Tangled Mess

Another week has gone by, and what a week that it has been! Last week Tuesday, I ended up leaving work early and did three Weight Watcher meetings in a row. Never again am I going to do that. By the third meeting, my tongue was running away with my mouth! I lost all the questions that I wanted to ask. Remember, I had all ready done two meetings previously so that meeting should have been a piece of cake, right? Wrong! The last group just sat there looking at me like I had grown a tail, horns or something! Then to top it all off there were three women that were off to my right, all related, and they started whispering and the next thing I know they are getting up and walking out. Made me think, was it something I said? So, I trudged on and finished the meeting and then vowed that I am never doing three meetings again on a day that I have to work at my full-time job. Thursday night, I had to go home and pick up my daughter and get her registered for middle school. That ran a whopping $96 (ouch). After that, she decided that she was going to go to the Kenosha County Fair with her friend. I went to the Lake County Knitting Meet-up. I had a lot of fun at that meeting. I was working on the I-cord for my Booga Bag. Which by the way is now completely knitted. I just need to do the felting now for it. I bought the zippered pillow case this weekend. Now, I just need a couple of pair of jeans to throw in with the bag. Those are going to be some clean jeans by the time I get done with the bag. I'm kind of afraid to throw the bag in with the jeans. The instructions are for hot water, so just how bad will the jeans shrink from the hot water? Guess that's a question for the Knitter's Review Forum. Friday, I ended up going into work at about 1:30. My son is now registered for school. He is taking four classes for a total of 8 credits. I just hope that he does well in school and enjoys himself. Saturday's Weight Watcher meeting, attendance was down by 50% and only two people stayed for the meeting, both were men. So we had a very productive meeting. I enjoyed myself a lot. Saturday, while my son and I were at the bank cashing in his savings bonds for school, I ran into one of the woman that had left the meeting early and I couldn't resist asking her if it was something that I said that had caused her to leave the meeting early. She said that it wasn't. That was a huge relief. Although, she is not going to be at this week's meeting. I am so happy that I ran into her otherwise, I would have been thinking that it was something that I had said to make her leave the meeting. Sunday's meeting went a lot better. Membership was up a bit and we actually had more than two people stay for the meeting. I am worried about the attendance, I sure hope that it starts to go back up otherwise I am going to lose these meetings. Yesterday, I took a vacation day. The morning was nice, no one was home. So the night before I had started a washcloth using a Lion Brand pattern and some Italian Cotton yarn. I am loving the feel of this yarn. I had got it on clearance at the Loop Yarn in Milwaukee for $3 a skein. I bought the remainder of a certain color now I wish I would have gotten more. Well, I had noticed a mistake and tried to rip out a few rows. When I came time to put the needle back on I began to have problems. So I thought ok, no problem I'll just frog the whole thing and rewind the ball of yarn on my new ball winder. I had originally done the skein that way. Well this is where the all the fun begins. Some how I managed to get it in one big tangled mess. I swear I worked on that mess for about 2 hours. Well one way wasn't working so I decided to start on the other end. I began winding the yarn around my completed work. Then I got to one big huge knot that I couldn't get out. Well at this point, I was getting hungry so my daughter and I went to Subway for lunch and to Kohls and Walmart for shopping. During this time away from the tangled monstrosity I had decided that I am going to simply cut the mangled blob and rewind what I had all ready saved and see how far that gets me on a new washrag/dishcloth. Even rewinding was an interesting experience. I wasn't using the tension guide and the yarn was winding wrong. Once I figured the correct way then it went a whole lot better. So, I casted on again and knock on wood things are going well. I also managed to get laundry finished yesterday. Still have to put away my clothes. I also started cleaning up the livingroom and diningroom. I don't know if hubby was in shock or not by the work I was doing. I had completely forgotten that it was my week to do laundry until hubby asked me Sunday afternoon if I was planning on finishing laundry any time soon. I was so happy that I had the day off yesterday! Watched my favorite show last night, it was the finale, Treasure Hunters. I would have never thought that the The Geniuses would have won. The finale was a good show, a lot of laughs. Well now that you're up to date. I'm doing two meetings tonight after work. More later.

