Last day of September. Hello Fall. I am excited about the chilly weather you will provide me with for romping in corn fields, choosing pumpkins, and wearing knitted wears. Yesterday I wore a scarf and mittens to work, but no jacket, just a light sweater. It's really not jacket season, just accessory season. I will be working on the new pink mittens tonight at knitting party. I've also been talking up our weekly knitting fun to some new co-workers, and I've got a few takers. I think they might show up tonight, but showing up again might not happen. Where are all the passionate knitters and crocheters who want to craft in public?!
Coffee seminar was wonderful, we had a nice turnout. I was worried that since it was on a Sunday, we would get nothing but people stopping by for 5 minutes and then leaving, but that wasn't the case at all. Catherine did a marvelous job of promoting the event and a lot of our attendees were there because of her. We talked about growing coffee, and processing, and then we tasted coffee and food, and sent everyone on their merry way with some at-home brewing tips.
Erg. It's 9am and I need to get dressed and do something with my day. I don't know where my family is, as far as I knew, they didn't have anywhere to be first thing in the morning. I will get dressed and ready for the day and hunt them down.
Onward,
vrock
ps. Fall Phase II launches today!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Our good pals the wookies
Hello my loving readers!
Large news in the knitting world! Two things actually. One: the let it snow mittens are complete! And I mean completely complete. As in I sewed in the tassely ends and fixed up the massive holes between mitten body and thumb. Awesome! Two: I hosted a Star Wars knitting party. Imagine those two things separately, and now imagine them together, and yes, it was that awesome. Catherine and Anonymous found my house in the back woods and we enjoyed 4 of 6 episodes of Star Wars. We perhaps could have watched more, but that was a long time to sit and my hands were firmly in the double-pointed needle claw formation after 8-9 hours of knitting mittens.
Other wonderful news: coffee seminar today! Catherine and I will be entertaining and educating customers for one glorious hour. We'll be treating it a lot like an intro to coffee tasting, to hopefully get a core understanding down before we launch more intense coffee seminars. We were thinking a later seminar could be called "chocolate - the around the world coffee tasting bringer-together-er of the coffee world" That's a working title.
I now have to go and plan a bit of an outline for the seminar so I can not look stupid in front of strangers.
Onward,
vrock
Large news in the knitting world! Two things actually. One: the let it snow mittens are complete! And I mean completely complete. As in I sewed in the tassely ends and fixed up the massive holes between mitten body and thumb. Awesome! Two: I hosted a Star Wars knitting party. Imagine those two things separately, and now imagine them together, and yes, it was that awesome. Catherine and Anonymous found my house in the back woods and we enjoyed 4 of 6 episodes of Star Wars. We perhaps could have watched more, but that was a long time to sit and my hands were firmly in the double-pointed needle claw formation after 8-9 hours of knitting mittens.
Other wonderful news: coffee seminar today! Catherine and I will be entertaining and educating customers for one glorious hour. We'll be treating it a lot like an intro to coffee tasting, to hopefully get a core understanding down before we launch more intense coffee seminars. We were thinking a later seminar could be called "chocolate - the around the world coffee tasting bringer-together-er of the coffee world" That's a working title.
I now have to go and plan a bit of an outline for the seminar so I can not look stupid in front of strangers.
Onward,
vrock
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
You are Lisa Simpson
I am ridiculously attached to the gas stations I use. Since switching in my ol' gas guzzler for my sweet new ride, the smart car, I am suddenly very aware of my gas station anxiety. My sweet little smart runs on diesel, so already, I am limited in which stations I can visit. Every time I'm driving through an area with gas stations, even one I know very well and have driven by a million times, I crane my neck as I go by to see if they have diesel. Then I make a mental note, leading to a mental map of all the places I can't go use to get diesel.
Once that stage is complete, I have a list of a few places with diesel, usually larger chains like petro-canada. However, I have major difficulty going to a new station. I regularly use the two closest to my work, and I plan my refueling to happen when I'm already going that way. What is wrong with my brain? I went to the movies this week in a different part of town where I know there is a diesel station, but I couldn't use it; I drove a bit out of my way to my old favourite stations instead. I've never liked gas stations, especially when it's super busy and I have to negotiate for a pump. It's worse with diesel when there's someone else using the pump because there is only one. I hate being the jerk who sits by idling and waiting impatiently for my turn. So, instead of possibly looking foolish trying to navigate my way around an unfamiliar station where I don't even know where the diesel pump is, I stick with what I know.
Knitting night went on a mini vacation to Stacy's house yesterday. We hung out in her pool house and listened to Hawaiian music and talked about weddings. And then a giant spider tried to eat me and I left shortly after. All in all, a good time. Star wars knitting coming soon!
