Ok, I lied.

Hahahaha.... Link from D.

...

I have nothing to post. Nothing to pooooooooooooooost!

The countdown continues.

Ok, now that I'm finishing on the 8th instead, the countdown is at 11 days. Woo.

Still working on my "finishing fiesta"* and thoroughly enjoying it. It really is a good feeling to actually finish a project... should try it more often. I finished my cross-stitch project yesterday, and continued work on the Tohru Scarf. I'm knitting along on the purple stripe. I even worked on it while sitting on the floor of the craft section of Barnes and Noble with Sara. I love my friends.

I'm also busily trying to figure out what project to do next. The poncho is vying for my attention... but I have lots of projects waiting in the wings, like Gigi, a pair of socks or mittens, or something out of the Fall issue of Interweave Knits (it's the sweater on the cover - never mind that I've never done intarsia before...). I also have several cross-stitch projects I could work on. And finally, I have lots of ideas floating around regarding possible Christmas presents, which I really should get going on considering how long it takes me to finish the average knitting project!

Soooo, that's about it... still missing my boyfriend and waiting for the day when I can stop driving 45 minutes to work every day.
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* Shamelessly yoinked from Alison at The Blue Blog.

Fun! Excitement! Entertainment!

Bryon called!!! I was just laying on the floor yesterday saying to my mom "I wish Bryon would call me." Maybe I should try that more often. He's doing just fine - sounded good and all pieces are intact, thank goodness. :) He surprised me again. We were talking on IM, and then he had to leave, and a few minutes later the phone rang. :D

Fun and interesting links for the day:

Christmas card designs at Loobylu! I will definitely be ordering some. So lovely.

Check out the new nickels they're going to issue! I can't get used to the new front yet... it's a nice design though.

Today I moved my end date at work from the 15th to the 8th. That's the actual three-week point anyway, and things are going downhill fast. I'm getting more and more excited about the prospect of leaving! Today was Jeremy's last day. We were all sad about that.

I'm thinking of planning a mini-trip for the time between jobs. I want to visit my friend Marisa in NJ/NYC. She's been inviting me down there so many times... I've always wanted to go, but I have yet to get there. She even has all these plans saved up of free stuff for us to do - museums with no admission, sights to see, etc etc. Any suggestions of what to see?

Well, I guess I'm going to work on my cross-stitch project some more. I'm making fast progress on the backstitching. I thought it would take me forever because of all the little flowers, etc. I think it will be finished in a couple more days. *yawn*

"Well, they're not going to surrender."

The brother is home again. He brought The Last Samurai so I could see it and we watched it tonight. It was wonnnnnnderfullllll. I want to watch all the extras, especially the History Channel special comparing the film to historical reality. Heh. What killed me was, there was a scene in this that could have come straight out of Rurouni Kenshin - with the guards in modern uniforms bullying a samurai who was walking the street still carrying his sword. That is such a fascinating time in Japanese history. Makes me want to pull out the ol' history books again.

In other news, I finally finished the baby cardigan. I guess it turned out better than I thought it would.



Here's a closeup of the basketweave pattern and the cute bunny buttons:



Now I'm back to working on the Tohru Scarf again. I'm maybe a foot from being done with the orange stripe, then I just have to make a purple stripe to match, and sew them together! It's a very simple project, so I'm thinking it shouldn't take me toooo long to finish. (Famous last words.)

I think I was pretty successful in accomplishing my To Do list for the day. One of the best moments of today: at the book sale, I had to restrain myself from doing a Dance of Joy upon finding Lethal Heritage, a MechWarrior book I've been searching for for AGES. I'd checked eBay, Half.com, everywhere I could think of for new or used books and it was nowhere to be found. And I got it for fifty cents! :D Also got Disclosure, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Corelli's Mandolin, The Shipping News, a really interesting book on gift wrapping with Japanese influence, a nice book of holiday-themed cross-stitch patterns, and several other books. Some of these books I just picked up because I'd heard a lot about them and figured I'd give them a whirl.

Hmm, 23 more days left at this job.

"The yarn? Or the lobster?"

I love having bizarro conversations with Kim while she's at work. (We're talking about the new AIM expressions in case you're wondering... mine are little skeins of yarn.)

So I got an email today that says the guys (meaning Bryon's company) are expected home in January. For good. Everyone keep your fingers crossed!!

Working on revamping my To Heart site, Ever Green Days. I really like the new layout - there's just a lot of pages to redo. Also, I'm trying to add new info and take out stuff that isn't correct. The anime and manga have both been licensed for US release! :D

I talked to Bryon's sister for a while last night. It's always a lot of fun. I'm going to make her a copy of the picture CD Caster gave me, and get a package together to send it in. I'm not sure what to put in it though.

