Saturday, October 6, 2007

Be Kind to Your Pizza Delivery Man

Ok, for the sake of the remaining sanity of my husband and myself, I wish to dispel a few apparent mistruths about pizza delivery service:

1. Pizza deliverers are compensated by their respective restaurants for gas money.

2. There is a delivery charge, therefore, tip is included.

3. If my pizza is late it is the delivery personnel's fault and therefore I will not tip.

These are just a few of the reasons people give. Let me assure you that:

1. Gas money comes out of pocket.

2. Delivery personnel only receive part of the delivery charge and in most instances it does not even cover the cost of gas to get to your home. Particularly if you live off the beaten track.

3. Deliver drivers have no control over when pizzas are cooked and orders are filled. If the restaurant is backed up, your pizza might not come when the adorable teenager on the phone promised you it would arrive. People who take the orders many times do not know what they're talking about when giving delivery times.

Overall, please cut your friendly neighborhood pizza man a little slack. They are overworked and underpaid, just like everyone else. Not to mention the fact that, GAS IS FRIGGING EXPENSIVE!

If it's raining and you order pizza because you don't want to go out in the rain, remember that the dripping person at your door is a person getting paid something slightly (ever so slightly) better than minimum wage to drive around in the rain for you. This human being on your doorstep had to dodge the idiots who cause accidents because they don't know how to drive in the rain. They had to find your house in your maze of a subdivision. Trust me, I hear about it all the next day.

So please, consider this a public service announcement on behalf of all the people who have to console the delivery drivers after a shift. Please, for the love of humanity, tip your driver! Thank you.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Back to the Real World and Other Ramblings

Okay, so I haven't posted anything in forever because I have become completely addicted to World of Warcraft. Totally Chris's fault that we even installed it, but now I can't seem to get enough. So much fun! So if anyone is wondering what we want for Christmas, birthdays, etc . . . prepaid WoW subscription cards!

Anyway, the afghans are finished and given to the client. Forgot to take pictures when I finished because I'm a total dork, plus I was so sick of them by the time I was done that I really just wanted to hand them off and be done with it. I'll repeat the pattern again sometime I'm sure.


So this morning I heard on the radio that Marcel Marceau died. So sad. NPR kept talking about it and calling for a moment of silence. I felt awful because the first thought that popped into my head was "A moment of silence for Marcel Marceau, isn't that a little redundant? Shouldn't we have a moment of screaming?" Does that make me a bad person? It's just that little sarcasm bug that lives at the back of my brain. It seems that I spend a good portion of my life trying to silence him so as not to embarrass myself in public.

Well, now it's off to bed, or to work on one of the eight million projects I still have going.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Halfway There!

Well, I'm finally halfway through the blue blanket:

I just finished row 144! Lets see 144 rows of 143 stitches means . . . I've done 20,592 stitches and I'm only half done! Boy I hate knitting afghans. This is why I only knit baby afghans, never full size. Too much work! Crochet is so much faster for these things. But the sweater and hat are already knit, so I have to knit the blanket to go with them. How do I always manage to get myself into these things?

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Too Much Work!

AHHHHHH! I hate flipping from project to project when they're all this big! I know that I should be concentrating on knitting and crochet because that's what I'm going to get paid for, but the patterns are so simple they're boring. And I can only work on the other project while the light is good. I don't know how I'm ever going to get all this done. I'm about half finished with the afghans, okay less than that on the knit one but it evens out. Well, at least the sweaters and hats are cute so far:
Aren't they cute?! Now if I could only motivate myself to finish the afghans. . .

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Project Overload

So, as usual, I have my hands full with ongoing projects. I got an order a couple weeks ago for two baby sets. I've finished the sweaters and hats for both, but now I have to make two afghans to go with them. The knit one is going to take forever! I also finally started a secret project. It's a wedding present, so there won't be any pictures until I'm sure it's reached its destination. Of course, it's already going to be very late, but etiquette says that I have a year to get it done. It's the biggest project of its kind that I've ever undertaken. Just guessing from my progress so far, I'd say it will take well over 200 hours. But it's going to be awesome! I've also got a little sample purse going with a student. I just have to get to the same point I told her to get to by Thursday. And of course there are still boxes to unpack and things to organize. And we're planning to have everyone over on Saturday. Of course, so far only two people are coming so I'm not going to stress about it yet. All these things to do and I'm sitting at the computer. Probably not the best plan. Oh well, gotta take a break now and then.

Oh, and I was watching Animal Planet and found out that baby ostriches are too cute! Okay, time to do something constructive again.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Too cute!

Ok, I've been laughing my butt off at this for about an hour now! Enjoy!

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Working through the clutter

Now that we've moved, I am attempting to organize my craft supplies once and for all! (your laugh/joke here) As I've been going through everything, I've had to face some demons. Namely, unfinished projects. Appartently my craft project ADD is far worse than I ever could have imagined. I have projects that can never be finished because I don't know what yarn/hook or needle size I was using, things begun with patterns I have given away or simply lost, and a mountain of nearly finished things that only need to have the ends woven in! I'm trying my best to work through it, but it is such a daunting task! However, I have to add that yesterday I completed a shawl that had been sitting in my unifinished wasteland for over three years. I had intended it for my maid-of-honor, but when our color scheme changed slightly it was replaced with a different yarn and pattern and lay forlorn and forgotten until now. It's gorgeous and I wish I'd finished it sooner! I'll post pictures as soon as I get a chance to take some. Hopefully I'll surface with some great projects, or at least a lot of things to unravel and put into my ever-increasing Ripple Scrapghan:

When this one is done, I'll start another! Well, time to get back to making progress. . .

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Long Live Harry!

