Every evening, as we're heading toward our driveway, I mentally steel myself--or, try to--to the thought that there might be a dead or, worse, dying deer nearby. Fortunately for my sanity, it's only happened a few times, and not to "anyone" we knew by name.
But last night, just before we turned into the driveway, we saw a dead, dull-brown large female; the only one that we "know" that looks like that is Stella. She and Stumpy have both turned from the reddish-brown that they all are as fawns and have become darker. Most of the others are redder than they are; Old Mommy is that shade, and the other mommies and Molly are becoming darker, but most are still that reddish-brown.
I felt so bad. I wonder if feeding the deer and playing games with their minds will get them killed. You know, they hang around while we feed them and then wander off on their rounds. Are we messing with nature?
So, anyway, I was moping around but went ahead and threw out some corn, calling Stumpy and Molly. Didn't call Stella, although it's habit to say "StellaandStumpy" when I yell for them. No one showed up until almost dark.
I called Tom to make sure that I was seeing what I thought I saw. (You know how bad my brain is, not to mention my sight.) There was Stumpy--and Stella! Alive!! Not injured!!!
Relief!
The babies (Molly, JasonandKelsey) and their mommies weren't there last night, but we haven't given up on them yet.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
More deer
A passel of deer wander through our yard, some days more, some days less. Last night we had the usual (Mommy 2, Stumpy, and Stella) plus JasonorKelsey (they're twins, and if only one is there, we can't tell them apart. Heck, for that matter, we can't tell them apart when they're together.) and Molly, who's a little older than JasonorKelsey.
Molly was the first to show up last night, and s/he was hungry. The others straggled in and they all chowed down.
JasonorKelsey is less skittish than Molly and Mommy 2. S/he's not shy about pushing her way into the passel.
What we find tremendously entertaining is that they come when called for dinner. Either they're already nearby (usually down by the creek or on the hill) and show up before we finish bellowing, or they come tearing in a couple of seconds later. Even the babies come running, but they're usually a little shyer until their mommy shows up. One night Stella was already waiting when we got home (Stella is usually the first one there), but Stumpy wasn't anywhere to be seen. A little while later I yelled for him again, and when I went into the kitchen and looked outside, he was rushing toward the side of the house like he thought we'd take back the corn. He actually looked worried.
So, for your viewing enjoyment, more deer.
Molly, JasonorKelsey, Stumpy, Stella
Same bunch, different orderIf you look closely, you can see that Molly has lost most of her spots, while JasonorKelsey still has plenty.
By the way, how many is a passel?
Gotta brag!
My faithful blog reader, ~tonia~, has just started dyeing and selling her own line of fingering-weight yarn, in very generous yardage, too. Click on her name to go to her blog so you can see her gorgeous yarns! That woman can really keep a secret!
Most sock yarns are sold in balls of about 440 yards, or, in singles, at least 200 yards per ball (She-For-Whom-I-Work sells hers in hanks of only 175 yards, which at $12 a pop, or $24 for a pair of socks, is kind of chintzy, in my opinion). But ~tonia~ is selling hers with 500 yards per skein, and at only $1 more than the less-than-generous yardage supplied by S-F-W-I-W, it's a good deal for such beautiful hand-dyed yarn. I'm hoping that ~tonia~ will tell me just how on earth she's able to make her yarn reliably self-striping. Sometimes, often, that's the look that I want. Real stripes.
S-F-W-I-W calls her yarn "handpainted", which generally means it's not supposed to stripe when it's knit. It may pool a bit (which I like, but isn't always desirable, although I think it's really pretty), but it doesn't make real stripes. If one wanted her yarn to stripe, one would have to carefully chose a pattern that would make wider stripes than those that show up in the socks I knit waaaaaay below and posted in June, I think. It's sort of a spiral type of stripe, and while it's okay, it's not what I'm going for in striped yarns.
Well for heaven's sake, I thought I'd posted a photo of the socks I'm knitting for Joan for her birthday (which was Sept. 2, but who's counting, other than Joan?). Now those are self-striping. I think it's an incredible striping effect. Someday maybe the lady who dyed this yarn will tell me the secret of how she got this effect.
So here's that photo:
Most sock yarns are sold in balls of about 440 yards, or, in singles, at least 200 yards per ball (She-For-Whom-I-Work sells hers in hanks of only 175 yards, which at $12 a pop, or $24 for a pair of socks, is kind of chintzy, in my opinion). But ~tonia~ is selling hers with 500 yards per skein, and at only $1 more than the less-than-generous yardage supplied by S-F-W-I-W, it's a good deal for such beautiful hand-dyed yarn. I'm hoping that ~tonia~ will tell me just how on earth she's able to make her yarn reliably self-striping. Sometimes, often, that's the look that I want. Real stripes.
S-F-W-I-W calls her yarn "handpainted", which generally means it's not supposed to stripe when it's knit. It may pool a bit (which I like, but isn't always desirable, although I think it's really pretty), but it doesn't make real stripes. If one wanted her yarn to stripe, one would have to carefully chose a pattern that would make wider stripes than those that show up in the socks I knit waaaaaay below and posted in June, I think. It's sort of a spiral type of stripe, and while it's okay, it's not what I'm going for in striped yarns.
Well for heaven's sake, I thought I'd posted a photo of the socks I'm knitting for Joan for her birthday (which was Sept. 2, but who's counting, other than Joan?). Now those are self-striping. I think it's an incredible striping effect. Someday maybe the lady who dyed this yarn will tell me the secret of how she got this effect.
So here's that photo:
Okay, so I didn't rotate the photo before I uploaded it and now I can't figure out how to do it. Turn your monitor sideways.
This yarn came from The Painted Tiger at etsy.com. I found several great yarns there this summer, right before I started working for S-F-W-I-W. This one was $25, 460 yards, and very soft; it's 75% Superwash Kona wool. The photo at etsy really caught my eye:
So, anyway, my friend now has her own line of handpainted, self-striping yarns. Go buy some! (And send it to me.)
