Happy Easter

My planter this spring.  It's what's to come to those of you up north and what's about to be burnt to an inch of it's life in a few weeks down here.  How did it get to be April already?  All work and no play makes Denise ......

Oh well, we'll just sit here and enjoy the flowers for short time.  It's all I have then I need to get ready for another work week.

We're taking bets how long the bunny and the gnome lasts before someone steals it.

Last time, I had promised to tell you about the new furniture and the bunnies.  This is the new sectional.  It's about twice the size as the one we saw in the store. Takes up the whole living room.

I had to straighten and move things to make room for it.  Which made alley's and tunnels for bunnies to run and hide.  Dammit and Betty had a fine time making plans that first night.

All sorts of alleys in that area.  Yes, I know it's a mess. See the vacuum?  I got half done then sort of tired out.  Have a mentioned I'm gone twelve hours a day, five days a week.

That first morning, Duane said Dammit and Betty ran around the cage, and the table, then the chair, and under the secretary in the corner.  It took him over an hour to chase them home.  At one point, Duane pushed the chair against the wall and Dammit jumped back and forth over the chair.

It reminded us of when Dammit was just a little Dammit.  The first time he was let out of his cage after his neuter surgery.  He led the two of us on a merry chase.  Then he dove onto the couch.  Duane shouts, "I've got him now."  Just Duane dove to grab the rabbit, Dammit jumped over the back of the couch, over the table behind it and ran under the couch.  That's when we said to hell with it and just let the little bugger stay out.  If he's that determined.

We can't do that now, as Nippit needs her turn out.  If let Nippit out when Dammit is out she goes right for hind quarters.  Just like the furious little Nippit she is.

I've been spinning again, since there is shuttle now and I don't have to walk two miles twice a day.  This is the second bobbin and it's almost since I took this picture.  It's the fiber my friend bought me for Christmas.  One more bobbin then I will ply it.  I'm anxious to see what the finished yarn will be like.  Also, I have 8 oz of CMF Walpurgis in BFL that Duane bought me for Christmas.  I'm dying to spin that.

I finished the socks, but they are too small for me.  That's what I get for not taking a minute out of my busy day to try them on as I'm knitting.  It's in the 90's F now anyway.  Too hot to wear.  I'll have to reknit them and hope they are finished by November when it's cool enough for wool.

Every thing that has been sucking for awhile, still sucks.  But, we won't talk about that.

Butterscotch walked by my sandals and noticed they smelled like me.  He made a pillow out them.  He misses his mom.

Rumors About Me......

wandering aimlessly in the desert, babbling incoherently have been somewhat exaggerated.  I wasn't wandering aimlessly.  I can't believe I haven't posted in almost three months.  A ton of boring stuff, much bus knitting, that all has to be re-knit.  Then tonight was a total fiasco, but I'll get to that later.

January, I really buckled down at work, earned a nice monthly bonus and switch in team leaders (rolls eyes).  She caused me much stress in the month of February.  Very nit-picky, she went through all punch-ins and outs with a ruler every day.  I was counseled for coming back from lunch one minute late, which wasn't my fault.  Much of February, I was sick. I was beginning to worry about a repeat of of last year with me in the ICU, this time.  Every time I called in to work, she called me at home to check up on me.  The worst part of it, she was from another department and had no clue what us lowly robo-trons answering phone had to deal with.  Ugh!

Duane bought me a Martha Washington geranium the week I was out sick. First time we found one down here.

For March, I have a new team leader who has been in the department for a long time.  She's so low key, we just nod and say hi when we pass each other.  She knows I'm not one of the problem children and leaves me alone.

February, also brought me two friends at work.  Actual, friends that I would consider having over for dinner.   If I didn't live in this slum, that is. Which is something, considering how anti-social, I am.  You know with the aluminum foil covering the windows and that hat I made with the scraps.

  One rides the bus with me.  This is the weird thing about work. There is a bunch of us riding the same bus every day.  We all sit in different sections of the bus, never speaking,  we all get off together, go into the gas station to get our human fuel, then walk our separate paces to work and back, never speaking while waiting for the bus.

This one guy that rides the same bus as me, sits two cubicles from me, never speaks to me.  Occasionally, we would nod to each other.  Then one day, I was waiting for the light when he came up and I started talking to him and we walked to the stop together talking about work.  After that, we would talk at the bus stop after work and on the bus home.  Which many nights has been great to have someone to vent to on the way home.  We groan about how there hasn't been VGH (voluntary go home) in months.  We are tres burnt out.

