Saturday, May 31, 2008

All that glitters is gold

Knitting field trip is planned! Wednesday we will be hitting up Toronto for all it's knitting glory. Still ironing out all the details, but it looks like we'll be taking the train in, and hopping on public transit to get to all our sweet knitting destinations. Itinerary to come soon. My votes for knitting shops are based purely on how catchy the name is. I vote for Lettuce Knit.

Speaking of knitting, still working on my felted bag, and it's coming along nicely. It's taken on a blob shape, which I hope felts itself out. I'll be working on it at S&B on Tuesday, which I'm totally excited about. I have to open on that day, so I hope I'm not super tired by 7pm.

Have an entire weekend off. That's right, both Saturday AND Sunday, just like real people! To accomplish this, I had to work more than me feet could handle over 3 days. I closed on Wednesday (took a shift to help out a fellow coworker), opened on Thursday (I didn't realize that by taking the closing shift, I would also be opening the next morning. Stupid, stupid, stupid), worked a party for my mom Thursday night (where I totally rocked serving a seated meal. Marcus has forever kept me out of the dining room except for canape service, and I showed him. His cutesy nose ring server can't carry as many plates as I can, bahahahaha! I go to school for this stuff, clearly I should be practicing my skills on real paying customers). I got to leave that party at 9:30 as soon as dinner was over, but if I had my way, I would have been in bed at 7:30. Friday morning greeted me with another open at 5:15. I got to leave a measly 45 minutes early, and went directly to the boy's house for a snappy. But because of my foolish decisions to help out my fellow man, I no longer have to work Sunday, which makes me a very happy camper. Today the boy and I are having a picnic, maybe cruise down to the local library for some tom foolery. He works tonight at 5, so I will zip home in my zippy smart, knit for a while, do some laundry, and live it up. HA! Sunday it's back to work to get in those 30 hours for co-op, but I'm totally cool with that, I had a whole day off!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Baby's got back

Jogging milestone. I've been working at building up stamina since day one with my jogging, unfortunately, I don't go out as often as I should, so it's hard to build on my progress. BUT, today I jogged far more than I walked, I'd say I only walked about 1/4 of my usual route. !. I changed up my playlist on my phone, and I think that helped. Nothing but sweet beats to rock out to, kept me pumped. I'd be interested to calculate how far I'm actually jogging. I jog around a field to start out, then up the street, around my elementary school and back home. Takes me 20-25 minutes, but I jog at a pretty steady pace. Mmmm, I've got brow sweat going on. I don't understand how people I see jogging on the street always have giant sweat circles around their necks. I'm not a neck sweater.

Knitting party tomorrow. Hoping for a decent turnout, I sent a reminder out on Thursday via facebook, in case anyone was going away for the weekend and didn't plan on checking their vital computer connections.

Holiday weekend customers truly are terrible. They can't think of anything else to do with themselves except to drive around and find somewhere to spend their money. It happens every single holiday Monday, and I've worked the last 4 or 5. Slow morning, except for the retards who are getting an early start on driving around to see what's open. By 2pm, they're out in full force, having slept in and made the most of a Monday morning off work. By then the boredom and hatred of spending quality time with their families sets in, and they load the kids and the wife into the car. Welcome holiday weekend families, we are happy to see you again, it's been a while since Easter, and we know you only come out to get fancy coffee when nothing else is open. We can tell you don't normally come here, you're not fooling anyone.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Take a freakin' sample

I heart my smart. I love how tiny it is, I love the stares I get, I love the small children who stand and point at it in parking lots. Smart ownership has me hooked. I saw another smart parked in the lot at work today, I wanted to ask the owner to move it closer to mine so my smart could make some smart friends.

