I've spent the last three hours trying to find a nice, lace-like scarf to knit for spring/summer. I cannot find one I like or that would require a lot of blocking. I thought maybe I could make up a pattern, but my brain refuses to work today.
I want to use up about 80-100 yards of leftover bamboo silk yarn in a royal blue like color. Or I could use a bright aqua-like blue cotton yarn, of which I have two 109 yard balls.
I plan to make this scarf when the pattern comes out, but until then I want to make a more lace-like scarf. Or I could make a pair of long, fingerless gloves with the aqua yarn to prep for the winter. Eh, I'll figure something out.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The Mall
I've had this coupon for The Limited for about a month (usable from April 5th to 25th). During that period I always found an excuse to not go to the mall. I kept thinking about how I have to go to work and then I told myself I should wait until my next paycheck. Sure, I could have gone on Thursday or Friday when I was off work, but I didn't want to go by myself. I feel that going to the mall by myself would just make me sad, angry, and cranky. I'd have to park, walk in, look at stuff I won't buy, think of something witty about what I was looking at, forget what it was by the time I see someone I know so I could tell them, they won't think it's funny because they weren't there, try stuff on, get annoyed because what I really like doesn't fit, but what I can moderately tolerate does, settle for something I don't really like, pay, get back to the car, drive back home, park, walk up the hill, walk up the stairs, unlock the door, close the door, lock the door again, put down the bag, sit on the couch. As you can see that's way too exhausting.
Yesterday I told Henry that I was going to finally go today, dammit! I know that places tend to have weird hours on Sunday so I looked up the mall hours. Noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday?! Fuck you mall! It's like they knew I'd have to work from 12:45 to 5:15 without enough time to get to work or make it to the mall before closing. I imagine the building itself is laughing at me.
I realized while writing this post that I could just order stuff online. But how will I know if it fits?!
Yesterday I told Henry that I was going to finally go today, dammit! I know that places tend to have weird hours on Sunday so I looked up the mall hours. Noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday?! Fuck you mall! It's like they knew I'd have to work from 12:45 to 5:15 without enough time to get to work or make it to the mall before closing. I imagine the building itself is laughing at me.
I realized while writing this post that I could just order stuff online. But how will I know if it fits?!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Comcast
I payed a Comcast bill today. It was a confusing bill with many rebates and extra charges. We had cancelled our cable at the end of February, but when we got the March bill they hadn't actually cancelled our service. We had to get them to update the billing. They would not send us a new bill, but told us to come back and pay. Which we did so the next week. The next bill showed that they had removed the old charges, but that we had a leftover balance from the internet. Now, on the paper bill it actually showed this charge as a subtraction and then a new charge. What I want to know is what the hell did I pay last time? They didn't give us an itemized bill or anything, we just went in, gave them the account number and paid something.
Today the lady showed us the screen of our account. It was a terrible user interface. Everything was grey, blue, and black. It reminded me of the old DOS stuff. We finally figured out/she explained that the leftover balance was added after we had made that payment. I'm still pretty sure that we have now paid what we were not supposed to pay when we complained about our bill being wrong the first time.
I don't think there is anything we can do about it either since there is no paper bill for that adjusted bill. I feel confused and sad and violated. To quote Henry, "Maybe this is why they're one of the top four worst companies in America."
Today the lady showed us the screen of our account. It was a terrible user interface. Everything was grey, blue, and black. It reminded me of the old DOS stuff. We finally figured out/she explained that the leftover balance was added after we had made that payment. I'm still pretty sure that we have now paid what we were not supposed to pay when we complained about our bill being wrong the first time.
I don't think there is anything we can do about it either since there is no paper bill for that adjusted bill. I feel confused and sad and violated. To quote Henry, "Maybe this is why they're one of the top four worst companies in America."
The Nexus One
The iPhone is cool, but everyone has a freaking iPhone. Plus I am not a huge fan of their app censorship policy. The Palm Pre and Pixi are cute, but their shape and keyboard are not something I would like to use all the time. I do love the Droid. I'm a fan of the OS and the phone itself, but I really just want a Nexus One.
