Monday, May 30, 2005

My sweet little girl

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Memorial Day

Yep, I'm at work. No, I'm not bitter. grrrrrr

Just read Faythe's blog. I'm not so much disturbed by the supposed engagement between Cruise and Holmes as I am by people "Doing the Cruise."

Whateverrrr (heavy on the errrr).

I started on yet another project. I just can't seem to stay inspired long enough to finish any others. This one will be a quick one though...maybe that will help. I got some free yarn at a LYS, a nice shade of brown, and decided to make myself a hat. I just want a simple hat to keep warm with. I found a cool pattern for a newsboy hat in my SnB book, and I'm going to use some burgundy yarn to make that one. First things first though...the poo brown hat!

Meanwhile, I'm wondering if Faythe is going to name her hats. "That's hot." (I'm going to throw up now, I can't believe I even thought those words)

For those of you in San Diego, have you been to the Audrey Rose Tea House? At least, that's what I think it's called. It's a bit on the spendy side, but great fun. I was wondering if anyone would like to meet there? We could sit n knit. :) Of course, meeting somewhere else, like a local coffee house, would be just as fun. Let me know and we can all try to organize something!

Speaking of San Diego, a new yarn store is opening today in Bonita! I can't wait to go check it out! Let me know if you go and what it's like. Details, details!!

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Manly sweater

I've decided I don't have enough knitting projects, so I started a new one. Meet the beginning of Apollo's Manly sweater:

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Of course, it's not a real "manly" sweater unless it's black, or at least that's what certain macho men think. So far, the sweater isn't much to look at. I've finished only a couple inches on these circular needles in the past two weeks. It's so boring! But, it's the only knit thing thing a macho man will consider wearing, so I have to make it. I'll probably finish it in August, just when it really starts to get hot. heh

Now, when I calculated the amount of yarn I needed, I realized I wouldn't be able to afford making this sweater with a good quality yarn. I even contemplated the fact that this sweater was going to belong to a man who doesn't know the difference between washing in cold and hot. No wool for him! Normally, I'd be ashamed to admit I'm using this yarn, but I think it's good enough for this particular project. Yarn snobs, avert your eyes:

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I really don't like how it feels when I knit with acrylic, I much prefer at least a small amount of wool blend. But, this will have to do.

Brutus

Meet Brutus:

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Brutus now lives alone in a 29 gallon tank. He's a baby Oscar of about four+ inches. I foolishly bought him, not realizing the logs he makes and how quickly he'd dirty up the tank. (It's a shame when you can see the piles of logs on the bottom of a fish tank.) I also didn't completely think thru what I was going to do with the other fish in the tank, two tetra's. Though he was small when we got him, about 2-3 inches, one of the tetra's mysteriously disappeared within the first week. We looked all over, but found no remnants. Weird, we naively thought. The lone tetra, Gilligan, lived peacefully with Brutus for about a month. Once we caught the larger fish chasing him, but we put some frozen blood worms in the tank and he ate them immediately, leaving the smaller fish alone. From this point on, we were sure to feed him twice a day until we decided what we were going to do. After some discussion, we decided to give him away. After all, the logs aren't cool. Plus, he's going to need a much bigger tank soon. That day, a few days ago, we came home from shopping and lo, the Skipper ATE GILLLIGAN.

Now, I know you're going to say, "Yeah, but he was a tetra, what do you expect?" I guess I didn't expect him to eat the little guy when he was definitely well fed. And they always hung out together too. Even though he was just a tetra, we miss Gilligan. Poor little fella. Could you imagine the thoughts going through his beady little brain as he was being eaten by his compadre.

Since then Zoe has discovered the empty heater space on top of the tank. We've caught her sticking her paw down into it, attempting to swipe at Mr. Eats-My-Friends. Unfortunately for Brutus, the upper left hand corner just below the hole, is his favorite place to hang out. (That white thing is the flash...sorry about that.) Here's an aerial view of him in his favorite spot.

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After taking a few pictures, Brutus started to pout and tried to get away from me. Here he is laying on his side on the bottom of the tank. After the flash went off, he backed up and took off. Whateverrrrrrr!

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See??

OK so I felt bad about that picture of Zoe. Not bad enough to remove it from my blog...hehehehe.

I've attempted to take some new ones of her. I will not give up until I get a good shot!! I swear, Zoe is one of the most beautiful cats. She's like a sleek, shiney panther. She's the diva of all diva's! She demands to be pet and massaged at her command, and don't you dare touch her until she offers her beautifulness to you!