Always catching up

Well it's been two weeks since my last entry. I should really be making more and also adding some photos. Knitting stuff first, I attended my first Lake County Knit Together on the 3rd and had a lot of fun. I am planning on attending this Thursday and bringing my daughter with me. I guess that I am secretly hoping that she will get addicted to knitting. I finished the dishcloth that I was knitting at the knit together with no problem at all except one. I have a little loop in the corner. I used P&C peppermint. I was half way done with the washcloth by the time I left the knit together. I had started and completed two Mason Dixon warshrags. I used a purple and a varigated purple. I used S&C for those. On the last one that I did, I somehow messed up and reversed the pattern. I didn't notice it until after I had all ready binded off. My DD was going to do dishes and I had asked her if she would like to use one of the dishcloths that I had knitted and she said yes! She fell in love with it right away and is hooked. I gave her the last dishcloth that I had made which had that lovely mistake in it. Sometime during making the warshrags, I had decided to start my Booga bag. I am knitting that using Noro Kureyon #40. Well I got the bottom rectangle done and promptly got stuck. How do I pick up stitches all around the bag? Well I started to ask around and found a post on Knitters Review Forum and found a post about a Booga bag that someone was talking about. Well I got the answer that I was looking for and continued onward with the Booga Bag. The Booga Bag is OTN right now. I am almost done with the bag and getting ready to do the i-cord. I already have dreams of the next Booga Bag. I can not believe how simple they are to make. DD saw the bag last night and said that it was so cool. DD is only 13 so that is the ultimate compliment. I am all ready starting to think about my next project. My thoughts are to attempt to do some socks. I have a size 0 40 inch addi turbo circular to learn how to do the magic loop method. I got some sock yarn that isn't too expensive. I ordered a few things from Knitpicks last Monday and received the order on Friday. I kind of surprised myself and didn't rip into the box right away to check out all the goodies. I waited until almost bedtime and then played with the Options Needle set that I had ordered. I had also ordered some Crayon yarn in a beautiful azure color to make a sweater (another future endeavor). I checked to make sure that the cables fit into the joins correctly. It is a nice set and the binder that came with it is absolutely gorgeous. I am going to have to order more pages though so I can keep my Addi's in there also. On the Weight Watcher front, last week I did a total of 4 meetings. My trainer showed up at my meeting on Saturday. The meeting went fairly well, although I do have a few things to work on. I got told to lose my notes that I use during the meeting. I had all ready decided to do that. She said that it's okay to have a few but not to solely rely on them which I had been doing. Sunday's meeting went very well. I did approximately 95% of the meeting without using notes. The numbers for that meeting are not doing very well. My thoughts are that I was competing with State Fair and the weather. I am hoping that they start climbing again. If they don't, I might just get removed from the meeting. From what Laura says though, this happens everytime during this time frame. On a brighter note, Deb sent out her FYI newsletter and Laura and I were the number one team in sales for the area out of all the other center locations. I knew that we would be. We had over 13 dollars per paid attendance. Today I am doing 3 meetings in a row. I am subbing for two different leaders. I'll probably be wiped out when I am done with them. I out did myself exercising yesterday and boy do I feel it. Yesterday, I ended up walking for one minute at 3mph then bumped it up to 3.5mph for another minute. Then I jogged at a speed of 4mph for a total of 30 minutes which was 2 miles. That is the longest time or distance that I have ran in a very long time. I am going to stay at that speed and time for about a month and then I am going to start bumping the speed up. DH picked up DD to go to the gym with us. They were all ready on the treadmills when I got there. It was kind of funny running on a treadmill next to her. They of course were done long before I was. After we got done running, she kept asking me what I was going to do next and I didn't know. She wanted to try the stairmaster so I did it with her. We both did about 5 minutes I forgot which level I picked, but it sure kicked my butt. I am certainly feeling it in my hamstrings this morning. Another challenge! That's it for now. I will somehow find the time to get some pictures of my work and post them. This blog kind of seems bleh without them.

