Difficult times

I had a really great weekend with my parents. My folks are great. M & I ran to Granbury and had a great time at D & G's Bed and Breakfast (my parents). They put in a pool in their back yard last year and their place is truly beautiful. They have outdoor speakers and can play music in the pool area. M told us that she'd fire the grandparents if they'd ever make the pool public - turns out she loves to skinny dip.

We had a great time.

But I have to say that this was a welcomed bright spot in a difficult time.

Professionally, I work in the land development industry. Work is tough lately - mainly because I just haven't had a lot of it.

I work in four different arenas:

• Municipal
• Residential
• Commercial
• Natural Gas

All are experiencing a major down turn lately.

I have to admit, I've been feeling a little down lately - but J is wonderful. He had me list out all the stuff my company has done over the last 9.5 years - and I get amazed. It was amazingly good for me to do that.

You see, I've been applying to various governmental jobs lately. It has been truly humbling. I've probably applied to over 60 positions - and have been over the past two months. I am used to getting good feedback from employers and many times I get the dreaded "You were not referred for this position. Your resume did not reflect the highly qualifying criteria the selecting official identified as necessary for successful performance in the position."

Bullshit.

I am a damn good engineer.

Fucking good.

(sorry for the language - I'm just frustrated.)

So, the dilemma. Try to keep my company going, or get a job with another one.

It's a hard decision. I've been self employed for almost a quarter of my life.

For an Air Force Brat who moved on average every year of her life until she was 21, this is true commitment.

It's hard to give up.

The freedom.

The excitement.

The hard work.

I almost gave it up 4 years ago.

Work started to slow down and I didn't think I could sustain a full payroll anymore. I did one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do - I let someone go who I knew needed to continue to work for me. I cried many, many nights and still wonder how my former tech is doing. I interviewed with a couple of consulting engineering firms - got some offers and turned them all down.

The pressure of a full payroll came off and I had enough work to cover me. I worked very hard for a long time.

Scan to now.

I hate waking up and going up to my computer with very little work.

I also am starting to miss working with people - you know. Waking up. Commuting. Getting to work. Drinking coffee. Conversing with co-workers.

I miss it. I really do.

But I love being self employed. LOVE IT.

"sigh"

So, I'm going to keep on keepin' on with my business and try to find some more. In the mean time, I'll keep floating my resume.

Who knows what will happen.

I still haven't had a firm job offer. I can't just stop working. My family needs me. I need to do it. I want to do it. I love doing it.

And you know what the irony is?

My company has more invoices paid to date than I've ever had paid without spending it. We've been on super conserve mode and just stick to basics - and it's working. We're actually doing okay. So we don't go out to eat as much as we used to. I don't get to buy as much yarn as I once did. I don't buy books anymore (I go to the library).

Life is still good.

I have a supportive husband. Loving and beautiful daughter.

I am one lucky woman.

And you know what?

I just know it will all work out.

It will.

No matter what happens, my husband will always support my decisions and my daughter has told me that she will be happy with whatever decision I make.

It just doesn't get any better than that.

Mother's Day

Had a great mother's day.

M brought me a marigold flower that she planted in a pot she decorated.

She also wrote a nice note:

Translation:

You are the nicest mommy in the world! I Love you so much! LiFe is great with you! Ice creame is good. SuGar is sweet, But Not A Sweet as you! you always heLp with fun iDeas! You are the one Who is nice and sweet so I love you so much. Every Day you are sweet!

Oh, and this is a peace sign:
Then we went to church and had a lovely pancake breakfast. Church had a guest speaker, Marc Adams of the HeartStrong, Inc charitable org. He was great.

Got home and J gave me a note:
It came with a $25 gift certificate from Joanns. Whoot!

Knitting update

My cousin is getting married this summer and I offered to make her a garter.

I have 12 inches knitted - 9 more to go. Made with cheap crochet cotton I had on hand. Free pattern is the Knitted Lace Wedding Garter by Diane Willett.

