Just need to rant a bit

okay - just need to let off a bit of steam ... but first let me kiss butt here and say I really like my cable, and this isn't an issue with the company.

Last time I had issues with my cable, the operator suggested using the Live Help online so that I wouldn't have to wait so long for an answer to my issue ... so tonight when things didn't work right I took the advise...

and instead of having to wait 20 minutes for the operator, I wound up waiting over that - well over that (was able to watch an entire episode of Cool Tools while waiting and its an 1/2 hour program)....

then when I did get the 'tech' I was asked for my acct. number -- who has that when reporting a problem? they already had my address and the rest of that info ... we worked around it.

so then the 'tech' wanted me to lift my cable box and give her the serial number --- WHAT???? Lift my box? What if I was some 80 yr old great-grandma? I couldn't believe it. We have a stacked system, no way was I going to unstack it all to get a bleeping serial number.

She said she needed to reset the box and that she needed to get the correct one since we had two ... I told her how to distinguish between them without my having to lift that boat-anchor ...

which is why I keep putting 'tech' in quote marks .... I'm sure she has a set procedure that she needs to follow, but it was just ridiculous. I got the feeling really fast that they may be putting people on the line who aren't really techs ... but you never know.

But the thing that has really miffed me? when the box acted up, it gave me an error code ... a specific error code ... all I could get from the operator is that it wasn't a code that belonged on that system.

Okay - so what exactly does it mean I asked, out of curiosity and sometimes I can connect the dots as to why these things happen ... and was told the code has no meaning ... WHAT??

So why give an error number then? Why not just say "there's been an error call your operator" ... that is the thing that got to me ... its like standing in line at the DMV because you got a letter in the mail saying to see them to find out it was really nothing after all.

Oh the issue -- static build up that was solved buy cutting power to the box for a while ...

its the first thing I think of when the internet network system acts up but not the cable box.

Hopefully lesson learned.

and next time - I'm phoning it in.

Crap crap crap!

okay I thought it was bad when I didn't get the stretch in my colorworks portion of my partners socks ... I got some sock blockers that are supposed to be her size so I could test them out and they look like they will be fine.

Only now I am missing my yarn ... yes you read that right -- my yarn has taken a walk.

This summer after we got our partners I put the yarn I was going to use in a box so it wouldn't get dirty or full of dog hair ... or my hair ... I also had in some acrylic yarn which my oldest daughter was going to use for mittens ... everything was supposed to be honky dory.

A week ago I knew where the box was - I took out two skeins of my gold to put aside because I thought I was going to have to slice on as the balls I was using were running out.

Now I'm up to where I had planned a second band of color work -- but dang it -- now my ruby is running out and I'm almost sure that I will not have enough to get thru 14 rows ---

HEY .... I just realized that there's a way to figure this out!

for 7 rows at 52 sts ... I have a total of 364 sts. now I should be able to get a single point needle of the same size as I am using for the socks, wrap the yarn loosley thru (so I don't stretch it) and count how many stitches I can get.

Maybe figure out how many stitches, for the length it would take to go one loop around the hand ... then I just have to wrap the yarn around my hand and get a better estimate. Interesting thing is .... both balls were supposed to have the same amount of yarn, but one side has less than the other.

now the upside is -- I do have ONE, and only one, skein that I had balled up to begin with which I was saving for doing the toes - I wanted dark toes instead of gold so they wouldn't show the dirt or wear quite so quickly ... but I can add half that ball to each sock ... that might get me back to where I need to be to at least finish the toes of the socks.

Right now -- I am very grateful that I decided to learn to do both socks at the same time .... any changes I make will be on both socks and I won't have to worry about if I'm going to have enough for the second sock.

So two days of hunting -- I have just about given up on finding the box in time to finish the socks and still have time to give them a nice hand-washing and blocking.

Well -- off to measure. will let you know!!!

"Worse partner in the world"

That's what is going to be written on my tombstone!

So I finished my partners socks....discovered that they weren't the same size hieght-wise so I fixed that error...okay figured out a way to hide it. Any how--so I got everything together to mail it...and then couldn't find the wrapping supplies I know I have some where...but I did find that a mouse was saving seeds in my crafting closet!!!

So I spent the day going thru that making sure that I didn't have any nests...luckily (if you want to call it luck) I only found food stashed there. good thing the majority of my yarn is in large plastic bins! Oh well, closet needed a good cleaning anyways--it just meant another delay!

