Christmas, parts 1 and A

We travel during the holidays. Always. Being the childless couple, there's never been any question of whether or not we'd be traveling to our various families' homes for the holidays, only which one we go to first. For 23 years now.

Both my parents are gone now (just FYI, my father died New Years Day, 2000, and my mother died two days before 9/11, which was a very bad week for us). So every Christmas belongs to Rich's parents, who live in Denver. Yes, Denver did get some snow this year! That's actually a little unusual, since the snow usually falls in the mountains (duh), and the clouds have nothing left by the time they get to the city. But this time there was snow. And freezing packed snow. On the roads. I finally witnessed how one drives on icy roads. Swear to God, I had heard people talk about it, but they never said what you actually do differently. You slow down, for one thing. Way down. You also leave a boatload of room all around you. And so does everybody else. It's a cooperative system, and works well when everybody knows what to do. I drove myself to church on Christmas Eve, successfully, feeling like such a big girl!

Then we left for home. I-25 south was great, and everything was fine until we got to Wichita Falls. Or, actually, to about 20 miles north of Wichita Falls, where we started running into re-frozen packed snow in the underpasses. And when I say "re-frozen packed snow" I mean huge ruts, 6 or 8 inches tall, high enough to scrape the underside of the van. Brutal! Then they weren't just in the underpasses where the sun hadn't melted the snow, they were at random spots on the road. Then they were all over the road. Non-stop. And there were other drivers who scorned slowing down or leaving plenty of room. They went zooming by, slowing only when they slid off the road. We saw dozens of cars that had gotten stuck one way or another and been abandoned. I'm guessing the next warm day in Wichita Falls will involve a bunch of people looking for rides to their cars.

We finally, finally made it to the south side of town, where we asked about the road ahead. All bad. We checked into a cheap motel (where we both decided showers could wait 'til we got home the next day) (and, in fact, we both wanted to use hand sanitizer after touching the bathroom light switch) and waited 'til the sun came up to finish the trip. The fine workers of Wichita Falls had apparently been working all night, and the sun did its job, so the roads were fine the next day.

One night at home and we were off to see my family.

So we're in San Antonio right now, where icy roads are never an issue (thank you, Jebus!). I'll be going to a Spurs game with my sister tonight, we'll open Christmas presents tomorrow night, and there's be lots of games and good food!

I feel bad about leaving the cats again so soon. Not the dog, because our pet sitter is so good, the dog doesn't even miss us. The cats are a little more standoffish towards her (and her significant other, who also moves in when she pet sits, and I'm grateful there are two of them there), so they get a little lonelier. However, since I never intend to leave home ever again after this marathon travel adventure, they won't have to go through it again.

Yes, I know how long it's been

Anyway....

I think the back of my neck is aging faster than the rest of me. Not because the skin is crepier (that's crepey-er, looking more like crepe) than everywhere else, though I wouldn't be surprised if it were (I really haven't looked lately). But because it's always cold. I have to wear high collars all the time, now that the weather's gotten cooler, at least while I'm at home. When I go out and have on a jacket, I'm fine. But sitting around the house, the back of my neck will be freezing, even if the rest of me is comfortable.

It's true that it might be because we keep the temperature pretty low. The thermostat is set at 68°F, partly because we're trying to use less energy to offset the summer when, dadgummit, we're not going to be burning up all the time so just go ahead and crank up the AC ahh that's better. We're also both pretty hot-natured and tolerate cold well. Except, lately, the back of my neck.

Why do you suppose this kind of thing happens? I can understand why one's knees might cause problems, or teeth might start to hurt, or even if your skin became impossibly dry as you age. And I might think it's hormonal except that ship sailed long ago and, anyway…just the back of my neck?

I guess there's not really much to do about it except wait for it to change. (That's one thing I've learned about aging: It's going to change.) Maybe I'll knit an around-the-house neck warmer, or grow out my hair. It is curious, though.

Sometimes you just have to live with the puzzlement.

Stars make a happy birthday!

It's my birthday (why, thank you), and the fabulous Rich took me (or agreed to go with me, which is pretty much the same thing) to the Dallas Stars' practice and scrimmage this morning. The practices and scrimmages are open to the public all week (maybe all the time, I don't really know), and there are lots of fans showing up. After all, [ahem] it's been a long summer for us.

In any case, thank you Richie! It was lots and lots of fun!

Shingles and nothing to do with a roof

Don't feel like blogging. Have shingles. Ouch. (There won't be any photos with this post. Really.)

My sister has them, too. We've neither one of us had them before, and we were together last weekend. Shingles are impossible to 'catch,' so it's just a bizarre coincidence, but still very, very odd. And...ouch.

