The Epic Misadventures of Sparky

Where have they gone?

2012-01-29T22:00:00.002-05:00

Fair Warning: I've not had a good day. This post may be taken as me getting up on my soap box. I also may lose my thought-train in here somewhere... nothing new, really. Read if you want, comment if you want... Just don't judge too quickly. Or too harshly... I'm pretty tired.

I'm getting frustrated with this city; the grey, cold, hard face of it, weathered and cynical and completely... hard. Rude and angry and mean. It's all of the people, it's the weather, the seasons... On Facebook today, an old friend asked: in today's society, does being polite to a stranger make you look like a jerk to people around you? I wanted to respond with: No, in this city it makes you look crazy. And not the happy crazy.

I didn't.

Today, as I was walking to catch a bus, a random stranger passing me on the street said "...Sad, isn't it?" I looked over to where he was pointing, and saw a cat laying dead near a tree. It wasn't the stillness of the cat that I noticed first, it was the fact that the cat was, from my vantage, inside a plastic grocery bag.

I lost it. I lost control, and I cried until my body ached. Adam and I (carefully and hygenically) moved the poor thing away from the tree because there were children near by, and because there are often dogs walking past, and because I couldn't just leave it there, exposed and alone.

Am I crazy? Probably. Am I too sensitive? Certainly. But it's life. It's life and it deserves goodness, not to be tossed out or victimized or assaulted... Not like that. Small amounts of love and kindness. But lately, it seems like both of those things are in short supply.

Thing is, being polite, being nice, being courteous and kind... it's lost. Being a good person has gotten so hard in this world, that people now find common manners strange and so outside of the ordinary... I don't know. Acts of violence and depravity have become so common and usual that most just shrug them off.

I thought someone had put that cat in a bag and done... something to it. Something horrible. Something unconscionable. I'm not sure that is what actually happened, but I'm pretty sure that a lot of people would call me "silly" or "ridiculous" for doing anything more than carrying on. I don't think it's silly. I think taking the time to move the body of that little stranger out of harms way was very brave, especially in an era where the same respect isn't always afforded for the bodies of man. And if you think otherwise, there's the proverbial door.

I'm not religious. Not even a little; in fact, I think organized religion and the corporation of the church usually cause a lot more problems than they solve. I'm reasonably certain that the recovered bodies of animals, wild or domestic, are cremated for a variety of reasons. I find that comforting. Peaceful. It's not so much "ashes to ashes", but I see it as a release of spirit. Setting something free into the atmosphere.

I've been trying, really trying to put good out there. Vibes, thoughts, positive energy into the universe. It doesn't seem to be returned. I'm frustrated with this city, because I'm becoming more and more certain that the good people, the ones who... well, the ones who are genuinly good, without incentive, are simply fading away. I think this is happening because, like me, they're getting frustrated and jaded. Or maybe we're all just a little too tired.

Adam and I have been watching The West Wing. It's a good show, it's smart, it's gripping, and it has some really strong values that I think get missed. This particular episode we're watching tonight, "20 Hours in America Part II", has a speech that I always remember. Tori Amos is singing "I Don't Like Mondays" in the background as President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) says this:

"...More than any time in recent history, America's destiny is not of our own choosing. We did not seek nor did we provoke an assault on our freedoms and our way of life. We did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil. Yet the true measure of a people's strength is how they rise to master that moment when it does arrive. Forty-four people were killed a couple hours ago at Kennison State University; three swimmers from the men's team were killed and two others are in critical condition; when after having heard the explosion from their practice facility they ran into the fire to help get people out... ran into the fire. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They're our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels, but every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless..."

If kindness is the challenge, if being a good person is the challenge, if acting in compassion when all others would call you "simple" is the challenge... If evil isn't as horrible and enormous and grotesque as we imagine it and it really IS the willingness of the good to do nothing, then I truly hope that this is only a plateau, and that the capacity for good is truly limitless.

night thoughts

2012-01-26T01:44:00.001-05:00

I should be sleeping.

I mean, really. I have things to do tomorrow. And even if I don't have actual things, there about 101 other "things" I should be doing.

I have work things, which, should I do them tomorrow, will make my Friday pretty easy-peasy. And I have house things, like laundry and dishes and cleaning and yes, I'm back on the guest room kick again. There's a good possibility that within the next month or two, people might be staying in my home for a few days, and I'd like to give them something a little more comforting than an air mattress in the living room.

I have those house things, yes, but I also have non house things, like knitting. GOOD LORD IN NEBRASKA do I have knitting. That Queue of mine is about a billion miles long (ok, the one on rav needs some serious overhauling, but trust me, it's huge), and growing longer with every passing day. I could knit all day, every day, trading sleep for dreamy fiber and smooshy yarn, and still I'd have hundreds of things to knit. Seriously, people need to stop having babies.

I have non house, non knitting things to do. Well, kinda. I have like, 100+ movies in my house, not to mention dozens of DVD Box sets of TV series that I've never even viewed... a couple that I've not even taken the wrappings off yet! Not to mention the ever-expanding library of Netflix and have I mentioned that I've never seen an episode of Dr. Who? EVER.

And then there are the silly things... the things we all say we'd like to do some day, but know we never will... like going through closets and really scrutinizing what I do and don't wear. Same for shoes. Or what about going through the three bins of paper scraps hanging around, hoping we never actually get audited? Alphabetizing the books would fit on this list... except the Star Wars ones, Adam says they have to be organized by time-line within the novels. Or scraping the peeling paint off the bathroom ceiling. Or scrubbing the tile. with a tooth brush.

I have things. Things I should do right now. Or tomorrow. But that doesn't overcome the original obsticle...

I should be sleeping.

Greetings!

2012-01-20T20:44:00.002-05:00

So. I've done it again... I realize again that I haven't been posting. I've been tired. And busy... ish.

I've made a vow to myself. Two, actually.

First: By the end of 2012, come hell or high water, I WILL be out of retail.

Second...

Must. Knit. Faster...

Listy List

2012-01-11T22:08:00.001-05:00

Here! A List!

Things I need to knit:
1. Finish my part of a super secret project!
2. Finish John's second massive hunting boot-sock
3. Finish Jan's second not-quite-as-massive ATV boot-sock.
4. Finish Adam's scarf (yeah... ok....)
5. Finish Trishka's Rick-Rack scarf
6. Dolly Clothes for Heather's Cabbage Patch babies (green, black, and purple, because she asked nicely.)
7. Baby gifts for 4 couples...

Eventually, I'll knit something for myself, I swear...

Healthy New Year!

2011-12-30T16:51:00.000-05:00

The holidays have been hectic (as usual), but also fantastic. These last few days "off" (one 4 hour shift doesn't count) have been wonderful; I've been able to re-charge a little more than usual, and I"m preparing for the new year now, while I have the chance.

This year, I"m not really doing a resolution. Resolutions are big, chunky, long-term goals that are generally forgotten by February. I've joked about starting the Jan.1 diet with everyone else, but truthfully, I'd rather just be healthier in 2012. This last bout of bad health has left me tired, achy and ready to find a new way to revive myself.

It's not going to be easy. Nothing ever is, especially when it's good. And it's not going to be cheap either. I'm pulling in little bits of extra coin here and there, but with rumors of cut-backs at Old Work, I might be heading back to breaking even. But the good stuff in the long run is worth the penny-pinching now.

One of the things I"m going to continue doing, which is something I'm actually really fond of, is making lists. I LOVE a good list. Here's a list of things I"m going to do today to make the whole living healthier thing easier today, because next week is back to the crazy...

1. soak some chickpeas for roasting, and some for freezing. you can freeze those, right?
2. soak some lentils. Not 100% sure how those are supposed to taste, but I think you add them to like, soup and rice and stuff.
3. nap. I like napping. napping makes me feel good. I actually already did that today, so I can strike it off the list!
4. Knit. Knit for pleasure. I haven't done that in awhile.
5. Laundry. Clean laundry makes everything nicer.

More lists to come! Happy New Year!

whispers

2011-12-07T15:57:00.001-05:00

Some days, it just gets hard to hide it.

I've been trying so hard... I've been forcing myself to keep up for so many reasons; fear of falling behind, and the repercussions, fear of letting someone down (my hubby, my family, my boss, my friends... invisible people in the audience). You get used to keeping up appearances.

The truth is, I'm not being overdramatic when I say I'm tired. And I'm not tired in the "wow, I could use a nap" kind of way, I"m exhausted through my bones. I'm so tired it's physically painful. I can feel it in my feet, my hands, my shoulders, my jaw, my knees, my hips and my back. It's in my fingers, my cheeks and my eyes. It makes my thinking foggy, disorganized and unfocused. It gives me headaches and stomach aches. It makes my heart race. It makes my words jumbled, and I've started typing words backwards and putting letters in the wrong order.

