Yeah, I got nothin'

Conversation stole from Samurai Knitter. Questions are the same, but the answers are Grilltech's.

Me: What is your favourite thing about my knitting?

Grilltech: It keeps you calm.

Me: What is your least favourite thing about my knitting?

Grilltech: Uh, nothing.

Me: What is something I have knitted, that you recall as good?

Grilltech: The sweater you knit me, the green one.

Me: Do you think knitters have an expensive hobby?

Grilltech: Not really.

Me: Any hobbies?

Grilltech: Does brewing beer count?

Me: Do you have a stash of any kind?

Grilltech: Yes.

Me: Have I ever embarrassed you, knitting in public?

Grilltech: Yes, a couple of times. (He refused to comment further at this point.)

Me: Do you know my favourite kind of yarn?

Grilltech: Alpaca? (Not Alpaca, I'd have to say Regia Silk is wonderful.)

Me: Can you name another blog?

Grilltech: Yarn Harlot, crazy Aunt Purl, Yarning to Write, Luvs to Knit....

List Day!

• The alarm went off three times this morning.


• Only three cars parked at the bar this morning.


• I've had three people whining at my desk this morning.


• I'm hoping they're done now.


• Okay, so I was wrong, two more have latched onto me.


• I can feel my energy level being drained.


• I really should have called in sick this morning.


• Maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket, my odds of winning only slight increase if I buy a ticket.


• I wonder if it's the lack of sleep that's making me short tempered or the id10t's I'm dealing with.


• I don't have a life line on the shawl and I've messed up.


• Maybe that's the real reason I'm crabby.


• No, it's definitely the id10t's.


• The gusset is started on Grilltech's second sock.


• Things seem to have calmed down around here.


• I haven't decided what I'm going to do about the shawl.


• I have 20 minutes left of work, it's dragging slow.


• Perky, I was at work. Grilltech supports the other network.


• What are they thinking?!


• If I nap this afternoon, I'll be able to stay up late tonight.


• It's Dr Who night!


• Uggy is intensely watching a squirrel in the yard.


• She'd have no clue what to do if I opened the door and let her out.


• Grilltech is going to take Peaches in be shaved!


• Go wish Bree happy birthday!


• Don't you love being told what to do?


• I've got to go spend 10 minutes riding and my legs hurt already!


• I'm back to plotting.


• Tomorrow I need to weed the lavender. It’s way overgrown with weeds.

Tech Support

I'm a geek, I admit it. I know enough about computers to be dangerous. Grilltech will ask me questions about how do you make M$ Word (or Excel) do X or Y or Z. And I can tell him. If I needed to, I could build a computer. It's mostly a question of how I want to spend my time. I've worked phone support, so I know the party line. It also allows me to recognize when I'm being fed a line.

Today I called in to tech support because an application wasn't working correctly. The tech (who was from India) tried various things and then begins to tell me it's because I'm not an admin on my machine is the reason why the application wasn't working. I'm not that hungry at this point, so I'm not falling for what he's telling me. I told him, that excuse won't work because if it was just me, fine; but it's three different locations and 24 plus people. Try again. He then tells me, yea there is a problem, you're my third phone call. He asks a bunch of questions and tells me he's sending it up to their NOC (Network Operations Center). Within ten minutes it was up and running - about the length of time I spent on the call. Yea, thanks for wasting my time.

I worked on the sweater yesterday. Completed about two rows. It's about the length of my palm now. I was using a short cable needle to work the cables, but I've decided I didn't like how it was two sizes to big. I've now switched to a bamboo needle, size one. It's a bit longer, but I'm happier. The shawl is sitting next to my monitoring feeling very neglected. I haven't worked on for about a week now. I really should, because it would put me right next to the fan where it would be quite a bit cooler. (We're suppose to reach triple digits. UGH!) We may turn on the AC if it continues to stay this hot.

I've decided tonight's dinner is going to be chicken salad. It's the left over chicken from taco's last night. I was going to use it to make soup, but I don't have any soup stock. The kids steal it; okay I give it to them. On the way home, I'll swing by the store and pick up some tomatoes - now that the FDA has decreed them safe for consumption. I'm going to slice them thin and eat it like a cracker. Grilltech will most likely make a sandwich.

