What's on the Radio

So, do I hate "Phantom Limb" by The Shins because I don't like it, or because it comes on every single time I drive to work? I'm really not sure. The song sure grates on my nerves though. What's your opinion of the song?

In other music news I just heard the Green Day cover of "Working Class Hero" on the way home today, and me likey. That's a pretty crappy clip, but it was the best I could do.

Mmmm...potstickers. Gotta go.

My Nightmare

I just woke up from a nightmare this morning in which people were showing up at my house between 9:30 and 10 in the morning. At first it seemed harmless enough, but I still have a lot to do before the party tonight. When people started unwrapping snack trays I went and looked at the invitations I'd sent out and somehow I'd invited everyone over at 9 am. I haven't even done the shopping for food yet! Since Jeff worked late last night we have no food in the house (almost). I laughed when I woke up, but it was traumatic while I was asleep.

And the Sock Goes On

I suppose that it’s time for a sock update. It turns out that the initial sock was too large so I ripped back to the toe. I’m just cool enough that I was able to salvage the toe work so that I didn’t have to start completely over. I only removed 4 stitches from the total, but it fits so much better it’s kind of freaky. 4 stitches is slightly over half an inch, but still.

Anyway so knit knit knit, I worked my way to the heel and I got lost. I didn’t know what to do on the heel so I did something totally jacked up. He wanted an hourglass heel, you know, where there is a like a line that goes diagonally toward the top of your foot from the tip of your heel on both sides of the sock. It’s okay, go ahead and look at your sock, if you have this type of heel you’ll know what I’m talking about. I didn’t knit that type of heel though, I made a kind of weird boxy flap heel that doesn’t have this diagonal line, and to make things worse since I was winging it the damn thing was long enough to fit his foot, but the back of the heel was half as tall as it should have been.

Yeah, I had to rip back some more. I tore out all the heel work that I had done and went back to the sock being 7.5 inches long. I’m now really working on a sock that will have an hourglass heel. If my suspicions are correct then I will be able to do the first stage of the heel until it is the length of his foot and then move to phase two and it should fit perfectly…. Man I hope that I’m right this time. I really don’t want to have to tear out more rows.

Okay, I’m going to get back to work on this sock. Talk to ya later.

It's My Birthday and I'll Rant if I Want To

I didn’t really have any intentions of writing anything about the Virginia Tech murders. I don’t know anyone there, and didn’t have anything to say that I didn’t feel was already adequately covered by the thousands of other sources that I’d seen and heard about the murders from. This morning I read Tim’s blog and the article that he linked to, and my “comment” just kind of grew into a post. So for what it’s worth this is my two cents. I’d like to state that I think that what happened is horrific and tragic, and I’m really glad it didn’t happen to me, but it’s not the worst thing that has ever happened. If that statement upset you, then you may want to stop reading. I have a dark sense of humor, and although there is nothing at all funny about 33 deaths, I might say something that offends.

Okay so working backwards through time, yesterday Jeff and I heard someone on the radio referring to the surviving students as heroes. What the hell? As Jeff pointed out this is quite the change from previous definitions of heroism. Hero: one noted for acts of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed their own life. So now to be a hero I can just not get killed? I guess I’m pretty freakin’ heroic then, because I’m 30 today so that’s 10,950 days that I’ve managed to not get shot in. Go me. And you know what, go you. Cause if you’re reading my blog I bet you haven’t been killed yet either.

Then we get to the part where I was just plain disgusted. Monday afternoon on the way home we listened to an NPR story about the memorial service held that morning at the school, and it was creepy. 32 people were murdered, they were shot and they died. In remembrance of them someone at the school thought it would be a good idea to ring a 850 lb brass bell and let fly a white balloon, 32 times… I listened to this story and the sound of the bell, and my brain spat out a correlation between bell and gun, and balloon and soul. If I had been there I would have had to leave, that’s just … ugh. This of course leads my warped brain onto the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. I’m sure you can start to make the same leaps that I did, but at least you don’t have to yell at your radio. How could they have thought about this for more than 5 seconds and not thought that maybe it wasn’t a great idea? For the love of Pete, when I die please don’t reenact the way that I died using poetic metaphors.

