Just some random thoughts

Have you ever done the right thing, and felt like a jerk for doing so? A few days ago, I was knitting in the car at work when a couple young teenage girls came up & asked me if I knew where a certain street was. I said I didn't, but would see if I could find it on the GPS. As I was powering it up, one of them said they were going to Name Of High School. I entered that & discovered they still had 2-1/2 miles to walk. They offered to pay me if I would give them a ride. I looked at them like they'd grown a couple extra heads & replied, "Don't take rides from strangers; I could be a creep for all you know." They were disappointed, but still thanked me for the information & went on their way. Now, I know I'm not a creep. I doubt they were planning on Doing Me Harm. However, a) my car is full of yarn & other things & there really isn't room for passengers; 2) I only had 10 minutes left of my break & would have been late getting back, and most importantly 3) I never give rides to, nor accept rides from, people I don't know--and neither should they. But I still feel like a jerk.

Speaking of knitting, I started a new project today. No, I haven't finished any of my WIPs, why do you ask? Anyway, it's a little tree frog that I'm making in a variegated blue yarn. It's supposed to be done in worsted but I'm using fingering weight so it's going to be really tiny when it's finished. Not sure what I'll do for eyes; it's supposed to have safety eyes but the ones I have are too big for this little thing; the washers that hold them on are wider across than the head.

Did a little cooking today, too. Made a beef roast with a recipe that uses garlic & coffee. Came out OK; a little tough, but maybe I just didn't roast it long enough. Or roasted it too long, I dunno. The gravy is good, though. I also made a lemon meringue pie, and unlike most pies that I make, I prepared the crust from scratch. Not too bad; it was also a little tough, although certainly better than any other crust I've attempted in the past. I may have worked the dough a bit too much.

Not much else going on. Still at the temp job, at least for one more week. There's a chance I'll be there for another week after that, and some slight possibility of it becoming permanent. I'll say no more as I don't want to jinx things.

Today's photos: Zoe & the neighbor's dog, Sammy, playing "Bite My Head," and the chimney of the marvelous Victorian home we saw at Heritage Square Museum last week.

Busy busy weekend

Wow, what a busy weekend we had! Yesterday Ralph's brother, sister-in-law, and their three kids stopped by for a visit. They had been out from NM on vacation and came by just for the one day. Sis-in-law brought me some yummy grey Corriedale yarn, which I thought was extremely nice of her. We treated the family to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant, and I think they all enjoyed the food. We did lots of talking, of course, and I found a balsa wood airplane in the game cupboard for the boys to play with. Ralph gave the two boys a ride around the block on the back of his motorcycle. I'm vaguely alarmed by how well my helmet fit them. Baby S is still far too young for a ride, but maybe next time.




Today we went to Heritage Square museum, which is a collection of Victorian-era houses. They don't allow photography inside the houses, so I had to be content with taking a few outside. My favorite from the outside was the gingerbread-covered home in the center photo. The original owner/builder was a land speculator, and he used his own house as a model home, which is why it has so much gingerbread and gew gaws. On the inside, my favorite was the octagonal house (I'll post a photo of that another day). The rooms were squared off inside the octagon, which left spaces for storage. It was also very cool inside, almost as if it were air-conditioned.


Of course for geeky me, the highlight of the trip was the gorgeous green spider in the first picture. I took several shots and only one came out. We came back about 45 minutes later & he was still devouring his butterfly, which was definitely starting to look the worse for wear. We were there for a couple hours & thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I do think I might have gotten a bit of a sunburn, though.

Me and my big mouth

Well, I just had to point out how nice the July weather was, didn't I? Because August has decided it's time to be HOT HOT HOT. Luckily VT at my temporary workplace was kind enough to open the A/C vent for me, since it was way out of my reach. Even he had trouble reaching it while standing on my desk, and he's at least 6' tall.

I also found my other Man From Atlantis book. Weird, eh? Haven't seen it in years, and the day after I mention not knowing where it is I found it on the bookshelf. Don't know how I missed seeing it before.

Did I mention that we got hit with a $377 dollar electric bill last month? This month's bill had a correction on it. Apparently the June bill was supposed to only have been $65. Since we paid the full $377, we now have a credit of over $220 even after this month's bill is applied against it. What a relief! While it would be nice to have the cash in pocket, it's also nice to know that we won't have to pay an electric bill for several months.

July is over

You know, it was a rather cool & mild July this year. We did have one week that was quite hot, however for the most part the temp has only been in the 70s. This, I like.

