Hold me closer, Tony Danza

Ugh. What a week (last week, not this week yet. Oh please this week, don't be like last week!)

I won't dwell, let's just sum it up at the description that Weds at 3, things were going so bad I cracked a beer just because sometimes all you can do is crack a beer, take a few deep breaths and dive back into the problem. Thurs I discovered that Weds' problem was largely of my own making, so I cleaned that mess up while simultaneously upgrading a customer in Texas who didn't know his own admin system password-in the end I did not think myself successful, and we closed out the day with me begging to give my brain some rest, because I knew there was an answer in there somewhere but I couldn't get it. Sigh. Friday I did everything I hadn't done on Weds and Thurs while dealing with said self made problem. Did also discover the aforementioned reason in a bubble in my brain and realized I had been successful with the upgrade on Thurs. Soooo, the last 2 hours of that call were futile, although in troubleshooting I did do some good work tying up loose ends on the system left there by the dude who did the original install. In the end, it just seems as though I was rather stupid last week. Perhaps I should go back to full strength coffee?

HN was away for the weekend, and I celebrated. Now, don't get me wrong; I do love the man but who among us does not enjoy some Risky Business style alone time when a live in SO takes off for the occasional weekend out of town? I travel so much and he so little during the school year that it is an absolute novelty to have run of the house for the weekend.

Friday night we partied. By we I mean me and the animals. I put glasses on tables without a coaster, read trashy magazines, played my music too loud, drank wine and talked on the phone. When you get old, this constitutes a good time and I know this now. Animals in the big bed! Sleeping until 11am! Grey's Anatomy and shameless tearing up! It was a good time.

Saturday I drove into The City (which is how we in The County describe it) and parked near my old house. Then I grabbed my beautiful umbrella and walked around to all the places I would normally have spent a Saturday walking around to, hitting the farmers market, my fave old bar-ish place for lunch, and The Book Thing. I walked until my wee little legs ached, which was a nice change since due to the amount of working I did this week, it had been my back that was aching until this point. Home by 6pm, beating the worst of the rain and made a vat of delicious Guatemalan chicken soup, with which I settled in by a roaring fire and read cheesy detective novels until 10. (I totally missed Earth Hour, which is unfortunate but that's what happens when the treehugger leaves town) At 10, I was seized by the desire to be productive, literally to produce something so I got out the sewing machine and whipped my craft room (heretofore referred to as the studio because I like the sound of it) into a fabric and thread covered frenzy. Little bag count is now at 7, with probably 6 as serious contenders for the 10* and 1 going to my sister. Or to me, I have not yet decided.

*the 10. Ah yes. I love pain, making things, and giving things away, so at some point in the whole process of getting ready for an upcoming destination wedding, I decided I would make little goody bags for all the girls in the wedding party, the mother of the groom (I made her cry once so I feel like I need to be nice to make up for it), the girlfriend of the brother of the groom, and the sister of the bride. Sometimes my mouth just opens and things come out and my eyes are making this bewildered and horrified face as my brain processes what I've just said, and still the mouth runs and eventually signal gets from eyes to brain to mouth to just STOP! but by then it's too late because the bride is already happy with the idea and so I'm committed. Plus, I did want to learn to sew, and this seemed like a good little project and a decent bit of motivation. And an excuse to buy fabric.

Sunday I visited with an old friend who has a new baby. A nice baby too, although she shat when I picked her up, which I do not normally consider very complimentary. Being as she is new here and does not yet know how things work, I forgave her. I helped my friend put some honey supers on his bees (oh cameraphone where were you when I needed you!?) and then went off to a random lady's house for a dress fitting. I'm pretty much 2 inches shy of every measurement in my dress, but this lady had a room full of wedding gowns and seemed like she knew what she was doing so here goes nothing.

And now it's Monday. Boo! However, I do have to do some testing of software, which means I get to play with cameras that are sweet, so expect some pics later today to make up for the wordiness of this here wordy post.

Tales from the sweat shop...

Back from AZ and feeling good (mostly because I haven't logged into work yet this morning but whatever) It was 85 and Sunny lots of the time I was there, and I totally got my Vitamin D replenished by lounging around in the sun like a lizard.

I also got a huge project that's been weighing on me since the fall done, dusted, and delivered to owner, which is a big f*cking aaah, I must say.

The ordeal is chronicled on my Flickr page, but here is a summary couple of photos:

With 18 blocks made and no will to live, this was the final design

Need a quick fix to feel like you've accomplished something? Make a pillowcase

Done, approximately 12 hours before takeoff. Blue was the right choice (thanks becky!)

Az was a whirlwind good time. Ok, not so much whirlwind since my people there are not tasmanian devil types, but I did manage to drag everyone out for a hike. Ok, little dude thought we were hunting for Bigfoot, but I will use whatever means necessary.