Sometimes They Still Don't Get Titles

I went to knitting class on Sunday with a hangover. I don’t know at what point in the night I forgot that I had somewhere to be at 10 am, but I must have. I was just hanging out and having a good old time, then I woke up and everything was kind of spinny and my tummy felt gross. After our class was over I had several people thank me for my hangover. See, I came in a few minutes late, and delicately took a seat next to the instructor (the lovely Amy R. Singer from Knitty). After a few moments I said or did something and felt the need to announce to the entire class that I had a serious hangover, and to excuse me if I was a basket case. Evidently even knitters need an ice breaker, and apparently I hit the motherlode of ice breakers with that announcement. Amy was in town promoting her new book No Sheep For You and taught our class all about knitting with yarns that aren’t woolie.

At Hill Country I picked up a few skeins of sock yarn. I’m actually knitting a pair for Jeff now. I figure if I can do a set of almost knee high socks for me in a week, then I should be able to knit him a pair in a similar amount of time. It’s out of the same type of yarn as my last pair (with the lacey bits) but even though I’m using the same US4 needles, my gauge seems a bit different. My pair came out around 6 sts/inch, but this yarn is knitting at more 7 sts/inch. The thing that’s really scaring me at this point, is that it seems like the sock is too big. I measured Jeff’s foot and got 10.5 inches around the ball of his foot. I did some math and decided to increase from the toe to 72 stitches. When this seemed off I checked my Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook, and they said for 7 sts/inch on a 10.5 inch foot to use 72 stitches. So, I plan to knit up to the point that I would begin the heel work, and I’ll put the stitches on some waste yarn and check the fit again on his foot. If we both still think the sock is too big, I’ll just have to rip it out and start over. So I’m plowing right along working towards the possibility of starting over. *wince* Still, I want the socks to fit properly. The only reason I didn’t already rip back and start over, is because this should be the correct size (unless my tape measure is stretched out). So I’ll give it a bit more work and then see if all of a sudden everything seems right, or if it is completely obvious that something is wrong and his feet aren’t that big….

Do I Even Want It?

I met with my interviewer for about 45 minutes yesterday, and I think things went really well. We talked about personal and professional stuff, and seemed to get along. The beginning of the interview was, "I don't know if we can meet your salary requirements." and by the end had turned more towards, "I'm pretty sure we'll be calling."

So, if they do call me, do I even want this job? I know that I've complained a lot about The Company, and that's because it's a soul-sucking environment filled with the type of people that pee on toilet seats and draw penises on the bathroom stall doors. I have a few reservations for this position, which by the way is a teller position at a credit union. On the one hand I have the utmost job security at The Company. I mean, any time that you can stop working overtime, start coming in late, and get a raise for it, you know that you're pretty secure. On the other hand the woman had to go and mention "sales". I hate the S word. Basically when someone comes in to make a deposit you're supposed to look at their account information and figure out what other "features" you can get them to sign up for. It doesn't sound like this selling is tied to your base compensation, but there are quotas (another bad word). The one area is currently short 10 people, so it can't be all that great a job.... I don't know.

I'm going to have a few days to think about it, and ponder how important leaving The Company is to me. I also need to see if they are going to make an offer, and how aggressive an offer it is. I mean, if they offer less than I make now I don't really have to think much. What do you guys think? There's room to move up, but can I do the sort of pushy selling and ass kissing that would be required?

