She's GOT TO GO

Mommy has now been here for two weeks.


It's time for her to go.


She's taken over my home.


I have color schemes I never intended. My things are in places I never intended to put them.


I have food I never would have bought.


She's irritating the hell out of me. How?

"Torio, what are you doing?"
"Torio, where are you going?"
"Torio, what did we have planned today?"
"Torio, what's that going to be used for (referring to the light box I was building)?"
"Torio, what's that going to be used for?"
"Torio, what's that going to be used for?" (seeing my irritated face) "Well, I forgot. What's that going to be used for?"


SHE'S GOT TO GO!

Cleaning and Organizing

Well, I had a really good weekend. It started by spending some time at A Yarn Outlet, trying to help Debbie and Jim figure out what kind of web store they wanted (which reminds me, I need to call Debbie). I finally found an e-commerce solution that I thought would work for them, loaded a few things into the database, and went to bed.

Early on Saturday morning (...OK, more like noon, which is early for me on the weekends), Mom and I got up, had a little lunch at Panera Bread, then high tailed it to Orlando. It rained the entire trip.
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First stop: IKEA! My shopping superstore. Swedish Chic meets student budget.


IKEA had the HEMNES bed on sale for ~$179. Now that I'm home, I wish (fervently wish) I'd bought the bed. It is exactly what I've been looking for. Plain, white lacquer without excessive adornment.

$179! (my heart is crying. A moment of silence for my heart).

However, I didn't buy it because a) It was raining; b) I drive a Honda Accord, so c) I had no place to put it. (side note: IKEA builders if you are reading this, please finish the TAMPA store post-haste!)

So, while I didn't buy the bed (sob sob), I did buy the following:

• hurricane candles
• a new wok
• an IKEA umbrella
• 2 white bathmats
• 6 oz juice glasses
• red paper napkins (for 4th of July)

Mommy just wanted to get some of the cool blue bags...and a pot rack that could be hung from the ceiling. I am still asking why . . . she doesn't cook . . .

We went to the Mall at Millenia, which is Mecca for the shopping elite of Orlando. Naturally, Mommy took to it like a duck on water.

I hung in there gamely.

Odd thing was, I ended up spending all the money. I bought 4 pairs of shoes and drifted dangerously into the Jo Malone section of Bloomie's . . .(I love tuberose. Please don't ask me to explain). After that we got back on the road to Bradenton because Mommy was tired and I was hungry. Dinner was a Chinese buffet spectacular: Lo Mein, Mongolian Beef, and Egg Rolls. No we did not eat this all in one sitting . . .it took about two days.

I finished the Beret. Mommy giggled happily and modeled the beret for at least 20 minutes, then picked up my catalog from Patternworks and said, "OK, I want you to make me a lot more of these in this color, this color, this color..."

(AGGHHHHHHH) Is she kidding me!? More mindless knitting???

I gotta find a pattern for these.

On the Needles

Quick Project Update


Beret.

I hate the Beret. If this weren't for the Mommy, I would've put it down by now. I am knitting it using Cascade 220 (bright red), on size 6 needles at 6 stitches/inch. The stitches are so tight that they can barely move along the needle. I did this on purpose because she wanted to felt it, but I wasn't sure if it would come out at the right size if felted. And after 5 inches (well, 4.75 in.) of stockinette stitch, if I don't get something interesting and fun soon I think I'm going to scream!

Why have all my projects been boring lately??

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The Bayerishce Socks
The new needles arrived from KnitPicks yesterday, along with the 6 hanks of Gloss Lace Yarn . . .
Hello Lover!!

I smell a Feather and Fan Shawl in my future. (Mindless web browsing while writing this post leads me to the Japanese Feather and Fan Shawl . . .hmmm . . . possibilities . . . )

Oh. Right.

The socks will see some work tonight.

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The Big Purple Monster

The Big Purple Monster is 95% complete. I'm so glad to be done with it I don't know what to do. I didn't even want to touch it for the past week.

This Revolution won't be televised either

UPDATE: I didn't know that the FCC fined Sarah Jones and HBO for this poem. Sarah Jones made history as the first artist to sue the FCC for censorship. . .and the sista WON! Makes me love this performance even more :)

Mommy

My Mother is here for a visit.

Mommy is a teacher and since school is out for the summer, she's hanging out with me. Until I left Albany, I never occurred to me that my mom could be my best friend. She's prissy, ultra-ultra-feminine, a shopaholic, a do-it-my-way-or-hit-the-highway, emotional sort of person.

