I haven’t been doing a lot lately. Mostly sleeping late and reading books (One Hundred Years of Solitude was the latest, finished just tonight) and working. This whole week was work, ever since Christmas Eve. Christmas Day didn’t even exist for me this year - I woke at around six, went to Mom’s to have some leftovers and missed dinner, opened a present from my brother, and then went home. Exciting, eh? And the whole week’s been like that - dull and blurry, mostly.

However, I’ve been planning a new year’s ritual, and I’ll do some of my Yule stuff then, too, as I didn’t much think about it on Yule itself. Tonight is my last night of work for the week, so I’ll have the next three off, where I can hopefully do something useful with myself.

Like sew.

I got my December Secret Pal package last Friday - but I’ve have a heck of a time getting this posted. Still don’t have photos! However, I have the most beautiful red koigu ever! It’s Koigu KPM, this bright, cheery santa red that matches my tree, and I can’t stop touching it! *lol* I’ve got it right here on my desk, and have, for days. Then, there were a few other things in there - like some girly stuff (nail polish, etc.) and some books for my 101 Days Book project, and a cute little mini knitting book, and some Christmas candy! Huzzah!

Pictures when I make this thing work. *kicks it*

Thirteen Random Things About This Week

1. I have finally ordered my mother a Christmas gift! From eBay, no less.
2. Some of my gifts are wrapped, but not all. I like to do special wrap jobs - no “wrap it in paper and put a sticky bow on it” for me. Nope nope. I go all out. This year, the theme is red and white (like last year) - however, I’m doing white paper this year, with red trim, instead of last year, where I pretty well did the opposite.





3. I have decided that while my tree has enough decor, the rest of my house is not near decorated enough.



4. I am not in the mood to knit. I’m just /not/. Post-shawl rebellion, perhaps?
5. My lastest QPB review has a LOT of books in it that I’d like to read. Or at least skim through at a bookstore to check over.
6. I am waiting anxiously for DIYplanner’s 2007 calendar templates to come out, so I can redo my planner. This time, I swear, I’ll do better.



7. It’s that time of the month again and I’m mourning being female and eating pretty much nonstop.
8. So what better time to make cookies, anyway? Mom and A came over, and we baked. And baked. And baked some more. We have about 16 dozen cookies. Chocolate chip, chocolate chip without the chocolate chips (this sounds bizarre, I know, but it’s my dad’s favorite), cry babies, raisin puffs, (all three of these are my mom’s recipes - rather, my grandma’s), and then we tried a couple new recipes, too - cinnamon coins (not so hot), and kiflins (an almondy cookie that’s VERY good!)



9. I am not done baking yet. I intend to bake more - peanut butter cookies, and sugar cookies, and gingerbread cookies, maybe. Mmm.
10. In light of the fact that my Windows computer just doesn’t want to return to a state of happy life, I’ve ordered myself pieces for a new one. Will gut this baby out and pop in a new motherboard, a beautiful dual core AMD processor, sadly only a gig of ram (gugh, the DDR2 stuff is pricey!) and a new SATA hard disk. Hopefully, I’ll get no DOA parts, and all will be well!
11. My cross-stitch project is nearly done! Just working on all the backstitching, which is going pretty fast, and then I just have to put the buttons on! Of course, then I must make it into a pillow or something.
12. I love Maddy the puppy!



13. I am getting a mixer (Kitchen Aid Artisan!) for Christmas! Except, I’m getting it early. Like… as soon as Amazon ships it here! Thank you Mom! I’ve been wanting one for a while now. Saving up the money. Figures that as soon as I have enough to buy it and it goes on sale, Mom tells me she’ll buy it for me for Christmas! *laugh* But that works for me! Mine will be Empire Red. Perfect.

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That’s what I did last night. A year and a half ago, I finally came up with a budgeting system that works for me. I know, I know, you hear the word ‘budget’ and you run screaming as if I’d just told you to hand over every one of your paychecks to the tightwad gazette for the rest of your life.

Not so. Budgeting is really pretty harmless, even to those with spending addictions. Like myself. And it’s simple. Takes up hardly any time, and makes it so I don’t HAVE to feel guilty - or play dumb - when I buy something, and then get a ‘your check has bounced’ noticed from the bank.