Actually I've revived the 'oooph' noise. After my mastectomy, in preparation for breast reconstruction, once a week my plastic surgeon injected saline into my tissue expander. It wasn't excruciating or anything, but it was uncomfortable, and I usually spent the rest of the day exclaiming the occasional involuntary, "Oooph." That pretty well said it all, and it's apparently back.

I don't have a bad case of shingles, but it's bad enough and painful enough to make me feel very, very sorry for people who do have a bad case.

Oooph.

Bananas

Net-Not (or Not-Net; I still haven't decided) was fun this morning. Somehow we started talking about bananas. It turns out that everybody has their own idea of when a banana is perfect for eating, and everybody's idea is different.

Dorothy thinks they should kind of crunch when you bite them. Barry and Linda both like them a little riper than that, but still with a nice overall green tinge to them. I like them when they're all yellow, with lots of speckles (which means, people, that they're going to be sweet; those speckles are caused by sugar, for Pete's sake!). Barry throws them away when they get speckled. Linda recalled that her grandmother ate them peels and all!

In a group that tends to discuss current events, the state of the economy, and other grown-up topics, it was a nice, ever-so-slightly goofy topic.

Next week they're going to report on the five foods they just won't eat.

Best idea ever

Okay, maybe not ever, but still really, really good.

Rich and I somehow end up with a ton of those canvas totes, from various conventions and business connections. And, of course, I have all kinds of little dribs and drabs of fabric lying around. I can't wait to try it!

From Betz White, tweeted by @craft: Tote Tricks

Too good not to share

Rich and I were driving along today and noticed a bumper sticker. He investigated and found the website:

As a survivor, I wholeheartedly agree and approve!

At least it's not Elvis

I'm not someone who tends to notice the Virgin Mary on a tortilla or Michael Jackson's face in the bark of a tree, but I really couldn't miss this.



I heart Lays!

Bad Jokes

I'm not sure how smart it is but, really, I can't deny who I am. I just redesigned my business website and included a Bad Joke of the day. I have enough of them gathered to last through the end of December. (Yes, really.)



I don't know what I'm going to do then. Maybe I should change it to Bad Joke of the week, in which case I have enough for the next two years.

That does just say volumes about me, doesn't it?

Random Wednesday-ness

1. I had an idea of a really good topic to blog about. I should write those down, huh?

2. I have a ton of things to do today. I've had a ton of things to do for a long time. I mentioned to Rich, then mentioned to the Net-Not (or Not-Net; I haven't decided yet) people that I mentioned to Rich, that I lie in bed each morning and think, "Okay, today I'm going to...," and list three or four things. Then the next morning I lie in bed and think, "Okay, today I'm going to...," and the things I list are the exact same things as the day before! How does that happen? I'm busy all day long! How does that happen?!? Even odder, I guess, is the fact that each one of all those people I mentioned it to said they do the very same thing. How does that happen?!?

3. I want to go to a Rangers game. Nothing will ever be better than Stars hockey *, of course, but the Rangers game I went to courtesy of Shea & McMurdie was pretty dadgum fun. So I want to go back, with knitting (which is in itself a great tradition, FYI), and sit in the grandstand on the first base line. With someone who knows something about baseball and can answer all my questions. Anybody want to join me?

4. Speaking of that Rangers game, I was reminded at a couple of points that evening that some of the most exciting words in the language are, "Enjoy the game."

5. I have a hard time following knitting charts. I already knew that, and knew that I prefer text instructions. So when I started Irene's scarf (here, if you're a member of Ravelry; here if you're not), which I'm planning for the center of Holly's afghan, I knew I needed to use the text. I really didn't realize, though, that I would have to have every single stitch spelled out on every single row, or I'd be making mistakes left and right. The way Mélusine, the pattern's creator, has it written one has to have a much longer attention span that I do to make it work. Again, that's why I don't make lace. I get distracted way too...hey, look at that over there...

Dog treats

I've had a couple of people ask about my homemade dog treats. [Pause, while you wonder why I make homemade dog treats.] I make them because we've had some elderly dogs with health issues, and if you look at the labels of most treats, they have warnings that say not to give more than one or two a day. That's not just because the dogs may gain weight. It's also because the treats sometimes have unpronounceable ingredients (hydrodioxyfluorominicinate or some such), and dogs can react badly to them. I started investigating when the elderly dogs began appearing to have problems when they got too many treats (though it may have been unrelated) and discovered that it's really, really easy to make your own. It's also considerably less expensive. So why not?

And they are — believe me — absolute doggy crack. As in don't even think you'll only give them one. My pool guy says his dog stands staring at the plastic bag until he relents and gives him more. Seriously. Crack.

