The great gas station robbery…. May 24, 2007

So I am perilously close to running out of gas this morning.  I have only one choice in gas stations, there are no others close enough for me to make it.  I pull in, and notice the darn yellow out of gas sleeves on everything BUT premium.  Yes, it is true, I paid three dollars and seventy nine cents a gallon for gas.  My little ten gallon gas tank drained thirty seven dollars from my account, just like that. You would think that would be the robbery part, but you would be wrong.  I dragged my morning tired overly grumpy too much money for gas crappy mood but into the store with my lovely mug for a refill.

So while I am filling my coffee cup, the morning crowd rolls in and the line is MILES long and the old lady cashier is SSSLLLOOOWWWW….and putting premium into the Hyundai was one wrong of the morning, I decided promptly that two wrongs DO make a right, and I walked out with my refilled mug, and did NOT pay. 

Honestly I felt OK about this, (thirty seven dollars people!!!!) but then when I got home from work, my darling daughter told me all about school where they learned that caffeine was a drug and all, and it hit me….

 

I had robbed a gas station, manned by a little old lady, for my fix.  

Think they’ll buy it in prison??

My first meme… May 23, 2007

Silly, but true.

My friend Anna-Liza over at Pollyanna Rainbow Sunshine and the Needles of Doom tagged me, (I love that name it is somewhat silly and far more fun to say and type than it should be…. yeah, easily amused=me.)  Anyhoo, if you weren’t creeped out a little by me before, let this be your warning, even I find the following list a touch disturbing.

So here we go, 8 weird things about me.

1. I buy Carmex in tubes then take the label off, cause the tubes are clear underneath.  I do this so I can see exactly how much Carmex I have left and never ever have a Carmex emergency.  I also have Carmex on my desk at work, in my purse, in my knitting/craft bag, on my nightstand, and in various sundry locations throughout my home where I might momentarily perch myself.  Carmex emergencies are very scary.  A slightly odder thing about this is that I have mixed up the purse Carmex and the work Carmex before, and now I color code them, I color the bottom of the work tube red, and the purse tube blue.

2. I have a Care-Bear thing.  I am a member of the Care-Bear fan club.  I have seen all the movies, and would have a Care Bear room  in my house except for that might cross the line and be creepy.  (I even like the Care-Bear cousins)

3. I also love Build A Bear.  I am not a huge stuffed animal fan, but I love that you can go in and just "make" an animal, and all the silly clothes just make me giddy.  I avoid it like the plague, cause I tend to live vicariously through my children and go overboard when we go there.

4.  I am thoroughly absorbed by non-fiction books, shows or anything having to do with serial killers, or even just bizarre crimes.  I review any crime scene photos I find.  I am terribly morbid, and always look at gory accident photos when they show up at work.  When I say gory people, let me just say you have no idea.  You have heard that saying about train wrecks and looking away…. it is kind of like that, not only can I not look away, I seek them out.  My kids hate this, because I really truly do know what happens when they don’t buckle up, or the ride their bike in front of a train, or any other number of things kids will do because they have genius kid brains.  They hate this, because it makes me extra mean about things like seat belts. 

5. I look at things while I do them, so even though I can type without looking at my fingers, ten key, knit, crochet and even write fairly legibly in straight lines, I stare at my hands while I do them so right now when most touch typists are looking at the screen and I can look at the screen and type quite well, I am more comfortable staring at my hands.  I think an extension of this is that if I have a pen and paper in front of me on the phone, and I give someone my number to call me back, I write down my number as I give it to them. 

6.  I am a true fan of the Wal-Mart.  Cry all you want tell me every horrible thing about them, how they drive others out of business, how they are horrible employers, and every little gripe about them you want.  Wal-Mart revolutionized the supply chain, they single handedly changed the face of retail today, they put numbers behind ideas (shelf space vs. sales, that shelf space is advertising that is worth MONEY, volume pricing concepts, supply chain economy…you name it) they are a true statistical giant.   Every large corporate citizen has its drawbacks.  Wal-Mart is not the worst corporate citizen we have, neither are they the best, but they are one of the smartest, and I respect them for that.  Plus " I am runnin’ out to the Wal-Mart honey, need anything?" just rolls off my tongue.

7.  I am more comfortable at a messy desk than at a clean one.  I have to do a marginally decent job of keeping the cube at the threshold of reasonable, but if you pile me up with papers I am happier.  If I put things away, I have to remember what job they are associated with, if they are stacked around me, I just kind of know where to look, it is inexplicable.   Lately I am trying to rebel against my messy desk self, and keep it actually truly clean not scary for others.  I even dug out the color coded files they pushed on me ages ago and started using them.  I actually could never do it, except for the fact I have my digital file.  I can put stuff away now because I scan it in to a huge file on the server, and I can search for it my way on my terms.  I think that my scanning actually creeps out the IT guy, as it is clear I am a scan addict.  It also makes me appear super organized, (which I am so NOT) but I am willing to pretend if it makes them happy.    

8.  I love date stamps.  I have two different kinds.  I love the clickety sound, and then there is the date on something. Received and date, billed and date, changed and date, entered and date.  Oh anything at all you want to do and date.  Love them.  Stampity stamp stamp 🙂

 

In the spirit of the Meme, I should tag someone else, but I won’t because I really have no idea how many people read this on any given days, stats are good, but I either collect non commenters, or stupid MSN live stuff keeps people from wanting to comment.

