Half a snow day?

1/2 is better than none! All the schools were closed today. When that happens, the office closes until 10am. Sweet! I went right back to bed. Because I only work until 11am on Fridays, I had barely finished my first cup of coffee before it was time to go home. Normally, I would have gone out to the college to teach, but it was closed. So I hung around the office, off the clock, drank some more coffee, and ended up helping a co-worker with a software program.

I was planning to go visit with mom and dad, but when I called, they were doing their taxes and indicated their road was still icy. So, I got back into my PJs and picked up my knitting.

I have been working on a sweater with some yarn I got last summer that I love. Not only did I get a good deal on it, I love the feel and color of it. So I combined it with a pattern I have been wanting to do for a long time. I am not sure I like how the collar turned out, but otherwise I am loving it. I may remove the collar later. I did use up the 3 colors I had originally planned for it, and I had to add a fourth color, but I am still loving it. Don't worry, I plan to wear something underneath it. LOL Jordan is my fashion consultant, I will have to appeal to her to email me any suggestions. TS, could you please bring this to her attention? :P

I am having a little cabin fever issue today. I think it is because I feel restricted from going outside. YIKES. The news just said it is going to be -10 tonight! I wonder if that is with the wind chill? The wind is nasty and biting today.

I also heard on the news that Facebook fanatics are giving up Facebook for Lent. They are suffering real withdrawl symptoms. I am not surprised.

Nintendo DS Lite Cobalt Blue

Nintendo DS Lite Cobalt Blue
Originally uploaded by matthew.cachia

This is the "toy" I bought in K-zoo. I haven't taken a photo of it yet, so I logged into my flickr Pro account and borrowed someone else's photo of one just like mine. :) If you click on the photo, it will take you to more of his photos.

I am thinking I may have to buy a skin or cover for it. The outside is so pretty and shiny that every finger print shows up on it! How annoying!

A brief update

First of all, kudos to Sooz for FINALLY blogging again. Thanks Sooz! I will be visiting your blog (and TS) as soon as I finish here.

Had a great weekend at K-zoo. Did some shopping and lots of relaxing. I totally splurged and bought a Nintendo DS Lite and I love it. I figure I have been hauling around about 4 hand held games for years and this way, I can consolidate and diversify. You can justify anything, can't you? I could not deny myself this affordable treat. I bought two games to go with it, but haven't opened the Brain Game yet. All in due time.

Besides, I have been spending a lot of time on the phone the past two days. I have been talking to "Harry" and getting to know him better. He likes to talk, but he listens and remembers as well. We have similar expectations, pasts, and life has shaped us in similar ways. He is sweet and considerate. No plans to meet yet and even if we wanted to, we probably couldn't anytime soon.

Yeah, the weather. Winter storm warnings for the next few days. My NB even told me to leave early today. She didn't have to ask twice. I stopped at Glen's and grabbed a few things and headed home to "hunker down". It has rained and snowed alternately all day and the temps will drop and make the back roads icy in the morning. Everyone is hoping for a snow day. Someone suggested that we do "The Snow Dance". I asked what that involved and I was told - put your PJs on inside out and go outside and dance in your yard. It was also suggested that the dance be done naked. My luck, I would lock myself out!

The Blustery Day

The week is winding down and of course, I am dragging. When I left work, the sun was shining and by the time I came down the hill into town, it was a blizzard. Lake effect snow! I took some pictures while driving (Do not do this EVER, nieces) and I will try to find time to download one or two this evening.

Also, I took a picture of the Christmas snowman a couple weeks ago and thought I downloaded it, but maybe it is still on the camera after all. I know TS wants to see what's left of all her hard work.

I am still emailing with the eHarmony guy. I have decided his code name will be Harry. Casual for Harrison. Anyway, today I found out he was living in TX, in Houston, in Memorial City on Gessner at the same time I was. He hung out at Skateland in high school. I am beginning to wonder how I never ran into him. Oh and he sent another photo...nice.