Budgeting is all about finding out how much money you can spend for fun, made possible by doing a little math every now and then to figure out how much money you need for… well, things you NEED. Like rent, and telephone, and heat, and mac n cheese. Yep. I do not budget so I can be in control of my finances. I budget so I don’t have to put a billion things I truly desire back on the shelf all because I can’t figure out whether I’ll have enough money to pay the phone bill coming up in two weeks. See? It’s rewarding!

I have a fun system that works for me. There’s budget calculators all over the web for free, budget worksheets, programs like quicken, yadda yadda. They’re nice, but they tend not to fit ME too well. I’ve got an unusual situation - I don’t pay a lot of bills that some people do - and I do have some odd bills that most budget things don’t calculate for.

My tools:

I use an index card system, with a little binder clip to keep them all together so I can pack the current and recent past cards (up to a year’s worth) around with me wherever I go, such as, to work, where I do most of my budgeting.

Every paycheck gets its own index card. Every paycheck varies with my schedule, so I do about 3 months at a time, and when I get into the third month, I do up another three months or so, counting ahead and figuring out what each paycheck will be. I average out my net total every month, and now have a handy little list of what (on average) my paycheck will be for all the usual shift configurations I have.

Then I list out what bills need to be paid that month, and the dates. And eventually, I plug them into the cards, ensuring that a) every bill gets paid on time (I typically pay bills twice a month - on payday), and b) I always have some, at least a little, extra money left over. Twice a year, when three paychecks come in a month, it all gets screwed up, and I have to pay bills on different checks than usual, or sometimes, I’ll just have a short paycheck, and have to split up a bill between a couple checks. That’s why I do three months at a time - much easier that way to keep things like that from sneaking up on me.

I do a rough draft on paper, where I write additional notes, such as the number of days worked in that pay period, overtime/holiday pay notes, etc. and THEN I commit them to index cards. I don’t like to scribble all over my index cards rearranging things. I do it anyway, every month but I like my first scribbles to be done on paper. I keep the paper for future reference, too. Just in case.

Anyway. I’ve done my budgeting through April, actually. Why April? Because March was a three-paycheck month, and stopping there and not knowing what was up with April was driving me nuts.

Anyway, my conclusion from all of this? I should be able to buy a new computer! See how much fun that was? Definitely worth the time it took.

Got this from The Naked Truth. :)

1. What time is it? Time, nearly, to go home from work!
2. What is your full name? Sorry. Won’t display that here.
3. What are you most afraid of? Dying before I’ve really lived.
4. What is the most recent movie that you have seen in a theater? In a theater? Gosh. Can’t remember. That was like, months ago.
5. Have you ever seen a ghost? No. Thought I did once, but it was just A… incredibly drunk.
6. Where were you born? Same little psycho town I live in now. Strange. I still know the doctor who delivered me.
7. Ever been to Alaska? Yep. As a wee babe. Don’t remember much of it, except going to a daycare center (and being terrified), getting in trouble for boncing on the bed and using my aunt’s lipstick (ok, more like… smearing it), and worrying that Santa would not find us (he did).
8. Ever been toilet papering? No. Can’t say I’ve even had the desire.
9. Loved someone so much it made you cry? Not romantically.
10. Been in a serious car accident? Thankfully no. *knocks on wood*
11. Do you plan to have any more children? I don’t have any, and yes, I definitely do!
12. Favorite day of the week? Mmm… any day these days. Except Sundays. *sigh* Can’t do anything here on Sundays.
13. Favorite Restaurant? Golden Corral lately. Buffet! Hurrah!
14. Favorite Flower? Hard to say. I don’t do ‘favorites’ too much. Hmm… Chinese Lanterns are nifty.
15. Favorite color? This changes hourly. It’s green right now.
16. Favorite sport to watch? I hate watching sports. Figure skating. Does that even count? Seems more like physical art to me.
17. Favorite Drink? Water, baby. Water. And then tea. Maybe tea then water. Oh who cares?
18. Favorite Ice Cream? Schwan’s Autumn Treat. And then Vanilla.
19. Favorite fast food restaurant? Taco Bell or Taco John’s, I guess. Though I never eat there, practically. We always do McD’s.
20. What color is your bedroom carpet? Beige. Unique, eh?
21. How many times did you fail your driver’s test? None! Hurrah for me. But believe me, I was terrified.
22. What do you do when you are bored? Whine. Heh. Play Spider Solitare. Talk to my kitties. Call Mom. Not all at once, or necessarily in that order.
23. What time is your bedtime? Anywhere from 8:30am to 10:30am. Most often it falls around 9:30. AM, yes. In the morning.
24. Favorite TV shows? I don’t watch any tv these days. None!
25. What are you most grateful for? Life.
26. What are you listening to right now? Cars driving by. And computers buzzing.
27. How many pets do you have? Three. Three kitties.
28. Which came first: the chicken or the egg? Why do people ask this question?
29. What would you like to accomplish before you die? Everything in my head. But will I? Probably not.