Hubby was out of town for the weekend and I spiked a fever Saturday so I was not going to go and oldest son won't go without me (he's afraid he'd do something wrong and get in trouble), but I figured well I can get it out monday. Didn't dawn on me today was a holiday and there is NO MAIL and the offices were closed!

Could I be a worse partner?? I mean yeah I've had my share of problems, from not getting the meansurement I needed to dropping stitches to cast off problems. So I have been packing and unpacking this box for the last 5 days just to make sure I have everything in there that I wanted to send---and its a good thing I decided to go thru it once more because I had forgotten to take photos of my socks....

I am finally satisfied with the package --- hubby will be mailing it tomorrow. It should get to her within the week if things follow norm.

I am so off from my original aim date of the week before Halloween!

Gee, its a good thing I have a break before my next exchange---oh wait, I have to have another gift off in about a MONTH!!!

I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. Breathe, breathe. Sip some tea....awwwwwwwwwwww.

The gods hate me

I am convinced of it....out of the blue who should call but the one high school friend of my husband's that really gets my gull!

This guy is worse than ADHD....he's like the teacher on caffine patches from "Meet the Robinson's"==only worse! He is like a rollercoaster that only goes downhill.....this guy hardly stops talking long enough to breath...then seems to get upset when you don't ask him questions.

We haven't seen the guy in nearly 19years--oh why couldn't it be 20?--so he wanted to catch me up on all the news....appearently he didnt get the message the last time we got together with him.

His wife and I did not get along at all...she even rubbed my husband the wrong way, and he isn't that hard to get along with--he is very laid back...my yarn stash will prove that!

I don't mind so much that he is getting in touch with hubby--I would never deny hubby his friends--but its the thought that he knows where we live...he's the type to just stop by and expect you to stop whatever you are doing to entertain him for as long as he wants it.

I hate people like that---its rude to stop by with out calling first; its rude to assume that someone has nothing better to do....they are those type of people too.

Oh well....into every life some rain must fall....as mom used to say. I say--that which will not kill me, had better beware....er, I mean...will only make me stronger...right?

Please tell me how am I supposed to pretend I can get along with these people if they start coming over & over & over again??????

So what happened today in Your life? pt 2

well actually this isn't a day--it's more like this week....

1)the furnace stopped working
2)hubby nearly electricuted himself trying to find out what was wrong
3)hubby got new part two days later, but had to pull the electricity when he kept shocking himself trying to put in on
4)the dog broke free of her tie out (luckily she decided to see my daughter who had just gotten home from school instead of the dogs on the other side of the freeway)
5)found out hubby is being sent out of town next week--thus the rush to get the furnace fixed
6)the water heater won't stay lit--we are hoping its just the thermal coupler
7)period is a week late so hormones are going nuts
8)I've had a major headache that has lasted three days now--its just the hormones I'm sure
9)son got detention from his homeroom teacher
10)son is in big trouble with his math teacher
11)cub scouts don't seem to know what they are doing for meetings yet
12)I have to boil water to do two days worth of dishes. Daughter piled the dishes in the dishwasher and ran them with cold water (since the water heater has been turned off)
13)I have to find time to finish these socks--they are the last thing for my package so I can get it off to my partner.
14)the new coupler hubby bought isn't working for the water heater
15)daughter just announced that the Masquarade Ball is back on for Friday and she needs a costume.

Am I ever going to have time to finish these socks??

Banging my Head against the Wall now

UUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!! I'm so frustrated....can you tell?

I didn't get a chance to go to the coffee shop with the other Scout Mom's this weekend as I had hoped because it was cancelled due to lack of interest. If hubby hadn't answered the phone I would have pretended that everything was honky doory and talked the oldest daughter, gimpy and all, to come with me and we could have spent the entire time knitting and talking and sipping coffee and tea--she says they have tea, it would have only been my second time there and the first time I got away without ordering anything---but no, hubby answered and I didn't think fast enough on my toes.....so I didn't get any knitting done yesterday.

Instead I spent the afternoon cleaning the kitchen....especially the stovetop. This is the first summer that my oldest has been on his own while we went out of town--his favorite thing to do was use the deep fryer (and leave me the mess)....because I hate the dripping of the oil I have it on a sheet pan that's lined with foil for easy cleanup.

