The Last MMP of 2008 - What's your resolution?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
101

Just popping in to say 'allo. I’m visiting my mountain friend this week and we had an Adventure Sunday night chasing bears. Not the kind that swampy likes, the furry kind that gets in your trash and claws your trees.

My resolution is to be a selfish bitch. If someone wants me to do something for them, my first question will be “what’s in it for me.” The only exception is work. I’m tired of “friends” taking advantage of me and it shall end now.

rosie’s sig to all! I have a high altitude to enjoy and a North Carolina snow day to cause. I am Snowbringer, dammit!

102

I found the one I wanted on this site - I made the “Idiot’s Dishcloth” (nice name… :rolleyes: ) My mother in law had given me several of them that a friend of hers had made. I finally got around to looking for the pattern, and there it was! I intend to try a few of the others - I’ve got lots of yarn scraps to use up.

Back from our morning of running around. I’m about to head to the basement and get some organizin’ done. These few days off have given me a taste of what retirement will be like. In think I can deal with it… Too bad I have to wait 7 more years.

103

Good morning my little chickadees.

Well, it appears that I will indeed be in San Antonio, Texas for the period 12-16 January. I’d actually fly in sometime 11 Jan, but that’s a minor detail.

I’m going there to attend a course. Blech.

Oh well, at least it’ll be knocked out for the year and I’ll have met one of my performance objectives. Timing is kind of bad though…

Other than that, I got nuttin’.

Hugs, smooches, gropes to all.

On edit: FCM, at least you don’t have to wait 11, like me. Even then, I hope I can afford to retire. I’ll be the MRA with 37 years of service then.

104

Bobbio, I suspect that to get Bear’s attitude would require a radical transformation into a canine myself–rather Kafkaesque, that… :stuck_out_tongue: I’m already a bitch, though, so it’s not too much of a stretch. Saving everyone the strain of having to sprain their fingers to be first to make that comment. Yer welcome, y’heathens…

Hey, where’s the pic of your kid? We have to inspect him to make sure he’s hawt enough to have a chance at the Princess!

ETA: Ooh, Taters, Dopefest in old San Antone!

105

SmartAleq, I don’t think that the argument would make sense to anyone else and it’s spread over a number of threads in a crappy local newspaper comments section. I started a homeless shelter back in the late 80’s and she was a self-proclaimed activist who has spent the last 15 years making a spectacle of herself, accomplishing nothing, attacking everyone in sight that tries to help homeless people and generally giving homeless people a black eye every time she opens her mouth. I had to put up with her ankle biting shit for a decade because as an Executive Director I had to be above all of the squabbling and stay professional. Now that I don’t, it’s on. I get to slap her around for every stupid comment that she makes and every time she makes it clear that her own notoriety matters far more to her than advocating for homeless people does. It’s therapeutic in a mean sort of way but every now and then it feels like I’m winning the special olympics of the internet.

106

**Taters **- I’ll be MRA with 35.5 next January (not next month) but thanks to my TSP balance going down the cosmic toilet, I’m going to hang around till I’m 62, hence the 7 more years. I’m hoping the market will creep back up, plus a higher high-3 and the 1.1% multiplier at 62 will make it worthwhile. What the heck - I was going to keep working anyway - may as well do it as a senior engineer rather than as a junior WalMart greeter. :smiley:

107

The stole with the fringe is La Lana Wools Forever Random Worsted 100% Wool in Kachina I. I splurged at Stitches West last February and the owner of La Lana picked the skeins for me because I couldn’t decide. Since the fringe looks wimpy, I’m considering using their Lincoln Thickspun in either kota or pale madder or a combination of the two. It would definitely be striking! My current Lady E is Noro Kureyon 170. I’m not normally a big fan of orange and yellow, but I think they work in this colorway. It’s nice and cheerful for a winter project.

Entrelac looks more complicated than it really is. I like being able to finish a square and have something completed. Lots of people think entrelac is really tedious, so in that sense, it’s difficult. It’s really just knitting little squares and triangles.

My stash storage is an Ikea bookcase on its side. The boxes are these. The boxes were far more annoying to put together than the bookcase, IMHO.

