Baa Baa Knit Stitch

Hey! I've Moved!

2011-06-18T18:16:00.001-04:00

If you're looking for my blog, I've moved!

Head over to www.baabaaknitstitch.com and come see me... :)

Ponderings on Music and Me

2011-05-20T09:09:00.004-04:00

I was on the way to take care of some stuff with my mom yesterday, and I knew it was going to be stressful. I have playlist on my iPod that consists only of my favorite classical choral music that I play for comfort.

Music has always been a big part of my life. Did the requisite piano lessons as a child. Played the violin for awhile. Played guitar, somewhat badly, and I have a banjo here that I swear I'm going to learn to play. It's on the bucket list, so I have to.

But I've always loved to sing, and fortunately I've been blessed with what people tell me is an above average voice. Mezzo-soprano, thankyouverymuch, although I currently sing alto. I've been a part of choirs since I was in the 8th grade. At the girls school I attended from 6th to 9th grade, you were eligible to be in the main chorus when you got to the 9th grade, and they had an audition only group that I was fortunate enough to make. We always did a Christmas concert with the boys school across town. I still remember how wonderful it was when I heard all four parts of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" together for the first time, and how cool it was when we sang it in performance and the whole crowd stood up. I didn't know the back story of it at the time.

The two schools merged, and I sang with the chorus there. We had to learn all sorts of classical pieces. I hated it. HATED it. I hated the repetition. Hated all those pesky eighth note runs. But my friends were in it. I remember sitting with my friend Karen, throwing Atomic Fireballs on the floor of the Chapel to break them apart and eating them during practice, and bothering the tenors sitting in front of us (just because we could). I didn't know at the time I was learning discipline and that those pieces I hated would become some of my best loved music.

Went to college and sang with the choir there. Discovered the Bach "Magnificat" and how you could really freak people out singing a capella in Latin in the middle of a welcome center. Found out how hard it could be juggling finals and Christmas concerts at the same time. But I'll never, ever hear "Once in Royal David's City" without remembering processing through Glenn Memorial Church at those concerts. I also remember being mesmerized by the string instruments -- I had never sung with anything other than a piano or organ, and it was quite a thrill singing with an orchestra.

After college, I didn't sing for awhile, and I missed it. I tried singing with a community chorus, but it didn't really work out. I had a major disagreement with the director's wife, who was trying to make me stand where I couldn't see the director during the performance. ALL my directors had taught me that I needed to look at them, and by golly, I was gonna do it.

Then, I saw a sign on a local church advertising that they were singing the "Messiah" -- that very same piece with the "Hallelujah Chorus" and all those pieces I had hated in high school with all those blasted eighth note runs. My friend Cathy went there and sang with the choir, so I told her to tell her director that if he needed a soprano who knew the choruses to have her director give me a call. Jerry called the next day. I've been there ever since.

I have to thank Jerry, because singing with him has been one of the biggest blessings of my life. I've sung the old familiar classical pieces I knew, and he's added so many new ones to my repertoire. The choir has become some of my best friends and it's my safe place during so many of life's storms. And where else can you find a group of people who will sing Beethoven's "Hallelujah" from the "Mount of Olives" a la Elmer Fudd? "Hawewujah unto Gods awmighty Son..."

Today I'm going with the youth of our church to sing to one our members who is in hospice care. She always told me how much she enjoyed our music and how much she loved hearing us sing. I'm hoping this will bring her comfort... even more than my little playlist on my iPod brings to me.

Well, so much for that

2011-05-15T19:56:00.003-04:00

Ok. So, I said I wasn’t going to disappear, and I did.

Well, a lot of stuff happened. Like the end of tax season. This in itself tends to be a whole ball of crapola all wound up in a very short period of time. Except that this year, I had an extra complication:

Yeah, that’s my mom’s house, and that huge green thing is a tree. It’s a tree that my Dad planted. I used to jump over it when I played as a child, and he’d get all over me for doing it. On April 15, there was a huge storm, and the tree fell onto the house. All in all we were blessed; it nipped the corner where it could easily have gone smack into the middle of the house and basically destroyed it. Instead, there was a hole in the roof, three rafters broken and lots of cosmetic interior damage to my childhood bedroom.

Mom was in the house when the tree fell, and she was understandably shaken up. I had been unable to get her on the phone for about half an hour, knowing she was home, and I had already gotten in the Hummer and was halfway there when Richard got the call from the neighbor that the tree had fallen. In case you’re wondering, I can now say with absolute certainty that an H3 will do speeds exceeding 90 in stormy conditions, although they do shake a lot when you get them up to that speed.

No power, no phone, no cable – Mom refused to leave. So Richard came up (Penny stayed home because insulation was everywhere) and we camped. I came back the next day and finished returns and extensions; the day after, power and phone was restored (kudos to Georgia Power and AT&T) and she finally got cable back the day after. But she lost the contents of two freezers due to the power outage – that was a lot of food to lose.

Repairs are underway. I’ll be really glad when they’re done, because it’s been difficult shuttling between here and there to supervise things.

The next thing that’s been keeping me amused is the committee looking for an interim minister at our church. I’m a member of the Presbyterian Church, USA, and if you know anything about Presbyterians, you know that we do everything “properly and in order”. In other words, we go around the world to get from point A to point B. It’s been a two-month long often frustrating process, but I’m hoping we’re about to draw it to a close.

And, to top it off, there’s going to be some changes with my business. I won’t go into them just yet… but everything will work out for the best.

I realized a few days ago just how long it had been since I’d done any stitching when I took out a piece to start and began treating overdyed cotton as if it were just plain DMC. I was completely mortified. Between work, looking after Mom, and church, there’s not been much time to do anything I like. I’ve been doing some fairly simple knitting, but not a lot. Evidently, this is a signal that something has to change. I’ve got to learn to take care of the caretaker. And somewhere along there, I’ll have to regain my sense of humor about a lot of stuff.

I did at least get two domain names reserved: www.doxietrek.com and www.baabaaknitstitch.com -- I hope to move the blog to the latter one sometime in the near future, so keep a look out.

Been a bit of a week

2011-03-18T23:07:00.006-04:00

...yeah, the usual tax season slogging about. Most of my clients have begun to wake up and realize "Say... perhaps I should get my taxes done." The next three weeks will be incredibly busy.

Outside work is busy too. Our pastor is retiring on Sunday. I'm on the Interim Pastor Search Committee, chiefly because I'm the disbursing treasurer. Let's just say that our committee and the Presbytery are having a disagreement over some things, and I'm not really happy with the Presbyterian Way of doing things right about now.

To top it off, I broke a tooth last week. It's tax season, so I must need a crown, right? (Four of my five crowns have now been acquired during tax season.) Went to the dentist yesterday - now, let me say up front that I love my dentist. Been going to him for 22 years. But yesterday, for some reason, the novacaine didn't work. Three shots of it didn't work. The tooth never got numb. (Cringe with me, people.) The drilling was Not. Pleasant. At. All.

So, after a week like this, what's a person to do?

Order more Wollmeise, obviously.

I totally blame my friend Benne on Ravelry. Yeah. That's it. See, normally I'd just lurk around The Loopy Ewe to see when some Wollmeise might go up and then try to snag some, but Benne is wise and crafty. She's locked into the time on the Gen-u-ine Wollmeise website out of Germany as to when they put up new product. So she told me about it, and I promptly bookmarked it. By the way, they send you a pack of gummi bears when you order from them.

So today, Benne let me know that they had grab bags up. What did I order?

I don't have a clue -- it was all in German.

But if it looks anything like this, we're golden:

Is this thing on??

2011-03-13T17:35:00.003-04:00

...tap...tap...tap.....testing...

Ok. I know I kinda went on radio silence there for (*cough*sevenmonths*cough*) awhile. I'll try not to do the disappearing act again. I could use the trite old excuse that things got busy, or that life got overwhelming... but all of you are way too smart to fall for that trick. Bottom line is: I'm lazy. And, I didn't think I had anything particularly interesting going on. You have to admit you get tired of me yammering on about business and taxes. I know the look -- it's that glazed over look people get right before their eyes roll back in their head... or that kind of glassy stare they give me right before they say "uh huh..." very earnestly and I know they have no clue what I've just said.

Fortunately for me, Steve (my new business partner) is a fellow geek. He also gets excited about taxes, of all things. We were positively beside ourselves with one return with a total boatload of income that ended up owing no taxes due to all the taxfree bonds (srsly, we nearly blacked out the name and put that one on the bulletin board). And we just about threw a party when an audit letter came back showing zero liability.

Dang, when you think about it, we're sooooo easily amused.

Steve's the tall blond on the left. We've even got our name on the office, so we look official and all. The 720filer.com thing is stalled a bit. Our programmer kind of bit off more than he could chew, and he didn't deliver the e-filing portion. Let's say he's now our ex-programmer. Unfortunately, that means we're still filing these forms by hand, which is so not what we wanted at this point.

So, it's now tax season. Outside of a laptop failure (what? you don't think that copy of Windows I have is legal? what is this box on my desk, then?) and subsequent laptop shopping (how fast is the hard drive? No. 2.3 ghz is not the hard drive. No. An I3 is not the hard drive. Never mind.), it's been going ok. We have an intern now -- and along with it comes the opportunity to ~~warp~~ shape a young accountant to be.

Other than work, you ask? Miss Penny (aka "Princess Chunky Butt") is now officially 2 years old. She's grown into quite the beautiful pup, if I do say so myself.

Of course, she rules our house with an iron paw. She went on her first vacation trip to Highlands this summer, charming everyone within her sphere of influence. She particularly likes to charm them out of food and is now up to 17 pounds of dachshund fury, which is how she got the "Chunky Butt" moniker. She had her annual checkup yesterday, and the v-e-t said the ugly "D" word... as in "Diet". Richard and I gasped in horror, since Penny can be quite the pawfull when she's hungry.

Stitching and knitting? Been doing a little... not a whole lot. When I get in at night, I generally sit down and immediately fall asleep. But I did crochet these booties for a friend who is expecting a little girl.

I was fairly pleased with them. I've got a lot of stitching here, and I put stitches in here and there, but I never seem to get anything finished. Perhaps if that stitching ADD wasn't so bad and I worked on one thing at a time, eh??

That's my little catch up... I'll try not to disappear again. I thank those of you who contacted me and told me you missed my little blog. Makes me feel good to know you notice.

And please, pray for the people of Japan. I have Japanese clients who were there when the quake hit -- we've heard from them, and they were in Tokyo -- and many of their employees are from Japan and have families there who are affected (to my knowledge, everyone has checked in and is fine). Japan is a strong country, but this has been a hard hit and it's going to take a lot of help for them to get back on their feet. Please watch out when you donate to relief organizations and make sure they're legitimate. Go to www.charitynavigator.org and check them out if you're not sure.

If you want to sell me something, just listen to me

2010-08-04T18:34:00.003-04:00

Ah yes. The role of the salesperson. Particularly in computer stores. One would think that if a customer was in essence telling you exactly what they needed, the salesperson would sell it to them. Seems to me to be easiest sale of the day. No work involved. In essence, I'm pretty lazy, so I'm all over the fact that there's no work involved.

As I blogged last time, I and some other gentlemen are involved in a venture to file the new tanning tax online. Accordingly, we needed a computer we could dedicate to transmitting these returns to the IRS -- talking to the IRS and to the customers all the time connected to the internet. We had some pretty specific requirements, one of which was that we would not be running a Windows operating system, so any machine used would be stripped of the existing hard drive and have two brand spanking new drives installed (running mirrored for backup) and using Ubuntu.

(For those of you whose eyes are now rolling back in your head, I promise that's as technical as I'm going to get. Come back toward the light...)

So one of my partners and I went to Micro Center. We got hold of a salesperson, George, who, bless his heart (and I mean that with all Southern inflection), didn't appear to be quite on the ball. We told him what we were doing with the computer. He had sort of the same glassy-eyed reaction I imagine many of you did at the paragraph above (keep in mind what this guy does for a living..). We made the mistake of saying the word "server" -- at which point, like some demented Looney Tunes cartoon, you could literally see his eyeballs replaced by dollar signs as he eagerly steered us to some of the most expensive boxes in the store.

Uh no. Listen to me, dude. I'm telling you exactly what we want.

Much to George's chagrin, we ended up purchasing a much lower end box -- and then he had to call in more help when we told him specifically, in excruciating detail, exactly which hard drives we needed. Down to the manufacturer. Evidently dear, befuddled George couldn't guide us to that bin on the hard drive aisle. We threw those, a monitor and a UPS in the cart and beat a hasty retreat to the cash registers -- but not before a manager blew past us in the hard drive aisle without even an "excuse me". Rude.

This was Thursday. On Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday, hubby did everything he could to get Ubuntu installed on this machine. Wouldn't run. He tried multiple versions. Wouldn't run. With each version he tried, the computer had difficulty talking to various parts of its innards.

On Sunday morning, frustration had taken over in a major way. I decided that desperate times called for desperate measures: time to buy a whole new box -- and not from George. After church we went to Office Depot, where I'd had luck buying machines before and which had a Lenovo machine that looked like it would fit the bill. Told 'em I'd take it.

There was a hold up. Turns out they had to verify the virus software.

Excuse me? I just told you I wasn't using that Windows hard drive. I'm taking it out of the machine. I don't care about virus software (and seriously - last time I bought a computer that had McAfee installed I had to remove it because it slowed down the system something fierce).

Oh no, their corporate office prohibited them from selling a computer on which they hadn't verified the virus software. So they finally bring me the computer. In an open box.

Now, I'm a little ticky about things like that. If I'm spending hundreds of dollars on electronics that are brand new, I want the box to be sealed. I want to make sure that I'm the first person playing with them. (I've checked around too. I'm not the only person who feels that way.)

Office Depot couldn't sell me a computer in a sealed box. Evidently it's against their corporate policy because they have to check it for my own good. Or it's against their religion. Either way, it wasn't working for me so I left.

Across the street to Best Buy, where I tell the guy that two people have already pissed me off, and I'd really prefer it if he weren't the third. Asked him if he could sell me an HP computer in a sealed box. He didn't have a problem. We took it home. Installed Ubuntu. Worked the first time.

...which left me with the box from Micro Center, which I put in the car and took back on Monday. The conversation with the customer service department began with "You might as well just get your manager now, because I'm not paying the 15% restocking fee..." - before I set into the litany of what had happened. Frankly, I think I scared the guy, but I got my money back.

So we now have a bright, shiny new HP computer with dual 500GB hard drives and a static IP address that will be conversing with the IRS on a regular basis. I'm hoping they'll be more reasonable with the computer than they are with most of our clients.

I've been reminded...

2010-07-27T09:00:00.002-04:00

...by some friends of mine who dutifully check my blog for my musings that I've been entirely too quiet since the last Danica rant. Frankly, the heat down here has sapped my will to do just about anything. I know I've lived in Georgia all my life, but really. It's been a long time since it's been so nasty so early. And today I'm living the joy of getting a brand, spanking new central A/C unit installed upstairs. Woo. There goes a crapload of yarn money! Actually, we've been lucky to get 13 years out of the builder-grade unit that was up there, so we've been living on borrowed time.

It's been so hot here that we're driving Penny down to the pool in the subdivision for some interaction with people. Last time we did that, she got out of the car, ran to the grass to take care of some business, then trotted back over to the car as if to say "you've got to be kidding; it's stinkin' hot out here! I need to be back in air-conditioned comfort, thank you." We take her to Starbucks on Saturday mornings for meet & greets, and it's even getting too hot to sit outside there. Gak.

So what have I been up to?? Well, DF Judy came to visit, and I spent a lot of money. DF Teresa came to visit, and I spent a lot of money. You should be seeing a pattern right about now. :-) Actually, I had a blast with both of them, and their visits were far too short. Wish I could have gotten both of them here at the same time along with DF Ann... but maybe we'll work on that later in the year.

During Teresa's visit we hit the Vera Bradley store, because it was her birthday and you get spiffs for going there on your special day. As it happened, one of the designers of the bags was in the store, and asked for our opinions... if you know me and Teresa, you can picture what happened after that. Even add in Richard's two cents. :) (Seriously, if you don't want to know, don't ask.) We also went to a needlepoint store and Teresa bought a canvas, and as it happened a teacher was there who was teaching a class on designing your own stitches -- and lucky duck that Teresa is, the teacher helped her pull threads and did a stitch guide for her right there! We decided that we needed to try to take her class in September, so we got on the waiting list. We also decided if we can't get into the class, we'll go down there and press our sad panda faces up against the glass until they let us in...

Business is going well. As Richard says, I'm trying to make money off Snooki and The Situation by capitalizing on the tanning tax. :) Go to 720filer.com if you wonder what I'm talking about. :) Heck, if they're going to enact these stupid taxes I don't agree with, we may as well make a buck trying to help people comply with them, right? Actually, it's been a great experience working with some folks that I worked with many, many years ago and reconnecting. Never fails to amaze me how things go around and God brings people back into your life when they need to be there.

Stitching and knitting? Not much, actually. I seem to have the attention span of a flea with ADD. I am easily distracted by shiny things and screaming at the politicians on TV (maybe that's my new hobby...). I have some fantastic canvases that I haven't started (it's really hard to stitch with a puppy who loves to grab the thread), and knitting is also a challenge (see aforementioned puppy issues). Yeah, Penny is a year and 4 months old, but she's still in full-blown puppy mode. I'm trying to enjoy her while I can. There'll be plenty of time for stitching and knitting later.

I'm psyched because we've got reservations in Highlands in a couple of weeks. Haven't been in two years, because Oscar was too feeble his last year, and last summer Penny was just too young. This year I'm hoping to arrange a meeting with DF Mish from Ravelry! Woo! Hoping to blog again after the trip with pictures (to make this a tad more interesting...). :)

Dear Danica...

2010-06-27T15:20:00.003-04:00

... In regard to the Nationwide series race you ran on June 26, 2010:

Morgan Shepherd is not some old guy who is a backmarker in a lower series. He was winning Daytona 500s while you were still playing with your Barbie Dreamhouse.

In the eyes of this NASCAR fan, who has also been watching since you were still playing with your Barbie Dreamhouse, you made a rookie mistake and came down on Morgan while he was holding his line.

For you to come back and tap him like that, indicates you lack respect for the people who built the sport you’re trying to cash in on. Would you have done that to AJ Foyt? Mario Andretti? Bobby Rahal? Danny Sullivan? Juan Pablo? (I laugh when I think of you doing that to Juan Pablo, because your butt would be in the wall on the next lap so fast it would make your pretty little head spin. And he wouldn’t bother to make it look like an accident.)

Step 1: Learn the history of the sport and respect the men who made it. You owe Morgan an apology. And throw in a set of tires for his next race. You can afford it off of one race’s T-shirt sales, K?

Sincerely,
Doxietrek

Beware the quiet

2010-06-03T17:47:00.007-04:00

So... I was thinking... things were pretty quiet around here. Not a lot going on. Things are progressing with the business. All's quiet on the home front. FedEx hasn't ticked me off in at least a month. We're rolling along pretty well.

I should learn not to think.

First of all, we did have a relatively uneventful Memorial Day weekend. Had a bit of a "staycation" where Richard was determined that we have fun, dangitall, if it was the last thing we ever did. To that end, we went to see Iron Man 2 (I'm totally convinced Robert Downey Jr isn't acting) and went to the needlepoint store in Buckhead where, of course, I spent too much money. Found a couple of cute canvases and got the threads to match.

On Sunday we took Penny to the dog park that we discovered near our house. Rollicking good time, right? Uh, Penny didn't get the memo.
Maybe it was the fact that there were no other small dogs in that section of the dog park. Maybe it was foreshadowing of things to come. At any rate, the Pennster was Not. Happy. with the situation. For awhile she wouldn't even move. When we got her to take a few steps, she'd stop and stare at us until we finally relented and brought her home to her comfy sofa.

We spent the rest of the holiday watching a "Hoarders" marathon, cleaning house, and trying to convince ourselves that our house really wasn't that messy...

Oh yeah... the quiet part. On Tuesday night, Penny was unusually quiet while the ladies from stitch group invaded the house. Their presence, particularly in open-toed shoes and flip-flops, would usually mean an evening of "No, Penny. No Toes." and chasing her down to retrieve the shoes she'd filched from underneath the dining table. She made off with a flip-flop, but her heart wasn't in it; she spent most of the time in Richard's lap. After everyone left... we found out why as she started throwing up. The third time, when I saw traces of blood, it was off to the Emergency Vet.

Her Packed Cell Volume was high -- like HGE high -- so Penny ended up spending the night in the hospital getting fluids and medicines to quiet her tummy. As it turns out, we got her there just in time -- she threw up 4 more times with even more blood. No diarrhea as is often seen in HGE. We left the ER around 2 and I was back at 7:30 to get her and take her directly to our vet for more fluids and medicine. Dr. Weaver wasn't in (drat!!), but Dr. Nunn did a good job taking care of Penny and keeping me well informed as to what was going on. They took x-rays of her tummy as a precaution to make sure she hadn't chowed down on a foreign object (I didn't think so, but I was willing to go along with it to rule things out). She got to come home late that afternoon, and DF Andy was gracious enough to come puppy sit for us last night so we could go to handbell and choir practice. (We have a music program at church on Sunday, and it was essential that we be at rehearsal.)

