8.49%

That's how much of the year has gone by already.  Kind of unbelievable isn't it??  Me, I've spent half the month not feeling well.  I started coughing the 14th, got really sick the 16th, started getting better the next week, but now I'm like stalled at maybe 80%.  I've still really wanted a nap everyday (only got 2 this week) am low on energy (ok, for me that's like being a normal person instead of the energizer bunny, but I'd like me back please) and still have that knotty feeling at the top of my chest with the occasional  cough and have to  blow my nose periodically.  This sucks.

Angie has failed her drivers test twice.  sigh.  She has also been working on her schedule for next year ( senior year - gulp)  So far she has - Calculus / Geom honors, Physics 2 AP, Survey of World  Lit& Comp honors, 1/2 year Sociology, 1/2 year Animal Behaviour, French 4 honors, Statistics A

p, gym/health, Foundations of Philosophy (since that doesn't get enough kids to run  every year she has  Multi media Business Presentations as an alternate, but after talking to some kids taking the class now she wants a different alternate because she thinks the class won't be advanced enough considering what she already does to accompany presentations in her classes (they have presentations not oral reports in her school, they are even expected to dress appropriately - I ould have hated that) ) I know most kids would look for an easy class especially with 5 honors/Ap classes, but she knows if she has an easy class she won't do well, she does her best in harder classes. weirdo.

Work has gotten a wee bit better.  I've kind of learned my way around the hardare dept.  I only need to ask J for help finding things occasionally. What is still making me nuts is the overnite guy who needs glasses, but doesn't like wearing them.  So even though the sku number is printed on most of the packages in the tool area, he looks at the picture to figure out where things go. So SAE and metric are all mixed up, wood bits with bi-metal.  I had a minor tantrum about it the other day and started  throwing stuff on the floor.  Also the dept sup keeps trying to cheat the system, but he's not consistent about it so half the time I'm just guessing.  And I'm really not going near any of it with a ten foot pole.  All he needs is an auditor to look close and he can get termed for falsifying documents.  And the sad part is it is wholly unnecessary.  If he just ran his dept right.  D has been pissing me off.  He keeps complaining he's bored and has been using personal time to go home early every day.  It's not his fault.  He has about 1,000 skus he's responsible for.  While he does pack out spray paint every morning, he doesn't do anything in recv.  I have 14,000 sku's,  unload the carpet truck 3 afternoons a week, and keep the carpet machines filled.  Also as a machine trainer, everyone in the building needed to be recertified on the different lift trucks this month.  The store mgr yelled at D the one day he was trying to help me because  I had a ton of price changes and exception counts to do. Told him to go back to paint.  I'm telling you he hates me. And the company eliminated 7,000 positions yesterday.  There are also re-srtucture changes taking effect next week.  I know my position is part of that restructure but  no one knows exactly what will happen.  The rumors are everywhere from cutting down to 4 of us, to getting rid of all of us.  While a lot of people are freaking out, I refuse to do so.  It won't change anything in the long run, and I know I'm the best at my job, and even the mgrs that really don't like me know they need me. It's kind of sad to watch people who are used to just skating along suddenly trying to do their jobs right,  one thing that they can't avoid is that it takes a lot longer to un-do a reputation than it took to build it.  

Craft wise - I still have one short fingerless glove to finish and those ends to weave in.  I need 6 more squares for my VJGC afghan but , I may make 8 or 9 because I laid out my squares last week and wasn't happy with the balance.  I have to figure out where I left of on the pink anklets  9 i really need to make notes, especially when I don't pick up a project for a month.  I started Breeze - anklets from knitty. I'm using the wicked stepmother yarn I bought from Ruth over the holidays.  I have 4 of the 6 flowers I'm making for the knit flower project.  I want to finish 2 more this afternoon, so I can mail them out this week.  

My house is an absolute mess.  I just don't have the energy to pick up after my 2 slobs.  I need to get it cleaned up, because it is sucking the energy out of me.  

So tomorrow is the super bowl.  Who are you rooting for?  I 'm going for the Cardinals.  I really can't root for an AFC team unless they're playing the cowboys ( sorry C!) I do love polomalu on the steelers, if I had a son who played football I would make him watch steeler games just to see this guy play.  He really puts out 100% no holding back every play of the game.  And he is a complete nutcase on field but a nice guy off.  I can't stand Warner, but the Cards need him to have a shot. At least in NJ,Steeler fans are highly obnoxious and I don't want to hear them forever.  Ultimately the reason I'm backing the cards is pure selfishness.  Right now, the 49ers, the Cowboys and the Steelers all have 5 rings.  Neither the cowboys nor the 49ers are in a position to be a shoe-in for next year to tie it up, and I don't want the Steelers to be the only team with 6 rings.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday Thunk

This week we will answer some crazy questions brought to you by Berleen, the color purple and the number 6.