Make With the Finger Crossing

Well, I have an interview with the Vice-President of Branch Services today. If everyone claps their hands and believes in faeries then maybe this will lead to something. I'm just excited because this is my first call to set up an interview since I started hard core trying to find a new job. I've done a lot of apping with nothing to show for it. I'm extra excited because I set up a nail and hair appointment (that I'm heading off to now) so I'll have some extra shine today. It must be fate. I'll do my best not to cry too much if things don't go well, and I promise to update as soon as I can later. The interview is at 3:30pm so that's when I need you to focus the hardest. *squee* Okay, time to go get started!

Two Great Smells....and Not Bad News

You know what smells worse than burnt popcorn? Well when I went past the break area right before leaving work this afternoon I found out that burnt popcorn when mixed with the sick smell of old people powder* smells like 10 times worse than regular burnt popcorn.

In other news, I have someone that might be interested in hiring me? I've applied at this credit union just about once a week, and all of a sudden today they called my house (while I was on my way home) and sent me an email. The email said that they had received my resume, but that I needed to apply online. I applied online again (god I hate those forms) and responded to the email asking them to use my cell number if they want to reach me tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

*Old people powder is baby powder with old people smell mixed in. Old people smell is like a pile of vitamins and medicines mixed together, or perhaps the smell of decay.

It Can't Get Here Fast Enough

53 minutes to go until my weekend starts!!!

For the Record

It should be noted that the push that would require no effort from employees and would just go in all on its own caused 30-45 minutes of downtime for anyone actually trying to use their computer at the time. Luckily I was at lunch, so my system didn't act like it was still working while steadfastly refusing to print labels.

Ripped From the Headlines

This is from an email that I just received at work:

"To standardize workstation Desktop backgrounds, Screen savers and Game settings as announced in the All Hands meeting, IT Support will be pushing a script to install a "One Company" desktop background, a "Blank" screen server, and disable Games on workstations in Manufacturing Operations. The push will start this afternoon, 4/18. The push will be silent, No user interaction. The new settings will take effect the next time the workstation is rebooted. The screen saver will be set to activate after 10 minutes of inactivity."

I mean, I understand blocking games, because people do seem to find Solitaire and Mine Sweeper irresistible. I just don't see why I need to be confronted by some ugly Company logo any time I minimize my windows at my computer. I'm currently using this picture of Cabbit as my desktop background, and I'm sure it's cuter than anything they are going to use.

In Which I Elaborate

So I briefly mentioned yesterday that we rearranged the living room. I think I’m going to be much happier with the setup. We still need to finish putting the gaming systems back together, but after working on the room for about 3 hours yesterday, we decided that we were done. (That’s when we set up the Wii.) I’d try to describe it, but I’m not great at that sort of thing. It was quite a chore to figure out how we could move things around and still fit all the furniture in the room without blocking the path from the front door to the rest of the house.

The Wii was Jeff’s belated Christmas/birthday present. It’s something that we both wanted, and I suppose it’s technically his, but since I got Zelda for Christmas I’m probably going to be the primary user for the time being. I played a little bit last night, but I was responsible and stopped at 10:30 so that I could still get a good night’s sleep. Is that one of the signs that I’m “old” now? I think that this might be the first time I’ve ever been able to stop playing a new game before I was falling asleep sitting up. Although, I also stopped because I was frustrated with a stupid jump that I wasn’t being able to make. I’m hoping that it’s easier when I’m not all tired, but we’ll have to wait and see.

For party time fun we have Wii Sports and Wii Play, which amounts to I think around 15 different games for people to choose from. Jeff and I played some tennis last night, before he ran off to WoW and I started up Zelda. It gets really old to see a big ol’ YOU LOSE on the screen. So either I need to get better at tennis, or we need to play a sport that I can win. We may have to move the dining room table out of the living room during my party though. You need a decent amount of space around you to play, especially with any sort of liquor flowing. It wouldn’t be a good idea to have spectators sitting on the couch right behind the players. Man, I hope nobody gets a Wii related injury at my birthday party, that would be sad. People won’t want to come back if I give out black eyes as party favors. (Evite is in progress, and will go out soon. The party is going to be on April 28th, so you can pencil me in ahead of time.)