As it turned out 18 yr olds have no sense of oil life---I thought he had changed the oil at least once over the summer--he hadn't. Oil in a fryer, I'm told, needs to be changed at least every 3 months depending what you've cook in it...if you've done any sort of meat it needs to be changed sooner. Anyways, I never really thought much of the stove--I don't usually use it....I either use the oven (they are seperate units) or the microwave, the stove is mostly used when I want popcorn or fried eggs.....mostly its just the place I put the cookie sheets or roaster when they come out of the oven.

So I had been keeping the top of the burner cleaned up okay....but when I pulled out the burner trays to clean---OMGs---he must have spilled the fryer or something and wiped it up without thinking of cleaning under the spill-pan. I had sticky "dried" oil all underneath the dials, under the dial plate and the rubber gasket that holds the plate in place. He had switched the burner grate with the one from the other side knowing that I tend to put the big tea kettle & the Splatter Blue camper coffee pot there so you can't see it.....gaaaawwwwwkkkkkk. And only one single--just one--S.O.S. pad left to do it.....it died after I finished both drip pans, the dials, the dial plate, the gasket, the stove top, one grate....but it didn't make it thru the really ucky one.

I could have killed him, but you know he's a kid (at least to me) so I turned on the football game in the kitchen and started cleaning it up---everytime our team made a TD he'd say "did you see that?" or "Look at that, that's amazing" and I'd answer with "I didn't see anything, I'm too busy cleaning someone else's mess" or "no I was busy scrubbing this ____".....I think he got the point though because one time when our team made a TD he used it as an excuse to give me a great big hug....he NEVER hugs--"I love you" gets answered with "yup" or "huh?".

So I will have to wait until the next time I can talk hubby into taking me to the regular store to get some more and really pound it....MIL says she used to put them in a black plastic bag with a bottles worth of amonia, tie it shut and then put the whole thing out on the front lawn in the bright sun and it would just eat off the grease. It might be worth the try--except I have a hard enough time not getting sick from the smell of Moth balls, I can't imagine what the smell of amonia would do to me.

Anyhow, back to my knitting.

As it turns out not knitting yesterday would probably have been a good thing---because I got done with the first part of the second socks ribbing and found that --shit!--the guage is off again! I measured really carefully too--but the sock was WAY too big....I hadn't noticed it while knitting because I tend to keep the stitches bunched so quick work, but damn!

So now I've had to frog and now its back to the drawing board....so I like the simplicity of the pattern but the colorworks is driving me nuts....it is not working out the way I thought it would. One row one color, one row the next....no pooling!

{sigh} well I've got to get back to the needles---I have to get these to my partner by Halloween and hubby is taking three days off this week so I don't think there will be much knitthing going on then. He seems to get jealous of it....what he doesn't realize is that there are days that my crafting is the only thing that keeps me from-=-=-=-sending him back to work!!!

Vacation????

Okay so while everyone else was enjoying themselves this weekend we were working....granted it was on our own time, but man were we working.

We have a wood burner in our large shop/garage/pole barn that we have to keep above freezing in the winter....sometimes higher if hubby is doing a project or someone is working on a vehicle...and we, okay hubby, refuses to pay for wood when there is plenty at the cabin (the inlaws "resort").

With all the recent rains (6" in two weeks) we had to get up the wood that the FIL had left to weather up there from the straightline winds that blew the trees down 5 years ago when they were working on the house (I've got photos to prove it).

Well the dealy was that all they were concerned with at the time was moving the trees out of the way and not actually cutting it up, so these were full tree trunks that just had the branches cut off with outactually cutting up the trunks into smaller chunks.

Well, the guys had the idea of just cutting up the trunks on Saturday and us ladies had to go too to push the logs out of the way...but as I watched the pile of logs growing and growing more and more disorganized the more I thought "this is going to get dangerous, real fast".

My FIL is not steady on his feet, he suffers from Minier's disease and he is not a canidate for surgery so he has his good days and his bad days. So any sticks or wood chips on the ground can be very dangerous for him...but then put a chain saw in his hands and you've got the makings of a horror film...if it weren't so serious, it'd be funny.

So my hubby had a chainsaw (smaller than FILs) that kept dulling out on the oak...yes oak is a very hard wood....so he soon ran out of blades. Well, when he ran out he got out the wood splitter...since FIL was being too stubborn to give up the chainsaw. Well as long as he was splitting I was going to stack them instead of just standing there and trying to figure out what was the "good" woodpile and which was the "bad" woodpile (the rotted stuff that could cause problems in the woodpile)....so I started a cord.

