" or whatever but I'm not really that type of person. I'm going to try blogging through word, the theory is if I can make it faster and easier maybe I'll actually do it!

Lots of things going on lately. I have roommates now. Young roommates, sometimes I feel like a mom! But I haven't lived with people in a while so I'm really relearning how to do that. I think I'm doing pretty well, I now have them both to the point where they will clean, do dishes, and take out the trash unprompted. We're working on the lights – it's amazing how people can just leave lights on all over the house! But I've found if I just ask for what I want in a fairly diplomatic way it's not that big of an issue. Hinting and passive aggressiveness don't work so well!

I'm heading to Nashville this weekend to go to a baby shower for my roommate from college. I haven't seen her in years and I'm really glad this shower is in Nashville and not Memphis, because a weekend trip to Nashville by car is just a little more doable than Memphis. I didn't buy her a gift – I made one! I made her an Op Art blanket from Knitty and an Elijah by Ysolda. Actually, I first made one Op Art blanket in blue and brown because I didn't know what she was having and thought that to be a versatile color combo (with sport weight yarn on 7's, nach). Then she finally registered so I popped over there and discovered from the abundance of pink items on the registry that she's actually having a girl. Not just pink, pink and BROWN. Ugh. So now I have a blue and brown Op Art blanket waiting in the wings for the next friend who has a boy and a second in pink and brown that's going to R. Of course, the second time around I picked up some worsted weight cotton/acrylic blend and knit it on 10.5's instead – much faster. Now, Elijah, who I actually have named Ella Elephant instead (she's a girl. Duh) was done in the same pink yarn the blanket is made from and I made some brown eyes out of the brown blanket yarn, and I have to say, she's pretty fucking cute. I finished her up last night and managed to wrap her up without taking a single picture (I should stop drinking so much, I forget things!) And of course I forgot my camera today to take this weekend. However, I do have a camera that work owns sitting on my desk so I might just kidnap that for the weekend, maybe no one will notice it sneaking out on non-work hours J

My life is getting to be fairly busy. Next weekend I'm going to a wedding with my new boy. Not just any wedding, his brother's wedding. So I'll get to meet his whole family, yay. He's already coaching me on what to do and not to do. I'm not allowed to look at my Crackberry at all (!@*&$@)?????) and I'm supposed to talk to his mom about cooking and my cats. Oh, and I'm not allowed to say BTW either. I don't know why people judge me when I say BTW, I mean, people say FYI, ASAP, GE, and IHOP. It's a perfectly valid acronym! He just better not give me any grief when I tell him not to smoke around my parents, I know my mother will not approve of that AT ALL. I don't see this going well though. He was complaining about money last night and how he might move and find a cheaper place for a while. I was TRYING to be helpful when I suggested that he might consider quitting smoking, that he would save a lot of money that way and he kind of freaked out about that. I got really upset about that, I mean, it's a win-win. More money, better health, and he's planning on quitting at 35 anyway so why wait? Putting a deadline on it is just going to make quitting worse for him. But I guess I should just keep my mouth shut about it for now.

The weather's finally starting to turn and I need warm snuggly knits NOW! I have my Featherweight Cardigan also on the needles but I had to take a break from it to finish my baby gift. I'm doing it in laceweight yarn (soo skinny!) and striping skinny sage green and winter white stripes, with thick bands of green at the hem, cuffs, and collar. I want it NOW! I'm also making a second set of Glorious Cabled Mitts so I can wear them at work. My first pair were done in a winter white color, white make them very feminine and delicate. The second set are going to be done in a heathered grey brown color, and are going to look much more rustic. I love that you can change things to make them suit you, and that something as simple as a yarn substitution can make such a huge change. I also have yarn lined up for Cerisara and Audrey in Unst so I'm going to be one busy girl!

Job hunting

Alright, I'm dedicating a post to my job hunting. I don't really talk about being unemployed because although I know it's not entirely my fault, I find it embarrassing. But since I've been out of work for 4 months, I feel that I really need just to get it all out there.

I don't miss my old job. I really don't - I hated that job and I was always bored. I felt it wasn't challenging me enough, and I felt my old boss was an asshat. I talked to an old coworker today and he said he's bored - there's no work for them. That just cements my feelings about it.

I feel the universe is punishing me. The last two times I've been laid off I've found something else almost immediately. I feel the retaliation of this now. It's been 4 months and the most I've had is a phone interview, which led to an in-person interview that was cancelled. They put the position on hold.

