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Posts Tagged ‘work’

Back in WNY for a few hours

26 Oct

Funny, when you’re unemployed, it seems you’ve got all the time in the world for doing stuff.

Then, you get whumped with a job. A “can you start Monday” job. A “your office will be 200 miles from home” job. And of course, a “you need to train in the office for a month or three” job.

So I’ve been working again, which is an all-or-nothing proposition for me. No knitting, no blogging, no READING blogs. I’ve grown lots of asparagus and berries, because I only check my garden once a week.

Go Bills! Squish the Fish today!

* * * * *

PS – I take back my threat to vote Libertarian again. In fact, if you’re dying to change my vote, you’ll need to do it within the next 15 minutes – because I’m about to fill out my absentee ballot. (Another of the wonders of working hours away from home.)

 
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Posted in Blather

 

Serious questions

01 Oct

Naturally, since I have a real blinger of a cold, this is the week when everything happens. Most notably, I drove downstate yesterday for more interviews (same job), and I’m feeling pretty optimistic. I am too superstitious to say more than that. The won’t be making a decision for a couple weeks. I hate being patient!

The big thing today is, I have some questions I hope every Congressperson asks themselves before another revised “bailout” bill is presented for a vote.

- Have you ever been told by a used car salesman or real estate agent, that it’s critical that you sign a contract today? Did you buy it, and sign? (If you did, how dare you serve in Congress?)

- When everyone around you is losing their heads, do you tend to throw yours away too? (If you do, how dare you serve in Congress?) Or do you think clearly and calmly about a solution?

- Are you happy that you were pressured into

– - sending our troops to Iraq?
– - allowing people to be terrorized by the Patriot Act?
– - gutting the budget by passing “tax relief” plans without the corresponding budget cuts?
– - the Surge*?

- To Obama and McCain: When will you stop pandering to the polls and take a stand you truly believe in?

I’d hoped to be able to vote for a mainstream candidate this election year. Instead, the Libertarians and their Presidential candidate, Bob Barr, will most likely have my vote.

Read the latest Libertarian press release on the bailout here.
Learn more about the Libertarian Party and its platform here.

* I was stunned to hear this called a success. I suppose that bringing the body count back down to 2003 levels is enough to call it “success”.

 
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Posted in Knitting

 

You probably thought work was keeping me from blogging

03 Aug

Fooled ya! No more work for me (not me, not now, at least for a while). The breakup is over, we’re all still friends (geez, one of the worse things about working with women – we need to be BFF) and now I can get my head together. Fortunately, I can take a week or two to get my head together before starting a new job search.

And what does any fiberholic do when she needs to get her head together? KNIT! And spin, too, of course.

reclining_deepblue_bfl.jpg

This is last week’s BFL from Gales Art, exactly 56 ounces, almost 175 yds. The colors are exquisite, with one of the kelp-y greens exactly matching this seedum in my front yard.

halfdone-bfl.jpg I obesssively split the roving (with three color repeats) in half, then quarters, and put together the quarters by weight so there’d be half the yarn in each skein. This is what’s left, or, what went into the first skein – it’s exactly the same, see? So I’ll get matchy-matchy socks from it. (Crossing fingers.)

And then there’s CeCe. No pictures, because she’s a big mess of unblocked lace, all bunched up on a too-short circular needle. Not that there hasn’t been any excitement. Let me count the ways:

  1. Misreading the part about where to “mark the pattern” to match the lace across the raglans, once the pieces were joined together
  2. Completely forgetting rows 1 & 2 of the pattern, for much of the body and nearly all of one sleeve
  3. Changing the center st in the pattern from sl1,k2tog,psso to sl2tog,k1,p2sso – which sticks out like a sore thumb
  4. Realizing that I’m knitting cotton – and my row gauge after blocking is quite a bit different than pre-blocking. So add on another 15 body rows, and 25 rounds on each sleeve.

Sigh.

No pictures, because we’re not on the best of terms. It will never be “perfect”, but I corrected many many problems yesterday, and worked all the way back to the “join pieces together” section. Now that we’re decreasing 4-6 sts every RS row, it’s going faster and faster… my favorite part of any project! So look for pix soon.