I chose a spot that I thought was going to be a good place and started stacking it all up. Well I stood back and looked at the first couple of courses and it dawned on me that we wouldn't be picking this wood up for at least a couple of weekends if not an entire month so I needed to make this thing as strong as a regular wood pile like we would have at home. So I started making the end caps.

If you've never done an end cap you can think of it as a mini log cabin at the end of the cord.

A Cord of Wood is 4ft high, 4 foot deep, and 8 ft long....don't get them mixed up if you can help it because trying to stack wook 8 ft off the ground is a real bummer. So I got the first "cord" done and I realized that I had made a Long Cord (about 9ft) and it was a little over 4ft high, so I was rather proud...after all I am just a city girl making her way in a Country family (even after 19yrs in the family) and then hubby has to point out that I piled it in a not so nice spot.

I had accidentally ran dangerously close to trapping in a boat lift where it couldn't be retrieved at the end of the month (we pull docks a couple of days early this year since 10/1 falls during the week)...so they made sure that they got the lift out during a "break".

I got two cords in and sat down to rest and grab some lunch when hubby tells me that he doesnt consider it as two cords only one because the logs were not 4ft long only about 18inches. I could have pushed him off his lawn chair, but had been working hard so I showed him pity...and technically he was right...they weren't really full cords. (notice in the photo the top is starting to tip? the logs were getting bigger and hubby had a tough time balancing them on the log splitter)

well we had started about 10am and stopped about 530pm and we still had a LOT of wood to cut.

We were so sore...if you even want to find muscles you don't know about pile wood....for instance, did you know you have muscles that actually run acrossed the front of your shins?? Boy I do. I could not figure out all night Saturday why my skins hurt so bad...after all you think of it as all bone there with just connective tissue to keep the skin on, right?

Boy did I figure out what it was on Sunday when we went up to do the rest of those trees. You use the muscles on the shin to (a) bend your knees and (b)they connect to the calves...and boy will you feel it!

So we stacked another couple of cords of wood Sunday...full cords that is...but my beautiful cords which were nice and straight, even and soundly stacked suddenly took a turn for the worse. It got to about 85F and muggy on the hill with little to no breeze and I began to over heat...whenever I bent over to get the wood I would get dizzy and begin to have a tough time breathing, I had a side ache too that I figure was from lack of potty breaks (you have got to keep those toxins out of your system)...so I took a lot more breaks and the teenaged girl was helping me this time with the stacking.

Well it was going well until she decided to start stacking some of the smaller logs that come from the thicker parts of branches...since they were of varying thicknesses and shapes she just started piling them in...some were 2ft some were 18"....some were straight, some had awful curves....next thing I know my lovely straight rows are coming in at two seperate angles! I had about a foot difference between the two ends and we were too far along to restack, every thing I tried to straighten it out just made the whole thing worse....UGGGGHHHH!! Well she did try and I was taking a lot of breaks and it had to get done.

So the solution we came up with was to start a new course that was straight, then fill in the sides with good strong end caps and then fill in the center between the mismatched cord and the new cord with the odd shaped/odd length peices whichever way they would fit and we made the whole thing about 4 1/2ft tall.

It wasn't pretty by any means and hubby was worried about the end caps blowing out, but dang if they didn't hold...hubby said he was very impressed with my end caps....hubby is very fussy with compliments on such things so I know he really did mean it.

Now you would have thought that after sitting there for 5 years that the wood would have been dried out...but it was packed and stacked so tight while it laid there for processing that there were several trees that were still weeping after they were cut. Amazing! I though maybe it was just water or condensation but no it was actually sap that was still in the wood.

So Sunday was a 9am - 6 pm job. We had a ton of loggage that needed immediate burning and we decided not to gather the bark because we really had to get rid of that bad wood ASAP while the bark could wait until the next time we get up there.

So all the work was done. Monday would be a free day for all day knitting, right?? Have I mentioned my FIL before? He feels that if you have time to sit you are doing something wrong. He lives on a lake and I have never seen him wet his fishing line once...not ONCE in the 20+ years I've known my husband. MIL yes, as much as she can, but FIL? No way.

