Thank you... I think?

So yesterday at work, a really kind volunteer (he's about the age of my dad) told me that he liked me with a bit more meat on my bones. I know that he meant it as a compliment but it felt kind of backwards as in a smack upside the head. So I went home and had more fruit at lunch... and will be going for a bike ride today. Interesting motivation source!

Winners!

So... I hope that I win something on Bloggy Giveaways but I have good news! The lucky commenter was #17 Shane who told us about her not-so-fabulous experience with giving a handmade gift. Congrats:-) I got such a kick out of the comments about your homemade gifts. I have the following pieces of advice to recipients of handmade gifts:

• Don't throw it in the garbage while the giver is around... you'll get caught.
• Don't tell a generous scrapbooker that you didn't want her to take pictures of her wedding-only the photographer is supposed to do that!
• Don't tell someone that you wished you would have gotten a gift card instead after they have spent two months on the gift.

It just goest to show that my mother was right. Say thank you, show appreciation to the person and wear your nice pants not your rude pants when you receive a gift!

Li'l realizations

Here's the following things that I have issues with this week:

• All the time I've 'invested' on the Bloggy Giveaways... on the hope that the bloggers that allow Canadians into their contests will pick my name! Everyone who has US only contests say that it is because they don't want to pay the additional postage... but there might be a conspiracy here and they are just jealous that they don't get to live in Canada.
• Spent $54 willy-nilly at one place... get this exciting purchase... on a tank of gas for my economy car! goes to show that being a geek and driving a small economy car is a good thing.
• Feeling like I've gone backwards on my burnout recovery due to a serious lack of energy this week when I get home. Yesterday I slept for a bit after work so I'd be up to watching a new Grey's Anatomy. Really do med students actually steal rather utilitarian items such as bedpans for a salad bowl? I think not.
• The snow that is taking its time in melting... please melt so I have more energy and can put the cushions out on my swing outside and be a cool person who knits and reads on her outside swing! yes, I realize the irony in this statement... it doesn't necessarily give you cachet b/c you are sitting outside while knitting-it is still knitting! I might even bbq for friends when the weather warms up!

But... then I realize that I have two friends who are facing liver cancer and spent some time in the hospital with a good girlfriend who just gave birth a preemie and who was just under 2 pounds when I visited them. Puts it all into perspective, doesn't it? I have so much to be grateful... Even though it's been a bad energy week, I know that it will progressively get better and there is always hope in the midst of toughie times! Hope you keep your perspective today-after all it is Friday!

Free stuff!!!

So... it's time for the Bloggy Giveaways carnival that is so much fun. I am joining in the fun... I had a blast last time... and found lots of great new blogs and won three contests! I'm going to give away a copy of Knitting Rules that the Yarn Harlot wrote. It's funny, witty and extremely helpful to the starting knitter or the experienced pro. There is a legend about the Boyfriend Sweater Curse among knitters that says if you give a handknit sweater to a boyfriend... he'll probably dump you. So for this contest, you must:

• tell me about a handmade gift that you gave someone that flopped! (as in... it was not appreciated)
• provide your blog address or email address if you aren't a blogger
• live in Canada or the US
• enter before 7:00 MT on Friday night.

I'll post the winner on Saturday morning! Good luck:-)

Hope

So... I have this mug that I'm drinking out of today that claims for good things to hope for. I thought I'd share with you the things that I'm hopeful about:

Spring arriving!!! Good thing I put out the summer furniture last week.

You just can't shake it!

So... you do turn into your family members as illustrated by last night's visit to the nieces and nephews. There were four little ones under the age of five-I was tired after a few hours but my little love tank was overflowing. "Auntie Knittinchick, shall we do cheers together?" "Auntie Knittinchick watch me roll over this ball." "Auntie Knittinchick, I love you." and the best, "Dear Jesus thank you for Auntie Knittinchick playing with us and bringing me buttons for my collection!" However, I noticed that my Auntie, cousin and I all had a few things that we said... you grow into your roots instead of leaving them as illustrated by:

• What's up pun'kin?
• I need to hear the nice words before I refill your drink.
• We clear off our plates before we get more.
• Oh, eating your vegetables makes you strong and gives you good eyesight.
• Clean up, clean up (sung outloud) but this was reprimanded by Spud who told me I was "singing it wrongly"
• We all need to take our turns.

