A finished project to celebrate a new job!

This was knit up in the fall, so still pretty recent, compared to a few of these others!  I wanted a quick and relatively mindless project as I was going through my Netflix queue, waiting to start my new job.**  This one was waiting in my Ravelry queue, and it just seemed like the time to do it.  Yes, I do realize that it'll probably be in my cedar chest for a while until we get somewhere with enough winter to be able to wear heavy wool again.  But living in Hawaii isn't going to stop me from knitting, sorry!

 

 

The Yarn

Plymouth Yarn Trabajos Del Peru.

A thick-and-thin yarn, which Plymouth has unfortunately discontinued. I seem to find those a lot - yarns I like and have no issues with, but that have been discontinued (possibly as trends and fads change, making way for new textures or materials or colors).  Part of shopping sale bins, I suppose!  Still good finds, great for one-skein projects, and of course more affordable - just disappointing when you find you can't work with the yarn again.

This one is nice and soft and doesn't split.  It's a single-ply yarn, though, so you can inadvertently stick your needle through the yarn itself; something to be careful about.  Like when using most thick and thin yarns, it's best to use a simpler pattern.  The texture on thick and thin yarns tends to overwhelm more intricate patterns (or, alternately, the texture of the yarn is lost, and you might as well have used a smoother, less 'fancy' yarn).

The Pattern

That's One Sexy Librarian! Neckwrap by Brian Atkinson at An Excellent Source of Fiber.

Yes, I totally made this one for the name!  I've graduated, have my degree, and will actually be working IN my field in a few weeks time (something to celebrate for any military spouse!).  So, like with quirky race names (here's to you, Santa Shuffle), the name was a factor in my decision :)  I don't know the story behind his naming of the pattern, but I like it.

The neckwrap's a pretty quick knit, mostly garter stitch, with the loopy X's for something of interest.  It's a great pattern for yarns that you want to show off, ones with some character or texture, but that you don't necessarily have a lot of.  I used the thick and thin yarn, while other Ravelry users knit with tweeds or homespun yarns.

It's truly a neckwrap - or a scarflette, if you prefer.  It's a great one-skein project, but one-skein projects don't make for very long scarves.  So, this one's a nice cozy tuck-around scarf, rather than one that you loop around multiple times.  With the soft wool yarn, though, it's still nice and cozy.

Thoughts, Notes, Alterations, etc.

The only real change I made was in needle size.  I started on US 8, as the pattern called for, but with this yarn, that gauge was making a very tight piece. So, I went up needle sizes to US 10. This created a little bit softer fabric, a little bit more drape, and you can see the thick-and-thin of the yarn more than on the 8s.

I didn't count my rows, the way the pattern called for.  But, using a different yarn than the original pattern, I had slightly different yardage in my skein.  To make the scarflette balanced (with mirror image ends), and still use as much yarn as possible from the skein, I pulled out my kitchen/postage scale and weighed my skein repeatedly as I worked along.  Then, with a bit of math, I could figure out when I needed to start the X's on the second half of the scarf.  Yeah, I'm that knitter :)

**This project was finished back in October, while I was indeed celebrating a new job.  All hired and signed and everything, but had extra time before actually starting to work.  I had to wait extra time for my background check paperwork to clear, since there was a software upgrade at my new workplace right as I was being hired.  So, new job, plus still Netflix & Knitting time - trying to finish up some series I'd started while my toe was healing after the move!

Geekin' out

One of the coolest 'toys' at the library where I work now is the 3D printer.  Yup, we've got one, and it's available for public use (send us the files, and we print it up).  I'm taking a course online, too, learning more about using the printers, designing 3D files, tons of applications, and so on.  Very, very cool. 

 

The model we have is a Makerbot Replicator.  It's about the size of an average kitchen microwave. The final products are all solid-color plastic (we can't change colors on our machine mid-project), though there are models out there that can print in other materials too.  It's really neat what people are researching as possible printing material - metals, circuitry, cellulose (wood pulp), food... As for what ours can print... pretty much anything that fits on it's platform and within it's frame.  You can even print things with moving parts, printed all at once!  That's one of the really cool things about 3D printers.  Anything that's bigger than the Makerbot dimensions has to be broken down into smaller pieces, then fitted together after all the parts are printed (i.e., you could print a life-size R2D2 model, but he'd have to be printed in pieces and assembled after the fact).  But other than that, yeah, sky's the limit.

