Bad Blogger.......

.... I started this yesterday, but real life, uh, I mean my job, interrupted.

When I wrote the title I was thinking about that commercial where the woman admonishes her credit score as if it were a puppy ("Bad, bad 509."). Yeah, my brain is still coasting.

• But we finally got our taxes done and mailed (hubby is a Luddite). Besides the Post Office really needs our help.

• My personnel review, as expected, came back like a boomerang for [minor] revision. [deleted text to protect my long term employment] If you're really interested, email me for the rant. I long for the days, when I sat down with my supervisor, and she and I had a casual chat about what was good, what needed work, and where the unit was headed in the near term. Along with that there were always griping about our own supreme poo bah. Often I was given a new and usually challenging assignment. Fun times....

• I have one more med test lined up, to complete my winter of getting hit with the illness stick. This hopefully will wrap up my odyssey [fingers crossed]. I did however emerge with one overarching issue, and there is a not so simple solution...lose about 25 lbs.....There I've said it. It's not so simple because even though I'm a pretty good eater....little fast food, no soft drinks, not big on sweets (outside of sugar in my tea, and dark, fine chocolate), I am weight loss resistant. I have a bit of insulin resistance going on...yes, it is documented. I am also exercise averse....meaning outside of yoga, I hate exercise. A deep abiding hate. I find it wasted time, unless I'm going somewhere....like hiking. Oh yeah...and I'm over 50, you can figure out the rest.
  
  The bright side is I could knit smaller sizes! I don't know how I'm going to do this, but it must be done. My doctor, who is really a nice honest gentleman, simply said, yes, the weight mattered. And I'm smart enough to know this.
  
  
• But for following along this far you get a bonus.
  

MORE French Press Slippers!! Yea!! I know what you're thinking--that the flu back in January, or bad daytime TV, or both, killed brain cells. Actually, these are a Christmas gift 2010 for my Mom. So there's a method to the madness.




Details:

French Press Felted Slippers
Less than 2 skeins Lambs Pride Worsted (85 wool/15 mohair) my felting favorite. And I got them for half price at our LYS Superbowl sale.
The delightful Pistachio colorway







More details:


The button.....precious no? Bought it at JoAnn fabrics.












The soles with puffy paint hearts, which really do make them less slippery. (I know this because I jammed my too big flipper into them to check.) Yeah, not nicely drawn, but it was a bitch because the tip of the paint bottle kept catching in the wool. My mom's house has mainly hard wood floors, and if she fell and broke something because of slippers, MY slippers, my sister would murder me in my sleep.






I will soon be starting yet another pair in a wonderful goldish color. But because I don't know who they're for yet....I have several options, I'll forgo the puffy paint until I decide. Stay tuned.

I also have another finished piece that I've been wearing a lot this spring, but I'll save that for next week. Knitting has been verra slow lately. Work has been so busy, by the time I get home, grab something simple for dinner, I'm falling asleep and knitting isn't even an option.

Good news, bad news.....

Good news...

• The pneumonia cleared up completely. I didn't know how bad I was feeling until now. I'm even getting my feisty back.
  

Bad news...

• Left me with a raging sinus infection and ten MORE days of antibiotics. I do not have one cell of fauna left in my whole body.The sinus infection, however, seems to be gone.

Good news...

• After many weeks worth of angst, my personnel review is (fingers crossed) finished. (Backstory: for some reason, this office elevates a simple process to bizarre levels of busywork. It is horrifying.)

Bad news...

• Even after several go-arounds, the "fat lady" hasn't sung. The exec. dir. has to "approve" the review. This has been tricky in the past...like hitting a moving target.

Good news...

• I read a number of blogs, but don't comment on many. However, in the past month I've "won" two blog contests. I am someone who doesn't ever WIN anything. Hence my aversion to games and gambling.
  

• Thank you Zeneedle for the Sublime Kid Mohair. So very cool.
• And I just received a free pattern from Wendy Knits...her work is lovely!

To say I was stunned this morning when I was notified about the pattern is an understatement.

Bad news...

• It almost makes up for me backing into my neighbor's bumper yesterday morning. (Though I don't think my husband will agree.) Fortunately, used loosely, the only damage is to MY car. My driver's side rear bumper is pretty much toast (which means the whole bumper will need to be replaced), and the tail light is broken up. There is good news here though. The fellow who's truck I hit had virtually NO damage save a little scratch on the underside of his bumper. I left a note and he called to tell me that it didn't concern him. (Good karma points to you Ron!)

So I hope this explains, the silence here from Happy Valley. I am now hoping that my review is passed along without further comment. Then maybe I can actually concentrate on my job!!

Knitting content is languishing on my camera......maybe Monday!!

Oh yes, and Happy Easter to those who celebrate the holiday, or holy day, you pick. And Happy Passover to my Jewish friends and colleagues.

Slowly sinking....

Ever coordinate a conference? If you're a conference/event planner you know from whence I speak. I am NOT a conference/event planner, however, I have the dubious honor of coordinating and organizing a conference once a year, among other smaller events as part of my position.

Consequently, with a conference sneaking up on me the end of this week, I will not be in a good "place" to post until next week, if then. I will be sitting cross legged, chanting, and probably banging my head off the nearest solid surface, until this is over. As the last week rolls by, issues "pop up". Issues that no matter how carefully one tries to avoid them happen. Sigh.

Anyway..... my Monkeys are finito!!



And they're green!! These are Mountain Colors Barefoot in Mountain Tango colorway.










Here's a closeup.


These babies have an Eye of Partridge heel, my favorite heel, and fit beautifully. This is another lovely pattern from Cookie A. She must be a much tighter knitter than I am. I usually use the same stitch count, and a size 1 needle, and it fits beautifully.







This is also my lace slog...It is a Sivia Harding Hanging Garden Stole. If I was a good lace knitter I suspect I'd be done with this by now, but I've just passed about the year mark, and still have 4 repeats to go. And yesterday I discovered I made an error, and will need to try and recover, though I doubt that it will be noticeable to anyone but me. And probably not even me, when all is said and done. How do people knit lace, with lace weight yarn, so fast? I can't imagine.



Sigh. This is probably not a good project for me to work on this week. Not if I want to keep what's left of my sanity anyway.