Monday, September 10, 2007
Finally, some knitting content
I have been knitting, although not nearly as much as I'd like. Having a second job really cuts into that knitting-in-the-car-while-waiting-for-Tom (which I enjoyed; I couldn't do anything else, so I'd knit and listen to Dr. Laura on XM), and we get home later so I'm usually too tired to knit at night.
I knit these socks from some yarn I bought in June from etsy.com. I knit them while I was in Florida, not bad while I was visiting my grandkids! Next time I'll make them a little bigger; I usually use 64 stitches for my socks, but I think I need to go up to 72, because with these--and others--the ribs stretch more than I like. It's only taken me what, three years of sock knitting to figure this out?
I knit these socks from some yarn I bought in June from etsy.com. I knit them while I was in Florida, not bad while I was visiting my grandkids! Next time I'll make them a little bigger; I usually use 64 stitches for my socks, but I think I need to go up to 72, because with these--and others--the ribs stretch more than I like. It's only taken me what, three years of sock knitting to figure this out?
I bought this yarn from vieuxrouet at etsy. It's called Strawberry Fields and is 440 yards of soft fingering weight yarn, 75% superwash wool, 25% Nylon. This is what it looked like after it was dyed:
This is a doggie sweater that I knit this weekend. It's for the UYR (United Yorkie Rescue Organization); they've sent me enough yarn for probably 100 or more sweaters for little dogs. I don't like this one at all; it's too frou-frou, but I guess that someone will want it. Check out the Yorkie Shoppe page; that's where the sweaters will end up. All money goes to the UYR to vet and house Yorkies and Yorkie-wannabes and find them wonderful forever homes.
Zippy did not like the sweater; he's a little embarrassed to be seen in such a poufy sweater.
Chester was embarrassed, too, but then, he's a cat, what does he know about doggie fashion?
I'm also knitting a scarf using some of Claudia's fingering yarn, Peony, I think, but I couldn't get a decent photo of it. Later I'll link to the pattern (and blog) that I got it from. Funny blog, too.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Stumpy, Stella, and twins
Stumpy and Stella are over a year old now. They don't look like little babies any more.
For comparison, their twin siblings, about 2-3 months old. Jason and Kelsey, or Jason 1 and Jason 2, or Kelsey 1 and Kelsey 2.
Blame A; she named them!
More deer photos from August:
And Old Mommy came back a couple of weeks ago; she's only been around twice all summer.
Old Mommy and Stumpy:
And lastly, Zippy stole some corn out of the trash.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Oh yeah
Now I remember.
It's been 5 months since I dyed my hair last. Actually, I had it done in Ft. Lauderdale and paid much more than I usually would for something like that. So many hairstylists have ruined my hair color that for a long time I've done it myself, figuring that if it's going to be a mess, I might as well pay $8 instead of $40 (or, last time, $65).
The last one was worth it, though. My hair didn't end up brassy, and the color did pretty well for 5 months. It bleached out in the sun, but it still didn't get all red and nasty.
But, back to the real world. After 5 months it really needed some help. Two inches of roots that aren't the same color as the rest; just not that pretty. So, since school pictures will be taken tomorrow, I decided to bite the bullet and color it myself yesterday.
I waited till yesterday because I didn't want it to lighten in the sun over the long weekend. But oh, how I wish I had a week in the sun before those photos tomorrow.
I followed the directions--put on the roots first, then all over for the last 5 minutes. I timed it. I did not do a strand test; I know what my hair will do. All too well.
It still shocks me when I look in the mirror. The roots are a dark reddish-brown; the rest is black cherry. I was aiming for a medium-to-dark brown. I missed.
I love black cherry. Just not at school-picture time. I've dyed my hair red before, but most of the time it was on purpose.
For a fuzzy, more realistic look at the color:
*Sigh*
And my hair used to be much thicker on top.
It's been 5 months since I dyed my hair last. Actually, I had it done in Ft. Lauderdale and paid much more than I usually would for something like that. So many hairstylists have ruined my hair color that for a long time I've done it myself, figuring that if it's going to be a mess, I might as well pay $8 instead of $40 (or, last time, $65).
The last one was worth it, though. My hair didn't end up brassy, and the color did pretty well for 5 months. It bleached out in the sun, but it still didn't get all red and nasty.
But, back to the real world. After 5 months it really needed some help. Two inches of roots that aren't the same color as the rest; just not that pretty. So, since school pictures will be taken tomorrow, I decided to bite the bullet and color it myself yesterday.
I waited till yesterday because I didn't want it to lighten in the sun over the long weekend. But oh, how I wish I had a week in the sun before those photos tomorrow.
I followed the directions--put on the roots first, then all over for the last 5 minutes. I timed it. I did not do a strand test; I know what my hair will do. All too well.
It still shocks me when I look in the mirror. The roots are a dark reddish-brown; the rest is black cherry. I was aiming for a medium-to-dark brown. I missed.
I love black cherry. Just not at school-picture time. I've dyed my hair red before, but most of the time it was on purpose.
For a fuzzy, more realistic look at the color:
*Sigh*
And my hair used to be much thicker on top.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
I'm in!
Ravelry.
I've read a lot about it in the last few months and signed up for an invitation sometime in May or June. Today I went to their page for antsy hopefuls, put in my info, and it said that my invitation had been sent July 27. But, as happens to so much email that I want, the spam filter took it out. (It's my work address, and I can't do anything about the filter.)
It told me to sign up again and they'd send another invitation immediately. So I did, twice, and nothing came through. I emailed the owners, and within half an hour they sent me an email with the url and I was in.
Ravelry is....... I'm not sure. It's everything for knitters and crocheters. You can list your yarn stash, books, patterns, needles, add photos of your finished items, use their forum, and I'm pretty sure that I'm just scratching the surface. I know that this sounds horribly boring to non-knitters (ARE there non-knitters? Oh, yeah.), but it sounds fascinating to me.