 

 

So, how does it actually work?  The machine is loaded with a plastic filament which reminds me of spools of weed-whacker line.  Not quite as stiff as weed-whacker line, though.  The plastic line is fed through the machine, where it is heated up at the extruder tip.  (FYI: That's why we do the printing, not the general public - that tip gets very hot in order to melt the plastic - not something you want people getting curious around).  The heated plastic is then extruded through the tip and fed onto the platform.  It comes out in very thin strands - reminds me a little of hot glue, out of a much finer point than your average glue gun.  You even have little threads of plastic to clean off your finished object, just like hot glue threads!

 

 

The 3D printer processes the 3D design by slicing it into very thin layers.  The printer then prints each layer of plastic, stacking them one by one, until the 3D object is complete.  The extruder move back and forth across the platform according to a grid to lay down one slice of the object. Then the platform drops a little lower, and the next layer gets added on.  It's a process called additive manufacturing (as opposed to taking a big block of the original substance and chipping away until your object is done).  It can be a pretty slow process, depending on the size and complexity of the object.  And you do feel the layers (they aren't two dimensional, after all).  If you run your fingernail across the side of a 3D printed object, you'll probably be able to feel the ridges of the printed layers.  People who have created smooth 3D printed objects have either used a different type of machine (there are several types of 3D printing) or have smoothed or sanded the finished object until it felt seamless.

 

 

So where do you get 3D files to print?  There are some websites out there where you can design your own, or see what other people have designed and then shared.  Thingiverse is more a sharing site than an actual designing site, but it's a pretty good place to start if you're just getting exposed to the possibilities.  There are ways to make shared files customizable, though, which a lot of people have done.  The project pages are just marked as "Customizable," so just keep an eye out for that.  Like signs or name tags, where you can customize the text.  Or tools or figures that you can customize the size.  Some of the users that are my favorites are computer science teachers who've shared files like that, with some notes about how they use it in their classes.  Good learning tools.  Not all files are customizable, of course, but  you can still start playing around with design on Thingiverse, if you want.  I find it very easy to maneuver, based on a pretty simple key word search system. So if you're looking for chess pieces, or replacement Crock-pot knobs, or Christmas ornaments, or desktop storage cups, or cell phone cases, or whatever else, you can just search for that and see what turns up!  From there, a free account lets you build collections (save-for-later type sorting), download files for printing, upload your own design files, mark favorites, and share pictures of completed projects.

 

When you're ready to start getting a little more into designing, TinkerCad is a good next step.  It's a basic 3D drawing site, where you can start building your design from scratch, or import a file and tinker on it.  Don't be intimidated.  They have some very handy lessons for learning the tools and controls, so you can play around some before you start actually tinkering, if you want.  It's a pretty usable set-up, with similar tools to other drawing programs you might have encountered.  The hardest part for me was getting the hang of the camera controls; you can move in three directions, after all.  When you're done tinkering, your files in TinkerCad can be downloaded for printing, or you can share them onto Thingiverse, if you're so inclined.  If you're moving on past TinkerCad, there are more complex designing and drawing programs out there (we're learning a few in my courses too).  But Thinkiverse and TinkerCad are pretty good starting points if you just want to be introduced, get your feet wet, and see what all the fuss is about.

