Birdwalk

A fresh start

So I've begun knitting a blanket for my as-yet-unborn niece. She's due in July. I bought nine skeins of very nice hand dyed merino wool and I have a pattern that should knit up pretty well. The wool alone cost me almost $100 -- kinda makes you rethink the whole concept of MAKING something when you could go out and buy the thing already finished for less, doesn't it? The yarn is gorgeous though and if I can make it through the blanket without screwing it up too horribly it should come out really nice. I also sprung for the eight-dollar bamboo needles, which I can say with total confidence are wonderful. I'm never knitting with those awful metal needles again. (Plus, the lady at the yarn store tells me I can take bamboo needles on a plane. I was flattered that she thought I looked like the jet-set type. I didn't bother to tell her that the farthest I've been in a year is Freehold, New Jersey.)

I'm at that honeymoon stage of knitting where you've got a lapful of yarn and you've knitted so few rows that you haven't even had time to make a mistake yet, but from what you have done you can see that the piece has the potential to be really really nice...if only you can keep from messing up, making a stupid mistake, ruining that yard or so of perfection....

Am I the only one who does this?

So today someone stopped in my office and asked for something that's essentially part of my job to create. I said, sure, no problem. They said, oh, thank you! like I'd done them a big favor, and just kept explaining what they needed (even though I pretty much grasped it immediately) That's what started the following squirm-inducing exchange:

(Me) "No problem."
(Them) "No, really, thanks!"
(Me) "My pleasure."
(Them) "I really appreciate it!"
(Me) "Don't worry about it, it's my job."
(Them)"Ok, thanks, I really appreciate it."
(Me) "Just send me a few bullet points and I'll write it."
(Them)"Oh, REALLY? That's GREAT! Thank you!"
(Me) "No need to thank me just send me that stuff..."
(Them) "Wow, thanks!"

I finally had to walk away because I started to get embarrassed. I was afraid if I didn't put a stop to it this exchange would go on forever. IT'S NO BIG DEAL...REALLY!

Mundane annoyance update

Yesterday I went food shopping at the ACME for the week and came home with three very well packed bags. THREE! Not eighteen! Three! The person doing the bagging was truly a conoisseur. You could see her really thinking as she was putting stuff in there. When I got home it took me one trip to get everything from the car to the kitchen. ONE TRIP!

See, that's what I'm talking about.

Mundane annoyances

Ok so I know I've mentioned before that my life is kinda boring. So, with that said, I hate to complain about something so trivial, but you must understand that this is pretty much what my life is about these days. I am not curing cancer or running a Fortune 500 corporation -- but I do spend quite a bit of time at the grocery store.

So here's my complaint: what is the deal with the checkout kid who puts like two things in a bag and considers it done? I mean, REALLY! I walk out of there with like thirty plastic bags, each of which has only, like, two things in it. Do these people think they're helping me by making the bags ultra light? Do they not understand what a gigantic pain in the ass it is to carry that many bags in from the car once I get it home? Whatever happened to the fine art of bagging, I ask you?

You oughta have to get a license

Just bumped into a couple of nice folks who were all excited because their four month old puppy had just had its first taste of beer. Beer! They said it was "just a few ounces" and it was "good for his coat." What on earth would make anyone think feeding beer to a puppy was a good idea?

Goose update

Just passed Mrs. Goose...she's fine...water level rose a bit since I saw her last night on my way home from work but she appears to be high and dry and today the sun is shining and the rain is gone. Whew.

ON

Good luck, buddy. This is very exciting. I'm sending positive job vibes to you right now. (Don't touch any wires.)

Obedience class wrap-up

So my precious little puppy graduated from obedience class, and I've got the diploma to prove it. I think we had a great time, and learned a lot more than I thought we would, and I was REALLY proud there for awhile until my husband came to the last class (to take pictures) and, after watching Mickey do his stuff, said, "Aww, he doesn't do ANYTHING." Talk about taking the wind out of my sails. Sheesh. I'm not quite sure what he was expecting but it was clear he was disappointed.

Anyway. So remember the kids I was hanging out with, Ryan and Katherine? Well, they said goodbye after class, gave Mickey's ears a good rub, and met my husband. Then their dad came up to me and said,

"You know, my daughter (the lovely Katherine) loves Mickey. She walks around the house all day pretending that she's Lynn (the obedience class teacher) and her dog is Mickey."

How cute is that??? I mean, it doesn't get much cuter than that, does it?

Let sitting geese lie

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but the office building I work in is located next to a big swampy-area...it sounds gross but really it's quite pretty. It's full of all kinds of wildlife, including deer, wild turkey (the animal not the booze) and geese. Last year at this time, every day while driving to and from work, I passed this goose sitting in the swampy area, facing the road, just sitting there in exactly the same spot every single day. I finally figured out that she was incubating eggs. I came to look forward to seeing her sitting there. I don't know if she had a mate or something who brought her food, but I never saw her leave that nest. I wondered if she was hungry, or cold, or lonely. I wondered if she ever thought to herself, "What the hell am I doing, sitting out here all by myself on these stupid eggs, in the wind and rain, day and night?" And then one day she was gone and I saw her walking around outside my office with a bunch of little chicks following her. I swear I was completely overcome by emotion and if it is possible to want to hug a goose, that was how I felt. I know it's silly but I was just so damn proud of her.

Well. Canada geese come back to the same spot every year to nest and lay eggs. So now she's back, in EXACTLY THE SAME SPOT. I was so happy to see her! I drive by in the morning and I wave and I say "Good morning duckie!" (I know she's a goose but I'm doing like fifty miles an hour and duckie just comes out faster than "goosie." Anyway I don't think she knows the difference.)

I'm very very worried about her right now because it has been raining for the past three days and her little swampy area seems to be filling up with water. I've noticed that her little nest seems to be built up a little...she's kinda sitting there on her high nest like a little goose island...I hope she's ok. I hope she's dry. I hope those eggs are nice and toasty warm. I hope the water recedes before it goes over the top of her little nest-island...would she even leave them if the water got too high? Would she be able to move them to higher ground? I am embarrassed to say that I have been thinking about her pretty much constantly for the past 24 hours. I wish there was something I could do but I'm fairly sure there isn't. I hope she's ok. I hope she has a whole mess of cute fuzzy little babies.

I wonder if I'm the only one who notices her, worries about her, wants to go out there and bring her some stale bread and erect a little tent around her and her babies?

Speaking of blogger...

I don't know if any of you have noticed this but at the top of this blog (because it's free, dammit, and if you want FREE you gotta put up with some ADVERTISIN') there's always a couple of little ads for stuff. Which ads you see depends on the content of my blog on a given day. For example, when I did the Plushies entry it apparently triggered ads for all kids of Plush Animals and that sort of thing...course that wasn't quite what I meant when I brought up Plushies. The content of the ads can actually be quite entertaining. Check them out the next time you come by.

Betcha can't have just one

So when I log into Blogger there's this thing that comes up that says the name of my blog, then just beneath it is another link that says "start another blog." I guess the question for me is not so much if you CAN have more than one of these things, it's more WHY? I barely squeak out the time to write a few pathetic paragraphs in this one little blog...who the hell has time to crank out more than one? Do these people have jobs? Families? Dogs who have just begun shedding their winter coats? Husbands who insist on leaving clothes on the floor? The Never-Ending Bottomless Laundry Basket? Who are these people?