Here's the recipe:

Dog treats

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup brewer's yeast
1/4 cup non-fat dry milk
1/4 cup wheat germ (or wheat bran or a little extra flour; this part is optional)
1 tsp salt

1-1/2 tbsp olive oil (that's 1 tbsp + 1-1/2 tsp, if you don't have a half tablespoon measure)
1 jar baby food chicken (optional)
1/2 cup chicken broth

3 tbsp chicken broth for basting

Preheat oven to 350°. Whisk together dry ingredients to combine. Add oil, baby food and 1/2 cup broth; mix thoroughly.

Method #1: Roll out on floured surface to desired thickness (I usually go for about 1/8", but suit yourself). Cut into treat-size. I use a pizza cutter to make little strips, but if you've got a cool bone shape cookie cutter, you can use that. Place on ungreased baking sheet.

Method #2: Cut parchment paper to fit a baking sheet. Roll out the dough onto the parchment, sprinkling the top with flour to keep your rolling pin from sticking. Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into strips. Slip the whole thing, parchment paper and all, onto the baking sheet. If you've got the parchment paper (which you can wash and reuse), this method is much easier!

Bake for 10 minutes. Baste all pieces with the 3 tbsp chicken broth. Bake for another 10 minutes, then turn oven off and leave biscuits in the oven overnight, or for about 8 hours. They'll become nice and crunchy hard. Store in airtight container at room temperature.

You can use whatever kind of meat you like for these; I make them with chicken because I usually have chicken broth on hand. Be careful, though, to avoid any kind of broth with onion or too much garlic, since they can be dangerous for dogs.

The hardest part about making them is remembering to do it at night so they can dry out. Try it! You, too, can turn your dog into an addict!

Don't...

If you're a speaker, and you're addressing an audience someplace with a well defined regional identity like, oh, California or NYC or Texas, please, I beg of you, think before you speak. Interjecting snippets of the stereotypical understanding you have of the area is not the best idea in the world.

Surely you're savvy enough to know that if you fly into DFW and start using "Howdy" or "y'all," (with verbal or — God forbid — air quotes around them) no one will find it amusing except you. The same thing applies when you're speaking in front of an audience.

If you give a presentation to a group of California business people, maybe you might be tempted to have a slide referring to Valley girls or make a little joke about the Governator. It's novel. Different. Noteworthy, and worth a mention. To...you. Not to the people who live and work there and who — trust me — know the stereotypes. And either buy into them or don't, resent them or don't, are completely freakin' sick and tired of them or...no, they're tired of them. So don't.

Just...don't.

One more time

Okay, every day for a week. Done!

Except...see you tomorrow morning.

Bad jokes

One of my nephews was at camp a few weeks ago, and his mom contacted some people and asked us to email him while he was there. The camp prints out emails and gives them to the campers at mail call. Since I didn't really have all that much to chat about, at least that he would have cared about, I sent him riddles and one liners all week. Yes, I had a whole week's worth. Plus some.

Here's a sample.

On Tuesday:

• How do you kill a circus?
• Go for the juggler! [that's one of my favorites]

• What does the Gingerbread Boy have on his bed?
• Cookie sheets.

• What do you get when you cross a skunk with a teddy bear?
• Winnie the PEEYEW!

On Wednesday:

• Did you hear about the red ship that collided with the blue ship?
• The sailors were marooned!

• Why did Bill take a fig to the movies?
• Because he couldn't find a date!

• What would happen if Satan lost his hair?
• There would be hell toupee!

On Thursday:

• What do you get if you cross a turtle with a porcupine?
• A slowpoke!

• What do you get if you cross an electric eel with a sponge?
• A shock absorber!

• What did the hat say to the scarf?
• You hang around while I go on ahead.

On Friday:

• Why do blonde nurses carry a red Magic Marker?
• In case they have to draw blood!

• What do you get when you cross a kangaroo and a snake?
• A jump rope!

• If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?
• Pilgrims!

On Saturday:

• Which Knight Invented the round Table?
• Circumference!

• Which Knight makes pottery?
• Ceramic!

• Two thousand pounds of hair fell off a truck today and blocked the road. State Police are still combing the area.

You know, I really ought to know more ten-year-olds.

SNB Annex

Thanks to Edee, of my wonderful Stitch and Bitch group. She invited us all over to her house just because her daughter, son-in-law and their kids, with whom Edee lives, were out of town. We took snacky things and our various crafts and hung out this afternoon. It was so much fun! It helps, too, that the household has four cats and three dogs, and all us SNBers appear to be animal lovers. At least we petted as much as we knitted and spun (though probably not as much as we snacked).