1. Have you ever felt alone, but yet there are people around you?  All the time.  I really only connect with handful of people.  People seem drawn to me, but sometimes I feel like I'm inside my head looking out at them instead of actually being with them.

2. Do you have any video game consoles? which ones?  Yes, Playstation 2 & 3.  I ordered a wii last week.  It shipped yesterday.

3. Do you freak out at food warnings/outbreaks, such as the recent peanut butter salmonella scare?  No- never really let any of that bother me.  I eat my burgers and steaks really rare.  I like my egg yolks soft.  I had a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast this morning.

4. What color/pattern is your beds' comforter/bedspread?  Green.  Sort of a tone on tone florally pattern on one side, a diagonal grid on the other.

5. How many windows do you have in your house? 10? maybe, I think

6.  Name 6 things that are in your bathroom.  Toilet, tub ( hee hee hee) rubber duckies , all angies many hair care products, magazines, toilet paper

7.  HOw big is your garage - have a 1:64 model of the nascar garage - does that count?

8.  Got your taxes done yet?  Um, is it 8pm april 14th??

9. Think of a mental disorder... why did you think of that particular one?  manic depression... some days I think I'm a poster child.

Find Thursday Thunks here 

I'm a Lamborghini Murcielago!

You're not subtle, but you don't want to be. Fast, loud, and dramatic, you want people to notice you, and then get out of the way. In a world full of sheep, you're a raging bull.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

My Harddrive is shot

So no pictures, sorry :(  I was having some issues with my laptop the last week or so. Every time I tried doing something the little rainbow colored spinning circle would spin forever. And when I tried force quitting, that took forever.  I kept telling Curt there was a problem ( he is still upset that I broke the hinge/ bottom of the screen and could only use the laptop while it was propped up just so)  He kept saying he'd look at it - and then weird warning screens.  So he has to get the stuff off the hard drive without it going completely.  The only problem is the computer remembers most of my passwords.  And has my pics and the knitting patterns I've  downloaded.  And everything it seems.  So right now I'm using his old laptop.  I did have pictures of my completed fingerless mitts, 3 more squares for my afghan and the beginning of my socks using Ruths evil stepmother.  Next time - or else I'll have to take new pics.  I missed my knitting group, because everyone hadn't checked in before the computer went.   I tried to check, but I couldn't remember my ravelry password.  SIGH.

It's raining now,  snowed earlier.  The plows never went out on 80 or 46 it appears even when Curt drove to work 3 hours after I did.  I spent most of my drive at 330 am driving in the hardpack created by trucks, and it really wasn't bad.  Curt had a serious mess at 7, because of all the extra traffic running on the road.  I think over half the building called out ( wusses) but there really wasn't any customers either.  I did manage to get a lot of work done which is good because I am only working 3 hours tomorrow morning.  I had called the terminal for my carpet truck, because C had said if was snowing bad when he woke  up he was calling out.  I kind HOPED he would call out so I could go home early.  But no, he was working.  ( yeah, I was still kinda happy)   I went to tell receiving that my truck was still coming - and there was NO ONE back there!  UPS was trying to get in.  I let UPS in - and when I called the phone center to find out where everyone was - she told me that all three of them called out and the manager told her that if any drivers called trying to get in or came around the front to call ME!!  Nice of them to tell me!!  Fortunately UPS only had 30 boxes so it was pretty easy to deal with, and the cabinet truck only had 4 boxes, and I headed for lunch.  Then I thought about it - I still couldn't just hang out in receiving - and I searched my received calls on my phone for a 609 number from over a month ago when he had called me to say he'd be late.  Fortunately it was still on there.  So I called him so he would call me when he left the stop before me.  Came back from lunch - took care of fedex.  Went back out to finish my price changes when he called me back.  I go back to receiving and one of the dept. supv's is trying to unload a salt truck (which was supposed to be in at 6am so I assumed was done by the night crew)  he's going so SLOW with the machine - my grandma could have finished faster.  I basically told him he was too slow and I needed my dock so get off the machine I'd do the truck - he was trying to be helpful because he heard I had done all the trucks ( but he was going to need my help keyrecing anyway)  The driver ( who just wanted to make it back before his driving time was up ) told the guy to let me do it - I'm apparantly crazy but good. Hee hee hee.  One of the asm's had come back to look at the salt I guess , and was trying to tell me it was depot's dock not mine.  Bull Sh*t!!   I told her from 1230 until I was done with MY carpet truck, unloading MY carpet on mon wed and fri it's MY dock.   Long story ending - instead of leaving early, I didn't leave until 245 pm - 10 hours and 15 minutes not counting lunch.  sigh.

