New Year's Eve Organization

Yup. I'm an organizing bandit. I created new file folders for all my "important papers" and it's all happily filed in one box instead of in multiple places. I have outgrown the shoe box method. It works for temporary saving but not for long-term purposes. Plus, how I am I ever going to convince Sunshine that filing and organization are great, unless I lead by example? Plus, there is a high possibility that my father might get transfered, so I could be moving later on this year.

I made another Dulaan hat today. I am now working on a baby camo hat for Hunter, Y's new baby. Y is a family friend that lives in Wisconsin and she had a baby boy named Hunter in August. It was one of those Christmas card surprises and mom talked to Y's mom who happens to be her best friend so we are making a box of baby things to send to her and since he's named Hunter, I decided to make a baby camo hat because Wisconsin is cold as hell and they actually get snow up there where they live.

E invited me to a last minute party that her and her husband decided to throw, but I politely declined saying that I had a previous engagement. My sinuses are still recovering from hanging out at her place Friday note not to mention that I come home smelling like a bowling alley and I have to take a shower to get all the smoke nasty out of my wild mane of hair. And they live in the ghetto part of town and I don't think that's going to be a very safe place to be on New Year's Eve. I have just grown out of those types of parties.

I heart Crochet

So I have mostly been working on crocheting Red Scarf #2 today with my new Addi hook. It is the perfect hook. Seriously, I have tried many different brands and types and this one is my favorite by far. Of course, it's the most expensive, but since I don't follow patterns it doesn't really matter what size hook to use. I am using Cascade 220 for scarf #2, it's not the fanciest wool yarn in the world, but it is good quality and I like the feel of it. I also made two more Dulaan hats today. This makes a total of 15 hats that are in my Dulaan box now. Lol...i can't help being organized. i'm a recovering Type A.

I watched this awesome documentary on Showtime this morning called Life After Tomorrow which is about the child actresses that played Annie and the orphans in the Broadway musical Annie. It was really neat because it showed the effect the show had on them and what they were doing now. I remember my parents taking us to see Annie at the Des Moines Civic Center when we were in elementary school. I can sing the whole score to Annie, and I'm not the type to memorize music like that. Sometimes when I am having a crappy day I dig out my old VHS copy of Annie the movie with Bernadette Peters and it cheers me up. I secretly love Broadway muscials. I am hell bent on seeing Wicked this summer when it comes to OKC.

Not much is really going on. I have had so much free time that I even painted my toe nails! Holy shit Batman! I'm also having very strange cravings for Dr. Pepper.

2007 Goals - Be The Change

It is very late in Melissaland and I just got home from spending the evening at E's new place. I went over there because I had called her to thank her for the Christmas card and she sounded like she needed some girl talk. So we hung out and chatted over some queso dip while her husband sat in the back room smoking and playing Warcraft..... Anyhoo, since my sinuses are all clogged and after hearing all her drama, I thought I should sit down and write my goals for 2007.

1. Finish my accounting degree.
2. Travel travel travel..This includes my week off in May and possibly taking a weekend off in August to see DCI in Pasadena( or at least one DCI show this summer...sweaty muscles and shiny instruments baby!!).
3. Learn more advanced knitting and crochet techniques and along with that, make more hats and scarves for my favorite charities.
4. read more books regularly. In college, I used to read every night before i went to bed and I have been slacking on that lately.
5. Cut back on pop and junk food. Become one with nasty diet pop and trick myself into thinking that sugar tastes like shit.
6. Normally, by now I would have some goal about dating or such, but I say to hell with that shit. Que sera, sera.
7. Quit buying stupid crap and save more money. I have been doing better at this but I know I can do even better than I have been. I need to start at least keeping track of what i spend so I can make a realistic budget and forecast my expenditures/financial disasters. I will start this on Jan 1, to be on the easy side.

I think 7 is plenty. I like manageable goals. I am going to log off now and crochet some more on red scarf #2 that I started tonight before I went to E's house. I am using Cascade 220 and my new Addi Hook. ADDI HOOKS ROCK!!!!!!! They are the best things ever and I will be ordering more of these in the future.

Day Four Already?

So Day Three kind of just flew away. My sister and I had received these gift cards to Barnes and Noble for Christmas, and we needed something to do so we drove down to Tulsa. I still have money on mine!!! Isn't that a hoot! First time in the history of Melissa! I bought a Frank Lloyd Wright mini wall calendar, a really awesome Skyscrapers coffee table type book that has awesome pictures and the history behind these cool buildings, two magazines, two cute little notepads, a copy of A Christmas Story (60 % off baby!!!), two copies of the mini Mister Rogers book. Then we ate at Back Yard Burgers. We have a favorite one in Tulsa and the manager knows us by name and always remembers what we order and who orders what. Awesome service there!

