Bath Pouf Hernia

My bath pouf had a blowout this morning.

I'm sad because I have been nice to my bath pouf. I make sure to put it in the bag with my bras when it goes in the washer, so that it doesn't get torn apart by a rogue zipper on a pair of pants.

The pouf even has its own hook to hang on in the shower. Unlike my back brush/massager that has to share hanging space with a tube of body wash.

And now, the pouf has a blowout.

This really figures because the pouf was the perfect size. Ever notice that bath poufs are usually only found in enormous or tiny? This was a rare find - a medium sized pouf.

Now, I'll have to find a new pouf. From experience, I know that once the first blowout happens, another will soon follow. Then, instead of a pouf, I'll have a really long piece of mesh.

The other problem with finding the perfect bath pouf is the price. Sure, you can get the enormous ones in WalMart for around $3 (Has anyone else noticed WalMart's prices rising substantially?). At a certain bath and body specialty store, I once noticed bath poufs. They seemed to be the perfect size, so of course I had to look. For the low price of $12 one could have been mine. No thanks, I'll just use a washcloth, of which I have a billion and only use to wipe my cat's and dog's eyes (and sometimes backsides) when absolutely necessary.

Texture is the other problem. I once saw a tip on a money saving website that said to save a mesh onion bag and cut off the metal fasteners, then create a pouf out of that. No, thanks anyways, I thought. I'll just scrub myself with a Brillo pad if it comes to that. So even more important than finding the right size pouf is finding one that isn't going to remove more than two layers of skin at a time.

I can see much ass-pain ahead of me as I shop for a new pouf.

What A Day

I'm not entirely sure what happened to me today. I woke up and didn't feel very well so I spent the next 4 hours or so napping on the couch, with Jazz and Daisy. Then I still didn't feel well and I had to go in to work at the new job at 5 PM so I decided I should just lie down in bed for a few hours and hopefully feel better.

It didn't work. It was about 80 degrees in the house and I was literally shivering while wrapped up under a blanket and the comforter, with Angel Kitty and Jazz acting as furry hot water bottles.

I did drag myself in to work. I'm not sure how I made it - I felt so weak that it was an effort to grip the steering wheel to drive. Lucky me it's less than 10 minutes away. Somehow I managed to walk into the store and make it to the offices. It was a struggle.

I am only working on my computer training in the office, so I'm sitting at a desk watching this tutorial about how the custom order software works. I'm not sure what this says, but I was able to get nearly all of the review questions correct even though I was dozing off during the presentation. I'm thinking that this might not be a good thing.

Anyways, I lasted two hours at work, and without going into graphic details let me just say they sent me home because I did not feel well. I made it home, went directly to bed (still shivering) then finally woke up when I started to get warm. I think the worst has passed.

The thing is, I have absolutely no idea why I am so sick today.

I think it's sweet how all the animals are so concerned. When I was in bed after work, Angel and Jazz both had to walk up by my face, stick their nose up to the end of my nose and pat my face with their paws. Angel does this routinely, but this is the first time Jazz has. Daisy, apparently, was all worried about me. I heard her whine a little bit when I first woke up but before I made up my mind if it would be possible to get out of bed yet.

Angel left one of her toy mice on the bed, presumably to make me feel better.

Problems in (Crochet) Paradise

I am nearly finished with the granny square afghan that has been hanging around here forever. I have only one more square to complete then I can start the really annoying part - sewing all the panels together.

The problem? I am out of black yarn.

Here I was having thoughts that I would be able to get the blanket finished and give it away to get it, and it's materials out of my house. This had to happen.

Last night I went to AC Moore to attempt to locate the yarn I need. I am desperate - enough so that I would even settle for a different dye lot. While AC Moore did have in stock black yarn of the brand I need, they did not carry the thickness I need. They have chunky yarn and chenille and even suede yarn, but not worsted weight.

What the hell is up with that?

This meant a visit to the Lion Brand website. (If you need yarn, go here.) I can get the yarn that I need to finish my project, but I'm willing to bet that shipping will cost at least as much as one skein of yarn. Go figure.

So, I will probably end up ordering yarn for an entirely new project. This is not a bad thing. I do really enjoy crochet, I just haven't done it for a while. Other things were taking up too much of my time, apparently. A new project might be just what I need.

Didn't I say I was going to finish the old projects and get them out of here before I started a new project? Well, I lied. Besides, there is nothing wrong with having multiple craft projects in various stages of completion around the house. Just ask me about the bluebird toy I am crocheting for Jazz, with plans to stuff it with catnip.

Speaking of new projects, I have invested in two new pattern books. One is patterns to crochet toys and blankets for pets (which, of course, is where I got the pattern for Jazz's bluebird toy). The other is another afghan book.

The best part of all this? Now Laurie wants to crochet. Nothing like sharing the wealth. Maybe I should just have her finish the pink afghan that sits here in a bag, half done.

At least I can't claim to be doing nothing. I have to admit that crochet is considerably more productive than many things I could be doing.

Now I'm going to drool over my many collected crochet patterns and attempt to pick out my new project.

The Winner

I started crocheting again.

So far, I have completed the crochet work on the felting project, I now need to decide if I want to "felt" it in the washer or by hand. Probably by hand. It seems stupid to use the washer for things that are so small.

Since I was in the mood I decided to work on one of the many partially finished afghans. Not the pink one that Laurie wants. The other one.

There's a story behind this afghan. My friend Mini Me and I were in AC Moore one day and saw the pattern but of course couldn't find all the necessary yarn. Typical. Another day a few weeks later we tried again. Still no yarn. A couple months later, we were in the store again and actually had in stock all the colors the pattern required. So I got the yarn.