1 Word of Wisdom »



Colors & Personality ~ So-so.
Filed in Quizzes
on December 11th, 2006 @ 7:19am



A bit about me, or so says the Colorgenics quiz - which is intriguing, though I have to say, my color preferences really change with the hour of the day.

Then again, maybe, so, does my personality.

Now there’s a thought.

Moving on, the profile (in “code” text, with my comments in “normal” text in between:

You are trying to establish yourself and make an impact despite the fact that everything around you seems to be against you - putting up barriers, but don't be unduly concerned: you have the right ideas and come what may, they will soon be manifested and appreciated.

Hmm. Sort of. I can’t see “everything around me” acting against my efforts. More like *I* am acting against my own bloody efforts because I’m a lazy ass.

You 'need to be needed'. As an idealist you are intolerant of anything short of special consideration from those close to you. If you do not get what you seek you are apt to become reclusive and you will close the doors on all those within your sphere of influence.

Heh. Well, sort of. I do ‘need to be needed’. Not so much on the intolerance of anything but special considerations stuff. I don’t think. I may, however do that last bit. Uh yes, I’m sort of a bitch like that.

Your confidence has been shattered. There are so many things that you would like to do with your life, so many dreams to be fulfilled - and you know that your hopes and dreams are not just figments of your imagination, they are real and you are looking for reassurance from someone. Basically your fears are such that you may be prevented in attaining your hopes and dreams. Even now you would like to broaden your fields of endeavour but in order to develop your 'inner- self' you need peace and solace. You are distressed by the fear that you may be prevented from attaining your goals. What you really need at this particular moment in time is quiet reassurance from someone close to you to restore your confidence.

Perhaps somewhat.

Whatever has caused the situation, you just don't seem to be able to sustain or maintain relationships as you would wish to. What you really seek is to be able to develop a relationship with someone with whom you can truly share: Love, Serenity, Peace and Quiet. But you are a very demanding person and it is your nature that leads to disquiet and discord: you are like the tide, flotsam and jetsam... One minute you experience 'highs' and a few moments later 'lows'. This obviously will introduce discord into any relationship and with this demanding attitude - the ideal state you desire is unable to develop. Despite the urge to gratify your natural desires, you impose a considerable self-restraint on your instincts in the belief that this demonstrates your superiority and raises you above the common herd. You are extremely critical of everything that is presently going on around you and you find it difficult to listen to or to take advice from anyone. You enjoy the original, the ingenious and the subtle.

A big complete ‘no’ to the first half about relationships. A big fat ‘yes’ on the last.

You need to be respected as an exceptional individual. This is the only way that you can hope to achieve the status that you wish to achieve. You set yourself very high standards - and come what may - you abide by them.

Not /quite/ - I don’t need to be respected as an exceptional individual, and I don’t really hope to achieve any particular status. I’m don’t particularly give a shit what the vast, vast majority of people think, and even those whose opinions I /do/ care about… well, just no. Except maybe in the “K, you’re smart” realm. I give there. I don’t want anybody saying: “K, you’re a friggin idiot in the worst way” - I mean, insult of all insults! But I’m no particular genius, either. Do I set high standards? Yes. Definitely. Does it work against me? Yes. Definitely. Do I try anyway? Definitely.




No Words of Wisdom »



Secret Pal Update
Filed in Secret Pal, Swaps, Knitting
on December 8th, 2006 @ 4:01am



First, a big round of smiling applause for my pal, who keeps sending me postcards depicting various fun things and/or spots she’s travelling to on her job. Evidently, she does a lot of travelling! Sounds fun. I’m going nowhere… I’m lucky if I get out of town to the grocery store once a month. *laugh* Anyway, I’ve been thinking of scanning them, but to be honest, I’m lazy, and my scanner is a lot of work, and… yeah, probably no one will look at them. So for now, they remain tacked to my fridge where I can look at them whenever I go find something to munch on.

