Cyber Monday

Dear Marketing Executive,

I had really planned on shopping this Cyber Monday. I had a list of things I was going to buy. The perks for the most part were very nice. The prices were reasonable. Not having to brave the crowded malls or stores was a plus.

Here is were my plans to shop went by the wayside.  It was simply an overload of emails sent to my in box. Some of you got the jump on Friday reminding me of your sales on Monday. Then there were two to three emails from the same companies on Saturday and Sunday. Today though takes the cake. Some of you sent me emails hourly starting at midnight. This came across in two ways. First, is that you were desperate for sales and this left me wondering if: A. You had enough stock on hand. B. Could your shipping department handle what you wanted to sell. C. Could your servers handle the mess you were creating. D. Are you filing bankruptcy on Tuesday morning and not planning on sending anything out? Second it came across as annoying, Do you know how many emails I got today? I have no idea either because as soon as I deleted one email from you another popped up. My tablet inbox was full all day, it holds just about 200 emails and they were ALL from today. There were too many to open let alone read.  I spent the time I would have been shopping at your site deleting emails from you and your fellow marketing executive's so I could see if something I needed to respond to came through. 

If you were using snail mail you would have sent me only one or two adverts period. Maybe that would be an idea for next year. Remember sometimes "Less is more", less emails gives me more time to read the emails and shop.

A Blanket and Zenning

Today I started a new blanket for Eric. All I have left to do is pin and quilt it tomorrow. It was nice to get a blanket started this year. I used two twin sheets to make the blanket. It really feels good to have enough energy to get projects completed. Finished projects equal less clutter. 

I have decided to switch from polyester batting, the only batting that was available when I started quilting so last century to cotton batting. The polyester batting is a little rough on my hands and I can not pin or use the sewing machine with gloves on. I have ordered the two cotton batts that I need to finish two more blankets this year. The remaining polyester batting will be give to friends. This has freed a lot of space for yarn storage. This will let me get a bit more organized.  

Thanksgiving Dinner

After more than a few years, I actually have Thanksgiving Dinner for 2 down pat. The secret is to make fewer side dishes. Today I made 1/2 of a turkey breast, stuffing, cranberry sauce and green beans. We skipped the candied sweet potatoes , rolls and the second vegetable. We used luncheon plates instead of dinner plates and dinner was perfect. We were comfortable after dinner and not in a food coma. I think that this is my new game plan.

Did I mention that I was the one to spill cranberry sauce on the pale green damask table cloth. I sprayed it with Tide stain remover to pre treat and washed it as soon as the table was cleared. I would like to say thank you to the people at Procter and Gamble for making Tide. The cranberry sauce stain came out in the wash. The paper napkin that I forgot to take off the tablecloth did not fare as well.

I have got to make a list of fiber and art projects that need to be finished before the end of the year. It occurred to me today that the holidays are really here. I have enough projects to keep me busy until mid December. So if I am not on Facebook or Twitter I will be sewing, knitting, quilting and making jewelry for presents. I think I might just try to wrap things as I go. At least my sewing machine just had a tune up.

Well it's time to get back to some knitting. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

About 70%

I am starting to feel a little better today. I am not as tired or sore as I have been. I managed to get through 80% of my very, very short to do list today. This might be a good thing. I have a half sheet cake for Eric's day program in my fridge right now, not to mention the fruit and vegetable platters. It use to be so much easier to throw an impromptu party so last century. I did not have to worry about covering every one's food preferences or special diets. In fact I have 1/6 of my fridge is  filled with food for this party for Eric, his friends and the programs advocates, that Eric can not eat. This just seems a little weird to me. I am doing this for Eric, because Eric likes a good party even though he can't eat the food. He just likes being with his friends and partying. Although for a good party you must have food.  So I am bringing the food.

Now that I went totally off track the remaining 20% of my to do list was shopping for Thanksgiving dinner.  I will have room in the fridge once the cake has made it's way to the party. That will get done tomorrow, the day before Thanksgiving. The day I really hate to be in the grocery store. Such has been my life this year.

My energy ran out around 5 pm. I was even too tired to knit tonight. So I just sat back and relaxed. I also found a little energy for round 2 of Eric's birthday week. He loved the dinosaur sheet set that Teri and Tej bought for him. I need to wash them so that they can go on his bed this weekend. I also managed to find 2 DVDs that Eric does not have, plus they are birthday themed, Eric just loves them. Now if I could just get Eric to go to sleep.

Knitting

I had a very good day in my personal knitting. I knit 8 more rows of my sweater. The rows are long enough that this took 1 1/2 hours to do. This was also less than an inch of knitting. Then I finished one hat, then started and got halfway through another hat. This I am very happy about.

