she's just saying...

knit in public today

If you can't join us at the Riverfront Plaza, knit wherever you are!

Quick post as my dog Flash got badly bitten by another dog and we're taking him to the vet. Always exciting around here...

loose ends

Time to tie up a few:

1.Yes, Henry does not like the retainers. He says he'd rather have the braces again, and even offered to pay for them himself. We're trying them (actually, he's trying them) a few hours at a time. And they have been lost twice in the two days we've had them. Unfortunately, they're clear and small and easily overlooked.

2. I think I've solved the catnip situation. If you can't cage the cats, cage the catnip.  They hang around it alot but haven't tried to break in yet. I think the smell alone drives them crazy - they don't have to ingest it. Does anybody know?

The owner of Chow (the out-of-coffee cafe, in case you didn't guess) sent me a lovely email apologizing for our experience. He said they weren't out of coffee - it was a server misunderstanding. That's good to know - I'm definitely trying it again.

3. Our knitting group may have found a home - Makahna's Cafe on Galveston. Great spot! Meets all our criteria (natural light, not too noisy, comfortable space, parking, beer and wine). The owner, Steve, kept it open just for us, which was wonderful. He's working on staying open evenings more. Check it out!

4. I did buy an electric mower and love it.

5. The laser treatments I had to control my glaucoma were very successful. My interocular (great word) pressures are way down, and should stay that way for a few years, hopefully.

Worldwide Knit in Public Day! location change

The day you've been anxiously awaiting is here again!

Saturday, June 14, all over the world, knitters will be representing in public. From New Zealand to Alaska, on trains, in restaurants, at the bus stop, in bars, all knitting their little fingers off. And Bend will join in!

We'll meet at the outdoor stage at Drake Park Riverfront Plaza on Brooks Alley at noon. Bring a chair, water, snacks and your knitting (or crocheting - we're open-minded people).

You know you want to join us . . . or at least stop by and say hi (and check out the awesome poster Judy made for us, above.)

For more info on events around the world, visit    Their motto:

Better living through stitching together. 

bye bye braces

And they're off! After 11 months, Henry's braces came off today, and his teeth are beautiful. He took it all in stride, as usual. We'll see how the retainer goes...

Look at that beautiful smile. Thurs. am: Just in time for the last day of school!

"Things I've done that you probably haven't" meme

Ten things I've done that you probably haven't (censored for public consumption):

1. Peeked into Faye Dunaway's underwear drawer.

2. Dove to 260 feet to get "narced" (nitrogen narcosis). Really dumb, but cool.

3. Pulled a just-born kitten out of a placenta (the mom was busy having another at the time).

4. Taught Mandy Patankin to scuba dive.

5. Toured a vineyard with Ernest Gallo.

6. Laid on the sidewalk in lower Manhattan at 3 am on my 30th birthday.

7. Boarded a train in southern Italy and ended up in Fairbanks, Alaska by the end of the day.

8. Sailed a boat single-handed through the LA shipping channel with no wind and no engine.

9. Scored a perfect 800 on the verbal GRE's for graduate school.

10. Gotten laid off via car phone.

So what's your list??

Anybody willing?

No one wants to try their hand at a list? C'mon, this is your chance to tell the world (or the 10 people who read this) about how interesting and unique you are. I dare you!

Cat lovers (not CAT lovers, but cat LOVERS)

Muffin and Bob show their true feelings when they're alone. Otherwise, they ignore each other or fight.

chicken

We had grilled chicken last night. But not just any grilled chicken. It was a whole organic bird. First I brined it, then butterflied it, then seasoned under the skin, then grilled it with mesquite chips. That's about as much as you can do to a chicken, and it was worth it.

I didn't take a photo, so you'll have to imagine the deliciousness.

Finished (knitting post)

 

Done! I really like it. Next time I'll make the flap bigger. Still needs button and loop sewn on.

latest installment of...

When we last left our intrepid team from the marketing department, they were anxiously awaiting notice of their fate in Globeland. They were under cube arrest, chained to their computers, with little work to occupy their time. Their fearless leader [me] kept their spirits up by regaling them with fearsome stories of all her previous layoffs and how she endeavored to survive them.