Then I made my sister go to Utica Square because there is this really awesome yarn store there called Loops and they were having this totally awesome after Christmas sale. I bought a skein of Lamb's Pride Worsted in Blue Blood Red, one skein of red Cascade 220, two samples of Soak (wool wash), and this Rowan leaflet with Kim Hargreaves that was marked down to 3.99!!!! I was being seriously conservative because of vacation and the big tuition bill coming up. Plus, I didn't "need" any yarn because of the infamous 19 skeins I received for Christmas, but this is like a once a year sale, so I wanted to at least see if they even had any yarn left, which they did.

We left Tulsa after that and went home so we could see the 4:40 showing of Holiday. That movie was awesome, and Jack Black didn't annoy me, which was great and Kate Winslet was awesome. We got home from the movie about the same time that my dad got home from work with my accident report. Boy that was hilarious. It actually is written on the police report where she admitted to being "lost" and talking on the cell phone. Call me naive, but I don't know how you could be driving a brand new 2007 Chevy 1500 pick-up and not be able to provide proof of insurance. I could understand not having a copy but she didn't even have a name of a company or her old policy or anything, so I think that was a total crock of shit but that's okay because she got two tickets and my insurance company is going to go after her skanky ass.

What lies ahead for Day 4? Well, it's pay day so I am going to the post office. I am working on hat eight right now. i have a ton of new books to read and some yarn catalogs to drool over that came in the mail today. There will be some more Boston Legal involved and I am waiting for two packages to arrive today.

Finally, the question you really want the answer for, What's on my ipod?

1. I wanna Dance with somebody - Whitney Houston
2. One Wing in the Fire - Trent Tomlinson
3. And I am Telling You I'm Not Going - Jennifer Hudson (the dance mix from the Dreamgirls soundtrack)
4. Santa Monica - Theory of a Deadman
5. Gonna Fly Now - Bill Conti

Day Two

I am calling this Day Two because it is the second day of my vacation. The weekend doesn't count because I always have that off. So yesterday was Christmas and my sister and I went to see The Pursuit of Happyness. I finally figured out why it is spelled wrong. The movie was awesome, so now I want to buy the book and find out more, because I am a sucker for a good true-life story. I have made it through Disc Three of Boston Legal Season 1. I am surprised that I have not cracked a rib laughing. I wish I could show up to morning staff meetings with a light up star on my head. It might make them bearable....

I did buy the matching tote purse at American Eagle to go with the party purse and the wallet, all in gun metal gray. Did I mention that they match one of my favorite pairs of Converses? that was all that I bought because there wasn't any really mouth dropping stuff on sale and that purse was the only thing that I have really been toying with purchasing recently.

I made the dreaded visit to the bank to order some overpriced checks. Had I know my routing number or my account number I might have ordered them online for one third of the price, but I think in a cleaning frenzy, I accidently shreaded that piece of paper with that information. See my original bank merged with another bank, but I could keep using my old checks cause they were connected, but the box of checks that I got when I opened the account my second year in college finally ran out. there are two things that I have to pay cash or check for, no debit card allowed, so I am therefore forced to order another stinking box of checks that I will not finish because most likely I will be moving by the end of this year. When I do so, I am getting a new bank, one that doesn't charge fees for using your debit card, doesn't charge you out the ass for checks and is open either past five o clock or at least a little bit on Saturdays because some us have to work long hours and don't fit into banker's hours. The only positive thing about this whole dreaded experience was that i got some cute Snoopy checks. Trust me, they were the best choice out of my limited options. Who really wants Mr. Potato Head on their checks?

On a happier note, I did go to see Rocky Balboa today and it was stinking awesome. It had the magic of the original Rocky and if you can't help but feel motivated when you walk out of the theater afterwards. Milo was awesome as Rocky's son and I loved the pea coat that he was wearing.

I am currently working on making my fifth hat since Christmas Eve. I am not power knitting because I am on "vacation" and this is supposed to be fun and not the cause of hand cramps. I'm thinking that I should make a funky scrap afghan with the leftovers from making hats out of my 19 skeins of yarn, but we will see. Afghans aren't the most portable project in the world and couch space is limited in my house.

I am hoping that I will get a call from the body shop saying that my parts are in because I would really like to get my car fixed before any more tiny plastic parts fall off. We will see what happens.