Tomorrow dear Angie will hopefully remember about the little blinking turn signals and pass her drivers exam - wish her luck.  ( That's the good thing about the extra hours I worked on monday and today - I won't have to use as much personal time to cover going home early)

Later!

AAAACCCCCCKKKKKKK!!

Husband starts with H!!!! Thank goodness he doesn't read this.

My letter is H

Ok, My friend Grace @ lovincomfortsknits had this on her blog yesterday. Of course her letter was easier! So here are the rules. My letter is H. I need to come up with 10 things I like with the letter H.

1. Stewart Haas Racing. (OK Stewart I cheated a little)

2. Honey. ( call me pooh bear)

3. Hefeweizen by Sam Adams (yes I had to get a bottle from the fridge)

4. Home. and the family in it.

5. Working at "Home Depot.

6. Hiya-Hiya knitting needles.

7. Hagen-das ice cream.

8. Heavenly ski resort.

9. Hot and spicy (food, men, yarn colors- just not weather)

10. Hobbies (my current obsession is knitting)

I love Fingerless Gloves!

My latest foray into this category is with the Nightingale Gloves by Shauna Rapjack. Those of you on Ravelry - it is available as a free Ravelry download. I am using Artyarns Supermerino. I made almost an entire glove on size 7 DPNs and it looked kinda small so I tried it on and it was so tight the laddering between the K2tog and the SSK was more apparant than the lace pattern:





So i frogged it and went with a set of 9's. I still need to weave in the ends, but one hank was enough to do 1 as written, and 1 longer glove ( basically doing an extra repeat of rows 1-12) There are directions for an extra 3 rows up the fingers, but I like mine to end at the knuckles.



The thumb looks weird in the picture, but looks normal when worn


This is the short glove before the thumb



I really think I need a plastic hand. It is really hard to take a picture of something on your own hand. You know like the people that make a lot of hats have styrofoam or plastic or glass heads?? Maybe a foot too, socks are a tad easier but still weird looking when youare photographing your own appendage!

quiz

I got this from carrie's blog - see knit fiber on my bloglist. It seemed fun so I gave it a go.

I'm a Quiz Bowl Challenge Rock Star—are you?

I correctly answered 19 out of 20 questions in the Connections Academy Quiz Bowl Challenge!

Take the Connections Academy Quiz Bowl Challenge to see how you match up mind-for-mind.

Who knew John Quincy Adams was the first president to be sworn in wearing long pants?? The things our history teachers leave out!

Grace's Interview

Ruth interviewed my friend Grace, and since I have been somewhat remiss in posting recently I said Grace could interview me. So here are her questions:

1. If you personally could change one thing about our country what would it be? Why? I would change the sense of entitlement people seem to have. The country was founded on people who wanted to make a better life for themselves and their families and were willing to work for it. People joined the military to defend the country and everything it stands for. Today, people are getting all give me, give me, give me. They want everything handed to them on a silver platter without having to put out any effort on their part. Someone has to pay for everything that the government hands out. I have a lot of family in the military. Yes, if anything happens ( I did lose one cousin) it really sucks. But it was their choice. I am so sick of people who join the military for free education and free training etc etc and then are all shocked if they are required to serve in a potentially dangerous situation. There is no free ride people, stop whining! I'm not saying things are perfect- access to healthcare and education- but even then it is people in the middle working class that get screwed. The slackers get it handed to them and the people with money can buy what they want. I'm just sick of all the slacker leaches and it's only going to get worse.

2. If you and Curtis could go away for 10 days starting tomorrow, where would you go at such a last minute?
Ok, its winter, that narrows it down a bit. In the middle of the winter if cost were no option I'd have to go with skiing in the Italian Alps.