Also, I think I mentioned my aunt has breast cancer. I have knitted 6 pi topper hats. One I donated to the Fiber Fest last weekend, so I'm about to send 5 of these to my aunt today. I was able to run by the Knitting Nook on Saturday and get some cute buttons.


Speaking of Fiber Fest. I was able to pick up a skein of Brookes Farm Mas Acero. I cast on last night for a self fringing shawl.


And here's a close up because the photo above does not do the color justice.


M is finding that she likes to make things. A neighbor girl had some Capsters and showed M (and me) her necklace. We had most of the supplies and she made her own. I don't have a photo, but will post one later.

For some reason, it really sparked her creative side and I was presented with an early Mother's Day gift yesterday - this is supposed to be a bag.
Yes it's paper and I can't do much with it, but I think I'm going to have to really try to figure out how to fix it so I can use it. She was so proud - I will never forget the look on her face.

Hannah Montanna's Number One Fan

At least that's what M told me when she wanted me to take her picture.

Pepperoni - home made!

J tweaks me in my cooking challenges and he came up with a new one - make home made pepperoni. He came across a good recipe. It's Tammy's Spicy Pepperoni and it's SUPER easy to make. It just takes time to do. I'd say this was a three day process - and you need another day to let the rolls rest.

Here's what it looked like coming out of the oven.
I let it rest in the fridge over night and broke out my food processor to make the slices thinner.

It is really great. We used a VERY lean ground beef and I left out the crushed red pepper because M doesn't like spicy food. Next time I'll add it. It needs a little kick. I could also look at rolling it in black pepper next time, too!

Oh, and the following pizza is almost completely scratch made (I didn't make the tomato sauce). It's homemade crust (from the ABI5M), homemade mozzerella, and homemade pepperoni.


It was good.

I wish I had a better camera to do it justice.

Henson's 11

I was a huge Muppets fan as a teenager. This mash up made me laugh.

FO - Chemo Hat #2 for Edythe

Just another hat. Have one more on the needles and am thinking about making her a fourth.

FO - Chemo Hat #1 for Edythe

Just need to add a button to it. Will break out my FIMO clay to do that.



Yarn: Cascade Fixation
Pattern: Pi Topper Hat from Elann.com

FO - Hillary the Mermaid

This is crocheted and I was so slow at making it.

I am Officially a Hick

At least that's what J says. And here's why:

I am now the owner of a 1998 Pink Red Rider BB gun. Look in the trees - yes, they're can's of Schlitz tied to yarn and thrown into the trees. I use them for target practice.

For the record, guns scare the pants off of me but I do like to shoot targets with them. This is the first gun that has ever been allowed into my home. I needed to "shoot" off some steam. It's a lot of fun. I have never killed a living animal with a gun to date, but if those squirrels keep eating my sunflower seeds I have out for the birds, I may be tempted.

And, no, I won't shoot my eye out. I have protective eye glasses!

Got the LeGare working

And here's my first 2 x 1 sock done with a 54/36 combo.

I'm not happy with the selvage - seems like it's too loopy. Any of you CSM'ers know how to fix this?

Oh, and these are being modeled by my 7 year old. She's getting so big.

Passap is broken

Well, the other day I finally spent some time with the Passap and found that the yarn changer was broken - as in, I need to get a replacement part or the thing won't work kind of broken.

Damn.

Episode 011 - Siphoning Your Beer to the Bottling Bucket

I for the life of me couldn't figure out how to siphon my beer using the racking cane that came with my kit. This is a GREAT video that shows you how to do it.

FWIW, I bought what's called an Auto Siphon. Even though I've seen the video I'm blogging about, I would still go out and pay the $12 it cost for the auto siphon.

http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com/AutoSiphon.html

10 years ago

I was studying to become a licensed professional Engineer. After the test (May) we had to wait for results. In order to keep sane, I made this rocket:
I passed, but the rocket didn't survive. :(

I loved that rocket. It was supposed to go 16,000 feet (not a typo - We had the FAA on the line to make sure we wouldn't hit any airplanes) into the air and return. It disappeared into a cloud, never to be seen again.