Christmas Eve Delight

So in recent years we have started a newer tradition of opening our presents on Christmas Eve. I am still in shock because I opened up this giant bag and inside of it was 19 SKEINS OF YARN!!!!!!!! It's a good thing that I didn't sign up for one of those stash busting programs. It's all in the colors I like too. So between all this yarn and the all the dvds I got for Christmas I might actually turn into a hermit over the rest of my vacation. We'll see. I don't like to be cooped inside all day.

Well I have made two hats this evening. I'm really glad that I did that since I have a lot of yarn to make projects with. The funny thing is that I ordered a skein of Rowan Summer Tweed Vanity the other day with some Addi hooks because I didn't think Santa was going to buy me any yarn for Christmas. See people, if you believe in Santa, even at age 26, he will listen to you and bring you cool stuff like yarn and a Hello Kitty stapler. Lol...I also got a Barnes and Noble gift card and a Hello Kitty toaster, more Hallmark ornaments and some other cool stuff little things. My little sis also bought me 4 new Eskimo Joe's cups. Hello, they put out new colors every year.

Seriously though, everybody wins with the yarn though because now I can make lots more hats for Dulaan and other things for my charity causes. I think the best part of this evening was watching my little doggies sleep under the tree after we had opened all the presents.

So what do we do on Christmas? Well, we go to morning mass and then we go to the movies. I'm sure I will also be knitting or crocheting something since I have no idea where in the heck I am going to put all my lovely yarn.

I must go now and watch my Boston Legal dvds way into the wee hours of the night.

Yarn Holiday!

Well, I am now officially on holiday and I don't even have to think about accounting at all until January 3rd. YAY!!!! I love accounting, but my brain needs a break.

I watched Rocky tonight while i was working on the red scarf and so now the Rocky theme is totally stuck in my head. Maybe it's supposed to motivate me. It must have because I did like 3 loads of laundry and sorted through some stuff in my room. I measured the red scarf and I have about 30 inches done so far and most scarves for adults are usually in the 60 range.

My little sister has gone cookie crazy. She bought real cookie sheets at a Pampered Chef party hosted by one of her fellow teachers and I think she made like 4 batches of cookies tonight. Homemade. Talk about craziness. Sometimes I wonder how we are even related.

Other movie purchases of note include some vintage Patrick Dempsey in Can't Buy Me Love and She-Ra on DVD (5 fan favorite episodes plus the feature length movie). Courtesy of my mother, I also have two grown-up table lamps. They are totally girly!!! They have dangly beads but in a subtle non-tacky way. The shades are a grey-beige with a silver base. They look way cooler than what I can describe. I just plugged one in and it's really cool. She thought I needed lamps because of all the needlework and computer/school stuff that I do. Subtle hint, eh? My favorite part is that they match and they will look really cool in a future living room.

Anyways, for the rest of the night since I can stay up as late as I wanna, I plan on reading/drooling over my new knitting and crochet books as well as my Andy Warhol books.

I hope everyone has a very happy and fruitcake free holiday weekend! Remember: If the relatives are driving you crazy, go hug a skein of yarn. It will make you feel better.

Shaked not Stirred

Well, Monday night on my way home from work a crazy lady in a big truck ran a stop sign and ran right into my car as I was driving my dad and I home from work. We are fine, not a scratch but my Subaru has $2500 worth of damage. We can't get it in until after the holidays because of parts and the holidays themselves. It will take a week in the shop but it is in driveable condition now. She hit the front left fender (the thingie over the wheel, cracked my headlights etc. The body shop dude had to pull my fender out of the door hinge so that I could open my car more than a foot. This was my first wreck so it has been a frustrating week. The lady was cited with failure to yield and she didn't have proof of insurance. the accident report isn't in yet either. At least I still have my good looks and my mighty Subaru will rise again like a phoenix from the ashes.

Tuesday night I finished my Veteran's scarf. I will send it off over break. I plan on starting the Red Scarf sometime tonight. I also want to make a scarf from the skein of Liza Souza's Violet's Pink Ribbon that arrived on Tuesday. I also need to make K's doink hat too. i also want to crochet a technicolor log cabin afghan. Lots of goals for 2007.

One bright spot is that grades came in the mail today and I totally passed my classes! It sounds silly but I always have this fear of failing classes somehow even though I know I totally aced them.