 

People have been really excited about our printer, and part of it is just seeing one in action or seeing the final products.  The printers have become more affordable, so they're appearing more in the news, in tech articles, in computer store sales specials even.  And they are becoming more common in libraries, in colleges and universities, in Maker hubs, and so on.  But people really aren't sure what they can make yet, so seeing ours is a great opportunity to be introduced to it all.  Society's still very much in the mindset to just go and buy what we need, even if that's not quite a perfect fit.  3D printing allows for repairs or inventive improvements to things we already have. I mean, a lot of things in Thingiverse are repair parts and adjustment pieces for existing objects.  Crock-pot knobs, for example (or any other plastic knob).  Or a clip for your shirt to hold your earbud wire in place as you run.  One patron submitted a rotor for a model helicopter that his kids had.  The rotor had broken, so they printed up a new one.  And it worked - very stylist copter too, with those bright yellow blades :).  A lot of businesses use 3D printing to print customized objects to sell - form-fitted earbuds, for example.  Unlike with big mass production efforts, it doesn't cost proportionately more to print one set of earbuds for one person, tweak it, print a different set for a second person, and so on.  With most mass-production methods, this is just impossible to afford, since each set of earbuds would require a different mold.  With 3D printing, it's the same cost per printed set of earbuds.  This same cost benefit makes 3D printing really good for mock-ups and models for companies during the design phase.  They can easily and cheaply print and adjust plastic models before actually producing a finished product in another material.  These sorts of benefits and uses are part of what we've been talking about in my courses; besides the design aspects of printing, we've talked about the economic possibilities and importance too.  All really very interesting, so if you get a chance to see or interact with one, take advantage!

 

 

This is a final project that I submitted.  No, I didn't design it (not quite that experienced yet).  I just submitted it to print as I was learning about the machine.  Yes, it's a yarn bowl.  It's still me, after all. :)

 

 

 

Road Trip, Part 1!

Yup, I know I've been spotty over the last few weeks, but it's been Spring Break time around here, and we took advantage of it - Road Tripping!  Zach and I took a week and went up through eastern OK, through the Ozarks in northern AR and southern MO, and across to Mammoth Cave, KY.  And then, of course, back to TX.

With all those stops, now my Map of States Visited looks like:

visited 29 states (58%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

And my Map of States Visited With Zach looks like:

visited 17 states (34%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Yes, there are a few gaps on the "With Zach" map, but some of those states we've merely passed through (and not taking the scenic route), and not actually visited.  I stand by my maps :)

And then once we got back, I started a new job!  Woohoo!  Still working for the same place, but in a different department.  I really enjoyed my other job, but this one is still interesting, so that's good.  And then there is the plus of having a better schedule and other practical benefits like that.  With all the new schedule changes after getting back from meandering across the middle of the country for a week... well, it took some time to get the pictures organized and labeled and ready to post. But we're ready to go now!  First up on the tour....

Ok-la-HOOOO-ma, OK!

We went northeast up through Texas into Oklahoma to start the trip.  Neither of us had ever been before, so we picked out a few state parks and a couple museums to check out as we worked our way east.

Impressions?

• The Red River really is red.  The river runs through what's called "red-bed country", meaning it runs through a lot of reddish sedimentary rocks.  As the river carrying a lot of sediment, it appears reddish itself.  Think deep south red clay color to the streams.  Interesting.  (Yes, the geo classes are coming out).  
• Neither of us had ever considered OK to be a forested area.  Too influenced by what we know of Army bases in OK and by song lyrics sweepin' down the plain, but the eastern side of the state is logging country, very pretty forests.  Learn something new every day!
• You can tell states that have an active or outdoorsy population.  They take care of their state parks and support the park system in general.  OK has some pretty nice state parks, at least in the eastern side where we were.  Very pleased.
• The Texas vs Oklahoma 'thing' is weird.   Overheard at Beaver's Bend:  "Oklahoma is Texas' wasteland."  Who said it?  A college kid to his friends, a group that had driven up from Texas to spend money and camp in an OK state park.  How sarcastic he was being, I don't know, but we were in a park that has more and taller trees than anything in several hours' radius from where we live in TX.  Yeah, a real wasteland...

The first stop was in Broken Bow, OK to visit Beaver's Bend State Park.  Besides being a pretty state park, Beaver's Bend houses the Forestry Heritage Museum.  I know it seems like a random museum to stop at, but it turned out to be pretty interesting.  My curiosity had been piqued after having worked a little with US Forestry folk when I was in SC, so I figured it was worth a stop.  It covered forest history and conservation and so forth, and had a lot of history information about logging in the area, too and how folk expanded into that section of OK. Totally new history for us.  And being a wood-focused museum, it hosted classes on wood carving and displays from local artists.  Some beautiful pieces!  And as a random-trivia bonus, the mascot was designed and the dioramas painted by Harry Rossoll, the creator of Smokey the Bear.