Once that stage is complete, I have a list of a few places with diesel, usually larger chains like petro-canada. However, I have major difficulty going to a new station. I regularly use the two closest to my work, and I plan my refueling to happen when I'm already going that way. What is wrong with my brain? I went to the movies this week in a different part of town where I know there is a diesel station, but I couldn't use it; I drove a bit out of my way to my old favourite stations instead. I've never liked gas stations, especially when it's super busy and I have to negotiate for a pump. It's worse with diesel when there's someone else using the pump because there is only one. I hate being the jerk who sits by idling and waiting impatiently for my turn. So, instead of possibly looking foolish trying to navigate my way around an unfamiliar station where I don't even know where the diesel pump is, I stick with what I know.
Knitting night went on a mini vacation to Stacy's house yesterday. We hung out in her pool house and listened to Hawaiian music and talked about weddings. And then a giant spider tried to eat me and I left shortly after. All in all, a good time. Star wars knitting coming soon!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Plan your escape route now
Stopped by the ol' workplace on my way to a job today (more on that later), and I saw Catherine. She was most upset about missing the knitting adventures going on today. Anonymous went though, she will have to tell us about it in vivid detail so we can imagine we were there. Kinda wish I could have gone, but I chose to work instead (in my defence, I was told about this knitting fair after I agreed to work). I usually choose work over life, I hate me. The worst part is I know I will forever be a little workaholic. I will not change, this is one of the fundamental things about me. Hear that universe? You can't make me change, and even if you tried, you can't break my lifelong habits. My co-op is almost finished, which will free up a lot of my time. One more month, one more month....
And now, the job today. I was pimped out by my mom to work as a server for one of our regular server's family event. No details given, no instructions, just directions to the event with a vague timeline, noon to midnight. That's a long time for even a large event. I was really not interested in working 12 hours at any kind of job, but I was trying to optimistic about it.
My little crew of 3 showed up to a farm house around noon, and there were already people setting up the tables and table settings. That's one of the only jobs you really can do when you show up that early for a dinner event. It turns out the event was for a wedding anniversary/birthday, and all day long the jobs we could have been doing as the hired help were done by friends and relatives. It was like being hired to work at your grandmother's Thanksgiving family dinner, but then getting shooed out of the kitchen by all of the catty aunts. The food was all prepared beforehand, we really just had to slice a few things and set them on platters. The dinner food was cooked by a friend of the family, so there goes another job we were qualified to do. The rental items for dinner needed to be washed, so I was a glorified dishwasher for a while. Not even plates though, just cutlery, all the plates were disposables.
So in conclusion, we were not there until midnight, we looked bored and helpless around 8 and asked if there was anything else to do, and there wasn't. Happy to work, all experience is good experience, but knitting would have been kick-ass too.
Baking tomorrow for a coffee tasting for work. I want to wow everyone with an exceptional pairing, and I'll try to work in some of the stuff from my upcoming coffee seminar. Catherine and I will be teaching some Sunday customers about the wonderful world of coffee. More details to come,
Onward,
vrock
And now, the job today. I was pimped out by my mom to work as a server for one of our regular server's family event. No details given, no instructions, just directions to the event with a vague timeline, noon to midnight. That's a long time for even a large event. I was really not interested in working 12 hours at any kind of job, but I was trying to optimistic about it.
My little crew of 3 showed up to a farm house around noon, and there were already people setting up the tables and table settings. That's one of the only jobs you really can do when you show up that early for a dinner event. It turns out the event was for a wedding anniversary/birthday, and all day long the jobs we could have been doing as the hired help were done by friends and relatives. It was like being hired to work at your grandmother's Thanksgiving family dinner, but then getting shooed out of the kitchen by all of the catty aunts. The food was all prepared beforehand, we really just had to slice a few things and set them on platters. The dinner food was cooked by a friend of the family, so there goes another job we were qualified to do. The rental items for dinner needed to be washed, so I was a glorified dishwasher for a while. Not even plates though, just cutlery, all the plates were disposables.
So in conclusion, we were not there until midnight, we looked bored and helpless around 8 and asked if there was anything else to do, and there wasn't. Happy to work, all experience is good experience, but knitting would have been kick-ass too.
Baking tomorrow for a coffee tasting for work. I want to wow everyone with an exceptional pairing, and I'll try to work in some of the stuff from my upcoming coffee seminar. Catherine and I will be teaching some Sunday customers about the wonderful world of coffee. More details to come,
Onward,
vrock
Sunday, September 7, 2008
We had a deal Sunday!
Finished a brutal Sunday shift from 10:30-7. The worst shift of all, mid-day, on a Sunday. I think today had a lot to do with it being the first weekend after kids went back to school, and every idiot who didn't get their back to school stuff in August did it today. It was awful, and the line just kept coming. I was getting really frustrated and angry, and I needed to take a few minutes off the floor, but I just couldn't. We were missing that crucial 4th person to make it bearable, and everyone could feel the strain. But then this comes right back to the customers; why would you join such a long line in the first place? I would wander around elsewhere for a while and come back when the line died down. I just don't get it. But these people were weekenders after all, I shouldn't be expecting so much from them.