The other is an older woman who comes in by car and starts the same time I do.  She sits on the bench and has one last smoke with me before we head to our rabbit holes for the day.  Her sister is an RN that took the refresher course after being out of nursing for awhile.  Her sister works at a re-hab center like Duane was in.  She tells her all the time, tell that girl to hurry up and get her license back, I'll give her a job.  Hopefully, in September, I can arrange to take the refresher course.

Basically, I go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to bed.  Get up at 5:30 and do it all over again.  These twelve hour days our days are killing me.  I have bad eye strain headaches when I get home.  Last thing I want to do is look at a computer screen.  Which is the lack of blogging or blog reading, sorry.

March came a stress reducer and increase all at once.  They closed down the underpass we use to walk to work for a huge two year construction project.  ADOT put in a shuttle last week to take us back and forth. It runs once an hour three times in the morning and then once an hour three times in the afternoon.  I take the last shuttle in and the last one out.  If I miss either, I'm sunk.  That's Monday thru Friday.  I can't get there in time to take the Saturday shuttle and it doesn't run on Sunday.  So, I have to have weekends off.

Two weeks ago, I took a PTO day to go with Duane to the pulmonary Dr.  The head of staffing calls me at home.

"Sorry to bother you on your PTO day, but your the next one up for the shift bid.  Congrats on being number 25 for the Arizona department."

Me: "I need these hours and weekends off because of the shuttle."

"I'm sorry, that shift isn't available."

Me: "Congrats on being number 25, my reward  is I need to find a new job, thanks."

"No, no you don't, I just need to put something into the computer for you. I have Sunday and Tuesdays off you will only need to just figure out something for Saturday."

Me: "Put in whatever you want.  This is what I can work.  I can't just figure something out.  It's the bus or a cab.  The cab costs 25.00 one way now.  Once the construction starts with the detour it will be more."

It ends there and we go to the Dr.s.  Duane still has significant scarring in his lungs and high blood pressure.  The Dr. ordered a cat-scan of his lungs.  We find out the results in May.  It looks like he might be on oxygen for three to five years best guess, maybe life. Come home, 13 yr old Butterscotch had bloody diarrhea all over the living room. Have to call in to take him to the vet the next day.  Luckily, it's just irritable bowel syndrome and she gave me some medicine.  Wonderful vet just around the corner.  She does bunnies, too.  She said, she's not an expert on bunnies but she would be willing to call for consults if she felt she was in over her head.

Go into work the next day and see that I'm scheduled to work this weekend, after the shuttle starts.  Here we go.  I go up to the desk and talk to the head guy that had called me.  To make it short, he slid me around to where it's the hours I can work.  Told me when it happens again, to just come up and they will slide me around.

First day of the shuttle was last Monday.  Just as I was standing up to the leave for the day, the head of the department comes up behind me.  "Well, Denise,think you will make it out to the shuttle in time.  You've got ten minutes."

Wait, what! How does he know who I am?  He walks out with me to the shuttle.  He's the liaison between our company and ADOT.

Today, I noticed the first week in April they have me scheduled for the weekend and hours all over the place.  I went up to the desk.  The head guy wasn't there.  The ones that were up there gave me a bit of a hassle, but switched it to what I needed eventually.  I said, "That's another week I won't need to hand in my resignation."  My old team leader, (the one I really liked) was in earshot.  She said, "Wait, what!"  I told her I would be there until they didn't work with the shuttle or ADOT stops the shuttle, then I will turn in my resignation.  She said, that's not going happen. We'll see.  I'm taking one week at time. Of course, I'll make sure to hand my resignation to the head of department.

The people upstairs have continued to be arseholes.  A couple nights, I've had to call the manager because the mom wasn't home and the kids were running around yelling and fighting for hours.  It's like the Lord Of The Flies, up there.  The people over my next door neighbor, throw their cigarette butts in our patios. Piles of them.

Tonight was the last straw.  Duane calls me at my first stop.  The kitchen sink is over flowing.  Upstairs has been running water for hours.  He called the manager.  I call him back at the second stop to tell him I see the bus coming.  Get home now, water is running all over the place.  I get off the second bus and run for home.  My neighbor passes me with her truck as I get to the front.