However, I've yet to get a photo that reflects her beauty. I will persevere, oh yes, I will.

Meanwhile, I've included some shots to show you exactly how difficult of a subject she is.

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Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Brandon's baby blanket

One of my cousin's had a baby recently. She's really young and a lot of scandal surrounded her pregnancy (something about the guy being in prison...I just cannot go into it, it disturbs me so much). Anyway, Mom had a baby shower at her place where my cousin "Betsy" was presented with a bunch of baby gifts. Mom always goes above and beyond when giving baby gifts. She yearns to be a grandma! So I decided last minute to knit Betsy's baby "Brandon" a baby blanket. Of course, I picked out a pattern that's impossible to knit in a week. I showed Betsy the blanket and she barely looked at it from five feet away and shrugged.

SHRUGGED.

Do these people even know what goes into homemade gifts? C'mon, at least pretend you like it! She THEN turned around and proceeded to talk about something else. I was left holding this ugly blue baby yarn and a partially finished blanket. And I"m sure as hell am NOT giving it to her!

She SHRUGGED! And walked away!

I will never give a homemade item to someone who doesn't appreciate the time it takes to make something. If you don't like it, say something (politely). Don't just SHRUG.

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I was so scarred by her attitude I haven't had the heart to finish it. It's about 1/3 finished. I'm not sure why these two photographs show such extreme color differences. I didn't use a flash on the second one, that probably affected the lighting. I also used a black background rather than a white one. The true color is a mix between the two.

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It has a nice pattern though. I guess i could finish it. However, I foolishly ignored the instructions for the border and now it's curling. I didn't think a seed stitch would look good with this stitch, and now I NEED a border! I might resort to crocheting the border after I'm done.

Meanwhile, I don't know any baby boys who might appreciate a fake blue blanket.

Christmas in April

Faythe was generous enough to provide me with pictures of the Christmas present I made her. I'm posting one of them in true form: I didn't give the set to her until, hm, was it April? So, it's May and I'm just now posting a picture. I made another set in a dark green for my cousin-aunt-college-mom Elaine that has the same cable but no fringe on the scarf. Mom (red with sunset varigated eyelash yarn) and Aimee (yarn that fades from gray to blue) got slight variations of the scarf/mitten/hat. I couldn't post any pictures before Faythe received her present cause I didn't want her to have a clue.

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So, I'm just a temporary employee at *sensored*. Almost everyone in our gigantic cubicle has betta fish in assorted tanks and containers. Of course, they also have desks. (honestly, I'm not bitter) I sit at the "kiddie table" in the center of cubicle hell. Not that I don't appreciate my job. I do. They actually treat their employee's pretty well. There's the usual politics, arguing, power-struggle, etc. But overall, I enjoy it. Forget that our customers hate us and are threatening to sue (stupid people!)...but I digress. Back to the fish. Anyway...so I don't have betta fish at work. That's coo' with me 'cause I'd rather be an individual. Besides, I have two greedy betta fish at home. Instead of fish, I have "Lucky" (on the left) and "Howie."

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Notice the brown kiddie table and my muy fashionable silver monitor. Dude,(heh heh, she just said dude) I'm just happy to have a table and a computer.

And a paycheck.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

What to do?

Can you believe it? I actually had 1.5 days off! IN A ROW! What to do in my time off? Well first, I went shopping. Oh glorious shopping! I bought some office clothes at JC Penney and, well, yes I do think JC is a bit of a grandma store, but HEY they have exactly what I need at a decent price! So, I had a great time buying clothes and went well over my budget.

However, we did have an interesting experience with security following us around the store. Maybe it was because I spent a lot of time in several departments, or maybe it was because my boyfriend, who is black, was accompanying me. He's not entirely comfortable hanging out with me in the ladies section (he's a bit too macho) so he also looked at men's clothing and furniture upstairs while I was busy. The "undercover" security followed him and would talk on his radio but would pretend he wasn't talking or would suddenly appear interested in some item in front of him. When I did manage to drag my boyfriend into the purse section near the end of my shopping excursion (I'm so evil, I laugh in the face of his masculinity while I make him help me pick out a purse *mu wa ha ha ha ha*), the security person followed us and would pick up a purse and actually hide his face behind it when we looked at him! This was a bit comical, except this person actually thought we were enough of a serious threat that he felt it necessary to even follow us to the salon and monitored my boyfriend while I bought some products from one of the hair stylist!