Heh. May 15, 2007

So I haven’t posted for a teeny bit, wish I had something great to show, but I don’t.  I have squares that are not square, socks that are barely progressing, and a large dose of insanity. 

I did start allergy shots.  Shot #1: OK.  #2: big fat red burning arm today, and I got the shot yesterday…. I hope this does not bode ill.

In other news…. wait… there IS no other news. None.  Zip. Zilch.

Oh, hey I did have a fantastic mothers day, with a unique breakfast…..the decorated bag from DS was a breakfast in bed kit, with a muffin, a decorated cup and a lovely teabag…plus one of those cute cards they make with their little handprints as flowers. My daughter woke up early and made us pancakes (they learned at school) this was the best batch she had tried so far, and I am glad she isn’t afraid of the kitchen 🙂

And my mother loved the hat…. plus it actually looked really good on her…. WAY better than it looked on me 🙂  The color totally flattered her… and I am darn proud it came out so well!!!

And since I fell it is a touch odd to post with no pictures, how about a flower from Grandma’s garden?  This is from Kansas some time last year, and the thing about Kansas is that every picture I take seems to have a haze around it, I think it is the humidity… but it gives things a nice dreamlike aura….

Gimme a Woo hoo! a Wow and an Awwwww…… May 11, 2007

WOO HOO:  I get to start my allergy shots today!!!

Wow: Kids and I like to hang out at the library, and lately with all the rain, things are looking so nice, it is even better… here is the view from our library window…..

Awww: If this does not get you…..

This will 🙂

Have a lovely Friday!

Odessa May 5, 2007

I finished Odessa.  I cannot tell you how happy I am this came out well.  I risk ruining the surprise for mom on Mothers day, but Odessa is for her 🙂

I can’t recall the last time I saw mom wear a hat, so it is a little strange that I made her one, but I think she would be knocked down sideways if what I got her wasn’t a touch strange. 

Mom has made me so many nice things over the years….aside from the year we recycled the red bridesmaid dress for sanity sake, I was ALWAYS the best dressed girl at any formal.  She made the red bridesmaid dress too, in the bride’s choice.. a southern style hoop skirted monstrosity with white lace trim.  Later we donated it to the local high school’s theater department.  I often get little inside chuckles thinking that someone else has to wear that thing now!!  See mom was so great at what she does, the dress still lives, it will not wear out, and you wouldn’t know it looking from the outside, which is all lace and beauty, but mom knew me well, and nothing was constructed with a less than iron constitution!

Mom knit things for me when I couldn’t knit… (actually I just didn’t get it… seriously could not figure it out… clearly I got over that!!)

So I guess this is just a way to thank her for all that 🙂

Anyhoo… on to the hat 🙂 I used Sublime extra fine merino dk, and it took me slightly more than a skein.  Needle sizes just as in the pattern.  Clearly I need to work on tension, I knit tighter than anyone I have seen yet, so this one for me became more about watching my tension, and not knitting so tightly so I could accomplish the knit togethers in the pattern.  I think I did OK.  And it fits, which I guess is what counts after all. 

I really think I did OK, on this one and am really getting the sweater itch…..

WIPS and Coffee and my 7 seconds of fame….. May 2, 2007

So I no longer feel badly about taking a month to finish my Harlot socks.  It took 9 news a full month to post the story!!! http://www.9news.com/video/player.aspx?aid=33435&bw= But you see me there in the audience in fleeting moments, and they get a close up of my hands knitting the rust socks 🙂 So now they have truly achieved their status of souvenir socks!!

Anna-Liza has the whole story on her blog.  Check it out, as she kept far better track of who was who than I was capable of 🙂

Yesterday morning, I went to make myself a lovely cup of morning coffee to go, only to find my dear, darling children had destroyed any mug that had the potential to fit in my cupholder.  As punishment for said destroying of mother’s happiness, I made them tromp to the Starbuck’s with me last night so I could seek out a brand spankin’ new mug for my commute.  Although I usually fawn over Starbucks tumblers and fall in love and get price shock, I was stunned to find NO seasonal too pretty for words tumblers at my Starbucks!! I did however find the make it your own tumbler and it was on SALE.  After embarrasing my daughter by pulling out my little ruler and measuring the cup to make sure it was compatable with my small Korean cupholders, I smugly purchased the mug and even treated myself to an Americana.  Once at home though, it was clear the mug needed to be personalized.  Since the children are little mug destroyers, I refused to put their pictures on it.  Maybe eventually, but for now… This 🙂

    A Yarn Mug 🙂

Oh and I am really truly knitting stuff…. here is the start of the blue sock….

And I think my favorite thing so far….. I am amazed at how true the colors came out in this picture!!! For the record this is attempt #2 at this hat.  There are lessons to be learned from the kind of frogging I had to do to this, like sometimes you just have got to pay attention to what the hell you are doing in the first place.  Do not under any circumstance think you can just follow a pattern, in order to do this you will have to look at your work and recognize your stitches, and maybe learn what the hell a YO looks like when you knit into it.  This time dear friends, I have it.  Although if I said I was not a touch disturbed at the notion of the decrease rounds I would be lying.