Spent most of yesterday knitting. See, I joined a "Mystery Knit-a-Long" on July 1st, which had a deadline of July 31st by which to post a photo of the finished object & be entered into a drawing for some cool prizes. Each week a part of the pattern was posted, so you couldn't actually complete it until the last week of July. I got bored around part 3 (and had figured out what the finished object was just by reading the instructions for part 1), and decided to set it aside for a while. As I put it away, I thought, "I will never remember that I am putting this here." Sadly, I was correct. I have looked everywhere for the thing and cannot find it. Sooo, in order to have an entry for the drawing, I did about 5 hours of solid knitting yesterday. My shoulders ache today, and my hands aren't so happy either. However, I did get it done albeit not very well & the result is today's pic. I made several Artistic Stylizations in it, not the least of which was sewing on the head & legs in such a way that the front of the body is now the left side of the sheep. It's supposed to have a little scarf, but I decided to make a shawl instead to help hide some of the sins.

Got in my week of temp work, and have been asked to stay another three. Woo hoo! I don't think it will turn into anything permanent, but one never knows. I do wish it were closer to home, though. The long drive is frustrating and makes for a long day, and of course the housework is suffering because of it. I've got a lot to do today, including a week's worth of laundry & of course the carpet needs to be vacuumed desperately. Oh, crap, I just remembered the vacuum isn't working; the beater won't turn. I'll have to see if I can fix that, or maybe Ralph will take a look at it before he goes off to his D & D game. Ha! I just asked & he's doing it right now. And Ha! again, he fixed it :-)

We've got a fourth dog again, although it's only temporary. One of our neighbors is on vacation for a couple weeks & we've taken in his little Scottie (as well as going over & feeding his cats). She's really sweet & playful. Unfortunately, she's also poorly trained; jumps up on people, doesn't know "sit," doesn't know "stay," doesn't come when she's called, gets up on the furniture & pesters the cat. Sadie adores her, of course. Funny how the oldest, least-playful dog in the house always loves having visits from excitable little pups.

AAAAAND! Lizard was able to get my book signed at ComicCon, so I am now the proud owner of "Man from Atlantis 2: Death Scouts" signed by Mr. Patrick Duffy himself!! Lizard said he showed the book to his son & said, "Look how young your dad used to be." I'm actually kinda surprised I still even had the book in order to get it signed--I bought it in 1977, after all. I used to have the first one also, no clue where that ended up. She also tried to get one of my "Foxtrot" books signed, however Bill Amend apparently was never at the booth when she went by, and he apparently never told the booth people when he would be back (they told her that in all the years he'd been at Con, he had NEVER told them when he'd be available). She felt that was rather rude not to mention frustrating. So, Mr. Bill Amend, if you are among the Teeming Millions, next year would you please make a schedule of when you'll be available, or at the very least let your entourage know so they can advise your fans? Thanks!

Another WIP completed

And at long last, the Christmas Robin is finished. I'm not 100% happy with it. I had trouble making a pom pom, so went for a tassel instead, and even that is rather lame-looking. I'll probably replace it at some point. For now, though, it can stay the way it is as I am finally DONE with the silly thing. I mean, it's not a very big project, and I did start it last October, so you think it would have been done ages ago.

I have some temp work next week, huzzah! It's only for five days, but hey I'll take it. Ironically, it's at my old job; BT called & asked if I'd be willing to help out. It's fiscal quarter end, plus PB (formerly Mr. Boss Man) is moving on to another company so I'm sure they're swamped. Not looking forward to the drive, of course, although I am looking forward to seeing the people.

Actually, I saw a lot of the people on Tuesday; I was in Chino dropping off some books for Lizard (she's going to see if she can get them signed at Comic-Con) & as long as I was nearly to Ontario I went & visited with some folks. Had lunch with DW which was nice. However, there were a lot of folks I didn't see that I would have liked to, so this will be good. I do wish that I'd remembered to move the Saturn into the driveway before I left. For some reason I was thinking it was already there, so of course we got a parking ticket (street sweeping). Le sigh.

Made some brownies yesterday, and they were pretty good. Not great; I like them chewier & fudgier than this recipe makes but good enough to make again someday. It was a new recipe for me. I tried it because it used cocoa, which I have, rather than baking chocolate, which I don't have.

Not much else going on. Hope your week was more exciting than mine :-)

No clever title today, I'm afraid

Look! Look! I've made some progress on the pony at last. Unfortunately I need to knit a new ear as I've somehow managed to lose one of them, go figure. I suspect it's hiding with the white pipe cleaners that I need to finish the Death of Rats, and the ground cloves I wanted for the rice pudding I cooked yesterday.

I've been looking into going back to school for occupational classes, since it seems everyone on the job market today does the same type of office work that I do. The first place I checked out seemed perfect until they told me the cost. Oh. My. Gawd. They want $15,000 for an 8-month class. Their "financial aid" consists of paying half up front, and then paying a little over $1,000 a month for seven months to pay off the rest. That is NOT financial aid, that's a payment plan and not even a very good one. If I had $7,500 to plunk down and a spare $1,000 a month I wouldn't be needing financial aid now, would I?