Happenings

It's been a week since my last post. Where to begin. Thursday I did make it to the gym again. I my upper body workout. I was able to lift the weights that I normally lift; which totally surprised me. It was a good surprise. After the upper body workout, I decided that I would attempt to do some cardio. That turned out to be a bigger surprise. I jumped on a treadmill (well not exactly jump) and started walking. I forgot what I started at I ended up walking for about 3 minutes and decided to bump the speed up to 4 mph. Usually at this speed I'm doing a fast walk, well I decided that I was going to run. It took a little bit but I finally got in a good rhythm thanks to one of my play lists. When I was doing the Body for Life routine, I would only be able to run for a couple of minutes (4 at the most). Well I ended up running for 10 minutes. I finished by walking I forgot the speed. I was very pleased with my workout but ended up being sore. Saturday's meeting went very well. I put the chairs in a circle. The group was very surprised by the configuration. I think they were even more surprised when I sat down in the group with them. It was a very intimate setting. The conversation just flowed from there. I was very happy with the meeting. I got home from my meeting and decided that I was going to pull weeds. It was hot outside, a little bit too hot to be pulling weeds. I couldn't help it though. I got tired of looking at all the weeds that run the length of the house and getting out of my car and getting attacked by fuzzies. Nothing like wearing black pants and having fuzzies all over the place. The afternoon, I spent in the beauty salon. I got my hair cut and foiled. I can't believe how short my hair is now and how dark. It looks good, but it is something that I am going to have to get used to. The curl just wasn't laying right and add the humidity in there and I've got a problem. Sunday, I ended up going early for my meeting. The meeting totally flopped. I was not happy with it at all. I am in the process of re-working it for tomorrow night. I am pretty much going to keep the questions the same but rather than using a train theme I am going to use dancing instead. I think the problem is that people really can't relate to trains and train trips. Yesterday, after work it was time to hit the gym. After I got of work though I couldn't believe the heat. It felt kind of good but nothing that I would want to stay outside in for too long. I decided that I was just going to run yesterday and that is what I did. So I hopped on the treadmill, pushed quick start and started out at 3 mph after one minute bumped it up to 3.5 mph after another minute went to 4 and there I stayed for awhile. I had decided in my mind that I was going to see how I felt after 10 minutes if I wanted to continue on. Ten minutes came and I decided that I was going to continue for a total of 15 minutes (including walking time.) 15 minutes came and I was close to running a mile, so I decided that I wanted to go for it. Well I did it, I ran for a mile. I ended up walking and running for a total of 22 minutes.

Blog Changes and so far today's happenings

Well I have been playing around with my blog and decided to do some changes. One of the first things that I did was to change the heading of my blog. I changed the address of the blog and then last but not least I changed the look. The hardest thing to do was to come up with a name. I kind of looked around and "borrowed" some ideas from other people. The name may change from time to time but the web address shall remain the same. I got a call this morning from another weight watcher leader asking me to sub for a couple of meetings later today. I agreed to do the meetings. Of course, I don't have anything with me for the meetings so I quickly whipped up what I had done on Sunday with a slight variation and I am ready for tonight. This week's topic is such a good topic that it should generate a lot of discussion. This morning before leaving for work I got a couple more rows done on the yellow dragonfly square that I am working on. One more row, then I bind off and it is on to the next square. I haven't decided which square or color I am going to work on next. I have been doing a lot of reading lately on the Knitter's Review Forums website. I am getting some great ideas on there. One idea that I am considering is making a list of what I am going to make everyone for Christmas. Well not quite everyone. I am not going to attempt anything that is going to take a very long time to make. I seem to be enjoying the quick projects. It also helps that I have been able to knit on my lunch hours. I am amazed at how many rows I can complete during that time frame. I'm also thinking that a trip to Michaels is due in the next couple of days. They have Sugar 'N Cream yarn on sale for $1 a skein. Stock up time! Hopefully I will stay away from the varigated colors and start going to the solids. I figure that I can stock up on them for making dishcloths. I have my eye on a Mason Dixon warshrag in the new awesome book that I just bought. I saw the sale in one of the postings to the Yahoo group that I belong to, then of course I had to go check the local ad out just to make sure. Now, I have been itching to go and stock up.

7/24/2006

Where to start. Work was not too eventful. I got an email from HR saying that the resume that I posted for in CHMS was sent to the hiring manager. I had an informational interview a couple of weeks ago with the hiring manager. I would be very surprised if I didn't get an interview with him. I used to work with Rob when I was in the department. There were also 2 Financial Analyst and an Accountant position that I posted for today. The Accountant position is in the area that I work and I know the manager. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I get one of these positions that I have posted for. Went to the gym after work today. I decided to sort of take it easy. I jumped on the treadmill and walked and ran for about 20 minutes. I covered a total of 1.3 miles according to the treadmill. I was sucking wind pretty bad. As I was running/walking I kept thinking of how much of a setback I had by taking off so much time from the gym. I am hoping that I am not going to be so stupid again. I am a bit sore so I am going to take off the next couple days and go back on Thursday. Thursday is weight lifting day! I wonder how much I am going to be able to lift. The other thing that I am considering, is do I go back to the 3 reps of each muscle group or do I go back to doing the Body for Life pyramid that I have been doing. I got a little bit of knitting done. At the moment I am knitting a yellow dragonfly block. The block is halfway done. I all ready have two blocks completed. I will post a picture of them sometime soon. Maybe I'll post the picture of the three blocks that I have completed. Although, they are not blocked so they are not going to look pretty. Maybe I should figure out how to block them and then post them. We'll see.

