More penguins, for your amusement

Go ahead, press the button. See if you can stop before the end (I couldn't!)

Yeah, that was really because I know all y'all won't be able to resist the call of the red button either! Found it at a blog called Fat Penguin. For further penguin-based enjoyment, check out the store here. I myself am personnally fond of the "Have you hugged your penguin today?" sweatshirt.

You can't make this stuff up!

Yeah, so I go on vacation for 2 weeks and forget (almost) how much I hate where I work.

Started out at our 8:30 meeting. My department's being re-orged, merging with another department. No longer will our office have a D6 (though other offices still will); it's now all under D9. Lots of reasons, some of them are truly valid, and it makes sense to organize the departments this way. There is such a thing as being too subdivided for one's own good.

At the same time, hearing your boss (branch manager, local office @$$) talk about your department as a 'cancer' (I'm not making this up).... not a good welcome back.

It's not that the department is a cancer. It was poorly managed a couple years ago (well before I started with the company) and got into projects that became very messy, dealing with state regulations, etc. We're just now coming out financially from under those projects. My immediate manager (department level) described it as 'having a black eye,' which I actually feel is an appropriate description. Our department is stained, so to speak, by these actions, which we are FINALLY cleaning up. It's a big difference from BEING a stain. Subtleties of language and tact that I doubt the branch manager would understand. Not really one for the touchy-feely, tactful methods of expression...more the "Why the F*** isn't this done?" sort of discussion.

So that was how my day started....

Goodness I'm ready to be out of this place. SC itself isn't horrible, not really enough of my own interests represented here for me to be really happy, but it's not horrible. But I have GOT to get out of this job....

Only 2 more months!!!!

Quick Knit Note

Blargh!!!!!

Ok, so I started the Anthropologie-Inspired shrug last night. Needed something quick and easy, and working on knitting up stash. Actually working out very well, since I'm making it in Jiffy (from the stash) in white. I know, I probably should be sick of white yarn at the moment, but this is very different from the lace and white cotton of I Do. At any rate, it's white because the white short-sleeve cardigan I have is dying, "well-loved," i.e. stretched completely out of shape through years of use. So this is a great chance to use up yarn and make myself a new short-sleeved white cardigan/cover-up that actually fits.

I actually got a good bit done on it yesterday and this morning. Then decided to frog it**. I was knitting it at 12 st/4 in with two strands held together, and it was knitting to the gauge in the pattern, but was resulting in a very thick cloth. Would be very hot in the summer, and not as comfortable. Just wasn't as happy with it. So, hence the frogging.

Have now started over with one strand instead, on 10 1/2 needles (instead of 11s). Going along nicely, except that I was dumb and didn't wind up the yarn as quickly as I was frogging my work. As a result, the Jiffy (nice and fuzzy mohair-like yarn) is sticking to itself as I knit, so I have a pile of white yarn that I'm slowly untangling as I knit. Really, it's brought my knitting to a standstill right now, and I'm untangling yarn instead of knitting it up. All because I got carried away with the frogging and didn't wind it up then as much as I should have. Bah! Stupid me!


**for the uninitiated, "frogging" is ripping out a knitting project. Usually a good chunk of stitches, or in this case, everything I'd done so far. The term "frogging" is because you say to yourself as your pulling out the stitches, "rip-it, rip-it." Yeah, knitting jokes. :)

Only 2 more months...

I'm missing the east coast already! I know I'll have a good time in CA come March, but I've also never lived out there, or even out of the Eastern time zone (visited out of there, obviously, but never lived longer than a couple months in any other time zone).

So, to help me cope with leaving behind the environment I know, I'm coming up with a to-do list for the last couple months of weekends I have here. Not really a 'bucket list,' but I suppose it's something along those lines. A pre-moving list. Also helps with the feeling of "I've lived in this area (Upstate SC) for 2 yrs now, and still feel like I haven't seen anything about the place."

This is what I've come up with so far:

• Charleston - Patriot's Point, historic downtown (maybe a carriage ride or a ghost tour), SC Aquarium, walk along the oceanfront one more time - good for a weekend with Zach, maybe
• Asheville - Biltmore house - good day trip
• Atlanta - Georgia Aquarium (yeah, I like aquaria - I'd work in one if I could find a job there - why am I moving to the desert again??), maybe shopping at the Underground? Or a meal at the Varsity (where my parents dated!)?
• hiking in the mountains - Caesar's Head or Table Rock - maybe both if we get the chance?
• two major road races in the Greenville area will come around before we move, too, so I'd like to run those again (ran them last year too)
• maybe Myrtle Beach? not really as high on the list, but if work takes me back down there again, I'll try and squeeze in some tourism too

I'm sure there will be more added to the list, but these are the big ones I've got on my list now.

