Suicides & Quakes

It's been a rather eventful Tuesday here in candie land. At the office we were in mid-holiday hell. My job involves producing advertising for a ginormous retailer and on this week we finalize the stuff that runs the day after thanksgiving - it's a HUGE deal for most retailers and we have to be perfect. Naturally there are lots of last minute changes, added approvals and media that looks like a badly edited kung-fu movie. And misspelled words - several of them. So it was a hellish day and I've been pretty much feeling sorry for myself and whining most of the afternoon.
The hellish day caused me to leave work late - naturally. I get to the BART station and just miss a train. I'm not one to run down a moving escalator to save myself the 5 minute wait for the next train. I have visions of falling on my face, breaking several teeth (that I've barely finished paying for) and having my hair get stuck in the mechanisms and getting ripped out by the roots. Yeah, I know, vivid imagination. So I walk to the end of the station because the blinking red sign says Daly City 10 can train. At the end of the station I'll probably get a seat and I can knit my way to Glen Park. So the blinking light says 1 minute til the train - for about 15 minutes. Now the station is packed - and no train in sight. Finally, a voice from above tells us that there is a medical emergency at the next station so trains are delayed. I can live with that - I've waited out medical emergencies before - maybe 15 minutes. I comtemplate taking out my knitting even though I'm not sitting but decide the station is too freaking crowded. Another 15 minutes and we're told the next station is actually closed and they'll update us when them can. I don't feel like waiting so I figure I can walk to Civic Center - it's 2 stations beyond where I'm at - and I've already walked 1/2 mile from my office - it's maybe another 1/2 a mile - no hills - still light outside - I can do it. So I walk - and when I get to the next station - the one with the medical emergency - I see news vans, police cars and the coroner's van. Yeah, that station won't be open for a while -so I keep walking and hope to see a cab online the way.
No cabs - and since I'm now in the seedier part of Market street, I walk fast - very fast. I finally get to Civic Center - and I'm thinking it can't be too bad - I've gone past the closed station. Yeah, I was wrong. Coming down the escalator there was a sea of humanity - wall to wall - shoulder to shoulder - there wasn't an inch for me to stand - and I didn't feel like teetering on the edge of the platform so that I could be the basis for a 2nd cororner's visit. So I headed up to the street hoping to see a cab. All I saw were drug dealers so back down the escalator. There were less people this time which told me trains were moving. The voice from above told us there were 15 minute delays - to which I replied - "Bullshit" as it'd been more than 90 minutes since I first set foot on BART. Trains were all running on the same track - so it was taking longer - each train that pulled up was so full of humanity that there was no way in hell any of the thousands standing next to me would get on. So it was a waiting game. I knew I had no control of the situation and neither did the voice from above so I decided to be silent and find something to lean up against. Lots of trains passed - too full - or empty and stopping one station short of my final destination. When a train finally arrived that I had a hope of getting on - a big, fat, ugly, ugly man decided to take a position directly in front of me and let several dozen people board the train - I tried to get around his massive girth but the sea of humanity would not part - and each time i said "excuse me" he said "that trains going to daly city" and I yelled "so am I". When the fat bastard finally got out of my way - the doors closed. I contemplated kicking him in the balls just to satisfiy my anger but figured it would probably be the closest he'd ever got to human contact in that region so I controlled my urge. I did wish him a long lasting case of the runs. So I waited, and waited and the voice from above kept reminding us that we could leave the station & go grab dinner. Although I was hungry, I wasn't in the mood for dinner with crack whores and drug dealers this particular evening. 30 minutes went by - and I'm texting my daughter trying to figure out which street car goes close to my house and maybe I'd be able to grab a cab from there. The voice from above kept promising trains and finally, Millbrae/SFO headlights came my way. The train was packed but standing another 30 minutes was nothing now. Almost 3 hours after I should have been home, I arrived home to discover the medical emergency was a suicide.
4 minutes after arriving home, we had a 5.6 earthquake.
I ran to the liquor store to buy lotto tickets.
I'm due.

Happy Birthday to You

D E A D

Death by cashmerino - socks were in the mail when I arrived home today and they are B E A U T I F U L. Tory J did an amazing job - and included some stitch markers pinned to the socks. And, the socks are almost exactly the same shade of green I chose for my first weapons.