 

Robber's Cave State Park was the second state park on the tour, a little further north in Wilburton, OK.  From a caver's perspective, it's not really much of a cave.  And from a history nut's view, I'd have loved to hear more about the robbers they think used the cave.  But it was still a nice state park.  Plenty of hiking a riding trails, and some easy rock climbing points too.  For us, a nice little stop to stretch our legs and enjoy the lovely weather as we worked our way through OK.

 

The highlight of OK was kinda a surprise, at the Cherokee Heritage Museum in Tahlequah, OK.  Not that it should be a surprise that it was a good stop (why would we stop someplace bad if we can help it?), but it was a more involved museum than I had expected.  I had picked it out as a museum to break up the driving, it was close to where we need to turn to start heading east, and I didn't know much about Cherokee history to start with.  All good reasons to stop and visit.  But it turned out to be a very well done museum.  Restored buildings, artwork, history, demonstrations, a pretty thorough tour, and changes in progress as more is learned or exhibits grow or evolve... we were both pretty impressed.

 

I really like all the incorporation of the Cherokee language.  Most of the labels in the museum were bilingual, and the displays on the reconstructed town outside included words in the Cherokee alphabet, as well as their pronunciations.  85 symbols in the Cherokee syllabary!

The demonstrators were very cool people.  The guys showed how to play Stickball, as well as use several traditional types of weapons: blow dart, atlatl, and bow and arrow.

 

We hung around a little to ask questions and Zach and a few others got to try out the atlatl (pronouced AT-lattle, by the way, not attle-attle like I said when I was younger).

 

I liked this one.  Yes, I know it's named after a person named Swimmer, but education and aquatics in one building.  Made me smile.

And a truly random surprise.  Our tour group included a bunch of student nurses from south FL also traveling over spring break.  One was wearing a sweatshirt from Lost World Caverns in WV!!  Zach and I met there, at that cave specifically, and we have known the owners for a buncha years through assorted caving activities.  And here was someone from FL on a tour in OK wearing a sweatshirt from that particular cave in WV!  Craziness!

Personality Time!

So, working in a new department, meeting new people, learning all sorts of new routines, keeping very busy.  One of the fun things we've done, though, is at one of the staff meetings we have each month, people have been taking personality, communication style, etc. tests to get to know each other and each other's work styles a bit better.  Here are my two from this month's meeting:

I am predominantly Left Brained (sorry, no real "results page" for that one).

Color Lingo Communication Quiz

GREEN The GREEN Approach – OBJECTIVE & STRATEGIC When communicating, Greens tend to think before they speak. They like to analyze what they have just heard, explore the many ways they could respond and choose the reply that most accurately and pertinently expresses their thoughts on the matter. Their goal is to obtain information so they can figure out, fix, improve, or invent something as a result. To learn more about the GREEN communication style go to: http://www.tinyurl.com/GreenStyle Have fun!

Facebook quizzes & Blog quizzes by

Expanding my beading!

And I'm back!  More on the move and travel and new house and all the big changes in a later post, but first a few crafting posts.  I'm sorting my pictures on my computer and on Flickr, and realized I hadn't posted about any of the recent jewelry projects I've played with.  So here goes!

Between finding that I'm enjoying the beading and working at a job that had a dressier 'business casual' dress code compared to my last few jobs, I'm trying new projects - branching out into jewelry with my beading.  I'm not one for gemstones, really, so the beaded necklaces suit my tastes.