The Nexus One calls to my soul. It wants me to touch it, to hold it. I think I'm in love. With my current income it is feasible to purchase said phone and pay it's monthly bill and not end up in the poor house. I still can't bring myself to buy said phone for fear that something terrible will happen and I'll need that money right back. I was determined to get one this week but then Henry's statistics project went crazy and we had to put it down before it ate up all our finances. Maybe next pay period?
I just remembered that I have to go pay the Comcast bill today. Fuck Comcast.
Crazy Old Man Pt. 1
When you work at a library you meet all sorts of interesting characters. There are the nice homeless people, the crazy homeless people, drug addicts, people who just got arrested and released (the library is in front of the police booking station), nice kids, damn kids with their skateboards, and of course crazy old people. There is one crazy old man in particular that comes to the library almost every day. This Crazy Old Man (COM) loves to talk and talk even though you may try to ignore him. When I started working at the library I was warned by other co-workers about him and had a few very brief experiences with him. Today, I was not so lucky.
While working by myself at the upstairs desk, COM comes old person shuffling up to the desk. He first asks me where a certain female co-worker is stationed. I tell him she is in the computer lab, but he does not leave to seek her out and stays there chatting to me. I think it is because he fears computers. He comments that it is too bad that she is married cause he wants a wife. COM asks me if I was married, I quickly respond yes even though I am not to keep him from thinking he has a chance. He goes on to tell me that he wants a wife because there is no marriage in the kingdom of heaven so he has to get one before he dies. He also says he wants one that is 'fixed' with a hysterectomy because he does not want to have children. He thinks they are a drain on finances and a pain, but he also went on to say that he likes kids in the same breath.
He decides to sit at one the chairs behind me and asks if I could get him two of yesterday's newspapers from the closet. I grab the keys from the drawer and head over to previously mentioned closet and he offers to hold the door open for me. I tell him that the door will stay open automatically and that there is no need for him to stand there. He says he does it for everyone else, but I did not want to be trapped in a closet by a creepy old man. When I get to the closet door I realize that the key to open it is not on the key ring. I inform COM about the situation and he sighs and tells me that this happened yesterday. COM is convinced it is a liberal conspiracy between the government and the library to keep the Wall Street Journal away from him. At this point I am desperate to find the damn key to get those papers because my feeble mind thinks it will keep him from talking to me. There is no closet key to be found. At this point I realize I am trapped. I frantically send Henry an email asking him to call the library so I could sound busy and important on the phone and to keep him from talking. My plea for help was read too late.
COM loudly asks me what church I attend. I tell him that I am actually Jewish, even though I am not (but would like to be). Secretly I hope that he hates Jewish people and will stop talking to me. Big mistake. He loves Jewish people! He then tells me that he wants to marry a Jewish woman because he thinks they make good spouses. His reasoning is based on the fact that his sister or cousin Mary had been married to two other men, but that didn't work out ("With a name like Collin you would have thought he was a good guy"). But then she married a Jewish man whose name he could not remember, but was a diplomat. They moved to Israel and he has not heard from her since. He thinks they're back in the United States, but he does not know. The simple fact that he thinks things worked out between them and that she is okay because he has not heard from her blows my mind. He also tells me about all the Jewish people he has ever known. I feel it is important to point out that whenever COM describes a woman he ALWAYS mentions race, how attractive he found her, her attractive or unattractive features, and her name if he can remember it.
My strategy was to flat out ignore the man until he went away, but apparently ignoring him gives him the impression that he should just continue talking. He asks me if I know a guy named Gordon who works at the McDonalds a few blocks away. I tell him, no, I do not know this man. He continues to go on about where Gordon lives and how he thinks he got messed up in 'the war' and that Gordon does not like it when COM talks to him and has told him so. COM does not get why Gordon does not like him and does not talk to him even though Gordon will talk with other people. I get why Gordon does not talk to him. I wish Gordon could keep him from talking to me. By this point I have walked away from the desk to the magazine racks and meticulously straighten stacks of old magazines to keep myself far away from this man.
