I made a donkey for my friend Debbie, and forgot to take a picture. It kind of looks like a chihuahua screwed a poodle. I made it all multi-colored, the same color as the afghan I made her. I gave it them to her yesterday - an early birthday present - and she loved them!

Then we dyed each others hair. She went blond’er (She’s a natural blonde already), and I went BRUNETTE! Michelle & Deb both said that they didn’t like it, because red just suits me better. I wanted something different.

Anyway, since I didn’t have any big WIPS that needed working on (I do have a couple log cabin baby blankets that I’m just not in the mood to finish, though) I did a bunch of amigurumi toys. The Bear from the other day, and I did a piggy the next day. The plans with both, were to take them to work and give them to the first kid I saw. Lucky for me, on Wednesday the first kid I saw was Michelle & her baby Emily. There’s no better baby to give a bear to! She absolutely LOVED IT! She made all kinds of baby babble talk and chewed on it’s face. I went over there last night and she was still loving it. The piggy went to live with C’s daughter, Harmony. She also requested a black cat for herself and a pink elephant for her sister. I told her I’d work on it this weekend, but I need to finish spinning for my 4H pal.

I’m wondering if I should sell some of my handspun. Money is real tight around here, and if anybody would buy it, it would help. But then on the other hand, I don’t really want to sell any of it. Any of it that is worth selling is my favorite stuff that I hope to one day make something out of it, kwim? Thankfully, DH’s hours will be going back up in about 3 weeks (Fingers crossed that they get the contract again! If they don’t, we’re fucked.). I’ve been slowly buying Joey’s school supplies so that we’ll have everything we need for him when it starts. They have a really long summer vacation this year, so it gives me a bit more time. On the sucky side of that, he usually starts school BEFORE DH starts work (He does some work for the high school, so he goes in a lot earlier during the school year), but this year Joey doesn’t start until AFTER DH does…so for 3 weeks I have to figure out how to get Joey to the club.

I have a lot of babble, can you tell? Now I will go clean my house and ask my mom if I can go over there and do laundry today. My complex office decided all of a sudden to be closed on Sunday so I can’t go put money on my card. I’ll take my wheel and get some spinning done

I smell the blood of…well…nothing. I only have 7 minutes before I have to catch the bus. I just wanted to inform the masses (HA!) that I spent this week finishing up projects that have been hanging out for a while. FIVE whole projects are DONE! Since I don’t have time to go thru and list each one, just look on my sidebar at my Ravelry projects. 2 blankets, one tank-top (ugh!), a pair of socks, and a little blue bear. The bear wasn’t an FO, that was just something I made last night while I listened to an audio book. Took me all of maybe 2 hours. Ain’t he cute?

Gotta run! (no, that didn’t take me 7 minutes to type, but I have to find my damn apron!).

I’m so tired that I can’t sleep. Don’t you hate that?

Last night (the 3rd) my sis and I took the boys to Phoenix International Raceway for the fireworks out there. This was the first time in the history of our quest for a fireworks show that we actually made it to where we intended (If you remember last year, we went to the ballpark with 4000 other people only to find out the paper had the day wrong and they were held the night before!). It was fun. Joey and I got to sit inside a firetruck and check out the stuff in it. This was before the truck had to run off and try to put out the fire that the detonator box thingy made on the hill when it exploded during the grand finale. Yup. It exploded. Not a “Whoa, that was a big firework!” kind of explode, but the thing blew-the-fuck-up. Shrapnel flew out onto the racetrack, and caught the hill behind it on fire. They got it out, thankfully. Since that big ass fire that went on nearly all last week was only a few miles away from there.

We got home around 11pm, and I went to bed at 12pm. Woke up at 4:45am to get ready for work, and dragged Joey out with me. My sister was going to pick him up around 8:30 and watch him for the day. I had her get him early, because we started getting busy. There was only 2 of us. Apparently, the fucktard that made the schedule was unaware that today was a national holiday, and thought it was proper to only have 2 servers and a manager that’s really just a server. It was a nightmare today. A complete nightmare.