I'm not. I hate to shop (which I attribute to her dragging me through every single store in the mall as a kid), I am very logical (to the point of being emotionally detached from most people and situations), and I never saw the benefit in spending all day trying to get dolled up and staying clean...(as a kid...as an adult, I'm spic and span).

The my-way-or-the-highway bit I did get from her.

Mostly, I am my dad.

(Still a little annoyed about that mall thing. I mean, literally, every single store. Even FootAction. Why? WHYYYYY??? I can't enjoy any mall now. Not even outlet malls. I literally hate malls.)

But now that there are ~350 miles between us, we can't talk enough. Or see each other enough. One call from Mommy and I'll make the 5 hour trip to go see her.

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Which in this time of $4.14 gas is not a small undertaking.

She arrived around 4 PM today and will be staying with me until July 4 weekend, when she'll clear out and my other best friends will arrive.

3 Weeks.

Sad to say, I'm almost tempted to ask her to stay through their visit but I know she won't. She already said that she's leaving when they arrive.

Darn.

I wuv my mommy.

Extra Encouragement Unnecessary

Well, it has been a fateful 5 days. On Sunday, I'd cleaned up the cast-on, gotten the twists looking correct, and had everything looking pretty again. The problems I had with the Bayerische socks hurt my feelings so much that I ignored them on Monday. However, on Tuesday, refreshed and ready to conquer socks again, I picked them up.

And put them right back down.

I just couldn't do it. Perfectionism reared it ugly head.

"Why are you going to go into the body (or in this case, the leg) of these socks on the wrong needles??? You need a size 0 needle. The smallest needle you have here is a size 2! That's 2 too big!"

I hate that voice. That voice interrupts soothing knitting, but the voice is usually right.

Mind you, I ordered a pair of sz. 1 and sz. 2 wood fixed circulars from KnitPicks, but almost immediately after arrival, the Size 1 split right down the center and proceeded to start snagging on everything...

So. . .why was there no need to encourage me?

Well, I called Knitpicks last night, to determine the best way to exchange the needle for a new needle.

Me: I would like to return a needle please.
KP: What's the problem with the needle?

Me: Well. . . .the needle split. . . right down the center. . . kinda like if you were to stand a piece of wood up and use an ax to split it right down the middle--
KP: Ahh...the needle split. OK. We'll send you a new one.

Me: (feeling slightly foolish for the long description)...umm...OK. How much do I have to pay for the shipping and handling.
KP: Oh, the shipping and handling is free ma'am. That's a defect on our end and we won't charge you in order to get a replacement. As a matter of fact, since the S&P will be free, do you want or need to order anything else?

NO OTHER ENCOURAGEMENT WAS NECESSARY...

I ordered the following:

• 1 Size 0 24-inch circular
• 1 Size 1 24-inch circular
• 16.9 oz Eucalan wool wash (Original)
• 6 hanks of Celery Gloss Lace

In addition to the replacement Size 1 16-inch circular.

Good customer service will encourage me to do unnecessary things.

Meanwhile, I've picked up the Big Purple Monster and will continue to hack away on that until the package arrives.

When Good Ideas go Bad

Well, my post on Friday was so full of hope.

When I last left you, I'd cast on for the Bayerische socks, secure and happy in the knowledge that I would have significant progress on the socks completed by Sunday night. However, I forgot to account for one little personality trait that crops up at the most inconvenient time: Perfectionism.

I never went to sleep Friday night, which meant that I spent Friday at work in a stupor. However, since Fridays' end at 12:30, I figured I could last the 4.5 hours. So I knit all night, making my way to the cable charts. That's where I ran into problems.

Somehow I had both too many and too few stitches. The cables were not coming out right, so I logged into Ravelry to see if anyone else had had problems with the pattern. Hmm...seems I'm the only dunce in the group.

I went to work, worked in a complete stupor, and when I arrived home, I looked at my progress.

Nope, would not do.

Cables in the wrong places.
Twists looking fuzzy.
General Havoc everywhere.

To add insult to injury, the beautiful cast on I'd chosen can't be joined in the round for at least 5 rows. So now I have this off looking pleat.

So, I ripped out the cast on and the 15 rows I finished and started over.

Unfortunately, I would come anywhere near that number of consecutively knitted rows the entire weekend.

To make a long story short, I restarted these socks five, no FIVE times!!! And I'm a sock QUEEN! I rock with socks! Socks never give me problems!

What is this about???

So now, at 10:00 PM on Sunday night, I have both socks, cast on, on a size 0 and size 2 needles, with about 8 rows of knitting done.

(sigh)
Did I mention I never went to sleep Saturday night?

I'm going to bed.