Time-consuming, too, which is why I'll probably never get my stuff on there.
Update: Now it's blocked here at work. Crap.
I've read a lot about it in the last few months and signed up for an invitation sometime in May or June. Today I went to their page for antsy hopefuls, put in my info, and it said that my invitation had been sent July 27. But, as happens to so much email that I want, the spam filter took it out. (It's my work address, and I can't do anything about the filter.)
It told me to sign up again and they'd send another invitation immediately. So I did, twice, and nothing came through. I emailed the owners, and within half an hour they sent me an email with the url and I was in.
Ravelry is....... I'm not sure. It's everything for knitters and crocheters. You can list your yarn stash, books, patterns, needles, add photos of your finished items, use their forum, and I'm pretty sure that I'm just scratching the surface. I know that this sounds horribly boring to non-knitters (ARE there non-knitters? Oh, yeah.), but it sounds fascinating to me.
Time-consuming, too, which is why I'll probably never get my stuff on there.
Update: Now it's blocked here at work. Crap.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Gambling fools
Two of my sisters and I went to Atlantic City for a weekend earlier this month. Having never gambled before, it was an exciting prospect, especially since we all three figure we have addictive personalities.
We didn't go for the gambling; Joe Walsh was the draw. Joan will drop her everyday-life in a split second if Joe glances in her general direction (such as the East Coast). The Borgata hosted Joe and his band in their 3500-seat (or standing) Event Room. Bruce Willis and his blues band opened.
We didn't stay at The Borgata; it's (I think) Atlantic City's newest casino and is very upscale (as opposed to say, Harrah's, where we stayed), and as such, the rooms were going for $450 a night on the weekends. We couldn't even swing one night there. Harrah's was about $250 a night, for heaven's sake. Who can afford these places???
Harrah's was nice enough, although the a/c in the room was either a) Arctic or b) Sahara. I guess they didn't want us to get too comfortable and stay away from the casino. Not a problem; although we weren't experienced gamblers, we were..... shall we say, interested.
When we first went into Harrah's, Betty wouldn't trust her new car to a valet, so we had to park in the parking deck and, dragging enough luggage for a month in Europe (ha--I took less to Europe than I did that weekend), had to find our own way through several miles of tunnels, skywalks, elevators, and escalators (that weren't wide enough for luggage, although we forced our way on) (why on earth would the only way into a casino/hotel be by way of a 2' wide escalator?) into the casino. Even employees there couldn't (or wouldn't) tell us how to get to the lobby.
Once we'd forced our luggage onto the escalator, which was pretty steep (but not as tall or intensely steep as the escalators at Dulles Airport), we struggled to maintain our balance as the first view of the casino came into view. Then we sort of forgot about the stupid luggage; the casino is immense, very brightly-lit, and very loud. I pretty much fell off the escalator when my luggage caught at the bottom instead of smoothly transitioning to the casino floor, almost taking Betty out, because we were gaping like a couple of rubes at the sight.
I've never seen anything like it. There are acres, probably miles of slot machines and other assorted gambling paraphernalia. There is this an all-pervasive loud hum; the combination of that, cigarette smoke, and the sound of so many voices babbling at once was almost overwhelming. (As much as I like concerts, I don't tolerate noise and crowds well. The older I get, the more overwhelming it becomes. So, at school, I avoid rallies and most assemblies; panic attacks aren't pretty.)
After two or three days we found our way to the hotel lobby and checked in.
The first thing we did was eat. Betty can't eat while traveling, and it was a week-long trip to drive the 300 or so miles to Atlantic City. (We are all map-reading-impaired.) (Even with printed instructions from MapQuest and Betty's son.) We went outside for a little while to smell the ocean, which we couldn't see, since we were on the harbor or something.
We explored the shops in the hotel and checked out the restaurants. This place is like a city. An expensive city, at that. By that time, the hum had started sounding welcoming, almost comforting, sort of like the music you hear when you enter the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. It was starting to sound exciting. The noise of the crowd wasn't bothering me as much, although the cigarette smoke was still annoying.
I realized then that the sound was coming from the slot machines; it was the sound made as one punched the buttons and won--or lost. It was a chord of three notes, the final one being a perfect high C. I'm betting that phychiatrists or some else hired for that purpose determined that particular combination of notes to be soothing, envigorating, and inviting.
Being the total innocents that we were, we actually thought that slot machines took actual coins. Ha ha, we are so dumb. They only took $5, $10, $20, $50, or $100 bills, or tickets printed by their money machines that took your money. After a woman condescendingly explained that to us, we each, hesitantly, inserted $5 bills into the machines that looked like winners. (Yeah, I said we were naive.)
Huh. It wasn't difficult. It was fun. We each had preset a limit on what we were willing to lose. I took the money that Mom and Dad had given me for my birthday (and aren't they proud!) and played for 2.5 hours. Each time I won more than the $$ I started with, I cashed in the ticket, stashed the extra amount, and put the original $$ back into play. By the time I was ready to go to the room, I'd spent $20 and had about $2.50 stashed.
The next morning, or at some point during the day, we took a shuttle to the Boardwalk. After Betty and I walked out to the beach and into the cold, rough water, the three of us decided to take a buggy ride down the Boardwalk. That was fun. Our "guide" (who pushed the cart thingy) kept up a running commentary and we saw some other casinos and some really scary-looking stores. We got off at the mall on the Boardwalk and found a Chico's with a really good sale.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Honestly
I'll catch up as soon as I can! Now that I'm back at school, things might calm down a little.
Quick notes:
1) The original Mommy deer came back last week.
2) Stumpy and Stella are growing and no longer look like babies.
3) New twins hanging around sometimes.
4) Still working in the afternoons for Claudia.