I'm putting this to virtual paper, because a couple of months ago I went to a doctor and told him all of this. I told him that previously I'd told a nurse practitioner the same thing, and she said the wanted to test for fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis. He told me he refused to do those kind of tests because there is no cure, so you have a diagnosis and that's it.

I let it go. Especially when I got sick. I had other things to deal with. Now... now it's interfering with my life. I'm so tired I can't work. If I push myself to work full 8 hour days, by mid-week I feel like I have the flu: my body aches, my head throbs, and all I want to do is sleep. Nothing breaks it, not even a good night's sleep.

I've been able to handle this for a while, even working when I just want to curl up in bed. But I've started to experience something much harder to live through: soul-crushing, crippling depression. The meds don't quell it, and it comes in waves so... so pervasive...

Some days, it's hard to hide it.

I think that doctor was wrong.

Productive Sunday

2011-11-20T14:53:00.001-05:00

Today is going wonderfully well.

First, an update: went back to the doctor (Clinic this time) because the cough/pain/general want to die wasn't getting better, and I can't afford to take another week off work, either with Old Work or New Work. November/December is made of insanity throughout the world of retail, and I"m working on both sides of the curtain, so I've got crazy hours to deal with.

Doc said that whatever bug is that's going around this year, it's a bad one; most people are having cough/cold symptoms for 2 MONTHS or more! That's just wild, I think... Anyways, it's viral, so antibiotics don't really do anything, but she gave me some anyways to prevent the Pleurisy from turning into pneumonia or any other chest/lung infection. She also gave me 2 inhalers, one a steroid, the other a bronchial dilator (opens the airways in a big way), and told me that if it's not better in a week to come back. It is getting better, slowly. The pain's still there, and the nasty congestion is still there too, but I'm at least partly human again, so I'm calling it progress.

Anyways, yes: Productive Sunday. Today, after work (6-11am...ouch), Adam and I did a once-over of the living room/kitchen. Felt good to get some cleaning up done... the kitchen is almost spotless, we're going to clean out the fridge later, and I just binned a WHACK of useless paperwork.

It was nice to do it now, because the rest of November consists of 6 to 12 hour days... I'll be happy if I keep up with laundry enough to not have to buy clothes to have something clean.

So yes. I'm happy with our accomplishments today:

-cleaned litter box
-Cleaned and sanitized humidifyer
-cleaned out one kitchen drawer
-threw out a whack of useless paperwork
-unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher (so we can run, unload and reload again)
-organized my tea cupboard (I need to drink more tea)
-swept
-cleaned out the "random stuff" bin in the bathroom
-made and ate a delicious sandwich.

GO ME!!

Lung fail.

2011-11-15T12:52:00.001-05:00

So, for those of you who haven't been subject to my recent barrage of facebook status updates, I am sick. Like, epically so. I basically have Pleurisy: an irritation of the lining of my lung, specifically the left one. What does it feel like? It feels like a broken rib on the left side, and a kick directly to the center of my chest. Add to that some serious sinus congestion, and you've got yourself a royal mess. How is it treated? Painkillers. That's it. No antibiotics, because the root cause (the damned cough I've been fighting for weeks) is probably viral, so antibiotics will do nothing. There are no pills, no potions, not even a poultice for this one. Bed rest and pain killers.

So, I'm laid up. Which should mean knitting and writing and other stuff that a person can do without really involving a lot of movement (unless you're Colleen, then it can involve a fair bit of flailing). But honestly, I haven't been in the mood. I've been so tired and grumpy, I haven't even wanted to do my 2 favorite things. And it's NANOWRIMO for god's sake! I should be leaping on this opportunity...well, in spirit. I can barely walk, so leaping is pretty much out of the question.

So... Today I'm going to try and force myself to do a little more "me" like things... trying to get back into the reality of things. I've been off work for a few days now, so going from knocked on my fluffy butt to running madly throughout the city is going to be hell unless I try to get back to "normal".

Though, I'm not 100% sure how normal I can really be when lunch includes Percocet...

(Apparently this post was brought to you by the letter P...)

But is she Joking...?

2011-11-08T22:52:00.001-05:00

WANTED: ONE ASSISTANT

Overwhelmed female seeks personal and/or household assistant and/or team of assistants to help prevent complete implosion and collapse. Requirements:
- sweeping, mopping and cleansing surfaces
- lift, carry, wash, fold and put away laundry of varying amounts.
- ability to handle dirty dishes of questionable age, content and origin with discression and without judgement is mandatory.
- Absolutly must love cats. Changing the litter box will be required.
- Organizational skills are a definet asset, and general office administration skills will apply.
- knowledge of knitting and fiberworks would be helpful, but will train.
- some basic combat training would also be helpful, as the dust rhinoceroses are beginning to develop a collective consciousness similar to that of the borg.
- Occasionally, you will be required to pet my hair and tell me how pretty and wonderful I am.

Only Serious Applicants need apply.

Oh, and BTW, I only pay in cookies and love. Hope that's ok.

Snarfoofuled from Colleen:

2011-11-05T19:07:00.001-04:00

SIX NAMES YOU GO BY (in order of frequency):
1. Lacey
2. Sparky
3. SparkyintheSnow
4. little kitten
5. Ma'am
6. Miss

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. Adam's T-Shirt
2. glasses
3. socks

THREE THINGS YOU WANT VERY BADLY AT THE MOMENT
1. for this cough to go away
2. for my debts to be paid
3. a job at a non-profit that makes me happy

THREE PEOPLE WHOM YOU HOPE WILL DO THE MEME
1. cool people
2. awesome people
3. famous people

THREE THINGS YOU DID LAST NIGHT
1. went for dinner with friends
2. hugged my cat
3. snuggled my fiancee

THREE PEOPLE YOU LAST TALKED TO ON THE PHONE:
1. Nitwit from Rogers trying to sell us something
2. Adam
3. Mom

THREE THINGS YOU ARE GOING TO DO TOMORROW:
1. work
2. staff meeting
3. plan my week

FOUR OF YOUR FAVOURITE DRINKS:
1. Water
2. Ginger ale
3. White wine
4. gin and tonic

THREE THINGS THAT MADE YOU SMILE TODAY:
1. The smell of the pine and caeder bows at Lowes
2. Sorrelle sitting in the middle of the hallway looking very confused
3. Sorrelle's paws twitching while she dreams on the back of the couch

Cheese and Crackers

2011-11-02T14:57:00.003-04:00

I was debating doing a random Wednesday post, but instead I"m going to do a full post as a Warm-up. What for, you ask?

NaNoWriMo.

That's right! My yearly foray into Creative Writing started promptly at Midnight, 11.1.11, and as of right now, my word count is a big fat 0. Not because I don't have an idea. I have a good idea, half written, in my noodle, ready to be brought into it's wordly existance. It's time I"m lacking this go round.

Well, it is and it isn't. Work exploded this past week, leaving casualties in it's wake. Most of those casualties involve cleaning and laundry and things that, in the grand scheme of things, I really don't care about. (Mom, stop rolling your eyes, we both know I'm just being honest here.) But things like knitting and sleep and my personal well being are starting to suffer as well.

I am still at the mercy of the cough to end all coughs. Oh man, it sucks. I have cough syrup with codine, which I can't take before work because it makes me drowsy, so I cough until it hurts, or I get sick, which is a rather unpleasant problem that started a week ago. At least no one sits next to me on the bus...

Yesterday I had to take a day to fully surrender to the cough. There was a 6 hour nap involved, but at least I"m not completely exhausted today. Today ended up being full of fail (late bus = missing the RT, then MIA planograms and a minor panic attack), but at least now I'm in-the-game enough to deal with it. Even if it does mean working on Saturday.

That's right folks, 8 days a week.

Anyways, I heard this morning on Breakfast Television that there are 52 days until Christmas. I almost punched the TV. Seriously, the "North Pole" at the Town Center went up last week (BEFORE HALLOWEEN), and there are commercials already, the stores are playing holiday music and all of the Christmas ads are going up.

It was 16C here today! It's still fall, people! Stop gouging!

Though, I will say that I got some good ideas for gift giving as I scrambled around today in search of a suitable cat food to carry me through until my next pay...Poor Sorrelle is having to deal with the McDonalds of cat food until I can afford the good stuff from the Vet.

SO MUCH OF EVERYTHING!

Now I'm off to do some phone calling, then some frantic knitting and maybe noveling. Because I'm awesome, and I can juggle knives while standing on my head blindfolded and on fire...

