I finished knitting my Dalek. It’s really funny to have a nice cuddly friend who can kill you in an instant (and wants to!). I took a picture today, but haven’t had a chance to upload it. I’ll try to do that tomorrow.

The day I found out I got the job, I went shopping. In the past week, I have bought 3 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shoes, and a purse. They were all needed (well, maybe not the purse, but I tend to buy purses every season change whether I need them or not :P)– I’ve gained a few pounds since last spring/summer, and I’d planned to buy new work clothes when I lost my job. Since there was no real reason to buy business clothes when I didn’t have a job (and I didn’t have the money anyway), I put it off. But now that I have the prospect of a paycheck in a couple of weeks, I felt justified in spending a couple of hundred of my hard-hoarded money. I actually put my stimulus check aside for just such a purpose.

I am trying to be more conservative with my money, though. I hope to keep a nice cushion in both checking and savings, just in case I should find myself unemployed again. It’s not very likely– business is booming for the theaters– but it’s better to be safe than sorry. I also want to pay off my credit card balance as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, I haven’t been able to work much on my thesis. My body is still adjusting to getting up at 6:30 again, and I just haven’t had the mind power. But I hope to set aside at least a couple of hours every night to work on it. I really, really, need to get this off my plate.

My grandma is coming home from her rehab facility tomorrow. She’s getting a bit stir-crazy. I hope she does well at home.

<i>Midnight</i> was amazing. Much looking forward to the last few episodes of Series Four. Oh, and David Tennant can sit by me.

Behold, my three most recent Finished Objects (click the thumbnail to see the big pictures at Flickr):

Mitt Envy, fingerless mitts with a cable, knit with Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino, which is meant as a sock yarn. Knitted on size 1 needles, in the round. Those needles were TINY. But I was glad for the practice on the teeny tiny needles when my sister in law asked me to make these for the new baby girl who’s due any day now:

Saartje’s Booties, made with Bristol Yarn Gallery’s Lyndon Hill (a cotton/silk blend). In order to get gauge on these things I had to go down to a size 0 needle. Lucky I bought circulars in all the sock sizes from Knit Picks a few weeks ago. These were knit flat and then seamed. Amanda picked the yarn and the buttons, I picked the pattern. They’re all ready for the new baby girl to come home in.

And now, my proudest moment:

The Spring Break Bag, made with Cascade 220 wool. I designed this. All by my own self. I test-felted my yarn, to see how much it would shrink. I did the math. I just spent the last hour or so typing up the pattern. I made it both as a bag to take with me to Disneyland and as a good beginner’s project for the knitting group I started in my neighborhood a couple of months ago. I’m going to distribute it tonight Hopefully, I’ll be able to post the pattern online after my knitting group beta-knits it for me.

Look at the needle felting detail!

And yes, I admit that the needle felting could be a bit more felted. I’m planning on doing that tonight, so the gals can see exactly what needle felting entails.

I’m excited.

I lost my hat.

Not just any hat. My Irish Hiking Coronet hat. A hat made with expensive yarn, a hat that caused me a lot of trouble to make. I finished it in September, but have only been able to wear it for two weeks. I took pictures of it on Saturday. And then– I went to dinner last night, and lost it. I checked with the restaurant and with the store we stopped by before that (to buy the Pirates DVD), but no dice.

It’s all I can do not to break down in tears. The first time I splurge on expensive imported-from-Italy-superwash-merino wool, and I LOST IT. IT’S GONE FOREVER.

I hope whoever picked it up without turning it in gets good use out of it. But now all I have left of my beautiful hat is two crummy pictures.

This is closer to the real color.

:((

I really need my boss to come in so she can switch it to the oldies station.

I dressed up for Halloween this year. I was too tired to upload any pics last night, but when I get home, I’ll do so. ‘Cause I really want ya’ll to see my awesome costume.

Going to the eye doctor this afternoon. Maybe he can actually find a solution to my dry, red, itchy eye problem (now with icky film that sticks to my contacts and makes it impossible to see!). I really hope, though, that the solution isn’t going back to glasses full time. I haven’t worn glasses since I was twelve.

