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!