So Cal, where seasons don't exist

I just stepped outside for a quick break and saw a bird hopping through the bushes on the hill across the parking lot. It wasn't until I saw the bird that I noticed it was singing. Suddenly my ears were open to a chorus of birds around me. I somehow blocked out the airplane and nearby traffic and for a few seconds, I remembered what spring is like.

With a cry similar to a kingfisher, the bird hopped quickly through the bushes foraging for food. A cool breeze gently brushed against my skin, it felt cool. I looked up at the blue sky and down at the flowers blooming flowers around me. It made me recall the seemingly sturdy yet fragile spring flowers that grow in the damp shaded area's of my playground. I miss the trillium's, daffodils and iris's. I miss exploring, getting dirty and splashing through cold creeks. I miss watching the environment around me open its eyes, discover life and grow after a cold, ugly winter.

Closing my eyes, I inhaled the sweetness of the air, made a mental note of those few seconds and went back inside to my computer.

Note to coworkers: don't bother texting or calling me.

Hey, did you see those pigs flying today? I know they're there because I have THREE DAYS OFF in a row! On a weekend, like normal people! EEEEEEEEE!!! The reason behind this is my department works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While the rest of the public got last Monday off, we had to work our schedule around our contracted hours and the limited number of people available. Normally we wouldn't get three days off at all

Speaking of not-related-to-anything, I just finished the first Stonewashed Monkey sock and plan on finishing the other one this weekend. I also want to spend one day defragmenting, that is spending the entire day in bed or at least under a blanket on the couch. In order to defragment properly, I will be sleeping a lot and exerting as little mental or physical energy as possible. If I'm smart, I'll turn off my computer and cell phone too. Just thinking about it is relaxing :)

It rained a ton today and another storm is heading in tonight. I love the rain, even more so when I don't have to work!

Update!

It's 10:30pm and I feel much more confident about my essay which should be done by midnight. After a "brief" (two hour) phone call to Aimee in which I hoped to get some moral support (unsuccessful) and in which Aimee suggested that "turning in a half-ass essay is better than no essay at all because your teacher will just think you're stupid and will be impressed with your final paper and see how much you've supposedly improved," she had the NERVE to suggest I box up my knitting and "put it away" when I told her about my recent knitting injury. *big breath*

THE GALL!!

We did, however, manage to wear down the batteries in both of her handsets so she won't be able to talk to anyone else tonight. I feel a tiny bit vindicated. Bitch!

It tingles

I have a knitting related injury. I knit for so long yesterday that a douple pointed needle pressed against a bone in my finger and caused some nerve damage. Well, this is my guess as to what happened. All I know is my finger tip has been numb for over 24 hours now. My only other concern, other than whether I will regain feeling and whether or not this will always be a problem is that I knit the other sock with the same tension. I'll find out after I finish up an essay I've been procrastinating.

At least I smell yummy

I'm putting the finishing touches on my memo and just found chocolate smeared all over the side of my hand. At first I suspected it was cat poo, I know, don't ask me why. Well, except that Zoe is sleeping right next to me. But then I realized that the chocolate mess was much bigger than I thought. It's melting into cracks in my laptop! While investigating, I found a HUGE clump of chocolate that had melted into my shirt. *sigh* I have no idea where this much chocolate came from. I ate a chocolate chip cookie about half an hour ago but don't remember clumps of chocolate chips falling all over the place! ARGH! Well, I guess the damage is done.

Still, no reward for the wicked, even if that does mean washing up. Must get back to memo. My goal of finishing by 5pm has sadly not been met. :(

Disappointed with PetSmart

A couple days ago an older gentleman here in San Diego took his dog to the PetSmart on Murphy Canyon Road to get groomed.

It turns out somehow the little Chihuahua got loose and ran out of the store. PetSmart didn't contact the dog's owner until two hours had passed. When the heart broken gentleman talked to the store, they told him he had signed a liability waiver and there was nothing they could do. The store further issued this statement: "...the pet escaped from the grooming salon and out the door. The family should be working with the store manager to resolve the issue." Are you kidding me? How cold!

The good news is the dog was found two days after he came up missing by the gentleman's son at a near by fast food restaurant, cowering in the bushes with a broken leg. The day after the news report ran, PetSmart hired a dog detective but of course his services weren't needed. (On a side bar, but where else than in California would there be a dog detective!). PetSmart has now offered to pay for the broken leg. (A smart move if you ask me.)

Um, they're lucky it wasn't me that lost my pet at their store. I would have totally flipped out and turned into a crying and crazed lunatic And if it was someone else, PetSmart would probably have to answer to more in the court of law. Signing a liability waiver at PetSmart is like signing a liability waiver at your doctor's office. Pulease!

What color is your heart?

Faythe is always talking about how she has a black heart. So of course, I thought of her when I saw this on Facebook. I added the "What Color is Your Heart" application to my Facebook page if you want to try it out. If you do, don't click on Continue at the bottom, click on Save. Any button that doesn't say Save is trickery, an advertisement! And then you'll have to answer the questions again.

Also, at the end it asks you to send it on to 10 people. I just sent it to a couple and then, even though it said I had to choose more people before I could see what color my heart was, it was posted in my profile ayway.

*snicker* Wait, emotional?? WHATAREYOUTRYINGTOSAY!!

