I'm Still Here...

...I just gave myself a bit of a break after Blogtoberfest. Regular blogging will now resume. Well, as regular as it ever gets 'round these parts, anyway.

There will not be a lot of status blogs this week, because the rest of my week will be a lot like today. Let me preface this by saying that I started the shinier, newer job full time last week. And my boss was out of town at a major industry event. So there wasn't much for me to do. At all. Like, even less than usual. So I did what I could, then tried to study what I could and pick up as much various assorted information on Mustangs as I was able to. Last week was a good week, though it feels like I didn't actually accomplish anything. This week? Well, this is an ambitious week. This week, we are giving away free t-shirts on one of our forums. I am in charge of giving everybody who pm's me a unique, one-time-use coupon code to make a special t-shirt free.

Now let me just say that I have noted many things about the many forums I am charged with monitoring and tending. One of those things is not the number of active members. So when I was told about this venture Friday night, I did not think too much of it. How hard could it possibly be? Even when one of my co-workers, who helped generate the coupon codes, told me that there were fifty thousand, yes 50, 000 coupon codes and they hoped that would be enough, I was not worried. Surely there wouldn't be that much interest. Surely we wouldn't need that many codes. And besides, they would trickle in a few at a time and I could handle them as I went.

Ha. This is a forum that has over 100, 000 active members. Well over that number. The t-shirt giveaway was announced(at about 1 pm) and within an hour I had a hundred messages to respond to. By the end of the day, I had six hundred and fifty. I only managed to get about one hundred and fifty of those requests filled, and all of those came in during the day, many during regular office hours (which begs the question, don't any of these people have jobs?) and as more people log on and send me messages, there will be more. I'm really sort of dreading opening my e-mail at work tomorrow. I'm still sort of bemused by the magnitude of the response we've received. Though to be honest, it's not so bad. Sure, it's busywork, but it's helpful, and it is my job. And at least it's solid and quantifiable and will make me look good. We'll see if I'm still this positive about it by Friday, eh?

In other news, there has been spinning. Oh, there has been spinning. And some knitting, too. Very soon I will have proudly completed two whole pairs of socks. And a day of reckoning is coming for the socks that will not be named. Oh, it is coming. But let's not think of that. Let's think of the beautiful llamney I spun, that's all thick and warm and soft and maybe a little enthusiastically plied. It will be something for me, I think. Unless somebody falls in love with it, but they would have to offer me a compelling bribe to take it away from me. And then there's the merino that I spun and plied and washed and whacked. It's so pretty that I look at it and can't help but indulge in a little pride. There's purple and blue and the smallest bit of green in it. This has somehow turned out to be a light, slim yarn, probably a fingering weight (i should really find a ruler so i can determine these things). And I have started spinning the scarlet silk. It's not something I can do when I've just been washing dishes, the rough spots on my fingers stick too much, or right after I've put lotion on, which makes drafting practically impossible. But it is something that I can sit down and do for a while after work or before bed. This silk is spinning so prettily that I look at it and just want to giggle a little for the sheer joy of it. Having said that, the whole rest of the batch is going to be a ruin. Ah, well. Sometimes all you can do is tempt fate.

Momolla and Dadumms came up for dinner yesterday to celebrate Jim's birthday. Jim's parents were supposed to come, too, but there were some difficulties and they couldn't make it. So we had a lovely beef stew dinner. I prefer chicken soup, but Jim requested the stew, and I sort of winged it. It turned out pretty well, I used a couple of bottles of beer to cook the beef in and that gave it a nice flavor. It also gave me a good starting point for the broth.

In review:
--It's going to be a long, busy week at work.
--By Friday, I will never again want to hear the words 'free t-shirt'
--My parents came up for a visit, it was great to see them
--I have finished two skeins of yarn, started a third batch, and done some knitting
--Very soon, I will officially have knitted two full pairs of socks. No, really. Honest!
--I have been roped into knitting another ugly camo scarf, because I have a soft spot for people who admire my handiwork

Blogtoberfest Wrap-up...

...it's been a fun month, all things considered. I skipped a couple of days, I think, but I managed to post much, much more frequently than usual. That's a habit I'd like to keep, especially now that I have a regular schedule and have been doing things I can actually discuss without sounding angry and bitter all the time. There have been guest blogs (which might happen more than once a year, if i can coerce anybody else into doing my work for me) and a style update. The best part, though, has been keeping up with you guys every day. I won't lie, I do check my blog list every day. I may not comment all the time, but I read every entry because I love the windows they give me into so many different lives. In the end, knitting and spinning are hobbies to me. They're wonderful, and I enjoy them a lot. But stories and words are my real passion, and I love getting lost in someone else's words for a little while. I love being able to share my words, too, and to write my own story in my own voice. It's my hope that you enjoy reading these stories. Someone once told me (way back in the days when myspace was cool and i actually maintained a blog there) that I was one of the most genuine people she knew. I'd say that was always my intent, but it never crossed my mind to be other than I am, or to pretend about my life. Things are not always perfect, and mine has been a particularly twisting journey. But it's always been a real journey, without any sugar-coating or any beautifying. That is one thing I hope will never change.