This is Penny's second round of HGE. They don't know for sure what causes it. Dachshunds seem prone to it, and Oscar had it several times during his lifetime. It's fatal if untreated, and catching it early is best. I know the receptionist at the Emergency Vet thought I was nuts for bringing my dog in for throwing up three times, but I'm familiar with the symptoms and I knew she needed treatment pronto. The vet there was very nice; turns out she grew up with a wirehaired dachshund and currently does German Shorthaired Pointer rescue.

So, Penny's now resting at home on a diet of roasted chicken. Tough life.

During all this event with Penny, my friends on Ravelry, Facebook and Twitter were a lifeline. My friend Jen posted updates to Ravelry after I'd tweeted, and so many people tweeted their encouragement and prayers. I hadn't realized how much I'd come to depend on my extended cyber family for support during trying times. I know some folks don't "get" Twitter... but it's times when you're really looking for some comfort and support that you can throw something out there and get immediate response and can see that you've got folks who have your back. :)

Today my friend and client Vicki Tag came over to bring some paperwork for the business, and she brought her little girl, Melia, with her. Penny recovered from death's door to have a vigorous play date with Melia! There was much stealing of flip-flops... much gentle nibbling of toes... and much squealing and puppy kisses all around.

Sometimes a visit from a little girl is the best medicine of all. :)

Catching Up

2010-05-27T14:03:00.012-04:00

Well, we've had a little time to recover from the trip to Pigeon Forge. Penny has sufficiently recovered enough take over again. We didn't think she'd want to go anywhere for awhile, but last Saturday she was stir crazy enough to want an outing, so we did the usual morning trip to Starbucks followed by errands. She made friends with a Papillon named Shiloh -- Richard and I decided it was a tossup as to who had the cushier life, Penny or the Papillon -- and she rode somewhat peacefully in her car seat while we drove her around. We were pretty happy about that, because that's exactly what we want her to get used to doing.

I'm pleased to say that I have now survived my first colonoscopy. I knew it was important to have it done, because I'm at a slightly higher risk for colon cancer since I had an uncle die from it and since my father had a few issues... but to be honest, I put it off as long as I could. I'm here to tell you that the procedure itself is a piece of cake. You're taking a nice, enforced nap (using Propofol in non Michael Jackson-esque quantities), and I figure as long as nothing ends up on You Tube, I'm good. My only problem was with the prep. If you have no clue what's involved, I'll let you google it. I knew it was going to be unpleasant, but I had no clue I was going to be one of the small percentage of people who had a really bad reaction to it. I'm such a speshul snowflake. :) I got a clean bill of health tho, and they gave me an invitation to come back for another one in 5 years. I said we'd chat. Upon further review, I figure I've got no worries because the government healthcare probably won't pay for it at that point anyway...

The new business is going well. You'd think things would settle down after tax season, but now we're in what I like to call the "flurry of letters" season. My current favorite is the Georgia Department of Revenue, which apparently delights in wasting taxpayer time and money demanding payment of taxes that have already been paid. Topping that is the NC Department of Revenue which seizes bank accounts of unsuspecting taxpayers after sending notices to incorrect addresses, after they've been properly notified of the correct address. And some people think we only really work 4 months a year... :)

In the middle of all this, I have actually had an opportunity to (gasp!) knit and even crochet a little:
Crochet dishcloths, pattern is Tulip Stitch Dishcloth, yarn is I Love This Cotton by Hobby Lobby. You can get two cloths out of one skein. :)
Ladder Stitch Crocheted Dishcloth, again in I Love This Cotton by Hobby Lobby. It took only part of a skein, so I'm doing another Tulip Stitch cloth out of the rest.Lacy Mock Cable socks. Yarn is an Ella Rae fingering/lace weight yarn that's doing well for socks. :)

Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend! Take time during your fun to remember why the holiday is there, and if you see a soldier, say thank you. :)

Marathon Shopping

2010-05-18T11:11:00.007-04:00

...and we're home from our annual marathon shopping trip to Pigeon Forge. Mom likes to go up there about once a year to check out the outlet fare. There's a Kasper outlet there and she generally has pretty good luck finding something (altho it's pretty difficult to find clothes when a size 2 is too large... yeah, she needs to eat more). It was a quick Friday-Sunday trip... but more importantly, it was Penny's first big trip away from home and staying in a hotel. We were anxious to see how she'd do.

Friday morning we headed to Rome to Mom's house to get the van and head up to the mountains. We had decided to try to get Penny to ride in the puppy car seat; Oscar would never ride in it, preferring instead to "drive" draped across the lap of whoever happened to occupy the drivers' seat (generally me). Needless to say, this is not the most safe way for anybody to travel. Fortunately, Penny took to it like the proverbial duck to water...She'd look out the window, curl up and have a nap... she didn't even fuss when we stopped for fast food and deigned to eat a bite still parked in the car seat. Didn't whine or bark (except when we drove through a storm and it thundered, but that's another matter). We were very pleased.

On the way up, we try to always stop at the Mayfield Dairy in Athens, TN for some ice cream. All of us found it very tasty!We stayed in the Hampton Inn in Pigeon Forge. This particular hotel is located very close to the main outlets and is very comfortable and very pet friendly. We always stayed there when Oscar was with us, and their hospitality hasn't changed. Penny did exceptionally well in the hotel and only barked a few times when there were some unexpected loud noises.

Mom bought a stroller for Oscar to use when shopping (DF Jill referred to it as his "Royal Carriage"), and Penny has inherited it. After some initial complaining, she settled right down in it and consented to be driven around. Sure beats walking, especially when your legs are so short!

We shopped Friday afternoon, and all day Saturday. Did some damage, but not as much as on other trips. Mom did find some suits, which was the main purpose of going.

As Richard said on Facebook, "We shopped till she dropped."
On Sunday before we left town, we headed for the huge Flea Market that's just off the interstate. That's when Penny's patience ran out. She was tired of being in the stroller and nothing would do but that she be carried around. She decided to bark at people. She was In A Mood -- I dunno, maybe it was the Fleas. At any rate, we piled back in the van and headed south.

So, it was a successful trip with the hound. It appears we have another little traveler, so we're anxious to return to Highlands. We haven't been there for two years. Hoping for a trip this summer!

3g Day

2010-04-30T20:20:00.005-04:00

I've been waiting, not so patiently, since March 12, for delivery of my 3g iPad.

I dutifully saved my Christmas and birthday money, and figured that along with some money I'd make off tax season I'd have enough to afford the Cadillac 64 GB 3g model. (Color me naive about what tax season brought...) So the first day I could, I ordered it, along with a case and a power adapter.

Apple taunted me. They released the wifi version. They shipped the case to me. They shipped the power adapter. They billed my card for the Apple Care.

I started haunting the message boards on apple.com to figure out when it would be shipped. Consensus was that the prize would be in my hands on April 30, and indeed, I got email from Apple saying it had been shipped, and I'd have to be home to sign for it. (Lest you think I'm really nuts, rest assured I was one of many people anxiously awaiting the release. I didn't comment on the boards. Some of the people on there were thisclose to storming Apple headquarters with torches and pitchforks when they thought their shipment might be delayed till May 1.)

I planned the day. Up shortly after 7; showered and ready before 7:30, just in case it came early. And I waited... and waited... and waited. Email said it should be at my house before 3. I tracked it on FedEx.com and discovered it was on a truck headed toward me.

Around 2:30, I started getting nervous about the whole thing, especially given that my friend Cliff had taken delivery of his a couple of hours before. At 3:00, I checked the FedEx site again, to discover the dreaded "Delivery Exception" next to the tracking number.

The explanation was "Customer not home."

What?????

Oh hell no.

I fear at that point, I sort of lost my temper. "Sort of" defined like the volcano in Iceland "sort of" spewed ash that stopped air traffic for awhile. I dialed up FedEx and had a chat with the person who answered to explain that I took offense at such a bald-faced lie being used as an excuse for the delivery person not doing his job. You see, this was the second FedEx package within 3 days that hadn't reached my home on time.

They had rescheduled delivery for Monday. This was unacceptable in ways you can only begin to imagine. They said they wouldn't make the delivery guy come back since it wasn't medical equipment. So I'd have to go to their hub.

After another tirade on me getting out in Friday afternoon Atlanta traffic, the person gave me the address. I asked for the phone number for the hub, and the rep said they didn't have one. "Bull" was my response. Every place has a phone number; they just didn't want me to have it. So they patched me through to the hub so they could give me directions.

I asked when I could expect the driver to be back there... the person said "Oh, that's Mark... he should be here about 5:30" -- yeah, like he was supposed to be at my house about 3. I was in mid tirade again about their poor service when the doorbell rang.

It was Mark. With my iPad.

I can only guess that someone from FedEx called him and told him there was one po'ed little woman there and he best get over there with my package.

His explanation was that there were multiple streets in my neighborhood with similar names. Ya think? And that FedEx was supposed to get them GPS units but hadn't. Dude, have ya heard of a map? Why not call me if you couldn't find the house -- you had my phone number? Would have been better than lying about it.

I'm still appalled at the lack of customer service. Needless to say I won't be shipping FedEx anytime soon.

But at least I have my toy.It's soooooo kewl.

Stitches South, 2010

2010-04-27T10:12:00.017-04:00

My name is Jean, and I have a problem.

Oh heck no I don't! I freakin' enjoy myself!! And I had a particularly wonderful time this past weekend at Stitches South. Although I will admit that I didn't think the haul was nearly as big as it turned out to be. Reminded me of the time we were all at Spirit of Cross Stitch, and we asked our DF Cathy what she'd bought, and she replied "Not much" and then proceeded to dump this huge haul onto the bed for us to see. We laughed ourselves silly over the astonished look on her face when she realized exactly how much she'd spent....

DFs Teresa and Jackie came to spend the weekend at my house. This was the first time I'd met Jackie in real life, and she is so delightful! We decided that in oh so many ways we were actually the same person (although she's a bit taller). Along with DFs Heather and Jill, we took a class on Thursday: "Fiendishly Difficult Stitches". Class was ok. I just took it because that's what everyone else was taking, and to be honest, I wasn't paying much attention. I was distracted by the yarn fumes coming from the marketplace that opened right after class was over...

Shopping ensued, both on Thursday night and on Friday morning. People have been asking for pictures of the haul. Take a deep breath...
This is the "accessories" section of the haul. I got a set of Kollage square circulars (a size 8 is missing because it was immediately put to use casting on a tank top with some yarn from last year's Stitches South), Della Q project bags plus an interchangeable needle holder, some portable looms I'd been eyeing, and some Hiya Hiya stitch markers with holder.Sock yarn: The four skeins on the left are from Miss Babs... center is Opal, right two skeins are very sparkly Kraemer with sterling silver woven throughout.

Next up is my visit to the Quiviut booth. No, I'm not that crazy. I bought merino and some very nice hooded cowl patterns...It'll be interesting to see what happens with the cowls. They're lace. And lace and I are currently in a mutual time out. Last time I tried... well... the result was ugly and it resulted in me temporarily losing all my religion.I bought some books and patterns...And some more books and patterns, along with a kewl swift that is the subject of some debate at my house. You can't really see it here... but it's wooden and is flat on the tabletop. Richard says we don't need it; I disagreed.

Finally, more yarn...Some bulky Noro was on closeout at Webs... Got a great deal on the Noro sock, and the Araucania cotton is something insane like 4400 yards, and I'm planning on knitting with it doubled and making some form of garment.

Ordered and to come... some wooden purse handles with a cutout in the shape of a dachshund, and earrings from Sassafras designs made from knitting needles that had to have leverbacks put on.

So, upon review, I probably bought just a teeny bit more than I thought. :)

One of the best parts?? Got our picture made with the folks responsible for Ravelry!That's me in the middle, next to Casey, looking very... short. L to R is Teresa, Jill, Casey, Moi, Jess, Sarah, Jackie, Mary-Heather. (Thanks to Jackie for the picture!)

Other than Stitches South, we made a trip to Perimeter Mall for shopping at the Pandora store and the Clarks shoe store... we ate at the hibachi steak place... Teresa and Jackie shopped at the needlework store that shall not be named for a little bit on Saturday (Richard and I sat in the car) and we headed in before the storms got bad... we did sneak out a bit later so that they could see DF Andy's townhouse and all of her beautiful stitching.

Princess Penny, of course, had a great time nibbling our guests' toes. Teresa's toes, for some reason, are particularly tasty. Jackie got a great picture of her...
All in all, a great but exhausting weekend full of good friends and good times! My bank account has a year to recover, and I can't wait to do it again next year.

On another note... can you help a wiener dog out?? Pam (who created the beautiful February Lady Sweater) has a doxie with a broken leg. To help out with vet bills, she's designed this tres cute baby sweater. If you have a few dollars to spare, please consider making a purchase. :)

Drumroll, please...

2010-04-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

Today is April 15. It's a big day for two reasons. First, it's the end of the first wave of tax season. Second, and most importantly, it's a new beginning.

April 15, 2010 is the first day of business for Early & Smith, LLC, an accounting and financial services firm I've created with my new partner, Steve Smith. Steve is an Enrolled Agent (EA) and is becoming licensed to provide investment services to our clients.

I've known Steve for nearly 20 years now, since we both ~~survived~~ worked at Universal Tax Systems in Rome, GA. He's a Northwest Georgia kid like me, and we share a lot of the same values.

Bob is going to ease into retirement after this tax season, and Steve will be working with a lot of his clients. We're hoping to work together to grow the business a lot more.

I'm excited -- I think this is going to be the beginning of a great new partnership!!

States I've Visited So Far...

2010-04-04T22:34:00.002-04:00

visited 22 states (44%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

I'm probably going to regret this...

2010-04-04T17:59:00.005-04:00

...but I took the weekend off.

I'd had it. Too tired to think about anything, and I considered myself a danger to work on anybody's stuff. The kicker was on Thursday, when I had one of the worst dizzy spells I'd ever had while I was at a client. Ya know... the room reeling, hold on to the chair for dear life, don't dare get up for fear of falling down kind of dizzy spell. I worked through it; it was probably a mistake because I found out Friday some errors I made that I'm going to have to correct. Upon review of the days leading up to it, it was probably also a mistake to subsist almost exclusively on Girl Scout Cookies, apple fritters, and caffeine -- did I mention the caffeine??

So evidently it was time for a personal "ctrl-alt-del" and a reboot and recharge to get through the next couple of weeks. I decided to go through the Easter weekend and spend it with my "pack" of Richard and Penny and not work.

Saturday we got up and decided it was time for a full pack outing. Started off at Starbucks for the first dining outside of the year. Penny delighted us by chasing petals blowing off the Bradford pear trees when the wind blew. She delighted the children stopping by with their mom on the way through Georgia from Wisconsin to Florida. From there, she went to Top Dogs, where she scored some treats, and we put her in her stroller to go to the Bird Watcher store to get her used to being in it in anticipation of a marathon shopping trip to Pigeon Forge with Grandma later this spring.
We'll just say this experiment wasn't a rousing success. Think "toddler tantrum" and screaming dog. We're hoping that if we tire her out a bit more before we put her in it she might be more amenable to being driven around.

From there we traveled to check out a new yarn store that had been opened by a friend of a friend of mine. Lovin' Knit has just started up, and I had met Pat who owns it at the Starbucks (where else do I hang out?) earlier this winter when she was there meeting with some yarn reps. I think I'm known as the yarn-crazed CPA who accosted her while she was trying to do business... At any rate, turns out Pat knows Bruce, who I do business with for Aflac... (insert small world comment here). The store is very cute and Pat has done a great job getting some very yummy yarn in...
(Have I mentioned I have a little problem with yarn?)

After the yarn shop, we went to another dog boutique (more cookies for Princess Chunky Butt!), a jewelry store (more Pandora charms!) and lunch (Penny enjoyed some bites as we ate outdoors with her).

Today we went to church for Easter services (don't fall over... I actually put on a dress!), and after a grocery store run we've been at home for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Richard has wound one of those skeins of yarn for me. I think I'm going to go start a pair of socks. :)

Till tomorrow, when it's time to work on the taxes again....

Happy Easter!

2010-04-02T12:52:00.002-04:00

Wishing all of you who celebrate a Happy Easter and a Happy Passover. :)

No chocolate bunnies here. Just one black and tan dappled wiener dog who seems to be on constant alert for any bunnies who may be lurking the front yard. Curiously, she completely missed the squirrel who took over the bird feeder off the deck and emptied it of seed.

It's April 2, and I'm tired. Tax returns are still coming in. Will have an exciting announcement (well, exciting to me anyhow) after April 15.

Back to work...

Save the 88

2010-03-26T09:26:00.003-04:00

I love NASCAR, particularly Dale Jr. (as you can tell by the layout of my blog. He's now sporting a Grizzly Adams beard that isn't, in my opinion, attractive, but I digress.).

If you follow NASCAR at all, you know that poor Junior has had a tough couple of (well, several) seasons. Poor guy can't catch a break. He seems cursed. He's had only one win (at Michigan and on fuel mileage at that) over the past few years and it looks like the only luck he has is bad. Either he gets caught up in someone else's problems, his car breaks, the tires give out, the engine blows... you get the picture. Or, aliens take over his brain and he misses his pit stall.

Whatever the problem, it just hasn't been pleasant for those of us faithful in Junior Nation.

There are a group of us knitters who met on Ravelry who are rabid NASCAR fans, and we have a chat during each week's race. We've run through several theories on Junior's problems. One was that his stepmother had a voodoo doll and was sticking pins in at random times. The one that seems to have stuck was that meteors are falling on Junior during the race and causing the problems with his car.

We are of the opinion that the Hubble Space Telescope could be used to predict these meteors and that Mr. Hendrick should surely engage NASA in an effort to help his driver.

Evidently there's another movement afoot as well. Yesterday I received this package in the mail:
I have blocked the return address so that the Society may remain protected from all who would wish Junior harm.

Contained therein was equipment that would be necessary to be worn during the next race to ward off the oncoming meteors and hopefully protect Junior's car from possible harm and enable him to win.

Penny and I are ready:
Bring it on.

I'm Angry

2010-03-16T15:23:00.002-04:00

It hasn't been the best tax season. Software issues have been a real problem. There's some other difficulties with the business. Family issues have piled on top of that.

And then this morning, I discover some low life has spammed my blog.

Her name, among what looked to be the Chinese characters, was "Karen". And she began her comments with "How Cool!" or "How Creative!" before launching into a barrage of what again appeared to be Chinese characters, clearly punctuated by a few words in English that I won't repeat here for fear of more spambots picking them up, and not for a good reason. It was ugly. I'm not a prude, but it's not the type of thing I generally want associated with anything I'm publishing.

What was particularly painful was that the spam hit the post I made when Oscar passed to the Bridge, and the comment began "That's Cool!" Yeah, I know it was something automated or someone who obviously didn't care and would just sit there and type in the code I thought you had to enter to prevent things like this from happening. No, it wasn't "Cool". It still hurts like hell, right to this day.

I've gone through and deleted the comment on all the posts the spammer hit. I didn't want to chance that anyone who reads my blog might come across them.

I've had to turn on comment moderation. I apologize for the hassle it may cause some of you, but I just can't allow this to happen again. And I'm disappointed, because I always enjoyed getting a note in my email letting me see your comments without having to go to the blog to view them. That's over. All because somebody has nothing better to do than spread filth through the internet.

No, I'm not stupid or naive. I know it happens. It just sucks that it happened to me.

One Year Ago Today...

2010-03-12T00:01:00.000-05:00

...a little dachshund just south of Atlanta had a litter of pups.

We were waiting and watching anxiously. Our house was empty. The loss was tremendous since our beloved Oscar had crossed to the Rainbow Bridge. We knew that we wouldn't be a whole pack again until we could share our home with another dachshund.

And that little dachshund mother took good care of a little black and tan dapple girl. We talked about her. We speculated on what she was doing... how she was growing... whether she had her eyes open and if she was playing with her little puppy siblings. We called her "new puppy" -- afraid to call her by name just in case the unthinkable happened.

And then, about 7 weeks later"new puppy" became Penny Jasmine, and she came home to live with us. Three perfect pounds of dachshund fury. If you haven't guessed, she's named after the character on "The Big Bang Theory", and sometimes she looks up when Sheldon knocks on the door and says "Penny!".

It had been a long time since we'd had a puppy. We'd forgotten how tough things like teething and potty training were. And there were times I had to remind our little girl that there was only going to be one top bee-yatch in the house, and it was gonna be me.

But she's loving. And she's a clown. And like all dachshunds, she thinks she's much bigger than she actually is (although she's now at 13 pounds -- she's a little fluffy or, as she prefers to say, she's big boned). She loves her food and her chewies. She's fierce from behind a window, and she's successfully chased all the thunder away with her barking. She's kept us safe from airplanes flying overhead as well as a woodpecker who had the audacity to hammer on the metal chimney cover.

She's a bed hog. I wake up every morning with her snuggled up right at my shoulder. She doesn't dive under the covers so much, but she has her own way of taking over at night and making sure she's comfy.