108

I’ve often said that should reincarnation exist, I want to come back as a dog in my house. As far as bein’ a bitch, ya wanna trade the Left Coast for the Right? :wink:

So I screwed up (and around) last night by loading a hunter that fell out of his treestand and broke his back into the helicopter, instead of finding a pic of my Rugrat to post for you. Sue me.

I just looked in my Photobucket account and didn’t see any of him. At the worst, you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow when he gets here from Indiannoplace. :stuck_out_tongue:

109

Howdy, all. I’d say morning except I just noticed it’s past noon, which makes it afternoon. Not that I just got up; eve I’m not that lazy. Most of the time, anyway. :smiley:

I’ve often said that when I come back, I want to come back as one of my pets. Talk about a rough life. :rolleyes:

I’m so pleased you agree with me about torturing one’s children, Smartie! Actually, snowbunny’s brother was the truly crazy-making one - crawling through a third floor balcony railing and hanging off it, climbing like a little monkey at age 3 or 4 to the very top of a huge ladder truck when we were taking the Girl Scouts for a tour of the fire station and I turned my back on him for 2 seconds, etc. He’ll be in for his share one of these days, I’m fully confident. :smiley:

Ikea boxes, eh, Shadow? That’s a great idea. I’ll have to wander by our local Ikea one of these years and see if they carry them. With my luck, they’ll have just sold out of all but one when I go there, and I see they’re not sold online. Oh well, I’ll figure something out. Someday, when we move into our retirement house, I’m going to have a whole room devoted to my knitting and sewing, with lots of work space and storage space and all. In the meantime, I’ll cope. I’m impressed that you splurged for La Lana yarn, however – I’ve drooled over their website on many occasions, but the prices always put the fear of Og into me. At least of the yarns I really want.

Back to knitting. Plain knitting, round and round in circles, and then in a couple more rows starting the final set of decreases. To my amazement, this yarn actually has lasted, although I’m nearly out of the light-colored, so I made the tassel before going to work on the part of the hat that’ll be on the inside towards the head in any case. And then I’ve got several things I need to wash and block later, once I finish the hat, which I should some time this afternoon. Yay! I’ll take several photos of it so you can see it in all its glory. I’ve done a pretty darn good job if I do say so myself. But I have a barely-started pair of socks from a knitalong calling me to come finish them, so I’d like to at least have a chance to get back to them before the New Year! I really am enjoying being able to just sit here and knit, however; I know I’ll need to get some work shortly so we don’t starve, but in the meantime, this is really pleasant, just getting up, pouring a cuppa, and sitting down to peaceful knitting. Speaking of which…

110

I’m back! With good news! and an amusing anticdote for FCM.
I tend to make jokes when I’m stressed. I walked into the procedure room, then laid myself on the table. A gaggle of nurses followed me in, one covered me with a warm blanket. Before they dispersed to their various jobs, I called them all together. I said, “I’m a critical care nurse, so we’re all colleagues here. I really don’t want to be naked, so if I have to be naked, it would only be fair if you be naked too. It’s really cold in here, so let’s all stay warm, 'k?”

I got a big laugh and stayed well covered throughout.

My good news is my coronary arteries are as good as some 18 year olds. I have a less than 25% occlusion in one small area. With diet and exercise even that should resolve.

I’m so happy!

I also talked about Pink Floyd as they gave me the drugs. They were all so young they didn’t get the “comfortable numb” reference.

111

Sorry, Bobbio, I’ve been to the Right side of the country and it’s too crowded, grubby and weird for me! I like my trackless forests and good weed and amazing beer and clean rivers and laid back attitudes and really wild coastline too much to ever move away–but if you ever get tired of that side of the world there are a ton of VFDs out here, a drastic shortage of health care professionals and significantly less naggy wimmens… PNW women will just shoot you if you get too far out of line, they won’t peck you to death!

Okay, Karyn, I thought you meant around here–but if you want some help freeping your nemesis lemme know because I have a turn of phrase for flaming when I get motorvated… :stuck_out_tongue:

Yay for picu! See, toldja everything would be just fine!