I am not joking. I actually had a bad dream a couple weeks ago. I was at work, and I was the only one there, besides the cook. There were so many customers that I couldn’t keep up. I kept running up to them saying “I promise, I’ll be right with you”. I’d get drink orders but never get their drinks. I’d take food orders but never get a chance to put them in. They’d yell at me and leave. I woke up all agitated and fearing work. Today, that nightmare came to fruition. Not exactly like that, but it felt like that. We were running out of food left and right, and our truck order showed up 6 hours late. And you know, it’s my fault that there was no bacon. Just like it’s my fault the gas prices are so high, and my fault that the buses only run every hour on holidays (yeah, I forgot that this morning too, and had to call my dad for a ride to work, lol). It’s my fault the cook was backed up 17 tickets and their food took too long - even though I warned them ahead of time. It’s my fault they had to wait 20 minutes to get a table - even though if they stayed at Ihop they would have waited an hour and a half. They were all in a bad mood because they REALLY wanted to sit at a table that has 5 different flavors of syrup on it and eat pancakes full of exotic fruits topped with fluffy white whipped cream and strawberries. Instead, they ended up at the Reject Restaurant where they feel the need to treat us as if we’re the reason the wait at The International House Of Pancakes was so long. Maybe if we had awesome blue full length aprons, crisp white shirts, and binding ties (in the 117* weather, with 70% humidity), we’d get more respect.

2 more girls came in between 11 & 12 - one of them was called in special. By that time, though, Marie and I both had our heads so far up our asses I’m pretty sure we won’t have them out by the end of the pay period. I’m permanently traumatized. Our sales were more than double what we do on a BUSY Saturday. And it was Friday. I have to keep reminding myself that I have to go back in the morning. The money was okay, but not as good as it could have been if we hadn’t been doing an hourly colon exam on ourselves.

This is all on just over 4 hours of sleep.

Then I had to go to the ‘rents for bbq’ing. I decided, that for tonight only, I would become one of those people who have a beer after work to ‘wind down’. So I had 6. Joey had been sleeping most of the day since he had about as much sleep as I had. He was crashed in my old bedroom, and after I passed out on the back lawn (The grass was comfy and there was a nice breeze in the shade), I decided to go pass out in the room with him. I slept for about 2 hours before I was told “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here”. Actually, I was just told it was time to go home, lol. So I came home with every intention of taking a shower and going to bed. I got the shower part done, and I made it to bed. But then I couldn’t sleep!

And now here I am, babbling into this blog. Driving other people to sleep with my incessant rambling. One more day and I can chill out for the weekend. I have my Soliel all knit up, I just have to seam the arm straps and do the crochet trim. I’m also finishing up my SIL socks. Then I’ll crochet a bit on Debbie’s blanket. In between that, I’m going to nap. A lot.

Today, The Boy, turned 8 years old. Yup. 8. I’m getting old.

He went to the B&G Club today, where he received a gift from my nephew. A new webkinz, and $5 which he spent on a bunch of Rice Crispie treats. He gave one to each of a few friends, and then he and Gavin each got 2. Why? Because Gavin is his cousin, and because He (The Boy) paid for them.

My MIL picked him up and brought him to my work for his Birthday Lunch (corndog & fries!) and he received the presents I got him - 2 UBFunkey’s, one Webkinz, 2 shorts, 2 shirts, and Blendy Pens! I also slipped a $10 into his card, which I was almost going to have to take back if we hadn’t gotten busy at work, ROFL. Between me and his grandma & great-grandma, he scored $65 to spend at Toys R Us - he ended up spending $82, lol. He got another UBFunkey, a $21 Bionicle toy, a Wall-E toy, a new Storm Trooper (because he lost the head on his other one), and a MagnaSaurus Peronadon(sp?)

Then we went to watch Wall-E. It was a cute movie, and I “LOL’ed” a few times during it. Most of it is physical comedy - if you could call it that. There’s no “words” in this here movie until well after half of it was over. It was still very interesting, and had me dying to do some sit ups and run a few laps. You’d have to see it to know what I mean, lol.

I got a new Mini-Kacha Since we were near a Joanns, I ran in and picked one up. My neck has never been happier!

