7 Quick Takes (Vol 239) Or….How Can There Only Be 4.5 Days Until Christmas!

Ho, ho, ho here we go. That is right…..4.5 days until Christmas. Let the panic begin. When you are done basking in the bright, holiday glow of my blather you need to click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of Santa’s reindeer, over to Conversion Diary to see what everyone else is doing.

Blather that is both naughty and nice.

1.
This time of year there is SO much to do, or at least it feels like that. And yet, I want to spend all my time with my big, fat bahookie plunked in my chair reading all those “end of the year” lists of “notable people who have died” and “the best photos of the year” and “most noteworthy news stories of the year”.

I just can’t seem to stop myself. Guys I really, really love those kinds of things. That must have been why I always loved those “Big Book of Lists” that were all the rage when I was in Jr. Hi. and HS. Yeah, I was that nerdy. The internet just means that I can find all those kinds of lists at the click of my mouse.

I may not exit my woman cave until 2014.

2.
And speaking of the woman cave……

It was TOTALLY trashed this week and had been that way for a while. I have had so many projects going and things happening and editing to be done that I just had been making piles of things on my desks. Yes, I have two desks.  Total disaster.

I know it is bad when I have to move a project pile in order to start or finish a new project. And I just cannot work that way. It makes me crazy….

Or crazier.

So I took some time yesterday to clean up a bit and put things away. I am much happier when life is organized. It still isn’t as organized as I need. And we won’t even TALK about the unfinished side of the basement. The place of chaos. That is going to be tackled with great vigor and cleanoutedness come the new year. For now, the desk and work space is manageable.

For now.

I hatehatehatehatehate disorganization.

3.
I managed to mail the last of the Christmas presents on Tuesday…..and I didn’t murder anyone at the post office.

But it was a close thing. There was this one woman, several people ahead of me in line, who REALLY needed a big dose of Christmas cheer. In 3h enema proportions. I am not going to explain that and if you are a nurse you will already know. You can look it up on your own.

She could definitely have used a large dope slap upside the head. Really lady, do you think you are going to get any better service from that poor postal clerk if you berate her like that in front of the swarm of other people waiting to do the same thing that you are doing?

Like I said…..large dope slap.

Or 3h enema.

4.
24 hours into the whole having to wear glasses thing, I am still liking them. I have noticed that the only place where they aren’t so great is when I am working on the computer. It isn’t that I can’t use the glasses then, it is the issue with the fuzziness at the edges of the field of vision, which I knew about going is as I have the seamless lenses.

But I think I can just use my cheaters for working on the computer. I will have to as it is a bit difficult to edit photographs effectively when they are blurry around the edges and you weren’t actually going for any Bokeh. Hard to know if your time spent editing and sharpening has been effective.

It is also just training myself to actually turn my head when I need to look at something rather than just moving my eyes. That way my field of vision stays clear.

5.
And speaking of editing and photographs.

I got an email last night from a potential client that just knocked my socks off. Not sure if the job will materialize yet…but a good chance that it will. I am excited and fearful as the company is large, like nationally large. The job itself is local but it would be AWESOMESAUCE on the photo resume. And income is always good. This job is actually an outgrowth of a very small job that I did, for free, in May…which led to a bigger job in November….which segued into another job scheduled for January…..which was announced in a newsletter……which was seen by the recruiting department of another company……who contacted the newsletter people….who gave out my contact info….and thus another job comes to me.

I am scared spitless that I will actually get the job, small as it is.

I hate being so vague about it but nothing is definite.

6.
Mimi sent our Christmas present money last week.

I spent it……..on yarn.

I KNOW! You are so surprised by this aren’t you. And yesterday I cast on a project with some of the yarn that came in the mail yesterday. Absolutely NO willpower where new projects are concerned. And of course I had to make a change or two to the pattern. Add a repeat. Change a needle size. Nothing major (she said confidently). It is Guernsey Wrap by Jared Flood and I have wanted to do one for a long time. Like since he put it up on Ravelry. I spent some time on it last night….and today I am frogging it. Not because I don’t like it but because I am going up a needle size. I gambled and lost on my needle size choice.

It happens.

I sometimes am more of a loose knitter. And with that in mind, even though the pattern called for sz 8 needles, I made the executive decision to use a sz 7. And no, I didn’t swatch. This is a wrap and I am lazy and I hate swatching. I don’t swatch for lace or wraps or socks. So shoot me.

So I will re-cast on some time today. And I will be using special stitch markers from Absinthe Yarn. Oh guys they are LOVELY. I usually just use plain old plastic rings, totally boring. But Kathy sent me some beautiful stitch markers when I ordered a skein of yarn from her Etsy shop and I have been dying to use them. Love, Love, Love.

Kathy and I actually went to high school together. We didn’t know each other all that well, running in different “circles”, and reconnected just a few years ago. We were both SO excited to find that we are KnitSibs of the heart. You should see the skein of hand dyed fingering weight yarn I bought from her Etsy shop!!! She had me at the name………Hot Flash.

7.
I have not baked a single Christmas cookie this year.

And my waistline thanks me.

Gone are the days when all it seemed like I did in December was bake Christmas cookies for cookie exchanges and school functions. I kind of miss those days. But honestly I do not miss cookie exchanges. So many cookies that then had to be eaten. There were always the cookies that languished when all other kinds had been consumed with gusto. The lone cookies that no one really liked. The sad cookies of Christmas with no stomach home.

I will quit now.

But I may have to give in and bake one batch. Then the question becomes which kind of cookie should I bake? Now that is going to be a hard decision.