Knitting Cybrarian

Counting Trendsetter Yarns

I have been counting yarn for two long days straight.  And I'm still not done counting the Studio's stock of Trendsetter Yarns.  I'm going in early today to count more, then work the floor.  Ditto for tomorrow. 

I've mentally come up with some interesting and innovative ways to move the Trendsetter stock.  But let me tell you, if you're interested in buying the following Trendsetter yarns, call the Studio pronto at 816-531-4466.

• Aura, Aura Vintage and Aura Print
• Yosemite (new yarn!)
• Charm, Eyelash, Charming, Flora, Metal, Antico, Perla, Joy, Shadow, Shadow Metal -- name your color, we've probably got it.  There's even 4 balls of BLACK eyelash in stock up on the floor.  That usually goes fast.
• Kashmir in pink.  Want to knit/crochet something special for a breast cancer survivor?  We've got enough for a couple of nice sweaters or afghans.
• Quadro
• Emmy in black with gold.
• Checkmate
• Segue in a few colors
• Jupiter in one color (number 10 -- black with purple, blue and pink)
• Sorbet
• Voila Print
• Coconut
• Zucca and Blossom
• Papi
• Crisantemo
• Liberty
• Fireworks
• Spruce
• Willow
• Sunshine

Again, if you're interested in one of these yarns, please call the Studio at 816-531-4466.  Or fax an order to that same number.  If you follow the link to the Trendsetter site to get color numbers for that particular yarn, we can check inventory quickly on that yarn.

What I get for cleaning...

I stubbed my little toe HARD against a step stool.  So hard that it smarted and I didn't notice the bleeding until I went to do something else and noted the red toe prints.  And where I stood doing something for about 3 minutes?  Four pools of blood.  On beige carpet.

Ugh.

I've been using this new product, the POD, where Portia has vomited.  Now to see if it removes blood.

Short subjects

January is the longest month of the year

• Really.  I get paid on the last working day of the month.  Which for the month of December is (at the university) 12/23 or 12/24.  And I don't get paid again until 1/31.  And between 1 December and 1 January there's the following:
  • Christmas
  • Hanukkah
  • our anniversary
  • New Year's Eve
  • calls for donations from every corner
  • registration and airfare for my professional conference must be fronted
  • usually the last of the medical bills, which is more than what's left in Flexible Spending (better than the other way around)
  • wonderful sales that I must resist
  • parties requiring food and gifts
• Do you see why January is the longest month of the year?

Cathedral ceilings:

• Do you know what I love about cathedral ceilings in a house?  They make the space open up, and the ceiling fan is not inches from your head. 

• Do you know what I hate about cathedral ceilings in a house?  Dusting the angles and corners.  Some cobwebs get all grimy and stuck and how in the heck do you get them out, even with the extending duster?

It wouldn't be a break if...

• I didn't volunteer to do extra things, like launder and iron any grimy linens from church, say "yes" to extra hours at the yarn store gig ('cause January's the longest month of the year), and stay in my nightgown at least one day until 4pm (and that would not be the days I'm working).
• I didn't answer work-related e-mail (but I read this article from Fast Company this am before I answered the e-mail).   Oh wait, that's an oxymoron.  Hmmm.  Who's the moron?
• I didn't look around the house and think that I need another break to get caught up on more housework related things.

If there's reincarnation, I want to come back as my cat.

• She got to sleep on my lap for about 2 hours early this afternoon, with lots of scritches and loving in-between. 
• When she gets on the bed before we get in it, we're both careful to slide in around her.
• My mom made her a quilt and Her Highness loves it.

Do you think he was the one who put the nearly-empty milk back as a child?

• I scrounged for a snack this afternoon.  I opened up the can of whole cashews I bought as a holiday week splurge.  There were a few small cashew bits.  Then I opened up the Chex Mix bag.  More of that left, but not a whole lot.  Since Portia doesn't eat these things, it must have been the hubster at work. 

What a fortune cookie

What???!??!

My Fortune Cookie told me: Flee at once, all is discovered. Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

Get another Cookie from Miss Fortune

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you peace on earth, goodwill to all!

Don't expect me to duplicate this performance...

(yes, it's fake - the impact doesn't correspond to the correct pitches relative to high and low, but it's still pretty neat!)

Foggy, not crabby

The fog is thick outside our little house.  So very thick.  Joel made it to work safely and called me to warn of where the densest fog lay on the commute.

Last night a 7 car pileup occurred on my evening commute.  Traffic was backed up for miles.  My timing was such that I was stuck in the congestion just behind the pileup.  Had I left just a few moments earlier, I would have either been in it or just past it.  As it was, I sat in traffic with hundreds of other vehicles for 30+ minutes.

Somehow, getting rear-ended in the McDonald's drive through didn't seem quite as bad.  Seeing ambulances, fire trucks and police cars drive through the parted sea of vehicles made me thankful for my safety and pray for those who were in the pileup.

Today is the humpday of the year (or one of two of them) -- the Winter Solstice.  I rejoice when this day is over -- the amount of daylight will slowly lengthen each day until we get to June 21 and then the downhill slide begins again.   My body doesn't quite register the additional daylight until sometime in February -- and if the winter is a gray one, we might be into March before I don't have to struggle to get out of my cocoon each morning.  It's all too tempting to be like the groundhog who's now sleeping underneath the shed -- I want to stock up on carbohydrate-laden comfort foods, curl up in my den, and sleep, sleep, sleep.  But here I am, awake and moving.  Not too quickly, but moving.   

and it keeps getting better

because the dipwad who rear-ended me doesn't show up in American Family Insurance's database.  Grrr. 

And, there have been two unauthorized debits from my bank account paid to AOL.  I don't use AOL.  My bank is starting the appropriate processes to dispute, stop payment, and investigate.

Grrrrrrr.

Yeah, I'm crabby.

So what about it?

Started out when I went to a meeting this afternoon where folks hadn't digested the agenda.  And the person who ran the meeting really hadn't informed folks, I don't think.  So the presenter did a great job, but folks had a hard time keeping up and it was clear their technological expertise was not quite there at times.

I got crabby in the meeting because some people seemed to love the sound of their own voice and didn't add content to the discussion. 

I left that meeting early to go to another meeting.  I hadn't had lunch yet (which contributed to my crabbiness), so I went to the McDonald's drive through to pick up some lunch.  Some dipwad rear-ended me in the drive through.

Yes, in the drive through.  How hard is it to drive in the drive through?  Apparently pretty hard for some people.  She didn't even realize she hit me.

I've made one car payment and my bumper is now scratched.  Got her license, her name, her phone and the name of her insurance.  Don't know what the response will be.  It's enough damage to be annoying, but not enough to rock the world over.  But still.   Will call her insurance tomorrow.

So yeah, I'm crabby.  Don't call me, as I'm not answering my phone tonight.  I'm crabby and liable to say exactly what I think without my usual tactful filter.  Dangerous stuff.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to my hubster, Joel.  We've been married 13 years.   My, how time flies!