While I've worked in retail and I realize security is necessary, this person took it a little over the top. We were not acting suspicious, we did not steal anything nor did we do anything to attract attention, other than being people of "another color." I hate to throw that out there, but I do not live in a glass bubble and I know people are discriminated against all the time. While I respect JC penny's decision to employ people for "undercover" security, I thought what we experienced was a little over the top.

So of course, next we went to Target where we could freely roam with screaming children and hoochied mamma's without being obviously followed (I much prefer the cameras). It was here I saw the knit knits I've heard so much about! I did manage to take a peek inside one of them and it looked like the same yarn you can buy at Michaels to make dish cloths. Interesting!

Oh, which reminds me, there's been another TV knit siting (sp)! Some ladies on Stacked got together to knit at a coffee shop. I swear I only watched it one night as I was trying lull myself to an early sleep!!

Anyway, back to the rest of my 1.5 days off. I managed to watch Saw (can you believe this movie was filmed in 18 days??) and sleep a lot. Today I worked four hours online from home and since then have decided to baby myself and horrify my friends by wearing a mask. Ahh, to be a chick. I love it!

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Have I mentioned how much Simba loves yarn? Next to yarn, he loves anything made with yarn! Today he walked over to two purses sitting on the couch that I've felted recently and slumped down on top of them! He layed for about 20 minutes before moving on to something more exciting, the litter box.

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Speaking of litter box, tonight I was taking a picture of a certain Not-So-Secret-Pink-Thing, when I saw the silhouette of Zoe hunkered down in the Box-of-Almond-Roca. Now, keep in mind the light bulb is out in the hallway where we keep the large Rubbermaid box, so when I saw her, I thought, AH HA an excellent picture opportunity! It's obnoxiously hard to get a good picture of her without any stink eye. She automatically squints whenever she sees a camera (the flash must burn her little retina's or something...but then again, she's such a diva, maybe she's doing that Hollywood equivalent of the bird). Anyway, I aimed the camera in her general direction, not being able to see a thing cause it was dark and I got the funniest picture!! Don't read any further if you're easily offended.

Here's the best pic of Zoe I've been able to get in years.

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BA HA HAH AH HAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Knitting something pink

I haven't been knitting much lately. It's this stupid job keeping me from my love! (not Mr. Flavia...knitting!) However I did start knitting on a Not-So-Secret-Pink-Thing (hmmm, what could it be? who is the recipient? *snerk*) today and I'm about, oh, 30% finished. I'm thinking about trying something new with it, but I don't want to complicate matters. Of course, complicating matters is my specialty. So let's see, I have two pair of socks, a sweater, and two scarves that are "in the mix." (yes mom, I remember the poncho *sigh* it's in the pond) But my current favorite project is the Not-So-Secret-Pink-Thing. Here's a preview:

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Sunday, May 15, 2005

Yawwwwn

It's 72 degree's and everyone I know is sleeping! Yet, it's only 6:00 PM. We've been spoiled by the cool weather and this "heat wave" (yes, for us in SD it is) has turned us into sleeping babies! I spent about three hours sleeping this afternoon and all my neighbors are sleeping as well.

What a bunch of lazy donkeys we are.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

My new love, Fabio ...er, I mean Flavia

I never thought I'd be a coffee drinker. With the early hours at work (note: I got up at 4:00 this morning) I've even been burning up my little 4 cup coffee maker! Me, a juice drinker!! Yeah, I've been known to enjoy the occassional trip to Starbucks where I always get some syrupy, sweet mocha. Speaking of Starbucks, and being the obsessive person I am, I checked out the calories for my one of my favorite drinks. You wouldn't believe the caloric difference between a regular and light frappuchino!!

Grande Caramel Mocha Frap with whipped cream: 460
Grande Caramel Mocha Frap w/out whipped cream: 330

Grande Caramel Mocha Frap Light with whipped cream: 360
Grande Caramel Mocha Frap Light w/out whipped cream: 230

And yes, the Light drinks taste good! But, I digress. Here at work, we have this:

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I know, you can't really see EVERYTHING! But see those little spools over on the right? There's four of them that hold many different coffee's and tea's to choose from. And that's Mr. Flavia over there on the left. He makes all the drinks. Between the coffe and tea packets is a variety of creams, some real and fake sweeteners and several tea bag options.

Apparently I've been living under a rock somewhere because even though I've been here for a couple months, this lovely invention continues to excite and thrill me day after day. I mean, who wouldn't? Check out his handsome face!!

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Yeah, Cappuccino!! And with all the lovely choices available on the spools, I've been experimenting. My current favorite is to use the cappuccino option and combine the whipped topping package with Chai tea and about four vanilla cream mini-creamers or the Italian Expresso with four chocolate mini-creamers. :)

This is what happens when you get up early. Exciteability over a coffee machine.