I also need to call my Aunt and move breakfast on Saturday to 0900 or if the time can't be moved the location will need to be. Komdadant can't make 0930. She was more then happy to move the time to 0900; even happier when I mentioned the Eldest and clan would be coming. I also need to get the package in the mail today. Hmm tough choice, mail Galad's package or go knit. Sorry Galad, Grilltech told me I needed to go knit after work today, instead of going home, so it will get put in the mail tomorrow afternoon.

I live such an exciting life, don't I? Yawn

Because I'm a Lemming....

We had BLT's for dinner last night. This morning here at work I can still smell bacon. Not sure why, but it's almost annoying.

No real knitting news to report. I did work on the sock at the dentist's office. They ask if I don't have one. Too hot/tired to work on anything else last night. Tonight, I'm hoping to get the floors cleaned. Stupid cats.

And now for something completely different: (Thanks Deb)

you are palegreen #98FB98

Your dominant hue is green. You're logical and steadfast, focused on figuring life out and doing what makes sense. You value being trusted because you know you're taking the time to figure things out and everyone should just follow you. Your saturation level is lower than average - You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do. Finishing projects may sometimes be a challenge, but you schedule time as you see fit and the important things all happen in the end, even if not everyone sees your grand master plan. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

And the winner is....

Yes, I know. I'm a bad blogger. I should have posted this on Friday, but I was lazy. Well, not completely lazy because I did kill some demons. But you're not here to read about me killing demons or knitting rows on my sweater. I'm sure you'd like to know who won. I'd show up pictures of what was won, but the camera is still missing. Grilltech gets a bit crabby at times when I take his phone. (Oh course he'll lie and say honey you can borrow it any time you want to!) So there won't be any pictures of the two books.

The Eldest and clan came over on Saturday. They were on their way swimming and swung in to say hello. While they where at the house I had the Eldest pick the winner; which turns out to be Galad. I'll leave it to her to show you the goods. How's that for lazy?

I forced Grilltech to take me out Saturday night to watch the moon rise. There was a warm breeze which by the end of the night, was darn right cold. He saw two meteors, I saw two satellites. I think he had the better show. The moon was a lovely shade of peach due to the fires in California. One morning last week, it was blood red. Very pretty.

I finished Grilltech's first sock. The second one is started and should be worked on at the dentist's office this afternoon. I have a teeth cleaning appointment. Hopefully this sock won't be as whiny has it's twin or it's owner. I did a short-row toe on the sock then bound off causing a ridge. It looks a bit different then the normal wedge. He tried on the sock, and mentioned it's not as stretchy as the other ones. Which makes sense, I'm using size 1 needles with sport weight yarn. It should stand up to the abuse Grilltech puts his house socks through.

List Day!

• What is the correct etiquette for doors when two people arrive at the same time?


• 0400 is still pretty early.


• And Grilltech has to be in at 0400 as well.


• Cube mates are eating red vines. I'm not.


• However, I'm ready to go back to bed.


• The sock has been worked on, the gusset is done and a new color has been joined.


• There are doughnuts in Grilltech's bay. Bastards.


• Now they've moved the red vines next to me.


• So far, I've behaved and eaten my peppers.


• Random overheard conversation: I've been in jail five times...


• I moved the red vines, so they wouldn't tempt me.


• I'm not thinking of anything exciting to put down.


• I did complete four rows on the third chart. I'm almost to the half way point of charts.


• Notice I said charts, not half way done with the shawl.


• I was a bit crabby yesterday, dealing with huge pricks egos; tends to make me that way.


• Amy, I was Athena as well.


• And no, I wasn't mad at Grilltech, just his department head.


• Don't forget, the contest ends on Friday at 1200 MST*.

*Or something like that...

Happy 400th!

Let me try this again. Happy 400th blog post! I started a post yesterday, but could. not. function. correctly. Plus it was a Monday at work (read everything was broken). But you aren't here to read about work are you? No, I should talk about knitting, which I didn't do any last night. It was WAY to h-o-t. But the sock did get worked on at knit group, it's about 10 grams away from moving to a new color. Trying to decide the next color is somewhat of a pain in the arse ass. It could go with a grey or black (two colors I have) or it could end up with something completely crazy.