I am working on making the Soliel from knitting, and I’m about 1/4 of the way done with it. It was time to whip out the row counter so I needed it!

There’s a big fire going on up the road. Started on Wednesday when we had a faux monsoon storm roll in, with a bunch of thunder & lightning. I guess they got it out this morning, but then it got windy and decided it was a good time to start burning again. You could see the huge plume of smoke at least 12 miles from the north. Probably farther out than that, but that’s not where we were so I can neither confirm nor deny that report.

I made a video from the car when we hit the road I live on

Fun, huh? It’s hard to breath outside and everything is hazy from the smoke. Fires suck.

1. How long have you been spinning? What skill level do you consider yourself?
Since August 2007 - so about 10 months

2. What kinds of yarn do you create (singles/2-ply/3-ply/art yarn)?
99.9% of the time, a 2 ply

3. What do you spin with (spindle/wheel/both)?
99.9% of the time, a wheel. I do own a spindle for those “I feel like spindling moments”, but nothing worth noting.

4. What are your favorite fibers to spin with? Anything you don’t like?
Corriedale, South African Fine, Merino blends, and just about anything combed

5. Who are your favorite crack dealers fiber sources (etsy or otherwise)?
Right now? Nobody. Since I’m in the poorhouse, I’ve been forbidding myself to even window shopping, lol.

6. What kind of fiber do you want to try?
Cormo? I heard it was nice to spin.

7. Is there any techniques you would like to learn?
Master, is more like it. Navajo plying. I’m very impatient with it. I grasp the concept. I understand how it’s done. It’s actually doing it and having it come out correctly that I have an issue with.

8. Do you dye fiber? If not, would you like to learn?
Yes, I have. I have a nice stash of acid dyes used for just that purpose.

9. Do you have fiber prep tools (and like to use them) or would you prefer ready to spin fiber?
I prefer ready to spin. I just got my own set of hand cards, but am not good enough to do anything worthy of spinning, yet

10. What do you do with your handspun? What projects have you completed?
I look at it a lot. I show it off, because handspun yarn means I’m cool. I have knit a few small things with it - one scarf and a hat. I guess that would constitute a “couple” of things. I have good intentions. But you know what they say about that…paving the road to Hell, and all.

11. Are you in need of any spinning gadgets (WPI Gauge, threading hook, etc)?
One of those thing-a-majigs that holds your spinning in progress, when you have it on the wheel. Like right now, I just wrap it a bunch of times around the hook on my flyer to hold it, but that’s just so unattractive.

12. What colors “fall into your shopping basket”? Any colors you just can’t stand?
Personally, I like earthy tones - greens & browns, but have a hard time with spinning them. I mostly get bright colors, or stuff with a lot of colors because I like the way they change when I spin

13. What is on your wheel/spindle right now?
Merino/Silk (80/20) blend that I dyed myself. 4oz done, 4oz to go!

14. What other crafts/hobbies do you have?
Mostly, I knit & crochet (and spin!). I would say that’s about it. I know my general way around a sewing machine.

15. Other than crafts, what are you passionate about?
Um…don’t get me started? LOL

16. Do you have an online wishlist?
No. Wishing leads to lust. I think that’s a deadly sin or something.

17. Is there anything that you collect?
Snowglobes & angels, on accident*. Please don’t send me any. I don’t have room for the one’s I have now, lol.
*Accident would mean that people, for one reason or another, just kept buying these things for me until it became out of control and I had to tell them to stop! LOL

18. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What magazine subscriptions do you have?
Yeah, there is. I’d like to try some of that Malibrigo, or Noro. I want that Big Girl Knits book, and that new spinning/knitting one…A Fine Fleece? I don’t have any mag subscriptions.

19. When is your birthday?
January 23rd

20. What book or movie character do you most resemble in personality?
Oh…well…Did you ever see that movie “Waiting”? There’s that waitress that kept having meltdowns and cursing up a storm & chainsmoking in the break area? Then she’d mood swing back to sweet as pie to the customers? That’s me.

21. What is the climate like where you live around this time (need to know for careful shipments of anything meltable)?
Do not send anything meltable. Phoenix, Arizona. Desert. 115 degrees. Hot. Dry (for another couple weeks, then we get humid). Do not send animals. Unless it’s a hedgehog. I like hedgehogs.