The part that I am not so happy about was a talk from a local yarn shop owner, whom shall remain nameless. What I took away from her talk other than she did not know the subject matter as well as she should have. Was a lack of understanding of what it takes to design, knit, and write up a pattern, get test knitters and find a model. For me this takes a minimum of 2 weeks, but most of the time 4 weeks of all my "FREE TIME" and then some.  For her to stand in front of a room full of knitters and say that unless you were a major player your patterns should be free is beyond believable.  Does this mean that she is going to give the yarn in her store away free?  I personally don't think that she will, so why should my friends and I give our work away for free? If she asked most of us I am sure that we could cut her a deal like the book publishers. Hey, wait we already do that.  Also for goodness sake if you are giving a presentation with pictures in a lecture hall please don't hold up your laptop to a room full of people and expect the people in back to be able to see. Be professional and ask for a projector.

Please note that these are my impressions of the talk. Also if you are a regular reader you know that the majority of my knitting goes to the fall fundraiser at Eric's day program at the Tucson JCC and the Flowing Wells District Clothing Bank. So I do get offended when a for profit business asks knitwear designers to give away our work for free so that they can sell yarn. I know that we all will design an easy pattern for a favorite shop to help sell a certain yarn, but that is a shop where we are allowed to come in and create or just sit around a table and knit with friends.

My rant is over. Goodnight and sweet dreams.

A Lucky Day

Today we got the letter from our insurance company saying that Eric’s formula will be covered for another year. This is the first year in a long time that we did not have to spend months fighting this. We are not sure how this happened, but we would like the trend to continue.

Gloves

Today I went shopping for gloves. It was a total washout. The cashmere gloves at one store were 90% acyclic. The super wool gloves were 50% acyclic. The rest were plain ugly or solid acyclic. I guess I will be finding time to pick a pattern and knit some gloves for myself.

The take away from this is to check my gloves for holes in August when they first hit the stores in Tucson. Not like this week when I found holes in the 2 pairs of cashmere gloves that I bought five or six years ago.

Crazy Busy

I have been crazy busy for the last few days. I had a full day on Thursday. With an appointment to start the day. Followed by rushing to arrive on time to teach a drop spindle class, the student set the time and did not show. To top that off I dropped my coriander drop spindle from too high and the wrong angle, needless to say it is now in 3 pieces. John will try to fix it for me, we just have to find out what adhesive to use. Wish us luck on that one. 

When I got home I went to say hi to Eric and his teeth were chattering and he had that look about him. I was praying that he was not overly tired or getting sick. Shortly after we finished dinner the wild eyrping started. I was a long night. I only stopped doing laundry when I ran out of baskets for the clean clothes. Somewhere around the house I know that I will find those baskets. I finished 4 more loads of laundry today. Just don't tell Eric that I am almost caught up. 

Eric woke up smiling so we started him on Peidlyte and he is now back on formula. Now instead of sleeping he wants to play. I decided to tink a project that I was 25% done with, but not happy with. I was a little too tired to knit today, although I did have big plans to work on a blanket and a sweater. I had also wanted to warp a loom, I was also too tired for that. So now that Eric is quiet, I will head to bed. 

Finally

I finally felt well enough to make dinner tonight. A wonderful chicken pecan salad and fresh ginger bread. John brought home fresh frech bread. I would have added a picture but apperently blogo has not updated to IOS 11 and everything is not functioal in the app.

Eric thought it was funny that I said we were going to Trader Joes just for dinner things. Well I guess he was right, I got a few extra things. Although I did stop at 1 basket of groceries.

An Afternoon Out

John and I had an afternoon off. We went and saw the play Rent. I was not overly impressed with this play. Maybe it would have had a greater impact 20 years ago, but it seemed a bit old and tired today. The cast could also work on enunciation so we could understand all that they were saying. Maybe if the audience would have been a bit more polite and not clapped before songs started and continuing at least a verse in the song or the cast members waited until the clapping was done so that first timers could enjoy the music too. Also if you are going to sing with the cast at full voice, please, please, please not be in the key of off. Also as a parent I was dismayed at the lack of judgment of some parents. I personally did not think that this play was suitable for the under 12 year old crowd, no matter how cute the outfits the kids were wearing.

Afterward we went out to dinner and enjoyed patio dining. I just love our 2 weeks of fall weather. I am also 6 inches into the scrappy hat ( this is to read all the blue and green small balls of yarn in my knitting bag) that I started this morning. I will try to finish it tomorrow.