3. If you Found 50$ on the ground right outside your favorite yarn store, would you go shopping or would you save it for a bigger purchase either online or at that store?
I don't ever spend money I just find on the ground. If it isn't possible to figure out who lost it, I donate money I find. I have donated to Hope House, The Interfaith Food Pantry, the animal shelter in East hanover with found money.

4. If you could have pets would you? Absolutely. I want a cat so bad it isn't funny. And either an Australian shepherd, a black labradoodle or a rescued mutt.

5. If you could meet any author in the world, who would you pick? This is actually the hardest question. I would have to say either Stephen Hawking or Brian Greene. Probably Brian Greene. Don't know if I'm bright enough to carry on a conversation with Dr. Hawking. but I would love to discuss cosmology and string theories with Greene. Sorry - I know most people would go with fiction.

For those of you who might want to be interviewed, here are the directions:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Weekend updates

Sick, sick, sick sick - yes that pretty much covers it. And it's my fault. I pretty much never get sick. I have a surefire plan whenever people around me get sick or when I get that little tickle in the back of my throat a couple days before I actually get sick. I use either airborne tabs or zenergizer ( I like the zenergizer better) which have a bunch of vitamins and herbs in a effervescent bubbly tablet. like 3 or 4 times a day. (yes I know not to do it for too many days or it can get toxic) I also use zicam nasal swabs 4 or 5 times a day ( I tried the melts and as gross as the swabs are they are the way to go) and a netti pot before bed and when I wake up. now when my throat felt funny last weekend, and angie was sniffling I was running low on both the items because curt had been sick after Christmas. So I gave angie what i had, and figured I'd get some on monday. Except I worked late monday and she had a meet. So didn't get any until tuesday afternoon. Well it was seriously too late. WEdnesday I started coughing. Thursday it was worse - I had to take a cup of tea everywhere I went to keep from coughing up an internal organ. Friday, I was feeling soo bad I had to cancel on the knitting group and actually went home after 3 hours of work. I spent most of the weekend drinking tea in bed.

angie's birthday was last week. 17! so saturday we let her take a bunch of her friends to olive garden and the benjamin button movie. So I did have to drag myself out for that, but I went home and napped during the movie. (it's almost 3 hours long!)

sunday I was slipping in and out of watching football. I went to work today, still coughing a little. A lot of people said I should have stayed home, but then it would have been more work the rest of the week. C came early with my carpet delivery but not with his "big boy truck" he didn't have a lot so they sent him out with a 30 foot box truck instead of the tractor trailer. Problem - all my lift equip are taller than the roof, and my rolls were way up by the nose. So we had to use the rope hooks which took so long, I left on time. i was hoping for early. But at least if he had come on time, I would have left late. I really really hope I stop coughing and can go to knitting tomorrow. I'm down to about a coughing fit every 45 min or so. Well I'n not going to get better if I don't get to sleep.

Two Thousand and Mine!

Ok, not that kind of mine! Here it is the middle of January already and I have never explained my two thousand and mine theme. It was inspired by my friend Grace who was calling January - Meuary. ( By the way grace if you are reading this - let me know how that is coming) She was going to work on knit projects for her to actually use, and projects that she wanted to make, not just because she should or someone asked for something. The problem with that is shwe can knock out a killer shawl ( designing a killer shawl I should say) and have a sweater done in a couple of days. Me, not so fast. And not just because I chase my daughter around and work 45 hours a week. I'm just a slow knitter, with some form of ADD that bounces me between way to many projects to finish anything quickly. So Meuary won't work. I do have to go back to the joy/zen of knitting though. In the fall (2008) I found myself with way to many ongoing projects with deadlines. And knitting became work - guilt crept in - I should be working on x right now.

So, after a lot of thought ( if you guys haven't figured it out by now I do way, way , way too much thinking) I came up with Two Thousand and Mine. It ties in closely with my " BE THE BEAR" theme. Be the Bear is a lot harder than it seems. I come home some days and tell my husband that I lost the bear by 430 am. Other days are a "Fozzie" day! Back to 2000mine. I want to enjoy this year. It is the last full calander year before Angie goes to college, and I want to enjoy her. Too many things have become "work" and "must do's" and "shoulds".

