The Purple Needle

Laurel doesn't blog here anymore.....

2007-12-23T21:55:00.000-08:00

I'm rolling this blog into my Xanga site. From now on, my stitching pics and progress, and my 101 Things and 50 Project Challenge progress will be noted and tracked on Theology After Midnight.

As I said on that site, you don't need a Xanga account to comment. Simply click on Anonymous and it will give you a space to put in your name. I hope to see and hear from all of you over there!

Looking for me??

2007-07-23T19:52:00.000-07:00

I'm guilty - I haven't been posting here lately. I haven't been stitching much, so that doesn't help, but mostly I've just been having more fun with my Xanga blog, so I've been posting over there. So if you don't see me here, check over there. (Theology After Midnight, linked on the right.) I'm actually considering combining them both into Xanga and closing this one.

As for stitching, I haven't done much since May. I was working on Anna's Hummingbird

then I decided to stitch for a coworker's baby

which was going well until she went out on maternity leave early, so I haven't finished yet. She's probably not going to come back for a while longer.

So then I got busy with other things

and stopped stitching. Last Monday was my birthday, and as per my practice, I chose a new project to start - this year it's Rosemarkie

So I'm back to stitching, at least for now. I also went to see the needlework competition at the Orange County fair, and that helped my motivation too! I'll probably jump between Rosemarkie and Anna's Hummingbird for a bit. I wanted AH done for my friend's birthday next week, but it won't happen. It'll just wait until Christmas or something.

So there's the update. If you don't see me here, come on over to Xanga.

Joining the TW SAL

2007-05-07T14:13:00.000-07:00

And I grabbed the button! Thanks Annette! I even managed to post it correctly on my sidebar, lol. I've decided to participate in the Mondays with TW SAL as part of my new rotation. First up will be Enchanter. Here's where I am now:

I'll be in the SAL for this for quite a while....

My rotation looks like this at this point - we'll see how long it lasts.

May –
Quaker Gameboard – finish border
Anna’s Hummingbird – finish flowers
Elf Fairy – finish dress and hat
Prayer 16th Century – whatever time is left

June-
Quaker Gameboard – 1-2 rows of board
Anna’s Hummingbird – finish
Elf Fairy – finish wings
Prayer 16th Century – whatever time is left

July-
Quaker Gameboard – 1-2 rows of board
Ohio map – at least half
Elf Fairy – finish tree and legs
Prayer 16th Century

August –
Quaker Gameboard – 1-2 rows of board
Ohio map – finish
Elf Fairy – bead and finish
Prayer 16th Century

September
Quaker Gameboard – maybe finish or another row

And as of now, I'll spend Mondays on Enchanter.

I finally finished Cherished Rose in April, no pic here though at this point because the intended recipient has been known to read this blog....after she gets it, maybe I'll post a pic.

Project 4 and 5

2007-03-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

I finished this today.

This is Autumn Charm by Dimensions Daydreams. It's going to be a gift for my supervisor. And it is project 4 of my 50 projects! Woohoo!

I spent all of 5 minutes tonight assembling Star Snow Charmer:

This is one of those embarassing pieces that sat for several weeks waiting for a few minutes worth of work to finish. But now it's done and going down as finish 5!

Here's the pic I promised

2007-03-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Shamrock, ornamentified:

On a completely different topic, do you have any shows you like because they make you feel better about yourself? lol. I don't mean feel-good shows like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, but shows that make you go "Whew! At least I'm not that bad!"

I have 2. One is A&E's Big Spender, which I've blogged about in the past, about financially irresponsible people. My finances aren't perfect, but I do live within my means. I have debt, but I got an education out of it, not an overpriced pair of jeans. I am not about to go into debt over some clothes. And I'm making payments on my loans.

The other is How Clean Is Your House? on Lifetime Real Women. This show makes even my mom's house not look so bad! My mom has a lot of stuff in her house, but she has 2 things over most of the people on this show: She throws out food and she has no animals. I can actually see the floors and tabletops in my house.

Challenge updates

2007-03-11T22:14:00.000-07:00

I have updated both my 50 project challenge and my 101 in 1001. I'm making progress on both! Yay!

Let's talk about 50 projects first. I've finished projects 2 and 3 now. The first of the finishes is my Sunbonnet Sue quilt.

This was a kit I bought a couple years ago and I'm glad to finally have it done. I'm going to hang it in my living room.

The other finish is St. Patrick's Shamrock by our lovely Belinda. She graciously granted me permission to use it in my EGA chapter's newsletter and I decided to stitch it for our meeting this week. I'm in the process of finishing it into an ornament, so no pics quite yet. All I have to say about finishing work is that cording covers a multitude of sins! (Got any spring/Easter designs coming up Belinda?? lol!)

Next up on the list will be a small gift for my supervisor, as I did end up putting my name on the transfer list last week and will likely transfer out within a few weeks. This is what I've settled on for now. I doubt I'll change it, but if something different comes along that I can finish relatively quickly, I might. I'm pretty happy with this though. I will definitely miss her.

On to 101 in 1001. The quilt did double duty, as it was also on my list of things to do (#18). I also made Nancy's Chinese chicken salad recipe (#74) last weekend. I think I need some more practice. It was good, but not quite as good as when Nancy made it for a gtg. I think I might have overcooked the chicken. Anyhow, I will definitely make it again sometime! Thanks Nancy! (If Nancy has a blog, please someone give me the link so I can link her!)

I found a side benefit of making this salad, and I'm not sure whether to thank Nancy or blame her! I've officially discovered Trader Joe's. My neighborhood chain grocery store does not carry sesame oil. Well, not that I could find anyway. I mentioned it to a friend and she invited me to go to TJ's with her as she was fairly sure they had it. Oh. My. Gosh. I love love love the bread aisle. So much variety! This week I'm trying the cranberry walnut. Next week I think might be orange or cinammon raisin or..or..who knows. I loved that they had a lot of things packaged in reasonable quantities for cooking for one. And they have great prices! After I finished at TJ's, I went to my regular grocery to fill in some gaps and got half the stuff for the same price. Sigh. I think I will be shopping at TJ's more regularly from now on....

Reconsidering

2007-03-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

I've posted a few times about working at the call center and enjoying my supervisor and such, how I wasn't going to transfer just yet, but now I'm reconsidering. Sigh. I still enjoy my supervisor, and I'm really not ready to give her up yet, I'd really miss her, but the prospect of a drastically shorter commute - meaning more sleep in the morning and more time to do stuff at night (like stitch!), is becoming hard to resist. Another sigh.

When I lived at my mom's the commute was ok. Not great, but it was doable. Living here, not so much. It just takes too much time. I get home, I eat, I read my email, watch TV for a couple hours and that's it. And I'm not stitching because I'm tired when I get home. I live so close to so many things, but I almost never go anywhere during the week except a couple local fast food places because I don't want to get home any later than I already do.

But then I think about working in a new office. It's not so new to me, I used to work there and know a lot of the people who still do. The friends that I had when I was there have mostly moved on. A lot of the supervisors have retired and I don't know any of the new ones. I have a good thing going with my supervisor now. I might not like the new one as much.

It'd be nice not answering the phone, I'll say that. Some think files and papers are overwhelming or whatever and like call center for the lack of those things, but they don't talk back or call you names and such either! But I don't want to be bored either. I know what each team does, and a couple of them sound boring. And I know I won't get to choose.

I guess my choices are deal with the commute or take the chance and transfer to be closer to home. Any thoughts?

2007-03-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

It’s been said that allegedly if you’ve seen over 85 movies you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste it in and put x’s by the ones that you have seen. Add them up, change the header adding your number, and post it.

( ) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
( ) Pirates of the Caribbean
( ) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(X) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
( ) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
(X) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates
(X) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Total so far: 5 out of 22.

( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
(X) Scary Movie 4
( ) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
( ) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
( ) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
( ) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
( ) Lilo & Stitch

Total so far: 9 out of 43.

( ) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
( ) Signs
( ) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
( ) I, Robot
( ) Robots
( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
(X) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
(X) Never Been Kissed
( ) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
( ) King Kong

Total so far: 11 out of 66.

( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
( ) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving Christmas
(X) Flubber*
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards

Total so far: 12 out of 90. As for the * one, I’m counting the original version, not the questionable remake. (I'm totally stealing this from Annette, because I'm also counting the original one.)

( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
( ) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
( ) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Sleven
( ) Ocean’s Eleven
( ) Ocean’s Twelve
( ) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
( ) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George

Total so far: 12 out of 121. What is with all the horror movies?

(X) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(X) E.T.
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds*
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
( ) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(X) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
( ) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
( ) The Terminator 3

Total so far: 19 out of 147.

( ) X-Men
( ) X-2
( ) X3
( ) Spider-Man
( ) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
( ) Freaky Friday*
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
( ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
( ) Shrek
( ) Shrek 2

Total so far: 20 out of 165. I might be the only person to have a score lower than my age...

( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle on 34th street*
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
( ) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
( ) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
( ) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
( ) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
( ) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Total so far: 21, out of 181.

( ) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
( ) Titanic
( ) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard

Total so far: 22 out of 200.

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
( ) Hook
( ) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 1
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness

Total so far: 22 out of 220. It's not so much that I have a life...it's more I simply don't like to watch movies that much.

( ) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
( ) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
( ) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
( ) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
( ) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
( ) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
( ) The Matrix
( ) The Matrix: Reloaded
( ) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
( ) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal

Total: 22 movies out of 239. A friend threatened to disown me once when he found out I've never seen the original Star Wars movies.

A glimpse of public transporation...

2007-02-27T18:35:00.000-08:00

Let's meet some of the people from my train rides to work and home, shall we?

There's the man who announces every morning that people need to get out of his way and let him go because he's not trying to miss the connecting train downstairs. I'm sorry, I missed the memo stating it was more important for you to catch the train than any of the rest of us, since surely you're the only one who has a job he needs to get to on time. That place where I go for 8 hours or so everyday, ya, that's just for the fun of it. Forgive me, I didn't realize yours was so much more important. By all means, push and shove everyone out of the way so the train can still be pulling out when you get there. (Face it, if you're at the top of the stairs when the train pulls in, you can't make it. That's all there is to it.)

There's the man who plays his guitar and sings on the train to get donations from people. He says he, his girlfriend and their small daughter are homeless and this is how they survive. He sings and plays well enough, but I'm not quite buying the homeless story.

There's the man right behind him selling candy for some cause or another. There's a few of these floating around. One man sells for a youth choir. I've seen a father with his little girl selling for some reason. There's this man I saw today, I'm not sure what he sells for either. I've also seen a couple selling hats and such on cold days.

And of course, there's the man who stands in the middle of the train and announces the day of the Lord is coming and everyone needs to repent and trust in Jesus Christ as their savior. While I agree with him on those points, I'm not sure disrupting everyone on the train is really the way to preach the gospel effectively. Really it makes him look crazy and fanatical and mostly annoys the heck out of people who are just trying to get where they need to go in a timely and reasonably peaceful manner. I don't think it really serves his message very well.

And the one to take the cake for today is the man I saw relieving himself at the train station. I think he thought no one would notice, but he was at the top of the stairs down to the buses, and I happened to use those stairs today and it was pretty obvious what he was doing. You can't just wait until you get home or go before leaving work like everyone else?! Yes, I also had to go, but I waited until I was home! (And no, I don't think he was homeless or anything.)

Occassionally there will be a person who isn't quite there mentally and something will set them off and they'll just rant and rant and rant about anything and everything until they get off the train. I met up with one a couple weeks ago, and learned that she had gotten in an argument with another rider and apparently she was aiming this whole rant at this other girl. It was really disturbing in a way, but we were also laughing a little because it was just insane. She made no sense, and she just kept talking and swearing. All of us got off at the same stop, and I'm wondering if she started up again with the other girl after they were away from the train.

Oh, and my favorites. The people who insist on cramming their stroller or bicycle onto an already crowded train. There's barely room to stand, and this person is going to take up more space with a bike, or with a stroller she won't fold up and hold the child! This is probably my biggest pet peeve on the train. (The guy who thinks he's more entitled to catch the train than the rest of us is a close 2nd!)

It's amazing to me what people do on the trains, although I can see if you want a lot of people and essentially a captive audience, the train is the place to go. I would be embarassed to death to do any of these things, but I guess it means it's never boring to ride....

The best things about moving out

2007-02-20T23:09:00.000-08:00

The house isn't full of boxes. (There's a few strays laying around still, but I can see the floor and they haven't overtaken the function of any room!)

The sinks, drains and all associated plumbing work correctly.

I can go in the kitchen and cook something and not have to clean the kitchen first.

I can clean the kitchen in under an hour.

I can use the dining room table at will, and not have to clear the top of it or around it in order to be able to sit at it.

No one has bladder control issues here.

I can have company over on a moment's notice. They can even spend the night!

I have a comfy place to stitch, although I haven't managed to take advantage of this perk yet.

I can hang stuff on the wall. Like my stitching. I have 4 pieces of my stitching displayed so far. And in the event I get this quilt done, I'll hang that too.

Living on my own is great, I must say. Still not crazy about having to pay the bills by myself, but I suppose no one is. I do what I want, I watch what I want, spend as much or as little time on the computer as I want, be as messy or as neat as I want, and my food doesn't disappear on me.

Ah, freedom.....:)

101 update

2007-01-19T08:47:00.000-08:00

I updated my list yesterday. I'm making progress!

#1 Move out! Happening today and tomorrow! Woohoo! I got a 1 bdrm apartment about 10 miles from my mom.

#54 Have a higher credit score. The need for this was completely tied to moving out. Hard to get a place with a low credit score. Really the only thing on my report is my student loans, and I had gotten in a program with the collection agency to fix the delinquent status and it worked! My score went up like 150 points, and I was able to get my apartment.

#57 Put at least $50 in savings each month. I have $100 coming out of my checking account each month and going in to savings. I'm going to leave it at $100 for now, but I might cut it back to $50 at some point.

#86 Buy a new TV and hook up my DVD player. I bought the new TV the day after Thanksgiving. The DVD player will get hooked up at my apartment :) (And yes, this is the half!)

Next up will probably be some of the weight loss related ones and a few of the stitching/crafting ones.

I'm a Lifer!

2007-01-18T20:33:00.000-08:00

This describes me perfectly.

I'm a Lifer!

To you, a job is what pays the bills. You put in your hours, follow the rules, and then go home. Occasionally, you consider quitting, but then you think of how bad the job market is and you reconsider. Whatever happiness you get, you get from your life outside the workplace. Relationships, family, hobbies, and outside creative pursuits are what really matter to you. You're probably taking this test at work because you don't have anything better to do.

Talent: 41%
Lifer: 56%
Mandarin: 51%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

Although I'm not taking the test at work, lol. They really frown on playing on the net during work hours. Besides, I'm too darn busy at work these days to do this kind of stuff. In any case, as much I as enjoy my county job and my current work situation, I do only work because I need to pay bills. If I didn't have to work, I wouldn't.

For those who didn't see it on the BB, I got an apartment! I'm officially moving out on Saturday, but I decided to take tomorrow off work, so I'm going to call and see if I can get in tomorrow and start moving some boxes and other things in tomorrow. My friends are coming with their truck and will help me move the furniture on Saturday. I'm excited about having my own place, not really looking forward to the being broke all the time part of it. Although it seems to be part of being an adult to be broke, lol.

She's not trying to help me

2007-01-06T13:22:00.000-08:00

She's trying to help herself.

My mom and I are back to our never ending argument about me moving out. She keeps saying she wants to help me be independent and be an adult, blah blah blah, but I have a hard time believing that when for every time she makes that argument, I hear 3 about "I don't want you here", "I don't have enough space for my stuff because you're still here" (which is a complete lie by the way. The living room was full of boxes when I was 7, so don't tell me it's because of the space I'm taking!) and "You just plan to live with me for the rest of your life." And she makes a point of telling me things in the house are hers. Her phone. Her house. Her living room. Her car. And she doesn't want my stuff in her car or her living room. Maybe it has cooties or something.

(She seems prone to hyperbole. I told her I decided to stay in call center for a little while and got a lecture about needing to move up and not stay in one place forever. I didn't say I was going to stay in call center forever! (Believe me, I'm not!) I said I'm going to stay there for now instead of taking a transfer out to a division! I have a good thing going there for now, so why mess with it for a completely lateral move? If I want to commute 20 miles instead of 3, that's my business, not hers. Besides, when promotion time does come, call center is the place to be. A large percentage of promotions come from call center or people who have worked in call center because they are the most well-rounded, knowledgeable employees. A lot of people in the division only know the one little piece of the big picture they work on. Call center people have to know all of it.)

Anyway, back to the original point. I'm not convinced she's trying to help me. She's trying to help herself get rid of me. I'm not convinced she even cares where I go as long as it isn't in her house and she doesn't have to be bothered with me. Sorry to be such a burden. Sheesh. I don't even really understand what the deal is, except she thinks I'm too old to be living at home. I have a job, I pay for my own stuff. I'm not spending her money. I'm not sitting at home watching soaps, I'm not bringing men home, I'm not doing drugs or partying. She just plain doesn't want me here and does everything she can to make sure I know it.

And then she's mad at me because I'm mad at her. I am mad at her. Last weekend she gave a decree that I was going apartment hunting. Never mind it was a holiday weekend and I said everyone will be on vacation. She didn't believe me. So she called several places and guess what. They're all on vacation. So we drove around for 5 hours accomplishing nothing. Didn't see one place, didn't fill out one application. Nothing. We "looked at neighborhoods." I'm not very convinced I can afford any of them either. It doesn't seem like Saturday is a great day to do this anyway. I had better luck when I took a day off work and did it. I didn't get either place I applied for, but I was able to see the apartments and apply instead of just driving around and talking to answering machines.

And I'm mad at her because she doesn't take me seriously. If I complain about anything, or express dislike of anything, no matter how trivial or important, she patronizes me or mocks me or laughs at me or tells me I just want to complain or make excuses or whatever. She complains about the way I treat her, and when I tell her she treats me the same way, she denies it and laughs it off.

She complains that nothing she does is good enough. Well, let's see. When I got out of college, she complained and complained until I got a job. So I got a job. Congratulations. Now it's not good enough, get a better job. So I got another job. Congratulations. Find a better job. Then I had 2 years that I spent the better part of unemployed and every time I had an interview I heard something to the effect of "What'd you do wrong Laurel? You must have said or done something that made them not hire you? It must be your fault." or "You don't really want a job. If you wanted a job, you'd get one." So now I have my current job, which is the best job I've ever had, and she's already bugging me to find more money and convinced that I'm going to spend the rest of my life working in the call center.

So I don't believe that this apartment thing is going to be different. Move out, move out, move out. So then I'll get an apartment, and she'll start after me to move to a better neighborhood or to find a husband or something. It never stops, and it's never enough. And it's always my fault. It's always because I'm doing something wrong or because I don't really want whatever it is or because I screwed up somehow or I'm not good enough somehow. She claims that she doesn't think I'm stupid, but she acts like she does think so. But of course, when I say that, she laughs and patronizes me and tells me I just want to complain.

Arg.

It's official...

2007-01-03T19:24:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not a thread killer. Much. But apparently I'm officially back on the board of my EGA chapter. I did hospitality for over 2 years, gave that up about 18 months ago. Last month, I volunteered to take on the newsletter as the girl doing it has desperately been trying to let it go for several months. I guess it's official because my inbox is once again full of board emails!

I haven't actually started doing the newsletter yet, I'll probably start with the February issue, but let me get some ideas from you all on fun things to include. I did hear a request from our president to bring back freebie charts. I know you all know where to find those! Any other thoughts on things to put in there?

My New Years start ended up being Bent Creek's Summer Arches. I didn't get a great start on it, but it was decent.

50 project challenge

2006-12-30T22:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm still only one finish in to my challenge, but I've come up with a list of projects to finish and put towards the challenge in 2007. And it may well take me all of 2007! They are:

Current WIPS
Maidens of the Seasons I (or maybe Savannah's Curtsy instead)
Genie's Blue Blast
Prayer 16th Century
United
Christmas Elf Fairy (Yes, I'm still slogging along on her!)
Ohio Map
Cherished Rose Wedding Record (Hit a snag on this one...I can't find it! I was going to make it my first finish of 2007. It may be at work...)

New starts
MH Charmed Stocking
MH Snow Charmer
Sweetheart Tree I Love Strawberries

Plus a New Year's day start and a birthday start. My NYD start might be SB's Heart Blooms. That's looking like the best candidate right now, but I'm not feeling the excitement, so I think tomorrow I'll go rummage in the garage and see what else I find. I don't want another large project, so I'm trying to stick to something small-to-mediumish. Scarlet Wizard was tempting, but he's huge! Janlynn's Summer Sampler is also tempting, but I don't have fabric to replace the aida, and again, it's kinda large. SB's Emmanuel's Song might be a good pick. Hmmmm. I love that piece too. I remember Road To Bethlehem only took Annette like 17 hours, so I imagine ES is comparable...maybe a little longer. (And yes, Annette, I have a knack for remembering odd bits of info like that!)