PS: Best time for me to get ANYTHING done? That golden period between "man, that coffee was exactly what I needed for breakfast" and "so hungry I think I"m going to die", right when the shaking sets in. I think they call it Ketosis? Something like that. Don't worry, I'm switching to Tea as of... Now.

PPS: 52 DAYS!!!!!

Wherein I work like I get paid more for it...

2011-10-23T20:33:00.002-04:00

So, for those keeping track at home, I work 2 jobs. For privacy reasons (and because internet sucks sometimes), I"m refering to them as Old Work, which was the job I had first, and New Work, which is... self-explanitory, really. New work is kind of like contract work... it's project based, so you do one project, then another, then another... sometimes you do several projects at once. Kind of like now.

So, Old Work is still throwing me early morning stuff, usually totaling less than 12 hours a week. I'm pretty sure that will start picking up as we get closer to the holiday season (Note: did you know that we're not allowed to say "Happy Hallowe'en" anymore? The schools here have to refer to it as "Black and Orange Day", so we do to. Even Happy Holidays is bordering on offensive. I'm waiting for the day when I'm not allowed to say "Have a nice day" because it's offensive to someone's culture...). New Work, also being retail based, but not in the same way, has already started to pick up. This coming week, for example, I have 4 projects ongoing, each one involving a number of store visits. One of the projects requires between 3.5 and 5.5 hours per store visit (over at least 10 stores), another involves at least 2 hours per store, and I've been informed that these are not only going to be weekly projects, but I'll be moving from 2 stores to potentially 6 stores.

Normally this isn't so bad, but add a couple of 6 hour shifts, an hour a day of prep and data entry, and about half an hour of travel per location, and... I'm swamped.

If my current knitting projects weren't portable, I"d be totally screwed.

So, the hope here is that I can not only build up enough money to make the credit card companies happy, but also that I can work in enough knitting time to complete my list... Should be an interesting run.

Anyways, I'll be updating my knitting list shortly, but right now, I have to get ready for bed. Yes, I know it's 8:30pm, But 4:30am comes stupidly early, and I've got some trips to plan. TTC Trip Planner has been an invaluable tool over the last few months.

And, as a final note, Adam's been playing a LOT of Dead Island over the last few days. As a result, last night I started having Zombie dreams. This makes me a sad panda.

Send Yarn and Cookies.

Wherein I knit like I get paid for it.

2011-10-15T22:32:00.001-04:00

So, I've just been made aware of 2 important things: 1) Neocitran tastes awesomer when drank from a mug covered in happy cartoon sheepies, and 2) Today is the 15th of October.

That second one means that we are now Mid-October, folks. Which means that we are that much closer to things like Hallowe'en, NaNoWriMo, the frantic nonsense of the retail Christmas shopping season, and Christmas itself. It also means that we are officially into cooler temperatures. Not that you would know if you lived in our building... the heat's been on for 2 weeks at least, and I'm still tempted to blast the A/C at times.

Mid-October is a pretty tense time for knitters... the Holiday magazines start coming out, the commercials have started, and we are all planning out Christmas knit-gifts. Well, unless you're going for things like Cardigans, Sweaters, Wraps or Shawls... a lot of those were probably started mid-summer, or even shortly before the snow melted from last holiday season. Thing with Christmas knits is that I find it really hard to surprise people with gifts that require measurements. Usually I just tell people they're getting knitted gifts. Or I just knit people stuff. And, very occasionally, I knit myself stuff too.

So, here is the list of things I'd like to have knit before October 31st, so I can start NaNoWriMo without a pile of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) glaring at me from the corner:

*one thing you will notice, and that knitters will get a giggle out of, is that my needles do not move at the speed of reality. For this to actually happen, I'd need to clone myself a few times and develop an addiction to ritalin and speed. These will all hopefully be done by December 24th.

1. Cowl for Katie (DONE! She's going to wear it camping)
2. Tyg socks for me (Sock 1 needs the toe sewn, then I can cast on sock 2)
3. Bus socks for me (Sock 1 is done, Sock 2 is at the gusset decreases) - now, this is called a "Bus Sock" because generally I only knit on them while riding transit because they're easy and plain. If I don't get them done by the 31st, it's not a huge deal)
4. Cowl for me (probably going to be a mock-burberry cowl in sapphire blue)
5. Hat/Mitts/Scarf set for Trishka (kids stuff is small and quick!)
6. Hat/Mitts for Katana (baby stuff is tiny and fast!)
7. Mittens for Katie
8. Mittens for Kathy (because I promised them to her last year...)
9. Boot-Socks for John (2x2 rib in worsted)
10. Boot-Socks for Jan (see above)
11. Boot-socks for Dad (see above)
12. Adam's Llama-Face scarf that he's been whining about since I started it... a year ago
13. Dog-Hat for Heather (this is a maybe... Unless I can find a good dog-stuffy project that doesn't involve pipe-cleaner legs)
14. A Hat for Me!!

There are also blankets, jackets, mittens, and CHALLENGE SOCKS mixed in there... And, for Christmas (he knows...) I'm creating a Distance-Learning Knitting course for a friend... SO MUCH YARN!

I love it.

Yes, I'm delusional and I know that this will never be completed, especially since Old Work and New Work are insane from now until Boxing Day and Beyond, and somewhere in here I have to do things like get my stupid new health card fixed (because they lost the change of address form...), do laundry and dishes, eat and sleep... you know, that crap.

But I will make it happen!

It will be a miracle...

Apples

2011-10-12T19:07:00.002-04:00

So, over the last little while, Adam and I have been dealing with one of the joys of co-habitation: viral hot-potato. Basically, this means that either Adam or I (or both...)brought some kind of cold/flu/achy/icky/fun-killing thing home, and we've been passing it back and forth between eachother for the last few weeks. Adam got it first. He dubbed it "The Man Cold", where it's just your basic stuffy nose/chest, sore throat and achiness, but it's like, a billion times worse because he's a man, and therefore a whiney baby every time he gets sick. Now I have it, in the form of a dry cough, fever and body ache that makes me sounds like I never quit smoking.

I honestly, truly believed that if I continued on and convinced myself that I wouldn't get sick because "I don't have time to be sick" that I would remain healthy through pure intimidation. I was totally surprised when it didn't work. Though, to be honest, I'm kinda glad I'm sick now... I'm going to be stupid-busy from now until Christmas. I'm probably going to need more hours in the month.

Aside from being sick, Fall is totally my favorite season. This past weekend, we traveled North to Sprucedale (well, Bear Lake), to visit Adam's parent's for Thanksgiving. Jan cooks a heck of a turkey, and I"m so happy to see that they're enjoying having hydro! They haven't experianced a winter with it, but at least they've gotten to cook a bit.

We got to go for a bit of a walk around the property, including the piece that Adam now owns. Which, as his common-law spouse(!), I am a part owner in as well... theoretically. Anyways, there is a house on part of the property that John (Adam's step-dad) has been using as a kind of storage area. I was really expecting a rotted-out shack, closer to a motel-6 for raccoons than something habitable. But the place is actually in really great shape! There's no hydro, but there's insulation throughout most of it, the windows are good, the structure is sound, and there are even power-outlets should someone choose to run hydro out there (or run a generator). There's no running water, but I believe there was an outhouse. So... it's not quite a cottage, but it's still a place that we could put some time and energy into turning into a get-away spot.

Pipe dreams are awesome things.

Anyways, one of the things I truly miss about living in the north is the colour. The burning oranges and brilliant yellows that pop against a truly blue sky. Even the smell of the leaves and the dirt and the chrispness... you don't get that in the city. I wouldn't reccomend trying, even, you'll get a snoot full of exhaust and smog.

After a mild turkey coma, on the way home, we actually stopped at a real, live Orchard, with Apples! Pick-your-own. I've never been to that kind of place before, even though there's one not far from my parent's cottage. It was really pretty. There weren't many apples left, really... between the families there and the bugs, everything was pretty picked over, but we did manage to get an apple crumble from the bake-shop on the property. It was AMAZING. I need to bake more.

People think spring brings out the creative in people... the regeneration, wanting to open up after months of isolation and feeling stuffed and stifled. But I think this is really the season to be creative. You want to knit warm things like mittens and sweaters and scarves. You want to bake things and fill the apartment with spices and joy. You want to walk around in comfy jeans and really take in the world.

October really is a pretty awesome month.

Snippit: Fear.