Second, I’m putting together my pal’s December package. Got some nice yarns for her - a really pretty, vibrant ball of mercerized cotton that I almost want to keep for myself… and some other cottons, too suitable for her household knitting habit. :) I’m gonna toss in some regional specialties as a nice Christmas gift, too. Hopefully, I can get it packaged together and mailed out on my next days off. Hopefully.




No Words of Wisdom »



Winter Love - TT #14
Filed in Wheel of the Year, Thursday Thirteen, Memes & Meta
on December 6th, 2006 @ 7:58pm



Winter and I have a love-hate relationship in this neck of the woods (where temps routinely plunge to the -30s, not counting wind chill). Still, I have my reasons for loving the season, just as much as I hate the bone-chilling freezes and the constant snow-mud tracked into the house, and the fact that with my night job, I never see daylight. Here’s some of them.


Thirteen Reasons I Love Winter
1. Freshly fallen snow, and a crisp, moonlit sky, where the trees sparkle with glittery frost and your breath freezes in the air with every exhale, where chimneys puff up smoke and the night is still and quiet and peaceful.
2. Scarves and hats and mittens - oh my! I /like/ bundling up. It’s cozy and warm and the materials are oh so toasty and soft!
3. Hot Cocoa. I don’t drink hot cocoa in the summer, or in any of the warmer days of spring or fall. So it’s really quite a winter treat. I do it the gourmet cheater’s way - I buy gourmet hot cocoa mix, and instead of adding water like the directions say, I use milk, Rich and creamy. Yum. My favorite is Stephenson’s brand.
4. Snow in general! I love to look at it, love to watch it, love to /eat/ it. I don’t even put any syrups on it - I just scoop up a bowl. of fresh snow into a bowl and eat it like ice cream.
5. Super fuzzy socks. I love love love them. You know, the big thick ones in the really soft material? Love those.
6. Advent calendar countdowns to Christmastime! Have always loved those. I have a cute little Chimney with a Santa figurine. Each day, you pull a ‘brick’ out of the chimney, and he slowly slides down, and on the last day falls to the bottom to spread his joy!
7. Christmas trees. I love my tree so much that I tend to keep up throughout most of January, if not into February. *cough*
8. Cider! Apple cider! Like hot cocoa, I only drink this during the cold days.
9. All the pretty things the big stores have lining their aisles for Christmas shopping! I love how they pack the stores to the brim, and all sorts of new products and holiday sets and odd cute things to buy are scattered about. Some people hate Christmastime for its materialism. Hell, that’s just one more reason I /love/ it.
10. Santa Claus. Face it, I love Santa. I love his reindeer. Santa, to me, is still as real as he was when I was a child. He /is/ the spirit of Christmas in my eyes. When I was a kid, my uncle used to call every December, pretending to be Santa Claus. I never caught on until much later - after all, this uncle lived far away, and I rarely saw him. There was Toyland type music playing on in the background, and he’d do the whole Ho ho ho! thing real well, and talk about Mrs. Claus, and ask us kids what we wanted for Christmas, and whether we’d been good or bad.
11. Cookies! Who doesn’t love cookies? I love to bake them and eat them and give them away. I don’t put in such effort often, though I think I should… Nevertheless, my favorite thing to do with them is put them out with milk for Santa. :)
12. The scents - Christmas scents. Candy cane peppermint, and fresh evergreen (not that I get much of that with my fakie tree), and gingerbread, cinnamon and apple cider, nutmeg and chocolate. Mmmmm.
13. Huddling up by the fire. Actually, I’ve never done this, but someday… someday I will have a fireplace to snuggle up in a cozy blanket by. I swear.

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9 Words of Wisdom »



Spring Thoughts
Filed in Garden
on December 2nd, 2006 @ 6:58am



It’s deep winter now - temperatures hovering around zero degrees, skies grey, roads snowpacked and icy, wind harsh and bitter. We’re under almost constant wind chill and blowing/drifting snow warnings. Everything outside is dead, dead, dead. Unsurprisingly, my thoughts have turned to warmer days ahead, and to greenery and signs of life.