Oh! One of the other women in the group has a son who's an actor. He's currently on The Young and the Restless — Michael Muhney. Cool, huh?

Back to work tomorrow.

Torchwood...so much Torchwood....

Rich and I watched the first episode of the Torchwood mini-series "Children of Earth" last night, then tonight watched the second one. Then, what the heck, we watched the third. And the fourth, and by that time it would have been silly to stop, so we watched the fifth and last one. They were each 75 minutes long, so we watched five hours of Torchwood tonight. (Except that the last episode was actually about 35 minutes long, with 40 minutes of commercials. Seriously.)


It was obviously engaging and very entertaining. We were surprised by the ending, though. I didn't realize the series wasn't coming back, which is apparently a real possibility. They also left some loose ends (that woman Minister, the one who insisted they keep their own children safe and get rid of the "socially undesirable" children, really needs to be spattered all over something, not made Prime Minister). I'll have to keep an eye on the BBC website.

In the meantime, the Dr. Who special is on tomorrow night! (Geek. Yes. Pretty much a hundred percent.)

Friday!

Okay, so today I set up a blog for my business. No funny or frivolous stuff on that one, I guess. (Bummer.) But maybe it'll be a little bit informative. And even promote some, you know, business or something. It's at http://originalproduction.blogspot.com/.

Like I said on that blog, I just listened to Jeff Crilley speak at Leads. It was really good! I don't know why, but it was better than the other times I've heard him talk. (No offense, Jeff. You weren't bad before, this time was just more informative.) We had a pretty good crowd, at least for that Leads group. And now I'm DONE for the day. For the week! Okay, I have some stuff I have to do at my desk, but no more appointments, no more obligations. Nice.

So I think I'll go run some errands, maybe look at shoes or something (it doesn't happen often, but sometimes I'm such a girl), then finish out the work week at my desk, slippers on and adult beverage in hand. (Ah! The joys of a home office!)

Happy Friday, everybody!

Thursday

The notice about Global Group and the video of Donnie that was here has moved to my business blog.

Let's see...Thursday, not business.... Well, I won a $25 gift card at the Chamber Luncheon, courtesy of Michael A. Bogdan, M.D., aesthetic plastic surgery. And made a variation of Alton Brown's Chicken Pot Pie for dinner. And, um...snuggled with the dog.



(Yeah, it's a blurry photo. I'll get around to taking a good one sometime.)

And petted the cats.



These are Biddy and Rocky. There's also a Siamese mix named Izzy who doesn't sleep on our bed during the day.

And that was my Thursday. (Hey, I said I'd blog. I never said anything about interesting.)

It's a new day

So where were we?

Sorry, again, for the long silence; I've had some technical difficulties these last few weeks. My little Dell Inspiron 910 (cutest little computer you've ever seen) was acting crazy and it took a while to get a handle on things. Not that you care, but I ended up having to repartition the hard drive and reinstall the operating system, and doing repair work on Linux is not exactly intuitive for someone who's used Macs for twenty years. But we learn and move on. Having problems with my little Linux machine tends to bollux up my blogging, because I meet some people at Central Market in Southlake every Wednesday morning for breakfast. After they leave, I get out the little netbook and blog. That's the time I have set aside for it and when the netbook isn't cooperating, it gums up the works.

But anyway...since we last spoke, we lost a cat (very hard), had a yard sale (very hot), and Rich went to Denver for a week (very...okay, I can't think of an "h" word that makes sense). I finished one helmet liner and continue working on another. I went to a Rangers game (really fun!) courtesy of Shea & McMurdie, clients and networking friends (Hi, Scott) who were nice enough to include us in their client appreciation night. BTW, the Odyssey OneSource suite at The Ballpark is beautiful!

I'm seriously trying to get back in the swing of business things. It was kind of hard for a while after we found out Rich was being laid off, hard to promote business or network with any kind of enthusiasm. In the back of my mind I kept thinking, "We may be living halfway around the world in six months. Why bother?" But I think I've gotten over it, and I'm getting back up to speed. So, in keeping with that, I'm going to blog more often for a while. Maybe...every day for a week. Promise. Then, you know, we'll see after that.

But for now, I have to get over to the Global Group in Fort Worth for a thing at 10am. Then back to work. See you tomorrow

New landscaping (and a tiny John Deere)

So last Saturday, Metro Greenery brought the whole crew out and installed our new 'feature,' as well as two pallets of sod. Jackie Simpson, the owner, was extremely helpful in keeping the cost down while still improving our curb appeal. If you compare these photos to the ones after the storm, you'll see what a big improvement it is!

We decided we really have to have one more pallet of sod. It'll come next week.

