#CoulsonLives #FuryLies Scarf How to!

Here is how to make your very own #CoulsonLives #FuryLies scarf.

Supplies:
2 Skeins Berroco Comfort in Main Color
1 Skein Berroco Comfort in the color you want your letters
1 set size 8 (5mm) straight needles (circulars will do)
Stitch Markers (which are totally optional and I did not use, but if you're new to knitting might help)

*I found it useful to wind about 1/3 of the color for your letters into a separate ball so that you can work one set of letters out of each

Here are my supplies.  I bought extra yarn because I wasn't sure how much I would need.  I ended up using about a skein and a half of the black and not even one skein of the white.




So, next.  Casting on.  I cast 35 stitches (picture on the left) with the black and then did 7 rows in seed stitch.  That's knit, purl, knit, purl all the way across.  You do that 7 times (picture below).  Don't worry about which side is the right side at this point.



Once you've completed your 7 rows on seed stitch you're going to keep going in seed stitch for the first and last 5 stitches of every row.  This means the first 5 stitches will always be knit, purl, knit, purl, knit.  It doesn't matter if you're on the right side or the wrong side, it will always be that.  After I finished the first 7 rows I did 2 rows with the seed stitch border and stockinette stitch (knit on the right side, purl on the wrong side) just to establish myself.

Now the real fun starts.  THE LETTERS.
I used these letters and modified them slightly so that they were all 7 spaces across and 12 letters high.  Except the 'I'.  The 'I' is only 6 letters across. I took a picture of them in excel on the right, but it's kind of hard to tell.  Hopefully the link works as a good guide line. How annoying.  So, about halfway through your scarf will look something like...

Not really halfway through.  I worked the lettering up one way and then down the other way.  Once you're through you will have to block it out.  And you might want to sew some kind of fabric on the back, in order to cover up all the messy color work portions.


And now some blocking photos for your edification:

THE SCARF soaking in the sink.  Left it for about 20 minutes

Pinned out in the laundry room.  

 I soaked it in the sink for about 20 minutes.  Then rolled it up in a towel (I only barely wrung it out).  Then I stomped on the towel.
I used t-pins to pin it to some foam board to dry completely flat.  Always good to remember to attach washing directions for any of your knitting creations that you are sending far and away from you.  I like to make my own labels.

Detail shot!

You'll notice that I didn't include any hash tags for #CoulsonLives and #FuryLies.  I couldn't think of a good way to make a hash tag that would look like it matched the font.  If you can more power to you.  Feel free to add to this pattern to your little hearts content.  Also if you do make a scarf, e-mail me a pic :)  I would love to see other people's interpretation of it.   If you're an agent in deep cover, you could make the pattern in colors that are only a few shades different, or make it all in the same color and purl the patterns for the letters instead of making them a different color.  I think that might look cool.

After that weave in your ends.  If you're any good at sewing you can sew on some fabric to the back to cover up all your color work.  And that's it!

Good luck agents!

Do it with a Rockstar

Okay.  To get myself back into Blogging...since I've been kind of out of it for a while, I am going to do a 30 day challenge thing.

Day One: Write some basic things about yourself

Basic things.  My hair is blonde (naturally).  My eyes are green, but can look blue in certain lights combined with certain colors.  I live with my parents and I need to lose about 65lbs (which is better than the 165lbs I had to lose 4 years ago).  I have a cat named Mab.  She's 5 years old.  I love reading, writing, playing ukulele and guitar.  I work at the local hospital.  I'm a scheduler there, and while the work is kind of monotonous and boring, I do like most of the people.  I would love to work for a comic book company one day, and am keeping my eyes open for positions that could move me towards that (I am looking at you Marvel).  I have never had a boyfriend.  I am still a virgin.  I don't currently have a favorite author (I used to, but I don't want to talk about it).  I'm 5'6".

That's pretty much all the basics that I can think of.  Good start thought I think.  YAY!

Put your back in, baby, put you back into it

I found the set list online:

Situation Infatuation

Promise

Amphetamines

BFGF

Think Twice

Leech

Nightmare

Lost & Found

Here’s to the Night

At Least We’re Dreaming

Pick Up the Pieces

Victoria

Tongue Tied

On the Roof Again

Inside Out

Open Road Song

Anytime

Superhero Girl

Clearly there were a couple songs that I forgot or got mixed up (one that I called the wrong thing, oops)

B.F.G.F.

I've had this song stuck in my head for hours now...I honestly believe it's the reason I haven't gone to sleep yet.

To recap...I have had an awesome couple of weeks.  I don't know how else to put it.  I met my favorite band since I was 12, and the red-headed bass player that started my well-publicized obsession with red-heads.  I went to Hawai'i (Maui to be specific).  Though the plane ride home was a little horrific (red eye, with complementary crying one year old, that kid had some stamina, let me tell you).  I've donated $100 to go to an Amanda Palmer house party happening sometime next year, where me and 49 people I have likely never met before will be treated to a private performance from Amanda and the GTO.  I get to see the Avengers at midnight on Thursday.  And there are so many other things that I am just massively looking forward to.