Have I mentioned that I’m going to be an aunt again? My SiL is expecting in March. And. . . it’s another girl! Right now the frontrunner for the name is Katherine, to be called Kate. I think Anna and Kate are adorable together.

In the meantime, Thomas turns one next week. Where has the time gone? He was Peter Pan for Halloween. So cute! Anna was a BYU cheerleader. Also cute! I can’t stand how adorable my niece and nephew are, really. Especially now that Anna has started saying my name– I’m “Emmy.” Makes me melt every time.

Dude, this music is just reminding me how behind I am on my Christmas knitting. Eek! I’d better stop typing and start knitting. Now if only I could figure out where the extra stitch is coming from on the border for the silk scarf I’m knitting for my aunt. . .

Yup. All the signs of flu.

At about 10:15, I couldn’t take it any more. If I didn’t go home soon, I’d end up throwing up in the garbage can. They have quite enough of that with our patients– they don’t need it with the employees! So I called my supervisor, who was kind enough to take over for me.

Anyway. I shall spare you all the gory details. It must have been a 24-hour bug , because I was feeling much better yesterday, but not well enough to come back in. It was that stage where, while you’re laying down, you feel almost completely normal, and you wonder if you’re just milking it and should just suck it up and do something productive. Then you actually get up and realize that, no, there’s still something seriously wrong with you.

Anyway, I’m back at work today, but still not feeling quite 100%. This being-vertical thing is going to take some getting used to.

I did use the horizontal time semi-productively, though– I got about halfway through Mansfield Park (which is the only Austen novel I don’t tend to pick up and read at least once a year– I think I’ve only read it 4 times, tops, and two of those readings were for classes– and is therefore the one I’m least familiar with), and found that I’m enjoying it more this time last previous readings. Maybe I’m getting used to it.

In the meantime, my 4-year Dell Complete Care/Warranty has now paid for itself. My USB ports on Ginevra suddenly stopped working a few weeks ago. I thought at first that it was just my laptop mouse that had died, but then my camera wouldn’t connect either. I finally got on Dell’s support chat, and after going through several pointless driver updates and diagnostics, they agreed with me that they were simply fried and agreed to send a tech out to replace my motherboard. Which he did, on Saturday. And they worked again! For about an hour. I’d reconnected my mouse and left the room for a moment, only to come in and find my laptop turned off. When I got it booted up again, the USB ports were not working. AGAIN. My dad realized that there must be a short in my laptop mouse that was causing the USB power supply to overheat. In any case, they were fried again. This time I sent Dell an e-mail, and they called back, and I managed to make my needs understood through the language barrier (I’m sure the rep on the other end was very intelligent, but his accent was quite thick), and he agreed to replace the motherboard again. The Dell tech came again last night, and I refrained from using my mouse (I’m going to buy a new one), and aside from a slight scare that probably can be blamed on my camera’s battery being low, it seems all is right with Ginevra. Now I can back her up and reinstall XP, which I’ve been wanting to do for months.

But, yeah. Two new motherboards in 5 days. The warranty is definitely worth it.

Wanna see my pretty 100% alpaca yarn that I splurged on at the Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair on Saturday? No? Oh, well. I’m linking it anyway.

The first is that I haven’t been sleeping well (for reasons unknown), so I am dead tired. Going to see Hairspray at 9:30 PM on Wednesday night did not help this situation.

The second is that it’s Friday, and Fridays by definition go slowly.

The third is that it’s the Friday before a long weekend, and therefore must go twice as slowly as a normal Friday.

The fourth is that the phones have been pretty quiet today, so I haven’t had as much to do.

The fifth is that I’m at a place on my current knitting project (the shawl that I did as “practice” for Jen’s and that I’m finally getting around to finishing) where I need to look at the instructions again, and I forgot them. So I haven’t been able to knit to pass the time.

The sixth is that my allergies are acting up a bit, so I’m drowsy from Zyrtec and wearing my glasses instead of my contacts, which is giving me a bit of a headache.

The seventh is that TOMORROW IS THE FIRST BYU HOME FOOTBALL GAME AND I CANNOT WAIT.

Hearing “One More Night” by Phil Collins, followed immediately by “How to Save a Life” by Fray for the SECOND time today hasn’t helped matters AT ALL.