As for the birthday start, I have no idea. Get back to me around mid-July for that.

A meme today

2006-12-27T13:38:00.000-08:00

I stole this from Ann, who stole it from Kirsten.

(1) The Works of Shakespeare: Only what was required in high school. Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, MacBeth and some sonnets.

(2) Declaration of Independence: Probably somewhere in American History class.

(3) Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn. It was assigned junior year in high school. I don't think I read it though.

(4) Poems of Emily Dickinson. Repeatedly. In high school. I had the same English teacher many times and every time I had him, I read Emily Dickinson.

(5) Poems of Robert Frost. A few poems here and there in college.

(6) Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter. In college.

(7) F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. Twice in high school. Junior and senior year.

(8) George Orwell, 1984. Read Animal Farm freshman year, but never 1984.

(9) Homer, The Odyssey and The Iliad. I don't think so.

(10) Charles Dickens, Great Expectations & Tale of Two Cities. I know I haven't read Great Expectations, and I've seen the movie of Tale of Two Cities, but I don't think I've read the book.

(11) Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. Excerpts, high school. Ick.

(12) J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye. Freshman year in high school.

(13) The Bible. Lots of it, yes. The whole thing, not yet. It's on my 101 in 1001 list.

(14) Henry David Thoreau, Walden. Probably in American Lit in college.

(15) Sophocles, Oedipus. No.

(16) John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath. I think we did excerpts junior year in high school and saw the movie.

(17) Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays and poems. Probably some in college.

(18) Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass. No.

(19) Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. No.

(20) Herman Melville, Moby Dick. No. Bartleby the Scrivener, yes.

(21) Anything by William Faulkner. No.

(22) John Milton, Paradise Lost. Excerpts high school.

(23) Vergil, The Aeneid. No.

(24) Plato, The Republic. No.

(25) Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto. No.

(26) Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince. No.

(27) Alexis DeTocqueville, Democracy in America. No.

(28) Feodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment. No.

(29) Aristotle, Politics. No.

(30) Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace. No.

Just do what you're supposed to do

2006-12-22T20:26:00.000-08:00

And you won't have a problem.

I got this piece of advice from a friend when I was first at my job, and I'm reminded often how right she is. It applies to teachers, supervisors, finding a spouse, etc and it explains a lot to me about my school days and my work history.

There's always that teacher in school that no one likes. And I never minded that teacher. In high school, she was one of my favorites. And now I know why I never had a problem with her. She gave an assignment and I did it. I was done with it before my classmates were done complaining about her and calling her names behind her back. If I didn't do it, she marked me down. Yes, I felt some of it was busy work and boring, but it wasn't hard. She had high standards, but she wasn't unreasonable and if you did what you were supposed to do, she wasn't a problem.

Then there's work and supervisors. On my current job, I've had 3 supervisors and I've heard horror stories about all of them. They're strict, they're mean, you better keep your work mode low, whatever. I don't have a problem with any of them, and I actually really like all of them. I come to work every day and on time, I take my calls, I provide courteous service and accurate information to my callers, I don't abuse my breaks, I treat the supervisor with respect, and I don't have a problem.

The call center has a bad reputation in the rest of the department, mostly undeserved. I happened to meet a clerk once who told me her coworkers were actually discouraging her from applying for CSO because they would send her to call center and call center is such a horrible place. They monitor everything you do. Everyone is stressed because they only give you 5 minutes between calls. And don't you dare chat with your neighbor! By the way they talk, you'd think call center was prison or something. It's all ironic because none of the people talking have ever actually worked in call center. The people who have worked there don't say those things.

There is a bit more restriction in the call center, as they do monitor your activity through the phone, but no one is chained to their chair. We get up at will, eat, chat, pee, whatever. The phone doesn't explode and no electric shocks come from the chair if you've gone more than 5 minutes between calls. Sometimes it takes longer than that to properly handle a case. They expect us to work, but they aren't slave drivers about it, sheesh. And the management of call center is very very good to us in return for the work they expect.

I've come to a conclusion about the people in the division who spread this junk. They don't want to work and it's easier to get away with in the division. If you come to work to work and do what you're supposed to do, call center isn't a problem. A supposedly strict supervisor isn't a problem. Many of those same people complain about their own supervisors for being on their case. It's the same thing. Their supervisors expect them to work, and if they did that, they wouldn't have a problem.

Anyone read the book I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris? Hugely popular in the mid-late 90's, particularly in Christian circles. One bit of advice he gives in the book about finding and meeting a spouse is to do what you're supposed to be doing. Concentrate on fulfilling the responsibilities God has given you now. Don't neglect them or drop them to chase down a spouse. He gives the biblical example of Isaac and Rebekah. Rebekah was just doing the job she had been given to do when she offered to water Isaac's camels. She had no idea that she would marry Isaac or of the blessings to follow. She was just doing what she was supposed to be doing.

Now let's talk about what happens when you don't do what you're supposed to do. You find 25% of your Social Security check is going to the child support you should have paid 30 years ago when you were working and your children were actually children.

You get stuck in a job and unable to promote because your supervisor won't give you an appropriate evaluation and your reputation precedes you. Or you plain get fired.

Just do what you're supposed to do and you won't have a problem.

Analyze this

2006-12-05T21:30:00.000-08:00

Do you believe in interpreting your dreams? Do you give them any value as insight into your life or your emotions? I'm not sure if I do or not, but I had an interesting dream and maybe you'd all like to interpret for me.

I was at an ATM, I think I was at work, and I was trying to get money out, but there was this guy there hanging around too close, like he was trying to get PIN numbers or something. He was making me uncomfortable and I kept telling him to stop, go away, but he didn't, so finally I decided to go inside. Well, for whatever reason, the line to the bank was outside, they were letting only a couple people in at a time. So I was standing there hoping to get done before my lunch was over, and who walks up but a couple I know, J and O. So I call out to them, and J (the guy) gives me an almost hug (like he was going to but then thought better of it) and says he heard I got picked up for CSO (my job title). They went and stood in the line, and the alarm went off right as it was my turn to go into the bank.

Now the real life story with J is that we were friends a few years ago, until he started dating O. Then he quit talking to me for whatever reason, my guess is it had to do with her. (Yes, I posted about this on the BB once I think.) I was laid off from that job, and I only saw him occassionally if I went to visit. About a year and a half ago, J had a stroke and the last time I saw him was when Anna and I went to see him in the hospital. I've heard through the grapevine he went back home to his family to recover and as far as I know, he's still there, he hasn't come back to work yet. In the dream though, he was perfectly fine, perfectly normal, same old J he was before.

Any thoughts?

You all might remember this post from a few weeks ago. Well, that following Monday I commented to her that she couldn't be absent anymore. She laughed. The backup guy did indeed transfer out this week (He seemed really happy to be leaving call center after 4 years, but not so excited about the project he was being assigned to...). So I overheard my supervisor telling her friend she was taking a vacation at Christmas. No! I already told her she couldn't take days off anymore! I teased her about it, asking her if she knows what will happen with her and him both gone??? She laughed yet again and told me she did know, I was just going to have to help out a lot. Sigh. She did remind me the call volume would be slow though. That'll be good.

As for backup, she did tell me a bit ago that she was going to ask me to help out when the our other friend was gone, so I think the unofficial backup title belongs to me. My other friend told me she thought she was going to rotate backup around through the team, so I don't know. That's not what I was told, so I guess we'll see what she does.

In other job related news, I will have been at my job for a year in January. Already a year! It went by quickly. That gives me 2 opportunities, and I'm not sure I'll take either of them, sadly enough. The first is to request a transfer. Up until a couple weeks ago, I thought I would put in a request when I was eligible, and now would be an excellent time to do it as transfers are being granted like crazy due to mass hiring for call center and the upcoming round of promotions. Now I'm thinking I might stick around call center for a while. Mostly due to wanting the experience of backup, and I really like my current supervisor. But then I get weird and hard calls like I did on Friday and I wonder if I'm crazy.

The other chance is to go on the 9/80 work schedule, which would give me every other Monday off. That would be cool, but of course, I'd have to work an extra hour each day. I'm not crazy about that, but more than that, I can't really get there any earlier and I don't want to stay later. And of course, I don't want to change supervisors at the moment (if I were to come in earlier), so I might just stay on the normal 5/40 and just complain about being jealous every time Anna has her Monday off and I have to work, lol.

I'm still alive

2006-11-26T13:11:00.000-08:00

My church family and pastor were beginning to wonder, so I'll let you all know too. Yes, I'm still here, if somewhat distracted and absent. I've been doing some writing and spending time on some other sites, so I haven't been around the BBs as much, and I think I missed like 4 or 5 Sundays in a row at church.

This morning my pastor mentioned he had called 4 times. I didn't get 4 messages. I got 2. I guess he would have liked me to call him back. If I had gotten 4 messages, maybe I would have, but I didn't because I made a point to be there today. And I suspect my other friend said something to him about me because she had started calling me too and in the 14 years I've belonged to his church, he's never called me because I missed church. Of course, I've been missing a lot more church than I normally do, so maybe that's part of it too.

Anyway, I went this morning, and it was nice to see everyone. It was nice to know people noticed I hadn't been there. It's nice to be missed, it made me feel loved. One of the women has been having some incapacitating health issues and it was nice to see her looking relatively normal, playing the piano and caring for her kids. I sat and played with her baby for a little bit this morning, he's so cute. I have several women that I make a point of talking to each week, and I saw all of them. One of them was sitting behind where the pastor sits, so I sat in his seat so I could talk to her. He came over and asked me if I was going to preach. I was quite glad to move next to my friend and let him do the preaching!

As for NaNo, I'm up to 17K, but I got a bit distracted and haven't worked on it for a while. I've been doing some other writing, but NaNo has suffered.

NaNo update.

2006-11-08T23:33:00.000-08:00

My official word count at the moment is 9014. I'm about 4,000 words behind schedule at the moment. Chris Baty would say my inner editor caught up with me and insisted I get this one scene exactly right before moving on. I finally did finish it and now I'm moving on. For some reason, love scenes are quite fun to write!

Without giving away too much, the basic plot (well, as I originally conceived it, but this is likely to be a less important plot point than I intended. Characters, thankfully, are good at telling their own stories.) was about an office romance where the couple is trying to keep the office from finding out but it isn't working so well. I do have some of that, and will likely add more, but other things have developed, and I'm not sure what direction it's leading in.

I've learned my main female character, Olivia, is a breast cancer survivor who has had a mastectomy. She and her boyfriend Adrian have a very good relationship at the moment and are incredibly happy together, but I've come to believe that there's going to be something, and I'm not sure what yet, that threatens their relationship and puts her in a situation where it's critical that she trusts him. I'm not sure if it's going to be related to the cancer or what, but it'll be fun to find out!

I'm also trying to work out a subplot for Olivia's best friend Eden. She was dating a guy, but he broke up with her and I'm not really sure what will happen with her.

So the march towards 50,000 words continues....8 days down, 22 to go.

NaNoWriMo is here!

2006-11-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's that time again. National Novel Writing Month. It's finally here. And I'm here to announce the only thing standing between me and a win on November 30th is an idea for a plot. Well, technically there's those 50,000 words to be put on paper too, but I figure a plot of some kind will go a long ways towards reaching that word count! Sigh.

2006-10-27T22:20:00.000-07:00

Happy happy Friday! It's over in most parts of the world, but not here, so happy Friday. I love Fridays. I almost love Friday more than Saturday. On Friday you have the whole weekend to look forward to. On Saturday, it's half gone already. Sigh.

Today at work I decided my supervisor just can't take any more days off. I need her there! (OK, I admit it, I actually like my supervisor.) At this point, besides her, I'm about the most experienced person on my team. There's one girl who came in with me, and the only guy ahead of us is about to transfer out. The other girl was also off today, the guy has been sick all week, so I was the go-to girl today for questions. It seems like every time I got off the phone, someone had a question. And then someone else had a question. It took me 20 minutes to put notes on my own call because I kept answering questions!

That was ok, made me feel important, lol, except when I had a question! Or when I was trying to get a decent amount of calls in for the day. I did ok on call volume in the end, it was just by sheer luck that I had several very quick calls to make up for the call I spent 40 minutes on this morning. And for help, I went to the other supervisors.

So my supervisor lost her backup supervisor (BUS) last month, she transferred out. With the other guy (natural choice for the job) transferring out too, she's in the market for a new backup. She mentioned it last month at our meeting, so at our meeting this week we asked her about it. She said she hadn't chosen yet, she was still considering. I suppose when everyone on the team is still on probation, it's a difficult process. So that same day, right before lunch I was in her office picking up some prints and she asked me if I knew how to do something in particular. Yes. So she gave me an afternoon's worth of work that smacked distinctly of basic BUS duties. Methinks I'm in the running for BUS. Stay tuned....

The great advantage of BUS is you don't have to take calls while you're on BUS mode. So you can answer all the questions you want without trying to manage your own stats! I guess the downside is sometimes you get to do the call backs to angry clients on behalf of the supervisor. Not so much fun.

Financial responsibility

2006-10-15T20:48:00.000-07:00

Anyone seen that show on A&E Big Spender? With that Larry guy? Kinda reminds me of Dr. Phil. He takes on people who have let their finances get out of control. Like seriously out of control. The people on the show often are spending at least 50% or more over what they earn in a month.

One wife took her family on vacation instead of paying the mortgage. They had sold their previous home and blew through their $80K profit in 6 months instead of putting it towards their new home. They were spending twice her income each month. The husband wasn't working and didn't want to settle for a $12/hr job. Umm, that $12/hr is more than you're bringing in now and would help close the gap between your income and spending.

The woman today ran up $10K on her boyfriend's credit card without telling him. Then she was angry because he broke up with her! She was lucky he didn't press charges against her. And she was upset with Larry for insisting she pay him back. She'd also run up her sister's and her friend's credit cards. Of course, hers had all been run up and sent into collections because she never made a payment on any of them. She hadn't paid her rent or her full deposit and was lucky the landlord didn't evict her. She spent $1600/mo on eating out!! She was crushed when Larry cut her back to $150/mo on eating out because she was used to spending that on one meal. (Where is she eating??) This woman has a nice income too (says she who has an income barely above the poverty line). There's no reason for her to be in this mess. She's just selfish and irresponsible.

Every time I watch this show, I can't help but wonder What are they thinking??? I'm sure we all have areas of our finances we could improve, but some things are no brainers. When payday comes, you pay your rent/mortgage first thing! Then your utilities, food, car payment, insurance, gas, etc. In the event you have money left, then you buy clothes and vacations and in the case of this blogger and her audience, cross stitch. Hello! Personal Finance 101!

There's nothing wrong with using a credit card (your own credit card, that is), but you have to pay the bill. And only spend what you can afford to pay off. The lady with the credit card habit decided that since it had already been sent to collections and was already on her credit report, there was no need to make payments on it. She kinda treated it like it was money only in theory. The idea of paying it back was just a nasty rumor. Or the responsibility of whoever was foolish enough to let her use their card. Just not hers.

I understand people who get into credit card trouble because their income isn't enough to meet basic expenses. Or they have some unexpected expense that sets them back, like medical bills or car repairs. But these people aren't doing that. These people make more than enough to cover basic expenses. They're just plain living waaaay beyond their means and won't or don't know how to do anything about it.

I know what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck, and I know that if I have barely enough to cover my expenses between now and next payday, this is not the time to hit the mall. Or my favorite ONS. Sometimes that means I have to wait for that new project (ok, not really a problem these days since I still have 49 more projects to go....) or that new outfit. Or I have to give up my Starbucks habit for a minute. I know most of you know I live at home, so I'm fortunate that my mother won't let me starve, but she's also not going to finance my stitching habit or wardrobe. If I don't have the money, I don't get it until I do.

And I know I've been kinda poking fun at Anna's gambling habit, but I also know she pays her bills before she gambles! She and her husband are silly - they like not having their house in foreclosure. They like good credit. They like financial solvency and stability.

I'm on my way!

2006-10-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

I officially have my first of 50 finishes! Woohoo! This is MH's Ice Skates ornament. Clever name for it, huh? lol. I finished it tonight.

I like these beaded ornaments. They're quick, they're easy and the fully beaded ones are a nice break from regular cross stitch. Just perfect for the quick finish fix.

In the spirit of Halloween, my next project might be Checkers the Pumpkin by Pam Kellogg. Halloween Fairy would do too, but that's going to take too long. And I really want to finish Elf Fairy before I get into Halloween Fairy. (Yes, I'm still slogging along on EF. Well, not slogging. More like not stitching. Haven't put a stitch in her in months.)

Lighten up!

2006-10-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

Sheesh. Do you ever get the feeling people take themselves or their careers much too seriously? In my current obssession with NaNoWriMo, I was reading the reviews of the founder, Chris Baty's book on the subject, No Plot? No Problem!, on Amazon. (And yes, I even wrote one myself. It will probably be up tomorrow for all to see.) Few people criticized the book, but the ones who did mostly complained that there was no practical writing advice in it. It doesn't teach you about style or plot or character or dialogue. Well, no, it doesn't. It never said it did. In fact, if you read the intro, it explicitly says it won't. That's not the point of the book.

And the book was much too light-hearted. We can't have that in a book about a serious craft such as writing. Noooo, let's not have fun.

No, they have better ideas. Instead of engaging in an insane, silly, yet quite contagious and tons of fun event like writing a novel at a frantic pace for 30 days, let's spend our time making notecards and outlines. Let's write a paragraph summarizing each chapter. Let's write complete character sketches on every character. Let's analyze our plot and every twist and every nuance to make sure it's exactly right and makes perfect sense. Got all that done? Good.

Now let's shove all this work in a drawer and not look at it again because we're darn tired of the thing already. We've worked out the plot, we've told the story. Who wants to go back and and take on the boring task of re-inking a drawing we've already done, to borrow an analogy from Chris Baty.

That's a much better option than this 30-day thing that results in a completed piece, I agree. Let's assign our junior highers to write this way, tell them how much fun writing can be and in this way raise up the next generation of prize-winning authors. Never mind the fact that no one in this scenario has put a single word of fiction on paper! And if they did, it was for the grade or the fear of not doing it more than the enjoyment of writing. But at least it was the proper way to write a novel. So what if it was boring, unproductive and turned a bunch of kids off writing. Who said writing had to be fun anyway?

High school reunion

2006-10-07T22:49:00.000-07:00

Not mine. My friend's. My class sucked and didn't have one. Although I think there's only about one person in my class I'd like to see. I went with my friend to hers because most of my friends were in her class and her husband would have been bored to tears. He didn't go to school with us and wouldn't know anyone.

It was great to see my friends again. Most of them did come. There were 2 that I most wanted to see and only one of them was there, but that was cool. I was happy to see her and exchange contact info with her. All of us really wanted to see the other girl though. She and I were procrastinating in creative writing class one day because we didn't like the assignment and made up a story about throwing a desk at the teacher just to get out of doing the assignment. The story was hysterical, but no teachers were actually harmed. I came to love this particular teacher later too. I think of him often and hope he's doing well. It's just too bad he's no longer teaching.

I think the only other one who didn't come was the girl who was my closest friend for a few years during and after high school. The reason we aren't friends anymore is a long sad story I won't bore you with. I wonder if she would have said anything to me if she had come. Actually she probably would have. I see her once in a while and she's always polite to me. It's her (used to be our) other friend who isn't.

The reunion seemed to have a very good turnout, probably about a quarter of the class showed. The music was way loud though. They had the award categories of course. The "most kids" category revealed that my friend was the only one in our group who had had a baby yet. She's also been married the longest. I had no idea who most of the other people were. If I had seen their names, I probably would have recognized them, but I didn't recognize anyone else just by sight. Our group was laughing because we mostly look the same. None of us have really changed that much except we've gotten older.

In other news, I'm still obssessing about NaNoWriMo and stalking the boards at their website. And I've been re-reading Chris Baty's book No Plot? No Problem!. Cracks me up. I still have no idea what I'm going to write about, but I'm thinking that I do want to finish my story from last year. I haven't really worked on it since NaNo ended last year, but I really like the story and should finish it. But not for NaNo this year. I need a new story for this year. And I'm still trying to find someone to participate with me! None of my friends seem to be going for it. Except Stephanie. She might.

