So, I'm sitting at work yesterday, getting ready to go to lunch, when my phone rings. Pick it up with my usual greeting, and a voice on the other end says "Are you really supposed to use your right hand?" Huh? Who is this person and what is she talking about? I reply with a yes, constantly trying to figure out who this person is. Somehow I came to the conclusion that she was talking about knitting, but the only people I have talked about knitting to were in the office and this was an outside call. Sensing my hesitation over the phone, the mysterious caller finally said "This is Kimberly by the way". Wow! Could it really be Kimberly calling all the way from Belgium?!?! What a surprise! I had mentioned in a comment on her blog that it was hard for me to teach myself to knit because I was having to hold my yarn in my right hand, where I was so used to holding it in my left for crochet. She decided that a response was needed over the phone. lol. It really was great to talk to you Kimberly! And don't worry - I don't think you're stalking me.
We had a really nice conversation and a couple of suggestions for each other. I tried holding my yarn in my left hand last night, and just wasn't able to make it work. Kimberly thinks there is a conventional way and an american way to knit, so I'm going to go to my local knitting shop and ask about that. See what I can find out about what I'm doing wrong and what she may be doing wrong. I need to go there anyways to pick up some wool. I think the ladies there will be happy that I'm finally learning to knit. They've kind of looked down on me because I crochet. BUT, it's the only place in town that I can get some good wool.
Speaking of wool - I'm seriously thinking of participating in the 2006 Knitting Olympics challenge. I've decided that I'm going to knit myself a bag to felt with the wool I get for the "Winter Wool Swap" at crochetville. And what better way to challenge myself to do that than to do it in the Olympics! I was thinking about it last night and think I can come up with a schedule where I can complete it and study for my exam. Course, there won't be much time for sleep, but who really needs sleep anyways? This is the pattern I want to do... It's called French Market Bag. I will probably make it a little deeper though. What do you think? Can I do it? I was thinking of making a Kastanje Cardigan, but thought it may be a little complicated to do in 16 days. lol. One day...
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Monday, January 23, 2006
Crummy Weekends
So, I've had a couple of crummy weekends lately. This past weekend because I was sick with some stomach bug all weekend. Still not feeling so well, but well enough that I could actually come to work today. Course, I haven't been incredibly productive (am a little distracted) but I'm working on it. On the bright side, I went over to my neighbors yesterday for her Mary Kay starter show. Did have a lot of fun, and Rosie and her leader invited me to their meeting on Tuesday to be an eye model for training. Should be fun. They also told me to bring my Parylite catalogs and some business cards with me since it would be a great place to network. Would be so nice if I could get that going again! Course, if I do get into grad school in the fall, I'm not sure where I will find the time to do everything. Oh well. A little extra income will be really nice for our trip to Aruba this summer and for the furniture that we want to buy before Christmas this year. So, wish me luck with that! The other good thing that came out of this weekend was that I started to teach myself how to knit. I'm working on a hat right now. Will post pics when it's done! I gotta say, though, that teaching myself to knit has been a lot harder that teaching myself to crochet. I found out on Kimberly's blog that Stephanie (aka Yarnharlot) has been stirring people up lately with her 2006 Knitting Olympics challenge. I wanna do it! Sounds like tons of fun. BUT I don't know if I can as I should be using that time to study for my ASBOG. Ugh. No fair!
Last weekend, on the other hand, was much worse. Went to WW Sat. morning to find I had gained a pound. yuck. Came home to find that my cute little doggies had chewed up my cell phone (they chewed the remote earlier in the week). I don't know what's come over them! Anyways, since we were AT&T customers, and AT&T was taken over by Cingular, not only did I have to buy myself a new phone, but we had to switch to Cingular and get Kyle a new phone too! Ugh. So, I knew what phone I wanted, and thankfully it was on sale. Kyle told me just to pick out the cheapest flip phone that would fit his case. An hour and $325.00 later, I walk out of Cingular and go to bring Kyle his phone at work. He took one look at my phone and said "oh. that's cool". Course, he was with a customer, so off to the cafe I went to drink some coffee and program my new phone. An hour and sever coffees later, he comes back and begins his phone depate. He even asked a c-worker and his store manager which one they thought he should get. Of course, everyone liked my phone best so back to Cingular I went. Thank goodness it was close. 45 minutes later I'm back with Kyle, his phone in hand. Woohoo! We decided to get lunch. I had been craving steak from Logan's so we went there. And I had the WORST cut steak I had ever had! There was fat or grissle on ever piece of meat I cut. What a Saturday it was turning out to be, eh? Thankfully they took my meal off the bill. Finally I got to go home and get some studying done. Sunday morning I downloaded a new ring tone to my phone, but found out that only 5 of the ring tones on my phone actually worked. What the heck is going on? I figured I could call Cingular and fix it over the phone. No one is available. Call back during business hours. Grrrr. So, I went to the store thinking they could do a quick fix only to find out there is nothing they can do. Therefore, I have to go home, get my box and charger, and come back to do an exchange. Waited a half hour to do the exchange. Ring tones all work. Hurrah! Set up the bluetooth and off I go! Get in the car, ring tones don't work. Turns out, my bluetooth headset is not 100% compatible with my phone. Now, had the first person I dealt whith done a little more research other than just saying "nothing we can do but exchange it" I wouldn't have lost my ring tone and the three pictures I took. Talk about frustration! And a lot of wasted time... Now, in order to get my ring tones to work when bluetooth is active, I need to get a new ear piece. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to deal with it for now.