Although I did just get a slight lift. I’m sitting here typing this entry and I get a call from our Recreational Therapist. It went like this (I swear, this is nearly verbatim):

Phone: *double rings to show it’s an internal call*
Me: *sees caller ID* Hi, Jaime.
Jaime: Hi. Goblet of Fire is the third one, right?
Me: Nope. It’s the fourth.
Jaime: Oh. What’s the third?
Me: Prisoner of Azkaban.
Jaime: Oh. Oh, yeah! Right there. Okay. Thanks! Bye.
Me: Bye. *hangs up* *giggles*

Now if only the next 20 minutes could be as enjoyable as that 20 seconds. . .

Phil Collins.

Seriously, why did this guy do so many cover songs? And his original songs are even worse! I’ve been here since 8. It is now 11:15. And I’ve heard Phil Collins three times already.

GAH.

Anyway. A couple of weeks ago, our IT guy at work came and stole my fax machine/printer. The nurses station needed it. He said I’d get it back after the weekend, but I didn’t. This was highly inconvenient. But then, last Friday, I got a brand-new HP OfficeJet Pro L7680 all-in-one printer/copier/scanner/fax. ‘Tis very pretty, and it works SO much better than my old one. I was really giddy about it until I realized how lame it was to be giddy over office equipment. Then I was just mildly pleased.

I’m much more than mildly pleased over something else, though. I mentioned Ravelry in my last (real) post. Well, one of the cool things on Ravelry is the ability to search by knitting pattern, and see who else has done that pattern and how it turned out. Each pattern has a page with a featured photo. A couple of days ago, I got a message that two of my projects had been selected to be the featured photo for that pattern! It made me very happy. Of course, it helped that only two other people had made Snaps and only one had made Flaps (I actually had to add the pattern to the site; someone else then said they’d made it, but that person hadn’t posted a picture at all), but hey, a featured photo is a featured photo. I was quite chuffed about it.

I get Labor Day off! Thank heaven. I’m dearly in need of a break. BYU’s semester officially starts on Tuesday, but I’m not taking any classes, which feels odd. I am registered for two thesis hours, though, which is the minimum hours required for the semester you graduate. Yes, I’m still hoping against hope that I can finish my thesis in time for December graduation. It may take a miracle. But miracles do happen sometimes.

Gah. They just played Elton John. Maybe it’s a tie after all. . .

My title also feels like a good metaphor for how I feel about my life at the moment, but I don’t want to go into that.

I’ve been spending a lot of online time at Ravelry, which is still in beta mode but which is absolute crack for knitters and crocheters. I know is on there, but other than her, I have no friends (which kinda defeats the social-networking side of the whole site). Is anyone else in yet? Or are you still waiting for your invite (they’re getting closer to going public)? Or have you never even heard of it until now?

I threw my back out last Saturday. It was almost better on Monday. Tuesday it was as bad as it’s ever been. Massive amounts of ibuprofen and Thermacare wraps make getting through the day bearable, but if it doesn’t get better soon, I guess I’ll need to call the chiropractor. Grr. But– my insurance now covers chiropractic visits! Hurrah!

Speaking of insurance, I went to the doctor for the first time in a year on Friday. Got my thyroid levels checked (normal). Got a referral to radiology to get an ultrasound, to check for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. If I have it, then the treatment is birth control pills (which I’m already on, and have been for years) and controlling weight (which I’m already trying to do). So even if I have it, nothing will change, except knowing that I have it. Joy.

Having insurance again is nice.

Overall, I like my job, but there are two definite drawbacks. One is that I have to listen to KOSY (click on the link to see what music I am subjected to, and feel my pain!) for 40 hours a week. Not only do they play the same songs every day, sometimes they play the same songs more than once in the SAME day! I swear, I’m going to go insane. And I just can’t WAIT until they switch over to all Christmas music, all the time in OCTOBER. *screams* Ahem. Anyway, the other drawback is that, unlike most office jobs, I can’t wake up in the morning and say “I can use another half-hour of sleep. I’ll go in at 8:30 and only take a half hour lunch.” I can’t just take off early to go to a doctor’s appointment. I can’t suddenly decide to take a weekend trip. And I feel like I can’t call in sick unless I truly can’t sit up. Because any time I’m not there, someone else has to cover for me. Which is a huge inconvenience to everyone else. I don’t like feeling guilty because I have a doctor’s appointment.

