procrastination

Funny,
it seems like the day after I say I want to update this damn thing everyday, life gets in the way... damn it.
I do have things to say as always, but I do want to get the thoughts straight in my head first.
So a tiny little update will have to do.

Job update! I have an interview at the Intiman, on Tuesday. Dave (Master Electrician) says Julia (Production Manager) said, the job is mine, its just a formality, and she just wants to talk about the Job, so, that's good. The only issue I have with it, is I think the job title should be different. Master should be in there somewhere, if I am getting and doing a master's job, they just created it, so they are just working on the semantics, I know the union contract states I get the same rate as all the other "masters" (Stage Carpenter, Electrician, Sound Engineer) . I have to think of my resume later on, ya know.

Sunday, I worked at the Key Arena, the load in and out of Lil Wayne, woo hoo. It wasn't too bad, the road guys were super nice in my department, they said it was because they were almost done. At some time I have to find their myspace page... something about tiny hand on tour... it was silly. The guy I worked with all day, Mike looked like my friend Tori's boyfriend Igor, only taller, cooler, and more fit. I hope their silly tour page will have a picture so I can show her. It might have been the beard and the glasses though.

Monday, there was a big union party. We have senority numbers in our union, and most jobs are dispatched based on senority, I am about #250, or something like that. Its not as dire as that number sounds, since most people have regular union jobs, like I am trying to get, and can't take every big call here and there, I am high enough that I work enough, as long as there are jobs, but lets not go there, shall we. Anyway, our number One, turned 90 this year, and his wife had said at 90 he had to retire, so, it was suggested we through him a surprise birthday-retiring party. He got wind of it, and said he didn't want to have a birthday party, but why not make it a big union party, where we could all get together and not have it be a funeral. (We have lost 5 very popular members in the last two years, the 2008 deaths coming one after the other in October and November, so, this fall was a little devastating). But the party turned out to be very fun, lots of food, wine, a slide show, 3 courses of dessert, and one of our member's jazz band played. It was great.

Tuesday and Wednesday, there was no excuse for me, I stayed home and knitted, except when I went to the library for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was okay, there was a bunch of good-funny action scenes, but it left you feeling a bit cold at the end.

Today, I worked for the Tech Ready convention that Microsoft holds twice a year. I pulled a bunch of cables, and hung some lights, oh, and pushed boxes... but big calls with a bunch of people are fun, cause there is gossip, and well among some of us, the knitting talk.
I am back there tomorrow, for more fun, today was 8 hours, tomorrow is supposed to be 12, then on Saturday, I have a really early call for Playhouse Disney, 6:30am... with a 4:30pm out. So at least the day will be over early. An anti-superbowl party on Sunday, ( I am going so I can give a knitting lesson) Monday I have the monthly union meeting, Tuesday - the interview and a class in fall restraint, Wednesday - nothing - except I have to make sure I have my volunteers in order for - Thursday, 1st day of the Artist Trust Auction, and we traditionally provide volunteers, Friday, day 2 of Artist Trust and the Load out of Tech Ready, Saturday - maybe my first walk with the people who train you to walk a 1/2 marathon, and a Knitting lesson with Sabine, Sunday Sabine's seattle baby shower and the last day of Artist Trust.

I will post some pictures soon...

Avoidance

Its funny, how avoiding doing one thing will cause you to do other things you have been avoiding.

Well, that's not exactly true, the one thing I did, to avoid the other thing, well, it had become unavoidable. Talking in riddles? Thinking in riddles!

But, at least my volunteer union job recruiting volunteers is done for the day, sent out another appeal for folks to help on two projects coming up, one of them on Monday... The Monday one, is mostly covered, since I have one person, and I am not doing anything... it can be done with just two, and well I work tomorrow in a "target rich" environment. I might be able to scare up some folks.

The other one, well, one of the days is when there is a big convention in town. I have one, and need two, and I can't do that one, I am at the big convention. I might just start calling my friends... well union friends.