She's smart -- learned to use the ramps right off the bat. She knows all the basic obedience commands. Whether she chooses to hear them is another matter entirely. I long ago resigned myself to the fact that I live with a dog who is much smarter than I am.

So, Happy Birthday Penny Jasmine! We love you, and we're so glad you're here. Thank you for all the joy you give us. And we'll get those birthday cookies ready.

Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

2010-03-02T21:55:00.007-05:00

The victim:
An unsuspecting ball of #8 DMC perle coton, color 739. Last seen being used as a lifeline in a knitted lace project. Mercilessly cut down in the prime of life.

The Culprit:
Caught red-pawed with the victim wrapped around several chairs under a dining table.

Culprit expressed no remorse for her actions and actually begged for a cookie when caught.

I have been informed...

2010-03-01T09:22:00.008-05:00

....that I needed to put up a blog post. People. Srsly. Look at the calendar. What the heck do you think I'm doing?? I sure as heck ain't lounging around eating bonbons. And some of you who are asking me to put up a post (ahem, Sandra)... I do your taxes. Just sayin'. So here goes...

So I've pretty much summarized what I've been doing. :) Except.... I went through another round of The Crud. Oh, and I went for my annual physical and my doctor informed me that I was a "walking fracture" thanks to my Vitamin D levels (normal is between 30 and 100 -- my level was 6.3 -- leave it to me to be an overachiever no matter which way I go). Actually, I laughed hysterically over that one, even though it was wildly inappropriate to do so. My doc was so panicked that he had his office trying to reach me on my home phone and cell at the same time to tell me to go get the supplement. Poor guy. He's really great and has been a friend of my family for years... he was actually the one who found my dad's brain tumor and was so good to us during all that, so I'm thankful for him. But the Vitamin D deficiency, according to my reading, actually explains a lot of symptoms I've been having, and I'm hopeful that treating it will turn a lot of stuff around.

We had some more actual snow, and the Pennster loved it! She ran around like a wild dog -- wouldn't let me put her coat on her before she went out. She dug in the snow... sniffed... it's still so strange to have an actual dog. Our little Oscar always treated cold, wet stuff as if it were acid and would look at it, turn around as if to say "No, thank you" and retreat to the comfort of the heating vent. Penny, on the other hand... well...
and
We had trouble getting her to come in the house.

Speaking of Oscar... we passed the year's anniversary of when he went to the Rainbow Bridge. Doesn't seem that long ago. I still miss him like crazy. Penny is soooo different -- which is what we wanted -- but Oscar was my little soulmate. Rest well, little man. I love you.
Knitting, you say? Well, I did participate in the Ravelympics as a member of Team Fast Girls Knit Left from the NASCAR group. I managed to medal in a couple of events with some baby booties I thought would be the death of me. I ended up changing patterns and yarn for fear of cursing the baby after I had to keep ripping out and re-knitting a simple pattern. Turns out those size 5 double points were actually 4 size 7s and one size 6. Yay me for putting things in the right place. Eventually I got a pair of booties that looked like this:
I also medaled with a crochet water bottle holder:
No stitching right now... I have a dog whose goal in life is to eat everything I pick up. She has extremely good taste and only insists on eating silks and expensive overdyed cottons. Won't touch cheap DMC and Anchor. Although, I did send Drema at Needlecraft Corner a list of stuff to send me from the recent Nashville market. That scream and "thunk" sound you hear around the 15th will be me getting my credit card bill. It will shortly be followed by me on the side of the interstate holding a sign that says "Will do taxes for food."

My friend Jen recently put up a blog post about "The Best Friends I've Never Met". I got to experience a little of that myself recently when, after a particularly wretched day, I came home to a box containing all this:
Homemade (and quite yummy, may I add) preserves. A hand knitted cloth with handmade soap. Stitch markers. Wollmeise (pure gold to a knitter). A sweet note to go along with it. All from a friend I'd made on Ravelry who I've never met in real life. I won't embarass her here by naming her, but if she's reading this, and I hope she is, thank you again. You have no idea how much it meant to me and how much I value our friendship.

Sometimes life hands you little surprises to lift you up when you need them, and God gives you people in your life to lift you up and help you carry the load when you need it the most. I'm thankful to Him for all of it. And thanks to all of you who read my little blog and miss me when I don't post. :)

Dogs on Thursday

2010-01-28T08:16:00.001-05:00

It's Penny's turn again over on Dogs on Thursday. Head over and check out her post.

Maybe a sparkle of interest???

2010-01-21T14:01:00.007-05:00

The plague/crud/whatever it is continues to attack. Amazingly enough, I think the voice sounds worse than yesterday, yet I still have people calling me and complaining they can't undertstand me when they continue asking questions after the first croak. This is why there's email, people.

I'm not firing on all thrusters, so I don't feel comfortable doing tax work. But I'm bored. I've got on the TV. The current administration comes on talking about a plan to screw up the financial system as badly as they want to screw up healthcare. I can't even scream at the TV. I text Teresa on IM. I text Richard on the phone. I make up words to old songs, such as "Where have you gone, Alan Greenspan, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you, woo woo woo". I watch the market plummet. Now, I can't shut off this crap, because it's my job to keep up with it, much to my chagrin.

So I take out the knitting...

Most of you are now thinking, thank goodness, she's finally going to stop droning on and on about the tax code and the cleaners and the current administration and "how Mr. Smith is running this country and how many languages Enoch Powell can speak and then he throws up all over the Cuba Libres..." (as I lapse into Monty Python, Travel Agent sketch... srsly, if you've never seen this, it's a matter of cultural literacy). And she'll quit nattering about the cute dog.
(gratuitous cute dog photo)

I've been wanting to try two socks on one circular needle, specifically because my attention span lends itself to SSS (single sock syndrome, for those of you who don't knit). My friend Linda does them on two circs, and I've tried it, but I find two circs in general really fussy. A few nights ago Richard and I carefully weighed and divided a skein of Dream in Color sparkly yarn -- I forget what the heck it's called, but it was on sale at the Dizzy Sheep. My original intent was for it to become the wonderful Francie socks that my DF Jen on Ravelry had gifted me the pattern for, but upon review of the pattern and my state of mind, I decided those had best wait for another day. I decided that the Nutkin pattern might fit the bill... challenging enough not to be boring, but not so challenging as to send me screaming (or croaking as the case may be) for the frog pond.

First problem was casting on. Unlike The Magic That is Heather, I wasn't able to figure this out on my own... but fortunately others on the internet had kindly posted detailed photos of exactly how things should look. Got the stitches carefully placed on a size 1.5 47" circular needle and started to knit. I realized quickly that stitchmarkers were going to be necessary, as I kept pulling the cables too tightly and removing my "magic loop" (can you say "tense"?).

It took almost an hour, but I cast on and got two rounds of plain stockinette knit.
I really hope I get better at this. I'll let you know when I get to the heels.

Possibly the most boring blog post ever

2010-01-20T21:07:00.002-05:00

So here we are, middle of January. I'm happy to report that I haven't gone postal with anyone over their taxes yet... but then, it's early. We're using a new tax software package this year -- ironically from the same tax software company I worked for in the early 90s. Ownership has changed, but some of the same people I worked with are still involved. One of them is the salesperson who is also my tech contact... he's just getting back into the tax craziness after being laid off from a pharmaceutical company, and we have a deal that he calls me with tax questions and I call him with tech questions. Undoubtedly I think I've got the better end of the deal. :) At any rate, it'll be different getting used to a new package. Right now I've got enough to do finishing up W2s and payroll taxes. My new desk is installed in my office and is wonderful.

Not much else is happening. I appear to have developed a case of the crud/plague/some form of upper-respiratory throat something that has at the moment cost me my voice. Delightful when you still have to speak with clients on the phone. I'm hoping for some pity.

Made a big change to discontinue the cleaning service I had. Now, those of you who know me in real life are well aware that our house will never be a show home. We are, to say the least, cluttered... at worst, we're a candidate for "Hoarders". But we take pride in the fact that even tho there's clutter, the house is basically clean. Until a few weeks ago when I bent down in the kitchen with a paper towel to wipe up a spill and the paper towel came up black. I mean totally black. The day after it had supposedly been mopped.

So I called a client of mine who has a cleaning business, and as luck would have it, she had an opening. She and her husband came today. Wow. Just wow. I am so very happy with everything she did!!! So Susan, if you're reading this, a big ol' Thank You from the three of us... oh, and if you live in the north Atlanta area and are looking for someone to help you out, let me know and I'll provide particulars... :)

Penny continues to run the household. She's now 10 months old and is a Big Dog. Just ask her. She fancies herself to be a watchdog. Just let there be a noise of any sort -- car going by, airplane flying overhead, ant walking across the grass -- and she'll spring into action and into full barking frenzy. We haven't seen what would happen should she encounter Actual Danger, but I'm sure in her mind she's up to the challenge. This week we took her for a walk that was a full circuit of the neighborhood -- about 2.5 miles. That made for one tuckered teckel (as well as tuckered parents who walked her...).

Until next time... stay warm... if you're around here, stay dry... and continue to keep the people of Haiti in your prayers.

Sometimes we need a reminder...

2010-01-13T10:15:00.004-05:00

...of Who's in charge.

We got a reminder in Haiti last night. The suffering of that poor nation is tremendous... the history of corrupt government combined with the poverty, and now the smackdown of this earthquake... it's almost too much for humans to comprehend.

It's natural to want to help. And that's what I want to talk to you about.

You're going to see commercials on TV and hear them on the radio from relief agencies begging you for money. I'd like for you to consider other options, namely, faith-based relief organizations.

These organizations are not going to use their money on advertising. They operate as a branch of their denomination (or please forgive me, whatever branches of the Jewish faith are called... I'll admit I don't know), and their salaries and expenses are paid by the larger organization. That means that the money you donate for the cause actually goes to the cause and not to finance overhead.

More bang for the buck. As an accountant, I like that. And they'll give you the receipt you need for your taxes.

These folks are often the first ones in to situations like Haiti. They go in quietly, doing their work without fanfare. You won't see them on TV. They're carrying out the mission their faith tells them to do, which is to serve their brothers.

It doesn't matter if you're a believer or not. Just recognize the good work these organizations are doing, often on a shoestring budget. And help them if you can. I've put my money where my mouth is, and I encourage you to do the same.

Of the many organizations available, I can direct you to two I have personal experience with: the Presbyterians and the Methodists. There are many more available... just do your research and check them out before you give. Unfortunately, events like this also bring out a lot of charlatans.

God bless you for helping. God bless the relief workers. And God bless and help the people of Haiti.

Ice, Ice, Baby...

2010-01-10T16:49:00.006-05:00

What did I get for my birthday?? Ice.

There's precedent: twenty-two years ago, my thirtieth birthday party was cancelled due to a good old-fashioned Southern snow storm... which to those of you who don't live in these parts means a heavy coating of ice topped by about an inch or inch and a half of snow. We who were raised in the South understand that it means a snow day, and we hole up in our houses for the most part, having raided the local grocery stores of all the bread and milk, and we don't leave until the ice melts, which is generally the next day. Now, I understand those of you from cooler climates don't understand this but 1) you can't drive on ice and 2) we just don't have the equipment down here to clear the roads.

So on Wednesday, my two DFs Ann and Teresa came into town to spend the weekend with me for my birthday. We'd been cooking up this plan since ASG in October, and we were psyched about just hanging out on Thursday, doing shopping and eating out on Friday (my actual birthday) and then deciding what to do on Saturday.

Except... on Thursday afternoon it started raining. Then, it started snowing. Normally not much of a problem, since it generally melts and goes away, but we've been in the grips of the coldest weather this area has seen in, oh, 20 years (note reference above to my 30th birthday...). Somebody left the door to the arctic open and has seriously neglected to close it. So... the rain gave us a nice layer of ice for the snow to stick to, and the temps were low enough that it wasn't going anywhere.

Thursday night DFs Jill, Heather, Andy, Debbie, and Linda joined us for stitch night and a brief celebration -- Debbie brought some oh so delicious cupcakes! -- but driving home was a bit dicey, but everyone reported in that they had made it safely.

Friday morning we turned on the TV and realized we weren't going anywhere. Looked out the window at the ice on the road in front of the house and realized we weren't going anywhere. Fortunately Richard was able to work from home (we discovered later that night that it was a really good thing he didn't try to go in -- his route to work was the scene of an 11 car pileup where people just abandoned their cars because they couldn't move them on the ice). So... we had another day of hanging out, knitting, and stitching. Teresa discovered the wonders of the Wii and video games. :) And we shifted all our plans to Saturday.

Fortunately everything looked clearer on Saturday thanks to some sunshine and wind (the temps still hadn't come up, so there wasn't any actual melting). Richard and his "harem" ventured out... we met up with DFs Heather and Andy to shop at the Vera Bradley store (do you know you get a freebie from them on your birthday?? Sweet!) and Teavana (yum...). Then we ventured up to Buford, GA to shop at The Stitch Store (used to be The Dogwood Patch in Hiawassee, GA but recently moved and re-named). Lucked into their 20% off grand opening sale! :) It's a nice store, with a very sweet owner, and she has a fabulous selection of fabric and fibers.

Saturday evening we were met by DF Cathy, and we all went to The Melting Pot for fondue. I absolutely love fondue, and this didn't disappoint! Richard had arranged for balloons and a special gift of chocolate dipped strawberries as well. Everyone got different cheese fondues, entrees, and different chocolate dessert fondues so we were able to sample a lot.

What a wonderful birthday and a wonderful weekend! A little ice and snow can't stop a good party. :)

And the snow?? Someone had her first experience in it:

Till next time -- stay warm!

New Year... New Outlook (I hope!)

2010-01-03T21:45:00.008-05:00

Thanks to all of you who actually read my last two posts. Looking back over them, they were so depressing that even I couldn't stand reading them! So I'm starting off the year with a fresh outlook and have high hopes that I'll be more entertaining.

So how about some pictures?? Say of a particularly cute wiener dog who just happened to get a package in the mail from her Uncle Jerry, Aunt Kay, and Cousin Clancy in Chicago??

The package was addressed to Penny, so it was only fair that she got first crack at opening it:Unfortunately, the lack of opposable thumbs was ultimately her downfall. She gave it her best shot, but we had to help her. Inside, just for her were yummy, yummy, home baked dog cookies.Now, I know this picture shows her sitting politely, waiting for a cookie. I fear it is seriously misleading, as she was quite excited and could barely wait to get to the yumminess that I was holding. Understand that Penny is, as all dachshunds appear to be, an odd little dog. When she gets a particularly high value treat that she thinks needs to be "buried" in our house, she'll walk around with it in her mouth, crying. It sounds quite pitiful and it was very distressing the first few times we heard it until we figured out it was just her way. She took the cookie, cried, buried it, unburied it, walked and cried again, buried it, unburied it, walked and cried again... well you get the idea. This went on for quite awhile until she finally brought it to us for "permission" to eat. Silly dog. Needless to say, the cookies are such high value that I'm doling them out slowly... And we give a great big Thank You to our Chicago friends!!!

Penny has now decided that she wants to claim my pillow at night to sleep on. Mind you, there is an entire king-sized bed that she pretty much has the run of (can I end any more phrases with prepositions?), but she has a dachshund-obsession with my pillow. A couple of nights ago it landed her in her crate to sleep -- now her crate is large and has a fluffy dog bed in it, so it's hardly a prison, but it's not with us. So we'll say that it's a problem we're working on.

A little knitting, you say? Well, I did finish Christmas gifts for my sisters-in-law that can now be shown:Identical hats and cowls, made from Araucania Chunky wool, ordered from Webs. Cowl pattern is the Un-Purled Cables cowl created by my friend Sara, and the hat is a beret recipe from Crazy Aunt Purl. Both are free patterns on Ravelry. I thought both of my sisters-in-law could use them since they have dogs that need walking during the winter weather.

Other pics? Well, I never posted the pic of the crew at ASG:From L to R you find moi, Ann, The Magic That Is Heather, Teresa (girlwithneedles for all you Ravelry folks), Jill, Joy, and Angela. Our group was a little smaller this year, but we still had loads of fun.

That's all for now... back to work with me tomorrow. Richard has been on vacation for two weeks and it's been wonderful having him home. Although, it's been a bit of a working vacation as we've been trying to evict the slobs who evidently moved into our house without us knowing it. We couldn't possibly be that messy, could we?? In the process I ordered a grown-up desk for my office to be delivered this week and I'm very excited about that. ("If you get excited about a desk and a calculator, you might be an accountant.") So until next time...The End. :)

The End of Another Year

2009-12-31T18:11:00.002-05:00

Buh-bye 2009. Not sad to see ya go. Don't let the door hit ya in the butt on the way out.

Friend of mine on Facebook posted a status that asked you to name one thing that brought you joy in 2009. Danged if I could think of an event. Oscar went to the Rainbow Bridge in February; I spent the summer in Audit Hell; and the fall has brought a series of family, friend and business challenges. I mean, I'm thankful for my family, for my friends, and for my church, and heaven only knows where I'd be without them... but thinking of one event that just brought me incredible joy during the year??? I got nothin. Maybe my memory is just too short.

So I'm looking forward to 2010. Granted, like every year it starts with tax season -- that's just an occupational hazard. I knew the job was dangerous when I took it (to quote Super Chicken -- and that's a cartoon from the 70's that's way underrated in my book). We're anticipating some changes... don't know what hubby's company is going to do in terms of keeping his division, and of course, some of my client base remains fluid.

We're hoping to take an actual vacation this year. We've missed our trip to Highlands for two years now: in 2008 Oscar was too frail to make the journey, and in 2009 Penny was too young. It would do both of us a lot of good to get away for a weekend.

Resolutions? Yeah. Gave that up awhile back. Except I'm going to try to stitch and knit more out of my stash this year (yeah, I know... I have clients that pay me with store credit... and Stitches South is coming back and the siren's song of the marketplace will be overwhelming). I'm going to try to stick to the Quick Weight Loss Plan (down 14 so far since Nov 2 -- not as quick as they'd like, but I'm living with it). I'll try to be more diligent with my Bible study. And I'll try to be a better friend. My friends are my family that I've chosen.

So to everyone who takes the time to read my blog... I wish you health and happiness in the New Year. Be safe. And here's to a better 2010!!

Merry (?) Christmas, everyone!

2009-12-22T18:03:00.004-05:00

Where have I been, having sadly neglected my poor little blog? Well... (scuffing toe in dirt)... it's complicated. Let's just say I've been living that ancient Chinese curse of "May you have an interesting life". Business issues, family issues, issues with friends... I've lived it all over the past couple of months, and if you don't mind, I don't want to rehash it here. I'm trying to look forward to the future. All in all, I won't mind seeing 2009 in the rear view mirror for a number of reasons, but there's some indications that 2010 will present a number of challenges as well. I ask your prayers and thank all of you who have stood by me with your friendship and support.

It's December... and as a lot of you know, I don't handle December well at all. It's hard for me to get into a holiday spirit when each holiday is a reminder that my father will be celebrating with us from heaven... and this year Oscar's howling to the Christmas carols there with him. I read an article somewhere that said being sad during the good news of the Christmas season is just one way the Devil wins. Could be. All I can tell you is that it's tough for me. At Richard's insistance, we did put up a small tree this year -- a tabletop model that isn't too tempting to Penny -- and the wreath is on the door. Baby steps...

And how is Penny? Rotten. Simply rotten. :) Little snot is now 9 months old. We've taken to calling her "Princess Chunky-Butt", since she's tipping the scales at 12.5 pounds and should weigh between 9 and 10. The girl loves her food! Unfortunately, we've discovered that she's prone to some of the same tummy troubles Oscar had. She had a bout of HGE in November that we got a handle on early -- having seen Oscar with it so many times, we recognized the symptoms and were able to get her to the vet pronto. It's a little concerning because it showed up in her so young; Oscar was 6 or 7 before he had his first episode, but Penny was 8 months old. I guess God knew we could handle dachshunds with tummy troubles, so he sent the Pennster to us. :)

Stitching and knitting, you ask? Well, I did go to ASG at the end of October with the girls and had a wonderful time as usual. It was great to see Ron and Rae and all the folks we normally only see once a year. The classes were delightful -- even though I now know that scrimshaw etching is "not my thing", I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to try it. Jackie duPlessis was an absolute joy to take a class from -- I loved her sense of humor -- and Rae continues to amaze me with the creative projects she comes up with year after year. If you click on the "Teachers" button on the ASG page, you can download a PDF describing the classes we took. Of course, none of the projects are finished yet. I've only finished one measly ornament and I don't even have a picture to share. I know, bad me.

Knitting-wise, I knitted up some pressies for my sisters-in-law. Pictures to follow after Christmas, because I don't want to spoil the surprise. I'm working on some socks for my mom now that I'm hoping to have finished -- simple pattern with two strands of worsted held together that goes fast, so I have some hope! I'm pondering a moratorium on stash purchases for the first 6 months of next year, but I fear that might endanger several small businesses. We'll see. ;)

I know some of you who come to my blog expect humor and something uplifting... I hope to be able to offer that to you next time. I promise not to neglect my sad little blog for as long as I did this time...