Onward and upwards, about the 400th blog post give-a-way. I have two books - a children's sweater book and a sock book - that I know I'll be giving away, but I'm not sure about anything else. Maybe some redheart baby yarn to go with the book sweater book? What do you need to do to win? Leave a comment on this post and on Friday I'll have a number picked at random.

The Loot!

When I came out to the living room Friday morning, I could hear some shuffling out on the back porch. Fran is staring intensely out the back door. I'm thinking, oh-great-it's Steve*. I flip on the light to scare him off, and three raccoons scatter. One runs to the back of the house. Another runs to the side. And one stays where he's at and glares at me. The kitties didn't get let out Friday morning.



The booklet is called Curvy Knits. It has four patterns in it for the fluffier lady. The tank top is really cute. The lace book is packed full of lace patterns, stitches, and how-to. The Art of Fair Isle Knitting is going to be my introduction color knitting. I've done some stranded knitting, but it's really tight. I'm hoping it will give me some good tips. It has nothing to do with the fact the colors on the back are ones I'm drawn to. No really.

The green and purple with greens (in hanks) is Paca-Peds H-T, superwash alpaca sock yarn. Grilltech really liked the green gator, which looks like camouflage to me. The deep seas is mine. When I showed Perky, she about drooled all over it. I had to wipe it off and then hide it so it didn't fall into her bag when she left. The blues and purples is a trekking pro natura.

My next post will be the big 400. Stay tuned for a give away.

And for those of you who don't read Dilbert, you should every now and then.

* Steve is a large tomcat who terrorizes our cats. I believe he is the cause of several of Sabrina's past injuries.

To the Knitter...

Grilltech's sock here.

The Knitter isn't fair! Want proof? Here is Knittech's sock at the brew pub.
Doesn't it look like it's have a good time?

What do I get? Started on the day they're leaving vacation, about 30 minutes before they walk out the door. Then what happens? The knitter drives for four hours, leaving me to languish in the bag. I'm only taken out to have pictures taken in scenic locations, but I'm not worked on.


The knitter finally is able to knit, then what happens? They stop to get a picture and you can't even tell I've been worked on. Is it fair? Heck no!

Speaking of fair, the knitter finished a pair of socks for her on the trip, but me? She only works on me during break or if she has to wait for periods of time. I'd go on strike, but then I'd never get finished. I wonder if the shawl and sweater suddenly went 'missing' if I'd get more needle action...





Maybe I should point out I'm a simple knit, unlike the other two.

Love the Sock

List Day!

• For some reason I woke up at 0200 and couldn't quite get back to sleep this morning.


• Waking up that early wasn't really a bad thing, since I'm working OT.


• I didn't knit last night, instead I somewhat picked up the house.


• Yeah, it didn't take me that long to pick up, but it was too hot to do much of anything.


• Six hours to go. This day is mostly over.


• What ever it takes to make it through the day, right?


• My cube mate is back from vacation. He's making one of my monitors vibrate.


• I hate that.


• I forgot to check the bar this morning on the drive in.


• One early morning I drove by a house full of lights and people. I realized they were still going from last night's party and I was on my way into to work at 0330.


• I look one minute and there are 20+ calls hanging, I look again and we're down to six.


• Grilltech is such a sweetie, he gave me two bits.


• Two bits, not to be confused with two bytes.


• I didn't pull anything out for dinner tonight, guess it's going to be hotdogs and salad again.


• I'm back to 15 minutes on the bike.


• Grilltech says the cleaning lady has changed her tactics. Now she takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to clean the bathrooms.


• Cube mate brought BK for lunch. Hmmm fries.


• I guess I should read those #$@& e-mails. I could have been wearing jeans today.


• So when you're near me, darling can't you hear the S-O-S?


• Stupid communicator, it doesn't work half the time.


• Did you know the smell of burger lingers long after the actual burger is gone.


• I really don't want hotdogs for dinner tonight. Guess I'd better figure something else out.


• Four more hours! Four more hours!


• Can you tell I've got nothing for the blog today?


• I really need to get Grilltech to e-mail the pictures, so I can post progress.


• Someone just walked by with popcorn or I'm having a stroke.


• Two more hours!! Two more hours!