My local Starbucks is the best! Yesterday, I went to the Starbucks inside the Target, always a mistake. They're sooooo sloooow in there. And they gave me the wrong drink. I asked for a maple macchiato and they gave me marble. Nothing wrong with marble, it's actually very good, it's just not what I ordered. (I didn't know until we had left as I had bought it on the way out.) So today I mentioned it to the barista at my own Starbucks when ordering the drink I actually wanted yesterday, and he gave me the drink for free! Only charged me for the blueberry oat bar. And this store usually gets my order right the first time. They can't spell my name right, but they have quick service and get the order right. If not, they'll make it right without a problem.

No real stitching news. I haven't been doing any. Still don't have my bed yet, and hence no real comfy place to sit. Grrrrr. Maybe I'll call her today, if not then tomorrow and find out the deal. I keep getting told it's been shipped, but FedEx has no record of it. This is beyond ridiculous.

2006-10-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

Let's talk about the Amish schoolhouse murders for a minute. What an awful awful thing. To line little girls up against a chalkboard and shoot them. The only bit of good news in the ordeal is the police stopped his plan to sexually assault them first. Oh, and that monster is also dead. How very sad for that community. I did think it very kind and admirable of his widow to go and visit with the families. Yes, she was married to him, but this wasn't her fault.

Now the part that is infuriating is this "Christian" group who planned to protest at the funerals of these children! These "people" (I use the term loosely) were going to hold up signs telling these grieving families their daughters were burning in hell, and calling them other names I won't repeat in a family blog. Or anywhere else. They could be seen shrieking on national TV that these little girls deserved to die. How disgusting is that?! This is the same group of people that protests at military funerals too. I understand objection to the war in Iraq, as offensive as I find protesting a military funeral. I don't understand inflicting more pain on the families of these innocent children in the name of promoting an agenda. I don't believe in karma really, but I hope these people are standing right on the tracks when the karma train pulls into their station.

Right next them will be the 3 people who were living in the same small home, but didn't see John Couey put a ladder against his window or drag Jessica Lunsford through it, hear her scream while he raped her or see the big hole he dug in the backyard where he buried her. The bus ticket to Atlanta they bought him right around the time the police came knocking on the door was just a coincidence. Disgusting. The karma train is due in this station any minute now. Prosecutor Brad "I can't prosecute them" King's stop is next.

2006-10-04T19:29:00.001-07:00

A quick note about yesterday's post: NaNoWriMo, for those that don't know, is a challenge to write a novel (50,000 words) during the month of November. Yes, it's crazy, but a ton of fun and a great accomplishment. It doesn't have to be a great novel, it doesn't have to win a prize, and depending who you ask, it doesn't even have to make a lot of sense - it just has to be 50,000 words of fiction written in 30 days. The link in the post below should be working now if you want to get more info (or participate!). I'm trying to sell Anna on the idea of participating but she's carefully ignoring me, lol. Apparently she's not as big on writing as she is on gambling....

Now a rant. My bed is still not here. I've been checking FedEx.com with that tracking number I was given last week and it always comes back no info. So I called FedEx tonight. The tracking number is too short. He looked it up by my address. Nothing. Grrrrrr!!!!! I know it's still sitting in the warehouse somewhere! I guess I'll be calling again tomorrow! This is beyond ridiculous. If I hadn't already been waiting so long and didn't want the thing so much, I'd be tempted to tell them to forget it. Oh yes, and if they hadn't taken my money a month ago! I'm pretty sure the problem is the manufacturer and not the retail outlet. So even if I ordered the same piece elsewhere, I don't know it would make a difference.

I think I've chosen 2 more projects for my 50 project challenge. Sweetheart Tree's I Love Strawberries (a little tiny kit I bought at CATS Burbank) and a Mill Hill snowman kit. They're little and quick and will make me feel better, lol.

It's that time again...

2006-10-03T21:39:00.000-07:00

The countdown to NaNoWriMo has begun! Wooohooo!!! I can't wait. I was not able to finish last year, but I really hope to this year. Last year, I got a little more than halfway (26k), but due to the death of my grandmother, spending Thanksgiving out of town and being restricted to library computers (and hours) for writing time, I didn't quite make it to the win. The major advantage I had last year is I knew exactly what I wanted to write about. This year, I have no clue.

This year, I have my own computer, but I also am working full time and I wasn't last year. I work in a call center, you think I can sneak in some words while explaining how to get a driver's license release for the 15th time? The solution to that by the way is to support your children like a responsible adult! And the bigger problem with writing at work is I don't want it on my monitored work computer and I don't think we're really supposed to use our own disks. Although I do know people who do school work on their lunch hour, so....

I really hope there will be no deaths in my family. My grandmother's was long in coming and quite expected by that time.

So who else is in? The board (besides the NaNo boards) I was using for support last year has closed, so I need some new NaNo friends here. You all can do it! Count it as one of your project challenge finishes :) Hey, now that's not a bad idea....if I make 50,000 it counts, and if not, I'll replace it with a stitching project.

Come on November 1!

A new victim...

2006-10-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

Ha! Anna got an email from another friend asking about getting to the casino. Good! Now Anna can go with her. She was quite excited about it. Although this is a bit worrisome because I know that Anna's finances are fine. The other girl's are not so much.

I finally got a tracking number for my bed! It's been shipped! Yay! Hopefully it'll be here in a few days.

In the meantime, I've been working on my room. I got rid of one piece of furniture and moved a bookcase to the hall. That created some space which I intended to use for a shelf and my chessboard table. So I brought the table up from the garage where it had been living (caught my uncle using my $300 table as a sawhorse!) only to discover it won't fit through my bedroom door. The door itself is in the way. So I guess it will live in the living room because eventually I'd have to get it back out of this room. And I am NOT about to let my brother or my uncle take the legs off! I guess we could take the door off, but again it would eventually have to come out and we'd have to do it again then.

So now a large percentage of my things are in boxes waiting for me to get my furniture figured out so I can put things away. I guess first up will be the books. Packing up the books seemed like an awful lot of work for a 1 minute move across the room and out the door! But there was no way I could have moved it otherwise. So I'm gonna have to put them all back now and figure out what to do with the rest of my stuff. Do you ever wish you could just completely empty the room and start over? I do. Anything without a home in the end would be gone. Maybe I'll make that rule anyway. I just have an insane amount of stuff trying to squeeze into this little room. Last May I even packed up a good portion of my stash and put it in the garage, and I still have a ton of stash in here! I wonder if it breeds....it couldn't be because I keep buying more, could it? Nah. Couldn't be.

She needs help....

2006-09-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

I'm still getting emails from Anna wanting to go back to the casino. She cracks me up. We've been twice in 2 weekends and she wants to go again. I'm not quite ready to agree yet. Another friend gave me the idea that there might be other things to do besides gamble there. I looked at the website but there's not really. I'm likely to make her wait until after the new year before I go with her. I know I'm making jokes about her needing help, but they are jokes. I'm not too concerned about it because I know she's just having fun with it, she's not messing up her finances with it.

My uncle is here. I've said exactly 1 sentence to him so far. I got up this morning to go to the bathroom and woke him up, and I said hi, sorry for waking you up. He was sleeping when I left for work and he and my mom are out shopping now and weren't home when I came home.

You all remember Laurel's great cleaning adventure last fall? My uncle did more in one day than I did in 4 months. Now, granted, everything is in boxes, but the stinky area rug is gone, as is the coffee table and 2 way large end tables. This may be the cleanest the living room has been since we've lived here! I saw the tables down in the garage, so I don't know if my mom intends to get rid of them or bring them back. I won't mind if the coffee table comes back, but the end tables need to go. They're too big and lower than the arms of the couch, so they're not even really that useful except to gather clutter and dust. Maybe she's buying new ones now! Although she said they're at Lowes. Hmmmm. I know my uncle is planning to build a storage shed for the garage, so they're probably buying lumber, and we need a new toilet for one bathroom, so maybe they're getting that. And new rugs. Besides that, who knows. Maybe she'll get some functional furniture she can actually store stuff in!

And still no bed. The lady from the place called me today and told me she's been emailing and calling the manufacturer about my order to no avail. She said they're shortstaffed on their internet orders over there and getting ahold of them is almost impossible. She said the owner of her company called the owner of the manufacturer today because I'm not the only one who hasn't gotten my order yet and many of their customers are complaining. No kidding! I could have built the thing myself by now!

St. Anthony comes through again

2006-09-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

I found the charts I was missing. They were, of course, exactly where I thought they'd be, I just didn't look carefully enough the first time. And I've managed to kit about 2/3 of the one I intend to start from my stash, so that's good. I ordered the rest online, along with the fabric for JN's Remember 9/11.

I still have not gotten my bed. This is getting ridiculous. I called again today and the girl said she'd try to track it and send it to my email. Nothing yet. Arggg!! I want the darn thing to get here already!

I got an email from a coworker today and he asked when I was going to stitch him a frog. :) I have the perfect one in mind too. I just hope I didn't get rid of the leaflet it's in. I'll have to search for it this weekend, I hope it's down in the garage with the rest of my leaflets, but I have a feeling I may have gotten rid of it. If I don't find it, I guess I'll come up with another frog to do.

Someday. As I told him, my stitching is suffering from neglect these days. A lot of it is waiting on the dumb bed to get here so I have a comfy place to sit! And the rest of it is probably guilt in some form that I'm not very excited about finishing the backstitch on the wedding piece and I've been avoiding it. Maybe I'll pull out Elf Fairy instead. I do want to finish at least one thing before I start the new project. (Secret project, will be a gift for a certain reluctant recipient. She'll complain, but she'll love it and she'll get over the complaining.)

News flash: Casinos are expensive!

2006-09-23T22:21:00.000-07:00

I think I dropped about $100 today, maybe a little more. Anna probably lost a little less because she ended up winning some of hers back. It was fun, for one day, but I told her we are not repeating the adventure next weekend! I can't afford it! Although I swear she would go again if she thought I'd go with her. I told her to take her husband, but he won't go either. Once or twice a year is enough for me. This year, I just happened to go two weekends in a row. My job is repeating the turnaround trip to Stateline Veteran's Day weekend, but I'll probably skip it.

So this is the week I need some good thoughts. My uncle is staying with us for a few days this week and I am not excited about it. It's like having 2 of my mom around, and one of her is plenty! A room at the Summerfield Suites isn't sounding like such a bad idea, but I don't think I will. I don't want to spend the money and it'd probably be more trouble (and lecturing) than it's worth. Besides, I'll be at work a lot of the time, so I hope it will be ok. I just need to stay sane until the end of the week!

I'm still waiting for my futon to arrive. I swear Rome was built faster than this! I ordered it Saturday of Labor Day weekend, and it's still not here. The website says allow about 12 business days. Ummm, Monday will be business day 15. Where is the dumb thing already!! I called yesterday and the girl said the company that makes it is nearly impossible to get a hold of on Fridays, but if I don't have it Monday to call back and she'll track it for me. I hope it gets here soon or I'll be sleeping on an air mattress until my uncle leaves.....

Well, I'm gambling this weekend...

2006-09-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

I told Anna I'd go on Saturday. Now let's hope I win some money! I hope she wins some money too actually.

As for the post about Anna and reciprocation, I think Jill and Sandy are both right. My financial situation is different than hers, I used to make less money than her for the same work, and now I am trying to move out and such, so that might be it. But I think Sandy is right too, she is much more comfortable giving than receiving. It took me 3 years, a chat with her husband and a peek at her work badge to find out exactly when her birthday is! She wouldn't tell anyone because she didn't want them to get her anything!

So that's enough about that.

On to stitching news, I need St. Anthony's help. I'm missing some charts I ordered a bit back. I'm pretty sure they're all together, I just don't know where. One of them is my next planned start and it would help to find it! Of course, it would also help to actually stitch on the 2 projects I keep saying I'm going to finish every month - Cherished Rose and Elf Fairy - as I really am trying to reduce my number of WIPs by finishing 2 before I start something new. I usually fail miserably at that, by the way. That must be why I have 41 WIPs!

Yesterday I was laughing at her....

2006-09-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

And today I'm going Arg!!! at her! Yes, Anna. She's a wonderful friend and I love her to pieces. She's very very giving, but the problem is if you try to reciprocate, she doesn't like it. She's paid for soooo many things for me in the last few years, and today we were talking about going somewhere and I said I would pay for her and she said no. Arg! I work (and I make just about the same as she does!). It's not going to kill me to pay for her sometimes. Or to buy her a Christmas gift or remember her birthday. And she always complains when I do, even though she always remembers my birthday and Christmas. I don't understand why she does that, but I know it annoyed the heck out of me today when she said no! Any thoughts?

Stateline...

2006-09-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

I went to Stateline on Saturday. For those who don't know, Stateline is right on the border between California and Nevada (well, it's on the Nevada side of the border as slot machines are illegal in CA) and has casinos, an outlet mall, buffets, etc. It's a little bit closer than Vegas. My job organized a trip as a fundraiser and I invited a friend to go with me. She likes to gamble and I had little doubt she'd want to go. She did. She may have had a little too much fun!

So the outlet mall was great. And actually cheaper! The outlet mall about an hour or so north of LA is not really that much cheaper. This one was! I went to the Bath & Body Works outlet (Ladies, if you want discontinued scents, this is the place!) and got some Cotton Blossom stuff for my friend, some Warm Vanilla Sugar stuff for me and a sugar scrub. I should have gotten some White Tea & Ginger stuff too, but I didn't. Oh well. I have some still. And if I'm really nice to Anna, I can use hers, lol.

I also went into some other kind of store that had incense and bamboo plants, etc, lots of Asian stuff. I got a very little zen sand garden thing for my desk. I work in a call center, what else is there to do while on the phone than play with the sand? Just gotta not spill it....

The coolest thing maybe was the Michael Kors store! Too bad none of it is likely to fit fluffy me, but for all you Project Runway fans, it's there, and the prices are slightly cheaper than retail. Still too expensive for my little budget, but cool all the same. I simply will not pay $200 for a purse.

And then there's the gambling. This is the real reason Anna went. She wanted to gamble. I left home with $100 in cash, spent about $35 before I got to the casino, and left with $102, so I did well. Anna, not so much. She lost money. I had great fun watching her though. We got back to the bus about 10 minutes early and she couldn't stand not to go back in and play a couple more dollars, so she did. Cracked me up. And then I got to work this morning and found an email asking if I wanted to go to the Indian casino that's much closer to us than Nevada this weekend! I've been laughing over that all day.

On the way home, the bus entertainment was movies. The first one, Take the Lead with Antonio Banderas was very good. We hit our stop in Barstow right near the end of the movie, the driver parked the bus, opened the door, and no one moved. So she paused the movie and everyone yelled! lol! The next movie was Scary Movie 4, and that must be the stupidest movie ever made! Stupid, gross and mildly offensive in parts. I could have gone my whole life without seeing it.

I slept until 11:30 on Sunday, but the day was great fun. Although I'm not sure I'm up for gambling again this weekend....

50 Project Challenge

2006-09-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

I don't know what (or if) I'm thinking, but I'm going to jump in and join this challenge. The rules are simple - I can't buy a new project until I have finished 50 projects from my stash. Fabric and threads for existing charts are ok (this is good because I really don't have very much fabric!), just no new charts or kits.

And of course, there are exemptions. I only have 3. The JCS ornament mag, EGA chapter projects and my chapter's fundraiser in January that I still need to pay for. (Note to self: Self, mail check to Carol soon!) The fundraiser was designed and is being taught by Sandy Vanosdall of the Sweetheart Tree! I can't miss that!

OK, I do know what I'm thinking, I'll fess up. I have a serious amount of stash and not so much room to store it all. I've actually packed up a lot of it and put it in the garage simply because it was taking over my room and I just don't have enough space. Kits are particularly problematic, so I think I will pay special attention to getting some of my kits done and out of here. Not really looking forward to replacing fabric in many of them though. Some of the smaller Christmas ones and Daydreams and such, I'll probably just keep the aida. It's not worth replacing it for those. But there's no way I'm starting any more large pieces on aida, so those will be replaced.

I also have 41 current WIPs and several other charts already kitted, so it's really not a problem to come up with 50 projects to do! I am NOT promising I will finish all 41 WIPS with this challenge as many of them are large, but I do hope to cut the net number to under 25 by the end of all this. I'm also not going to list the 50 projects I'm going to do, as frankly, I don't know, but I will add the countdown to my sidebar and list the projects as I complete them.

So....*deep breath here*...here we go. 50 finishes, here I come!

101 in 1001

2006-09-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm not quite finished with it. I need about 10 more. Any ideas? But here's what I have right now. I started on September 5th, so my 1001 days is up on June 2, 2009.

Life
1. MOVE OUT!
2. Get a driver’s license

Stitching/Crafting
3. Finish Genie’s Blue Blast
4. Finish a Mirabilia other than Elf Fairy
5. Finish Elf Fairy
6. Finish a TW
7. Finish Cherished Rose
8. Finish Prayer 16th Century
9. Finish (well, start) Meadowsweet class
10. Finish gift piece for my mom
11. Finish a gift for Anna

12. Get to under 25 WIPs (from the current 42!)
13. Stitch for at least an hour a night during the week
14. Design and stitch band sampler idea I have
15. Submit said band sampler for publication
16. Enter a piece of stitching in the LA County Fair

17. Learn to knit proficiently
18. Make Sunbonnet Sue quilt
19. Learn temari
20. Learn hardanger
21. Learn to finish stitching in a way besides framing
22. Learn to felt
23. Go to CATS in Hershey (hopefully it still exists by the time I get there…)
24. Host a SoCal gtg
25. Frame and mail gift to Fred
26. Mail overdue exchange piece.

Writing
27. Finish NaNoWriMo at least once
28. Finish 2005 NaNo story – at least the rough draft
29. Write a song
30. Enter a writing contest
31. Attend at least one local NaNo event
32. Write an appropriate piece for writing contest
33. Reinstate my paper journal habit

Health/Appearance
34. Weigh less at end of 1001 than I do now.
35. Wear a smaller size than I do now. (Get out of plus sizes!)
36. Join a gym
37. Learn to use the balance ball/resistance bands I bought
38. Get new glasses
39. Complete at least one 12-week Body-for-Life challenge
40. Get a proper bra fitting
41. Try at least 5 recipes from the BFL cookbook
42. Dress in something nicer than jeans for work at least once a week for a month

Technical
43. Learn to make a blinkie
44. Acquire appropriate software to make said blinkie
45. Beat this darn NeoPets game Faerie Caves II
46. Buy a website
47. Learn to maintain and code for said site!

Music
48. Learn to play the recorder in more than 2 keys (ie, learn the flats)
49. Learn to play the piano proficiently

Travel
50. Go to Vegas to visit my friends

Financial
51. Have a higher credit score than I do today
52. Pay down the principal on my student loans by at least $2000
53. Buy stock in a company
54. Put at least $50 in my savings account each month
55. Save $1 a day and celebrate with it on day 1001
56. Make a budget and stick to it

Housekeeping
57. Declutter my desk
58. Get rid of clothes I don’t or can’t wear
59. Get my room completely clean
60. Keep it reasonably clean
61. Do an honest purge of my stuff and get rid of stuff I don’t really need
62. Weed my books and get rid of the ones I won’t read again or don’t need
63. Weed stash and get rid of stuff I’ll never stitch

Church/Spiritual
64. Read the New Testament in order from Matthew to Revelation
65. Read the Old Testament in order from Genesis to Malachi
66. Subscribe to Tabletalk
67. Do Tabletalk for a year.
68. Tithe every month
69. Find a Bible study to join that I can get to and is not studying singleness, dating, marriage, Ruth or Proverbs 31!

Blogging
70. Post in my stitching blog at least once a week
71. Post in my Xanga blog at least once a week
72. Comment in another stitching blog at least twice a week
73. Comment on another Xanga blog at least twice a week

Cooking
74. Make Nancy’s Chinese chicken salad recipe at least once
75. Learn to make tiramisu
76. Get an espresso maker
77. Use it instead of frequenting Starbucks

Miscellaneous
78. Keep my 2 bamboo plants alive
79. Consider the possibility of going to grad school without feeling tired :lol
80. Attempt again to learn Hebrew
81. Get more comfortable speaking Spanish
82. Find out where my dad is buried and go see his grave
83. Buy new sheets for my new bed
84. Solve a hard or very hard sudoku puzzle
85. RAK someone at least 4 times a year, even if it’s just a card
86. Buy a new TV and hook up my DVD player!
87. Buy new tennis shoes. Like soon.

Administrative
88. Finish this list
89. Post it online
90. Update it as appropriate
91. Make a new list at the end, carrying over unfinished items

2006-07-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

My mom called tonight and said she's staying in Ohio an extra 2 weeks. Which means she won't be home for my birthday. Sigh. I talked to another friend tonight and she might come down that weekend. That'll be fun if we can arrange it.