2011-10-02T19:38:00.000-04:00

There are a small handfull of things in my life that terrify me*, and I deal with one of them on an almost bi-weekly basis:

Cooking Chicken. I HATE cooking chicken, because I'm never 100% sure that I've cooked it thoroughly enough. I cook it until the outside's all white, then I cut into the middle of it to make sure it's not pink, but after that... I mean, it's not pink, but there are juices... should there be juices? And what about the red bits on the chicken before I start cooking it... should I be chopping those off? And I should also mention that cooking chicken makes me very germ-phobic, which is totally bizarre. I take TORONTO city transit almost every day, and I constantly deal with cash, coins, clothing... things that are generally pretty skeevy. But chicken makes me wash my hands obsessivly until they're dry and tight.

I think I'll be asking Santa for a meat thermometer this year...

Insanity By the Numbers

2011-09-30T19:20:00.001-04:00

So, a couple of things came to mind this morning... most of them involving crazy numbers. Insane numbers, like...

1 = 1 day until October. I LOVE October. It's when the leaves turn to fire and it's too warm for parkas but too cold for t-shirts. It's filled with knitting inspiration, beautiful colours and smells, and it has 2 awesome holidays, one involving cranberry sauce (best from a can. not gonna lie.), the other involving obscene amounts of candy and a legitimate reason to wear cat ears and draw whiskers on my kitten face.

31 = 31 Days until November 1st, and the beginning of NaNoWriMo. I've participated in a variety of ways over the years, and this year I will once again be a passenger on the participant train, leading to my next number:

1667 = The number of words you have to write per day EVERY DAY in November to meet a goal of 50 000 words in one month. It doesn't seem like a lot, at first. About mid month, it starts to become a scary, scary thing, especially when you do something silly like this:

24 = 12 months x 2 individual socks in a pair = 24 hand knitted socks in a year. That's what I signed up for when I joined the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry. It's kind of a neat thing for me... you knit a pair of socks every month according to the guidelines of the month (every month a new technique, concept or designer is featured), and your name gets entered into a draw to win awesome prizes. And even if I don't win, I still learn a new skill every month, which is pretty fantastic. This month, I"m knitting socks with lace patterning in it, in a bright, screaming, highlighter green! Next month, something with an unusual texture in a pretty red-orange... maybe... Unless I do something like this:

1000 = the approximate number of things I want to knit for myself, but first:

5 = the number of people who I want to knit gifts for, which I need to start working on soon because:

68 = the number of days until Christmas.

See that last one? 68 days? That's TERRIFYING to a knitter. Here are some more numbers to explain why:

1 = the number of weeks it takes for me to make a pair of vanilla socks (no patterning) with a short cuff if I work obsessively on just those socks.

10 = the number of patterned rows I can work on a pair of socks in about an hour (that's a little under an inch)

11 = the number of Thursday night knit-nights at Creative Yarns left until the holidays.

12 = the approximate number of months I've been working on Adam's Llama-face scarf... (though, I've ripped it out twice already)

2 = the number of hands I have. Clearly not enough.

1 = the number of coffees I drink on a typical day. Clearly not enough.

So... anyone up for a knit night at my place? I'll make tea! I'll buy cookies!

Talking about stuff I don't know much about... for fun!

2011-09-20T18:48:00.001-04:00

So, I've never claimed to be a "fashionista". I still don't understand the term "clothes horse" (horses don't wear clothing, generally). Ask any member of my family and most will tell you that my style is best described as the "before" picture for a What Not To Wear candidate... except Adam. He will tell you that I need to stop wearing his t-shirts as pajamas.

I refuse. What? They're comfy, and hang to my knees!

The point is, I don't know much about what's in style. I don't even do well with Basics: I have pairs of jeans in a couple of washes that fit enough that they don't fall down, but I don't think they are the best fit for me. I wear a lot of plain cotton t-shirts from Old Work (they're comfy AND discounted!), and I have a personal rule that I don't wear any make-up before 8am. Seriously, if I have to go somewhere after an early shift, I will apply it on my 15 minute break, which is usually around 8:30am.

But I do know what I like. I have a pretty solid idea of what colours look good on me. And, as I"m sure you've noticed, I LOVE knitting.

Imagine my Joy when I started to notice that the incoming bits and pieces for fall are warm, snuggly knit sweaters and chunky cowls and scarves! And the colours are fantastic: burnt orange, deep, sleepy greens, chocolate browns. I can almost feel the burgundies creeping in.

Does this mean I'm going to start knitting myself sweaters? Yeah, no. I don't really have the attention span for sweaters. I have to accept that. The lovely new circle cardigans that have taken the place of the open cardis that draped like handkerchiefs in the front? Yeah, I could knit one. It would take me a year, but I could. I'm not going to, though. I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and buy one.

But I like the warmth of it. I like snuggly tweeds and things that are soft. I tend to have trouble because I'm short and pudgy, so chunky knits can make me look like a marshmallow, but lucky for us, the long-sweater trend seems to be hanging on. And as much as I did enjoy the bright colour thing that went on this summer (I rocked flourescent pink toes through most of the season), I'm looking forward to the campfire and leaves theme that always seems to come with fall.

And I'm hoping, hoping HOPING that this winter comes in with a flair of burgundy and gold... it might be the only thing that keeps me sane.

2011-09-16T22:24:00.001-04:00

Here I am again, posting with the iPad, but this time because I have about one minute before the Nyquil kicks in. Everyone seems to be coming down with something, and I'm fighting it... Though I'd say my success rate is falling by the second.I do, However, feel the need to put a little tiny plea out there into the Webberverse... For faries. Just one, maybe two, and only for like an hour at a time. One to find the cable to charge the camera (before monday, please and Thanks), one to organize my paperwork, one to do the dishes, and maybe, just maybe, one to do a load or two of laundry. I think if I get one teeny tiny litt.e fairy to do this for me, I may just get a little time in for knitting sometime before Christmas.I kid, of course, it's not really that bad, it's just more fun to so these domestic-type things with company. Also, I'm thinking that the best way to make things easier to bare, at least for one fairy, is to get rid of a bunch of my clothes... I want to get new winter clothes this year, and that's going to mean at least one closet purge in the very near future, my strategy is to get rid of the old stuff, and pick up a couple of basic long style long sleeve t-shirts, and a WHACKTONNE of new underwarez. so, if you know anyone who could use some size 18/XL and/or L second hand Shirts, lemme know before I ship them all offr to the donation bins.I should apologies for the quality of this post... Mainly because I'm not used to the keyboard on the iPad yet... But it's ok, because I'm sick. Now, someone get over here with some hot soup and pet my hair until I feel better, damn it.

2011-09-10T20:55:00.001-04:00

I will make an Actual post about this when I have access to the laptop (Adam's using it to watch X-Men First Class) but for right now I wanted to make a list of the things that found their way home with me from today's Knitter's Fair:- Patten: "Last Minute Baby #622" by Deb Gemmell, Cabin Fever- Soak wash in Lacey (new fragrance)- Moisturizer: Heel by Soak cucumber heel cream - Book: "Free-Range Knitter" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, a.k.a The Yarn Harlot- Yarn: Tanis Fiber Arts Hand Dyed Blue Label Fingering Weight Superwash merino and nylon in "lemongrass"- Yarn: indigodragonfly.ca Merino Nylon Sock in "cute, cuddly mutant zombie squirrels of doom" (shades of green and purple)- Yarn: indigodragonfly.ca Merino Nylon Sock in "Is the Money OK? Did they hurt the Money? (Anya)" (emerald greens)- Yarn: indigodragonfly.ca MCN Sock in "Ooo...shiney..." (shades of blue-Grey and silver tones)- various buttons featuring the yarns of indigodragonfly.ca and their names- Zippybutton: black and white "yarn and needles" symbol- ceramic sheep pin by Soaring Studios- ceramic yarn bowl by Soaring StudiosVerdict? Success!

How's it going?

2011-08-29T17:20:00.002-04:00

So, I'm still around. Things have been busy.

1) I have tendonitis in my left foot. It makes me limp, so my left leg, right hip and entire back are angry. If I ever see that kid with the bicycle again, I"m going to punch him in the face.

2) The biggest sucky thing about working 2 jobs is that you never get overtime, and you have the potential for 14 hour days all week. Sleep is for the weak...and people who don't like money.

3) I may actually have to start paying OSAP back, for reals this time. But, I guess that's a sign of progress...

4)Wednesday there was a big huge scary storm. Well, I didn't think it was scary. There was loads of lightning, a little bit of rain and the potential for tornadoes... but we're in the city! Tornadoes don't actually happen in major cities, right? Sure... Anyways, we're fine. Though, we got to watch a reporter almost get hit by lightning on CP24, so that was entertaining.

5) Friday I worked a 9 hour shift. In one place. Seriously. Old Work put on a bunch of sales, so the store got trashed, so I spent almost that entire 9 hours folding t-shirts. It was thrilling.