Why I love my fellow bloggers

I love the feeling I get when I learn something new. Especially something that's eluded me for weeks.

My favorite cast on is the Long Tail cast on. It was the first one I learned, it usually works very well for me, and I can usually get it to do what I need it to. However, the Long Tail Cast On is also my single biggest reason for knitting socks from the toe-up. Knit from the toe up and I can use the Elizabeth Zimmerman sewn bind off to finish. Super Stretchy, really pretty.

While at the library on Monday, I noticed this older knitting book (circa 1990), Reader's Digest Knitter's Handbook by Montse Stanley. I picked it up and fell in love. Every cast on you could ever possibly imagine was listed. All sorts of wonderful cast offs, short row info, design information, blocking information, etc. This was a boon! I own enough reference books not to get excited by most reference books anymore, but this was different.

So I checked it out and took it home. It's waited patiently for me to dive in and explore it's secrets, so why I thought 3 AM was a good time I don't know.


The hated Big Purple Monster was set to the side and the pretty Concord Grape KnitPicks Gloss sock yarn was fondled. I settled on this sock yarn weeks ago for Jennifer's Bayerische Socks, so now it was time to cast on! I decided to go for a tubular cast on, which I've never done, and I felt confidently that I could get both socks onto the needles before it was time to fall, exhausted, into bed.


Don't you love that sound of optimism in my voice?

I cast on, following the book's directions very carefully.

No Go. Three times, no go.

I decided to switch to a different cast on, a Provisional Cast on.

Didn't have the mental power.

I put the sock yarn down and noted the 3:15 AM time. The sock would have to wait. . .


Except that I'm no quitter (even when I should be). I picked it back up, ripped out all the stitches, and surfed to TECHKnitting. TECHKnitting is the most amazing website ever! Whenever I have a question, don't understand what I'm doing, or want to learn something new, I surf to TECHKnitting and look it up. I figured if I couldn't get help there, it would never happen. I found her Provisional Tail Method of 1 x 1 tubular cast on. This is the most amazing cast on EVER!

Happily knitting away!

The Big Purple Monster wins...for now

I can't do it anymore.

The Big Purple Monster is 50% done. It's 48 inches long. I didn't measure width, b/c I plan on blocking the heck out of it.

But I can't knit on it anymore.

I felt myself losing brain cells as I tried in vain to reach the 50% mark by 11PM.

I will post a picture tomorrow. Right now, I am going to cast on for the Bayerische Socks...Yummy yummy yummy...

:)

Note: My friend Byron is moving to Texas...I miss him already.

Stealth posting

I realized today that if my blog is going to be about me, then I have to post about work. Mostly because I spend 8 of my 16 waking hours at that place and not blogging about it is like denying my existence for 8 hours.

However, I have absolutely no intentions of being fired, so everyone is getting nicknames. . . and I'm keeping the nature of my job as non-specific as possible.

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Today was weird at work. The BOSS is back and, while she appears to be tired, I think she's ticked at me about something. I don't know why or what, cuz all I do is sit in my cubicle and pound out reports all day.

And do her work.
And do stuff that she's hasn't even thought about. Because I believe in being ahead of schedule.

But she's definitely in a mood. My Sup asked me if she were job hunting (so the rumor mill goes), but I don't have any idea. Nor do I care. She's here now. I have to deal with her now. I actually think she's OK most of the time, but not when she's in this mood.

Yesterday, Velvet Steel sent an email to Big SUP to say the following: We haven't been getting anything out of the database about a major program. You need to allocate someone on your staff to work with us on this. DO IT NOW!

I was irritated by that, b/c Big SUP came to my office to chastise me for leaving him on the chopping block. . . except I can't save an ass I don't know is on the chopping block. So, we walk into Sup's office and call VS.

Why is it when you get on the phone with someone who has sent a nasty email, they get all apologetic, like they didn't understand the tone of the email they typed?

She gets on the phone, apologetic, to say that they haven't been getting that since some guy left and, while she's never seen an old copy of this file that she's demanding, she just wanted to get the ball rolling. . .

Kiss my ass.

So, not only did Big Sup chastise her for the email (which she CC'd to the entire world), but he also reminded her that it was MY job to coordinate these issues. So, instead of emailing it to a bunch of people who would never be able to get her the information she needed, she should have just emailed me.

Now, I know she wasn't going to email me, b/c she's pissed that I keep reminding them, via email, that they have a major commitment that is still open and has been open for two (2) months. But still...don't mess with my job, lady!

Jeez . . .

So, to relieve my stress, I spent 30 minutes rearranging my blog. . .I have to admit, I don't miss WordPress so much anymore. . .