Recently I got a call about that position, asking if I was still available. It sounds great and all but I really don't want this job. It's a quality engineering position, which means working on a dirty shop floor with people who have low levels of education, trying to write procedures and methods that an 8 year-old couldn't mess up. It will mean overtime and driving nearly 30 minutes to work, and it will probably mean making less than I was at my last job without bonus. But I feel like if I get the job I would HAVE to take it. Well, for one thing if I turn it down I have to report that on my unemployment forms and for another thing, did I mention I've been out of work for 4 months? Um, yeah, there's that too.

I got a call about My Perfect Job the other day. Applications engineering, which is basically a sales job for a technical person. The only problem was that they already interviewed 5 people for the job but hadn't officially decided. Well, I found out today that they offered the position to someone and she accepted it. Then I was told if they had my resume earlier it might have been a game changer. The problem is, the recruiter sat on my resume for a week and a half - he didn't even bother to send it over until AFTER they had drawn together an offer. He eventually did send it over but it's a little too late now. Maybe if they got my resume they would have interviewed me too. The recruiter told me that I probably would have gotten the job too, if it was any consolation. Um, no, fucker, it's NOT!

Maybe a dating blog?

I've sort of been inspired to blog more about my dating life. The stories are quite interesting and maybe it will help remember more. I hate it when people bring up things that I don't remember happening until they do (Hey, Emily, remember the time Boomer offered you $200 to sleep with him?) Um, yeah.

So last night I went to Teak for sushi with, well just call him Mr. Persistent. Mr. P. emailed me about 2 dozen times online before I actually responded thinking, maybe I should just give him a chance. Nest time I'm going to listen to my instincts!!! So we decide to meet there at 8. First he calls me at 6:30 saying he got bored and decided to head up there early. Ok, whatever, I still have shit to do so I'll be there at 8. Then came the annoying text messages about when I was going to get there. Um, 8. Then the phone call as I'm trying to find parking, trying to back into a spot while some asshat cab driver sits on my bumper, not letting me move, while more and more traffic shows up and all I want to do is park in my damn spot and I eventually had to give up, flip the cab driver off and move on.

I finally get there and the waitress made some comment about how I finally made it. What? I was 5 min early! It's not my fault he decided to show up so early. But whatever.

So we order sushi. All the sushi he orders is cooked. Don't get me wrong, I have a thing for shrimp tempura and crab in my sushi, but I like me some spicy tuna and masago as well. Which kind of makes me think that he doesn't like sushi as much as he lets on. Which is furthered when he barely eats any of it. And this is a big guy we're talking about here. I devoured pretty much almost all of mine. If I hadn't been eating alone I probably would have decimated it all.

Afterwards we went to Longworth's and grabbed seats at the bar to have a few drinks. I like Longworth's and live music so I was chill. Not to give a play by play of everything that happened, but here are my favorite highlights:

* When I mentioned I went to school in Evansville, he said, whoa, Evansville is a rough town! Of course, I looked at him like a crazy person and said, it absolutely is not, maybe you are thinking of Evanston. He then proceeded to tell me, no, it was Evansville, and he read about it and it certainly was a rough town. Yes, something you think you might have read that might have been about Evansville is probably more accurate than my account of living there for four years.

* He was drinking Bacardi and diet coke... and then proclaimed the only beer he drank was Bud Light lime, Corona, and Blue Moon because "it ain't beer unless it has fruit in it!" I'm pretty sure the expression is usually most often used in reverse, and I'm sorry, but Smithwick's is about 9854739564376 times better than Bud Light Lime. Hell, IMHO PBR is better than Bud Light Lime.

* He brought up fraternities and sororities. The last time I was actually IN a sorority was 10 years ago. I'm 31. I don't care. BTW he was a Sig Ep, and proclaimed no other fraternity was worth the time. My brother is a Phi Delt. My grandpa was a Phi Delt. You can like your shit, but don't downgrade my family's, especially after I mention that my family is in a different fraternity.

* He has 4 tattoos. A cross, his fraternity letters, his nickname (WTF?), and a cross. It was like he couldn't remember and had to mentally go through them all. Wouldn't you just say 2 crosses? And further, if you HAD a tattoo of a cross, why would you go get another one? Maybe if they were in memory of someone but his weren't. He just likes crosses.

* We were in a bar. Drunk people came in. He was completely annoyed by them and wanted to beat up some guy because he was wearing a polo shirt. Did he think there were going to be nuns at this place? Who did he think was going to be there? For the record, I LOVE drunk people as long as they're not crying or spilling shit on me. Like the guy at the Oakley Pub last weekend, who was randomly and loudly singing off time with the Queen songs that were playing. I wanted to put that shit on youtube.