Starting with knitting. I am going to knit things for me. I have a bunch of sock yarn just waiting to become socks. I love having handmade socks on my feet. I made a stole for me. I made 2 felted bags. I am currently making nightinggale gloves for me. I am working on an off-season afghan for VJGC. but not exclusively. it should be done in time, but if it isn't it's not going to be the end of the world. I am going to make more for the regular season, but only one at a time and not to the point of only being able to work on them. I am not going to knit with yarn that I don't like or that annoys me. ( no more boucle) And if I don't like the pattern, I am going to frog without remorse. I am not saying I won't be knitting for anyone else. (I don't actually wear a lot of knits) But only if I love the yarn, love the pattern and knitting it makes me happy.

I have also decided that I need to do things, for me, because I want to. I am not currently sure what those things are or if curt and angie can tag along. The only thing I do for just me right now is my Mara's knitting group. I have a lot of fun eating, having coffee, laughing, talking ( sometimes even actually knitting) The only other thing that is "just me" is my nail appt. every other thursday. (although angie tags along when she's not in school) I rarely if ever wear makeup, jewelry is really a hazard at work, I wear mostly jeans , t shirts or turtlenecks with sneakers boots or crocs, don't always have a purse with me and that's all good. Without my nails looking good I don't feel like a girl. I can't even flirt properly if one gets broken. (fortunately - knock on wood - in 18 3/4 years I've only broken 2 nails at work, both when someone else dropped something)

That's all I have for now, I will update randomly when the mood strikes ME!

Knitting updates

I have been hinting at Grace (blog) from Mara's knitting group (needles54 on Ravelry check her projects out) that her January tea cozy should be a snowman. She has designed a Halloween. and Christmas tree cozy as well. So when we got together on Thursday she had not only designed the cozy- she gave it to me as well!!! Is it not the cutest?? She also took my Noro stole to ask her husband Tom to block. Knitting group was great this week. All 4 of us were there. Sandy and Jacqui brought some knitting books and magazines to check out and just a lot of cathartic talking.

So here is the afghan square I worked up the 14 for Tony's new car number



And the checkered flag square



Today I have been working on the pink anklets I started before Christmas. Curt picked up some size 2 bamboo clovers from ac moore for me. I slammed one needle in the car door and stepped on one, so I needed enough for 2 socks. I use 4 plus the working needle so I need 10- I only had 8. I want to start on a pair of breeze cable anklets from knitty this week.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Fencing saber squad

Angie's fencing team won their meet on Wednesday, they lost yesterday- but lost well against one of the best teams in the state. Here's a picture that my friend Lesley posted to the starledger's web version of the girl's saber squad, with a few of the boy sabers.

Angie went 2-0 and 1-1 respectively.

Pictures

Ok it's 4:38 I should be at work. We have a big ice storm here, but I usually don't let weather bother me. Well after 10 minutes I only chipped out a hole the size of my hand in the ice on my car. Not to mention I had to walk on the grass as the crunchiness gave it some traction. I was actually bracing my foot on the tire while chipping, and as I park on a slight hill, I'm not sure how to avoid sliding away from the car on that side. And there's the issue of my street is a serious hill, my driveway is a serious uphill. and there are 2 hard turns on downhills between me and I-80. At 3:30 I can hear the cars on the highway and that sounds clear- but I have to get there first. So I decided f this and called and told them I'd come in between 9:30 and 10 and stay until 3. Never was late for snow, but screw this ice.

Now the pics. This is actually a glass pendant bead I'm using for the button on my tony bag.



And here's the finished bag:



I also finished weaving in the ends off my stole and doing the single crochet border. Now it just needs blocking.



It came out a bit wider than I anticipated, so I'm a little nervous about it turning into a blanket when blocked.

Be the Bear!

So it was an 11 hour day for me. Mixed surprise, I got a carpet delivery. Apparantly we not only cancelled the 2 friday's appointments, but because the appt is really at 3 and Dan was leaving at 3:30, and their was no night crew, they cancelled last Wed too. I still am not sure why this stuff wasn't delivered last Monday, but I was really happy to see C when he showed up. Really didn't have the time to unlad him, but hey a girl's gotta have fun right?? So yes, i unloaded the truck and that added 45 min to my day.

I went in and tried to have a good day. I've decided to make Fozzie Bear my inspiration. When things go wrong he bitches at kermit a while and then lets go. Regardless of the absolute chaos going on around him, he goes out and does his thing. He always has a big smile on. He knows Waldorf and Statler are going to be negative whether his act is good or bad, but doesn't let it bother him, just goes out and does his best.