And last but definitely not least, "I love you!" which was said several times throughout the night to all kids regardless of behavior... This is a sure-fire way to guarantee that they say the same sorts of things to their kids!

Slashing!

So... another sign that you live in suburbia is that the thought of slashing is a good thing and it doesn't remind you of a Stephen King novel. I went to the local kids' consignment store to get the cool pacifiers that have the little snap over them when they are dropped as children tend to do for a coworker's grandson's shower... life hasn't been that rough on me lately. (Don't worry... these along with the Squeaker runners are new!) But as I was leaving, I checked out the Clearance rack with the red slash which means 60% off consignment prices.

So... Auntie Knittinchick got for the low price of $8.23:

1. Gap t-shirt
2. Fisher Price t-shirt
3. OshKosh tricycle t-shirt
4. Denim dress
5. Denim jumper w/ tee
6. 3 month sleeper
7. Short and tee outfit

Isn't that amazing? Bargainista would be proud:-)

Signs that I might still be an extrovert!

For all of you that have known me for years, you'd identify me as an extrovert. I agree. However, this past fall when I was walking through the dark valley called burnout, I realized that I have a lot more introvert in me that was being ignored. So... I've been building in way more time to acknowledge this side of me. Last week I was alone for six days and realized that there is still a bit of extrover left. You know that you're in trouble when:

1. You think about going into work even though you sound like death warmed over... Do you think that they'll notice?
2. You have watched through a whole season's worth of NCIS in two days and start comparing yourself to the characters... seriously, there is nothing in me that is like Xeva, the Israeli Mossad secret agent. But when you've been by yourself for a while, you think that there are remarkable similiarities.
3. It seems like a remarkably good idea to go to the basement, get your old Cabbage Patch doll out and put all the baby knitted items and children's Make Believe Crowns on Stacey (the name of my doll) and have a fashion show and take pictures to make your blog postings look that much better.
4. You dream about a telemarketer calling you (even though your number is on the Do not call lists and is unlisted) just so you'd have someone to talk to.
5. You start making up stories about your neighbors-you know the vet's assistant... I'm sure that he is really a trainer at the zoo who works with the elephants training them to take over the city in an attempt for world domination.

Last but not least, when you are driving through the Tim Horton's drivethrough to get a cup of tea, you try talking to the lady behind the little box only to cough in her ear and you can almost hear her pulling out the Lysol to disinfect the airwaves. The upside is that I've never received such great and quick service:-)

WIPs

So much of life is a WIP (work in progress), isn't it? Unfortunately this nasty cold/flu isn't progressing out of my body at least to the point of being able to go back to work but when my energy is high, I've been able to sit absolutely still on the couch and knit. (When I talk to coworkers re: certain projects on the phone, they are very quick to reassure me that they don't want what I have.) I bring to you the gallery of WIPs that have made it to becoming FOs (finished objects).

Wave Jumper out of sock yarn (one full skein and a leftover skein) for Baby H. who's coming in July. I can't believe I'm ahead of the game right now.

Make Believe Crowns for the nieces and nephews that I hope I can see next week if I'm better by then... from oldest to youngest (except for the baby... he doesn't need one).

One single sock (being modeled by my hand) that only needed 30 minutes of attention. Leftover yarn being put to use... it will be paired with another leftover sock-they'll be good partners for one another.And yes, my life is still a WIP-Bargainista's Flutter Sleeve Cardigan is progressing nicely but definitely won't be done before I'm better. The other good news about being very sick is that I've lost my appetite and my abs are getting phenomenal workouts with all the coughing fits:-)

Just another manic Wednesday

So... the verdict is in-I'm sick, sicker than a dog actually. I was supposed to go to the doctor's office, get magic pills, go into work to pick up work computer and come home. No! In typical Knittinchick fashion, I had to make it more dramatic. Here's the manic Wednesday rundown:

• Knittinchick sleeps through the night-cause for celebration.
• Wakes up around 7:00 in case the walk-in clinic is open at 8:00. Turns out to be 9:00 but no problem, just go back to sleep.
• She gets to the clinic at 9:05 and there are 20 people in front of her-who knew 5 minutes could be so important?
• She stares down the dirty men who are reading a Maxim magazine that someone left on the table-there are children here folks! Seriously, one guy was reading it for so long, there could have been a hole right in his head.
• The nurse calls her into the examining room and turns out-Knittinchick is known to her. She pours out her woes all the while Knittinchick is trying to place her. She asks Knittinchick to call her daughter but Knittinchick gives her a business card so the daughter can call her... aka-vague remembrances of daughter but not too clear
• Doctor says you won't be speaking at work this weekend. Rest, a couple of drugs for the pain, not much but time can help-does swab for strep.
• Knittinchick goes into work and leaves her purse in the car as she'll only be a minute.
• After talking to boss and a couple others (who keep their distance and make sure that she hasn't touched any doorknobs-no hard feelings), she gets ready to leave... only to discover that she followed her protocol of always putting her keys in her purse before leaving her car.
• $100ish later-there is a new AMA membership, a lockout on its way and a couple of on-the-fly meetings re: people covering for Knittinchick.
• AMA delivers and shows up in 25 vs. the told 60 minutes.
• Knittinchick heads to Superstore to get prescriptions filled and hits an amazing sale of kids' clothes as she's heading into Superstore. Amazing! All is fine with the acquisition of cheap baby gifts and snow pants for Momofthecrazies' Pink crazed girls for $2.94 each.

If only every day ended with a fabulous sale like that.

Conserving energy

Dear Mr/Ms Energy Company President-I am sure that you were on a lovely beach in Mexico yesterday morning but I wanted to let you know that there was no power for 6 1/2 hours yesterday in the neighborhood that I live in along with the surrounding two neighborhoods. I know that it is Environment month and you were encouraging people to turn off their lights and power for an hour last week... but you must have thought that we didn't get the lesson to do it automatically for us for that long. Although this was a pain, I wanted to share with you some of the things that I observed that you might want to know:

• Saturday is a day when most people vacuum, use power tools to build special headboards, do laundry and all of these activities were put to a stop with your energy conservation.
• If you don't like spending money to line corporation's pockets and use VOIP (voice over internet protocol), you will be stuck without phone service.
• With the increased hours, neighbors will have to start talking to one another in the street and will start talking about scintillating topics such as wondering if the hundreds of dollars of frozen food in their freezers will be lost.
• The bride and groom at my church had no lights, power, sound system and instead had lots of romantic candlelight and a pastor impersonating a revival preacher from the 1930s.
• For every hour that the power was out, the chance of there being a baby boom in 9 1/2 months grows rapidly... trust me, I've worked in children's programming.

I just want you to know that I wasn't upset just inconvenienced. However, I was fine because I am a knitter and a reader and these activities don't require power during daylight hours. Next time, could you have the power outage on Saturday night when I work to give me a few paid hours as a mini-vacation?

A 'not-so-typical' Friday

So... yesterday was supposed to be a calm day. I had a quiet morning of responding to work emails, a lunchtime meeting, another afternoon meeting with a delightful 98 year old and then picking up an international student who will be living with me for six months. Right? Wrong, instead...

