My First Day

The Good: Well, that was different! I can honestly say I did more work in the past eight hours than I did in the previous four months at Epson. It was all pretty interesting, too. We had a lot more people in than I expected and I was kept busy ringing up sales and helping people find things. I also talked my damn head off. Every knitter in Sydney is going to remember the chatty American! I won’t get bored.

The Bad: Man, I am beat. Standing all day is harder than I remembered. My feet kill. And GOD, some of those old ladies are mean! One woman was looking at a really simple mohair scarf we had hanging up so I asked her if she needed help. She said she wanted a pattern for it. I’m like, “Oh, I don’t think there is one, really. I’d guess you just cast on 15 stitches and knit every row, changing colors every couple of rows.” And she was like, “I can’t rely on your ‘guess.’ I need a pattern!” Whatever, you stupid old Feathers-scarf-wearin’ bag!

The Ugly: Oh god. I can hardly bring myself to type it. “How many balls of wool does it take to knit a scarf?” I must’ve heard that fifty times today. It’s like a zen koan. There is no answer! I’m thinking, “Look, there are infinite thicknesses of wool, infinite sizes of scarf, and infinite patterns you can knit on many different thickness of needle, so that means that it would take an infinite number of balls to knit your damn scarf, IDIOT!” By the end of the day I had given up. I just started answering “Four!” with as straight a face as I could muster.

On the plus side, do I not have the cutest hair in the world? This what it looks like with me attempting to dry it without proper round hair brushes. I kinda like its shaggy texture. It’s very Melanie Griffiths in Cherry 2000, I think. Just one more and I’ll stop, I promise.

New hair for a new job.

It doesn’t make me look old, does it?

Introducing ourwedding.web-goddess.org. Now don’t get excited! It’s not for me and the Snook. 🙂

Yesterday was my last day at Epson. Man, last days are fun. Everybody’s nice to you and you get presents and stuff. It makes you wonder why you wanted to leave in the first place! (But only for a second.) We all went out to the Ranch for lunch and then in the afternoon we had the gift presentation. The Head of Marketing gave a very nice speech and then I opened the box (decorated with custom-made Harry Potter wrapping paper by my friend Mardi) to find exactly what I wanted: a fluffy sheep knitting bag! (They’re too cheesy for me to buy for myself, but I’ll happily take one for free.) It was stuffed with wool and Epson toys. All in all, a very nice send-off. Now I’m just enjoying a couple days’ rest before I start at Tapestry Craft on Tuesday.

And in related I’ll-sleep-better-now news, the Snook got a raise and promotion at work! So I don’t have to worry that my inability to stand my Epson boss any longer is leaving us destitute. Kickass.

This one’s for my sister, who works for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of California. A nine-year-old kid named Ben was in remission from leukemia and told the Make-a-Wish Foundation that he wanted to design a video game that would help kids like himself with the pain and stress. LucasArts stepped in to make the dream come through. Now Ben’s Game is available to play. I haven’t tried it out yet since I’m still at work, but it got good reviews from the folks on the ‘Filter.

Lordy, lordy. Sex and the Knitty is here! The Snook caught me ogling this pattern and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. (I like the sizing designations myself. Hee.) And hello? Edible panties knit out of licorice ropes? That is the coolest thing ever.

I’m thinking of taking a belly dancing class. Any of y’all ever done anything like that?

I love sunny days… but this is getting ridiculous. This past June in Sydney was the all-time sunniest and driest! I’ve been making plans for the garden this year, but I’m starting to wonder if there’s any use. I can’t remember the last time it rained.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball has an excellent essay about the whole Dashboard vs. Konfabulator controversy. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, the guys who wrote this application think that Apple’s new Dashboard is a rip-off of their idea. Gruber basically tears that allegation to shreds. Good on ‘im. I looked at Konfabulator a while ago but didn’t really see the point of using it. Dashboard, on the other hand, looks like something that could be really useful. I love the fact that the “widgets” (or gadgets or whatever they’re calling them) are basically little web pages, built using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I’m already envisioning writing my own blog posting widget as an alternative to bookmarklets. Ooh, and you could have one that alerts you if you have new Gmail (since there doesn’t seem to be a convenient way to do that on OS X yet)! The possibilities are endless here, really.

This one’s for my Dad: A 14-year-old kid has landed a 52-pound striped bass while fishing in a kayak off the Atlantic City shore. That is a big fish.