I get home, Duane is out on patio.  The neighbors from both apartments are both out there yelling back and forth with him.  They have the water still running.  The punk above my neighbor is threatening to come down and fist fight.  With an old man on oxygen.  Geez.  A plumber is inside our kitchen bailing huge buckets of hot water as fast as he can.  It slows down enough that he can go upstairs and tell the idiots upstairs to shut the water off.  We were only washing a plate.  To which he said bullshit, and called the manager.  The manager was supposed to come down and never did. The plumber bailed water from two big buckets for over an hour. Our neighbor bailed with a pot and made a small pond in the courtyard.

 Oh, the manager moved out back at Christmastime.  The whole place is the Lord Of The Flies now.  Not, that he managed the place that great before.

I called him after I stopped shaking and calmed down somewhat.  Enough is enough, I'm looking for another place.  They go or I go.  I've had it. Four hour commute, 8 hours of people screaming at me at work.  I can't help it if their Dr. didn't call in the prescription or their insurance denied payment. Between the drug addicts calling Drugs-R-Us for their oxys and their xanax at work and the drug addicts up in this place, I'm fed up.  Instead of being in bed an hour ago, like I should have, I'm venting to you all.  Don't know when I'll be able to get to sleep, then have to get up and do it all over again.

My bus friend live a couple miles up the street from me, in a single house.  He says several of them come up for rent when the college kids leave.  I'm going to ask him to keep an eye out for a decent place in his neighborhood.

On the knitting front, I finished two pairs of socks, but have to re-knit them.  The feet are a half and in two small and tight around the top of the ankle.  It's ok, it's pretty yarn.  One pair was supposed to be my Mom's Christmas present.  I'm currently working on a rainbow pair, so I will send those to her instead.  It will be too damn hot down here by the time I finish them.

Talk about crazy weather.  Last week it was 80's down here.  Then a storm came in on Sunday. Monday, I was out on break with the older woman and we both said it felt cold enough to snow.  She's from Indiana, so she knows too. An hour later it did.  It was actually snowing in the valley.  Meanwhile, it was 80's back home in NY.  We are supposed to be up to 80 by Friday.  I'm not looking forward to it getting too warm, once it does it will be 110F 40C plus for months.

This weekend, I promise to tell you about Dammit and the new living room furniture.  Dammit gave Duane quite the hot chase Monday morning.  When Duane told me about it at lunch I was laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face.   Had everyone staring me because cranky old broad never laughs.

Thanks for stopping by.  I promise a good post this weekend, I think, I hope.  Someone lock the neighbors in the closet, one far away from me, and throw away the key.

WIP Wednesday

I'm still here.  This weeks WIP offerings are sparse.

The lacy cowl turned snood is now at 14 inches.  About a weeks worth of bus rides left to go.

I just have a few rows to go on my mom's sock and I turn the heels.  It should go pretty quick after the heel turns, I hope.  These need to be ready to mail out by next Tuesday.

I sometimes wonder if people stop by to see what bad luck will befall me next.  It certainly can't be my mad knitting and spinning skills, lately.

1. Tuesday sucked.  It rained all day and night.  Rained while I walked the two miles to work, then the two miles back to the bus stop, plus the 30 minutes I had to wait for the connecting bus.

2.  Knitting with sparklie mohair is not a good idea on a damp bus ride.

3. When drink Coffee Mate non-dairy creamer, you can't tell that stuff has went bad until you are very sick.  Yes, I'm very sick.  Let your imagination work for you.  I'll spare the TMI.

4. Refrigerator still isn't fixed, and now everything in the fridge part is spoiled.

I've spent almost enough for a down payment for a car in the past three months from this refrigerator breaking down.

5. Yes, I'm still going to work while sick.

6. The learning curve on making candy in the desert verses back home in NY is pretty steep.  I thought the fact that it was raining and high humidity would help.  It did not and the fudge is dry.  Back to the drawing board sometime between now and next Tuesday.

7. Duane thinks Not Quite Nigella is a genius for coming up with bacon, honey, maple caramels.  That was one thing that turned out right.  Plus, the apple pie.

It's just another week in the life of probably the unluckiest person you'll ever know.  Those of you have been who have been reading for the past year, just think... That's just one year of forty-five that I've been living this.  I've reached the point where I have been many times in my life where I sit back and just wait for what's next with unamused interest.

This seems a good theme song for me right now.