Of course, if I weren’t such a responsible person, I wouldn’t feel guilty. Being good is such a drag sometimes.

I’ve got two HP plot bunnies that I want to write– one a genficlet about Kingsley visiting the Muggle PM, and one a romantic H/G piece set a few weeks after the end of the battle– and I just. can’t. write. them. The H/G fic was progressing at the rate of 1 paragraph per day when my creativity completely died. It seems, then, that my writer’s block has progressed past essays and into fic, which is very bad news for my thesis. If I can’t even write H/G fluff, how can I write criticism? *sigh*

Speaking of my thesis, I need help from some of you. But that can wait for another post.

I saw Hairspray the other day, and Stardust on Monday night. Both excellent movies. Except I didn’t like John Travolta in drag in Hairspray. Totally ruined my suspension of disbelief. Robert de Niro in Stardust, on the other hand, was hilarious. And speaking of Stardust– where has Charlie Cox been all my life? And do you think he’d object to a slightly older woman?

My recreational reading has taken an Austenish turn lately. I’ve started reading the Jane Austen Mystery series by Stephanie Barron, and actually find the books amusing. She does a pretty good job of capturing Austen’s voice, IMO. Then yesterday I read Austenland by Shannon Hale, which, despite its not-so-subtle insults of Northanger Abbey, I found thoroughly delightful. I was quite giddy at the romance, even. Almost giddy enough to forgive the Northanger Abbey digs. Hale really gets the Austen fangirl, though. Really.

I also started another reread of Pride and Prejudice. I swear I started before I read Austenland, though.

I don’t plan on seeing Becoming Jane until my sister can get me in for free. I hope I can set aside my prejudice and enjoy it, but I don’t hold much hope. I’m just so annoyed at the message it’s sending– that Jane couldn’t have written those books unless she’d actually experienced a tragic love story, and that apparently she has next to no imagination at all, anyway, since most of her best scenes, lines, and characters are copied from her life. That really, really bugs me. But that wouldn’t be so bad if Hollywood hadn’t also marketed it as 100% TRUFAX, when actually it’s (as Mags of Austenblog likes to say) an almost totally Made Up Story. Grr.

In much, much happier news– BYU Football officially begins a week from Saturday. I’ve been haunting fanboards. I’ve been eagerly gobbling up practice reports. I attended the Women’s Football Clinic and the Big Blue Bash. I nearly kissed our season tickets. I’ve changed my cell ringtone to “Rise and Shout,” and I get giddy every time I hear it. I ADORE football.

Project: Shoulder Shawl in Cherry Leaf Pattern from Victorian Lace Today
Yarn: Handspun 1-ply 100% silk purchased on eBay from silkindian. Unsure how many yards were used.
Needles: Knitpicks Options size 7 and INOX DPNs size 6, size F Susan Bates crochet hook for picot edging

The shawl being blocked. I stretched the shawl dry on my newly-purchased lace blocking wires, then wet it down.

The full shawl, post-blocking.

Close up of the stitch pattern, knitted-on border, and picot edging. I had to re-learn how to crochet to do the picots.

As worn by the happy recipient– a month to the day after her wedding. We were waiting in line for our wristbands for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at the time.

I think she liked it. Now I have to make me one. . .

Anyway. I’m just going to post some random things that I’ve either been doing or thinking lately. ‘Cause my life has gotten rather boring lately.

I’m thoroughly sick of listening to KOSY 106.5 for 40 hours a week. They play the same dumb songs every day. And even when they play a song I like– a Carpenters song, or a few that I’ve got on my iPod– I’ve heard them all so much lately that I don’t even enjoy them any more. And why, why, do people remake stupid 60s songs? There are lots and lots of really good songs that came out of the 60s, but do people cover them? No! Instead we get “Groovy Kind of Love” and “On Broadway” and other such songs that weren’t that good to begin with, and certainly don’t improve with a modern cover. Just. . . stop, people. If you were taking these mediocre songs and making them better, I wouldn’t complain! But instead, you’re making them worse.