Where the hell did the time go?

I have succumbed to the dark side

I recently had an opportunity pop up when I mentioned on one of my many knitting lists that I started to feel the pull to buy a flat bed knitting machine. Well, one of these kind ladies offered up *her* Passup Duomatic 80 as she never was able to make it work well.

I am now the proud owner of a Passap Duomatic 80, complete with the Forma and Deco extensions.

Now I'll definitely have to join the D/FW Machine Knitter's Guild.

Daddy. . .

will you come out and watch the sunset with me?
(You can't really see it here, but they're sitting on large rocks being sweet to each other.)

We had a difficult, emotional day yesterday. M knew just what to do to diffuse the whole thing.

Machine Knitting

I took the LeGare 400 apart into all it's various little bits and let them soak in some Marvel Mystery Oil.
I let the machine soak for about a month - ostensibly because I wanted to let it soak, but really it's because there were SO many small parts that I was intimidated by the darn thing.

J's one of those people who is really good for me as he doesn't let me stay intimidated for long.

So this weekend I finally sat down and put the darn thing back together - and didn't have a single bit put out of place.

Yay for me!

Bad news, though: I need a new yarn carrier and possibly a new yarn mast. I stripped the threads on the end of the yarn mast. The yarn carrier keeps hitting the needles and isn't able to be adjusted. That's okay. I love the carrier I bought from Roxanna. I'll just have to get another.

The hootch

I have over 100 bottles of home brew in various states. (Each crate in the stack holds 30 bottles and the top one has about half). The crate on the floor holds the clean empties.


I've actually started a Beer Calendar on Google to keep track of what's drinkable. We put letters on top of the bottles to denote what it is.

A = American Lager (from the "just add yeast & water" kit - excellent beer)
B = Bock (Just tasted one over the weekend and it needs another week so we can get rid of that yeasty taste)
C = Continental Light (Now it's called German Light)
R = Red (the bad batch that ended up working out okay)

I'll need to come up with a different letter for the stuff located in the Secondary right now as A for Amber won't work out.

J has been intrigued by the recent postings of people making wine out of Welches grape juice. So we ran by our favorite beer making place (Foreman's General Store in Colleyville). Here's our first crack at making wine - that yeast really made it active! It also drastically changed the color from a thick Mogen-David color to something lighter.

The bottles are from some cheap wine we purchased and consumed.

We'll see how it turns out.

Garden

I stumbled on the idea to use newspaper for seedling pots. We've planted carrots, squash, peas, peppers, and arugula. AND!!


I'm actually using my greenhouse. . .

We also planted onions, rosemary & potatoes

And we also planted a spearmint plant:

I'm hoping that will take over.

J got a true kick out of me while I was planting the seeds. "Hey, this looks like the seeds in "

We kicked around a lot when I was a kid. We were never living in one place long enough to plant a garden. I'm still nervous none of this is going to work or that it's going to be too much work.

Time will tell.

2009 Books

1. Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey
2. Cemetary Dance by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston
3. The Fire by Katherine Neville (lame ending)
4. Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child (predictable)
5. A Dangerous Man by Charlie Huston (quick read)
   
6. The Devil's Eye by Jack McDevitt
   
7. City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
   
8. Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
   
9. From Dead to Worse by Charlain Harris
   
10. Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin
    
11. Dead and Gone by Charlain Harris
    
12. Storm Front by Jim Butcher
13. Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher (read 1/2 - decided to read first in series)
14. Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
    
15. Terrier by Tamora Pierce
    
16. Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston
    
17. Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston
    
18. The Last Colony by John Scalzi
    
19. Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
    
20. The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
    
21. Old Man's War by John Scalzi
22. Tiger in the Well by Phillip Pullman
23. Shadow of the North by Phillip Pullman
24. The Ruby in the Smoke by Phillip Pullman