• I spent 1035.2 seconds running the morning reskill, this afternoon.


• I was handed an unexpected surprise. My replacement showed up an hour early.


• I'm going home!


• To the SUV turning at the corner, one word: Signals!


• Why is it going to work I'm always under the speed limit, but coming home I'm always over?

Back to Work

Its odd to be back at work after a couple of days off. One gets used to staying up several hours past the regular bed time, which makes it somewhat harder to get to bed at the regular time. The alarm in the morning? It was evil, very evil. Today is a day of meetings, so it will be somewhat of an easy day. It doesn't help that stuff is broken. All I can do is watch helplessly as calls build up and stay that way. People are snappy, because nothing seems to be going right.

I did get several rows (six to be exact) completed on the shawl last night. Which puts me about six rows away from being done with the second chart. Not real sure what I'll be working on tonight.

I thought I had grabbed my chap stick out of the car this morning, turns out I didn't. On the plus side, I found the dental floss I have been searching for. It was on the drawer I have at work. It must have fallen out at some point while I was grabbing my purse. I had looked for it this weekend, but couldn't find it.

We saw Hancock on Monday morning. I liked it. No major plot holes, but I did think they could have added a bit more to help fill in what little gaps there were. Jason Bateman did a nice job of being a man with conviction. The second meeting was great. They kept trying to go in one direction, and he never acknowledged they're comments. Sure he didn't get what he wanted because he wasn't talking to his audience, but he wasn't going to be side tracked.

I've got an hour to go, then I'll be waiting for Grilltech to get off. It's way to hot to go sit in the car and knit, so I'll be in the break room with headphones. Hopefully the headphones will deter people from wanting to do stupid conversations. Oh, my grandmother used to crochet. My sister's, brother's, roommate's dog, aunt Sara knits, do you know her?

A Quick Overview

It was a quick trip to the MIL’s over the 4th of July weekend. Grilltech did most of the driving, because I’d rather knit. When I did drive he was bored, forced to watch the river through the window. So I let him finish the drive, which made us both happy. I did finish my first anklet on Thursday. On Saturday, I finished the second one. They are comfortably ensconced on my feet as I typed most of this post.

I used Persistent Illusion’s page of area’s yarn stores and managed to make it to a couple of them.

The first shop – Stitchcraft - was pretty new, opened within a couple of weeks. We walk up to the door and find it locked. We can see people in the store, but the door won’t open. We’re standing there talking with the but why won’t the door open? Tried the door again, and she came running over and opened the door. Her husband and children were at the store before we showed up and one of the children had locked the door. We laughed and wandered about the store. Her shop only carries natural fibers, excluding sock yarns which have some nylon in them. She didn’t have a real big selection, but her shop was bright and airy. I did find some trekking bamboo I couldn’t live without.

The second shop - Unraveled - was about four blocks away so we walked there. There was a knit group of about four ladies there, talking about local politics. Grilltech sat down and was happy, because it reminded him my LYS. It’s nice to know knitters are the same around the country. The second shop has the lived in feeling. I did pick up two skeins of an alpaca sock yarn. Not sure how it will turn out, because I’ve hard that alpaca doesn’t make real good sock yarn. But you only live once.

While I was paying, someone called on her phone line. She had frowned because she wasn’t sure the payment had gone through correctly, but it had. Later that night I checked the bank account and saw the payment had been deducted twice. So on Saturday we went back and I explained the error and she was going to check into it. We made it back and I checked the bank again, and it had corrected itself. So, I’ll call her on Sunday and let her know it had been handled by the bank.

On the 4th, Grilltech and I went to his friend’s house. I think I had met him once ages ago. Grilltech had a wonderful time reminiscing of times along ago and far away. The sampling of beers gave him ideas of what he might want to brew. Next year he wants to bring some of his homebrews to share. I did chat, but spent most of the time knitting quietly in the middle of the group letting conversation flow around me. After all, it was more about Grilltech then me.

Turns out Grilltech’s friend knows the second LYS owner because the shop used to have a coffee shop there. It has since moved out, but he said if the espresso had stayed he’d most likely end up a knitter himself.