Stuff to accomplish on my day off:
* go to book sale at the fire station
* finish baby sweater (i.e. weave in ends and sew on buttons)
* maybe make my apron?
* call Bryon's mom, maybe help fix computer problem
* call old job, see what's happening there
* make picture CD for Melissa, and for Carolyn
* RELAX!

Well, I'm off to actually DO some of these things.

A move for the better, I'm hoping

Today I put in my three-week notice at work. I picked three weeks because it doesn't seem as interminably long as four weeks, but it gives me a bit more time to work with than two weeks. I drove to the downtown store during lunch and talked to the manager. That woman is such a sweetheart. She was completely understanding about my wanting to leave, and even said that if she could find a local job that paid as well as the one she has now, she'd be out in a heartbeat (she lives 15 minutes farther from there than I do!). She even told me they'd take me back anytime, and suggested that if I'm not getting enough hours in my new job (whatever that may be) I could come back for part-time work through the holidays. Rock. Then we just sat there shooting the breeze for about half an hour.

I left feeling really good about it - I have some time to work with, but I have that great feeling that comes with knowing you can look at all the crap going on around you and not take it personally, because you're leaving. I told Mark, and he proceeded to be snotty to me for the next 10 minutes (in that sort of, 'you're leaving me, you jerk' sort of way). He knew it was coming though - I told him a couple of days ago I was thinking about it. Besides, he isn't sure HE wants to stay with the company, and especially not at the mall, so it's not like he'd be around to hang out with me. Tomorrow I will spread the news, I guess.

So... I guess that's my big news for now. No word from el novio. I hope he contacts me soon.

Fun stuff

The Infinite Cat Project
This is amazing.... and a little creepy.

The Craftster Blog
There's some great stuff here... including Mr. T soap and a dress made out of the Smurf sheets I had when I was 6!


You're a Spring. You usually are very close-knit
with your friends and value every friendship
you have. You're a real people person and
everyone loves how friendly you are. You're
good with encouraging people but usually don't
like to be the center of attention. You are a
social butterfly and probably are in several
circles of friends but it's just because you're
well liked and you make people comfortable.
You're both fun and wise but you are very
realistic about life.


What season are you? (pics)
brought to you by Quizilla

Well, it's 2:41 on my day off. Time to do something other than sit here.

Mercury Power, Make Up!!

Yaaaay, new layout! I really like how it turned out. I wasn't too sure to start with, plus when I *did* have something going, I lost an hour's worth of work because Photoshop died on me. Oh well.

Still don't know what I'm going to do about this job thing. It's going downhill fast, I can tell you that.

I'm also working busily on craft stuff - sewing an apron, finishing my second baby sweater, and scrapbooking more London pages. I ran into Andrea at Barnes and Noble last night and she says her scrapbook is already done. I guess I better stop taking 6 hours to finish each 2-page spread, eh? :6

Heard from Bryon a few days ago - he was, of course, doing fine. Nothing since, though. It's just nervewracking. Every time I hear from him, it helps for a short time, but even then you know he was ok 5 minutes ago, but who knows after that. *sigh*

Well, I'm off to bed. *yawn* Day off tomorrow, but I'd prefer not to sleep allll the way through it.

Here and there (or there and back again?)

Not much to report. Finished The Social History of American Knitting. Interesting read, but it was like re-reading one of my own history papers:

Statement. 12 quotes you've dug up in support of said statement. Closing sentence for paragraph (in rather formal language) that tries to be witty but doesn't usually succeed, such as, "Surely they had had enough!"

Repeat 129830198490814 times.

I'm now on to Tailchaser's Song, by Tad Williams. I seem to remember my friend Liz reading this sometime in high school... which wouldn't surprise me: Liz loves cats, and fantasy novels, and this is a fantasy novel about cats. It's quite good so far. The author comes up with perfect names for everything; cats named Pouncequick and Stretchslow... a Growler (dog) kingdom named Barbarbar. I love it when authors come up with perfect names. That's one of the things I like the most about Robin Hobb. After a while I wanted to name my children Verity, Chivalry, Burrich, or Patience... wheee!

Work is... work. I'm in for a long haul this week, working Friday-Thursday. We don't even get shortened hours for Labor Day, even though the downtown store does. Go figure. I am so thankful for my co-workers, though. They make it bearable. I really do work with great, entertaining people.

As for craft projects: I finished the decreases on the first sleeve of my baby cardigan, and will probably end up finishing the rest of the sleeve before I go to bed. Blocking this thing is going to be a trip.

Well, no word from Bryon since the 28th of August. Apparently they're on a commo blackout - nothing to do with enemy action or with injuries. Still, it's frustrating. But life plods on...