Warm and fuzzy week

Considering that Sunday was so shitty, I fully expected that this past week would suck just as badly. Thankfully, the universe had other plans for me. Sure, my computer at work nearly bit the big one with having horrendous space issues; but after burning quite a bit of data onto DVDs and adding on a 1 TB external hard drive for the rest of my files that I use on a more regular basis, all was right with the world again.

Things that happened that were just wonderful included:

• Returning to my office on Monday morning after being in Port Huron Thursday and Friday to find a nice "Thank you" card made by the Girl Scouts I had taught to knit the weekend before. They even drew a fun illustration of their cat mats. It felt pretty good to feel appreciated!

• I finished the Chemo Turban and the Lotus Hat of the chemo caps I had been working on. Sarah dropped off Heda to visit this weekend, so part of my plans today are to wash both and get them photo ready with Heda as my model. I'll post those photos, hopefully, tomorrow.

• I got a good start on chemo cap #4: Wavy Cable Lace Hat. Like the Lotus Hat, I'm knitting it using Berroco Comfort DK and it's looking pretty good so far. While out helping Mark pick out a couch today, I was able to get quite a bit further than shown in the photo, and hope to finish this hat either later tonight or sometime tomorrow. My goal this year is to knit 5 hats before next Saturday. If I reach that goal early, I'm going to quit there because I have a baby blanket to knit before the end of February (which is the absolute worst month to have a knitting due date in because it's so short)...

• I also finished "The Book Thief" a full week before the February book club meeting. Normally, I'm finishing the book the morning of. Considering the amount of trouble I had in keeping track of where my copy of this book, it's amazing that I was able to finish it early. Finish it I did, and I can say that I liked it a lot. Though, I'm not sure I would categorize it within the "Juvenile" or "Youth" fiction, which is where the local Schulers Books had it.

• This week, I nearly completed updating my entire yarn stash onto Ravelry. My only hurdle came when the battery on the digital scale died and I can't seem to get my act together to remember to pick up a replacement while at the store. The one time that I actually included it on my shopping list (as "3V lithium battery, 25-cent size"), I discovered that the store had two types of 3V lithiums and neither appeared to be 25-cent sized, necessitating a closer look at the battery for an actual model number. Anyways, I found a new distraction to watch while uploading and editing yarn photos in Flickr. Not being much of a gal to wear make-up, I never really learned how to put make up on. Yes, I know it's shameful, but I'm hoping that when I get to the point of needing it to hide the wrinkles, I'll be ready after watching these videos on YouTube. She's actually pretty entertaining by losing her train of thought at times and needing to stop and restart the video....

• Lastly, while dropping Heda off last night, Sarah also brought me a copy of a movie called "The Room" that belongs to Jordan. This movie is supposed to be epically bad -- so much so that it's actually hard to find. I'm very grateful to have a copy of it in hand, and am looking forward towards hosting a "Bad Movie" night with it as the marquee film. That is, unless Mark is able to find a copy of "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" (which, interestingly enough, IMDB classifies as a "Kung-fu action/comedy"!). We might actually need to have a vote after viewing.

Maybe it's me that needs to go to anger management

[WARNING: A rather explicit conversation follows that might not BSFW]

So, I'm now sitting in the parking lot of a gas station in Alma, waiting for to pick up Sylvain, who had spent the weekend visiting his dad. As usual, they phoned while I was already on my way here to say that they'd be an hour late. Since this is now the norm, I'm glad to have my knitting with me to work on while I wait. [project photos will be added when I return to a real computer]

As I was sitting in my car, a car load of teenage girls pulls into the spot next to me; they all hop out and, while doing so, one of the girls slams her door right into my car, hard enough for me to look up in surprise. I immediately am pissed off and say out loud "Thanks a whole fucking lot", though between the sound of my engine that was left running and the other girls jabbering away, I doubt she could've heard me. Seeing the annoyed look on my face and that I had said something, the girl stopped right outside of my window and said, "Yeah?"

Rolling my window down, I asked her if she even noticed what she had done. Rather than offering an "oops" or a "sorry" or an "oops, sorry", she proceeded to inform me that her friend had parked her car "within the line".

Can somebody please tell me what that has to do with anything? I parked within the line as well, but that didn't change the fact of the matter that she didn't exercise any care or caution while getting out of their car.