In the clearing stands a boxer 
And a fighter by his trade 
And he carries the reminders 
Of ev'ry glove that layed him down 
Or cut him till he cried out 
In his anger and his shame 
"I am leaving, I am leaving" 
But the fighter still remains 




We'll get the Christmas spirit going here eventually between now and Christmas.  Life just has us a bit derailed at the moment.  But what else is new.

After three days of no sun, it finally shined during my last break today and I ran out to the parking lot to stand in it.  I figure ten minutes of sunlight should be worth 10mg Paxil.  Then I got sick and had to run back inside.  Sorry, I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself these past few days.  Will try better in the next post.

Tomorrow's horoscope = hopeful.

Approaching events will push to the limit during this somewhat testing period. Be confident and trust in your abilities. Don't let the opinions of others dissuade you from your convictions; instead use any confrontation to build up and solidify the arguments for your own position. You may well discover one or two opportunities for improvement.

For more WIPS by people who actually work on them go to <a href="http://tamisamis.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Tami's Amis.</a>

WIP Wednesday

It's sad, I came home from work and almost too tired to pull out the camera. But, pull it out I did.  Somebody give me a cookie.

I'm up to eleven inches on my lacy cowl turned snood.  Another nine inches to go.  I'm averaging about over an inch a day on my bus rides and I'm thinking I'll have this finished in time for the weather to warm back up.  Hard to take a good picture at night.  It's actually a bright sky blue with sparkles.  I'm thinking about putting this away to finish the next project first.

Over the weekend I started a pair of two at time toe-up socks in Wendy Knits' pattern Seaweed.  I'm getting addicted to these toe-up sock patterns lately.  Using Pagewood Farms Yukon in Navajo colorway.  I know I said I wasn't doing giftmas knitting this year, but  I make my mother something knitted every Christmas.

In 2007, when I got my Workman's Comp settlement, I bought her an embroidery sewing machine for her birthday that she wanted so very much.  She took the classes, but has yet to use it.  I've knitted her two pairs of socks, a pair of leg warmers and cowl since then and she uses those every winter.  Therefore, I make sure her gifts are all of the knitted kind from now on.

I've put a few more inches on my Bellevue cardi since last Wednesday.  Work on this has since been suspended due to the above.

Back on October 21, I ordered a skein of yarn from a dyer that was having  special edition colorways.  When I didn't hear anything within two weeks, other than order confirmation, I went back to the site.  I didn't read when I ordered that it would take 3-4 weeks for the yarn to be dyed.  Ok, delayed gratification.

November 21 came and went, but I waited until last Monday the 28th to send an e-mail inquiring whether the yarn had been mailed yet.  I got a reply within a few hours stating they got an overwhelming response for the yarn.  That my yarn would be mailed the next day and that if I didn't get it in a few days to e-mail again and they would send a tracking number.  I thought hmm, but ok.  Well, you know this past week, I had been sick.

Last night, still no yarn had arrived.  I sent off another e-mail inquiring whether it had been sent yet before I went to bed.  I came home tonight to a reply stating that my yarn had been sent out but was returned to them that the bar code had been damaged.  They re-sent it out today with a new bar code.  I'm a bit suspicious about this.

Anyway, Duane says I should blog about the company when I finally, if ever get the yarn.  But I've read in places not to give a bad review as that is someone's lively hood.  What to do?

Thank you all for you sympathetic comments to my health miseries this week.  I was able to heal most it with whooping doses of Vit C and gallons of water.  Now, I'm just feeling really run down.  I bought some Vit B complex when I bought the C on Monday.  Just waiting for that to kick in.  The bottle claims it's supposed to boost energy, immunity and metabolism.  I'm making Duane take one every night too.  At the end of the month we will assess if it helped any.

Have a great week, everyone. For more WIPS by people who actually work on them go to Tami's Amis.

Me and Mondays

Dear Monday,

As a day of the week, we're just not working out.  I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to X you out of my calender. It was bad enough the morning you poured the rain on me and I had to pay a fortune for a cab to go a few miles.  Then last week, with the crud and the cold sore that ate my mouth and caused me to miss two days of work.

Today, however is the final straw.  Waking up at 5am on my day off with severe in pain in my back and right side from a kidney stone, was beyond necessary.  This is it you have to go.  It's just not working out and quite frankly I'm wondering if you're out to kill me.