Quick recap of my Eve 6 concert so that I don't forget anything (I know, I'm horribly remiss in writing this up almost two weeks later, I have probably already forgotten some tiny detail that will bother me):

I got there almost late.  I was supposed to get there at 5:15pm for the soundcheck and meet and greet with the band, but was late due to the insane traffic in Seattle.  I was almost crying because it was 5:21pm when I finally pulled up in front of El Corazon.  But luck was with me, and I hadn't missed much except for the merch guy talking a little bit.  Phew, crisis averted.  I got my pass and stood in the rain for a little bit before we all went inside.  Eve 6 was up on the stage, they said hello to all of us VIP-ers.  Probably between 20 and 25 in all.  They played Rescue Me from Horrorscope and a new one from Speak in Code called Everything.  They sounded awesome as usual for their awesome selves.  Then we all got in a line and waited to go and meet them, have a little chat, get things signed and get a picture.  I wish two things: that I had taken advantage of the merch table, and that I had brought a better camera.  I was much too twitterpated to think of any of this at the time.  I chatted with the people around me in line, and the member of the crew who was nice enough to be taking pictures.  We talked about the 14 hour drive they had made from Salt Lake City that day.  I got to meet them.  Tony immediately stepped forward and introduced himself, and shook my hand, and then I shook Max (who shakes with his left hand, awkward) and Jon.  Max asked if I wanted my VIP badge signed and I said yes.  Tony asked if I had ever seen them before (I imagine that most people had said no, because it seemed like everyone there was younger than me and didn't know the old stuff to well)  He was surprised when I told him I had, when they were in town with Goldfinger and Good Charlotte.   Max had poofy hair at that point.  Tony remembered and commented that they had worn daisy dukes on stage, I said that Max had a cold, we laughed.  Tony promised they would be fully clothed and in full health this time around.  Then we posed for a picture and I was on my way.  I had about an hour before doors opened for the actual show.  Nate called and we met up and found some dinner, though really I was way to nervous to eat hardly anything. I ate like 3 bites of a salad and a piece or two of cheesy bread.

The show itself had 3 opening bands before Eve 6 came on.  Tony D'angelo was the first one, they were pretty good.  Kind of rap and singing combo group.  Girl drummer, that was really unique.  The second band was called Namesake, they were kind of huge.  Lots of cute guitar/bass players though.  That was nice.  The third band, and probably the most polished, was The Audition.  The lead singer seemed like he definitely already had a few drinks in him.  They were really high energy and got the crowd going.  Then, Eve 6.  They opened with Situation Infatuation which was really good.  The people I was standing around were pretty awesome.  On one side of me was a tiny red-head girl and two of her guy friends (there was another friend with them, but she kept going out to the car to smoke a bowl and never coming back), they were nice.  On the other side of me was a woman who said she was old enough to be my mother, but did not look like it, her boyfriend/husband, her daughter and a couple of her friends. I couldn't say what order the other songs happened in, so I'm just going to make a list:

• Situation Infatuation
• Victoria
• Here's to the Night
• On the Roof Again
• Promise
• Amphetamines
• Nightmare
• Inside Out
• Open Road Song
• 1000 Faces
• Leech
• At Least We're Dreaming
• Think Twice
• Pick up the Pieces
• B.F.G.F. (I am pretty sure they played this one)
• Lost & Found

I'm pretty sure that's it.  It was great.  Max and I had a moment during Pick up the Pieces because I was one of the few people in the audience who knew most of the words (because it had been a song he did on his own, but he changed a bit of it).  The stage conversation was great as always.  Just a few snippets.

Max: Sweetpea, Sweetpea, is this bass made of real gold?  I want you to look me in the eye and tell me this bass is made of real gold!

Jon: I would look you in the eye, Max, but there's pole between us.  However, I guarentee that bass is made of real gold.

Tony: Shut up.

Max: I thought this song (referring to Pick up the Pieces) was about someone else.  Then I thought about it for while and it turns out that it was about me all along.

Max: We wrote this song while we were sitting in a room at the highschool after having to much soda and sugar, and Sweetpea thought it would be a good idea to have a song that everyone could bounce up and down to.  And Tony and I, well, we thought that was a really good idea.  But I don't just want you all to bounce up and down, I'll count it off, 1 2 3 4, and then you jump.  You don't want to be the only one jumping up and down do you?  So only jump when I count to 4.

That's all the really memorable conversation I can recall.  The blonde chick in front of me stepped on my toe with her insanely giant shoes.  That hurt like a son of a bitch.  The mosh pit knocked me over, but the nice people next to me helped me back up, and then the woman who said she was old enough to be my mother sent her husband/boyfriend over to guard me (and the two little people next to me) from the mosh pit.  That was very nice of her.  I took a lot of pictures for them before and after the show.

I think that recounts pretty much the whole experience.  At least enough to make me relive it through a blog post. :)

I promise not to try not to fuck with your mind

My new job has been good thus far. It's interesting seeing it from a little bit of a different perspective. Sometimes you look at a month for a floor and you just go..."Well, that sucks" and then you try and move people around enough that everything sucks just about equally. I still don't have absolutely complete access to Kronos, so that's kind of annoying since my boss forgot to do anything before he left.

Having some vacation issues since my boss apparently completely missed my last vacation request. I'm hoping that they didn't accidentally approve anyone who requested after me. Because technically there's should be pulled and mine should be put in. Ugh. Messiness. But I'd push the issue. I hate that.

I'm dying a little from working days right now. They kill me completely. I just want to sleep all of the time. Really aggravating when it's finally nice out.

