Little by little!

Well, we've been here in CA about two weeks. In our apartment just at a week and a half, in fact!

For the most part, things move along nicely. Our kitchen is almost entirely unpacked! Very exciting. Can actually cook and stuff :) And we're starting to get the furniture we need too! For example, the bedroom and closests would have been unpacked before now, except we needed to get a new dresser. Apparently 2 people have more clothes to store than 1 - who'd'a thought? So we picked up dressers over the weekend and Zach spent Sunday assembling them. They're up, together, and actually in the room they belong in, too! Zach's even starting to get clothes into them. Woohoo! Granted not all too much time to do that once he'd spent the day assembling them, but little by little, we're getting there!

And we have bookcases now in the library/craft/Joey's room/Room o'Allergies (as Zach calls it). Even better, the bookcases are all assembled too! And stuff on them! My Sunday was spent unpacking the books for the bookcases. And yes, we did fill all the bookcases I'd estimated we'd need. Zach couldn't believe how many books we had either! I knew how many I had, though, and he pretty much filled a case with his own books, too, so can't blame it entirely on me :) I just didn't want to give up all my favorite books prior to moving. Books are my friends! And on a post this tiny, the library just doesn't have enough to keep me busy for the next 2 years (ONE Rex Stout title!!! He wrote about 70!)

Joey's settling down, too. I think he likes the new place - plenty of space to hop around in. 'Course the cardboard boxes all over the place are certainly good for him too! I'd like to let him be a bit more free-hoppin' since with all the storage space, there won't be so much stuff Out in bunny-range. I've even figured out how to 'bunny-gate' the bookshelves so the books are safe from nibbly sharp-pointy teeth. He wasn't too amused at that though ;) We'll see how it all works out!

Best of all, I have a new job!! I don't think I've told you all this, but I do have a job, and a 'real' one, too - not just waiting tables or working at a teller somewhere! Completely lucked into it, but it looks like good folk to work with, and it's full time, and it looks like I'll enjoy it too. I'm a bit nervous, never having managed anyone or anything, really, but the folk I'll be working with are really nice and friendly (I've met about half 'my' staff, and my director) and seem really willing to work with me, so that should be really good. So, still nervous, but excited too!

WIP Wednesday!

So, now that we're actually in an apartment, and it's starting to get organized (only starting, though, keep in mind), I've actually had some time to knit. Yay! So, I've been busy catching up on the monthly dishcloth-along. And even better, I've some FOs too! Feels like it's been a while since I've finished anything... Was DETERMINED to not get too far behind with my dishclothes - set the goal for myself that I would be caught up by April. And so, I've unpacking a couple boxes, knit a couple rows, etc. And I'm all caught up. Here are the finished ones (from left, mid-Feb, March, and mid-March).

And my one still OTN. This one is another version of the mid-March one, just reversing the colors.

It's an illusion cloth. Illusion knitting creates a really cool effect without tons of work. From straight on, like the in picture below on the left, it just looks striped. From an angle, like in the center picture below, you see a picture in one color, bordered by the other color. (You can see what the image is supposed to be, too, from the Wrong Side, like in the picture below on the right).

It's actually a lot simpler than it looks. The knit stitch lies 'flatter' than the purl stitch, which sits up like a little bump. So the pattern is designed to play on this - the image (in this case, the bunny) is knit in purls in Color A, while the rest of the row is in knit stitches, while Color B is the opposite. Makes Color A visible in the center, and B on the outside. There are better explanations online, too - check out Wikipedia, MagKnits (a DNA illusion scarf!), and all these sites here. Vivian Hoxbro even has a full book on it. Lots of possibilities to play with. :)

As for other WIPs? Well, the biggest one would have to be the one I'm living in :) Back to unpacking!

F is for...

Forgotten in the move!

Well, almost. Almost but not quite...
No, really, F is for... FWINGO! The Flamingo!

Fwingo may simply be a tacky lawn ornament to you, but to me, he is a tacky lawn ornament that I earned!!