Sincerely yours,
The Monday Hater

I took off Thursday and Friday to get over the crud.  It was no ordinary cold sore, it took up the entire right half of my upper lip.  It was like a second degree burn.  I could barely eat or drink without pain.  A series of rinses with 50% peroxide and water, then baking soda water, followed by 50% Maalox healed it within two days.  Duane was so sweet.  Thursday night he made me a ham salad sandwich and cut it up into sixteen tiny pieces for me.

Then today, yeah, kidney stone.  I haven't had one for over a decade, but that is a pain you don't forget.  I'm consuming large doses of Vit C and drinking gallons of water, in hopes I'm better by tomorrow morning.  The State cut off my health insurance as soon as I started this job.  If I have to take tomorrow off, I will need to go to the emergency room to get a Dr. note.  Just pay them what I can every week. I have to wait until open enrollment next fall to get insurance through my job.

Yesterday, while grocery shopping I found that blue poinsettia (first picture above) and this Christmas cactus on sale.  Never saw a blue poinsettia before, so it had to come home with me.  Our little Christmas tree is blue and silver.  My mother had a Christmas cactus when I was little.  Her's was a bright pink.  They had plenty of those, but only one of this white and pale pink.  It was different, so it came along too.  That is the extent of my Christmas decorating.

I finished my Tucson socks on Friday afternoon.  You'll have to wait til this Friday to see them.  I started some socks for my mother for Christmas.  You'll have to wait for WIPW for those.

What's up with our weather down here?  When did Tucson pick up and move to New York state while I was sleeping?  I swear on Saturday, it was snowing in the valley when I walked from work to the bus home.  It didn't stick or accumulate.  It sure felt like snowflakes hitting my face.

This morning at 5am, the temperature in Tucson was 31.5F.  The temperature back home in Rochester, NY was 48.6F.  There is something seriously wrong here.  I brought all my potted plants inside and covered the ones in the planter with a sheet.

Bootsie says, "This cold stuff sucks."

Bootsie and Duane trying to keep each other warm.

I can't find my angora hat.  Saturday night I started this cowl, expanding it into a snood. I added three repeats of the pattern to make it a bit wider.  Even though I've been knitting like a mad woman all day between drinking gallons of water and making a million trips to the bathroom, it's only about 8 inches right now.  I measured from my forehead, across the top of my head and down the back and it needs to be about 20 inches.  It looks like my angora headband will have to suffice in the morning.

My mother called me this morning, just to see how I'm doing.  That threw me for a loop.  I'm the one who makes the calls.  I've been so busy and tired with work.  Thanksgiving is when I started not feeling well.  By the time I thought about calling, I knew she would be at my brother's house for dinner.

I found this SAL Wipocalypse 2012 through a blog and I'm going to sign up.  The rules are pretty liberal, so I'm hoping this is one I can follow through.  Goodness knows with all my cross stitch wips, I could use some encouragement.  Would you believe over the weekend I found another tote in my closet with even more cross stitch WIPS?  I shuttered and just quietly walked away, pretending I didn't see anything.  Nope, I don't have a problem.  Not me.

That's my update. Thanks for stopping by.

WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday on Tuesday, which is really Wednesday when most of you will read this.

I finished the heel gusset on my second Tucson sock and am half way through turning the heel.  I thought I might have this done by Friday, but I'm not so sure.

I finished the third lace repeat on my Bellevue sweater and am now on the stockinette stitch of the body. I love the color of this yarn.

The past two months, I've getting up before the alarm.  This morning when it went off, I lay there wondering what that awful noise was.  That canker decided to form it's own galaxy of smaller blisters on the under side of my lip.  My glands are swollen, head achey and still I went to work.  The shift went by rather smoothly even though I felt like crap.

Had my bi-weekly meeting with my team leader.  I'm ranking 49 out of 250, in less than two months on the floor.

Before I left this morning, I brought my rose bush inside and stuck it in Duane's office for him to enjoy.  He said that the cats kept coming in and trying to eat it while he was in there with the door open.  I said, I would rather the cats eat it, than have some teenage snot steal it.  Yes, I'm an old grump.



For more WIPS by people who actually work on them go to Tami's Amis.

Great Customer Service

I heard back from Joan at Cupcake Fibers this morning.  She searched her stock to see if she might have some Pool in the SW BFL.  Sadly, she couldn't find any and is out of SW BFL until sometime next week.  She offered to try to duplicate the color in the fibers she did have in stock.