I wish I'd taken pictures of the socks I inherited from clumberknits - they were a similar shade of green as well. I guess great minds think alike.

This really was a fun experience and I hope to do it again next year. Tory - thanks for some beautifully knit socks - good luck with your next victim!!

Happy Birthday Kitty

Did you know that yesterday was Hello Kitty's birthday? She's a whopping 25 years old. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Ms. Kitty stood outside her store in Serramonte posing for pictures while young girls signed her birthday card. Not exactly the way I spent my 25th but then I'm not as animated as the the birthday feline. When we happened upon this celebration during my search for a DVD player and some lunch, I was struck by the fact that those lined up to take a picture with the ever-so-patient Ms. Kitty, dozens of grown ass women. And I use the term "grown ass" in the most benefical way possible. Naturally, my almost grown ass daughter and her friend decided they too needed to pose with the cat as evidenced above. So happy birthday you big puss - and many happy returns.
In knitting news, I have been triumptant in the first round of knit wars having dispatched my first victim, clumberknits, last week. My victim was kind enough to send her unfinished weapons of cotton destruction most swiftly. I had hoped to have the finished pair in the mail on Monday but I fear it will take longer as I had some Jayne hat knitting to do this weekend. So I've turned the heel on the first sock and hope to finish it or come close, this evening. And I won't be able to knit until late Monday so 2nd sock may not be ready to mail until Wednesday. So my death may be fast approached as my status on the database changed on Friday to "dying" but still no word from my stealth assissan. My only hope is that it's not the killer who's cutting corners on the socks by making the foot all stockinette. I hope to die a noble death :)
And I'm loving the yarn that clumberknits has for her weapons - cotton and elastic are my friend. I'm gonna have to get me some of that and make a pair for myself - I'm loving it.

Weapons Of Wool-ish Destruction

First shot fired - my weapons of wool-ish destruction have been mailed to a soon-to-be-vanquished knitter by the name of clumberknits. I bite the bullet so to speak and stayed up til 2am to finish these and get them to the post office this morning. Needless to say, my day at work sucked since I yawned through every meeting and no amount of caffine could stop my graping mouth syndrome. However, I have drawn first blood - not a peep yet from my wanna be asassian so I may survive the first scrimmage unscathed. And, tomorrow is Friday so I'll have the weekend to finish off clumberknits socks and sent them out on Monday to her target.

It has begun

I'm about 1/3 of the way thru my first sock - no doubt I'll be able to put these in the mail on Monday morning so they should reach my target by Wednesday or Thursday but - and it's a B I G but - some people finished already. We got the pattern around 4pm pacific time Friday and it's about 40 hours later and some people have freaking finished. Who the hell knits non-stop? And, a few peeps have actually altered the pattern which is making it a quicker knit for them. Now I understand that this is a war but cheating is still cheating - takes some of the fun out of it. Oh well, back to the needles :)

Things I won't be knitting anytime soon....

Candy Corn

Candy Corn - I'm totally in love with this yarn but I can't decide what sock pattern to use. Course I got this for my daughter and she immediately asked for red and silver instead.....ingrate.....so maybe I just knit socks for myself and screw everyone else :)

eBay store stuff

I've finally gotten this lined and finished and posted in my eBay store. I used some hand-dyed yarn I bought off eBay quite a while ago and the pattern is my own. I've got so many other WIPs that I hoped to get into the store before the holidays - if only I could knit all day long!
I've got two more purses in the works - one that just needs handles - and at least 2 more sketched out - one of which will be crochet - so it'll be a quick stitch!
On top of that, I've loving knitting my Monkey sock - the first one is verrrrry close to being finished. Lorna's Laces is so nice to knit with - I actually ordered 2 more skeins today to make some socks of my demon spawn's upcoming birthday.
I've also joined sock wars - it's a very clever idea where everyone who joins is matched up with a victim - in order to "kill" your victim you must finish a pair of socks (from the same pattern), pop them off in the mail. If you get socks before your victim, you're dead and you send off your unfinished work to your assassian. It's simplier than it sounds! So I went and order some yarn that should work for the pattern that will be revealed in about 10 days - I'm hopeful but not expecting to finish first but it should be fun.