The second place I was going to visit tomorrow, however I checked out their tuition online and discovered it's even worse; they charge by the credit hour (anywhere from $350 to $500 per credit hour, depending on the class) and when I did the math based on the lowest figures it came to over $23,000. I'm going to be cancelling my appointment.

Yesterday, I did some checking into adult schools, and that seems much more reasonable. The fall schedules aren't posted yet so I had to base my calculations on the summer schedule. Summer classes are shorter, but even tripling the cost per class it comes out to a lot less than $15,000. The schedule for fall is supposed to be posted next week so I'll be following up on that.

ComicCon is next week, and oh I wish I were going! This year sounds like it's going to be excellent: Penn & Teller will be there, and so will Danny Elfman, and one of my favorite cartoonists, Bill Amend, will be there on Friday & Saturday. That would be worth dealing with the crowds & parking. Lizard is going along with one of her Ravelry friends, who will be staying at her place for the week.

Ralph was at his aunt's place in Las Vegas for the weekend, and is on his way home now. He expects to be here soon, and we're planning on going to the movies, a real treat right now with money so tight. We want to see "Despicable Me," which I've heard is excellent.

A photo, a word of advice, and a funny link

PHOTO: Four owlet ornaments; pattern "Owlies," knit with leftover bits of Plymouth Encore. I knit these for an online group I'm in, the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup on Ravelry. The "class" was ancient runes; my letter was "O" in case you couldn't guess. I was going to make eight of them (so I'd have an octet of owlet ornaments) however since I have no use whatsoever for them I decided not to use up all my eyes making more.

WORD OF ADVICE: If you are kneeling on the floor to look at books on the bottom shelves at the library, and your knee pops painfully when you start to stand up, *do not* grab the shelf in an attempt to keep your balance. The shelf WILL tilt, and you WILL have every book on it bounce off your head. Not that I would know this from personal experience or anything, but I am glad that they were all paperbacks.

FUNNY LINK: You will never look at sweet potatoes the same way again http://littera-abactor.livejournal.com/7748.html

Yes, yes, it's been ages

Greetings, O Teeming Millions! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. There just doesn't seem to be a whole lot going on right now. I mean, I'm sure you don't want to hear about how I washed the kitchen floor this morning, or the fact that it's bloody hot (gosh, imagine that--hot weather in Southern California in July. Who'da thunk it?).

We did have one odd thing happen recently. We were awakened one morning around 5:00 am by the dogs barking. I heard someone on the porch call out, "Hello?" Long story short, it was the cops. Apparently a petty thief had been caught in our neighborhood, and one of the things in his possession was the Bronco logo off the side of our truck. What a strange thing to steal! And ours wasn't the only one; as the officers were leaving one of them pulled out another logo & said they still had to track down that vehicle. Very odd.

Surprisingly, I have not been doing that much knitting. I have frogged Snape twice so far, and am now on Row 14 out of 111 (or 19 out of 121 if you count the border rows). I'm also planning on frogging my blue socks, as I believe I've mentioned previously, since I'm not happy with how they are coming out. I did get started on seaming the pony, if you can believe that.

Did I mention that Ralph is going to be singing in a church talent show? We're not actually part of the church, however we're friends with some people who are and they asked him to help out as they didn't have a tenor available. They are going to do "A Weekend in the Country" from "A Little Night Music." I'm not sure exactly when the performance is, only that it is sometime next month. We've attended the show for the last three years & it's always been fun. Of course since Ralph is in it this time, I'm looking forward to it even more than usual.

Last Friday I went out with MH2, our friend MB, MB's daughter whose name also begins with M, so I'll call her Young MB, and MB's baby. It was a short outing; we all got pedicures except the baby, and Young MB also got a manicure. My toenails are now the color of a Louie Blue Raspberry Otter Pop. PH2 felt that MH2 needed a girl's day out after all the stress of her father's illness & passing, and he paid for everything. This was my very first pedicure. It was rather nice although I'm not sure I'll ever get another one. I'm just not that frou-frou I guess.

Today's photo was taken at the Bolsa Chica Wildlife Preserve. Have you ever seen such a fuzzy caterpillar?

'Twas the day after the fourth

Making good progress on the Death of Rats. I just need to weave in the ends on the robe, crochet the tail, and make the scythe. Hope I can find the silver paint for the scythe blade. The photo is from before the sleeves were put on the robe; updated photo pending.