"I think I see him!"

Pictures from the middle of the hike are spotty, because it takes both hands to coerce the unwilling. Picture a little blond kid screaming and crying about how he hates hiking and I suck, picture me laughing and walking away and you pretty much have the experience.

Wild Cows. Seriously.

In other news, I continue to insist I can learn to sew. Here's the latest, which I would have made right on the FIRST TRY except that I forgot to put the handles on.


Other news includes the search for a house, as the farm does not seem to be working out just so. We've found a couple that we like, but nothing firm yet. I'll keep you updated.

It might not look like much...

but I pretty much feel like I just gave birth. Finally, I have made a bag that resembles something at least a 5th grader made in home ec, instead of kindergarten.

Cheesy Salesmanship 101: Learn to read warning signs.

The history on the situation: Don't know if I recounted this bit of my adventure, but at about day 3 of 14 in Alaska this summer, I noticed my elbows and butt were getting a little wet. The elbows I originally attributed to maybe having some shirt material sticking out my wrists and water wicking up. The butt I had no explanation for, but didn't really think about. Most of the time it was covered by my pack anyway, so it was easy to forget about. Over the course of the next couple of days I frequently said "huh. What IS this white stuff all over me?" Turns out it was the Teflon lining of my rain gear. I hadn't even thought to look at some of my gear before I went out, because I'd had it for so long (since my freshman year of college!) and it had always been so dependable. I laughed at weather, HA HA HA! I figured out that my Teflon was leaving town at about day 6, when it began coming off in sheets and my raingear became essentially windgear (still very effective in it's own way). It was at about day 7 that we headed to Cordova, annual rainfall in excess of 200 INCHES in a year. It rains a lot in Cordova as it turns out...

So I compensated, and overcame:

I have GLAD power bitches!

Anyhoo, skip forward to present day. In an unprecedented show of patience, grasshopper I have been holding on to an REI gift card I got for Xmas. I *could* have run right to the store and spent that shit, believe me- but I held back. I knew I needed some new rain pants, and my grand plan was to wait until dividends came through, then combine the power of dividends with gift card, and a member sale discount and get the ULTIMATE BARGAIN!!! (insert booming superhero-y voice here)

Dividends came in yesterday, with a 20% member discount announcement, so last night I packed it up and headed to REI. A girl only has so much willpower.

I grabbed one each of the 5 most likely candidates to be my new pants and got down to it. At about this time, cheesy smiley sales guy is all "can I help you" (wink, wink fake smile!) I say no thanks, because I'm way adept at putting on pants by myself at this point and send him packing.

Holy mother, I had no idea how frustrated I was to become. I won't recount the whole ordeal, but let me paint you a picture: Me, on the floor of REI, struggling to get in and out of all these pants while wearing my pants and boots (so as to keep it real for how it would be in the woods), only to find that SOMEONE's new brilliant policy was to shrink the leg zippers so that they no longer easily go on over boots. I was a frothing, writhing, profaning, half in my pants bottle of fury unkempt when who comes on over sporting a big cheesy smile but cheesy sales dude. Noticing the tirade of profanity issuing forth from the half dressed person on the floor he kneels down, smiles real big and asks if I'm sure I don't need his help. I bellow "I HATE ALL THESE PANTS", and then a light goes on, and calm spreads forth. Why be miserable alone? So I gather up the best cheesy smile one can manage when half in a pair of pants one hates and say "yes, I would love some help", and then cheesy sales guy gets a little taste of what it's like to run with the KS.

I talked to him about what I was looking for in pants, and then we walked around. I told him what I hated or didn't love about every pair of pants he pointed out. There were issues with too short zippers, too long zippers, ugly zippers, bulky zippers, hard to work zippers, bad pockets, lack of packability. He had no idea how much was wrong with so much of what they had in stock. When I was able to narrow it down to 3-5 pairs I didn't hate, I insisted we then go (together! 4-eva!) on over to the shoe dept, where I asked him to procure me a pair of boots like the ones I have for hiking, and then I made him sit with me and listen while I tried them all on with said boots, while sitting, standing, pretending to be stuck in the rain etc. I am quite convinced he has never had an experience like that. I either made his night or taught him to leave well enough alone when someone says they don't need help.

Eventually I was able to find The Pants, The Bargain and The Zipper of my dreams. $200 pants? 60 bucks bitches! Then I ran home, put them on with my new coat and jumped in the shower. Yep, they work.

Next up is a new backpack, maybe since we're so tight now I'll specifically request him to help with that. ,My shopping trip went straight from zero to hero when he came back on the scene and I can't wait until we work together again.