Making me a better me...

So here we go, starting out another new year with another list of ways to improve upon perfection (riiiiight....). I figure I'll limit myself to 3 goals, not try and do too much all at once. Baby steps, and all that.

This year I resolve to (drum roll, please):

• Get into a regular work-out routine. I don't want to have a weight-tied goal; I just want to be consistent about exercising regularly. I've been working on this one sporadically the past few years. Getting better each year, I think. I want to pay particular attention to it this year, since I 'fell off the wagon' the last time I moved. Since I know I'll be moving again this spring, I don't want to do that again. Doesn't help at all with the stress if I'm not working out either - makes a nice vicious cycle of stress.
• Use up my yarn stash. Not that I'll use it up completely in this year alone, but I won't buy new yarn unless for specific, important projects (like the wedding shrug, or something along those lines). For the majority of projects, I'll stash dive!
• A little unusual resolution, but I'd like to keep in touch with people better. Friends especially I know I can forget to call sometimes, sort of an out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing. Horrible to say, I know, but that's how life goes. So, especially moving cross-country, I want to be more conscientious about calling people and keeping up to date. E-mails, phone calls, keeping the blog and photo accounts and all up-to-date - all those way to keep in contact, I'm going to try and be better about.

So here we go! My resolutions are now up and online for all to see - I am now accountable. Better follow through! :)

An army marches on its paperwork

Goodness, I'd forgotten how much paperwork is involved with anything in the military!

Today Zach and I took the day (last official day of our vacations, as I'm not counting the weekend) and started me moving through the great Green Machine. Spent the day moving from one office to another, back and forth through about 3 buildings. Got my ID, stickers for my car, Tricare paperwork started, turned in change-of-status paperwork for finance... the list goes on and on. And, since I grew up a Navy brat, I'm already in the system but had to be changed over, and the computer's didn't always like that... stupid computers.

So, now I'm back home in my apartment and exhausted. Sad thing is, it could have been a lot worse, if it was the end of the month, or first day back from holiday (instead of 2nd or 3rd), something like that to make the lines much much longer. Really, we did get a lot done; it just made for a very long day. To bed now - G'night all.

Kickin' off 2008 RIGHT!

Remember a few days ago, my to-do list included shopping for a dress for a 5K? Well, today was that 5K. The Hair of the Dog 5K here in VB.

The Hair of the Dog is just in its second year, but Zach and I have run it both years and there have been great turn-outs both years. It's a lot of fun! The best part is the Formalwear division of the race. The idea is "come in what you wore to the party last night." So a lot of people raid their closets for those old prom dresses, or hit up the thrift stores for that gaudy 80s homecoming dress, and throw 'em on over running shorts and a sports bra and there's much silliness to be had. There's a lot of people people too who said "well, I didn't go out last night, but I still want to run in 'what I wore last night'" and ran in flannel (or other printed) jammies. Last year they dubbed themselves The Pajama Mamas.

I sweet-talked Zach into running it in the Formalwear division last year, after we'd just gotten engaged, and this year we just had to run it again as newlyweds. Mom ran it too, with her running buddy. They joined the ranks of the Pajama Mamas, and Zach and I dressed up in formalwear again.

Zach just wore dress clothes. I found a white dress at the thrift store, and just had to cut it along a side vent to make it open enough to run in. We added a ribbon from my flowers to my headband to give me something white in my hair. I even carried one of my leftover bridesmaids' boquets! Yes, I did carry for the whole 3.1 miles! :) We added signs to ourselves too. Bride, Groom, and Mother of the Bride (we should have made one for Ms. D too - "I'm with the wedding party" or some such). We got a lot of 'congratulations' along the course, and they made an announcement for us during the awards ceremony! Fun way to start things off! It was the first time we've done anything as a married couple with any group of people other than family :)

For times, Zach and I both felt out of shape, but considering how much else has been taking up our time the past month, I'm not surprised. I think I've run about 4 times since Thanksgiving. Wedding planning takes up a lot of time! Who'd'a thought? At any rate, I wasn't as out of shape as I thought I was. At least, my time wasn't too far off my usual time (actually pretty close); I just felt more out of shape than usual for running that distance in that time. Well, it'll give me something to work on in 2008, right? What would a New Year's be without resolutions?