And if I never hear another Elton John or Rod Stewart song, it’d be too soon. Unfortunately, they play at least 3 a day. Hmph.

Vanilla Coke is back (well, it’s now “Coca-Cola Vanilla” and “Coke Zero Vanilla”, but it tastes the same). This is both wonderful and terrible news. Wonderful because I love Vanilla Coke. Terrible because I try not to drink caffeine, and I haven’t been drinking as much of it since Vanilla Coke was discontinued. Woe.

My nails and cuticles look terrible. I just bought some cuticle cream to try to whip them into shape. I don’t have much hope though– I’ve never been able to make them look anything but terrible. And my nails are so brittle. I guess I need more Vitamin E in my diet or something. Anyway, these horrible horrible cuticles have been catching on my knitting lately, so something must be done.

Speaking of knitting, I’ve been working on a silk shawl as a gift for Jen’s wedding (which was on Wednesday and which was beautiful and at which I cried and which I still haven’t recovered from, and all I did was serve cake for an hour and a half) and it’s turning out absolutely beautifully. Here’s a pic I took with my cellphone camera when I’d only done a few repeats. It’s much bigger now. I was trying to get it done for the wedding, but hurrying made me make stupid mistakes, which took more time to correct than just taking my time in the first place would have, so it didn’t get done. I am glad that I did the practice shawl (most of it, I still have to do the edging on two of the sides) beforehand, though, because if I hadn’t already had experience with the kinds of aggravating things that happen when knitting lace, I think I would have given up on it long ago. Anyway, I think I might be able to finish it by the time she gets back from her honeymoon, though. Or shortly thereafter.

Once I get that finished, I’ve got baby House sweaters for the niece and nephew to knit in time for the DH release, Lisa’s Hufflepuff scarf to finish in time for the OotP premiere, and then– I’ve got so many lovely projects on tap! For my birthday I requested gift certificates and/or money to spend on knitting things. So, in the past few weeks, I’ve bought lace blocking wires, 4 more sets of Knitpicks Options needle tips in the sizes I use most (6, 7, 8, and 9, if anyone was wondering) as well as another set of 24″ cables and a new set of 40″ ones (and it’s a good thing, too, because I certainly need the length for the shawl!), a set of wooden cable needles, and a magnetic chart keeper. And those are just my notions! I also bought the book No Sheep for You, which had good info on silk and also has a lot of cute patterns that I want to make. And yarn! I got three balls of this lovely, lovely DK-weight merino superwash wool that I can’t remember the name of to make an Irish Hiking Scarf (hence the cable needles– I haven’t done cables yet, and this is my project to learn), a ball of sock yarn to make my very first pair of socks with (haven’t decided what pattern to use on that yet), two skeins of a burgundy-colored laceweight merino wool to make Christmas-present shawls for my grandmothers (I’m planning on using the Shetland pattern from Victorian Lace Today for them), a cone of laceweight 100% silk yarn in Citron from Colourmart for a shawl for my mom (we haven’t decided on a specific pattern yet), and two cones of heavy-laceweight silver gray yarn from Colourmart for a Cap Shawl from VLT for me. And I still have two balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze that I bought in Laguna Beach that’s wanting to become a Victorian Ruby scarf from VLT. But I don’t know when I’ll actually get to that.

Luckily, I still have a lot of time to knit at work. Because I’m still trying to work on my thesis at home. Which is hard. And which I haven’t done much of. Next week, I shall buckle down. Yes, I will.

And who knew that when I decided to learn how to knit so I could make myself a Ravenclaw scarf, that it would turn into this? I certainly didn’t.

I still haven’t written up my trip to Laguna, or to New York. But I have uploaded my pictures to my Flickr account. Laguna is here and New York is here. Haven’t finished writing up descriptions for all of them, though. I think some of my “artsy-fartsy”-type landscape and scenery shots turned out rather well, even with my point-and-shoot digital. One of these days I’ll bring my SLR on a trip. I hardly ever have room for it. Not that I really know how to use it, anyway.