I really think that's all my brain can handle right now...blegh

Because the Origami

Just went and saw Thor all by my lonesome. Which is always kind of sad because I always want to make comments to people when I see movies and when you're by yourself there's not really anyone to comment too. But the movie was great! Plus there were lots of attractive good looking men in it. Always makes my day. The guy who played Loki looks awfully familiar (also he's worked with Branaugh before, which doesn't surprise me, sometimes actors become favorites of directors and get used a lot). Also he'll be back in the next one along with everyone else! YAY! And it had Stellan Skarsgard in it. Not my favorite Skarsgard, and that would have made it so much funnier if Alex Skarsgard had gotten the part of Thor. I would have spent the whole movie laughing. Which probably would have made it not as good of a movie. I did see it in 3-D which kind of leaves me with a headache now. Also the Avengers movie can not get here soon enough. I can't believe I have to wait an entire year for it. UGH. I'll just have to survive on all the other amazing movies coming out in between. Like Priest, and Pirates of the Caribbean 4, and Captain America, and X-Men: First Class, and Sherlock Holmes 2...and hopefully some more Sherlock tv series.

Now I want to write this Loki story that has been floating around in the back of my head for a while. Almost 4 years now I think. I should probably just start working on it. But I have to find all of my Ragnorak research. and then try to remember how I was spinning it. Oh fun. Off I go interwebs. Have a lovely night.

It's how my friend history here made me

Still trying to get better at the emblogginning. Slowly doing so I think.

Today is my last day as a staffing clerk. At least for a while. The nice thing is that I will have every Saturday off and ever other Friday/Sunday. The other thing that I'm kind of ambivalent about is working 9a-5p. While it's nice that I will get off at 1730 every evening it's kind of gross to have to be here at 0900 every morning. Not as bad as 0700 which I will unfortunately be doing 5 days a week for the next two weeks. Kind of going to suck. I've already warned people not to talk to me probably for at least 2 hours. Also Katie and I are probably going to be bored by day 3 if not sooner.

Weightloss wise I am still losing but very slowly. I have been really bad about food for the last two weeks. I need to get back to more veggies and fruit and things like that. Or at least refried beans. Ugh. Low cal soups and stuff are good too. It's just kind of expensive to buy all that stuff for myself so I just end up eating what's around. And I want to be good about it and then I'm just not. I need a better tracking system. No, I just need to set a time of the day aside at the end of it were I sit down and write everything I've eaten for the day down onto a sheet of paper. That would be the best solution to that I think.

Well, at least a bit of a plan anyway. I'm thinking about getting a gym membership as well when I move onto 9-5's because I think it will be easier to go either before or after work. I'll have to trial it and see how it goes. Or at least get a better work out regimen going. Maybe I should be like Neil Gaiman and listen to Bleak House whilst exercising. Or any other audiobook. That should keep me distracted enough to maybe not notice that I'm exercising.

I'll trial some things and see if they work better than things I've tried before.

Later Interwebs.

I hope you're ready for a fire fight, cuz the devil's got your number tonight

Trying to get a little more religious about the blogging thing. So far so good, but I'll probably slack off again at some point realistically. I have two more days of doing actual staffing. Which is kind of a nice thought at the same time that it's a little strange. I'm going to miss just doing the staffing thing and chatting with my evening shifters, even though I'm going to be there quite late when I get to be on my own. I orient for two weeks and I think that's probably a lot to much. I think Katie and I are going to be bored out of our minds after about three days. We'll have to take a lot of walks. Or something dear god. Also it'll be kind of nice that I get to deal on a macro scale instead of a micro scale. I hope that I can spot major problems before we get anywhere near them. I know there's not going to be much that I can do about the sick calls that come on a daily basis and can easily turn a good looking shift into a horrible looking shift.

God I hate Old Navy and their singing commercials they are so awful.

My mind it doth wander. I'm still playing Fallout: New Vegas. Pretty good game. Though I still find the absence of male prostitutes uncool. If you've got female prostitutes that all the guys playing dudes (not that all guys choose to be male characters, but chances are...) get to hit on. Where are the male prostitutes that I get to hit on? huh? Disappointing. I'll have to lodge my complaints with Bethesda. Bad Bethesda. Also I'd like to get the walkthrough so at some point I can just go through and figure out what everything that I didn't do and what it would mean if I had done it a different way. I just can't be a bad person and make friends with the bad guys. But I like that in games like Fallout you could if you wanted to be a bad guy and make friends with the gangs and other not cool people.

I'm slowly working on French. I need to work on it consistently though and I have a tendency to work on it a lot and then drop it for several days. I also need to pick up a english/french dictionary since that would make life a whole lot easier. But I should go do up some flash cards for the new verbs I learned the other day. Whoohoo.

Au Revoir, les internets.

Covered in Ash, Covered in glass, covered in all my friends I still think of the bombs they build

I need to just suck it up and buy an ipod because it's just easier to move stuff onto it from itunes. I guess I'm just waiting until I can get an iphone and call it good. Which should be soon. Since I'm going to steal my dad's upgrade since he's never going to use it. And I pay for it anyway.

I've been playing Fallout: New Vegas. Which is pretty good so far. I do enjoy it. Also there are a ton of movies coming out this month that I can't wait to see. There's Thor which comes out this weekend. Priest which comes out the weekend after. And Pirates of the Carribbean: On Stranger Tides the week after that. I'm so excited for all of them. Mostly because there's a lot of eye candy staged in my favorite way of seeing eye candy which is in full fantasy/sci-fi glory.

I went to see Evil Dead the Musical with my sister this past weekend. It was epic. We changed our tickets to splatter zone tickets at the last minute because the ladies who were hand stamping said it was totally worth it. Any musical were they throw buckets of water on you at the end of the musical totally wins for me. Also I got shot in the back of the head by a super soaker about a million times. Next time I will bring a plastic bag to put my purse in. That way it will stay safe. And relatively dry. Mary and I got a picture with the cast. Who were awesome.