I'm starting on a long five day stretch of work and walking, so I told her to just wait until the SW BFL came in.  As it's not like I'll get to my wheel any time soon anyway.  She even offered to replace it for free.  I told her I didn't expect to cover our mishap.

Mondays are Mondays even when they are a day off.  I've been wondering why I've been so tired and cranky lately.  (More than usual, that is.)  This morning I woke up with a huge canker sore on my gum, under my right nostril.  I'm treating it with peroxide rinses and dabbing powder alum on it.  An old emergency room told me about the powder alum a very long time ago.  It healed it within a couple days.

I have that achey, head achey yuck feeling one has just as the crud is coming on. Unfortunately, I'm on the later shift this week.  Which sucks because I'm walking to the bus in the dark, then have a 30 minute wait for my connecting bus home.

I'm on the heel gusset of the second sock.  (Old picture of the first sock, because I'm lazy)  It looks like I might have a finished pair by the weekend.  I know, I'm amazed too.

My other long stem tea rose is starting to bloom.  I'm going to bring it inside before I leave for work in the morning.  The flower thieves can go rub salt if they have plans on this next one.

Hope you have a great Tuesday.

Fiber Arts and FO Friday

Happy Friday!  Or is it Sunday?  This is my second of two days off, then I go back tomorrow, Saturday and have Sunday and Monday off.  So, is Saturday my Monday or Friday? I don't know.  I'm sooo confused.

Let's talk about socks.  I can have an intelligent conversation about socks.  I think. Um, maybe. I'll give it a shot.

I finished one sock, so I'm throwing it in the ring for a finish.  This is toe up, using Wendy Knits' pattern Waterfall Socks. (It's free.) I'm using Alpaca Peds yarn in the Kaleidosock colorway. It comes with a smaller skein for the toes and heels but I did toes and cuff.  I'm calling it my Tucson colored sock.  The colors remind of the color accents on the sand colored buildings here.  Terra Cotta, purple and turquoise.

I like the short row toe better than Judy's magic cast on for toe up socks.  I'm tried both so far.  For the heel, I found I liked Fleegle's heel better than the short row heel. It didn't seem to look right using a different color for the heel without a proper flap.

I used Jenny's Stretchy Bind Off for the cuff.  I first used it when I knit a cowl last year and that is what prompted me to try toe up socks.  Previously, I had been worried about the bind off not being stretchy enough.  I think this past year of experimenting, I'm converted to toe-up socks.  Now, I want to get a bunch of 0 and 1 cable needles and give two at once a second try.

Yesterday, I worked on my Bellevue Cardigan in Knit One Crochet Too, teals.  I completed the second repeat of the pattern stitches then dozed off in my chair during a Roseanne episode last night.  

Last Friday, I bought myself a Crazy Zauberball for some socks.  I stared at it in the bag until Tuesday night, when I came home in that foul mood.  So, I cast on a cuff down basic sock.  Too sooth myself, I took it for my bus knitting on Wednesday.  It was a fun knit for two hours when the phone system went down and all was chaos for awhile. 

Did you go out in the madness today?  I stayed home. I slept in to all of 6am today.  It was a high of 56 and cloudy here by noon.  We had rain overnight.  I woke this morning to my left shoulder blade, back and left hip hurting really bad. Needless to say, I didn't spend any time with my spinning wheel.   Spent the day finishing the above finished sock and starting the second one.  That was about all the ambition I had.  Then I took a two and half hour nap at 1:30. It seems like forever since I took an afternoon nap. 

Last week, Frys had a New York Strip roast on sale.  We had not heard of a cut of roast like that before.  It was a $55.00 dollar roast for $17.00.  Yeah, you know you would have carted that thing home too.  Duane noticed there was a little whole in the plastic wrap a couple days ago.  Not wanting a roast like that to get freezer burnt, he took it out of the freezer to thaw.  That was what we had for dinner tonight. 

My plate.  Yes, I sucked the whole thing up.  I need sustenance for my long walk and shift tomorrow. 

Can you believe it has been over 24 hours that this box of chocolates has been in the house and we haven't ripped into yet?  We just sit here and admire the size of it. Temptation will win over one of these days soon.  I guess it can be a bit of blog suspense.  How many days will those two stare at that box of chocolates before they finally give in and open it? 

Thanks for stopping by. Click the following links for more FO's  and Fiber Arts.