 
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Posted in Knitting, Spinning

 

Keeping up the momentum

12 Mar

Still no buttons in sight for Twist, but that should be rectified shortly. Seaming is done, button bands knit, and the collar in progress. I won’t be going to Village Yarn & Fiber, though – I can’t buy buttons when they’re displayed in the window. Fine at night, or possibly on a rainy day. Not good when it’s even a little bright outside. (Sorry – I think I’ve blogged this peeve before. Still ticked off about it, though. They may have even moved their buttons, I wouldn’t know because I Have A Long Memory.)

The other thing about those darling button displays, with tubes full of buttons … How does one buy them? Do you take the whole tube up to the register, or just dump out the number you need? Have you ever seen more than 4 or 5 buttons in one of them? I’m planning to go to JoAnn’s for my buttons, because it’s sort of on my way home, and because I’m comfortable buying buttons on cards, hanging up on a display, in the center of a well-lit store.

Yesterday was splendid. I found the source of an imbalance in an account (we still aren’t done with our 2007 audit yet), and I had my annual review (much more glowing than I even hoped!). It’ll be hard to match that today. I’ve got one more account to track down, and another meeting with the auditor. This is actually more fun than I imagined, this finance thing.

Time to pack up the knitting. Wednesday is the long commute (by way of Avon).

 
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Posted in Knitting

 

Distract me, please

09 Mar

From the irritation overwhelming me this fine Sunday afternoon. We’ve got the sun shining brightly on the mountains of snow … which I had to drive through, because the burglar alarm at the office was tripped. (This isn’t usually my duty, but I’m filling in while the regular gal takes care of some personal stuff.) And when I arrive, I find the guy who has really been pissing me off lately. He’s sitting at his desk, with his feet up, drinking coffee as if nothing was wrong.

WHY, I want to know, do people have so little consideration? Didn’t it occur to him that *someone* might have been notified about that great big clanging noise, the one that started 60 seconds after he entered the building? Did he think that everyone had just gone to lunch, and that’s why there were no cars in the lot? What a &$*(^ing idiot.

So, on to the distraction. I finished the second sleeve on Twist last night, and seamed until I remembered that “spring forward” means an hour less sleep, not more. This morning I’ve been running errands, doing laundry, driving all the way in to work for no reason, and baking a cake. Now it’s time for finishing.

I also have made an unusually large number of yarn acquisitions in the last 48 hours. I won’t have to worry about what I’m going to knit – only what I’ll knit next. Heaven!

 
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Posted in Knitting

 

Random Friday

29 Feb

Too tired to bring a real post together, and too slow to post it on Wednesday.

  • Gluten free treat – Check out the recipe for Healthy Bars (Lifesastitch version). They look delicious!
  • We’ve gotten 81 inches of snow this season, and that’s 3 inches more than normal. But it feels like we’ve gotten no snow at all.
  • Remember when I was about to order those Knitpicks Options needles the other day? Still haven’t done it. Not sure when I will. But when I do, I’ll need them yesterday, and have to pay for expedited shipping … Procrastination is my favorite hobby. Why put off until tomorrow, the things you can do next week?
  • I’m looking for a new audio book for Staffan. He listens to three books on his iPod constantly (Ireland, A Short History of Nearly Everything, and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell). I’ve got a couple I’m thinking about: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which is an interesting story but will go way over his head; Simple Courage, another Frank Delaney story, about a ship that was hit by a rogue wave;The Adventure of English, by Melvyn Bragg – fun, but language isn’t really his cup of tea. If you’ve got a suggestion that’s appropriate for a young teen, please let me know.
  • I’m all agog, watching this a master of this skill: Knowing what percentage of your job you can f&*k up so that you won’t have to do it, but still won’t be fired. The ancillary talent, refusing tasks, makes it harder to maintain employment – since it seems so willful, and often flirts with insubordination. But screwing up, when done right, can create empathy or pity enough to keep one employed. Do I sound bitter?
  • Someday I’ll sew Heirloom Labels into my “creations”. Mom had these when I was a kid, and I always wanted my very own when I grew up.
  • Flying in a small jet – we’re talking 6-seater, not a 20-seat commercial airliner – at night, and descending into a thick cloud full of snow, is perhaps the most terrifying thing I’ve ever encountered. I’m not real big on the flying thing, in general. But seeing nothing but flashing white on the WINDSHIELD, for crying out loud, and all the windows too? Right out of a horror movie. (Flashing, because of the blinking lights on the wings.) Fortunately, it only lasted a couple of minutes, right before landing. Taking off in Minnesota, though, the clouds lasted from 1500 – 26,000 feet. I don’t like IFR flying.
  • Not much knitting in the plane. I brought my sock-of-the-moment, a cabled rib sock from Charlene Schurch’s Sensational Socks, but it’s not going with the yarn. Which is STR Mustang Sally, shades of red, and actually has a lot of intensity variation in it. It’s also knit too tight, so I changed to a 2.25mm needle – just before the descending-into-hell incident. I’ll evaluate more later.