This very springtime-y one is based on instructions from Artbeads (the Pastel Passion Necklace).  This one was almost exactly as the original instructions dictated.  The only changes I made were using a slightly smaller silver spacer bead (only 1mm smaller, but about half the cost, based on what was on sale at the time!) and adding two little flower beads at the end by the clasp.  The holes in the colored beads were too big for the crimp beads, so they kept sliding around.  I put in the silver flowers to space them out a little, keep them from jamming up on the crimps at the clasp.  The flower clasp was one I had (Oriental Trading Company, I believe).  Also keeps with the springtime theme :)   Isn't it cute?

 

This one is inspired by a sample project from Artbeads (the Three Strand Pretty Purple Necklace).  I had black and red beads that coordinated well, so it's a totally different look than the purple sample. 

 

This one is also taken from Artbeads (the True Love Necklace), and the biggest thing I really changed was the color scheme.  I just don't really wear THAT much red, and don't really like kitschy red or pink heart necklaces.  So, white instead!  Not quite so seasonally limiting :)  I also spaced out the hearts a little more on the strands, and used 3 pairs of hearts, instead of the 2 pairs in the original. Finally, I put one pair of hearts on each strand, instead of having heart pairs on the same strand, like in the original.  Just personal preference on those changes.  For the clasp... well, I didn't do a clasp on this one.  The necklace is long enough that it will fit over my head without having to play with a clasp, so I ran the 3 wires through a large white bead and crimped them in place on either side.  So, one large gathering bead, instead of clasp.  The picture below probably does a better job of explaining than I'm doing right now :)

 

Yet another one inspired by Artbeads (Reasons of the Heart), but altered to fit what I had and wanted to use.  (Yes, definitely check out that website for some good inspiration projects!!)  I used a quote pendant of my own with a quote that I'm trying to adopt more and more - "Bloom where you are planted."  I saw that quote on a quilted wall hanging in a friend's office.  She had added pins from all her husband's units to the wall hanging.  I've also seen it as a caption for a painting of a cactus flower (very appropriate for our last and current duty stations).  Either way, I thought that was a good mindset for an Army spouse to have.  You don't know where you'll end up, so make the most of where you are!  The necklace itself here is made with mixed metals and mixed textures of chains, with the quote as the focal pendant.  The clasp is one of an assortment that I found on sale at Michael's, and fits in with the theme nicely :)

 

This one is one of my own designs.  The focal pendant came with the one above as a set.  I'm trying to be very positive thinking about where we bounce around to, can you tell?  I liked the green earthy beads with the theme of growth, and the little flower accent was just added for emphasis.  It doesn't curve as nicely as it could, due to the different types of beads (the green and the filigree) but I like it all the same.  The clasp is another from that same pack as the one of the Bloom necklace pictured above.

So,  here are a few recent beading projects.  I have a few more that I'll get posted soon too.  Gotta break 'em into a few posts, so that the pictures don't take too long to load, right?  :)

And some knitting news too

Besides the ABC-along, there's other knitting news going on in my little world.

For starters, I have TONS of time now to knit. Really, my life right now is cleaning, working out, and hobbies. This is the first time in over 4 years, since before Horrible Job in SC, that I've actually had enough time to really pursue my hobbies, instead of letting the supplies for them build up. Not a bad change! It'll be a nice break during whatever time we have left here in the desert, and whenever we get our orders and move (fingers crossed everyone!), I'll be ready to enter the workforce again, all recharged!

But, until then, I have plenty of time on my hands! So, the hobbies I'm focusing on are knitting and scrapbooking. Figure I'll try to work my way through a portion of my Netflix queue and get some projects done. Have tons of yarn and tons of pictures that are just waiting to be dealt with, and a mile-long queue to keep me supplied! So, expect lots of knitting pictures and chatting about movies :)

For the knitting realm, I'm almost done with my first big project of the year. When Mom came to visit last January (goodness, was that a whole year ago??), she brought with her a sweater that I'd made for her in college. She was so cute, "Is it bad manners to ask a knitter to redo a gift that they made for them?" Typically, the answer to that is a resounding YES. However, the gift that she was referring to was a sweater that, like I said, was made while I was in my senior year in college, as in a good 5, almost 6 years ago. This same sweater is one that she wears ALL the time in the winter (yet, I surprisingly don't have a picture of her in it). She likes that it's dressier-looking than a sweatshirt, but still sweatshirt-comfortable. And then there's the fact that her daughter made it for her. ;)

So what was the problem? Well, after the last 5 years of very regular wear, the sweater had gotten a little stretched out. Add to that, Mom has started running regularly, and has lost some weight as a result. Bottom line? The sweater which used to be comfortably baggy was now a sack around her. She could grab a handful of the sweater and still have a comfortably baggy sweater around her. So, no, I was not insulted that she was asking me to rework something she loved so that she could continue wearing it all the time.