5) Atlantic City/Bruce Willis/Joe Walsh
6) Florida!
Quick notes:
1) The original Mommy deer came back last week.
2) Stumpy and Stella are growing and no longer look like babies.
3) New twins hanging around sometimes.
4) Still working in the afternoons for Claudia.
5) Atlantic City/Bruce Willis/Joe Walsh
6) Florida!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Floridays
Sorry to be so slow about updating. After working 4 days with Claudia, I flew to Orlando to visit my daughter and her family. We got into Orlando after dark, and fireworks were visible all over Orlando as we landed. Gorgeous.
I spent ten days playing with A and B2, and it was a ball. It's always so difficult to leave them.
Tom came down on Saturday morning, and we spent my birthday touring Sanibel, Captiva, and surrounding islands by boat. Rogan White was our guide; he's a son of Randy Wayne White, one of my favorite authors. We spent almost 8 hours going from island to island, shelling, ate lunch at Cabbage Key (which is supposedly where Jimmy Buffett wrote "Cheeseburge in Paradise" about, but you couldn't prove it by me. ) The food was edible, but that's it.
The day was very nice, though. Once I sort through my photos I'll put some up.
Now we're heading for Key West tomorrow with Tom's daughter. Ft. Lauderdale tonight, which is so gorgeous. I love nights in Florida. Days, too, for that matter.
Monday, back to work at school, then Tuesday, back to Claudia's.
I spent ten days playing with A and B2, and it was a ball. It's always so difficult to leave them.
Tom came down on Saturday morning, and we spent my birthday touring Sanibel, Captiva, and surrounding islands by boat. Rogan White was our guide; he's a son of Randy Wayne White, one of my favorite authors. We spent almost 8 hours going from island to island, shelling, ate lunch at Cabbage Key (which is supposedly where Jimmy Buffett wrote "Cheeseburge in Paradise" about, but you couldn't prove it by me. ) The food was edible, but that's it.
The day was very nice, though. Once I sort through my photos I'll put some up.
Now we're heading for Key West tomorrow with Tom's daughter. Ft. Lauderdale tonight, which is so gorgeous. I love nights in Florida. Days, too, for that matter.
Monday, back to work at school, then Tuesday, back to Claudia's.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Dyeing for yarn, part deux
Wet yarn is freaking heavy. And Claudia had 10 14-gallon pots going at once today.
We dyed 23 pots of assorted yarns (kid mohair, merino fingering, silk fingering, merino worsted) today. I can't remember how many hanks that came out to. A lot. I'm really excited that she's "letting" me help dye the yarn even though I'm brand new there.
The pots are very heavy, too. After all the hot (as in almost boiling hot) yarn is fished out and lugged across the room and hung up to drip on the floor till it cools, we have to dump the leftover water out (onto the floor; there's a wall-to-wall drain across the room), wash the pots with bleach, rinse them and painfully (at least for me) lift them back onto the burners, which are huge and thankfully only about 18" off the floor. Refill with water, dye, acid, and dish detergent, add yarn (the only slow part of the process, except for waiting two hours till the yarn is done), relight the burners, and go on to the next one.
This is heavy physical labor, something I'm not at all accustomed to. Either I'll end up in really good shape or in traction. I hurt all over.
I figured that, with my "employee's discount", I can make enough money to buy enough yarn for 5 pairs of socks a day. That same yarn in a yarn shop is $24 per pair. Or maybe I can finally buy linen or silk to make a nice top or sweater. I might actually be able to afford it now.
We're dyeing more yarn tomorrow. But only about 5 pots. She usually only dyes two days a week, but demand has gotten so high that she's having to go to three days a week, with maybe 15-20 pots a day. That's good for her, but my back is protesting. Until two weeks ago she was the only one who did the dyeing; then one of her very young employees started working in the dyeing room. This girl was in one of my study halls two years ago. Now she's tell me what to do.
I've got to go to bed. I don't know when I've been this tired, but it sure is a good tired.
P.S. Claudia said today that she hired me because I brought in the socks I was knitting with her yarn. Finally knitting has paid off!
We dyed 23 pots of assorted yarns (kid mohair, merino fingering, silk fingering, merino worsted) today. I can't remember how many hanks that came out to. A lot. I'm really excited that she's "letting" me help dye the yarn even though I'm brand new there.
The pots are very heavy, too. After all the hot (as in almost boiling hot) yarn is fished out and lugged across the room and hung up to drip on the floor till it cools, we have to dump the leftover water out (onto the floor; there's a wall-to-wall drain across the room), wash the pots with bleach, rinse them and painfully (at least for me) lift them back onto the burners, which are huge and thankfully only about 18" off the floor. Refill with water, dye, acid, and dish detergent, add yarn (the only slow part of the process, except for waiting two hours till the yarn is done), relight the burners, and go on to the next one.
This is heavy physical labor, something I'm not at all accustomed to. Either I'll end up in really good shape or in traction. I hurt all over.
I figured that, with my "employee's discount", I can make enough money to buy enough yarn for 5 pairs of socks a day. That same yarn in a yarn shop is $24 per pair. Or maybe I can finally buy linen or silk to make a nice top or sweater. I might actually be able to afford it now.
We're dyeing more yarn tomorrow. But only about 5 pots. She usually only dyes two days a week, but demand has gotten so high that she's having to go to three days a week, with maybe 15-20 pots a day. That's good for her, but my back is protesting. Until two weeks ago she was the only one who did the dyeing; then one of her very young employees started working in the dyeing room. This girl was in one of my study halls two years ago. Now she's tell me what to do.
I've got to go to bed. I don't know when I've been this tired, but it sure is a good tired.
P.S. Claudia said today that she hired me because I brought in the socks I was knitting with her yarn. Finally knitting has paid off!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Dyeing for yarn
Okay, I'm a leeeeetle bit excited here.