So I have been wearing glasses for less than a year. It took me a while just to get used to them at all - when I first got them they gave me a weird vertigo/seasickness. Currently they still bother me, in that if I'm wearing them, I can't see anything closer than 6-8 feet. So if I wear them driving, I can't read the dashboard. And at work I go from looking up, to looking at my screen and I'm either doing a backwards (what i call little house on the prairie look) sliding them down my nose and looking over them at the screen, putting them up in my haiir like a headband, putting them down on my cart. In the summer I had been sliding them on the neck of my shirt- but this doesn't work as well in a tutrle neck. So they weren't scratched so much as nicked from falling off the cart/my head and hitting the concrete floor.

Today, I guess the inevitable happened and some time between 10:30 and 2:30 a lens popped out I don't know where and is gone. I had 8 people walking up and down the aisles. looking in my clothes and hair- everywhere. couldn't find it. So I went back to the eyeplace. They wanted $110+tx for 1 lens. Now really this would mean 1 clear lens, 1 nicked lens. So why did I pay for insurance? Well if I lost the glasses it would be 50% of the 2 lenses + 50% of frame. So if I say I lost them for another 40-50 bucks I get a new pair? What if I say I lost them, and want to use an old frame?? (like we all have a sanford & son style drawer of glasses) They said the insurance requires new frames. Which is bull, because curt lost his a month before he could get an exam and new pair so he used an old pair and paid 1/2 for the lenses - but he goes to a different dr.

I was mad, and since we switched vision plans on Jan 1, I could get an exam and fix the whole near/far thing. So I went to lenscrafters tonite. Had an exam. paid the 56 for those 2 tests the insurance doesn't pay for. Got new frames, with the coatings and the scotchguard and the invisible lines for the bi-focals $480 for $72. ie - less than $110. $128 with the extra 2 tests. The only problem is I like the glasses w/o the metal on the bottom part of the frame. So they won't be readyy in an hour, they'll be ready on the 19th! great! sigh. Be the bear. Good thing I still have my binoculars. seriously. that's why I went for glasses to begin with. I was using them more and more.

Now if that wasn't bad enough, they did some tests the last eye dr. didn't. They took a picture of the back of my eye. One of the holes for my optic nerve is noticeably bigger than the other. I could see it. Everything else is fine.But she wants more tests done because it could be an early warning for glaucoma. Are you frickin kidding me? I'm only 42! She also said it could cause headaches on the left side - that's where I get my migraines! So I have to call my regular dr for a referal to a different place to get more tests and a baseline for the possible future issues. Sigh. i swear whenever I see a dr for one thing, the by the way part just kills me. be the bear. be the bear. be the bear.

Back to work

So, its back to work for me today. sigh. I worked so many hours on the 23rd so everything would be done for me to go on vacation. I know Dennis tries, but I know what it's like when he just covers flooring. I'm dreading hardware also. This is going to sound like the pod people got me. but while I was kind of bummed my carpet delivery 2 mondays ago got pushed to Wednesday, I'm glad I shouldn't have any outstanding po's so I won't get a carpet truck until Friday. C's usually off Friday so I won't see him until the following Monday. Sorta sad, but I won't have time to play anyway. I told the gals from the knitting group that Mon and Tues wouldn't work for me because I know I won't get out before 3:30 at earliest. Wednesday will be sketchy too. But since they won't allow overtime in January, I'll be out early on Thur.

Remember my tirade on Resolutions yesterday. Well the first plan I need to figure out to implement (not a resolution) will be how to deal with hardware and flooring without hating life and being pissed off all the time. I don't know how to achieve this, and my usual stress relief of unloading trailers isn't going to work because of the sheer time constraints. ( No I'm not giving up my carpet truck, even on days C doesn't drive. That trailer's mine!) So positive attitude. Starting out with a positive attitude. ( don't know if it will last past 4:01 but I'm starting with one)

Angie goes back to school today ( although wth practice and 2 tournaments she's been in a lot anyway). She has 3 meets this week, but thankfully they are all home meets.

Ria

Resolutions

Ok, I know I promised my rant on Resolutions. I haven't made a New Year's Resolution since I was in junior high. I really believe that 99% of New Year's Resolutions are doomed to fail. By their very nature they are usually too grand and too strict with not enough wiggle room. They also tend to focus on the negative side of life and giving up something. It's like we look at our weaknesses and punish ourselves for them. Well if I can't give something up for 40 days of lent, how am I going to do it for a year. Remember the whole SMART system in goal setting? Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely. Remember short and long term goal setting? So let's look at some typical New Year's Resolutions:

1. The ever popular I will lose weight. Well that's kind of generic - how much? how soon? fat? muscle? A serious haircut or amputating you leg? Even those that are specific - I will lose 10 pounds 0 how soon? and then we get if youcan lose 2 pounds of fat a week - I will lose 10 pounds in 5 weeks. How acievable is this? Seriously , it leaves no room for a human slip up. And if it was realistic wouldn't you have done it in the last 5 weeks? Also what about the rest of the year? You can then gain 15 in the next 5 weeks.

