The Bastards

So I managed to travel to and from Albany without having to complain about my company to any major degree. In fact the people I met with there were great and I was glad to finally meet them in person.

But then I get back to the office and as I am doing some blog reading I am noticing that pictures don't seem to be appearing on a few of the blogs. Not all, just some. Then I am on Ravelry and I notice none of my pictures are appearing. Hmmmmm.... I click on Flickr. And I get a big message saying this is a Forbidden Site. Wahhhh!!! Not only can't I get onto that site but any picture from that site is blocked. In the case of ravelry that is ALL of the pictures. Is it just Flickr? I click onto Snapfish - blocked.

I am now going to be forced to do my ravelry browsing and blog reading at home! How will I fill the hours of boredom I have at my office? When I have horrible days at work I usually look at a few Michelle photos (my niece) to make me smile. Now I can't. I am sad - so very, very sad. Trust me, I am pouting.

The only bright spot of today is that I an evening with my SnB'ers and some margaritas to look forward to that may take away some of the pain.

Scariest part of this is the realization that this may be the thing that truly motivates me to take action and get serious about looking for a new job. How screwy is that?

C'e Il Grande Cocomero, Charlie Brown!

For those not versed in italian, the title above says "It's The Great Watermelon, Charlie Brown!" I'm pretty sure they have pumpkins in Italy so I am not sure why it was translated this way unless it's just for the fact that "il grande cocomero" is just so much fun to say. Repeat it a few times you'll see what I mean.

I wish I could blame the following on some sort of drug-induced state but I can't unless too many candy corn can be considered mind-altering I have no excuse. It started last week when I saw the pattern for these really cute felted pumpkins. And since I seem to have a strong affinity for small stuffed toys and they are such a simple, quick knit - I made one, then another and somehow ended up with four. Really it's all just a blur. But does the insanity stop there? Um, no.

The Great Pumpkin was on last night and since I had my own pumpkin patch at this point it only seemed fitting to re-create it. But who to fill the role of Linus Van Pelt? (Always a favorite of mine probably due to blankie issues). So below are my casting sessions.

Yeah, I've lost it. And right now my sister is giving me that look. But if I can't be kooky on Halloween.....ah crap I'm kooky every day.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Mini Sock Monkey


Boober the Fraggle


Bunny Peep

Are you Smarter than a Fourth Grader?

A co-worker in my department has a son in the fourth grade who gets these weekly math challenges. I must say for a fourth grader are pretty hard. Usually they are solved with algebra (which they have not learned yet) but the kids are challenged to try to figure it out anyway they can graphs, guessing, pictures etc...Now my co-worker gives these word problems to several of us in the department to work out. Usually it takes me a few minutes to kick out my basic algebra skills and figure it out.

The first time we did it, my co-worker couldn't solve it herself but insisted that my answer had to be wrong because I did it too fast because apparently the rest of my department took over a half hour to solve it (their answers were wrong by the way).

The second time I was critiqued for not showing all of my work . We have yet to do one where I haven't had to explain how to get the correct answer to at least one person.

I know I sound really bitchy and condescending. I fully acknowledge that not everyone is good at math and I'm totally okay with that there are lots of things I can't remember from school. The thing is all of these people work in my department - the ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT!!! They are paid to work with numbers all day and should not look at me oddly because I remember how to do simple algebra!!!

So here's the problem. Feel free to post your answers in the comments.

A magic money box doubles any money put into it and then adds $1. Kara put some money in the box and the box did its magic. She then took this new amount of money and put it back in the box again. After the box did its magic again, Kara took of $31. How much money did Kara originally put into the magic money box?

They Said What???

"Read? I don't read. My brain works too fast for me to read." - L.

As told to me by a co-worker when asked about book groups. Boy, am I glad to be slow-brained.

There was a little girl with a little curl...

I came in this morning with my haircut, a good haircut, a shorter by like 6 inches haircut. And do I get any acknowlegement at all....uh no. Either they are clueless or they are doing the stare at me for a good half a minute but then they don't say anything at all. I must remember that most of them have very little taste, if any, and that I don't need their approval but it would be nice for someone to even notice it happened even if they don't like it! But apparently in bizarro world that just doesn't happen.

So in conclusion - they suck.

Thrown for a Fruit Loop

So I'm in the kitchen at work rinsing off blueberries for breakfast and I'm chatting with a co-worker and in the course of this conversation she says "Can I try one? I've never had one like this before." Yes, I have to admit I was somewhat horrified that someone had never eaten a fresh blueberry before only in muffin form. This is someone from Boston! It's not like the Maine blueberries have a far way to travel! Then she says she only likes bumpy berries - meaning rasberries or blackberries she's not sure which. This is why rickets is coming back! (I think rickets is the new scurvy).

It's okay, I'm good now....then I started thinking that someone could then think the same about me (horrors!) since there are lots of fruits and veggies I've never had or say I don't like even though I haven't tried them again as an adult. So I decided that I am going to work this year to try every fruit and veggie that I normally don't eat. I figure with Haymarket and the 88 at my disposal I can end up trying some really weird stuff.

Bon Appetit!