Other things I am doing to avoid working out.... well making a batch of roasted sweet potatoes.
And updating this blog. The sweet potatoes are a bit of an experiment... they have sweet mesquite seasoning on them, I think they will be tasty, but... I have no idea if that will be true. My pesto potatoes, were good, if too salty (I underestimated the amount of salt in the pesto), but I had tried something sort of similar at a party, so I had an idea.

Maybe I can avoid scanning pictures by working out? I have some pictures to scan for my old friends on Facebook, but while the scanner works great... something in the software for the scanner and the photo saving software, things get lost... since they are both HP its a freaking mystery. The last time I did it, it involved tears, wailing to god and computer deities, banging my hands on the keyboard, and lots of breaks... in the end I scanned every picture at least 3 times, before I could find them anywhere on the computer. I only ever found the one copy of them there, so, the others are hiding in some really great place, on my hard drive... taking up space and being useless.
Can you tell I am a little bitter.... Maybe thats what I will say to myself... either scan pictures or workout this afternoon...
ohhh... I have to go, my walking shoes are calling to me.

Sunny Day

It's a lovely sunny day out my window, and I have a bunch of things to say, but nothing important.

I plan to do a few things, also nothing too exciting.

I have heard back about the goodnight moon blanket, they love it, but it came at a time when they (the parents) were pretty tired of the book that is their son's number one favorite.

I get to work on Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Friday, Thursday and Friday will be big money makers, so that's nice.

I got my new debit card yesterday, there had been a fraudulent charge on my old one, so that was a pain... apparently there are people who randomly generate numbers, and charge them, for not much money, so, its possible to overlook them. Sneaky.

Sarah Palin is writing a book, but you know, its America and I don't have to buy it. Hoorrah!

Now, I will post some pictures... aren't you glad?

Soapboxes

I really do want to update this blog everyday, its a resolution, and I have also taken a bunch of pictures to post too. I meant to yesterday... and I wanted to say how much this new presidency means to me... in response to the inauguration, but then, I got side tracked.

These pictures are from Sunday I think, and I have others too, I took a walk in a park near the sound (Myrtle Edwards Park) at about 4pm to 5pm... and the sun was so pretty. I am going to write the rest of my update between the pictures, even though they have nothing to do with anything else I have to say.

What an Obama presidency means to me, number one, the rest of the civilized world will respect us... hopefully. I know on one side Bush seemed like a guy you could invite to your barbeque, and not really clean up your yard, a regular guy, but on the other side, he also seemed like a retarded asshole, to be blunt, and a bit of a puppet. At least Obama seems literate. Just to stay semi bipartisan, McCain would have been a huge step up as well.

Number two, now that we have a democrat in office I feel we can all critize our government, for the last few years it has felt to me, that I couldn't say bad things about things I didn't like without being hissed at for being unamerican. Now we can both express our feelings, about what we like and don't like, thank god.

Things I hope for, well, I would like some resolution to this war, I hope we don't pull out so soon that we leave the Iraq in a shambles, a ripe ground for future terrorists, but I feel more confident there isn't a hidden agenda going on.

I hope our economy gets better, its in a terrible state, I don't even really blame Bush for it, it was something coming to a head for a long time, you can't make money for nothing forever. There will a bunch more about this for a long time, or it might just feel like a long time... and in the end, since no one can really agree on what to do, we might not even realize what helped fix it. Everyone points to the Great Depression, and how we got out of that, and from the podcasts I have been listening to, the only thing economists can agree on about the Great Depression, is there is no way to be certain what got us out of it, they can't even really point to the end of it.