Until next time... I wish you health; I wish you happiness; and I wish you the peace and love of the Child of Bethlehem. To all my friends reading this, know that you are cherished.

Merry Christmas from me, Richard and Penny!

Of Wins and Wiener Dogs

2009-10-07T09:22:00.012-04:00

I'm happy to report that Penny has completely recovered from being spayed. She had a very smooth recovery process with no problems, and I'm proud that she didn't have to wear the "Cone of Shame" because she didn't mess with her stitches at all! All of us are glad to have that behind us.

The area continues to recover from the floods. As it turns out, my mom's roof had three pretty significant leaks during all the rains, and I'm working with the roofers and insurance company to get her house re-roofed. It's always an interesting process taking care of stuff like that from an hour away. At least the insurance adjuster has agreed that the roof needs to be completely replaced, so we're hopeful we can get the process going and everything done before the next deluge. There are tarps on the roof now to protect the house from any further damage.

But on to happier things...

I got a note from my friend Melody that I had won her blog contest! I was totally blown away -- I never win anything (well, I take that back... I did win a blender in a raffle when I was in the 9th grade... I still have it and it still works). Behold the loveliness:
It's a hand dyed laceweight yarn from Kaalund Yarns in Australia. The picture is horrible; it doesn't do justice to the beauty of the yarn. And Mel very kindly included a beautiful shawl pattern for me to knit. Mel, thank you so very much!!! I look forward to casting on and I hope I can do justice to the wonderful yarn!

As for wiener dogs... We took Penny to the annual HowlOWeenie sponsored by one of the dachshund rescue groups here in Atlanta. We joked that it was Penny's big "coming out" party after her spay.

Did I mention that there were wiener dogs??
Some were in costume...There was even an Elvis sighting...
Penny found a new fan:
All in all, we had a good time. Penny was a bit overwhelmed by all the people and all the dogs. She does well with other dogs on a "one on one" basis, but she tends to be a bit timid when confronted by a lot of them at once. I think the socialization was good for her though.

Now, this next bit may not be for the faint of heart... but I actually finished something!
Granted, it's only an ornament -- The Sunflower Seed ornament from the 2008 Just Cross Stitch ornament issue, but it does represent the most stitching that I've done in the past 9 months. Penny's settling down to the point where I can get a needle and thread out and not worry about her grabbing it out of my hand. (I do, however, still have to worry about where I put it down, or it will be grabbed and taken across the room...)

I also started Penny's sweater for the winter:
For those of you interested, it's the "Olly Sweater" out of Doggie Knits, and it was specifically designed to fit a dachshund, so I'm hoping there won't be a lot of tweaking to fit that long, low body. I'm making it out of a soft, Berroco merino washable wool and I'll include a hole for her harness to clip through so she can wear the harness under the sweater rather than over it.

Whew! That's the catch up! Hope everyone has had a good couple of weeks.

I can't take too much of this excitement

2009-09-22T17:35:00.006-04:00

First of all, Penny was indeed spayed yesterday, and she came through it like a champ. She also had her upper puppy canines pulled, because the adult teeth were coming in, and the baby teeth were getting impacted. The vet kept them for us, and they're in a little bottle which the vet techs labled "Penny - Tooth Fairy". I suppose I should get some more gravy bones to put underneath her pillow! She's feeling pretty good... she has pain meds to take once a day with food (which I translated this morning as "with a can of chicken"), and she's relaxing and snoozing for the most part. She occasionally rouses to investigate whatever paper I may have accidentally left on the coffee table, but she goes back to the sofa soon afterward for a nap.

But, you may have heard that we've had a little bit of bad weather here in the Atlanta area. That's like saying Hitler was a little bit of an unpleasant person. Rain. Buckets of rain. Over a 48 hour period, I heard that our area had an estimated 15 inches of rain, and we weren't even one of the hardest hit areas.

It stormed all night Sunday night and into Monday morning. Got up and took Penny to her appointment at the vet, then went home to monitor the weather. Got a call that Penny was ok... and I was making plans to go get her shortly after 3. Except I looked out my window shortly before 1 and saw this:
Well, that's not exactly true. I saw water creeping up the street from the lake. The street that you can't see in this picture, which was taken from my across-the-street neighbor's porch. The street sign is in my next-door neighbor's yard. The bench you sort of see sticking out of the water in the distance, next to the sign that's just about submerged, is in the park where Penny goes to sniff and run around on a regular basis. The lake's regular banks are well beyond the trees...

Now, my Hummer can drive through 2 feet of water. Problem is, I had no clue how deep the water was. And it was rising.

Called the vet, because I was worried that we wouldn't be able to get there to bring Penny home. They said she could stay there. As you know, I love my vet and her office, but there was going to be nobody there between 7 PM and 7 AM. I knew we had to get our girl home to look after her in case there were post-surgical complications.

Emailed this pic to Richard. He planned to leave work, buy a crate (which my mom generously offered to fund), head to the vet, come home, park as close as he could, then walk through people's yards avoiding flood waters if at all possible. Unfortunately, this plan got complicated, because roads were flooding all over the place, and he had to make detours. When he got close, we decided to forego the crate in favor of speed, since conditions were rapidly deteriorating.

But... when he got to the exit where the vet's office was... it was flooded. He had to get back on the interstate. We tried to find alternate routes, but we decided the best move was for me to get the Hummer and try to head on back roads that might not be closed to get to the vet. Richard headed home... and I think the police were right behind him closing the interstate as he was dodging the flooding on the roadway.

The neighborhood flooding had receded some, so I was able to drive out and take the long way around to get to the office and get our girl. About 2 1/2 hours had passed since we first hatched the plan to get her. She was still very groggy, but I think she was happy to see me. Drove carefully home with our precious cargo and made it without much problem. Thank goodness I was driving south; northbound traffic out of the Atlanta area was a nightmare.

I hope the folks at the vet's office got home ok. Many of them were worried that they wouldn't be able to get home last night because of the road closures. I read one report that said the "express" bus from Downtown Atlanta to Woodstock (where my office is and where the vet is), a 30 mile trip, took 4 1/2 hours.

Too much excitement for my taste!

Richard said we undertook a small "Penny rescue" of our own. That minimizes the horrible damage that people have had here. People have died. Babies were swept away from their parents and killed. Schoolkids weren't able to get home and had to spend the night at their school due to the flooding. An entire small town north of my hometown was flooded and evacuated. People have lost everything, because they were told they weren't in a flood plain and didn't need insurance. Folks who were at work haven't been able to get home to check on their pets.

A friend lives in a heavily flooded area. Her house was ok, but the two houses across the street were flooded and the residents had to evacuate. She woke up at 3 this morning to the sound of scumbags looting the houses that had been evacuated. She called the police, but they were busy trying to save the idiots that insisted on driving around barricades into the floodwaters. I pray there's a special circle of Hell for predators who would take advantage of people like that.

We're blessed, because we were all able to go to bed in our own house, in our own bed, safe and dry. We're not having to boil our water before we use it. Things could have been much, much worse. We were inconvenienced, but everything turned out ok for us. Please keep the people who weren't so fortunate in your prayers as their long road to recovery begins.

What is my Role?

2009-09-14T16:02:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Ria for the meme!

You Are the Philosopher

You love thinking things over and developing theories.

Learning is very important to you, and you pursue knowledge relentlessly.

You love to talk about the things you know, often in more detail than people would like to hear.

And you know a lot! You're always taking on new subjects, interests, and hobbies.

You are at your best when you are left alone to ponder your newest ideas and experiments.

You tend to withdraw from environments that are loud, contentious, or passionate.

What Role Do You Play?

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

Change in Plans

2009-09-12T15:20:00.002-04:00

Our wonderful Dr. Weaver is ill, so Penny's spay has been postponed till September 21st. We appreciate all the good thoughts you've been sending, we hope you can continue them till then. :)

Hitting another deadline

2009-09-10T13:35:00.004-04:00

And I've been quiet again. It's because another tax deadline looms: September 15, which is the deadline for all those corporate extensions that were filed in March. While I'm used to it, this is Penny's first big tax crunch. She's not understanding why she has to stay out of Mommy's office (there's so much interesting paper to munch on in there! and just look at those power cords that could use some chewing!) while Mommy works. Needless to say, I have a bit of an unhappy puppy right now.

Richard tries to get her outside when he comes home from work as much as he can.It's amazing the change in her since June when we first started leash training with her. She is now confident and will walk all over the place on her lead whereas in June she'd just lay down in the grass and refuse to move. She and Richard are going for walks through the neighborhood -- they're gradually getting longer, and Penny is likely to take off running when Richard lets her! It's a great opportunity to work off some of that puppy energy.

I'm trying to join them when my foot permits. I'm working on the third month in the air cast due to the plantar faciitis.
It's better, but we're still not at a point where I can go completely to the orthotics in my shoes. I've learned how to maneuver with it pretty well. It's still annoying and hot, but if it keeps me from having surgery on the foot, which sounds completely unpleasant, it'll be worth it. I still think I'm secure in my status as "Queen of the soft tissue injury" between this, the carpal tunnel, and the rotator cuff tears in both shoulders. :)

We spent Labor Day up in Rome visiting Mom. Penny spent two nights away from home for the first time. She found Mom's house to be big and very interesting. We still have a few potty training issues, but for the most part, she did really well. It was an orgy of puppy junk food for her, since Mom fixed her roast beef, bacon, eggs, and biscuits. And yes, you can imagine the gastrointestinal effects that had... I'm happy to report that she was doing better once we got her diet back to normal. :)

As for stitching and knitting... still not much. I don't get a chance to work on a lot since Penny takes a real interest in anything I'm doing and offers a great deal of assistance. Sometimes her assistance comes in the form of grabbing the ball of yarn and running across the great room and into the dining room, wrapping the furniture with yarn as she goes. I'm happy to report that she has excellent "taste" in fibers, as she has shown no interest in embroidery cotton but has stolen a couple of skeins of silk while I wasn't looking. You might know I'd raise a pup who wants the good stuff.

Back to work with me.... If you can spare some good thoughts on Monday the 14th, we'd appreciate it. Penny's being spayed that day (I tried to get the vet to do a "twofer" and spay me at the same time, but Richard said he couldn't deal with both of us in those collars...). I'll report back and let everyone know how she's doing.

Another Ten Commandments for Dog Owners

2009-08-30T21:10:00.002-04:00

10 COMMANDMENTS FOR A RESPONSIBLE DOG OWNER/S:

1) MY LIFE IS LIKELY TO LAST 10 TO 15 YEARS.
SPEND LOTS OF TIME WITH ME AS I WON'T BE AROUND FOREVER.

2) GIVE ME TIME TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU WANT FROM ME.

3) PLACE YOUR TRUST IN ME; IT IS CRUCIAL FOR MY WELL BEING.

4) DON'T BE ANGRY WITH ME FOR LONG. PLEASE DON'T LOCK ME UP AS
PUNISHMENT. YOU HAVE YOUR WORK, YOUR FRIENDS AND YOUR
ENTERTAINMENT. I ONLY HAVE YOU.

5) TALK TO ME. EVEN IF I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOUR WORDS, I
UNDERSTAND YOUR VOICE WHEN IT IS SPEAKING TO ME

6) BE AWARE THAT HOWEVER YOUR TREAT ME,
I WILL FORGIVE YOU, BUT I WILL NEVER FORGET

7) PLEASE DON'T HIT ME. DO NOT PUSH ME TO THE POINT WHERE I NEED
TO DEFEND MYSELF.

8) BEFORE YOU SCOLD ME FOR BEING LAZY OR UNCOOPERATIVE, ASK
YOURSELF IF SOMETHING MIGHT BE BOTHERING ME. PERHAPS I AM NOT
GETTING THE RIGHT FOOD, I'VE BEEN OUT IN THE SUN TOO LONG OR MY
HEART MAY BE GETTING OLD & WEAK.

9) TAKE CARE OF ME WHEN I GET OLD. YOU, TOO, WILL GROW OLD.

10) GO WITH ME ON DIFFICULT JOURNEYS. NEVER SAY " I CAN'T BEAR
TO WATCH IT " OR " LET IT HAPPEN IN MY ABSENCE". EVERYTHING IS
EASIER FOR ME IF YOU ARE THERE.

REMEMBER, I LOVE YOU.

--Author Unknown

I'm Musical

2009-08-27T10:21:00.002-04:00

Your result for Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test...

Musical

37% Logical, 10% Spatial, 31% Linguistic, 20% Intrapersonal, 8% Interpersonal, 76% Musical, 6% Bodily-Kinesthetic and 27% Naturalistic!

"This area has to do with rhythm, music, and hearing. Those who have a high level of musical-rhythmic intelligence display greater sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones and music. They normally have good pitch and may even have absolute pitch, and are able to sing, play musical instruments, and compose music. Since there is a strong auditory component to this intelligence, those who are strongest in it may learn best via lecture. In addition, they will often use songs or rhythms to learn and memorize information, and may work best with music playing in the background.

Careers which suit those with this intelligence include instrumentalists, singers, conductors, disc-jockeys, and composers." (Wikipedia)

Take Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test at HelloQuizzy

Penny's First Post!

2009-08-27T09:34:00.003-04:00

Head over to Dogs on Thursday and check out Penny's first entry. :)

We Have a Kindergarten Graduate!

2009-08-23T21:39:00.007-04:00

Puppy Kindergarten, that is. :)Here is Penny getting her diploma from Susan of K9U. After a rigorous 7 week class, she has mastered socializing with other puppies, people, and various commands, including "come when called", "sit", "stay", and the ever difficult "leave it" and "drop it". She will also walk on a leash and seems to look forward to going out for walks and on car rides. All in all we think she did really well.

Meet Penny's classmates...June is an All-American Breed dog who seems to have a bit of hound in her. Although she's a good bit larger than Penny, she and Penny were playmates, and Penny delighted in doing everything the "big dog" did.Hayley is another All-American Breed dog who had a rough start in life. Her person found her at the age of about 3 weeks, abandoned and starving. With a lot of love and a lot of attention, she's thriving, and she's quite the star student in the class.Little Lita belongs to Susan's assistant... you know I have a soft spot for red, smooth dachshunds, and Lita did not disappoint. She reminded me so much of Oscar, because she just wasn't sure about all these dogs. Didn't want to participate in all this puppy play -- she'd rather hang there with her person and be fed the occasional treat, thankyouverymuch. And she always had such a concerned look on her face. It was like she was peering over her glasses as if to say "Are you sure you should be doing all that foolishness?" Ah yes, Lita. We'll rely on you to keep all of them in line. :)

So, we'll miss Penny's classmates, but we wish all of them well. We know all of them will have happy lives with their people and will be well cared for and have bellies full of good food and good treats. And they may end up just a tiny bit spoiled.

As it should be.

It's Thursday!

2009-08-20T10:39:00.004-04:00

...so that must mean an update on The Princess (who is currently on my list, considering she wouldn't settle down to go to sleep last night... I fear she spent the night in her private den in the master bath because she just wouldn't lie down and rest... and yeah, I feel bad about it and didn't sleep either).Penny is now 23 weeks old. On Saturday, she graduates from puppy kindergarten. We have a spot ready on our diploma wall, where her diploma will join mine, Richard's and Oscar's. She's done very well and has mastered come when called (she even ran up a hill last Saturday and did everything the Big Dogs did) as well as Sit. She's working on Stay, Leave It, and Drop It. Those last two are a little more difficult because they involve ignoring stuff she really wants but can't have.

We're working on walking on a leash. She's come a long way from June, when she would just lay in the yard in her harness, not moving. We've gotten her to walk down the road on the leash and it seems like she's actually enjoying getting out and about. She likes greeting other people who give her the proper amount of adoration, and she doesn't shy away from other dogs.

We haven't decided yet whether or not to enroll her in basic obedience, because we think we've gotten a lot of it in the puppy kindergarten class. We think that right now the important thing is to keep working on the things she's learned and to keep reinforcing them.

We're considering a short weekend trip with her to see how she does. She hasn't ridden in the stroller yet -- we may try to get it out around town here and get her used to it before she does a big shopping adventure to an outlet mall.I think this photo reflects Penny's overall opinion on clicker training. If she could, she'd use the clicker to get us to bring her treats on demand!

Dogs on Thursday!

2009-08-13T09:12:00.003-04:00

Penny and I will now be a regular contributors to Dogs on Thursday, a blog where, interestingly enough, people talk about their dog every Thursday. :) Our intro is up there today. Our regularly scheduled blog time will be the 4th Thursday of each month, so check there for what I hope will be amusing anecdotes on The Princess.

So since it's Thursday... and The Princess is allegedly a dog... I'll share a story here. This past weekend we went to Costco and they had bags of 12 inch bully sticks for $20. Now, if you have a dog, you know that bully sticks are wonderful chew toys. We refer to them as "dead animals", because that's what they are. They're some part of a cow, and frankly, I don't want to know what part they are. The 6" bullys I had bought for her on sale were about $2.50 a pop, so I figured we could buy the bag and cut them in half and be golden for a bit.

Except... The Princess had other plans. She took the 12 inch bully, which frankly is just about as long as she is, and ran through the house with it. Then she took it up on the sofa and settled in for a chew. In three days she had whittled it down to about half size. So much for the cutting it in half plans. The big dog needs a big bully stick, right??

At least it's keeping her from gnawing on our hands...

Edited to add the picture of The Princess... isn't she just the cutest when she's napping?

25 Years Ago Today

2009-08-11T21:12:00.003-04:00

... I married the most wonderful man in the world.

Today is our silver wedding anniversary. Truly doesn't seem as if 25 years have passed. Seems like just yesterday we were just getting out of Georgia Tech and starting our life together.

We've been through a lot... We've built two houses. Been through stressful jobs... the loss of a couple of them... and job changes that go along with building a career. Been through the loss of my dad and his mom. Started my business. Decided along the way that our family would be the two of us and whatever pet we had at the time, because that was what was right for us.

We've been blessed... we haven't faced the challenges a lot of other couples have. I hope that it's because we've kept our marriage God-centered and focused on Him and each other.

I know that I love my husband more now than I did 25 years ago when we got married, and I didn't think that was possible.

Happy anniversary Richard. I love you, and I'm looking forward to spending the rest of my life with you.

The Drama Queen Update

2009-08-07T15:49:00.002-04:00

It was bath day for the Drama Queen. Took her in 9 ish this morning. The cheerful folks at Dr. Weaver's, no doubt not having heard about the events of Wednesday, said it would only take a couple of hours and they'd call when she was ready.

At 11 I called to see how she was doing and how many people she'd bitten. Oh, she's fine, they said. Just a little squirmy, but she's giving us kisses. We'll call you when she's ready.

What? Giving us kisses? Excuse me? What happened to little miss "Oh you're touching me I think I'm going to die!" that appeared a mere two days ago?

At 1 I started getting a little antsy and called again to discover she was just finishing up her spa visit, so I jumped in the Hummer and drove up to get her. They brought her out complete with little pink gingham bandanna around her neck.

Little snot ignored me. Pretended she didn't even know who I was. Didn't want to leave the tech. I was crushed.

Got her in the car and headed for Chick-Fil-A, where the Magic Window produced a box of nuggets that we took home. She inhaled them and has been sleeping off her experience for the rest of the afternoon.

Silly dog.

I have a Drama Queen

2009-08-05T13:02:00.002-04:00

So Penny has to go see Dr. Weaver for a nail trim (known here as a mani-pedi... we want The Princess to think she is only getting the Royal Treatment she deserves). We also needed to get her weighed to get the proper dose of Advantage Multi, which is what we're using for flea/heartworm prevention.

The good news: She continues to grow and is up to 8 pounds of dachshund fury. At five months, Dr. Weaver says she'll probably add about 10 to 20% more body weight when she's full grown... so we're probably looking at a petite flower of 9 to 10 pounds when she's full grown.

The bad news: She can put on a drama scene worthy of Camille. She began screaming when we got in the room at the vet's office. She continued screaming and brought it to a crescendo when the vet tech picked her up for Dr. Weaver to begin trimming her nails.

Then she bit the vet tech. I was mortified.

They switched places. Dr. Weaver held, while the tech trimmed nails.

Penny bit Dr. Weaver. I wanted to drop through the floor.

I don't think I've apologized so much in so short a period of time in my life. Of course, they laughed it off and said it was part of the job. Dr. Weaver spoke sternly to Penny and everything ended with Penny giving Dr. Weaver kisses.... but still.

Now, Penny still hasn't had the dreaded bath. We put her in an empty tub the other night, and you'd have thought we were killing her... so we've decided to wimp out and let the pros do it. I'm taking her back to the vet's office on Friday for a trip to the beauty salon.

Pray for them.

Twitterfied

2009-07-31T17:38:00.003-04:00

I enjoy Twitter. It helps me keep track of a number of friends of mine, both in real life and my cyber friends. I get a lot of NASCAR news updates from a lot of writers I follow, as well as several drivers and crew members (I won't deny that a bunch of us were squeeing like 14 year old fangirls when Michael Waltrip actually tweeted back to our friend Jen, but that's another matter entirely).

