Good-Bye Desk, Good-Bye Computer....

This is my last day here at the office. Although I still have another week of employment with Morgan Stanley, I won't me making the trek to this office again. It's a bit sad.

last night a few folks from my department got together to take me out to dinner. Out of sheer reciprocity, we went to Zen Palate for dinner. That's right a vegetarian Chinese restaurant. It was pretty funny to see all of the meat & potato kind of guys look at the menu and read "tofu," "wheat glutton" and "bean sprouts" in every dish. I think the best part of it was having them ALL admit that it was a really good and filling meal.

Well, I have to clear out all of my stuff on my computer today. I better get back to that or I will be in trouble when I try to find stuff on the next computer I call home.

Have a great weekend. I'll try to post in fabulous New Orleans!

Finally a free moment

I have tried to post over the past week only to have to abort due to lack of time and ability to keep the same train of thought. Even today, it's a bit difficult.

Anyway, I got my cone of yarn from e-bay on Saturday when I got back. It's a bit more brown than I remembered. Also, it is a bit finer yarn than I had hoped. Nevertheless, I should be able to get a nice chenille balnket with 280 stitches on size US 3 needles. It will definitely keep me busy for a while.

It may be a while before I post regularly. I am in crazy work mode this week, I leave for New Orleans on Friday, return the following Friday only to leave for home on Monday. I get back on Sunday only to start the new job on Monday. Can you say wiped out!!! Between the flying, the conferences, the family/friend social obligations, I will definitely nood a HUGE vacation. Someday, I will be able to sleep again, just not before the end of October.

Free at last!

I got the offer!!! This morning I got the call from my recruiter who told me that I got the offer. The job is mine for the taking. I told her that I would have to wait to say yes until I talked to my boss who is supposed to arrive here today.

For MOM, I could tell you what the job is, but you probably wouldn't get it because it's a bit of a mish-mash. Be happy in knowing that it is a 25% raise in salary, good bennies, a guaranteed bonus (starting in 2004) and no move outside of Manhattan! You can check out the company here.

I have a meeting to run without any senior management, now. Thanks to the storm that is raging through the middle of the country, I have 5 senior people stuck on a plane at Newark airport with no visible take-off time. That means that this meeting, until they get here is ALL MINE. Talk about dangerous. This is such a good day!

San Diego

Well, I made it in one piece in southern California. Contrary to everything that I was told, it has been overcast all day today. I thought it was supposed to be gorgeous all the time here. Well, at least it's not the wacky weather from the hurricanes brewing down south which waws making its way into NYC as I left.

As for the interview on Friday, I think it went well. I met with the CEO, who was very nice. I think it went very well. I am supposed to hear back early in the week. This could be a good thing. The best part about it is I felt really good when I walked out of that office. That is something that I really like.

As soon as I hear, I'll pass it on.

At least it's Friday

Well, it looks like my photo gallery on pnavy is defunct. I have been having problems with it for a week and today, it erased all of my uploaded photos.

We'll see if this one shows up:



In case it disappears on me, it's the finished striped scarf that I was working on out of cascade 220. I like the way it came out. And for anyone's curiosity two skeins of Cascade 220 make a nice 8 1/2 inch wide scarf that is about 5 1/2 feet long (maybe longer as I didn't measure it) with fringe.

Well, I am off to San Diego on Sunday for a week. I don't know if I will be able to post while I'm out there. If not, I'll be back on the 22nd for a couple of days before I make 2 other week long trips.

Oh, and by the way, wish me luck on a second interview I have this afternoon. It could be promising.

It's Another Day

At what point do I just bag the whole "paying rent for an apartment that I don't live in" thing and just ask to have a shower installed at the office? I could save so much time and money that way. No bothersome commute. No outrageous rent for a closet sized apartment. No worries about having to clean up (that's what the cleaning staff is here for). It may be a bit intrusive when other people traipse through, though.

That's right, more long hours at the office plague my life. The good news is I HAVE to leave work right at 5 PM today...so I can go to my other job at the theatre. There is something intrinsically wrong about the fact that the only way I can get out of the office early is to go to another job.