My boss told me on Monday that I will be laid off again this summer. I informed the NB that I would be available. That's all I can do for now, she can not make guarentees and I respect that.

PS: Thanks Uncle Dan, the FB braggart is gone, just when he was whining about his stock portfolio.

eHarmony & Facebook

Someone requested an eHarmony update and I will deliver what my readers request! Well, this time anyway.

eHarmony

eHarmony had a free communication weekend for Valentine's Day / President's Day four day weekend. Whenever they have them, I run to my account and turn on my matching so when it starts I have some matches to consider contacting.

Yes, I matched up with a nice guy in Harrison. That is about a hour drive down 27. We are still in the email stage. He sends about 3 emails a day and I am so busy at work, I can hardly think straight to answer him. My boss is riding my butt all the time to check my email and respond to him. I know, you went back and read that sentence again, didn't you? lol It's true! We have been friends for several years, before she was my boss and she met her squeeze online. Here I am trying to make a good impression, work my butt off, and try not to take advantage of our friendship and she is basically saying "lighten up, girl!" Maybe I should!

Okay, so we are still at the email stage, is that like first base? Can someone please, explain these new rules and stages to me!? It isn't exactly uncharted, but it is definitely ambiguous. What's the next step? He is x-navy SeeBee (Civil Engineer, I think), maintenance superviser at a church, a reserve county deputy, and has a golden named Jake. Did I mention he is handsome? Dave that is, that's his name, I wasn't referring to the dog. But the dog is adorable too. He lives on a farm and spent/spends a lot of time at Higgins Lake where he brother has a cabin. A good start, you agree?

FaceBook

I am becoming less interested in Facebook. It seems so superficial. I am not referring to family, I am thrilled to keep up on what everyone is doing hour by hour...lol. Okay, not that bad, more like day to day.
For example, my status posts. For the non-facebookers, you are given a field to fill that starts out: Teri is....and you are supposed to fill it out. Yes, talk about yourself in the third person. Outside the warm and fuzzy FB environment that sounds creepy, but it is completely acceptable to hundred of thousands who are members. When I get a moment, I log in to see what everyone is up to. Hm, Suz went out to dinner, Chris is playing tea party, Cassandra is running a marathon. Then I go to fill in my status....But I have nothing to post. Hey, I'm knitting, or I'm watching TV, or I'm just taking a moment to see how everyone is doing. Even I think I sound boring! lol
And I made a mistake. I "friended" someone I hardly know. A weak moment. I thought it would be harmless, and it is, except this guy seems to use FB as a brag book about himself. Isn't that against the rules? You can brag about your family, pets, and accomplishments, but don't put on airs! "Oh hum, I few here and then there and I simply can not keep up with ALL my friend's emails that came in while I was off making a wad of dough."

Any Facebooker know how to unfriend somebody? Please drop me a line. From now on, ONLY family and close friends.

Knitting

Okay, I have spent the evening emailing Dave, playing with a very neglected Sadie, and updating my blog. What knitting? Maybe tomorrow. Gee, I haven't even had time to check Facebook! I need a snow day! Maybe tomorrow since today didn't pan out. Good thing I have next Monday/Tuesday off and I am going to K-zoo this weekend, if the weather allows. See, even living Up North I am definitely NOT leading a boring life!

Sunday

It is a free communication weekend on eHarmony this weekend and I have been actively making an effort to find a quality someone.

I have been participating in these free weekends for awhile and have been slowly getting know some real prospects. No plans to meet anyone yet, but still in the getting-to-know-you-better stages.

I slept in this morning and plan on making today a lazy day before starting the new schedule this week. I was not getting enough done in 3 hours at the original job. After discussing it with both bosses, I am extending the hours to 4 hours, 3 times a week at my original job and that will give me 2 full days at the new job. I hope this will work better for all of us.

Sadie and I are making a road trip this Friday to K-zoo to visit Kristi. I took the following Monday and Tuesday off in order to take a break before the schedule gets busy again in March.