Penny has her own Twitter account, and she routinely tweets and sends pictures commenting on life as a dachshund puppy. Turns out she's not alone. There's several other dachshunds on Twitter who are also very communicative and a number of other dogs who are following her. Penny actually has tweet conversations with a couple of dachshunds on a regular basis. They don't like thunder, vacuum cleaners, or baths either.

What irritates me about Twitter is the inevitable appearance of spammers. No, I don't smoke cigars. No, I don't want to buy steaks. Thank you, but I'm not really in debt over my head, and even if I were, I don't think I'd need your help to get out.

I've been trying to figure out if there's a pattern to what I post that might make me more appealing to these dweebs, but for the life of me I can't.

And no, frankly I don't want to see your sexxxxxxy pictures, either. Neither does Penny.

I'm wondering if any of these porn spammers know they're really following a 20 week old dachshund puppy??

Help a pooch?

2009-07-27T17:22:00.002-04:00

A fellow Raveler is trying to raise money for an expensive MRI for her dog, Miss Poppy. You can see more information regarding her condition here.

If you can spare a buck for a pup in need, Penny would appreciate it. No tax benefit, just some good feelings and some good karma.

Back to Normal, whatever that is...

2009-07-26T21:09:00.003-04:00

Well, it's been about three weeks since my last post. I can now tell you that I'm no longer contracting at the audit client. In the process, I've discovered that there are people in the world that you can't trust who will stab you in the back. I've eliminated them from my life and I'm working through some anger right now. Even though I no longer have that contract that was a base of my business, I know that everything will be fine -- even before the contract ended my phone was ringing with other clients who needed additional work... God's way of taking care of me. I have no concerns, because I've turned them over to Him and I'll just let Him handle it from there.

At any rate, it was an ugly, exhausting process. I've just been bone tired and really not excited about doing much of anything to be honest. I'm looking to the future to get back to normal -- whatever passes for normal in anybody's life these days. :)

My comings and goings have been somewhat hampered by the fact that I'm now in an air cast to try to calm down the case of plantar fasciitis that I have. The night splint wasn't working, so I'm hobbling around in this to try to heal the ligament where it's tearing and get the bones realigned properly. We're hoping that the inconvenience of the cast will keep me from having go to through the inconvenience of surgery on my foot.

Penny continues to grow and thrive. She'll be 20 weeks old this week, and she's a charmer! We're starting to see some adult teeth coming in even though those ultra-sharp puppy canines are still there. She's been in Puppy Kindergarten for three weeks now. We're making progress with socialization, but she doesn't like big groups of dogs and prefers one on one interaction. I completely understand! A couple of the more rowdy dogs graduated from kindergarten this week, so I'm hoping that it'll be a bit quieter for her in the coming weeks. We learned the hard was to take "people food" like chicken or cheese or roast beef last week as treats when Penny completely ignored our perfectly acceptable dog treats and mooched off other puppy parents. How embarassing! This week she got her own cooked hamburger.

We had our annual ornament exchange weekend:
In the picture are most of the group with yours truly front and center in the Ravelry t-shirt. :) Linda and Laura elected to be photographers and weren't in the group shot. The red tote bags on the table were made by DF Vicky for each of us to put our ornament kits in. Judy and Ann graciously helped me finish my kits in time for the exchange; with having Penny in the house, my stitching time was limited, so my fiber totals for each ornament were admittedly estimated this year. I'm hoping that I overestimated so that nobody will run out of anything. At any rate, it was a great weekend and I got to visit extra with Judy, Ann, and Teresa who spent the night at my house during their visit. It's always a treat to be able to spend time with my out of town buds. :)

Not much else going on. I'm still working on the Garter Toes socks that I showed you in the last post. I'm almost finished with the first one. I started stitching a relatively simple piece, "The Branch" by Bent Creek, but I haven't made a lot of progress to show. And I took out an ornament kit that I've put exactly 12 stitches in so far. Maybe I'll have pictures next time.

Have a good week everyone! Take time to do something nice for yourself.

Catching Up

2009-07-06T09:54:00.005-04:00

A belated happy 4th of July to everyone in the US! I hope you took some time to ponder the freedoms we enjoy and to thank the people in our military who keep those freedoms safe for us.

It's been a stressful couple of weeks here. I've been involved in an internal audit at my big client. There's some internal politics going on, and I hate stuff like that. At any rate, the internal auditors from corporate came in and went through stuff with a fine toothed comb... problem is, the main auditor is accustomed to auditing government contracts and procedures in a large company, not what is essentially a small retail business. Top it off with the fact that, to put it politely, she's "confused"... can't keep bank accounts straight, keeps asking for duplicates of documents she already has... and I'm seriously questioning her competence. Unfortunately, I think someone's job is on the line here. I'm not denying that there's record keeping issues, because there were, and I had cautioned about them numerous times. But those have been compounded by the auditor's incompetence. I think something ugly's going to happen within the next couple of weeks, and to be frank, my trust level for everyone there is currently at zero. I'm currently deciding if I can continue to contract for them. It's a difficult decision, because they're my biggest client, but I'm not sure I can keep working in that environment. Sad, because I've been with them for ten years now.

In the middle of all that, we've been trying to keep up with training Penny. She'll be 17 weeks old this week, and she's going through all the predictable puppy stuff. Teething is a big issue, as is housetraining. She's finished her puppy shots so she's free to mingle with other dogs. Tomorrow night she has her first session with a trainer here at the house, and then this coming Saturday she's scheduled to start Puppy Kindergarten. Good news with her is that she's now walking on a leash, thanks to Kim at Dr. Weaver's office (I had a small meltdown there when we went for her last shots about all the problems we've been having with her. Our frustration level is high.). That means she's been able to get outside, and she loves it. Keeping in the great dachshund tradition though, she completely ignores the geese and ducks who frequent our front yard.Here we are in a quiet moment on a Sunday afternoon. I'm in mid-summer allergy attack.

For the 4th, we went to Rome for Penny's first overnight visit to Mom's. It went ok.... we had a couple of potty accidents, and we had one unfortunate incident where Mom and Penny were playing and Penny got a little overzealous and nipped. On the bright side, Penny did find a chipmunk hole and actually started digging at it! We may have a little earthdog here after all. :)

In the middle of all this, we had Vacation Bible School at our church, and once again I was the Snack Lady. Attendance was down slightly this year due to the fact that we had to postpone our school to accomodate a teacher (who ultimately couldn't attend due to a death in the family) and we were competing against several other churches in the area. But we managed to attract over 50 kids. Snacks were uneventful for the most part. I'll admit one day was particularly lame (although I like Twizzlers), and two four year olds rebelled. They informed me they didn't want the snack, and they knew I had other stuff because they'd seen it. Couldn't argue with that, because it was right out in the open. So I relied on the old "well, this is what we have for today and if you don't want it, you're welcome to sit quietly at the table and have some water" which is what they ultimately did when they realized they weren't going to get their way. As I told one of the teachers, it must be a shock to find out you're not really that special when you've been told all your life that you were...

In a vivid demonstration of "keep me away from the internet when my stress level is high", Amazon politely offered to ship me a Kindle 2 via ovenight shipping and I accepted. I must say that I love it so far! I've downloaded two books I wanted (haven't updated the reading on the side of the blog yet), but I can see where the downloads can quickly become addictive (and expensive).

Knitting and stitching, you ask?? Well, I do try to sneak some in around the puppy. No real pictures tho. I'm frantically working on ornaments for the annual exchange. It's time to start making the kits so I've got to order stuff (Drema at Needlecraft Corner, are you listening?? :)) As for knitting, my DF Sara from Ravelry sent me some wonderful Mirasol Hacho merino wool that screamed to be a pair of socks. I obliged them and started knitting during the Sprint Cup race this past Saturday night.The color is much bluer than it appears in the picture. Beautiful stuff and so soft!

That catches you up with us. Hope all of you are having a good summer. Take some time to be good to yourselves.

Mail for Me!

2009-06-28T21:04:00.009-04:00

Penny here. Mom let me take over the blog tonight to say hello and tell you about my big week. I got a box in the mail. Really! Addressed to me and everything!
Drema at Needlecraft Corner and her faithful canine Amber are friends of my mom, and they wanted to welcome me to the neighborhood, so they sent me a box of my very own. Well, ok. They sent my mom some silly toys with it, but the important thing is that it was addressed to me! I couldn't wait to get into it.
I *finally* got it open. This whole lack of opposable thumbs thing is a real drag. I mean, I had just had my final round of puppy shots that day, and I was feeling kind of grouchy, so I was hoping for something really good, ya know?? It smelled interesting, so I thought there must be some kind of really fabulous surprise in there...
Aaaugh... so close! Got the package out... full of Mommy's silly stuff... and I could see an envelope in there with my name on it!! Must... keep... working...
Got it!!! Now, to get the envelope open and savor the wonder within.
Inside were some of the yummiest treats ever! I gobbled them up all at one time. Mom said she felt sorry for me because I'd had to go to the vet, and I'd had all those shots, and I'd had a mani-pedi on top of that. Plus... well, I kinda snapped at the vet, and Mom tattled on me and said that's what I'd been doing at home. So then we had to do some obedience stuff. They made me walk on a leash! The very nerve. My feet aren't supposed to hit the ground, you know. And Mom and Dad have been making me do that at home too. Things have been changing a bit. So they're gonna have to get me more of these treats.Because I really deserve them.

But thank you Aunt Drema and Aunt Kathleen and Amber. Thank you so much for sending me the yummy treats. I enjoyed every bite and licked up all the crumbs after they were gone. I appreciate you treating me like the princess I am (unlike some people who make me walk on a leash...).

Ok mom... I'm getting off the computer now. Geez. Parents.

An Update on The Princess

2009-06-19T16:43:00.004-04:00

So, I imagine some of you have been asking, what's up with that adorable puppy of yours?
The good news is that she's still alive. See that face? That's what's keeping her living.

She's now 14 weeks old, and at our last vet visit she was five whole pounds of dachshund fury. And teeth. Don't forget the extra sharp puppy teeth that puncture human skin like Wolverine slashes through supervillains.

We had seriously forgotten how much work a puppy is. She is so energetic! But the funniest thing is that she's acting like a dog. Seriously. How strange is that? Oscar would be so amused at the sight of us dealing with a dog.

She's learned to play fetch. And she'll bring you the toy over and over and over and over and over... well, you get the idea. Favorite toy at this point is Mr. Ram, the blue and yellow fellow you can see in the background of the picture. She'll play tug of war. She has learned where the treats are stored and if she hears the mere hint of a bag crinkling (even if it's for human treats) she'll drop whatever she's doing and park her little rear by the treat box with that ever hopeful look on her face and the slight head tilt so as to maximize her cuteness. I tell you, the cuteness is a survival instinct.

She's also learning rudimentary obedience skills. For example, "sit" is short for "if I drop my butt here now, a tasty morsel will fall my way." She knows her name and chooses to answer if it suits her, which is normal for any dachshund no matter the age. Housetraining? Eh. Not so much. But we now have new machine washable throw rugs.

The kicker was last night when we took her in the back yard. She'd previously been out there, clad in collar and harness, and she hated it. She'd sit like a lump and occasionally gnaw on a blade of grass but she'd make no effort to move. But last night we decided to take her down there nekkid as a jaybird since the back yard is fenced in. That did it: she frolicked; she cavorted; she ran; she leaped; she sniffed; and so help me, she laid down on the ground and rolled in the grass.

Oscar would have been mortified at the behavior.

That's when we realized that we have an actual dog this time. We have no clue how to deal with it.

A Bittersweet Day

2009-06-12T13:24:00.003-04:00

I'll begin with a brief review, since I know I have a lot of new blog followers...

My best friend growing up, Lynne, passed away suddenly in April, 2006 at the age of 47. Like me, she was an only child. She left behind her mother, who was 88 at the time. Her mother found her in the house when she couldn't get Lynne on the phone after a day or so, so we really don't know how long she'd been dead when she was discovered. It took months to get a cause of death; the coroner finally said the primary cause was pneumonia, with a secondary cause of undiagnosed thyroid cancer. To this day, I don't think any of us really believe it, but it doesn't do any of us any good to dwell on it.

I wound up as executor of Lynne's estate. As those close to me can tell you, it's been a long, sometimes painful process. There were issues with her mom understanding what was going on. There were issues with some charities (which will remain unnamed here, but if you really want to know who contact me and I'll be happy to tell you) causing trouble because they didn't think they got their "fair share" of what she left them in her relatively small estate. And ultimately, the whole thing caused a bit of a rift between her mom and my mom, which I had nothing to do with, but which I regret.

I had distributed most of the funds due to Lynne's mother, as her sole heir, quite awhile back. Yesterday, I closed out the bank account, being satisfied that after this length of time, there would be no more claims against the estate. Today, I mailed the check for the balance to her mother.

So this chapter in my life is now officially closed. Aside from putting things in file folders and moving them to my archives, my work is finished. And Lynne's time here on earth is complete.

I sent a letter with the check to her mother saying telling her to consider this little windfall as Lynne's final gift to her and to go out and do something nice for herself with it. I doubt I ever hear what she does. I'll be able to track that the package was delivered, and that's about it.

A lot of things have changed for me in these three years. I learned not to take people around me for granted, because they may not be there. I learned not to wait till tomorrow to do what I want, because tomorrow may not come (thus, the Hummer, that I bought a week after Lynne's death). And I've learned that somehow, someway, I always end up with a lot more responsibility than I bargain for. Danged if I know how that happens.

So, my friend, goodbye. I love you like the sister I never had. I miss you. I hope the life you have now is much happier than the one you had here. I'll see you again one day.

Support Small Business

2009-06-03T14:40:00.003-04:00

Think about it. Go there now.

Just sayin'.

Thanks to Tammy for letting me know about it.

A little busier at our house...

2009-05-06T12:15:00.004-04:00

Why, you ask?
Meet Penny Jasmine. She was born 3/12/09 and joined our household this past Saturday from the folks at the Indian Cotton Kennels. We've been keeping her under wraps as a surprise to our friends, but she's ready to make her debut. In case you can't tell from the photo, she's a longhaired black & tan dappled little girl. Right now she's 3.1 pounds of dachshund fury.

It's been a long time since we've had a puppy, and we've never had one this young. Our Oscar was 3 months old when we got him. Penny is a ball of energy, exploring everything (she's particularly obsessed with whatever she thinks is behind the recliner, which frankly is only a bunch of electrical cords she can't have, and we're amazed at how she's working out different ways to get around the barriers we've erected). Those little puppy teeth are sharp and her favorite targets are toes. She is a rather opinionated young lady and will readily let you know what's on her mind. Loudly.

We know that it's not fair to compare Oscar and Penny, since they're two completely different personalities, but we've been amazed at the differences so far. Oscar would never, ever get into a crate; so far Penny's been sleeping in hers and in her puppy playpen. Oscar was always a "nervous eater" and had to have someone with him while he dined; you'd best not get between Penny and her bowl.We've been for our first well-puppy visit and Dr. Weaver has pronounced Penny "perfect" and is really impressed with the breeder as Penny didn't have any of the puppy parasites that generally come with dogs from kennels. Penny has also been well socialized and didn't mind all of her "aunts" passing her around to "ooh" and "aah" over her at stitch group last night. She can already work the room with the best of them.

Penny's already gone hi-tech, as any modern puppy would. You can follow her on Twitter, and I have it on good authority that she's going to be setting up her own web-cam to follow her during the day when we're not home. You'll find details here when it's set up.

We never, ever intend for Penny to replace Oscar. As my dear friend Benne on Ravelry said, Oscar was tired and needed to rest, and now he knows that someone is there to take over his work. Richard and I are a pawfull, so Penny will have her work cut out for her. We hope she enjoys the journey as much as we're gonna enjoy having her with us.

And, The End of the First Wave

2009-04-15T19:00:00.007-04:00

Ah, April 15. The end of the first wave of tax returns for the year. I guess what really upsets me more than the usual litany of people not knowing what to bring for their returns and people bringing stuff in late is the fact that folks have no clue how much they actually pay in income tax. They phrase it in terms of "I got this much back -- I didn't have to pay", not actually absorbing the concept that they've been paying all year. It's food for thought, and maybe it'll inspire some of you to actually look at page 2 of that 1040, line 61, and see how much of your hard-earned money is going to the government every year.

But my political opinions are not why most of you come to this blog...

You come for fun things, like SHEEP!This past Saturday I played hooky from work and went to the Atlanta History Center for their annual Sheep to Shawl festival. The festival featured re-enactments of life as it would have been on the Tullie Smith farm in Atlanta in the 1850's. It's amazing that the actual structure still standing -- we don't have a lot of pre-War-of-Northern-Aggression buildings standing around here considering how rude Sherman was with the fire thing when he came through. But this one was and they moved it to the grounds of the history center. There are animals there, including one ram and one ewe who were in need of shearing, since it's spring and they were sporting their heavy winter fleeces.

The unhappy sheep you see in the picture is Napoleon, a roughly 250 lb ram who was the first to be sheared. Took three men to bring him out. The gentleman shearing him is a professional sheep shearer and has a farm here in the area. Silly me -- I didn't know there were enough sheep in the area to merit a professional shearer here, but evidently there are. He carefully sheared Napoleon (avoiding obvious boy parts... and boy, were they obvious once all that fleece was gone). The shearer said that the sheep would cooperate pretty well as long as their hooves were up in the air.For his part, Napoleon cooperated pretty well except for in mid-shear when his hooves did hit the ground and he decided to make a break for it in the pen, with half his fleece hanging off him. He was quickly wrestled into submission by the three men again and put over onto his side so the shearing could be completed.

When he was completely sheared, the shearer let Napoleon up to run free. We thought he would run around the rather large pen, but instead, he said "Check, please!" and made a break for the barn, where he no doubt told the ewe what was in store. And actually, it was a bit chilly out and well, he was nekkid at that point. The shearer passed around the fleece for the kids there to grab a handfull -- I passed on that one after explaining to one rather perplexed mother that the fleece would feel sticky because of the lanolin in it. She expected it to feel like a cotton ball.

There were other exhibits of blacksmithing, basketmaking, dying with natural colors, and cooking, but for us, of course, the highlight was the shearing.

After the shearing, we went up to the Swan Coach House there for lunch. When I worked in the area, that was a favorite lunch spot for me and my co-workers when we felt like taking a long, leisurely lunch. I hadn't been there in 20 years, and I didn't know if it was the same. I was not disappointed -- the chicken salad in timbales and the frozen fruit salad was still delicious. Plus I splurged on a dessert:"The Swan"... a meringue base with whipped cream goodness concealing a chocolate mousse middle. Yum. Blog worthy.

As for stitching and knitting during tax season -- precious little, considering I generally fell asleep once I sat still, and frankly, after Oscar passed, I wasn't in the mood to do much. But in early February I had one completion I hadn't blogged yet. Richard asked for and got a handmade scarf to keep him warm in the winter weather:Pattern is the Scrunchable Scarf (look it up on Ravelry), made with two skeins of Manos del Uruguay wool.

So, I'm back and hope to be posting more now that my silly job will allow. Actually I'm thankful that most of my clients came back and I picked up some new ones this year. I'm busy, but it's all good.

Two more days...

2009-04-13T20:13:00.000-04:00

Seriously. I'm trying to make it through the 15th.

What is my word?

2009-03-23T19:33:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Ria for the meme!

Your Word is "Love"

You see life as possibility to form deep connections with a few people.

Relationships are the center of your world, and you always take time to bond with those you love.

You are caring and giving. You enjoy helping those you love.

And when it comes to romantic love, you feel passionately ... even in a very long term relationship.

What's Your Word?

Facebook ponderings

2009-03-20T08:52:00.002-04:00

First of all, it's that time of year when I'm scarce. I made it through corporate extensions. The big issue consuming a lot of my time has been the refinance of one of my clients' business mortgage. They don't have English as a primary language, and we'll just say someone took horrible advantage of them when they gave them a mortgage on their building ten years ago. The mortgage ballooned, and it turns out not only did they bank have a lien on the building, but also on all the equipment in it. If they foreclosed, they'd pretty much put them out of business. In the current market, refinancing hasn't been easy -- so I recommend that if you have any banking needs, please consider BB&T, because the good people there helped us out. At any rate, the crisis is over, the mortgage is refinanced, and I can get back to working on tax returns.

But the title of this post is "Facebook ponderings". I recently signed up for a Facebook account, considering a lot of my Ravelry friends had them and hubby had one to keep up with the kidlets at church. I have been pleasantly surprised at the absolute delight it has turned out to be! I have reconnected with people from my childhood, high school, college, a job where we had a small fraternity of non-crazy people... plus added connections for people who are in my life now. It seems like it's the place where everyone I have ever known is coming together. I feel like they're all in a room together and it's *almost* like I can just introduce them to each other. Almost. :)

Other than the Facebook stuff, life is pretty boring. I do taxes; I sleep. At this point I'm trying to catch up enough to take Mom to Pigeon Forge next week on a shopping trip. She wants to go up there while we're dog-less. So, I got some reservations, and we're going. I could probably use a break at that point as well.