I really need to reserve my copy of Deathly Hallows. I’ve been putting it off because plans were still hazy, but there’s not much time left! Less than a month! EEK!!

I need to see Pirates 3 again. I’ve only seen it thrice! Not nearly enough.

The owner of my place of employment comes in rarely, but he never fails to make me feel like he thinks my IQ is significantly lower than it actually is, and that I’m doing everything wrong (when I’m not). One of the drawbacks of doing a job that’s below my skill level, I suppose.

Speaking of work, they’ve been asking me to create more and more specially-formatted documents lately. And all I have to work with is Word, which SUCKS when what you’re really doing is desktop publishing, not word processing (actually, it sucks for word processing, too, but that’s another rant). When my boss gets back (she and half the rest of the company are on vacation/at conferences this weekend), I might ask if they’d be willing to spring for something rather better– especially if they’re going to do that newsletter that they’ve been talking about since I was hired. I don’t suppose InDesign would be a viable option, but I might be able to talk them into Publisher. Which would be better than nothing.

The other day in a fit of boredom I read The Mysteries of Udolpho on Project Gutenberg. Now, I knew from past experience (and several classes discussing the Gothic Novel) that Ann Radcliffe’s brand of Gothic is more of the Scooby-do type (where everything that seems supernatural has a rational explanation), but her style of giving these explanations is maddening. At one point, the heroine, Emily (and as a nitpick– if the heroine were really in 16th-century France, as the novel purports, her name would have been spelled Emilie. Just sayin’), lifts a black veil covering what is supposedly a picture, and faints dead away. She then spends the rest of the book nearly fainting with horror over what she saw. But the reader doesn’t even get to know what it was that she thought she saw until almost the last page of the book, and then it’s explained in the same breath as what it was she actually saw. Which felt a lot like being conned rather than tricked. I didn’t get that feeling with The Romance of the Forest, though. So maybe it’s unique to Udolpho. Anyway, I’m glad I read it, as I now understand the references to it in Northanger Abbey that much better, but it’s a horrid book– and not in the sense Catherine uses it, either.

And “horrid” is a word that we Yanks don’t use much. Which is a shame, because it’s much more compact than “horrible.” I always think about this fact when listening to the Keane B-side “The Way You Want It,” because they use “horrid,” and it’s just another sign of their Britishness coming out. Which I love.

I’ve been helping my mom find and plant (we both do the finding, but I’ve been doing most of the planting– mom’s back has been bothering her. The doctors think she has a herniated disc, which stinks) perennials in our yard lately. It’s quite fun. Right now we’ve gotten mostly shrubs and ornamental grasses, but we’re hoping to plant some flower seeds in the fall. In the meantime, our strawberries ripened, and they were (and are, since we made jam and froze them) delicious. They were kinda dinky, but so much sweeter than the big ones you get in stores. Mmm. Now to plant some raspberry bushes. . .

My other BFF Nicole is in town for a family reunion and for Jen’s wedding, and tomorrow we’re going to go to Kneaders for lunch. I’m really, really looking forward to it. MMM, fresh roasted turkey on foccacia with Kneader’s sauce. And I’m saving my WW points so I can indulge in a mini Key Lime tart, too. Or maybe a mini strawberry tart. We shall have to see when we get there.

Speaking of points, I’ve re-lost about half of the weight I regained between all my vacations and starting work full-time (which at first meant eating out every day, although I’m getting better at that). Slowly but surely, the weight will come off! Although it’s leaning more towards slowly these days. I bought an incentive dress the other night, though. It’ll look great about 10 pounds from now. The new Kashi frozen entrees are absolutely delicious, are very filling, and a nice change of pace from Lean Cuisines (which I rather overdosed on, hence the eating-out-too-much phenomenon). Snacking on sugar snap peas is also a good thing. The new Hostess 100 Calorie chocolate cupcake packs are only 1 point per package (if you only eat one. If you eat two, then it’s 4 points for both :P), while the yellow cake ones are 2. Packs of mini Pringles are 3. I’ve been enjoying all of them in moderation lately.

It occurs to me that this post would be more effective when broken up over several days. I bet I’d get more comments that way.

Maybe that’ll give me the incentive I need to post more.