It’s late for this I know…

OK so for 2009 I had the following goals:

Knitting
I will knit myself 2 sweaters.
I will knit myself a matching pair of socks.
I will knit shmoo something to be determined at a later date.
(ETA: He wants more socks. He mentioned something about “If that will help you knit more socks I’ll get you two of them!” And I said, “So you really like your socks then?” And he replied, “Hell yes!” Hehe.)

Soap
I will make at least one batch of soap a month or at least 12 over the course of 2009.
I will make liquid soap.

Warcraft
I will level my priest (51) and hunter (69) to 80, before giving up and totally abandoning them both to focus on my Mage (already 80) and my Druid (76).

I didn’t knit 2 sweaters. I did knit 2 complete pairs of MATCHING socks. I did knit something for shmoo, but it wasn’t socks, it was a cowl, that he isn’t using because he’s too manly for scarves or something.

I didn’t do a batch of soap a month, I only did 5 for the whole year. I didn’t do liquid soap.

My priest, and druid are both 80 now, my hunter is not, but she is lvl 72, so I’ll call it a win. I tried raiding full-time. I tried not raiding. I am back to raiding intermittently as a fill in. We faction transferred toons to be horde. We abandoned our WoW blog.

For 2010 I have no real resolutions.
Not for crafting. Not for gaming. I just want to live life as it happens and if it’s something worth blogging about, that’s great. If it’s not, well that’s what twitter is for. I am only going to do the things I am truly interested in and that have value to me, and just kinda let the cards fall where they may.

Daisy is good. She is a spoiled rotten princess, and going to have to relearn her manners very soon I think. Being an invalid who was the center of attention and was catered to was right up her alley. And it now looks like she won’t have very much scar at all.

The Jeep is back and fine. My car has been in for repairs and a general check up.

I knit a calorimetry. They still look stupid on me. They still keep my ears warm though.

I’ve just had a kidney stone(s) again. It was all the joy I remember it to be, without the trip to the hospital this time, because I knew what was happening. I should probably remember to call my doctor about it though and let him know.

And that’s about it.

Wishing you and yours a belated but happy new year/decade!

Seriously. It’s been a hard month.

Daisy is fine btw, still some left side weakness but expected to recover fully. Her staples are out and she’s going to have a small scar, but that’s ok. It seems like you shouldn’t come through something like that without a scar.

2 feet of snow this past weekend. None of shmoo’s employees can manage to get their shit together and show up for work, despite knowing they are critical staff, and this is part of their hiring agreement. He was supposed to be off Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues, and then cover the end of the week for one of the guys to be off with his kids for Christmas.

Instead he had to work 7pm-7am to cover the night manager who called in 6 hours before he had to be at work… and then the owner had to cover the day shift, because the girl that was supposed to be in called out last minute, because she tried to get shmoo to cover her shift and was all “what?” when told he could not because he had to work over night already. The weenie night manager then called in again, but got the other night guy to come in for him, and the other night guy called us this morning at 7am, because princess-can’t-come-to-work No Call/No Showed.

THEN!… shmoo goes out to get into his jeep and go to work to relieve the night guy… and his Jeep, it is gone. GONE. Not been towed. Oh no. One of the neighbors saw someone come take it at 2:00am. They pulled up in a Jeep Wrangler, stole our Cherokee, and left, following each other out.

THEN, after being on the phone with the police, the night manager calls shmoo to say for a THIRD NIGHT, he still can’t make it in, because his window is cracked….. CRACKED. CALLED IN 10 HOURS AHEAD OF TIME because he it was “unsafe to drive” which is total bullshit, his window had been cracked for months, and it was a 10 buck fix, and he fucked up and didn’t get it done, and now he has to live with that, and he is gonna use his fuck up to call out.

Unfortunately, he was trumped by shmoo’s jeep being stolen. Thanks for playing asshole, try again. Also, try showing up for work sometime.

So shmoo called the night guy back AND the owner to say, “this sucks, but hey, jeep stolen!” So the owner went in again today to cover the day shift.

While he was on the phone with the insurance company, the police called back to say they had found the Jeep, and did we want to save the impound fees and go get it. Why yes, yes we did. So we went way out to Bowie, (and well surprised the Jeep made it that far, it has issues!) and got it. It was still running when we got there. Apparantly when they abandoned it, they didn’t shut it off BECAUSE THEY HAD TORE OUT THE IGNITION AND SCREWED THE STEERING COLUMN. They stole another Jeep Cherokee from the place they dumped ours, and left. We drove it to our repair guy and left it. It’s a 600 dollar fix, but we have it back, and it runs. so yay, or something.

And now, shmoo is planning to work tomorrow (his final day off he was supposed to have this week) because that stupid girl STILL won’t return any calls, and even turned off her phone while he was calling her.