Tonight is the "lock-in" at church. Since we don't have a puppy at home, I volunteered to be the female chaperone for the teenagers. Egad. What have I gotten myself into? We get there at 8 and stay all night. I have a tax appointment in the morning at 11. I've already warned her that she may not see me at my best. :)

Thank You, Everyone

2009-03-08T20:55:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine reminded me last night that it had been awhile since I'd blogged. And I've been remiss in thanking all of you for your kind words and all of your support after Oscar's passing. It's been an incredibly hard time... to be honest, I'm behind in my tax work because I just kind of shut down for about a week and a half there. But, life goes on, and it's my first season as an accountant without my furry little buddy helping with tax law. :)

Your kindness and support has meant everything to us. I'm not sure how we would have made it without you, and we thank you and love and appreciate all of you more than you'll ever know. I was incredibly touched by a group of my friends from Ravelry who decided to lift my spirits by having packages arrive at my house every couple of days for two weeks. My friend Jerry in Chicago sent a wonderful little book about Dog Heaven. My friends Jill and Andy made us Oscar's favorite dinner, brisket, and we toasted to him when we ate. And my business partner, Bob, has named a star in the constellation Leo after our boy. Oscar Worf will shine in the heavens forever, in addition to shining in our hearts.

Thank you for knowing that our little guy was so much more to us than just a pet. He will always be a member of our family, and the loss has run deep.

I would like to wrap all of you in a great big hug. We certainly feel wrapped in one, and we feel your love from all over the world. Thank you... Thank you for everything.

Oscar Worf 7/20/93-2/18/09

2009-02-19T18:02:00.007-05:00

I lost my best friend yesterday. My best friend with four legs.

Oscar had some kind of event this past weekend. The vet, our wonderful Dr. Weaver, thinks he either had a severe stroke or had a blood clot that went to the brain. Either way, the result was the same: he kept falling, couldn't walk straight, couldn't drink a lot, and really didn't recognize or interact with us. Our last interaction with him was Sunday night, when he licked our faces at bedtime as what I think was his goodbye to us. Dr. Weaver told us it was time, and we couldn't be selfish and keep him here only for us. We sent him to the Rainbow Bridge, and he passed peacefully in my arms. I know he's there with my dad, who always pretended not to like him but who would get him chicken biscuits when we'd visit. I know Dad will take good care of him till we get there.Oscar was one of a kind. He never caught on that he was actually a dog, and he educated these rookie dog owners in his ways. He instead considered himself more of a small person in a fur coat. He was mightily offended by any other dog who greeted him with the traditional "butt sniff" and preferred the company of people to canines any day.

And he always had to be in the middle of the action. If something was going on, he wanted to be in on it. Gathered around a table? You'd better have a chair for His Royal Lowness, as we came to call him. He was an experienced traveler and a shopper extraordinaire. He even had his own stroller (or royal carriage, as his dear Aunt Jill called it) in which he rode through the streets of Pigeon Forge, TN, Highlands, NC, Calhoun, GA, Roanoke, VA, and Man, WV, among other places. He visited the beach at Hilton Head, but he wasn't fond of the water. The waves kept chasing him.Oscar was a clown, and a constant source of laughter and entertainment for us. But most of all, he was a source of comfort and my confidante. He greeted me each day when I came in with a wag and a kiss. If I was upset, he licked the tears away... and he did that quite a bit in those dark days after my dad passed away. It didn't matter what kind of a day I'd had... he always wanted to play his version of fetch (three tosses and I'm through because I'm not a retriever, thankyouverymuch) or beg for a treat (Beggin Strips, please!) or bury a dog biscuit somewhere in the house to plan for the upcoming Dog Cookie Famine. I know we're going to be finding dog cookies around the house for months, if not years. And when he chose to "unearth" a cookie, he would stand and bark for you to get it for him, even though it was right in front of him. Yes, we were well trained humans.Oscar was simply the best dog on earth. We never intended to have a dog, but evidently God had other plans, and we needed Oscar as much as he needed us.

We miss him terribly. Last night it was hard to get to sleep, because I had become accustomed to his little rear snuggled up against my leg. And if you moved, he would slam his butt back up against you as if to say "perhaps you didn't understand... I'm sleeping here, up next to you." I had an entire half of a king-sized bed to myself whereas I'd become accustomed to only having a small area because the dachshund had to stretch out horizontally across the bed. I didn't like having that much room.

When the pain subsides, and I hear from others that it will, we'll begin to look for a puppy. Not, you understand, to replace Oscar, but to take this giant amount of love that he generated in us and give it to another. Oscar's legacy is that I cannot imagine not having a dachshund. We will love one again, but we will never, ever forget our little man, his place in our lives and our heart and what he meant to us.Goodbye, my little man. I love you so very much, and I miss you so much it hurts. I'll never forget you, and I'll be there to get you at the Rainbow Bridge one day. Enjoy those chicken biscuits you're getting from Dad till I get there.

Lend Me A Puppy

“I will lend to you for awhile a puppy,” God said,
“For you to love when she lives and to mourn when she’s dead.
Maybe for twelve or thirteen years, maybe for two or three,
However, will you, till I call her back, take care of her for me?
She’ll bring her charms to gladden you and should her stay be brief,
You’ll always have her memories as solace for your grief.
I cannot promise she will stay, since all from earth return.
But there are lessons taught below I want this pup to learn.
I’ve looked the whole world over in search for teachers true
And from the folk that crowd life’s land, I have chosen you.
Now will you give her all your love, nor think the labor vain?
Nor hate me when I come to take my dog back home again?”

He fancied that he heard us say “Dear Lord, Thy will be done,
For all the joys this dog will bring, the risk of grief we’ll run.
We’ll shelter her with tenderness; we’ll love her while we may
And for the happiness we’ve known, forever-grateful stay.
But should You call her back to You much sooner than we’ve planned,
We’ll brave the bitter grief that comes, and try to understand.
If by our love we’ve managed Your wishes to achieve
In memory of her we loved, please help us while we grieve.
When our faithful bundle departs this world of strife,
We’ll get yet another dog and love her all her life.”

Can you help my friend Jen?

2009-02-05T11:16:00.004-05:00

Jen is one of my dear friends from Ravelry, and she's doing something very big here...

See, Jen suffers from MS, which thank goodness, seems to be in remission right now. I have another dear, dear friend with MS, so this cause is particularly close to me.

Jen's doing a walk to raise funds for MS research, and I'd appreciate it if you could support her if at all possible. The link to her personal fundraising page can be found here.

She's got two of the cutest kids on earth, and they need their mommy healthy and strong to play with them as they grow up...

Jen's retired Navy, and her husband's currently on active duty, so they've given a lot to our country. I'm proud to be able to give something to them.

Even if you can't make a donation, please leave her some words of encouragement on her blog! And tell her Jean & Oscar sent ya. :)

I'm going on a rant

2009-02-03T18:12:00.003-05:00

So the new administration has taken over, and so far, two Cabinet level nominees have had tax problems. One was a senator; one previously worked for the Federal Reserve and is going to be the Secretary of the Treasury, in charge of tax collections and the IRS.

Seriously, is it too much to ask that people who make the tax laws for the rest of us to follow pay their tax liability? I don't care what your party affiliation is... Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Devil Worshipper... Pay your freakin' taxes if you want to be in charge!

I mean, I'm not buying this "honest mistake" crap. I haven't met an IRS auditor yet who is gonna let that excuse fly. And there's a word for that much unreported income. It's called "evasion". Or at least it used to be.

I spend a significant portion of my time every year doing tax returns for honest, hard-working people who pay their fair share. They grumble. They complain. They ask me to do the best I can within the law to minimize the amount they have to pay. But they pay it.

I believe anyone who governs us should do the same. And if you fail to do so, don't blame it on Turbo Tax or your accountant. Seriously, dude. Write the check. When you're supposed to. The rest of us have to.

Or maybe our new Secretary of the Treasury will give us a new "honest mistake" box on the 1040. Yeah, right.

Nerd, Geek, or Dork?

2009-01-25T19:31:00.004-05:00

Thanks to The Magic That Is Heather for the meme.

Your result for The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test...

Modern, Cool Nerd

70 % Nerd, 65% Geek, 48% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd.

Nerds didn't use to be cool, but in the 90's that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn't quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and "geek is chic." The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)!

Take The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test at HelloQuizzy

A Box?

2009-01-20T22:24:00.009-05:00

For Me?Hmmm. Sure looks like it's addressed to me. I don't remember ordering anything. Mom took the credit card away after that last ugly incident with PetSmart.com...Needlecraft Corner, eh? Looks like some of Mom's silly cross stitch stuff. Why on earth is it addressed to me? Obviously this requires some closer inspection.Now... if I can just get this stuff out of there... darn this lack of opposable thumbs! What?? Looks like cookies!!! For me!!! Finally someone's realizing who really runs this place!Cookies! Glorious, wonderful cookies! Yummy cookies! Must get them out of the bag and have one now, now, now!!!! (Patience is not a dachshund virtue, you know.)Oh so yummy! They're so good I had to bury some for later in my fleecy blankets on the sofa (don't tell anyone).

Thank you Aunt Drema, Aunt Kathleen, and most especially Amber!!!

Some thoughts on the inauguration

2009-01-18T23:04:00.003-05:00

We approach on Tuesday something magnificent here in our country: the peaceful exchange of power that happens every 4 years. Considering the political unrest in so many parts of the world and our changing times, it is truly amazing to realize that the system men put together over 200 years ago still works, and still works well.

Now, I'm gonna be up front about something: my candidate didn't win. Most of you who know me in real life aren't surprised about that revelation. However, having said that, I do wish Mr. Obama well. While I don't agree with many of his ideas and a lot of his proposed policies, I hope that he is able to look to God for guidance and to use that guidance to do what is best for our country, and not necessarily what may be most expedient. He has the most powerful and the toughest job in the world.

I understand for a lot of people, the inauguration of an African-American president is a big deal. But honestly, I'm not seeing it. Now, before you lambaste me for being callous or unfeeling or racist, let me tell you why...

I'm a child of the Deep South, born four years after Brown v. Board of Education (look it up, if you don't know what I'm talking about). I distinctly remember the day at the end of my first grade year, when the teacher explained that "little boys and girls who looked different from us" would be in our school the next year -- that's how desegregation was explained to 6 and 7 year olds.

But you see -- I don't see others as African-American, or Asian-American, or whatever other hyphenated designation you want to give. I see everyone as people. I strive daily to treat people by the Golden Rule and do unto them as I would have them do unto me. I really don't care what color they are.

So when I look at Mr. Obama, I don't necessarily see an African-American man... I see a man who is about to become president. I will make my judgment of him and his actions by the "content of his character" rather than the "color of his skin", to paraphrase a famous speech.

Isn't that what it's supposed to be?? Wasn't that what the civil rights struggle was about?

May God Bless America as we face the challenges in front of us.

An Anniversary of Sorts

2008-12-30T09:39:00.002-05:00

My dad passed away seven years ago today. In some ways, it seems like such a short time ago, but in many, many ways, it seems like forever.

There are many reasons why I'll never forget that day. But one big one stands out in my mind: it was the day that God sent angels to take care of me, my mom, and Richard.

Not angels like the ones you'd think of traditionally - the ones you see in drawings with wings and harps -- but angels here on earth that He knew we'd need. People who all showed up right when we needed them, and too many of them to be coincidence.

The first one is my mom's minister Horace. I was outside the hospital making some calls, and when I came back in, he was waiting at the elevators and we went to the room together. When we got to the room, we found out that Dad had passed -- quietly, because he had been in a coma for a few days prior. Horace was able to be with my mom while I went to the nurses station, and he stayed with us for hours afterward.

The next angel who came is my friend Linda. She arrived right after Dad passed and stayed with us until we got everything finished up at the hospital and got back to my mom's house. I don't know if I ever told her how much I appreciated what she did for us that day and what she and her husband Jim and son Mark did for us by staying at the house with Oscar during the funeral, but (since I know she reads this) I am now. Thanks, sweetie, and much love.

The other two angels are our choir director Jerry and his wife, Charlise. Dad passed about 4 on a Sunday afternoon; evidently Jerry looked at Charlise about 4 and told her "We need to go to Rome." They showed up an hour later as we were making arrangements with the funeral home and it was such a blessing to have them there!!

So today is a bit of a somber day for me. Life changed radically when Dad died, and the adjustment has been hard. I miss him so much every day. I want to tell him that I accomplished the goals that he wanted for me: I got my CPA license and I now own my own business. I know he's watching me from heaven, and I hope he's proud.

In case you were wondering...

2008-12-28T20:10:00.003-05:00

...what happened with the Caps for Connor, please go to Beth's blog for a full wrap up!!

I managed to get two knitted... many others knitted many more.

Thank you to everyone for their support

What Kind of Sports Car Are You?

2008-12-27T16:43:00.000-05:00

I'm a Dodge Viper!

You're all about raw power. You're tough, you're loud, and you don't take crap from anyone. Leave finesse to the other cars, the ones eating your dust.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Is this really necessary?

2008-12-20T22:07:00.002-05:00

A bath? Really? How humiliating.

Culinary Misadventures

2008-12-14T21:43:00.005-05:00

Those of you who know me know that I refer to myself as "home-economically-challenged": that is to say, I'm not really at home in the kitchen. Unfortunately, when I do decide to try to cook something, I have this annoying habit of picking something that's not the easiest for a beginner. It's the same way I approached piano lessons as a child. I'd get a piano book and immediately turn to the back and learn to play the last piece in it. Then I figured I was done. The other piddly stuff in there was bor-ing. So we'll say that working up to a skill set is not my strong suit.

I found a recipe for sea salt caramels. Looked good. Looked reasonable. I assembled ingredients: cream, butter, sugar, Karo syrup, vanilla extract and sea salt. Check. Recipe called for a large stock pot and a candy thermometer. I grabbed the largest pot I had out of my cookware set and broke the seal on the candy thermometer package and went to mixin'.

Cook for 10 minutes on high heat and bring to a boil while stirring to melt butter and dissolve sugar. Check.

Reduce heat to medium high and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, till temp on thermometer reaches 248. Check.

Except...well... nobody told me what happens when cream, sugar, butter, and corn syrup start simmering. Things expand. In spite of every blasted chemistry and physics class I've ever taken, this thought never occured to me.

And when Mt. Vesuvius blew up all over the stove, I realized their definition of "large stock pot" was "bigger than the pot I had". Exhibit A:Note the caramelly goodness all over the sides? Yeah. Mt. Vesuvius erupted. We grabbed the pot off the burner and tried to get things calmed down.

So I think... well, I'll keep a better eye on it next time... so I put it back on. Alas, I'm a slow learner. The same bloody thing happened again. Exhibit B:See Richard's hand cleaning up caramelly goodness from the eye of the stove? At this point, I fear we're going to have to call in someone to repair the stove as that particular eye will no longer light of its own volition. Exhibit C:I like to call Exhibit C the "cha-ching for the stove repair people shot". Note that this shot was taken in mid-cleanup. Caramel makes very quickly when the mixture lands on a hot stove-eye (just in case you were wondering).

So we figured that the volume of the goop we were working with was greater than the volume of the container, and we'd better take some out if this experiment was ever going to succeed. Richard diligently ladled out caramel mixture, and we resumed simmering for what seemed like an eternity at that point.

But the temperature finally reached the magic 248 and we poured the mixture out onto well greased parchment paper and left it to set. I had no idea what it would taste like, considering all the consternation, but actually, it's some pretty tasty caramel.

It oughta be. I have a feeling it's gonna be some very expensive caramel when everything's said and done!

Christmas Shopping...

2008-12-12T21:41:00.002-05:00

Yeah. I went to the mall. Evidently it was "Stand in the aisle and stare" day and I didn't get the memo about it. I got out as fast as I could because I decided that yelling "Move your fat butt" a) wasn't very polite and b) wasn't in the spirit of the season. But there were some folks that did not know the meaning of "Excuse me.... excuse me... EXCUSE ME!!!"

I swear I'm trying to be in a good humor about the season, but it doesn't help that the two people I need to buy gifts for are the two most difficult people to shop for on the face of the earth.

My mom: I get that she has all the junk and tsotchkes anyone could ever want and/or need. However, I'm not about to go up to her house for Christmas empty-handed. So each year I end up on a quest for the person who says "don't get me anything" trying to find some simple something that might possibly tickle her fancy yet not clutter up her house. This is easier said than done.

My husband: I love my husband dearly. I cannot imagine life without him. But buying presents for him drives me nuts. He provides a list, and says he's open to surprises, yet when said surprises are presented often goes "Oh. Thanks." and tosses the gift to one side. One year he did that with a rather expensive jacket and I stopped festivities right there and then. It reminds me of the Friends episode where they're buying birthday gifts for Rachel, and her boyfriend Tag buys something that's not on the list. "Don't ever go off the list" they tell him. (Geez, I miss that show. There's so many life applications in it...).

So today I went to the mall. I went off the list at hubby's request to try to surprise him (without buying gift cards, since he specifically requested that I not give him those). I came up with something. We'll see. I shopped for Mom for a few things in addition to the mitts that I'm knitting for her. Again, we'll see.

Believe it or not, I have to go back to the mall tomorrow, because I forgot something I was going to get for Mom. I can't believe I was so stupid as to have to go back on a Saturday, but we'll go early and get out. Besides, they're practically giving the place away. Srsly.

Wish me luck!

Rain, Rain...

2008-12-10T14:23:00.002-05:00

...a rainy night in Georgia. At least it looks like that's what it's gonna be right now. Don't get me wrong: we need the rain in the worst kind of way. Problem is the cold front coming in right behind it... which may lead to ice... an encounter with which wasn't the kindest to my behind last Friday.

Was headed to Rome to see Mom, and as usual, I stopped at one of the local Starbucks to fuel up for the trip. This isn't the usual Starbucks that Richard and I frequent; as a matter of fact, this one isn't known for it's incredibly efficient staff, if you catch my drift. At any rate, I pulled into a choice parking space in front, grabbed the purse and stepped out of the Hummer to get my coffee...

...only to find myself sitting on the asphalt right on my adequate (I'm not so naive as to say "little") behind. And I landed hard. With absolutely no memory of what happened.

Then I saw the black ice.

So I crawled on hands and knees over the ice to find some place with traction so I could get up and assess the damage. (Several days out, I'm now incredibly annoyed that nobody inside the Starbucks, which was full, lifted a finger to help me. So much for the season of goodwill.) I went up to the counter and told the person that they had a problem, because there was black ice in front of their store, I had just fallen, and they'd better do something about it before someone really got hurt. The genius beside her said "Oh yeah, there was a sheet of glass out there all last winter."

Really, Sherlock? Think ya should have done something about it?

They gave me a free latte, and Sherlock followed me out with a yellow cone. He got to my car and allowed that "Gee, you really can't see this, can you?? Let me help you to your car." I'm no fool; I put my latte in on the other side of the car before taking him up on his offer. He did put the yellow cone in the parking space so nobody else could use it till things thawed out.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. I awaken to find out that I am sore in places I didn't know I had. I couldn't go to my stitch group's annual gingerbread house construction day at Vicky's. Even on Monday, sitting all day at continuing education was painful (even more than tax law normally would be). And we'll just say my rear end is a delightful shade of blue and dark purple.

**sigh**

At least I don't think there's any permanent damage, either to my body or to my dignity. But if there's ice again this week, I'll be taking it very easy when I'm out.

I'm curious...

2008-12-04T09:22:00.003-05:00

When I look at the FEEDJIT feed associated with my blog, I find that most of the hits are associated with this post. People from all over the world are looking at it. It's really pretty kewl.

What is it about the post that you find interesting? The cute dog? The sentiment? I'd like to know!

Leave a comment and tell me what you're thinking. :)

Go you fuzzy yellow bees!!!

2008-11-29T15:50:00.003-05:00

Woo! Georgia Tech beat Georgia!!!Yay!!!

Things I'm Thankful For, 2008

2008-11-26T11:31:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow in the US is Thanksgiving Day, so it's appropriate to stop for a moment to consider all the things in my life for which I'm thankful. Even though I may blow off steam here from time to time, on the whole, I've got it pretty darn good.

I'm thankful for:

--my faith. I know that ultimately God is in charge and whatever He leads me to, He'll see me through. Now, admittedly, sometimes I have a hard time reminding myself of that, but it's a fact.

--my husband. Richard is the absolute love of my life and I just can't imagine what I'd do without him. I get all warm and fuzzy when I know he's planning for our future together too, like when we were at a service for one of our fellow church members who passed, and the minister was talking about the gentleman and how he visited his wife every day in the nursing home. Richard asked me later how we were going to make sure we were still together if one of us had to go to some place like that... Now *that's* thinking ahead. :)

--my mom. She'll be 80 next week, and I'm blessed to still have her independent and relatively healthy.

--my business partner Bob. The big brother I never had growing up came into my life 10 years ago.

--my stitching buddies. All of them are the sisters I never had. We've been together for quite awhile now, and seen each other through a lot. It makes me happy to see them each week, to talk to them on the phone, to get email from them, and to chat with them on the computer.