Mary looks a little terrified. Also we both look absolutely soaking wet. Which we were. Covered in slightly pink water and also regular water.

I haven't played the ukulele or guitar lately and I'm starting to miss it. I think I definitely need to pull it out again. Ukulele is nice because it's even more portable than a guitar. I need people to play with though. Gah.

That's about all I've got for today. Good night internets.

Truth is now acceptable; Fame is now injectable; Process the progress

I've spent the last three days kind of in a brain coma. It's like my brain just stopped functioning. I'm not sure what it's a symptom of. Maybe I'm PMS-ing. Maybe the barometric pressure is acting funny with my head. Maybe I've got mono (you'd think it by the way i've been sleeping). Who knows. I kind of want it to stop. All I've been good for is watching movies on netflix. Awful. In the last 3 days I've watched: Salt, Easy A, My so-called Life, a new postapocalyptic anime, a strange viking movie(that I still have to finish), Dorian Gray (an adaptation with Ben Barnes and Colin Firth), Charlie's Angels (I don't know why I like this movie), and many other small episodes of things. Awfulness. I did finish knitting the body of my sisters dress and one of the sleeves. Now I'm just working on the other one. Ugh. I still feel like I could fall asleep at any moment. I've been making French verb conjugation flash cards. Whoo. That's been fun and exciting. I'm pretty sure I've got conjugating most normal -er verbs down. I'm still fuzzy on some of the exceptions though. Stupid exceptions. it's nice to be trying to study something again. I need to find some youtube clips of people speaking french though (slow enough that I can understand it) so that I can get some pronunciation guidelines. Because that's what I don't remember enough about it the pronunciation. At least I can tell people my name though. That's nice and fancy. I'm pretty sure that's all I have to say. Dad and I go shopping for garden plants on Saturday so the weather better fix it's ass up so we can plant delicious plants...mmmmm, plants.

Good night internet.

Skyrockets in flight...

I keep meaning to post this and then forgetting to do it. I wrote it. I hate reading my own work out loud or even watching people read it for the most part. But I'm pretty proud of it. It has no title. If you read it and have a brilliant idea as to what it should be called, leave me a comment and let me know.

Sitting still and wondering

Whilst you're off and plundering

I gaze upon the stars

And wonder if you're sacking Mars

The sky pirate life must be magic

Too bad your end is likely tragic

If you could come back to Earth

the planet of your auspicious birth

Maybe you could explain to me

Why our love can never be

Alas if you get as near as the Moon

It would spell our certain doom

Traveling to Mercury's silver shores,

"Show mercy!" to you they implore

But alas, tis not in your nature,

On your benevolence I would not wager,

As you cut them down in droves

Your breath smells faintly of cigar cloves

Your silver tongue tells nothing but lies,

I know you soar through Venus' iodine skies

How did I ever place my trust in you?

A pirate with eyes of palest blue

I feel a dagger twisting through my heart

I should have known it from the start

Jupiter's red eye stares balefully upon you

I claim no knowledge of the things you do

Still they keep me locked in a little room

Convinced in my eyes they see your doom

This isn't to far off from my intention

What I plan I dare not mention

I wish Saturn's rings were my trap

I'll soon be breathing down your back

I should have been your pirate queen

Instead I'll bring your end unseen

Should have loved me when you had the chance

But you didn't give me a second glance

Off the brilliant blue Uranus coast

We will see if you skill matches your boast

As I bear down towards your ship

You break me with a single crack of your whip

As I spin out into the depths of space

I hope for one last glimpse of your face

Spinning through Neptune's gaseous surface

I know my life was not without purpose

If you lose one peaceful nights slumber

Wondering over the victims that you plunder

Could you have chanced the path of fate?

It was unrequited love that led to my hate

So, that's it. It took my over a year to write it all I think and then it kind of went somewhere that I didn't expect it to go. I didn't include Pluto because it's not a planet anymore. I tried to fit it into the last verse somewhere but I just couldn't do it. I don't even know what kind of meter it's in. I'm really bad about being technical about poetry. I just keep rewriting a line until it sounds right in my head. Please feel free to comment.

I got a Broken face...uh huh

I haven't posted in too long. Exciting stuff. I got the scheduler position that I wanted. It's a .9 which is about .1 more than I want it to be. But I'll deal with it and TC is flexible. RM doesn't seem pleased, but I don't think he believes that I'm as efficient as I am. Or as organized. Also I think it annoys him that I get what I want. Because TC agreed to the schedule I wanted on a trial basis at least. Which gives me a three day weekend every other week and every Friday off. Which is nice. I also get to work 9am-5pm because I could come in at 7am, but I'd be completely useless for the first 2 hours and you wouldn't want to talk to me for the first three. Yep.

Let's see. Audrey and Stefan had their 25th birthday on Saturday and that was tons of fun. I had a great time. We made a batch of their wedding punch. It tasted a bit sweeter than it did last time, but I think that was a difference of sprite vs. 7-up. Sprite has a lot more sugar in it. Or at least it seems like it does. We played some of what we call toss and cuss I guess. It's were you throw two golf balls attached by a string at a series of three horizontal poles that are worth different points. Being a bit tipsy it took me quite a while to adjust to how to throw them and actually hit something (that wasn't other people). Our team won both times. YAY! Then later we ended up inside playing pictionary. Derek should never be allowed to write the clues. It's just a bad idea. I got a headache from all the sugar and left a bit earlier than everyone else. Sad day.