The Globe has rotated again, and our status has been revealed: surplus. Mother Globe has been generous in her decree, so we're under no immediate threat of catastrophe. We've been freed from cube arrest to seek our fortunes elsewhere.

They all lived happily ever after, we hope. The End.

first of the season

Who isn't reading

I guess I'm into lists this week. These are some of the people who don't read my blog:
1. My parents: that's OK, they're in their late 80's/90's, so maybe they'll sit out the blogging thing. Though they do surf the web and email competently.  Really, do I want them to read it?  Not so much.
2. My sisters: one's too busy and the other doesn't use the computer much. That's my best guess, as they haven't really acknowledged that I write a blog. Why am I not surprised?
3. However, thanks, Steve! My big bro reads it.
4. My best friend. Busy busy busy. Or not that interested. Dunno.
5. My ex-boyfriend. He says it makes him miss me too much. You know, he doesn't have to miss me - I'm right here. Just saying.

So, I guess I can write about them all without worrying how they'll take it. That's something.

Anyway, I want to acknowledge and thank all of you who are reading. I appreciate your interest, support and comments.  This blog thing is challenging on many levels: creative, personal, technical, and emotional.  Who would have thought?

Wine-flation

I've noticed a definite price creep in the wines I've purchased over the last year or so. Not that wine prices overall have risen; it seems to me that prices have stayed pretty flat, actually.

Rather, it's my purchase choices that have moved slowly but surely up the price chart. Years ago, I bought the "fighting varietals" as they're called in the wine biz: $5-$7 bottles. Then for a long time I'd look for deals under $10. That was my limit, unless it was a special occasion. At some point, that crept over $10 to maybe $11. Now I look at my bottle six-pack (thanks, Safeway) and realize that the average post-saving price is more like $13. I've moved up the racks from the bottom shelf to the second to highest, and reach up to the top shelf now and then.

This is the problem with drinking good wine - it spoils you for the cheaper stuff. As my palate has evolved, my "wine price comfort zone" has grown as well. Luckily, there are some great wines to be had in my current price range.

Of course, I said that a few years ago as well.

me me meme

Okay, I'm piggy-backing on the meme on Knit One Quilt Too. Hey, Kristen!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Um, let's see. 1998. Dating Bruce. Driving to Portland every other weekend. Working at the agency-that- must-not-be-named. Training Flash. Thinking about adoption. Wait - it might have been Kev. Who can remember?

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
1. Work on that darn entrelac bag! Whose idea was it, anyway? Oh, right.
2. Write back to my friend Maurice in Hawaii - I miss him.
3. Hit Safeway for the third time this week.
4. Look for work.
5. Attend the Knit-Up at PJ's tonight - highlight of my week!

3. Snacks I enjoy.
Cereal, plain yogurt, fruit and maple syrup.
Cheese and crackers (my staple single-girl meal).
The little candy bars that are in accounting. Have to come up with reason to visit accounting.
Is wine a snack?

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire.
Get a housekeeper.
Give a million dollars to Heifer International. That's a lot of chickens! (and ducks, bees, geese, goats, rabbits and of course heifers).
Fix the potholes on 16th Street.

5. Places I have lived.
In reverse chronological order: Bend, Los Angeles, NYC, Boston, Fairbanks, Vermont, Florence, Paris, Vermont, Pittsburgh PA.

6. Jobs I've had.
Are you kidding? OK, titles only: marketing manager, marketing director, consultant, account director, management supervisor, account supervisor, account exec.(right on up the ad agency ladder), scuba instructor/divemaster, temp secretary, traffic manager (newspaper, not cars), bookstore manager, pipeline inspector, restaurant manager, pizza cook, waitress, figure drawing model, girl scout camp counselor.

OK, who's next?

top ten tuesday

Ten phrases I hope never to hear again:

1. Ping me  As in: "Ping me next week and I'll give you an update."   Contact, call, email.

2. Populate the form factor  As in: "Once we get the layout determined, we just have to populate the form factor." Write the copy.