I went to a magnet program in high school. Really intense, internationally certified curriculum. The way the program works, is that during your junior and senior years, you take your exams in May, rather like the AP exams. You get your scores back from your exams over the summer, again, like the AP exams. Whether you graduate the program is determined by your totaled exam scores, along with a few other things. In the meantime, as you're waiting for your exam scores to get back to you, you graduate from high school with the rest of your class in the spring, earn the regular HS diploma and head off to college. The way my high school works it, is that there is a second graduation ceremony in December (when we come back from our first semester at college) for those who've either graduated from the magnet program, or earned certificates from taking magnet program classes and exams. The graduation ceremony is hosted by the class below you (i.e. the current seniors in the program). Our friends in the class below us decided to Flamingo-a-Friend** the school for the day of the ceremony. Our names were each written on a flamingo, which were all in the nicely landscaped garden in front of the high school. At the end of the ceremony, we were able to take home our flamingo. So, I did. I have since named him, and decorated him with the leis that you see. Seemed right for him, somehow ;)

At the moment, Zach hates the plastic flamingo, while I'm trying to find a large indoor plant to plant Fwingo in, so that he may lurk among the greenery in an unobtrusive corner of our desert home :)


**If you don't know what Flamingo-a-Friend is, check them out here. You call the company, and they will come and fill the yard of your choice with flamingos, ravens, sheep, owls... basically, the plastic animal of your choice. :) I'm sure there are other companies that do it too, but the first one I heard about was this one, so that's what I've always called it.

Happy Easter!

From us and the buns!

Though, in terms of egg-hiding, he's much better at the searching side of things. See? Here he is thoroughly searching the bag of baby carrots to find the Easter eggs!

haHA!

I have a camera cord again! Huzzah!

So, to catch you all up pictorially with the goings-on the last two weeks, here goes.

Lots of packing up, loaded it all into cars, then went south to FL to visit family before heading west. In FL, tried to see as much family as possible, and even had a day down at Mandalay (grandparents' place down on the river in the FL panhandle). Zach became truly one of the family, spending much of the afternoon at Mandalay in the hammock, and having the chance to drive the Whaler, too, as we went out to the Flats. Saw 3 active osprey nests, so that's a good sign for the summer too. :)

In TX we stopped first in Houston to visit more family. Figured we weren't going to be heading that way again anytime soon, so better try and see as many folk as possible, right?

From Houston, we had a VERY long drive across TX. Western TX is a horrible drive. Very flat, very brown, very boring, and very endless.

AZ and NM were brown and desert-y too, but they were much more scenic, so the drive wasn't that bad. And I felt like such a little tourist, because I was giggly-excited over seeing saguaro cacti for the first time! :) They really are cool looking though!

Finally getting to CA was stressful, honestly. I've grown up on the coast, and the east coast at that. Arriving in the middle of the SoCal desert was about as different an environment as you can get, and still stay in the same country. :) More on my impressions of the post and the new place later. For now, I've got to get back to unpacking. It's very exciting - actually starting to look like a home!

Yes, I know...

Still no pictures. That cord's around here somewhere though! :) I'm taking plenty of pictures, though, because the apartment's actually starting to look like a home now. Very exciting! We've got a bunch of the major furniture up in the apartment now (thanks to some help from our kind neighbor downstairs) and starting to be able to unpack the boxes. Need somewhere to put the picture frames and books and such, right? So, yes, very exciting now, with our home actually starting to look like a home :)

Even better, I've interviewed for a job, so hopefully I'll hear back from them early next week. I don't want to talk about it too much (don't want to jinx it, y'know?) but please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Even though I've been moved to the middle of nowhere, I'm really actually pretty excited about it. I feel like I've been given a fresh start here. I'm out of Horrible Job, and all the life-sucking stress that went with it. Even simple things like cleaning or dishes or laundry would seem like insurmountable obstacles when I was working there; I just came home so DRAINED from work. Here, I'm starting to feel like myself again - I feel like I might actually be able to have more of a life here in the middle of nowhere than I did in SC! I know it probably sounds silly and overly romantic, but I'm really trying to stay positive about the move and all the changes that have come with it. :)