This morning I got up early (for me). Summer vacation has finally arrived; I've been working at school since the school year ended, finishing up some projects and moving everything out of our office, then back in after the floors were cleaned. We've been in that school for only two years, and this is the third time we've had to pack everything up and move it across the hall into the conference room. It's getting old, and so am I.
So anyway, yesterday was my last day at work for a while. Mary (my immediate boss) and I still have a project to finish, but since it involves contacting students who "left" school in 2006, most of what remains will have to be done in the evenings and on weekends. This week I'm dog/cat/bird/fish-sitting for my sister's menagerie while she's basking on the beach.
I could have slept really late this morning, but Kipper, my sister's very emotionally-needy English setter (I think) didn't agree. I got up at 6 to feed him, medicate him, and let him and the others go outside. After they came in I went back to bed, but Kipper wasn't happy with that arrangement. After a couple of hours of "Woof. Woof. Woof." I gave in and got up.
We don't get the local paper at home, and I never read the help wanted ads because I have a job I like and can retire from in about 5-8 years. This morning I did read the ads, and this is one that I found to be most interesting:
This morning I got up early (for me). Summer vacation has finally arrived; I've been working at school since the school year ended, finishing up some projects and moving everything out of our office, then back in after the floors were cleaned. We've been in that school for only two years, and this is the third time we've had to pack everything up and move it across the hall into the conference room. It's getting old, and so am I.
So anyway, yesterday was my last day at work for a while. Mary (my immediate boss) and I still have a project to finish, but since it involves contacting students who "left" school in 2006, most of what remains will have to be done in the evenings and on weekends. This week I'm dog/cat/bird/fish-sitting for my sister's menagerie while she's basking on the beach.
I could have slept really late this morning, but Kipper, my sister's very emotionally-needy English setter (I think) didn't agree. I got up at 6 to feed him, medicate him, and let him and the others go outside. After they came in I went back to bed, but Kipper wasn't happy with that arrangement. After a couple of hours of "Woof. Woof. Woof." I gave in and got up.
We don't get the local paper at home, and I never read the help wanted ads because I have a job I like and can retire from in about 5-8 years. This morning I did read the ads, and this is one that I found to be most interesting:
In my last post I mentioned that I'd bought some ClaudiaCo (http://www.claudiaco.com/) handpainted yarn and was knitting a pair of socks. I've read about Claudia's yarn on knitting blogs from all over the place, and I had to have some for my own. I bought it at one of the two wonderful yarn shops in town, Rocktown Yarns (http://www.rocktownyarns.com/).
I started a sock that turned out stripey, not bad-stripey, but not my favorite, so when I got to the point of turning the heel, I started a second sock using Cookie A.'s Monkey pattern from the Winter '06 edition of the online knitting magazine, Knitty (http://www.knitty.com/) (tons of great patterns and articles there, and they're all free!)
So I called Claudia and she asked me to come over (every bit of about two blocks from where my sister lives, and not too far from the high school where I work) and see if I was interested in the job. Interested? I'd almost pay her to let me work there. One of her employees showed me around the place. Oh, the yarn, the colors, the yarn. Then she asked me if I wanted to fill out an application. Um, yes. I filled it out, then I went to Claudia's office to talk to her.
Either she's desperate for help or she likes me and my qualifications (I brought my socks that I'm knitting with her yarn), because she hired me on the spot. To work ten-hour days in the summer in a room with about 10 burners holding huge pots of steaming yarn, to fish the wet, heavy yarn out and hang it to drip, then move it down the hall to the drying room (which has a dehumidifier, which should be nice after a few hours in a steamy room). That's where I start tomorrow. Dyeing yarn, something I've always wanted to learn. (Okay, I've wanted to learn it for the last five years, since I started buying yarn for knitting and discovering the addictive, expensive world of handpainted yarn.)
I'll learn to mix the dyes, wind them into hanks (she has machines that will wind 10 hanks at once, automatically), then twist them (another machine) into those neat little uh, twists of yarn.
I'll get to fondle yarn and not be considered weird.
No, I'm not quitting my day job. This one just won't pay enough to buy groceries, much less retirement. I'll work full-time in the summer and after school the rest of the year. The pay is very low, but above (current) minimum wage, but get this: I can buy her yarn at her cost. I. Can buy yarn. Gorgeous, soft, handpainted yarn that is too expensive for me to normally touch, much less buy. This is especially welcome after the budget that Tom bamboozled me into drew up with me last night, a budget that doesn't allow for the purchase of much yarn at all if we want to keep traveling. It's like the answer to a prayer. I get to work with yarn! Famous yarn, at that. She's recently contracted to sell it in a shop in Australia, in addition to Canada and England.
And maybe this is the answer to what I'll do after I retire from the school system. I've been trying to figure out what I can do that I'll love doing, that's creative, that's fun, that allows me to buy nice yarn. I'm not going into it thinking that this is going to be an easy job; I suspect that it's going to be hard physical labor, but it's doing something that I want to learn how to do. How many people actually get paid for doing something they'd do anyway?
It's a good thing that my hair likes humidity.
P.S. Claudia said that it was genius (well, not exactly genius, maybe) to make two socks of different patterns from the same yarn. I've considered wearing them like that, but one is made on a size 1 needle and the other on a 1.5. I don't know yet how that's going to work out, but I'm all for not having to rip out and knit another sock.
Monday, June 18, 2007
You know what bothered me the most
Friday, June 15, 2007
Automobile ramblings
Hi, I'm Marie, and I'm a car snob.
On Wednesday our Camry went in to be repaired (approximately $3500, I think) and we were given a rental car. I figured we'd end up with a GM or Ford product, and I'm not crazy about those. I like Toyotas, especially Camrys. I rented a Buick last summer that was a nice enough car, even luxurious, but it was a Buick. I just don't like Buicks. UPDATE: It was a Dodge. A nice Dodge, but I really hate Dodges. It all goes back to my ex-husband.