Today was Halloween, and we ended up having about eight trick-or-treaters. Since we still have a huge bowl of candy, this doesn't make me too sad, but I was hoping for more. Still, I think we'll have a reputation next year, and maybe we'll see some more kids. Halloween used to be one of my very favorite hoidays. When we were younger, my family would head to my Aunt Joan's house, meet up with my Aunt Elsie and maybe one of my cousins, and go wander the neighborhood for a few hours. We always came home to an amazing lasagne dinner, and then the candy swap began. We would always trade away the candy we didn't like, and try to get as much good stuff as possible. I thought that we weren't doing it this year, since my Aunt Joan hasn't hosted Halloween dinner in a few years, but apparently my mom's brother and sister-in-law ended up hosting. I didn't find this out until it was actually going on and I was told I was missed, so I contented myself with killing zombies with Colleen for a few hours. We're very much looking forward to the sequel to our zombie-killing game, which comes out in a few weeks.

In review:
--We had more trick-or-treaters than last year, but still not a lot
--Lots of leftover candy for me!
--I miss being a part of the family Halloween celebrations
--Blogtoberfest was pretty awesome!
--Daylight savings time does something weird tonight, so I get an extra hour to sleep. It'll be days before I'm adjusted to the way the light shifts now.

Fridays are Fun...

...because weekends are amazing. Thanks for receiving the guest blogs so well. It's such a strange feeling to write for someone else's blog, almost like you're speaking your words with their voice. It's fun, though!

Jim's mother has finally come for a visit, just when we were planning to spend the weekend relaxing. And Dadumms has decided to have a small party for Momolla's birthday this weekend, as well. I'm not at all looking forward to the drive, Jim and I will have to go through Philadelphia, and the President is coming to the city this weekend, so several major highways will be shut down for a while. On top of that, there is a local football game on Sunday. Also, the local baseball team is playing at home in the World Series that day. Also also, there are going to be five or six various charitable events going on throughout the day and causing well-meant chaos. What this all translates into (other than a tedious lack of non-sports related conversation in the news and workplace) is a massive, scary amount of traffic. There are only a few ways in, out, or through the city, which makes traveling difficult. We're looking into different ways to get to Jersey from here. Cross your fingers for us, eh?

In other news, I start my shiny new job on Monday. I'm a little nervous, because my boss is going to a big industry even on Monday, and won't be back for the rest of the week. So, things will be interesting. Still, it will be blissfully quiet without a dozen phone lines ringing in my ears all day. I'll keep you guys posted as things progress.

Halloween is tomorrow, and I'm sort of looking forward to it. Unlike so many of my friends, I'm not going out to party (when did every holiday become an excuse to go out and get really stupidly drunk?), because I'm going to stay home and give candy out to the trick-or-treaters. I like to think of it as karma, since I spent so many happy years going out to get free sugar from the neighbors. Jim was determined that we would be the cool house that gives out full-sized candy bars this year, in a blatant attempt to lure more kids in. We're the only house on our block, really, so we never see more than a handful of kids come through (this makes perfect sense, really, because you want to cover as much ground as efficiently as possible in the time you're allowed). This makes me a little sad, because I love watching the kids troop by in their costumes. Halloween was one of my very favorite holidays for a very long time, and it makes me happy to see kids enjoying it now.

In review:
--Jim's mom finally made it up. Yay!
--I will probably spend most of Sunday sitting in gridlocked traffic. Boo! Hiss!
--I am incredibly tired of hearing about baseball. I could not care less about it under any circumstances, and at this point, I wouldn't start caring if all the players stripped naked and dipped themselves in cheese.
--We're the cool house with the good candy this year. Maybe we'll get real trick-or-treaters
--I burned myself twice tonight cooking dinner, which is pretty unusual and sucky for me.
--Weekend!!!

Guest Blog Number 2

Well that saves me the trouble of thinking of a nifty title. This is Jim, oft mentioned in Em's blog, and just as often made too much of. I've come to guest blog, and I have no clear cut objective to blog about. In addition to that I'm on a time limit of approximately 30 minutes as Em is making porkchops for dinner tonight and doesn't want me to be late for dinner.

