Tweet

I got an email yesterday that told me I have a new follower on Twitter. 

A follower?  I have a follower??  I had completely forgotten I set that up.  On top of that, I'm not narcissistic enough to think that anyone - me included - would really like to get continuous updates on my day.

Examples of imaginary tweets for a day in the life of Jen:

• Got up this morning and made oatmeal for breakfast. It was good.
• Almost stepped in cat barf - it looked amazing like the oatmeal I just ate.  Love those cats!
• Lather, rinse, repeat...
• Got to work early. Sometimes wonder AM ALWAYS GRATEFUL that my carpooler doesn't kill us each time he drives. Anger management, all I'm saying.
• And a driver's safety course.
• Why do I ride in with a crazy driver?  More knitting time, of course.
•  Somebody had the WORST sour breath stinking up the coffee shop.  Remember, if you can't brush your teeth, breath mints are your friend.  And everyone around you as well.
• Oh, heavenly coffee!!!   Coffee goooooooooooood....
• Had to spend 10 minuets digging out my badge while balancing an oversized purse, a box of items for the office, and a cup of scalding hot coffee.
• Got first stain of the day on my shirt.  Goodie.  Let's start the day out right.
• Noticed co-worker A * humming tunelessly.  He plays drums in a band on the side, so don't really expect him to be able to carry a tune as long as he does it in beat.
• Co-worker B has music on hold playing loudly on his speaker phone.  Music to coma by...
• Just realized that co-worker A is trying to hum along with the music on hold.  HELP!
• Plugged in ipod and cranked it up. 
• Later realized that co-worker B put the music on hold on his speaker phone and LEFT THE OFFICE.  Dude...he thinks this is funny.
• Unplugged c/w B's phone.
• Tuneless humming from c/w A stopped.  Nirvana!
• Went back to c/w B's cube and put in the top drawer of his desk upside-down, with all the stuff in it.
• Re-plugged phone back in & turned the speakerphone back to MoH.
• Listened to the sweet sounds of swearing coming from c/w B's cube when he opened his drawer.
• LUNCHTIME!  Grilled cheese sandwich!  Yum!
• Got back to desk and smelled something bad.  Did I get cheese on me somewhere?
• Noticed a dirty gym sock (not mine) under my desk.  Seriously gross... 
• Waited until c/w B left his desk and tied used gym sock under the seat of his chair.  Then left and washed my hands.
• C/W B seems to have the sniffles.  Good luck finding your sock, buddy.
• Time to go home and experience white knuckle driving at it's best. 
• Keep trying to stomp on the imaginary brake but it's not working!
• Home and safe at last! 

This is why I don't Tweet.  Had this been a real day - and some parts were - I'd have been too busy actually living my life to Tweet about it.  I also don't drop a Facebook post for each & every little thing either.   It's enough to work, spend time with family and all the things to do with that, and maybe have a bit of time left to knit.  I will be deleting my Twitter account.

Just as soon as I can remember how to get there.

* Names of co-workers have not been used to protect the innocent.  Or me.  They're both friends of mine as well as co-workers, anyway.

Thanksgiving Thankfulness

The turkey is done and the pies have been eaten, the dishes have piled up and the groans of being over-full have been made.  Football games are over and plans for Black Friday are being made.

To me, Thanksgiving is about spending time with my family.  Too often nowadays, we all have separate paths and many other things pulling our attention and demanding our time.  Thanksgiving to me is a precious time to be with my family.

May your Thanksgiving be something for you to be thankful for!

Retreat!

I've been packing up to go on retreat tomorrow (heading out after work).  No work, no hubby, no kids, no animals - just the lake, trees and lots and lots of knitting.  Can't wait!

Got two bags packed for this trip, one large and one small.  Is it wrong to use the small bag for my clothes and the large one for my knitting stuff?  A knitter's gotta do what a knitter's gotta do...

Fall

It's supposed to be Autumn now, and with that time marks the beginning of sweater weather. 

Yesterday's temperature here was 102 F.  Today is supposed to be "much cooler" at 86 F.  That makes it kind of hard to want to work with heavy wools.

My fingers have been itching to work on worsted yarn - been doing a lot of lace and socks lately and it just doesn't feel the same.  Not bad, mind you, but a completely different feel.  Lace and sock-weights dance on your fingers, like a light, delicate ladies' tea; while worsted-weight is heavier, like a substantial meal of hardy comfort food.  I'm ready for the comfort food, please! 

Yet, it's cooler here, but that means under 100 F (it's all relative).  Still not exactly Fall weather.   I need to move North.

Fishing

My husband is off fishing today.  Ocean fishing with a bunch of guys from work.  Very manly. They normally have a lot of fun on these trips and I'm glad he's able to go - he's been very busy and under a lot of stress at work lately (all a normal part of the job).

He was getting ready last night about 9:00 pm (he had to be up at 3:00 am the next day)  and said he couldn't find the hat I'd made him.  It gets very cold out on the water that early in the morning and the hat I'd made him was a very warm llama /wool blend.  Since he couldn't find his hat and I am a supportive wife, I immediately offered to "whip up another hat" for him. 

Good intentions - bad idea.

I had a nice bulky washable wool blend in a manly deep gray, but after an hour I was only at 2.5 inches.  At that point I realized that I was so tired my eyes were spinning and my hands were starting to cramp.  The I realized that while I could probably finish the hat if I stayed up all night, I wouldn't be able to move my fingers the next day and I had knitting group and the stupid hat wasn't worth it.

 It's all his fault.  Hubby shouldn't have lost that last hat.

Anyway, I went to bed, woke up Hubby and apologized for not getting his new hat done in time for him to take it out fishing tomorrow.  (He returned the favor by later waking me up at 3:00 am.) 

Hope he does well this trip, catches lots of fish and has a good time.  He can lose the new hat another day.

Time Out for the Yucky Stuff

I've got a little problem - you see, I got a sweater's worth of Rowan Summer Tweed.  Figured, "hey, it's summer and I like tweed", and the composition of said yarn is 70% silk and 30 % cotton. 

I'm a sucker for silk.  I love, LOVE, silk but equally hate cotton.  Now, usually when you have a silk blend it's nice.  This stuff is not.

I hate it.  Awful stuff.  It works like a harsh cotton on my hands and has lots of vegetable matter in it (straw, I think - or hope).  It sticks like Velcro on wood needles.  I've tried to like it.  I would really like to like it.  I had it in mind for a nice little summer cardi, but alas, the yarn had other ideas.   

You'd think it would be good stuff - Rowan is like, famous, and it looked nice in the skein.  Truly disappointing.  So now it's the Time-out bin for the yucky yarn.  Maybe it will learn how to play nice while it's there.

I Tawt I saw a Pudytat

Have you ever taken a drive on a beautiful mild summer day?  The kind of day where you could roll down the windows and put your elbow up on the door and enjoy the delicious cool air flowing up your sleeve and cooling off your arm pit.  Radio on with your favorite song playing, foot tapping to the beat. 

Then you realize that a bee has flown up your sleeve and things start going a bit different after that.

The other night I was sound asleep and was enjoying a wonderful dream - you know, the kind where you are doing something amazing and you look really good doing it - and I suddenly woke up with my eyes watering and was almost choking. 

Seems a skunk had passed right by our air conditioning unit outside about 2:00 in the morning and the smell got all throughout the house.  Just couldn't get away from it.  Made me glad to go to work that morning.

My biggest worry was that my stash would have the smell - but it's OK.  Whew...