Tuesday, September 27, 2005

It's GROUP night!!

[Chuckle, chuckle]

Well friends, it seems that life has gotten in the way of my blogging abilities lately. Finished one job last week, started a new one this week, and moved my PC over the weekend to my NEW DESK (without the double door thingy or the bookshelf thingy)!! We went to a Toms Price Furniture warehouse sale two weeks ago looking for the dining room table DH wanted or the bedroom set I want. Aknowledging that we probably wouldn't get anything just because the stuff we want never goes on sale and I've got NO MONEY!! So we got there right when it opened and walked in with about 400 other people just streaming through the doors.

We walked to where they had all the Stickley stuff but they only had Mission furniture which while aesthetically pleasing,is about as comfortable as stadium seating at Soldier Field. No bedroom stuff, but that never goes on sale and besides I just know that DH is not interested in buying a new bedroom set right now. So, we walk around for a couple of minutes and DH says to me "Wanna see if they have a desk you like?" You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Several years ago, when I was making odles and oodles of money as a consultant, I found an executive desk that I loved but it was (brace yourself) $8,000. Yeah, right. On what planet? I'll never spend 8 G's on a desk, I mean, I got to have my priorities straight in some areas of my life. So, for my entire life, I've been working off an old dinette set kitchen table as my desk. No drawers, nuthin. Undergrad and graduate school papers written at a kitchen table on my PC. Now don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the roof over my head and the food on my table, so I've never complained.

Back to the story at hand. There we were at Toms Price warehouse. DH has just asked if I want to look for a desk that I might like. Commence quick walk through the desk area. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Hmmm not bad.... don't like the hardware. Change that out if I get it. Sit at desk: L-shaped,not bad... nice color. No major scratches. Only two big drawers and two small ones, but still not bad... (that extra double door PC cabinet in the mfg. pic doesn't come with it's an extra). Still sitting at the desk, not moving.

DH walks over from his perusal of the desk area and says "Do you like that one?" Inside, I'm flipping out. DH is a very frugal man, but not a cheapskate when it comes right down to it. BUT... he's never offered to buy me something this big before with the exception of my engagement ring. I'm freakin' out on the inside. Totally flippin'. Okay, if I just nod and don't make any sudden movements maybe I won't scare him off.

At this point, I'm not so sure he's serious either; I'm still thinkin;' he might ask me to pay for half, but he knows exactly how much money I don't have....

"Are you sure?" he says? "Cause I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a desk just to replace it in five years cause you want a different one."

Speak softly and slowly. "Sweetheart, this desk is beautiful. You know that desk I loved back in Norht Carolina? Yeah, it was $8,000. I'm just never goingt o spend $8,000 on a desk. That's silly. If I can get a beautiful desk on sale for 1/3 of it's original price then I'm happy."

He seems convinced. I'm still waiting for him to chnage his mind. "Do you like that chair?" --- Dear Reader, please roll in the oxygen, I think I'm going to faint. Did he just offer to buy me a chair, too???!! I had seen one that I really liked in caramel colored leather just around the corner. "Sit here." I say; and down he sits. Off I run to the other desk around the corner hoping that someone hasn't snapped it up yet. .....

YES! It's still there. Will he think it's too expensive? Well, I don't know. It looks a lot like his yummy burgundy desk chair that I have envied since he bought it 2 years ago. it looks kind of like this:
Only it's Caramel colored and it doesn't have quite as many tufts in the back.

I navigate the chair back to where DH is sitting at my potential desk. I say to him, "Just wanna make sure it fits". Sure enough, it fits perfectly. He looks at me and says "The vultures are circling." as he gazes around at other shoppers eyeballing the desk. "I know. That's why I asked you to sit here while I got the chair."

DH asks me one more time if I'm sure and I peep an audible "Yes." Just then, as Lady Providence would have it, the sales lady from whom DH bought his desk 7 years ago walks up and says "Hi, didn't I sell you a desk a bunch of years ago?"

DH calmly introduces me (he wasn't married when they first met) and tells the nice sales associate that we'll take this chair and this desk. "Great! I'll be right back," says Ms. Coen and goes to get the sale paper work.

Well, gentle Reader, by now I can barely breathe and I give DH a big hug and a little kiss (we're in public dontcha know), and say "Thank you." Oh yeah, and I was all teary eyed, too. Talk about a Hallmark moment. We got to take MY chair home that day but I had to wait a WHOLE WEEK for my new desk.

It arrived this past Saturday and I spent the weekend moving in. you know, arranging pens in the drawers n'stuff. I woke up early Sunday morning and went down stairs to write at my new desk, too. [insert Happy Sigh here]

Oh yeah, and even though it's been about 15 months since I last did any work of this kind, so far my new job is just like stepping into an old pair of sneakers, comfy and familiar.

See you all tonight at "Group"!

Friday, September 23, 2005

Prayers for Rita victims

Alright friends,

My mom lives in Houston. She lives on the northwest side, but in Houston none the less. Yesterday, after much pressure from her daughter, she spent from 2:30 a.m. until 5:30-6:00 p.m. on the road and she only got 75 miles out of town. Calculating her mileage and her gas she decided that she didn't want to be alone with her puppies and out of gas on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere when the storm came through.

She made a calculated risk and turned her trusty car around on that little two lane highway and headed for home. She returned home in 50 minutes what had taken her nearly 16 hours to traverse earlier that day. Today she is boarding up her windows, wrapping up her glass and filling the bathtub with water for drinking should she need it. Then she's going another 30 miles northwest (if she can get there) to a friend's house who lives in a cinderblock apartment building to wait out the storm.

