Plays Well With Yarn...and sometimes others

Still looking...

2011-08-03T16:27:00.000-07:00

Still looking for work, still emailing out resumes. Today I signed up with yet another recruiting agency. I made yet another trip via BART to San Francisco to see a recruiter that had some possibilities for me. Things are starting to look up. For awhile I had no responses to my sent resumes, now my phone is blowing up with recruiters and employers that I sent resumes too for the past couple of weeks. Next week I have interviews with 3 companies, all in the biotech industry. After having spent 11 years in finance, I am ready for something completely different. Since my B.S. degree is in Health Sciences, what better way to use it than to get into a bio-something job? I am hopeful.

Next week the man and twins are headed out on a trip. I call it a trip because it's just going to be just him and the kids and I wouldn't call anything involving 2 short-attention span kids a vacation! haha I had been kicking around the idea of going with them, but decided it was better to continue the job hunt as I don't want to be unemployed come the holiday season. And the season has a way of jumping up and grabbing you by the throat, if you know what I mean.
Today, the man was going to give me a ride to the BART station and told the girls that he'd be gone for 10 minutes or so. They're 10, and we've left them alone for short periods of time (never more than 1/2 hour) with instructions to stay in the house, don't answer the door, etc. Well they told him that their mom made them promise that they wouldn't let him leave them home alone for any amount of time and that they'd insist on going along. Ok, I have to go back to a couple nights ago when the man and I went out for 1/2 hour to look around the area because I was thinking about moving my son out this way to a smaller apartment. When we got home, the girls told us that their mom was picking them up and taking them to her place (it wasn't her night with them). We're flexible so we were like, "Ok, whatever." And then we found out that one of the girls told her that we went out for a little while and mom freaked out. SO, back to this morning. The girls are FINE by themselves for a half hour...we NEVER leave them alone and go out on dates or dinners or to the movies. We just don't do that. But we're fine, and most importantly, they're fine if we leave them to run a short errand. They're 10 for God's sake, not 4! Anyway, I told the man to wait a minute, I went into the girls' room and explained to them that they are fine to stay home for a short time alone...as long as they follow our rules (which they know by heart). When they told me they promised their mom that they'd go along and that it was a rule of hers, I explained to them that their mother's "rules" applied to things happening under her roof and that their dad and I ha rules of our own in our house. I also explained to them that their mother had no right to tell their dad what kind of rules he had to enforce and what kind he shouldn't enforce the same way that their dad had no right to tell their mother how to conduct her business under her own roof. I swear, people, I am TIRED of dealing with her bullshit. We've tried to work with her about things concerning the girls. One of those things was getting the girls to practice good hygiene and have them shower nightly. Their MOTHER refuses to cooperate with us on that. The girls recently spent the weekend with her and came to us. I asked them if they showered and found out that they didn't shower AT ALL the entire weekend! When I asked why, they said, "Because mommy wanted to spend more time with us over the weekend." WTF?????? Anyway, we deal with that kind of nonsense daily. So I'm tired of trying to cooperate with her. Ok...*****END RANT****

I haven't done anything creative recently. I'm hoping to churn out another bag or maybe a knitted item soon!

Wow, really?!

2011-07-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

Ok I'm sorry. I seriously need to quit being a lazy ass and update this thing!

A lot of action this summer...well, not really. I just recently (in May) became jobless so I've been pounding the internets pavement and emailing out my resume' to a bunch of companies. Remember when there was no internet, no email, no online job posting and we had to either send out tons of resumes and cover letters using tons of stamps and flooding the post office with little white envelopes (for which USPS would say, "Yay!")? OR...drive around cold calling on businesses and dropping a resume' off with their receptionist, or if we got lucky enough got a few minutes of face-time with their HR person? I for one am pretty happy that I can sit in front of my computer and do all the footwork and resume' sending for free (and not ever get out of my pjs...that is if I wanted to sit around all day in my pjs). Luckily, I have money saved up so I can be this way for a few more months before I start to having panic attacks.

Outside of the whole unemployment nonsense, I've been busy crafting when the feeling hits me. Knitting has taken a backseat to sewing as the boyfriend bought me a new sewing machine for Christmas. Before anyone starts booing and hissing about how he bought me a sewing machine instead of jewelry or maybe more YARN and KNITTING supplies, I want to say that a sewing machine was MAJOR on my Christmas wish list last year. My old machine is about to take a dump and I got tired of it coughing and wheezing when it had to do more than just a straight line stitch.

Anyway, here are some of the projects* that I've completed this summer (so far):

This is a pattern from Amy Butler's Style Stitches: 12 Easy Ways to Make 26 Wonderful Bags. The bag wasn't too difficult to put together; however, I'd like to caution beginner sewers and say that you may have a hard time putting together one of her more complicated patterns because her directions aren't as in-depth as the more traditional store bought patterns are (think Simplicity). I like to think that I'm just to the left of being an advanced seamstress. Basically because I can't draft a pattern from scratch unless it's a basic box pattern, but I can sew-up your pattern nooooo problem!

I wish I had gotten a picture of the inside of this bag because it had coordinating pink polka dotted fabric!

This bag is another pattern out of Amy Butler's Style Stitches. I really LOVED LOVED LOVED this handbag and will probably make a second one one of these days.

Here's another view of the bag.

Another Amy Butler design, this time from the Electric Quilt Amy Butler software. This one's called the Carry Everything Carry-All. There are no paper patterns to print out so you either have to be a wiz with a straight-edge and trust yourself to cut your fabric without a pattern, or just make yourself a pattern with the measurements given (I went the latter route). It's an easy enough pattern to follow if you're an intermediate sewer with experience in sewing in linings and aren't bothered by the fact that you have to sew together an opening once you turn the bag right-side out (I'm weird that way...it kinda bothers me that all my seams aren't on the INSIDE...but how else are you going to finish a bag with a lining?). Also there are no curves that you have to navigate since the bag is pretty much rectangular-shaped all the way around.

This pattern is by-far a favorite of mine. I made a second one (which was gifted to the boyfriend's mom) and now I'm getting ready to make a third one! The design is simple, but put together in the right coordinating fabrics and it's gorgeous!

I shrank this carry-all down to handbag size and used it as the basis for a project called knock-off of a knock-off (coming in a new post...I hope).

This is the inside of the carry-all bag. The original pattern doesn't have pockets included, so I basically cut out 2 side panels and 2 front panels with the leftover strap fabric, ironed in fusible fleece and folded all in half and attached it to the lining (the lining was a solid coordinating fabric).

So that's what I've been up to so far this summer. I'm just now gearing up to sew up another bag (my own pattern this time...called a knock-off of a knock-off!). Hopefully I'll be back soon and not neglect this blog as much as I have in the past couple of years!

*All fabric designed Amy Butler

BzzAgent!

2010-05-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

Hey there!

I have been a member of a site called BzzAgent for over 6 months now. Basically BzzAgent is a Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing network to try out new products and get the word out via, you guessed it, word of mouth.

I'm pretty excited about my next assignment which arrived in the mail today! I'm going to be testing out the COVERGIRL & Olay Simply Ageless cosmetics over the next month and a half or so.

During the next month, I will be wearing the COVERGIRL & Olay Simply Ageless corrector, eye concealer, foundation, and sculpting blush during my work week (I try not to wear makeup on the weekends unless I'm going out). Some of the things I'll be looking at will be the effectiveness of the corrector and eye concealer on dark circles/discolorations, the effectiveness of the foundation to restore eveness to my skin's texture and tone and whether or not the foundation will actually cover the fine lines on my face (mostly under and around my eyes).

Top left: Sculpting Blush #220

Top right: Eye Concealer #215

Bottom L: Corrector #230

Bottom R: Foundation #210 (Classic Ivory)

I'm thinking that I ordered the foundation in a color that's way to light for my skin tone. :-( So I did a preliminary trail to see how light the foundation would be on my skin. Maybe not so light that anyone would notice?

10 minutes later: As I expected, the foundation was way too light. I looked like a Kabuki actor in white face! I emailed BzzAgent to ask if it would be ok if I skipped the foundation and just tested the blush and concealers over my usual foundation. I got the go-ahead, so I will be testing out only three of the products sent.

I'll blog about my initial reaction to the foundation in my next entry when I test out the blush and the concealers.

Sorry for the crappy pictures, but an iPhone camera is all I have at the moment. Tomorrow will be my first day trying out this line...I can't wait! :-) I'll post a pic of me without makeup, a picture of me after applying the makeup, and a picture post 9+ hour work day to show how it wears.

In the meantime, while you're waiting for me to post pics of my mug without and with the COVERGIRL & Olay Simply Ageless makeup line, you can pop on over to BzzAgent and check them out...maybe sign up! So far I've tried out and "buzzed" about 2 other products (ROC and NewHarvest Vegetarian Omega-3).

Wish me luck!

FO for March! :-)

2010-03-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

Now they're bugging me to knit them some sock! haha!

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone' s having a great day today! If you can believe it we're having great weather today. I don't know what the temp outside is, but let me just say that I could go outside with shorts and a t-shirt and be totally comfortable. I heard that down south California it's 80 degrees!

Nice day!

I *have* been knitting! Not a lot in the past year, but slowly getting back into it. So far I've knitted 2 pairs of socks and 2 "stoner hats". I still have 1 more hat to complete for one of the twins and then they'll all have matching hats (Jerry's in brown and the girls' hats in pink). I'd have pictures of the completed hats, but Jerry is shy and Ali's hat went home to her mom's place. She wore it all weekend long so I guess it makes sense that she took it back o her mom's place with her. Pictures to follow when I can get everyone to sit still long enough.

So far for Valentine's day I've helped Jerry install a new garage door opener. The old one gave up the ghost a week ago while his parents were visiting. So we spent pretty much all of yesterday and part of this morning getting it all installed and in working order. I am proud to say that I helped put that thing in...and not by just staying out of his way! haha I love a man that won't push you out of the way and let you help in a meaningful way and then not mind if you go inside because you're bored by what's going on! ;-)

Garage door opener almost in!

Then we went to Oracle Arena to catch Jeff Dunham and Peanut!

All in all a pretty good 3-day weekend! Hope ya'll had a great restful time too! :-)

First FO of the year! WOOT!

2010-01-19T22:28:00.001-08:00

Mr. Pitt's Socks

Bye-bye 2009

2010-01-03T11:48:00.000-08:00

Man, it's been over a year (since October 2008) since I've posted to my blog. Is it just me or has the blogging thing given way to Facebook and or Twitter? I'm on facebook if anyone cares to find me leave me a comment and I'll send you my FB name...I'm not on Twitter. Tried it and didn't like it. But am thinking about starting it up again because I found some really RAD Twits(?) on it...like shitmydadsays. Hilarious!

2009 according to Sandee

The highlights!

January found me ringing in the New Year slightly po'ed because Ryan decided to invite some random fellows that he met while on his many junkets to L.A. (or Hell-A as some refer to it). They were ok guys, but one got so drunk that we ended up losing him at a club because they wouldn't let him in (because of his uber drunken-ness). We got locked out of the BF's house (his fault) with no car keys and nowhere else to stay at the end of the evening. I ended up paying over $200 to get a locksmith out to unlock his fricken door (was he thankful? No.). It was too late to get down to the Embarcadero to watch the fireworks which pissed the BF off...nevermind that we were too busy babysitting said drunk-assed friend to notice the time. Anyway, NYE was a bust. Oh well.

My dad passed away on February 8th so I was pretty much out of it for that month. I spent 10 days on Maui with my mom and brother and the rest of the extended family. Many of whom I hadn't seen for YEARS and have reconnected with since then. Family is great! My mom and I have begun to see eye-to-eye now and we get along so much better now than we have in the last 30 years. It's sad that it took my dad passing away for us to finally get along...but things happen for a reason I always say.

The fam

March I don't remember much of except for the fact that the BF was either out of town for work, in town and drunk off his ass, and FORGOT my March birthday. He was remorseful, but a FRIEND had to tell me that he felt bad about it. He couldn't tell me himself?

April found me kicking said BF TO THE CURB (finally) after one too many nights of finding him sacked out at my place in my bedroom watching TV and (it appeared) stoned out of his mind. Not that I minded said stone-edness, I minded the fact that he found everything and anything too much of an inconvenience to do...like let me into my own house. I ended up having a hissy fit and kicking him out...he didn't leave until the next morning, but he was GONE...and good riddance! There was more to it than just that, but save that for another post...or maybe not. That's old news.

The end of April and beginning of May found me wondering WTF and back on Match.com (yes, I'm one of those) and not wanting to settle for whatever it was that I was settling for. I went on a couple dates and emailed a few guys. No luck. Towards the end of May, I got an email from a man that lives in Castro Valley named Gerald (Jerry to almost no one but me). We had our first official "date" (it was lunch on a work day) on June 2nd and, well, it's been a great 7 months finding out everything and anything about each other!

I took a week off in April after our tax deadline to visit with my cousins Jennifer (Orange County) and Maureen (San Diego...both sisters if you were wondering). We had tons of fun going to Sea World and touring around San Diego.

More fam!

My son Nathan graduated from HIGH SCHOOL in June! I thought I would never live to see the day. You can't imagine how proud I am of his accomplishment. We headed straight for Maui the day after graduation to visit with my mom and help clean up around the house. It was 2 weeks straight of yard cleaning, family dinners, and relaxing. Nathan started a program at the local college the next day after we got back from Maui. The kid is a real trooper letting his mom drag him around like that!

The rest of the year was just spent communing with Jerry and his twins (yes, twin girls! And they're 8 years old!) and trying to figure out the your house/my house thing and the best way to keep things simple and low stress for everyone all around.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next decade because it seems that things are finally falling into place for both Nathan and me.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T21:54:00.001-07:00

Fw:, originally uploaded by sandee_emi.

Delinquent...with no excuses!

2008-10-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

This is what I've been up to since September...

Went to the Folsom Street Fair and saw Berlin!

That's Terri Nunn in the red boa!

Partook of the San Francisco wildlife...

There were a LOT of assless chaps at the Folsom Street Fair..and TONS of nekkid people that shouldn't have been nekkid! :-P

I went to Love Fest in San Francisco...

I thought he was really cute...and brave! LOL

Saturday Night Live fans will recongize the Ambiguously Straight Duo...and the Democratic contender for President.

This guy was just simply FABOO! He was workin' it on top of a float.

I got to see NKOTB!!!!!!

Natasha Beddinfield opened for them...

And TINA TURNER!!!!

So, yeah...I've been a little busy! :-) October has been a pretty eventful month for me. I've been knitting some, but not a lot. Maybe I need to change the name of this blog?!?

Chris & Ryan - Ice Storm

2008-09-14T23:47:00.001-07:00

Chris & Ryan - Ice Storm
Originally uploaded by sandee_emi

Sunday night at The Spot in Campbell for Very Open Mic Night. Ryan and Chris sang an original song called "Ice Storm" I think this is only a 90 second clip of the entire 4 minute song...if you want to see the rest you can go to my flickr page and download it! Werrrd! :-P

Oh yes, and I've been knitting too!

Sorry sorry sorry!

2008-08-18T22:38:00.001-07:00

'k, I know, I know...

