Tuesday, February 24, 2009

How much can one guy handle?


Sofie and Nelson decided they had to have daddy's lap, and Chanel wrapped her tail around his neck. How much pussy can one guy handle??

The applicances all work!

The washer/dryer came last week and we washed everything...it was so funny. Ray's like "how does it get anything clean" because there is no agitator. I wondered the same thing but it does. And to dry a load of towels in 30 minutes is pretty darn cool. I anticipate our PG&E bill will go down somewhat, and our water bill should too. It's been raining most of the time the past couple of weeks so the sprinklers are turned off, and that combined with a high efficiency washer should help.

And the stove was installed today...YAY!!! We will have to replace the counter top since the stove didn't quite fit and the tiles that were cut to make it fit don't look very pretty. But that can wait until either Ray gets this new job or until I'm working again. The ovens preheat in about 5 minutes and cook perfectly, so no preheating for 15 minutes only to have it be too hot and wait for the temp to go down...I was so over that old stove. I'm sure it was the original from when the house was built 20 years ago.

StitchesWest is this weekend - Liz and I are going on Friday. Can't wait!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Appliances and Interviews...

Our new stove arrived yesterday...I am so excited! We have to have someone come in and install it though. The current stove is a drop in model that is hard-wired, and the new one is a slide-in (or could be freestanding if we had the room) with a smooth cooktop and double oven. Right now it's sitting in the dining room and hopefully we'll be able to get someone out here early next week to do the installation.

And when it rains it falls...the washer is dead so we bought a new washer and dryer too. Those come on Friday and hopefully the same installer can do those at the same time. I decided I want to paint the laundry room a pretty color...maybe a sunny yellow that will compliment the new teal washer and dryer. These appliances are more efficient than what we own now so maybe we can get our electric and water bills down a bit.

And finally...I hate interviews. Today's interview is with a recruiter, so it will get my resume out there and hopefully some prospects.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

What we have to go through to get to our bed each night...

Debit Cards!

So I got to spend 3 days freaking out over why my debit card didn't work anymore...and learned through the process that bank employees are either inadequate, or are just not adequately informed.

On Sunday it worked fine, and on Monday after swiping it 3 times and the cashier swiping it and then manually entering the numbers it finally worked after they suspended the sale and took me to another register. They said they were going to call their tech support because they thought that terminal was broken.

On Tuesday it failed when I was doing the grocery shopping for the week, so I did an electronic check instead. When I got home, I had an email from the retailer for an online purchase that morning that had been declined, for a piddly $40. I spent 30 minutes on the phone (with someone probably in India pretending to know English) who tells me there is nothing wrong with the card, nothing wrong with the account, so please go try to use it again. Sigh.

It failed. At Starbucks. For $3. Excuse me?? So I drive over to Citibank and walk in and the teller looks at everything and tells me everything is fine. She asked me to make an ATM withdrawal to see if it would work at the ATM and it does. So she asks me to go to the grocery store across the way to test it. It worked fine! I think it's cured and what do you know...I head to the yarn store to get an Addi size 3 needle to finish the baby sweater I'm working on and the card fails. We're talking 10 minutes after it worked at the grocery store for a flat of water. Back to Citibank I go, this time sitting down with the manager. She tells me all this garbage about it maybe being a "network" issue where I'm shopping...excuse me but the people immediately before and after me in line don't have "network" issues. So she calls in and is told the same thing I was - there is no problem with the card or the account.

I head to the grocery store to do the major shopping...it fails. No way am I going to do this shopping for a third time, so the cashier suspended the sale while I called Citibank from the store and I told the guy I wouldn't hang up until he had the problem solved. FINALLY someone understood that there was a real problem here! He left me on hold for quite some time and came back to tell me there had been a fraud alert placed on my account and that someone should have called me days ago. He apologized for that call never being made, took the alert off the account, and stayed on the phone with me while the cashier recalled my sale and the card worked exactly the way it was supposed to.

Bank...thanks for the fraud alert, but please give me a head's up next time...and don't spend the federal bail out money on a luxury jet please.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Charity Knitting

I've started going to Thursday night charity knitting at Benicia Knitting Circle, something I've wanted to do on a regular basis for a long time but when I was working I'd have to come home first to feed Prada, and then I wouldn't want to go back out. So now we go together and it's so great! Last month we did hats for a homeless shelter in Fairfield, so I knitted one and contributed the Hat Attack hat that killed me. This month the recipient is Project Linus and while it's exciting to think of knitting up a cute blankie for a child in need, it's ominous considering how many things I've already got on needles. Can we say a baby blanket for Paula's baby coming in April, a sweater for me, and 3 (soon to be 4) pair of socks? And I want to do a baby sweater too...YIKES! Anyway, the lady who heads up the project here comes to the group too and will be collecting blankets year-round so I don't feel like I absolutely have to do one this month. I do see this as a great opportunity to use up some old Michaels stash that's been hanging around for a very long time because I don't like acrylic yarn. This might be just the way to make good use of it because the blankets have to be machine washable/dryable. So I guess I'll start a Linus blanket now ;-)

Monday, February 2, 2009

Z Stash

So today I am "officially" unemployed...TPL gave me the news on Jan. 8 and told me I could choose to work or not (I chose not) through 2/2, my official last day. So I am off the payroll at the end of today.

I took to organizing stash, and that is both good and bad. Good because it's like omg I don't even remember buying this as I find yarn still in the bag (with the receipt)...but bad because my brain goes into overload wanting to knit it all up like right now. I'm going to do 3 pair of socks this month for the February Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry...I can't decide which I like best so I'll just do all 3. HA! Anyway, I got my TOFUtsies stash photographed and up on Ravelry and into a spacebag and stored away. No more of my yarn is going to become a feast for a moth!

The physical therapy on the right wrist actually has triggered more soreness...maybe that's normal. Not sure - I'll ask Dan the PT guy tomorrow. When I go to pick up my final pay check :-(