2. I will exercise every day. Not even getting into the same issues the lose weight that this resolution shares, we have several issues. Every Day? so for the next 365 days you will never sleep in, not feel well, get really busy, be tired? And the real downfall to any of the "everyday" or "every week" resolutions is once you miss one day, you feel guilty go all out. Then you miss another day, go all out the day after. Miss another day, but don't have the time energy for a "penance" workout or their is a legitimate reason to miss and you skip 2 days. Then a bit later you miss 3 days, then because you can't make up 3 days you miss 4 days. Pretty soon, every day turns into never.

3. The strict budget. I am not saying budgets are bad, and yes you need to have a realistic budget. The problem is budgets written out while in the over zealous after effects of celebrating the holiday excesses. You are going to put x in savings, you are only going to have 5 dollars in miscellaneous cash a week - You leave not enough wiggle room for an unexpected expense, you get hungry from your extreme diet and spend $5.25 on food! The problem with extremem strictness of any sort is that while you may feel guilty the first time or three that you "transgress" You live through the guilt. You then find it easier and easier with each successive transgression, to finally there is no point to having a budget.

4. The I'm going to get organized. That is a landmine filled resolution. Most of us have so much chaos in out lives that we never even make it tht first week. ( I am assuming most of us can stick to a diet or go to the gym for a week) It can just be soo overwhelming that we become paralysed.

5. And how many people vow to quit smoking on New Year's Eve, manage to keep it New Year's morming because of their hangovers but are smoking by the first bowl game.

And all the corporate sharks are out there circling. Watch TV for an hour. The commercials for nutrisystem, bally's shapes, curves, lean cuisine, weight watchers, different financial places, space bags etc etc etc. Gyms are real tough - sign on the line we'll charge your card $X every month for the next year - even after you stop coming in March. Weight loss centers - membership fees or agree to 10 weeks of inedible food, even if you're back in the hagen das in 3 weeks.


Please, please don't get me wrong. I am not a total cynic. i am not against goals, I am not against taking stock of your life. The end of the year in my view is a good time to review your year/life. See what you did well as well as what you could have done better. Don't beat yourself up. You are human. But be honest with yourself. if you really can't think of anything you did well, you need some help with self-esteem issues before you can tackle a resolution. But I'm not a shrink here, so that's for someone else's blog. January is a great time for planning. You plan your spring garden, start planning your summer vacation, well start planning you life.

Look at what you did well. Either by design or by accident it doesn't matter. How can you keep this up, possibly even expand on it? Tweak it a bit. So for example, I was really hating work this time last year. This was stretching into months of hating work and actually considering leaving. Last summer I found a way to change my job a bit, and even though 90% stayed the same, that change made me happy again. Now they changed my job again ( as you regular readers are aware) well now I hate it again, but I'm not considering quiting this time, I just have to figure 0ut how to tweak it. This is not a resolution, I don't even know what I'm going to do yet, but I am thinking, planning. Another example, I both saved $$ and lost 8 pounds last year, by making and bringing my own coffee and peanut butter sandwich everymorning instead of hittimg dunkin donuts for an xl coffee and toasted bagel with butter, that is a positive I'm going to maintain.
Did you do some charity kntting that made you feel good? I did chemo caps and afghans. Now here is a positive that needed tweaking. I got rid of a lot of my stash yarn, I made goods for excellent causes. But I over extended myself on the afghans and the entire month of october knitting became a serious chore and added stress to my life instead of relaxing me. So I still want to knit for charity. i have to tweak how I approach it though. I am going to make afghans or squares for VJGC again this summer. it is a cause I really get behind. I am not going to start more than one 'ghan at a time. I also learned that maybe strip afghans are the way to go. I really don't like to seam, but the ripple ghan taught me that knitting one ghan can bore me to stress. I had also switched to mostly crochet because it was faster - but I don't like crochet as much as I like to knit, so while not ruling crochet out, I am going to focus on knitting for charity. But once again - it's planning no making some kind of decree.