Needless to say, I haven't really had much time to work on anything creative. I am really looking forward to having some time on many cross country plane rides to knit until my finger cramp up. I will have to make sure taht I have plenty of projects to keep me busy. I will have 4 six hour fligths and 2 two and a half hour flights all within the next 4 weeks. Don't be jealous. That is...(let's see, carry the 1)...29 hours on a plane. Alright, I am officially depressed. That is not including airport time (roughly 9 hours), transportation to and from each airport (about 6 hours total), or even packing (20 minutes tops).

At least I'll be able to add to my sister's shot glass collection. Yeah, that would be the collection that I decided that she needed to have. The good part of it is that I am the main contributor. Every time I travel, I pick up a shot glass for her. I have about 7 just since last December. I guess I travel more than I thought. I think I storted this for her about 2 years ago. If I'm not mistaken, I think she is now up to about a dozen or more before the ones I have not given her yet. Plus, I will be able to pick up one from San Diego and one from New Orleans before I make it back to see her. It give purpose to my travels.

It's Friday Night and I Ain't Got Nobody

...left in the office, that is. It's 8:30 PM and I'm still working diligently. I know I should go home, but there is so much to still get done. I feel like Willy Wonka, "So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. "

Anyway, I have started working on another scarf. I realized that when I took advantage of the 'Tax Free' week last week and bought myself a new wool pea coat (gray) that I don't have an appropriate scarf to go along with it. I want something that is 1) warm, 2) simple and 3) nifty. So I rummaged through my stash, which is growing and growing. I found 3 skeins of Cascade 220 in the burgandy left over from my Cheesy Love Sweater (I need to post a picture still) and at least one available skein of the Oatmeal I'm using on my aran sweater (no it's much further along than this picture). so are you ready to see what I came up with?



I think it will be fabulous with the peacoat. It is fun but functional. AND WARM!!! AND SOFT!!! Oh, notice the fancy Denise Needles in the picture. I got those puppies going as soon as I got home. I love them.

Okay, I'm getting back to work now so I can go home.

New Toys

I got the last of my birthday presents today, sort of. Grandma Dolly sent me some money for my birthday which I decided to put toward a set of Denise interchangable needles. I am very excited about them. I have already figured out how to put the pieces together. Now I just need to find a project to put on them. Very exciting!

Thank you, Grandma!

In other toy related news, Johnny Depp has deemed this country as a broken toy that needs to be fixed. I have to say, that I don't know about the analogy, but I agree with his basic idea. I mean, I look at this fair country of ours and see many problems that don't seem to be going away. I see more and more hypocrasy and misguided ideas. Maybe I am a bit idealistic about government. Maybe I have seen too many films and other shows and read too many book about the ideals of our founding fathers having faith in the common man. Maybe I expect the general population to be able to pass a citizenship test that we require of anyone that WANTS to be a part of our country. In any case, when I see that Jerry Springer is a congressional candidate running on the platform of knowing more about the "people" from his televiion show, and the president of the country is willing to drop billions of dollars into rebuilding Iraq when he is cutting the money that he had already promised the city of New York for rebuilding after our terrorist attack, I get a little angry and frustrated by the perpetual lies and marketing "spin" that fools the masses.

Just because Bush's head is shown to be in proportion to Mt. Rushmore doesn't mean that he belongs up there.


And just because Arnold Schwartenegger has saved the world from robots on the big screen, doesn't mean he can save California from financial ruin.

I think this may be a rant for my other blog....

Summer is Over

It's almost as if Mother Nature has recognized Labor Day as the official end of summer. Although we had a pretty soggy summer, the temperatures were always around the steamy 80s and 90s with humidity levels to match. Come Labor Day and BAM, wer are looking at a drizzly 65 degrees??? When it's over, it's over. Look out, sweater weather is on the way!

So how did I spend my final days of summer, you may ask. Well, working, of course - office work brought home, working at the theatre. I guess it made Labor Day that much sweeter when I chose not to spend any time actually working. Nevertheless, my three day weekend was really only one day. That kind of blows!

In brighter news, I did start a new project. I have almost a foot on a DNA scarf. I had seen the pattern for the DNA cable in a couple of places, but the current issue of Interweave Knits Magazine had a whole assortment of projects with this cable. I just couldn't say no. The only problem is I decided to use the alpaca I got last fall and I don't think I have enough for a scarf. I may have to use my creativity to work something out.