I'm Back!

I finally made a decision today: I'm moving back to Blogger.

For the last few weeks, I've blogged using WordPress. I was unfaithful. I was seduced by pretty themes and a clean look. I turned my back on the platform I used to start me off in the world of blogging.

I'm so sorry.

However, it only took me a few months to realize that my marriage to WordPress might not have been the best move.

1. I couldn't update the CSS without paying.
2. I couldn't get my fancy Ravelry progress bars.
3. I couldn't change the colors or the layout.
4. I missed Blogger.

So, I spent most of today (when I should have been working, considering I have to do training tomorrow morning) updating my Blogger blog.

First, I got the Ravelry progress bars working.
Then I changes the template and the colors (based on my pretty picture of Bradenton Beach)
Then I moved all the posts over.

Since, I figured out (remembered) how to change some of the CSS and HTML elements, now everything looks good again.

Since I plan on working with the Walker Treasury Project, I am going to leave the WordPress Site up, but I'm not posting there anymore.

Ahhh...it feels good to be back home.

Is It Over??? Is It Safe???

Jeremy (resident Republican) came around to tell me that CNN and the AP just reported that Clinton is stepping out of the race.

I refuse to get excited...

Without checking out Politico, CNN, and the AP first.

Is it true? Has Jesus heard my cry??

"OH God WHEN will it end??? I'm beyond caring anymore! Just end the Democratic Primary please???"

Hey, wait a minute...

CNN: Terry McAufflie is saying she's staying till it's over. Other People (I love anonymous quotes, don't you?) are saying that she'll accept a VP slot.

Politico: Hmm...Lots of good stuff. I couldn't choose, so here's a screen shot:


AP: AP tally: Obama effectively clinches nomination



So, after getting my hopes up, the correct answer is MAYBE this sucker is still dragging on!!!!

SUGAR HONEY ICE TEA!!!!

I never thought I would say this, but the Republican's have the right idea: Everyone* meet at an expensive hotel at 8 PM on Friday. Bring your own Cohibas and Jack Daniels.
Also, bring a slate of Not-Even-in-a-Million-Years candidates to provide an interesting, but ultimately futile race.
Bonus points to the individual who bags a rich sucker who'll spend all his money (Mitt Romney, Steve Forbes) on a losing race.

*Everyone refers, of course, to Party bigshots, rich donors, fiery ministers, and ex-Presidents. This is the Republican Party, where a chosen few get together to do things in your best interest.

Just Kidding.

My Love Affair with Wordpress sours

My frustration with Wordpress grows day by day.

I love my Wordpress site, not because of the features (which aren't all that), but because of the theme.



The Ocean Mist Theme by Ed Merritt is certainly the most beautiful theme I've ever seen. . . and it suits my picture prefectly.

I switched to Wordpress (from Blogger) because it seemed as if every serious blogger out there was on TypePad or WordPress. Their sites were, for lack of better term, adult looking. They didn't look like a bunch of kids experimenting. They were individual, clean, uncluttered...

They were everything I wanted my little blog to be.

Nevermind that this was my third (3rd) real attempt at blogging. . .

I wanted my blog to look like a serious blog. But my blog looked like this:



Nope. Just not as pretty.

I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Well, just paste in an some custom code!"

Humph. I would if I could remember any of my CSS. To make matters worse, I still need a key for my copy of Adobe Creative Suite 3, and I have 4 days left on the trial. . .

I want a pretty blog!!! I don't want to have to code CSS for it!!!

However, all love affairs must come to an end. I now recognize that Wordpress has some major limitations:

1. No Javascript


2. No ability to update CSS


3. No Javascript


4. Limited Widgets


5. No Javascript

It does, however, have some big advantages:

1. Pages! I love pages...


2. Themes. All the pretty themes hang out at Wordpress.


3. Security. Because they don't allow Javascript (boo!!!), I don't have to worry about random hijaking of my site (like enough people read this site for that to be a concern).


4. The Stats Tracking ability is amazing! I can see where you guys (all both of you) clicked here from.

(I just clicked on a new button and discovered the "embed media function". A moment of silence for my blindness, please).

So now, I'm stuck. Wordpress has the beauty my soul requires. Blogger has the functionality my brain demands. . . I'm not going to update two (2) sites, so over the next few days, I really need to decide if I'm going to shell out the extra money for the ability to edit code at Wordpress or if I'm going to bite the bullet and dust off my CSS manuals and get to coding on Blogger.

BLOGGER, you are OFFICIALLY ON NOTICE! Get Better Templates for the not quite Tech Savvy People like me! And ADD PAGES!