My birthday means a new start. I think Deepest Love is finally going to win this year. I've been wanting to stitch her for ages and she always gets pushed down the list somehow. But this is her year. In fact, I better kit her tomorrow so I can order anything I'm missing while the 4th of July sales are on ;)

Here's proof that I actually finish stuff sometimes:

I finished this on Tuesday last week and have it on my desk at work. I love the way the framing came out. I really should frame more of my stuff. It really adds to the enjoyment of the finished piece. I really like seeing it everyday when I get to my desk. I think next up will be the wedding piece, and since it's Holidays in July on the Mira board, maybe I'll pull out Elf Fairy and finish her.

You ever have a piece that you just don't enjoy stitching on and you don't know why? Elf Fairy is that piece for me. Here's my progress on her:

But I just don't enjoy working on her. Which has made me reluctant to shell out the money for the other 2, although I think they're both really cute too. I don't know what it is, but I just feel like I'm slogging along on her. Perhaps these will be my July stitching goals: Finish the wedding piece and finish Elf Fairy. Along with start Deepest Love. Please cheer me on! I think I'll really need it!

Quick programming note here: for both of you that read it, I've moved my Christian blog over to Xanga. It can now be found here

Happy 4th of July everyone! And happy birthday America!

Got the money!

2006-06-24T12:38:00.000-07:00

I received the money from my mom today. I opened a savings account at the bank to put it in so I won't spend it! I also arranged to have some money deducted from my account each month and added to my savings. I've volunteered to work some Saturday overtime at work, so perhaps when that money hits my check, I'll put that in savings too.

My job is planning a turnaround trip to Stateline at the end of July and my friend has finally agreed to go with me! Stateline, for those who don't know, is right on the CA/NV border and has gambling, shopping, etc. The Gala committee at work (I think they put on the Christmas party) is doing it as a fundraiser. I asked my friend if she wanted to go and she said yes, but she was concerned about leaving her car parked at my job all day, as it isn't the greatest area of town. Well, she finally worked that out and agreed to go, and we're all paid up for the trip now! Should be great fun, if exhausting. We leave at 6am and get home at midnight...methinks church will not be in the plans for the next day!

Come to think of it, she paid for the trip for me for my birthday...the trip falls right before hers too...need to think up something for her birthday now...

In stitching news, I signed up for EGA's group correspondence course Meadowsweet. NeedleArts is sponsoring it so I don't have to try to drum up interest in my chapter and I don't have to coordinate it! I just have to send in my forms and my money (done) and stitch! I've wanted to do this class for a while, even when I was still doing Chess Anyone, but I didn't want to take on another obligation then, and since Chess Anyone, I've been avoiding obligation stitching all together! I guess I made an exception this time. So now I'm gonna see if I can StRIP a project or 2 from this pile of 41 before I start this class!

For weekend stitching, I'm working on the wedding piece, and I think I'll do a Sue Hillis freebie Big Girl Panties. I found this by way of a certain creative lady and thought it was too cute. I kitted it up from my stash last night. I might do the Big Boy Shorts one another time and put them both on my desk at work. I think the snowman at the bottom is too cute too!

Wish I had more time...

2006-06-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

On the books that is. Of course, more time in the day wouldn't hurt either! Or less of it spent working. Anyway, not my point.

Last summer a friend of mine from work (from the first time I worked at my employer!) had a stroke and he's been out on medical leave ever since. My other friend and I went to see him in the hospital one day last summer. Now that I'm back working there, I got an email yesterday asking for donations of leave for him since he's exhausted all his paid leave. Sigh. I wanted to donate, but I can't. I don't have enough time on the books yet. :( It's no fault of my own, I just haven't been there long enough to accrue enough time. I just feel bad. He's a great guy and I hate it that he's been sick for so long. I'd love to be able to help him out, and since I don't have any contact info for him, this would have been good. Sigh again. My friend said she'd try to donate for him. I hope she can.

In other news, I did put some stitches in that UFO wedding piece for my friend tonight. Very few, but some is better than none.

And with that, I'm off to bed. I've got to learn to get to bed before 11!

Moving update

2006-06-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems that I've secured the money from my mother. She said she'd put a money order in the mail on Monday for an amount that is more than enough from what I've been told by various managers of what they require at lease signing. So yay for my mom! Whatever I don't use to put down on the apartment will probably go for maybe a moving truck (I might get my friends to help me instead) and shopping for household stuff like dishes and curtains and cleaning supplies. And a couch and recliner!

I asked my friend to take me apartment shopping today. It didn't go so well. The places that I was interested in were already gone. And the places that were available were in areas I'm not particularly interested in living in. So I'll have to keep watching the ads and hold out for a place I can afford (which there don't seem to be many!) in the area I want. I guess the key is to call the day the ad appears and not wait until the weekend, because the vacancy will be gone by the weekend! I'm thinking I might have to take a day or half day off work to do this. We'll see.

Now some questions for you all, as I'm sure all of you have rented apartments at some point! Where do you find apartments for rent? I have the newspaper in print and online and sites like rent.com, any other recommendations? What are credit references? What should I be prepared to provide to a potential landlord? Are they going to ask for paystubs to prove my income? Anything else I need to know? Thanks in advance!

I guess I don't have anything else, except that it is really HOT here, too hot to do anything. I took a nap when I got home today and I woke up sweating, even with the fan on.

I do have one more thing. Did I mention that I'm moving out!! No exact date yet, but soon! Wahoo!

Stitching at a stitching gtg...

2006-06-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

Riiiight. Sure. Get 10 women and some food in a room for the afternoon and see how many of them stitch! In our case yesterday, just one, and she was finishing up the backstitch on her project. I did absolutely nothing on any project. The only time they saw daylight is because someone wanted to see what I was working on.

It was great fun though. Everytime we do it, I learn something about everyone. Yesterday, one person told the cutest story of how she came to marry her husband. Another time, a couple years back, I heard a funny story of how one person realized she was interested in the man she eventually married. That one cracked me up, still does when I think about it. But we also hear about people's struggles sometimes too, ones they don't always share online, and that seems to bond a group in some ways. It's like free therapy! It probably helps that most of us have been getting together in various combinations on and off for at least 3 years, maybe more, so we mostly know and trust each other.

So it's Sunday night already. Where does the weekend go? It seems it was just a minute ago I was celebrating Friday afternoon. And now I'm thinking about having to go back to work tomorrow. I spent yesterday at the gtg, and then today after church, my mom and my friend and I did some shopping and had lunch. I bought some jeans and some new tops, and my mom bought an outfit or two or something. My friend was just along for the ride, lol. I think it turned out to be a little longer of a ride than she signed up for, but I hope she had fun. (Of course, she had no money and I don't usually enjoy shopping if I can't buy anything!)

On the moving front, remember the offer not to be refused lightly from January? (If you don't, the gist is my uncle was supposed to come out for a visit and offered to help me move if I found a place. Well, I had just started my job and didn't have any money, and my mom said she'd give me the money to put down on an apartment.) My uncle didn't come after all, and my mom didn't come home until April and her financial situation has changed since January, so I didn't know if the deal still stood. Well, my mom brought up the subject of moving the other day so I asked if it still stood. She said they usually want first, last and security and she said she'd pay 2 of them. Good enough for me! That's less money that I have to come up with! She also told me when my brother moved out she took him to Target to get basic things like dishes and kitchen utensils and stuff like that and she'd let me spend the same amount he did. July 1 just may be doable now.....now to look at apartment listings....the only catch in the July 1 plan is my mom won't be here so we'd have to work out the money somehow.

Because nice does matter

2006-06-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

My last call at work yesterday was from the sweetest man. I helped him with his question, and he complimented me on the way I handled his question - my tone of voice and my knowledge of my job. He told me some of the agents "think they own the world" lol but I was very kind and very effective.

Nice does matter. I know I have coworkers that are curt or condescending or sarcastic or even downright rude with callers, and there's no need for that. Even the angriest caller will usually calm down if the agent is kind to them and doesn't get angry back. I've had angry callers apologize to me at the end and thank me for helping them. And I hate hate hate condescension! I hate condescending callers more than angry callers. I'm not 6. I understand your problem, and I've told you how to solve it. Just because I'm not telling you what you want to hear doesn't mean I don't understand your problem. I don't need you to explain it again. Anyhow, being nice goes a lot farther than being nasty, and I'm guessing that applies to performance reviews as well as dealing with callers!

Today is the gtg at Nancy's. It should be great fun. They always are :) I haven't decided yet exactly what I'm going to take to work on, but I am taking my chessboard because Karen hasn't seen it yet. It seems the showoff factor from that piece never runs out, lol! My current WIP of choice is Enchanter, but that may not be the best candidate for a gtg. I'm thinking what I really should do is take a UFO, my friend's wedding piece in particular. (No pics because I know she reads this blog!) I could probably make a fair amount of progress on it there. If I was really really diligent, I could maybe finish it or get really close. We'll see.

Farewell Everwood....

2006-06-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

Last night was the last episode of Everwood. (where's that teary icon?) I'm so sad/angry that it was cancelled. You know, usually I take these things kind of in stride, as it is only a show, but this one made me angry. The CW chose to renew 7th Heaven at the expense of EW. I'm happy 7th Heaven is coming back, but I would rather it have been cancelled than EW.

I think of it this way: When a 100yo man dies, you're sad that he's gone, but he had a long life. When a 40yo man dies, you lament how young he was. 7th Heaven had 10 years, it had run its course 3-4 years ago (as all family shows do - the kids grow up), but the WB held on to it because it was their highest rated show. And the CW chose it over Everwood because of the high ratings the "finale" attracted.

Everwood only had 4 years. It still had lots of story left and lots of potential. TV Guide said it was "The best written, best acted, most compelling" family drama and they also said it was "ridiculously compelling"(that one makes me laugh for some reason!). The ratings were probably not what the brass would have liked, but the viewers are loyal. And now angry because they killed it for some untried show that will probably be cancelled in 4 episodes, and Everwood will still be gone. Matt Ausiello of TV Guide (a big fan of the show) interviewed the top exec at CW and asked why she couldn't keep Everwood for mid-season. She wanted to "try something new" *rolleyes* Lame reason. She went on and on about what a tough choice it was but I don't believe her. If she had wanted to keep Everwood, she could have found a way. Ausiello is right. Mid-season would have been better than complete cancellation.

The last episode was good, but too short. I wanted another 3 years to see Andy and Nina marry, Ephram and Amy's romance continue, Hannah and Bright get back together, Harold and Rose raise their new daughter, Edna move on after Irv's death. And now it's gone. Sigh. When it was over, I cried some, and I wanted to cry more - not because the show was sad, but because I'm angry it's over. But I chastised myself that it was silly to cry over the end of a TV show. So I made myself stop and I watched the finale of Apprentice with my mom, never mind I hadn't watched over half the season and didn't really care who won at that point!

So here I am, mourning Everwood. The only good news out of it is that I made a tiny bit of progress on Enchanter while watching last night. I think I'll work on him some more tonight.

The official count is 41

2006-06-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

I went through my WIP box last night and entered all the pieces into an Excel spreadsheet. The official count is 41. Yikes! 34 are cross stitch, 5 are needlepoint and 2 are candlewicking. Now to come up with some kind of plan to whittle that number down. I don't have one yet, but I'll tell you how *not* to plan a rotation unless you really like all the candidates. Do not allow Excel's random number generator to pick for you. Reeeeaally bad rotation that way if you have some pieces you don't particularly like to work on. (I think I'll make those my work pieces. That way they get some progress, but I only have to work on them for short periods.) Besides that, I have no idea how I'm going to work on these. I guess what would help more than fussing with plans and rotations on paper is to sit down and actually stitch on something!

After church.

I got my Japanese Octagon Box kit in the mail yesterday! I printed out the first 4 parts of the chart, but I don't know when I'll start. I do want to start and try to get caught up, but I don't need yet another WIP! Now, I do have a ritual of starting a new piece on my birthday, which is coming up in July, but I was kinda thinking about starting Deepest Love then. So I'm not sure what will happen to the Octagon Box. Although I somehow think that I should really get Judy O'Dell's book before I start stitching. I just have the idea if I don't I'll regret it.

Now just stalking the postman for Remember 9/11, although I don't expect to get that for a few more weeks. Karen at ABCStitch said they had to order the threads.

My wizard pulled a disappearing act...

2006-06-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

You ever misplace a piece? Go into near panic? Yep, that was me at lunch today. I knew I had brought Magic in Motion to work with me, but I went to get him out at lunch and he was gone. Poof! I was almost positive I had had him on top of my desk this morning, intending to work on him but I never did, and when he wasn't there I checked my drawers. Not in the drawers, not on the desk, not on the floor. There's not that many places to look after that. My desk isn't that big. So I was wandering around the floor looking for it, although I knew it was unlikely someone had taken it. My coworkers told me I must have left it at home. I was almost sure I had brought him, but I was starting to wonder! I even called my mom and asked her to check around for it, but she didn't find it. Drove me crazy all afternoon not knowing where he was!

So around 6, I noticed my bottom drawer wasn't closing correctly. I looked to see what the problem was, and sure enough, there was my wizard pushed behind the drawer. Unfortunately for me, the drawers don't come out. My hand doesn't fit in that little space either. So I grabbed an umbrella I happened to have at work and stuck it back there to try to pull the bag forward. It worked, but I still couldn't get my hand down there to pick it up. So I stuck a piece of tape on the end of the umbrella, put it back down there and pulled the kit up with the tape so I could grab it. Whew! My wizard is now safe and sound!

His cousin, Scarlet Wizard, arrived on my doorstep today courtesy of Ebay :) He's gorgeous! I can't wait to start him, but I think I must hold off for a while. This box of WIPs is just overflowing. I also received the other order I made at ABC Stitch. My current ride on the Wagon (and withdrawal symptoms!) will be made easier by the fact I still have City Dance coming to me via Ebay, plus Chatelaine's Japanese Octagon Box and Remember 9/11 and its supplies are on backorder, so I still have more stash coming to me in the future :)

It's official - tomorrow is my last day on late shift. I report at 8:00am on Monday. I will have to get up earlier, but I don't mind. I will get my behind out of bed at 5:30 and I will be on that phone at 8:00 if it means getting the rest of my life back! I think I will spend the weekend planning what I'm going to stitch with that extra time! So much to stitch, so little time....

Getting my life back!

2006-05-31T22:25:00.000-07:00

I got my transfer back to the 8:00 shift at work! Yahootie!! This 10-6:30 shift is just not working well for me. All I do is work and sleep. I get home at 8, eat dinner, play on the puter for a while and go to bed at 10:30 or so. Get up, repeat cycle. I'm quite excited to go back to 8:00, because while I have to get up an hour earlier, I'm gaining like 2 hours of time at night since I'll get home at 6.

So this move means I'm losing my built-in stitching time every morning, but I wasn't really using it for that lately anyway. Hopefully I'll be gaining that time at night though, if I just discipline myself to get off the computer and stitch! You may have seen on the BB that I packed up all my unstarted kits and leaflets and put them in the garage. I have officially joined the Stash Only Stitchers, and will work on my existing WIPs for the near future at least. (There are plenty of them too! I'm not lacking for things to work on!) Now to come up with some kind of rotation. I'll have to think about that. I've come to the realization that I am a one-at-a-timer until I get tired of it, like Haze posted about a few weeks ago. But I think I will take a small UFO to keep in my desk at work to work on at lunch, or if I have some extra time in the morning.

I'm thinking it might be better to wait until August to move. I think my idea that I could have the money by July was wishful thinking. I *can* have the money by July, the problem is I need to live between now and then and I don't think I can live and have the money ready. So I may be waiting until August. Or maybe late July. We'll see.

In that vein though, I am trying to cut back my expenses. I swear I'm going to stay on the wagon now, after my little daliance on ebay over the weekend, and I've started bringing my lunch to work instead of going out with my friends everyday like I was doing. It's funny because they're both so proud of me, lol, because they keep saying they're going to start bringing lunch too! Except that I have and they haven't, lol! I'll probably need to cut back my Kelly's/Starbucks habit as well. This whole limited resource thing really sucks, lol.

Might have to get a bit creative....

2006-05-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

In my goal to be out by July 1.

My mom just booked her flight to go to my cousin's wedding in Ohio, and she will be gone for a month in June and July. Why she's spending the money to go to this wedding, I don't know. I don't know that you could pay me enough to attend this wedding. (This is the cousin who I blogged about a few weeks ago that barely said 2 words to me at our grandma's funeral, and ignored us at her film reception.)I think she wants to see her younger brother and she went to both his sons' weddings so she feels obligated to go to this one for her middle brother's daughter.

So she'll be gone on July 1. So here's Laurel trying to move out without being able to drive a car to move stuff in. My mom told me just now that we'll practice in her car so I can have a license before she leaves. We'll see about that. I guess my faith in my ability to pass the test by then is not high. In any case, my goal remains to be out on July 1, with or without a license. If need be, my friends will help me move, I know they will. Anna will anyway. She can drive my station wagon if I can't, as I don't see so much of my stuff fitting in her little Corolla!

So those apartment listings I was looking at over the weekend. I called one today. Apparently if I don't plan to move until July 1, May 25 is too soon to be calling. He plans to have the apartment filled by then. I kind of expected that, so I'll have to wait a bit longer to start looking. But he did tell me something useful. I now know how much money I should plan to have to put down at the lease signing, not to mention having to hire a moving truck! Time to start pinching those pennies a little tighter. Where's that crazy glue for the wagon? I really need to stop spending money like it was water.

I could use everyone's good thoughts and prayers on this! The more I think about it, the more I really want to make this happen! Perhaps I'll host the SoCal group in late summer or early fall :)

Starting to feel a bit conspired against....

2006-05-23T21:41:00.000-07:00

Perhaps by the nemesis of St. Anthony? I don't know. But things keep disappearing on me. A couple weeks ago, my staple remover at work walked away. Then my work badge disappeared. Yesterday my bus pass disappeared. (Luckily it's almost the end of the month, but it still sucks.) And today my hairbrush is missing. My mom has a few things she can't find either. I bet they're all together in some black hole somewhere. Sigh.

I got a Stitchery catalog today. Didn't I say something about moving out? How am I going to do that if I keep ordering stash?! I haven't even gone all the way through the catalog yet, but I've already seen a couple things I want. I may have to get myself crazy-glued to the wagon if I have any hope of moving out! Or of staying on any kind of budget once I do! I suppose it would help if I stitched sometimes too...

Well, I'm tired. I think I'll finish the catalog while my laundry washes, put the clothes in the dryer and go to bed. Zzzzz......I work in a call center. I wonder what it is that's so tiring about that. Maybe it's listening to people complain all day! Because basically I sit on my butt and talk on the phone all day. Perhaps they should hire teenage girls for this job!

Moving out on the brain today

2006-05-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

I'm wondering if it is reasonable or silly to consider moving out before getting a license. A license would be convenient, of course, but many people survive without a car, and I managed the whole time my mom was gone, so it is possible. I was looking at apartment listings this morning and I'm considering giving them a call, with an eye towards a July 1 move date. (June 1 may be a bit soon! I need another couple paydays first!) I would just really like to move out now that I can afford it. Of course, my mom did offer to pay first last and security back in January. I wonder if that still stands. I doubt it somehow. Maybe I'll work on the license between now and July 1 too.

I'm tired of living here. I'm tired of the mess, of not having enough space for my stuff, etc. It's time to get out.

I'm back online!

2006-05-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! I think I was going through withdrawals or something, lol. My computer crashed on me last Saturday night. I was trying to install Norton Antivirus and apparently I did something wrong because I got that blue screen of death, and the computer wouldn't boot, even in safe mode. I thought I'd just start in safe mode, uninstall Norton and go on my way. Riiight. Couldn't get that far.

So I spent an hour on the phone with Dell tech support trying to get my computer working. No such luck. He told me he'd send me the disk to reinstall Windows and the disk with the drivers and such on it. The package arrived Tuesday. With one disk. Sigh. So I reinstalled Windows. Great. Still couldn't get online, and finally came to the conclusion it was because I didn't have any modem drivers. Back on the phone with tech support. This guy said he'd send me the *whole* package, and sure enough, I received 3 disks today - the operating system, the resource disk (with the drivers) and another disk with some applications on it or something, I don't know. I was more interested in getting my internet working, lol. So here I am! Yay for me!