And the new plants and grass mean that we have to water. And water. Twice a day for a few weeks, which just kills me, but not as much as paying for all this then letting it die. So we water. We have a sprinkler irrigation system that we haven't used, literally, since we bought the house in 1996. Surprise! It doesn't work!

Metro Greenery didn't have time to investigate, so I got in touch with Aaron Weldon of Well Done Landscaping (which I think is such a great name). I know him from a networking group. He came out himself, then brought his expert by, and they both declared our system to be beyond rescue. I had explained our situation (Rich got laid off, fixing up the house in case we have to sell, can't spend too much) and reiterated that we just couldn't afford to have a new system installed. Aaron suggested we get a traveling sprinkler as our best low-cost solution. I had never even heard of them before, but he explained that you lay out the hose in the area you want watered, and this sprinkler follows it, watering as it goes. Aaron not only pointed us toward the solution we needed, he also very graciously didn't charge anything to come out — twice. Very nice guy, and if we end up staying in this house (I hope!), we'll definitely be calling him to install a new system. Thanks again, Aaron!

So anyway, we got the sprinkler. Lowe's carries the John Deere brand version of it. So we have a tiny little John Deere, and it's the gosh darn cutest thing you've ever seen!

I still have to go out and deal with it (laying out the hose) twice a day for a while, but it's much easier (and the sprinkler is nice and low, i.e., more efficient) than a regular sprinkler. And, really, it's so cute!

The kind of thing old married people laugh at

Rich had a stress test this afternoon (his results were great, thanks for asking), and he had to fill out all the usual forms at the doctor's office. Along with other questions about medical history and conditions, there was a question about oral contraceptives. We speculated whether or not "oral contraceptives" would include him saying something so annoying to me that he got himself cut off.

We found that pretty funny.

A new yard tomorrow

We're having some more landscaping done (that's in addition to the azaleas and podocarpus we had put in a few months ago). Metro Greenery will be installing some sod and a "feature" in our barren wasteland of a front yard. I wonder if they'll pick up all the branches, too....

I guess the debris in the pool is still up to me, though. I'm betting that the temperature today, and not having an influx of cold rainwater, will warm up the water enough so that I can get in and fish out all the branches. Maybe with Seabreeze in hand. That'll move the process along. (Can you tell I'm ready for the weekend?)

We had a little wind and rain

Our front yard

Down the street

By Sprouts

Now their wi-fi connection isn't working...

...So I couldn't blog at Central Market at all! (And you'll notice I finally got rid of the "I Have..." title thing. Oh well.)

So I'm back in my office, trying to keep from being too bummed. Rich hasn't been out of work for long (he's actually still officially on the payroll for another three weeks), but is quickly sinking into...something. Not depression, exactly, because he seems pretty much okay. A little stressed, but not too bad. But I'm having to persuade him to shower, which is not good. And AmEx sent me an email saying they've lowered the credit limit on my business card, and I don't know why. Not that I need it to be really high, usually, but that's probably just an indication of my credit, and that also isn't good. Everything we talked about at Not-Net-Net this morning was depressing. Debbie's father's Alzheimer's. Property taxes and mortgages, and how the inflated home values in Tarrant County probably won't come back down to real-life levels for a couple of years. Losing business, the depressed real estate market. How it sucks being an adult.

So now I'm working on being determined and moving forward instead of deciding that it's five o'clock somewhere and Happy Hour is starting now.

I'll let you know how that goes.

I have a little Ubuntu and a big afghan

Well, this Wednesday's post is even later than usual. I have early Wednesday mornings set aside for blogging (in a time slot that used to be a networking group but is now only a social get-together-for-breakfast-if-anybody-shows-up thing), and I take my little Dell 9" Inspiron to Central Market Cafe to do it. But in one of the endless, relentless stream of updates for Ubuntu (look it up), I think I wasn't paying attention and something got messed up. My Gnome menu bar was gone, and when I managed to get it back, selecting "Quit" to restart the machine made it disappear again. So I'm wrestling with it now. I'm sure I'll get it running again, but who knows how long it'll take. And what it'll do to my blood pressure in the meantime.

So anyway...I'm spending most of my knitting time lately on Holly's afghan. Holly is my sister's husband's brother's wife. My sister-in-law-in-law. A while back she decided to learn to knit by making an afghan. Note: Your very first knitting project should probably be something like, oh, a scarf. Not only flat and easy to handle, but small. Do-able in some reasonable amount of time. Unlike an afghan, which is acres and acres, and takes for freakin' ever to finish. Holly bought the yarn and got advice on a simple pattern from the fine people at the Yarn Barn in San Antonio. She worked stalwartly and finished about a foot (that's a lot on an afghan). Unfortunately, though, there were some problems and rather than being basically rectangular shaped it was, at best, a parallelogram. Bordering on "L" shaped. So she took it back to the Yarn Barn, they frogged it for her with their ball winder, and gave her a different simple pattern. She worked on that for a while, then realized she was sick of the whole thing.