So it's been since MAY since I've blogged here? What the hell is wrong with me these days? Ok, don't answer that. I've actually been hanging out at Xanga (and not really posting there either), but I've been keeping up with ya'll as much as I can. AND I've finally found the time to get on Ravelry, so if I'm not stalking your blogs, I'm stalking you there. If I don't get around to friending everyone it's because I haven't found you yet (bwahahahaaa)...but you can find me, just look for Sandee and FRIEND me, dammit!

SO, here's another what in the fuck has Sandee been up to the past three months post.

The month of August has been mainly devoted to hanging out WITHOUT the kid since my outlaws have been so kind as to let him visit them for almost the entire month of August. He comes home next Sunday and if I said that I have been miserable without him I'd hear a chorus of voices call "Bullshit!" Ok, ok, I have missed him...there, I said it. This year will be his senior year in high school...the kid is 17 now and taller than me by at least 7 inches (hence the fact that I almost always wear heels and carry a baseball bat for when he gets out of hand).

I've seen at least two concerts a month this summer including the ones that the boyfriend participates in (he plays keyboards in a local SF band). We saw George Michael in June (he was awesome by the way), Coldplay in July, and August isn't over yet, but I'm thinking that something is going to come up soon. I could have seen Motley Crue this month, but due to male insensitivity (uhm, let's call it as I see's it...stupidity) I didn't. Let's just say I was less than happy and the boyfriend caught a LOT of shit from me for about a week before I finally let him off the hook.

I spent a week at the end of June and the beginning of July on Maui. I took the boyfriend with me (and the kid). We did the usual touristy things (to amuse the boyfriend) like drive the freakin' road to Hana and back (guess who drove...not him), snorkeling, and hanging out for the 4th of July in Lahaina.

Seven Sacred Pools, Hana

Sunset in Lahaina

I'd put up more pictures, but it seems that blogger likes to change the formatting whenever a pic is added (what the hell is up with that??) and I just can't be bothered with fighting it. Maui was the one big thing I (we) did this summer. Other than that, I've been trying to get some knitting done. You can check out some of my endeavors on Ravelry.

I'm hoping to be a little more diligent with my posting, especially since I've gotten back on the knit wagon...I may actually have something to jaw about!

So, until then, peace out!

A lesson on karma that we all can appreciate...

2008-05-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Ryan and I went to a barbeque at my friend Janice's place. Janice reserved the barbeque area and we showed up pretty early, around 5:30pm. She was just bringing down a load of barbeque stuff and had this woman I have never seen before following her in the gate. She introduced us to Patty and then left us at the pool/barbeque area. I decided to start the grill so it would be all heated up and ready to go by the time everyone arrived. We had trouble starting it so Patty gets this big idea to light a napkin on fire, fire up the propane, and throw it on...she basically shoved me and Ryan out of the way all the while mumbling, "I know what I'm doing, I've done this a million times before!" Anyway, there were no explosions (thank God!), and we got the thing lit, but both Ryan and I noticed that there was something 'not quite right' with Patty and Ryan thought she had 'issues' or at least was brain damaged in some way. So we're sitting down with her and Janice and Janice jumps up because she sees more people she knows from the building and wants to invite them to the barbeque. Just after Janice gets out of ear-shot, Patty proceeds to GO OFF about how Janice thinks she's FUCKING all that and tries to act like she's rich and how her (Patty's) parents were so rich and SHE didn't act like that. I was so confused because I didn't think she was talking about Janice at first because, WHO talks smack about someone to their FRIEND'S faces??? She didn't stick around long, but a couple hours later (and after most of Janice's guests were exposed to her) she wandered around to our group again and asked if any of us had phones because her's had died. We all looked at each other and didn't say anything...except...for the one guy that hadn't met her! He handed over his phone and she WALKED OFF with it! He had to go looking for her to get it back! And then someone called back for her and the guy told the person, "We think she's been drinking!" haha

SO the kicker is that we're interviewing new EA's for an open position we have and GUESS who our first interview was?!?!?! Yup. And you betcha that I told my boss about what happened at Friday's barbeque. You know, I wasn't so much worried about her drinking (or being drugged up because she acted more like she was on drugs than drunk) as much as I was concerned about her MOUTH and that she might go off on a drunken (or drugged up) tirade about our clients and give up the names.

So the lesson we learned today? It's a small god-damned world and the person you're talking shit to the weekend before may be the person interviewing you for a job on Monday!!!!

How's that for karma?

More things seen and done...

2008-05-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

I checked out the Bay to Breakers in SF...

and saw nekkid people that shouldn't have been nekkid! :-P

Checked out a few art shows in the Haight...

Watching you...

Got too much sun at SF Oyster Fest!

Attended more boyfriend-related music shows in San Francisco...

Sleaze! I mean, cheese!!!

Damn! 10:30...way past my bedtime!!!

What have ya'll been up to???

It's been since...FEBRUARY?!?!?!

2008-05-23T12:53:00.000-07:00

Oops!

Anyway, in a nutshell...this is what I've been up to:

My birthday...March 19th, thankyewverymuch.

Flowers from the boss

Wine tasting with friends in Napa Valley...

Wineauxs

Some knitting...

Red Eyelet Cardigan

More knitting...

Cherie Amour (unfinished)

Watched the boyfriend in various shows around SF...

@ The Rockit Room...Emergenza semi-finals (they didn't win) :-(

Saw Chris Daughtry and Bon Jovi in concert!!!!

I'd write more, but blogger is driving me crazy with it's formatting issues...more later! :-)

February

2008-02-26T20:56:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty fricken busy at work lately. We're smack-dab in the middle of tax season right now and any temp that we've hired to help during the busy season has been a flake. We just hired another person to help out and we're getting ready to let one go. Now we're digging for some more resume's to fill the position that's going to be open soon. WTF, it just seems that everyone we've hired has absolutely NO work ethic. Anyway, it's been a trying month.

Other than that, I've been up to this...

No, I'm not in the band! :-P I'm dating the guy on keyboards. Right now the band he's in is competing in a 'battle of the bands' type of thing put on by an Italian organization named Emergenza. So I've become their official videographer (mostly because I own a camcorder and it's for free)! This is a clip from their first performance at The Rockit Room in San Francisco in January. They won that round and came in second in the second round that happened at the Rockit Room just last Friday. They have ONE MORE round of eliminations to go before they head to Great American Music Hall in SF for the finals.

Oh, and RYAN. Well, we've been seeing each other for about 5 months now and so far so good. After having dated a multitude of nots, it's nice to finally be with someone that wants to be in a relationship and, despite his busy schedule, MAKES time to see me. What a concept! I'm still trying to get my head around that! :-)

Anyway, back to American Idol!

Peace out, homies! :-*

Totally sucked in!

2008-01-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

While shopping around at the local beauty store for some developer for my ongoing battle with the grey, I stumbled across these little babies...

Hair thingies

These are called "trash ties" and can be found here. I think on the website 5 of these ties cost about $12.95. I got to thinking that I could probably make some of them myself for much less than that. All I need is some easily bendable wire that's not too skinny and not too thick (I'm not too sure how many mm's that translates to!), some satin fabric to make the little tubes the wires go into, and a pair of wire cutters. These are nice to keep your hair out of the way and so far they haven't slipped out. I'll let you all know if I manage to throw something similar together.

I have a couple little knitting projects in the works. I'm knitting a scarf using the Mistake Rib pattern. Pretty easy and mindless for my mindless nights...ahem. Pardon my ugly sweatpant background.

So far...

I'm making this out of a couple balls of Rowan Kid Classic. It's soft and squishy, but I'm a little concerned that it might make my neck itch. Hmmm...guess I'll just have to finish it and give it a test run.

I'm a little tired today. Must be the nyquil...I've had a headcold for the past couple of days now. My blog already has become zombie-esque and it's kind of a stretch for me right now to keep it medium coherent (mumble, mumble) so I guess I'll give it up for right now.

Hope everyone is having a decent week so far! :-)

Where in the hell?

2008-01-08T12:21:00.000-08:00

Yeah, where in the hell have I been?

When was my lasts post? Oh crapinowski, Thanksgiving? Anyway, here are some of the things I've been up to since then.

Got visited by the San Jose Shark's mascot...he came to the office with an entourage to drop off some Christmas goodies to the boss

Candygram...

Watched a bartender set the bar on fire...

The Bigfoot Lounge (I think)

Was creeped out by the stuffed raccoon over said bar...

Creepy Raccoon

Rang in New Years in San Francisco...

Drunk and disorderly (where did those guys come from?)

Hey, getcher head out of my shot!

Saw The Tubes @ The Independent on Lower Haight on January 5.

Fee Waybill

The bassist (I copped a souvenir pick!)

Yeah, so that's what I've been up to since November. Anyone do anything exciting???

Happy New Year, my homies! muwahh!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T19:31:00.000-08:00

From the heart...

ummm...my heart shaped potato! I hope everyone is having a happy and food-filled Thanksgiving! We just finished dinner and now we're fighting a tryptophan induced coma.
Once again I have been absent blogger. Sorry! ;-) But I do have a FO to share...it's small, but HEY, it's a FO, right!?!?

I made a pair of wristwarmers to wear at the office. We just moved into some new digs in Menlo Park, and although the new office is great, it's FREAKIN' COLD!!!!!

Oh, pictures? If you insist!

I got the pattern for these wrist warmers from my LYS, Uncommon Threads in Los Altos. I made one change, the pattern includes ruffles at the bottom of the wrist warmers, I left those off. I made these warmers with one skein of yummy koigu yarn in a brownish-black.

Please, no more pictures...well, ok...one more!

Anyway, these wristwarmers are really nice and cozy. Hopefully it'll keep my wrists a lil warmer in the meat locker...er, I mean office.

I need to eat more turkey before I pass out! :-P

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!!! :-)

One more day to act crazy!

2007-10-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

Can you guys believe they let me do this at work?

AND sit in reception at lunch time AND answer the phones?

Actually, the boss brought this stuff into work and told me I'd be wearing it today...not bad, eh?

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, where in the HELL has this month gone?!?!

October has been a pretty hoppin' month for me. My entire office moved about 5 miles south to some new-to-us digs in Menlo Park. So much of the beginning of October was spent either wondering whether everything was going to be ready to move, waiting for some new furniture to show, building out the new office and stressing out over whether it would be done on time (it wasn't), and having to listen to people bitch about the move and where they would be potentially sitting and how un-special they felt (OH Puleez!). We packed up and officially moved out of our old offices on 10/17. We were closed for business on Thurs-Fri and had to come in to unpack and set up over the weekend. More bitching ensued from workers about having to come in for a few hours either Sat or Sun to unpack. The trade off was that we all had Thurs-Fri off paid since it was an enforced closure in trade for a couple hours unpacking work over the weekend. Most of our staff came in either Sat or Sun and put in maybe a half-days worth of work...hey, how could anyone bitch? Anyway, I spent almost that entire weekend unpacking and cleaning up around the new office. I didn't put 2 days worth of work into it, but it was pretty close (about 14 hours worth). There's still some fine-tuning needed here, but for the most part everyone is trying to settle in.

This month has been so busy that I haven't had any time for crafty stuff at all. In fact, I got my RAVELRY invite (YAY), but haven't had a chance to do anything with it yet except to sign in (not so YAY)! :-( Hopefully I'll have some time next month to check everything out.

At least it hasn't been all work/no play. I got a chance to hit a couple of Halloween parties in SF this past weekend.

Not too sure what to call this costume. For now I'm calling it Anime Sandee. I got the shortie kimono off of eBay. I was going to sew my own costume similar to this, but got REAL lazy and put in a bid for this blue polka-dotted number. The accessories I dug up from the mess that I call a closet in my bedroom (don't ask why I have pointy hooker boots and a rice paddy hat in there). The fan is strategically placed because the costume was a bit small and I wanted to make sure that certain something-somethings were covered up more. heh

All in all, this month hasn't been too bad. Busy yes, but not too bad. At least I'm getting a little more respect at work these days!

Ok, must work now. Hope ya'll are having a good one!

Updates

2007-09-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

I don't have much today, but I have a knitting update!

I've got one more sleeve to do for the Debbie Bliss Cable Hoodie and I can sew the whole thing up! I had to take apart the hoodie and shawl collar since I messed up on the hoodie part. After I was done fixing the hoodie, I picked up stitches for the shawl collar. The instructions have the shawl collar knit in two sections, picking up stitches along one side of the neck, and up the hoodie to the center (on both sides) and then sewing the hoodie up. This time around I sewed the hoodie up and then picked up stitches along the entire edge from the neckline all the way up and over the hoodie portion and then down the other side.

Meet our kid model, Little Nathan. My son was given this doll in pre-school. He was maybe 4 years old at the time. He's 16 now! ;-)

The hood sits a little better now and doesn't look like it's trying to eat the doll! A little warning to anyone that wants to knit this sweater. I think that the hood is pretty much ornamental. It's really cute and all, but I'm not sure if it's really very functional because it's kinda small (and I knit the hood and the shawl on a slightly bigger needle). I can put the hood up, but the sweater also pulls upward with it. I'd say that this sweater would look much better if it had just a shawl collar. SO...now one more sleeve to go! Woohoo!!! lol

Ok, for all you sewers out there, I found a really great way to hem up jeans. It takes much less effort to do than cut and then sew a new hem. This particular way to hem up jeans uses the original hemline. I used to have my jeans hemmed professionally, but now I can save the $10 it takes and do it myself! You can find the how-to here!

Back to vegging on the couch now! ;-)

P. A. F.

2007-09-18T11:18:00.001-07:00

First, the knitting related updates. :-)

I'm getting close to finishing the Debbie Bliss cabled hoodie thingie for my friend's baby nephew. I'm on the 2nd collar portion and have one more sleeve to knit before I can stitch up the whole mess (and I mean mess...please ignore the errant ends all over)

The top portion gets sewn together making the hoodie part of this sweater (you're gonna have to trust me on that one). Once it's all done, it should look like this one (cute baby not included...to be supplied by friend's brother).

Also on the needles, and to keep me from going crazy, because DB Baby Cashmerino is kinda-sorta splitty and hard to work on small small needles, is this scarf.

To fringe or not to fringe?

I 'found' this pattern googling for another cross-stitch knit pattern. Thank you, Sheep in the City! I used some chenille from my stash...I don't remember who the manufacturer was, but I think the color is called "mushroom" Sorry, no close-up of the stitch pattern, but you can check out the pattern link to see the scarf SITC made. This chenille yarn is the sister yarn to the yarn I used to make this scarf back in '06.

The YAS Scarf

It's not as dressy or sparkly as the YAS scarf, but it'll make a nice neutral colored all purpose neck wrapper for this winter!