In other news, some of you may have read on the BB a couple weeks ago that I lost my work badge somewhere between the train, Walmart and home. After about a week, I decided I'd better report it lost and get a new one. So I went to my supervisor and got the forms, but was procrastinating on filing the police report. (For those who don't know, I work for the county and my badge is considered county property. If you lose it or it gets stolen, you must file a police report to get a new one.) Yesterday, I got an email from my supervisor telling me to contact HR about my badge. Woohoo! Of course, the lady in HR was gone for the day by then, but I went over there first thing this morning and got my badge back. Thank God for the lovely person who found it and dropped it in a mailbox per the instructions on the back! HR gave me a new cord for it, but I liked the old one better. And I did get a teasing rebuke by my supervisor not to lose it again! Believe me, I'll try not to!

The end of the day wasn't so happy, particularly for one of my friends. She was let go today. I feel bad for her. We all knew she was having trouble learning the information she needed to answer calls correctly, but we were hoping she was improving enough for them to keep her. Apparently not. None of us were expecting to see them escort her out, and it left all of us shocked and afraid. We are all newer than she is. What's to keep them from letting us go too? In fairness to my employer though, they don't spring this kind of stuff on you - if you're in danger of not passing probation, you'll know it, and she did. She knew she was in trouble, but she was hoping to hang on. I wish the best for her and a job that is more suited to her. Call center isn't for everyone. My supervisor tells me I'm doing very well at it, but I can see how I wouldn't want to be doing this 5 years from now too.

Plans for the weekend - finish my room! I got a good start on my room last weekend (the lack of internet access greatly helped!), but I have a looong way to go. I managed to get most of the clutter off the floor, but now I just have a pile of boxes and trash cans and chairs and stuff like that. Need to do something with it all and make room for my new table!

Stitching may make it in there somewhere, I don't know. We'll see. Driving too.

Have a great weekend everyone!

2006-05-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

So I haven't been posting here. Sorry. I've been feeling a bit discouraged with my blog lately. I feel like no one reads it, so why bother posting. Now I know that's just my perception and people do read, right?

An update on me:

My job is going very well so far. My supervisor tells me I'm doing very well. I just had my first review and the thing I need to work on is keeping better control of the call and keeping the calls shorter. I tend to let the person go on too long. I hate interrupting people! I posted on the BB a while back about the time she called me. Well, we have a new trainee on our team (from the class behind me) and she's been doing side-by-side with the back-up supervisors and one of the girls from my class. Last week that girl comes over and tells me after lunch the new trainee is going to be sitting with me! I wasn't sure whether to be flatter or afraid, my supervisor assured me I should be flattered. :) The new girl is very nice and she's doing very well so far.

I got my table for my chessboard back about 2 weeks ago. It's still in the garage. My task today is to clean my room. I'm not doing very well at it. I have worked on it some and it looks better but I still have a loooong way to go! Even when it's clean, I'm not sure where I'm going to put the table.

One of the major things I need to do in this room clean is get rid of stuff! OMG, I have soooo much stuff. Mostly stash. Lots of stash. I think I will sort through it, offer it to a friend and then put it up on the BB. I keep ordering new stuff, so I think it's time to get rid of some of the older stuff that I know I won't stitch.

Speaking of stitching, I was doing some for a while. Working on Quaker Gameboard. I got tired of that, went to stitch on something else for a bit and stopped stitching instead. Been doing much more buying than stitching! I need to work out a rotation or something that fits into my schedule. I'm not sure what though. This schedule is killing me, I can't wait to go back to 8:00! (Got my fingers crossed for June!) I have so much I want to work on and finish to make room for new projects, but it seems like I have no time. And no comfortable place to sit in my house to stitch! I get frustrated sometimes that I can't finish all these old projects as fast as I'd like, but then I feel overwhelmed sometimes by the amount of old projects I haven't finished and the amount of new ones I'd like to start! Something has to give! Although I suppose not stitching at all isn't the answer either....sigh.

Anyway, I'll try to post more often. And be sure to check out Theology After Midnight sometimes too! Leave me a comment, agree, disagree, whatever. I want to hear from you!

BB politics I guess?

2006-04-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

This makes me mad. There's a stitching BB that I recently started reading and posting to a little bit. After I started posting, I guess the board became membership by approval only. Since I was starting to read it regularly, I tried to add it to my favorites. It would add, but then would disappear. I thought maybe it was an ezboard glitch (not uncommon, right?) So then I noticed a link on the board to add to my favorites. I clicked it. I got a page saying membership by invitation only, and if you're not invited, don't bother to apply. What?!?! So then why is the admin of the board advertising it all over? Why does she have a link in her sig? If I'm good enough to post and increase her membership numbers and keep her costs down by being an ezsupporter, what's the big deal about adding the board to my favorites?There are several other things that irk me about this board, and I'm reconsidering my desire to even be part of it, but what's the point of having a board and advertising it if you only want to allow certain people in anyway?

Happy Resurrection!

2006-04-16T17:44:00.000-07:00

"If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith....And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." 1 Cor 15:13-14,17-19

My other blog!

2006-04-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

So I started a 2nd blog. You can find the link on the right. I'm not taking this one down, the new one just has a different purpose. The Purple Needle is about stitching and other general things related to the BBs, my job, etc.

Theology After Midnight is about a different part of my life - my faith. When I was in college, my roommate (and best friend) and I used get into some odd conversations about theology, about God, etc. Usually it meant we were up too late, but they were fun things to think about. It kind of became a joke that we shouldn't discuss theology after midnight because the later it got, the weirder the conversation got. So that's where the name came from.

I realize some of you aren't particularly religious, but I hope you'll give me a chance. I promise I won't preach at you or beat you over the head with a Bible. For those of you who do believe, have some fun with me and talk to me. I hope to talk about a lot of different things in relation to the Christian faith, some serious and some fun. Stay tuned!

I started my Quaker Gameboard today! I haven't gotten very far, only partway across the top border, but I do hope to get some time to work on it at work this week.

You can tell a lot about a guy...

2006-04-06T21:17:00.000-07:00

By the way he treats women who aren't his wife or girlfriend. Some guys will be really nice to their partner, but then be jerks to other women, either their partner's friends or female coworkers or whatever. I think that sends the message the guy is overall a jerk and the girlfriend better watch out! lol Either that or the girlfriend is insecure or something and he's afraid of starting a fight.

But some guys are just really nice to everyone. I have a coworker like this. He's happily married and loves his wife, but he's not afraid to pay another woman a compliment or have lunch with a group of girls or whatever. He's not flirtatious or anything, he's just a nice guy, and I think he enjoys women. (Good thing, too, my job is about 80% women probably! Social service jobs tend to be like that.) That seems to be a mark of a really good guy - he can be happily married, faithful to his wife, and still treat other women well. I knew a guy in college like this too. I'm not sure I'd want a man who was nice to me but didn't know how to deal with other women in an appropriate way.

On the other side, a pet peeve of mine is women who never have anything good to say about their husbands! My neighbor is like that. It drives me crazy. Everytime I hear her talk about him, she's talking about his faults. He's not handy. He's a packrat. He procrastinates. She married him! There must be something she likes about him! So why doesn't she ever talk about that? My friend's mother was like that too. When I met her, she was married and always talked about what a pain her husband was. Of course, that marriage didn't last long.....

I read a book where the author compared this kind of complaining to having your slip showing. There are some things that just shouldn't be seen in public, like your slip. Or your complaints about your husband's faults. It's one thing if your friend can bring it to your attention in private so you can correct it, but it can be quite embarrassing for an entire group of people to see something that shouldn't be in public view, like your slip. Or your complaints about your husband's faults.

So the route I'm taking to work at the moment gets me there over an hour early. Great, I thought. Time to stitch. Time to eat breakfast and relax before hitting the phones. Riiiight. It worked on Tuesday. I spent about an hour stitching on Elf Fairy. I spent Wednesday morning trying to correct a mistake I made on Tuesday. That, by the way, didn't work. So this morning, they were selling churros and hot chocolate in the lunch room. Great, I'll get a churro and some hot chocolate and work on EF. Wrong! I got to my desk and promptly spilled my hot chocolate all over! So instead of stitching, I spent the hour cleaning up my desk and replacing the papers that were ruined. Sigh. Maybe tomorrow. And definitely next week! I'm expecting my QG fabric this weekend and I WILL be stitching on that next week!

Calling customer service...

2006-04-05T07:04:00.000-07:00

You think these things would be common sense, but apparently not. If you're going to call customer service for something, here's some hints for you!

Be prepared to hold! Call when you have time to hold and then talk about your issue. Believe it or not, you're not the only customer on the phone and you will have to hold.

Know your account number and be prepared to verify your information. And don't argue with the agent over this! They do it to protect you!

Have a pen ready!

Know what you want to ask. If you're calling because you received a piece of mail, have that piece of mail in front of you. Telling the agent you left the paper at home, and you don't know what it said doesn't help!

And please be polite! It's not the agent's job to take abuse from you and it's not their fault you're having problems.

And that's this morning's PSA.

2006-04-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

My friends were in town this weekend. Yay! I always like to see them. And their baby. He's so cute! We went to Alpine Village, which is a German shopping mall of sorts. It has a German restaurant and grocery store, and then other little stores of other kinds, most of them featuring some kind of German stuff. I used to work near there, and the grocery store has a cafeteria connected to it where my friends and I used to eat lunch regularly. They have soup and bread for $2. The bread was the real attraction (yum!), but as long as you avoid the split pea and lentil (ick), the soup is pretty good too!

I did go to the stitching shop, looking for some fabric for QG, but no dice. She has mostly aida. I think not. So I ordered some fabric from ABC Stitch. I ordered cream lugana, as I had a piece in my stash and liked the floss toss, and then I ordered some potato to do a floss toss on. We'll see when they get here.

We had lunch at the restuarant, and then there's a swap meet on the side of the parking lot, so we went in there. I didn't find anything I wanted to buy, although my friends bought a couple things. What caught my attention was a booth right in the front that was selling those MagnaDoodle things (you know, like on Friends). Someone had written on one of them "We're all Americans." Then quit flying the Mexican flag! (Sorry, ladies. This immigration issue really gets my dander up! You probably noticed.)

I added a new blog to my blogroll. The Stitching Memes Blog. I should go find the Stitching Bloggers Question blog too. Let's do a couple of these stitching memes...

1. How old were you when you started stitching?
I was about 12

2. How many years have you been at it?
ummm..16! Wow!

3. Self taught or did someone teach you?
Self taught. I had a beginners book. You should have seen me with 8 needles for 8 colors, working 1 row at a time! lol! By project 2 or 3, I had learned to do one color at a time!

4. What was your first project?
A little carousel horse out of the beginners book. It disappeared though, I wish I knew what happened to it.

1. what is your favorite count and type of fabric?
I like lugana. Cashel is good too. 28ct, but 25 and 32 are good too. 36 is stretching a little....anything smaller than 36 better be silk gauze!

2. Do you use hand-dyed or tried them at all?
I do use hand-dyed if it's appropriate. I use them mostly for Miras. For TWs, they're kind of a waste since TWs are mostly solid stitching, and for other pieces, they aren't always appropriate.

3. Any favorite fabric colors, hand-dyed or regular?
I like em all, lol. The hand-dyes though, I am a little more picky. I tend to like the more monochromatic ones more than the ones that have 4 colors swirled together.

4. Have you tried opalescent fabrics and do you like them?
I think I did do an ornament on an opalescent during an ornament RR (be sure to join us at the ornament RR board! Shameless self plug here!) and it was ok, but I found it hard to count the fabric threads around the metallic threads. In my general stitching, I'd probably use them sparingly, although I must say Mira's Winter Queen looks wonderful on white opalescent!

You know, I'm not into using stuff for the sake of using it. Stuff like hand-dyed or opalescent fabrics or metallic or overdyed threads. If I'm going to use it, I want it to add to the design, not compete with it. Some people like to add bf or braid to every inch of a design, or use a hand-dye fabric for every single design. I'm not like that. Some designs look better on solid fabrics. Sometimes less is more with sparkle. I'm all about balance and moderation in these things.

2006-04-01T20:15:00.000-08:00

I just have a question for any BBer who knows the answer. I'm not trying to start a debate or an argument and I'm not making any judgments about anything. There's just a piece of information that apparently everyone somehow found out, and I don't understand where it came from. So here it is: Where did the information that Laura's death was a suicide come from? I first heard it from some BBers, and I've seen some references to it in various blogs and BB posts, but I don't know where it was first reported. I didn't see it in her husband's blog until this past week, so how did it become public information and how did I miss it? Thanks for your help.

In other news, as I've posted on the BB, I think I've figured out my stitching slump. There's just no comfortable place to sit in my house to stitch! I've gotta finish clearing off the bed because I'm starting to dearly miss my stitching. Especially since I'm anxious to start the Quaker gameboard. I can't wait!

I found an old printout of my StRIP list, and I've made no progress on it in a year. In fact, it's gotten longer! So I'd like to start shrinking that list down a little, or at least changing the contents some, lol. I have about 10 projects I'm dying to start. (Check out the Rotation board link on the right if you're not familiar with StRIPping.)

I went into the furniture store today for an update on my table. The lady said they've built the table, and they're building the removeable part that goes on top. She said they should finish with that maybe tomorrow, and then she has to order the glass. I might have it by the end of the week! :) Although chances are I won't be able to get it until Saturday, since I won't get home until 8.

On Monday, I'm starting my new work schedule. I'm not really looking forward to it. 10am-6:30pm. It wouldn't really be so bad if I was driving, but in order to get there on time, I have catch the bus at 7:30am! I'll get there at 9, so I'll have an hour to kill, but I'd rather spend that hour asleep or at home doing stuff, instead of hanging out at work. But I guess that hour counts as built in stitching time or something, lol. And getting home, I'm not sure how that's going to be. I'm going to be able to get a ride part of the way, but I still probably won't get home until 8 because of the way the bus to my house runs.

The good news, though, is that there's a class of new CSOs coming in behind me, and I've been told that there's going to be a class behind them. The new CSOs are generally assigned that shift (that's how I got it!), and with so many people transferring out and moving around, I may be able to move to an earlier shift in May or June. I sure hope so!

And here's my weird call story of the week. I got a call from a custodial mother. I'll call her Mom A. Her child's father has a case with her, and a case with another mother. I'll call her Mom B. So Dad has orders for both cases. He makes a partial payment, and the money allocates proportionally between the cases. Mom A gets about $10 and Mom B gets about $50, since she has the larger order. Mom A knows for a fact that Dad and Mom B are living together, and after some research, I'm able to confirm that they probably are. I spoke with a coworker and my supervisor, and we all agreed this case should be closed. He's essentially getting back most of the money he's paying out and this poor Mom A is getting almost nothing! We consulted another coworker who is very familiar with procedures, and she said we could refer it to the division for review, but they won't close it. What?!? Why not? They're totally working the system. I called Mom A back and told her to go into the division to make a fuss about it. I hope they will take some sort of action, because that is just wrong. I feel bad for Mom A, her payments aren't even enough to buy a meal for a family of 3.

The best news I've heard all day...

2006-03-30T20:09:00.000-08:00

And it's sorta sad that this is the best news (well, other than the fact it's payday:))! The Blue Line is fixed and running on regular schedule! Woohoo!! I've mentioned in a few places recently that there was an accident on the tracks in the early morning of March 20. A car went off the edge of the freeway, hit the power lines that run the train, and landed on the tracks. Of course, on hitting the power lines, the car exploded and the 3 people inside died.

So it's taken them nearly 2 weeks to repair the tracks and the power lines. In the meantime, only every 3rd train ran most of the way, but heaven help you if you needed to go all the way to Long Beach, which is past the area of the accident if you start in Los Angeles. Only every 6th train or so was running all the way to LB. Hence the trains have been extremely crowded. And people don't understand the concept "there is no more room." "Ya, I can see there's no room, but we're going to cram 5 more people on anyway!" *rolleyes* "And besides that, I'm going to cram my full size stroller on the train because I don't want to hold my child and fold my stroller up!" Where's the clue by 4 when I need it?

The morning wasn't so bad. The train being jammed was irritating and uncomfortable, but I was getting to work on time. What I hate is getting home later. The trains running slower meant I missed the last bus I take home, which means I get home 30 mins later. I hate that! I'm starting to feel like I come home, eat, go to bed and get up and go back to work!

So I'm happy it's fixed.

So I got my Quaker Gameboard and thread in the mail yesterday.:) I can't wait to start! But I need to settle on some fabric first. I wish my LNS didn't suck these days. I'd like to be able to do a floss toss instead of having to rely on the computer screen. I might get the chance to go to a different shop this weekend, so if she's still open (the woman who runs it must be 80 now) maybe I can buy it from her.

I was trying to look at it in fabric viewer, but eliminating the fabric on the pic isn't the same as doing it on a Mirabilia. Either that, or I don't know what I'm doing. I'm guessing the latter is the case! Anyone know how to do this? I have Corel Draw.

I found a new site tonight, courtesy of EGA's magazine, NeedleArts. MorashahNeedlearts.com looks like a fledgling design company that started with Jewish designs and is moving into folk art. I'm particularly fond of the Hebrew Alphabet sampler.

I got an invitation to my cousin's wedding yesterday. I think I will not be attending. In fact, I don't think my mother is going either. I'd have to fly to Ohio for the wedding, and I'm just not doing it. The extent of my conversation with this cousin at our grandmother's funeral last year was to introduce me to her fiance. In 2002, we went to the screening of her film school project. There was a reception at her house afterwards, and she totally ignored me, my brother and our 2 other cousins for her friends and her mother's side of the family. So I think I will save my money on this one....

Last thing. It's not racist to enforce immigration policies! It's
not white supremacy repackaged. It's national security and national sovereignty. Every country in the world controls their borders but us. And we've got to get control, end of story.

News flash: This isn't Mexico

2006-03-27T18:11:00.000-08:00

Despite what Channel 62 and some organizations counting LA's mayor among their members may think, Los Angeles is not in Mexico. It's in the United States. This is America. If you want to enjoy the benefits and opportunities that come with life in this country, then fly the US flag, not the Mexican flag.

I saw at least 2 people flying Mexican flags on the way home today. I know it's directly connected to the immigration protests over the weekend, but again, I say this is not Mexico. If America is such a wonderful place to be and you're willing to wait through the immigration process or risk your life to come over the border, then be an American. Learn our language. Obey our laws. Fly our flag. Be an American. Don't come here and live off our resources but maintain allegiance to Mexico.

I was sick this weekend. Sigh. My ribs started to hurt because I've been sneezing and coughing so much. I was thinking about stitching, but it just didn't happen. I didn't even feel quite awake for a lot of the weekend. And then my voice started going out. I work in a call center, answering the phone. Greeeeaat. It was interesting this morning, I kept asking my callers if they could hear me since I felt like I was whispering. By the afternoon, I think I sounded better. I feel almost normal now.

And the evidence mounts....

2006-03-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

Saddam's links to Al Qaeda

Americans will do it!

2006-03-25T09:20:00.000-08:00

I'm so tired of hearing people (ahem President Bush!) talk about jobs Americans won't do! Americans will do them! For fair pay. For safe and standard working conditions. No, they won't risk their lives or safety for illegally low wages. But Americans will do dangerous jobs. And menial jobs. And perhaps unpleasant jobs. A parent who wants to feed their child will do almost anything they can to put food on the table. Just ask the families of those 12 men who died in the Sago Mine in January. Or their friends that were lucky enough to get out alive. Mining is very dangerous. But it pays well and those men do it to provide for their families.

The truth about illegal labor is it's cheap. And since management knows the workers will never report working conditions or other illegal practices for fear of being deported, they get away with it. And encourage it. To hire Americans costs money. It means paying a living wage. It means paying to maintain machines and a clean, safe environment. And that means less profit.

This whole guest worker thing is a disaster waiting to happen. We can't get people to leave when their visas expire now! We can't even get people deported for murdering cops. Los Angeles jails are full of illegal aliens who have come here and committed rapes and murders and other crimes. How are they going to enforce it then if they can't get it together now, even for only the criminals?

On to stitching. I received my Parcheesi chart from Ebay. It's waaaay too country for me, so I think I will be making lots of changes. But it does provide a good basic board to work from. Off with the geese. Off with the flower thing in the center. Not sure what I'm going to replace it with though. I think I'll use the primary colors of the original game - the one my grandma had. Red, blue, yellow and green. I much prefer the traditional board to geese.....

I also ordered the Quaker gameboard. I'll probably do that one first, and start it when I get it in my hot little hands! :) I just love that piece. I can't wait! Maybe it will come today.

So I have one more week left of my official training period on my job. I can't believe it's over already! And I can't believe I've gone from being scared to death to get on the phone to handling about 75% of my calls on my own. I still ask plenty of questions, but I'm a lot more confident in knowing the correct answers without checking every little thing out before I tell the caller.