As usual, I should get some work done for the day. I think I have spent the entire second have of my lunch doing this now... Have a great Monday!
Last weekend, on the other hand, was much worse. Went to WW Sat. morning to find I had gained a pound. yuck. Came home to find that my cute little doggies had chewed up my cell phone (they chewed the remote earlier in the week). I don't know what's come over them! Anyways, since we were AT&T customers, and AT&T was taken over by Cingular, not only did I have to buy myself a new phone, but we had to switch to Cingular and get Kyle a new phone too! Ugh. So, I knew what phone I wanted, and thankfully it was on sale. Kyle told me just to pick out the cheapest flip phone that would fit his case. An hour and $325.00 later, I walk out of Cingular and go to bring Kyle his phone at work. He took one look at my phone and said "oh. that's cool". Course, he was with a customer, so off to the cafe I went to drink some coffee and program my new phone. An hour and sever coffees later, he comes back and begins his phone depate. He even asked a c-worker and his store manager which one they thought he should get. Of course, everyone liked my phone best so back to Cingular I went. Thank goodness it was close. 45 minutes later I'm back with Kyle, his phone in hand. Woohoo! We decided to get lunch. I had been craving steak from Logan's so we went there. And I had the WORST cut steak I had ever had! There was fat or grissle on ever piece of meat I cut. What a Saturday it was turning out to be, eh? Thankfully they took my meal off the bill. Finally I got to go home and get some studying done. Sunday morning I downloaded a new ring tone to my phone, but found out that only 5 of the ring tones on my phone actually worked. What the heck is going on? I figured I could call Cingular and fix it over the phone. No one is available. Call back during business hours. Grrrr. So, I went to the store thinking they could do a quick fix only to find out there is nothing they can do. Therefore, I have to go home, get my box and charger, and come back to do an exchange. Waited a half hour to do the exchange. Ring tones all work. Hurrah! Set up the bluetooth and off I go! Get in the car, ring tones don't work. Turns out, my bluetooth headset is not 100% compatible with my phone. Now, had the first person I dealt whith done a little more research other than just saying "nothing we can do but exchange it" I wouldn't have lost my ring tone and the three pictures I took. Talk about frustration! And a lot of wasted time... Now, in order to get my ring tones to work when bluetooth is active, I need to get a new ear piece. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to deal with it for now.
As usual, I should get some work done for the day. I think I have spent the entire second have of my lunch doing this now... Have a great Monday!
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Update #2
Woohoo! Two in a row! This one contains all my big news:
Before my Christmas vacation, I had decided that I had been working for 5 years and was finally eligible to take my Professional Geologist (PG) exam. Woohoo! So, I sent in my application and found out after I got back that I was indeed eligible and I could register for the exam. Great. Now I have to remember all that stuff I learned in college and haven't used since. Fun. I was hoping that in the registration packet they would provide some info on where to get study materials. I was wrong. All they provided were two little practice tests (one for the fundamentals test and one for the professional test). Little meaning 23 questions and answers each. Well, one test is 130 questions, and the other is 100. Ugh. They also provided a little outline with the different subjects within the field that could be on the exams. That's it. Nothing else. So, I called the board to find out where I can get study materials. They don't condone the sale of any study materials, and therefore can't tell me anything. They could tell me that some of their past test takers had taken a study class. But that's it. Grrrr. So, I started searching the internet. I found one forum website that had a thread on this exam, and a couple of people recommended a study guide. Yeah! They do exist! Even if there is only one. So, I orderd it. And paid $147. Ouch! Received the package yesterday and now have gone to completely stressed and not knowing where to start to having a plan and being excited. The study materials seem like they are going to be very helpful. And they have 4 practice exams (2 for each test) that are 100 questions each, plus some practice problems. So, this weekend I will be taking those exams to see what I still know, what I don't remember, and what I never learned. I will then have a really good idea of where to start in my studying. The test is March 3rd. Wish me luck!