* Then he kept touching me. Ew. Don't run your hand down my side. I was like my mom's old cat Finn, he'd do the same thing as I was doing when you tried to pet him. I now realize the cat thought we were all douchebags too.

So he asked if he was going to see me again. I lied. I said to call me. He has since been reprogrammed in my phone as "Do Not Answer". I got a text from "Do Not Answer" before 2 today that said "I can't believe we left all that sushi." I wanted to respond with "Maybe if you weren't such a douche..." but I refrained.

I take it back

I take it back. I would rather be called "the bottleneck" than "the horse we're riding".

Still Trucking...

Yup, I'm still going to post even though no one might be reading :)

Finished my Apres Surf Hoodie... Here it is blocking...

I made it much longer than the pattern indicated and the length is just right. Love it! Wore it last week to the Vetern's Knitter Sale at Fiberge and got my 25% off. Love a sale - I got some more baby merino to make my brother an argyle cowl for his birthday. And some to make myself one to go with my new orange coat as well. I'm digging this whole popularity of the cowl thing... Keeps your neck warm, won't unwrap and fall off like a scarf, the ends don't get in your way and when you arrive at your destination, you can pop it in your pocket as some are barely larger than a hat! I think my brother will like his in tan and black fair-isle type argyle... The boy is a prep at heart, anything argyle is tops on his list! And yeah, this is a birthday knit, there's no way I'll be done in time for Christmas!

Speaking of Christmas, I finally started my Christmas shopping this weekend! I made it up to the outlet mall with my 20% off at Coach coupon and bought my previously mentioned brother a new wallet. Outlet priced at $120, half off sale plus coupon made that puppy only $50. I'm trying to control my spending this year so other than some kitten mittens that'll be it for him. What are kitten mittens? I'm so glad you asked!

I hope that works, I used to know some html but not so much anymore. If not here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGCKONstXWI. Yeah, it's his favorite show and I think I can probably whip those suckers out in a few hours.

Work has been crazy busy. I should probably be doing that instead of posting here but let's be honest. It's boring. I need to bring in massive amounts of money this year so we can hit our financial goal and get our bonuses and lucky me, our sales guy waited until the end of the year to get a bunch of PO's. I've hardly had anything to do all year and now it's going to be non-stop until next year. Good thing I already took most of my vacation time. Everyone is freaking out and they need to CALM DOWN. 1) I'll get this shit done. I always do. I've never missed a hard deadline. I'll bring in more part coders - it's something I can easily find, especially in this economy and right around the holidays. 2) When the stress level is high, I get sick. Since I'm the only one doing this, I can't get sick. So the stress level needs to come down. 3) If I have my headphones on and I'm not responding to you, there's a reason for that. I'm probably trying to calculate the volume of a hollow circular paraboloid and translate that into flat plates. It's not the time to interrupt me to tell me that Nordstrom Rack is opening less than a mile from my house. Trust me, I already know. And 4) I would prefer is people not refer to me as 'the bottle neck'. It's not my fault all these PO's came at the same time. It's not my fault there's only one person here that does my job. It's not my fault that everything has to go through me before it can be coded. It's also not my fault that our statement of works don't charge extra for all the work I do during set up for coding. I can get it done fast or I can get it done right.

Ok, back to work. I can't even tell you how happy I am that next week is only 3 days!

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!

Another Date - LOL

Rule number one in dating- if you're going to google the person you're going to go out with, don't tell them. And especially don't tell them in the first five minutes of meeting them. And even more important, don't bring up some obscure paper they wrote for NASA like, 4 years ago. Ihad to google myself to figure out what it was!

Took my baby to the shop today. So sad I'm going to be without her for five days - and I have to drive this shitty Impala until then! I so want to download that song and blare it- it's awful! Hopefully I'll get her back on time as good as new!

Work is fucking biz-zee! The project I'm working on is coming to a head. Feels sometimes like I'm teaching remedial high school subjects though. Everytime I get a spreadsheet from someone I have to highlight everything they missed or got wrong, and then send it back. Once I didn't have to send it back at all. Once I had to send it back 5 times. One guy didn't put everything in the column it was supposed to go in, he left it all combined in a text stream - like I have nothing better to do than fix everyone's spreadsheet for them. Then someone had the nerve to call me a software rep! The nerve!!!

Booked my trip to Miami today. Well, I booked a trip to Miami for the wrong week, then I called Delta freaking out that I booked it on the wrong day, then rebooked it on the right day. I want to pack already! My friend claims she's going to carry on. 5 days??? Carry on??? Forget it! I can't wait!

Can't give a crap

So like any NY resolution mine has been broken. But I’m back and I guess I have a lot of updating to do!