She then told me that I needed to go back to driver's education. Immediately, I became even more inflamed. "Listen, missy, maybe you need to pay a little more attention the next time you get out of a car. And your friend needs to think about whether her car will even fit into a space before parking."

Her only reply was to make smart-aleck faces accompanied by some head nodding. And, of course, that made me even more angry. Seeing that expecting anything apologetic from her was stupid on my part, I just said, "You know, FUCK YOU, LADY", rolled up my window, and ignored her.

Her friends had already entered the gas station (which I found to be odd that they didn't stick around to watch the spectacle, maybe this kid causes scenes wherever she goes), so she turned and went inside. I decided that I really wasn't up for a Round 2, so figured that I'd burn some time by taking a drive around town. (I've since returned to my parking spot to continue waiting.)

However during the whole drive, I couldn't help but wonder at my short fuse (why am I swearing at stupid strangers?), but also at what reaction did she expect to see when she slammed into my car with no sense of shame? I mean, I was sitting right here, for crying out loud! I can understand if the car was unoccupied....Was I expected to thank her for gracing me with my very own door ding?

Sorry that this is the second rant entry I'm throwing out into the world, but my chest was heavy with these thoughts and I really wanted to get them out....Anyways, maybe it's time I seriously consider anger management therapy or meditation or something so that these types of things don't bother me like they do.

Just because I enjoy to bitch

Hi everyone,

Sure, I have knitting and movies to report, but why do that when I have something to get off my chest?

Have you ever been dining at a restaurant and have been asked by the waiter/waitress if you're "still working on insert meal item here"? Have you ever worked or are currently employed as said restaurant "associate" and uttered such a ridiculous line? Really, why is that an appropriate question? What answer could you possibly hope to hear?

I find being asked if I'm "still working on" a meal to be highly insulting.
I mean, really?!?

"Why, no, please buckle the feed bag back on and let me have some peace while I slave away! Or better yet, please roll my fat, consumer ass up to the trough so that I can get right to work!"

Folks, in my mind, a good meal should be a delight and not something you're compelled to eat as though it's your duty as a human being. I feel this way every time I'm asked that particular question at a restaurant.

Mark my words: from this day forward, my stock response will be to stop eating, ask for a box, and announce to the server that that's my cue for "quitting time for the day".

Okay, thanks for hearing out my rant. Am I really alone in this?!?

Gremlins giveth and taketh away

Sylvain earned two big hugs this week. The first was for finding my copy of "The Book Thief". According to him, he found it on the desk in the office by the computer. I wonder about that since 1) I looked there already and 2) there was no reason for the book to be there in the first place. I guess I should stop while I'm ahead and finish the damned thing before it disappears on me again....Now, if I could figure out what the gremlins took in place of the book...

Hug #2 was due because I had him stand up in front of the knitting guild and show how he made my sock blockers using these directions. He then manned a table stacked with wire hangers and helped anyone that stopped by to make a pair. I know it's not easy for a kid his age to get up in front of a group and speak, but I'm proud that he did it.

Anyways, I spent the last couple of days in Port Huron for a meeting at the Great Lakes Maritime Center. It's right on the St. Clair River, so was cool to watch the large ice floes drift pass (rather quickly).

My boss and I had an opportunity to see the ice snowmobile racetrack and tents being set up for this weekend's Port Huron Chilly Fest. When we arrived to the Center this morning, we couldn't tell what the large, polished area of ice was for. We debated about whether it was a very large curling rink or an odd-shaped hockey rink, then settled on it being a speed skating track. When we were leaving after the meeting, we saw that snowmobiles were being unloaded from trailers and laughed because the track was ridiculously small and the tents lined each side rather closely. Now that I see this weekend's festivities call for ice snowmobile races, our chuckles were confirmed. I don't know about you, but something a little wrong about standing that close while snowmobiles go racing by on ice, but to each their own...

Oh, and I did see this cool sculpture outside of the Maritime Center.

As for knitting this week: I finished chemo cap #2 (the Off Balance Beanie) knit using Berroco Comfort. I think there is something to be said about my ability to read (or lack thereof). The pattern was easy enough, but for no particular reason, I figured it was worked in the round, even though there was not explicit directions stating such (?!?).

With that said, working the pattern in the round didn’t affect anything, really, except that if you closely compare the photo above with that on the pattern, you’ll see that the pattern rotation is in the opposite direction, which is actually pretty neat, if you knew to notice that. Also, I just needed to knit the purls and purl the knits for every other row of the decrease (or another way to say that was follow in pattern on the non-decrease rows).

