Out With The Old...

I had an unplanned break from knitting but have been itching to pick up some needles all week. I have friends who have recently had babies or are soon to have babies, so I want to knit adorable baby stuff.  I am a planner and spent many hours this week looking through patterns and thinking about yarn.  I also invested in some knitting supplies, as a pattern I want to knit used some tools I didn't have yet (16" circulars, I am looking at you!). I also picked up some stitch markers, some dpns, and soft yarn.

I tried to start a new project today that involved double pointed needles, and despite my three attempts, I could not get a handle on it.  I realize I need to take a step back; I basically haven't knit in almost a year and am a wee bit rusty.  I was still itching to knit, so I am on task to complete all my outstanding projects (luckily there are only three).  So new and cute baby projects are still to come, but here is what I accomplished today:

Reusable Swiffer Cloth - I just had to seem the edge to complete this.

Top view.  Just ignore how dirty the Swiffer is!

Bone dog toys - seemed and stuffed. I still need to learn proper seeming.

I also made headway on a winter hat I began last February for John.  I am only about a third done, but I am so happy to be knitting again.  Working on all these projects has me really inspired for all the new things I will create.

This is Where a Blog Would Go...

...Except I spent most of my evening full of rage and now this blog is just a forum for my complaints and frustrations.  People hardly ever do that on blogs, right?

Firstly, I spent most of the evening trying to solve a company initiated problem through inbound customer service and did not get the problem solved.  After getting off the phone the first time I was actually furious.  The neat thing I'm reflecting on while writing this is that John gets to see me as a TNT firecracker explosion and still thinks I am the cutest thing ever. That makes me feel good. And after a second phone call with customer service (and now that I've calmed down), I'm thinking positively that after a few more phone calls tomorrow everything should be worked out.

Secondly, the "Delay Brew" button on my coffee maker is not working properly.  John naively said I should just "hit the on button in the morning".  Little does he know I have my morning "routine" timed down to the millisecond, so if the coffee is not ready when I am, the whole morning is going to be fucked.  With the patience of a saint (and note this happened after the above rage-filled incident) I hit the delay brew button repeatedly just hoping above all hopes that the light would turn on.  I passionately kept pressing that stupid button and it finally turned on.  That was the last thing you had to do for me coffee maker! I am replacing you tomorrow!

Anyway, my little rant is done now.  Back to our regular programming.

The Last Song I'll Ever Sing For You....

I got my first iPod in 2005 when all my amazing friends chipped in and bought me a group gift for my birthday.  I didn't know I wanted a digital music player, but I instantly bonded with my sleek and adorable iPod Nano, not fully comprehending how I had previously walked without earbuds and 800 of my favourite songs at the ready.  At the time (almost 7 years ago!) the Nano was the best thing ever. And even now, knowing that there are so many newer versions of the iPod, I still love mine, even if all it does is play music.  But having said that, isn't that what iPods are for?

I'm not really one to upgrade easily; change isn't really my thing.  And really, my iPod still works!  I use it every day in my alarm clock dock, and it still accompanies me on long walks in the park.  We've had and continue to have good times.

In November I got an email from Apple saying that my iPod had been recalled.  There was a possibility that the battery could overheat, so they were voluntarily recalling and replacing them. At that time the internet was a flutter with what they were being replaced with.  Would we get our Nanos back refurbished?  Would we get brand new ones (with a touch screen!)?  Would we get refurbished 1st Generation Nanos that Apple just had lying around?  The internet could only speculate! If they do send me a new one, I'll definitely be making an enormous leap in my music player (my Nano is only 4G; the smallest available size of the 6th Gen is 8G! Win!)

I was slow moving to start the process of sending my iPod away to be replaced, but I have finally come to terms with the fact that my 6+ year relationship with my 1st gen iPod Nano is over.  We'll always have our rainy walks through the Annex, our sunny sprees up Bathurst, and some energetic times at the gym.  Good times and good memories.