Had a great time at Neighbors K & A's BBQ potluck yesterday. Lots of good conversation, and yummy food which I ate like I'd never been fed. I thought the "goldfish pond" cupcakes someone brought were really cute. Got home before the worst of the poppy-bangies started up. You would think, seeing as how fireworks are illegal in this town, that poppy-bangies wouldn't be an issue, but some folks would rather break the law than bother driving to one of the free professional, public fireworks displays. We had to give Hali a tranquilizer & put her in the closet to keep her relatively calm. And no, it's not mean to put her in the closet. She likes to sleep there--it's her "safe place"--and we kept the door open just enough for her to push it the rest of the way when she was ready to come out, which she did around 3:30 this morning.



Just got back from PH2 & MH2's place. MH2's father passed away yesterday morning after a fight with cancer, and they were feeling the need for a little company. I helped take some stuff down to Goodwill & sort through some other items. A few more friends dropped by right around the time that I needed to head back home so that worked out well. I felt better knowing I wasn't leaving them without any company.

'Twas the night before the fourth

Today we made a wonderful discovery. There is an Oroweat Outlet only 30 minutes away from home. We got four loaves of Baker's Best Winter Wheat (Ralph's favorite), a 24-count package of Sandwich Thins, an eight-count box of Entenmann's chocolate donuts, and a 6-count package of Thomas's English Muffins for only $9.96. The donuts & English muffins were free because we spent $10 (or close enough to it that they gave us the freebies). Even taking into account the extra gas driving there, it still saved us a lot of money. The Winter Wheat bread is $4.29 a loaf at the store, and here it was only $1.99 a loaf. The money we saved on one loaf is pretty much enough to pay for the extra gas since my car gets such good mileage.

I've got several knitting projects on the needles. Snape is barely started, and of course I haven't touched the pony (that sounds kinky!) in weeks. So of course I had to cast on a couple new items. One is the Death of Rats pattern (here's a pic of what it is supposed to look like when it's done):
I don't like how the fabric robe came out on mine, so I'm experimenting to come up with a knitted one instead. Working on the hood now & I think I've just about got it figured out. I still need to crochet the tail, and make the scythe too.

I'm also participating in a Mystery Knit Along on Ravelry. The sponsor is posting 1/4 of the pattern each week for the month of July. I've already finished the first part. I have a pretty good idea of what it's going to be based on the materials list and the pattern so far, but I'm not going to say in case one of the Teeming Millions happens to be participating as well.

Found another tasty pattern on Allrecipes.com, this one a Cabbage Roll Casserole. Basically you take all the ingredients for cabbage rolls, stir them all together and cook. The originally recipe called for baking it for 90 minutes, however I followed the advice of one of the reviewers & threw everything in a big pot and simmered it on the stove top for about 20 minutes, then topped each serving with a dollop of sour cream. It was really good, and so simple! The original recipe made 12 servings, so I cut it in half & we've got plenty left for two more meals, maybe even three if we make the servings a bit small and serve it with some buttered bread to fill in the cracks. Goodness knows we have enough bread now :-)

Today's picture is of Ralph & Sadie at the dog park last week.

And in other news

Very little news today. I spoke to N & found out that the job I applied for last week has been filled. However, the company is thinking of hiring another person or two, and they are keeping me on the back burner (so to speak) for if and/or when that day arrives. In the meantime N is still "marketing" me (her word) and of course I'm still hitting the job websites & sending out resumes.

As you can see, I have not only finished the Weasley Twins, but actually got around to taking a picture of it. I'm really flummoxed, though. With the exception of Hermione, every single square has been knit on size 5 needles (I did her on 7s). With the exception of the Weasley Twins which has one Vanna's Choice yarn, every single square has been done exclusively with Plymouth Encore Worsted. So *why* are no two squares close enough in size that I can sew them together to make a pillow cover? Yes, I know I said I was going to knit backings for them. I even started a backing for Hermione. However, it is such dull work to knit row after row of stockinette without even a color change that I don't know when I'll get around to doing it; especially since I have so many more interesting projects calling my name.

Yesterday I baked an absolutely scrumptious citrus cake. The recipe can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Glazed-Lemon-Bundt-Cake/Detail.aspx I didn't have any lemon extract so I used orange instead as that is what I had on hand. A lot of the glaze drips off the cake when you pour it on, so I moved it over a fresh sheet of waxed paper & poured the excess back over the cake; moved it onto the original waxed paper & poured the excess from the second sheet back over the cake; lather, rinse, repeat until virtually all of the glaze was used up. It made a nice, crunchy sugar coating over it. I just might have to have another slice for lunch. Um, I mean after lunch. Yeah, that's it, after lunch. . .