Weekend

At least this weekend didn't seem to fly by like they normally do. Saturday, I did my Weight Watchers meeting and it seemed to go fairly well but no one really wanted to talk. Sometimes I feel like I am pulling teeth. I got home from the meeting, then we took my daughter to the orthodontist. After that we returned my husband's cell phone because he decided that the didn't want one. After we turned it back in and got back to the car first words out of his mouth were "freedom". I look it like this, it is going to save me some money each month because that is one less phone that I am going to have to pay for. After that was lunch at Culver's. From there, my daughter and I dropped my husband off at home and then took a field trip to Milwaukee to look for two yarn shops that I had learned about from a fellow knitter on a knitters review forum website that I like to read. One of the websites contained directions on how to get there. We found the two shops with no problems. The first shop was my favorite. The lighting was good and the selection of yarn was good. Lots of different textures and gorgeous colors. I could tell that my daughter was getting bored. I don't think she shares my love of yarn yet. I ended up buying a skein of cotton yarn, 2 skeins of bamboo. I saw this gorgeous butterfly shrug that I fell in love with. The owner of the shop was kind enough to give me the pattern since I bought two skeins. I wasn't too crazy about the idea of crocheting since that is what the pattern calls or but it wouldn't hurt to do some crocheting every now and then. The next shop we went to was just down the road a bit. The first thing that I noticed was a couch in back of the store where the owner was teaching someone about either knitting or crocheting. There was not a lot of yarn to select from. I didn't feel too comfortable with the shop. The owner did mention something about a yarn shop opening up in Kenosha. My husband ended up going to the races only to come home because of being rained out. I spent most of night working on one of the squares for my afghan and worked on my meeting for Sunday. I was pretty excited and had a real good feeling about my meeting on Sunday and I was correct. It was such an awesome meeting. I am trying something new. I only had one flipchart page that I made at the meeting center. I am typing my questions on a piece of paper and having them on a chair. I am also coming up with questions on my own. I feel that my meetings are starting to evolve and I am becoming a better leader. I am anxious to see how Wednesday's and Saturday's group respond to this meeting. I also believe that it is a good topic. Well tomorrow is back to the gym. In a way I am looking forward to it and in a way I am not. I'm not looking forward to seeing how much of a setback that I have had. I am starting to feel miserable and out of shape.

Been Awhile

I finally graduated from college, after 10 long grueling years. I graduated Magna Cum Laude but that was back in May. My son graduated from high school. I ended up wiping away a few tears that night. I was so proud of him. Unfortunately, we don't have many pictures fromt hat night. I told my husband to go take some pictures and he didn't get any! I am happy to say that the local newspaper did manage to take one picture of him looking so proud and so I ordered it and that is the only picture that I have from his graduation night. The local paper ended up putting a little bit about how the two of us started school, me college at Carthage and my son high school at the same time and graduated in the same year. So now everyone's been asking "What are you going to do with all that free time?" My reply was I have no clue. So what have I been doing with all my free time? I have picked up knitting again. I taught myself how to knit last year and have picked up the needles again. My latest passion has been knitting dishcloths. I have completed a couple. I will post pictures of these later. My latest project that I am working on is a bunch of blocks to which I am going to assemble as an afghan. I am calling my afghan butterflies and dragonflies. I am doing it in Lion Brand Micro Spun in the colors of Coral, Lime, Lavender, Turquoise and Buttercup. I had to do a layout in Excel to determine how many blocks of each pattern I am doing and in what color. The hardest part was to make sure that a lot of the same colors were not next to each other or repeated in the same row. There are only two colors that are diagonal from each other. I am going to layout all the blocks before I sew them together and take a picture to see if they look good together. If not, I may be doing some more knitting. I have on Coral block completed and that took maybe not even a half of skein of yarn. I had thought originally to give this afghan to my daughter but she's not too thrilled about the dragonflies and butterflies. She had helped to pick out the colors. She had thought that I was going to a striped afghan for her. I guess I should have told her what I had planned. Mom's birthday is Sunday. We're taking her out to Cracker Barrel for her birthday. I am going to tell her what I am going to get for her birthday but I have to wait for a sale. Usually Hobby Lobby has it on sale for half off. She wants a mirror that has pegs on it for a coat rack. She likes the one that we have in front entrance way. So I figured that is what I am going to get her. I should have remembered that she said that she wanted one. She had mentioned it. I had to ask my brother what mom wanted. Well I am going to close for now.