Started the co-op thing, working on a million things all at once. For the most part, my job right now is learning the new computer system. But I'm also invoicing as a result of my knowledge of said system because no one else can figure out how to use it to create invoices which is why we got it in the first place. Ugh. I also thought we got it to streamline our process from new client calling in to filing away their first paid invoice. Not so. The old by-hand ways are not slipping into fond memory, they are very much alive. Manually entering numbers I've already entered into TWO SEPARATE computer systems boggles my mind, but my mother just can't trust a computer.

Work riddle: what is hot most of the time but will always look the same whether it is piping hot or cold? the baking stone in the oven of course! Held parchment still with my finger while I wrestled with the tongs to get something out of the oven. I learned my lesson; ovens are hot.

Knitting news: finished the market bag, I am on a knitting roll. I now use my super sweet bag to cart around my junk from home to work. It nicely holds a change of clothes, a book or two, and a box of tea.

Working on another bag, another felting project to fuel my habit. That musty sheep smell haunts my dreams, I need to have the aroma of wet wool around me again. My next project might be a blanket, I found some ravelry patterns I really enjoyed today while I was waiting for The Office to load. Ps the Office was fantastic, and I hope I never miss a full week of my favourite shows again. It took me a good 2 hours to catch up on everything online, and that's not including the wait time for terrible links.

On a related side note, I thought about calling that update "knitting knews" but it looked funny and I thought it was kind of lame...but then I thought someone might think it was mildly clever and then I thought it was worth mentioning.

Going to sleep now, deep clean in the am with SMAC. We're scrubbing the garbage bins by hand. Who needs a hose when you've got elbow grease?

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Stick a fork in me

My lord, you leave the world of blogging for a few weeks and the blogging gods make it very difficult to access what you believe to be your account. Oh well.

I am a terrible blogger, I guess i'm still getting into the grove of things and finding the time to make regular posts. Updates: started co-op. I now work 30 hours a week for my family owned catering company as assistant to the catering manager. My title doesn't really tell you much since I do a whole lot of everything. This week I entered data into a new catering software program which is supposed to simplify and make my life easier. We're not quite there yet, but I like to think things will get better. For the moment, I am trying to figure out how to charge people for food AND for service, because the program doesn't think our customers should have to pay for the $20/hour server that the company has to pay. I got frustrated with it in the last few days, so I've been helping to prep for parties, which is a job I truly hate. Cooking is not for me, although I enjoy cooking for myself on my own time. Tomorrow should be a better day, I am meeting with a wedding couple at 6, because they're interested in having a wedding planner. I will have to look professional so they can't tell I have no experience.

Knitting news: Had an emergency Stitch &
Bitch on monday, I think we all needed it, and we had a good turnout. Dan came along because his jerky housemates were having a loud and obnoxious party, so he sat quietly in a corner while the girls and I knitted up a storm. My male knitting friend who refuses to knit in public even showed up, but he just stopped by to say hello. We'll win him over soon though. I might start with a private knitting party in the privacy of my home, to lure him in and win his trust, then we'll get him out to the big hoop-las.

Finished the squid, and now I present the chr
onological story of the squid.

We beg
in innocently enough with me following what appear to be simple directions. We start with a few purl rows, then a knit, then a purl row, followed by more knitting. And then we got tricky. Switch to purl row again, and make an obscene number of increases on the purl row. Renate and I had to venture into chapters to find a knitting book that made reference to increases on a purl row.



The very complicated looking purl row increases. This was the first attempt of 3 or 4 at getting this right









Followed by the diagrams I made to ensure I really understood how increasing every other stitch would turn out






One completed squid, taking an ice water bath to speed up the felting process










And little squidy is drying on a towel, sprawled out

Squidy is currently sitting in my knitting bag waiting to be stuffed and sewn
up, and when he is, I will post a picture of a very happy Dan with his new squid buddy.





I also finished a baby sweater, buttons and all.

And I am the proud owner of a bright green smart car
Currently working on a 'this is not a plastic bag' market bag. The lace pattern caused me almost as much frustration as my squidy purl increases.