A seed catalog came in the mail a couple days ago, and sparked my desire to garden. Naturally, I want to do that right now, but it’s quite impossible, except for perhaps starting the aloe and fern seeds I’d intended to start last summer. Which I think I’ll do, as soon as I rearrange things to put my plants in a nice warm spot in the house.

My houseplants are suffering from lack of light. The best window inthe house is an east facing one, which doesn’t give it much. I’ve got a 4 foot shop light waiting to be strung up, but I am useless as a handywoman (a sad, sorry state) and need to string up some hooks first. I’ve tried screwing in those bloody ceiling hooks before, and let me tell you - it’s not easy. So maybe I can convince someone like my dear old’ dad to do it for me - if I clear a space in the back bedroom to put them. I have a grand spot for them this summer - in the front ‘porch’ area, which was an add-on to this trailer many years ago, and now houses not much, except a bookshelf, unused piano, coatrack, and a dormant woodstove. If the woodstove was going, I’d have a perfect place, but I’ve got no bleeding idea how to use it, and nobody seems overly interested in showing me how, or finding me wood. I have /no/ idea how to find wood.

Is this sounding like I’m completely helpless and dependent? It is to me. I should stop that and figure it out on my own. But then someone (eh - dad, mom, grandma, whoever) would drop by and throw a bleeding fit because I’d done something wrong, or rather, just not the way /they/ would’ve done it.

Anyway, back to the gardening. I’m concerned, because if I move this summer (a possibility if all goes well financially) my gardening will be shot all to hell. If not… well, I’ll have a huuuuge garden plot all to myself, which makes me giddy and happy. No more experimenting with container carrots (last year’s turned out fairly poor… not sure why… not enough moisture, perhaps?)

Anyway. Lots of ideas going on in my head. I’m gonna start plotting now, so I know exactly when to start my seeds this year (eggplant/tomatoes needed to be started earlier than I could last year!). I’m thinking of growing a few onions, maybe some garlic, definitely potatoes if I expect to be around (I’m dying for some big red homegrown taters!) and maybe some luffa! And of course, other things, but those are what’s on my mind right now!




No Words of Wisdom »



100 Top Reads Update
Filed in 101 Things, Brainfood
on December 1st, 2006 @ 7:26am



In my 1001 Days project, among my goals are to read BBC’s Top 100 Reads. I’ve read 13 of the 100 since March 21st. However, I’ve read a handful more of those in the past, and so, they’re at the bottom of the list, to be read only if time and desire permits. After all, I read all the Harry Potter novels, and cute as they are, I don’t have a pressing desire to go back and reread them all immediately. Though maybe I will sometime between now and when my 1001 Days is up. I don’t know. But things I’ve already read are not on the “must do” list for me to complete this goal. Reasonable? I think so.

With the ones I’ve already read at some point added in, I’ve read 22 of 100. Not bad. 1/5th of the books done. Frankly, this goal is harder than I expected. My library is really… not quite so good. Even the libraries it’s allied with fail miserably when finding some of these - even though the books in question are not what I’d call incredibly rare reads.

I don’t really want to have to /buy/ all these books. Especially since some of them are books I’m really quite certain I will not enjoy so much that I’d like to own them.

I have found good luck in finding the old classics online, however, in libraries like Literature.org and Online-Literature.com - in fact, several of the reads mentioned were found online. However, I suspect that /these/ might be the reads more aptly found in my libraries. Nevertheless, it makes for a quick way to read a few chapters while at work.

For example, I’m currently working on Treasure Island (7 chapters in) and War and Peace (oh please, shoot me now) (somewhere in the midst of Book 3). Confession - I /hate/ war novels. I really do. Especially war novels like /this/. Flowery and dull as sin. To be honest, I feel that way about a great lot of ‘classics’. Flowery, and dull as sin. I guess I’m too conditioned to thrillers, myseteries, dark fantasy, and romance, eh?

A downside of this reading books online thing is that it’s not an actual /book/. I like books. I like to hold them and feel them and smell them, even. Reading online doesn’t quite do it for me in the same way. So I’m glad to also have a friend, A, who likes those flowery classics, and who has a good handful of them that I can thus borrow, read, and return without resorting to the library’s painfully plastic-ized hardcover, or to an online version of the same thing. So yay, A!

Anyway. That’s it for the book update.




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