Please say a prayer for her.

jen

Thursday, September 15, 2005

The Yarn Harlot is coming!! The Yarn Harlot is coming!!

If you don't know who the Yarn Harlot is, check here.... http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/

She is hands down one of the funniest bloggers I've read and she even has a couple of books published.

She'll be here on Saturday, October 1st with location to be announced.

Hooray, happy dance happy dance!!

Monday, September 12, 2005

Tier 5 of Market Squares Pic


Here's the pic that wouldn't load before....

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

Okay, sorry for the old David Bowie reference....

I've had a lot of changes in my life i the last few weeks and they've all finally come to a head, decisions have been made and communicated and the stress if finally somewhat lessened. So, of course, now I'm sick. :-p

I decided to leave Social Work and go back to Corporate America for several reasons but the short version is that my original goal of a private practice was no longer feasible (or reasonable) with my outgoing personality, so I've gotten a new job, quit my old one and given my notice. I'm really going to miss all the folks I've become friends with as a Social Worker and I'm hoping many of us will still be friends, but the paper work is abhorrent and the pay abyssmal for the amount of stress involved in the job. So there you have it. That's my big decision, so sorry for the lack of bloggedness lately.

As for knitting, boy have I been busy. One of the ladies in my LYS asked me if I have Project Completion Phobia (or some such non-medicatable issue) and I think she's probably somewhat right. Course, when you see what all I've been working on lately you'll understand.

Big sock (size 3 circs)... made for Auntie. Too frappin' big on even DH's ginormous feet. Un-knit-- little sock (size 1 circs)... Looks too small for my feet which are smaller than Darling Auntie's. Next step, medium sock (size 2 circs). I promise to swatch next time.... no, really.

Next I continued work on the Market Squares bag which Darling Auntie doesn't know I'm making (she saw Big Sock and was not very enthused, but then no one's ever hand made socks for her before--so soft....).

I'm up to Tier 5 on Market Squares. Irisheyesknitters asked me how much this bag is costing me to make. I must fess up that this particular bag is around $80 (yarn, needles and pattern). But then I bought too much yarn and it's Jo Sharp. I got it from www.elann.com but I figured out that if you used Wool of the Andes from www.knitpicks.com, shared the pattern cost with someone else, then the cost of the bag comes down to about $38. Which for a handmade bag of this size isn't so unreasonable. (okay, so I can't seem to get the friggin' picture to load, guess it'll have to go in a post of it's own).

Good news in the stash department, I just reorganized this weekend. Or should I say I finally organized my stash this weekend. Here are the before and after shots:

The only problem being that I just recieved a shipment of 20 skeins of two unreleased colors of Jaeger Shetland Aran in Aqua and a dark Amethyst from Jeannette's Rare Yarns (http://stores.ebay.com/Jannettes-Rare-Yarns_W0QQssPageNameZl4QQtZkm). Sorry I'm sick and I don't have the energy to figure out how to make a clickable link without the addy right now. Anyway, I've just received it and I'm going to make Seamus from www.Knitty.com with the Amethyst and with the Aqua I'm going to make this......

I had to go all over G-d's Half Acre to find the book because Jo Sharp, as an entire line, is being discontinued. Course, I went to my LYS and (here's why I love them, you can even see one of their bags in the After Stash pic) they had ONE LEFT!! I snatched it up! I'm so excited.

Course, I couldn't wait for that yarn to show up so I picked up my Manos (color Bramble) that I got at Stitches and cast on for a sweater jacket that I'm making up using the Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd. I'm making a seed stitch border and a stockinette stitch body (yes, 'Lyssa, a St st body!). Then I'm going to add a collar to the top. Boy, this jacket is going to cost me a pretty penny since I'll need about 12/13 skeins at $14.50 each in order to make the jacket big enough for my enlarged size. Course, that's still cheaper than the $270 that I spent on yarn for the Giotto ribbon jacket for Darling Mummy. I'm going to call this Manos Jacket "Greed" because I got tired of knitting for everyone else and wanted to start something for myself....


Frankly, I had to get a new job to support my yarn habit. .

Off to bed with my sick self,
Jen

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Bad blogger! Bad...


Sorry for the delayed update. Life has been a little hectic around here lately. I'm working on the Market Squares bag for my Aunite for Christmas and here's a pic of Tier 4. Looks pretty cool, huh? Huh? I'm excited. The colors look the best in this first pic but you get a better idea about the overall bag in the next one.

I've also decided that I need to frog my Dad's entire hat and knit the next smaller size. (Phoo!) But I just don't feel like I can give it to him the way it is. It's just too, too big.

I've also made the jump from using my luscious Brooks Farm yarn for a lace shawl [which as one lovely poster put it, would cause the lace to get lost in the color and wieght of the georgeous yarn] to saving it for the Lady Eleanor Stole from Scarf Style. I've got enough yarn to make it possibly one repeat larger since the yarn is smaller than the pattern recommends, but yes, I promise to swatch first. :)

Next, I went to my fav LYS today and checked out the newest Rowan magazine which has those de-lish fingerless cable-lace gloves in some yummy mohair (of which I'm sure I have enough to spare somewhere in my stash...) but I decided that I didn't like the rest of the patterns in the book enough to spend $21.95 to get a fingerless glove pattern. BTW, does anyone besides knitters wear fingerless gloves? I mean outside of the Opera Star playing Mimi in La Boheme...


Lovely evening to you all!

Oh, by the way, thanks to http://abeginningknitter.blogspot.com/ for the use of her picture of those yummy gloves!

 

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