Exercise Log 1/19/06

Gym at work Walked on treadmill 20 min. had to bump the speed up to 4.o and incline to 1.5. My heart rate was in the low 100's. Ellipitical for 4 minutes. Feeling better doing it. Chest Flys 10lbs dumbbells 3 sets 12reps bicep curls 10 lbs dumbebells 3 sets 12 reps I also did my ab work out on an incline bench. I actually like laying upside down at times. Rec Plex Walked on the treadmill for 15 minutes had to bump the speed to 3.9 lbs. Ellipitical 3 minutes, that was a struggle. I had a different type of machine so I definitely felt it in my legs. I did my full arm workout. I also worked on my crunches. I feel my tummy getting stronger.

New Year Somewhat Catch up

I've decided to start using my blog again but this time more to keep a log of what I am doing with my exercising. I've decided to get serious about my workouts. What i do at the gym will be posted in a separte entry. Since December 3rd last year, I had gained 11 lbs but I have all ready lost 4lbs. I was surprised that I had dropped 4 lbs in one week. I should be able to get the last 7 lbs off. My ultimate goal is to lose about 15 more pounds. I am now a leader for weight watchers. So I will also be talking about how my meetings go every week. I went to Basic Leader training in the beginning of October. It's been a wonderful ride. I have so much fun doing my meetings. I lead a Saturday morning and a Sunday noon meeting. One is in Milwaukee and the other is in Kenosha. Both groups are great! I'm still trying to find my groove when I do my meetings but I'm slowly getting better. Last Sunday I tried something completely different and it worked and it felt great. Lately, I have been typing my meetings up in Word and then bringing them to the meeting and pretty much using them as a cheat sheet. Well this past Sunday, I only had a poem and some directions typed up that I absolutely could not memorize. Well I made up my flipcharts, wrote some pencil notes on the flips just mainly questions that I wanted to ask (I need to put them on the other side of the flips though because of how I stand when I'm presenting the meeting). Sunday's meeting I felt like I was in control and I had a lot of fun. I'm anxious to see how Saturday's meeting will go. Sunday's meeting should be a fun one, it's about activity. Something that is near and dear to me. I am very happy to say that I can actually talk about it with pride because I am very physically active. I still have to make my flips for the meeting and gather some props. I'll discuss the meeting more in detail in one of my up and coming posts. My job is another story which will be another post. I am going to call it a night. Blog ya later.

Catch up time

Wow, it's been over two months since I last wrote anything. I didn't get the job with Ingrid. I did make it to the second round though. They gave it to the other candidate. From looking at the job postings, she was a grade 12 all ready. So once again they went with experience. I applied for the grade 12 in the department. Once again, I made it to the second round. They sent 4 people for a second round. I didn't like the way things were handled. Needless to say, I didn't get that job either. Laurene had said that the guy that they had hired had more of an accounting background than I do. That he is further along than I am, but in the long run we will both end up in the same place. What a crock. The new guy starts July 11th. Now, I am glad that I didn't get the job. I have been out of school for the past couple of weeks. I must admit that I am getting used to not having any school work to do. I am going to try to get to the bookstore today to pick up books for my next class, Human Resource Management. I am hoping that it isn't going to be a yawner. I go back on July 19th. Next up on the radar, Economics, yuck! Work has been interesting. Here it is 4th of July weekend, and I am going to have to work. Carol dumped on me before she went on vacation. I had forgotten about getting all my Contract Labor information, so I was very swamped this week. She had given me a project to do and show Mike by Wednesday. Well I didn't get in his office until Thursday. I have a little bit more to do for the project but from my talk with Mike I don't think that I am going to have to do everything. Nor, am I going to have the time. I do believe that my life is about to become a living hell at work. More about that in another posting.