Please make up your own clever title

The first week back at work after a vacation is always a joy. Had over 200 new e-mails waiting for me, plus with all the ones that came in during the week I've still got about 50 unread ones.

Had a particularly frustrating time getting some termite certificates. See, on certain types of loans we are required to provide a certificate to the lender showing that the house was treated for termites. Generally the treatment is done to the soil prior to building & we get certificates at that time as part of the sub's regular contract. Now, we've got some model homes that are just about ready to close escrow, and of course with the treatment having been done so long ago I knew that the certificates would not be accepted. I knew for certain that one of the homes would need a cert, and that chances were good the others would, too. Before I went on vacation (8/13 to be exact), hoping to avoid a last-minute scramble, I sent an e-mail to--well, I'm not going to name names so I'll just say Person A--pointing out that the certs for these homes were too old, and although I wasn't sure if all three models would need treatment could we please get a post-construction treatment for all three just in case? Person A forwarded it to Person B with a "please help out!" message.

I return from vacation and after going through the e-mails I realized there wasn't any response. Naturally I re-sent the first e-mail to both Persons A & B, cc'ing Mr. Boss Man, asking for the status. No response. The next day Mr. Boss Man replies to all requesting that this be taken care of quickly. No response. On Thursday I get a frantic call from the termite subcontractor saying that Person B had requested certs, and the certs would be too old, and we'd need to re-treat, and she sent an e-mail to Person B and hadn't heard back, etc. etc. Long story short (too late!) I went to Person B's office and told her that the sub was having kittens because she couldn't reach her (turns out she had left ONE e-mail and ONE voice mail approximately 30 seconds before calling me). Person B got a little huffy & pointed out that she had been away from her desk and that she had requested the certificates. I said, "The certificates are too old; the homes need to be re-treated. That's what I said in my e-mail. I request certificates all the time, but I can't order re-treatments" (or words to that effect). She deflated a bit and said, "Oh. I guess I didn't read that. . . " She then tried to convince me that I could have ordered the treatments myself. Um, NO, I couldn't--I'm not part of either purchasing or procurement and I do NOT have the authority to issue purchase orders and/or authorize payment of invoices, both of which a re-treatment requires since it's not part of the regular contract with the sub. Anyway, we finally got the certs yesterday, a full 15 days after my initial request for re-treatment. So much for preventing a last-minute scramble.

In knitting news, the spider is finished! I really like how it came out. Don't have pictures yet but will post one when I do have them. Started on another octopus yesterday. That pattern is very addicting.

In more news, Lizard got some new yarn from an independent dyer in France. One of the skeins is a red & black sock yarn that she got FREE because the dyer wasn't happy with it (the color bleeds; the dyer sells the yarns she likes and gives away the ones that she feels aren't 100% perfect on a first-come, first-serve basis). Lizard had mentioned to her that if she (Lizard) couldn't get it to stop bleeding she was going to give it to her sister (me) to see if I would have better luck. So get this--the dyer sent TWO skeins, one for Lizard and one for me!! Whaddya think of that? I think it's fabu!!

Lizard is coming over tomorrow, not sure what time. I told her anytime she wanted was fine; we're usually up by 5:00 or 5:30. What I had forgotten is that we are going to a party tonight so will probably sleep in 'til at least 6:30 or 7:00. I doubt she'll be there that early, though :-) Part of the reason she is coming over is that the yarn store near my house is having a show-and-tell event in the afternoon. People bring in their projects to show off, eat some nibblies, and of course yarn purchases are likely to be made. I really enjoyed the last one they had, even if the restaurant next door caught fire in the middle of it.

Been doing well so far with the exercise bike. I went for 10 minutes on Sunday & Monday, 15 on Tuesday & Thursday, and a little over 20 minutes last night. Right now I'm focusing on getting into the habit of using it rather than how many minutes or how many miles. But I still did just over 20 minutes yesterday :-)

And it's Wednesday.