6) Saturday I worked in the morning and then went to a barbeque that involved a smoker. Now, I don't really eat meat. I don't like the flavour of pork or ground beef, and I have a fat-issue with some other meats... I don't like anything that doesn't break down when you chew it... I don't like gum either for this reason. But, I tried the brisket. OH. MY. GAWD. It was freaking delicious. I would eat that for hours. I tried to, but there was also this tomato pie thing, and tomato canapes with cheese and basil, and home-made corn bread, and baked beans... Weight loss? Bah.

7) Yesterday I took Mom to the Canadian National Exhibition (AKA the CNE, AKA the Ex), which is a ginormous fair in Toronto. There's a Midway, which we pretty much avoided because I don't do rides, and she won't go by herself. There are also about a billion vendors, between goods and food. There are things like deep-fried butter, Krispy-Kreme Cheese Burgers, Gourmet Poutine, Gourmet Mac-n-Cheese, Deep fried Koolaid... Basically horribly un-healthy food that makes your arteries weep. I didn't try any, even though I really wanted to try the gourmet mac-n-cheese and poutines. Instead I had some VERY yummy veggie Roti (it was a little spicy though), and Yogen Fruz.

We got the opportunity to see a sheep being shorn in the Farm Building, which was awesome. I'm not sure the sheep enjoyed it... I don't think having an audience watch while your furry-layer is removed with a buzzy tool for the first time would be fun for anyone, let alone a herd-animal that really just wanted to go back to hanging out with it's pals.

We also saw real, live Alpacas, which are weird looking critters at best. There were Llamas, who were NOT wearing pajamas, much to my disappointment. There were also Ostriches, who seemed pretty unimpressed with their situation. AND, there were horses, and ponies. The biggest pony was about the size of a fat Great Dane, and I have seen cats bigger than the smaller pony. It was very interesting.

We also bought lavender, carved stone pieces and other bits (I can't find my red-pepper jam!! ), and we walked. We walked for 8 solid hours. I"m in a little pain, ain't gonna lie, but at least I"m not mom: she's babysitting a too-darned-smart 2-year-old.

The next 2 weeks are going to involve work. Work, work, work, and maybe sleep. Adam will make sure I eat, don't worry. The up-side, other than the money, is that there's a little travel involved, which means transit knitting! YAY! Both the coin and the knitted goods will go a long way towards Christmas Presents.

Yes, I'm starting to think about Christmas Presents. I blame the Sears Wish-Book... we got our "come get your copy!" card at the beginning of the month. Stupid thing. It's AUGUST.

So... yeah, that's pretty much it. I"m doing laundry now, because something tells me that I won't be able to do it again for 2 weeks, and we need towels.

Distractions in forms of wine or chocolate are always welcome... in fact, they're encouraged!

Genocide is Painless

2011-08-18T15:09:00.003-04:00

So, I have a thing. No, no, not that thing, another thing. A thing about people.

Specifically this time.

There's this thing I've noticed about certain women. Well... not women. These are GIRLS. These certain GIRLS are what I have started thinking of as the 3 under 3 girls. These are girls who look to be under 25 years old, and they all have at least 3 kids, all under the age of 3.

Now, I know, love and respect a LOT of young moms. I know a lot of young moms who have a couple of kids, some of them single, some of them not, and these are NOT the moms I'm talking about.

The 3 under 3 crowd are usually blond, usually wearing designer sweats and talking on their high end cell phones, and are usually self-riotous, disrespectful, entitled brats. And that's the MOM's I'm talking about. There were 2 on the bus today, who got into an arguement with the Bus driver when she told the mom to turn her music down and make her kids stop screaming. They both did the finger wag/head movement thing.

These Girls make me really angry.

3 Under 3 girls? You're not impressing anyone.

Adam's come up with a new way to deal with road rage: He just tells himself that "It's ok, they're driving like idiots, which means they'll get into an accident and probably get really hurt or killed, and that's on them, so why get mad?" I'm starting to feel the same way about people in general.

I have to believe that these people who walk around like they own the place... this Jersey Shore generation... they'll figure out fast that no one else is impressed and wind up as broke and miserable as the rest of us. I don't want to wish horrible things on them, I just want to wish that the universe has a sense of fairness; I"m a good person, and I've endured 3 years of hell. These people?

Oh, I can't even Imagine what's coming for them.

UPDATE! And, other stuff.

2011-08-16T16:25:00.004-04:00

In the next two days, I"m going to have to say goodbye to something I"ve held on to since I was a tiny, tiny person. On Thursday, I'll have to hand over my classic "Red n' White" Government Health Card, and replace it with the Photo Health Card (which actually can't be used as Photo ID). AND I"ll have to replace it every 5 years, same time as my driver's licence. I"m not impressed... My little red and white friend was fine the way it was!

I'll get over it.

How about an update? OK!

A little while ago, I told you about Casey, a dog whose owner was going through a really hard life transition, and had to leave her behind because of a pretty big move. Well, Casey has been placed into Foster Care! She'll be hanging out with her new friend, Snowball the Cat, for a little while. GO TEAM!

That being said, and as awesome as that is, All Heart is still facing a couple of pretty... *significant* problems. The most important being this:

All Heart Pet Rescue will be "Shut Down" between November 10th, 2011, and February 1st, 2012 while Kathy has (and recovers from) a much needed back surgery. This means that pretty much ALL of the animals in her care must be placed in foster homes or in other rescues until she's back on her feet.

It's a big deal. Kathy is one of those women who gives and gives. Now she needs to chill and heal up. You may be thinking "how hard can it be to place a few dogs"? Well... Let me point you to the All Heart Facebook group. You'll see the postings for dozens of dogs and CATS (Kathy's allergic, and wasn't going to take any more, but still has a few left) that need forever homes!

The other BIG DEAL is the wishlists. Kathy posts lists of things that she's looking for to make the rescue run. Remember, she does this on donation, with no government funding! Here's some of the most recent items on the list:

VOLUNTEERS for the Christmas season! Work can be done from home.
Large and Medium size "Zipper Bags" (the sandwich ones with the zippers)
Plastic Page protectors (the ones for binders)
Large Brown Envelopes
Pill Pockets (ask for them at your local pet store)
BLEACH by the boat-load!
Plain old Dish Soap
Polysporin Eye/Ear drops
Revolution (I believe it's anti-heart worm?)
One of the dustpans that have a broom stick-style handle so Kathy doesn't have to bend
Clip Boards
a plastic Kiddie Pool
Leashes
Rubber Gloves
Garbage Bags

That's a lotta stuff, I know! But you can get a lot of those things in one magical place... A Haven, if you will. CANADIAN TIRE!!

So, Canadian Tire Money is always a good thing! I collect it, and I'm getting ready to send in a stack. If you have any you'd like to send in, let me know!

That's really all. My life isn't exciting enough for much else right now. ;)

URGENT MESSAGE: Please pass it on...

2011-08-02T19:51:00.003-04:00

This is Re-posted from Facebook. You all know that I love Kathy from All Heart Pet Rescue, and that I'd do anything to help her, but I can't take on a dog (not enough space). This dog, this FAMILY, needs help... Kathy is trying not to take on more dogs because she is prepping for back surgery. If you or ANYONE you know can help us out, even by fostering for a couple of months, Please, PLEASE call the numbers below...

URGENT* URGENT* URGENT*** Callander Ont

I have had a plea from a woman that has three kids. Her husband died at 45 years of age of cancer last year and she is having a very difficult time on her own taking care of her house on the lake, her dog and three kids. She is moving back to California to be with family. She is leaving everything behind because she is falling apart. Her bus leaves at 7 am on Thursday. She cant keep her dog. Can ANYONE take in this dog, she can give money toward the dogs care. Adult female black lab mix named Casey. I've told her my situation and right now Im holding out trying not to take in anymore dogs- esp those that might go crazy and have anxiety being left at a kennel. Her name is Nancy. She said "please help me" you can call up to midnight. 705-752-2522 home, or cell 705-499-0612 Please tell Nancy that "Kathy" the lady from the Pet Rescue gave out her number. Also, if your able to help this dog please keep me apprised. I dont want to see this dog be put down because im going to be 'out of order' and trying to get the numbers down. HELP PLEASE! XO

Pipe Dreams.

2011-08-01T19:01:00.003-04:00

So, for those of you who aren't Torontonians, or don't particularly care about politics (I don't blame you, sometimes it just makes me too angry), our mayor needs to make some cuts to keep the city running. Seems city council thinks it makes more sense to cut services than their own salaries, but whatev.

