Complete and Utter Waste Of Time

I found this site throught the Yarn Harlot's blog. I'm too lazy to link to her blog. i'm pretty sure you cn find it on your own.

But The Flight of the Hamster is a fabulous way to waste time.

Moving On

Okay, I have taken a deep breath. I have called my former,now current again, clients and lined up some work. So while I may not be buying that island in a warm climate anytime soon, I won't be out on the street either! Whew.

In celebration (and because I am tired of resting my damn tennis-elbow and am going into knitdrawal), I tossed the stash. Determined how much yardage I have and pulled out the knitting books.

I now must make a choice. Do I knit Roundabout Leaf Tank from Knitting Nature? Or do I start on the mitred square blankie from Mason Dixon Knitting?

The tank would be for me. The blankie is a gift for someone destined to be given in 2009 sometime.

Choices choices....

And now, for some light entertainment. Cue elevator music....

Raven will sleep anywhere warm.

Mushroom

It transpires that my now ex-boss is spineless. Apparently the other side of the clinic is saying that "big changes" have to happen. When I asked for some specifices, since I can't just "change" I was told that they didn't know what, exactly, either! WTF??

I have no problem working with people. I have taken consturctive criticism in the past and changed things. In fact I have had a supervisor say that I take criticism very well. But I do need something to go on. As this is not the case, I am walking. They can line up with my other clients for my time. Unfortunately, now I have to live cheap until I get my clients back into the swing of things.

Pisses me off. I clear my schedule for these guys and at the last freaking minute they come up with nebulous requirements. I had one job in the past that was awful with no clear mandate. Never again!

ciao

Grrrrrr

Too angry to blog. Too angry to knit. Not good!

Work is pissing me off. Some people have unreasonable expectations and I am waiting to find out if the new boss is a conciliatory (read spineless wimp) type or a supportive of his employees type. I suspect it's the former, in which case I will be taking a bit of a walk.

You Make My Day

I have been given an award!



And now to pass on the honours! Who makes MY day? Pick 10 people. ONLY 10????!!!
Oh, all, right:

Random Meanderings
The Angry Pharmacist
The Amazing Adventures of Kelly Green Rogue
Bella Knitting
Crafting Jen
The Life and Times of JB
SpinDyeKnit
:::Knitfit:::ranting & raving
Z Knits...and Sews
Stay at Home Knit

Ciao

Me--OW!!!!

We all like to have a little me-time. But I don't think we want me-ow! time...

Do we??

Contest alert!

Knit Witch is having a contest!


Tell her something funny, embarrassing etc and you might win! Be careful, though. the story will be put on her blog, so nothing you don't want the world to know!

I Won!

Zonda had a contest. And I won something! Most exciting.

She even included a little bonus. The prize was the needle case. The bonus was the box-bag.

Seriously, this is fa-bu-lous! Thanks a billion, Zonda!

Notice Raven had to get in on the action...

Ciao

Wannietta and Sandra did better than I!

You paid attention during 74% of high school!

68-84% Pretty good, you know that there are libraries and newspapers, and you remember what you've read. You were a child that wasn't left behind!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

A haiku:

Study in high school halls

Stare at the writing on boards

Remember nothing

Couldn't help myself

I just had to. I was jonesing. I admit it. I knit something. It was just a little something. But I decided to enter Bella Knitting's contest with it. Tell a story in 3 or 4 pictures.

No mousies go free in this house!

Um, Yeah, Not So Much

So, I decided to try a foray into baking to keep myself occupied. No knead bread sounded good. Bread is good, right? And the no knead part would be good for a recovering tennis elbow. Okey dokey. First problem, no cast iron pot. Ah, what the hell, I've got a really good quality stainless steel pot, how much different can it be? Next problem...no instant yeast. Well, yeast is yeast right? I've got dry traditional yeast. I'll just activate the packet in some of the water that you use to mix up the flour.

Result?

Now, I could live with an ugly loaf. But that ripped off part? it is NOT because I wanted to taste the bread. No sirreee. it's here:

Still stuck to the pot. And I mean really stuck. As in I'm gonna hafta soak that puppy off.

At this point, I still had hope. Next time I can flour the pot up. So I tried the bread. Hmmm, not so good. In fact really not good. Chewy all right. Like taffy. Not bread. The inside was baked, but still wet. I guess those subs I made were not such hot ideas.

All in all, I think I'll stick to buying Ace bakery products at my grocery store.

Now THAT'S no fail baking.

Bunny Thumpers!

KitKatKnit has issued a challenge, err, contest. Measure your kitties' bunny thumpers (back leg from to to the heel) and post pictures. okey dokey. I hear and obey. (besides, I need blog fodder...)

A couple of attempts have been made.

