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274/366, originally uploaded by hannah8ball.

Ok, last picnic picture, I swear. It's hard to describe how much fun Little Bit had. She was visiting with all of the adults and children, playing with the balls and balloons, jumping on the trampoline, chasing the dog, looking at horses, mooching food. She was quite the center of attention.

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273/366, originally uploaded by hannah8ball.

More pics from the picnic... sorry. They had this fantastic, huge backyard. And at the very back of it were horses. Little Bit loved them, but I think they were bigger than she thought they should be. They were rather friendly and didn't seem to mind posing for the camera.

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272/366, originally uploaded by hannah8ball.

Perry & Brenda Lacy at the company picnic. We had a really good time. Surprisingly, for a work event, there wasn't much talk of work. At least for me. Of course, that may have been because I spent most of it chasing Little Bit around... :)

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182/366, originally uploaded by hannah8ball.

One of the nice things about getting up early for the work commute is sunrises like this. I never got to see them before.

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112/366, originally uploaded by hannah8ball.

For the Ravelry 365 group theme: the tools of my trade - I got a new project assigned today. Yeah!

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063/366, originally uploaded by hannah8ball.

It took me 2 hours to get in to work this morning. That's an average of 25 mph. Ugh. The nice thing was that I got to leave early (4pm) so I could get home at a reasonable time.

It's been rather frustrating that I've been getting up earlier and earlier and arriving later. No more, next week, I'm doing the 7-4 shift. I've got my fingers crossed the drive in will be much more reasonable.

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060/366, originally uploaded by hannah8ball.

This is the stack of work I brought home. Phew! They aren't pulling any punches with the newbie!

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053/266, originally uploaded by hannah8ball.

Last day at the old job. Here's to the end of an era, and to the beginning of a new one.

And the house of cards comes tumbling down

I came across this interesting article today at work. Honestly, how long did the banks think we could continue to live beyond our means? Only problem now is how to get these consumers to pay up when the money just isn't there?

I think it's past time to take a step back, get a good idea of our situation and live realistically. Stash knitting never sounded so good.

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4/366, originally uploaded by hannah8ball.

All work and no play today. Ending 2007 and getting set up for 2008 is quite a project.

Just kidding...

There are moments in my life (and they seem to be happening more often lately), where I find myself waiting to hear someone say "just kidding" because they have made such fantastic errors in logic, no sane person would be caught saying/doing whatever the thing is. At least from my perspective that what it ought to be.

Today, one such incredulous thing happened. I got a call from my boss (i'm working from home today) and he asked me "did you tell A to charge $9 for this product?". I responded yes, and explained that the product contained 3 items, and the contract rate for each item was $3, so $3 (the individual price) X 3 (items) = $9. I haven't lost anybody yet, have I? Simple math. Well, come to find out that A had told my boss that she was only charging $9 for a CD with all the items on it (up to 100 items!!), per my instructions. When I called her to ask her about it, she said that she had just assumed we were giving a good deal to good clients... ?!?!?!?!?!

I hung up not knowing how to respond. A has just as much access to the contract as I do and should be just as familiar with the contract as I am. A and I had discussed invoicing the clients for their items and I mentioned that instead of printing and mailing hard copies (too much wasting of paper), we should just burn them CDs. So how did she think I said to only charge them $9 regardless of how many items they ordered?!

I later got with her and wanted her to explain her leap of logic to me... some things just need explaining. Her response... "Well, you know, sometimes I just have ADD."

I'm still waiting to hear... "Gotcha! I was just kidding."... still waiting...

Serendipity

So, my day started out pretty good. I got the latest version of knitty. As always, there are patterns that I'm eagerly adding to my quickly expanding "to-do" list. One of them, "Grow with me" especially caught my eye as it uses cotton ease - an easy addition to my stash as it is relatively cheap and available at the local chain craft store. As I scrolled down to the bottom to read the stats about the designer, I was taken aback. I KNOW this person! Of course, its been 5 years, and I might be mistaken. But seriously. I'd even been thinking about trying to look her up lately. and Shazam... there she was. Published in knitty.

So, I send her a tentative email, hoping I don't creep her out and she replied that yes, indeed, she is the Laura Brown I worked with one summer between my sophomore and junior years of college. HOW COOL IS THAT?! I know a published knit designer. Sweet. Of course, back then, I knew nothing of knitting's joys and Laura and I chatted about politics and our life dreams and how much a college town sucks when all the students go home for the summer. If it weren't for knitting, I'd never have found her.

Unfortunately, my day sort of went down hill after that. The admin that had given her two weeks notice, decided that she'd rather just not come back in, so instead of having until next Thursday to get someone trained, I suddenly had both all of the training, all of the organizing, all of the shite back on my plate to deal with. And I was THIS close to finishing a gigantic project that I'm sick and tired of dealing with. THIS close, ladies and gentleman. Gurk.

And then I finally went to the dentist. I have naturally pitted teeth, so visits to the dentist are always traumatizing and painful experiences. Not so, this time. He didn't even stick his nasty little hook into my teeth. Not once! I have two cavities that need to be filled (boo!), but its been 6 years, so all in all, that's not too bad. I was told, once again, that I need to have my wisdom teeth removed. Since I actually have money this time (last time I was a college student and had better things to do with my time and money than undergo oral surgery...), I might actually call up their office and schedule an appointment. But not until work gets ironed out.

Annan is doing really well. She's still waking much more often than I'd prefer, but we're adjusting. And, really, not much is better than cuddling a warm, soft baby, even if its 3AM. I'm pretty sure she's very close to crawling. She has really started to turn around in circles well and has mastered the art of rolling from back to tummy to back again, so I have to be careful where I leave my knitting supplies. She's already tried to eat my WIP at least twice.

My mom comes out to visit at the end of next week. I'm excited. Its only been a few months, but its always good to hang out with family. And now that Annan's here, I don't have to worry about entertaining. My LO does that for me :)

Oh yes, knitting updates. I'm nearly done with my curly purly diaper cover. I'm currently trying to puzzle out the final knitting insturctions. I'm not sure if "continue in stockinette until leg opening measures 11" means that I should be measuring the length of the fabric since the leg opening started or if the length of the two sides of the legholes should be 11" from end to end when laid flat. I'm thinking the latter, but I'll need to test it on Annan before doing anything permanent to be sure. Tonight, we'll be watching the first disk in the last season of Deadwood, so I doubt much knitting will get done. I'm still not very good at knitting and watching TV.

Well, dinner is nearly ready. Hope you have a blessed day!