As the 4th of July gets closer, we've been hearing the pop of firecrackers more & more often. Poor Hali is a bundle of nerves; she hates popping sounds. One went off today and she came over to me for comfort, shaking so badly that I could literally hear her teeth chattering. We plan on visiting friends on the 4th, getting home before dark of course, but if they're being set off now I can only imagine what the actual holiday will be like. We intend to keep all the dogs in the house with the doors firmly shut & locked, running the fans & HEPA filter to act as white noise. That should help keep them from hearing the pops, and I'd rather clean up an accident in the house than put them outside and risk them managing to escape the yard in their attempts to get away from the bangs.

Did I mention that I finally got a library card? I've been getting a lot of reading done; six books in ten days, plus I started another one today. Mind you, they are very light reading--"cozy" mysteries rather than anything in depth. Very relaxing. Plus I can use the card at any & all of the libraries in the City, of which there are about ten or so. That should keep me in books for a while, even at the rate at which I am going through them.

Feeling good today

Goodness, it's been over a week since I've posted. Funny how now that I have lots of time to post, I hardly ever do it. If I'm not careful, I'll turn into Lizard.

Last Wednesday's job interview was rescheduled for today; I got back from it about 30 minutes ago. I feel really good about it. The job sounds very diverse, exciting, and challenging--in other words, right up my alley. I feel the interview went well. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Last Saturday i attended a World Wide Knit in Public Day event. I don't really like referring to it as a "Day" since this year it lasted from June 12 through June 20; it should really be "World Wide Knit in Public Week and a Day." I was originally going to attend one in El Dorado Park (sponsored by the same group that did the one I attended last year) but decided to give another group a chance. I didn't get a lot of knitting done--too busy yakking with everyone! It would have helped if I'd brought a different project, too. I'm working on a pair of lace socks which took more focus than I would have liked for a group event like this. However, the only other projects I have going right now are a small bird that's in the needs-to-be-stitched-together stage, the pony which is at the same point, and a new Harry Potter intarsia square (Snape this time; I finished the Weasley Twins but need to get a photo still). Stitching up is no fun, and intarsia takes even more focus than the lace socks.

Yesterday I took up an invitation from MC from Archery, meeting up with her & one of her friends whom I shall call Knitter C. Of course I brought the same sock project that requires focus on the pattern, so not much got done on them. It was a lot of fun chatting though, and MC bought me lunch which I felt was very kind of her. If I don't get a job soon, we'll probably meet up again some weekday. Knitter C would fit right in with our group of friends, being a gamer of both the role-playing and board varieties, a sci-fi fan, and book lover. She & I have read a lot of the same books, and she's got an old Rose is Rose collection that I would love to get my mitts on :-)

Today's photo is of a California sea hare, a type of gastropod found in shallow waters. We took this a couple weeks ago when we went to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands Preserve. Normally we don't see many sea hares, however on this particular visit there were dozens of them. I don't know if it was due to the time of day or time of year. We also saw lots of lizards, a few rabbits, and a nest with a trio of juvenile herons in it.

Working on the Weasleys

Wow! I'm making some good progress on the Fred & George square. On Friday, I was just at the top of Fred's chin (just where the light grey changes to dark; I'm assuming Fred is the one on the left), and look how far I am now. I just finished row 74 out of 111 (not including the border rows). Please ignore the cat barf on Fred's shoulder; it had already dried by the time I discovered it, and I can't wash the piece until it's off the needles. Luckily the yarn is machine washable.

We did our first big grocery shopping trip since I got laid off. We spent more than I had planned, however I can only think of one thing that we probably should not have bought. Plus, since we went to Costco, many of the items will last us a very long time, such as the ground beef (six 1-pound tubes for $15.99) and the huge bag of frozen blueberries. Combined with the other mini-shopping trips, we're averaging about $106/week on groceries. This is still less than what we were spending before, plus we're not eating out and that's a big savings right there.

Ironically, I think we are eating better now than we were before. Since I don't have to prep my lunch 7 hours in advance, I'll often just whip up a bananananananana smoothie in the early afternoon. Dessert is more likely to be a fruit cobbler (I made a fresh one today using some of the frozen blueberries) instead of cookies or chocolates. Normally a kielbasa will last us maybe two meals; this time, I cut it up in little pieces and mixed it with rice. We got two dinners out of it, plus I mixed some with scrambled eggs to make four breakfast burritos, and we've still got enough left for another pair of burritos. Tonight's dinner is chicken baked in the oven with potatoes, carrots, onion, and garlic, seasoned with fresh rosemary (we have a rosemary plant in the backyard), garlic salt, and pepper. I added some bullion to the pot so the meat doesn't dry out. That's got to be healthier than eating in a restaurant as we normally would do on a weekend, plus there's enough chicken for at least two meals (more if I mix the leftovers with rice).