He asks me if I have kids. I shake my head no rather than verbally communicate anything with the slight hope that it might deter him from asking more questions. He tells me that I should get myself 'fixed' as soon as possible. If I had a dollar for every time this man has told me about how all women should be 'fixed' I'd have like, fifty bucks. He asks me if I live in North Little Rock, again I shake my head no. I do not want this man to know where I live. He accepts this as a good reason for me to not be familiar with the area, him, or Gordon.
A ray of hope appears in the form of co-worker Ashley who has come to take over the station while I head back downstairs. I talk with her for awhile about how to close the second floor because it was her first night to do so. I see that COM is shuffling down the stairs and I hope that he has left the building. When I get to the first floor I see the brown windbreaker clad COM standing at the desk talking to co-worker Marissa and a part of my soul dies. Why was this happening to me?
Tune in tomorrow for Crazy Old Man Pt 2: Desk of Doom.
While working by myself at the upstairs desk, COM comes old person shuffling up to the desk. He first asks me where a certain female co-worker is stationed. I tell him she is in the computer lab, but he does not leave to seek her out and stays there chatting to me. I think it is because he fears computers. He comments that it is too bad that she is married cause he wants a wife. COM asks me if I was married, I quickly respond yes even though I am not to keep him from thinking he has a chance. He goes on to tell me that he wants a wife because there is no marriage in the kingdom of heaven so he has to get one before he dies. He also says he wants one that is 'fixed' with a hysterectomy because he does not want to have children. He thinks they are a drain on finances and a pain, but he also went on to say that he likes kids in the same breath.
He decides to sit at one the chairs behind me and asks if I could get him two of yesterday's newspapers from the closet. I grab the keys from the drawer and head over to previously mentioned closet and he offers to hold the door open for me. I tell him that the door will stay open automatically and that there is no need for him to stand there. He says he does it for everyone else, but I did not want to be trapped in a closet by a creepy old man. When I get to the closet door I realize that the key to open it is not on the key ring. I inform COM about the situation and he sighs and tells me that this happened yesterday. COM is convinced it is a liberal conspiracy between the government and the library to keep the Wall Street Journal away from him. At this point I am desperate to find the damn key to get those papers because my feeble mind thinks it will keep him from talking to me. There is no closet key to be found. At this point I realize I am trapped. I frantically send Henry an email asking him to call the library so I could sound busy and important on the phone and to keep him from talking. My plea for help was read too late.
COM loudly asks me what church I attend. I tell him that I am actually Jewish, even though I am not (but would like to be). Secretly I hope that he hates Jewish people and will stop talking to me. Big mistake. He loves Jewish people! He then tells me that he wants to marry a Jewish woman because he thinks they make good spouses. His reasoning is based on the fact that his sister or cousin Mary had been married to two other men, but that didn't work out ("With a name like Collin you would have thought he was a good guy"). But then she married a Jewish man whose name he could not remember, but was a diplomat. They moved to Israel and he has not heard from her since. He thinks they're back in the United States, but he does not know. The simple fact that he thinks things worked out between them and that she is okay because he has not heard from her blows my mind. He also tells me about all the Jewish people he has ever known. I feel it is important to point out that whenever COM describes a woman he ALWAYS mentions race, how attractive he found her, her attractive or unattractive features, and her name if he can remember it.
My strategy was to flat out ignore the man until he went away, but apparently ignoring him gives him the impression that he should just continue talking. He asks me if I know a guy named Gordon who works at the McDonalds a few blocks away. I tell him, no, I do not know this man. He continues to go on about where Gordon lives and how he thinks he got messed up in 'the war' and that Gordon does not like it when COM talks to him and has told him so. COM does not get why Gordon does not like him and does not talk to him even though Gordon will talk with other people. I get why Gordon does not talk to him. I wish Gordon could keep him from talking to me. By this point I have walked away from the desk to the magazine racks and meticulously straighten stacks of old magazines to keep myself far away from this man.