**mini rant ahead**

On to P.A.F. I ran into an ex-boyfriend a few weeks ago while on one of my walks diguised as exercise. He waved, I waved, and then felt stupid because I wasn't sure it was him at all. So, I emailed and said that if it was him "hi" thanks for waving. It's been a few weeks since then and about an email exchanged a day. Mostly general chit chat about alcohol and travels that either of us have been on since we split. Ok, he's either become quite pretentious since I last saw him, or he already was and I just chose to ignore it. One of his emails was a mini lecture on "good" wine and how many $50+ bottles of wine he had (oh and then there was the mention of the 80-bottle wine fridge he purchased recently). He also made fun of the fact that I've become quite enamoured (is that the right word?) with chocolate martinis. In the latest email he poo-pooed my lament that my rent had increased $200 (a pretty big hit on my salary) and said, "ONLY $200, I won't tell you about my 6k mortgage..." My reply was something like, "A 6K mortgage only tells me that you can afford it, and I'm also thinking that it was self-imposed so I don't feel sorry for you." I think he bought another house which is why his mortgage is that high. Which brings me to P. A. F. "Pretentious As Fuck" Ok, maybe he's only a tiny bit pretentious and I'm just being critical/bitter. Either he's P. A. F. or trying to rub in the fact that, had we stayed together, I could have had "all that" (he's also traveled a great deal since we split). Well, if "all that" means 80 bottles of $50+ wine AND a $6k mortgage, whoever he's dating right now can have it. Either way, it's not good. I need to stop emailing him! ;-) lol

OMG, did these guys call it or what?

2007-09-09T23:03:00.000-07:00

Did anyone else see Britney Spears' "comeback" on the VMA's?

I remember seeing this video a few years ago and I think these guys had a crystal ball or something!

Weekend Update

2007-09-02T18:39:00.000-07:00

How's everyone's long weekend going?

I've been laying low this weekend, not something I really intended on doing, but I'm only just now getting over a 2-day headache which kept me awake much of Saturday night/Sunday morning. It's the kind of headache that wakes you up in the middle of the night wanting to claw your eyes out to get at the throbbing pain located behind them. Only now am I feeling slightly human again.

The only fun thing I did this weekend (and I know it's not over yet) was to go out with my friend Janice on Friday. Janice and I headed into San Francisco after work to hit happy hour at the Irish Bank and then catch the Zap Mama concert at the Fillmore Theatre. We only got to watch an hour of the concert because we both kinda miscalculated the timing of the end of the concert and the last train out of SF. Anyway, the concert was great, just wish we could have stayed for the entire thing.

Liquor. STAT!

Anyway, here we are at the tail end of the Labor Day weekend and I've managed to survive the heat, the headache, and my 16 year-old and his friend yelling at the TV while playing video games for 5. Freakin'. HOURS. Another reason why I understand why some animals eat their young, although as big as he is, it'd take me a whole month to complete that task. At 5'8" tall I'm lucky he doesn't pick me up, put me in MY room and say, "You STAY there." I'd probably listen, too.

On the knitting front, I've completed the back and front of the Debbie Bliss cable hoodie and am now working on the collar. I already have one sleeve finished and the 2nd sleeve is the last thing on my list before throwing the whole thing together.

A couple more weeks and this project should be finito and then I can start on all the other UFO's. Hopefully I'll be able to work on a Halloween costume project soon. I can't believe that it's already September! I better get my ass in gear!!

A few cat pics for you cat fans...

Why are you taking a picture of my ass?

Feed me or I'll shit in your shoe when you're not looking...

Huh?

2007-08-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

Where the HELL has the month of August gone?

The best part of the month was attending GenArt's Fresh Faces in Fashion to-do. Janice, good friend that she always is, generously offered to take me. She's a VIP with GenArt so we got the royal treatment starting with the pre-show cocktail hour and ended with an after-show party. In between all of that, we hit the Shu Uemura false eyelash bar and got eyelashed within an inch of our lives (I'm SO getting a pair of those babys), got outrageous gift bags, and even managed to snag a couple of coveted hats that were accidentally given out at the beginning of the evening. I wish I had the forethought to bring along my camera. All I got was a bunch of crappy cellphone pics and some warped video. :-( I blame a senior moment on that one. WTF...I'm JAPANESE folks, ya'll know that we are NEVER without our cameras at ANY event. SO. The only pic I could dig up was from the GenArt website from the pre-FFIF party the week before. So here it is...

Thelma and Louise

Ok, don't make fun...I didn't have time to glam it all up for a fashion related party. I was "Office Sandee" that evening. At least Janice looked casually cool...much more appropriate in my opinion.

We (Janice did actually) met some really nice people that evening. Hopefully we'll run into them again sometime soon.

Anyway, must run. They actually expect me to work while I'm at my job? Geez.

Peace out!

Heh!

2007-08-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

Seriously, some days I feel like this cat looks.

Simpsonize me!

2007-08-13T10:14:00.001-07:00

Simpsonize me!

It's a work in progress!

2007-08-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

First off, WTF? I think my work computer hates blogger. I couldn't get the toolbar features to come up when posting and now I had to go through a bunch of gyrations just to get to the right page that didn't look like OLD blogger that actually had the tool to post pictures! BLAH.

Anyway...

I decided that I wanted a dressmaker's dummy (or dressform) but didn't want to pay the $$$ for one. So with this tutorial in hand and a whooooooole lot of brown paper tape, I got a ~~sucker~~ volunteer to help tape me up. After much bitching and whining on my part because it took SO FREAKIN' LONG to do, the first incarnation of Sandee Paper Dummy got cut off and critiqued. Something was just not quite right with it. then I figured out that my taper taped my boobs too far apart and they looked like they were migrating around to my back! Then we discovered that I hadn't been taped tight enough so all the measurements were off (too big) by at least 2-4 inches. So after more bitching, whining, and complaining, we bought more tape and started Sandee Paper Dummy Take 2 the next day. What? You think I'm crazy and want to be wrapped up in tape for 20 bazillion hours? You guys that know me personally PUT YOUR HANDS DOWN...that was a rhetorical question! Shut up.

I didn't get any in progress pictures because friend that was helping was already disgusted with my backseat driving AND whining, and his hands were sticky from the tape so asking him to be photographer was just too much work. You didn't want to see me in a plastic trash bag and underwear anyway...TRUST ME.

It's not quite done yet, I still have to finish up the neck part and some other cosmetic things, but here are some pics.

It looks fine from the side. In fact, it's a pretty good representation of how I'm shaped. Unfortunately, I think I was trying to have good posture while being taped up for this (don't want a slouchy dummy, nope) so if I stand next to it, the dummy looks like it's leaning backwards a little. Maybe that can be fixed if I take a little paper off the front bottom? Not sure I want to mess with it since we managed to get it sorta right this time around!

So now I have to put a base on it do some cleaning up around the arms and neck. I should probably build up the neck about 1 - 1 1/2 " all around. Then I should cover it with a medium weight fabric. Hmmm...I wonder if I should stick a bra on it permanently before I cover it so the boobs aren't so bumpy!?! Hopefully I'll eventually get this thing on a pole with a base (about as high as I am tall. Without a head of course!) when I'm done with the final touches!

It's nice to have something to fit the garment on instead of having to pin the thing together and actually PUT it on! Now I can see it from all sides without having to twist around in a mirror. By the way, that's Rowan Juno work in progress on the dummy.

Back to work! Peace out!

Ummm...

2007-08-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

Am I losing my mind or did the upload pictures ability on this here Blogger disappear?!?!?! :-(

Thank you, US4's!

2007-07-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

I found another use for the 14" old old old metal US4 knitting needles this morning. It seems that my sort of pissed off son didn't want me going into his room while he was there so he locked his door and didn't bother to answer it when I knocked. First I politely knocked, then I pounded, then I banged, and finally threatened police action on his unhappy ass if he didn't show face. No dice. His door has one of those knobs that isn't opened with a regular key. Lucky for me it's one of those locks where you stick something skinny in a bitty hole and push to open it. So out came the 4's and *click* the door opened. He thought he could barricade himself in with a comforter (?!?!) so he looked pretty shocked when I barged on in with my handy screwdriver (the only tool in my junk drawer) and proceeded to disassemble the doorknob and yank it out of his door. I told him that if he wanted to play games that I had many and much more experience at it and the next time the entire door was going to disappear. Anyway, that was my drama for the week.
On the knitting front (wow...actual knitting content)!

I finally received my package from The Knitting Garden!

I purchased 6 skeins of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in lime for a baby sweater I'm knitting for a friend's new baby nephew. I wasn't too sure about the green color because for me lime conjures up images of flourescent lime from the 80's *twitch twitch*. The color is like the fruit lime, so I was a little relieved!

So anyway, this yarn is destined to become this cute cabled hoody pullover.

I think it will look pretty cute in the green!

Also, I have an FO...a small FO, but an FO. Can you just stand it??? And there's a picture! OMG!

The pattern for these booties is out of Rowan Babies. I used a ball of RYC Cashsoft 4-ply and a ball of Rowan Kidsilk Haze. The turned out cuuuuuuute, no? I have plenty of leftover yarn so I may be making a few more of these booties. There seems to be an overabundance of new babies and soon-to-be new babies at work and amoung friends!

Well, off to start the sweater!

Peace!

Visitors

2007-07-12T07:26:00.000-07:00

I have a couple house guests for the next three weeks or so. Sabrina and Phoebe have taken up residence. Phoebe is a little camera shy, but Sabrina doesn't seem to mind being the subject of a sexy photo shoot.

Hello. Yes, I am cute!

I'm cat sitting for the next three weeks while a friend is in Norway for his mom's birthday. Sabrina is a muttcat with what I'm sure is a good deal of Persian in her. Friend says that she's pure Persian, but no freakin' way. She doesn't exactly have that smooshed in face, but she does have the bulgy eyes and TONS OF DAMN FUR THAT GET EVERYWHERE! We bought a comb to pull out some of her mats and I swear if we took the fur that brushed out of Sabrina I could either put together a whole new cat or at least spin the fur and get a nice angora-like baby sweater out of it (I wish I had taken pics...but wait, there's more fur to brush out of her)! So far, Sabrina is adjusting to her surroundings fairly well as you can see in the pic above.

Phoebe, on the other hand is still a little shell shocked. She won't come out of their crate (yes, the cats are crated when unsupervised until they can be trusted to not bolt out of my place when any door is opened or poo in any potted plants) and has pretty much just glared at me from her cat bed. She not only peed herself on the way over to my place, but freaked out when she was removed from her travel crate and sprayed pee everywhere. Ever watch that cartoon where the cat freaks and ends up claws up in the ceiling? That was Phoebe. Needless to say, Aunt Sandee wasn't amused. But 1/2 hour of scrubbing, and thank dog she only got in on the mat the crate is resting on, and I was sort of smiling again. I'm better today now that the smell is gone! ;-) Maybe today Phoebe will let me take a picture of here without a dirty look on her face.

By the way, I think Phoebe and Sabrina are really stupid names for cats. They may end up getting nicknames...maybe not. I suggested Meatloaf and Hamburger to my friend last night, those went over like a lead balloon.

I've made little progress on my projects since the latest project was knit with the wrong fucking size knitting needle! DOH! Oooeee...I'm back to square one. Anyway, since I don't have progress pics of the latest (until I get more re-done) here's a pic from Rowan...

Right now, I'm re-working the back. Pics when I get more progress!

Me No Chatty For Awhile

2007-07-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been awhile! I need to rename this blog to Absent Blogger or something.

Work has been, well, work. The Lunch Molester has pretty much been steering clear of me since "the incident". heh heh Yesterday she thought I was addressing her while walking down the hallway so she thought she kinda had to reply to me. But other than that, she's been pretty much avoiding me altogether. I don't know about people anymore. I mean, an apology would have been really nice. You just don't molest a person's food (and get busted at it) and then walk away. Oh well.

I went to see Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour in Berkeley at the Greek Theatre on the 29th and it was a LOT of fun! I really wish that I had brought a digital camera because they were not checking bags and there were tons of people with cameras taking pictures! :-( We had GREAT seats and if I had a halfway decent digital with a halfway decent zoom I would have had tons of pics! But all I had was my cell camera so I got a couple of shots, not great, but at least I have some.

They were giving out free purple "Erase Hate" bracelets (http://www.matthewshepard.org/) outside of the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. I wore mine today...it goes well with my pink breast cancer awareness bracelet (Share Beauty Spread Hope)! Both sayings go well together considering that the bracelets are from two entirely different organizations.

Yeah! Free jewelry...holla!

Anyway, the concert had already started when we arrived (fashionably late). The Dresden Dolls were in the middle of their set. I didn't recognize any of their songs, but was mildly amused that the drummer wore nothing but red boxer briefs! Deborah Harry (Blondie) was up next and she did a decent job considering that she's already in her 60's.

Woohoo Blondie!!! :-)

She did look a little uncomfortable on stage, but she sounded just like she did back in the 80's. She sang one of my favorites, "French Kissing In The USA". Margaret Cho was the M.C. and she was sooooo FUNNY! Rosie O'Donnell wasn't scheduled to be at this concert, so we were really surprised when Margaret Cho introduced her. I was a little disgusted with Rosie during the whole The Donald/View fiasco, but she redeemed herself in my eyes. She's better off with her own show where she's the only one...it just doesn't work for her to be on a panel of women like she was on The View (IMO).

Erasure KICKED SOME MAJOR ASS!!! They were by far the best set of the evening. Sorry, I didn't even get a crappy cellphone pic of them...I was too busy dancing!

Cyndi Lauper was the last act up for the evening and she was fabulous! She did some new stuff and of course "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". She also did my personal favorite, "I Drove All Night".

I didn't go with my HMF (High Maintenance Friend) who is my usual concert date. She, for whatever reason, got a bug up her big ass and the Monday before the concert asked me (for the third time) if I'd rather take my friend Janice instead of her. Twice before I had to bolster HMF's ego and tell her that I bought the tickets for US to go and that, no, she'd be more fun at the concert. So I told her that if she didn't want to go I'd give her her check back and she didn't have to go. She took her money back and then had the nerve to say, "If Janice can't go with you, I'll go." WTF??? UGH!!! SO, basically she left me holding the bag on an expensive ticket, because really, if I invited someone else to go I couldn't tell them, "Hey, wanna go with me to a concert? Sure? Ok, then give me $142!" I look at it as they would be doing me a favor by using the ticket, and well, I'm just like that (yeah, I can hear some of ya'll...she's just like that...stupid! LOL). Anyway, I didn't take Janice like HMF suggested, I took a fella named Mark who was TONS more fun that HMF would have ever been at the concert. I had entertainment on top of the entertainment (I mean, the man was basically dressed up '80's fashion and looked like a Jewish pimp), he danced my butt off, AND I had a cocktail in my hand without even HINTING for one! What more could a girl ask for????

Aside for the activity portion of my summer, I have a few projects in the mix. I'll have some pics now that my digital camera is fixed. I promise! :-P

Unfortunately...