Now it’s off to work. I’ve got a million things to wrap up today.

 
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Posted in Family, Food

 

Oh, the places you'll go

19 Feb

You never know what each day will bring. You can get up in the morning, go to work, and bam! The crack of creativity strikes, and you’re charging down a completely new road.

I think that’s the best part of my job. It can be a grind, sometimes for weeks or months at a time, but then all of a sudden I get a stretch of change, growth, creativity, movement that makes the dull part seem worth it. It’s like spring following winter; you hunker down and bear the cold & dark, then the sun returns and everything pops.
I’m not sure, but yesterday was good – and this week could be the start of one of “those” times. I’ve still got hard work to do, teaching and training people to do what I’ve been doing, but it looks like I’ll have a direction to go when that’s finished.

I’ve got to keep nurturing my life outside the office, too. I’ve been working on Fulmar. I frogged the entire back to the armscye, a few weeks ago, and after Patti was done* I swatched with a 3.0mm needle instead of the 3.25mm I’d been using. So I cast on again. But. The ribbing was coming out at 48″ on the 2.75mm needles, though I’d cast on for size Medium, and even though I got gauge I was headed to frog city. Better sooner than later, right?

So now we’ve cast on again, this time for size Small, and the bottom ribbing looks good at about 44″. It will still have plenty of ease. I thought about casting on for a sleeve, instead of all 196 sts for the back – but the pattern schematic gives no measurements for the sleeves.

In about another 20 minutes, I’m going to toss the whole thing and design my own damn Aran. Janet Szabo’s Follow the Leader Aran Knitalong (FLAK) looks wonderful, mostly from the finished FLAK pictures in Ravelry. Top-down design, multiple neckline treatments, cardigan option, measurement guides – all I have to do is pick my favorite cables, swatch and measure.

I want to design my own sweater, yes, but I don’t want to spend the brainpower to start from scratch. Maybe this cookie-cutter design recipe will work. Anyone tried it? I’ve been a member of the Aran Knitting Yahoo group for years, and Janet’s posts are wonderful – concise, helpful and creative.

But first, the job. Today is a long day. Dr. appt, 6 hrs at the office, then to Avon for dinner with Staffan. I’ll leave work by 3:30 pm, and be home by 5:30, so it’s not a horrendously long day, but I imagine it will tax my stamina nonetheless. Yesterday I felt great – got home at 4:30, stayed up for dinner. Much better than last week!

 
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Posted in Knitting

 

In the pink

05 May

My department was selected (okay, I volunteered us) to cook for the annual company picnic yesterday. It was gorgeous picnic weather, 65F and sunny, out back in the paved, wind-protected corner we use for … well, company picnics.

But. There’s always a but, isn’t there? “Cooking” needs to be renamed to its actual duty: setup, cooking, serving and clean-up. Three hours in the beautiful, sunny weather. Also, we forgot that on May 4th, the sun is at about the same angle and intensity as August 1st. You know where this is going, right? Though we were scrupulous three weeks ago in Florida, with the sunscreen and the hats, not so much at the company picnic. Didn’t even think about it.

I’m actually crispy. With the coolness of the air, it never occurred to me how much solar radiation we were absorbing. I’ll have a lovely farmer tan, too – white shoulders, dark only below the sleeves of my company polo shirt.

I’m hugely proud of the team. It’s a big challenge, cooking lunch for 150 people with a 30-minute lunch break. They were spread out over 3 time slots, so only the 70-[wo]man warehouse shift was a big challenge. And we had almost exactly the right amount of food, with just a half-dozen cookies and a pound of hot dogs left over. (Kudos to the planning team, too.) No repeat of last year’s 40-minute lines at the grill, or 20 lbs of barbecued chicken leftovers.

