Sunday
Nothing too exciting. Sleep. Eat. Work. Eat. Sleep. The front and back of the Icicles Pullover are finished. I have been working on the sleeves and have made absolutely no progress. As written, the pattern sucks. I don't know if it is the fault of the pattern writer or the magazine editor. The pattern for the body is a multiple of 10 + 7 stitches. The sleeve pattern starts with 32 stitches. 32 is not a multiple of 10 + 7. 27 is, 37 is, but 32 is not. Starting with 27 stitches is too small and starting with 37 stitches is too large. I know, I tried. The sleeve patterns says to start with these 32 stitches and it tells you what to do with them for about four rows, then it tells you to continue in the stitch pattern as established. The body stitch pattern is a 10-row repeat. That I get, this sleeve business is unclear and ridiculous. I might not say that I am an experienced stitcher, but that doesn't mean that I don't have experience stitching. I have written patterns and I have used graph paper, colored pencils and computer programs to draw out colorwork and cables in knit patterns. These sleeves are giving me a hard time. It is time to put them away for a while and work on another dishrag.
Monday
Sleep. Eat. Work. V has been watching the mailroom like a hawk since report cards are due any time now. JH works tonight, so Pearl will probably sleep in the bed with me.
Tuesday
Still trying to figure put these sleeves, but not sure why. I'm trying to draw crochet symbols on graph paper, but I am realizing that crochet is a lot different than knitting. That was sarcasm, folks. I have checked blogs and websites and it turns out that I am not the only one having problems with the sleeves. Some have posted pictures of the finished project, but no one has posted details of how they fixed the sleeve problem. I may need to send someone a direct message to get details.
Wednesday
Sleeping in on days off is nice. So is doing laundry. That's about all that got done today.
Ooh, I did have a funny conversation with V today, though. About a week ago, we had an issue where V was downloading stuff to her iPod (tv shows mostly) that weren't free. After about $40, iTunes said, "You need to pay us before you can download even a free app!" Since she didn't have $40 to pay iTunes, she is working off the $40 by doing chores for me for as long as I want her to. Also, the iPod was taken away for two weeks. So today, after dinner (which I cooked), V was told to put away the extra food and to wash the dishes. To which she fussed and was told that if she continued to fuss, then this chore wouldn't count towards the money that she owed me. Dishes were done and afterward this is the conversation we had:
V: I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier about the dishes.
Me: Thank you, that was very nice.
V: I don't think this punishment is teaching me anything. I don't think it is working.
Me: Well, what do you think would work better?
V: I don't know, but all these chores isn't working.
Me: Okay, then we will continue to do it my way until you can come up with something better that I like.
V: I hope you know that I flip you off and call you a b!#%* behind your back.
Me: I'm not surprised, I did the same thing to my mom when I was your age. You are a teenager, I wouldn't expect anything less. If you do it to my face, then we have a problem, until then, I'm not bothered. Your kids will to the same thing to you.
V: No they won't, I will treat my kids better.
Me: Ok, sure.
V: You know what, I came in here to apologize and now you are giving me attitude.
Me: You tell me that you call me names and make rude gestures at me behind my back and I am the one giving attitude? You can leave my room now, and close the door behind you.
V: Best thing I've heard all night.
Teenagers are awesome!
Thursday
The funny thing about work is that I really, really don't feel like being there until I actually start working. Then it isn't so bad. I always expect the customers to be the worst, but then a regular comes in and asks how my weekend was. That's always nice. And my coworkers are pretty cool too.
Friday
This day started off on the right foot, but then tripped and fell flat on its face, hard. Work was normal, Friday night busy. Lots of people shopping with Friday paychecks and lots of kids walking over to the mall after school. Yeah, work was fine. The real excitement happened after work.
JH and V pick me up after shopping together at Old Navy. This means they are both wired. It is just something that they do to each other. That's why I like to (have to) be a buffer between them. It is late (after 10pm) but we hit a drive-thru before going home. As soon as we pull into the complex, JH and V both notice that someone is parked in our spot. There is no guest parking in our complex. Everyone has assigned spots. There are several signs posted that say that you will be towed if you don't have a parking tag. JH has the tow company on speed dial. He lets me out and pulls up right next to the truck in our spot and waits for the tow truck.
I go inside, change my clothes, eat dinner and look online for something to help me with this sleeve issue. There is a font called StitchinCrochet that looks awesome. For $3 I download it and try it in a Word and Excel program. I'm not having much luck, but at least I am not being interrupted because JH and V are still waiting on the tow truck.
After more research, I find the woman that created the font has a tutorial for using it in Adobe Illustrator. So, off to Adobe I go. I download a free 30-day trial of Adobe Illustrator, but that takes about 30 minutes.
In the meantime, JH and V come back in a little defeated because the owner of the truck parked in our spot comes out to move his truck as the tow truck is pulling into the complex. Sorry guys, now let's settle down for the evening. It is definitely after 11pm at this time because V is asking me how late she can have her TV on and I said it needed to be off by midnight. I'm on the computer and JH is on his iPod when he gets up to look out the window. This is what happened next:
JH: (dressed only in boxer shorts) There is a man in the car! Call 911! (he runs out but not before grabbing his Louisville Slugger)
V hands me the phone after she dials 911.
I open the front door and see JH (boxer shorts) opening the car door and telling this guy to get out of the car. Then I don't see anything because of the brick structure between me and my car. I'm on the phone with the dispatcher telling her that someone is trying to steal my car and that my boyfriend is trying to get him out of the car. Then I see this man at the trunk of my car and I see JH hit him with the baseball bat. The man runs around the back of my car, then up between the car and a wall, and runs toward the corner of the complex. JH follows with the bat. At the corner, I hear popping and see JH duck behind another car. The man runs away. JH runs inside, puts on shoes and evidently grabs his car keys because the next time I go outside, the car is gone. I had put on a sweatshirt and shoes and grabbed pants and a sweatshirt for JH. When I see that he had taken the car, I realize that he must have gone after the guy and it was too cold for me to go after them on foot.
Back inside, V is freaking out and wanting to go help. I'm trying to calm her down and trying to figure out what to do next. We look out the window and I can see the reflection of police lights off the retaining wall. I took JH's clothes and walked out toward the lights. JH is standing in the street (boxer shorts) with a couple police officers giving a statement. He gets dressed and we both give our statements. It turns out that JH saw the guy pull a gun and that the popping noise I heard may have been the guy having trouble firing the gun. JH and a police officer take off down the street because some other officers have stopped some men and want JH to see if he can ID the man in my car, but nope. Forensics came out and there was a great full-hand print on the trunk, but the car was too dirty to get anything clean from it. There was also conversation with the officer about staying inside and making the call to 911 instead of attacking the guy with the baseball bat, but JH is too much of an action guy to not get involved. Let's just hope it doesn't happen again.
Lights were finally out around 2am.
Saturday
Having the opening shift on Saturdays after a closing shift on Fridays usually means that I try to get to bed early Friday night. I sure do wish that could have happened this week. Thankfully my coworkers agreed that some Cheesecake Factory cheesecake would be nice to take the edge off and the extra sugar would pick up where the Starbucks caffeine left off. V came down to the plaza in the afternoon, so after work we indulged in some retail therapy as well. No major spending, I had coupons that were going to expire at the end of the month and I didn't want them to go to waste.
January goes out with a bang. February is a short month, but we have some fun things planned. Let's hope the unplanned things are fun too.
Next week's post should be on time, thanks for understanding this week.
xoxoxo