You may have noticed that I returned from the cottage in one piece. Yes, it's true, all the vital parts of vrock came back from Sauble (which is where I found out we were going once we got there). Unfortunately, knitting in the car on the way there was out of the question, I started getting queasy a few rows in. I think reading the pattern was what did me in. Stupid mittens and their beautiful but pattern-required excellence. I present the following updates on the COMPLETED left mitten, "let it":
Some ends to weave in, and a gaping hole between the thumb and the rest of the mitten to sew, but otherwise, I LOVE THEM. I managed to get the thumb finished at the cottage, and I started on the cuff of the right mitten. The cottage wasn't terrible, I enjoyed sleeping in for 3 days and not working even a little bit. Although on Saturday night I realized I never called in the order before I left, and thus our paper products would not be arriving on Tuesday. Oops. I sent an emergency facebook message to bossman confessing my blunder, and it wasn't nearly as huge a deal as I made it out to be. We got by just fine, and when I came in next it made no difference. Would I visit the cottage again you ask? Perhaps when there are real doors on the bathrooms instead of giant sheets of styrofoam you have to prop against the frame.
Also, as you can see, we are totally gang-sta:
I worked as a ridiculous wedding on Friday night. I set up the tables in the afternoon according to the bride's seating plan. Oh wait, she didn't leave me one. All she gave me were the name tags for each table, not where she wanted everyone sitting. I totally made it up. Unless you were married and took your spouse's last name, I didn't know I should seat you together. Once guests arrived, I saw a lot of people switch name tags around to sit with the person they came with. I did the best I could with what I had. They were a drunk ol' bunch, they were living for that open bar. Thank goodness we were at a city-owned venue where they strictly enforce the 1am bar closing time. No last call either suckers. You'll never know when to grab that last armful of beers until it's too late. I unfortunately didn't get to stay until the bitter end, I had to open and I left at about 10, but I'm sure there will be many more drunken weddings to come.
Fuzzy-head's birthday! Yesterday the fuzzy-headed boy turned 23. He received an ipod nano from his loving lady, and last time I talked to him, he was creating playlists for all occasions.
I'm off to update facebook with a couple albums, some wedding pictures from Friday, some cottage fun. Until we meet again my loving readers,
Onward,
vrock
You may have noticed that I returned from the cottage in one piece. Yes, it's true, all the vital parts of vrock came back from Sauble (which is where I found out we were going once we got there). Unfortunately, knitting in the car on the way there was out of the question, I started getting queasy a few rows in. I think reading the pattern was what did me in. Stupid mittens and their beautiful but pattern-required excellence. I present the following updates on the COMPLETED left mitten, "let it":
Some ends to weave in, and a gaping hole between the thumb and the rest of the mitten to sew, but otherwise, I LOVE THEM. I managed to get the thumb finished at the cottage, and I started on the cuff of the right mitten. The cottage wasn't terrible, I enjoyed sleeping in for 3 days and not working even a little bit. Although on Saturday night I realized I never called in the order before I left, and thus our paper products would not be arriving on Tuesday. Oops. I sent an emergency facebook message to bossman confessing my blunder, and it wasn't nearly as huge a deal as I made it out to be. We got by just fine, and when I came in next it made no difference. Would I visit the cottage again you ask? Perhaps when there are real doors on the bathrooms instead of giant sheets of styrofoam you have to prop against the frame.
Also, as you can see, we are totally gang-sta:
I worked as a ridiculous wedding on Friday night. I set up the tables in the afternoon according to the bride's seating plan. Oh wait, she didn't leave me one. All she gave me were the name tags for each table, not where she wanted everyone sitting. I totally made it up. Unless you were married and took your spouse's last name, I didn't know I should seat you together. Once guests arrived, I saw a lot of people switch name tags around to sit with the person they came with. I did the best I could with what I had. They were a drunk ol' bunch, they were living for that open bar. Thank goodness we were at a city-owned venue where they strictly enforce the 1am bar closing time. No last call either suckers. You'll never know when to grab that last armful of beers until it's too late. I unfortunately didn't get to stay until the bitter end, I had to open and I left at about 10, but I'm sure there will be many more drunken weddings to come.
Fuzzy-head's birthday! Yesterday the fuzzy-headed boy turned 23. He received an ipod nano from his loving lady, and last time I talked to him, he was creating playlists for all occasions.
I'm off to update facebook with a couple albums, some wedding pictures from Friday, some cottage fun. Until we meet again my loving readers,
Onward,
vrock
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