As you can see, this is not a great picture of bunny thumpers. But it does show how everything around here quickly becomes a group activity. Not the best way in the world to get kitties to sit still for bunny thumper pictures. Further attempts were more fruitful. To whit:

While the camera flash is a bit overwhelming, if you look close you can see Micha's bunny thumper is exactly 5 inches! Now to pin down the other 2 kitties.....and say bunny thumper over and over again. I love that phrase. It makes me giggle.

ciao

Dear....

Dear Dumbass Neighbour,

I agree that the dog barking for hours at a time is irritating and annoying. I can even see why you took the coward's way out and called the police to talk to your neighbour instead of just going over. But get your details right. I DON'T HAVE A FUCKING DOG!!!!!!

The guy behind me does, and I KNOW it's his dog that is doing the barking. I don't appreciate being bothered by the cops when it's not me being the problem.

If I knew who you were, I'd dump my recycling on your front lawn.

sincerely,
cat lover

No Wonder

Having just spent 2 nights waiting for someone at the local emergency room, I now have a theory why the waits are so long when you go. Even if you have a legitimate emergency room problem.

Morons can't figure out if the problem they have is an emergency. Of all the people I saw go in or out of the big double doors to the magical emergency treatment area, only 5 had anything visibly wrong with them.

One was a screaming baby. Another was a limping fellow that came out in a walking cast. Then there was the lady who moved all hunched over. There was a young man who was huddled into his chair while waiting who just moved badly. The kid holding his arm still, with his other arm.

Then there were a whole bunch of people who looked completely normal. There was a kid about 12 still in her dance/gymnastic tights holding an icepack to her ankle. Which sounds like it might be legitimate, but the kid barely had a limp. I can tell you right now, she has a mild sprain. Keep putting ice on it, buy a tensor bandage and stay out of the emergency room, you idiot.

I lost count of the number of people that looked like drug-seeking-individuals to me. (And being that I am a pharmacist, my radar is pretty accurate)

My tax dollars at work. Lovely.

Uh Oh!

I think I may be in trouble. I found Raven playing with this in the middle of the floor.

That's a mangled tag from my living room chair. But more worrisome is that this written on it:

I didn't remove it. Does that mean the tag police are going to come take me away?

If you don't hear from me in a while, send yarn! (actually, you can send yarn anyway :)

The Final Piece

And now for the presentation of the last piece of Christmas knitting.

Another pair of Fiber Trends felted clogs. They are purple Paton's Classic with pink fun-fur around the cuff. Man, that fun-fur was a real pain to work with. I wasn't too put off by the fact that it was acrylic. It was the long hairy bits that kept wrapping around stitches and catching my needles that was the hassle. Definitely something for embellishment only. I don't know how people knit up those scarves out of fun-fur only!

I have already gotten feedback from the recipients of these and they love them! That makes me a very happy, injured, knitter. Tennis elbow is still bugging me. It's better. But recovery is sloooow. Anyone else had to deal with this? Know how long I'll be out? I'm going nuts. I keep thinking, "oh, I'll knit up one of those. they're cute" and then realizing I can't yet. Argh.

In other news, the car needed a new battery. Not a surprise, really. However, the nice CAA guy that came to give me a boost hooked up his battery doohicky thing (yes,that's the technical term) to both the positive and negative terminals. Now, my daddy taught me (and lots of other daddy's taught their kids) that the negative clamp is supposed to get clamped to an unpainted piece of metal on the car. When I asked the fellow, he said that most cars nowadays are mostly plastic and exposed metal has been painted, so this is what they do. In fact, I went out after to look under the hood, and my car is exactly that...painted metal and plastic. Go figure.

I inquired further at my garage. (Been going there for years. They are wonderful) and was told that with modern batteries, they don't blow up like the old ones did when you hook 'em up that way.

So that is my public service message. To boost your car battery, hook up the red clamp to the positive terminal on your battery first and then hook up the negative, black clamp to the other terminal. (oh, and have a big wad of cash to pay for the new battery)

Why Did I Get Up?

Lets see, I got up, had coffee, saw that it was -17C out, so I hit the remote start. when I went out the door, I saw that the car hadn't started. Thinking I hadn't started it right ro something, I hit the button again. Nothing. I tried to start it the old fashioned way. Nada. Giving up, I called a cab and went to work.

Hubby figured out it's the battery, so tomorrow we're gonna jump-start it and take it in to get the battery changed. We could just buy a battery ourselves, but then you have to deal with the disposal issue. Not something I feel like dealing with.

Figured I'd catch the bus home. Got out to the bus stop just in time to see my bus rounding the corner...heading away from me. Sigh. My second choice bus pulls up 15 minutes later. However it means a 15 minute walk at the other end too. In the -14C weather. Not fun. Got home. Can't really feel my thighs. Re-scheduled my appointments that I had on thursday. as I will be bringing the car into the shop.

Tried to up-synch the new schedule with my Palm Pilot. Nothing. Cleaned the contacts. Still nothing. Restarted computer. No love. Kept pushing the button. Wiggled the unit, checked usb connections. Still nothing.

I give up.

Happy New Year!