I finished reading the latest Harry Potter about three hours ago (took a long nap since I had hardly slept since I got it). I laughed almost as much as I cried throughout. It was wonderful. Stange to think it's over though. It seems like the end of an era. I know that we still have to look forward to two movies, but after the last one, I'm not sure that's much to look forward to. Shrug.

Time to go back and read 'em again!

Friday, June 22, 2007

Luna Sweater

So looking around online at images from the new Harry Potter movie, I fell in love with this sweater that Luna Lovegood wears. When yahoo groups Harry Potter Craft group set a challenge to recreate something from the film, I chose to work on this. Well, let's just say that designing a pattern based on two or three pictures is not an easy task. It took five days to make, three spent starting and restarting, but I finally got something. The pattern still needs a little work, but given the fact that I'm at least four sizes bigger than the actress and I can never make it look perfect for me, I think it looks pretty good.


Of course, this morning I ran across another picture I hadn't seen and found out what I'd done wrong! Well, back to the drawing board. (I still like it though)

Monday, June 11, 2007

Jolly Roger part 2

The scarf is more than half finished! I made a small change to the Jolly Roger, but you'd never notice and drastically changed the lettering. It's so big it's hard to get a good picture since you have to take it at an angle to see the design. Here are the best pics I got:


I'm so proud! I'll try to get better pics once it's finished.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Jolly Roger Scarf part 1



So I decided to knit Chris something a little unusual. I'm making an illusion knit scarf with a Jolly Roger. I looked a couple patterns and ended up deciding to make my own, so I had to start with swatches. Here's the Jolly Roger:





I also decided I wanted it to say ARRR! So here are the letters (the R still needs a little work):



Now I just have to perfect the pattern, figure out how to get it to stop curling, and get the right yarn. Piece of cake! More pictures later.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Eleanor Roosevelt and Valerie Bertinelli

Eleanor Roosevelt was a very wise woman. I have tried to live my life by the quote "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." I am a very firm believer in that. But it's really difficult not to give consent when I have to listen to Valerir Bertinelli on TV vowing to lose weight with Jenny Craig because she's fat. She's a size 14!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am a size 16-18. If that woman is fat, I should just give up. I am just so angry at being made to feel that size 14 is fat and I therefore am fatter than fat. I thought that once I got through high school and college I was done with this crap! I'm tired of having these woman who look more than skinny enough to me tell me that they're fat and therefore so am I. You know what, I'm heavier than I want to be, but I'm not fat. I want to get back down to a 14, but that's where I stop. So while Valerie Bertinelli vows to get smaller than a 14, I make 14 my goal. So screw you Jenny Craig and Valerie Bertinelli. I'm happy with who I am and you're not going to make me want to change.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Don't Drink the Water

Well, I've stopped drinking from the water fountain at work due to a semi-recent outbreak of pregnancy among the staff. I'm currently working on two baby afghans at once (the other two affected staff members were seasonal and no longer work with me so they don't get afghans, so there!) The night before last, I looked down at the afghan I was knitting for the first time in a while and realized I'd made a dreadfully obvious and unattractive mistake! I had to take out about 5 inches worth of work to reach the problem area and correct it. Tonight I finally made it all the way back up to where I had once been and used up all the pulled-out wadded yarn that had collected at my feet.

Maybe no one would have noticed but me. That's what people always tell me. There's one thing that no one else realizes:

I'll notice! It will keep me awake at night. I'll be haunted by the ghost of projects passed. I'll become a mindless knit-zombie unable to function without correcting heinous mistakes! Doomed to pull out projects and make corrections for all eternity. Trapped in my own personal hell untangling miles and miles of yarn! A thousand sheep will weep copiously at the horrors heaped upon the fruit of their wool! Oh, the agony! Oh, the humanity!

I need to go lie down. It's all just been too much for me.

Friday, March 30, 2007

We Met the Robinsons

We went to see Meet the Robinsons today and it was cute. A little predicable, but very cute. I want a pet tyranosaur like Tiny now, but Chris is being a meanie and won't let me. He says it wouldn't be as cute or nice as Tiny. He doesn't understand the concept of Obedience School apparently. Of course, I'm not sure they tend to takes pets prone to consuming the other students. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait a while longer until technology catches up with my wishes. Somebody hurry up and get on that please!

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Iron On Fun!

I love iron-on transfer paper! I love having a non-crappy printer that allows me to make pretty transfers! And don't even get me started on heat-set jewels!

Whoever was the genius that came up with the idea of fabric that you could run through your printer is my new favorite person. I've been making tote bags like crazy! I'm so excited to have something to teach classes about in the summer that people might sign up for! (For some reason they don't tend to come to knitting and crochet classes when it's hot out. Go Figure!) All together, life is pretty good right now.

Crafts are fun!

Monday, March 26, 2007

Not so common

It's been said that common sense is not so common, well I believe that neither is common courtesy. I know bad manners are just about everyone's little pet peeve, but there are just certain things that bother me more than others.

There's one that's really on my mind today: People who discuss the movie they've just seen while still in the vicinity of the movie theater. It's bad enough if you're in the parking lot, but do people really need to give away surprise endings in the bathroom? I've made a rule for myself that I don't even talk about a movie if I'm eating at a restaurant in the area. Some people would say that's going a little too far, but maybe those people have never had exciting climaxes ruined before they even got to sit down! Honestly people, can't we all respect each other a little more?

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

If you can't beat 'em . . .

So I have now given into the craziness of my family and started a blog. Heaven only knows why! I don't keep up with enough things I'm required to do (sleep, eat at least 3 times a day, breathe regularly), but I felt left out.

I spent entirely too much time over the past few days working on sewing something for someone who didn't pay nearly what it was worth, but that's the way it seems to go with me. I always submarine myself when it comes to getting what I'm worth. I should work on that. That's a problem for another day. . .