I'd planned to rent a car when I went to Orlando for A's birthday in January, but all they had left (I'm so sure) was a PT Cruiser, and I hate those things. For some reason they're just plain offensive to me. It's like a personal afront or something. I don't understand it, but it's there. So I refused the car and called J to come and get me at the airport. I simply would not pay to drive that thing.
Anyway, back to our current rental. It's a dark gray Toyota Prius Hybrid, and I'm totally smitten. It's not really pretty, but the seats are very comfortable and it feels like a big car in a small car's body. Not as much leg room as we'd like, but more than most small cars I've been in, and it has a full back seat.
It's an odd car. I can't really put it in words so I'll show you pictures.
This is the "key".
It's like no key I've ever seen. It's like a key fob for newer cars with keyless entry, but there's no KEY on it. It fits into a slot on the dashboard.
And you don't turn it to start the car. There's a big button above the slot, and you touch that to start it. You don't push it, you touch it.
The gear shift (well, it's an automatic, but I don't know what else to call it) is totally alien.
On Wednesday our Camry went in to be repaired (approximately $3500, I think) and we were given a rental car. I figured we'd end up with a GM or Ford product, and I'm not crazy about those. I like Toyotas, especially Camrys. I rented a Buick last summer that was a nice enough car, even luxurious, but it was a Buick. I just don't like Buicks. UPDATE: It was a Dodge. A nice Dodge, but I really hate Dodges. It all goes back to my ex-husband.
I'd planned to rent a car when I went to Orlando for A's birthday in January, but all they had left (I'm so sure) was a PT Cruiser, and I hate those things. For some reason they're just plain offensive to me. It's like a personal afront or something. I don't understand it, but it's there. So I refused the car and called J to come and get me at the airport. I simply would not pay to drive that thing.
Anyway, back to our current rental. It's a dark gray Toyota Prius Hybrid, and I'm totally smitten. It's not really pretty, but the seats are very comfortable and it feels like a big car in a small car's body. Not as much leg room as we'd like, but more than most small cars I've been in, and it has a full back seat.
It's an odd car. I can't really put it in words so I'll show you pictures.
This is the "key".
It's like no key I've ever seen. It's like a key fob for newer cars with keyless entry, but there's no KEY on it. It fits into a slot on the dashboard.
And you don't turn it to start the car. There's a big button above the slot, and you touch that to start it. You don't push it, you touch it.
The gear shift (well, it's an automatic, but I don't know what else to call it) is totally alien.
I still haven't figured out what "B" means. R, reverse, and D, drive. You just put your foot on the break, move the lever to the direction you want, and it goes into gear. Without any noise or effort. It just does it. UPDATE: It's for "brake", like when you're going down the mountain. In other vehicles we downshift to D2, but not in this one.
Park? Not on the lever. Again, foot on brake, then
touch P. That's it. Totally alien.
What I'm not crazy about is the display screen, but it can be turned off. If there's a screen anywhere in sight, I'm staring at it. I'm a product of the first generation of kids to have television. I've always thought that it's a good idea for airplanes to have videos that show how to use the seatbelts, etc. because if a tv is turned on, I'm looking at it. It's a curse, I tell you.
This isn't a clear shot; I didn't take the time to do a decent job since I was on my way into work. It shows the radio display; instead of buttons to push, it has a touch screen. There's also a sound screen for adjusting sound properties; I didn't get into that this morning. It was hard enough to drive a new, alien car and take photos while pushing buttons.
Okay, I was in the parking lot while I did all this. The car was not moving.
This screen shows the climate control system. So far we haven't quite figured out how to turn on and off the a/c, but we can adjust the temperature. Wednesday afternoon it was hot outside, so the air coming into the car was cool (see that top row of the display? It shows both the outside and inside temperature. That may not be new for you people, but for me it's really exciting.), and this morning, when it was chilly outside, the inside air was nice and warm.
I haven't explored this screen. I'm guessing it has a tripometer and stuff like that. As for language, well, wouldn't it be a wonderful idea to have it display say, Spanish or French, and really forget to watch the road?
Thank goodness it can be turned off.
I think I'm going to do some research and see just how much a car like this costs.
UPDATE: The only thing that I don't like about the car? It doesn't have XM radio. I've gotten very spoiled by XM. It can be gotten on a new car, though, and mine will have XM.
But it does have a cd player, so I can make do.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Knitting
I'm up to round 4 of Citrus. It's not looking any narrower, but them I'm not getting any narrower, either.
I also started another pair of socks this weekend. Citrus takes too much concentration, so if I can't pay total attention to what I'm doing, I can't work on it. Too much ripping out.
I also started another pair of socks this weekend. Citrus takes too much concentration, so if I can't pay total attention to what I'm doing, I can't work on it. Too much ripping out.
Claudia Handpaint with Regia cotton heels and toes
For me.
I'm going to knit a pair of thick, warm house socks with suede soles for Tom to wear in the winter, once I get the measurements and make sure I have enough yarn.
Sisters' Weekend!
Marie, Betty, Joan
Sometimes you just have to get away. This past weekend was one of those times.
My sisters and I try to get together away from home several times a year. It started out as once a year, then twice, then whenever we go to a concert, now we just go when we need to.
After debating the merits of different locations (Natural Bridge is a favorite; it's beautiful, peaceful, and there's nothing to do but enjoy the scenery), we ended up on a mountain top in a motel ("hotel" is really pushing the definition) in a room that was barely adequate, but clean enough and the place has a nice pool and a mostly-decent restaurant.
After thinking about it, we asked to be moved to another room because there was a group of big bushes across the sidewalk from our room, which was on the ground floor next to the pool. Evidentally "poolside" is ground floor and "pool view" is upper floor. There were only a few rooms available "poolside" (many were either empty of furniture or piled high with stuff from other rooms), but we were able to move to one a few doors down.