Then today...oh gods, so dumb. Our new staffing person called me at 10am on my weekend off to ask me a question that had nothing to do with me. I'm good with being called if there's a sick call. That's fine, it's a necessary evil and on a Sunday I might even consider coming in to work. But calling me to ask me about a shift trade form? Find the form and figure it out yourself. I can not help you. And when you call me at 10am I'm much more likely to attempt to kill you through the phone. I don't get up till about noon and this is a well known fact among my co-workers. How dumb can this guy be? I should write it up to TC when I'm in the office on Wednesday, but I kind of just want to ignore him until he goes away. UGH! The sound of his voice makes me want to severe my ears from my head. **dramatic shudder**

I had to buy new hair ties today because map has somehow managed to gather all of my hair ties and hide them somewhere (probably under my bed in the freakin' mattress). Silly kitty face. She's too cute for her own good.

I've been slowly stocking my kitchen with kitchen supplies. I need to still get things like a bread loaf pan. But I've got knives, frying pans, an 8x8 baking pan and silverware. I do need to get some actual dishes. But I'll see how much they'll cost me. I might have to wait till next pay day for those things. At least I have cookie sheets and a cooling rack now. Those things make me happy. I want to make some sugar cookies this week.

Later internetz. I hope you got some enjoyment out of my stories from me little life.

Asrun Dream

I have been listening to Gackt. Gackt, for those not in the know, is a j-pop/j-rock(I would lean more towards the j-rock description) musician who is amazing. It makes me feel ridiculous and happy. Ridiculously happy. I drive around in my car listening to his first CD Mars, and the second one called Moon and laughing my ass off as I contemplate actual Gackt versus the Legend of Gackt. It's crazy in my mind, especially since all of my information of Gackt is from sites that were on the internet in the early 2000s and shady even then. I should go look him up on wikipedia. However, now I have the great urge to download a whole bunch of Dir En Grey and L'arc En Ciel. Awesome.

Mary finally dumped Wes. I feel like this was the right move, but that she should have done it a long time ago. I think I'm kind of angry at her for letting it go on for so long when she clearly wasn't happy. I kind of feel like she did it to prove a point and now she wants people to feel bad for her a little bit. And I don't. I just feel like she should have done it a long time ago because I lost the Mary that I love for so long. And she's coming back slowly and in pieces, but I don't know if it will ever be the same and it makes me sad and nostalgic. I'll get over it. It's still a bummer though. I feel all passive aggressive and shit.

Once more tried to go laser tagging and failed due to our lack of forethought to make reservations. I hate that. At least we had fun chatting amongst ourselves. Then we went to Josh and Krystal's house and laughed at her really drunk little brother. Apparently 2+ of those crazy energy/alcohol drinks will really eff you up. At one point he called me Angela...I don't even know anyone named Angela. How odd.

Caught the video of Stephen Colbert singing Friday (originally by Rebecca Black) on Jimmy Fallon...it was really hilarious and I highly suggest that everyone go and watch it right now. We watched that the other night to, and then we looked up other horrible versions of the evil song. It is definitely the most horrible song ever, but the girl has definitely gotten her 15 minutes of fame out of it. And she's decided to donate all the money from it to Japan or something like that so good for her.

I applied for a new job within the same office. I don't know if I'll get it as I have some pretty big demands (at least that's the impression that I get, but if they can't give me the $1.29 I would lose leaving evening shift, then quite frankly it isn't worth it to me to move). On the other hand it would be weekends off and I'd get off early in the evening, thus enabling me to keep better track of my calories and things like that. It would be hard to get up that early though. Still don't know what I think about it all. Arg. I'll give it time and see what the world decides. It would be harder to take vacations. Supposedly. Not if I'm as intensely organized about scheduling as I am about staffing. I don't think I would need to be a 1.0, but that's what the position is. Agh. We'll see. I wouldn't have to take report from a certain someone anymore also on the plus side. But I might have to put up with him asking me questions whilst I was there during the day, so downside. But we'll see. We'll see.

I think that is all I have to tell you internets. Please be good while I am away.

My Body Tells me No-o-o, but I Won't Quit

It's been an excellent weekend off. My sunburn continues to heal. Which is a good thing. I went and saw a couple of movies this past weekend.

First, I went and saw Red Riding Hood which I tried to get people to go to with me, but no one ended up being able to go so I went by myself. It was pretty empty, so I sat with my Sour Patch Kids and sent out the occasional twitter. It was pretty good. The casting was interesting. It was kind of like the line of thought went "Let's just cast everyone who's convenient to Vancouver, B.C., oh, and Gary Oldman." I don't really mind since it means we ended up with the guy who played Saul Tigh in Battle Star Galactica and Michael Shanks (it took me seeing his name in the credits to realize that it had been him; in my defense he looked really short and died really early on). And then y'know Catherine Hardwick had to have Billy Burke. It was pretty well put together. A lot of the tension is similar to how the first twilight movie feels (same director). I did enjoy that they were pretty true to the whole people who were already considered odd were the first people accused to being witches thing (autistic kid, prettiest girl in the town, etc.). Overall, I would probably buy it eventually to add to my DVD collection.

I also went and saw Battle: Los Angeles with my dad. It was pretty much right up his alley. Lots of explosions and military confusion. It runs a little bit along the plot of independence day, but not so much alien technology in the end. And very few computers. So, Independence Day without Jeff Goldblum. Also not as many good one liners as Independence Day. But I feel like it was much grittier than Independence Day and in that way more real. Kind of excellent.

I still want to go see Beastly. I have a thing for remade fairy tales. Also I think it has an Olsen twin in it. Also I don't think their version of making him ugly (or beastly, ahahahaha, pun) is really that bad. In fact tattoos and piercings and scars are kind of hot. But to each his own I guess.