2007-06-27T07:18:00.000-07:00

You can't pick who your relatives are AND you can't pick who you work with. There were some extra lunches from a big meeting yesterday so my friend Amanda and I ran downstairs to one of the meeting rooms to grab some boxed lunches for ourselves. We went back upstairs and she gave me her lunch so she could hit the restroom. I took them to the kitchen and set the lunches down on a table so I could grab something from another table. While I had my back turned, one of the newer employees, Rebecca, walked into the kitchen (she was standing outside the door when I walked in) and walked over to our lunches and started going through Amanda's lunch thinking it was an extra from a meeting (we often set out extra food from meetings in the lunch room). So I told her not to mess with it because it was Amanda's. Well I don't think she heard me because she went over to MY lunch which was still boxed up and sealed. She ripped open the box with one hand and started going through the box with the same hand while holding on to her lunch with the other!!! >:-( Ohhh, bitch, I didn't just see you do that...especially since you already have your own freakin' lunch to eat!!! So I finally turn around and say, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?!" and she tells me like it's no big deal that all she wanted was the cookie. So I said, "GET OUT OF THERE!!!! THAT'S MY LUNCH!!!!" I think she said something like "that's your lunch?" and then walked out of the kitchen without so much as an "I'm sorry". I think she was really embarrassed, but HOW RUDE! I can see how she would make that mistake because we always have something extra in the kitchen up for grabs, but seriously, one should never assume that something sitting on the table is free to be eaten by anyone...especially if the person that put it down is still standing there! Anyway, I passed her in the hall an hour later and she gave me a look and then looked away. I seriously hope that she isn't angry with me because she has no reason to be...she was the one that fucked up...and she already had a lunch and she was trying to take something from another lunch!?!? Pig. I still can't believe she had the nerve to stick her hand in a box lunch without asking if it was an extra. Luckily for her we were the only one's in the lunchroom when I yelled at her. Unluckily for her, I was so shocked and pissed off that I told virtually everyone in the office...well, except for the folks in her department, but I'm sure it'll get around to them! heheh You don't get between a hungry tita and her food, let me tell you! >:-(

Another finished!

2007-06-21T07:58:00.001-07:00

Gotta love the quick and easy (almost) one evening project!

My friend Janice and I were in SF last Saturday for the North Beach Festival. The weather was a tad bit chilly, but it was a nice day and the sun tried to break through a couple of times. After the festival we had an hour or so to kill so we trucked it down to the Embarcadero to check out the shops. We saw these berets in one shop that was knit up in uber chunky yarn (I think the brand was Roxy or some popular surf brand like that). Now, I'm not normally a hat person, but I thought it looked pretty cute on. Janice tried it on too and liked it...she's the hat person. Well, the TWENTY-FIVE dollar price tag had me saying, "OMG, I can KNIT that, easy. And for WAYYYYY cheaper than $25!"

'Fess up. How many times has anyone said that and actually gone and made something they said that they could make for cheaper?

Anyway, I was on a mission. I headed over to the local Jo Ann's and picked up some Lion Brand Jiffy yarn (it was on sale...LESS than $5 for 2 skeins) in a color called El Paso. When I got home, I checked out the Lion Brand website for a beret pattern. I didn't follow the pattern exactly, but the finished product didn't turn out all wonky! YAY!

Looks like a plate

Pardon the bathroom shot...it was the only room at 6am this morning with any kind of lighting.

This beret is going to my hatty friend Janice. I have another one on the needles in Lion Brand Homespun for myself. Don't know if I'll wear it or not, but it might come in handy to keep my hair from flying around when I have the top down on the Del Sol! :-)

Oooo, today is my son's birthday! He's 16 today as of 5:46am this morning. Where the hell did the time go? Damn, I'm getting old.

Keep truckin', my friends! kiss kiss

Where U At?

2007-06-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

I was in Oakland, seeing the Police! :-)

My friend Melissa and I totally lucked out on tickets! Tickets sold out fast for the better seats so I half-assed kept an eye out for a deal on tickets on eBay and Craig's List. No such luck. However, a friend of ours from work had 2 extra tickets that she tried to sell on eBay, but couldn't. So she offered them to us at her cost. So we had some pretty awesome tickets on the field not too far from the stage. I had another friend sitting further back on the lower deck of the field. He wanted me to grab Melissa's stub and go get him. Melissa wouldn't do it and he had quite the conniption fit! Jealous much? hehe

I promise, Sting is in that picture somewhere! Drat crappy cellphone pictures! :-(

It was a pretty mellow concert (in my opinion) and boy was I having some "back in the day" moments throughout the show!

The only low point was the fact that I sat next to this guy that was an absolute BEHEMOTH! I was almost sitting in my friend's lap because the guy was just so HUGE and spread out everywhere! :- He wore shorts and a muscle shirt (it was like seeing Santa Claus in casual wear). I did everything I could NOT to touch this guy. It was like sitting under a tree...a fat tree! Or a polar bear. Bleah.

Lucky for us we took the BART over to Oakland Coliseum. Our friends drove and it took them THREE hours through traffic to get there! Unfortunately for us, my friend got her cleavage stared down while we were riding the BART back to her car. The guy stood next to her seat and stared right down the front of her blouse while pretending to talk to his friend. EW. CREEP. He was so obvious that the couple sitting behind us mentioned it when we got off the train!

One of these days I'll have knitting content for ya'll. Maybe. Heh.

Peace out!

Dang!

2007-05-29T21:08:00.001-07:00

Hey! I actually finished something (slap my ass and call me Bessie)!

Please excuse the dirt looking spot on the cardigan...my damn camera has lint or something on the lense. I swear to God, if it's not one thing, it's another with my digital cameras! :-(

This little cardigan is going to a couple that had me over to their place a couple times to barbeque. They're having a little girl!

YAY! I'm done!

Some specs:

The pattern I used is out of the Rowan Babies book and it's called "Daydream". I used about 3 balls of Rowan Cotton Glace' (stashed for a tank top that never was). I can't remember what the name of the color was, sorry! I used some lengths of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk in a natural shade (again, sorry...no ball band, no name).

Ummm...more later, I think. I'm just so beside myself that I actually finished something! LOL

CAR!!!

2007-05-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

I bought a car!

My new baby!

I went to look at this Del Sol yesterday and it followed me home. I totally caved after I test drove it and was like, "GIMMEE, GIMMEE, GIMEEEEEEEE...PLEEEEEZZZZ!" droooooollllll

I'm not even gonna say how much it cost because I paid over Blue Book. However, I'm only the second owner of this car and it only has 72K miles on it, with the exception of a couple of small dings, the body is in excellent shape and there is minimal to no oxidation on the paint. My Honda CRV is 7 years old and has about 70K (and that's still considered low/average mileage) on it. Anyway, I'm totally psyched, especially now that summer's coming up. Yay!

Tonight I'm heading out to Petaluma to see The Blue Bellies play a bluegrass version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon(shine). Should be at least a laugh or two...I'll let y'all know!

Peace!

Things Found...

2007-05-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

The baby sparrows have flown the coop.

But this little fella decided to hang around for a bit longer.

They show up every year in late spring and take up residence in the birdhouse above my "garden", and every year there's always at least one straggler. I'm always afraid that they're going to get eaten by the crows if they don't get to flying. He/she/it was flying, but not getting any altitude so he was going from the Jade plant to the Japanese maple tree, and then trying to get in the sliding glass door. It disappeared shortly after sunset, so hopefully it finally flew off.

Yes, I've been knitting, but too lazy to take pics. Maybe after work today! :-)

I possibly need new local friends...

2007-05-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

I spoke with my friend (the high maintenance one) last weekend and she told me to keep next Friday open because we were going to roll to San Francisco. I thought, "Ok, that sounds good." Then she said for me to ask my friend Janice if she wanted to go, and THEN her highness said something about taking separate cars in case this guy she met a week ago happened to get off work...then she could go off and meet him and me and Janice could go do whatever. Ok, first off, is it just me or is that kind of rude to tell someone that they're going to go do something on a Friday and then in the same breath tell them that they would possibly be taking separate cars because, bulletin(!), they just might go off and meet some guy later that evening...oh, and by-the-way, bring another friend along in case that does happen so they don't feel like they're abandoning you? Am I being too much of a hardass or was that just plain rude? All I know is that if I have to take separate cars to go to happy hour that's not exactly going out with a friend and I'm not doing it. I can see it not being rude if she asked if I wanted to do something early Friday evening (like get drinks) because later in the evening she might meet a guy for a late date. I was pretty much told that we were going out Friday, but if the guy could make it out later in the evening she was going to leave so I better bring along another friend.

I don't really care that plans to go out with this guy are up in the air or not, but you either make plans to do something with your friends, or you make tentative plans to go out on a date and SIT YOUR ASS AT HOME and regret ditching your friends if plans fall through with the idiot! You don't use your friends as an excuse to be in the area just in case the guy can make your date and then abandon your friends to go meet the guy!!

Anyway, shortly after I wrote this post, HRH came to her senses and figured that it would be entirely rude for her to demand that we all go out with her to the City just in case her date plans came to fruition. She told me to go do whatever it was I had planned with my friend Janice and that maybe she'd catch up with us if we were in SF. Wow, that was mighty nice of her to give me permission to 'go do whatever' and not have to hold court with her while she waited to see if her "date" was going to happen.

Hey, it's HUMP DAY! YAY!

Snort

2007-05-02T14:34:00.000-07:00

My partial horoscope...

Pisces: Uranus’s job is to pull the rug out from any endeavor that isn’t for your Highest Good. So if someone or something disappears, there’s likely a good reason for it (um, cuz they disappeared in Uranus?), even if you don’t see it right away.

heehee, she said uranus! heh heh heh

Vegas!

2007-04-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

Vegas was a lot of fun, but I AM TIRED. We saw Prince at the Rio on Friday night.

He didn't get on stage until around midnight and the whole show ran about 2 hours. Well worth the price of the tickets, because we were within spitting distance anywhere we stood (not that we'd spit on him or anything). Any other venue we would have probably had nosebleed seats and had paid just as much for them. We stood the whole entire time, but it was worth the sore feet at the end of the evening. At one point we were maybe about 5 ft from Prince himself! WOW. He did some of his old hits and covers of Stevie Wonder's Superstition and Higher Ground. He even did Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music!

I could only get a tiny pic of him on my cell because the bouncers were walking around. I even got tapped on the shoulder and told I had only one warning or else!

I wish I could have gotten video on it...he was SO great!!!

We walked a lot. Didn't drink a lot...I told Melissa that I'd be pretty much useless to her if I got drunk and I'm not much of a drinker anyway so glad that we didn't end up stumbling down the strip instead of walking. We went to the top of the "Eiffel Tower" at Paris and watched the water show in front of the Bellagio.

It's COLD!!!

But the view was great!

Went to the M&M store on the strip and walked into a few really fancy and spendy stores in the hotels.

Sunday was a marathon since we got up around 9 or so and left the hotel around noon. We were in Vegas from around then until 10:30pm. I started fading around 4, but got a second wind around 8...and then we both kind of hit bottom after we got to the airport. So you can imagine that we were both pretty punchy by that time...EVERYTHING, and I mean everything was funny after 11pm. I got hit on by a hippy type guy at the LV airport...3 times. I finally said something innocuous the third time getting off the plane in SF and he said something like, "DANG!!!" and then a bunch of other stuff I couldn't understand. He was wild. And then there was the lady on the plane across the aisle from us that started barking like a dog in her sleep before we landed. I tried to avoid looking at Melissa but 10 minutes later she couldn't hold it in anymore and started cackling loud enough to wake the dead. All I could do was try and shush her, but by then it was too late!

Anyway had a great time...I'll post more pics later!

Postus Interruptus

2007-04-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

Yeah yeah, I know it's been awhile.

Tax season is over, thank you very much. From around March until the April deadline my office is filled with uber-grumpy people. Tax season is our busy time of year (along with the other assorted quarterly deadlines) so not much has been going on around here except paperwork...and more paperwork. So safe to say that although this is supposed to be a knitting blog, I have not been knitting a whole hell of a lot and all projects have been way-sided until further notice. Hopefully not for very long! Joanne's is having a cheap yarn sale today so I'm headed there with a friend to peruse...not buy (maybe)...but peruse! :-)

On a lighter note, today is my Friday because tomorrow I'll be winging my way to Las Vegas (the boy will be winging his way to the outlaws in Portland on Friday) with my friend Melissa. She has to attend a wedding and needed some company, so out of the goodness of my heart (and the fact that I've never really been to Las Vegas) I agreed to go...you know, just to keep her company! ;-) We have a date with Prince on Friday around 10pm! He's been putting on a concert at 3121 Club in the Rio Hotel. Originally, the show was only supposed to run til the end of March, but they extended it and we got tickets ! Hopefully I'll have some pics to share when we get back!

The gals over at Jenla found this site. CUTE...and so bitter. Me likee!

Must make note to set money aside for a F*CK! Knitting bag...or maybe the Get your own bag, bitch! bag.

Anyway, have a great weekend!

OMG!!!!

2007-04-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

I had a really interesting Saturday folks.

I was in Redwood City helping a friend paint some doors in one of his rental houses. Actually, he painted, I fell asleep on the floor...I claimed narcolepsy! Anyway, he woke me up and reminded me that I wanted to go to the butcher store at Stanford Mall before it closed so we'd better hotfoot it since it was closing in on 5pm. So here is me, still kinda sleepy driving into the mall parking lot when I noticed this asian lady with short hair that had 2 huge blonde streaks in it wearing Imelda Marcos dark glasses in a cream colored car (Honda, Lexus...pick one of the many asian favorites) creeping through the parking lot and stopping whenever she felt like it. Instead of driving down the lanes like any other normal person would do, this woman would stop at the curb (nevermind that she has cars behind her that can't get by) and peer down the lane to see if anyone is leaving. Then slowly drive past the lane. Well, I was behind her and she was blocking the lane that I wanted to drive down. She had almost driven past the lane and I turned behind her to drive up the lane. I think she must have been almost clear of that lane when she saw someone getting ready to leave at the back of the lot. So she starts a really wide turn (I'm already past her at this point) and then sees that I went around her and was driving towards the back. She then tailgates me, honking her horn and yelling at me from her car! I pulled into the open space and got out of my car. She stops her car, cracks her window open about 3", and starts screaming at me, "OH. MY. GOD!!!! OH. MY. GOD!!!!" At this point, my disgust at how some people can rationalize driving like assholes kicks in and I tell her, "LADY, if you would drive like you knew WHERE the FUCK you were going, you'd HAVE that damned space!!!" Her reply???

"OH. MY. GOD!!!!"

Then I guess she decided that she didn't want to mess with me so she drove off still screaming, "OH. MY. GOD!!!!" I could still hear her screaming that all the way down the next aisle. So my reply to that was, "OH. MY. GOD. My ASS!!!!" Ok, blasphemy, but really...is that all she could say??? She could have at least thrown an Eff you, bitch in my direction.

Sorry people, I just have no patience for people that drive around like they're the only one in the parking lot that matters. So, I had a real 'tita' moment.

*breath* I just have to remember that Sunday was a REALLY nice day!!! :-)

Good Monday, everyone!!! MUWAHHH!

Happy Easter!!!

2007-04-08T19:34:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

Today was a really mellow and relaxing day. Spent part of the morning refinishing a magazine stand that I had (stupidly) painted a shit-brown color. I wonder what the hell I was thinking painting it a poop brown, but I decided that the color HAD to go. So the magazine stand is in the garage almost totally stripped of it's paint and the antique black stain it originally sported. I'm going to try and stain it back to it's original color. After that, I drove to San Francisco with my friend Melissa and hung out in the Marina.

HOLLA!!!

It was absolutely beautiful in the city today!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and Easter Sunday!

Muwah!