The L key on my backlit keyboard no longer works 60 percent of the time. This annoys me to no end. I haven't upgraded my computer for about 2 years now, and thankfully i haven't had to. I'm one of those guys that when something breaks on his computer or car or really anywhere, he uses it as an excuse to upgrade said part.

F-bomb, i need to listen to my music more often, i love metal music! Can you drop F-bombs on blogs? i guess so but im censoring myself just in case.

I'm listening to Lamb of God right now. They're a death metal band that has an especially heavy/grungy/brutal sound, and that suits me just fine, check them out if you like, but be warned that they're not for the faint of heart. For the other end of the spectrum of my main music tastes, check out the band called Red. They're more of a regular rock band. My tastes for music run in this vein: if its not death metal, then it is speed metal with very intricate guitar playing at high speeds or hard rock like Metallica, or some other form of music that involves drums and electric guitars with heavy distortion. Kind of a contrast to Em, who prefers more melodic music for the most part, and light rock.

Emily got me new leaf springs for my Jeep Cherokee for my birthday, which pretty much just kicks ass! They're exactly what i wanted for my birthday (truck parts!) and will make the ride of the truck much more solid and less spongey on and off the road. I figure my dad and i will put them on in a few weeks when i'm sure i have all of the hardware that is needed to do the install. It's an involved process that you don't want to be stuck on halfway through. The springs are special in that they keep the truck lifted without using blocks between the stock leaf springs and the axles, which results in axle wrap and instability off road. I always joke that i like my vehicles the opposite of how i like my women: i like my vehicles to be big, brutal, ugly beasts, and they don't need to be real fast either. I lucked out because Em is directly opposite that: small, awesome, purdy, and smart as anything!

Speaking of my truck, work is going well for both of us. I'm sure that Emily has blogged about her new job, and I'm glad she is going to like it so much more than Pep Boys. That place was hell for both of us; nothing like being the main target for abuse day in and day out. I'm still waiting for that elusive job posting for a promotion that i can apply for, but i think something will come up soon. At least i hope so, i could use the extra money to pay off my credit card debt. I'm hoping to get some sort of promotion in relation to our sister site, americantrucks. This would be good as the trucks are more what i'm in to as opposed to the mustangs. I'm working on as many side projects as i can for americantrucks, trying to get it off the ground and into the aftermarket mainstream so that it really takes off. If this happens, i stand a better chance of promotion and more money.

We're going to get Left 4 Dead 2 in mid November! Our roommate Mike preordered it, and the whole house abused the original Left 4 Dead, so it will definitely kick some asses. We're all psyched for it! I sense a zombie killing party happening in Nov or Dec at some point. And maybe another Magic the Gathering party as well? That would be legit.

So the Phillies are in the World Series. Big whoop, i don't follow baseball. Football and Hockey on the other hand are two of my favorite sports. Em humors me and knits while i watch football some sundays, but she doesn't want anything to do with hockey. This puzzles me because hockey is so much more fast paced. Oh well, she's awesome even without liking sports or anything competitive.

What else can i throw up on here? If you couldnt tell i'm just letting my mind spew out whatever comes up onto the blog. Yup, no insights or epiphanies here, just good old mental vomit through my fingertips. Subtle and dainty? Nope, not my style.

I'm gonna shut this one down with a hearty "Thank You!" to all of Em's blog friends. You all seem like great people who i am very happy that she's gotten the chance to meet. You guys make her smile, and not a day goes by that she doesn't check your blogs. Add to that the fact that you're going to read this blog and tolerate my everyday shotgun style of thought processes, and that makes you freakin awesome.

P.S: Em and Mrs. Wood, i dedicate all the errors in grammar and non-capitalized i's to you both! :D

Guest Post 1...

... brought to you today by none other than Momolla! You can find her at her blog here, where she has also been participating in Blogtoberfest.


So, what to say about my children? Of course they are the most beautiful, smart, funny young women on the face of this or any other planet. They are also ruthless. Don’t, I repeat DON’T make the mistake of becoming a zombie around them. They will double tap you in the head without a scintilla of remorse. I know this for a fact. They remind me frequently.

They are my Wood Women, much to their father’s chagrin. Pk and I were separated for two years when the girls were little. We were driving along and they were bemoaning the fact that we were “alone” and what would we do? I pulled the car over to the side of the road and said “We are Wood Women! We are strong, and we can do anything!” I held my fist in the air and they giggled. But it stuck. Now, when courage or strength are failing, all I have to do is say “remember, you are a Wood Woman” and they can find the last bit of umph. I am inordinately proud of them.

They are warm hearted and kind (along with the ruthless thing). They would give the shirt off their backs to someone in need. They have reached out over the years to extend a helping hand to folks in need.

