Have you ever called in Late to work?

I think I have redefined calling in late to work. I was supposed to start my new job at the new company in the new town in the new state the 5th day of the new year, but here it is new years eve and we haven't been able to hire a mover yet. The good news is we are 90% packed in boxes. I did the kitchen today and Hubbins did the tool shed. My BFF M came over and assisted us. We really needed the help and with another person there to keep us motivated we kicked butt two days in a row.

I have not gotten to the halfway point of my latest knitting project. I have about three or four inches to go I might try to finish during Craig Ferguson tonight. Yes once again it's past midnight and I can't sleep. I was out cold oozing Zs about two hour ago. I fell asleep about 8:05 and was woken up by Hubbins about 10:15. Totally didn't make it past the opening credits to NCIS. Hopefully the new life comes with regular sleeping hours.

Well I'll make it short tonight. Maybe I can make that halfway point!!

Is there any way to slow this train down?????

Life is moving too fast. A lot like a run away train. Since once again I stayed up past midnight (Craig Ferguson on the tube as I type) There are six days until I start my new job. No, I have not hired a mover yet. We are still frantically packing. Everything is packed except a pocket of dishes in the kitchen, the bedroom, and the tool shed. We are living in a warehouse. However we built this house so comfortable and with so much character you would think that we hadn't packed a thing.

I hate to break it to Hubbins but it's (one of)our aniversarie(s) If I say " Hey honey guess what day it is?!" he cowers and says "Our anniversary?" Generally not, although the odds are good.

Well today (once I wake up from sleeping ) we finish up the packing. We probably will call up a mover and book them so we will gauge when we will actually be up in Wyoming. Hopefully by the 5th. I need to call the cable company and schedule start of service. I need the Discover Channel by Tuesday the 06th because a new show is starting called "Wreckreation Nation". I also need my Internet- can't not have the Internet.

I am almost half way done with my next knitting project. I still have to take pictures of my last couple of projects like the second pair of Austermann Step socks and the hat I knit for Hubbins... and the mishap with the green Merino socks. I think after I finish this project I might try another pair of gloves. I took out my first pair done with the Hooray for Me pattern by Marnie Mac Lean and they are different from each other -I had accidentally made them with two different colorways. Luckily I have a two matching pair skeins of yarn so I can finish both pair.

Well it's an hour past Ferguson ... time for bed. I have to get up early and start packing again. Hopefully finish. We have to get this show on the road. New Year, new home, new state, new job, new life, new adventures.

Well that's the last Holiday for this year

10 more days until I start my new job in my new city in my new house. I am both excited and terrified. On the crafty side I finally grafted the toe on the socks I started last month and also finished knitting or reknitting the hat for my hubbins. I started my next pair of socks this evening too. I am knitting with Austermann's Step in a denim blue and white with a touch of tan on size US 1 needles. I needed a new knitting project.

For Yule this year Hubbins gave me some really cool multi purpose Welding goggles. I can use them for welding and working with flame as well as a cool steampunk fashion statement. He also gave me the Elizabeth Zimmerman DVD and two knit books. I am a happy camper. These will keep me going through the cold winters.

I start packing again tomorrow. It's the dining room next.

He's in a better place....

I hate that phrase. In this case it's true. Happily he's not dead, just in a better place. I'm talking about my fishy. We figured a 1200+ mile drive in a bucket wasn't a good idea so we found a responsible aquarium store that takes oversized plecos and finds them homes. It apparently is a common occurance. They tend to grow to 24 inches if you let them. My fishy was only 14 inches. I raised him since he was only 2 1/2 inches long. He survived two wildfire evacuations, jumping out of his tank, scraping his nose down to the cartlidge, bubble disease, algae bloom, and a faulty heater that kept inching his water above 85 degrees. He has new friends, a bigger tank and proper Ph as well as lots of people to look at him. As I finish up the last parts of packing up my office I find myself sitting and staring at the empty tank missing the little guy. He cheered me up at work and we have been through a lot together. While some would say he was only a fish, one of those boring algae eaters they didn't know him. He had a personality and perserverance and really cool leopard spots. He would come over and watch TV with me and attach his big sucker to the glass where I was like he wanted his belly scratched. < He used to play with Snail, our extra large yellow snail we purchased originally to keep Oppenheimer my Celestial Eye gold fish company. Oppenheimer and Snail used to play a game of something akin to tag. The fish would nudge the snail and knock him off of the side of the tank and then the snail would in turn launch himself from the side of the tank and bump the fish. After Oppenheimer passed on we put Snail in the tank with Plookey and they continued the game. He had feelings... I remember when Snail passed on he actually was depressed and stayed at Snail's side for a while. He was a good fish... he is still a good fish, in a bigger tank with more friends to play with. I am happy for him but I have a hole in my heart and right now.