• Knittinchick has a calm morning being productive while dreaming about her hair cut.
• Her stylist calls her at the end of the morning and tells her that she is pregnant and moving to Vancouver. Knittinchick says all the right things like, "I'm so happy for you" "Congratulations" "I'll miss you" but all the time is thinking "What am I going to do now? I really loved the way you did it. You were so close to me. You used to cut hair and do makeup for the movie industry... that was making me seem cool."
• In the remaining ten minutes before leaving for the downtown meeting, Knittinchick goes to the girl in the office with very nice hair and begs for all her hair secrets-shampoo, stylist, inspiration etc.
• Upon arriving downtown for her meeting, Knittinchick realizes that she has 20 minutes before her meeting... perfect for a SB run. Oh no, they have a massive line. She runs across the street to a privately held family business for a cup of joe. No worries except now she's running back to the meeting place and when running into friends that she hasn't seen in months, she pretends to be friendly when wondering if the sweat stains will show at the meeting.
• Meeting goes well... even ends early. Now Knittinchick is almost floating away for the need of a WC... stop at another coffee shop-no worries. After using their facilities when she's running out an older lady who she knows stops her and introduces her to all of her nursing school friends from 50 years ago... now she's pedal to the medal to meet her 98 year old friend.
• Meeting with the 98 year old goes great... after Knittinchick has proceeded to get an unofficial, unguided tour of the facility after going in all the wrong directions.
• Rushing to the airport to make sure that the international student will have a great first Canadian impression is waylaid by a serious accident on a major thoroughfare. Made it!
• No worries... the flight is an hour late. Now what? No more joe... almost getting the caffeine shakes. Pick up a book and start reading it at the Meeting Place B... does it make it bad that someone had rather 'aromatic' body odours and she could barely keep from coughing and giggling at the same time.
• After 75 minutes, Knittinchick keeps on checking the Arrivals screen. Meeting Place A is where she's supposed to be. So much for the great Canadian impression...
• The female student's English name is Jake... often koreans don't ask Canadians before picking-no worries...
• Knittinchick notices that there are MANY Asian females... she asks every female if they are Jake... no she didn't get too many looks like she had a second head.
• Finally after humiliating herself many times, she gets Jake paged. A volunteer greeter brings over a guy... "I am Jake. I am happy to live with you." Knittinchick is basically speechless
• Mental voices, "I am single. I'm not having a single guy close in age to me living with me. What will my friends at church say? How could this happen? I was so clear with the organization. What are they thinking?"
• Knittinchick calls her coworker who is involved with the organization begging her with an overly positive voice, "Can you call the organization? Call you tell them that Jake is a guy? Can you get them to call me on my cell as I negiotate rushhour traffic on the freeway?"
• The coworker delivers. The organization calls and asks if Knittinchick is sure it is a guy. Knittinchick reassures them that she only drank coffee that day... no liquor was involved.
• After having dinner with her coworker and her female international student, Jake is fed, given a Tim Hortons (after explaining Roll up the Rim), driven another 40 minutes to the new home stay.
• Another 35 minutes of driving later, Knittinchick comes home to her clean and welcoming home for her female international student and collapses on the couch.

Just another quiet Friday!

Hair issues

The other day I was listening to a podcast from Boomama where she was talking about her hair issues and I couldn't really understand-until yesterday! I styled my hair like normal but instead of it working out, it was all girly, prissy fluffy and curly-yuk! I've decided that I need to go back to the stylist and beg her for a Kate Bosworth inspired look... Oh the magic that stylists need to perform. Can you tell it's Friday by the level of 'depth' this blog entry has inspired?

Love technology

So last night I was in my adult ed class in webinar format and I realized that I have moments when I love it when technology doesn't work. We could hear the instructor but she couldn't hear us so the online discussion was restricted to online chatting. Guess what that means? Lots of mental focus while I was able to knit on my project from a one-skein knitting book out of sock yarn. A friend's baby girl that is due on July 7th will enjoy it. I love it! I also wore yoga pants and a white tank top that looks like white trash. Love online learning! For the record, I do not love technology problems when the power goes out, I can't access my online calendar, when html doesn't make sense, my work budget file mysteriously disappears... but for last night, I loved it!!!

April 1st

I was careful as I came into work today... One year a couple of my coworkers disconnected my phone, internet, and power to my office along with some construction signs to make me think that they were finally fixing the heat in my office. It totally worked and caught me off guard. Did I mention that I had to come in early that day for a 7:00 meeting and that there was a major snow dump so I thought it might have been a power outage? Hmmm... maybe someone needs some April fooling around!

• On a happy note, I was at the movie theatre to watch 21 yesterday (entertaining movie!) and saw this deal. Might be worth 'borrowing' one of my kids' friends and treating them to a $3 movie!