And I hope you didn't believe it either..

That I would actually knit up a slew of small gifts for the other coders.  There just was not enough time.  But hey!  I did get some little presents knitted for the Plaid Patrol.  DiscoDame got a warm lace headband in bulky yarn, from the Blueleaf Headband pattern.  And the Plaidman got an Ear Warmer for Baseball Caps (Kraemer Yarns, free pattern).  Observe:

Doesn't she look thrilled?!?  This is a fun & quick pattern, also free.  And she was kind enough to display the Plaidman's ear warmer for the photo.

And then Plaidman had to model it, minus the ball cap....

Look, kids!  It's Santa during his hippie years!  He was such a rebel then, wearing all that plaid.
Now you're ready to see what I got for Christmas:

There she is, sitting in my parking spot.  She's a 2014 Chevy Malibu.  She makes me so happy!  I've always named my vehicles, and I've really been thinking hard about this one's name.  So far, I got nothing.  This car deserves a nice name, something that either has a lot of meaning to me or that just tickles the snot out of me.  The black car sitting next to my new beauty is our old Malibu, which went through a couple of name changes before I settled on one.  When we first brought it home, I told Disco that I would name it Barbie....Barbie Malibu.  She flipped out, which of course just made it funnier.  So I called it Barbie for many months, until she finally started calling it that too.  Then I said that as I am the pirate captain, I was renaming her the Black Purl.  And that she remains.
But back to my Christmas presents!  I got jewelry, both dressy & cute stuff.  Disco gave me some specifically "Christmassy" pieces, which she knows I collect:

I love the Rudolph earrings!  The others are less holiday & more just winter, so I'll probably wear them real soon.  The penguin is a pin, and I might wear that soon too.  Then both my roomies got to the pretty stuff, and each got me a dressy bit:

The necklace is from Disco, and earrings are from Plaidman.  As you can see, nothing terribly expensive here, but nice to add to the wardrobe.  I think I need to get Plaidman to hang another necklace holder on the wall, for the shorter necklaces -- they're getting rather crowded in the jewelry box.  The only ones that need to stay in there are the ones on silver chains; I keep a dessicant in there to combat tarnish.
Disco has a few days off, she did work thru the 26th so she's eligible for the completion bonus.  She's going to go in to work on Wednesday, which would be her next scheduled work day if she's still employed.  Now, she was hired as a seasonal worker, and they did say the 26th was the end of the season, so I don't know that they'll actually let her report to work!  But hey, if they do it's just gravy.

I can't believe

No, I just can't believe that I'm actually contemplating working up ( aka knitting) four small gifts for my fellow coders, at this late date.  But I am so glad and relieved that we've actually got two more coders (after losing one earlier)!!  The presence of these two, even if they're both still working on getting their CPCs and learning how "we" do things at Box O'Docs, takes a bit of the pressure off the senior coders.  So much so, that here it is the Saturday before Christmas, and I'm not at work.
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Disco is at work today, bless her heart.  She was hard pressed yesterday; apparently some of the other seasonal employees got that first paycheck and split.  She wants the completion bonus!  If she can hang in there through the 26th, she gets a sizable chunk of change as a bonus.

We have a pre-lit 6.5' artificial tree set up in the living room. which has (surprisingly) been of absolutely no interest to the our climbing kitty, TomTom.  I was so sure he'd have to climb it!  I had a contingency plan, to put in on the other side of the living room windows on the deck -- there's an outlet there.  Anyway. there are no other decorations in place around the house, and I want to change that today & tomorrow.  

This is the other item on the weekend agenda: replace the Dodge Neon with a Chevy Malibu!  The Dodge is, let's face it, getting actually dodgy.  I don't want to be driving it at all anymore.  It's 11 years old, and worn out.  

Well, lots to do, not much time -- so I'd better get off the computer & get ready to roll.  Happy weekend, all!

Blogger fail -- need a few days off!