Moving in a forward direction

I have officially packed my first box. It was a box of fiber. There goes one distraction. I am trying to get to my 2nd cabinet of fiber but it's blocked My office is a disaster area. We have decided to photograph our house which we haven't had a chance to since we built it which is really funny when you think about it. And because we are in the process of getting ready to move the house isn't in it's best order. So to make the photographs nice to look at in the future we cleaned each room before photographing it which meant putting boxs of stuff elsewhere. Since the first round of photographs were taken at night and in the low light of the house the photos were fuzzy. Therefore they needed to be taken again in the daylight. That meant all the stuff we moved from room to room ended up in my office/craftroom. This makes packing that room nearly impossible. . I do want that room and the library and the non essentials in the bedroom packed up by this evening. It can be done if I have help. But my hubbins and I seem to be paralized in denial that we need to get our move on. I should have turned cable off completely instead of just downgraded to a lesser plan. Discounted cable, something I will truely miss about the job.

I downgraded the internet speed too. I am going to run a test to see if there is any difference. I don't think there will be until I install the new "N" router. It's supposed to kick the butt of my "G"router.

Ok ....put the computer down and march upstairs young lady and pack up your office!!!

OK....here I go ....no really... here I go......pushin' the publish post button.

To day is the first day of the rest of my life

It's Friday. I am not on vacation nor is it a holiday. It's almost 10:00am and I am not tied to a computer or phone with a curly umbilical doing tech support for the first time in almost a decade. When I walked out of the building last night for the last time I got all the way out of the gate before I started crying. It wasn't tears of relief or joy or sadness or anything really. It was just bundled up emotion that had no place to go. I feel jilted in a way though because I feel like I didn't get to properly say goodbye. The company policy has been for years that when you leave you send out a farewell to the masses. The exception was if you were fired. Then you just were quietly escorted out of the building by security. I left on my own with two weeks notice but because of recent "workforce reduction" efforts I had the bad timing to pick the same week to leave as the "involuntary separation" group and the "early retirement" group so my goodbye didn't get sent. I guess they didn't want to flood the email waves with "junk". So there is a vast majority of people whom I worked with for almost a decade that do not know that I am gone and when they find out I am gone won't know it was not because of the work force reductions!! Whatever!! i am free and I can do what I want (today) because starting tomorrow it's start packing up the house for the big move.

I am trying to talk myself out of having to back up all of the hours of content on my DVRs. I am trying to find if most or all of the programming is available or online. So far except for my TV interview on the local news from 2005 everything seems to be easy. I figure some of the series I have I can either get again at my new house on my new cable company or purchase the media online.

I don't feel like doing much today. Maybe I'll play dress up doll and go through my closet and decide what to keep and what to donate. I should clean the library so that we can take pictures of it before packing it up. Since we finished the house (ha!) we haven't taken any proper photos. We are planning to do that. I figure we can do at least one room a day and several rooms within a day too I can see packing both bathrooms the home theatre and the laundry room all in one day. My office is going to be a nightmare. I have a few evil plans that might make moving it easier and less expensive. If regular stock bookcases with peg adjustable shelves have the same size, spacing and hole setback I can leave the big bookcases and get new ones. Or I can replace them one by one from the Nearest Ikea (Denver).

I plan to finish my Kirchner's stitches on all my unfinished projects and start another pair of socks. I need to be knitting right now. It keeps me grounded, it keeps me sane. Oh yeah... before I pack the paperwork and never see it again. I have to do my sales taxes for my business and find my birth certificate or social security card so I can show up to my new job next month prepared.

To box or not to box that is the question

I like fresh starts but I hate moving. The packing and the boxing and the stacking and the not knowing where anything is.... I don't like it. So here is our big decision. Do we pack it all up? or do we have the moving company pack it all up? Is it better to put the plasma carefully in the car or pay for the $350 box... that's just the box!! I'm thinking box the little stuff have them wrap and carry the big stuff and take heavy stuff and essentials with us. We need a microwave, the hot pot some clothes, the air bed, and bedding and the TVs.

Getting the new cell phone service is proving an adventure. I have to give up my Samsung Instinct. I love my phone but Sprint is not in Wyoming. Anywhere. We are looking at Verizon because they have 3g phones and the biggest coverage in the area. I don't do ATT. It's the cable in me. Now do I go for the Crackberry or the Smart phone. Does my cell phone really need a 5 megapixal camera? Which one can I mobile blog from? Can I update my Etsy account and take PayPal payments on the spot? How about show off my website and online store while at shows and faires?? Podcasting??

I am having crafting withdrawals. I can't get anywhere with my lace scarf. That thing has been frogged more that the rainforest. I want to start some socks but I have to pack first. If not I will just sit and knit. If I can pack fast enough I can take some knitting time. My last day at work if tomorrow. The end of an era. Once I walk out of there I start a whole new life. After the fray of relocating and learning the new job....life slows down. I see lots of spinning in my future. Lots of knitting and felting and other craftwork. That's because I see lots of snow in my future. Tomorrow the hight is 23 deg and Saturday the high is -4 deg and the low is -17 deg.