Unfortunately, one more week of training also means one more week of starting at 8. Sigh. Next week I start working from 10-6:30 and I'm soooo not looking forward to that. But I can request to transfer to an earlier shift the first day, and with all the people coming and going and moving around, hopefully this late shift won't last long.

It is funny how people's attitudes can change from the beginning of the call to the end of the call, and it just depends on my manner with them. I had a caller yesterday who was all upset at the beginning. She was cursing and accusing our department of various things and all. I talked to her for a bit, giving her the information she needed to resolve her situation, and by the end of the call she was apologizing for her attitude and wondering how I deal with complaining people (like her!) all day, lol. She said "You sound so sweet, too!" It made me laugh when she got off the phone. She changed completely in about 15 minutes.

Have a great weekend everyone!

2006-03-21T20:16:00.000-08:00

I'm having a lousy night. My electricity was cut off. I swear I paid the bill online a few weeks go, but stupid SCE has no record of the payment! Arg! So now I gotta sit in the dark when I get home because they won't come out and turn it back on until tomorrow! Grrrrr!!!!

Anyway, as long as I've got this burst of anger, let's start a fight, lol. (I hope not really!) Let's talk about Iraq, seeing as the 3rd anniversary just passed. I'm tired of hearing about bombs and insurgencies and "Bush lied, kids died". I'm tired of hearing how Bush is evil, he lied, he misled, he hyped, he betrayed (I love that clip of Al Gore. "He betrayed this country! He played on our fears!" lol!!), he broke the law, yadda yadda. I'm tired of Cindy Sheehan. How is it we hear endlessly about wiretapping and torture and Koran flushing and any other soundbite that makes Bush look bad, but when there's news that vindicates him, somehow it gets overlooked, or it gets 2 lines on page 22.

Anyone see this story about Georges Sada, an Iraqi general who has written a book about Saddam's WMD? Has that appeared in the major media? Anyone see the new information linking Hussein to Al Qaeda? (I don't have time to find it tonight, I will tomorrow, when I have my own computer back!) Hmmm, funny how that didn't get major press time.

All that to say, 3 years after the war started, I still believe in this president, and I firmly believe that his convictions and his reasons for going to war in Iraq will be proved correct. And the world, the middle east and America will be better off because of it. It's already starting to happen. Just don't hold your breath for it to appear on the front page of the New York Times or Washington Post.

Insane idea...

2006-03-19T14:22:00.000-08:00

I posted about this on the BB, but I'm going to talk about it here too. I ordered the table for my chessboard. I had the idea of stitching more gameboards and being able to switch them in and out from the table. I did some looking around the net for charts, and I came up with a few different games. Chess, backgammon, Snakes & Ladders, Rummoli, and Monopoly. I'd like to find a Parcheesi board, but no luck on that yet.

So I've been getting feedback from the BBers, and I've been doing some digging into sizes and such, since the area I have in the table is fixed, and I really like this plan, but scaled back a little bit. I think I might skip the backgammon and Rummoli for now, and just start with Monopoly and Snakes & Ladders. I'd also like to do the Papillon Creations Quaker gameboard, I just love it. I've worked out that the S&L and the Quaker gameboard will fit in the table easily. I'm not sure about the Monopoly board yet, but I have the feeling it's about the same size as my completed chessboard. This could be great fun! I could just create a slot for this in my theoretical rotation, lol. It would create quite a conversation piece whenever I get my own apartment and can display it properly.

Some people stitch all the Mirabilia queens or mermaids, some stitch all of TW's dragons, or all of whatever series of designs you can name. Laurel stitches game boards.

I used to babysit for this family, and the last time I did, like 2 years ago, I left my watch over there. I haven't seen them since then. This morning in church, one of the ladies gave me my watch back, saying she had gone over there to get her taxes done (he's a CPA) and he had given it to her to give to me since he knows we go to church together. lol! It's only been 2 years! He could have mailed it to me or something. But it was a nice surprise to get it back! And it still works!

I ordered it!!!

2006-03-18T12:12:00.000-08:00

I did it! I finally ordered the table for my chessboard to go in! I'm so excited. I'm having it custom made from the custom furniture place in town. I feel bad because I had been talking to the guy at the other place and I had planned to order from him, but the custom place can give me exactly what I want and he couldn't. And the price was within what I was expecting to pay, so I went with it. The other place would have been cheaper, but again, I'm getting exactly what I want with this place and it's not that much more expensive.

Anyway, I'm going to have the board set into a table, and the table is going to have a drawer, maybe 2, in it. I chose a dark red-brown wood. She explained that what they do is make a table with a regular top, and then make a second top to go on top of it, and that's the piece the glass is in and my board will go under. That way I can remove it if I decide at some point to display something else or use the table a different way.

I think I'll have to buy myself a digicam so I can post pics when I get it back, lol. And I'll have to clean my room so I have a place to put the table when it's done! I guess it would have been smart to wait until I had my own place or something so I'd have more space to put it, but I have the money now. I might not (read: won't) have the money then.

I received the floss I ordered for TSL's Epiphyllum 2 yesterday. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to start that, start something else (like SB's Heart Blooms) or work on one of my many already existing WIPs. The idea of a new project is appealing, but so is the idea of finishing something. Christmas Elf Fairy is an obvious choice, as it's small and half done already. But I'm just not feeling that project at the moment. Sigh. Even though everyone's finished pics are so cute! And I'm really leaning towards ordering Easter Fairy. The pics of that are too cute too! I was thinking of starting Santa Silhouette, but it didn't come with my floss yesterday like I thought it was. I think Marie did tell me she had to order it though....

I got a St Patricks Day card and pin from my mom. Today. Just a tad late, lol. But it had a pin with a frog on it. I love frogs:)

Does anyone watch the Lineup on FNC weekend? What do you think about Kimberly Guilfoyle? She drives me up the wall! When Jamie Colby or Megyn Kendall or Julie Banderas did it, they would try to give the suspect in whatever case the benefit of the doubt, innocent until proven guilty. They tried to stay professional and impartial. They'd say things like "That piece of evidence certainly points to him, but of course we can't convict him on that." Kimberly is like "That says guilty to me! He should be locked up forever!" She doesn't even pretend to be impartial. I wonder if she used to work with Nancy Grace.....

Have a great weekend everyone!

I swear I have a sign on my phone...

2006-03-16T19:58:00.000-08:00

It says "I'm new here! If you have a weird question or difficult case, talk to me! I don't know what I'm doing!" I got all kinds of weird calls today. If you've been on and off welfare 10 times, had your kids in and out of foster care or switched custody every other year, I'm your friendly child support worker! I feel like I'm taking 30 mins on calls that should last 5. That might be just my own perception, and I suppose if my supervisor doesn't say anything, I shouldn't worry, huh?

My friend told me something funny today. She's my mom's age, and she doesn't pick up her home phone until the machine comes on and she can hear who it is. She told me last time I called her at home, her husband heard it was me and told her "Hey, your daughter is on the phone!" lol. I see his point though. She's a good friend and she helps me out a lot. Lectures me sometimes too, lol.

Reminds me of another incident several years ago, although I didn't find that one so funny. I used to be friends with a couple that later divorced, and after the divorce, I kept in touch with both of them for a while. The last time I called him, his roommate answered the phone and told him "Your girlfriend is on the phone!" I was NOT his girlfriend, although I suspect he was trying to make it that way. I don't talk to him anymore.....too many weird things going on over there...

I guess that's all I have to say for tonight. Except that I'm darn glad tomorrow is Friday! I just wish I had the day off. Sigh. Happy Friday everyone!

Pushed out of the nest....

2006-03-15T18:40:00.000-08:00

No, not that nest, for all of you on move-out watch. I'm not moving out quite yet. The trainee nest. The learning curve on my job is somewhat high, so they train you for about 2 months before they expect you to start handling calls on your own. Well, my 2 months is about up, and after about 2 weeks of having someone sitting with me and listening while I take my calls and answering questions, my supervisor made me fly solo today. It was a little freaky, and I asked lots of questions of lots of coworkers (patient bunch! But they all learned the same way.) but I did it. Yay for me!

Of course, since today was my first day on my own, I got all the weird calls. I got 2 calls involving another certain county that apparently doesn't believe in waiting until the case is all the way transferred before starting to collect. These poor men are being charged by 2 different counties for the same case, which is an absolute no-no, and they're quite right to be upset.

And my favorite call of the day involved a call I took yesterday. The call yesterday was grandma, who has the child, saying she wanted the case against her daughter closed. One of our systems was down all day, and I needed to do more research before I could close her case, so I let her know I would research and close the case once I verified my information. This morning, my coworker told me to call her back and have her submit the closing request in writing. So I called and the woman who answered the phone was not the woman I spoke to yesterday! The woman I spoke to yesterday was the daughter impersonating her mother. But since she could verify her mom's information, I had no way of knowing that. Needless to say, Mom was quite upset and let me know she did NOT want her case closed by any means! This job is never boring, I'll say that!

I discovered a new timewaster site. Freeonlinegames.com. Lots of free games. My favorite at the moment is Cyber Box. I'm working on beating level 11. I also liked Chain Reaction. Simple, but interesting game. I downloaded the game Coffee Tycoon as well, and find that interesting, but frustrating sometimes. The goal of the game is to attract a million customers to your Starbucks-type coffee shop. But you get very little control over the circumstances. The computer generates the circumstances that drive your business and income up and down. You can't control prices or anything, just menu and staff. But I'll probably keep playing. Can we say too much time on my hands?

New job, new computer, new look for my blog

2006-03-12T19:23:00.000-08:00

I know, I haven't been here forever. But now I have a new job, I bought myself a new computer, so I guess I can go back to keeping my blog. (Happy Darla? lol) It seemed like a good time for a new look for my blog as well, so I hope you like the pink. Although my blog is called the Purple Needle. Maybe I should change it to purple? lol

I do have a new job, as most of you probably know. I'm working in a call center, and getting the hang of these calls has been much harder than I anticipated! Especially writing the notes in the system afterwards. It's too easy to write a novel when all that's needed is the essence of the call. What prompted the call, what they asked and what you did to resolve it. It's easy to get distracted by all the extraneous information they give you in the process of asking a question. So a 20 minute call might end up as 2 lines in the notes. Friday was the first time I felt like I was really starting to understand. I've had someone sitting next to me for the last 2 weeks, and I think tomorrow she's going to make me sit alone. Yikes! Pray for me!

Now, the best part of a new job is the paycheck, of course! I love it! I'm making enough to support myself, but as I'm still living in my mom's condo, I have almost more money than I know what to do with. At this point, I'm about to receive check #4, and I've been taking care of some of those expensive things I've wanted to do and not had the money to do. Chances are I'll never have this much freedom with my money again, so I'm enjoying it! I've bought some stash, some clothes, paid some bills, some other stuff that I just wanted, and of course my computer. I think with this week's check, I'm going to get my chessboard finished. (Another matter entirely that I'll address in a minute.) But pretty soon here, I'll have to get a little more serious about saving and putting more money towards my loans and such while I have the chance.

My chessboard. I want to set it into a table. I'm finding that it's much more expensive than I was hoping, especially if I go custom. I went and spoke with the guy at a local furniture store, and he said my best bet might be to get a ready-made table and get a piece of glass cut to fit on top. I flipped through his catalogs, and found a few things that I think will work. But then I was surfing the web and found this: oak game table That's exactly what I want! Except instead of their board, I want a piece of glass with mine under it. So I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to end up with, and all I can say is that I can't afford to spend a zillion dollars on it. Any ideas?

As for my current stitching, it's a bit sporadic. Currently, I've been switching between Elf Fairy, Savannah's Curtsy, and Genie's Blue Blast. I've done a ton of buying lately though, so I think my next starts will be SB's Heart Blooms and TSL's Epiphyllum #2. Although I want to finish something before I start anything else, so I think I'll probably concentrate on EF or on Terry Nolan's United, since they are the closest to being finished.

Finally, a personal PSA prompted by my new job. Ready? Here goes:

Do NOT NOT NOT ever ever ever allow or encourage your son, your brother, your grandson, your nephew, if it arises for some reason, your boyfriend, or any other man in your life to sign a paternity declaration for a child he knows is not his!! In fact, he shouldn't sign it if he has any doubt at all that he is the father. A paternity declaration is a legal document. It has responsibility attached to it. 18 years of responsibility. And it takes a court order to rescind it. It's not a favor to a girlfriend. If she's embarrassed that her baby's father isn't around, that's too bad, and perhaps she should be embarrassed. If he wants to help her out, buy her some diapers or some food, or babysit for a while so she can nap. Do NOT sign the paternity declaration!

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog. I promise to try to be here more regularly and I hope you'll be here too!

Thinking of an old teacher today

2005-06-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

I happened to look at the headlines of the local paper as I walked by the newsstand and came across this article about the death of Charlie Saikley. I didn't know him personally, but his wife, Rosa Lee, was one of my favorite teachers in high school. Their youngest son, Charles, was in my class. I feel bad for his family and my thoughts and prayers go out to them today.

I'm still around, believe it or not

2005-06-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

I haven't been here in ages, I know. Having to use the library computers just doesn't lend itself to regular blogging. And the mess that is EZboard has made BBing less than thrilling lately. But it's Saturday afternoon, and I have some time so here we go with an update about me. I could use your prayers and good wishes please!

To make a really long story short enough for a blog, my mother is retiring, selling her condo and moving back to Ohio in September temporarily to help take care of my grandma. (Providing my grandma even lives that long! I hope she does, but I don't know what will happen if she doesn't) My aunt and uncle are divorcing and part of the profit from my mother's condo will help my uncle buy out my aunt's half of their house among other things.

Now the part that has me in tears every time the subject comes up is I don't know what I'm going to do. I do not want to move to Ohio and I have no intention of doing so. I want to stay here. The problem is I can't find a job!! I've been going through this for 5 years now and I don't know what the problem is. I keep hearing that it's hard out there, there aren't many jobs, yadda yadda, but I don't think that's the problem. I'm thinking the problem is me. I'm doing something wrong in the interview. I've been on dozens of interviews but I just never seem to get hired. I don't know what's wrong. I'm just so frustrated. It seems like everyone else in the world knows how to get a job and move out and support themselves. It's just stupid Laurel that can't figure it out.

I've gained a good amount of confidence over the past few weeks that I'm not going to be living under the 110 freeway at least. Several of my friends have offered me a place to stay, but the truth is I don't like any of them. Most of them involve moving out of the area and I don't want to do that really. I have one friend here, but I don't particularly want to live with her either. She doesn't really have room for me, and I just don't think it'd be a good idea for me to stay there. I have another friend due to have a baby in August and she wants me to come take care of the baby for her. I wouldn't mind helping her out for a few months, but I don't want to live in Vegas. What I really want is to stay here in LA with a good job, my own apartment and a car, just like any other 27yo woman. I don't think it's really that much to ask!

I just don't know what I'm going to do. So any prayers, ideas, thoughts, anything you can give me would be much appreciated!

Baby Destiny and Paul Howard

2005-03-04T13:58:00.000-08:00

Anyone live in Fulton County GA?

Baby Destiny Ashe was 5 weeks old when her mother, Carissa Ashe, shook/beat her to death in 1998. The mother confessed to killing her daughter.

Paul Howard is the DA in Fulton County, GA, who took 6 years (!) to prosecute this woman for murder, and then let her off with an agreement to get her tubes tied. No jail time, no probation, nothing. So an innocent baby is dead, and this irresponsible, drug-addicted woman is still walking around free because the DA doesn't care enough to pursue the case. Who really cares about a dead baby anyway? Sigh.

What's more, this woman has given birth to 2 more children between 1998 and her deal to get her tubes tied, bringing her grand total to 8 drug-addicted children, by 8 different men. 4 are in state custody, 2 are living with grandma, one ran away or is otherwise missing, and baby Destiny is dead. Clearly, this woman, Carissa, should not be having more children, but more than that, she killed her infant daughter and confessed to it. There's no reason why the DA shouldn't be pursuing a conviction and putting her in jail.

Apparently DA Howard is newly re-elected, and apparently he has a long record of ignoring cases like this. I wonder what exactly he does prosecute. There is a legal group down there starting proceedings to get him recalled. Good! As a resident of California, I can tell you recalls work! If you live in Fulton County, or if you'd just like to comment on this situation, I'd love to hear from you.

I'm back! For now anyway....

2005-03-02T16:29:00.000-08:00

My poor neglected blog. Without a computer at home, it's just hard to find time to do this. But here I am again, I'll try to do better at keeping up. I seem to be saying that a lot. The lack of computer access is really making my online commitments hard to keep!

So I'm still out of a job. I've been temping since the end of October and that's going pretty well I guess. I was glad when we got off the docketing project we were doing and on to something a little more interesting. I've been starting to do some QC too, so that's encouraging. I noticed they tend to keep their QCers and such employed a little more often than the rest, so that can mean more reliable work.

Stitching wise, I did a lot in January. I StRIPped 4 projects from my list and finished 2 ornaments. Then February hit and along came the afghan CAL on the Wagon board. I bought all the yarn for that, as well as the yarn for a poncho, so I've been crocheting in February. I'll probably go back to stitching soon, but I think I'll tweak my rotation list. I'm not terribly excited about any of the projects I left off with.....

Which brings me to another problem I've been having this week. I'm on an off time with the temp job, hopefully it won't last too long. They didn't collect our security badges so it shouldn't, but I'm finding that staying home is just really boring! I haven't felt like stitching or crocheting. I did buy a new desk, put it together and rearrange my room to make it fit. Then I did some reorganizing of my room and I need to finish that. (The main problem is I don't know how to store my stash!) And I could always do something about a job. But I just don't feel like doing any of those things. So I spend a lot of time watching TV and playing around with my recorder that I recently dug out, but overall I'm bored. Never thought I'd be hoping to go back to work soon!

Speaking of the recorder, I found mine from 2nd grade, when they make you learn to play it. It's been great fun. I remembered some of the basic fingering, and found some fingering charts online to fill in the rest, especially the flats and sharps and I've been doing pretty well, considering I've never had a lesson and haven't played in 20 years. I've been using the psalter my church uses and I've found some interesting things about the psalms in there. Several of them are set to familiar tunes or pieces of classical music and it's fun to find a tune I recognize. I also pulled out some praise music and I've discovered that's very boring to play compared to the psalms or hymns. A lot of praise music is set to very simple, repeated melodies with only 4 or 5 notes. (I knew a man in college who refered to praise music as 7-11 music. You repeat the same 7 words 11 times!)So while it may sound great on a piano where you can play several notes at once, on a recorder or violin where you only get one note at a time for the melody line, it's very boring. There are performance arrangements done for various instruments, so perhaps I'll be able to find one to do at the church Christmas program.

Oh, before I go, I found a steal today in the library book sale. The complete DMC Encyclopedia of Needlework :)

Christmas is not a dirty word

2004-12-01T13:45:00.000-08:00

Contrary to what the ACLU and several school districts and employers (ahem Macy's!) around the country would like us to believe, Christmas is not a dirty word. Merry Christmas is a perfectly acceptable greeting. Millions of people around the world celebrate Christmas on December 25th, either in a religious context or a context of giving and family. So why the objection to the greeting Merry Christmas?

The ACLU is backwards. Religion is not pornography. And it's not even all religion they're trying to put beneath pornography. It's Christianity and Christian holidays. Schools are free to put on programs about Hannukah and Ramadan and Kwaanza and nary a word from anyone. But sing a song about Jesus's birth or mention God and you'd think the sky was falling!

The ACLU fought the passage of the Children's Internet Protection Act, which was meant to protect children from accessing pornography on public computers. Sure, let your 7yo look at pornography, no problem, but if he says Merry Christmas to a classmate in school, woe to him!

Heaven forbid anyone should be offended! The US grants many and wide freedoms to us, but the right not to be offended isn't one of them. If a person is not Christian or doesn't celebrate Christmas for whatever reason, that's their right. But it's not their right to tell me I can't make reference to a holiday I celebrate. I don't have the right to tell them not to celebrate whatever holiday they choose just because it may offend me or I may disagree, and neither do they.

No one says Merry Christmas in an effort to convert someone. It's simply a friendly greeting meant in good will at a certain time of year, the same as hello or have a nice day and there's nothing wrong with it.

So say it loud and say it proud. Merry Christmas.

The cleanup continues...

2004-11-29T10:41:00.000-08:00

My mom and I spent most of the Thanksgiving weekend cleaning our house. I focused on the kitchen and made great progress. The left side of the kitchen is almost functional now. The dishes are clean and in the cabinet, the counter is clean, the sink is empty, it's great. The right side still needs some cleaning and scrubbing, but it looks better too. I ran who knows how many loads of dishes, with a few still to go. I still need to clean out the cabinets, take care of an issue with the dryer and mop the floor. After Christmas we're going to buy a new stove, as ours doesn't work that well. Everything in the darn house is an odd size, but the neighbor recently found a place that has the right size stove so we'll get one there. I can't wait to be able to cook and bake again!