Joan came in about that time (Betty and I had gotten there a couple of hours earlier; Nancy had work to do and didn't come with us), so we went to dinner. The dining room has a wonderful view from two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the valley to the east. An incredible lightening storm with purple clouds came tearing through, and it was exhilarating to watch. Then the sunset was reflected from the clouds. We also saw a bobcat walking through the back yard of the property; he stopped and posed for a while and Joan took photos.
We didn't go back to the room till about 9:30, and we went to bed soon afterwards. By that time Betty and I were having respiratory difficulties; we both have allergies and I've been getting over bronchitis (after being put on prednisone for a few days, I was just starting to feel better and able to breathe more easily), but there was so much mold, mildew, dust, and bugs in that room that we choked up. But since it was late (by that time, it was about 10:30) and dark, we decided not to request yet another room change that night.
Filthy bathroom floor, room 2
Mold and filth in the bathroom
Stuff in the a/c unit of room 2
Mess under the headboard (the lamps weren't plugged in because the headboard was in the way)
The next morning we were pretty miserable, so when we went to the restaurant for breakfast, I requested another room change, this time on an upper floor. We moved again, this time into a much nicer (relatively speaking), cleaner room that didn't smell bad. What a pain that was, moving twice after settling in.
We spent the afternoon by the pool; the water was chilly, but Betty and Joan got in while I watched. I don't do cold water.
We had a wonderful time.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
I didn't do it, and the bear is okay.
So this is how our week (June 3 - 9) was.
1) I was sick all weekend, really sick. I missed work Friday and Monday, thereby using up all the sick leave I'm allowed for the year. (We can bank days, but I used them all up anyway.) Bronchitis, sinus infection, fluid behind the eardrums.
2) Tom went to Richmond for the press conference announcing a reward for information leading to etc. in his brother's murder case. They got a lot of tv coverage, even in our area, and are hopeful that it's enough money to make someone think about turning in his "buddy".
3) I took Zippy outside that afternoon off-leash. He does very well when he's with Tom, but he tends to ignore me. I walked around and looked at flowers and he disappeared. About 15 minutes later he came tearing back. I didn't even notice that he'd rolled in something, but it must have been pretty good, because he was coated with some incredibly stinky goo.
4) Tom came in. I still hadn't noticed Zip's new hairdo (nice and spiky) and immediately noted the fragrance. Evidentally it was pretty rank. I stuck the dog in the tub (still running a 100+ fever, feeling really rotten) and it took about 10 minutes to get all the "stuff" off him. The water ran brown the entire time. I scrubbed him as best I could, still not smelling a thing, so I guess it was good that I'm the one who washed him.
5) Tom can still smell the stink. I'm just starting to be able to get a tiny notion of what it was, but his nose is working. Seems that Zippy had rolled on the carpet after his roll outside, so the stink is permanently with us. Febreze has not touched it. UPDATE: Tom gave Zippy a bath this past weekend and reports that Zip is much more pleasant to be around now.
6) I have cell phone service with NTELOS, which is evidentally a Virginia-pretty-much-only company. They don't put much value on customer service. I've been with them for at least six years. I've been fighting them since I changed my plan at the end of March; they never credited me with that month's payment, instead they charged me for the plan I'd had for four years and changed on March 26 to a less-expensive plan. Half the price. I paid the bill in full when I bought my new phone that day.
For the past two months, I've received bills that still didn't reflect the change in rate. I went into the store, disputed the incorrect amount, and waited a week or two. My next bill still didn't show any change, so I called "customer service". The guy there was very helpful and agreed that I didn't owe the extra amount and put in another dispute. The first one was never recorded on my account, so nothing had happened. He said that after March 26, someone had gone into my account and changed it back to the higher plan; he had no explanation for that. He said to wait a couple of weeks and things should be fine. I paid the $50 that I owed and disputed the rest.
Got the bill for this month. It showed a past-due balance of $40. So back to the NTELOS store and another "customer service" rep. They never have the same people in there twice. I don't know if there's a big turnover or just schedules are different, but there's always someone new. I brought my contract, the last bill, and my impressions of it. After an hour of waiting while the cs rep went over my last three months' bills with some guy, I don't know if he was the manager or what, but he never spoke to me. They agreed that I owed the money, that they'd refunded it.
It just didn't sound right to me. I'm really really bad with numbers, but I knew those bills were wrong and they owed me $40 and an apology. However, that didn't happen. We left and I mentioned to Tom that I pay for this service in advance, not after the fact, and somewhere in those bills it should show where that money was refunded. Okay, now he realized what was going on; he thought that it was like a regular phone bill, paid for what I'd used in the last month. So we turned around, he went back in and spent half an hour going over the bills with Mr. Whoeverhewas, and pointed out the mistake. Slowly and painfully. He came out with the printout with Mr. W's signature that the money had been taken off my bill. It took over 2.5 hours to get that straightened out.
Whew. All that for $40. But it gets better.
7) So we were late going home. It was a beautiful evening, first really clear day in ages. We live on the far side of civilization and take a two-lane road 30 miles across the mountain into West Virginia. A few miles from the mountain we rounded a curve and lo and behold, there was a big old black bear running down the center of our lane right toward us. You don't fight a bear with a car and come out in good shape, and we didn't want to hit it, so Tom stood on the brakes. Thank God for ABS. We stopped in time to leave the bear in good health, he scampered on up the cliff by the road, and WHAM. A pickup truck crashed into the back of the car. To his credit, he skidded trying to avoid us, but it pretty much did in the left back end of our car, which we'd just gotten (used) in August to replace the Camry that died in a driveway while we were in Europe.
I jumped out of the car with my camera and started documenting the drama. I've always got my camera with me, and this is twice I've used this one to document an accident.
We waited for the state police to make his way that far off the interstate (fortunately, no one was badly hurt; we both have sore necks; I was twisted around in my seat watching the bear), he interviewed both Tom and the poor boy driving the truck, exchanged insurance info and off we went. The car is driveable, but the alignment is definitely a leetle bit off.