I have a conference in downtown Detroit, some trainings to conduct or assist with at the college, spring breaks, and April 1st the college is making a huge change that will directly effect my department. I think it is one of the main reasons they brought me onboard. I am excited about it and being a part of it. It isn't a secret, but fully explaining it would bore the heck out of this audience! Let's just say it is a combo of linking databases, software upgrades, and doing something that no school in the area has done to date. The college is truly becoming a technology leader for this rural area. And I get to be a part of it! Yeah, I am a geek, deal with it. LOL

I have done some cleaning, caught up with my communications online, updated my blog, and now I am going to see if I can get some more knitting done and catch up on last weeks recorded programs. A lazy day...aaahh.

Friday/Saturday

It has been snowing all day. With all the melting and the warm weather, I had an uplift in my spirits. Could be the increase in income too, as I feel as if a weight has been lifted from me too.

Yesterday I went out to visit with the little sister and had my hair cut. My hair is driving me nuts and she noticed it had gotten dry and dull, so we did a deep conditioning too. Her boss piped in that maybe it was menopause. I did NOT find that humorous.

I spent the evening working on my latest knitting projects. A felted purse and a new sweater. Online, I made plans to go to to Gaylord with Katy and her little one to help her spend her yarn shop gift certificate.

Saturday I picked them up around 10:30 and headed north in the snow. It is never good to head north when it is snowing, but it actually got better so the weather was a "non-issue". It was a "Girls Day" and we spent a pleasant day at Ben Franklin and Imagiknits. Her 3 year old cracks me up. She is outspoken and has an interesting outlook on life, which kept me entertained as we were out and about. She slept all the way there and most of the way back, so I don't envy Katy the late night she may be having.

The main object of our desire for the day was a ball winder. If you aren't a yarnie, you may not know what I'm talking about. Basically, it takes the yarn you buy in a skein or that someone has wrapped into a ball, and winds it into a neat ball that you can pull yarn from the middle or the outside. I am doubling my strands in my sweater, and only have one skein of each color, so I need to pull from both the middle and outside at the same time. Anyway, they had a great price on the BW, but only one in stock. I bowed to the birthday girl's gift certificate and will borrow her's on Monday Knit Knight. :)

I spent the evening working on the sweater and now, I'm off to bed!

Sadie and the deer

Sadie and the Deer

I know the camera technique leaves a lot to be desired, but hang in there. Watch the fur on the back just behind the collar and also right above the tail. I am no expert, but I think they are fear indicators, rather than aggressive. Like the words Sadie and aggressive belong in the same sentence! Ha!

If you have trouble seeing detail with this small file, click on the clip to show the full size file.

Yet Another Catch Up Posting - Anyone want to guest post in the future?

oh dear, I have been so bad! I am so behind in my blogging and I have been actually doing something to blog about!

I will have to do the Reader's Digest version because I am finally getting excited about my knitting again. Sorry ladies, no more fingerless mittens for awhile, they are a real snoozer. I will continue working on the pair I started - yes, TS, that would be your pair - tell your boss "too bad" or trade them for a good work review. :)

Knitting
Might as well get that out of the way. I am starting a cotton sweater. For the knitters, I am going to double the strands to make it super bulky, it will be a top down pullover from Pure and Simple. I am going to do a swatch tonight...yes, me, swatch! Don't fall over Katie!

Work
Going great. I am getting used to the schedule. This week will be easier because I do not have my web design course this Friday. That means I can work all day for the college and get out earlier during the week. I received the first 40hour week of pay in my last paycheck and I was able to catch up on a bunch of bills and I can breathe again. I even felt rich enough to take out some spending money for the weekend. And that brings me to...