The other big news I have is I have decided to go back for my masters degree this fall. I will be studying Hydrogeology at UTSA, provided the accept me! They want me to apply online, yet the application isn't up yet. Go figure. Guess I can start working on getting all my transcripts there as well as my GRE scores. Fun fun fun! Oh, I think I need recomendations too... One of my old bosses has offered to be a recommendation - now I think I just need to find 2 more people. Preferable people who have known me longer than 5 years.
Before my Christmas vacation, I had decided that I had been working for 5 years and was finally eligible to take my Professional Geologist (PG) exam. Woohoo! So, I sent in my application and found out after I got back that I was indeed eligible and I could register for the exam. Great. Now I have to remember all that stuff I learned in college and haven't used since. Fun. I was hoping that in the registration packet they would provide some info on where to get study materials. I was wrong. All they provided were two little practice tests (one for the fundamentals test and one for the professional test). Little meaning 23 questions and answers each. Well, one test is 130 questions, and the other is 100. Ugh. They also provided a little outline with the different subjects within the field that could be on the exams. That's it. Nothing else. So, I called the board to find out where I can get study materials. They don't condone the sale of any study materials, and therefore can't tell me anything. They could tell me that some of their past test takers had taken a study class. But that's it. Grrrr. So, I started searching the internet. I found one forum website that had a thread on this exam, and a couple of people recommended a study guide. Yeah! They do exist! Even if there is only one. So, I orderd it. And paid $147. Ouch! Received the package yesterday and now have gone to completely stressed and not knowing where to start to having a plan and being excited. The study materials seem like they are going to be very helpful. And they have 4 practice exams (2 for each test) that are 100 questions each, plus some practice problems. So, this weekend I will be taking those exams to see what I still know, what I don't remember, and what I never learned. I will then have a really good idea of where to start in my studying. The test is March 3rd. Wish me luck!
The other big news I have is I have decided to go back for my masters degree this fall. I will be studying Hydrogeology at UTSA, provided the accept me! They want me to apply online, yet the application isn't up yet. Go figure. Guess I can start working on getting all my transcripts there as well as my GRE scores. Fun fun fun! Oh, I think I need recomendations too... One of my old bosses has offered to be a recommendation - now I think I just need to find 2 more people. Preferable people who have known me longer than 5 years.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Apologies to my readers...
First of all, I want to apologize for it being over a month since I posted! Yikes! Life just got really hectic preparing for Christmas, then I was out of town over Christmas, then I had to play catch up at work when I got back! And, of course, really the only time I have to update this thing is on my lunch or 10 minute breaks at work. And if time wasn't tight enough, it's about to get tighter! But I'll get into that a little later...
My vacation over Christmas was a much needed one. It felt really good to get away from the stresses of everyday life at work. And it's been bad lately. Kyle and I drove out to California - took us 25 hours total: 21 hours of drive time, and 4 hours of sleeping at rest stops. Not exactly the smartest thing to do, but we had all three dogs with us, so that made it really hard to stop anywhere else. There are hotels that allow pets on the way, but our precious pups tend to bark at any little sound - therefore, no sleep for us or for other vacationers! Not really the way we wanted to spend the night. So, we basically drove straight through. It was great to see mom and dad again, of course, and it was made even better by us having some time just the four of us before Jess and Shannon came out. Don't get me wrong - I love my sister and her husband - but, we didn't get to spend a lot of time with my parents while they were out for Thanksgiving, so it was really nice for it just to be us and my parents.
Christmas day was marvelous. We were totally spoiled by both my family and Kyle's. I really enjoyed spending time with his family. We spent a lot of time over at his mom's and it was really hard for us to leave. His mom is really sick and we're kind of worried about how much longer she's going to be around. One of the bad things about living so far away. On a high note, Jackie (Kyle's step mom) really loved the wrap that I made her. She had it on her lap from the moment she opened it until Bob (Kyle's dad)took it away from her and curled up under it. Here's a picture...