I did not update the 250 Days Challenge this weekend.  I worked Saturday, and just flat ran out of steam on Sunday.  A bit of good news for y'all:  DiscoDame got her first paycheck from her new job!  She's managed to hang in there, despite having to be on her feet for almost the entire ten or eleven hours each day.  Whew!  I wasn't sure she could do it, but she still thinks it's fun.  More power to her!

For all the folks in the EU who've tuned it, thanks so much for making my Feedjit more interesting.  Bon jour!  Willkommen!  My ancestry includes two German grandmas.  Wish I could have spent more time with them, but not being a Master of Time & Space I can't change my own history.  Now I also wish I had some link to France, other than the empathy we've all developed recently.  I will say I still want to see Paris. 

I will be updating this weekend, I promise!

Happy Thanksgiving!

First off, I have to say I'm thankful I'm still here.  No one of us knows when our time is up, but that is something I'm always trying to plan for.  And now (drumroll) something really special to be thankful for (really BIG drumroll!) -- DiscoDame has got a job!  She's gone in today -- yes, on the holiday; she'll be paid double-time -- for her second day on the job.  She rather liked it yesterday, although it was a long day.  However, she's not at all sure she can keep up with her online course of study (sad trombone), so may have to shelve that for a while.  But goodness, she'll be able to get insurance and pay Social Security and Medicare taxes (and have those programs available to her at need).  Well, she has got insurance; I just paid her premium for December.  But it would be so wonderful if she'd pay for it out of her money instead of her parents'!   And she's taking a step in the right direction, as far as her future independence.  I keep telling her that neither Plaidman nor I will be around much longer.
The Plaidman started cooking last night, making us a pumpkin-pecan bread pudding for dessert.  He's got a small turkey breast to plop into the slow-cooker.  I don't know what else is planned.  I'm guessing that peas with pearl onions will show up, along with some sort of potatoes.

I've been working on a poncho, a Drops design called Kara poncho.  I actually started it a couple of weeks ago, and had ten rounds done when it became obvious that the thing was twisted on my circular needle.  So, it got frogged and now I'm at about 8 rows in, and it looks ok.  Not great, just ok.  It's the yarn, Roslyn by Cascade.  Lovely in the store, very deep red & very tweedy.  But it looks like red string with lots of dryer lint stuck to it, when it's pulled out of the skein. And it sheds tweed neps like mad!  I'm having trouble envisioning this as my poncho.

Shh!  Don't tell Plaidman, but I bought a huge bunch of MadTosh yarn from another Raveler.  3 colors of the 80-10-10 worsted, just lovely stuff.  I haven't received it yet, should have it on Monday if all goes according to plan.  We got refunded some dough from medical bills, I guess insurance kicked in some more on them so I got back part of what I paid.  Anyway, I've just spent a bit under half of the refund on this yarn.   Hey when I break a yarn moratorium, I really smash it.  

Monday is coming

Just doesn't have the right ring to it.  Anyway..it's almost here.  I'll be late (excused) to work, to see the doctor first.  I've negotiated with my supervisor to have fewer hours, as my hands ( & eyes) have been getting too much of a workout lately.  I haven't been able or even willing to knit in weeks.  BUT that has changed.  Last night I cast on 368 stitches for the Drops Kara poncho, which I'm making in Cascade's Roslyn yarn.

These are cellphone pics, and hey it was already getting dim outside-- but the color is actually pretty close!  I really liked this tweedy stuff in the store.  However, now the tweed nepps look like dryer lint to me.  I will persevere, and hope I like it better as fabric than as string.  Oh and looky at my trusty old Bates interchangeables -- on their new Chaio Goo flexible cords!  How cool is that?  I love the needles, hated the cords that came with the set, but now all is well.  

I have been getting much kindness over on Ravelry due to Hinky's passing, and I just want to say thank you again.  I'm sure she's in a better place, with lots of good friends to play with until I come to collect her.  