Enter yours truly. We went to S.A. for a visit, and she said she had some yarn for me. She was giving up on the afghan, and asked if I wanted the yarn. Cool; sure. I went to pick it up and her husband (my brother-in-law-in-law) said, "You're just giving her the yarn? I thought you were going to get her to knit it for us." Ah-ha. I might have said no, but at that point Holly was starting the testing in preparation for a lung transplant. Seriously, how can you deny someone facing a lung transplant their own fuzzy warm afghan?

So I'm knitting an afghan. And knitting. And knitting. And knitting. It's a simple basketweave pattern, 20 stitches wide. It doesn't take much thought so it's easy to work on while I'm watching TV. It's very large, though, so progress is sloooow. I've set a quota of five rows a day, which will allow me to complete a row of squares in about five days, so the whole thing should only take...about two months.

A scarf. Seriously, start with a scarf.

I have to allow more time!

Really, I have to start allowing more time for blogging. Net-Net isn't quite as dead as I thought, so when I show up at Central Market on Wednesday mornings there are actually people there to talk to and interact with. So I end up not starting writing until later than I've planned.

So today we're in the middle of an eventful week. On Friday, the Southlake Chamber morning Leads group will have its first guest speaker (arranged by yours truly). Charles Brown (www.dynamic-copyrwriting.net) will talk to us about using social networking sites for business. As a big FaceBook/Twitter fan, I'm looking forward to it. I also hope it goes well because this is our first guest speaker, and my co-facilitator and I have a bunch more arranged. If this event is a dud, it's going to be tough to convince people to speak at future ones. So I'll be a little tense 'til it's over and people are standing and cheering. Or at least looking pleased and well informed.

And the Chamber directory is finally, finally, FINALLY going to print on Friday, or that's the plan. There have been so many delays, I'm not going to count those chickens until they're walking around making peeping noises.

And most significantly of all, Rich's last day in the office is this week. Or the last day he can go into the office. After Thursday, he'll have to be escorted through the building like anybody else off the street. Though he and all his employees are still on the payroll for another month, he goes to the office tomorrow to be processed out. And starting Friday morning, he won't have anyplace he needs to go. So far he's been pretty positive about the whole thing. I know he'll find something else; I just hope he doesn't get discouraged by the search.

We're planning to go see the new Star Trek movie on Friday. That'll be a good finish to a pretty intense week. Wish us luck!

I have to say...

... that things do or do not work out, and that's just the way it goes. Sometimes the time you have set aside for blogging turns out to be really productive and you get lots written. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes other people actually show up to the networking meetings you're ostensibly attending, and you spend the time talking to them instead.

This would be an example of the latter.

Oh! I have one thing worth mentioning — I finished knitting my onion-and-garlic bag. I decided I really don't like the design of it, though, so I think I'll make another one with some modifications. And, frankly, the worsted weight cotton blend yarn makes it look a little like macrame, which I'm not crazy about. So I'm going to try it on bigger needles to see if that helps.

And I promised photos of our extreme homemade pizza a week and a half ago! More later about that, but here's what the pepperoni pizza looked like:

Homemade crust, homemade sauce, homemade pepperoni, homemade mozzerella. We'll be doing it again this Saturday, since Rich gets back from Helsinki this afternoon. I can't wait (both for him to get home and to try the pizza again)!

I have my reasons....

Now, then. Where was I?

Okay, so things have happened since we last spoke. Rich got word that his work group at Nokia Siemens Networks is being shut down in June, one of our dogs died, my sister is being forced to retire and her cat died, and my beloved Stars didn't make it into the Stanley Cup playoffs. I've been busy.

The most pressing thing –- well, of the ones that require action on our part -– is Rich losing his job. (Hard to have more impact than the dog dying, but there's nothing left to do about that.) Fortunately we were more or less prepared for at, at least financially. When we sold our house in San Antonio we put a chunk of money in a CD for this very situation. And he'll also get a generous separation package from NSN. So we don't have to worry about how we're going to pay the bills this week, thank goodness. What we're not prepared for is moving.

It's not the idea of relocating that's the problem. We're both fairly open to living somewhere else. But the fact is that home maintenance is lower on both our lists than it should be. Way lower. Way lower. We both almost always have better things to do than cleaning and repairs, and we tend to put them off until not doing them is no longer an option. (The last two fence repairs that Rich has done have involved replacing sections that were actually falling down.) And now is when we pay the price for that. There are tons of things that need doing around the house, and we may or may not have much time to get them done before we have to put it on the market.