Despite the fact that I went to bed at a reasonable time, I almost didn’t get up for work today. My brain almost sabotaged my efforts at punctuality. It’s all because of these 3 day weekends that we’ve been getting lately. When my alarm went off my brain remembered that I had Friday off, and that I didn’t have to get up. Luckily I didn’t turn off the alarm, I only hit the snooze button. The rest of my brain kicked in a few minutes later and I remembered that although that it is true that I don’t have to work this Friday, it is not Friday today, and I did need to get up for work. I clocked in at exactly 7 am, so no harm done.

El Yay!

Finally, after months of wanting and waiting or waiting and wanting, definitely with the wanting and not having... We have a Wii! Wooters!!1! Okay, I'm going to go play now. Oh yeah, and as Jeff points out, we re-arranged the entire living room. So now I'm going to go enjoy my new living room while I play the Wii. Hope you have a good night.

For the Fans

I haven't taken the time to listen to the whole thing yet, but I don't see why that should stop you from checking it out. Just because I have the attention span of a gnat and haven't spent an hour to listen to Neil read a chapter from his book in progress, doesn't mean you shouldn't have the opportunity.

Those who read his blog will know that Neil Gaiman is off somewhere writing the Graveyard Book, and are possibly giddy with excitement at the prospect of what the book has to offer. (I know I am.) Others of you are learning this for the first time, and that's cool too.

If you're curious, Neil wrote a short story that is destined to become a chapter in the upcoming book. There's footage on You Tube of him reading this chapter called "The Witch's Headstone". I'm looking forward to listening to the entirety, but I'm a bit tired tonight, so I think I'll wait until tomorrow afternoon.

I Can Has Queue?

Okay folks, I have a Netflix queue now, but I don't have any friends*. I need friends so that I can browse movie recommendations and stuff. I only get to pick one DVD at a time, so I'm going to want to make it count. I have to make sure my choices are fabulously good or bad, no meh movies if at all possible.

Here's this fancy link that says if you clicks it that it will help you be my friend. It might be a liar, but I hope it works because that seems to me to be the fastest way to get friends.

*Um, that is Netflix doesn't know that I have friends. Help me correct this issue.

Knit Heavy Post

I completed my Mini-Market Entrelac tote on April 1st (kind of). I still need to felt it, and I may get to that this afternoon. But there haven't been enough knitting pictures on me blog lately, so I'm going to show you this baby as it stands right now. It's currently big enough to look like a ridiculous hat on my head. There's a shot of it from the side, and one to show the detail of the bottom. It's a shame that what I think is the most beautiful part of the pattern is on the butt of the purse. Oh well. At least a potential mugger will see something pretty as I smack him/her in the face with it.

I also finished my Fredricksburg socks this past Friday. This free pattern came from the DIY network show Knitty Gritty (episode DKNG-803). The designer is Cookie A and you can check out her store or the blog that she co-authors, if you are so inclined. I did make a small alteration to the pattern, because I wanted to make the socks taller. I worked a few increases into the side of the sock to make it wider to accommodate my calf. If you look up toward the cuff you'll see a V-Shape, and that's where the extra stitches were inserted. The pattern would have ended prior to that, leaving with a straight side seam and shorter sock. I'm quite pleased with how these turned out. I got to use a slightly thicker yarn than I typically use for socks, and that made it faster to knit (bigger yarn = fewer stitches).
Okay that's enough internets for now. I'm going to go play before I end up spending my entire Sunday at the computer.

Signs of Not So Good Day

We ran a couple of errands and came home to find 2 dead baby birds on our front walkway (nekid looking baby birds, real little) and cat vomit next to our bed. Oddly enough that appears to be the end of the story. The birds are buried, and the vomit is in the trash, and so far everything else is going okay.

We'll have Erin over tonight, and hopefully that will put a positive end to the day. At least it wasn't bird vomit on the walk and dead cats by the bed. I'd have been much more upset.