22. Tell us one weird fact about yourself!
I’m afraid of balloons.

Favorites
favorite painting/picture(link):

Candy: Skittles, or caramel pieces

Food: Spaghetti (no meatballs!), chicken fried steak, KFC taters

Drink: Coke

Movie(s): Xanadu!! (If you find this cheap on DVD, let me know!)

TV Show(s): All Law & Orders, and the crime shows on A&E

Book(s): Sword Of Truth series (Terry Goodkind).

Guilty Pleasure(s): If I told ya, I’d have to kill ya

I mean bitch, son of a bitch.

I broke my mini kacha. It needed to be cleaned. I’ve used it so much that it was gunked up with the spirits know what. So I took it apart, being very careful about where everything was placed so that I could put it back together.

Yeah, I’m not bright. Things weren’t going, then they were, then it wouldn’t click, then the spring popped out and disappeared into the black hole that is our apartment. It went to live where lighters, guitar picks, and socks go to live when they die.

Now I have a pile of green and white parts sitting on my desk. Now I have to use that stupid giant sheep head counter that I got from a british magazine last year. It’s awkward and his eye holes are too big.

Rest in peace, Mini Kacha. You gave me 2 good years. I will miss you

As said by the nephew: “If anyone here does meth, you’re stupid and you’re gonna die!”

That was during the Fathers Day gathering at my moms last week. My sister said “You know, you’re lucky that you’re teaching you about that now, while you’re young. They didn’t teach us about that when I was in school.”

My retort? “Yeah, you didn’t realize it until it was already up your nose.” Sad, but true, lol.

It’s Meth Awareness Week at the Boys & Girls Club, so the boys have been learning about all the bad things that it can do to you. My sister asked Gavin if they told them about heroin. He didn’t know what that was. “It’s another super bad drug, but nobody around here can afford it so they don’t tell you about it”. LOL, sad, but true.

Joey knows that “mef” makes your teeth rot and makes you think you’re an alien. (long story…sad one, but it’s true!)

So, I guess in about 2 weeks we’re going to have us a mini-van. I’m scared to DEATH! Besides the monetary expense, I’m just scared of driving. I have to be re-taught. There won’t be a monthly payment, but I have to find some decent/cheap insurance. Gas I don’t think will be a huge issue, because it’ll just be used to and from work, which is only like 1.5 miles away. As soon as Grandpa says he doesn’t want to drive anymore, I will be immediately picked up by MIL and taken to have the title put into my name. He said on Thursday that he didn’t want to do it anymore, because something (I don’t know what) happened. But then yesterday, he had another mood swing and said he changed his mind. So, when it happens again, they’ll transfer it over before he has a chance to change his mind.

I’m going to have to figure out a way to fit an insurance payment into our budget. It’s not like we can cut back on anything, because we already run our lives on the bare minimum as it is. But, having a vehicle, I can also try to get a job in a more ‘richly’ populated area and make more money that way. We’ll play it by ear. I figure we can afford about $100 a month or so on insurance without totally killing us.

I did luck out this week as far as the B&G Club goes, though. Somebody mentioned that they were paying $10/week for it during the summer session. I freaked, because I’m paying $40/week. That’s not bad in the grand scheme of things, considering when Joey was in ‘real’ daycare, I was paying $120/week. This lady was low income, therefore got it for $10. I asked them about it, and since Joey has reduced lunches at school, they are letting him there for $20 a week. YAY! Also, next year I asked them about Joey NOT doing the after school pickup/program. He rarely goes as it is, because either DH or I are home before he gets out of school everyday so he just comes straight home. I was paying $25/ month for the program. But I was concerned about spring break, fall break, etc. I guess, if I just pay the $40 registration fee in August, he can go whenever we need him too, at no extra charge. Awesome! So that’ll save me another $300 during the year. YESSS!

I’m going to try to cut Joey’s hair, to save a bit of money. I figure if I f&ck it up, I still have 7 weeks for it to grow back out before school starts. I bought a clipper set for $15. That’s the cost of one haircut. If I do an okay job, that’ll save me more money. Cross your fingers.