He likes boat rides...they are quick and they seem to give him another excuse to tell my hubby what to do. No he's not really that bad with my hubby. But if he is going to take a break it is usually because he his falling asleep in a chair and/or he wants to watch the national big-box news stations (just not Fox).

So Monday....Labor day...well he figured it is named Labor Day so he put us to work. Actually I think part of it was hubby volunteered so FIL wouldn't do it himself...earlier in the year they had a tornado come across the lake and pop over the house, well when it went over it pulled up the underdecking...the under decking is used like gutters on a house, it keeps the area under the deck dry for sitting during the rain and directs the water where it can flow safely without wearing out the ground surrounding the pilings.

While they are nice in this respect, they do not tell you how much maintainance are needed with it. Not only does the water get between the decking into the gutter system, so does everything that effects your regular gutter systems...leaves, twigs, animal droppings, etc. only it has the added benefit since it is dank and damp of being a prime spot for the development of bees nests!

Luckily we did not run into any nests this time but plenty of gunk...yuk. so the underdecking had gotten sucked up from the tornado (of course it happens anytime they get a really strong wind off the lakeside) and there was some damage to some of them...it practically split one of them down the middle! So hubby is up there with this cotter-pin puller (think of a button-hook only with a larger hook end) pushing up the V shaped channel of the inner-gutter and pulling down the underdecking panel and hoping they will fall into place, all the while standing on a ladder on a gravel covered unlevel ground looking up and crap falling into his face.

Well us girls were really hoping it would be a nice quiet Monday with plenty of time for knitting...but FIL came and got us...looking up aggrivates his Minier's and he couldn't help hubby at all. On the ground we had to not only hold the ladder steady but we had to point out which panels were out of place, which side they were out of place (north or south) and whether it had been pulled to one end or the other...he can't see it from on the ladder for some reason and I don't think the crud falling in his face helps much either.

So long story...okay, tome short....no time to knit. By the time we got done I had enough time to undo the washcloth I was making for a partner of another exchange (ACX) because I was trying to design a special Equinox pattern of my own and realized that I had the numbering way off...its not like crochet where a single crochet can be designed as a square...knit stitches are more rectangular with a side ratio of about 3:4 or 3:5 depending on the stitcher (I'm a 3:5, that is the measurement of 3 stitches is equal to the height of 5 rows in garter stitch....I haven't checked in stockingette). SO I'm working on a sun/moon picture to pop up out of the cloth and it just isn't doing it.

Normally this is because I'm using a varigated which doesnt lend itself well to pictures...it is best used for repeated patterns where there isn't alot of detail work. I was using coral but the pic just wasn't popping...figure it was because I was doing detail work on the right side and then purling across the pic on the wrong side, making a washcloth that was non-reversible. These pics can usually be seen best at a slight angle so I tilted it.

Oh my gosh was it ever off! Instead of being a nice curve I had managed to make a point...sigh! I didn't have my computer with me figuring I was going to work on my partners sock the majority of the weekend {well lets not get me going on that now}. so in the 10 rows I did get done (quick pick up put down work) I got the basic idea for the pattern down...but it really sucked so I had to pull it ALL out for easier travel home.

Normally I can whip off a washcloth off in part of a day, maybe two if I get interupted a LOT...but I couldn't get anything done at all this weekend.

And my nails...oh my beautiful nails. they really took the beating this weekend...I'm surprised they aren't all broken back to the quick. Somehow I managed to save the pinky's from disaster but every one of my other nails took some sort of damage. So my lovely 1/4inch long nails (measuring the white area only) are down to less than half on the thumbs and my index fingers broke at an angle so they are now lobsided but I hate the thought of cutting them off...neither ring finger has any nail to speak of and the middle finger nails are just barely off the tips of the fingers and blunted. Sigh....I waited so long to get long nails back. Waited for the kids to grow up enough where I wouldn't have to worry about accidentally scratching them while grabbing a hand away from something hot, or digging nails into skin when emphasizing the meaning of "we are going now.", waited until I knew that I would not have to do mad dashes to catch the bowl of food before it hit the floor.

I never spent the time to paint them unless it was really special....after all, I'm mom. there is not reason to primp....its all going to get worn off anyways.

Oh well...I've got Hogwarts homework to finish. I thought I was finished but got interupted by a computer crash last night so I've got to get it up ASAP so I can get back to knitting now that the coffee is made, the wood is in a different state and the kids (well the two neediest) are back in school--yes there will be knitting today!!!