It's a Rut of a Different Color

Okay, I finally managed to talk to my manager this morning. He was supportive I guess. He told me to let him know if I needed anything, and wished me luck with my job apps. I was hoping for more of a magic wand waving, but I guess that will have to do.

Option#1 for internal movement has been nixed. They’re already in the process of offering the job to another applicant. I missed the boat on that one. Now I just have to get the second option to actually post an opening so that I can get an app up there. It will just be another rut to fall into, but at least it would be a different rut. That might be enough to help me tolerate this place for a little while longer.

The Search Continues

I’m feeling a little blue. I got two separate rejection notices from the same company, and I felt like emailing them back, “Okay I get it, you don’t frekin’ want me. You can stop rubbing it in any day now.” I’ve decided to try and move around within The Company for the time being. I am going to continue my external job search, but if I can at least move into a different department maybe things won’t seem so bad. I’m just more burnt out than a dead light bulb. I need me some change, and so I really applied for one job, but that posting had been up since 3/2 and probably isn’t available anymore. There’s another department that I am well suited for that is desperately in need of 2 people and will need a 3rd before the end of the summer, so I talked with the lead over there, and she’s going to talk to her manager for me. She was excited about me moving over with them, largely because I wouldn’t require as much training as a new hire.

I haven’t talked about it with my manager yet, by which I mean my boss’s boss’s boss. In the past he has said that he would help me get any job that I saw that I wanted, but I’m scared that it’s a lie. What if I tell him that I want to move and then he makes it harder? I know, I need to suck it up and talk to him. It’s hard because he’s always busy and rarely in his office. It makes it really easy to avoid the situation. The ironic part is that his office is directly across the hall from mine…. Okay, next time I see him and he isn’t on the phone or talking to someone else I’ll tell him. What’s really the worst thing that is likely to happen? There are horrible retaliatory things that could be done, but most likely either I get to move or everything stays the same. Okay, I’m ready. I can do this.

Bed Head

I have bad hair today. It’s almost big enough to be considered 80’s hair. See, I decided that in order to expedite myself to work this morning that I would wash my hair at night. Not having to wash my hair in the AM would shave several minutes off the getting ready time. The only problem is that I got caught up in sock knitting* last night. I know, it doesn’t sound that exciting, but the prospect of project completion makes it hard to put down. Anyway, the whole point is that I didn’t take a shower until 10:30 at night, and didn’t finish the getting into pjs and teeth scrubbing until 11. So I went to sleep with wet hair. My hair doesn’t normally have a whole lot of body, but something about rubbing it all over my pillow as it dries seems to do unholy things to it. It’s soft and untangled, but it looks a fright. People better get used to me having scary hair, because it’s probably going to keep happening. :)

*I started knitting a pair of socks on the way to Fredricksburg, but only managed to knit the toe. On the way back it was dark, and I didn’t want to strain my eyes, so I started knitting the foot on Saturday. I finished the first sock of the pair last night, and Jeff says that they are his favorite I’ve knit so far. I followed sock knitting rule #1 and cast on for the second sock immediately, but that’s it. I’ll start the knitting of it during lunch or on the way home today. I’m digging this yarn. The yarn is a bit thicker than my “real” sock yarn, but it’s not so thick that they feel awkward on my feet. Still it makes the knitting go faster, and that’s always a good thing. I’ve actually offered to knit Jeff a pair of socks out of this weight of yarn, if he goes and picks some out. I don’t think he’d like the same pattern though, it’s a little girly.

Brrrr!

It’s still kind of chilly outside today. I remember during our Fredricksburg* outing the news was on and we all saw the predictions for freezing temperatures. Tim and I looked at each other, and said no way! This is Texas and it’s already April. The current weather map showed yellows and oranges, but the futurecast showed blues and purples. It must have been a mistake of some sort. Only it wasn’t a mistake, or at least not a forecasting one. It sure did get cold. As Jeff and I drove around town on Saturday we dealt with cold, rain, and even sleet. The good news is that we should be back in the yellows and oranges soon. I’m not a big fan of the cold.