As she was here visiting last January, she and Zach would sit and chat and rip out the sweater. I left that to them, as it's still hard for me to totally undo something I've done. :) When she left, she left behind the yarn, which sat in a bag until November when I was ready to start work on it again.

I started the sweater again in November, thinking that I'd do that sweater as my project for National Sweater Knitting Month (NaKniSweMo). To be honest, with work and everything else at that time, I didn't seriously think that I could finish the sweater in a month, but I did see it as a good chance to get my butt in gear and at least start the project. My goal (rather optimistic one) was to get the sweater done in time to put in Mom's Christmas box.

Still, although the sweater was not done in time for the Christmas box, it will be done shortly, so Mom will still to wear some this winter.

The sweater itself is the classic E Zimmerman Percentage system sweater. There's a good article about it over at Knitty. Lots of knitting in the round, very little seaming. My kind of sweater! I've been working on it as much as I can over the past few months, and am just about done. I joined the sleeves to the rest of the body on Saturday (Scruffy is inspecting the work in the picture below - yes, he really does sit like that) and have reached the decreases now. Once the decreases start, the rounds start going quickly, so pretty much in the home stretch now! After this, it'll just be seaming those 14 stitches under each arm and weaving in a whole bunch of ends. :)

Once Mom's sweater is done, I'll move on to more acrylic projects for family! I don't know if I've announced this yet, but I'm due to be an aunt this spring!! My brother-in-law and his wife are expecting twin boys this spring, so there will be plenty of baby knitting in my future! Zach's grandmother made each of the grandchildren a blanket when they were little, different allover cable patterns for each of them, and they all still use them now. Since Granny has passed away, I (as the only knitter in the family) inherited her needles, some yarn, and a lot of her notes, including the cable patterns she used in several of the blankets. So, each of the twins will be getting a blanket this year made from Granny's patterns. They will be different colors and different patterns, in keeping with tradition (also keeps me from getting bored!). I have chosen the color for the first one, and am figuring out what color I want to do for the second. Will have plenty of time to decide, since it's still a while before I'll be starting the second blanket!

Little filler projects for the spring include a simple shrug for me, and finishing up a carrying set for my yoga stuff. Oh yeah, and all my homework swatches for Stitches West! Can't forget those! Pictures will come, as always.

Frustrations

Well, I was supposed to be in Vegas this weekend. Back in the summer, Zach and I had planned to be in Vegas for a pair of races that I wanted to run, and that he may or may not do with me. Instead, we are here, him on duty and me working, both at the office and at the house. I think it's for the best that I stayed here, but that doesn't make it any easier :\

The Las Vegas Santa Run is a 5K run each year in Vegas to benefit a local assisted living shelter for mentally handicapped adults. It's also Vegas' entry into the Guinness Book category for largest gathering of Santas. There's also a city in Australia, one in Italy, and a few in the UK who enter each year - those are the ones I remember off the top of my head, at any rate. So, had we entered, we'd have been Guinness Book participants, run a fun 5K, helped a local charity, and earned our own Santa Suit (part of your race registration!). Totally worth it!

The R&R Vegas Half and Full Marathons (I was going to do the half) are another part of the Rock & Roll series of races. Since we're only a few hours away, this was going to be my fall quarter motivational race. Remember, that's how I use the long races - about 1 a quarter, something long-term to keep me running. This would've been the one to keep me moving from Sept to Dec.