Lastly for today, I've got a real job interview lined up on Wednesday. It's a three month temp-to-hire position. I really hope I get it; even three months work will be helpful, plus if it becomes permanent that means the end of job hunting. I'm not counting on it, of course, but it's exciting to think about it. Especially since it's just a bit over five miles from home (for those new among the Teeming Millions, my old job was not quite fifty-seven miles away. Yes, that's one-way, not round-trip). However, I think it would be overly optimistic to expect to get a job this quickly. That won't stop me from trying, though!

Middle of the week already???

Wednesday already. It's been hard keeping track of the day since I lost my job (has it really been only two weeks? Has it really been two weeks already??) so yesterday I pulled out the day-to-day calendar I used to have on my desk. It's just a little thing, however I think it's important to keep on a work-type schedule so it's not such a shock when I do go back to work. It's a lot easier to do that if I know what day it is, LOL! I still get up between 5:00 & 5:30, still pack a lunch for Ralph, and still make a point to be showered & dressed by 6:30.

Today I baked some dog snacks. (Yeah, it's pretty sad when baking dog treats is the highlight of the morning.) I mashed up some leftover cooked potatoes and carrots, added some chicken that I knew we weren't going to eat, mixed it all together with flour, an egg, a bit of oil, and the last couple swallows of milk that I didn't finish at breakfast; then I rolled the dough up in little balls, smashed 'em flat, and baked them at 400 for about 20 minutes. The dogs love them and it's a money-saver, too; cheaper than buying dog treats, plus the leftovers didn't go to waste.

In other news, the person for whom I voted for City Council yesterday actually won. I think this makes the third time in my life as a Responsible Citizen that the person for whom I voted made it into office. I'm either doing something right or something wrong, I can't decide which. According to a news article I read, about 25% of voters registered in my town showed up at the polls. I realize it wasn't a Major Election, but that still seems like a poor turnout to me.

Oh, almost forgot! The flower in my last post is. . . a carrot! I'd never seen one in bloom before. I wonder if it will have seeds that I can plant next year?

Speaking of plants, I think we've gotten the last nectarines off the tree. There are still a few on there, however they are pretty much evenly divided between so ripe that they are rotting on the branch; hard as rocks; and perfectly ripe but full of fruit flies, ants, and/or bird bites. Still, we've used up 12 cups of sliced nectarines to make cobblers, plus have 6 cups in the freezer. That's much better than last year, where we got maybe four nectarines before the birds cleaned the tree.

We don't really have a garden this year. We planted one tomato plant which has small green tomatoes & some blossoms on it; one zucchini which is just starting to flower; and a basil plant. If nothing else, we'll have some nice pasta sauce come summertime.

I actually knit a few rows on my Fred & George intarsia square. I really need to get that finished. The fact that the cat barfed on it does NOT increase my motivation to work on it. Dumb cat. I also finished all the pieces for the pony & just need to sew it up & stuff it. I couldn't get the leg to not gap (see previous post) so I am using duplicate stitch to close up the holes.

Well, nothing else really going on today. Hopefully the weekend will be interesting enough to write about :-)

Boring Sunday

What a dull day this has been. The book I'm reading is not very interesting; good enough to read while eating lunch, not good enough to read for hours at a stretch. Spent waaaaay too much time playing computer games. Did a little job searching; not much new stuff posted on a weekend but I did find one that seemed worth sending out the ol' resume.

Also getting frustrated with my knitting. I'm making a pony, and just need to knit the hind legs before starting the seaming, sewing & stuffing. Halfway through the leg, there's a section where you do a "knit front and back" increase across the four center stitches for about 10 rows. No matter what I do, I end up with gaps (see photo; you need to click on it to enlarge in order to really see the gaps). I haven't had this problem with this type of increase before, and I've even tried using alternative increases. Still gapping. I think the problem might be the fact that there are no plain rows in between, so the multiple tensions on the stitches are pulling things askew. I've set it aside while I consider alterations to the pattern.

Right now I'm sitting at the computer with my back to the front door. The wood door is open & the security screen is shut, so there's light from the doorway shining on the wall in front of me. A few minutes ago, a couple shadows crossed the light as some people walked up to the door. I have no idea who they were, as the dogs started barking and the shadows vanished before I could even turn around. Really fierce, almost vicious barking, too--not at all like their usual "Mailman is coming to kill us all!" or "How dare you walk that dog in MY neighborhood!!??!!" barks. Anyway, I'm not expecting visitors & they wouldn't bark like that at anyone they know, so good girl Hali! Good girl Zoe!

Baked some cookies today. I *knew* that 10 minutes per batch was too long, but foolishly followed the recipe. Only burned the first batch, baking all the others for only 7 minutes. Even the burned ones are pretty good.