Mom's animals - the ones the cougars avoid

The day I was supposed to return home from visiting family last January, it snowed. I had forgotten how beautiful snow was but the alpaca was not impressed. Now that I think of it, the alpaca is never impressed. She's always looking down her nose at us and threatening to spit. I have two bags of her fleece though and I'm hoping to get more. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it since I don't know how to spin or anything. That story of Sleeping Beauty getting poked by the spinning needle and falling into a coma haunts me to this day! That and Bambi's Dad getting shot. Oh yes, some day when I don't know what to talk about, remind me to tell you the story about our pet calf Butch which seemingly came up missing and apparently ended up in our freezer.

Mom and Apollo got some hay out of the big barn and drove it down to the horses and alpaca. I noticed Mom didn't try anything sneaky with Apollo like she did with Aimee and me as kids. You know, the typical loving parental stuff like swerving around to "kill a snake" while we precariously clung to the tailgate, slamming on the brakes to skid over the snake again (and again and again...), driving over clumps of snow, dirt or horse dung which hit our feet, causing them to fly up, splashing in water or speeding up and driving through cow pies which then splattered all over our pants. *glaring*

It must have been torture for the horses as they stood there and heard Mom and Apollo over in the barn. I'm sure they could smell the hay too. Unfortunately, I left the gate open after Mom drove her truck down into the field to drop the hay off in the barn. One of the horses ran out and started to take a trip down the road but it only took her a few seconds to realize there was nothing but snow as far as the eye could see and that Mom had all the food. She snorted and galloped past me, kicking her feet in the air. Lesson learned for both of us!

There's nothing like an accusing look from an uptight, cold and hungry animal. Even more so from two crazed horses that haven't been ridden in years. Yikes! At least there's no danger of their suspiciously ending up in the freezer.

Not me

I was blogging about the latest "how i'm doing" but the prescription i'm taking is making me so dizzy, i can barely keep my head off my shoulders. it's a really weird feeling and has just me. kin d of like i'm drink. i can barely stay awake.

why do i fight it?

oh well, i'm going to bed. i guess i won't keep knitting those socks just to spite chad. more about that later. meanwhile I have some excellent patterns lined up on ravelry. they give me an excuse to go shopping tomorrow for what else, yarn!

There's hope for us all

Has anyone ever said you won't amount to anything based on your looks or how you dress? Pshaw! Don't give up, you too can be president some day!

Pop Quiz!

You see your reflection in the mirror and notice a GIGANTIC GRAY HAIR STANDING STRAIGHT UP at the top of your head! What do you do?

1) Use a black sharpie to color it until you get home and can dye your hair.
2) Yank that offender out!
3) Pat your hair down with a little damp water and hope nobody notices.
4) Drown your sorrows in a Milkyway Mocachino made by the one and only Coffee Ambassador.

Bonus points: You look further and see MORE GRAY HAIR. Your response?

Scarecrow or Tinman? Or...Lion??? (ARGH I hate multiple punctuation)

So I have a couple decisions to make. As you know I'm registered in the Intellectual Property Certificate program at UCSD. I'm having a tough time. I know, I know. I have it easier than most people with kids, etc. Look, everyone's situation is different. Here's mine. I'm stressed. I'm bitchy at work and at home. I'm in over my head! I've been having a hard time deciding whether or not I should stay in the program. On one hand, you would think that since I'm deliberating this so intensively, and if you talk with me regularly in chat or on the phone you know what I mean, it's because I'm really not that interested in the topic and am just doing it because it's The Right Thing to Do. Or, it's because I'm so tired all the time (getting home at 10pm-10:30pm and getting up at 5am) and can't think straight. Like right now. I'm so tired, I don't even care if I miss American Idol tonight. The thought of studying case law makes me cringe. I want to sleep. But I feel too guilty to sleep! But I digress.

Last night I went to a Biotech Patent Law class. Ahem. Ok for the first half of the class we reviewed DNA, mRNA, proteins, cloning, chemical compounds, polyploid clams, and recombinant protein. I learned that the petals of a flower considered as a whole are called the corolla. I also learned the chemical formula for Botox (Botulinum toxin, pictured to the left) is C6760 H10447 O2010 S32 and can be used to treat crossed eyes, migraine headaches, TMJ and excessive salivation.

Look, I was an art major. I started drawing stick figures in the margins of my paper (which is a fine testimony to my education), my eyes dried up and glazed over from boredom. The rest of my classmates hold Masters or Ph.D's in some sort of science field or are Scientists, they were bored because they studied these topics as undergrads.

Of course, I can drop this class and take some information technologies classes (a combination of computer, software and copyright law) instead, which would round up the certificate with only 7 more classes to take,other than the three I'll have completed by March.

Ok second option. I could just take the classes I'm really interested in but don't lead to a certificate. You know, like Criminal Law and Procedure or even Estate Planning.

Last, I could just finish up the classes I'm in and be done with it, which leaves time for knitting and sleeping. I'm pretty sure I've met my MCLE requirements for the next couple years.

Anyway, that's it. Prepare for the future as best as I can through sacrifice or study what I enjoy but probably won't pay as well? Follow my brain or my heart?

Political suicide?

I usually avoid politics at all costs but Aimee sent me this link today and I couldn't help myself:

"Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans."

What measurement would the goverment use to decide who can and cannot afford health insurance and if the insurance is affordable? Apparently Hillary has never lived off minimum wage, had to worry about whether or not she has enough money to buy food for her family or has had to do things like put school clothes on lay-a-way.

Saartje's Bootees

Pattern: Saartje's Bootees (pdf)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino 608 (a dusty lavender) and white/cream

Four abalone shell buttons

Fun, cute, quick. I knit the large size but they're still pretty small. The new technique I learned with this project is buttonloops. For a tutorial, click here. The cool thing about the buttonloops is they can be used if you add buttons as an afterthought.