Scarves

So while I was at Sunshine's I made some massive progress on yarn projects. I made the scarf for A-dolly that matches the winter coat my mom made for this year. I am over half-way done crocheting the scarf for the Knit Your Bit campaign sponsored by the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. The address for the project is here: http://www.nationalww2museum.org/education/knitting.html

My next project is making a doink hat for K, the father of A-dolly. He named and designed the hat, I am just the person manufacturing it. When the doink hat is finished I will most certainly post it on my Flickr page. As soon as I finish the vet's scarf, i am casting on for the Red Scarf Project. This project is sooo awesome and it is near and dear to my heart because I am back in college again and this project sends encouragement and care packages to orphans/foster kids who have aged out of the system and are now going to college. Ironically, while I was at Sunshine's my mom bought me the perfect red yarn for the project, not even knowing I was planning on it. She just thought I would like the color. It is Autumn Red (Caron Simply Soft) and it is machine-washable which = college-student friendly and it is really soft. Info about The Red Scarf Project can be found here: http://www.interweave.com/knit/events/redscarf.asp

Anyways, this weekend went by way too fast. I had so much fun and I am so relaxed. Sunshine is like the best host ever (Thanks again for everything!!!). Sniff sniff, I wish we lived a tad bit closer together, but at least my mighty Subaru gets fantastic gas mileage. There is also a major aura of productivity at his house. I always finish tons of UFOs and I get tedious homework done faster there for some reason.

I am like seriously tired. I think my inability to sit still has finally caught up with me. So i am going to dive under my bazillion denim quilts on my bed and dream about piles of yarn. LOL!!!

O Hanukkah Tree

It's not really a Hanukkah tree, but I did find the perfect tree and we did put it up last night and it's the first weekend of Hanukkah. It's a 4ft prelit Indiana spruce, totally faux, but it is quite possibly the cutest little Christmas tree ever. I am dragging Sunshine out to Target today because he HAS NO CAFFEINE and we still need a tree topper and a little tree skirt to finish it off. The best part is that the cat is not trying to pounce the tree! I know this has to be a Christmas miracle.

Speaking of Christmas miracles, I got a big fat raise and vacation pay I didn't know I had. Unfortunately I have to be mostly responsible and stick a whole lot of it up my butt because I have a big scary tuition payment and some scary expensive accounting books to buy in January. I have only made one yarn purchase which was a skein of Miss Violet's Pink Ribbon made by Lisa Souza. It looks so beautiful and Liza Souza has the best customer service ever. I give her two hooks up for sure.

On the Christmas shopping front, I am pretty much down to stuff for Chinese gift exchanges at work and stocking stuffers. I bought my sister's final presents Thursday night after my cost accounting final.

If anyone has tricks to getting dried up super glue off your hands let me know. The cat doesn't really bother the tree but she thinks that the Christmas village is her personal toy box so when we magically found the superglue, I was able to repair the broken pile. Props to my mother for showing me the tricks to getting the super glue to bond before it gets too messy. I didn't glue my hands or fingers together so it was a successful project.

Sunshine also made some very fancy hot chocolate that looks like it walked out of the Martha Stewart Holiday issue. It tasted even better than Starbucks.

Happy Holidays!!!!!

Is it Christmas Vacation yet?

I know most people aren't fortunate enough to get a week off from work paid or unpaid, but i do get the week off between Christmas and New Year's due "factory shutdown." I am sooo ready for it too, because i will have a short break from school as well. I am just so tired. I haven't been to Wal-Mart in a full week and I have all these work parties and last minute Christmas shopping to do, but the only time I am motivated to do anything is on the weekends or after night class gets out, since I am already out and about.

I had an awesome weekend in Kansas City. There is just something awesome about walking around the Plaza and the Crown Center, and we went to the Crown Center at night and got some really awesome pics. I made a visit to the BN on the Plaza which is one of my favorites. I bought Crochet Today magazine (it has really cool patterns that don't require a lot of technical skills) and Jennifer Stafford's book Domiknitrix (really good technique pictures and a heart shaped pillow that says Bite Me--i need that one in my cube at work) and Warhol by Klaus Honnef because it was the most affordable Warhol book they had. I got to carry A-dolly around everywhere and read her stories and do puzzles. she is sooo freaking smart for a two year old. I was amazed just sitting there watching her put together 24 piece puzzles without any help at all..She is a chatterbox, and she has the crazy curls like i did when i was a little girl. My aunt D also hooked us up with new Iowa Hawkeyes shirts. She even got me a bright pink one! yay! a-dolly is going through a pink phase too, and on saturday we both were wearing pink shirts and she danced around saying "pretty in pink! pretty in pink!" I also have to give a shout out to my favorite hotel chain Hampton Inns. They have free and fast wireless internet and the world's most comfortable pillow-top mattresses and comforters. I knew they were upgrading their beds but this is better than I expected!