On Saturday, we went downtown to do more shopping. We walked about twelve blocks and we were very tired. The one LYS we went to, I didn’t like so we didn’t stay long. We walked down to a giant book store. OMG, you see the cartoons of you are here. They need it. It was that big. The knitting section was several rows long and very full. It didn’t have the Barbara Walker treasury of knitting. I picked up a book called Knitting Lace by Barbara Abbey, I opened the book and saw the price tag of $9.00. It was written back in 1974, some of the terms used aren’t part of today’s standardized knitting words. Grilltech purchased about five books; our total was about $150. Ouch! Later when Grilltech was peeling off the stickers and pointed out my book was $65!! Guess I’d better make good use of it. The book pictured is not the book I have, mine is copyrighted 1974.

We went to lunch at the Deschutes Brewery; Grilltech ordered the sampler while I had a Pepsi. I had sips and decided I really liked the Nitro Cinder Cone Red. Liked it enough I let Grilltech take about two sips of it then I finished the sample. WOW! I’ll need to look around and see if we can find a six pack of it.

I managed to get several more rounds of the sweater completed. Several? It’s almost as long as my hand. I’ll get pictures posted soon™.

...and we're off

• This morning, Fran-kitty was on the roof. She had to let us know by screaming.


• I think everything is packed and in the car.


• Looks like another busy day here at the datamine.


• On the plus side, it's Friday!!


• On the down side, we have an eight hour drive ahead of us after work.


• I don't use an iron, so I don't have to worry about it being left on.


• I left the shawl at home, but the sweater is packed.


• I even brought extra sock yarn, just in case.


• My favorite lip balm is in my pocket.


• I told the kitties good-bye and to behave.


• They're cats, they'll do as they please.


• When did they change the gold coin from Sachawea to the US Presidents?!


• Grilltech just went home, he wasn't having a good day.


• I did turn off my computer. I'm sure Perky will turn it back on while she's checking on the kitties.


• The report may take three seconds to create, however, the page takes 20 seconds to refresh.


• I meant to post pictures of the shawl last night, but was distracted by... RCHP.


• System is lagging today. Stupid datamine.


• MIL - It wasn't Sabrina who tried to come with us on the trip, but Fran.


• She was told the trunk wouldn't make a good place for cats to travel.


• There is a stuck pixel on one of the monitors here at work. There are times it really bugs me.


• Two and half more hours to go. I'm starting to get tired.


• Nothing like playing phone tag with people.


• Grilltech - who went home three hours ago - left himself logged into his phone...


• I'm on the down hill side of work now.


• I can't think of anything I might need to call Grilltech and tell him to bring.


• I should call him anyway at 1350 in a panic telling I can't live without something trivial.


• Having lived with me for 19 years, he'd know I was trying to pull something on him.


• While we're gone, posting will be a bit hit or miss until about Monday.


• Power flicker.

Another boring day

This morning's drive to work was interesting. Interesting. Monsters are such interesting creatures. To the south lightning filled the sky. We was at the half way point and I asked if he remembered to grab breakfast. He hadn't and stated lunch was sitting on the table where he had left it. So I turned off and returned home. It started raining on the drive in. It was a five minute rain. The west had the same dark clouds as the south, so I rolled the windows up, cracked the back ones a bit so the car wouldn't be oppressively hot....

And walked into the storm at work. Things have been broken since the word go. People are short tempered. It really makes for a fun morning. It has calmed down a bit, which is nice. The general buzz of the room has also gone down.

No knitting last night. The kids were over and it was hot. It was all I could do to just sit and play solitaire. I went to bed at 1930ish, closer to 2000. After we did some basic packing. Tonight I'll finish up with some more packing after I finish a couple of loads of laundry. Wednesday morning will see the last of the packing.


And now for something completely different: (thanks Grilltech)

An unusual meme:

You are trapped in a mall and the zombies are attacking (for the sake of any arguments we'll say they are of the "slow" variety). You get to choose any 1 weapon to use, any song to have blasting on the speakers, and any famous person to fight alongside you. What do you pick?

My answers:
Weapon - a Reason (It's from Snowcrash.)
Song - Bat Out of Hell - Meatloaf
Person - T-1000 (from T2. Gotta love a guy who can make himself into bladed weapons. Maybe it's things like this is why I'm going to the 7th level of hell.)