Settling in

Just a quick note this morning. We moved into our apartment yesterday. We got one in the middle-aged neighborhoods on post. Not the new ones, only a year or two or three old, but not one of the old crummy ones. It's not horrible, just a few more nicks and dings and scratches on the walls than a newer place, but there's SO MUCH STORAGE!! It's awesome! We have a one car garage, a second bedroom, and more closets than my old place did. It's so much bigger! Makes me very excited, because I think now I can have all my stuff sorted so that I can have my hobbies (particularly my books and my yarn) in their right places, without Zach feeling claustrophobic or cluttered. Yay! The extra space will be great for Joey too, because I won't have so much stuff out, which means he can run a bit freer in the apartment, and so much space for him to hop around, too! He's already been exploring a little, and seems to be settling in. Just having the world stop moving is a nice change (compared to last week, spent almost solidly in the car).

Meanwhile, I'm applying for jobs here on post. Slim pickins, but that's what you get when you're living in the middle of nowhere. On the upside, several MWR facilities are hiring, and apparently desperate for morning people. When your staff is either high schoolers or people with kids, having someone available at 4 or 5 in the morning is nice. They've been really excited about me possibly coming on.

Also on the to-do list, besides applying for jobs, is unpacking, particularly to find my camera cord. Once I find that, I can post pictures of the trip, the fort, and our new place. I know it's somewhere around here, but if only I could find the box it's in....

Oh yeah...

Forgot to add this - silly me.

Yes, we have arrived in CA. Drove FOR-EV-ER through the desert this past week (Texas does NOT end!!!!), and arrived in Ft Irwin on Saturday morning. Have been working our way through offices and paperwork, and it looks like we'll have a place to move into on Wed. Woohoo! So, we should have a real address by the end of the week (well, we'll have it before the end of the week, hopefully, but I might be buried under boxes unpacking, so it might take longer to get it out to everyone). Joey will be thrilled with all the new cardboard to attack in the house :)

Right now, we're hanging out in the Army Lodging, and catching up on a LOT of missed sleep. I'll have pictures pulled off my camera soon, so check back and you can see pictures of our trip, visiting family, and our final arrival here in the desert. But, yes, we have arrived. And are very tired :)

For all my friends running the Shamrock today...

Good luck everyone! Run fast! I miss you all, and wish I was running it with you too. Hope the weather holds for you too. Maybe a little warmer than last year though?

So, to Cathy, Maribeth, Dan, Mr. C and Ms. Donna, good luck with the Half Marathon again this year (Ms. Donna, on her first Shamrock!). And good luck to Will, too, for braving the Full this year! Best of luck everyone!

WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!

I have survived Horrible Job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have beaten on me emotionally, physcially, financially... there is no aspect of my life they have not tainted. Two years and two months of my life they've had, but no more!! Today was my last day here!

Granted this means that the whirlwind of moving will seriously kick up now - finishing packing up the apartment, loading up the cars, scrubbing out the apartment, driving days on end to arrive in the desert .... (Thinking of which... Seeing that we're about to head cross country, I probably won't be posting much over the next few weeks. I might be able to give an occasional update along the way, but most likely, the next you hear from me, I'll be in the SoCal desert!)

But no worries about tomorrow yet - I made it through my time here! Freedom!

Ooh! A new knitting quiz!

I'm ANGORA - Soft and Warm.

"Angora has a warmth that rivals cashmere and softness that rivals qiviut. Best of all, it comes from cute little bunnies that look for all the world like furry footstools with ears."

- The Knitter's Book of Yarn

Angoras are eager to please and are highly sensitive. Flexibility and adaptability are your strengths and sometimes your weakness, as well. You are essentially a warm and feeling person, and little escapes your impressionable mind. You are generous with others and strive for harmony in your relationships.

Check it out at Potter Craft.

Best of all, you can send them your results, and they'll send you a button with your fiber on it. Looks like my picture up above. :)

Am I a horrible person?