Some of the services that they're talking about cutting include a Christmas program that delivers presents to under privileged children (which makes my stomach turn, but really, there are other service programs that would fill that service gap) and shutting down a number of Toronto's 99 public libraries. Now, 99 libraries does seem like a lot, but keep in mind, "Toronto" includes the Downtown core, Etobicoke, Scarborough, North York, Don Mills, and other pieces of the GTA, and has over 17.5 million visitors yearly. Did you just divide 17.5 million by 99? If you did, you'd realize that a large percentage of our fair city DOES, in fact, enjoy the use of our libraries. Could we imalgamate one or two? I don't know, I"m not a city planner type... but I have heard that they were planning to open another in 2014 because there is a want for it.

So, what am I on about? Well, our mayor, Mr. "No more Gravy Train", is taking some flack over it. His brother, who is a city councilor for Etobicoke, decided to come to the mayor's aid.

He did it, however, by being a jackass.

Margaret Atwood, one of our country's literary treasures, went on Twitter and told her 25, 000+ followers to sign a petition to tell the mayor that shutting down libraries would be a bad plan. They did, crashing the petition site. So, Mr. Brother of the Mayor told the Toronto Star (in not so many words, but without so much as an attempt to hide it) that she could go eff herself. He said that he has no idea who she is (dumb move number 1), and that her opinion doesn't count for squat unless she runs for office (dumb move number 2). If you want to get a little more background on these shinanigans, check out these links:

Doug Ford Blasts Maragret Atwood over libraries, says 'I don't even know her', Toronto Star

Doug Ford's comments spark 'Atwood for Mayor' movement, Toronto Star

So, I got to thinking... Back in the day, I would have liked to have a little fun with this... I would have proposed 24 hour library sit-ins/write-ins/read-ins/knit-ins/love-ins. I would have LOVED to collect donations at these little events, and present them to the city council... See? Here's some cash. Now you can save a library. All you have to do is ask.

But I don't really have time for that kind of thing any more... if anyone else put it together, I"d love to go. For now, I"ll leave it with a single comment for the brother's Ford:

Do the good people of Toronto a favour: Go check A Handmaid's Tale out of YOUR local library and read it. Maybe you'll both learn a few things.

A favor for the knitterly good?

2011-07-28T17:52:00.002-04:00

So, Knitty has put out a call to us knitters. What they're trying to do is build a better database for sock pattern sizes. The basic premise is that when we get fitted for shoes in a store, the most commonly used measurement we need is length. What did your mom always ask? Can you wiggle your toes? If not, the shoe isn't long enough, so you need a "bigger" size. This is not necessarily the same with hand-knit socks. Your socks can be a meter long, but you won't be able to get your foot into them if you don't cast on enough stitches, because that determines how WIDE the sock is.

"Since foot length is remarkably unrelated to foot circumference – small feet can be wide, long feet can be narrow – telling me your shoe size tells me very little about how big your socks should be. A lot of the time, when designers are creating socks, we’re guessing about how they should be sized."

-Kate, Editorial Assistant for Knitty.com

So, they've asked us knitters to bust out the measuring tape and send them some numbers. There's a very, very good picture on the site as to what they want (I'll post it below), but here are the basics:

Your shoe size: US or European size & gender (e.g. US Women’s size 8 )
Your foot length
Ankle circumference around the narrowest part of your ankle
Foot circumference around the ball of your foot
Circumference around your foot at your ankle
Diagonal measurement around your heel, from the base of your heel up over the top of your foot
Circumference of your calf six inches (15cm) up from the ground

The thing is, they need LOTS of these measurements to be able to get a realistic average, a generalization, if you will, of what shoe size means in terms of knitting. Here's where I smile, batt my eye lashes and ask for a favour.

Can you measure your feet for me? Not both, necessarily, but at least one?

If you do, that would be totally awesome! If you don't mind, please measure your NAKED (gasp!) foot: not wearing socks. And if your feet tend to swell, I'd suggest measuring at the end of the day, when your feet have been well used.

You could email it directly to knitty if you want, but if you email it to me, then I get to start making notes of sizes for socks. I'm not saying that you'll get a set of pretty little hand-knitted socks from me tomorrow (just ask Colleen, she's been waiting for hers for almost a year), but you might some day.

You'll also be helping me feed my yarny addiction, because designers will use this info to design newer, better patterns, and that's TOTALLY not a bad thing.

For more info and the graphic on where to measure, go here:

Knitty Sock Survey

Then email the results either to Knitty's partners in crime at footsurvey (at) wisehildaknits (dot) com , or to me at SparkyintheSnow (at) gmail (dot) com. You could leave the info in the comments too, if you're cool with that.

THANK YOU! :)

An office, a wedding and an RPG...

2011-07-27T21:27:00.000-04:00

The office has been a bone of contention in my little home for a while now. I get it cleaned up, it gets packed full of stuff again. I go hunting for things, yarn explodes everywhere. We clear paths to get to important places, like the yarn shelves, the litter box or the printer.

Today, I am finally starting to see more of an actual home office here. I (finally) unpacked 2 more boxes that have been sitting here since we moved in, (so, 5 in 2 days, leaving a total of 7 (2 of which are Adam's) to still go through), well as emptying a clutter basket and organizing the crafting shelves. I unearthed the top of my desk, and even got rid of some of the true clutter that was making life more difficult than it needed to be for me.

This week has been a pretty changing week for me. I'm not really sure why. I mean, I can pinpoint a couple of reasons (I'm grateful for all of them), but even cumulatively they're not quite enough to be a catalyst.

Adam's cousin, Aaron, married a lovely woman named Sue this past weekend. Sue is hilarious! She's sweet, loud and doesn't sugar-coat anything. And Aaron is probably the nicest guy in the world. Also, he's a Rocket Scientist. For Reals.

So, there were a couple of hiccups, as there are with any wedding. 2 bright Orange ties went missing on the night before, but Wal-Mart saved the day there. The favours weren't totally complete, but Adam and I helped finish them off. The seating chart wasn't done, so I worked some arts-and-crafts magic on that. Then came something that wasn't expected, and I consider it my personal gift to the happy couple:

So, after the wedding and the pictures are done, we hopped in the limo and started off to the reception site. About half way there, Sue realized that she'd been so rushed that morning (hair dresser an hour late and make-up artist in a car accident... I would have lost it, but Sue was surprisingly cool) that she'd forgotten her garter.* It was also her something blue.**

One of the attendants suggested we stop at a near-by Wal-Mart, because they often had seasonal items like this in stock. I promised Sue that if there weren't actual garters in stock, I'd create something from thin air. I think I told her I'd knit her one if I had to. The 2 glasses of champagne I'd ingested and the scorching heat may have had something to do with this.

Anyways, we get there, No Garters. Nothing. So, me being me, I dashed into the craft department, grabbed some lace, some elastic, some white thread, some little scissors, some sewing/crafting needles (oh, if you ever need upholstery or Sail needles, lemme know...) and, of course, some blue ribbon.

I then MacGyvered together a garter in the back of a limo in less than 15 minutes. And the best part? Not only did it work, but it even survived Aaron pulling it down Sue's leg with his TEETH, and being tossed into the audience, but it also looked AWESOME!

And Sue liked it, so that's good.

After that, and with some other comments I overheard, I realized that I'm missing 2 things in my life that really make me happy: Event management and Random Fun.

I'm thinking I need to keep working on this. I need to keep injecting random fun into my life. And I need to start planning things... Like my own wedding. Even if it may not be happening for a while, doesn't mean I can't start pricing, looking, thinking... Or doing other things.

I think in the coming weeks, I'm finally going to write up the RPG I've been thinking about for years: Giant Mutant Zombie Rats with Guns. And then I'm going to have a bunch of people over and we're going to table-top it.

Get ready, gamers.

*For those who don't know, there's a tradition (not sure if it's English, American or what) that at the reception, before the bride tosses the bouquet, the groom removes the bride's garter, a band of lace around the bride's thigh. Then after she tosses the bouquet, he tosses the garter to eligible men. Sometimes the lucky "winners" share a dance after.

**Another tradition: Something Old, Something New, Something borrowed, Something blue, Silver sixpence for the Shoe. Most "American" couples drop the sixpence part, but the rest is fairly well recognized as a form of lucky charm. The bride carries with her down the aisle Something old (usually heirloom jewlery), something new (often the dress is considered the new item), something borrowed (usually from a female relative) and something blue (could be earrings, ribbons, bracelets... I've also seen flip-flops, nail polish, hankies and love notes tucked into pockets for this).