Here's a little quiz for you. Take a look at the photo on the left. That's a flower blooming on one of our backyard plants. Can you identify it? Answer will be in the next blog post :-)

Went to a family potluck at Lizard's yesterday. The Girl was there, but The Boy had to work. Dad & his girlfriend were there of course, and Duh with her new husband Happy. We brought nectarine cobbler & vanilla ice cream. There was also chicken, shrimp cocktail, chips, stuffed mushrooms, cole slaw, potato salad, and mashed potatoes with gravy. Oh, and green beans but I didn't have any of those. Lots of talk & lots of laughing. I think everyone had a good time.

I could get used to this

You know, if it weren't for that pesky mortgage payment, I could soooo get used to being at home. I've been able to cook real dinners, the laundry is under control, I was able to slice & freeze an additional 8 cups of nectarines (normally the birds eat them before we have a chance to pick the fruit off the tree), the house is relatively tidy, there's a fresh loaf of banana bread cooling on the dining room table, and I was even able to reorganize the linen cupboard which was badly needed. Even lunch tastes better, because I eat the sandwich as soon as it's made instead of after it sat in my lunch bag for seven hours.

I've gotten some knitting done, too. I finished the octopus juggling balls for Ralph (today's pic), and have cast on for a rather cartoon-ish looking pony. I even did a few rows on Fred & George, which has been on the UFO pile for some time now.

In job search news, I've signed up with a couple temp agencies & sent out a few resumes. I also signed on with a couple online job search websites. Tomorrow I interview with one of the temp agencies and hopefully with a prospective temp-to-hire employer after that. This last bit isn't confirmed yet, so keep your fingers crossed for me. Yesterday I took my assessments at the first temp agency. Did better than I expected at PowerPoint (76% correct, and I've never used that program before) and typing (80 WPM!!) and not as well as I expected at Word & Excel. I was great with the functions I used at work all the time, however I had no idea there were so many functions I'd never used before. Still, I scored pretty highly on everything and I'm sure that can only be for the good.

Going to a family potluck on Saturday afternoon. I plan on bringing nectarine cobbler. Wonder if we should pick up some vanilla so-called iced cream to go with it? It's good on its own, but even better with so-called iced cream. Hmmmm.

Bits & pieces for 5/30/10

The last couple days have been pretty nice. Yesterday we went to the archery range. There were no classes because of the holiday weekend; we did get there early though so no trouble finding an available butt. Afterward we were going to attend the craft fair at the nature center. Well, we should watch the news more often I guess; apparently a murderer stashed some body parts there and the whole area was closed for the police investigation. No lie. On the drive home we had a call from our friends PH2 & MH2, and we ended up meeting with them to go see Shrek 3 (a bit of a splurge for us since we don't really need to be spending money right now) and afterward we had a nice BBQ at the house. PH2 cooked up a gorgeous London broil, I had a fresh nectarine cobbler prepped for dessert, and for the side dish I heated up some of Trader Joe's amazing fire roasted vegetables with balsamic vinegar. A good time was had by all.

Shrek 3 was better than I expected it to be; sequels, IMHO, rarely live up to the first movie & this one just didn't catch my eye. Plus, the basic storyline has been done many times before. I am pleased to report that this movie is worth going to see. I was also pleased by the behavior of the children in the theater. While I object highly to little kids at PG-13 or higher rated movies, I expect them to be present at a family film such as this, and I expect some of them to be boisterous. They *are* kids after all. However, only one child made any noise (other than appropriate laughter, etc. as the film warranted) and even that wasn't bad. He was obviously frightened by one scene & cried, and the mother was able to soothe him pretty quickly. If I had been able to pinpoint where they were sitting, I'd have both thanked & congratulated her after the show.

We're supposed to be going to a potluck today. I made a double-size nectarine cobbler to take (that's today's photo); hope people like it. Well, I'm not too worried about that actually. The one I made for just Ralph & me is nearly gone, and the fresh one I made yesterday for dinner with our friends was pretty much devoured as well. And if they don't like it, I'll freeze the leftovers for us to enjoy when summer is over and the tree is no longer producing fruit. Right now the ground is covered with dropped nectarines, I've picked enough to have 10 cups of sliced fruit [all but 2 cups have been made into cobbler; the balance is in the freezer], and there is so much fruit still on the tree that I don't see how we can use it all. I'll have to just freeze them as they ripen so they don't go to waste.

I also made a batch of fresh lemonade today. I love having a lemon tree in the yard :-)

Some good, some not so much

What a day. Yesterday I called to make an appointment with the plumber; the scheduler said the repairman would be at the house between 8:30 and 10:30. I said that wouldn't work as I had an appointment at 9:30, so she changed it to noon. Sure enough, the plumber showed up at 8:20. Luckily it didn't take long to make the repair and I made it to my 9:30 appointment at the temp agency with no trouble.