Making good progress on the knitted spider. No pictures yet; going to wait until he's finished. The abdomen & legs are a variegated red/orange/green/purple and the head is in black. It's kinda creepy, and I *like* spiders. I'm quite pleased with how it's turning out, though.

The picture today is of the octopus I knit in Arizona. I hadn't realized until I was halfway done that I had chosen Lakers colors. Go Lakers, I guess :-) So far this is my favorite pattern in the book; quick, easy, and so realistic looking! I'm planning on making at least two more.

Been having some foot pain lately. Thought it was the new shoes, but I bought a different pair & it hasn't helped; neither did a week not wearing work shoes while on vacation. It's right at the very last joint of the big toe on my left foot, directly above the ball. Ralph thinks I should go get it x-rayed. I plan to do my usual ignore-it-and-maybe-it-will-go-away treatment, at least for a while longer.

Only a few weeks until my pirate party. I *really* need to get the invitations out.

Exercise, excercise, come on everybody do your exercise

Today Ralph & I bought a recumbent exercise bike. It's only partially assembled as you can see; Ralph snapped a piece by trying to lift out the frame by a tiny plastic crosspiece, so we're waiting for the glue to dry. We both need to get some exercise & this seemed to be a good way to do it. It's too hot to walk in the summer, and too dark to do it after work in the winter. Same with regular bicycles. And a gym? Too inconvenient. So, with this in the house ready for use at any time we have no reason not to use it. It even has a yarn holder so I can knit while I pedal. For some reason, though, this feature is labeled as a "water bottle holder" on the owner's manual. Weird! We're setting it up in the red room which has its own air conditioner. Can't complain about the heat with that!

My main reason for wanting it is to improve my health, but who knows? Maybe I will even lose a few pounds. I plan to start slow--10 to 15 minutes a day 3 times a week, then build up to 30 minutes, then increase the number of days per week. Yes, I am that out of shape. Wonder what would be best; before work, and get it over with, or after work & pedal off the frustrations of the day. Both have merit. Anyway, now I've posted my goal for all the Teeming Millions to see, so now I *have* to follow through--right??

End of the vacation

Well here it is, Sunday afternoon. I could use another week off before heading back to work, but then isn't that always the way? We really didn't *do* much on our trip, and have done even less since getting home. I did knit another octopus (I'll have to get pictures) and we took the dogs for walks. Took a short trip "to town" to get a few things, as we grossly underestimated the amount of bacon & water we'd go through, and that one short hike to Lava River Cave. Other than that, we sat in the shade, read, talked, toasted marshmallows, and generally relaxed. I did quite a bit of knitting & Ralph brought his archery stuff.

As you know from below, we got home on Friday morning. That afternoon we went to see "Julie & Julia," a marvelous, funny, wonderful movie that I highly recommend. Afterward we went to the Auld Dubliner Pub which neither of us had been to before. We split an appetizer of spicy potatoes (basically hot wings made with potatoes instead of chicken, very tasty); Ralph had the fish & chips and I had shepherd's pie. For dessert we split a very creamy creme brule. While we ate we chatted with an older guy with longish grey hair and wearing a cowboy hat--kinda looked like Sam Neill's character in "Ghostrider;" sounded a bit like him, too--and all three of us tried to make sense of the rugby game on "the telly." As best as we could figure out, the point of the game is to kill whoever has the ball, preferably by crushing him under a dogpile.

When we got home I *finally* got around to plying a couple bobbins of yarn that have been hanging around for ages. I also worked on spinning up the last little bit of some black & white wool that I bought years ago (actually, there is a rather large chunk of it left, but I got sick of the black & white and carded it all together into a nice grey; this little bit just got missed). I finished spinning that up this morning, and plied it with an orange thick/thin single that I had done up a month or so ago just for the heck of it. I've got close to 80 yards of the plied yarn & think I might make a little cat out of it. Oh, that reminds me, it's still soaking; I better go hang it to dry now.

Today's picture: Ralph & Halitosis on the shore of the Colorado River at Moabi Park, taken on August 16.