I'm going to have to give this to Mini Me when it's finished because I just don't like it. The colors are heather grey, black, cream, and forest green. In a granny square pattern. To be completely honest, I would like it better if it weren't for the grey. So, I think it's fitting that I give it to Mini Me if I ever get the damn thing finished.

Of course, I still have to look at it while I finish the work. But I guess I can tolerate that, knowing that at the end I'll be able to rid myself of the product. I could just want to get it out of my living room, but I'm not sure.

Now I'm off to a website that promises to have directions for hand felting. Go here if you are interested. Or bored. Or just like random things.

A Definite Maybe

Yesterday I decided that since I can't do school work right now because my classes are officially over, I should probably think about enjoying one of my many hobbies.

Which one? I guess I could start playing guitar again, but after 16 years of that it's truly become boring. I want a violin but there's no way I'm going out and spending that much money right now. And let's face it, harmonica is just lame - even if it is the only instrument I could afford.

I would like to start painting again. I bought a set of watercolors (good ones, not the stuff you find in the toy department at WalMart) plus brushes and paper a year or so ago but have never really gotten into it as much as I would like. Mostly because of the large mistake I made last fall, namely trying to move to a place I didn't like or really want to move to.

I have been working on writing fiction. I should be very qualified to write fiction - my entire life to an outsider probably sounds like a work of fiction. But, I can't write as often as I need something to do lately.

I had the bright idea last night that I could crochet. I know how and have made several afghans over the past few years. I do think my mother is still a little annoyed that I have given other family members afghans but have yet to make one for her. (Some day, Ma).

Then I stumbled across a kit I bought to make some felted pouches, like a little wallet that you can attach to your key chain. I've wanted to try felting for a long time now. This is a small project that won't annoy me excessively if it doesn't work out the way I want it to.

Of course nothing in my house is safe from Daisy the One-Dog Destruction Crew. The yarn to use to crochet the pouches prior to felting them was tangled up really badly, mostly because of Daisy's insatiable urge to just destroy something.

I drafted Laurie to help me untangle the yarn. Somehow this led to the organization of the basket of yarn and completed granny squares for an afghan I started over a year ago. That somehow led me to go in to my bedroom and produce the afghan that has been annoying me for 6 or 7 years but that I thought Laurie would like (because it's pink and she likes pink). Of course she did like it, so this probably means that I will, eventually, have to finish that as well.

Bottom line is, I started out having no idea what project I would work on and now have enough projects that I don't know which to work on first. Typical. Maybe I can sort of time-share and work on all of them.

Then again, I only have until Monday to need something to do. I start my new job on Monday! Strangely, I am looking forward to that, but it means all this time spent finding a new project was a bit useless.

Since tomorrow is Independence Day (and I finally have made plans!) I won't be home to work on any of my many projects anyways! I'll be at my parents eating buffalo burgers.

(Two other words that spell check doesn't know how to spell - or recognize - are "independence" and "organization")

Back to the Land of Employment

I found a job.

Finally.

Of course, unlike my brother, I was actually LOOKING for a job, and APPLYING to job openings. Then again, if you're looking and applying for jobs, you do have to leave the house during the day, at least for the interview, and this might cut into time spent at the bar or playing pool.

Was that a shot? I think maybe. Not so much a cheap shot, because every word I said was accurate, but definitely a shot.

Anyways, I have the July 4th weekend off before I start my new job. I won't say where I'll be working, I'll just say it's in the mall and I'm going to be in the commission-based window coverings department.

Too bad I don't have any plans for the holiday weekend, but that's another story entirely.

I can't wait. Finally, a job where I won't have to wear a uniform shirt, and I can actually wear nice clothes to work without the fear of ruining them. Too bad I own exactly 3 nice shirts, all of which are total pain to iron.

Even better than having a job, it appears that I'll be able to put off mowing the lawn for a while longer. From what I hear, it's supposed to rain for at least the next week. Yay! We all know that mowing is on my list of things I would really prefer not to do.

Best of all, today was the last day of term. No more college until September. Strangely, while I'm happy that all the work is done, and I know I can really use a nice long brain break before the next semester begins, I'm going to miss my classes. At least I got to use my brain for once, instead of just sort of letting the dust balls rattle around inside my head.

Anyways, I have ironing to do. Maybe if I start now I can iron out all of the wrinkles that I accidentally iron in to my shirts when I am attempting to press them.

And maybe I can get some work done on that novel I started writing ages ago...Let's face it, I won't be using my brain on school, so maybe I can do something fun. Speaking of fun, what I would really like to do is start painting again.

Yet another gripe with the spell check feature on Blogger: it doesn't recognize the word "accidentally." Maybe I should change it to "mistakenly" except I'm not entirely sure that IS a word. Oh and more about "accidentally" - while using spell check the first time, I used their suggested spelling. Now the spell check is still saying it is spelled wrong, but the spelling IS what they suggest. Go figure!

Seriously - Almost Done

The Dreaded Term Paper is almost done. The problem is actually not that I could not find enough sources, which was my first thought when I started this paper. My problem is that I found an abundance of sources.

I guess that's good because my goal was to compare research on companion animals, specifically if they are good for the owner's health (and therefore stress levels) or not.

Surprisingly, it's hard to find a bit of research that says pets are bad for you. Even the articles on pet bereavement couldn't say that pets are stressful.

Anyways, I have less than a page left.

Other good news, I have only part of a 25-question final exam left to do for Accounting. And here I thought I was going to be pulling an all nighter tonight to finish everything. Nope. I did have enough time.

I still have to work on this problem with procrastination that I have, but that's another story. Maybe next semester I will conquer that.