I've got another good chord progression on the ukulele, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it quite yet. I'm not sure it wants words or not. Hmmm...I'll have to spend some time contemplating it. I wish I had a little thing to record it on so that I could play it over and over.

I'm getting better at remembering to take my vitamins and I've almost gotten rid of the weight that I gained back in Hawaii (which was 3 lbs, so not absolutely the worst thing ever). I feel like I've stalled a little bit though. I'm confident weight loss will continue, but I just need to get past this point. I feel a little bit out of control with the eating, but I'm getting better every day, so it's just a matter of time. And that's really hard to remember some days, that as long as I'm not going up, it doesn't matter how long it takes me to lose the weight as long as I lose it. That's all I care about.

And now I'm off! Have a good night internets.

Close to town but not to the city

Back from my trip to Hawaii. And I managed to sun burn the backs of my knees, a strip on the bottom of my back and the backs of my shoulders. Awesome. It's slowly getting better, but I am not yet surviving without the aid of tylonel to kill the pain.

Hawaii was great and so very pretty. Though I could never live there because it's so very humid. And I only saw one cat the whole time I was there, and it was in a graveyard, if that's not foreshadowing I'm not sure what is. We went and saw a lot of things. The Polynesian Cultural Center and that was pretty cool, hit Germaine's Luau, where we saw our neighbor's son, that was awfully strange. Also tried to go on a whale watching trip on which we saw no whales and got really sea sick because it was so rough. It was the roughest boat I've ever been on. We did see some humpback whales the next day when we went to Hanuama bay for snorkeling. The snorkeling was awesome. The fish are just like "I'ma gonna keep eating, you do whatever you want." Awesome. I could spend all day there. I played navigator the whole time because I can read a map. My mom did not appreciate my Sailor Moon jokes about Asian girls on pink mopeds, nor did she appreciate my Dragonball Z jokes about Kamehameha Highway, nor did she appreciate my Monkey Island jokes...sometimes she got the Pirates of the Caribbean jokes, but only sometimes. Next time I definitely need to bring Sarah and Mary.

Other than that the plane ride there was fairly bumpy, but okay. The plane ride back was really awful because I was stuck in the middle and had the only panic attack I had ever had. UGH. Other than that it was a lot smoother than the ride there. However, I'm having some severe chills and a lot of vertigo, which I don't know if that's because the flight back effed up my inner ear, or if I'm actually sick. I just can't tell, but I definitely wish it would stop. The vertigo is no fun at all. I'm also thinking that I might be dehydrated a little bit or something, so a lot of water is going in me as well.

Evil Dead the Musical is going to be in Lynden. Which sounds impossible, but awesome, all at the same time. I totally intend to see it. I can't believe it took me this long to find out and they're building a stage for it and everything at the Northwest Washington Fair grounds. I've got to get some tickets soonish. I'll talk to Mary and see when she wants to go. And then force everyone else to go with me as well.

So I reached my weight loss goal for Hawaii, but then gained back about 3lbs while I was there. I think a lot of it is water because the amount of salt that I ate was ridiculous. Though we did a lot of walking as well. My next goal is to be down to 225lbs by the end of July, which I think will be definitely possible, but I'll have to step up my game with the exercise once the weather gets warmer. I also need to get more on top of my vitamins. I've been really bad about taking my vitamin D. So get better at that, and my doctor suggested taking Magnesium because I get a lot of muscle cramping in my calves, and because I don't sleep well, so it's supposed to help with those things. I'll see how it going.

I'll try to get another Hawaii post up with some of the pictures that I took. Later party people.

They'll Drink Bad Wine and Eat Lemoncake

So enamored of Amanda Palmer's new album...also enamored of the Jane Austen Argument. So, that's what I'll be listening to for days on end at this point. It should give me some good music too wind down from work with on the drive home.

Also started geocaching this week with my sister Sarah. It's much more fun to take a walk when you have the goal of finding something. We've found two so far. There are a lot around our usual walking routes that we can try and find so that's kind of awesome. However, I got ever so slightly sunburnt today which is completely ridiculous since it was, y'know 40 degrees out.

Went to the doctor today, confirmed that my cold is indeed viral and I just have to wait for it to go away, which sucks monkeys. I also got the skin tag removed from the middle of my back because it was kind of gross and hard to keep an eye on in case it started to change color or anything. I hate getting shots of anesthetic stuff because it burns before it goes numb. AGH! The doctor used some silver nitrate to seal it off which is kind of awesome. I also got a prescription renewed. Speaking of prescriptions my other one changed manufacturers and it's totally bizarre. But kind of cooler packaging so I'm down with that.

I go to Hawaii in 16 days. Which is completely awesome. I'm 4ish lbs away from my goal weight. Which is totally doable as long as I stay relatively good about what I eat and take walks a few times a week (or jump on the trampoline or something similar like that). Also not going to comic-con because the ticket getting for the thing was a complete farce. So I think we've decided on Disneyland/California Adventure Park and Universal Studios (with a stop at Hearst Castle on the way down) instead. I have never been without a parent or sibling. So that would be kind of awesome and I have a great love of rides. Well-made rides, that is, I love the cheap kind of terrifying because of their crappiness county fair rides, but they are pretty terrifying. Also I would love to actually eat in one of the restaurants in Disneyland itself, just for the novelty of it even though it's massively expensive.