For Your Monday Amusement

I'm slowly climbing up the leg of my Tucson sock these past two evenings of knitting.  Or maybe it's Bootsie doing all the work.  Duane told me today while I was on lunch that Bootsie is pulling yarn out of my knitting bag.  He puts it back, leaves the room, comes back in to find yet something else laying in the middle of the room.

I'm adding increases in the center solid section on the back of the calf.  What I don't like about this pattern is that the curls around while I'm knitting.  It looks like I'm knitting on the back of the calf when I'm actually knitting the front portion.  I'll try to get a picture in the daylight either Thursday or Friday when I'm off.

Just eight more posts to NaBloPoMo.  I think I can consider at this point I've made it.  My second try I succeeded in 2008, though I have to say it was pretty hard.  I was home all the time watching my granddaughter 14 hours a day.  It was hard to think of things to post about.  Going out everyday, Tucson never fails to provide more amusement.

(This picture serves no real purpose other than something to look at)

This soul sucking, un-creative job has my mind just jumping with imagination once I'm unshackled from the phone.  I officially dislike working Sundays.  Not so much, the fact that it's Sunday, it's that I've officially dubbed it Stupid People Sunday.  I get some of the dumbest people calling on Sunday.

For your amusement, I will tell you about the worst part of my Sunday.  It's the bus ride home.  The past three weeks, it's been the same fat, obstreperous, jerk of a bus driver.  He glares at me when I ask for a transfer.  Then he waits til I put in my very last dime and heaves his beefy arm over to push the button.  He makes such a display of inconvenience in this act of moving his arm six inches to push a button.

(This one too.)

Even though it was 73F outside, today he had the heat running full blast.  Besides making the temperature extremely uncomfortable, the bus smelled like a combination of a U-Haul full of unwashed Mexicans and urine.  Halfway through the ride, a guy came on and sat down next to me reeking of cheap cologne.  You know the kind, the $2.00 cheap spritzers they buy by the caseload at the Family Dollar.  At that point, I actually considered getting off and walking the seven miles to my next stop. Just for some fresh air. Except, if I had, I would have missed the guy getting on at the next stop.

I have to say, most of the normal folk that get on the busses would be weirdos in other cities.  In two years, I've gotten used to them and barely raise an eyebrow anymore.  Full body tattoos, body piercings and enough metal to supply ammunition for a small war.

Riding the bus, I have my earbuds in with music blaring and only look up from my knitting long enough to figure how much longer til my stop.  The guy that got on was enough for me to look up from my knitting with rapt attention.  He looked normal enough with a t-shirt and shorts.  Too clean to be a homeless guy.  He carried three large duffle bags, two back packs, a brief case and what really caught my attention was what looked like a nylon rifle case.

He sat down and proceeded to arrange the overstuffed bags on the seats and floor around them.  Then he laid what looked like a rifle bag across his lap.  This really didn't seem too odd, as this is the conceal and carry state.  It's said, they issue side arms as you cross the boarder into the state.  What concerned me was when he began to unzip it and pull a wooden item that at seemed at first, to be shaped like a rifle.

Well crap, I thought, this guy sitting directly across from me is about to open fire on the bus.  There certainly wouldn't be any help coming from the bus driver who had a hard time moving his beefy arm six inches and push a button.

It ended up being a small square body mandolin.  It appeared to be homemade. The man then proceeded to pull out a tuner, tune it then carefully polish it. Relieved, I returned to my knitting.

Duane got to watch his Bears win on the TeeVee, this put him in a good mood.  He asked me to take a picture of him in his Bears gear next to the grill.  For those interested, he made barbequed buffalo ribs, barbequed pork roast, homemade German potato salad and applesauce.

This my Wednesday on a Monday.  It doesn't bode well.  The weatherman is calling for rain.

Try to have a good day, even if it is a Monday.

WIP Wednesday

I'm late today.  This past week, I've been posting the night before so you can wake up to a fresh new post by me. I know when you first open your eyes in the morning, the first thought that crosses your mind is, "I wonder what that crazy desert lady posted today?"  Well, isn't it?  No?

Last night, I came home at seven pm and took the old man to McDonald's for a treat.  Then we came home and I listened to him and the 18 birds tell me about their day.  They all talked at once and it was hard to keep up.  By nine I was so exhausted, I couldn't keep up with an old Roseanne episode on TVland, that I've probably watched 157 times.  Which tells me I'm probably too tired to be upright or semi-conscious any longer.  Much less write a semi-coherent blog post.

