Bravo, or, How I Got a Kindle

Hola blog reading peoples!

Friday and Monday at work were quite an adventure. They involved several hours on the phone with a frantic client and an incredibly short-tempered employee of the Massachusetts Dept of Revenue, waiting hours for a courier only to find that the loading dock downstairs was holding the documents hostage, making an expedition into the depths of Chelsea to exchange said documents for a Very Important Piece of Paper, and dashing into a very odd convenience store to fax said piece of paper and mail out the original via FedEx.

Not being one to miss the opportunity for a Grand Exciting Adventure, I enjoyed said interesting proceedings and liked the whole "not in the office" thing. I was thanked many times by the clients and my manager, and thought it a great thing. And then, surprise! I got home and checked my email to find that my manager had given me a "Bravo" award for going "above and beyond" the call of duty! These awards come with an amount of money attached that can be redeemed for a gift card to hundreds of places. How neat!

As my manager had been quite generous, I decided to get a shiny new Kindle, a cover for said Kindle, and a few books I'd been wanting. I've coveted the Kindle since they were first released. I also just helped my dad pick out one to give my mom for her birthday, and have seen how much she loves it. Thus, when I realized that I could now order a Kindle of my very own, I quite literally bounced around the kitchen like Tigger on caffeine pills. Wade attempted to contain me, mainly by placing me at my computer to order the thing and pick out the books I wanted.

After waiting what seemed like eons for it to arrive (aka, like a day and a half), it arrived last night around 7 pm. I loaded up my books and curled up in bed to read. I. Am. HOOKED. Reading with one hand and turning pages with a twitch of my finger is the best thing that ever happened to books. I've always been a bookworm, but now, oh my, this is lovely. I also discovered that I can put PDFs of knitting patterns on my Kindle, thus eliminating the whole "I lost my chart" problem.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to do some more reading!

Happy Thursday,

Beth

Rainbow Fish Scarf!

Finished my scarf! Mohair!

Note to self: when you try on a scarf on the subway to see if it's long enough, people will look
at you like you're nuts, especially when you proceed to bind off while wearing the scarf...

Brr!

Good morning fellow cold people! (and *pfft* to all of you who are in warm places)

My apartment was a balmy 58 degrees when I woke up this morning, and there are smatterings of snow outside. Why, hello Winter. So on my list of things to do this weekend are winter-ify the house (aka, block up drafts, etc), dig out my winter coat, and finish knitting a scarf and possibly a hat for me. Added to my knitting queue are bed slippers for Wade and me.

The cold that threatened on Wednesday has arrived in all its sniffly glory this morning. Not a bad cold, but still not very fun. Makes a lovely excuse to drink more tea, and maybe even some grapefruit juice!

Otherwise not too much going on that's interesting. My sister is coming down to visit tonight, which is fun. Oh! And I played my first FPS that I actually enjoyed! Wade and I played Borderlands last night, and it was quite neat. I'm also apparently pretty good with sniper rifles/pistols with scopes.

Ok, time for working. Have a lovely and warm day!

Stash Control

Good morning bloggity peoples!

Today is a much better day than yesterday. Yesterday I went to the doctor for a whole bushel of things, but chiefly to try and find a solution for these stinky headaches I get. For the past few months, I've been getting awful headaches almost daily for usually around five hours. They come with fatigue, horrid throbbing pain, and general inability to do much. Doctor G (I say G because her real last name is unspellable and unpronounceable) and I concluded that they're a combination of allergy-related sinus headaches and chronic tension headaches. So, +2 to Beth's daily prescription regimen - Flonase for the allergies and Topamax, a twice-daily migraine preventative.

She also confirmed my suspicions about having another fibroadenoma (a benign fibrous breast lump), and I'm going Monday for an ultrasound. Super. I've had one before, and the whole ultrasound/biopsy/lumpectomy thing is not too bad, considering how much worse it could be. Just adds another thing to worry about.

Anyway, after I got back from the doctor I was hit by a particularly icky one of those headaches, and spent the day pretty much on the couch doing some mindless knitting and listening to The Hound of the Baskervilles, as recorded on librivox.org. Wade kept me supplied with tea and with heating pads for my neck, and hugs! So gradually it subsided down to a level where I was fidgety but yet still somewhat in pain, and I decided to undertake an easy but important household project: organizing my yarn stash!

My sister was going to come down on Friday and visit and help me, since she is an organizational goddess, but I got itchy and decided to do it yesterday. Sitting on the floor winding balls of yarn, photographing them for Ravelry, and putting them in drawers was about my speed, since I didn't have to move my head much. So, for your viewing pleasure, here are before and after photos!

First, I took all the yarn that was haphazardly overflowing from my yarn basket and piled it on the floor. Not pretty. Mixed in that pile are several works-in-progress, and all kinds of little leftover yarn bits.

Then I sorted out all the WIP's and leftover yarns, and began winding everything. I photographed it all with my horrible camera that refuses to focus and makes grainy pictures, and then sorted it into the drawers according to what made sense to my brain.

Add to it a little organization of the wooden drawers, which contain needles, notions, and patterns, and I'm a happy camper!


After that, it was dinnertime, and I was feeling mostly better. The headache had subsided and, other than a mild fever due to the cold that I'm fairly sure is coming (I always get a little fever with a cold), I was in good shape. So Wade and I decided to download a new game, Runes of Magic (free to play MMORPG), and while it was taking forever to download, we made dijon turkey cutlets. We had a nerd dinner (aka eating at our desks while playing games!) and enjoyed Runes of Magic.

When tired of gaming, I decided to attempt crocheting a broomstick stitch cuff bracelet with my purple skein of Louisa Harding Merletto. Let's just say I need to practice with a less splitty and finicky yarn first.

Then it was bedtime, and I actually slept quite well! Hooray! Sleeping and I don't get along very well. Back to work today, and it's gloomy and rainy as could be outside. I'm glad that I feel better, and that it's Thursday!

Ok, that's all that's new today. I hope you all have a great day!

Tootles,
Beth

First!

Hello friendy peoples,

Welcome to my brand new blog! Bear with me as I work out things like the design of the page itself, what to include in my posts, and how often I will post. Feel free to leave recommendations in the comments.

My idea for the blog is to use it like a little life journal, recording everything from favorite recipes and knitting projects to the interesting and uninteresting goings-on of my little life.

I'll write again soon to introduce myself a little, so you can see if this sounds like an interesting thing to read. I'll also work on adding more content other than posts, such as my blogroll and link lists.

Tootles,
Beth