We also spent a lot of time doing laundry, like 20 loads. We did 5 or 6 loads of things to take to Goodwill, which we did. Then we did 13 or so loads of our own clothes, towels, sheets, nearly everything. My mother swears that every pair of socks she owns are clean except the ones she was wearing, lol. We both got some "new" clothes out of the deal though. I found my very comfy Pooh nightgown :)

Next on my mom's agenda is the back bedroom, but I think next on my list will be the living room, although how I'm going to do that without her help I don't know. But I swear I'm going to have a Christmas tree this year, and I'll put it in the middle of the kitchen if I have to!

Somewhere amid all this cleaning and working I need to find time to stitch. My last RR ornie mailing is supposed to be today, but I'm not done yet. And my chessboard, which has now been extended for the 2nd time, is due in 2 weeks and I've made very little progress in the last 5 or 6 weeks. I was also going to stitch my uncle a Christmas present but that may have to wait until next year or just be late. I don't think I'll be able to get it done for this Christmas, which is really a shame since we're going to Ohio the day after Christmas and I could see him open it. I know he'll love it, I just need to find time to do it.

Ah, empty space.....

2004-11-23T07:13:00.000-08:00

None of you have ever seen my house, but if you remember a bit back on the BB, we were talking about clutter and Anita said if the clutter overtakes the function of the room, you have too much stuff? Well, this describes my whole house pretty much. We've been there over 5 years, but it really looks like we just moved in. There's boxes in the living room and dining room and in the corner of the back bedroom. There's just stuff everywhere, with paths to get from room to room.

Saturday morning my mom asked me how much I would want her to pay me to help her clean the house. I've been through this little game with her before and her idea of cleaning is usually move the stuff in the area she wants clean (in this case the back of the living room for the Christmas tree) to another area of the house (ie the back bedroom). I'm not going to play that game with her this time, so I told her if she was really going to clean it up, get rid of stuff, throw stuff out, and finish the job, I would help her for free. She agreed so Saturday afternoon we started on the living room.

I was getting quite frustrated because I wanted to see progress faster than it's happening. I wanted to be able to get boxes out of there and see more space. It feels like we're just moving stuff around really, and I'm tired of having to move stuff and reach over stuff and step around stuff to get around. I was hoping to start getting stuff out of boxes and either in homes in the house or in boxes to go to charity. The charity box is coming along ok, but the problem is that there's nowhere to store anything in the living room or dining room. There's the entertainment center and 4 bookshelves and that's it. The desk is like 3 pieces of wood put together, no storage, and there's no drawer space or cabinet space anywhere. So I think my mom is going to have to do some shopping on Black Friday.

So Sunday night I tackled a big stack of stuff outside the kitchen. It started out as the earthquake supply box, but then became Christmas stuff and clothes and whatever happened to get tossed on the pile. I sorted it out, and got it down to just the container of earthquake stuff and the container of Christmas stuff, and my mom moved them away from that wall to turn on the heat, so now we have a little area of empty space!! :D :D I never thought empty space could make me so happy, lol. I did a couple little happy dances in the space last night.

So tonight I think we're going to take the big pile of clothes in the kitchen to the laundromat and sort them between keep and charity. That will leave more empty space :D

I'm looking forward to getting all those boxes out.....

Wow, long time no blog!

2004-11-20T13:24:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been a month, but then again I can. My compuer gave out on me about 2 weeks ago, sigh. I've spent some money trying to fix it, but now I'm at the point where I think I'll just buy a new one. It's just not worth spending any more money on at this point. But since I can only get online at work or at the library, I haven't been online as much, and I haven't been posting on the BBs or blogging as much. My poor RR board is being run by the mods at this point, lol, and I've had to ask my co-mod to take over for QotD for a bit. She's been great.

I'm still at my same temp job at the law firm. Zzzzzzz......it's sooooo boring, and I'll be glad when it's either over or I can move to a different project. I tolerate it because the paycheck is handy, but other than that I could do without it.

In more positive job news that I haven't publicized online yet, I got 2 interview offers this week from the city of Long Beach! :D One from the police department and one from the Long Beach harbor department. I called them both, and I have an interview for the harbor department scheduled for December 7th. Wish me luck!

I also talked to the police department, but I've decided to think about that one and call her back on Monday, because they're hiring for the swing and graveyard shifts and I'm not excited about either one. I worked swing for a year, and it really messes with your schedule. I'm not anxious to go back to it. Transportation is also an issue until I can get my license, because the buses do quit running at night, so I'd probably need my mom to drive me one way or something, and I don't imagine she's going to be excited about driving to Long Beach at midnight....

So this whole work thing has really cut into my stitching time too. I've done very little stitching in the past month, and that's not good. I still need to finish Janine's ornament, and I really need to finish the chessboard. I thought that not having a computer would help, lol, but it didn't really.

So that's my life for the past month. I'll try to keep this a bit more up to date than I have been....thanks for reading :)

Laurel

Well, it's back to the working world for me

2004-10-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Temporarily at least. Last winter, I worked as a temp for a large law firm in LA. The project I was working on ended, and they laid us off, promising to call us back soon because they were expecting some more work soon. Well, that work didn't materialize, so I never heard anything and eventually I assumed it was over. Since then, I registered with a different agency, and they called me and asked if I would take another coding assignment at the same firm, so here I am.

I started today, and it's the same and it's different. The supervisors have changed, most of the people have changed, the work is a bit different, but it's mostly the same. I'm not sure how long it will last, but I'll be surprised if it lasts until Christmas. But in the meantime, it's work, and income.

So this puts a major crimp in my plan to finish the chessboard this week. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do about that, but I guess I'll have to figure it out soon. Of course, I do need to finish my RR ornament first, as today was the mailing date and I'm now late.

Need some prayers for a friend

2004-10-24T22:36:00.000-07:00

It was posted on the TWBB that PennyIN's husband has lung cancer and it doesn't look good for him. Penny is a dear friend of mine that I was blessed to be able to meet at the Vegas gtg, and I'm so sorry to hear this. Burt has been sick for several months with a severe cough among other things, and over the summer Penny was telling me that she was terrified it was lung cancer. I'm so sorry that she was right. He's so young really and it's just so sad. Please pray your hardest for Burt and Penny. They don't have health insurance, and I know that Penny is just devatstated for one, and after that, she's scared silly about how they're going to pay for his medical bills and what she's going to do if he dies. I just wish I could be there to hug her. I just feel so sad for them.

If you want to send a card, there's an address on the TWBB in the Ask Teresa forum, and if you want to donate money for the Porters, please contact Teresa Wentzler for information. Maybe the BBs could chip in and get some money together for them with a Paypal account or something?

Just random stuff today

2004-10-22T01:58:00.000-07:00

No politics today, I promise. Although there's plenty to talk about!

Anyway, I had an interview yesterday. It went ok I think. I don't know that I'll get offered the job, but who knows. What I don't understand is how an interviewer can make a decision when they haven't asked any questions of the candidate. I left the interview feeling like she didn't really have anything to base a decision about me on. :\ I should find out over the weekend.

I've been feeling a bit ignored in general lately. But apparently I'm not the only one who has trouble getting people to comment in her blog! What is it about comments that people don't do it? And then I've posted several topics across a few boards that didn't get much response. I just feel that no one is listening to me in general:( It may be a bit unreasonable and pity party-ish, but that's how it is. I have self-esteem issues, and often feel this way, but lately it's been worse.

Which leads me to another observation. On one BB, there's some complaint that the debate forum is too wrapped up in American politics, that all the threads are about the election and some of the international members feel a bit left out or uneasy in that forum. But now I understand why there's so much focus on it in the forum. No one wants to talk about anything else. The political topics get tons of response and the non-political ones get only a few. Several non-political threads have been started in recent days and they just never go anywhere as far as any kind of discussion or debate.

I went to the mall after the interview yesterday and did a tiny bit of shopping. Joann is evil, and I bought a beginners quilt kit they had. I've always wanted a Sunbonnet Sue quilt, and this one said everything you need is included in the package except scissors. I don't have a working sewing machine, so doing this by hand will be interesting to say the least....I think I'll stick it in my rotation somewhere next year.

I also caved and joined a round robin. I couldn't help it! I already have some ideas for my layout too. This should be fun, I'm excited! But I see my commitment to no obligation stitching next year going out the window. I'm now in 2 RRs. But that's it! I swear! No classes (although I do see some EGA classes that look like fun), no gifts, nothing like that. I want to get my WIP pile down to a number smaller than my age.....

How low can he get?

2004-10-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

I can't believe some of the claims coming out of the mouth of John Kerry as the election gets closer. I wonder just who believes these things and just how afraid Kerry must be that he won't win to pull out these kinds of lies.

-Bush knew that the flu vaccine was in trouble 3 years ago and did nothing. Oh sure, he had a crystal ball and saw that the English vaccine supply was going to be contaminated in 3 years and sat on his hands over it.

-Bush is planning to reinstate the draft. How many times has he virtually said "Read my lips, there will be no military draft!" Kerry is trying to scare younger voters with this.

-Bush is planning to privatize Social Security. Kerry is using this to scare the senior citizen voters that their money will disappear if Bush is re-elected. First, Kerry took this quote from a source that's been unreliable in the past who said that Bush made this statement in a private meeting. Second, nothing in Bush's plan will affect those receiving social security today, or the baby boomer generation. It will affect my generation more than likely, and it will be a choice, not a complete privatization of SS.

-Out of the mouth of John Edwards came a claim that under John Kerry, they will find a cure for spinal cord injuries so that people like the late Christopher Reeve will be able to walk again. I concede he probably meant that Kerry would fund stem cell research to work towards that goal, but he should have said it that way instead of sounding like he was promising all the spinal cord injury patients they would be able to walk by the end of the Kerry administration should he be elected. Stem cell research, no matter how much funding they throw behind it, is in infancy and will probably take many years to yield those kinds of results.

-And finally, the incredibly inappropriate remarks both of them have made about Mary Cheney. That was just wrong and low.

OK, enough from me on that for today. For those of you tired of reading about my politics, I promise it won't last forever! ;)

A job update - Erica, this is for you, so listen up! I got an email yesterday (Saturday night of all things) from a management job I applied for. She sent me a further description of the job and said to let her know if I was still interested after reading it and we'd schedule an interview. I am still interested, so I'm expecting to have an interview this week. It's funny, because probably a year ago, I wouldn't have even considered applying for a management job, but after some things that I've done this past year and some of the things I had started doing at my job at Child Support, I think I can handle it. Watch this space and wish me luck!

Chessboard update - I've been going full force on the chessboard for 2 weeks or so, doing about a square a day in order to finish on time. But I kind of hit the wall on that this past Wednesday and have done very little on it since then. So I picked up my current RR ornament and I'll get back to the chessboard in a few days. But here are the numbers after the frenzy -

Squares complete - 55 of 64
Patterns complete - 24 of 33
Patterns partially complete - 3

I'm about 81% done now, with about 2 weeks to go. I'm pretty confident I can finish with little problem. Watch for the major dancing here and all around the internet, lol.

It's not all bombs and beheadings

2004-10-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

I was inspired to blog about this by some comments to a post in another blog I enjoy, What Now? The post was written by the blogger's sister about how the rest of the world views America. This commenter, who didn't have the courage to sign their name, objected to the use of 9/11 to praise President Bush, and proceeded to list all the reasons why the situation in Iraq is a mess and how President Bush is a big failure.

We all see the news everyday. There's bombings quite regularly. American troops are being killed. The war is costing America money. There's continuing violence by insurgents in many parts of Iraq. We've yet to catch bin Laden. The rest of the world hates America. Iraq hates America and wants us out. It's all bad news. That's all that's happening, Iraq is a mess, we shouldn't have gone in, America is going downhill, and it's all the fault of George W. Bush.

This is the news coming out of a liberal media, who in some cases are quite blatant about their bias to the left and their dislike of Bush and the war. This is the news coming out of a media that knows that showing a car explode garners much better ratings than showing Iraqis building a school. This is not fair and balanced reporting by any stretch.

There are good things happening in Iraq. There are good things happening in Afghanistan. There are even good things happening in Indonesia. You just have to care enough to find out what they are. I do care what they are, and I found a long list here.

Afghanistan had it's first public election of a leader last weekend. A woman was the first person to vote. Women are allowed to walk in public freely. Young girls are going to school. It's a great step for both democracy and human rights in Afghanistan.

Indonesia only recently became a democratic country, after years of dictatorship- one of the few democracies in Southeast Asia. They are now serving as a model to Iraq in building a democracy. Some members of the Iraqi government travelled to Indonesia to take a tour of their government and take their lessons back to Iraq.

Saddam Hussein is gone. His cruel regime is over. His people are free. He's in jail. That in itself is cause to rejoice. The Iraqi people are working together with coalition forces to rebuild their infrastructure - roads, schools, hospitals, water treatment plants, electrical plants.

In Baghdad, people have lived with the contaminated water from the much-polluted Tigris River for many years, resulting in health problems and water-borne disease. With the addition of the water treatment facilities, Baghdad will have clean, pure water to drink, to cook with, to bathe with. How simple a pleasure that is - to have clean water. Yet the Baghdadi people have lived without it under Hussein.

The Iraqi economy is slowly improving. State workers are now being paid a living wage, a salary they can support their families with, and even have money left to repair their homes and buy appliances, which they haven't done in 15 years. Before, they made enough to buy 2 kilos of meat.

I saw an interview with country singer Cheley Wright yesterday. She just came back from visiting the troops in Iraq. The Iraqi women were shocked to see that she was the boss. The men listened to her, served her, and catered to her. She walked next to them, not behind them. What a great but simple image of free, unoppressed women for the Iraqi women, along with the fact that women are being encouraged to vote in the elections in January.

There are good things happening in Iraq. It's not all bombs and beheadings.

Hello? Hello? Anyone out there?

2004-10-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

It's rollcall time! Please comment if you're reading my blog, just so I feel a little less like I'm talking to myself. Thanks!

The lack of comments has me feeling a bit unloved.

A point for John Kerry

2004-10-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

OK, I can't believe I'm going to say this, in public no less, but John Kerry finally said something I can give him credit for. At least partial credit anyway. It's no secret that both campaigns are spinning the numbers and the statistics to suit them. Statistics are really easy to manipulate that way and I tend to take them all with several grains of salt. But I think he is right on one point despite whatever numbers he attaches to it - the jobs that are being created in America do not pay as well as the jobs we're losing to overseas outsourcing.

Speaking as someone who has been mostly out of work for well over a year, and someone who is trying to make enough to support herself in Los Angeles, it is very hard to find work, especially relatively entry level work, that pays over $10/hr. That's not to say there aren't jobs out there - there's lots of jobs. Retail jobs. Part time jobs. Security jobs. Fast food jobs. But they all pay minimum wage or only slightly better. I can't live on that. On the other hand, I see lots of jobs that pay quite well too. The problem for someone like me, with only 3 or so years of work experience, is that I don't have the experience they want. I don't have the skills they want. They're all executive level jobs. There's very little in between these 2 extremes. The jobs in between are the ones going overseas.

For instance, I was working for a law firm last winter doing some legal coding and data entry. This firm has a department devoted to this, and takes in work from other firms as well as internal work. They charge $1.70 per document. The work is dwindling because those firms can send them to India and get it done for $.40 per document. The pay for coders is low because there's just not enough work and therefore enough money to pay more. Outsourcing is definitely a problem. If those coding jobs were staying here in America, who knows, I might have a job I could actually support myself on!

If ever anyone needed a clue fairy

2004-10-11T01:45:00.000-07:00

It's John Kerry! Could the man be any more clueless about Iraq? He keeps harping on the fact that Al Qaeda attacked us on 9/11, not Iraq or Saddam Hussein, and the invasion of Iraq and ousting of Hussein was a mistake and the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. He keeps harping on Afghanistan. Now that the Duelfer report has been released, he's harping on the fact that Iraq had no WMD and how Bush made a colossal mistake in judgement.

How conveniently he forgets to mention the next lines in the report where it was stated that Saddam had the means to obtain WMD courtesy of several European and Asian countries and the intention to do so once the sanctions were lifted. And let's forget the fact that he was skimming the Oil-for-Food program to pay off those countries in exchange for helping lift the sanctions at the UN. I'm sure it was mere coincidence that all of those countries refused to join the US Coalition.

Is intention really not enough for Kerry? Would he really rather that Hussein attacked us first? To use a rather crude analogy, if he had even the smallest bit of evidence that a man had the intent to eventually rape and kill his daughter, would he really wait until the man followed through before making every effort to protect his daughter? Surely not. He'd make darn sure there was no way that man could ever get near his daughter. So why should America not act to protect herself in the same way against the intentions of a rapist and murderer like Saddam Hussein?

Need thoughts for a young man I know

2004-10-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

I don't want to get into too much detail here, but I found out today a young man I know and like quite a bit has gotten himself into some trouble with a source of authority in his life. The situation would be really simple to correct, but he just doesn't want to do it it seems. It just makes me sad, because he's a really neat guy and so young to be making poor decisions. Please pray for him to do the right thing and make things right before the consequences escalate. His name is Parris. Thanks.

The end is in sight!

2004-10-10T01:30:00.000-07:00

I can see the end of the chessboard now! I'm on row 7, and I'll probably do 7 and 8 together, like I did with 5 and 6. Then I just have to finish up a few odds and ends on a couple squares, do the crowns and the border and I'll be done! I'm hoping to be done by October 22, so stay tuned for a major happy dance. I'm so excited to be getting this over with and go on to my other pieces.

My eaten post has yet to show, so I'll repost some of it. The main thing is that I added a new thing to my sidebar, The Wisdom of Fran Fine. Fran Fine was Fran Drescher's character on The Nanny, and she has all kinds of odd bits of wisdom about fashion, makeup, children, all kinds of things. She cracks me up, so I thought I'd put some of it up for you. I'll probably change them once a week. I hope you get a kick out of it, and please feel free to comment if something strikes you.

My quest for that ever elusive outfit last weekend was a failure. After trips to 3 separate stores of a chain, I still couldn't find the outfit I was looking for. So I went in some other shops, and found a couple cute things, but since they weren't appropriate for an interview and quite a bit more than I wanted to pay, I passed. I did go to Walmart however, and came away with the exciting purchases of socks, underwear, bras, pantyhose, a new hairbrush and razor blades. No books, no CDs, no stash, nothing fun at all. Sigh. My mother, on the other hand, bought all kinds of stuff, totalling over $440! Yikes!

Silly Blogger

2004-10-06T12:30:00.001-07:00

I typed out a post a few days ago, and when I hit publish, I got the stupid website not responding error message :( Last time this happened to me, the post showed up about a week later, so I'm hoping it happens this time. I think the Blogger people must be related to the EZboard people. If it doesn't show up, I'll repost the info.

Anyway, I caught the rerun of the debate last night. Cheney won hands down. Kerry's rhetoric doesn't sound any better coming out of Edwards's mouth than it did coming out of his own. But I will give Edwards points for being more likeable than Kerry.

I saw Bush's speech this morning. He was great - didn't stumble over his words, he was relaxed and coherent and right on target with his points - all the things he should have been last Thursday against Kerry. He even laughed and joked a bit. Sigh. Maybe on Friday.

So I went to this job fair yesterday - you may have read about it on a BB. It was the stupidest thing I've been to in a long time. After about the 5th time of being told "Our openings are on our website" I decided I had enough and left. If I was running a company and sending reps out to a job fair to find new recruits, I'd make sure they knew something about what I was looking for before they got there darn it! These reps didn't know what kinds of jobs were open or anything about it, except to direct people to the website. I could have done that from the comfort of my own computer! Grrrrrr.

Quick chessboard update and then I'll shut up for now. I'm almost done with square 20. I plan to finish that up today, and then put in some grid for the rest of row 6, so I can do squares 21 and 22 and finish 23. I've already done 24. I really need to spend a day or 2 just putting in grid, but it's boring. It sure would be nice to have it all done though.....the patterns would go really quick after that. For those of you interested in numbers:

Squares complete: 41 of 64
Patterns complete: 18 of 33 (I'm counting square 20 as complete)
Patterns partially complete: 3
I'm about 65% done with 24 days to go including today.

The test results are in!