126 days until Christmas

We are back from Arizona! It was a pretty good trip all in all, although I would have preferred a smaller group. As it was there were six adults, three children (all under the age of 5) and four dogs. The trailer had a blowout in Victorville resulting in a tow & spending the night in the parking lot of Pep Boys, but the workers fixed the tire within an hour of the shop opening so it really wasn't that big a deal. We'd have been stopping to sleep along the way anyhow, so we just did it a little sooner than planned. Here are some pics from the trip & a bit about each of them:


A grackle on the shore of the Colorado River. This was taken at Moabi Park, a hot but pleasant campground with plenty of places where we could take the girls into the water. This is just before you cross into Arizona.


A fish in the Colorado River. Don't know what kind it was, but there were a lot of them. We saw one really big fish--over a foot long, I would guesstimate--although of course I didn't have the camera handy when that one swam by.


Our trailer was visited by California Quail in the evening at Moabi Park. I took several pictures & this is the best of them. They were skittish so I couldn't open the screen door for a good shot. They make such interesting twittering noises.


Here's a visitor we had inside the trailer--a hummingbird that flew right in the open doorway & buzzed around the window for a while. He kinda got panicky in the curtains so I went up & gently guided him away from the window. He flew out as soon as he saw the open door. This was at our camp in Williams.



Mesa in the Mojave Desert. I took this one while we waited for the overheating engine to cool down a bit on the drive home. When we stopped it was 118 outside, although at one point it was so hot that the thermometer wasn't able to register it. We pulled off the road then, too, in order to wet the dogs down. We stopped again a couple hours after leaving Mojave, thinking to spend the night in Ludlow but it was too hot to sleep and we hit the road again around 12:30 in the morning (and it was still 104 degrees outside!), then stopped in Barstow to sleep at about 1:30. Much cooler there, only about 85.



Looking across one of the ponds near where we stayed in Williams. This one was the biggest one within walking distance. The dogs loved going into the water; at least, Sadie loved it, Hali enjoyed it, and Zoe tolerated it when she got too hot. Lots of swallows, dragonflies, water beetles, and damselflies. We even saw one itty bitty frog, although of course we didn't have the camera with us that time. There was another smaller pond very close to camp, and that pond had salamanders in it (Ralph called them mud puppies). Too much reflection for me to get a picture, though. If you click on the picture to view it large, you can see some small, dark objects near the water & one in the sky. These are swallows swooping after insects.



Sadie in the big pond. This trip was the first time she has ever been on any kind of trip as far as we know, and we were pleased with how well she behaved off-leash. It was wonderful to see her enjoying herself in the water and running in the meadows.



Ralph & QL outside the entrance to Lava River Cave. Standing in front of it was like standing in a hot room with the refrigerator door open; it's about 32 degrees inside & the cold air just flowed out. Felt really good!



The sign telling about Lava River Cave. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you'll see a bit that says "entrance" and then a wee bit past that an arrow marking the coldest point of the cave. That's *almost* how far into it I got before I looked back, saw total darkness, and had a fit of claustrophobia. I tell you, I scrambled out of there a lot faster than I went in! The boys all went in a ways more although I'm not sure how far they got. Ralph wants to go back & explore it all the way to the end next time.



Our camp area. Ralph, the dogs & I stayed in the trailer; WL, AL, and the three kids stayed in the cabin, and BL & GS stayed in BL's camper-van. You can see how wide open the place is; there are a few barbed wire fences to control deer (we saw a herd of them the first morning, but they were too far away & moving around too much for me to get anything other than blurry shots) but for the most part it's just miles of meadow & forest. Lots of chipmunks around much to Zoe's delight (as if she had the slightest chance of actually catching one!).



Some campers before us had made bird feeders out of pine cones, peanut butter & bird seed. The chickadees really enjoyed them. This particular feeder was right outside our trailer door. We re-peanut buttered them before we left.