I think that's about all I have to update the internet world on. My new goal for the end of July is to drop another 25 lbs. That will put me down to 225lbs. Which would be awesome. I've dropped two shirt sizes and one pants size thus far and I'm excited about that. Though buying new clothes is getting really annoying.

Goodnight Internet land!

When you were here before, I couldn't look you in the eye

Tonight was our Ode to Summer party and it was pretty great. We cranked the heat in our friend Tim's house and pretended it was summer time by wearing shorts, short sleeved shirts, and drinking fruity drinks with umbrellas in them. That was pretty awesome. I brought my ukelele on which I have just learned how to play Creep. Now I need to add Joy Division to my repertoire. I also won a singular game of air hockey out of the several drunken games that I played. And I didn't even win that one on my own. Sad day.

But I really think that's all I have to contribute for tonight. Yep. Pretty sure. Still buzzing pretty severely. Also have to febreze the downstairs because my father's feet smell so god damn awful. So GROSS.

Steal Flamingos and Gnomes from the dark side of the Lawn

Got a hair cut today. Still keeping it fairly long because it bothers me to have it a length at which I can't put it in a pony tail easily and I'm no good with hair pins and clippies and things of that nature. Also cleaned out my closet today which was exciting. Threw away just a whole bunch of crap and clothes that I don't wear anymore, so hopefully this means that I can get the clothes that I do wear off of my floor. That sure would be nice, and I can be more organized about what I pack for Hawaii (slowly moving ever closer! YAY!) I also found a zip drive that contains the poster I made for a AAA (American Anthropological Association) conference that I went to about 3 years ago. I am so impressed by the skills that I had back then with the computer. It looks so professionally put together it's blowing my mind. Maybe I'll have to find a way to post it up somewhere, or back it up, because I don't know if I have it anywhere other than the zip drive that I found. Maybe on google.docs. I save a lot of stuff on there, and should really go about backing up more documents up there that I don't want to lose.

I have been writing pretty consistently lately, which feels good. I also have between 1 and 3lbs to lose before Hawaii to meet my goal. I'm excited about that because staying on track during the winter time is kind of very hard. Especially with the tasty food and parties that have been going on. I'm going to have to watch the alcohol consumption carefully on Saturday if I want to consume more on Monday. Excited for both of those things. YAY! Also have finished up some knitting projects in the last couple of days. Which is nice. I need to finish some of the socks that I've been working on...I just keep starting them and finishing one and then starting another pair and never going back to the other pair and finishing it...not so great there.

I need to get back on playing the ukelele and the guitar more often. I have not been very diligent and I feel like I may have lost a few of my skills. Not that I had many to begin with. But I feel definitely lacking at this point. I also need to restring the guitar and probably the ukelele at some point. And I've got to get that one strung by someone else because the strings go on funky like in a way that I don't understand.

I think that's all I have to talk about right now. So good bye internets. I feel irreverent and silly and need to go do some things...I do not yet know what those things are.

Saturday Night Burns a Redness on My Face

Reflecting on the past week. My days off were wonderful. My days at work were okay. I definitely stay for the people I work with and not for the bureacratic bullshit that flies around this place. It's pretty much no fun from that stand point. Managers and higher ups pulling rank at every corner and just having petty little power trips. Blegh. Don't like it.

In other work related news I have discovered the only thing that it is acceptable for your significant other to yell in the background while you are talking to a staffing clerk. It's "You're our favorite!" Because that's just kind of awesome. This person also told me I should write a book about all of the stupid shit that goes on here. I told her to think of a good nom de plume for me because I would certainly need it.

We finally got the new refridgerator for our kitchen today and now all the appliances are fancy matching stainless steel. Aren't we all the fanciest people you've ever heard of? Yes, yes I think we are. Also now we can start assembling the downstairs kitchen. Which would be lovely. I would very much enjoy having a second kitchen since when everyone is in the one upstairs at the same time it's just a bit crowded. (okay, I lie, it's a lot crowded).

Got my mom a Roku player so that she can fully enjoy netflix on the upstairs TV. It seems to work very well, though I can't say I've done much more than browse through the interface so that I can answer any of her questions about it. I also made her watch all of the Pirates of the Carribbean movies last week since she hadn't seen any of them. She continuously asked me when Keith Richards was going to show up. I continuously went on about how Stellan Skarsgard is the father of my favorite actor (Alex Skarsgard, so dreamy, **swoon**), so I guess we're even. Next week we are starting Sherlock. The BBC reboot of it. Because I think my mother would appreciate it. And Benedict Cumberbatch is kind of AMAZING.

I helped my sister take her two new kitties to the vet this week. They are adorable and I loves them like a good auntie. Tomorrow I will come into town early and get them some shiny new toys! Their names are Callie and Calvin. They got them from the same lady they got Whiskey from for the price of a massage. The woman found Callie and her brother (who is still looking for a good home) on the side of the road while she was doing her paper route, they were starving and trying to eat anything that came within reach of them. Callie has an awful upper respiratory infection that is now getting slowly better with some antibiotics. She is going to be absolutely gorgeous once she feels better. She's long haired and dark gray with a white patch on her chest and a little white on her face. Almost looks like a dark gray tuxedo cat. She's also a snuggler, clearly mommy's little girl. She's also going to stay pretty small. Calvin is a boy and is a medium haired ragdoll. He's got dark brown dusky kind of points and is cream colored all over with light blue eyes. So pretty. Also he's kind of dumb, or maybe not dumb, but incredibly silly. And kind of macho. Like "You can't jump that high? Oh, I can totally jump that high, watch me. Oh, I missed it. Let me try over and over and over." He's kind of got a prominent brow. I like to call him cave man cat. He's on the antibiotics too, cuz he was sneezing quite a bit and probably just getting over the respiratory thing. He also has ear mites like no ones business. So my dear sister will have to revolution them next week. Because she already advantaged them for the fleas and the vet said she had to wait at least 7-10 days before she revolutioned them for the ear mites (and revolution also takes care of some types of worms).