Winter Outing Weekend
Last weekend was the winter outing at Dog Scout camp. I went out a couple weeks ago for a meeting, but this is the first time I had been out there in a long time for outing. I am ashamed to say, I really don't remember when the last time we spent time out there. Probably had to do with the price of gas and being told I was going to be laid off for the summer. Anyway, I always say I do it for Sadie, but I have fun too. The weekend outings bring DSA members from all over, so I struggle to try to remember people from one year to the next. We all laugh and say, "I know your dog's name!". It really is all about the dogs. And I might add, I got another awesome photo of her running, again the joy on her face, but check out her stride!

The winter outing had two main activities, dog sledding and weight pulling. Sadie won't pull, so rather than get her upset trying, we relaxed and just hiked, visited the horses (she ate the poo!), and visited. I picked up some great ideas from people for slowly working Sadie into learning to pull. Saturday, we stayed late to watch a presentation about wolves by a woman that has been involved in raising, caring, and studying wolves since the 70's. She worked for many years for a sanctuary. It was very interesting to find out that wolves think differently from dogs and more importantly, react differently.

Sunday the warm spell from the day before had left the trails treacherous for walking and sledding. Everyone hung out in the lodge and practiced the training tips they had learned that weekend. I offered to be the distraction with Sadie and we did a lot of walking in circles. I got some funny looks from her and I had to wonder if she was getting dizzy too or if she was just thinking I was crazy. Many DSAs had left early due to travel time or other commitments, so it wasn't as crowded in the lodge and it was a quiet day. I received an email from Lonnie today and she said there were 20 people and 30 dogs there over the weekend!

We had to leave early Sunday so I could take care of my responsibilities - grocery shopping, laundry, dishes, cooking for the week and much more.

Weather
As I mentioned before, we had a rather warm day on Saturday, I think it was 43 F. That was nice, but today we set a state record. It was 55 F when I left work today! It was spring! Okay, it wasn't, but for a moment, you could close your eyes, face the sun, and pretend. Pretend that the ground is not covered with snow and lots of ice still. Pretend that it isn't going to snow again this weekend.

Today
I put Sadie's harness on her today and had her pulling a bag of shoes around within 15 minutes. Then that was it, I took it off her. She shook herself, but I think she liked it. Or it could be the super special smelly chicken fillet treats she loves. Either way, I was happy with the outcome.
Now I am off to add a couple photos for your viewing pleasure and get started on that swatch for MY sweater!

Tomorrow I will post a video I took of Sadie trying to get past a deer statue on the trail. It is shaky because I was walking backwards in soft snow, but you can see she doesn't like it. Poor Sadie! LOL

A Blonde Day

I wore my new mittens at work today. I love them, but the rolled edges kept hitting the Windows key and a few other keys - enough that I found myself starting to work around them and it slowed me down.

Despite that I finished my website project today and my NB was thrilled. She said it was like I crawled into her head and knew what she wanted. Then she promptly forwarded it to her boss. :) That was the bright spot of my day that was otherwise frantic and frazzle feeling.

About half way through the day, I remembered I forgot to put the trash can in the sink and resigned myself to cleaning up the mess when I got home.

Around 3, I thought I lost my purse after I changed out my old file cabinet for a new one. I thought I left the purse in the bottom drawer. By the time I realized it, the cabinet was 1/2 mile away in storage and the maintenance man was gone for the day. We got someone to look, but it wasn't in the drawer. I looked in all my drawers, in my car, and in the storage room. So we jumped in the car and ran over there to look in storage ourselves, and sure enough, it wasn't there. Coming out of the maintenance building, it suddenly came to me. My overhead storage in my cubicle! My boss beat me to my cubicle and sure enough, there it was! Boy did I get teased - got called a blonde and had a senior moment. I was just relieved that I didn't have to try and replace the contents!

Sure enough, when I got home the trash was all over the kitchen. I didn't care, the sun was still shining and it was after 5pm. The days are getting longer! Sadie needed a run so I packed her in the car and we took off to Marl Lake to make some hay while the sun was shining. There was only one car in the lot, so I let Sadie out without the leash. She hit the ground running. We didn't go far, it was too cold. The trail was in better shape than last time. It was pretty level and I even noticed some very large footprints going in the same direction and figured it was someone from the other car in the lot.