Letters from the Edge:

2011-07-25T13:56:00.003-04:00

So, to stave off insanity and appease the universe at large, I've been writing letters in my head. Here are some of them:

Dear Rest of our Building:

I'm next in line for the laundry machines with 2 loads of JUST socks, underwear and my camisols (which I actually have to wear under everything now...). I still have work clothes, towels and bedding to do. Sorry.
I promise to leave the non-essentials until later this week. Also, keep in mind, I wash in cold water, so at least there will be hot water later!

Apologies,
-Sparky

Funny story, after putting those loads in the wash, I came back up to sort out the work clothes and found MORE socks and underwear. That fact lead to this letter:

Dear Clothing,

I love you all dearly, but there are simply too many of you. I think it's time for me to thin the herd... again. I'm sorry. To those who will be going, thank you for the good times, and enjoy your new homes. To those who are staying, stop multiplying in the closet, or you'll be next.

Much love and Adoration,
-Sparky

Coming soon, I will be posting some thoughts about a wedding we were involved in this past weekend, including some things that my pending-though-postponed nuptuals will and/or will not include. However, given the fact that it was a Newfie-Jamaican wedding with an open bar, I felt the following letter was required:

Dear Liver:

I'm sorry. Really. I'm so, so sorry. Though, I must say, you did a really, REALLY awesome job of keeping up with all that Gin.

Forgive me?
-Sparky

For your Entertainment:

2011-07-10T15:37:00.003-04:00

Here are my top three "I can't believe I just said that" statements of the last 48 hours.

1. "Excuse me, can you please stop doing cartweels? I don't want anyone getting hurt!"
- At work, to an approx. 8 year old boy.

2. "Ravelry is the Facebook of the Knitting community."
- To Adam, while discussing whether or not I felt like I was betraying Facebook by using Google+.

3. "I don't want to live in a world where kittens can't be llamas!"
-To Adam. The context of that statement is just as silly.

How is this even my life?

Worky-Work.

2011-07-07T23:34:00.003-04:00

So, for those of you who haven't heard yet, I've managed to score a second part-time job. I don't want to discuss it too much, because when it comes to the interwebs and work, I've learned the hard way that vagueness is key. But, it's fairly easy, it's fun, and it allows me an opportunity to get to learn more about the busses, subways and rapid-transit lines run by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It's pretty good, overall. But there's a pretty significant paperwork portion of the job which takes place right here at home. This means I need my office back, and quickly.

I also need a working, right-side-up filing cabinet, but that's an easy fix, really.

Also, the printer needs toner.

I digress.

I took a few minutes tonight and tried to straighten up a bit, mainly because I was looking for a specific skein of yarn for a project that's coming up, which I"ll probably talk about soon. When I realized that my yarn is kind of a mess, I got sad, then kinda miffed, so I started working at it. I got a few things done, but then I got distracted by a poor skein of Malabrigo Sock yarn (Rayon Vert: purples and greens, very pretty) that had become untwisted from it's hank and needed to be wound. Unfortunatly, those things take FOREVER to wind (the yardage on that stuff is fantastic), and it got tangled toward the end, so I didn't actually get any more cleaning done. But, the important part is that I made a start with a goal in mind.

I want to have a functioning home office by the end of next week.

Why next week? Well first I have a call* tomorrow at 11am, and then I work all night at the other work, and then I'm working most of the weekend at the other work... so saying I"m going to have it done by the end of this weekend when on top of all of that I have dishes and a rather pathetic amount of laundry to do is JUST NOT REALISTIC.

Not for me anyways. I like to have my down-time between things.

Right now is bed time. Tomorrow might be a long day, and I should really work on getting better sleep. Also, the cat is giving me her "goddamnit, go to bed so I can get my bedtime treats!!" face.

She has such a pretty little face!

*so, for New Work, a project is a specific task to be completed for a client. Within a project, you have to go to various locations to whom the client supplies, and each visit to a location is called a "call". So, if I were, let's say, handing out flyers for Acme Inc., that would be a project. If I were traveling to 6 events to hand out these flyers, each event would be a call.

Quick update: This can't be good...

2011-06-30T14:36:00.004-04:00

Sooo... remember all that wisdom teeth stuff? I figured that would be a distant memory by now... the stitches have fallen out (so unpleasant), and it's been over a week now since the surgery, I should be good to go, right. Yeah, not so much.

Fair Warning Folks, the rest of this post gets a little... TMI? Squicky? Whatever word you like, it's not for the squeamish, the sensitive or anyone considering dinner within the next few minutes. I don't think Blogger allows "cuts" yet, so I'm going to post a cute pic below, AFTER the bad stuff. If you Don't want to read the icky bits, just scroll to the pic, and I'll meet you after.

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I've been having some rather icky issues with swelling inside my cheek, a very bad taste and an equally bad smell (I've asked, no one else can smell it, but I can). I know that this generally equals infection, but I"m already on post-op antibiotics, so I shouldn't be having that issue. But today, while I was watching the Royal Royals get off the plane (welcome to Canada, btw), the taste suddenly... well, there was more of it. As though something had drained. I went to the bathroom and, using a little bitty flashlight I happen to have, I braced myself and took a look. Not my smartest move of the day... I gently pushed the swollen part of the cheek away, and behind it was a hole... like a cave, and there was this white pasty stuff in it... At least I think it was white... the flashlight was LED, so there was a kind of ghastly tinge to it. I'm telling myself it was the lighting.

I pretty much ran for the phone and called the dentist's office.

I explained to the woman that I'm having the swelling and the taste, and told her about the white-ish stuff, and she told me what it was (Horribly disgusting word that rhymes with suss), and told me to rinse with salt water. Thing is, I've been doing that, and I also told her I'm also still taking pretty strong pain meds. I have to take T3's to be able to sleep through the night, and I've been taking WAY more advil than I probably should to be able to get through the day.

If you actually read through that, Congratulations on your iron will/stomach. To reward you, and to indicate the end of the gross stuff, here's that cute pic I promised...

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So, I'm going back in July 5th to have the doc take a look.

The picture above is a little misleading... I didn't have a bad day. I actually had a pretty good day, apart from the whole... icky part. I went to the Eaton Centre and bought Capris, which are not really shorts, but they're close enough. I haven't actually bought shorts for myself since high school, so I consider that a triumph! Also, I tried on the 18's that I usually wear, and they were a bit big... but the time I got to the right size, I was a 15! (I think Reitman's may be the only shop in the 'verse that sells pants in even AND odd sizes).

So... yes! Good things!

But now I'm going to take some more tylenol and lay down until it's time to go to knitting. I like lazy days. :)

necessities

2011-06-26T15:41:00.002-04:00

So, it's been a few days (5, actually), since the final round of wisdom tooth nonsense took place. I'd love to tell you that everything's back to normal, believe me. But, alas. The stabbing pain in my ear is gone, and I can eat soups and foods with the consistency of baby food (mushed bananas, ice cream, mashed potatoes), and if I cut whole, soft foods like pasta into little tiny pieces and chew carefully, I can eat that. But I can't sleep for more than 3 hours at a time, then the advil wears off and I wake up.

I left work after only an hour yesterday and gave up my shift today because I just can't function. When I don't have an ice pack on my face, it feels like my cheek is falling off. And what's worse, last night I took my last T3.

My liver hurts.

And to add insult to this injury, today is actually kind of a nice day. It's overcast, sure, but today would have been a nice day to go for a walk down town, or to go see somewhere I haven't been before, or to GO TO KNITTING, which I really want to do. Or even go to work, which is also something I should be doing right now. But I just feel like crap... I didn't get up until after noon, and I felt nauseous and just achy all over. And Advil isn't even touching the pain.

Tomorrow I have to work from 6-9am, and then I have some other things to do, one of which will include calling my dentist and saying "Uh... is this normal? Also, more drugs please?"

I promise not to punch him.

Too hard.

Llama Face (may be icky)

2011-06-23T17:45:00.002-04:00

Got the second round of wisdom teeth removed yesterday afternoon. First one came out just fine, but it seems my bottom teeth just hate me.

If you remember, 2 weeks ago, I went through a rather painful extraction involving a hooked root which caused some extra damage to my gums. There's still a rather interesting hole where the tooth was... interesting meaning it's difficult to drink cold things. Doc says it'll heal up just fine in a few weeks.

Jumping ahead to yesterday, I was told everything would be fine; easier, actually, because the roots of the teeth on the other side were all fused, so it should have been just a quick "pop". And the top one was. Thing is, my bottom teeth came in at 45 degree angles, and this one seemed to have actually wedged itself under the tooth in front. So, the doc pulled, and pulled and wiggled and pulled...

And then came to the conclusion that the only way to get this thing out was to SAW IT IN HALF, then pull the individual halves out.