So, who knows. It's a 1999 Camry (and I can't say enough good things about Camrys; this is the third I've had and has over 154,000 miles on it; the last two were comparable), only cost $6000 last August and is possibly totalled. It'll cost thousands to repair, so it might be totalled.
*Sigh* I hate car-shopping.
UPDATE: The car goes in on Wednesday to be appraised or whatever it is they do to wrecked cars. We went to the ER the day after the wreck just to check things out; no damage from the wreck (although Tom's trapezius was in spasm from the crash), but I have arthritis in my neck. Great. And I'm finally feeling much better after the bout with bronchitis, but poor Tom has the crud now.
1) I was sick all weekend, really sick. I missed work Friday and Monday, thereby using up all the sick leave I'm allowed for the year. (We can bank days, but I used them all up anyway.) Bronchitis, sinus infection, fluid behind the eardrums.
2) Tom went to Richmond for the press conference announcing a reward for information leading to etc. in his brother's murder case. They got a lot of tv coverage, even in our area, and are hopeful that it's enough money to make someone think about turning in his "buddy".
3) I took Zippy outside that afternoon off-leash. He does very well when he's with Tom, but he tends to ignore me. I walked around and looked at flowers and he disappeared. About 15 minutes later he came tearing back. I didn't even notice that he'd rolled in something, but it must have been pretty good, because he was coated with some incredibly stinky goo.
4) Tom came in. I still hadn't noticed Zip's new hairdo (nice and spiky) and immediately noted the fragrance. Evidentally it was pretty rank. I stuck the dog in the tub (still running a 100+ fever, feeling really rotten) and it took about 10 minutes to get all the "stuff" off him. The water ran brown the entire time. I scrubbed him as best I could, still not smelling a thing, so I guess it was good that I'm the one who washed him.
5) Tom can still smell the stink. I'm just starting to be able to get a tiny notion of what it was, but his nose is working. Seems that Zippy had rolled on the carpet after his roll outside, so the stink is permanently with us. Febreze has not touched it. UPDATE: Tom gave Zippy a bath this past weekend and reports that Zip is much more pleasant to be around now.
6) I have cell phone service with NTELOS, which is evidentally a Virginia-pretty-much-only company. They don't put much value on customer service. I've been with them for at least six years. I've been fighting them since I changed my plan at the end of March; they never credited me with that month's payment, instead they charged me for the plan I'd had for four years and changed on March 26 to a less-expensive plan. Half the price. I paid the bill in full when I bought my new phone that day.
For the past two months, I've received bills that still didn't reflect the change in rate. I went into the store, disputed the incorrect amount, and waited a week or two. My next bill still didn't show any change, so I called "customer service". The guy there was very helpful and agreed that I didn't owe the extra amount and put in another dispute. The first one was never recorded on my account, so nothing had happened. He said that after March 26, someone had gone into my account and changed it back to the higher plan; he had no explanation for that. He said to wait a couple of weeks and things should be fine. I paid the $50 that I owed and disputed the rest.
Got the bill for this month. It showed a past-due balance of $40. So back to the NTELOS store and another "customer service" rep. They never have the same people in there twice. I don't know if there's a big turnover or just schedules are different, but there's always someone new. I brought my contract, the last bill, and my impressions of it. After an hour of waiting while the cs rep went over my last three months' bills with some guy, I don't know if he was the manager or what, but he never spoke to me. They agreed that I owed the money, that they'd refunded it.
It just didn't sound right to me. I'm really really bad with numbers, but I knew those bills were wrong and they owed me $40 and an apology. However, that didn't happen. We left and I mentioned to Tom that I pay for this service in advance, not after the fact, and somewhere in those bills it should show where that money was refunded. Okay, now he realized what was going on; he thought that it was like a regular phone bill, paid for what I'd used in the last month. So we turned around, he went back in and spent half an hour going over the bills with Mr. Whoeverhewas, and pointed out the mistake. Slowly and painfully. He came out with the printout with Mr. W's signature that the money had been taken off my bill. It took over 2.5 hours to get that straightened out.
Whew. All that for $40. But it gets better.
7) So we were late going home. It was a beautiful evening, first really clear day in ages. We live on the far side of civilization and take a two-lane road 30 miles across the mountain into West Virginia. A few miles from the mountain we rounded a curve and lo and behold, there was a big old black bear running down the center of our lane right toward us. You don't fight a bear with a car and come out in good shape, and we didn't want to hit it, so Tom stood on the brakes. Thank God for ABS. We stopped in time to leave the bear in good health, he scampered on up the cliff by the road, and WHAM. A pickup truck crashed into the back of the car. To his credit, he skidded trying to avoid us, but it pretty much did in the left back end of our car, which we'd just gotten (used) in August to replace the Camry that died in a driveway while we were in Europe.
I jumped out of the car with my camera and started documenting the drama. I've always got my camera with me, and this is twice I've used this one to document an accident.
We waited for the state police to make his way that far off the interstate (fortunately, no one was badly hurt; we both have sore necks; I was twisted around in my seat watching the bear), he interviewed both Tom and the poor boy driving the truck, exchanged insurance info and off we went. The car is driveable, but the alignment is definitely a leetle bit off.
So, who knows. It's a 1999 Camry (and I can't say enough good things about Camrys; this is the third I've had and has over 154,000 miles on it; the last two were comparable), only cost $6000 last August and is possibly totalled. It'll cost thousands to repair, so it might be totalled.
*Sigh* I hate car-shopping.
UPDATE: The car goes in on Wednesday to be appraised or whatever it is they do to wrecked cars. We went to the ER the day after the wreck just to check things out; no damage from the wreck (although Tom's trapezius was in spasm from the crash), but I have arthritis in my neck. Great. And I'm finally feeling much better after the bout with bronchitis, but poor Tom has the crud now.
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