Today I didn’t go out to lunch. My lunch buddy is out sick, and Jeff never got around to fixing his car over the weekend so he has mine. (Something about laying down on the driveway to get underneath the car while there was rain and cold didn’t seem to appeal to him.) Still, I didn’t want to just lose that 30 minute lunch they don’t pay me for, so I knat. I spent 30 minutes outside sitting on cold cold cold concrete knitting away on my latest sock. Socks are great, because they’re so easy to carry around. I think that if I’m going to make sitting outside knitting a standard thing that I might need to get a cushion. Maybe a cushion with a waterproof side in case the ground is a little wet….

*This entry is not going to do it justice, but I don’t want to forget to mention it, Fredricksburg was super fun. Julie, Tim, Stella, Jeff, and I all roadtripped and I had a blast! I think I may have to take another trip up there again soon, or maybe to some other fun locales that are within 1 ½ hours of Austin. It’s looking like I have several more 3 day weekends coming up in my future. April 20th, May 11th, and May 25th. With 3 days off at a time, I’ve got to do something extraordinary, even if it’s on the more typical day of Saturday.

Also, Movie Night was one of the top showings in the food department. Movie night is always full of tasty surprises, but it seemed like everyone went above and beyond last night. I had no idea that so many of my friends were adept at cooking various Asian cuisines. I’ll have to remember that next time I get to pick the theme. Jeff picked out some trippy-ass Japanimation, and a general freak out was had by all.

Well I’ve almost made it through the first day of this new schedule. I’ve done my best not to update every 10 minutes with how long I have left to go. Still now that I’m down to the last 30 minutes I’ve got to wrap up a few loose ends so that I’m ready to bail at exactly 3pm. It’s going to be really weird to not sit in traffic for an hour on the way home.

Are We There Yet?

We are now 2.5 hours into my work day that began at 7am. Well, to be honest it began shortly before 6 which, according to the color of the sky, was before the day began. Still, none of it counts until I am in The Building. *bleck* I have 5.5 hours to go until I can clock out and leave. Apparently my boss was looking for me at the start of shift meeting at 7 this morning. There are a couple of issues with that. The first issue is that he didn’t tell me that he wanted me to go to any such meeting, so I’m not going. It’s really kind of stupid. The main purpose of this meeting is for them to “call roll”. I’m not a kindergartener and I clock in for crying out loud. He can look at the system and see if I was here on time or not, which for the record is the second reason for my lack of attendance. Yes, I’m off to a great start by being 10 minutes late today. Jeff’s opinion is that I was 1 hour and 50 minutes early, and so everyone should be happy. We’ll see how well that goes over. Anyway, this meeting is completely on the other side of the building from my office, so until I am specifically told that I must attend this thing, I will just abstain. Man, I hope that he doesn't tell me that I have to go.

I Can't Help It

No More 9 to 5

Well it finally happened. I knew that it was coming, but I kept my head down and tried to stay under the radar. My manager finally figured out that there really isn’t a good reason for me to work my off hours anymore. Starting next week they want me to work a “real” first shift. I’ll be working from 7am to 3pm. It’s dreadfully early, and I’m not looking forward to my alarm going off at 6am, but on the other hand I won’t have any traffic to speak of. The real bummer is that I won’t be able to carpool with Jeff anymore. Most of his calls don’t start until 9 or 10 in the morning, and it would be difficult for him to be done by 2:30 in the afternoon reliably. We might still do it once in a while, but we’re going to have to buckle down and get his car fixed this weekend. He made some progress yesterday, but it’s still in pieces. Maybe with me hovering over him while he works it’ll happen faster. I hope we have nice weather again. *crosses fingers*

Post Party Post

So despite Jeff’s worst fears, we pulled off a nice weekend for his birthday celebration. The first thing that went right was that we had excellent weather all weekend. It was sunny and warm, but not hot. There was a slight breeze, but never enough that I felt cold. When the weather is nice, everything else just seems to work better.