Apparantly the economy is fucking brilliant because none of these fuckers want to work and this one girl is just begging to be fired at this point. It’s a good damned thing I am not her manager because she would already be out and I would arranging to dock her pay for all the hours she didn’t show up from her last check. I don’t want shmoo to have to work 2 weeks straight between covering for everyone and then firing this girl, but damn, at least then we know what our plans are from day to day and don’t have to keep changing them because no one is showing up for work like they should.   We can’t even go to the grocery store because every time we have planned to do so, something else has gone nuts.

I am ready for this to be over.

(stay until your love is….) Sorry…. couldn’t resist Simple Minds.

I’d like to have the time to post about how I feel now that I am officially in my mid-to-late 30s… (I hit 35 on black friday!)
Or how I seem to be dealing with that by deciding to learn to play guitar. No idea why other than “I WANT TO!”
Or I am getting tons of knitting done, or spinning marvelous yarns, or even spending too much time playing Warcraft.

But I don’t have time for these things. I barely have time to know what my name is it seems like. Work is crazy right now, full of clients that are stressing about deadlines that they’ve known about for over a year and only now doing something about and suddenly they don’t have enough time!!! ZOMG!..
And at home, my kitchen is a sty, I don’t have much time for anything that isn’t cooking dinner, eating dinner, doing laundry for the dog, feeding the dog, cleaning up after the dog, spending quality time with the dog, and sometimes, sleeping.

But my girl, she’s worth it, and she’s been through a lot to stay here with me, so I’ll keep my end of the deal and do my part.

I do want to add that shmoo totally loves me (and the dog too!), and he’s been great through all of it and I couldn’t ask for a better partner. I don’t think I tell him enough that he does a good job, but I do notice, and I do appreciate it.

It’s a bit late, but I was busy cooking like a madwoman all day, and then yesterday was filled up with the Dog being sick.

So I hope you all had a lovely and safe Thanksgiving.

our Thanksgiving feast

I finished up my Vivid Shawl finally. It was pretty much my only knitting during vacation just because it was easy to do while watching tv and talking to family. It’s done using my handspun yarns from the fiber I got from Cloverleaf Farms at MSW a few years ago.

It’s the perfect size for a scarf or a small wrap, and I have already given it to a co-worker’s wife to use as easily portable neck wear that can easily be used as a warm cover for breast-feeding this winter.

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And I’ve started socks for shmoo with the yarn he picked out on vacation.

So, like.. it’s cold. Fall is definitively here and I just want to say, I’d like a little more of cool late summer back please!

Vacation was good and much needed.

I got yarn.

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And new awesomely awesome shoes, which it is now too cold to wear….

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And my mom caught a really big fish. (They said it was a King Mackerel, but to me, fish is fish is fish, and it’s all yuck, so…yay fish or something.)

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I love my family, and I miss Georgia in a bajillion numerous ways and when I land at Hartsfield airport, even though we are just passing through, it still feels like I am coming home. But vacation always puts things back into perspective, and while I miss many things about Georgia and missing seeing my family, I know that I am happier not living too close to them. I am not any easier to live with than they are mind you, but my quirks are different. And a lot of the things that send me right up the wall are things they don’t even notice, and vice versa.

I am not sure when shmoo and I developed an exclusive language that no one around us can understand, but it seems we have. I guess you just notice more when around others. And! He’s seen how crazy my family is and understands that I will be that crazy someday, and in fact am often at least halfway there now, if not more. And he still loves me!

I normally don’t bother to keep track of my blogging anniversary but for some reason this year I noticed it.
Four years ago today, my first post was made.

I have officially been boring you with dog photos and unfinished knits for 4 years.

In some ways I am proud of my blog, and at other times, I wonder why I bother. I feel like Ravelry has killed knitting blogs for the most part, and those of us who keep blogging have had to change and evolve or it’s just redundancy from what we’ve put on Ravelry.

But that’s ok I think, since people evolve anyway, and if all I ever posted about was knitting I’d feel like I wasn’t growing as a person. Even if I just post about crafty exploits, it’s neat to be able to go back and see how I’ve evolved in a particular craft. My knitting is tons better. My spinning both started and got better during this time, and my sewing has improved a bit as well. And as I look to start weaving in the next year, it will be nice to have a diary of that progression as well.

I think that I still enjoy blogging and sharing those random thoughts and what I am creating, even though working and gaming has slowed down that creating quite a bit. So thanks for visiting and reading and commenting and sharing these past four years with me.

And thanks for continuing to come read and comment and share with me in the future as I randomly post about my varied crafting efforts.

We are officially on vacation! Wooooo. I have been looking forward to this for months now and now that we are here, and unpacked and ready to just enjoy our week, I think I will!

We are staying at the same place we stayed in 06, so while yes, I could go out and take a new picture, I’m lazy. So go check out the photo Gallery and look at the St. George 2006 pics if you are interested.