So we're certainly hoping we can stay in the Metroplex, but we don't really know where we'll end up. And having to start over again with my business is a whole other story.

On a more positive note, I finished the Stars mittens!

Of course, if we end up moving, it's going to be expensive to fly back for games so I can wear them....

I have to stop this!

Not the blog, the title. When I started this, I happened to give the first couple of posts titles that began with, "I Have...," and I thought I'd continue it. The TV show Friends did that. If you recall, their episode titles were all, "The One...." "The One With the Ring," "The One Where No One's Ready," and like that. Since I started out, "I Have...," I thought I'd keep it going. But it's hard. And kind of stupid. So maybe not — stay tuned to find out.

Anyway...I'll try to post something of substance later, but for right now I wanted to mention these great ties I happened to come across. Yes, really, ties! The company is Sine Die. Do you live in Texas? If not, you might not be so impressed, or get the 'in' jokes, but their ties are pretty anyway. If you are from Texas, you'll love it. Be sure to read the 'About Us,' as well as browsing the subtle and very cool tie designs.

More later, hopefully with knitting photos. Stitch and Bitch is tonight!

I have a problem with (most of) the Stars

This should have been dated 2/28/09, last Saturday. If you're not a hockey fan, you can skip this post — you won't care.

I'm a Dallas Stars fan. Saturday night my boy, Steve Ott, got the stuffing beat out of him by Travis Moen of the Anaheim Ducks. At the game's final buzzer, the Anaheim netminder, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, grabbed Ott, got him in a headlock and took his helmet off. Giguere let him go and a whole flock of Ducks descended on Ott. It ended up being Moen who latched on and kept punching him in the head (the reason the helmet had to be removed). This is all fairly standard hockey stuff, except that Ott badly broke his hand last fall and can't fight; everyone in the league knows this. From what I've read, Anaheim fans are pretty proud of Moen whomping up on someone who couldn't fight back. But, really, that's not my point. (And to be fair, when Moen finally tripped and fell to the ice, Ott did a WWF body slam on him and inflicted what damage he could. I'm not claiming he's an innocent bystander.)

My point here is that Ott's team mates were nowhere to be found. No one helped him. That is not standard hockey stuff. This is a serious team sport; that's a very big part of why there are fights in the first place. When hits are a little too hard, or when a valuable team member is targeted too often, the 'enforcers' on the team start to hold their opponents accountable. Except not the Stars, not Saturday night. No one came to help.

I'm so disappointed in the whole team! (And I'm not the only one.) I keep trying to figure out why on earth it happened. Ott's been important to the team this season — why would the rest of the team just ignore a beat down? This is coloring our whole attitude towards the Stars. It's season ticket renewal time, and my husband and I are actually having serious second thoughts.

We'll see how that works out. Maybe we'll get past it. Ott played last night; assuming he doesn't start looking to be traded, maybe the bewilderment and disgust will fade. In any case, here's what I have to say:

Dear Remaining Stars,

There is no 'I' in 'team.' Apparently there's also no 'you.'

Signed,
A Steve Ott fan

I have no idea!

Okay, so I'm cruising along, barely keeping up with work, scrambling with housework, but thinking I'm doing okay, then I realize I haven't posted anything here in, like, a year and a half. [sigh] I really didn't realize!

The cousins' visit was fine. They seemed to have a good time. Their bedroom and bathroom were clean, which was all I promised! I did discover a (literal) chink in the new shower door's caulking when I cleaned it prior to their arrival. There was a gap in the bottom caulking, and after running the shower for a minute, we had a little fountain over the edge of the tub. It was up against the wall beside the toilet, in the same place that, a couple of years ago, a leaky fill line sent water under the wall into my office. For days. Maybe weeks. Until I stepped in exactly the right spot and felt the squish.

There was water inside the closet, too. It was not fun.

Fortunately, this time I heard the water running and saw the leak before it spread. It was too late to do anything about it before the cousins got here, but after they left and it dried out, I caulked the heck out of it. As you can see above, I've had all I need of ripping out moldy carpet and soggy padding.

So the only water problem I have to deal with is in the pool, which is empty right now. We had a chemical imbalance that couldn't be fixed, so yesterday we drained the pool (all 20,000 gallons) and today we're refilling. And in a few weeks, we'll be paying the water bill. And paying and paying and paying. An empty pool is kind of cool-looking, though!

I have company coming!

OMG! The cousins will be here this Thursday, and there's still a ton to do!

Last night was good. The mittens are charted and well started, and the Stars won over Vancouver (woo-hoo!!).