So I went on my first match.com date. Ugh. Note to self: ask what a guy does before committing to even drink with him. When I did ask what he did, he told me he works at his friend’s tennis store. Seriously? You’re 3-fucking-4 years old, it’s well beyond time to have an actual career. Then he asked me if I ever came up to party in Dayton. I have no idea why I would ever do that- I mean, I know you all have probably heard about the rocking party scene in Dayton Ohio, but that drive is just a little long for me. The best part though, was when he named two songs by my favorite band, because I mentioned in my profile that I’d give bonus points to anyone who could. For one thing, bonus points aren’t real. For a second, all he did was GOOGLE THEM! I asked him if he liked him, he said no, I asked if he at least listened to them, another no! At least f-ing download a song or two and give them a listen if you’re going to bring it up! I know I said I would give him bonus points, but in reality, for that performance, I took points away. He asked if I wanted to order food and I made up an excuse that I was meeting friends for dinner later. He did make the all so generous gesture of picking up the tab for my ONE beer, which cost a whopping $1.75- less than his coke I might add. NEXT!

The economy is bad right? So then why is there an hour and 45 minute wait to get a table at PF Chang’s on a Friday night? Luckily my friends and I are cute; a little balking at that wait got us a table in 20 minutes along with free appetizers and free dessert. But seriously, if the economy is so bad, why is every restaurant I walk into on a weekend so packed? However, I can’t complain about the sales going on lately!

I’ve been thinking more about moving lately. Florida fo sho. I want to walk in the sun and not pick my shoes based on whether or not there’s snow on the ground. My friend Janet is trying to get back to Miami, but I don’t think I want to move there. I don’t speak Spanish! Maybe somewhere a little farther north up the shore. I don’t even want to live by the beach, just knowing I can get there in less than an hour is good enough for me. Plus you know wherever I move there will be a pool! I’m going to start saving my funds now. Plus I think I need to wait for the economy to come back a little bit and get some more experience at this job before I start job hunting again.

Job is going well. Busy! My boss keeps trying to get into all these new businesses so we may very well be HAMMERED in the next few months. I think I might even get a bonus this month- I’m not really eligible for one but my boss did say that he could put in for one for me as “discretional spending” and he did. Yay for a bonus in a time when people aren’t really getting much of anything. Not to mention I’ve never gotten a bonus before. I take that back, I got a $100 gift card once, but I don’t think that should count.

Weekend update

Sorry, I'm sure it won't be as funny as the original.

Friday - went with J to see Benjamin Buttons and have some eats. BB was good, a little sad, but that happens. Stopped at the Lou to have some food because it was 10:30 and we were starving. A was working there, he always hooks me up. 2 free beers - sweet. He probably is sweet on me, but he's young so there's no potential there. When we left we got our parking validation refunds. Apparently the kid didn't have much cash left so he refused to give anyone the full $4 and gave people $3 instead. You can believe I wrote the Levee a LONG letter about that one. I know it's a buck, but seriously, you can't short people money because they kid wasn't given enough cash at the beginning of his shift. Anyway, he could have been lying about that and lined his pockets with the additional buck.

Yesterday I went to the gym and just hung out. Met up with A and L for some Chipotle, and then headed to Habits for some drinks, where K met up with us. K just broke up with the guy she was dating on NYE, and has already signed up for eHarmony and met a new guy yesterday, who called while we were there and later showed up. Honestly, she does this over and over again, and I wish she would take some time for herself for once to learn to be on her own and figure out what she wants before she jumps in another relationship with the first guy that comes along. I'm not the only one that thinks that way, but honestly, what are you going to do about it? There's not much you can say to someone about it that's going to go the right way. After Habits, L went to Hap's and A and I went to Hyde Park Tavern. It sucked so we met up with L at Habits, where A almost went home with a German Shepard puppy. Better than a greasy guy with an STD right?

Woke up with a bit of a headache, popped a few advil and had some greasy hash browns and homemade goetta for breakfast. Made it up to the galaxy for my 12:30 club fitting. Tried out a few men's drivers, found one I really like. Apparently my club speed is really quick for a woman, so I ended up with a men's senior driver. Found one I hit 217 yards straight down the middle a Cobra. Took a few irons into the simulator, found one I really liked, Ping G10's. Again, a men's senior club. So I got all written up on my special order clubs, and they decided I could buy the driver today but that my mom should come in and get the clubs for me. So after I checked out, I was sitting around shooting the shit with E for a bit, when we noticed some trade in clubs sitting on the next register. Ping rhapsody, the same club I was ordering only slightly better, and they were brand new, full set. The guy had his order sheet from when he purchased them less than a month ago. They were the exact spec that I needed with the exception of the lie angle, they were off by a degree. So I took the 7 back and hit it in the simulator, and was hitting the crap out of it. They were going slightly left but that was because the angle was off. So B took them back and adjusted the angle, and they were mine for a mere $460! For reference, when they were bought new less than a month ago they were $1037. The G10 Pings I was ordering were around $650. I even ended up with more clubs than I was really ordering, I was going to get 5-PW and a gap wedge on my order, but buying used I had to buy the whole set, 3-PW and I got the gap too. They guy had bought 2-PW, gap, sand, and lob wedges, hybrid set and driver less than a month ago and already traded them back in! Some people have more money than sense. So I got new clubs and paid for it all with gift cards from Christmas! Yay!