Note to self:

Do not reach through steering wheel while driving for remote on dash. Even if it appears to be safe. And especially, do not reach through steering wheel when turning a corner, or say, out of a driveway.

Such behavior could result in collision or bruised arm. If one does not experience collision, chalk this one up as lesson learned.

Meanwhile, assure co-workers that experienced near collision with hillside while sitting in cars behind you, that yes, you are indeed a safe driver. Ice arm.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Corey Clark

With all this 'hoo hah' surrounding Corey Clark and his supposed relationship with Paula Abdul, I think it's interesting he's coming out with this revelation NOW. Could it have anything to do with his album release date of June 21? Seriously, he was on AI in 2003, when he was kicked off for LYING about his age. Why the two year delay? Pulease!

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Hair - WARNING disgusting picture ahead

I'm starting to freak out a little bit. My hair is breaking! Every time I take a shower, there's a big clump of hair in the drain. I know it's normal to find hair in the drain...I've had hair all my life. I know about hair. Especially long hair, we long hair types have noticeable shedding. Anyway, I don't know what's causing this problem. I haven't even brushed my hair yet after the shower. I just KNOW a bunch more hair is going to break. I'm pretty sure it's not falling out cause I tend to have a lot of little frizzy hairs all around my hed. This is a relatively new phenomenon too. I didn't think I was so vain, but, I guess I am.

This is from ONE shower! Does anyone have any ideas of what's causing it? I use Neutrogena shampoo, Garnier Fructise conditioner, and occassionally Curls Up, curls reactivator and defrizzant. I don't use rubberbands, but I do use cloth scrunchies. Help!!

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Um, I couldn't stand looking at that ugly hair ball photo. I deleted it.

Fallen Idol

Oh I forgot to finish my post about American Idol last night. I guess I just wasn't that impressed. And, well, that's pretty much all I have to say about that!

I won't be able to watch Fallen Idol tonight because of some sort of weird scheduling error (ok so it's not an error but I would like to think there's some sort of weird flaw in the system that would require me to show up for work at 6:15AM). I assume a kind friend will fill me in on the details.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

American Idol

OK so I'm watching it. I wasn't going to but yet, here I am.

So far they have all sung the oldies. And I have to say Carrie is my favorite.

My rating:

Blonde kid - exactly, I don't even know his name or care to google him.

Scott - I can't get over the creepy factor.

Vonzel - Not bad. I actually liked the song by the time she finished.

Bo - Well, duh. Who wouldn't like Stand By Me? Not very interesting.

Carrie - Yeah!! She actually used her voice. She had some flava! I stopped knitting to watch and listen to her sing.

more later...

Part II

OK, Scott...they ask what you like best and you say, because other people dress me?? Get real!

Carlsbad flowers

Do the flowers at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad grow there naturally?? Every day on my way to and from work, I drive by these fields and see flowers being planted. I'm suspicious. GAH!! I shake my fist at you, possibley fraudulant flower fields!!

On my way home a few days ago I took some pictures for you. They turned out ridiculously. Does it stop me from posting them? Not a chance. You will suffer, and then you will go to the website and look at the professional photo's.


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Oh wait, I just remembered that I deleted the rest because they were so awful. Anyway, notice the vast aray of flowers in the photo. Oh? Can't see the flowers? I guess if you REALLY want to see them you have to go to the fields, or you can just go to Home Depot and look at the equally brilliant array of flowers laid out in suspiciously similar rows.

Next to the fields just off the 5 is this cool Dutch windmill. Note my laziness; I didn't even bother to get out of the car. You can see the reflection of something in the window. The lighting turned out pretty good too, considering I took these through tinted windows. I would have rolled down the window but my window doesn't roll down any more. My car is rickety. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate my car. It's just getting a little old.

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It sits on top of a TGIF's. Weird.

On another note, I was up at 6:00AM assisting customers online. They make me cranky.

Oh no...

Thanks to Crazy Aunt Purl for finding this pattern...only the cynical and sarcastic at heart would get the humor. hehehe

Jen's blanket.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Zoe

I felted another purse last night and I just LOVE the end result of the Cascade 220 Quatro! It's not completely dry this morning, but I wanted to take pictures and show it to you. I knew I'd have some time to take a few quick shots before I had to start working (we get to work from home this morning). Unfortunately, Zoe had other ideas.

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I'll take a better shot later when I have more time to move cat butts out of the way.