My office is giving me a good-bye party tonight, and I'm not going to go. Does that make me a horrible person? Before you get on my case about 'office solidarity' and 'team-building' and such things, I have a series of very good reasons for skipping out. Please read through

1. My friends at work are not going to be there. Two are out of town on jobs, one now works for another company, and one has an eye appointment this afternoon where his pupils will be dilated (translation: he'll be veeeery out of it). My last friend here at the office isn't going to go if no one else is, so we jointly decided not to go :) We had our going away party on Saturday for that reason - big ol' cookout at Tom's, where I had a chance to hang out with and say good-bye to people I'll actually want to keep in touch with.
2. The people who will be there are ones I either (A) don't like, (B) detest, or (C) am so indifferent to, it doesn't matter (we've got a handful of non-entities here in the office) To give you an idea of how well these people know me, my office manager was even laughing that I'd have an excuse if I wanted to "get plastered" tonight and not come in tomorrow. Being very friendly and all, but has the man ever seen me drink a beer? How the heck am I going to get wasted on a beverage I can't stand the taste of?
3. I was never asked where I wanted to go. The decision was made for me. Don't think I'm sulking about it - it just means that as a result, we're heading to a bar I don't like. It's not a bad place to go, good assortment of pool tables and games and such, but it's inconvenient for me and it's a microbrew-specialty place. They actually don't have a liquor license, so no 'hard stuff' - nothing but beer and wine. Oh, wait - I don't like beer OR wine. I don't drink much, but the drinks I do like are mostly mixed drinks, shots, and liqueurs.
4. I've a bunch of stuff to finish up in the packing line of things. I need to do laundry (I don't want to move more dirty clothes than I have to - would rather pack them clean) and pack up a lot of the stuff I've been using this past week. Mom and Zach visited last weekend and we got most of my stuff packed up, but I still had to leave out a bunch of stuff that I was going to use this week - pots and clothes and bathroom stuff and the like.
5. It's not just a going-away party for me. It's also celebrating an office-record-sales month. So, if I don't go, it's not like the 'excuse' for the party is not going to be there. All they need is a reason to get together and drink beer on the company dime - I've given them the excuse, now no need for me to be there.

So, in summary, I think these are good enough reasons to skip out. I have things I'd rather be doing (or simply need to do) than hang out watching people I don't like get drunk.

I think I get so frustrated about this because I don't like feeling guilty for not 'playing the game.' I don't like hanging out with these people, but somehow you can feel like you're not 'part of the team' if you don't go along and do these things. If I had my choice, I'd never see most of these people outside the office EVER. But over the two years here, I've gamely gone to the Christmas parties, the office celebrations, the good-bye parties, and occasional happy hours, like any good little corporate peon. And I've suffered through every minute of it. It's not so much a happy hour for me, as an hour-of-impatiently-watching-my-watch-waiting-til-enough-time-has-been-spent-at-the-bar-for-me-to-leave-gracefully. I just can't stand those things. So, since I don't have to kiss anyone's rear around here any more, I'm not gonna go (not that I ever did much ass-kissing 'round here - more trying to be so low profile, no one notices me). Time to show that I DO have a backbone!

On the other hand, going and getting completely trashed and chewing out every moron working here would be kinda refreshing... Too bad I'm a sleepy drunk and not an angry one. There's probably something nice and cathartic about tearing into idiots you don't have to be polite to anymore....

Yup, more personality quizzes

What - you thought you'd seen the last of 'em from me? Silly you. :)
Slow day at work = plenty of time to play online!

Just in case you were wondering what Sesame Street character I am (among other things), here you go. The pictures weren't working, so instead, I've added my own comments after my results (my comments are in red, just for the heck of it)




The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you lovable - even if you don't love them!
You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you
You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil (hehehe)
How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others.
(wow... I'm more like Bert than I realized...)



What Breed of Puppy Are You?

You Are a German Shepherd Puppy

Intelligent, quick witted, and a bit aggressive. You've got the jaw power to take a bite out of anyone you choose. (And I just think they're cute!)



What City Do You Belong In?