In the same vein - look at what you did poorly or want to change. The first thing to look at is your motivation for change. Do you want to lose weight so guys will fiind you hot? Do you think you're husband will love you 10% more for every dress size you are less? Did your doctor tell you to lose it? None of these will work at least not long term. No even the doctor part. If the doctor part worked we'd all be non-smoking skinny minnies. same for exercise, smoking, getting organzed etc etc. So once you find the reason YOU want to do this for You, then you can come up with a plan. Use the whole SMART system to create the plan. And remember it is easier to make lifestyle/habit changes in small mamageable increments. if you need to lose 50 lbs - that's over 25 weeks. That is tough. This is where long vs short term goals come into play. short term lose 5lbs at a time, long term keep it off. ( Me i need to find the inner motivation to lose almost 100 lbs so trust me I'm not preaching) But it took more than 5 weeks of eating wrong to gain weight keep that in mind.

Now some last thoughts ( I told you this would be a rant) while you are making your plans. Why plan in January and not December you ask? If you plan in December you can implement everything by royal decree on Jan 1. First of all no matter how you're holidays are going happy , elated, depressed, what holiday? - there is holiday induced brain damaging sentiments that occur. No matter how logical you are the rest of the year - you have brain damage during the holidays. Also you end up only reflecting on 11 months. I don't know why the brain doesn't do Dec thru Nov, it just doesn't. And most importantly - keep this in mind during your planning period - you can't successfully make a bizzilion positive changes in oure life at once. They will be doomed to failure. so prioritize. start one thing at a time. Mix it up, start a long term change, mix in a short term, hard, easy. Try to put things in a positive light. Don't look at losing lbs (after all we're traing to find what we lose right?) See it as fitting into a new pair of jeans , making it up another flight of stairs without huffing and puffing, or ypu knees hurting that much less. And reward yourself. If you're getting in shape, maybe not with cheesecake. but a skein of yarn, a new top, an afternoon/evening all to yourself, a movie in theater , rented or on tv, it doesn't have to blow your budget, just somethiing that you can look forward to that makes you happy.

Remember don't rush it and next December you're done well list will be that much longer!

Knitting updates

Ok, the squatty bag is drying and still needs a button. I like the way the V came out not totally in love with the black on the handle.



Here's the dumpling bag- just has to dry so I can put the white in and it'll be good to go, and hopefully by that time I'll take a better picture!



And I'm on the last skein of Noro Taiyo for my wrap.



I really love how it's coming out.

Happy New Years !

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone's New Year's was safe. I ran out of batteries last night so I have no pictures. I took a couple with my cell phone, but w/o a flash they came out terrible. Speaking of terrible - whomever invented crackers with confetti in them should be shot. My brother bought a bunch of party crackers for the kids and when they popped them open confetti flew out everywhere!! Not nice large easy to vacuum confetti ( I had some in the shape of party hats, horns and 2009 on the table - easy to vacuum and if the vacuum misses them it's easy enough to pick them up) No this was fine multi colored confetti that now is everywhere! GRRRRR. We played gutar hero rock band for most of the night - you wouldn't believe how fast midnght showed up.
My daughter painted her room this week and had to move everything back into her room before the party. It wasn't looking good, but she got 2 of her friends to come over at 7am to help her finish. I was flipping out on her telling her everything not in her room was going in the dumpster! Especially since her friends were sleeping over and she needed a floor in her room for sleeping bags! But she pulled it off and by 2pm ( yes 3 people 7 hours- how is that possible?) it looked decent. She still hasn't hung her pictures back up but that's ok.
So french toast casserole w/ cranberries and mandarin oranges for breakfast this morning (easy breakfast for 8 ) I was up at 515 (it's a curse) and I realized I forgot all about the stuffed mushrooms and fried ravioli. So guess what we had for lunch?
After lunch Curt and I went to see Valkyrie. Excellent movie. I was rooting for cruise's colonel even though I knew how it would end.
For dinner we had the southern New Year's Day good luck dinner as always. Curt's Louisiana roots are a little different from mine so we have a compromise. All the food is supposed to bring you luck through the year. So we had black-eyed peas over rice, corn bread with whole kernels of corn and chili's inside with some cheddar on top in the crust, collard greens ( I hope my granma will forgive me - I used frozen collards) fried catfish and pomegranite sauce over vanilla ice cream.