Snail

Yay! The snail is done. I think it came out pretty well. There were a few awkward moments--the eyestalks were a bit fiddly, and sewing on the shell took a couple tries to get it on right--but all in all it's a fun knit. It also uses surprisingly little yarn; much less than the materials list called for. I'm thinking of making another one in fingering weight (this is in worsted) just for the heck of it.

Currently working on a pair of socks. I'm using Mountain Colors Bearfoot in "Huckleberry" which a very bright, variegated yarn in red, blue, and purple. I'm doing a cabled pattern and I really like how it is coming out so far.

Darn it, had all kinds of things to blog about & can't remember them now. Knew I should have written them down. . .

Sigh

Note to self: pulling into a parking space at the restaurant is NOT the time to remember that your lunch money is on the desk in your office and your ATM card is at home. Luckily I was able to scramble up $2.75 in change from the cup holders & my backpack, which allowed me to get a couple items off the 99 cent menu at the Wendy's across the street.

Yarny goodness

Another fine Saturday. Archery, of course; rather than sit over by the class, though, I found a big shady tree over by the butts. Much quieter, plus I didn't have to keep adjusting my chair to prevent the sun from getting in my eyes. A couple people came over to see what I was working on, and I showed one woman how to cast off as she said she knew how to knit but not how to end it. Her daughter seemed to really like the jackalope, which is finally finished!

From there to Alamitos Bay, where I had a glorious look-see at all the lovely yarns. I ended up buying six skeins of sock yarn: a heathered green, a heathered brown, a variegated black/white/blue/pink/grey, a variegated mostly-red with a bit of orange & green, and two skeins of a violet/green stripey. I got two of that one because one wasn't really enough for a pair of socks, and the two together were about the same price as one of the others so it seemed reasonable. When I got home, I thought that the brown & the green might look good with the greeny-brownish yarn I bought in Capistrano back in January. I arranged them with the old yarn in between the new ones, and it was almost scary how it acted as almost a perfect blend from the green skein to the brown one.

I would have stayed at the yarn shop longer, but hunger called. We ended up going to El Torito & having one of their limited-time chef's specials, the Combinacion de la Costa. They have a real winner on their hands with this one: a grilled piece of carne asada topped with a cheese enchilada, a grilled shrimp skewer, rice, tortillas, and a sort of corn soup with onion & lime that was surprisingly good. I still have half of mine which I will have for breakfast. Hey, I had to leave room for volcano cake, didn't I?

Started on the garden snail yesterday & will be working on that some more today. No other fun plans await me today; just chores & housework.

Yawwwwn. . . I need more sleep

Got up WAAAY too early this morning; thought I heard the dogs asking to be let out at 4:00 am so I got up only to discover them sound asleep still. Lucky buggers. I didn't think I'd be able to get back to sleep so I stayed up & brewed the coffee instead.

Alamitos Bay is having a sock yarn special this weekend in honor of the Sock Summit. I only found out about it this morning, but I will most definitely have to give it a peek. I don't know what it is about sock yarn that makes it so appealing. Besides, just because I'm *looking* doesn't mean I'll be *buying.* Right? Yeah, right. . .

As you can see from the photo (and as mentioned in the previous post), the jackalope is almost done. I'm hoping to have time to finish it today. I made one antler yesterday in white & sewed it on, but found it just disappeared into the white of the inner ear, so off it came. I started a new antler in some leftover Mountain Colors Twizzle in Gold Rush, a short-stripe yellow/red/green yarn that I used on one of the fish hats. I think it will look better than the white, and two of the three people I showed it to agreed (the third preferred the white). Next project in line is the garden snail. I was going to make the spider next, but after two octopi and a kraken I think I want to avoid multi-legged critters for a while. Although I would love a couple more octopi; I think that's my favorite pattern so far in the book.



Read an interesting story on Ravelry today. The OP said her boyfriend had gone to the yarn store to buy her birthday present. She went to the same store later that day & the owner kept giving her a "knowing" look. She didn't think much of it, just figured the boyfriend had said something typical of a non-knitter and the owner was giving her a look of pity. When she went home & opened her present, her boyfriend told her to look at the red in the middle of one of the balls of yarn. She opened it up a bit and saw not red yarn, but an engagement ring! What a great way to propose to a knitter :-) She said yes, of course.