This weekend I get to play Martha Stewart at Sunshine's this weekend. I am decorating a Christmas tree for him since it his first house that really has good display space for a tree and I found cool ornaments that were on sale so this tree is going to rock!

Gracias!

I came home from work tonigh and there was a Post Office extravaganza waiting in my room. I received, not one, but TWO boxes from my Secret Pal 9. YAY!! Thank-you so much! She sent me three skeins of Red Heart in Plum berries, a pair of size 13 circulars, a friendship cookie mix, starbursts, skittles, a poncho leaflet, and a stuffed Christmas Teddy Bear. Yay! I love presents, especially when it involves yarn. I also received a really nice thank-you note from Major Knitter for the donation of yarn and supplies for the PTA Knit-A-Thon contest that she was involved with. She included a handmade set of Knit Notes and a post-it note pad that says Knit Happens on it. I was really surprised. I sent off some stash yarn and extra looms and needles, because the premise behind the contest was to teach the elementary school kids how to knit so that they could knit hats for Caps to the Capitol, which will distribute hats to babies through the organization Save the Children. I even made twenty hats to send off to Caps to the Capitol. Anyways, it was a very impressive effort and I am just glad that I was able to help out in my own little way.


Anyways, I am super tired from work. I was doing double-duty trying to catch up for my snow day on Friday, so I think I am just going to lay on my bed, rest my eyes and listen to the new Incubus cd and do that thing otherwise known as relaxing.

Cabin Fever

Well, since the blizzard started Thursday afternoon, I have made five hats and embroidered another pillowcase for A-dolly. I cleaned out some more crap in my closet and I have all my Christmas cards ready to send. I finished reading The Innocent Man by John Grisham. I did three loads of laundry. I had chit chatted with the customer service rep at US Cellular who took my phone payment---I am people deprived!! He was friendly too and was asking me about the snow that we got. I watched a really good Hallmark movie on the Hallmark Channel called The Christmas Card...I can't help it...I am a hopeless romantic to the core. I also tagged all my hats to send to Caps for the Capitol, but I don't have a box the right size. Tomorrow I am pitching a fit and going to walmart. If my father can run off with my Forrester and go to the grocery store, walmart and a movie, it is plenty safe for me to drive to walmart. Did I mention the lady across the street that routinely backs into her daughter's Jeep Liberty was out driving today without incident? I need some Mountain Dew!!! My dad actually had the cajones to bring me back Diet Mountain Dew. HE KNOWS I HATE DIET MOUNTAIN DEW!!!!!! It doesn't have the caffeine or the sugar and I would rather drink 100 year old eggnog. He acted annoyed when I told him right to his face that it TASTES LIKE SHIT...Can you tell I'm getting a little cranky? i just want some decent pop and a small change of scenery. I like to have the option of getting out of the house. I would have gone today but my dad took my car without asking and took a 5 hour long hour trip to get milk. I would have been okay with the taking of my car but to tell me that I can go anywhere and then go joyriding all over town using up my gas really hacks me off. Did I mention I have Daddy issues??

Honestly, though, I am having a good time. i just need to get out of the house for a few minutes, have some caffiene, buy a couple of magazines and then I will be all happy again. Online shopping is just not the same. it is great for hard to find items, but I miss the people interaction, good or bad. Plus, I hate waiting for packages in the mail. speaking of this, I did order a new purse online. LOL. I was soooo bored that I was looking at Delia's.com and Urban Outfitters online. They both had these Factory Girl Andy Warhol totes with the giant banana on them (like the velvet underground album cover). I wanted to get it from Urban Outfitters but the banana tote was on back order from them so I had to suck it up and order it from Delia's (home of the teenyboppers). Lol. I just totally ruined my rep by admitting to purchasing from Delia's but that's okay. I will repent by listening to the new Incubus album tonight. Snow makes people goofy.

Snowed In!

I had to e-mail in to work today. Those that can are working from home today. I don't have a company laptop, so I logged into my email log enough to email my boss and turn on my out of office reply. Lol...My section of Oklahoma got 10 + inches, my town officially had a blizzard, a power outage, and a reported 15 inches. I don't feel like shoveling a path to the yard stick I stuck out in the middle of my yard last night, but the view from my patio says you can only see the top two feet or so of the stick. I should've buried a ruler just for shits and giggles.

besides running around in the snow taking pictures this morning, I have been downloading some fresh songs from Itunes. I plan on busting out the dvd collection later on. I'm not sure I will be going to tulsa this weekend. Lol...I'm not one for digging cars out of the roads and such. I plan on making some hats today.