I think it's settled. B came into the office for something else today and I overheard him ask AC what kind of toilet paper he would like. When AC asked why, B said "I'm trying to keep my employees happy. I've been thinking about what you said, I'll get the kind you want, and from here on out, the conversation stops and you don't mention your bathroom issues to anyone else, got it?" AC asked "What brought this on?" and B said "Nothing brought it on, but I've been thinking about what you said, there's a woman in the building, and you need to be aware that no one else needs to hear about your problems in that area. You'll get the toilet paper you need, and the discussion ends now, right?" Then he left, and seconds later AC ran past my office, snapped "I'm going outside" and ran downstairs. I'm sure to discuss it further with B. When he came back in about 10 minutes later, he was very sulky, stomping his feet, not answering my (work related) questions with anything more than a grunt.

Well, like I always say... (okay, not always, but I swear, I'm gonna say it from now on)
Better a cold shoulder than a hairy ass.

Re-reading that now, I can see how that might fit into many life situations. So yup, there it is, my new life motto. Better a cold shoulder than a hairy ass.

Use it freely. Maybe we can get rid of "schnizzle fa dizzle" and replace it with "Better a cold shoulder than a hairy ass."

In other news (oh, was this supposed to be a fiber-blog? silly me!) Fiona seems to have a pimple!

I told you I'm working on some laceweight for the spinning competition at VA FFF this weekend. I was spinning on my regular flyer head, and then thought that I should try the very fast flyer head, and made a switch. Suddenly I noticed the yarn was breaking A LOT. This is not normally a problem I have, and it was getting very frustrating. I tried all kinds of things, moving my hands, different chairs, different positions, long-draw, inch worm, you name it, the damn yarn kept breaking. I finally took a few minutes to really inspect Fiona, and it seems there's a tiny bump, a nearly invisible bit of sharpness where the yarn leaves the orifice on its way to the bobbin. Could that be the problem? This morning, I switched back to the regular flyer head, and the breaking stopped. Hmmm...

Alright, so I'll spin up this ounce of fiber and decide if I want to ply it or keep it as singles tonight, and maybe file the little bump off the fast flyer head, or maybe just wait until I go to the spinning class at Rhinebeck and see if the teacher can tell me if it was me or the bump causing the trouble.

Off to make more coffee. AC likes it meat-lockerish in here, and rather than start a fight over the thermostat I meant to bring in a jacket, but I forgot...
I don't really mind the cold... reminds me of knitting.

.... and the favorite husband award goes too....
GB!

Okay, I liked him pretty good to begin with, but in addition to wanting to kick AC's ass

(the line forms to the left) he was bragging about me at his work the other day, and because of that a co-worker now wants to commission me to knit his family some Christmas stockings! Five, to be exact. It seems they have a family tradition of handknit stockings for the new family members each year, and the woman who was doing it passed away. He sent me photos of one of the existing stockings to show what he was expecting, and it's definitely knitting I can do:



Of course, getting five done in time for Christmas, on top of the scarf for a grandmother and the afghan I've got going for another gift, could prove to be challenging... Hopefully I'll work something out, since it would be nice to get a bit of extra money. GB says "this might be the first step to you having a job playing with animals and fiber all day!"

This is seriously a good guy I married.

Work still sucks otherwise, although I did hear back from one of the bosses on the e-mail about AC. They're going to tell him to cut it out, and maybe even buy him his damn Charmin Ultra to keep him quiet. The one I spoke to is laughing about it, but does agree that it's highly inappropriate and something that would be obviously inappropriate to anyone with any social skills at all. He said "I thought it was over when [the troll] left!" and told me that the other one made the comment that AC almost seemed to have a fetish of sorts. So at least they don't think it's me who can't get along with anyone.

I'm so glad, because I really think for the most part I'm a lovely person. I mean, heck, I like me.

I took many pictures of the skein of yarn for the novice category this weekend, and then forgot to send them to myself to post them... Maybe tomorrow.

Okay, through the magic of television (or something like that) I will now show you a bag after knitting...and one fresh out of the oven - er, washer.


