Pleasantly Surprised

The bad paint story has a good outcome! I posted a complaint in the feedback section of the Lowe's website thinking that was that and I'd never hear anything more. A couple of hours later, I got an e-mail from a customer service person saying the store manager of our local Lowe's would call me within 24 hours. Last night about 8 PM, the phone rang, and it was Lowe's. The manager was willing to do whatever it took (short of professional painters coming in and re-doing my room!) to make the situation right. We agreed to a complete refund for the two gallons of paint, 2 gallons of replacement paint at no additional charge, and a 5 gallon bucket to mix the two together to ensure no problems with the color this time around. I went in this morning and got all that taken care of. Now, all we have to do is get the room painted and move the stuff back in. I'll be so glad to have that done! My office things are currently scattered throughout the house, and it's making me nuts! I don't do well when the house is a mess.

I'm in the "back to work" countdown! This is my last week of freedom. Ha ha! A huge box of office supplies arrived yesterday--the basic paper, pens, scissors, envelopes, file folders, etc. It's a pretty complete home office supply setup. My computer equipment and Blackberry should arrive on Thursday. I'm most excited about that! Next week, I'll be in NC for orientation/new hire training.

There's nothing going on as far as knitting, spinning, or crochet. We are, however, going to SAFF after all. I really didn't care one way or another if we went and actully had two other things going on that same weekend. Husband and daughter really seemed to want to go, though, so they've made reservations for us in Hendersonville for the weekend. I'm not all that excited about the festival itself, but it will be nice to see friends that I don't see very often. Leave a comment and let me know if you're planning to be there!

So Annoyed

I am so annoyed, frustrated, disappointed, and just plain pissed off. My husband spent the entire weekend working on our home office in preparation for my new job that I start next week. We emptied everything out of the room, he primed and painted the walls, and I went in this morning to prime the baseboards and hopefully get them painted today. I noticed streaky, dark roller marks on some of the walls and called him in. He thought perhaps the paint wasn't dry in those areas, but that just didn't make sense. He finished painting early yesterday afternoon. It looks like the two gallons of paint we bought do not in fact match. The base paint had the same dye lot, and the colors were mixed and purchased at the same time at Lowes. In the 20 years that we've been married and painting our own walls, we've never had this problem. More paint is going to have to be bought and more time spent re-doing a project that should be complete at this point. I have become the queen of complaining about poor customer service lately, and you'd better believe that I gave Lowe's on line feedback an earful this morning. My experience has been that complaints at the local level do no good whatsoever, but taking it to corporate gets a response. There's really no fix for this problem (well, they could comp us the paint it's going to take to re-do this mess), but I feel better having gotten it off my chest.

Dragonfly

Fall is definitely in the air, at least according to the morning temperatures. We've been enjoying some early morning time on the deck because of this. The deck really is most pleasant in spring and fall, before the heat and humidity of summer in SC set in.

Here's a photo of a dragonfly waiting for the morning sun to warm its wings enough for flying.



The latest issue of Spin Off magazine features handspun Baby Surprise Jackets. I have some beautiful purple yarn that daughter spun a few years ago, and we've been wondering what to make with it. I think there is enough to make a BSJ and will try that sometime this weekend. It would be nice to have a little jacket that perhaps one day she can tell her child, "I spun the yarn for this, and your Grandma knitted this sweater." Of course, I hope "one day" is still very far in the future--maybe 10-15 years from now! I'll check the stash for the yarn and share a photo of it later.

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y

I witnessed history last night, and it was so cool! The boys' soccer team from my daughter's HS beat their arch rivals 1-0. It was great! Last time our team beat theirs was 2005. We had fans screaming, moms texting their soccer player sons who were on the team last year and are now away at college, and excited teenage fans rushing the field at the end of the game. I would not have missed it for the world. I'm not a big sports fan except for HS sports. There is something special about watching people who are playing for the love of the game rather than seeing those over paid professional athletes or even the college teams. Go Cavs!!

Sorry there aren't any pictures. I forgot my camera, but then again, seeing as how I was on the edge of my seat all night, it's probably best that the camera stayed home.

The new car is still fabulous. It drives like a little dream. This is the smallest car we've ever owned, but it has the best ride, handling, and pickup of any vehicle we've had. I know we're still in the "honeymoon phase" with this car, but if it continues to be as great as it is now, I think we've become Volvo people. We did a lot of research on Volvo cars before making this purchase, and I think we made a very good decision.

Daughter has been driving on the interstate highway this week. She drove us all the way to school yesterday and today and drove home yesterday afternoon. It will be a while yet before she takes her road test and becomes an independent driver, but I'm feeling more confident about her taking that next step. I am concerned about the construction mess going on with the interstate. It's nuts out there, and unfortunately, the most direct route to school is the interstate. I don't even like driving out there, and I have been driving for almost 30 years!

There hasn't been a whole lot of knitting or crocheting going on. I really should finish up my Eyelet Cardi, but I'm so bored with it. :( I've been tempted to frog it, but it is sooo close to completion. Maybe I should set up some sort of reward system for myself for finishing the damned thing. Next time I'm tempted to make a primarily stockinette stitch anything, will somebody please beat some sense into me?

Insert Catchy Post Title Here

It's an overcast Friday morning, but I really like overcast, gray days. I'm hoping we'll get a bit of rain today. The forecast for the past 3 days indicated we'd be having rain, but so far there has been nothing but insignificant drizzle.