He asks me if I have kids. I shake my head no rather than verbally communicate anything with the slight hope that it might deter him from asking more questions. He tells me that I should get myself 'fixed' as soon as possible. If I had a dollar for every time this man has told me about how all women should be 'fixed' I'd have like, fifty bucks. He asks me if I live in North Little Rock, again I shake my head no. I do not want this man to know where I live. He accepts this as a good reason for me to not be familiar with the area, him, or Gordon.
A ray of hope appears in the form of co-worker Ashley who has come to take over the station while I head back downstairs. I talk with her for awhile about how to close the second floor because it was her first night to do so. I see that COM is shuffling down the stairs and I hope that he has left the building. When I get to the first floor I see the brown windbreaker clad COM standing at the desk talking to co-worker Marissa and a part of my soul dies. Why was this happening to me?
Tune in tomorrow for Crazy Old Man Pt 2: Desk of Doom.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
New Job
I got a new job last week working at the Laman Library. I'm now what one may call a "librarian." So far it's been pretty awesome. That's all really....
The Mario Sweater, It Begins....
I've started on the sweater!
I have modified the pattern a bit by shortening the rib at the bottom to 1.25" rather than 1.75" per Henry's request. I'm knitting it on size 2, 14" needles. I went to Michael's Sunday to find a long, size 2 circular, but the smallest size they had was a 6. It made me sad/mad. I was going to try Hobby Lobby on Monday, but the outside world turned into a winter wonderland. So far it's working out and I'll probably keep it on the straight needles.
For the bright green bush, I dyed some of the cream yarn with Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid. It was pretty fun and was not very hard at all. The yarn got a tiny bit felted, but I've knitted the bush already and it still looks good. It was a nice, inexpensive way to dye yarn. It takes one package of Kool-Aid which only costs 20 cents. Of course, I forgot to pick some up when I went grocery shopping so I had to go to Kroger right when the after church crowd went shopping and a few hours before the Super Bowl. It was totally worth it though. I'd rather spend 40 cents (got two packets in case I messed up) than over three dollars for a jar of dye.
The color work is going alright. It's instaria work on the bushes and a combination of instaria and fair isle on Mario. I'm worried about how these sections are going to look when I finish, but I'm sure I can fix it up during the blocking process. I also don't have the black yarn yet (knit picks was sold out) and will have to do duplicate stitch over the sweater when they get some in.
I have also had a bit of trouble in trying to see exactly what color is supposed to be used. There are more shades in the color chart than listed for yarn. It's been one big guessing game. I just hope Mario doesn't look strange.
Note: I wrote this post a long time ago and was going to add on, but never did. I've finished the front half already and will write up a new post about that process.
I have modified the pattern a bit by shortening the rib at the bottom to 1.25" rather than 1.75" per Henry's request. I'm knitting it on size 2, 14" needles. I went to Michael's Sunday to find a long, size 2 circular, but the smallest size they had was a 6. It made me sad/mad. I was going to try Hobby Lobby on Monday, but the outside world turned into a winter wonderland. So far it's working out and I'll probably keep it on the straight needles.
For the bright green bush, I dyed some of the cream yarn with Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid. It was pretty fun and was not very hard at all. The yarn got a tiny bit felted, but I've knitted the bush already and it still looks good. It was a nice, inexpensive way to dye yarn. It takes one package of Kool-Aid which only costs 20 cents. Of course, I forgot to pick some up when I went grocery shopping so I had to go to Kroger right when the after church crowd went shopping and a few hours before the Super Bowl. It was totally worth it though. I'd rather spend 40 cents (got two packets in case I messed up) than over three dollars for a jar of dye.
The color work is going alright. It's instaria work on the bushes and a combination of instaria and fair isle on Mario. I'm worried about how these sections are going to look when I finish, but I'm sure I can fix it up during the blocking process. I also don't have the black yarn yet (knit picks was sold out) and will have to do duplicate stitch over the sweater when they get some in.
I have also had a bit of trouble in trying to see exactly what color is supposed to be used. There are more shades in the color chart than listed for yarn. It's been one big guessing game. I just hope Mario doesn't look strange.
Note: I wrote this post a long time ago and was going to add on, but never did. I've finished the front half already and will write up a new post about that process.
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