April Fool

2007-04-03T09:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday started another 3 month/Run 100 miles. I kinda fell out if it in early February with about 49 miles already done. It started raining so there were a couple of days that I couldn't run without getting soaked and well, after it cleared up I had already decided to take a vacation from running. So 2 months later, here I am again trying to run myself ugly by July 4th. Yesterday was my first day back out running. I thought I'd do about 2 1/2 miles and feel good about it, but by the time I hit my first mile I decided that I could do 4 miles no problem. When I got to 4 miles, I felt so good (not) that I ran another mile just for good measure. I'm paying for it today, people. Actually it's not as bad as I thought it would be and I guess I'm not totally out of shape. Still, I have to groan (quietly) when I get in and out of my chair and I'm trying my best not to limp down the hall (ouch. ouch. ouch. ouch. where's the tylenol???).

Other than that, nothing much has really been going on. I'm still working on all my started projects. The quilt is slowly but surely getting hand quilted (btw, I'm getting REALLY old because I can barely thread a needle anymore without a really strong light!), and the knitted stuff, is getting knitted on. It's slow going, but I've been seriously craft lazy.

Totally off topic, but do you think my office computer needs more post-it notes to hold it up?

Back to work to clear off some of the rubble...

Happy...

2007-03-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

birthday to me! can't believe that another year has gone by. Geez, what happened?

For those of you not too in the know about me, I turned 44 on the 19th. You know, the age thing hasn't really bothered me a whole lot. I sailed through 25, 29, 35, etc. without so much as blinking an eye. Having a slight problem with 44...only because it's one year off of, gasp, 45! Anyways, friend Melissa took me out to dinner and a show on Saturday (which also happened to be St. Pat's Day). This is me preparing for my 'hot date'

It came from the 80's!

I decided to roll my hair up and have it curly for the night. Whelp, my hair normally falls past the back strap of my bra...I had managed to curl the thing within an inch of it's life! Whoopsie! After a little bit of brushing the thing, I managed to get it to relax up a little. We had dinner at a restaurant in SF called Tiramisu. If you're ever in the City, you should have dinner there. Good food and CUTE REAL Italian waiters!

After dinner, we went to the Orpheum Theatre for a show and then after that we went to see if we could find some dancing. Unfortunately, being St. Pat's day, the city was packed and there were a lot of drunk people walking around in the streets. The popular places were overly packed and the lesser populated spaces were, well, not populated. So, we just walked around a bit, sat in a jazz club for about an hour, had breakfast and then headed for home. A pretty mellow night. Still had fun tho'!

Have a great weekend!

Ima take dis here car and leave yo ass behind!

2007-03-12T14:34:00.000-07:00

Melissa and I had breakfast on Saturday morning and saw this on our walk back to the car.

Yo, woof woof!

I know I'm strange, but it always cracks my ass up when I see a dog in a car sitting in the drivers seat.

Things are a bloomin'

2007-03-06T07:58:00.000-08:00

Sniffle. Nope, not sick, not getting sick, don't even think of giving me your sickness! We've had a few rounds of the icks here at the office and so far I've managed to come in under the radar on it. I haven't been sleeping so great the past couple of days and I think it's because the weather here has been really nice so therefore, something MUST be blooming or pollinating or something.

Tired.

But that's why Al Gore invented Starbux, right?

Hopefully a lil caffeine and some decongestants (non-drowsy, natch) will pull me out of my early morning funk.

I've managed to get 2 rows of my AB brick quilt stitched down and it doesn't look so bad. In fact, it looks better than the machine stitching that's running down it's center. I'm going to have to pull that out and stitch everything down by hand.

I got a repair estimate back from the camera shop and those thieves want $125 to fix the screen!!! For $175 more I can get the upgraded version (10.1 megapixels to my puny 7.2) NEW. Geez. So right now I'm tossing around getting a new camera or just sucking it up and deal with the broken screen on the old one. There just won't be anymore instant gratification and I'd have to wait until I upload pics to my computer to see them. Decisions, decisions.

Anyway, I need more coffee.

Peace out!

Yes, I'm Crazy!

2007-02-26T11:34:00.000-08:00

After machine stitching the quilt directly down the middle, I decided that the best thing to do to avoid any mishaps (material all scootched over to one side, material folded up and caught by the sewing machine, etc.) that handstitching was the best way to go. I decided to go that route while watching the last hour or so of the Oscars. I lost most of my eyesight shortly thereafter (kidding, but it felt that way). BTW, I'm glad Jennifer Hudson won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Outside of the fact that the girl can SANG (and act, I hear), Beyonce's been getting a little big for her girdle lately and needed to be taken down a notch. I was going to take pictures of my slow progress, but I discovered that my digital camera is once again out of commission. It fell off the couch arm and musta smacked against something because something behind the display is now cracked and looks like hell. :-(

Anyway, I got one row completed. Pictures after the camera gets fixed (I hope).

Happy Monday!

Most of the way done!

2007-02-20T21:08:00.000-08:00

Hey! I'm almost done with my Amy Butler brick quilt! The cotton/silk flannel sheet finally sheet finally showed up!

So...I laid out the batting (boring...yawn)....

Layered the top of the quilt and the flannel bottom over the batting...

And commenced to sewing!

So this is what I have so far. I just need to sew up the last 12 inches...

I need to do some machine quilting and I'll be done! Stay tuned!!!

Wow! First finished project of 2007!

(probably the last...as slow as I am)!!! :-P

What is the world coming to?!?!

2007-02-18T16:17:00.000-08:00

I just heard the Violent Femmes song, "Blister in the Sun"...on T.V. It's bad enough the the college anthem of the 80's is now mainstream enough for television...but it was used in a...

Wendy's commercial!!!!

Sacrilege! Ok, there were no words in it, but still...

A Wendy's commercial????

WTF???

What next? "Add It Up" used in a Kotex commercial?

Quilt update...

For those of you wondering if I'm actually going to finish something anytime soon, I'm still waiting for the flannel backing to show up!

Pics...really...pics! (Ok, just two...)

2007-02-06T20:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, I've been working on my AB Quilt tonight and I've got about 10 or 11 rows already sewn together.

This is what it looked like after I laid out all the bricks...

And this is after I got about 11 rows sewn together...

Pardon the sloppy thrown over the ironing board look.

Anyways, I wanted to share. Back to American Idol...oooo some of the participants are BAD!

Oh, m' God, you guys!

2007-02-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

My friend and I went to see a pre-Broadway show on Saturday entitled "Legally Blonde - The Musical".

Since my friend and I are basically Broadway "virgins" (heehee) having never ever been to a big production show, it was a great first show to start with. The sets were colorful (the sorority house in shades of pink), the music very catchy (can't wait to download the soundtrack), and the characters were very likeable. LB - The Musical is Broadway's take on the movie of the same name, minus "The Musical, starring Reese Witherspoon. You all can check out some video and a preview here.

I'm not the greatest about writing a review, but I at least wanted to say that I was very entertained for the 1 1/2 hours we sat in the theatre. The show, which will open in April on Broadway, is here in San Francisco at the Golden Gate Theatre for about 6 weeks testing the waters. I think they will make a decent showing on Broadway when they open there. The only complaint I really had, and it's not even show related, is WTF are parents thinking taking kids under the age of 13 to a show that they aren't going to get??? On top of that, the Golden Gate Theatre is in the HEART of the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. Anyone familiar with the City knows what I'm talking about. Anyway, there is no way I'd be taking my kid to the ghetto areas of SF AT NIGHT even though there's a crowd or to go see a show. My friend and I were followed by some weirdo that wanted to know if she wanted to spend the night with him...yeah, as IF. Seriously, if you want to give your kids a little culture, cool...but take them to a MATINEE if you're going to drag them to a sketchy part of the City. We had a kid behind us that was always asking, "What's that???? What'd he say????" Urrrrr!!!!

Ok, off my soapbox now.

The Amy Butler quilt is coming along nicely. I have all the 'bricks' sewn up and now I have to sew the strips together. So far I have 3 of the 18 done. I'll have some pics up sometime tonight so I can show ya'll. Now I have to go online and find a queen sized top sheet in either a flannel or a high thread count for the bottom of the quilt. If I use a sheet, I won't have to cut 4 1/2 yds of fabric in half and sew them together (no seam to rub against anything!).

Back to work!

Peace out! Kiss kiss

Falling to pieces

2007-02-02T08:22:00.000-08:00

Ya know, I really really like getting stuff in the mail! :-) Yesterday I recieved my package of Amy Butler fat quarters from the nice ladies over at Fat Quarter Quilters. All in all, 20 fat quarters of Amy Butler's new fabric design, Lotus. This was my very first order from their website and I was very happy with their customer service...they even sent me a really nice note thanking me for my purchase.

Pretty packaging

Ten fat quarters

Ten more fat quarters!

The majority of my night last night was spent cutting 4.5" x 7.5" rectangles out of the fat quarters. The only complaint I had about the fabric was that some of the pieces weren't cut to a full FQ size which is 18" x 20". A couple of the FQ were not cut very straight and one side would measure 18" but the same side at the bottom would be 14"! :-( I'm not sure about the cutting rules when it comes to quilting and fat quarters, but my experience with sewing and buying full lengths of fabric (a full yard or more) has always been that the cutter cuts an inch or more over a yard to ensure you get a full yard. Any comments from the sewers out there???

Happy Friday!

Free Hugs

2007-01-30T12:40:00.000-08:00

While visiting Harajuku in Japan, we saw these guys with signs that read "Free Hugs".

Being the out-of-touch person that I sometimes am, I just thought these guys were just lookin' for a little hugging action from women. 'Nuff said, right? However, yesterday I happened to stumble upon some video about Free Hugs on youtube.com that totally blew me away. Boy, was my initial reaction wrong.

Anyway, I found a little blurb on their website describing what Free Hugs is all about.
_______
What is FREE HUGS?

FREE HUGS is a Social Experience company committed to promoting social value. We strive to tap into the heart of the community through creativity and innovative ideas in order to create opportunities that transform peoples’ lives.

How did it begin?

FREE HUGS was inspired by founder Jason Hunter’s mother Mrs. Josephine Clayton Hunter who passed away in 2001. Sitting at his mother’s funeral service, Jason listened as almost every speaker shared how Mrs. Hunter loved hugging people and letting them know how much they matter. Touched by the speakers, Jason acted on this inspiration and walked the streets of his hometown, Miami’s South Beach, with a sign that simply stated “FREE HUGS”. Hence, FREE HUGS was born.

What is the FREE HUGS Message?

Through our commitment to the community we are dedicated to letting every single person know that they matter.
_______

There's more, but go over to their website and check it out.

Everyone needs a hug now and then, right?

**BIG HUGS**

DOH!

2007-01-30T07:52:00.000-08:00

Dammit, I forgot my phone at home again! Sheez.

On an upside, I ran 5 whole miles yesterday! GO me! :-)

Shoulda stayed in bed...

2007-01-29T08:45:00.000-08:00

Today's going to be one of those days.

I had to get gas this morning so I rushed out of the house and then noticed as I was pulling out of the driveway that I had forgotten my cellphone. Not that anyone actually calls me while I'm at work or anything, but you know the day you leave your cellphone at home is the day the school calls you and says that there was a student riot on campus and your kid was the leader. I thought to myself, "No biggie, I can call periodically to see if I have any voicemails" and then reached into my bag for my iPod. I turned it on and proceeded to look for a particular song that I wanted to play and then realized that, dammit, my entire song collection wasn't there and the audiobooks that I wanted out of there were STILL there! FAWK! **sigh**

I found a new freebie quilt pattern while perusing Amy Butler's website a few days ago. It's a simple, but pretty pattern using her new line of fabrics. I quickly downloaded the pattern and started checking out my stash of AB fabrics and cutting out rectangles. Right now I'm waiting on an order of more AB fabric (the new line...Lotus) so I can start cutting out the rest of the fabric. It'll be a nice break from knitting (and feeling guilty about my knitting UFO's).

I know I keep promising pictures. Sorry! :-(

2007-01-18T13:09:00.000-08:00

Has anyone seen the movie "Inside Man"? I saw it last night...although I thought the beginning was a little slow, I got into it by the middle. One of the most memorable quotes I heard in the movie was when they were interrogating the female hostage who could be one of the bank robbers and said that she had similar characteristics to the female bankrobber (meaning she had large boobies). So her reply was something like, "So officer, you're arresting me on a Section 34 double D?" yuk yuk!

I finally broke down and bought a ball winder and swift. So you bet that I'm widing up every last skein in my stash into nice little yarn cakes. I also bought more Rowan Calmer for a pink Audrey sweater. I made one in a bright salmon color, but that was gifted to a friend because I made it too big for myself and I was too lazy to rip it all out and start over. On the knitting front, I've started a couple of projects and have been trying to work all at once. One is a really cute tube top from the Rowan Calmer collection in a deep magenta color called Soul (picture below).

Another project offered to me by a work friend is an incomplete sweater. My work friend and I ocassionally discussed knitting projects and she would describe some of the sweaters her mother would knit for her and her sisters. Well, her mother had been of ill health and had recently passed away...my friend came to me this morning and asked if I'd like to finish the sweater her mother had started to keep for myself. I've seen some of her mom's knitting and it's all fisherman style sweaters with tons of cables (they're Irish) which I love so I totally agreed to finish the sweater. I don't know, maybe some of you might find that creepy, but I thought that was the sweetest thing since I'm not family and all, but it was nice that she thought of me since I like to knit. Some parts of the sweater are already done, so when she brings the project by, I'll have some pics to share.

This has been a totally slow week for me. LAST week was a slow week as well because it has been downright FROSTY here in No. Cal! I'm totally behind on my schedule to run 100 miles by April because I skipped a couple days (due to the frosty nature of, well...nature. And I don't have cold weather running gear) last week and then lost a day on Tuesday because I had an allergy induced headache. I think if I start running weekends as well I'll be able to catch up in a couple of weeks and then resume my normal one day long/one day short runs. I hope.

Tomorrow's FRIDAY!!! woohoo!!!!

JT... :-(

2007-01-12T15:16:00.000-08:00

For those of you that have been waiting to see how the JT concert went, it didn't. Oh we attended alrighty, but his portion of the concert was a complete bomb! I wasn't impressed. My friends weren't impressed. The two twelve year old girls that were in the suite with us weren't impressed! The music was uber loud, with tons of bass. I've been to events at this particular place before and this was the first time in a long time where my hearing was still a little fuzzy a day later. About halfway through the concert, JT left the stage. We thought for a costume change, but instead, we were forced to listen to a 20-minute set of Timbaland mixes. Really, if we wanted to hear/see a DJ spin records and listen to house music, we would have gone to Ruby Skye in San Francisco instead. The music was passable, but he spent way too much time trying to be a "serious musician" (at the piano) than trying to interact with the audience. I would have liked to see him dance more...he's a great dancer! We ended up leaving just before his "Sexy Back" encore. By that time we were well worn out and pretty much didn't care if we even heard him do that song live. Anyway, you can read the San Ho Merc review of the concert. It's pretty much how the majority of us in the suite felt.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/music/16446400.htm?source=rss

P!nk, on the other hand, was much more entertaining. She, at least, had better rapport with the audience.

Sexy Back!

2007-01-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! I get to see JT in concert!!!

Mostly I'm excited because P!ink is his opening act. I like JT and all, but I'm much more familiar with P!inks music.

Oh, and before I forget again, check out this monstrosity I saw on a train in Japan.