After the eats, the entire marketing department gathers for our annual Burning Of The Year In Review. We gather papers, and burn them in effigy of things we Will Not Repeat This Year. There weren’t nearly as many as last year, which means we’re making progress. It was mostly failed projects that had too much time & effort expended, or ex-employees that curled our hair. “Here’s to Bob, and his crush on Ted and Jack” or just “Chief Crazypants” – everyone knew who that was. The new guy, who’s been with us less than a week, threw in “Having to look for another job”. (Which pretty much sealed the deal – he gets us, and he’s terrifically smart too. Thanks for the reference, Lisa!)

Another week with no knitting, and only about 15 minutes of spindling. I spent some potential fiber time washing my car with this. It’s a breeze, almost fun in fact, and takes about as much time on a sunny spring day as the automatic car wash, when you factor in the time waiting in line. Plus – no spots! The car is so clean that I knew it rained Monday night by the spots on its finish. Not that I have a clean-car fetish or anything, but we’re still on the honeymoon. For the first time, I’ve got a car I can see myself driving for the rest of my life. Or, at least, as long as we still have gas stations.

 
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Posted in Uncategorized

 

Thank goodness that's over

04 Mar

February flew by this year. Actually, it wasn’t nearly as bad as some, mostly because I was so danged busy. Work has been … consuming. In a good way, but still. The current project is now seven weeks overdue. I’m not managing it, which is so frustrating, because I would have wrapped it up five weeks ago. The vendor is paying for the development, so they feel they can take as long as they please.

Have I mentioned the “coach” analogy? I’m getting Management 101 courses from my boss, comparing a good manager to a football coach: the coach doesn’t get on the field, but sees the whole game from the sidelines. Calls the plays, designs the strategy, maximizes the strengths of each player. Doesn’t just sit in the locker room, hoping everything will go fine. Can’t go out on the field, because then he loses sight of the big picture.

This week I spent a lot of time on the sidelines with this particular project, sitting in the cubicle while they went through the testing, and I’m appalled. My guy belongs on their team – the “hey, we’ll get it done eventually” attitude fits right in. I had to kick some ass to get anything accomplished. If module A is broken, let’s not sit here talking while the programmers fix it – let’s test module B! And module C! Hey, did you prep the workstation for testing module D, which is due tomorrow? No? Do it now!

For my trouble, I got a slap in the face: one of my team told me I’m nuts for working so hard. Sometimes a player just doesn’t fit on the team, and has to be traded. He may have the skills, but his personality or work ethic or allegiance make him a detriment to the team as a whole. (Think Terrell Owens.) I discussed my expectations, and fortunately, the rest of the week seemed to go better. We’ll see.

All of this means I got nothing in the fiber department. I didn’t even pick up a spindle. Last night, Paul & I had dinner together – and I realized we hadn’t talked (except for the “I’ll be home late again tonight” phone calls) since Monday. What a week.

 
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Posted in Uncategorized

 

Another week, another dollar

03 Feb

The roller coaster continues. You know the woman who quit last week? She changed her mind. The woman who was running the department? Gone instead. I’ve been coaching, team-building, planning and strategizing all week. Now I’ve got a new web site (in addition to the 3 we’ve been running), three very excited team members, a budget, and quarterly sales goals. All the things we wanted from the old manager.

When you want something done right, sometimes you have to do it yourself.

At home? I don’t know, I haven’t been here much this week. Wednesday night I was so tired by the time I left the office, I forgot my laptop … which meant that Thursday, I had to go in at 5 am. That made three 10-hour days and two 14-hour days at the office – or two full days more than I’m used to.

I did finish spinning 4 oz of yak down, during Sunday night’s PS spin-in. I’ve been craving a lace wimple, and this soft dk-weight yarn might just do the trick. I don’t know yardage because I’m knitting right from the bobbin. It is delicious, somewhat coarser than cashmere, and dark brown. Since the latest deep-freeze arrived here overnight, I’d like to finish this fast.

I’m using a lace pattern from the “365 Knitting Patterns” calendar, called Fishtail Lace. Easy 6-row repeat, knitting up about 16 sts & 24 r/4″. This could be done today, or definitely by tomorrow night during the Superbowl.

 
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Posted in Spinning

 
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