--my friends on Ravelry. What an unexpected bonus I got when I signed up to join Ravelry to see a few patterns and get reviews on yarn and books!!! I have met so many wonderful people there; participated in some great swaps; and found a group of NASCAR fans as rabid as I am. And I was touched beyond belief this past summer when people I've never "met" from there contributed generously to our efforts to raise money for the Southeastern Brain Tumor Foundation in memory of my dad. They only knew me from my snarky posts and my odd sense of humor, yet they wanted to help me. How great is that??

--my church. I can't imagine life without our church and in particular, our church choir and handbell group. What a fantastic bunch of people.

--the fact that Richard still has a job and that my business, while down a bit, is still going and paying the bills.

--the fact that I have a warm home, plenty to eat, and clothes to wear.

--our troops and the sacrifices they make to keep all of us safe.

--the fact that the election process is (almost) over. I'll be honest: my side didn't win, but my prayer is that our country can come together and our new leadership can make the right decisions.

Oh, and one last thing.... I'm thankful to that lady at the Publix today who let me go in front of her with my one small item when she had a huge cart full of stuff. I'll pay it forward as soon as I get an opportunity.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!!!

Perhaps It's Just The Time Of Year...

2008-11-24T23:05:00.002-05:00

...or a full moon, or something.

On Saturday, Richard and I went for lunch to the tea room in Woodstock. Nice place, but crowded parking lot. I circled and parked in an actual parking space. Others weren't so considerate. Some of you who have been reading my blog for awhile recall this post, where I posted the score of Hummer 1, Honda 0. We almost had a repeat performance, as someone parked their small piece of rolling fiberglass behind the Hummer, leaving almost no room for me to back out. Richard stood outside as I executed roughly 20 small "Y" turns to maneuver the Hummer so I could back out without knocking the small car into the street. When Richard got in the car, I stated that I should really leave a note giving that person who was stupid enough to park there what for.

So I did.

It was rather cathartic, although they'll never know who did it. At least I had the privilege of telling them off and slapping it under their windshield wiper so they could see it.

Oh, and I went back by the church's bank today to drop off some paperwork they say they were missing. Funny, when I signed the signature card, I was under the impression I had signed the signature card. Evidently that's not how they roll. We'll just say things deteriorated from there and the conversation got quite unpleasant. I'm creating an RFP to give to several banks for them to bid on our business. It will please me greatly to sign the check that withdraws the last funds from that institution.

To add insult to injury, my windshield cracked. Got in the car this morning, and there was a three inch crack from the top left of the windshield headed for the middle. Fortunately, my car insurance covers it, but they're gonna have to replace the whole thing. Still just a pain.

Random Rants on a Chilly November Friday

2008-11-21T13:49:00.003-05:00

1. To the bank my church uses: I've been signing checks for 2 1/2 months now, ever since the death of our previous treasurer. Yet you pick today to embarrass one of our employees who tried to cash her check saying I wasn't on the signature card. Really? Let's see: you knew I was the treasurer; you called my cell phone; you've cashed all the other checks... So I think I was perfectly justified in losing my temper with you. And my pastor told me that even our Lord lost his temper with the money changers in the temple. So pfffffft. And as soon as I can get things together, we'll be changing banks, because this isn't the first time you've pulled crap like this. We're right across the street from you, for Pete's sake. Pick up the phone and call if you have a question.

2. To the gentleman behind me in line at the grocery store: hitting me in the rear end with your cart isn't going to make the line go faster. I checked.

3. To Jim Martin and Saxby Chambless, candidates for the hotly contested Senate runoff in Georgia: Stop calling me. I've already made up my mind, and neither of you are going to change it. Now both of you are just ticking me off. Ditto for your respective political parties and anyone calling on their behalf. Forget you know me, or you can kiss any future contributions goodbye. I mean it. And while you're at it, stop mailing crap to me as well.

4. To the idiot who tailgated me, passed me, and then cut in front of me, only to have us stop at the stop light at the same time: gee, that really worked out well for you, didn't it?

Connor Cap finished!

2008-11-16T21:47:00.004-05:00

I've finished a cap for Connor and his friends. Oscar was a bit of a reluctant model:I fear treats were involved after that one.

I'm waiting for a mailing address to get this one in the mail. Pattern is the "House Hats" from Charmed Knits, and it's made with Encore Worsted so it's nice and washable. (I don't particularly enjoy knitting with Encore, which is a blend of wool and acrylic, but it's durable and quite suitable for something like this.)

Connor needs caps!!

2008-11-13T15:00:00.002-05:00

It's a rare day indeed when I'll post twice, but I came across something thanks to my friend Jen from Ravelry that I think all of you knitters and crocheters who may read my blog need to see.

See, Connor's a little boy with a brain tumor. Stage III. This is very, very bad. Surgery isn't recommended, but they are doing chemo and radiation which, you guessed it, will make his hair fall out. In Wisconsin. In the winter.

Now, some of Connor's friends want to shave their heads in solidarity with him... but his best friend's mom, Beth, got the idea to have everyone at his school wear a cap in their school colors to show their support. You can read her post about it here.

There's a short time frame involved. They need around 200 caps to be mailed before December 1. Gauge isn't important, because there are kids and adults of all ages at his school.

I'm going to go cast on a hat now. You know how close to home anything involving brain tumors hits for me.

Can you help? Please?

It lives!

2008-11-13T11:53:00.006-05:00

No... I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. It just seems that way for those of you who have been waiting for me to actually write something on the blog rather than just post survey results. :) As I said before, life's been... interesting. Not a lot that I can actually go into here, but suffice it to say it's a combo of clients, church, family and stuff in general. Nothing major, but just a lot of little stuff.

When last we visited, I was about to head out in the Party Van(tm) for Hilton Head and A Stitchers Gathering. For an excellent review of the classes we took, I'll refer you to DF Teresa's blog. The event was held at the Marriott resort, and the folks there couldn't have been more friendly and accomodating. The weather, unfortunately, didn't cooperate: it rained cats and dogs on Friday when we were there, so that pretty much curtailed any outdoor activity, especially since in the evening there were gale force winds, and those and the Party Van(tm) didn't mix too well.

But, on Saturday between classes, we were able to take a brief walk on the beach:
(That would be DFs Jill, Ann and Heather proving we were actually at the seashore. Note that Jill was the only one actually experiencing sand between her toes).

Highlight of Saturday evening had to be the costume party. Teresa and I had been planning for months to go as "pit lizards" -- those ladies who stalk pit road at NASCAR races in hopes of snagging a husband/driver/baby daddy. Our costumes were well planned:(For those of you not accustomed to seeing me as a blonde, I'm on the left.) The mismatched 8s are a henna tattoo that is actually still fading and are the work of a still slightly perplexed Indian shopkeep in Town Center Mall. DF Andy went with me and did an excellent job of explaining to him how the tattoo should look (we had also brought pictures), and he was game for the whole thing. I tipped him well. :) What you can't see in this picture is the 5" heels I'm standing on. Richard and I went into the local Shoe Carnival and when this nice young man came up and asked if he could help us, I replied that I needed some "cheap ho shoes". After he stood up from being doubled over from laughing, he helped me find these lemon-drop yellow numbers that were leftover from summer. I'm still amazed that I remained upright on them.

Of course, while the classes and food and such at ASG are great, this is the real reason I go:
On the back row are Debbie B, Vicky, Teresa, moi, and Joy. Front row are Jill, Ann, and Angela. The "come hither" pose in the front is The Magic That is Heather.

The most kewl thing about ASG is that, were it not for it, I wouldn't even know Jill, Ann, Angela, Joy, Teresa, Heather, and DF Judy. They're now some of my best friends. Isn't it amazing how sometimes very unexpected goodies come into your life?

Now this is a horror movie

2008-11-09T08:54:00.004-05:00

Which Website are You?

Thanks to Min for the meme.

I promise a post soon with some ASG details and a catchup on life. Work has been... interesting. The rest of life has been... interesting. And interesting in that ancient curse way of "May you have an interesting life" sort of thing that I'm probably not up to sharing entirely. But life goes on. :)

For the record, I never watch horror films

2008-11-01T19:29:00.001-04:00

Your result for How Long Would you Survive in a Horror Film?...

The Horror Aficionado

Sometimes known as "the wise guy" or "the totally platonic best friend". This character is usually either the most likeable or most excruciatingly annoying character in the movie, because he's almost always the comic relief (or lack thereof). Sometimes he is the first to die because he figures out what's going on, tries to escape and is killed. However, the horror aficionado will more likely use his knowledge to devise the plan that eliminates the threat. That means he survives until the end where he ends up dying as a sacrifice so that the heroine can carry out the plan. Though he tends to lack a backbone, you do feel somewhat bad when he dies.

All possible results:

Jock/Cheerleader

The Black Guy

The Horror Aficionado

The Hero/Heroine

The Killer

Please remember to rate, but more importantly, please message me if you've found any blatant errors (especially with the results page and links). Thanks!

Take How Long Would you Survive in a Horror Film? at HelloQuizzy

Eight Types of Intelligence

2008-10-27T21:59:00.001-04:00

Your result for Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test...

Musical

Careers which suit those with this intelligence include instrumentalists, singers, conductors, disc-jockeys, and composers." (Wikipedia)

Take Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test at HelloQuizzy

Head 'em up... Move 'em out

2008-10-21T22:58:00.002-04:00

My crew is packing tonight and tomorrow for our annual trip to A Stitchers' Gathering, held this year in Hilton Head. I'm headed to Rome tomorrow to get the Party Van(tm). We'll mortgage the house to fill it up. Ann will be here tomorrow night, and then we'll gather Jill (who has threatened me with death if I show up at her house before 10) and Heather on Thursday morning and head Southeast to the coast. The weatherman says we're likely to have rain, but we generally don't see the outside of the hotel once we get there anyhow.

Teresa and I have planned our costumes for the costume contest. Pictures will follow here after the event is over. I'll just say that I've gathered a number of items that are completely out of character for me. We also figure that not many people are going to "get" our costume, but we're highly amused by it, and that's all that matters in the long run.

Unfortunately Richard and Oscar can't accompany me on this trip. Richard consoles himself by going on an Indian food and "movies I would never want to see in a million years" binge. I'm sure that Oscar will do what he's been doing lately and hang out on the sofa. The cooler weather we've been having has not been kind to his arthritis and he's not moving around a lot. He's still enjoying his food tho: particularly his boiled chicken and Beggin' Strips. I've actually managed to get his tramadol down him the past couple of days, so please say a small prayer that he'll continue to cooperate!

I've been doing a wee bit of stitching and knitting. My knitting can't be shown on my blog just yet. It's a gift for my swap partner in the Starbucks and Yarn swap, and I want it to be a bit of a surprise! As for stitching, I've been working on the needlebook in the "Ye Shall Prosper" stitchalong. I was supposed to have the front finished last month; no, it didn't happen. :)

Be on the lookout for an update after we return (and I rest up!!!).

Seriously.

2008-10-18T20:51:00.000-04:00

sigh Over for another year

2008-10-15T09:01:00.004-04:00

October 15. D-Day in the tax world. The final deadline for all those returns for 2007. Of course, there are still some people with a zen-like attitude toward tax filing, but I digress. It's the final deadline for all those people who actually want to file their taxes in a timely manner. Finished up the last ones last night and got them e-filed. Including mine, thankyouverymuch. In the process, the house went to Defcon 8 when I realized that I hate the way Quickbooks processes payroll taxes with a white-hot passion usually only reserved for some political candidates and select NASCAR drivers. Bob does his half of the company's books on Quickbooks. I'll be chatting with him about that sometime soon... after I've quit swearing in my head.

Of course, I still have to finish those not-for-profits that are due on November 15.

This past weekend sis-in-law Sandi came down from VA to go to the spring apparel market in downtown ATL. She was buying for the family store, and Richard and I went down to assist (Oscar stayed home, since his fashion sense is somewhat questionable). What we found, other than a bunch of dresses better suited to a line of stores titled "Hos-R-Us" was that there were very few people there buying. Vendors were twiddling their thumbs and not writing orders because there was simply nobody shopping. Normally at the spring market, there's not room to walk. Our guess was that, due to the current economic conditions, people are waiting to see how they do over Christmas and then order in January for immediate delivery. You gotta have stuff to sell... At any rate, we helped Sandi order some nice dresses suitable for church and funerals and some spring and summer tops (she had already ordered pants). Found a cute line of flip flops too.

Our most amusing moment came when the three of us, wandering around to see what new things we could find, wandered onto a floor with temporary vendors set up... and it turned out to be the "gangsta" floor. We were just a tad out of place there. Interestingly enough, it was the only floor with a police presence -- not the floor selling diamonds, mind you, but the gangsta floor. We quickly realized that we should leave and found an escalator to head to another area where we were more culturally comfortable.

I managed to do some damage at a place that sells beading supplies. Swarovski crystals for $1 and $2 a dozen depending on size. Gold beading wire like JoAnn's sells for $18.99 a spool for $6. Yeah, I love being able to shop at the mart!

Be proud of me... I successfully avoided the knockoff purse stores. Most of them were full of the giraffe print Dooney and Burke knockoffs in a rainbow of colors. Who knew giraffe prints were so big?

As for stitching and knitting -- HA!! So no pictures this time. :) Next week is ASG... DF Ann is headed down a week from today, and she'll join me and DFs Jill and Heather in the Party Van (tm) as we drive to Hilton Head next Thursday for the weekend. There'll be a cooler in the car full of LaCroix for swilling, puppy chow courtesy of my mom, and we'll meet up with DFs Vicky, Debbie B, Angela, and Joy... as well as CJ from California and Carol B from MD to hang out and enjoy the weekend of merriment. Oh yeah... there'll be needlework classes too. :)

A thousand apologies to most DF Teresa, my roomie for ASG, who I totally inadvertently left off the meet up list... I now must bribe her with some beautiful yarn, or she'll kill me in my sleep.

The Missing Package Arrives!!!!

2008-10-02T11:33:00.008-04:00

Alas, folks, I have been remiss in posting! Blame it on the market meltdown... and Wachovia... and Washington Mutual... and the fact that it's nearing October 15, when the final tax returns are due for 2007 and trust me, most people filing this time of year are not happy.

But I did let the ever patient and persistent Trisia know that my package arrived this past Saturday. And this package of goodies was well worth the wait...

Trisia had a clear message for the Postal Service:
Think they got the message?? Me neither.

But what a bunch of goodies awaited me when I opened it!!! I think I scared His Royal Lowness when I squeeed in delight.See that Starbucks cup?? More about the wonderfulness in it in a bit.... A wonderful pattern for socks to be made with the contents of the cup... handknit mug mats to match the contents of the cup... A generous Starbucks gift card (Trisia has obviously seen me there before my weekly trips to my clients)... a plug in beverage warmer that I've wanted but never bought for myself, perfect for tax season... A Yarn Harlot book to keep me laughing!... gorgeous handmade stitch markers... kewl sock shaped point protectors... Whoppers for a snack (one of my faves)... some dip mix that my stitch group will enjoy very soon.. and some green tea that I've already enjoyed.

As for the yarny goodness in the Starbucks cup??? Two skeins of sock yarn, dyed especially for me and named for me to boot!Woot! How tremendously kewl is that!!!! :)

Thank you Trisia, for a wonderful package. It's been a doubly good experience: not only did a box of great stuff make its way to me, but I also made another good cyber friend to boot.

If you get want to see more yarny goodness, go check out Trisia's site for her wonderful sock yarns. I know where I'll be doing some shopping for future swaps!

And this is a special shout out to my cousin Joe... if you're reading this... glad to have found you again!!! :)

Guilty Pleasures Swap!

2008-09-24T14:21:00.003-04:00

I received my Guilty Pleasures Swap package from Barb on Saturday.

Behold the wonderment:
See that bright blue yarn on the right?? That's WOLLMEISE, people!! The Holy Grail of yarn. If you're a fan of The Maltese Falcon, it's The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of. Seriously, I thought someone had to die and will it to you, yet Barb managed to get a skein of it for me, in a wonderful blue, and with a pattern specifically designed for it. Woot!!! The other skein of yarn is Silky Mmmmmmmalabrigo in a beautiful teal. Woot again!!!! And Knit Picks circulars to work on them with!!!

Barb also kindly included some treats: tea and cashews (absolutely the best nut in the world), some Altoid mints, shea butter for my dreadfully dry skin, a teak scented candle, and a sweater stone which will come in handy for some of my woefully pill-ridden sweaters this winter.

I feel so very spoiled!! Thank you so much Barb! I hope you like the package I sent to you half as much!!!

What Does Your Birthdate Mean?

2008-09-20T20:34:00.003-04:00

Your Birthdate: January 8

Watch out Donald Trump! You've got a head for business and money.

You'll make it rich some day, even if you haven't figured out how yet.

A supreme individualist, you shouldn't get stuck in a corporate job.

Instead, make your own way - so that you can be the boss.

Your strength: Your undying determination

Your weakness: You require an opulent lifestyle

Your power color: Plum

Your power symbol: Dollar sign

Your power month: August

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Swap Package Update 2

2008-09-19T09:41:00.001-04:00

Heard from Trisia again today....

"I did get your package back on Friday, and I think about 1/2 of it was missing, including the coasters I made for you, which of course were dyed to match the yarn I dyed for you. :( All the treats were gone and so was the gift card, and the card I had in there for you. Very disappointing."

So, evidently someone in Bristol, CT is a major scumbag and stole the goodies. And they've caused poor Trisia to have to replace stuff for me (which I really wish she hadn't done, because none of this was her fault, but she's a good egg and didn't want me to lack for a wonderful swap package). And the post office isn't doing anything about it, because the package wasn't insured, even though it was clearly their fault because they delivered it to the wrong address.

**sigh** I'd say that people are pigs, but that's offensive to the pig, which, from what I read, is an intelligent and noble animal.

What goes around comes around. And if that person's life was so empty that they felt the need to steal from Trisia and me, well, I hope he or she enjoyed the stuff. I don't think I could. That whole "golden rule" thing always kicks in.

In the meantime, I'm busy knitting cup cozies for other folks in the swap whose partners just plain flaked out and never sent anything. Again, I just don't understand. Were these people raised by wolves? Do they have no sense of common decency? I mean, don't enter into what is essentially a contract that you have no intention of fulfilling. Seems pretty cut and dried. Can someone please explain their thought process, because I don't have a clue.

Swap Package Update

2008-09-09T18:38:00.002-04:00

You may remember my AWOL Starbucks and Yarn swap package... you know, the one that was vacationing in Bristol, CT?? The lovely and tremendously patient Trisia sent me this update today:

YAY! The dreaded package has been located. WOO HOO!!! The post office told me this afternoon that it’s being shipped back to me and that I should receive it by Friday.

You are just going to die when you hear this story. I can’t believe the nerve of some people. Wow! Actually, I’m still not sure I believe it at all…I can’t wait to get the package back and see if it’s all there!

Anyway, so the package is delivered to the wrong state, as you know. The person that gets it (I wish they would tell me who it is it’s killing me to know…LOL) actually opens it up and was going to keep it I think. Rather than just giving it back to the carrier, or taking it to the post office to return it to the sender, they opened it up. HUH? I honestly can’t believe how much moxy you must have for that. Anyway, I guess the postal carrier on that route finally hooked up with the person at the delivery address and inquired about it and they put the stuff back in the box and gave the carrier the opened box, which has not been repackaged and is being sent back to me.

Of course I am editorializing this based on what the post office told me, but come on…

“Yes ma’am, your package has been located. Unfortunately the receipient opened the package. The route carrier has retrieved the package from the recipient and we have repackaged what was in the opened box and it is not en route to your location.”

Ya…that’s NOT the politically correct version of events that will be posted all over Ravelry and my blog. ROFL!

Thanks for being so patient while I fought with them to sort it out. You are so awesome to be so nice about it! Now that’s going to be one less angel I have to worry about…how embarrassing would that have been? The angel coordinator has to make an angel for her own partner. LOL!

Hugs!
Trisia

Now, imagine for a moment, that you got a package clearly labeled for someone else. Would you actually open it?? Decide it was yours and keep your ill gotten gains?? Geez! Of course, as Trisia said, we're still waiting to see if the package actually arrives back at her house and if the contents are actually all there.... I'm just amazed that the Postal Service was able to track it that far. I figured the thing was a goner.

On the bright side... when Carl Edwards won a race last weekend, Jerry Punch did not refer to his backflip as a "signature somersault", preferring silence instead. Perhaps that little package did some good.

Updates as they become available. :)

Pirate Booty

2008-09-06T19:11:00.005-04:00

Avast, mateys. I be feelin' like a pirate today. And it's not even Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Why, you ask? Well, it's a long story...

Every year, my eye exam comes up in May, and I go to the Lenscrafters at the local mall and see Dr. Mohammed. Now, Dr. Mohammed is very kewl. She's got an excellent sense of humor, and on top of that, she makes very good lenses for me. Add to the mix a couple of girls in the office, Amanda and Rebecca, to whom I give a hard time on general principles.

Problem is, when I get my contact lenses, my prescription is a bit... complicated. I wear bifocal lenses, and on top of that, they have to be fitted for astigmatism. Official name is multifocal toric lenses, because I can no longer do the bit where they put a reading lens in one eye and a distance lens in the other (My clients just won't cooperate by putting all their computers at the same distance from the chair. How rude.). At any rate, it takes anywhere from 4-6 weeks for the trial lenses to come in... then another 4-6 weeks for my actual lenses to come in... so you can see I generally spend the summers with the fine folks at the optometrist's office.