I awoke bright and early at 4:45am on this first of my two days off, to impatiently wait for the sun to wake up so I could take my pictures.  Lazy old sun had the nerve to sleep in until seven am before I saw it's first little rays. Then,  I had to wait until eight am before it was fully awake enough to shine in my direction.

So without further ado, I give you the things I've pretended to work on this week.  What? You didn't think I have time to actually knit things with my busy schedule did you?  Take a look at the title of this here blog.  They have been slacking, I tell you.  I was hoping to have a FO Friday post of two complete socks.  No, not a pair.  Just two different finished socks. It's not going to happen. The damn slackers.

Because of that weird cold front that moved in, I've had to send them into action on the Cardi I showed you on Monday.  Just a couple inches have been knit.  They must have put it away while I was sleeping last night. Damn cats.

The scheduler did bring the winter coat for me.  She apologized that it was covered in cat hair.  I told her I had four cats and three rabbits, what's a few more hairs?  It's a nice coat. Very warm on my long walk to the bus stop last night.  I just have to go get a new zipper to put in it.

Before the cold weather made it's appearance, I broke down and bought this Bellevue Cardigan pattern.  We are using the Knit One Crochet Too yarn I had bought last month.  Even though we would rather work on this one, only two or three rows have been knit so far.

We tried the purple sock on the intended victim last night.  Tried to take a picture with my phone camera but it didn't come out and the battery was dead in the digital camera.  Victim stated he was not willing to go around with a half knit sock on his foot while waiting for the battery to charge.  I'm thinking it had more to do with dragging around the attached ball of yarn as well as his oxygen cord.  This is the picture you get.  About four more inches to go up the leg, to get it to the victim's desired length.  We will have to figure out where to put strategic increases as the calf is getting thicker at this point.

The victim of this sock lives somewhere in Western NY.  She may or may not be the one who reads this blog. We're not telling.  Both women wear the same size as I do, which is why I nor the cats have been able to knit myself socks in over a decade.  Today or tomorrow, I guess I will have to wash my foot and try it on.

This is the start to Anna's blanket.  We are trying to combine a ripple with a granny square.  After several false starts we think we might be on track now.  Later this month I will write up the pattern and a tutorial as to how we worked it up.

What am I going to do with my two whole days off in a row?  Today, I'm going to clean up a little.  Not much as  Duane's new case worker won't be able to come by until next week and it will all be messed up again by then.  Still cold, and I'm determined to finally make that apple pie I keep promising to make but never seem to get a round tuit.  I gave my round tuit away when I moved down here, because the damn thing never worked for me anyway.   In between all that, I'll pretend to knit some more and write some blog posts in advance for those nights when I just want to go to bed.

Tomorrow we go shopping. Maybe, I'll drag the spinning wheel over to the rocking chair and spin a little on that fiber I've wanted forever, but haven't had time to spin on since I got it.  Isn't that how life usually works?

Finally, a strange call I received yesterday at work:

Me: This is Pharmacy Technician Denise. How may I help you?

Caller: (sounded like an elderly lady) Can you hear me?

Me: Yes, I can hear you clearly.

Caller: Can you hear me and understand what I'm saying?

Me: Yes, I can. How may I help you?

Caller: Am I making sense to you?

Me: I guess so.

Caller:  Thank you very much for you help.

And she hung up.

Have a great Wednesday everyone. I know I will.   I will be going over to Tami's for to see what everyone else is up to on this weeks WIPW.

WIP Wednesday

Another week gone by.  Much knitting happened on the bus.

I'm progressing up the leg on the dark purple sock.  I need to try this on the recipient pretty soon.

I used the Fleegle heel on the Tucson colored sock, as I like that better than the short row heel.  It's hard to put this down for the purple sock.  I love to work with variegated yarns more than solids.

I started Anna's blanket over the weekend.  After several false starts, I'm still working out how I want to do it, so no pictures as of yet.

Short and sweet this week's WIPW post.  I need to pace myself for the rest of the month of NaBloPoMo.  Duane signed up too.  Plus he's doing NaNoWriMo for the third or fourth time.

Teresa commented that it sounds like I'm settling into my job.  Ok, we'll pretend to go with that.


Thanks for stopping by.  To see what others are up to, visit Tami's Amis.