It seems like Obama plans to invest in a greener infrastructure, and I think this is a good idea, and not just because I am a greenie person, but because, the oil won't last forever, my lifetime or more, certainly, but there are going to be problems with new technologies, lets figure those things out now, when it isn't a crisis... Some say exploiting our own oil sources is the answer to dependence on foreign oil, but our oil companies are under NO obligation to sell us our oil, they will sell it at the highest bidder, why wouldn't they, so in the end the oil is no cheaper... only if we can produce enough to flood the market, but why would any reasonable capitalist flood the market. What will it hurt to expore new options? Other than creating a few jobs for a while.
I also hope that maybe we can keep church and state separate, now. I would like to say, if your basis for making the law is the Bible, maybe we should rethink it. We don't live in a theocracy, we live in a democracy. Lets take abortion as an example, or even contraception - yes, in a perfect world there would never be an unwanted child and no one would ever have sex without a committed relationship, is the world perfect, no, there are teenagers in it, there is sexual violence, there are just plain accidents with people who are committed, but not ready. As a buddhist, I don't believe in abortion, its not a choice I could make, but I don't have the right to make this hard decision for anyone else. I have held friends hands over this, while they made their decisions, and its hard... but not my place. People want to remember a happy time where women never had abortions... but you know, no such time. So, with abortion not an option, no real desire for children, my option is contraception, or never have sex again.. yeah, thats a hard one. But for teenagers, and young adults, I think the parents instill their values in their children, but, kids are kids, and a condom can save their life.
I am getting off my soap box now, its tiresome... on a completely different note, I have been doing weight watchers for about 2 months, I will say I was still bad over the holidays, and as of today, I have lost 10.8 pounds, from 193 to 182, so, it will take a while to get to 130... but I am closer. I am thinking about training to walk a 1/2 marathon too, but, if I get this job at the Initman, I am not sure what sure of time committement I can make to it. More on that later.

Random Things

I'm not sure what this it, fish trap maybe?

Rorschach

what does it look like to you?


I am going to say, elephant magician casting a spell!

update on the update

I revised my big update so it isn't so crappy.
preview really doesn't mean preview if you want big pictures... apparently

Socks and cats

Well here is the new sock with the Noro, its zipping along, I have a resolution to make a pair of socks a month.
I think the only person getting hand knit stuff this year besides myself will be Sabine's unborn baby, and maybe Megan's daughter Anne.
I'll rethink it when it comes to be near christmas... I always do.

Next I have some cat photos, because my cats are the cutest!!! and I am silly, and my life is very small... I know you are thinking it. This is Alice, she taught me, you clean the ones you love, if they sit still that is...

Lovely Demon Seed Bovine... maybe she is such an angry cat because we don't use her full name, the Devine Miss Bovine... She feels slighted by attention paid to anyone other than herself.

Little Trixie, the poor little underdog... er... undercat? I got Trixie and Alice at the same time, but they were probably not from the same litter, I think that Alice was a tad bit older, and she ended up alpha cat - And Alice is a passive agressive alpha cat, - Trixie finds a nice napping spot, Alice thinks it might be good, so, she just sleeps on top of Trixie, until Trixie leaves.
When we got Bovine, Alice wanted to clean it, and Trixie played with it, Bovine likes to clean herself (barely), But as Bovine grew older, she tried to copy Alice and boss Trixie around, and Trixie stood up for herself, the play got mean spirited. Now, Trixie tries hard to pretend she lives in a world without Bovine, and Bovine hisses and growls everytime she sees Trixie.
When Bovine went missing for 5 days and 4 nights (unauthorized apartment sitting), the only one happy was Trixie, she was thrilled. Poor thing.
Here Trixie is, sleeping in my arms like a baby, I don't make them do it, in fact its very hard to knit this way

Frogged the Koi socks

So I have frogged the Koi socks, from the previous post, the pattern was too fussy, and the yarn was too dark to see the pattern, and I kept screwing up... I may just not be a fussy sock pattern kind of girl.

I have done Sock Wars twice and I didn't enjoy the patterns, but I thought it was just the sock wars pattern you know... I can't completely give up on that sort of thing though, I will make the Rivendell socks, from that same book eclectic sole... and I might try the DNA ones ... maybe...

Anyway that yarn will be plain old vanilla type socks, which are better suited for a portable project anyway.