3. In my silo  As in: "Sales training is not in my silo; you need to talk to Charlie."  Area, department, responsibility.

4. Long pole [of the tent]  As in: "Obtaining the permits is the long pole in this build-out." Longest lead time.

5. Ideate As in: "Let's set up a conference call and ideate on this." Come up with ideas, brainstorm.

6. Socialize As in "I'll take this recommendation back and socialize it."  Send around for review.

7. OOO  As in "Ping me Monday on this as I'm OOO til then."  Out Of Office.

8. Day Alpha  As in "We need to get this accomplished by Day Alpha."  Launch date.

9. Bandwidth  As in "My department doesn't have the bandwidth for that right now."  Capacity, resources.

And last but not least;
10. Surplus  As in "Employees who are notified of surplus will receive severance."  Laid off.

green (crack) house

How does anyone grow catnip? I can't find a place to hide one poor little plant from my feline junkies. Bob figured out how to crawl under the greenhouse to get at the pot (so to speak). Are catnip fields full of stoned kitties?

Solar City

A friend and I went up to Schilling Solar City Gardens yesterday for their spring extravaganza.

Schillings is a wonderful nursery filled with central Oregon-friendly plants and silly little garden vignettes with plaster figurines, dinosaurs, etc., including a fake western town with building fronts, just for fun.

They are the perfect nursery - helpful staff, incredible variety, special areas for water plants, sedum (my favorite), annuals and vegetable starts in greenhouses, etc. I rarely get out of there for less than $100, though this time I restrained myself. This is all I bought:

Well, maybe almost $100. But it was all on sale!

Now I just have to plant it all.

Someday has arrived

I have a bunch of old quilts and coverlets handed down (or passed off) by my mom, made by a great-great aunt. She's also had other ones made for me and I've collected some myself over the years. I've kept them carefully tucked away in an armoire with the thought that someday I'd have a house big enough to use them and display them.

I was moving things around last week and realized I could really use that armoire. I pulled out the quilts and had an epiphany.  "Someday" is never coming.  It wasn't a sad or depressing thought. It was the realization that this IS my life - I can't keep waiting for it to start.

So I washed the quilts and put the less-fragile ones out on beds. I'm sending one of them off to a sister who likes pink, and will store the others to pass down to Henry's family. There's one that is in overall bad shape that I'm hoping to give to a quilter who can use the old squares. It's tied, not quilted, so they're easy to disassemble. It's the blue and red one on the bottom in the photo.

Anyone interested? Amber? Kristen?

Wacky day

all over the place. Work, friends, money, jobs, dogs all a little off kilter today. Not in a bad way, just different. Which I enjoy, change-junkie that I am.

A friend is here for the weekend with her new adorable sweet black lab puppy, who Flash immediately bit, getting in that pre-emptive strike.

Work is kind of unraveling - people are leaving either short term or for good, everyone's working with different and new folks from Big Globe (there are a million of them!), the payout is happening, and we were notified that we'd be notified about our jobs next week. Plus ca change... (that's french without the accents, fyi).

Here's a cool photo of a few of the entrelac bags in progress:

Mine is the one in the upper right. PJ (who just learned to knit) has pulled well into the lead, so we get to learn from her trials. MUST FINISH before heading back east for two weeks in late June. Shouldn't be a problem, though I tend to slow down near the finish line with these things.

Done!

Nothing feels better than finishing a consulting project. The stress, anxiety, guilt, doubt, nervousness, all washed away, and the feeling of relief floods in. It's always a time for me to celebrate a little bit: buy a slightly more expensive bottle of wine, splurge on some fresh seafood for dinner, maybe order a little something on line (I have a bad Amazon habit).  I deserve it! I worked hard! It's done!

Of course, it's never really done. I usually walk away with some more work to do, a little more polishing, a bit more analysis, just one more draft. Very annoying.

But this time, I walked away clean. They seemed to like the work. And I got another potential assignment from it. Sweet.

Excuse me while I go open a bottle and steam some mussels and clams for dinner.