I'd hoped to share a modeled finished object photo with you today, but husband and I don't seem to end up at the same time in the same place this week. It's been a busy week, primarily due to the whole test driving, talking a deal, and buying the car thing. Because I'm really proud of the way the cabling turned out in this hat, here's a hat only shot. The designer calls this hat Love Nugget, but the X and O cables remind me more of Hugs and Kisses.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I didn't care for the long ribbing on the original pattern, nor do I like the look of turned up brims. I shortened the ribbing by half on my hat. The fit on this is perfect on husband. He likes a hat that just covers his ears, and this one does that.

I'm lucky to have a bald headed husband. Besides the incredible hotness factor that bald men seem to have (Sean Connery, ladies??), I'm also able to feed my hat knitting addiction. Next on tap is this great hat from BrooklynTweed. Now, to find the perfect yarn for it.

Speaking of yarn, I received an order from Angelika's Yarn Store this week. I'll be using this Cascade 220 (color 8907) to make this tunic top for daughter.


If you've not shopped with Angelika before, give her a try! I've ordered twice now, and the service has been stellar! My orders arrive quickly, communication is great, prices are great.

I spoke with the HR/Recruiting guy at my new company this morning just to make sure the background check and all that was going smoothly--so far so good! I guess it's just a matter of counting down the days now. I'm excited, a little bit scared, and just plain anxious to become a productive member of the working world again--especially now that we have a lovely new car payment! Husband and I are going to re-do the office before I start working. We need to rip out the old yucky carpet, take down the icky drapes, and paint. We really have not touched this room since we moved in (other than to set up computers) and it needs help. It's the only room in our upstairs that still has carpet, and I know there are gorgeous hardwood floors hidden underneath. I will spend a good 8 hours a day in the office come October, so we want me to have a nice, pleasant space.

That's about it for me! I probably won't blog again until next week. We have a soccer tournament at school this weekend, and I have several obligations surrounding that. Enjoy your weekend.

Pretty! Shiny!

We decided it was time to add another car to the family. Price, quality, and safety ratings led us to this little beauty:









Daughter has bonded with it, and who could blame her? She's driven it more than anyone else in the family since we picked it up last night and even took her first drive on the Interstate this morning.

Re-Joining the Working World

I GOT A JOB! Yes, it is true. I found out Wednesday night that the company I interviewed with a few weeks back has opened up some more management level positions in my region, and guess who they want to hire! I'm beyond thrilled. The job is a perfect fit for my skills and experience, and the company seems fantastic. I have a month before my start date, and I plan to enjoy my free time.

Life has been non-stop busy this week what with attending soccer games (daughter is cheering, not playing) and going to parents' night at school. It's going to be that kind of year, I think--just plain busy. At least the things we're doing are fun things.

Tomorrow, daughter may attend driving school. I just realized that it's required for a SC restricted license, and a nearby class happens to have an opening. The sessions include an 8 hour class and then an additional 6 hours of driving (in 2 hour blocks spread out over 3 days).

Life is nothing if not interesting!

Frog on Rusty Railing

The temperature was pleasantly cool this morning, so husband, Mocha Cat, and I enjoyed a cup of coffee out on the deck. It was a nice way to start the day. Mocha was intoxicated with cat nip and unwilling to be photographed in that state, but I found another willing animal participant. I give you Frog On Rusty Railing:

Isn't he cute? Of course, you can also see how terribly in need of a paint job our deck railing is, but how about focus on the cute frog instead? He's some sort of tree frog.

I have been knitting again and am currently working on this great hat from Metapostmodern Knitting. I'm using charcoal grey Patons Classic Merino, and of course, being a true knitter, I've changed up the pattern. Personally, I find the ribbing to be too long and don't like the look of a turned up ribbed edge. It looks a bit too "little kid" IMO. So...instead of knitting 3 inches of ribbing like the pattern says, I've only done 1.5. It looks much better that way. I am not sure if I'll make any more mods or not; probably not. The hat is coming along nicely and working up fast. The cables would have probably shown up better in a cream color or other light color yarn, but there was charcoal grey in the stash...

I also have a kitchen project going on--scuppernong jelly. Our grape vine has produced a few grapes this year and I wanted to take advantage of that. The vine has to be trimmed back this winter which means we likely will have no grapes next year. I cooked the grapes last night and extracted the juice. Today I'll cook and jar the jelly. The grapes on the vine smell so good, and the aroman in the house last night while they were cooking was intoxicating! Speaking of intoxicating, I may also try to make some scuppernong wine depending on how many more grapes I'm able to get from the vine.

We took a short (little over 6.5 miles) bike ride last night. The weather is getting perfect for it, and with nearby access to a good bike trail, we have to take advantage. I really want to ride along the canal, but that's a weekend day trip kind of ride. I also probably need a different bike for that. My bike seat sits up very high even adjusted to the lowest point, and I have to lean over the whole time to keep my hands on the handle bars and hand brakes. That is a bit painful on the arms and back, so a more appropriate bike is on my wish list for one of these days.

The first home soccer game of the year is this afternoon, and I'll be there cheering on the boys and the cheerleaders. Soccer is one of my favorite sports to watch, so this will be a fun afternoon. I'm making marshmallow rice crispy treats to take for the girls' snack.

Hope

Please keep me in your thoughts, say a prayer, light a candle, sacrifice a virgin......... I should have some news by the end of the week. Hopefully it will be good news. Yes, this is job related.