Likely Story

Blah, Blah, Busy, Blah, Blah

Aren't you tired of those excuses?  Me too. So....... I've been busy!  And I hate typepad so I either have to convert to wordpress or just stop writing entirely.  We'll see.  Anyhoo, my job is giving me stomach aches and my hips are falling apart so I'm not to keen on the conversion details at the moment.  Oh, and I'm trying to get into grad school, so there's that too.

But there's craft finished objects!  The Octopi Hat is complete!  Forgive the yellow pictures, but the lighting in that bathroom is awful right now.  Can you see the octopi?  Aren't they lovely?  Yeah....I think so too.

But the real mutha of a project has been the (bloody, bastard of a) quilt I am making for the Tibetan Society Auction in November.  A word of advice to budding quilters out there -  FAUX SILK IS NEVER, EVER A GOOD IDEA.  But its finished except for the binding which will be this weekend and hopefully it will make them a bit of money, though probably nowhere near the sweat equity I put into it.  That doesn't matter though b/c it will be FINISHED AND OUT OF MY HANDS!  Huzzah!

What color binding do you think?  Black?  Hmmmmm.........

In Just Under 5 hours

2 Angel Food Cakes
2 dozen Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream frosting
1 large Vanilla Cake with Dark Chocolate Buttercream frosting
1 large Chocolate Éclair Cake
1 large Lemon Daffodil Cake
2 trays Double Chocolate Brownies: one w/ Butterfinger topping and one without
1 tray Lemon Squares
and finally
4 - 50 piece trays of assorted brownie/cheesecake/dessert "bites"

Now I'm sleepy.

Pre-Holiday Updates

Well, I have been frantically trying to finish one final present for someone who I am 99.7% sure does not read this.  In case they do, I only have this to say:  "Hey!  Look at the insane thing I made you!  Ain't it purty?"  Otherwise, this thing, this craft, this monstrosity snowballed from a simple idea into a project that was a bit over my head.  But I faked it 'til I made it and this is the result of my labor:

It doesn't look like much, but I promise you it is 5 feet of blood, sweat and tears in addition to multiple pin pricks.

On a MUCH happier note, my friend Rachael sent me a lovely xmas present that I opened early and it is BEAUTIFUL!  The pattern for Hanami, the beads, the teeniest crochet hook in the known universe, some delicious yarn - Buttercream by Yarn Chef, and one of her famous, homemade project bags!

Now, if only the presents I ordered her 3 weeks ago would hurry up and bloody well get here!  Grrr!  I haven't forgotten you Rachael, Baby!  There's something lovely coming for you!

Mrs. Darcy is Blocking!!!

She is blocking now and hopefully, I can sew her up tonight.  Yay!

Also, our garage door is completely off track and the cable has come uncoiled from the right cable drum.
This happened at 6:30 am today.  This is not a good way to wake up.  Any ideas?

Where Has Post Secret Gone?

Anyone????

The blogger domain seems to be a blank template owned by someone named Nicole ("since Sept. 07").

Frank, where are you?

Argh!

Not Again!

Aw Jesus!  Now I've got to get this!  Just when I thought I had FINALLY read them all.  Damn you Christopher and Adam Tolkein.

Thanks, Rachael for the heads up!

And yes, i did just pre-order the super deluxe geektastic version, thank you very much.

sigh.

yay....bakery job?

I am so tired.

Work is good.  School is fine.  Bakery job is also fine.

I am just really, really tired.

YAY! Bakery Job!

I just got hired for Job the 2nd!  I will be a PT Bakery Assistant at Whole Foods!  The Bakery Head is amazing!  She trained as an artisan bread maker and I can learn a lot from her.  I won't be all bakery.  The position's real title is Coffee/Gelato and while I 'll have to serve joe, I will also get to learn to make real gelato (a true love of mine) and work 1 shift a week in the bakery.  Really, anything to get my foot in the door of a real bakery and our Whole Foods makes killer bread.  Also, they have crazy good benefits and a 20% employee discount!  The Bakery Head is really into putting education first, so she's willing to work around my school schedule.  Very cool!

Speaking of good benefits, after a few months there I'll be able to qualify for their health insurance (which is also way better than my current sucky Cigna plan) which means we can ditch our business health insurance.  This means more $ in every respect - THANK GOD! 

I was all lined up to work at B&N next month, but I'll give that job to J and we'll both have a part time gig.  Hello paying off medical bills and mortgage early!

Things are FINALLY looking up!

Did I Mention

that I'm starting school tomorrow?  Yep.  8am-11:15am Retail Baking.  And as I am a super nerd, my school books are packed neatly in my book bag with 8 new pens, a 3 subject notebook, 2 bar towels and an apron.  The aforementioned bag is setting next to my knife kit.  I've laid out my uniform and practiced tying up my hair and getting it to fit under their doo-rag/chefs cap.  I'll probably wind up getting there about 30 minute early (see "super nerd" mentioned above) so I'd like to bring my knitting. 

My other two classes are on-line and that means I have to de-grade my computer to be able to access them.  They want me to download IE or Netscape.  Do people really still use Netscape?  Seriously?  Wow.  So none of my other browsers (Firefox, Safari, Opera) will suffice.  Awesome.  I'm can't wait until I try to log in and they tell me that the service is not compatible with macs.  Trident Technical College, not so technical.

I have already fought (and lost) with their tech support team over the lack of customization and poor GUI of their e-mail client.  I didn't suggest change, schools usually use crappy e-mail clients.  These programs are designed to be cheap work horses, not pretty, designed things.  I get that.  I simply wanted to automatically forward any e-mail sent to my TTC account to any one of my home or work accounts.  This is not an option for students.  Why is this not an option for students?  I can understand having to enable this option manually as a preference but to not have it at all?  This is a community college with a large adult population who take distance and on-line learning courses.  What bad, bad planning.

Despite all of this, I still have high hopes for the classes.   Fingers crossed.