Is January Almost Over???

Wow.  I can't believe this month is almost over.  It has been a wild ride. 

First, the JOB:  I'm getting it.  Finally.  Learning a new job is somewhat intimidating when you are up against a deadline.  Since my job is billing out trucks, railcars, and package shipments, everything has to get done every day. Most shipments require the shipping documents to be e-mailed and/or faxed to the customer as well as go with the shipment - sometimes to multiple parties (purchasing, receiving, lab, etc.) - and they must arrive before the shipment does, so there's the additional pressure of daily document distribution.  Of course, the distribution gets done at the end of the day, on overtime, because the scanner slows down the computer so much that you can't multi-task when scanning the docs.  A lot of evenings I stay till 5:00-6:00 anyway because we have late trailers, so I can get the scanning and e-mailing done then.  It works out pretty well.  The reality is, overtime on this job is a fact of life.  It happens nearly every day.   The job itself is really ok - I've worked in this group before and get along great with everyone.  We have a good time and kid each other alot.  One girl has been merciless about me having to reprint so much since I catch my mistakes during the proofing - "there goes ANOTHER tree!" - but its all in fun and I get the chance to gig her several times a day too. 

We bought two new (to us) cars last week.  We've been driving a 93 Suburban with 245,000 miles on it, and a 91 Explorer with 170,000 miles on it.  The Suburban has been showing signs of major engine problems ahead, and we decided we'd better get rid of it.  This is what we bought:                      

Its a 2004 Buick Rendezvous.  It was a program car that one of the salesmen drove, and had 20,000 miles on it.  There is 16,000 miles worth of factory warranty remaining, and its well-equipped! It gets about 22 mpg so far, has all-wheel drive, and is in perfect condition.  We got it for $15,500.  Yes, that is about 40% off MSRP.  Just because its '05 now, and they wanted to move it. 

While we were there, we asked the dealer about any other newer model SUVs, he told us about one he was taking in on trade that day.  The owner was running errands while waiting on his new vehicle to be dealer-prepped, but when it came back in he would call us and let us look at it.  So we went to run some errands ourselves, and waited for the dealer to call my cell-phone.

This is the vehicle that was waiting for us - a 2001 Chevy Blazer 4-wheel-drive 2-door with all the bells and whistles.  Its a peach - the guy had gotten it detailed while he was waiting on his new car to be ready.  The dealer had to be about half-sick about it, because he had already told us he'd let us have it for $8200 if he didn't have to run it through his shop and have it checked out and cleaned up.  The book value on it is $9400.  It was so clean you could have eaten off the engine, no lie, and the guy who had it had actually kept maintenance records on it in the owner's manual!  So we got 2 cars for $25,000 - under book value even with tax, title, and license fees.  I'm going to sell my Explorer, since its a piece of crap.  This may sound cheezy, but its so nice to have a car with working heat and air, that all the doors open on, and you don't have to wiggle the battery cables to get a good connection to make it start up.  That's what my Explorer is like. 

All that overtime doesn't look so bad now, does it?  :) 

Knee update: The Celebrex continues to work wonders - I just have a dull ache.  I started the Synvisc shots on the 27th.  I will have 2 more - Feb. 3 and Feb. 10th.  My orthopedic dr. warned me that if I am going to get any benefit from these shots (there's about a 50/50 ratio) that I probably wouldn't feel better till after the 2nd shot.  I was like, "I don't care - let's go for it".  The shot didn't hurt at all.  It was easier than when he drains the fluid off my knee.  I don't know if it was a big deal, but there were about 10 people standing around in my room watching him inject me - nurses, a couple of pre-med students, at least one physician's assistant, a therapist - so it must have been something special.  After I left, I realized my knee wasn't hurting. At all.  The rest of the day I was pinching myself, because I couldn't believe it felt so NORMAL.  I finally called their office and told them I thought the Synvisc was already working, which made them pretty happy too.  I'm feeling optimistic about this treatment - I've been able to walk a lot better and a lot more since last Thursday.  Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Here's a picture of my dogs and my hubby:

The quilt on the sofa behind them is an ebay quilt top that I had machine quilted and bound. The fabrics are from the 1940's era - very bright and somewhat loud - the orange binding was left over from a quilt I made for my son, and was perfect for this quilt.  Joe covers up with it when he's laying on the sofa watching TV and using his laptop. 