Shrunk down a lot as you can see (yes, Trevor is physically holding it up. What can I say, I have talented cats. That or instinctual - it started sliding the second I lifted the camera and his killer instincts kicked in. I believe GB has a picture of Trevor attempting to kill the bag further by means of sucking, but for now, we're looking at my spectacular felting efforts, and not so much my adorable cat-son)

Thanks for all the comments about AC. When he walked into my office this morning holding a roll of toilet paper and explained that he was going to be busy for a while it quickly reached raised volumes when I said "I have told you repeatedly I do not want to know what you do in the bathroom". He started yelling that I couldn't tell him what he couldn't tell me and he was just being courteous and he would quit if I had such a problem with his announcements. Frankly, I'd rather find a job I truly love for myself, and he can stay here. But I've composed a letter to the two supervisors above me explaining the situation, and asking what I should do... of course station e-mail is down... but we'll see how things go.

And in other news, Oscar is sick (kind of). He's got some unexplainable boo-boos on his stomach and side, and (having a pitbull's sensitivity to pain) we didn't even notice until they were pretty gross. So he's been to the doctor, and we have antibiotics to give him in pill form and an ointment to put on the wounds. Anyone who thinks pitbulls are mean should watch me give this dog a pill. That's not to say it's easy. I'd rather give the cats a pill than this guy, but only because I'm stronger than the cats and can actually hold them down, and my cats will do anything for me. I imagine a stranger might risk life and limb if they attempted, but for me, the cats will take pills fairly easily. Oscar is strong enough that his squirms to get away can knock me over. Last night I gave him the pill and then put the stuff on his wounds and he stopped coming to me. Quick learner, this guy. Mom puts cold stuff on me and makes me take icky pills, I'm hiding over here where Dad is. This morning I had my entire hand, up to the wrist, fully within a pitbull's mouth. Not a scratch on me, but lots of slobber and lots of goo from the outside of the pill. He deigned to taking dainty little girly bites out of a piece of bread from my hand a few minutes later (he's supposed to take the pill with food). We'll find out sometime next week just what's causing the problem, but in the meantime, I have a feeling he's going to bond with GB a great deal...

Ah, well. The job search starts again today. I've done that way too much.

I felt guilty at having two posts in a row be almost entirely non-fiber related (although I do think I mentioned fiber at least once in each, and I certainly played with it in my own time) and almost entirely whining about work, so I figured I'd show you a picture of one of my entries in the VA FFF this weekend. This is the bag - pre-felting - that will be entered in the "Felted Items, non-wearable" category. It ended up a lot bigger than I expected (I decided to do that particular stripe pattern shortly after doing the letters and completely disregarded any thought about how much yarn it might take.) and I actually had about a yard left of the blue. It's done out of Lambs Pride with Denim Blue and Blue Blood Red. Once again, no pattern or chart, just me winging it... and no sewing either. Started at one side of the strap and ended up at the bottom (square-ish) without sewing a bit!
Hopefully it looks this good felted. I'll post the end results later this week....



And doesn't Trevor do a fantastic Vanna White impression?

Now go read yesterday's post about my horrible annoying co-worker and pity me. Threats to his well-being are more than appreciated.

Yes, Alyx, sadly, being spat upon by camelids would be cheery compared to work some days. Which shows either how much I love animals or how much I hate my job some days. Possibly both.

It's way past my bedtime on Sunday night, and I had to work today. And because of the day I had, I can't sleep, despite being very tired, and achy and sore-throated.

So a bedtime story for you, all about a person we will call AC.

(That's Annoying Co-worker for the slower-witted among you)

The day began simply enough. The station is moving locations, so we had to go in on our day off to help the process along. The boss was running late, so AC and I waited for him, and chatted calmly while doing so. It came up that I had a pitbull, and then of course came up that all of the research that I've done over the past months about the temperment of pitbulls and their behavior around humans is bogus, but the stories he's heard about third hand are completely factual. So I changed the subject as quickly as I could, not being up for a discussion with a closed-minded ignorant moron.

Now, some have mentioned that maybe my temper is shorter with AC than it is with other people. I will willingly admit that this might be the case. But I do believe that the rest of my day will show why this is the case.