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! I mentioned to my husband a few weeks ago that I thought it would be sooo great to get a romantic text message on Valentine's Day. He said, "Yeah, but who would send it to you?" What a card.

I'm off to the guest room!

I have some good contacts.

This has been a really good week, networking-wise.

The 'Original' in the blog name refers to my business, Original Production. I'm diving back into serious networking, after being out of commission most of December and a big chunk of January (travel, and a nasty bug it took freakin' forever to get over). Believe me, in a small business that depends on referrals there's nothing like not being around for a while to bring things to a screeching halt. So I'm getting it geared back up, as quick as I can.

I met a fellow copywriter at Net-Ed yesterday (first time that's ever happened), and I'm looking to sign him on as a contractor. I visited the Business Success Group on Monday and met a woman who does websites. It looks like she and I are going to work on some interesting things together, too. She has an idea for a video blog that I'm really excited about being involved in. And I met with an existing client who not only gave me a good-sized check but also more work! So things are looking up on the OP front.

And in the Knot arena (that part of the blog name refers to my knitting habit), after frogging my Stars mittens approximately two hundred times (okay, maybe seven or eight), I put them aside and set out to find a way to actually do intarsia in the round, instead of trying, yet again, to just figure something out. When I first started investigating I was surprised at how many experienced knitters simply said it can't be done. I'm here to tell you otherwise. In fact, I learned two different techniques (this and this), and either will work very well for these mittens. I'm going to work on the chart tonight, and maybe start on them (again).

And speaking of the Stars, they're playing tonight but we won't be at the game. We went Wednesday, and in fact have tickets to four games in February (and may be buying more). There are two games next week we're looking at...maybe the mittens will be done by then.

And I just realized that I didn't mention the Stars in the name of this blog! I should fix that. There's no doubt I'll be talking about them here. Often. And enthusiastically.

Anyway, so tonight it's snuggling in with interesting knitting, pasta with parma rosa sauce and keeping up with the game via Twitter. My kind of evening!

I have a shower door!

My early-rising DH, bless him, had the shower door installed by the time I woke up this morning. Now I have to finish the walls (and the closet clean out and the carpet cleaning and...), which means deciding for sure what fabric I want to use. And figuring out how to use fabric as a wall treatment in a room that's guaranteed to be humid. (Most of the how-to instructions say to use liquid starch and just slap it up, but point out that it doesn't stand up to much moisture. How does one deal with that in a bathroom?)

I'll have to hit Joann Fabric and make the fabric decision, I guess. For a long time I had thought I'd use cheesecloth, which has the texture I'd like. But I'd definitely have to paint over it. That might work, with the paint helping to hold the fabric up. But it might also just make a huge mess. What to do, what to do...? That's one very fine thing about the starch technique, though. It's so easy to remove the fabric that I can put one up, change my mind and take it down and put another up without a lot of fuss.

Anyway, that's on the docket for today. So is making progress on the stash/guest room closet. And I'm going to be doing some test knitting on intarsia in-the-round, trying to make progress on my Stars mittens. And I swear I'm going to upload the photos from my camera and get my "Projects" page on Ravelry updated. Really, I am!

I have a lot to do today.

We're getting ready to have company. I've long maintained that having guests is a very good thing -- otherwise the soap dishes would never get cleaned.

Lately, though, DH and I have both been stuck in an unfinished project cycle. Besides the normal chaos in our house and yard, we've both started some fairly major projects that got bogged down, and we...uh...put them on the back burner. Let them simmer, so to speak. Okay, we got tired of them. All the UFP (unfinished projects, as opposed to the knitter's UFO [objects]) would be only minor deals if it were our usual guests coming to visit. My immediate family comes to visit fairly regularly, and they're pretty gracious about the clutter. But the company that's coming this month is some cousins who might prefer to not have power tools in the guest bathroom.

So we're hustling to get a few things finished. Installing the shower door in the guest bathroom (hence the power tools), cleaning our the guest room closet (aka my knitting stash), fixing up Popeye's pen (that's another post altogether). And, of course, work and business do go on, meaning Rich goes to work and I have to act with some modicum of responsibility towards my customers and contractors.

So right now is the leading edge of a day that had better be busy.

I have better things to do.

I had to clean the bathroom mirrors. Clorox® Disinfecting Wipes claim to be low-streak, so you can use them on mirrors. Nope. What started as one little soapy splash ended with my having to clean the whole mirror.

If that sounds too impossibly whiny, let me mention that the two mirrors in our master bathroom measure four feet tall and a total of nearly fourteen feet wide. It's a project. (But, on the plus side, I always know what the back of my hair looks like. If you can consider that a plus.)

I have something to say. I think.

Hello, everybody!