Yes, running both races would've been a busy weekend, but it would've been fun. And I've run more in a weekend. The Shamrock races in VB (my very first 1/2 marathon!) have a special award if you run the 8K on Saturday and then the half or full marathons on Sunday. It's called the Whale or Dolphin Challenge (yes, you can tell we're a beach town). You get a special certificate, and besides, it helps me to get out and stretch my legs a little on the day before a race (like walking all over Phoenix before the half in January!). Both years I ran the Shamrock, I did the Dolphin Challenge, and the second year I did the combo, I actually got my best time on the half! So, running a slow 5K in a Santa suit would've been a fun warm-up for the half the next day.

And any rate, it's not as crazy as the Disney World race combination. Their full and half marathons are on back to back days, instead of the same day, so running both earns you the Goofy Medal. 39.3 miles in a weekend is a little much for me right now, so more power too 'em! I'll stick with a 5 or 8K instead if I'm gonna do a back-to-back weekend.

Well, this fall did NOT go as planned. Lots of turn-over at work, lots of really long days for me, and as a result, I think I've run once this past month. Not good. Add to it that Zach's work has been crazy-busy as well (again, hit by moves and end up being short-staffed too) and then he gets put on duty this weekend and can't come anyway... well, it just didn't work out.

And I know that everyone over the course of their running careers will have races that they really want to go to but cannot for whatever reason. I know that if I tried to run this one, I'd probably hurt myself, and it's better in the long run to stay home with Zach (actually SEE my husband - crazy idea that!) and get stuff done around the apartment. I know that we made a good choice here, and it has been a productive weekend (Christmas boxes getting ready to go out!), but that doesn't make it any less frustrating.

Well, soon I'll be looking at 2010 and trying to plan out what races I want to use to motivate my lazy butt next year! That'll honestly probably have to wait til after we get orders, because after January, I've no idea where we'll be!! Hard to plan a race schedule that way :)

I never want another fall like this

EVER!!

In case you're wondering why posting has been sporadic, well... the real world has sucked away all spare time and energy. Following a busy summer (my job is very seasonally-based), we have now been short-staffed at my facility for nearly two months (and in a work environment where you have safety-mandated minimum staff requirements, that's a BIG DEAL). Every time we think we're getting new people on, something comes up and we end up remaining short staffed, just with different people in the same slots. So, there's been tons of extra hours for anyone who can pick them up, and if no one else can, well then, I get them. Sucks to be on top sometimes!

I did have the vacation at the beginning of the month, but that honestly seems like a distant memory already. Things were so crazy the 3 weeks before we travelled, and then we came right back to a whirlwind of drama and stress (some of it actually even warranted!) that I've been going nonstop since I got back!

And the crazy part is that we are never short staffed by one person. It always seems to be several at once. The person who's traveling out of town never leaves on a weekend where nothing happens - instead that's the weekend where another gets very very sick and a third decides to quit! It's like we need to be almost double staffed just to have subs available for when things happen! Always, always, it seems to come in clumps like that. Maybe it's just that if it's only one person short, we just find a sub and don't notice, but that when it crosses a threshold of "down by 3" we actually notice. At any rate, it's stressful and tiring and I'm tired of it happening!!

Add to that, a hectic job for Zach and Army paperwork at its convoluted finest (Zach's working out several paperwork tangles at the moment), and it's just been a barrel of monkeys the last few months, lemme tell you! Regular craziness over the summer leading into the past two months of flat-out insanity!

(sigh) I really love my job - I mean, what I actually do on a daily basis - but almost every day I wish I only had to do it 40 hours a week...

Yeah, yeah

Haven't been posting much, but things've been busy here. Unfortunately, not busy-exciting, just regular ol' busy.

Summer's finally here, so work's going all crazy. Not to pieces (hopefully nothing else breaks this summer - at least let us make it through the season!!) but just busy. That's what you get for working a job with definite Seasons to it, I guess :) I do like my job, most days, (like any job, I guess) but MAN, when it hits, it HITS!

So, yes, very busy.