Our "old" location, which I've shown pictures of, was built in the '40s and redecorated in the 70's, and is dark, dingy, confining, with no windows or natural light. The "new" location was remodelled far more recently, is cleaner, brighter, has windows and natural light.

AC spent the day complaining about how claustrophobic is was making him. Fine.

Then AC told the boss that he should buy a different brand of toilet paper because (as he put it, I swear) he gets "reactions". B responded that he buys the tp in bulk for three stations, and that AC is welcome to bring his own.

A few hours later, when B was out running an errand and I was setting up my new office, AC decided to walk into my office and tell me that he was furious with the way he was being treated, and he deserved better toilet paper, and he was going to make sure the station paid for it, by submitting petty cash forms each time he had to purchase toilet paper for himself.

When I told him I thought he was over-reacting, he proceeded to tell me, in great detail, just why he needed Charmin Ultra. I won't give you the information he gave me, but suffice it to say I have now been given an explicit description of the amount of hair in various regions of AC that I'd rather not admit even exist, as well as the process with which he uses the aforementioned Charmin Ultra. I stared at him in disgust and he said "oh, you're thinking about it now, aren't you?" to which I replied "what I'm thinking about is why you would possibly think this is something I want to know, or something that is remotely appropriate to share."

AC: We're co-workers. Doesn't everyone share this with their co-workers?
Me: No, actually some people have decency and realize that's really disgusting.
AC:You don't know that. You're wrong. Everyone else does talk about this. I talk about it all the time.

I chose then to stop the conversation in the only way I could (as he was blocking my office door) and turned away and began scribbling on a note pad as though I was horribly busy.

A bit later, I was taking a brief break out on our "patio" and he came outside where I was.

AC:This is more than you want to know, but I wanted to tell you that I peed, but I put the lid up, and afterwards I put it back down.
Me: For future reference, when you start a sentence with "This is more than you want to know," you're right, and you shouldn't tell me.
AC:What, I'm just being considerate, and I'm not going to stop telling you these things because I can tell you if I want to.

These are the kinds of conversations I have to tolerate. If I tell him to stop, normally the response I get from him is "You have to be patient with me, I'm very, very sensitive, and my feelings get hurt easily." Very, very sensitive, my ass. B and I had both assumed that his significant other (that's right, this classy guy got some woman to commit to him) was a huge dominatrix type woman, an angry, bossy type who looked like every man's worst nightmare - this based on the way he behaves, and the way he's mentioned to me that he's had many people tell him he's way too good for her. I finally met her and she's a tiny, relatively polished, classy woman.

What I get is starting to feel more and more like harrassment from him. And I feel a little trapped because things were so bad with The Troll that I feel like I've been shoved between the rock of tolerating abusive/harrassing behavior from co-workers, and the hard place of having the boss think I can't get along with anyone and I'm more trouble than I'm worth to keep around.

This damn business. It brings all the psychotic freaks together, and screws with your mind with slow, devastating torture.

Things I would rather be doing than being at work today:



























Heck, even


Instead...

For the few of you who even noticed, I didn't post yesterday. I went home sick. I never go home sick (in my whole life, I've been sent home by bosses more often than I've actually gone home at my own suggestion), so I was feeling pretty bad. Funky blood sugar things, I think, waves of nausea, dizziness. GB said I was hot, and since I was clearly not in "the mood" I assume he meant feverish, as well.

For a while I sat at work thinking "I can't drive if this gets any worse. I'll call GB and have him pick me up tonight." In one of my more lucid moments I realized that was silly, and since computer errors meant I actually had less work than usual, I went home around lunchtime. Snuggled on the couch with Aslan, even Oscar was calmer than usual and settled nicely on the floor... Felt pretty moody and icky and restless most of the evening, couldn't even focus enough to knit or spin very much (believe me, I tried, but when you're feeling dizzy, doing something that involves looking in the direction of a quickly spinning wheel is a no-no) but woke up feeling much better (not great, but exponentially better) albeit it a little worried that today is another weigh in. So if it's a bad week, can we all agree to blame the illness, and not my lack of moral strength?

I did remember to take a picture of the Niddy Noddy I got last week (Saturday?). It's a Kromski, 2 yard, with Mahogany finish, and quite lovely.