I had no idea it would be so popular! Kyle's grandma was in Arizona for Christmas this year, but we did get a call from her telling us how much she really loved her wrap and how it was the perfect colors. Cindy (Kyle's mom) didn't say too much about the shawl I made her. I was kind of wondering if she even liked it. But, she wasn't feeling well at the time either, so my guess is it was probably just that. Here's the shawl I gave Cindy...
I think it turned out really well, and it was the perfect size for her. I hope she gets good use out of it!
The day after Christmas was a spa day for the girls. Mom, Jess and I hit the spa at the Mission Inn for some relaxation (I got a massage, and Jess and Mom facials for Christmas). Then it was off to Nordstrom's for a make-over at the Smashbox counter, and back to Mission Inn for dinner. After dinner we went on a carriage ride to see the lights around the area, and walked around a bit will smoking cigars. It was a nice night.
So, after that fun filled day and night, the girls went out shopping for our ultimate purse, while dad worked, Shannon played on the computer, and Kyle went Geocaching with his dad. Dinner that night was at Ancho's. I really wish we could move that restaurant out here! Great ending to a wonderful vacation. Headed home the day after that. Was so hard to leave! But, my dad was right when he said "No matter how long you stay, you'll be leaving a day too soon". I must also say that it was a little nice to go back to just 3 dogs instead of 5...
It was hard to get them all to pose pretty for the pictures though... Grrrr - I can't get my pictures to line up all nice and pretty! How do you do it Kimberly?
Ok, I think that's all I'll post on this one, since it's getting pretty long. I'll post about the happenings since we got home a little later. I have to get SOME work done today afterall!
My vacation over Christmas was a much needed one. It felt really good to get away from the stresses of everyday life at work. And it's been bad lately. Kyle and I drove out to California - took us 25 hours total: 21 hours of drive time, and 4 hours of sleeping at rest stops. Not exactly the smartest thing to do, but we had all three dogs with us, so that made it really hard to stop anywhere else. There are hotels that allow pets on the way, but our precious pups tend to bark at any little sound - therefore, no sleep for us or for other vacationers! Not really the way we wanted to spend the night. So, we basically drove straight through. It was great to see mom and dad again, of course, and it was made even better by us having some time just the four of us before Jess and Shannon came out. Don't get me wrong - I love my sister and her husband - but, we didn't get to spend a lot of time with my parents while they were out for Thanksgiving, so it was really nice for it just to be us and my parents.
Christmas day was marvelous. We were totally spoiled by both my family and Kyle's. I really enjoyed spending time with his family. We spent a lot of time over at his mom's and it was really hard for us to leave. His mom is really sick and we're kind of worried about how much longer she's going to be around. One of the bad things about living so far away. On a high note, Jackie (Kyle's step mom) really loved the wrap that I made her. She had it on her lap from the moment she opened it until Bob (Kyle's dad)took it away from her and curled up under it. Here's a picture...
I had no idea it would be so popular! Kyle's grandma was in Arizona for Christmas this year, but we did get a call from her telling us how much she really loved her wrap and how it was the perfect colors. Cindy (Kyle's mom) didn't say too much about the shawl I made her. I was kind of wondering if she even liked it. But, she wasn't feeling well at the time either, so my guess is it was probably just that. Here's the shawl I gave Cindy...
I think it turned out really well, and it was the perfect size for her. I hope she gets good use out of it!The day after Christmas was a spa day for the girls. Mom, Jess and I hit the spa at the Mission Inn for some relaxation (I got a massage, and Jess and Mom facials for Christmas). Then it was off to Nordstrom's for a make-over at the Smashbox counter, and back to Mission Inn for dinner. After dinner we went on a carriage ride to see the lights around the area, and walked around a bit will smoking cigars. It was a nice night.
So, after that fun filled day and night, the girls went out shopping for our ultimate purse, while dad worked, Shannon played on the computer, and Kyle went Geocaching with his dad. Dinner that night was at Ancho's. I really wish we could move that restaurant out here! Great ending to a wonderful vacation. Headed home the day after that. Was so hard to leave! But, my dad was right when he said "No matter how long you stay, you'll be leaving a day too soon". I must also say that it was a little nice to go back to just 3 dogs instead of 5...
It was hard to get them all to pose pretty for the pictures though... Grrrr - I can't get my pictures to line up all nice and pretty! How do you do it Kimberly?Ok, I think that's all I'll post on this one, since it's getting pretty long. I'll post about the happenings since we got home a little later. I have to get SOME work done today afterall!
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