I wish I had the guts to take his picture from the front. But this guy was wearing THE UGLIEST sweater coat (cardigan?) I have ever seen. It was way to big for him, had really fugly buttons and all kinds of busy work on the front in diffrent patterns and colors. He stood directly in front of me (I was sitting in a seat) and it took all I had not to burst out laughing and ask him, "WTF were you thinking when you left the house??? And you, girlfriend (the girl in the coat and brown boots next to him), you actually LET your boyfriend dress like that???" OMG.

Japan Loot!!!

2007-01-04T17:59:00.000-08:00

Two words, my knitting co-horts...

Pink Chibi!!

Yes, I have acquired one. I found this little gem in the Yuzawaya craft store in Tachikawa. You betcher ass I snatched that Chibi in my hot little hands before some other Japanese knit-craftster pushed me out of the way! Bwahahahaaa

I also managed to walk out of the Yuzawaya with 10 balls of this stuff...

I'm going to have to pull out my Japanese knitting books to translate the label...right now I'm guessing this is a sport weight yarn. It's 73% merino and the rest silk. It's really soft! They sold Noro Kureyon too for maybe $3 less than it sells for here. I'm not a big fan of Kureyon, so I passed. It was funny, but I searched the aisles and the Kureyon was the only Noro yarn they sold! I was very disappointed, but left with most of my yen intact! :-)

I also picked up this nano protector in the Tachikawa Bic Camera...

Seriously, did you expect me to go to Japan and NOT come home with something Hello Kitty????

Here's the back...

I have more Hello Kitty stuff, but I'm not going to bore ya'll with all the cellphone danglies and such. Oh, and cellphone lanyards are like BIG in Japan...even the GUYS have those cute little cartoon characters hanging off their phones!

I also brought back some food stuff. Not because I had a huge hankering for Japanese food items but because, well just look at this...

Their food is just so damned pretty and artistic! These are little tea munchies (for lack of a more refined word). I brought these back for the new year and handed out to my asian compadres at the office.

Well, back to the trenches! I may have some ACTUAL NO BULLSHIT knitting content for you next time!

Peace out! :-)

More Random Japan

2007-01-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

Here are more pics from my visit to Japan...in totally random order...

Behind me are stacked sake barrels at Senso-ji Temple. I think everyone was getting ready for the New Year's so two of the temples I visited had some sort of sake barrel display. Of course, being the good boozehound that I am, I managed to find said sake barrels, no problem!

Me outside the Senso-ji Temple main hall.

Nande Botokesan Buddha, Senso-ji Temple

Apparently, this statue is sort of worn down and smooth in some parts because people come up and rub him for luck. Not willing to miss an opportunity for ANY kind of luck, yours truly did a little rubbin' (wait, that didn't come out right)!

Ginza Yon-chome crossing

This picture is supposed to be of a pretty famous intersection in the Ginza district of Tokyo. I read somewhere that Ginza is probably the most expensive shopping district in the world! Yeah, with shops like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Mikimoto and such, I wouldn't doubt it.

Yup, you guessed it...more sake barrels! Mine, all mine!!!!

Anyway, if anyone is interested in seeing the rest of the pics, follow this link:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9AZuXLVi0ZsIU

Remember I was up to the waist-shaping on Sahara? Well, I didn't take it with me to Japan since there was just too much to carry along (I took 2 smaller projects) and LOST my place in the pattern. SO, I ripped it all out and started over again. So now I'm back to square one! Bleah!

I've also decided to join in on Racheal's 100 miles by April 1st run-a-go-go. You can read about it here. I actually didn't sign up for it and join the blog, but I'm going to be there in sprit. I've been running about 3.8 miles every other day (weather permitting) so I think I'm good to go. I've sort of slacked off on the running thing during the holidays and man, am I feeling it! Time to shed a pound or two, or three or ten! So if anyone else is interested, run/jog/hike/ski/crawl/whatever over to her website and check it out. There's still time to get in on it and it's a great way to start the new year!

Happy New Year!

2007-01-02T20:38:00.000-08:00

Howzit?

I really thought that I was going to get away with not catching a disease after returning from Japan. Well, I almost escaped, but right on NEW YEAR'S EVE...yup, I caught a head cold! That's what I get for trying to clean out my son's room before he got home from Oregon. There was so much dust that I got an allergy attack that progressed into a raging head cold!

Japan was great! I took a bunch of pictures and tried to cram as much sightseeing in the 10 days that I was there. I never made it to Roppongi (the party district in Tokyo) since it would have involved getting on the train around 10pm (for an hour + ride) and then being stuck in Tokyo until 6am (for another hour + ride) when the trains started running again. Maybe when I was 20-something it would have been a great adventure, but at 40-something I think I'd rather sleep!

Some of the highlights.

A trip to Harajuku to check out the kids that dress up like anime characters. I didn't see anything real outrageous. I really expected it to be more outlandish, but the costumes were cute and the kids were really nice about having their photo taken. I also got a chance to check out Takeshita-dori which is a narrow street with tons of shops with cheap to outrageously priced clothing.

Entrance to Takeshita-dori

Takeshita-dori was PACKED with people. And it was a Sunday!!!

Wall-to-wall

The Harajuku kids

Anyway, that's just a couple of the pictures that I took while in Harajuku. They also had a Gap store there. I will never ever walk into a Japanese Gap again! Imagine the sizing...xxxs, xxs, xs, s...oh, and maybe a medium! Bad, bad for the ego! Bad...GAH! I bought this jacket while I was in Japan. Fur is all the rage right now, everyone has one of these.

Me @ the Ueno Zoo

I'm normally a size medium...a small sometimes. I had to buy this jacket in a LARGE! I almost didn't fit into the large! AUGH...ego shrinking at an exponential rate! HELP ME! HELP ME!!! :-p There must be something in the water there that makes the women so damn tiny!

I'll post more pics tomorrow...I'm feeling a bit snotty right now.

Oh, I didn't get much knitting done, but I did buy some yarn while I was there and some knitting accessories. Nothing extravagant, but I bought some!

Happy New Year's my knitting homies!!! Kiss kiss

Merry Christmas from Japan!

2006-12-22T02:57:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to you all to let you know that I'm in Fussa. The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity...and walking. Tons. Of. Walking! Oh, and train riding. I actually had the opportunity (good or bad) to experience rush hour traffic on board a train from Fussa to Kanda. The first few stops out of Fussa were crowded, but ok. Then I started seeing those guys in uniforms and white gloves that "assist" the passengers on the train. I didn't quite get to experience being smushed in by those white glove guys, but at one point it WAS wall to wall people and the first thought I had was, "I better not get felt up!" I didn't, by the way!

I'm taking tons of pics to share with ya'll and I *did* get a chance to buy some yarn! woohoo!

Anyway, peace out, my knitting homies, and Merry XMAS!!!!

Happy, happy, joy, joy

2006-12-14T20:45:00.000-08:00

Wheeeeee!

Vacation's started!

I was supposed to post this yesterday, but...

2006-12-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

work got in the way. Geez. (so today is Thursday...but blogger says it's still Wed) Anyway...

I'm still sort of getting geared up to head off on my vacation. I haven't even BEGUN to think about what I'm going to pack (well except for yarn and my iPod). I've gotten as far as what I'm going to be wearing on the plane ride over (11+ hours not counting the flight over to and layover in LA). I've seen people wear PJ pants on long flights, but I don't think that I'll be slumming it that intensely. I went out and bought a pair of Nike warm-up bottoms that are sort of stylish (in black, natch) and will probably be doing layers on top so I don't freeze/sweat while on the plane. Comfort is a must, especially since I *hate* flying. I've also downloaded a 9+ hour audiobook from iTunes so I can at least knit while I "read". Snacks! Oooo, I need to think about snacks! THEN maybe I'll start thinking about packing. My flight out of SF to LA leaves around 7 so I think I'll probably be ready for a nap of sorts once I get on the plane in LA to Japan. I'm not really going to be able to sleep at least until around 11am when I get on the plane from LA to Japan...I have a 1 1/2 hr layover in LA. I highly doubt that I'll be all shiny and chipper by the time I get on the plane in LA. I just hope that in my sleep-deprived daze that I don't end up on a cargo flight to India or something.

I'm actually starting to get excited about NOT being in the office for 2 weeks. I've been swamped with *stuff* and trying to get as much of the top of my desk as possible before the end of the day today. I think I may just make it! Another reason for being happy that I'm going to be absent for 2 weeks from here is that I got into another fight with my office friend. Because I've been so busy trying to get stuff done before I leave on vacation, I had to direct some work in her direction. Since she's a peer, I don't *tell* her to do it, I ask. Well, the job was given to one of the admins that work under her. Problem solved, right? No. Instead of letting the poor girl work on her own, my OF decided to get involved and instead of directing poor girl to me to ask questions, OF decided to call me herself and rant about how the person that requested the job didn't give much direction (like it was my fault that the job requestor was vague). Basically what it all boiled down to was me trying to explain to her how the project should be done with her talking over me and both of us getting mad. She finally just slammed the phone down on me, and rather than ignore her princess behavior (yet again) I got the office manager involved. Bottom line, the argument was fixed, and the office manager could see both sides of the story. And seriously, I get over myself and I don't hold a grudge. I'm already not mad anymore. But OF hasn't spoken to me since. SHE holds a grudge like you wouldn't believe. Anyway, she's probably extra mad because in an effort to cover her ass for something she said about something "not being her job" OF flat out lied to the office manager when I mentioned that OF said that and why are we admins if admin work was not "our job"? Better believe I called her on the carpet for that. Anyway, if she never talks to me again it's no skin off my ass (I can't believe she lied).

I've slowed down a little on Sahara since I want to have something to do while on the plane. I'm starting to eyeball my stash to see if there's a second (smaller) knit item.

Anyway, back to work so I don't have to come in on Friday! WOOHOO!!!

Seriously...

2006-12-12T08:02:00.000-08:00

No one is doing us any favors here.

That, in case none of you recognized it, is a 5lb SOLID bar of milk chocolate. Certain people around the office get those things (3, this year) from companies they do business with. Of course, the wealth absolutely HAS to be shared. Imagine every single PMSing woman in my office sawing at this rather large chocolate bar to get their chocolate fix. It's not a pretty sight!

I'm still working away at Sahara. I'm down to the last couple waist-shaping rounds. I'm thinking that I have to slow down here since it's supposed to be an airplane project. I'll have to think about what other project I have to start that will be portable enough to take on the plane. Too bad I'm not a sock knitter! Hmmm, maybe I should take it up! I'm going to have to force myself to start thinking about putting stuff out to pack, AND I'm going to have to start bugging the boy to put stuff out to pack for his trip to the Pacific Northwest.

Back to work so I can clear off my desk in preparation for people to leave stuff for me while I'm gone!

Peace out!

Yawn

2006-12-07T11:18:00.000-08:00

Another day, another buck 'o five. Things are REALLY slowing down here at work. People have pretty much been steering clear of me these days. By people, I mean the soul-less stick figures in the *other* department that fancies itself an island all it's own. Yes, things have been rather peaceful in my home away from home.

I cast on and started Sahara and I'm now about 3" into the back, so no pics yet since the back still looks like a swatch. I'm almost scared of the TT yarn because it's so spendy...in fact, I snagged it with my Denise's last night a couple times and just 'bout had a heart attack! Luckily they weren't bad snags and the yarn didn't get all fuzzy and weird like some silk yarns do sometimes. I love the color of this yarn!

Right now I'm trying to get psyched up for my impending trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. Yup, I'm GOING TO JAPAN!!! Huzzah!!! However, I'm NOT looking forward to the 12+ hours I'm going to have to spend on the airplane over there. Needless to say I'm travelling with a few FO's and an audio book (and assorted snax)...but hopefully I'll just sleep the entire way over since my ride (my friend Melissa) is going to take me out on the town in SF and KEEP MY ASS UP ALL Saturday night and then drop me at the curb at SFO Sunday morning. I should be good to pass out when I get on the plane to J-Land (I have a layover in L.A.). Hopefully I'll be able to post a little something while I'm there (yes, of course I'm taking pictures...I AM Japanese, after all!! heh).

Anyway, I'm starting to ramble because I'm super bored so I'll close for now!

Peace out, homies! :-)

Pattern...check, yarn...check...

2006-12-06T14:16:00.000-08:00

Next project up, Sahara by Wendy Bernard! I sort of half-assed looked at substitute yarns for this particular sweater, but couldn't find anything that I really liked. I also wanted to include the 'bling' in it so I sucked it up and purchased the recommended Tilli Tomas yarns Pure and Simple and Disco Lights in the American Beauty colorway from KPixie. The cost isn't really that prohibitive if you knit Sahara up in the short-sleeved version. Umm...ok maybe a bit expensive, but still a hair under $100 (ouch)!

The color is much brighter than the picture depicts, but I was so damned excited that the yarn arrived that I took a pic with the cell camera! mmmMMmmMMMmmm!

I can't wait to get home and cast on!

Note to Britney...

2006-12-01T10:04:00.000-08:00

For the love of God, Dog, Allah, WHOEVER.

Please, wear some freakin' panties already...or at least get a longer skirt...or learn how to get out of a car without flashing your, ahem, goodies.

Seriously, you have, what...a kajillion dollars? If you don't have undies, go out and BUY SOME. Sheez!

No one really wants to eyeball your bald-headed fahchina, so dammit, COVER IT UP!

Wait, maybe she's er, advertising since she's kicked Fed-Ex to the curb?

But still...YECH!!!

Done!

2006-11-30T07:43:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the Simple Knitted Bodice!

Please ignore the shiny woman in the sweater. It was 6am and the model (and photographer, my son Nathan, the artiste!) were both too tired to care about setting up the shot!

I think I might make another one in a darker color since this particular shade doesn't really float my boat...probably because it really isn't a fall/wintery color.

Some specs:

The Simple Knitted Bodice by Stephanie Japel
Knitted up in Art Fibers Ming 50% silk/50% extra fine merino
Size Small (top and sleeves) and X-Small (waist lace detail and hem...yeah, can you believe that? X-Small...ME???)

The only mods I made were sizing the sweater from a small top down to a x-small waist and bottom. This sweater was really easy to knit. All in one piece and almost completely in the round! Boy do I love luv LURVE my circular needles! :-) The only thing I don't like is the amount of fuzz that Ming puts out. Geez, you'd think I knitted it up in angora or something! I have a headcold right now so it's probably the reason why I'm having a difficult time with the fluff, because it didn't really bother me up until a few days ago. I'm wondering if it's the silk content thats making it fuzz so badly...hmmm. I know that silk tends to pill, but a fine fuzz? Any guesses?

So now, what next???

Did ya'll know that Stitch Diva finally released Wendy Bernard's Sahara pattern?!!? Yeah, I went right over to the website this AM and immediately purchased my copy! Now I have to find a suitable yarn substitute for the TT silk yarn they suggested using. I suppose you don't have to guess what's up next on the needles for me!

Well, I have some end-of-month stuff to do here at work, and with all the sneezing going on, I may just try to get out of here early before the germ patrol comes over and ejects me from the building!

Ta ta!

Peace out, my homies! :-)

Friday...

2006-11-24T10:07:00.000-08:00

I'm completely bored out of my mind at work today.

Luckily it's a short day, we get out at noon. I need these guys to come over and answer the phones for me.