Had dinner tonight with M. Haven't seen her in a bit, so we went to Mitchell's and had the tasting menu. Yum lobster, spinach salad, lobster and crab cakes, and creme brulee for dessert. She got me a birthday gift, it's the cutest picture from with the quote "there's always something to toast to" on it.

Doing the match.com thing. A is doing it too and raves about it. K is doing eHarmony. A thinks we should do a documentary, I think it would be hilarious. No potential so far, but we'll see. A said she also had doubts the first few days, and to give it a few days. We'll see, Ill have to keep you updated!

Day one, and coincidentally, new years day...

So i figure it's time to start something new, right? New year, new blog, new audience of people to bore with my mundane life. So most people write about what they do during the day, right? Well, last night was, of course, new years eve. My first instinct was to boycott. I hate NYE. I like the concept, but the execution sucks. Then my second instinct was just to treat it like a Friday night, dinner and maybe a movie with a friend. Well, then it occurred to me that all the places I like to go, would be $60 to just get in the door, traffic would be horrendous, and drunk people would be on the road. Which brings me to my third idea, which was to go out with two of my (male) friends who didn't seem like they had any concrete plans. Well, until about 8 pm last night, when they both decided to stay in because they were sick. So the one, G told me to call him later to see, maybe he'd be feeling better. So I did and apparently, his pocket answered so I could enjoy the bar background noises. Nice right- lying about being sick. So since he only lives 5 min, I did a drive by on the way to buy myself a happy new years bottle of champagne and confirmed it. Yes, no car in his driveway. I don't mind that he didn't want to hang out with me on new years. All he had to do was say he had plans and I would have gone back to boycotting new years. But this is bullshit. I don't even know how to handle it - probably the silent treatment for now. Oh well. I was exhausted, so I downed the champagne and was in bed before midnight.

So today I woke up at the crack of 6:45. Yes, I forgot to turn off my alarm. So when I couldn't fall back to sleep, I turned on a little TV, confirmed that I still had Comedy Central, and settled in with some Saved by the Bell reruns. Eventually I dozed back off and woke up again around 10:30. Got up, had a divine caramel chocolate and pecan muffin from Costco and settled in for the Bones marathon. Not that I like Bones all that much, but David Bor-a-I-don't-know-how-to-spell-his-name is hot. So I worked on knitting the left glove and watched for a bit. Took a break now and then to do some cleaning and laundry. Then I decided to assemble the filing cabinet the I bought from Target the other night. I was rocking on the thing, I should have had it together in less than 20 minutes. Until I had to put in the drawers. I went to put the large one in and it was a tight squeeze. It went about half way in before it stopped. I pushed it a little harder, and then *whoosh* ball bearings all over the floor. Sticky ball bearings, on my unvacuumed and my vacuum barely works floor. Nice. So I finally get it all back together, all the sticky ball bearings back in, get the drawer back in and *Woosh* AGAIN! Luckily the third time really was the charm, and even though I washed off the sticky grease to get the ball bearings back in, I finally did get the drawer in. Lubed it all back up with a little WD-40 (yes, I do have some on hand!) and now it's good to go, upstairs in my orange room holding the hand-me-down printer that halfway works.

So I did something else today. I created a profile on match.com. A has the worst luck with men, and she told me that she was doing it and was having great luck with it so far. She actually raved about it, which surprised me, coming from her. So I created one, hopefully fun and flirty. I looked at my first 5 matches though -well, let's just say it can only go uphill from here! I figured I would do it for what, 6 months or so and see what happens. I've already had 3 people view my profile HA HA! My mom has been bugging me about doing it as well. I said to her that it usually works better for older people, to which she pointed out that I am older now. Ouch - point taken.

Well it's back to work again tomorrow. I wish it was busier-there wasn't much to do over the holidays. I'm going to have to make my first phone call tomorrow asking someone to pay their bill though. Wish me luck on that one!!!