One of the bonuses of this year for us was we have the Master Bedroom/Bath. Ah the benefits of it being your turn to pay!

My family is still not here yet. I can only blame this on my Nana. Never mind that they have known that this trip was a go since June, she still wasn’t packed as of this morning and according to my mother had decided to re-pot plants instead of getting her shit together so they could go.

And my Aunt Nannie (love you! mean it!) had to spend time writing out checks to pay bills on the way out of town since they will be gone… lrn2paybillsonlinezomg!!!! The webbernets cannot work for you if you do not use them people!!!!

Shmoo and I are gonna hit the water, but I felt the need to post to let folks know I am alive.

I went and turned in the car and the person who checked me in was one of the managers. She was very nice and while she couldn’t go back in time and make it like it never happened, she addressed all of my concerns and did everything she could to make amends and I am satisfied. I’d probably go back and rent from them again now as long as I didn’t have to deal with Bill.

We went camping at Assateague this past weekend. Didn’t take any photos, but had a relaxing time none the less. It was a good trip, with one exception…

The rental car and the douchebag* at the local Enterprise Car Rental Agency.

First, we got there and he had us sit down at his desk, which was covered in papers and notepads with other peoples’ names all over them.
I handed him our reservation.
He proceeded to “just get this entered in” and had the personality of a wet mop.
THEN when asking about additional drivers, and I stated that shmoo and I were “domestic partners” he said, “So you’re married.” And I said,
“NO. We are domestic partners, and according to the reservation that’s fine, and there’s no additional charge.” So he looks to another guy to confirm this and the guy did.
So, that pissed me off right to start with. And from this point on he kept looking at the guy every two minutes or so as if to say “can you believe these people?”

Then he overcharged us, but I didn’t say anything, I just figured I’d sort it out with corporate later. Because I was already mad, and we just wanted to go on our trip.
And then he takes us out to the car, and insults us more in other minor ways there. He’s very condescending over all. Which I don’t understand. I mean, sure, we are dressed like we are going camping, but I am not sure how that determines how you get to treat me as a customer, AND doesn’t give us the car we asked for on the reservation, or even the same type, and while I am looking it over and questioning the space he’s like “yeah I upgraded you, because we were out of the size you reserved.”

Okaaaay.
1. I reserved it over a month ago so there is no excuse for not having the damned car I wanted, they knew I was coming.
2. He had us pay BEFORE he told us it was an upgrade.. wtf. Had he told us this before hand, I would have canceled and walked out. My car would have worked just fine for our trip. We had reasons for reserving what we did. We wanted to try a specific type of car to see if we liked it and wanted to buy one, and to get better gas mileage than just taking my car.
3. The car was dirty. Both outside, and in. And he blew off the dirt inside when we were going over the car saying that it didn’t matter, he was just looking for burns. And by he, he meant us. Then he recorded what we said poorly. And since it was raining, I couldn’t tell that the leaves and stuff stuck to the car weren’t that way because of the rain, but because the entire back window of the car and the rear passenger side was covered in sap. Sticky, gross, sap. It got on your clothes and hands any time you opened the back passenger door, and it impaired my rear view because it covered the WHOLE BACK WINDOW. Srsly. I shit you not. I couldn’t see anything but hazy colors out the back window. It made lane changing a blast let me tell you.
4. No wiper fluid in the car. At all.
5. The car had a 1/4 tank of gas. Who rents a car out with only a quarter tank of gas?

I’ll tell you who.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car
12214 CHERRY HILL RD
SILVER SPRING, MD 20904-1669

So, should you be in Maryland, and wish to rent a car, don’t go there. You’ve been warned.
(I have been assured by corporate that Enterprise dealerships are independent, and if they lose all their customers for crap service, Enterprise Corporate will NOT bail them out, so I won’t say don’t use Enterprise at all, but this office can stick it.)

I was so angry about this whole debacle that I waited until Friday afternoon to call Enterprise corporate because I wanted to be sure I wasn’t screaming and frothing at the mouth when I talked to them. Luckily, the guy I got was very nice and very understanding, and when I told him EVERYTHING, he was insulted for me.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I get to go turn in this car and scream at Enterprise.
(Shmoo is not coming in with me, he’s just coming to pick me up and bring me back to the house for my car. He said if I am still slamming the guy’s head into the desk when he drives by, he’ll just keep circling.)
((Yes, I am still that angry.))

*- douchebag’s name is Bill. At least, I think it is. He wrote Bill in big childlike letters at the top of my invoice, and I am not sure if that’s his name, since he never gave it to us nor was he wearing a name tag, or if he was trying to tell me that the invoice was my bill, because he thought we were stupid. If it’s the latter and not the first, I seriously might lose my shit this morning upon turning the car in.