That yarn is actually dark green with some red and gold. Remember me mentioning the sheen from Jen's merino/silk blends. I was not, in actuality, just whistling "Dixie" on that one.

And I think we've also finally found a bone that Oscar can't chew through in one day.

I think it's from a pterodactyl or something. Oscar is about 60 - 65 pounds. Notice the size of his "arm" compared to the narrowest part of the bone. Every so often he becomes highly motivated to move it, and he can lift up one end and drag it a bit. When he drops the end, it sounds like a bass drum. While he's chewing on it, you'd think the garbage disposal was on for all the grinding, scraping noises. Can you guess whether it was me or GB that felt the need to buy this for him? I'll give you the hint. It was not the one of us who was home yesterday listening to the bass drum/garbage disposal of bones while they were trying to recover from sickness. Though I must admit it's cute to watch him try to decide whether to play with that or the small felted mouse intended to be a cat toy but which quickly became his.

Oh, and KC? I've never spun Coopworth either, to my knowlege. Again, let's blame the fever for my delusions that led me to type "Coopworth" when talking about my benevolently benefacted fiber for the lace weight catagory. It was (and still is) Corriedale, and is a yummy dark chocolate color. It's also the most lanolin-rich fiber I've spun... I like it, but can't spin it for long, because my fingers start to stick together! But it's going well, although I think I'm going to change to the very fast flyer head on my wheel. I've been using just the fastest setting on my standard wheel, and been pretty successful. I've got enough to play (6.75 oz total, and the final skein only needs to be 1 oz) so I'll see if the very fast flyer changes things drastically....

And now I'm ready for another nap, but have to hang in there until after work...

Edited to add:
Also, something funky is going on with me and Little Barn. Ordered a pound of Superwash Merino from them over a month ago, paid through PayPal, and the order never got to me. So I contacted them after a month, they responded quite quickly to my e-mail, and said their policy was to send the product again with the understanding that if I ended up with two packages, I would either pay for the second, or send it back to them. It's now been a week and a half since the second package went out, and it's still not here either!!! So now I'm starting to suspect foul play, although not with them, with either the mail service, who didn't feel like going up to the house with a pitbull tied up outside it (even though Oscar can't come anywhere close to the door) and so felt they could just toss the package, or if one of our neighbors is wandering off with it. Weird. Suggestions? What do I do here?

Well, I've just sent off my entry forms for VA's Fall Fiber Festival because for some reason I forgot that they needed them by the 24th, and while I knew that today was the 21st, I was temporarily incapable of handling the complex, upper-level math that was 24 - 21 = 3. So I sent them an e-mail saying the forms are coming, and hopefully all will work out. Also sent out another package, and hopefully someone will call me up and say "my goodness, yes, please come work for us, is a million dollar salary okay?"

Oh, and the reason I knew it was September 21st?

It is the birthday of the very dear, very beloved Bess today. I wish there were words to say how very much I love, adore, admire, and just enjoy this woman. I want very much to be like her when I grow up. Go send her some love, she deserves it all and more.

The cold is still hanging around and even getting a little worse, and I've been spending a great deal of my mornings sounding like Demi Moore. If he didn't have to leave for work, GB might get a kick out of that, but as it is, the cats aren't particularly amused. If anything, they think I'm purring more. The radios station is moving next week - in fact, I have to work Sunday because of it - and so the males are feeling very male indeed and throwing and breaking things that will go into the dumpster, which means stirred up dust and loud noises to sooth my sore throat and aching head. I'm feeling pretty rotten right now, and would really like to go to bed. But duty calls, the bastard.

Speaking of the FFF, I've only finished two of the four entries. I decided to enter the hat that I made from the sock pattern, in the hopes that they find it interesting that I used a sock pattern for a hat (hey, a tube's a tube's a tube, right? Just decrease after the leg instead of turning the heel)

And in the novice catagory I've entered the finished yarn from this
.

I'm also entering a felted bag of my own design, the mail bag.

I'm going to do it in different colors, and make the handle narrower as well.

Plus I want to try to enter the lace weight division, using some chocolate brown Coopworth wool from my benevolent benefactor. Just to force myself to spin to form instead of just spinning what the fiber wants to do. Show the fiber Who's the Boss, as it were.