This year when my actual lenses came in, and I put them in for the first time, I realized there was a problem... as in I couldn't see stop signs, stop lights... you get the picture. I panicked. I went back to the office, thinking I was nuts and had agreed to purchase stuff that just didn't do, even though I knew they were fitting differently from the ones I had tried. As it turns out, the office had ordered the right lenses, but when they came in, one tiny measurement was off, and so they had to order them again. They put a "rush" on them, so this time it only took 3 weeks instead of 4-6. Wow.

So, Friday night, I went in to pick up the new contacts. As is my usual custom, I snatched up a couple of packages of contact lens solution. I was joking with Amanda and Rebecca, and I said that for the price of these puppies, they ought to give me a case. (My lenses cost about $400 for 6 months worth. See why I was panicking so badly when I thought they weren't right??)

The girls looked at each other... Dr. Mohammed said "You know we've got it... go get it." And even though I said I was just joking, I came home with this:Pirate booty. Probably two years worth of contact solution (checked the expiration dates) and cases.

So I walked through the mall with my $400 worth of contacts and a case of solution. People stared. I didn't care. I scored. :)

And yes, I am easily entertained.

But isn't this an incredibly cute dog right after his b-a-t-h??

I didn't get a vacation, but...

2008-08-31T22:30:00.004-04:00

As you know if you've been following my blog, I'm participating in the Starbucks and Yarn swap, which is happening among Ravelry members and a few non-Ravelers. I sent my package out earlier in August -- the deadline for shipping was August 22, and I actually shipped a couple of days early. In the swap, you agreed to send your swappee the handmade item of their choice (mine chose a cup cozie), some yarn, and a Starbucks item of their choice (mine chose a gift card), along with the requisite extra goodies people usually include. My swappee posted pictures of the package she received and said she was happy with it, and I really hope she was.

My upstream partner is the lovely Trisia, who was also one of the moderators of the swap. Trisia has been a dream, sending me lots of Ravmessages such to make sure she tailored just the right package for me. Plus, she has an online yarn shop that just has a lot of yummy things in it!!! And, as it turns out, she dyed some yarn **especially for me**, and I was thrilled!!! I found this out when I went to her online shop and ordered, and she sent my money back saying "Uh, you're already getting that, you silly thing..." :) She had called it "Jazzy Jean", but so many people had liked the color that she added it to her shop. If you want to check out the color click here and page down to the "Dancing Peacocks" -- Isn't it gorgeous????

So, when Trisia told me she had shipped my package, and it should be here by Saturday a week ago... I figured no problem and eagerly started stalking the postman, or should I say postperson. Mind you, my postperson is a bit flaky... We frequently have to "deliver" mail to our neighbors because it's been left in the wrong box. I left a message in the mailbox the other day asking her to come to the door to pick up a Priority Mail package I had going out. You think she'd bring my mail with you, right?? Nope. Stuck it in the mailbox. So I had to go outside to get it. In the pouring rain. Tropical downpours courtesy of Fay. Color me unimpressed.

Saturday came and went, as did Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.... so I was left with a dilemma. Should I ask if it went out? What if something happened to it? I didn't want Trisia to think I was pushy, but I also didn't want her to think I was rude for not acknowledging what I'm sure is a wonderful package with pictures and accolades for all to see on Ravelry. I decided to bite the bullet and inquire...

Trisia was out of town, but she got the delivery confirmation info from her husband... and discovered that the package had indeed been delivered....

To Bristol, CT.

Connecticut. The other end of the freakin' East Coast from Kennesaw, GA. I didn't get to take a vacation this year, because we decided to cancel ours to stay home with His Royal Lowness Oscar, but my swap package is having a fine old time in the home of ESPN. Maybe it can get Jerry Punch to stop calling Carl Edwards' backflip a "signature somersault" and can get Rusty Wallace banned from NASCAR coverage.

Maybe it'll send me a postcard.

So now poor Trisia's on the case trying to get the post office to recover the package. Poor thing. See, this is why I don't trust the postal service. And they want to raise rates again? Pfffft.

Knit Stitch Update

2008-08-29T08:57:00.014-04:00

First of all, I can't tell you how excited I am to look at the map and see that people from all over the US and the world are reading my little blog!! Thanks for stopping by!! If you get a chance, leave a comment and say hi.

I've been working a lot lately, but as those of you who know me well know, I'm definitely not an "all work, no play" kind of gal. I've been doing some knitting and stitching, but I just haven't gotten the camera out to do an update, so this is a catch-up post on what I've been doing.

I've got a couple of finishes. First, another pair of socks for Warm Woolies.I'm still using yarn I won in the Dancing With The Stars pool on Ravelry. I've got a lot of skeins to go, so I'm planning on cranking out quite a few more pairs, since I can get one pair out of a skein of Cascade 220.

I finally finished the Crusoe socks.I include the link to the pattern here as a warning. Do not use it. Seriously. It is fraught with errors, and the sizing is waaaaay off. If you like the way they look, take a generic sock pattern and use the 4 stitch stranded pattern on it. I'm not kidding. Knitty doesn't have any errata on it, and after I had ripped out the heel 5 times on the first sock, I searched Ravelry and discovered, buried on someone's project page, that it wasn't me and there was a problem. I plan to post prominently on my project page that there's issues with this pattern. The yarn I used was wonderful though. It was the first shipment in the Whimzy Pinzy cotton sock club; I found her on Ravelry and she's wonderful to work with... definitely a small business that goes the extra mile for her customers.

I finished some cup cozies for the Starbucks and Yarn swap:I can't remember the pattern right now, but if you're interested in it, let me know and I'll find it for you. For the same swap I also made some stitch markers:(Yeah, the picture's a little blurry, but you get the general idea. Photography's not my forte.) My swap partner posted that she was happy with her package, which also included a gift card, a skein of sock yarn, and a travel mug, so I hope she was.

In other knitting, I started new charity knitting for the Red Scarf project:Pattern is the Columns scarf, a freebie from Knit Picks. It's working up fast (although not as fast as I'd like), but I still don't know if I'll make the deadline for this year. It's a good travel project because it's only a four row pattern that's easily memorized. It calls for two different colors of yarn, but I decided to do it in only one color for convenience.

I also started a pair of RPM socks:Yarn is another Wimzy Pinzy cotton club yarn -- this time the Olympic commemorative for August. It's in one of her flat sheets, where you pull the yarn off the sheet and knit off it, which is actually kind of fun. I decided to go ahead and knit it up, considering my personal Olympic boycott (I disaprove of both the Chinese government and the IOC, which I know puts me in a serious minority, but I managed to not watch any of the coverage. I support our athletes, but I could not bring myself to watch the spectacle.) At any rate, the pattern seems to be a good one, and it's knitting up fast.

I haven't abandoned cross stitching by any means! In process are:This is Dasher, one of the reindeer by Nora Corbett. He's going to be a model for the Needled Canvas and Finest Threads, a needlework store here in Marietta. Right now I'm waiting for the beads to come in, because the holes you see in him are where beads go, and he looks like a good ol'boy got hold of him with a shotgun full of buckshot...

I'm also working on "Ye Shall Prosper" with a group of DFs. This was one of our projects at ASG last year, created by the fabulous Rae Iverson.The girls have created a stitchalong for us to try to get this finished. First up is the needlebook. I had done the chain stitch outline in class; we're supposed to get the first page of it done sometime in September. Everyone can tell you that I follow these schedules rather loosely, to say the least. :)

I think that gets us caught up, craft-wise. This weekend is Labor Day weekend, which is the unofficial end of summer. Nobody told the weatherman that, because it's hot as Hades here. Our plans are to head to Rome tonight, spend the night, bring Mom back to Atlanta tomorrow to shop, head back to Rome tomorrow night to take her home, spend the night, and head back home on Sunday for a day of rest on Monday. I hope all of you have a safe and fun holiday weekend!!!

Awwwwwww

2008-08-17T22:21:00.001-04:00

How much do I love my husband?

2008-08-16T21:08:00.003-04:00

Enough that during a shopping trip to Costco today, I took a picture of him with an enormous spider with my iPhone for him to put on his Facebook page. Evidently he thought it was funny. I didn't. Had to copy the stupid thing to my computer to get it over to his Mac. When I deleted it, Vista had the nerve to ask me if I was sure. Of course I am. It was a freaking huge spider. I'm getting cold chills just typing this.

The past week has been pretty quiet. Nothing as exciting as a trip to the speedway, for sure! For the most part just working and trying to get insurance straightened out. For those of you who don't know, Richard's company was bought out by Oracle on August 1. We allegedly had insurance benefits starting on that date, but we've yet to see any cards. And we have appointments coming up this week, and I'm not sure that the doctor's office (or at least the huge clinic my doc belongs to) is going to "take my word for it." I think we've got it worked out, but we'll see. The next huge hurdle was the paycheck; payday was the 15th, and the first check had to be mailed. It didn't arrive on the 15th (it came today after the banks were closed), so there was considerable shuffling of funds to insure a few automatic payments didn't go bouncy bouncy come Monday. At least I don't have that much hair left that isn't already grey.

On a happier note, I got my package from my swap partner in the Purple Rules! summer swap:Included in the package was some Plymouth Sinsation, a kind of chenille-like yarn that is very soft and will make a very nice scarf, two skeins of Koigu for some socks, a bamboo "stitch fixer", some darning needles, a button and some sticky notes, and a box of Tazo teas. All very nice and very much appreciated. Thank you Pam!!!

I have a couple of swap packages to mail out myself next week... so tomorrow will be spent boxing them up and getting them ready to go. :)

Other than that we plan to have a relaxing Sunday... maybe do a little more cleaning out of cabinets in the kitchen with Richard mocking my unfortunate weakness for gadgets on infomercials. At least I'm providing him with some amusement!

Anniversary Weekend!!!

2008-08-08T21:16:00.013-04:00

It's hard to believe that on Monday the 11th, Richard and I will have been married for 24 years. Considering I was 50 this year, I've been married just about half my life. Wowsa. Kind of mind-boggling when you put it in terms like that.

Usually for our anniversary we take a trip to Highlands, NC and stay at the Skyline Lodge, mine gemstones, eat too much, and generally enjoy the cooler weather for a few days. Unfortunately, the trip to West Virginia was pretty hard on Oscar, so we've made the decision not to travel further than my mom's house in Rome with His Royal Lowness anymore. We knew this day would come, and we've been pretty lucky with him in his 15 years. It's time to let him have some peace and quiet in his old age. Now, we're not ruling out the occasional shopping trip in his stroller (or Royal Carriage, as DF Jill says), but for the most part, he'll be home at night sleeping in his own king-sized bed, letting us have a little room to sleep as he sees fit.

So since we weren't going to Highlands, Richard made alternate plans for us on our Anniversary Weekend. Today we went to Atlanta Motor Speedway for a pilgrimage. This is the third track we've been to; the others are Bristol and Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte. While some may think it's boring to visit the tracks when races aren't going on, we think it's interesting, because you can go in and really see the speedway and go places you'd never get to go if there were a race going on .As you might expect, the speedway's a big place. Atlanta's one of the 1.5 mile tracks, but it's not really a "cookie cutter" because it's one of the older tracks on the circuit (dating from 1960) and it has significant banking in the corners, making for some fast racing. As an interesting bit of trivia, in November 1992 it was the site of both Richard Petty's last race and Jeff Gordon's first one in the season ender.This statue of Richard Petty signing an autograph for a child is right outside the ticket office of the speedway to commemorate the event.

We took a tour of the speedway; it wasn't a busy day, so Richard and I were the only ones on it, and it consisted of getting in a van and driving around the inside of the speedway and the grounds, with the driver giving some history as we drove. A lot of it I already knew, but there were some interesting tidbits, like the fact that there are some condos around the track for sale, ranging in price from $300K to a cool million. No real estate crisis there.The condos overlook the track and are evidently quite posh. Unfortunately we don't have a down payment right now.

The tour normally includes a ride in the van on the track, but we couldn't do that since there was a driving school going on. But... it ended up working in our favor, because after the tour, we drove over to the infield tunnel......signed a release, and were able to drive the Hummer right into the infield of the track where the driving school was taking place -- which was right on pit road and right next to the Cup garages and Victory Lane!Here I am inside the Cup garage!!! (In the back, you can see a restroom that no doubt many a driver has used over the years. I restrained myself from going into it. Really.) What always amazes me about the conditions around the race teams and the garage like this is how clean it is. No oil stains; no dirt; I'm not saying you want to eat off the floor, but it's certainly not like other car shops I've seen.

Richard hamming it up in Victory Lane:I thought briefly about trying to drive the Hummer up there, but I decided I wouldn't push my luck.

We were down on pit road, right where the Cup cars would be pitting during the race. Here I am on the pit road wall:I found it amazing to see that there are power outlets and water spigots on the other side of the wall. I haven't visited pit road at the other tracks to compare, so I don't know if other tracks have similar accommodations for the teams.

Also on pit road were the cars for the driving school. They weren't Cup cars; they were more like modified Nationwide series cars:We were able to get up close and get a good look at the inside of them as well:Maybe one day I'll save up my pennies and at least go for a ride-along in one of these cars. Since I don't know how to drive a stick, it would be kind of hard for me to actually drive one of them (even though that would be waaaaaay kewl). Maybe I'll just get a firesuit and a helmet. :)

From there we drove around to see the Legends cars (which are smaller cars that kidlets drive to learn to race). The track hosts races for these cars every Thursday night:If you look carefully, there's one for sale there in the back of the picture, so you can have your very own Legends car you can park outside your condo at the track if you've got the money...

After a stop at the gift shop (more Dale Jr. swag!), we headed north and shopped at Ikea for a bit. (Whoever said that "Ikea" translated to "Cheap Swedish Furniture" evidently never shopped there with me. Dang, I can drop some money at that place.)

So... that's the beginning of our weekend. The rest will be pretty tame. Some errands and a run to Micro Center tomorrow (and maybe the Apple Store), dinner at The Melting Pot tomorrow night, and church on Sunday.

It's been a very short and a very fantastic 24 years. I'm married to my best friend in the world, and I'm the most blessed person ever. I love my husband more now than I did the day I married him, and I realize how very special that is. If you haven't found that yet, I pray that one day you will.

In which I am outsmarted by a 14 lb dachshund

2008-08-01T14:39:00.005-04:00

Oscar, being a 15 year old gentleman, has developed a touch of arthritis, and the vet has given him some medicine for it. Tramadol, to be specific. Turns out this is a pretty good medicine for dogs because it's supposed to relieve his discomfort but it doesn't have all the side effects that Rimadyl and some of the other drugs have. Plus, it's cheap, which my pocketbook loves.

The major drawback of Tramadol, however, is that it is incredibly bitter. As such, Oscar doesn't like to take it. Can't blame him really, but there's no reasoning with him as you would a child, and no promising him a toy (as my parents used to do when I got dragged to the allergist in Atlanta every few months... and I always knew that was going to involve needles and lots of them).

So the trick has been to hide the quarter pills in something yummy and hope he gets it down before he tastes the pill. Unfortunately this has been easier said than done.

Our usual weapon of choice in this has been Velveeta cheese. Nope. We went to peanut butter, cream cheese, yogurt, ice cream, even the terribly expensive Greenies Pill Pockets, which Vicky's shih tzus gobble up like Doggie Crack. Nope.

While Judy was here, she held him and I tried to force the pills into his mouth for him to swallow. This only resulted in me getting bitten several times and Oscar literally frothing at the mouth.

Later that weekend we hit on Omaha Steaks hamburgers. If we cooked one, then carefully sliced it so that we could put the quarter pills into an end piece; he would snarf them down before he realized it.

Until this morning. The jig is up.

I went to Chick-Fil-A to get his favorite chicken nuggets, concealed the pill quarters in two pieces of nugget, then nonchalantly put them down for him to eat. This was the result:Note the carnage of chicken nugget pieces above the plate, where he has deftly de-pilled the nuggets.
See the close-up of the small white quarter of a pill that's causing this problem??? Seriously, I'm only trying to get two of those down the dog in the morning and in the evening. You'd think this wouldn't be that hard.

I have a B.A, a B.S, an M.B.A. and a CPA license, and evidently I'm being outsmarted by a 14 lb dachshund. Anybody else got any ideas?? I'm open to suggestions.

Annoying defined

2008-07-30T13:08:00.002-04:00

Annoying: Stitching along on antlers on a Nora Corbett reindeer and discovering you're one stitch off and there's no way you can fudge it.

It's a huge reminder that I'm not the great stitcher I think I am. Either that or a reminder that I can't count. One of the two.

Happy Birthday, Oscar!!!

2008-07-20T19:45:00.002-04:00

Our little man is 15 today!(Really, isn't this just the sweetest face you ever saw??)

It's hard to believe he's been with us all but 3 months of his life. He's slowed down a bit, but he's still just an incredible joy in our lives. We've all grown up together.

Tonight he dined on filet mignon, suitable for His Royal Lowness. Of course, he also ate half of my steak and part of Richard's steak too. How can we say no?

Happy Birthday, Oscar. We love you, and we thank you for putting up with us. I promise we'll take care of you as long as you're here on earth, and we know you'll be waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge if you get there before we do.

Home Again

2008-07-11T12:35:00.005-04:00

We're home again, which may come as a surprise to some of you who didn't know we were gone. :) We traveled to West Virginia to see Richard's siblings and do some work at the family business.

Richard's from a little town in southwest WV named Man. It's a small place nestled in coal mining country. When the mines are working, life is good. When they're not, well, the economy suffers. The latest thing to hit the area is the advent of the Hatfield-McCoy Trail, which attracts four-wheelers from all over to ride amongst the flora and fauna of the mountains. As it turns out, Richard's family has a history with the Hatfields: his grandfather on his mother's side was a doctor who took care of Devil Anse Hatfield, and descendants of the Hatfields took care of Richard's mother during her illness before she passed (wonderful ladies... I can't tell you how grateful we were for them! I guess there's some sort of symmetry there, eh?). During our last evening there, Richard and his siblings got into a discussion of family history; they can trace their family back to the Revolutionary War. I think they thought I was bored, but I found it fascinating. I have no such idea of my family roots except that I know two of my great-grandmothers were full Cherokee Indians. I guess one day I really need to track that down.

May I say that as a Georgia girl, born and bred looking at Georgia red clay everywhere, it's fascinating to drive down the roads through eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia , where they've cut through mountains to make the roads, and see the strata of coal on either side. It's kinda freaky to me.

We made it there safely despite a GPS system with a death wish. Evidently the GPS couldn't handle the mountains on the Kentucky/WV line. It would freak out and lose its way, then tell me to turn left. Problem was, it kept wanting me to turn left off a bridge over a valley between two mountains. So it would say "Turn left" and I would yell "The hell I am!" at the thing. It became quite amusing for about 30 or so miles before it got its little electronic brain back.

Anyhow, the family business is a store that sells clothing, jewelry, appliances, furniture, giftware... a little bit of everything... and has been in business since dinosaurs roamed the earth. The challenge since Richard's mom passed is the four kids now owning the business, and none of them ever planning to be running it, but yet finding themselves in the business of retail. While we were there, I installed Peachtree Accounting with the idea that they could bring some of the accounting work that's currently being outsourced in house. Richard spent his time photographing merchandise that will be listed for sale on eBay. It's a case of taking decades old manual systems and converting them to the 21st century. It's going to be a challenge for all of them, but I think that with some work it will be successful. With the current energy crunch, the mines are going back to work, and that's good for the area. Plus, the higher gas prices mean more people are shopping locally instead of driving to the next larger town which is also good news. :)

Business aside, it was great to visit with Richard's sisters and brother. Oscar was indifferent to the whole thing, I think, but as usual, he was a good sport about the trip. He functioned in a supervisory role while we were working at the store, of course.

Oh, and one of the perks of marrying into a family that owns a store is being able to shop at cost. Sweet!!! Needless to say I scored major amounts of clothing to see me through the rest of the summer and got a dress to wear to a wedding next weekend. It looks like nothing else in my closet. Richard likes it. :)

No real pictures from the trip yet -- I'm waiting on the sibs to email me pics they took of the four of them together and one with me and Oscar in it, but while we were on the road, we did see this:Spotted a hauler for Juan Pablo Montoya's show car on the road!!! Altho there's a lot of people who don't like Juan Pablo, he's my new hero since he took out the Shrub (aka Kyle Busch) in a race a couple of weeks ago and **admitted he did it**. Usually NASCAR drivers will blame a wreck on "just racing" or a mechanical issue, but Juan Pablo stood up and said that Kyle ticked him off, he'd had enough, and he wrecked him. Plus I actually think Juan Pablo's kinda hot -- Richard knows about this, and thinks Juan Pablo's wife is kinda hot, and we decided if we had the Montoyas over for dinner the only thing that could come of it is a restraining order. :)

Oh, you came here to see knitting or stitching?? Yeah... that got put on hold for the trip. Light was bad where we were staying, and besides, we had no time. Check back later for pictures of ornaments for the ornament exchange tho!! :)