Well, I wouldn't say no trouble. The business center where they are located has about a dozen identical buildings. I found the right one, went inside, and according to the directory the temp agency entrance was located on the outside of the building facing the airport. I went all the way through the building and out the back, only to discover the building is at an angle; this means that there are two sides to the building that could be said to face the airport. Hmmm. Decided to go left. This was, of course, the wrong way. Went back around the building and finally found the entrance. Afterward when I left, I discovered that the entrance was just around the corner from where I had gone in originally. Sigh.

The interview at the agency went well. I got some very good tips on spiffing up my resume & presenting myself to potential employers, and my account manager already has a job in mind for me to interview for. I worked on my resume quite a bit when I got home. The account manager, whom I shall call D, sent me some online assessment tests. Ugh. The program appears to be entirely incompatible with our computer, so I have to go back on Tuesday & take the assessments there.

I also submitted a resume via Monster. Later I felt I hadn't really done enough job-search-wise today, so tried to log back on. Couldn't do it. It wouldn't accept my password, wouldn't reset my password when I submitted the request, just not working right at all. Grrr.

On the plus side, the gas guy came this afternoon and we have hot water & a functioning stove again! I made a nectarine cobbler in celebration & have a potato/sausage casserole baking for dinner.

sigh

Well, as if all the stuff with the furnace & the flooding weren't craptastic enough, as of 3:30 this afternoon I have joined the ranks of the unemployed. Yup, they have eliminated my position at the company and I, along with quite a few others, have been laid off. Good thing we haven't signed any contracts to get the furnace work done. Tomorrow I sign up for unemployment, update my resume, and start the job search. In the meantime, we're just going to have the gas pipe leading to the furnace capped off so we can have the gas turned back on. Hopefully that won't cost a whole lot.

Sadly, this all kinda overshadows the fact that I got flirted with at Carl's Jr. yesterday. Ah, well.

Waste of a perfectly good day

As the Teeming Millions know, we had a gas leak. We called the gas company to come out on Saturday, and they confirmed we not only had a leak, but it was a big one & coming from the floor furnace. Saturday afternoon (evening really, it was nearly 5:00) I called a plumber. The guy answering the phone took all the info & said someone would be out Monday morning between 9:00 & 11:00.

I e-mailed my boss to let him know I'd be late & why. At 11:30 this morning, no one had shown up so I called the plumber. No record of my call, no record of the appointment. Grrrr! The guy said he'd call me back, which he did in a few minutes saying there was a plumber in the area who was just finishing up a job & would be here "shortly." Two hours later I call again to find out when this guy is going to show up. I'm told "Not more than 15 minutes." 25 minutes later he finally arrived.

So, he takes a look at the furnace, has his assistant go under the house to take pictures, and long story short the furnace is toast AND the waterline to the icemaker is spraying like a fountain. I shut the water off to that of course, and now we need to decide if we're going to get a new floor furnace, or spring for central heating. I didn't get pricing on the latter so we'll have to look into that. Ralph is willing to wait another week if necessary so we can research. It's awkward not being able to cook, or wash dishes, or run the clothes dryer (luckily we can still do cold-water washes & hang the laundry on the clothesline), not to mention showering in the trailer, but it'll be worth it knowing that we did our research & made an informed decision.

I did get some knitting done at least. I decided to go ahead & make the octopus juggling balls; started them last week & as of this evening now have one completely done & one partially done. I need to knit 10 more tentacles & knit them together into body pieces, one more head/mantle piece, then graft everything together. So, not quite halfway there I would say.

Pizza for dinner tonight. Man, I'll be glad when I can cook again. OK, technically I *could* cook on the trailer stove, but it's really not set up for anything fancy. The oven doesn't heat evenly (the top is burned before the bottom is cooked) & the stove area is small; hard to prep the food beforehand.

Had some excitement this morning, though. I was sitting in my green chair when suddenly the cat came tearing full-speed across the room. It took me a second to realize he was chasing a bird! I hustled to get all the pets locked up (not an easy task as they all were far more interested in pouncing on the bird than in going into the hallway) & then tried to catch the poor sparrow. I probably could have caught it a lot faster if I had remembered to close the bedroom door; then it couldn't have kept hiding under the bed. Eventually it flew back into the dining room & landed on the window shade. I was able to catch it in the large fish net we use on the aquarium and took it outside. When I opened the net the bird lay so limp and still I thought it had died from all the adrenaline, but then whoosh! It flew away so fast it made me jump. Whew!