My friend Chris came into town this weekend. We met up with Chris and his girlfriend Brandy, and their friends Sheena and … Eric? I forget his name. I’m so horrible with names, and for the record I think it was only said once. Still that’s not the point. We had lunch at Romeo’s Saturday afternoon. That’s one of my new favorite lunch spots for the weekend. They don’t tend to be horribly busy, and you never feel rushed. We ended up spending over 2 hours there. Great food and great conversation made for a great start to the day.

Next up was a bit of a low point. Jeff for some reason really wanted to see The Host. I was iffy on the movie, but the posters tag it as the greatest monster movie ever, so I was up for it. That movie was a big disappointment. I don’t know if there was just too much lost in translation or what, but it was not my thing. There were interesting elements to the characters that were never fully explored, and then other facets that were explained in painful detail, only it never had any bearing on the story. Jeff’s suggestion is that people wait for the dvd to come out before they watch it. I just recommend that you don’t bother watching it. I thought it was a little boring, and whatever Jeff tells you to the contrary he fell asleep multiple times.

After the movie we stopped at Randall’s and picked up a birthday cake. It was chocolate cake with fudge icing. I was really impressed with the cake. It was moist and had great flavor. I think it only cost us about ten dollars. But we saw other cakes (of the same variety) that did not look the same. Some of them had a dried up looking icing. I don’t know if they were old, of if the lids weren’t properly sealed, but we could have had a much different cake if we didn’t look closely. So when you buy your cake at Randall’s make sure you give it a good once over and compare it’s color and gloss to the other cakes around it.

We spent a little time at home resting up before Jeff’s party. I watched some bad tv and he spent time in the office doing something or another on the computer. We spent the evening at Opal’s south with a few friends drinking and talking the night away. It was really nice. Brandon and Courtney ended up being able to make it after all. Ian came after work, and Crystal joined us for the last drink of the evening. Bill hung out with us for a while, and was kind enough to pick Ian up from work so that Ian didn’t have to take the bus. Of course Erin was there, because she wouldn’t miss it for anything. She once again stole the show with her handmade wrapping paper. The funniest story though, is the story of Beth. See Beth got to Opal’s at 8 pm with a cell phone that had a dying battery. She managed to get one call in and out to her husband who confirmed that she was an hour early to the party. Beth is not one to be discouraged and spent her pre-party hour celebrating with a table of complete strangers. You have to admire that kind of spirit. I’m entirely too shy and probably would have spent the hour by myself, but then again I almost always travel with knitting so I would have been okay.

Sunday I went to the second half of my knitting class. I had already finished knitting my bag (pictures coming sometime soon) so I worked on knitting a sock, and helping out the other students. I handed out some rivets for people to use, because I had to buy a package of about 100 when I needed 4, over Christmas break. It was a fun morning of chatting with other knitters.

When I got home Jeff’s dad was there. He had brought some smoked barbecue that Jeff’s mom had made, and Jeff grabbed some side dishes from Bill Miller’s Barbecue and some beer to go with it. So we watched some Deadwood and ate barbecue before Dan hopped back on his motorcycle and drove back to Houston. You can’t make that kind of stuff up!

Jeff and I rounded out his weekend by playing World of Warcraft last night. He’s been pestering me because I don’t play my warrior very often, so I was holding up his quest progression. I think he was satisfied with the number of quests we did. We finished off the last of the chocolate cake and I crawled into bed to go to sleep before I turned into a pumpkin.

I’d like to say thank you to all the people that we spent time with this weekend. We had a great time, and we’re glad that you were there with us. To everyone else, I know that you would have been there if you could, and we thought fondly of you and barely gossiped about you at all. ;) I hope you all had a great weekend, and now it’s time to get back to work.