So, that's the update on how my week has been. I can't think of anything else that I need to include. Have a wonderful day internets. Be good to each other (which I almost typed as 'Be food to each other' and really it works either way).

The dog days are over

So, though the first few days of the year were great on Monday it totally crashed and burned.

How it went down: I had e-mailed my boss that I wasn't sure what my schedule was because me and a co-worker were supposed to switch and he had never changed it. I told him I would be working what the computer reflected unless he texted me before 2pm on the day of. I need to know by 2pm because I need to leave around then to get to work by 3pm. It's commonly known that everyone in our office lives on their e-mail. I didn't think this would be a problem. I thought I could text him, but I didn't want to interrupt his weekend. I also might have been a touch passive aggressive because I get sick of him getting away with things that would never fly. I hate double standards.

At 3:07 I get a text telling me that I have to work...at 3:00. Clearly, there is absolutely no way that I can be to work at 3pm when it's already almost 10 minutes after. I was, needless to say, just a bit angry. I told him that wasn't going to fly for me. He responded that if that was the case then there would be no more changing of schedules. Which is kind of a horrible scare tactic if I've ever heard one. I told him that was fine. I'm not switching schedules for me, I'm switching schedules to make going to school easier on my co-worker. Because clearly I am far too flexible.

Then he called both of our boss and she called me and told me that I had to get to work and attempted to pass the whole thing off as somehow my fault because I hadn't cc'd her any of the e-mails. How does it end up all my fault when I'm just trying to help a co-worker with school? I have no idea. I told them I would be at work at 5pm and that this would not count as sick time. I ended up getting there a little after 4:30. I have never been so frustrated with a job that I felt like I was going to cry. I feel like I desperately need to get out of there.

The icing on top of this delicious piece of cake day was my sister texting me at about 6:15 that her cat Whiskey had been hit by a car and was no more. Instantly this sent me into hysterics and I cried off and on for probably the next 3 hours. And really, that's what you want to do when you have a job that includes talking to people on phone who ask you if you've suddenly developed a horrible cold. A very nice RN saw my distress and went and got me tissues. Thank goodness work has some lovely people or I would never survive. Alas none of them seem to be among my higher ups.

The cherry on top of the night was that at about 9:30pm the computer system that we use to do all of our work on decided to stop working. IT, whom I have to call when that happens, has no idea how our system works and has to forward it to people who are on-call. They usually don't have any idea what's going on either. So, I couldn't completely finish any of my work and had to leave it to my relief to figure out how to explain to the people how to get it working again. I imagine it was a server issue because it was 10 days previously when it happened to me the first time. There was no way I was staying a minute past when I was able to go.

That was the beginning of my week. Clearly this made me want to go to work the rest of the week. My poor sister was depressed and then her husband was on night shift this week so I spent a lot of time over there after work watching movies. But it pretty much made me feel like a terribly failure all week.

I got to see a friend who lives down in California and meet his lovely wife for the first time, so that was a bright spot. It's nice to talk to him. He writes music basically as a ghost writer for a much more well known composer. We talked about some of the projects that he's worked on and what he's been working on since I saw him last (apparently all the music in the game Epic Mickey is his) and talked about the excitement of living in downtown LA compared to the quietness of Lynden. It was a nice chat, and I got a delicious red velvet cupcake out of it as well.

Saturday was Nate's house warming party. A few friends and I car-pooled down to Seattle to see his place in Fremont. It's an adorable little place. Just about the perfect size for one person, kind of a classy bachelor pad. We all got there about 3pm because we decided we'd spend the whole day down there since we were coming from Lynden. We walked around Fremont and went and saw the troll, took some pics and then walked around. There's a giant statue of Lenin that you can buy for $150,000. We played a game of Balderdash were my dyslexia kicked in epically. AGH! Because that made me feel so good about myself after the week that I had already been exposed to.

Other people came over and we ate and chatted and drank and then played some mafia. Mafia is a good game when everyone isn't too drunk and you have a manageable amount of people. This was not the case by the second game of mafia. Narrated by my cousin who picked possibly the most emotionally painful way to off me when I was killed by the mafia. Not that he could have known at that point. But I almost started crying which totally caused me to be horribly embarassed. Meanwhile people keep getting louder and louder because they are getting more and more drunk and I'm in no fit mood to be around people at this point. Also, biggest flirt in the world guy who has a girlfriend (who isn't there) is getting hit on by someone who is EPICALLY annoying when drunk and that was pissing me off because she felt the need to shout everything. I should have gone and taken a walk. Blegh!

We left about an hour later and had an exciting drive home through snow in Everett to Marysville and then once again when we hit Alger. It was certainly some exciting times. Though I think I might have slept a bit.

I went home and went almost directly to bed. I felt as though I had a little too much exposure to people yesterday. Sometimes I can handle it, but this week has been so full of high emotion that I just don't think it was a good idea to expose myself to that many people. Oh well, it was fun. Mostly.

Next week will be a better week and work is just work and it will be fine. Work is not my life. I've got a nice little lunch to go to on Tuesday and everything will be excellent. And then Hawai'i at the end of February. Looking forward to that. Really, really looking forward to it.

That's about all I have to say. It feels good to get that all out of my system. Starting fresh.