Well, I had my first day at the new job. As always with these things, I was introduced to a bewildering array of new people and systems and jargon and processes. The people are all really friendly though, and I can honestly say that they’re the most professional company I’ve worked for in the IT industry. (When I got to work this morning, I had a desk, stationery, employee handbooks, email address, everything. It was brilliant.) It turns out that today was the monthly combined birthday party and welcome for the new people, so we had cakes outside in the morning. That was nice. Then at lunchtime, I had my first game of foosball with the other guys on the PHP team. (My team lost, but I’m still a little rusty. I’ll improve.) So all in all, it felt less like a first day and more like a birthday party! The only negative so far is that there’s FREE Diet Coke in the fridge, calling to me. It’s like I’m being tested or something.

And yep, this site is a portal for employee blogs. I met the guy who set it up today. Which is cool, except now I’m self-conscious that I post five times as much as the rest of them!

I went over to Tar-zhay yesterday to pick up some button-down shirts for my new job. While I was there, I spotted my DREAM COAT. Folks, I have been looking for a trench coat for years now. Esprit had a beautiful red one a few years back, but when I tried it on my stylist advised that it wasn’t a good cut for me. (It was too short, basically.) And remember the whole Stella McCartney trench debacle last year? I’d just about given up. Yet there it was yesterday, staring at cheerfully from across the store: a bright red, long, perfect-fitting trench coat. (They call it an anorak on the website. Click on the bottom “frame” to see a closeup.) I snapped a surreptitious mirror photo of myself wearing it and sent it to Miss Fee for her opinion. It was perfect. And what’s more – with their 20% off Sale, it ended up being about SIXTY BUCKS. I bought it.

And then I came home and saw this. I swear I’m not, like, becoming her clone or something.

For those of you who are on Ravelry, check this out. (For those of you who aren’t: Somebody notified me this morning that I was listed on a “Copyright Hall of Shame” website, complete with my home and email address. Why? Because I wondered about the legality of fabric license agreements, and the person who maintains the page – and is against such licenses – felt that I was “spreading misinformation.” I don’t know how a request for clarification can be “spreading misinformation,” but there you go. Anyway, it turns out the person is on Ravelry so I made a big post calling them out for it. I appreciate that this person has a vested interest in clearing up copyright issues as it pertains to craft, but I don’t think starting a witch hunt for people who disagree with her and then posting my contact details for others to harass me is the best way to make her case. Especially as I don’t actually disagree with her in the first place. You’d think she might have emailed me to clarify before pronouncing judgement, huh?

Vintage Pillowcase Lunchbox Tutorial. Oh, those are so sweeeet! I’m now consumed by the impulse to throw a Pillowcase Lunchbox Construction Party and have everybody over to my house so Bex can talk us through the sewing… (Link courtesy of Danielle.)

The Westing Game
I changed schools in 7th grade, and I can remember going to “Reading” class (in retrospect, how weird that we had a “reading” class!) on the first day. The teacher explained that the class was in the middle of a big project in which they had to read a book and then do all sorts of activities on it. Then she gave me the two choices: The Westing Game (which she’d described as “challenging”), and a novelization of Charles in Charge. I’M NOT EVEN KIDDING. I picked The Westing Game without knowing anything about it. (Later I discovered to my horror that I couldn’t see a single other person in the class reading it. And that will tell you a lot about the Lakeland school system.) Anyway, I LOVED the book. I thought Turtle was so cool, and I wanted to be just like her. I also developed a secret lasting desire to learn shorthand, because I was sure it would come in SUPER HANDY someday. I didn’t figure the mystery out ahead of time though, but then again I never do. I really need to re-read it one of these days…

Very sneaky! I noticed this site popping up in my referrers the other day. It looks like a public page somebody has set up to track a couple blogs. “Hmm,” I thought. “MM are the initials of my new company.” So I started looking at the other sites that were listed… and at least one of them is another employee. Looks like somebody over at Mobile Messenger has set up an employee blog portal!

New haircut. Behold my Katie Holmes-ness!

Courtesy of the Snook… Buffy Trivia! It’s super easy though. I got 10/10.

Huh. Evidently I sleep-walked into the office last night and posted this question on AskMeFi under a different name. Because that? Is exactly the stuff I’ve been worrying about.