You sound so relaxed, Tigs, keep it up…

112

Yay, picu!! Glad all is well. But I really didn’t need a mental image of a bunch of nekkid nurses, especially thinking of the nurses at my Dr’s office… <shudder> Don’t get me wrong, they’re very nice and competent professionals, but, nekkid? Thanks, no…

Taking a break after a couple of hours of sorting crap. I’m waiting for **FCD **to get to a point where he can break so we can discuss the remaining crap. Some will come upstairs, most will stay downstairs, and some will probably be tossed. I’m just not going to make those choices with regard to his tools and supplies. Once he decided what stays, I can organize and store it. But I’m not going to put a lot of effort only to have him say “But, that box in the back on the bottom - I *need *that upstairs!!!”

We’ve got a bazillion outlets and switches in assorted colors and styles. And cover plates. We’ll be able to use some in the new garage and I’m sure more plugs will be installed in the current garage/future workshop. Still, I don’t see us using them all. But some are brand new in the box, so we can sell them.

All the work we’ve been doing - him upstairs and me down - and neither of us feel as if we’ve accomplished anything. I know we have, but there’s still so much mess. Stoopit tidying fairy…

I need to do some priming and painting, too. Yep, nice, restful vacation.

113

I’ve been productive! All the decorations are packed away, as are the ornaments. The only thing left on the tree are the lights. I got sidetracked a couple of times, and cleaned out a couple of drawers.

You see, last night when we had the power outage, we only had one flashlight that worked. We have four! So I put batteries in the flashlights, and sorted through all the loose batteries in the drawer to see if any were bad. There were a few! So they’re all organized, as are all the charging devices that live in that drawer. Yay me!

Yay picu! I’m glad all went well.

I want to retire, too, but I’m only 50. :stuck_out_tongue: (“Only” 50 - what a concept! :D)

114

Ya, picu! Sorry, haven’t read much, am too sleepy. Hello, everyone.
Mr. Lissar says he still loves me even though I’m eating fruitcake and cheese for lunch. Isn’t that nice?

115

Yo. Unemployed and eating Cherrios.

'Sup?

116

In all seriousness, my dad was born in Woodburn during the Depression, so there’s sort of a tie to the Left Coast and Oregon. The whole family came back to Indiana sometime before Pearl Harbor. My grandmother did not like to talk about the time much, because it involved her health problems. I thought they went out there looking for work…

You must have been to that part of The Right Coast north of DC, which I agree is The Suck. There’s nuttin’ crowded 'bout Cottonfield County… :wink:

117

bobbio, if he looks anything like Rob Pattinson, he’s in! :wink:

smarty, I meant to tell you earlier that I got a big kick out of your frisbee in the snow video.

Yay, picu!

118

We’ve decided tonight will be our delayed anniversary dinner. We’re going to the Japanese steak house. Can’t wait. yum. :smiley:

119

Hooray for uneventful angioplasties!

Seems like everyone’s knitting today. My crafty task at the moment is making a small picture frame. It’s not the style I really wanted to make, but I wasn’t given sufficient lead time…it needs to be ready to give as a gift on Saturday. What I really wanted to do would be impossible as my workshop is buried under stuff that needs to be sold off on eBay and displaced non-christmas decorations. Once the house is de-christmassed, the decor will go back to wherever, the christmassy stuff gets packed away, and I’ll still have a workbench covered in vintage sewing machines. :frowning: And, it’ll still be cold out there.

120

Hai everybody!

Glad all went well, picu. I’m shocked and appalled that the “comfortably numb” joke went over the nurses’ heads though… how young could they possibly be? (wait… no… don’t tell me, because then I’ll have to freak out that even full-fledged nurses are babies compared to me)

LiLi, fruitcake and cheese sounds like a perfectly reasonable lunch to me. In fact, I could go for some fruitcake right about now. MMmmmmmm.

I’ve had a lovely day of not much at all… nibbled on some chinese food, then puttered around until it was time to meet up with one of my friends from work for lunch. We successfully managed to sit around for 2 hours without talking about work even once. I’m proud of us. :slight_smile: I’m sure the half-bottle of wine we polished off probably helped, but let’s just ignore that, shall we?

And now, I do believe I need to get my butt in gear… that breakfast casserole for tomorrow NYE brunch just doesn’t seem to be assembling itself, for some odd reason.