I sent in my request for a replacement and Apple recently sent me a padded envelope and instructions.  All very spy like, I think.  I called UPS yesterday morning and they picked up my iPod by 1pm.  The UPS tracking already shows it as half way to Apple.  I'm starting to get excited about what will be coming back in 4-6 weeks.

Awesome of the Week - 01/09/12

Masters At Work Edition:

I'm a few months late in finding the following video, but I am so happy to post it as my first Awesome of the Week for 2012.  The video features Marquese Scott, an exceptional dancer who can move his body in ways I didn't even know were possible.  I'm not that into dance, but there is something about watching someone who is a master of their craft; you can't help but appreciate it and be moved by it.  I had a similar experience during the 2010 Winter Olympics watching Shaun White snowboard.  I don't care too much about snowboarding, but he was so remarkably good at it, I couldn't help but be glued to the tv to watch him board.  Hope these videos inspire you to have an awesome week!

Marquese Scott:



Shaun White:

Figuring Out New Blogger

Blogger has a new interface which I have been avoiding as sometimes I cannot get it together to learn new things.  Also, I don't always like change.  John recently questioned why I was holding onto the old one as he swears by the awesomeness of the new one. Time to figure it out, I guess.

This is my first post with the new Blogger and so far I am finding all the buttons and it is already allowing me to do things I couldn't do before.  For whatever reason the old Blogger wouldn't let me upload photos using Firefox, but the new interface lets me do it no problem.  Looking forward to exploring what else has been improved. Change can be good.

Turn This Clock Around

I'm just about to enter into my third day back at the office after my extended break.  Flipping my bedtime from 3:00am to Midnight and my wake up time from noon to 7am was challenging, but I succeeded like a champ on Wednesday and Thursday.  Today, however, all I wanted to do was turn my alarm off and sleep for an adequate amount of time.  Good news is, it is only about 10 hours until nap time, and more importantly, the weekend.  Happy Friday everyone!!

Christmas Vacay By The Numbers

And so it is finally here, my last day of vacay.  What better way to stop thinking about how I will possibly get up at 7:00am tomorrow, than by remembering the good times over the past week.  If you had some time off, I hope it was relaxing and rejuvenating.

Number of days off in a row: 13

Average time slept into each day: 11:00am

Number of car rides to Mom's: 4

Number of Christmas cards received: 23

Number of Entertainment Weekly's read cover to cover: 6

Number of days I ate chocolate as part of my balanced breakfast: 4

Number of new computers purchased: 1 (more on that later)

Number of nieces and nephews hugged: 5

Number of infants I got to hug and be a baby hog with: 1

Number of Wii games played: 2 (Lego Star Wars and Just Dance Summer Party)

Hours spent on a certain Lego themed Star Wars game: 23

Percentage of Lego Star Wars completed over those hours: 54%

Minutes of Aerobic exercise: 30

Number of blog posts: 6 (including this one)

Number of batches of Caramel Popcorn made: 2

Number of treats eaten: all of them

Resolutions made: 0

Source

New Year's Treats

It is January 1st, so the binge eating of treats and goodies I've been indulging in for the past month is slowly coming to a close. I am getting rid of any treats left in my house through a combination of overeating and unloading them on friends. Spread the wealth!

Although most of the treats are now gone, there is still a rather large stash of sweet ingredients from all the holiday baking I did.  With a great treat idea from The Happy Whisk, I melted and mixed my leftover milk and mint chocolate chips with a bag of mini-candy canes that my Mom unloaded on me yesterday. The resulting treat is super yummy, and served as the perfect 'dessert' to all the other treats I had today.

Candy canes ready to grind.  The smell once ground was powerful
 and intoxicating.

Mix with melted chocolate.

Spread on baking sheet.  Sprinkle with even more candy cane.  Freeze.

Break into pieces and enjoy!

Happy New Year's Everybody!!