Archive for December, 2006

26
Dec

Watch out……I own a camera

My parents really surprised me this year for Christmas.  They got me a digital camera.  It is a Nikon Coolpix L3 - maybe not the best on the market, but wow I have a camera.  I seriously became annoying yesterday during the gift giving.  I opened the camera and started taking pictures immediately.  So immediately that I did not realize that there was more in the box with the camera.  I missed completely the camera case as well as the memory stick.  Not a big problem as the camera was saving the pics to internal memory, but a big problem because my dad had thrown away the box and then had to dig it out (not that bad as he always uses fresh bags for wrapping paper/boxes).  I felt kinda stupid, but my brain had just zeroed right in onto the camera.

My parents had gotten my sister and her husband a video camera which caused some tension between them as he would not let her play with it, but in the end they worked it out.  My mom was the only one not surprised by her gifts as she had already figured them all out.  My dad was surprised and pleased with his gifts.  So overall Christmas was great.

Here are those photos I have been promising since I started this blog, taken of course on my brand new camera.

The Sunset Seraphim - I am currently on row 62.  On this one I will be doing at least one set of 12 rows extra as Sunset SeraphimI want it to be extra big.  I am hoping that this is enough, but since I have an extra skein I can add more if it is needed.  I think what I will do is dry block it out once I finish the number of rows I have planned on.  I will then measure it to see how big that is and then hopefully I can figure out if it will be large enough.

The Christmas scarves in the following order:

  1. My sister’s - Cha-Cha in Hippie & Yarn Bee Frosting in Iced White
  2. Jenn's Scarf

  3. My friend’s - Fun Fur in Red
  4. Regina's Scarf

  5. Maire’s (my friend’s daughter) - Cha-Cha in Wlatz & Be-bop
  6. Maire's Scarf

23
Dec

Well, I am an FES

I was notified on Tuesday that they had already received my paperwork back and that I would start as an FES on the next schedule.  Since my boss was not expecting the paperwork back until after Christmas that is kinda nice.  I will start by being trained on the additional information I need to know on Christmas Eve since I have to work.  Then I will be the FES by myself on the day after, my boss will be the closing manager so that will add some pressure, so I hope I do okay.

 I managed to get 2 of the 3 scarves done and am stitching away on my father’s cross stitch.  I hope I can get it done.  I have been working on the last scarf off and on as a break from the stitching and am hoping that since I am expected to spend time with the family that I can get it done for my sister in time.

I am so excited about her baby.  She is finally starting to show (she is about 22 or 23 weeks along) and it is so neat.  I have already started the birth announcement and a crochet blanket as stated in my first post, but since I have fallen in love with knitting I have decided to try and knit something for the baby.  Since the baby will be born in April what I am thinking about is actually knitting something for like 6 to 9 months so that the baby can wear it longer.  Plus that will give me time to finish the other stuff first, find a pattern, and yarn.

In other news, I have been advised by my parents that part of my Christmas this year will be most of the amount for 1 class.  This means that blogging my become even more erratic after the new year as studies take up some of my free time.

Well since I just pulled an overnight at work I think I am going to go find my bed.  I am hoping to get some pictures uploaded by the new year of everything I have finished in the last week or so.

17
Dec

Call me Super Woman

At least that is what my boss thinks I am.  Since Thanksgiving she has been scheduling me so many hours that if she is not careful I will have to be changed to a full time employee.  I made the mistake of volunteering to come in at 9 pm on the 10th and working through the night to 5 am even though I had already worked from 6am to noon on the 10th.  Since we got so much done that night she decided that in order to catch up with the backlog of freight that we needed to work through the night on the 11th, 12th, and 14th.  Well, then we had a corporate visitor and our store did not get that good of a grade (I think it was a D) because of all of the holes in seasonal and the frame shop, plus the holes and overfull cap shelves in our regular merchandise shelves.  So, needless to say I have 4 night shifts this week along with one day shift.  I worked midnight to 8 am this morning, I go back in at 11 pm tonight and work through 7 am tomorrow.  Then I work either 10 pm to 6 am or 11 pm to 7 am on Monday (it depends on when the morning manager is scheduled on Tuesday). Then I have off until Thursday when I am scheduled as a cashier from 11 am to 4 pm (yay a normal shift) and then one more night shift Friday.  This makes for some awesome paychecks, but since I am sleeping during the day and then working at night (never realized how had stocking for 8 hours was) I haven’t had much time for blogging if I want to get my Christmas presents made.  The one good thing is that I have been offered a permanent position as a Front End Supervisor (which includes a small raise) as long a my background check comes back okay - which it should.  I have never been in trouble with the law, but it also includes my credit report due to being responsible for all that cash.  Since I have an ex-husband (who seriously messed with my credit) I am hoping that it is okay enough for the job.  I have managed to repair most of it since my divorce, but there are still a few negatives from some medical bills that didn’t get paid on time.

On to Christmas gifts.  I have finished the scarf for my friends daughter and am just waiting to mail it until I have my friends done.  I finished my friends necklace and only have about 5-8 inches on the scarf (depends on how much I lost when I accidently pulled the needles out).  Then I have about 35 inches on my sister’s scarf.  Since I have bought her something as well I have decided to put her scarf off until I finish my dad’s cross stitch.  I figure that as long as I tell her the scraf is for myself that I can work on it even after she gets here.  This leaves from now until the 22nd for my dad’s cross stitch and I am going to need every minute I can get as I miscalculated how much was done. 

Well, need to go - Survivor comes on in a few minutes.  Once that is over I need to get ready for  work.

Hopefully I can update again tomorrow, but it may not happen (depends on how tired I am after work).

12
Dec

Wow! How time flies………..

Sorry that it has been so long since my last post.  Between gift knitting, beading, and cross stitching I have been really busy in my free time.  Not that there has been much of that between the shopping that we have had to do to get ready for the holidays, the amount of housework we have to do (did not realize how much my dad did around the house until he left on business for over 3 weeks) and then work.

Even though I am part-time and seasonal (which means typically about 20 hours a week) I have been getting close to 40 hours a week.  I am hoping that this says something about my chances for becoming a permanent employee after the holidays since none of the other seasonal employees are getting the same type of hours.  It also helps that in the last 4 days 2 people (1 seasonal & 1 permanent) quit which means there is at least 1 permanent position and 1 less person to compete with.  Then last night at work (overnight shift of 10 pm to 6 am) I overheard the 2 managers working talking about being fed up with 2 of the guys working at our store and how they don’t work like they should.  Even though I don’t hope they get fired I am hoping that this means that once the season is up (Jan 15 is the last date of employment for seasonal employees at my store) that they will not be in the running for the permanent spots.

On the knitting front I have managed to get the 3 gift scarves almost done and have added a couple of rows to Sunset Seraphim, but that is about it.  As to photos I have no clue when those will appear as the camera is on the fritz.  Hopefully it starts working before I mail the 2 gift scarves that need to be mailed.  I have also designed, but not executed the beaded necklace that I need to make for Christmas.  Then I have also managed to add some to the cross stitch for my dad.  Since that doesn’t have to be done until December 23rd I am concentrating on the scarves and once they are done will move on to the cross stitch.

Well, I need to go take a nap since I have to work again tonight from 10 pm to 6 am.