1. A Cup of Tea

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

Random Road Art

I find random things beautiful, you can tell what this is, but isn't it oddly cool looking.

A big update with pictures

So, December started out with Bovine going to the vet for a troublesome tummy ailment, a little bacterial overgrowth shall we say, poor kitty... She got to have antibiotics twice a day, and a diet to lose 3 pounds. She is already slimmer, and seen here hiding from me, its been over a month since I have had to wrestle some nasty pink liquid in her, but her instincts are still sharp.
I finished the Goodnight Moon Blanket. I haven't heard back yet, and I didn't put a tracking number on it, so, I am not even sure they got it, but I imagine having a 2 1/2 year old makes it hard. I can't imagine they didn't like it. I am very proud of it.
My dad's Christmas socks, I am not even sure if he is still happy at getting socks for gifts. Maybe next time I will do something else.. These are made with a hand dyed yarn, in Cougar colors, since it was sort of close to the 49ners, next time, if there are more socks, I will dye the yarn myself, I have some undyed sock yarn that is preknit to dye in stripes or whatever, and I want to give that a try. I recently bothered to knit a swatch for something and found out I knit tight, so socks might go faster on bigger needles next time. woot.
My sister Dawn, asked for something knitted this year - Leg Warmers - in green and purple - I looked at a few patterns, but in the end decided to wing it, 4 inch color repeats with 5 inches of 2x2 ribbing at the ends. I dyed this yarn myself, the green is perfect, and the purple is a little on the wine-y side.
The yarn is knitpicks superwash bare sportweight - but it shrunk more than I wanted in the wash. So, I am not sure I trust it - I have found most of their superwash to not be very superwash...
I randomly picked one of my snowmegeddon photos to post... this is the entrance to the ice Teepee in my neighbors yard. Seattle got over a foot of snow, 2 in some places, and it stuck... for days... and now we know Seattle has no plan for Snow that does not just wash away in 24 hours.
I think this was December 20th or there abouts.
my roommate Pat, at Hal's white elephant gift exchange, it was pretty fun, and I got a glass paperweight - in purple. sweet.
Christmas and Birthday Spoils!
Underneath everything is a zen meditation zafu, and mat... from my dad! awesome, I think it was supposed to be purple... but that's fine, since... I think I am going to dye it!
beautiful glass paperweight, glass display teapot from Pat for my birthday, Private practice from Ali, gift cards from Ali and Pat, moon and star property from Pat, Tools from my dad, and convert to Judaism Spray! From Sabine's mom Paddy.
a little better view, the knife and tools came from my dad on my birthday.. delivered to me, by my ups man while I waited in line for coffee a block from my apartment, he recognized me on the street and brought it in, very cool!
Damn flash makes this hard to see, but now I can convert with a simple spray, and if I find my faith wavering, I can just renew, and be minty fresh!
moon property, I think I am going to build a house there soon, I wonder how the cats would like that move?
And a star, Named After Me!!!
Knitting in the new year!

so, I finally decided what pattern to knit with my Noro silk garden lite, the koi socks.. I thought it would be an easy travel project, since I am making progress on my sweater, but I don't think my mind likes charts! you can't really see the detail, the yarn is too dark, oh well. they'll look good on my feet - I am also trying the magic loop method... I used it for the leg warmers when I realized I didn't have the right size needles, but I think it might be too annoying for me.


so, Bunny's first sweater... I started this last year, and knit nine inches or something, and finally checked my gauge... yeah, I knit to tight, so, I restarted, and its going much faster... the pattern is a bit confusing here and there, but I am sure if will be great... even if, this might not be the best style for me, even if I lose all the weight I want I will still have boobs, this looks like it will emphasize this, not sure I will feel comfortable in it, but I guess I can frog it if it doesn't work out... right?

a non-update

it is so terrible that I haven't updated this, or any other blog in forever. But soon, not today, but soon, I will update with pictures even, I promise.