Well it's off to bed so I can be rested for my last day at the job. It should be interesting.

Wasted days and Wasted nights

Today was my 4th day off in a row. Here is a list of what I got done during that time. Friday I made an appointment with a moving company who will be here Wednesday morning for an estimate. I put some laundry away and did some grocery shopping. I also picked up an external hard drive to back up my photos on my various computers for safe keeping. Saturday I washed the bed linens and picked up the house and did the dishes and picked up my husband at the airport. Sunday we had a mover over to give us an estimate on moving then went to get a new cell phone for my husband and ended up finding out we need a new cell phone company. Our current company has no presence in our new state. Then we got a new router and our Yule gift to each other (one of those digital photo frames) and then we researched wireless companies in the area. Today I updated my Ravelry user profile and will probably update my online information this evening. Four more days at work and life really goes into overdrive. Time to pack up my life and relocate.

I originally had planned to take this weekend and do my big dying project and get my stuff up on my etsy site. I did however put my etsy site on vacation mode while I get ready for the move.
I think tonight I might take some time and go through my closet and make a donate pile. It will be a big pile. I might make a list of things to do.

I am usually more productive than this.

Life is moving too fast

Since I last posted my life has gone into overdrive. I have a new job that I am starting the first week in January, I am packing up and my husband and I are moving from sunny southern California to snowy wintery Wyoming! I'm going from a handcrafted house that we built to an 1889 Victorian. A town of 14,000 to a town of 4,000. And to answer the question that everyone seems to be asking.... yes there will be a guest room for visitors to sleep over. Glen Oaks Designs is leaving Glen Oaks!!

While my life is packed up in boxes I put my Etsy site on hold. I had been spinning in overdrive and have a banker's box over flowing with yummy scrumptous hand spun yarns. I also have four hand blended batts for my spinners. The batts are Merino/ Silk, Merino/silk/Mohair, Alpaca, Paco Vicuna, silk/ merino/polwarth. I have a collection of a dozen mini balls of blended fiber all spun up and two plied in various blends of silk, Merino, Mohair, Polwarth and Wensleydale. They will be sold as a set and are over a gram of fiber. I also have several larger mini balls with more yardage to them that will be at firesale prices once I get back up and running. The 50/50 Alpaca Mohair is spectacular. I will be posting these up on my ravelry site for any ravelry people interested in a preview. If you want to reserve something let me know. Speaking of which I have two pair of socks I need to put in the finish pile. And I have started a lace scarf that has only been frogged a half dozen times. This evening I frogged it to the cast on... I wasn't happy with a section of it.

I have a moving company coming on Sunday for an estimate, I have another on on Wednesday but after reading the website were people rate moving companies I am thinking of doing one of those "pod-like" you pack things- they drive it. We can put furniture in one, indoor thing in a second and outdoor things in a third. We will be having a huge yard sale with lots of new items some never used and still in their sealed packages ... I have a second breadmaker like that. We will be selling our home theater seating. I will hate to see that go. I spend many an hour with my feet up watching TV and movies knitting and spinning. Ok I don't recline while I spin. I do weave my viking chain while chillin'.

I will be closer to my sister for the time being. We never live close to each other - the fates just don't allow it. Of course this means she'll get that choice job in Chicago now. Our moving there seals that deal. I still will be making my appearance at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show. I can be mostly found at the 2Beadtrueblue show and the Manning House show. I will also be haunting the Rio Grande Catalog in Motion. I am am also making plans to go to a few sheep and wool shows maybe black sheep gathering. Who knows I might even make it back to SOAR.

So right now it's getting ready to get the heck out of Dodge. Actually I am moving closer to Dodge.

My last day at work is Friday the 19th. That will be culture shock on multi levels. I have worked for the same company for a decade most of which from home. Now it's a new company and I'm going into work every day in an office and interacting with people and wearing clothes. Not that I did tech support naked because I didn't. I just didn't wear things that matched or that I'd wear out of the house. Not even to do gardening. I have been shopping. I highly recommend the LLBean lambs wool cardie. It's like a hug. I needed a hug so I got 3. The new office is not a high trafic office but jeeze recently I haven't really been around humans for almost 6 weeks since my hubbins has been up there already finding us a place to live and working his job. I even use the self check out line at the grocery store. I really don't interact with others. It will be what I call the "raised by wolves" syndrom. Me getting used to being a person interacting with other people. I think most of my job is self motivated and just getting things done. I work very well like that. And no more having to talk people into doing things they don't want to. No more getting yelled at just because the economy is in the twalette (spelled toilet) No more mandatory overtime because two people want to beat each other up. The down side is I just qualified for four weeks of vacation... I'm back down to 12 days. An upside is we are near about 5 spectacular locations where we have a timeshare. I can see weekend vacations will be more fun or is the popular term "funner"?

Well it's 3 am AGAIN!! I really need to stop doing this and go to sleep at a decent hour. I sleep better with Hubbins around. He should be here in 17 hours.