Our definition of “family” is kinda loose. We have adopted many people who needed a safe haven over the years. Em reminds me of when I used to buy certain fruits that her friend Rachel liked because Rachel spent so much time at our house. It’s very different from the way I was raised. As the girls dated young men, we became attached and mourned their loss when the relationship ended. (I still miss Gio and Tony). They have entered into relationships that are enriching our family in more ways that I can count. Em’s significant other is such a good guy. He has a wicked sense of humor and seems to fit right in to the weird stew that is our family. Kate is in a young relationship and we’ll see but her young man is also a good one. El is unattached but I know one day she’ll find someone who appreciates her for her unique perspective on the world.

So, there is a snippet of the miracles that are my girls. Sometimes I have felt sorry for Pk because he is trapped in an estrogen filled world. He seems to handle it ok.

All things considered, I’m a lucky woman.

Awkward Conversations...

...sadly, they're a fact of life. And, as the department stores are already reminding me, The Holidays are coming up. What this means is that, between the work parties, the gatherings with family, and encounters with random strangers, your awkward conversation quotient will soon be steadily rising. So I thought I'd lend everyone a hand and list a couple of classy, appropriate ways to end an awkward conversation gracefully. That didn't work out so well, so instead, I'm posting a list of crude, rude, ridiculous ways to end a conversation. Feel free to try these out, but only at your own risk.

--Talk about turtles (you can insert any noun you are sufficiently interested in here), make everything the other person says, no matter how non-turtle-related, about turtles. Refuse to acknowledge any subject changes.
--Mention your testicles. This is especially effective if you're a woman.
--When asked about your relatives, even those standing in the room with you, say they are dead. Alternatively, you could say they are in prison/witness protection/have robbed a bank.
--Say you've converted to a religion. Make it up as you go, but make sure it's as crazed as possible. You can only eat green-colored foods on days that have less than three syllables, or you now worship pet rocks. The more bizarre, the better.
--Walk around carrying a ball of yarn, and refer to it as a bunny. Ask people to pet the bunny at every opportunity.
--Whenever an opinion is expressed, either agree sycophantically, or disagree as though the matter were so important, the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
--Make every reply into a question, especially in response to questions.
--Respond to every question as though it were an off-color joke or euphemism, and waggle your eyebrows knowingly. Alternatively, simply say, 'that's what he/she said!' every time someone says anything at all.
--Tell off-color jokes. Tell them poorly, and skip the euphemisms.
--Discuss the trials of personal hygiene, and mention that you've given up on it entirely.
--Constantly stare off into space over the other person's shoulder. Refuse to make eye contact, and try to look concerned. When asked what you are looking at, act as though the other person is crazy.
--Tell everyone that you're not normally like this, but the punch has gone to your head. This works only when you're having a soft drink (especially from a can), or the punch is non-alcoholic.
--Discuss the time you spent in prison, and how 'stalker' is such a mean, unfair word. Follow this up with a series of personal, inappropriate questions.
--Reminisce about the time you were kidnapped for four days by a band of roving ninjas, but singlehandedly fought them off, only to have to join forces with some pirate vampires to defeat a legion of aliens bent on destroying the world's supply of cheese.
--Any time you are asked a personal question, no matter what it's about, say 'well, I woke up one morning on a beach in Mexico hugging an inflatable sheep. It must have been the tequila, but I don't like to talk about it'.
--Ask a question, appear to listen intently, and then ask the same question again as soon as the person you're talking to has answered. See how many times you can get away with this.
--Have the person you are talking to come outside with you to check your vehicle for homing devices planted by the government. Say you had a local garage check, but that you think they're in on the conspiracy. (i swear, two different customers asked us to check their vehicles for illegal tracking devices).

And there you have it. When faced with awkwardness, the best solution is to add even more awkwardness!

Beef Stew...

...does anybody have a particularly good recipe? I'm going to make it for Jim and Coll's birthday dinner, but I've never done anything other than wing it. I figure, if I'm going to be serving it to people, I ought to make sure it's decent.

In other news, I spun like a fiend tonight. The silk wasn't working with me very well, and I need some more patience and time before I start to work with it. So, I started working with the llamney. Gosh, it spins up quick! In half an hour of spinning, I had half a bobbin filled. I'm looking forward to finishing this and plying it, it will be so warm and fuzzy. It should only be a few more days before it's finished. It's nice to not be incredibly slow at something.

Sadly, that's all I have for you today. It was a busy, but uneventful day.

In review:
--Got a good beef stew recipe? I could use one
--I bought some sweet knee-high boots yesterday. They were on sale, it was totally necessary
--Tonight was speed spinning, it was pretty impressive