Still having major ant problems. Terminex was no help; we have called several times to ask them to come back & re-treat, but our phone calls have gone unanswered and unreturned. I'm very disappointed with their lack of response and certainly cannot recommend them to others at this point. I always thought of them as a reputable company but now I have my doubts.

Anyway, the ants. The only solution I can think of to get rid of them--move anything and everything edible into fully-sealed containers--is not practical. Some of the things they have come in after that fit in the "fully-sealed is not practical" category are the aquarium, my toothbrush (OK, I guess I *could* put it in a ziploc), the cats' food bowl, the dogs' water dish, the food-trap screen in the kitchen sink, and cat barf. No, we don't normally leave cat barf lying around; it happened while we were at work & by the time Ralph got home the ants had already found it. I tell you it's a losing battle. It was suggested that we scatter coffee grounds outside where they are entering the house, but we can't find any place where they are coming from. I think they must have a colony inside the walls somewhere or in the crawl space under the house. About all we can do is spray them when we see them. We've been using a thyme oil-based pet-safe spray which kills the buggers, but doesn't prevent them from coming back. We also have ant bait "stations" placed in various spots around the house, being careful to put them where the pets can't get at them. Guess we'll just have to keep at it.

It's here!!

The "Chance" sock yarn I ordered from Serendipitous Ewe has arrived! Originally they weren't going to ship until after this weekend's Sock Summit, but they finished the dye run sooner than they anticipated and here it is. The colorway is called "Bobby Sox." The photos don't do the colors justice, of course, since the flash kinda washes things out. Almost half of it is black, almost half is white, with about a 2" section of minty green and another 2" section of ruby red, so it goes lots of black, bit of red, lots of white, bit of green, back to black. 420 yards--more than enough for a comfy pair of socks.

I'm really glad it came today; there were more layoffs at work yesterday and I could use the cheering up. It's so hard to see people go when you know it wasn't because they aren't good workers. One of the ones laid off is someone that I *know* worked her butt off, and was always ready, willing & able to help whenever needed. Really shakes up the workplace, ya know?



Almost done with the jackalope. I need to finish making the ears & sew them on, make the antlers & sew them on, then make the tail and sew it on. I think instead of making the knitted tail, I'll just make a big floofy pom-pom. Someone on Ravelry posted that no matter how she attached the knitted tail it looked like a turd, so I think I'll just save myself the frustration.

Not much else going on, so I'll sign off before you get *too* bored.

My weekend

Had a pretty good weekend. Saturday I washed the car, put on the new wiper blades (which I can't really call "new" since we bought them over a year ago--yes, it took me THAT long to get around to installing them), and made cupcakes. While at the store getting cupcake ingredients, I noticed the bagger at the next checkstand had lovely, intricate corn rows that zig-zagged & criss-crossed. As I admired them, I realized that I was trying to convert them into a cabled knitting pattern. . . .

Sunday I went to Lizard's for knitting. Ralph's archery friend M came with me. Duh & The Girl both ditched out, so they didn't get cupcakes or any of the yummy chili that M brought or Lizard's corn casserole. They missed out because it was all very tasty. I taught Lizard how to do a provisional cast on & short-row toe. She kept the very first one she made, which as you can see from the photo makes a simply chaaawming hat for Little Thing.

Progress on the jackalope (whom I am thinking of naming "Klugman") is slow but steady. He now has both hind legs and one front leg completed & attached. At the rate I'm going he should be done around Halloween--which is still faster than progress on the orangutan.

Lizard got some bad news today. Her temp position will be ending in three weeks. What a shame--I know she really likes working there and was hoping to be hired full time. Her boss *wants* to hire her, but upper management won't allow it (hiring freeze, I think). He is still fighting to keep her so she hasn't completely given up hope.