I must have been in a turkey induced euphoria because for some reason, I found this video EXTREMELY entertaining. I. Could. Not. Stop. LAUGHING.

Beanie...Baby!

2006-11-22T09:18:00.000-08:00

I finally finished my knitty beanie...at least my nose won't get cold this winter!

Dammit! Who turned off the lights???

Hope everyone has a wonderful turkey day! I have to work today AND Friday, but both are semi-short days so it's all good, I guess. At least I'll get a short reprieve from my crazy workmates and the farting accountant in my cubicle row (she also has a heavy accent and it drives me crazy because She. Is. SO. Loud!...Ah-kay! Ah-kay! My brain wants to shut off from sheer frustration!)

And...it's that time of year again...

A gajillion cards to hand address and a cramped hand...

I have maybe 2 more to address...but I have to wait until my hand un-freezes. Ouch!

Me 'n You...

2006-11-15T13:45:00.000-08:00

kiss kiss :-)

Urrr...

2006-11-15T08:55:00.000-08:00

I really don't like it when people try to tell me how to do my job.

Like today, one of the other executive assistants called me to "bring to your attention" some little tidbits about expense reports. I happen to be the lucky person that reviews and approves expense reports for our company and, although I don't know *everything* about expense reporting, I do happen to know more than the person that wanted to bring an issue to my attention. I don't tell her how to do HER job, and I only offer advice when she's complaining about something that can very well be passed on to the admins that work under her. This morning, she was complaining bitterly that she was the only one checking the fax machine and asked if I checked it. I told her that since my boss rarely got faxes, I didn't make it a regular habit to check the community fax machine, but that I did check it for documents when I walked by it. Then I asked her whether she talked to the other admins about it (which she hadn't). I told her that all she needed to do was ask them to check the fax periodically and distribute documents to their owners. I don't understand how she thinks that she can tell *me* what to do (btw, she's NOT my boss or my superior) but can't ask the admins that she supervises to help out with a mundane task.

Ok, I have a crafty and creative project finished...not that ranting isn't creative, I've got it down to a fine art, but, ya know...

I finished another Amy Butler purse! This one went to the office manager here at work (I know which side of my bread the butter's on). I didn't fancify it up with latches or buttons since she's probably going to use it as a casual bag. The fabric is 100% linen in upholstery weight purchased from ReproDepot.

I've also been working on Stephanie "Glampyre" Japel's Simple Knitted Bodice sweater. I got the body done and when I tried it on, decided that it was a bit too big. I also had a problem with the live stitches on the underarm stretching out (anyone have suggestions??) and leaving a HUGE hole where the stitches are supposed to be joined together in the round. SO. I frogged the entire thing and started over. I'm now up to the lace waist detail and so far, so good, it's a better fit than the 1st incarnation. I'm also working on this beanie from the Summer '06 Knitty. I decided that I needed a beanie for this winter when it starts getting cold (well, cold for No. Cal anyway) so my ears don't freeze...or at least the tops of my ears don't freeze. I'm knitting it up in a black/grey baby camel hair yarn (I forget the brand...I'll get back to you on it). It is SOFT!

Hope ya'll are having a great week so far.

Peace out, my homies!

Yawnnnnnn...

2006-11-01T22:21:00.000-08:00

I was bored at work today...

I wasn't being too obvious about it, was I? I don't think anyone noticed! ;-)

I am so glad it's Friday...

2006-10-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

I'm a little irked today...

Irk #1
Today one of my workmates asked if anyone had a piece of bread. I had a piece of pizza bread (with one bite taken out) and said she was welcome to it.
Her: Should I cut it in half?
Me: No, take it all, I'm done, I don't want it.
Her: Well let me cu...
Me: Just take the whole thing.
Her: Well....
Me: Just take it, ok?
Her: Well how about if...
Me: TAKE IT!!!! TAKE IT!!! All or nothing! Make up your mind!
Her: *Runs off like her ass was on fire*
Ok, she probably wanted to cut off the part that was bitten off...but what was she going to do? Cut the bite mark out and leave it for me?!?!? I was done with it. Why couldn't she have taken the whole damn thing and thrown away what she didn't want? Urrrg!!!

Irk #2
Sandee is knitting during lunch.
Another co-worker: Hey! Neat! What is that called? Needlepoint??? No, crochet???
Me: I'm KNITTING.
ACW: Oh, oh knitting, huh? My grandmother used to knit! hahahaaaa (like it's really funny that I'm actually doing something that only OLD people should be doing).
Me: *Ignoring comment*
ACW: So, what is that called? And what is that thing that's hanging??? Is it a belly ring??? And why do the needles have that plastic thing connecting them together?????
Me: *Look on face WTF???* It's called a STITCH MARKER and the needles are called CIRCULARS.
Me: *under breath* holy shit!
ACW: blah blah blah blahbity blah (all the while I'm trying to concentrate on my pattern and count stitches).

Urg!

I need to go home and take a nap!!!

Update!

2006-10-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

I am alive and well these days, I guess I haven't had much to say lately. We had a great weekend! Friday night found me communing with my old friend Melissa...you got it, the one that quit talking to me early in the summer! We started talking a bit in August and finally kissed and made up this month. We went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant called "Tiramisu" (great food!) and went dancing to 80's music at a place on Haight Street (yes, Haight, as in Haight-Ashbury where all the hippies hung out in the 60's). All in all a really fun night! On Saturday we had an impromptu day of shopping and had Persian food for lunch (mmmmm!). M had her eyebrows done and I went to a quilting store and bought some fabric to make a couple more bags for some friends. Here is the start of one of my projects...

This fabric is 100% linen and pretty heavy upholstery grade fabric. It'll make a good bag because of the thickness of the fabric. And I LOVE the colors! Perfect for the fall!
On Saturday evening, Nathan and I went to "The Field of Screams" in Morgan Hill and Uesugi Farms. The field had a haunted house face on it and behind the facade there was a cornfield maze that you had to walk through. Every so often a spook would jump out at you. I don't think that Nathan enjoyed it too much. At one point one of the actors started following him saying in a low voice, "C'mere!!!! C'mere!!!! I turned around and found Nathan with his back to me, his fists up and one foot in the air like he was going to karate chop the guy! It's a good thing I told him not to hit anyone before we went into the field! haha Towards the end of the walk (or run) another actor followed Nathan and was breathing down his neck! I swear, the poor kid was literally standing on top of me trying to get away from the guy! After that excitement, we headed over to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin or two for the house. I saw a gigantic sunflower and asked Nathan to take my picture with it...

Not what I had in mind, I guess I should have been more specific!

Much better!

Did you pick one out yet?

Many to choose from!

Yup, still taller than mom (just checking)!

Oops...better get back to work!!!

Peace out homies!

Absent...

2006-10-17T11:05:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I've been derelict in my blog duties.

I haven't had much to say. Oh, I had to frog the Debbie Bliss Ribbed Wrap top...it was WAYYYYYYY too big and made me look like a barrel. *sigh* I'm still trying to decide whether or not I want to attempt to make it in a smaller size. It was a lot of work ripping out the mohair/silk yarn. Ya'll know how mohair does not like being frogged. Anyway, in lieu of boring you with what I have not been doing lately (except work, eat, and sleep), I leave you with this.

Separated at birth???

Well...I thought it was funny! :-)

Workin'

2006-10-09T12:36:00.000-07:00

Today is supposed to be a holiday for some of us working stiffs...unfortunately, I decided to be a "team player" and come in to help out around the office. Read, the receptionist took the holiday off so we need Sandee to answer phones today. Ok, so I really didn't have to come in, but the office manager asked nicely and then said I didn't HAVE to come in, but it would help. *sigh* So it's been kinda quiet around here with not a whole hell of a lot to do. In fact, I was so bored that I actually looked up a number for a guy that called us by mistake...I NEVER do that!

SO, I've been stealth knitting in reception and working on my Debbie Bliss Ribbed Wrap Top. I have 1 more side front to knit and 2 sleeves to go before I commence to seaming. The top is supposed to tie up with a ribbon, but I think I might just go with an i-cord tie if I have enough leftover yarn.

Anyway, that's about it. Happy Monday!

Peace out!

Another FO

2006-10-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm kinda on a roll here! I took a day off from work yesterday to get some errands done (one of which was apply for my passport) and finished off the DNA Helix scarf.

I think I made this one pattern repeat longer than the required, not on purpose, just because I was on a knitting roll and totally spaced it. Since I couldn't figure out how to knit the thing 'backwards' (bottom up, ribbing, top down) I knitted both sides separately with 6" of neck ribbing on each side and sewed it together at the back neck. I couldn't feel the seam in the back on the test run, so that's a good thing!

The lighting is probably better on this picture!

Anyway, now on to finishing the other projects I started. Umm...I think a sweater, a tank top, baby blanket...etc.

FO

2006-09-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

I know this finished pic is sort of anti-climactic since it looks like the almost finished product pic, but I added a button and a latch...

I fished the button out of my grandma's button box (I inherited the buttons when she passed) so there's no telling how old the thing is. I thought that since there is so much going on in the fabric (busy busy busy) that a plain neutral colored button was in order...just so it wouldn't compete with the pattern of the fabric. I'll probably make another bag like this one, but with a heavier liner in the bottom so the bag holds it's shape when being carried. This bag looks like this being carried with stuff in it...

It gets a little crimpled up when being carried. Not too bad, but still, I think a stiffer base might solve that problem.

It's FRIDAY!

Peace out!

Something other than knitting

2006-09-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

I had this mid-length post typed up and ready to go and then Blogger decided “NO WAY” and ate my entire post. GEEZ. And I wasn’t even bitching about anything…what gives???

I didn’t feel like knitting last night, so I hauled out the sewing machine and commenced to use my stash of Amy Butler fabric and new bag pattern.

AB Madison

The bag itself went together easily enough, but when I got to the lining, well that was a completely different story! I got just a bit too overzealous in trimming points to make the corners nice and crisp and I’m not exactly a pro at lining things. SO, got about 30% of the lining sewn in and the other 70% is going to be hand-sewn so I can tweak the bag’s shape just a bit so it doesn’t look quite so slip-shod.

Tweaking in progress

After reading other people’s experience with AB patterns and this particular bag, I decided to forego using Timtex (which to my understanding is a heavy interfacing recommended to stiffen the sides and the bottom of the bag) and go with some heavy duty canvas that I acquired a few years ago from a friend. The canvas is REALLY heavy duty…I swear I could make a pair of Keds with this stuff! I was worried that my old workhorse sewing machine wouldn’t be able to sew through the thickness, but she powered through it with no complaint.

I would have been fully mad at myself for not using a less fabulous fabric to do a test-run on the bag, but it was only $8 of fabric (2 half-yard cuts of fabric) and notions that I already had on hand (almost free is good) and, it didn’t turn out too bad for a first try!

Goodie Alert!!

2006-09-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

I just received another delivery of Amy Butler fabric from Cabbage Rose Quilting (I highly recommend these guys for fabrics n stuff...ultra fast delivery)!

I also got this pattern from them.

Ok, I have to stop buying now and start using my new fabric stash (maybe). I promise, this is going to be the last purchase for awhile...or at least until I use some of it (maybe). Hehe!

Computer whoopsie

2006-09-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

My 3 year old laptop decided that it just didn't want to work anymore last week leaving me with NO INTERNET ACCESS at home! Everything was all fine and dandy Tuesday afternoon until the battery lost power. On powering up the computer again, I noticed that there was no mouse pointer. Weird. Power down, power up, safe mode. Mouse pointer there in safe mode. Hmmm. Power down, power up again, mouse pointer still not there. Play with mouse settings in Control Panel, finally get damn mouse pointer back up, only to lose mouse pointer again. After a bunch of hours trying to get the computer to work properly, I power back up and the computer decided that it couldn't find the OS. Urrr! Anyway, Thursday found me at Fry's Electronics under the pretense of "just looking" at laptops. Sure. Right. After about an hour trolling the laptop aisle (and being stalked by this really creepy sales person who knew nothing about the laptops) I walked out of Fry's with a new Fujitsu Lifebook like this one...

It's a whole lot bigger than my old Fujitsu and being the Executive Assistant geek that I am I was totally thrilled with the keyboard that has a 10-key!!! Oooooo, ahhhhh! Anyway, the old Fujitsu got pulled apart, and the hard drive removed so I could transfer files and such. Wouldn't you know it, once it got pulled apart and cleaned out a little it decided that it wanted to work again! I still have another week or so to return the new one, but what the hell, I think I'll keep it, after all, it's so new...and SHINY!

Projects are coming along smoothly. I had some difficulty knitting the 2nd side of the DNA Helix scarf (knitting backwards and upside down is just a little too much thinking for me right now!) so I got 6" of the neck ribbing done on one side and have started the other side from the bottom and will work my way up to 6" of ribbing and then sew it together in the middle.

I'm pretty much done with my Knitflix swap package, so swap partner, never fear, I haven't forgotten you! :-) I'll have that out to you before the deadline! ;-)

Project Updates...

2006-09-20T12:51:00.001-07:00

I've been working on the DNA Helix scarf for the last week and this is where I'm at now...(btw, what the hell is up with blogger's photo download???)

I'm approximately half way done now as I have about 6" of the 12" neck section done. I really like how the combination of the alpaca/silk and non-descript cashmere went together...SOFT!

I also started another scarf with the Tsuki lace-weight yarn that I mail ordered from Art Fibers a month or so ago. It's ultra light and ultra fine and a pain to knit with if you aren't used to knitting with yarn so, so, SKINNY! The pattern is a fairly simple drop-stitch pattern that I got from my in-person visit to the Art Fibers store last week. I'm not big on approaching people I don't know, but I'm sure that the lovely Kira helped me with my purchases (you can see her on the Art Fibers website). She is a TINY little thing. But I digress. Here is the artsy ignore-the-mess-behind-it-backlit shot (yes, I have no shame) of what I have so far...

The best part about this pattern is dropping the stitch and working it down. What a thrill to actually drop a stitch on purpose, it's a freeing experience folks! heh

So that's what I've been up to knitting-wise.

In order to fill blog-space I leave you with some random photos of Gary's visit to No Cal.

The great flower arrangement he bought for me :)

Seal hanging out under the Wharf in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz Pelican

Weekend stuff

2006-09-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

There was a lot (well, not a lot, just more activity than usual) going on at Chez Sandee last week.

Friend Gary was in town visiting and hanging out. On Saturday we spent some time in San Francisco. I think I had him a bit confused at first because I generically refer to SF as "The City". So when I asked if he wanted to go into "The City" on Saturday, I got a really weird look from him followed by, "WHICH city???"

"THE city. What's wrong with you???" Geez, out-of-towners...ya know?

We made our way to Union Square and the first stop on my list was Lush. I had to lay in a supply of Buffy for the winter. I'm addicted to Buffy...especially during the winter when my skin tends to get all ashy and shit. Seriously, ya'll go check out Lush. It's a bath product store...NOT a bar! I wouldn't want you thinking that I hung out in a bar with a gal named Buffy or anything! hehe Anyway, by the time I got out of the store I was $$$ lighter, but a VERY happy camper.