Goofy is the big dog at Joe's feet.  He's part Schnauzer.  Gracie is on the sofa with Joe.  She's part dachshund or something, with long skinny legs.  They are pretty funny dogs.  A couple days ago, Goofy knocked the box of microwave popcorn off the counter, and they tore into and ate a whole bag of un-popped popcorn, including the wrapper. It amazes me, the stuff they will eat. Shall we say, its become poop-corn?  :)   

Knitting update:  I'm officially a yarn-ho.  I've confronted myself and realize I can't pass up pretty yarn. Its a sickness!  Pictures will be taken and posted sometime when Joe is away. 

I'm still (yes, still) working on the black boa scarf. Did I mention I'm knitting it on size 9 needles?  I don't know why I did that.  The part that is knit looks great - its like fur - but its taking longer than I expected.  For one thing, I'm having to fight myself about knitting too tight.  It takes me 4 or 5 rows to loosen up.  Another thing - I noticed I have been accidentally increasing my stitches (how did that happen???) and I had a ...peninsula... coming out one side of the scarf.  Hmmmm.  I counted up the stitches and had gone from 32 cast-on to 38 on the current row.  I started paying better attention and reduced back to my original 32 in a 3-row amount of space, and its not so obvious.  It was so odd - I was sitting at the table knitting, and laying the scarf out and smoothing it every other row or two - otherwise I might not have noticed it so quickly.  Aaaaggh, what a silly mistake! Now I know what those stitch markers are for. Anyway, I'm thinking this scarf will be kinda short since its on size 9's, so I might try changing fibers to make some striped effects.  I've only got about 6 inches of scarf and am almost halfway through the first ball.....any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Quilting update:  there's nothing to update.  I'm feeling a little bit afraid, it seems I've lost my desire to sew.  I hope this is temporary. I hope its because I've been working so much.  I hope its just a phase.  The bad part: we're starting a round-robin in my stitch group next week, and I haven't made my center block.  Our meeting is Tuesday! I need to make a block and put a travel-box together with fabrics, a journal, and a disposable camera to record the progress of the quilt top.  I will most likely tackle this tonight - actually the block is easy, and we are all making the same center block with our own color choices.  The fun part will be seeing how different the quilts are as they grow.  I also need to finish something for show-and-tell.  Our New Year's resolution was for everyone to have show-and-tell for every meeting.  Its a motivation thing.  I took my 2 knit scarves last time, and will take them again to show to the gal who taught me to knit, since she was sick last meeting. I need to have something else to show, though. I guess I'll figure it out - I just feel somewhat anxious about what to do, what to do???

Since today is snowy (you did notice the snow in my car pictures, didn't you?) we're going to catch the matinee this afternoon.  The Aviator is playing - it sounds interesting enough to spend a couple hours on.  When we get home, I'll do a load of laundry and start a grocery list for the coming week. 

Since I haven't posted a quote in my last few entries, here's one for today. 

Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have. - Doris Mortman

Comments

[Nancy]

Congrats on the job. Sounds like the day flies by - perfect.

Glad to hear you're getting relief for your knee. Pain just plain sucks.

I like the bright colors of that quilt - very cozy.

[Juliana Aldous Atkinson]

Congratulations on the cars. I just got a 1999 Blazer for Xmas and I love it!
--Juliana

[Karoda]

Welcome back to blog land...I hope you continue progress with the knee...and I am not gonna take up knitting I don't care how inviting these knit reports are...I will not knit...I will not knit...:)