On the way back to the car, the footprint guy snuck up behind us, he is big, dressed in full camo and carrying a very large rifle. And ironically he says "is your dog friendly?" I felt like saying "could you look much scarier?" I'm alone in the woods, with a dog that isn't barking and a big guy with a rifle. I have my camera in my hand and he asked me if I took his picture. I said no and get nervous. When I get nervous, I talk a lot. So I started talking. "what hunting season is it?" blah blah blah. Next thing I know we are like best buddies and he showing me where the super secret fishing hole is located and how to find it. We were Bush bashing, commiserating over the weather, comparing house values and talking about coyotes. He was hunting coyotes. He had a nice voice, he was smart and had wonderful blue eyes. Kinda had the Denny (from Grey's) look going for him. But alas, he is married. We parted ways, I went North, he went South.

I close with any picture of Sadie running. Again, I caught her in a happy moment. Click on it to see the enlargement and the look on her face. I will have more after this weekend, we will be at Dog Scout Camp both days. Well, at least one day.

Playing "Catch Up" with the Blog

Yes, sis, I am really tired and that is the reason for the lack of postings.

Work, ice dams, and knitting. That's it in a nutshell.

Sadie is going stir crazy and I suspect she is now getting up on the counters. Maybe. I am putting the garbage can in the sink and so far that is working. But she somehow got a plastic container out of the sink and chewed it up. A mystery?

I am going to a conference in March and I made arrangements today to have Brandy's family take Sadie again while I am gone. I will be watching Brandy while they go on spring break in April, so that's a cool arrangement.

Work
Work is going great. The NB turned me loose on the department website. Be careful what you ask for...I am having a good time consolidating it and using the CSS the college webmaster has in place for formatting. NB proclaimed my new format and content as "perfect".

Ice dams
Another reason to hate winter. They cause me much anxiety because I can only see the damage to my ceiling tiles and I know there is more above in the attic and roof beneath the shingles. A metal roof would be worry free! Ha! Someday.

Warning, long rant follows:
Update on the credit card saga. Yes, it continues. Yesterday, I received a letter in the mail from them saying that the lower interest date was unavailable and sorry charlie. Now I have to call them again. And naturally, I am exhausted, upset and close to the breaking point. Very close.

No knowledgeable and understandable service agent this time. I get a guy whose name I can't even pronounce and I can understand that he says, yes, it's true, I didn't get the lower interest rate, too bad, thank you for playing. I try to reason with him and realize that's futile. I requested a supervisor. I am on hold for a while and during that time, I lose it. When a very nice American lady gets on the line and asks for my card number I can't even read it off the bill! I blubber out my phone number and she pulls up the account. She mumbles that something isn't right and asks if I will hold while she investigates. I say yes, hoping I can gain control of myself while I am on hold! She comes back with good news. The lady I talked to last week made the wrong selection or didn't uncheck something and it automatically generated the letter of denial. Yes, I have the lower interest rate. I am blubbering again and say thank you. She says, "its okay, there was no way I was going to let you get off the phone without fixing this, I felt so bad for you".

Really, I don't like to win battles by playing the pity card (just a figure of speech, I wasn't playing!), but the end could justify the means. My word, I have been fighting with them since July. You know what I learned? Besides, don't ever have credit cards,...I learned, just ask for the supervisor. In retrospect, that is the only time I got results or got someone on the phone I could understand. How many people do they torture like they did me? And I know how it made me feel. Its criminal.
End Rant

Knitting
That leaves knitting. I am working on fingerless mittens to wear at work. I hope they will keep my hands warm and still allow me to type. I am using a bamboo cotton blend that is super soft and has bright colors. It should bring a smile to my face while I am using them. :) I should finish them tonight.

My next project is a felted purse for myself.