I did mention that I was awake for all this, right? I was frozen, and I was having a wonderful time with my old friend Laughing Gas, but I was awake for the sawing part.

Everything was just lovely until the freezing wore off. I told the doc that last time T3's didn't help, so this time he gave me something else. Wouldn't it figure that the pharmacy was sold out of the something else (it's back-ordered, apparently...), so he wound up giving me Oxycodone.

Seriously.

Here's the thing... I don't understand how people get hooked on those. You would think that a drug with street value and a full page warning letter would do something... it didn't TOUCH the pain. And then, when I woke up at 2am in excruciating pain, I took a second one, which made me dizzy, faint and made me dry heave for about 5 minutes. I had to lay on the bathroom floor until I was steady enough to crawl back to bed. They're not fun, I wasn't euphoric, and it certainly didn't do anything for any pain I was experiancing.

Anyways, so now it's day 2. I"m miserable. Every time I swallow, my jaw aches, and I experiance a stabbing pain in my ear, so I haven't eaten anything since... well, I had about a tablespoon of ice cream last night to try and feel better, but that made it worse. So, it's been a while since I've had real food, and drinking water reduces me to tears.

So, my advice to all of you out there: If they're not bugging you, LEAVE THEM. Tell your dentist that you'd rather deal with crowded teeth and occasional sensitivity than this kind of misery. Then punch him in the face. Just once.

For me.

From Epic Tiger to Vanilla Watermelon

2011-06-14T12:26:00.002-04:00

You read right! The Epic Tiger Socks are (still about 96%) Done! Just the ends are left to be woven in. So, I'm moving on to something cheery for me.

I'm using the basic sock pattern I learned from Christina's Sock Class at Creative Yarns (if you live anywhere near Scarborough and you knit, TAKE THIS CLASS), which I'm now referring to as my "Vanilla sock" (top down, long-tail cast-on, 2 inches 2x2 rib cuff, french heel flap, flat toe) and the EPIC Zauberball Starke 6 (a 6-ply yarn) by Schoppel Woole (a German Company (obv.)), in a colour way that doesn't exactly have a name, but has been oft referred to a the "Watermelon Yarn". I got 6 (!) balls of this stuff, thinking I'd make a watermelon cardi or something, but all I really want is Watermelon Socks, and possibly a Lazy Katy (a pattern on Ravelry, which may be the first I actually purchase from Ravelry).

I really like this yarn. It's strange at first, because the 2 colours are twisted together, which is kinda of like knitting with the strand held double. You do have to be careful that you're knitting both strands, or you get some wonky stuff going on. But it creates a really cool tweedy effect that I like.

I actually cast this sock on last night during Game 6*, and had to rip it back because a) I was about 2 needle sizes too small (the thing damned near stood on it's own), and b) I miss-counted by 10 stitches, which is like, an inch. HUGE fail. But it's ok. I was actually so excited to cast this back on that I almost stayed up to do it. Almost.

So, Tonight I'm going to another Jays game with Adam and his friend Andrew (Andrew and Lindsay are Awesome-Sauce, just sayin), which will be my... 3rd? Maybe? Of this season. It's his 31st. No, that's not a typo. Thirty One Games this season. And tomorrow I work until 9. I'm really, REALLY hoping that I'll be home in time to at least catch the last period of game 7.

I"m off for now... Coming Soon: An encounter with Real, Live Cleaning Fairies (Seriously, they were AMAZING), and I'm goin to the Zoo-Zoo-Zoo...

*Blame Adam for the sports stuff... thanks to him, I now understand both Baseball and Hockey. Also, WFT VANCOUVER??? Seriously? That was just embarassing. If you don't win Wed., there will be riots.

And that's the tooth...

2011-06-09T20:15:00.003-04:00

Greetings readers!

For those of you who don't follow me on facebook/twitter, here's the scoop: yesterday I ventured from one end of the TTC to the other, meeting Adam in Mississauga. From there, we went to the Dentist's office, and I had what I consider to be my first ever major surgery.

I had 2 wisdom teeth removed.

To expand, I had one hour of deep, below-the-gum-line de-scaling (cleaning), followed by the removal of the upper and lower wisdom teeth on my right side. Our dentist only does one side at a time, first because freezing the whole mouth at once can make it hard to swallow, and second because if they only do one side, you can still eat with the other. The teeth on the right side came out first because there was a little skin flap over the bottom one that could cause infection, and there was a pretty huge cavity in it (seriously, I saw it after, it was icky). The left side has a cavity too, but it's not as big.

Not to be a negative-nelly or anything, but the whole thing was pretty sucky. People tell you that it "isn't that bad" and that "it doesn't even really hurt", and it doesn't hurt when they come out, it's the after-part that's an issue. Now, I really don't want to scare anyone. I"m just being honest about MY EXPERIENCE; Your mileage may vary. There are lots of ways a wisdom tooth extraction can be done: some people get knocked out and have all 4 yanked at once, some people never got all 4 to begin with, and some people have MUCH higher tolerance for pain than I.

I was terrified leading up to if, and I think that was a pretty strong reaction. There was no need to be terrified... leery? Yeah, that would have been better. There was a bit of a complication, in that the bottom wisdom tooth was "hooked" (so the root had a bit of a hook on the end, which caused a bit of damage on the way out), and the roots on the top one were fused on one side. There was also a bit of a problem mid-way through. I had a panic attack.

So, because of my history with needles (me+needles tends to = passing out), they gave me this FANTASTIC stuff called Nitrous Oxide. You may know it as laughing gas. It was pretty great... it basically makes you drunk. My problem was, I kept my eyes closed the whole time, including during the sutures. Thing was, because I was frozen, my brain decided it would be awesome to make me think that I was choking on the thread he was using to stitch me up. It was horrifying... But I lived through it.

The big problem started when the freezing wore off. OMG, I don't remember the last time I felt that kind of pain. Maybe when I accidentally slammed my hand in the door of mom's car? Maybe when I had mono and the doc told me I had strep and gave me painkillers I couldn't swallow? Either way... Last night, the only reason I slept was because of the T3's I'd been perscribed. They didn't actually touch the pain, Ice was the only thing that did that. Still is, actually.

Here's the important part... If you're reading this thinking 'holy crap, what's wrong with you? I got all 4 out at once and I've had hangnails that hurt more... and you've got 3 tattoos!', you're probably right. I'm sure normally that's the case... Adam's didn't seem to bother him nearly this much; he was eating grilled cheeses and pizza the next day, and I can barely chew. Here's the thing I wasn't expecting...

It's that time of the month.

TMI? Maybe, but it explains a lot. EVERYTHING hurts.

Work at 6am tomorrow is going to be awesome. Yeah... I probably should have booked that off...

So, I go back on the 22nd to get the Left hand wisdom teeth out, also top and bottom. I'll also be getting some other kind of de-scaling/cleaning that day. I've been told by Adam, and the dentist as well, that the second time isn't quite as bad. It'd better not be...

I don't think I could take it.

Sock it to me!

2011-06-02T22:39:00.002-04:00

So, as some of you know, I've been working on Tiger socks for Colleen. I love these socks, I love how they're turning out and I"m half way through the foot of the second sock (an inch from the toe!) But...

I need a sock break.

I"m going to work on something other than socks for the rest of tonight, I think. I need something that isn't tiny. Maybe I'll even work on Adam's Llama-face scarf!

I want to start a swatch blanket (some plain garter/stockinette, some with a pattern), and I've got a bazillion stuffies I want to make and cuddle... not to mention a burning desire to hop into lace and shawls.

I swear, these socks will be done by THURSDAY of next week (so I can weave in the ends at the shop!), but for tonight? I need something not sockish.

WWKIP!

2011-06-01T16:33:00.003-04:00

WW...what?

WWKIP is World Wide Knit In Public Day! It's a day when knitters around the world celebrate and show off their craft by knitting in public... at an event, in a park, on transit, at a park, on a boat, at the beach, in a house, with a mouse... wherever you like!

Actually, that's how it started... it's not really a day anymore. It's a WEEK. That's why it's not called WWKIPD, and I'm sure WWKIPW looks kind of awkward. The point is, it's good knitting stuff!

This year, WWKIP is being celebrated between June 11 and June 19!

Now, as far as I know, there's nothing really planned to celebrate WWKIP here in Toronto (I've seen one event advertised in Whitby, but the next nearest on the website are in Guelph and Waterloo!) So... Toronto Knitters, wanna get together and knit somewhere? Like, a park or something? I think it would be cool... kind of like a flash mob, but with knitting instead of dancing!

Non-Toronto Knitters... are you celebrating WWKIP? Where? How? With Who?

Tell me your knitterly plans!