You Belong in London

A little old fashioned, and a little modern. A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock. A unique soul like you needs a city that offers everything. No wonder you and London will get along so well. (It's what I knew all along! Now if only I could afford to live there....)



What Kind of Coffee Girl Are You?

You Are a Plain Ole Cup of Joe

But don't think plain - instead think, uncomplicated (so uncomplicated I can be complicated, according to some!)
You're a low maintenance kind of girl... who can hang with the guys (low maintenance...noooo, not me....)
Down to earth, easy going, and fun! Yup, that's you: the friend everyone invites.
And your dependable too. Both for a laugh and a sympathetic ear.



What's Your Power Color?

Your Power Color Is Red-Orange

At Your Highest: You are warm, sensitive, and focused on your personal growth.
At Your Lowest: You become defensive and critical if you feel attacked.
In Love: You are loyal - but you demand the respect you deserve.
How You're Attractive: You are very affectionate and inspire trust.
Your Eternal Question: "Am I Respected?"



What Color Rose Are You?

You Are a Light Pink Rose

You represent sweetness and grace.
Your vibe: Kind and gentle
Falling in love with you: is like falling in love with a best friend



What's Your Element?

Your Element Is Water (of course!)

A bit of a contradiction, you can seem both lighthearted and serious.
That's because you're good at going with the flow - but you also are deep.
Highly intuitive, you tune in to people's emotions and moods easily.
You are able to tap into deep emotional connections and connect with others.
You prefer a smooth, harmonious life - but you can navigate your way around waves.
You have a knack for getting people to get along and making life a little more peaceful.



And finally, one with a picture - What House are You?

be sorted @ nimbo.net

Basically, you're brave, daring, chivalrous, and pretty much, an all around good person. Of course, some see you as a goodie-two-shoes. But hey, it's true! You're really good at winning, and normally always come out as the hero. Everybody likes you.. except, maybe, the Slytherins. You're too perfect. No, really. You're too perfect. It's annoying to watch you win, repeatedly. Oh well. Be proud anyway. (Surprised me - I'd've bet Ravenclaw!)

Cool!

But then I like maps :)

This is a neat way too, to see where I've been, and where I'd still like to visit. I wish I could color-code it though. Different colors for where I've lived vs. where I've visited vs. where I'd like to visit again (the wish-list map is on a different map, if I want to create one). But then, that's me and I'm anal about some things :)

E is for...

Eggbert!

Eggbert is my whisk. Just a tiny little thing, so he can't handle major whisking jobs, but I don't really use a whisk that much, of any size. Mostly I use him for small stirring jobs. I think he's designed to be an omelet whisk, but since I don't like eggs, he mostly sits on the shelf of my stove, monitoring my kitchen activities :)

He was a gift from Zach, the first Christmas we were dating. Being that we'd been dating for about 7 months by the time Christmas rolled around and it was our first one together, Zach wanted to get something really nice. After much conferencing with my mom and sister, he decided on an electric tea kettle. Romantic, right? I don't care - I love it!! :) As he was at Bed Bath & Beyond to shop for a tea kettle, he saw Eggbert there in the store. Couldn't pass the little guy up. So, for Christmas, I got a tea kettle and the whisk. I'm the one that has since dubbed him Eggbert, as I thought it was a very suitable name for him.

Quick Update

No, I'm not dead. No, my computer hasn't crashed. I have been kidnapped by two cruel and uncompromising slave-drivers and forced to pack my worldly belongings into cardboard boxes prior to a mandated trek thousands of miles cross-country.

So I've been busy.

On the upside, I have managed to keep myself, Joey, and my computer from being packed into said cardboard boxes, and can manage a quick post tonight.

All is well, aside from my apartment being packed into stacks of brown boxes. The apartment's a little empty-feeling, with all the pictures off the walls, and I haven't been able to pick up my needles for several days now. Very frustrating. I'm now a dishcloth behind in the monthly-along. I know that sounds silly, but I really want to keep up with that. Maybe in the hotels at night after we're driving for hours each night. :\

Oh well - the remaining slave-driver is demanding I return to work now.

Coffee break's over, back on my head.