On Monday, I”m going to teach a customer how to knit socks. This was the first customer/person/knitter that actually knew what “Ravelry” meant, when I said it, ROFL. She wants to learn socks, but can’t wrap her mind around it. She’s going to meet me on Monday after she gets off of work and we’ll work up some sock magic! I’m going to get one started tomorrow so I can have an example started.

Okay, done babbling. I’m gonna go crochet now

Yesterday had to be the longest days in the history of mankind!

I did the work thing, and ended up getting off at noon instead of 2. Which meant 2 hours of hanging out until the KIP girls showed up. 4 ladies came - Hi, Chris, Shauna, Dani, & Kathryn! We spent a few hours hanging out, they knit and I spun for a bit.

The one lady I was waiting for, Sharon, was running a lot bit late. Everybody else left around 4:30 or so, and she didn’t show up until like 6pm! I was starting to wonder if she was really coming. Starting to worry that I gave this complete stranger $65 and I was never going to see my cards. I was becoming quite the pessimist. She finally did show up. One of her glitches, was her Ashford wheel flew out of the back of her truck and hit the pavement on the freeway. As tragic is that is, you should really see the back of her truck. I think this woman lives in her truck. I can’t even begin to explain how much shit she had crammed back there, along with 2 wheels, and several boxes of fleece for me. Now, You could say that it was because of the boxes of fleece taking up space in there, but that’s not the case. There was SO MUCH garbage back there, it was sickening!

Then she offered me a ride home. Now, there wasn’t enough room for my wheel back there, and if there had been I don’t think I would have put it back there anyway. And in the front seat, on the passenger side, there was garbage and junk packed practically halfway up the side window. She spent 30 minutes filling up 2 giant construction site garbage bags full of stuff. Then…crammed them in the back of the truck! (I would have just chucked it all in the dumpster that was 10 feet away!).

Now, she’s a very nice lady, and very generous - but…well…she’s strange. And I’m really strange, so when I think somebody else is strange..then they’ve got to be very strange, lol. Very eccentric, she is.

So, onto her wheels - she has an Ashford that’s about 40 years old that she got at an antique shop. She said that she couldn’t get it to work, so she took it with her to the fiber shop the other day and it was just missing a spring for the scotch tension (which I told her was probably the issue). But after it ate asphalt, it’s quite the mess. It busted off one of the arm things that holds the flyer, but it can probably be replaced, and it gashed up the wheel quite a bit, one part having a huge gash taken out right along side where the groove is. As long as the flyer-holder part gets fixed, it’ll still probably be usable. She didn’t seem too upset by this whole incident (I would have been devastated!). But the other wheel in the back of her truck is REALLY old - like 250 years old kind of OLD. And it looks it. Apparently, this is the one that she primarily uses, but from what I could tell by looking at it, she just wants to be rested and set aside and be admired from afar. (I had way too many commas in that sentence!)

There’s chunks of wood that have rotted and broke off in various places on the flyer area, and the whorls. It also looks like it may have at one time had termites or something? The poor thing. You’d have to see it in person to see what I mean. And this poor girl was just tossed into the back of pickup truck/dumpster to be potentially tossed onto the I-10.

I did get my handcards, and a TON of raw fiber. I mean a TON! I don’t know how many pounds, and I’m not sure how good this stuff is, since it’s my first time with this kind of thing. I put pics of some of it up in my Fiber Stash flickr photoset (which reminds me, I need to renew my account tomorrow before it all goes away! There’s corriedale, llama, lincoln, romney, and 3 unknowns. The unknowns actually look really nice. One is a dark chocolate brown, the other one is like a vanilla color, and the 3rd one is some dark grey - really crimpy. The Romney, there’s like 3 fleeces in a garbage bag and it looks quite old. I’m going to clean and card some of it to see how good it is. I can’t really tell if it’s workable or bad or just really dusty/dirty/whatever. Some of the fleeces have a bit of VM, and a couple have a LOT of VM. It’s going to be quite the project, but something I can work on here and there until I get good at it

My wheel is being tempermental. The bearing that holds the flyer head got gunked up so it was being really sluggis. DH cleaned it up for me, and it worked good for a bit, but then it started up again. Next time I’m at the mall, I’m going to pick up some new bearings at the skateboard shop (because that’s what they are…thank goodness DH knows this stuff, lol).