I kinda mentioned to Gary that Art Fibers was somewhere close by on Sutter Street and that it really didn't matter if I made it there or not (read: I REALLY need to go there). But seriously, he MADE me go. So after a little bit of walking, we made it to Art Fibers where I purchased a whole cone and 2 balls of "Ming" in the #1 colorway (I tried to take some pics of the yarn, but the pics don't do the yarn justice at all). Of course, before I made a purchase I had to sniff every single ball of yarn that had silk in it. mmmm. To give Gary credit, after schooling him on silk's distinctive smell, he had to sniff some of the yarn as well!

After we got the shopping out of the way, we took in a little of SF's sights (sorry, forgot my digital camera so I used my cell).

I almost fell over taking this picture!

Not too sure, but it was a Korean event in the Square

Ghiradelli Square

I also won an eBay auction for 15 half-yard cuts of Amy Butler fabric in a green/yellow color way...yummy!

Hopefully I'll find some time to make that quilted bag! :-)

I have some project updates, but I'm whipped after work so I think I'll go vege in front of the TV for a few.

Peace out!

Good stuff...

2006-09-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being absent blogger, but I have a visitor hanging out with me for the next week! :-) More on that later!

I got my Blue Sky Alpaca - Alpaca Silk yarn in from kpixie and immediately started swatching (yeah, right) for June Oshiro's Helix scarf. I discovered that 1) the design doesn't show up well when knit up on size US 5 needles (in my opinion the stitches were a little loose), and 2) if I went down a size or two the design STILL wouldn't show up as well and the scarf would have been really tiny. I immediately went diving into my stash on hand and found a bunch of skeins of some non-descript 100% cashmere 2-ply yarn I purchased from eBay a few years ago and combined it with the alpaca silk to bulk up the yarn just a tiny bit. SO...knitting on size US 4's, this is what is going on so far...

Me thinks so far so good. The alpaca is a little fuzzy, but not too fuzzy and both yarns are UBER soft! I am loving the DNA design.

One thing thing that I am not loving so much is the "flexi-needles" I purchased on sale ($5) at the LYS a few days ago (for those of you close to Los Altos, I purchased them at Uncommon Threads). I think that they're Addis, which is the reason why i was so thrilled. I love their circulars, so why wouldn't I love these right

See how the needle curls up? I tried to remedy that by boiling some water and heating up the wire a little. It worked for about a few hours and then the wire started to curl up again. So what's the problem with it curling, you ask? Well, when knitting with these needles my yarn gets looped around the end by the 'stopper' and starts to pull. So that means that I'm stopping every couple of rows to untangle the whole thing before the yarn starts snagging or knotting. GEEZ.

I also purchased this over the weekend...

I love this book!

and I am SO going to make this first!

Now I have to go figure out how I'm going to make the $$$$ required to buy Amy Butler fabrics!

Thing found...

2006-09-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

Last night around 10pm I was hunting around in my little plot of land for cherry tomatoes and found this climbing up the wall...

HI SANDEE, HI HI!!!!

This little bastard was 6 FREAKIN' INCHES LONG!!! Jeez, normally I get little bitty ones that are barely an inch long crawling around so where the hell did this guy come from?!?!!! Looks like a gigantic turd with horns. Bleah. Anyway, I immediately went on salt patrol and got rid of the monster, after all, a slug that size could wipe out an entire crop of cherry tomatoes in one sitting.

Pardon me while I go off and have a severe case of the heebies. *shudder*

Another project...

2006-09-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm swatching June Oshiro's DNA helix scarf in Cascade 220. I have this so far...

The Cascade 22o is a little heavier weight than what the pattern calls for, but this was only a test to see how my knitting skills held up to the unusual cabling pattern. So far, so good! :-) Anyway the yarn I've chosen for this scarf is a Blue Sky Alpaca Yarn ordered from kpixie in a 50-5o alpaca silk (mmmmm!) in pretty much the same color as the Cascade 220. This particular scarf is a gift for a friend that's heading off to Japan in a few weeks. He liked the DNA pattern because he sometimes does some forensic stuff in his line of work. I'm hoping that the alpaca/silk blend will drape a little better and be much much softer than the Cascade.

Deciduous has kind of stalled, and the Debbie Bliss wrap sweater is coming along (I almost have the back done) but I won't bore you with pictures because right now it just looks like a gigantic p2, k1 swatch with decreases.

Peace out, my knitting homies!

Things found...

2006-09-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

For some reason I found this rather amusing...

The boss needs a lock on his office door, and the sticky is there to let the locksmith know. It almost looks like instructions on how to open/close/lock/unlock a door. I know my boss is a lot smarter than that!

R.I.P.

2006-09-04T19:48:00.000-07:00

Rest in Peace

Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin

***rant ahead***

Sometimes reporters can be totally insenstive assholes. I was watching a news program on CNN (don't ask me which one, I can't remember). One of the news jockeys was interviewing an Irwin friend who was at the scene via phone. Can you believe the idiot reporter actually had the nerve to ask the friend who was obviously upset whether or not the rumor that Steve actually pulled the stingray barb out of his chest before he died was true or not. The friend with disbelief in his voice said something like "of course not" and then said to the reporter, "I'm offended that you'd even ask me that question." Instead of apologizing, the reporter just continued the interview. Kudos to the Irwin friend for not just calling the reporter an insensitive jerk and hanging up the phone. I am actually pretty sick about how U.S. news keeps showing a large stingray barb and saying how others stung by a ray describe how utterly painful it is (insinuating that the Croc Hunter may have been in pain before he died).

***end rant***

Don't give me any static, dammit!

2006-08-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

I don't exactly know what the hell is going on, but...

What. The. Fuck?

What's up with the static electricity? My hair has NEVER done this before and it's been refusing to behave. I've tried those silicone sprays and dryer sheets, but nothing seems to work. I think it must be my conditioner.

Really bad hair day

I feel like that witch from the Bugs Bunny cartoons...you know, the one that loses hair pins everytime she gets on her broom and rides!

So now back to work so I can afford a different brand of conditioner.

Goddamn Blogger!!!!

2006-08-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

I had a rather long paragraph written when Blogger decided to roll over and play dead on me...fuck, fuck, FUCK!!! I hate it when that happens.

As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted was that I took a long weekend from work last week starting on Wednesday because I had a friend that I haven't seen for over 17 years visiting me. Actually, he was more than just a friend because we dated for about 2 years while still at OSU. Yeah, feeling a LITTLE OLD here. I had caught up with him a couple years ago, but lost touch after a few emails. He's been in the Air Force for about 12 years and was in the process of changing jobs, or designations, or whatever it is they call it in the military so I guess we sort of lost touch. A friend of mine recently saw him on classmates.com and emailed him for kicks (I was actually a little jealous because I got a really lukewarm reception from him when I emailed him, but she got a WOW!!!! lol). I told her to pass my email address along and tell him I said hi. Well, after a couple of emails back and forth he decided to come out (he's in South Dakota) and see some sights and visit because in a few months he'd be out of the country and living in Japan for the next 2 years (lucky devil)!

Greetings from Santa Cruz or Please Mr. Seagull Don't Crap On Us!

(They crapped on my BLACK car instead)

So needless to say, the projects were put on the back burner for the time being. Anyway, it was a great time catching up and finding out what he's been up to the past 17 years. Best thing about catching up with an old friend (especially this one) is that I have a reason to go to Japan now and a place to stay! YAY!

Not representative of the videos I've seen.

2006-08-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

The Shakira concert wasn't what I expected it was going to be. I thought FO' SHO' there was going to be an argument between me and Keohinani on who is the biggest ho in concert, but I was totally WRONG! I expected Shakira to come out in a skimpy outfit like the ones I've seen in her videos, totally gyrating and bumping her way across the stage with everything hanging out for everyone to see. NOT. She wore a black t-shirt, and baggy black pants, and was barefoot throughout the entire concert. The only time she ever showed some skin was during "Whenever, Wherever". She wore a sequined bra top and a belly dancer skirt (with the black pants under it). Let me tell you, that girl can MOVE. Geez, I need to learn how to do belly rolls like that! Umm and could God PLEASE perform a miracle and get me a booty like hers? As far as the music was concerned, the sound in the Pavilion SUCKED. Great. Big. Donkey. Balls. You couldn't even tell if Shakira was singing in Spanish or English! I suspect that the people on the floor got better sound that we did up in the rafters. Seriously, all you could hear was the music! Despite the fact that the sound sucked, I'd have to say that she put on a pretty good show for someone that was doing it 'by herself'. She didn't have an army of dancers...it was just her (and the band) and she did a pretty good job of moving around on the stage. Oh, and I know I'm weird and all, but the highlight of the concert for me was one of the band members who rocked out on a koto (a white guy none-the-less) at the beginning of the concert. That was too cool! I didn't think that anyone could get that kind of sound out of that instrument that was something other than plink plink plunkety plink (insert Japanese singer wailing and moaning to the plinking). Impressive.

Sorry guys, no pics this time. If there was any time I could have gotten my camera confiscated it was on Saturday night. There was an usher at the bottom of the stairs outside literally screaming at everyone that walked by, "NO CAMERAS ALLOWED!!!!" Ok, ok, I get the message already!

Anyway, I'm still plugging away at Deciduous and the Debbie Bliss wrap top. Haven't made much progress on either, but have been getting in a row or two every so often. I really have to stop searching out fabric and bag patterns until I finish or at least get close to finishing the other two projects! Abso-fricken-lutely no will power or self control here sometimes! :-P

Hopefully I'll have picture updates for y'all soon!

Peace out! :-)

This weekend's festivities

2006-08-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

You'll find me here on Saturday night!

Ring ring ring goes the telephone...

2006-08-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

The lights are on, but there's no one home...

Sometimes I wonder about my workplace peers. I took the day off today because I'm taking a friend to a doctor's appointment. Not as simple as that, but lets just say that it's for preventive reasons and involves sedatives (which for me, would be really nice right now). Anyway, a week ago I sent out an email to my bosses, the office admin, and ALL the other admins that I was taking this day off for the reasons I stated above. I also put it on all the admin's outlook calendars AND wrote it in on the office admin's HUGE eraseable calendar sitting outside her (my) cube wall. Ok, well you'd think, "I'm covered as far as notifying everyone, right?" WRONG. I got a call this morning at 7:45 from one of the admins asking, "Are you coming in today? Boss is losing his mind and wants to know." Which totally annoyed me so I TOLD her that I notified EVERYONE (including her) via email LAST WEEK that I'd be out and that it was also on everyone's calendars (except the bosses) AND on the wall calendar. Would it hurt to actually read an email or check a calendar? This particular Executive Assistant is notorious for taking shortcuts when it comes to processing any information that involves more than just reading 5 words strung together. Instead of saying, "She's probably sick/off today, let me check the calendar." She'll more than likely say, "I don't know, but I'll call her to see if she's coming in." I mean, I'm ALWAYS covering her ass when someone asks ME where she is and then I'll check it out and find out if she's out sick/on vacation before I'll open my huge trap (and we all know my trap is uber huge sometimes).

...tick tick tock it's a quarter to 2, I'm fed up, I'm hanging up on you!

Cabo Wabo

2006-08-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

I'm almost finished with the Cabo halter...

All I really need to do is hem it now!

What's that over there?

The fabric isn't really that shiny, althought it would look nice if it did have a little sheen to it. It was very easy to put together, the pattern had just 4 pieces! And I'm not the greatest seamstress in the world, so when I say easy, you better believe it's easy! Anyway, now I've got the sewing bug! :- Must. Finish. Knitting. Projects. GASP!

Holy Moly!

2006-08-11T11:45:00.000-07:00

Wow!

Remember the Amy Butler Cabo pattern and fabric I ordered a couple days ago? Ummm, it just arrived! Wow, kudos to Cabbage Rose in Fort Worth, TX for the fast, fast, ultra-fast service!

Thank you for improving my day! Wheeeeeeeee! :-)

I'm glad it's Friday

2006-08-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

I just had a total WTF moment.

This morning, I came into work to find some documents on my desk that needed to be wire bound. That wasn't the problem. The problem is a pretty small deal in itself, but it goes to show how some people at my workplace, even though they hold the same title as I do, have the opinion that a particular job is beneath them or 'not my responsibility'.

Anyway.

The office has two wire binding machines. Nifty and useful objects...especially when you have presentations to clients that need to be made to look all professional-like. I found both machines overflowing with the 'confetti' punches this AM. When I pulled the tray out, little bits of paper went flying everywhere. SO, in an effort not to bore you, I'll just say that I sent out an email to all our office admins asking to please help keep the area neat by throwing away their trash and emptying the binding machines once in awhile, especially if they use it a lot (and one particular department's admins use it on a daily basis). This is the response I received from one of our temp admins:

"Hi,

Thank you for the note. I did forget several sets of covers yesterday afternoon and will try not to do that in the future. As for the ‘confetti’, Clueless Ass-ociate Who Is On Maternity Leave was clear that this is not the responsibility of We Think We're Better Than You Department's admin."

WHAT. THE. FUCK?!?!

Ummm, hello? Since when do you make a mess and have it NOT be your responsibility??? UN-Fucking-Believable. I can't believe that the person that trained those temps would actually say something like that to them! OMG. That's like, "Oh, don't worry about making sure the ass gasket gets flushed down the toilet...it's not your responsibility. The person after you will get it." Don't get me started about the women's restroom here...that's a whole 'nother story!

However, to give this particular admin credit, he DID say that it makes sense that anyone who uses the equipment should also help to maintain said equipment. Too bad he's leaving at the end of the week.

GAH! I'm glad that it's Friday.

Peace out!

Plays Well With Yarn...and sometimes others

Still looking...

Wow, really?!

BzzAgent!

FO for March! :-)

Happy Valentine's Day

First FO of the year! WOOT!

Bye-bye 2009

Happy Halloween!

Delinquent...with no excuses!

Chris & Ryan - Ice Storm

Sorry sorry sorry!

A lesson on karma that we all can appreciate...

More things seen and done...

It's been since...FEBRUARY?!?!?!

February

Totally sucked in!

Where in the hell?

Happy Thanksgiving!

One more day to act crazy!

Happy Halloween!

Updates

P. A. F.

OMG, did these guys call it or what?

Weekend Update

Huh?

Heh!

Simpsonize me!

It's a work in progress!

Ummm...

Thank you, US4's!

Visitors

Me No Chatty For Awhile

Unfortunately...

Another finished!

Where U At?

Dang!

CAR!!!

Things Found...

I possibly need new local friends...

*Snort*

Vegas!

Postus Interruptus

OMG!!!!

Happy Easter!!!

April Fool

Happy...

Ima take dis here car and leave yo ass behind!

Things are a bloomin'

Yes, I'm Crazy!

Most of the way done!

What is the world coming to?!?!

Pics...really...pics! (Ok, just two...)

Oh, m' God, you guys!

Falling to pieces

Free Hugs

DOH!

Shoulda stayed in bed...

JT... :-(

Sexy Back!

Japan Loot!!!

More Random Japan

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from Japan!

Happy, happy, joy, joy

I was supposed to post this yesterday, but...

Seriously...

***Yawn***

Pattern...check, yarn...check...

Note to Britney...

Done!

Friday...

Beanie...Baby!

Me 'n You...

Urrr...

Yawnnnnnn...

I am so glad it's Friday...

Update!

Absent...

Workin'

Snort

Yawn