Other things that I changed: since this is a chemo cap and the intent is to cover more of the skull, I lengthened the 8-row pattern by adding two additional repeats, ending on row 58 (still working another set of row 1 and 2 at the end). This resulted in a cap length of 6 3/4” before the first row of decreases. I’ll post a better photo when Heda comes to visit…(If you're a friend from Ravelry, I apologize now for the duplication, but what's said needed to be said)

Chemo cap #1 (the Chemo Turban) is still on the needles. When searching Ravelry for free hat patterns, I saw this pattern and thought it was a pretty cool concept, so decided to knit it. After picking out the yarn and working a couple few gage swatches, I settled on an appropriate needle size (8s) and settled down on my comfy couch to get started. After setting up the crochet cast on and the first two rows, I read the rest of the pattern to discover that the pattern called for 4 x 4 ribbing for 40 inches (yep, you read that right and for you Canadians: that's just shy of 102 cm). Dammit! It takes a lot for me abandon a pattern, and I wasn't going to start now. Well, while out of town this week, I ran out of yarn with 12 inches to go. So, tomorrow's plans will involve making a quick run to Stitch in Time to pick up another skein. Yes, I was just there on Monday. No, I wasn't smart enough to realize at the time that I didn't have enough yarn. Head hanging in shame Like chemo cap #2, this hat is being knit using Berroco Comfort, and none of the Lansing yarn shops have this particular verigated colorway.

So, with Chuck upstairs sick in bed and Sylvain out of town, I'm left with some alone time tonight to start work on chemo cap #3 (the Lotus Hat), which will be knit using Berroco Comfort DK. Hopefully, this hat won't take too long. After all, I have quite a bit of reading to do too....

The Book Thief has struck....again

This weekend was a very productive one for me: stashed onto Ravelry all of my non-project wool (not the sock yarn wool and when I say "non-project", I'm referring to odds, ends, and single skeins); taught a dozen or so Girl Scouts and their moms how to knit and left their retreat with them well on their way to having some cat mats to donate to the Eaton County animal shelter; saw "The Book of Eli" with Sylvain (good rental); and started and completed nearly one donor chemo cap ("The off balance beanie") and am half-way done another ("The chemo turban").

Before I start snarking about the knitting, let me tell y'all the latest book drama. This weekend, I had such high hopes to make a large dent on the reading I needed to do for book club, which is "The Book Thief." BUT, the book seems to have disappeared on me. I remember reading it on Thursday....and after that? No idea. I've looked everywhere, which (for the record) now includes a thorough search thru the back seat of my car. I'm at complete and total wits end and am seriously considering purchasing yet a third copy of this book. [Marcus Zuzack, if the sales numbers are looking great this quarter, you've got me to thank, pal!] If I didn't have to lead the discussion for this book, I'd call it quits now. When I left the house to go shop hopping in Howell with Sarah and Jessie today, I gave Sylvain two chores: empty the dishwasher and find my book. Hopefully, he'll have some luck!

Okay, the chemo cap knitting is going okay. I'm a complete retard when it comes to reading patterns all the way thru before starting the pattern. Actually, what I should say is that I don't read the pattern all the way, then get pissed off when I hit a point where something isn't working. Case in point: on "The off balance beanie", I *thought* that there was an issue with the decreasing for the crown and had Sarah read that part over. She looked at the photo and we both agreed that the pattern looked fine there. I double-checked the pattern page on Ravelry and didn't see any complaints, so went with it as written. Once I was finished with the hat, Sarah, Jessie, and I thought that it needed to be a little longer, so I tore the hat out back down to the row before the decreases and inserted another two sets of the 8 row body patterning. While working these extra rows, I noticed the following phrase at the end of the pattern: "Sew up back seam, and Voila!" What a minute, what back seam?!? I knit this hat in the round!?! No wonder the decreasing rows didn't look right to me. Dammit! Now I have to think and flip around the instructions when I'm ready to decrease again.

As for the chemo turban: why in the hell didn't I notice that the directions call for 40-inches of 4x4 ribbing. How frakking miserable does that sound? I'm only on 20-inches and have been working on and off on this hat for almost a week; this hat is taking a little longer than I want, so it better end-up being really cool and worthwhile....

[Note: I'll update this entry with links when I get to a real computer....]