Now i have to go shower and wait for my mom to pick me up. We’re doing the Dad’s day thing over at her place. Thomas got back from basic training on Friday, so I have to return the PSP I wasn’t done playing Luxor, darnit. Then I have to head back to my work and pick up my lazy kate & 2 bobbins that I left on the shelf there. I was panicked this morning when I couldn’t find them! Ack!

I think I’m caught up now…whew!

Well, I’m technically posting this on Friday night, but I won’t be home all day tomorrow

First, I have the ‘work’ thing, and then after that a bunch of new friends and I are going to kick back at my work and knit/spin/whatever in public! Sharon will be there, with my new cards and a bunch of fleece for me to play with! Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Which reminds me, I need to take my camera.

Here’s a Boy funny for today:

The Boy: Mom? What does ‘engaged’ mean?
The Mom: It means that you’re promised to get married to your boyfriend or girlfriend.
The Boy: Huh?
The Mom: When a boyfriend and a girlfriend love each other a lot, then they decide they want to get married. The time that happens before they get married, they call it being ‘engaged’. Your dad and I were engaged for a while before we got married.
The Boy: You were? I thought you just beat him over the head with a frying pan until he started to love you.
The Mom: Well, there was that, too

He also explained to me, the other day, about “Evolving”.

“Mom, do you know what ‘evolving’ is? It means change. We are always evolving, which means we’re always changing. Did you know that?”

I do now

No, go knit in public people! If you do it anyway, do it naked this time. Draw some attention, wouldja!

Aside from the fact that today was just one of those days - you know, where it’s not horrible, but everything is just going haywire or something? Where you just can’t seem to pull your head out of your ass long enough to get things running smoothly? That was today.

Of course, the first 2 hours of work were pitiful, full of nothing. The place was practically empty the whole time. Everybody, including the manager, was sitting in the back deciding on whether or not we would go fill out applications at that McDonalds, lol. Then the health department showed up (she was 2 weeks late), and of course, we got busy just then. It stayed pretty steady all day, and that was a relief. Just when we’re thinking “OMG (we said it just like that, too), we’re all going to have to find new jobs”. Everytime we think that, we get busy and just wish the customers would go eat at Denny’s. For 10 minutes…just give us a break to breath for crying out loud! Apparently this falls under the Having Cake & Eating It category. I would be perfect at a job where Annoying is the #1 criteria. Unfortunately, Rosie O’donnel has that market cornered. Plus, I’m the only one who thinks I’m amusing.

Anyway, I made some decent money. I got to reunite with one of my favorite customers from my old restaurant. He just happened to come in to meet a friend, he didn’t know where I disappeared to over a year and a half ago And Sharon now has my monies to pick up my handcarders tomorrow! YIPEE!!

As for the karma thing. I went in to work today with every intention of buying somebody’s breakfast for them. I was keeping my eye out for the right person. But then it got busy, and it slipped my mind. At the end of my shift, I had one lady left (who was eating breakfast at 2pm, lol) and she said something, some small word, that sparked my memory. OH YEAH! So I snatched her bill off her table and as I ran away I yelled “Your bill has been taken care of!”. I think I freaked her out. I told her “Just don’t worry about it, pay it forward and all that”. So she went to Debbie, my friend, and asked why I did that - was it because she was pitiful looking? (she wasn’t) Did I think she was poor? (Nope, not that either). Deb explained to her why I did it. The woman was baffled, and worried because she was going to put my tip on her credit card - no ticket, no credit card, no tip. That’s fine with me. I don’t do it to get something back from somebody, I do it so my life doesn’t suck, kwim? I told her as much, I didn’t need or want a tip from her But that woman, she went and bought herself a piece of apple pie on her way out the door (I had already clocked out) and put a tip on the card for me. So, I’m going to give that $3 to somebody tomorrow. Maybe, I’ll pay somebody’s bus fare or something. Of course, I always do that, lol.