Speak of the devil

I noted on the Challenge page recently that TomTom's an inside kitteh and he didn't know what dirt was for.  Well, he's figured it out...and now he's using the planter on the deck as his outdoor toilet.  I see cat tacos in my future.  No, don't freak out, I couldn't actually kill a cat.  But I sure want to!

Sad news today:  Miss Hinky Boo, our darling blue with white fluffy kitteh, has passed away.  She had a good long run, we're debating whether she was 14 or 15 years old but either way that is a good long life for a cat.  She was always my "baby", from the moment we first met, when she was just a skinny little kitten hunting grasshoppers outside the library (I'm pretty sure she was dumped there).  Happy trails, Miss Hinky!  We'll miss you.

Slow day

I'm mostly taking it easy today.  My hands have been hurting, so I took off work yesterday & today to allow them to rest up.
I did dress up yesterday evening, though I told Disco that we really needed to honor our Celtic heritage by finding an oak grove and dancing sky-clad instead.  The Plaidman said it was too cold for that, so we were "saved".  Anyway....Disco wanted to be a grown-up Merida, and I had a plan to be Rowena Ravenclaw.  We went to Performance Studios over on Thompson Lane and just had a blast picking out our gowns.  I did Rowena at work on Friday, using a wooden knitting needle as my wand.  But as we got into our gowns Saturday evening, Disco & I decided we had to be Merida and her mother, Queen Eleanor.  If you haven't seen Brave, you might not know, but these are the two main characters of this wonderful film.  So, without further ado, I give you Queen Eleanor and Princess Merida:

Friday evening we actually wound Disco's nearly waist-length red hair around foam rollers, spritzed same with a little water, and she slept in them.  Her hair is still in long ringlets today!  That's the beauty of naturally curly hair: once it takes a curl, it doesn't let go easily.  We weren't really expecting any crumb snatchers, but put a bowl of candy out on the front porch anyway.  Then we pulled ourselves & our big dresses into the car and went to IHOP for dinner.  I swear, I'm never going to our local IHOP again.  The waiter didn't listen to our orders, didn't bring everything we ordered, then wrote up the ticket with full charges.  We had to get the manager to straighten it out.  Just not worth the bother!  Well, we ladies hadn't gotten the respect we needed, so we cruised over to the Target store.  While shopping in the accessories, I had to take a pee break.  I left Princess Merida in charge of our cart & my purse, and went off to take care of business.  While I was completely out of touch with them, my family went off into the far reaches of the store.  So I came hobbling out with my cane, and set off looking for them.  I kept asking people if they'd seen Princess Merida; one little girl wanted her Mom to let her come with me to look for the Princess.  Very sweet, but very much not what I wanted!    At last, they decided to come looking for me, and we finally met up in mid-store.
Today I did a little sewing, by hand, to repair the waist band in my black trousers.  I don't know if that was worth the effort, the trousers are so big that I have to pin them in back to keep them on!
Oh, here's some of the bling I wore this past week, leading up to Halloween:

Hmm, I cropped & enlarged the one on the left, and I'm still not sure you can see what it is!  It is a little articulated skeleton earring, just the cutest things!  The big golden object is actually a perfume bottle on a cord, the perfume being Poison by Christian Dior.  I won this little bauble ages ago, in a drawing at the Green Hills Cain-Sloan department store.  Let us now have a moment of silence for the loss of one of Nashville's great old stores....ok, light 'em if you got 'em.
Friday I dressed for Halloween & went to work!  What a hoot!  Christina came over to my cubicle, and brought me an early Christmas present:  a selfie stick!  I am quite tickled, although I can't get the shutter button on the stick to work -- may be just a function of old puny hands, or I've not got the setting right on the phone...bummer either way.  Disco says I should take it in to work tomorrow, and see if Christina can get it to work.  I think that sounds like a sneaky way to get her picture on here, so I will tell her so up front -- don't like surprising people!