2004-10-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

I got my band letter from the city of Long Beach today (well, yesterday, Friday). I got a 90 on the test, putting me in the top band, A! Woohoo!! I hope to get a call from some department for an interview soon :) Just briefly, the way the city works is to test people, and then they band the people who passed by score. The city of LB has 3 bands, A, B and C, with the top scorers being band A. They work from the top band down in their hiring process.

The other talking point of the day obviously is the presidential debate. Style and substance are two different things, and I personally don't care who has better style. I don't care if Kerry is the next Abraham Lincoln as far as orators go (which he isn't by a long shot!). Iraq isn't going to be won by debate skills. North Korea isn't going to disarm because of some eloquent and impassioned speech asking them to.

What matters is substance and Kerry has none as far as I can tell. I didn't hear anything last night that convinces me that he has a darn clue about the big picture of the war on terror. The man just does not get it at all. I don't even know what to say about it beyond that, but he just doesn't get it. The war on terror is about more than avenging 9/11 or bringing down bin Laden. bin Laden is not the be all and end all of terror in the world. Hussein is a terrorist in his own right. The Taliban are terrorists in their own right. The Russian school tragedy was an act of terror.

I went shopping today for a new outfit to interview in. I discovered at my last interview that the outfit I'd been using doesn't really fit me quite right :\ That's a horrible clue that I've been putting on weight, which I'm not at all happy about. So I wanted an outfit that fit me properly, but also one that I felt good in instead of feeling self-conscious.

I ended up with 3 outfits, but I think I can only interview in one of them. The other 2 are dresses, which would be fine for a business casual office or church, but not for an interview. But they were on sale so I got them :) The one dress was a dress I'd seen a few months back, but couldn't afford the $100 price tag. Today it was marked down to $40, so I got it :) It's purple silk, although the dry clean only tag is a major negative. The other dress is a dark blue green color and a textured fabric mixed with some spandex or lycra. It's kind of a shame it's not terribly appropriate for an interview because I felt really good in it. The interview outfit is 3 pieces with pants, a top and a jacket, and it's black and a sage green with a little white. Due to the sale they were having, I saved $130 all together :) It was great.

They had another few outfits I liked, but they didn't have my size, and my mom said we'll go to the other store after church tomorrow and she'll get them for me if they have my size. :)

Convention Center means crowd!

2004-09-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

Today was the test for the city of LA. Now, the letter said that due to the overwhelming number of applications they received, the test date and location had been changed. In my experience, most government testing facilities can only hold 100 people or so, sometimes 200. The county of LA has access to a room that can hold 200 or so. My guess is that the city is the same way, so I figured they must have gotten more response than they can accommodate, but I had no idea how much more until this morning.

15,000 people to be tested today and tomorrow and maybe some day later this week. Wow!

I learned later that my mom had talked to the some of the workers running the test and found out that there were 3000 people scheduled to take it this morning, but only about half showed up. So that's why the line kept going and going and going and going when I was trying to find the end! I bet more than half showed up, I'm guessing there were probably 1700 or 2000 people there. Where's the eek icon when I need it? It was crowded. I stood in line for over an hour just to be seated. The test was scheduled for 8:00, and with having to process and seat all these people, plus identification paperwork and thumb printing everyone, the test didn't actually begin until after 10.

The test was a bit harder than I was anticipating. It was 100 questions - 10 filing, 10 math (thank goodness it was only 10!), 20 about Windows, 20 customer service, 20 interpersonal skills and 20 grammar and spelling. The hard part was the customer service and interpersonal skills. Lots of what would you do questions. Some of the answers could be eliminated by common sense (ie, if you're dealing with a customer you don't pick the rude choice!), and it seemed obvious enough that you don't bug your supervisor with every problem you have. The rest were kinda judgement calls though, and that was hard. But I finished in a little over an hour and I'm expecting that I passed.

I never did see my friends unfortunately. When I saw the line, I figured they were well in front of me, and they were probably seated before I was even in line. The room was split into sections A-S with several proctors assigned to each section to facilitate things. I was in section R. They were in section C I found out later. I thought briefly about hanging around a bit after the test to wait for them to come out, but I know Anna well enough to know that she took the whole time, and my poor mom was in the car waiting for me, so I left. If I had waited a bit, I probably could have caught Zoraida though.

Last test story - Got to the convention center, found a parking space. You can't get into the test without ID for obvious reasons. I grabbed my letter, went to grab my ID, and it's nowhere in my purse like I thought it was. Uh oh. Where's my ID? Dumped out my purse, no ID. My mom started questioning me about where I had it last and we deduced it was last week when I went to EDD. Aha! It's in the envelope with my birth certificate and my appointment letter for EDD. Which I think I took in the house. So I check the backseat, the trunk, wherever just hoping it's in the car somewhere and not at home. My mom says check the glovebox. Sure enough, there's the envelope with my b/c and EDD letter, but no ID. Uh oh. Where's my ID? If it's not in that envelope, I have no idea where it is. I don't remember what it was, but I said something that tipped my mom off to look between the seats, and sure enough, there it was, right between my seat and the center drink holder/console thing. Hallelujah! I can take the test! So off goes Laurel with her letter and her ID to stand in line for over an hour. And I left my nearly full venti white chocolate mocha in the car to get cold. Sigh.

feeling disappointed and somewhat betrayed

2004-09-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

I'm probably being unreasonable, but it's the just the way I feel about it. I can't believe that people who have been long time posters on a set of boards, have received all kinds of support and advice and plain enjoyment from the people there, would go and join the board of a group that seems to take pleasure in mocking and causing trouble for the aforementioned boards. Some of them even seem to be telling them how to cause trouble! Is there no loyalty?

My little excursion to this board also cemented more in my mind that troublemaking and backstabbing don't have to be blatant or public. One can be a board darling in public and cause trouble and pain behind the scenes. How hypocritical and two-faced is that.

In other news, I've decided that I need to mail Justyna's ornament on and just finish it on my own dime later. I just don't have the motivation to get it done right now. As Kari said, the chessboard is like a dark cloud looming and the deadline is coming quickly. I really need to get back to it. I was hoping to have it mostly done by the end of September and I haven't picked it up at all this month. :\ I can't wait to get it done though. I really miss my other pieces. I'm really excited to get working on this list I made last week. (Let's see how long that lasts!)I want to finish some of them, and I want to start some other things. Must....finish.....chessboard....(everyone chant with me now!) must....finish....chessboard

Tomorrow is the LA city written test. I'm excited to see my friends! More excited about that than the test actually, lol. I'm excited the test may get me a job, but as for actually taking the test, I don't feel one way or the other about it. It's a standardized test, it shouldn't be terribly hard, I'm not worried. Wish me luck!

Last week in review

2004-09-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a week, so here's a quick catch up of all the things I should have posted.

Job search - I took the typing test for the city of Long Beach on Tuesday. It was easy, I know I passed. I should get my band letter early next week sometime. I hope I got in a high band, since they hire from the top down!

I also had to keep an appointment with EDD in order to keep my UI. Grrrrr. I got there, waited 15 minutes for her and I'll give you an approximate transcript of the meeting:

Her: Hi Laurel. We've brought you in today just to make sure your resume is listed in CalJobs. Have a seat.
I sit down
Her: Your social security number please?
I give it to her, she puts it in the computer
Her: Oh, your resume is here and I see you updated it today!
Me: Yes, I updated it before I came.
Her: Well, that's all we really needed, thank you for coming in.

Grrrrrr! They couldn't have had me call in for that? They have my SSN on record, they couldn't have looked at it themselves and called me in if they didn't see it? I had to go in to their office, not in a wonderful part of town and not convenient for me, for that?

The last job related note is that I had an interview on Friday. It's with a magazine publisher and they need help in their circulation department. I think the interview went well enough, and I'm expecting to hear from her at the end of this week or the beginning of next week. Although in my experience, they don't really call you to tell you no. But I would like to think she'll call and offer me a job. Watch this space!

Stitching - what's that? September has been a slumpy month for me. Today is the mailing date for the ornament RR and I've yet to finish Justyna's ornament. I've also yet to touch the chessboard this month and I really couldn't afford not to. I'll have to buckle down on that to finish on time or close to on time. I was glad to see in the GCC rules that you have up to 30 days after the deadline for the teacher to receive your pieces. I don't intend to take nearly that long, but it's nice to know it's not a disaster if I'm not done exactly on October 30.

I did spend this weekend going through my stash, first counting UFOs and then counting WIPs. I came up with 13 UFOs, 3 of which have now gone up for adoption. I came up with 33 WIPs, which includes the remaining UFOs. Some of them have been sitting around for several years and are really embarrassingly close to being done. After I finish the chessboard and my uncle's Christmas gift, I'll have to sit down and come up with a plan to StRIP some of these pieces next year. That will demand a post of its own here at some future point.

Let's all please keep a good thought for the Mumaw family this week as they move from Missouri to Utah. I hope they have a safe trip and that Carleen gets back online soon! ;) We miss you Carleen!

Wagon? What wagon?

2004-09-13T01:44:00.000-07:00

I wasn't on a wagon...no, that wasn't me! Ok, maybe it was me. But it's a very crowded place these days, so if I happened to have tip-toed off for a few minutes, I'm sure the others appreciated the space.

My mom and I went to the Women's Expo in Orange County today. Which happened to be held down the street from Needlepoints Ltd, so I managed to wrangle a trip there out of the deal. The store is huge! My LNS would fit at least 4 times in there, probably 5. And she has everything you could ever want - except Long Dog Samplers and the Tour Des Marques - couldn't find those. I got TSL's "You Better Watch Out" and the JCS ornament issue. I put TDM on order since she was out, she's going to mail it to me. :) So I made a minor step out of the wagon, but I've already confessed to Sister Carleen and have been forgiven.

What she doesn't have, and I knew this going in but my mom was shocked, is customer service skills. Brusque is being nice. The man that was working with her was nice enough, but I couldn't help but feel he was afraid I was going to destroy his shop or something. He kept asking if he could help me find something if he saw I was staying in one spot too long.

The ornament issue is wonderful this year. I was much more impressed with it than with the BH&G issue or the past 2 issues of it. I think I'll have to devote more time to ornaments next year :) Maybe another round of the RR is in order ;)

The Women's Expo - Clean Sweep's Peter Walsh was there! He was great. He's the same in real life as he is on TV, except better looking in real life ;) As one lady put it, he's adorable, lol. Although he didn't understand A)Why we were all inside on a beautiful day, and B)Why we were there talking to him instead of home cleaning our closets.

My mom found herself as his example, which was quite funny. He did a survey to see where everyone was on the clutter scale, from 1 to 10. I said to my mom she was a 14, and she had to go and announce it. From then on, he was her example for everything. She laughed about it, he wasn't being mean or rude or anything, it was all good-natured. Although after that, as we were walking around the vendors' booths, like 3 people stopped her by name to comment on it, lol.

September 11

2004-09-12T01:49:00.000-07:00

Better late than never, right?

All I have to say about September 11 is may we never forget. I know a lot of people stay away from anniversary coverage because it is sad and heartbreaking and disturbing to watch. I totally agree. But every year on the anniversary I watch just a little bit. Maybe an hour. Just enough so as not to forget or become calloused to how horrific that day was and why we must make sure it never happens again, in America, in Russia, in Indonesia, in Israel, anywhere. So may we never forget. We must not forget. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for and freedom is not free. The price is very high, but we must pay it.

God bless America, the world, and all those who have survived terror and those who have lost loved ones to terror all around the world. And God bless our men and women who are still fighting to keep us free.

If you feel a sense of impending doom.....

2004-09-07T01:59:00.000-07:00

It's still hot! Was a record-breaking 101 at LAX yesterday, and down to a nice cool 92 today. It all started to make sense to me tonight when the news said the humidity was at 78%. That's why I feel so sticky and yucky instead of just plain hot! Still too hot to stitch, and too hot to finish my room yet.

In other thoughts, I saw a great quote this week and it applies to me. If you feel a sense of impending doom, pay attention. (Thanks to Maree for that one!) I'm starting to feel that way about my 84yo grandmother's health and the telephone. My grandma has been on kidney dialysis for about 4 years now, and she's starting to deteriorate more quickly now it seems. The doctors just replaced the shunt in her arm, twice. They've gotten her a wheelchair because she's not steady on her feet anymore. She's fallen 3 or 4 times in a month, and luckily she hasn't broken anything, but I have the idea that if she does break her hip or something, that will be the end of it and she'll die.

I'm starting to dread the phone ringing because I just know one of these times, and quite soon I suspect, it will be my uncle saying that she's died. I'm just not looking forward to it. Of course, no one looks forward to a relative dying, but I remember my grandpa's funeral in 92, and I'm dreading going through that again, and this time I suspect it will be worse. It means flying out to Ohio and back, and no doubt there will be a bigger family argument this time over some stupid thing. My grandma is smarter than my grandpa was though, and she's worked out a lot of her estate ahead of time and taken care of handing the deed to her house over and such, but surely someone will find something to argue about. Oh yes, and there will be rehashing of the family gossip from grandpa's funeral. And there's the funeral service itself, which will be just plain sad and traumatic.

If you're so inclined, please send prayers or thoughts for my grandmother and her health. Thank you. Her name is Mary.

The reorganizing continues

2004-09-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

I'm cleaning/reorganizing my room. None of you have ever seen my room, but trust me, it's a large undertaking. My room is normally a disaster.

I started by picking up the floor, throwing out the trash, etc. My brother left some filing cabinets in the closet when he moved out, so I moved those out and into the other bedroom closet. I gained the space of half the closet! Woohoo! The trunk I have all my projects and kits in was standing on end on another shelf (more on that in a sec), but now it's flat on the floor in the new space. There's room on top for my boxes of fabric and beads and such. And there's still room to hang my shirts and other short clothes above it! Another section of the closet had double hung rods, I took the bottom one out, and now I have room to hang my dresses and other long things, plus a hanging thing for towels and shoes and such. And underneath is room for the laundry basket.

Now that shelf the trunk was on. It's the 3rd section of the closet. There's a shelf about 12 inches from the ceiling, a shelf about 12 inches under that, a shelf about 18 inches off the floor and nothing in between. I think it had shelves at one point but the previous owner took them out when they moved. :\ It's really like 4 feet of wasted vertical space. There's not even a rod or anything in there. I had my trunk on it, but now it has a small cabinet on the bottom, and my EGA hospitality stuff stacked on that.

As for the rest of the room, I got the floor vacuumed tonight. Woohoo! I'm playing around with desk storage and my shelvie thingy that doubles as an entertainment center, display space and storage. Tomorrow (Ok, later today), I'll finish the desk, and do something about the area between the bed and the wall. I'm almost done! Final decorating and happy dancing to come soon!

I'm back!

2004-09-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Apparently while I was playing with the colors on my blog the other night, I screwed up the tags. Blogger deleted my code. No code = no blog usable blog. But thanks to my buddy Annette, all is well again, so I'm back! :) Thanks Annette! I'm gonna have to go back and add my blogroll and imood thing and such back in, but at least I can write now!

All I have to say to day is it's HOT! Part of it is my house just holds the heat in, but it's hot outside too. Sometimes this city is so stupid. I live near the ocean, I could walk down there if I really wanted to. I also live near the airport with all the associated noise. Whoever built this building way back in 1977 (yep, the building is my age!) decided that we were near the ocean, we don't need a/c. More likely he decided it was cheaper to skip the a/c, but that's another story. Anyway, we do have double-paned windows to help with the noise, but with no a/c, you either open the windows to get air and put up with the airport noise, or you close the windows to shut out the noise and bake. :\ I do have a fan, and that helps, but if you don't open the window, pretty soon you're just blowing around the same hot air. (I'll refrain from making a smart remark here...)

So it's hot. Too hot to be moving furniture really, but I've done some of that. I moved my brother's filing cabinets out of my closet into the closet in the back bedroom. I gained half my closet back! Woohoo! It's just perfect for my trunk with my kits in it, and maybe my EGA hospitality stuff if I can squeeze it in there. It's not really as much room as I thought it was, but it's more than I had before.

I haven't really stitched much in a week. I guess I'm in a minor slump. I've done almost a quarter of Justyna's RR ornament and that's it. Nothing on the chessboard. I'm not too worried about the slump, except that the chessboard needs to get finished and I'm dragging on it.

Now I'm off to the Farmer's Market for a yummy crepe and a nice cold soda!

A sad day in LA news

2004-08-28T00:17:00.000-07:00

Larry McCormick, a long time anchor in LA tv news died today. He was the weekend anchor and fill in anchor on one local station, the health and fitness report and the LA Times headline preview. He was also involved with many causes in LA, to help minorities, children, anyone that needed help.

If you're not familiar with LA TV news, you might recognize him from appearances as a newscaster in movies and TV shows, or from his job as emcee or moderator at many events. There's a tribute to him at KTLA with a picture.

I've been watching KTLA news and Larry for as long as I've watched the news. He's been off since February and I've really missed seeing him on air. He just had a pleasant voice and a friendly happy demeanor about him when he was giving the news, or chatting with his co-anchor. I'm sad to hear of his death and wish his family and the KTLA news staff my condolences. I will miss him.

In other celebrity news, my mom and I went to the home and garden show in Anaheim today. The big attraction of course was the appearance of Frank Beilec of Trading Spaces. He talked for about an hour at a time, answered questions, dished dirt about the other designers, etc. Lots of fun, lots of joking and stuff you'd expect from Frank's TV persona.

But in person, he's very grounded and quite taken aback by the attention. He had a lot of interesting things to say about society and how society elevates celebrities. I think he's quite right. Just because he appears on TV for an hour every week and paints the wall a crazy color doesn't make him more important on the street than the school teacher who taught you to do that math problem, or the guy at the gas station who takes your money so you can keep your car running. The people who really keep the world moving forward everyday.

I thought it was particularly relevant here in LA where the top 5 stories on the news are Courtney Love, Kobe Bryant, Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson and Paris Hilton. Never mind there's an election, a war, and other much more important news than Courtney Love's legal and drug problems that probably no one really cares about. If you do care about it, please comment and let me know, I'd love to hear from you.

With freedom comes responsibility

2004-08-27T00:55:00.000-07:00

And if you can't handle the responsibility the freedom eventually disappears. An unmoderated board demands much more repsonsibility of its members than a moderated one. Responsibility for posts and reactions is completely on the membership since they've essentially asked the moderators to step out. If the board is moderated, the moderators hold much more of the power and responsibility, but then the members lose freedoms.

It can't go both ways. If you want enforced rules and to be able to appeal to the moderators to step in, that's moderation and comes with all the pros and cons of moderation. If you want the moderators to step out, that means whatever rules may be stated are not going to be enforced as strictly and you can't run to the moderators if someone breaks them at your expense. If the members can't hold themselves accountable to the rules, or deal with those who break them, then the freedom to be unmoderated will disappear.

And to quote Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that.

The Purple Needle

Laurel doesn't blog here anymore.....

Looking for me??

Joining the TW SAL

Project 4 and 5

Here's the pic I promised

Challenge updates

Reconsidering

A glimpse of public transporation...

The best things about moving out

101 update

I'm a Lifer!

I'm a Lifer!

Talent: 41%Lifer: 56%Mandarin: 51%

She's not trying to help me

It's official...

50 project challenge

A meme today

Just do what you're supposed to do

Analyze this

I'm still alive

NaNo update.

NaNoWriMo is here!

Financial responsibility

I'm on my way!

Lighten up!

High school reunion

It's that time again...

A new victim...

She needs help....

St. Anthony comes through again

News flash: Casinos are expensive!

Well, I'm gambling this weekend...

Yesterday I was laughing at her....

Stateline...

50 Project Challenge

101 in 1001

Got the money!

Wish I had more time...

Moving update

Stitching at a stitching gtg...

Because nice does matter

Farewell Everwood....

The official count is 41

My wizard pulled a disappearing act...

Getting my life back!

Might have to get a bit creative....

Starting to feel a bit conspired against....

Moving out on the brain today

I'm back online!

BB politics I guess?

Happy Resurrection!

My other blog!

You can tell a lot about a guy...

Calling customer service...

The best news I've heard all day...

News flash: This isn't Mexico

And the evidence mounts....

Americans will do it!

Insane idea...

I ordered it!!!

I swear I have a sign on my phone...

Pushed out of the nest....

New job, new computer, new look for my blog

Thinking of an old teacher today

I'm still around, believe it or not

Baby Destiny and Paul Howard

I'm back! For now anyway....

Christmas is not a dirty word

The cleanup continues...

Ah, empty space.....

Wow, long time no blog!

Well, it's back to the working world for me

Need some prayers for a friend

Just random stuff today

How low can he get?

It's not all bombs and beheadings

Hello? Hello? Anyone out there?

A point for John Kerry

If ever anyone needed a clue fairy

Talent: 41%
Lifer: 56%
Mandarin: 51%