Surprisingly busy outside of work too. It's been unseasonably pleasant here the past few weeks, so we've been trying to do a little bit outside before the "regular" summer hits. Starting to feel like a normal desert summer now, but starting back at the beginning of June, we were having GORGEOUS weather! Almost outright chilly a few days! For those that don't know, in this area, normal June temperatures are in the upper 90s, not the upper 70s, like it was about a week and a half ago. It was really funny talking to all the families who've been stationed out here for at least a year - you know, the ones that KNOW this is unusual weather. What was funny was listening to us all talk. Every conversation had "I'm not complaining, but..." or some similar variation, as we all observed how unusual the weather was :) All of us were noting it was odd, and at the same time, trying not to jinx ourselves into normal weather! :) But, our brief respite is now over, and the weather is turning into the normal windy, cloudless, overheated oven that summer is out here. (sigh...) Well, it was WONDERFUL while it lasted!

My other big excuse for not posting: the Altador Cup.

On busy days, I relax with computer games. Not gamer-type games - that's a realm of geekdom I have yet to enter. More like Popcap and similar flash games. Give me brightly colored puzzle or arcade games and I'm happy as a clam. Like Neopets. Flash games and cute animals - what's not to like? And by "like," I mean become mildly addicted... (Blast you, Anne, for getting me started!!)

Anyhoo, Neopets has several events during the year. Plots (adventure storylines you follow in the Neopian world) or game challenges or whatever. In the summer, it's the Altador Cup, a game challenge where you join a team from the Neopian world, and play games to earn points for your team. It's all centered around a soccer/jai alai type sport called yooyuball, so there's the World-Cup-esque mindset to it. All in bright colors with tiny fictional animals playing the games, of course :) Very silly, and after a tiring day at work with lots of screaming kids and/or adults, it's a nice way to relax

I joined the Shenkuu Ninjas :) Go Shenkuu! We're actually doing pretty well - I think we're in 4th overall (of 16 teams) as I'm writing this.

(C'mon - who wouldn't want to be a Ninja?? Unless you wanted to join the Krawk Island Pirates, I suppose...)

Work is eating my life...

So, I usually try not to talk about my work here. This place is basically a very tiny town, and my job is kinda unique here, so it doesn't feel like the place to chatter or vent about my job anymore. But, thankfully, my job no longer falls into the category of Horrible Jobs, so I don't have quite so much to vent about here. Well, at least job-wise.

At the same time, though, my job is crazy-busy right now - definitely a big part of why posting has been so infrequent the past two weeks. We've had some big projects going on the past few months, and it's all finally coming to an end, so this week and last have been running around like headless chickens as things come together. You know how those big projects are - you get to the end of them, and have to finish up a couple dozen details that by their nature had to wait til the end anyway, and then there are things you simply didn't notice until the end, and so forth. I'm really looking forward to next week when things are finally back to normal (as normal as they ever are at my job!)

So, yes, hopefully things will calm down a bit next week, and I'll have energy in the evening again to chatter and keep ya'll up to date with my adventures here in the middle of nowhere :) This is just a little note to let you know I haven't been swallowed up by the desert (at least not yet!)

Craziness!!!

IT SNOWED TODAY! And not the wimpy flurries that don't stick - we actually had several inches accumulate!

In case you've missed it the past 9 months, I live in the desert, an area not particularly know for snowfall :) It was a real kick to see palmettos and palm trees covered in snow!

A friend and I were so excited - a season!! Here in the desert, a season! (One of my biggest frustrations here is that it always looks the same: brown) It was very exciting to see the snow covered trees and the big fat flakes coming down. Our road has lots of families on it, and by the time I got home, there were two little snowmen decorating our street - so cute!

Living here on post, I could enjoy the snow. The weather created some problems for those living down in Town, though, because they didn't know if the 30-some mile road to post would be cleared by the time everyone went home at the end of the work day (it was; everyone made it home). In my own way, though, I did have to be careful and plan ahead for tomorrow. I had to sweep walkways clear (we don't have a shovel), so that it's not a complete icy mess at my facility in the morning. When I took this job, the last thing I expected my job duties would include was sweeping snow off the deck and sidewalks - I actually had a regular patron at our facility stop and take a picture of me, she was so tickled seeing me out there! :) (The one below I took myself, though!)