robinsnest | Reading

Boobs: Squished. Just need to book that silly blood draw now. (someone please remind me)

At home, I lazed about for a time, and right around 5pm, when I would normally be getting home, I picked up the cross stitch. I feel like I didn't do much with it even though I spent like 4 hours? Only three threads worth. IDK. I was watching The Pitt, I had a cat, I ordered in dinner, it was fine.

I wanted to go grocery shopping after, since I was already out, but I just couldn't be bothered. So I still need to do that. I will see how I feel over the next couple days, but I can't put it off too long as the cats are nearly out of food!

Do NOT want to go back to my desk next week just to have boss breathing down my neck. Theres a task she's wanted me to take over for months but she refuses to let me have it fully. I'm not pushing it bc I am planning to be out of here much sooner rather than later. Did not hear back from the other company so my search resumes anew. Again.

On Wednesday I cut out the Lucille trousers from the grey wool on the full width as indicated in the pattern. I think I have enough in yardage and offcuts to make a skirt too. So weekend plans are some chores (they need doing, alas) and some sewing, and hopefully get the fabric for K in the wash so I can get that cut out too. And a whole lot of cross stitching!

atherleisure

I just got back from a week-long business trip. I took plenty of projects to work on in the evenings and over the weekend.

I finished the 1896 bag for bathing dress etc.

I finished the March bookmark I started when we were visiting my in-laws at the holidays. I started the April one but only made it as far as the border.

I made a lot of progress on my 1880's cotton stocking. I gave myself a 10-row per day quota to meet and did so nearly every day. Some days I did more than 10 rows. I now only have 25 rows until I get to start the decreases.

I made good progress on the cross-stitch that's for a gift. The top half is finished, but there are a lot more stitches in the bottom half than the top half so I'm really only about a third of the way finished.

I started another knit 1930's bathing suit. I am working on the first part of the shorts for the front.

koshka_the_cat

At the eye doctor, waiting on the surgery consultant. I don't have keratoconus! I have astigmatism and cataracts. I still have to see the retina specialist on the 27th, but I can have surgery and multi focal lenses!

This has been a lot!

brickhousewench

I took today and tomorrow off to take a free training that Google was offering partners for International Women’s Day. It’s a two day training that can lead to a test to earn a Generative AI Leader certificate. I figured it’s free, and it gives me something official looking that I can add to my resume that proves that I’ve got some familiarity with AI.

I’m regretting signing up for this course. The first half hour was literally a Google commercial. For this course. That I’d already signed up for and WAS LITERALLY ALREADY ATTENDING. I kept thinking, “When are we going to get to the AI part?”

And then when we did, good Lord, the presenter. I don’t know if it’s a generational thing or what, but she drove me crazy. She was peppy to the point of obnoxiousness. At first I was wondering, is this woman high or drunk? Especially when her dog started acting up and she showed us the bottle of hemp treats she was giving the dog to try to calm them down to stop being disruptive. And I had her pegged as ADHD long before she commented (around hour six) that she was ADHD. She was all over the place, moving around in her chair, waving her arms around, leaning closer to and further away from the camera, playing with her hair. It was distracting just watching her.

And OMG the dog. It was excited because it was snowing out and that was making noises on the roof. Then she had workmen in the home and the dog was growling and barking to protect its territory from strangers. The presenter was distracted by the dog growling and barking. And I was distracted by her being distracted, and occasionally commenting on what the dog was doing. She was petting the dog with one hand and running the class with the other hand. Then all the dog lovers in the chat wanted to see the dog, so we had to stop to try to get it up on her lap on camera. The dog was in the background, the dog was under her desk. This went on the ENTIRE seven and a half hours of the class. We had four breaks and a lunch, and at no time did she take the dog out of the room to remove the distraction. So fucking unprofessional when you’re presenting to over 4,000 people.

It's never a good sign when I start taking notes for my review before we're even a quarter of the way through a course. I'm going to have to go back through the course with the sound muted and closed captions on, and try to arrange some other window to block my sight of the presenter to see if I can pick up on some of the content that I just wasn't able to concentrate on with all the distractions. Grrrr.

beradan

Every time my mother steams something she boils the pot dry--

--look I know this sounds like the beginning of a recipe blog but it's important context. anyway--

--boils the pot dry, using Farberware aluminum-clad pots on an electric coil stove, with ill effects ranging from "it's fine" to "the vegetables are mushy and the pot's a little scorched but it's nothing you can't recover from."

So you can see why I thought this would not go the way it did. ( Read more... )

Current Mood: confused

brickhousewench

Got up early for my online course that starts at 9:00.

Only to find out that it starts at 10:00.

Tomorrow I'm sleeping until 9:00.

koshka_the_cat

I seem to have the minority opinion on this, but I hate it staying light later. I've whined about it before and I'll whine about it again. It's close to seven and still light. Not ok.

koshka_the_cat

My I'm not going to get the surgery that would let me not need glasses gift cane today, new earrings.

I can make anything into a gift occasion!

brickhousewench

OMG, we hit 74 degrees (23.3C) today. I had the windows open because it’s time to air out the winter funk. Things are melting quite nicely, when I peeked my head out after lunch, there were already large swaths of lawn bare of snow. Now to just get working on the plow piles melting.

*****

Last week I learned about Democracy Sausages in Australia. I wish we made voting as much fun here. I’m not looking forward to the midterms, with the way the First Felon keeps talking about taking over managing voting from the states, never mind that it’s unconstitutional. Our national terrible toddler wants it!

*****

One of our executives spends a few moments of his day wishing people Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary (for their hiring dates) on Slack.

I really hate having my birthday mentioned at work.

I also really hate that he somehow missed doing birthdays on my birthday.

I am nothing if not complicated. =P

*****

I’m really disappointed how much trouble I’ve been having lately ordering books in a series. I had to order the fourth book in the Modecai Tremain three times before I got a copy. I placed my first order in early December. Twice the vendor that Amazon was selling for sent me a message asking me to confirm that I still wanted the book. After the second order had dragged on for over a month, I ordered a used copy that arrived in a week (from the UK!) and canceled the order with the Amazon vendor who for some reason didn’t want my money for one of the eight copies they claimed they had in stock.

I’m also working my way through Ngaio Marsh’s Inspector Roderick Alleyn series, and there’s a whole chunk of titles in the middle of the series that seem to be out of print for some reason. I had to track down used copies to order of those titles too.

*****

Whoo today was a busy day. Up early and onto the laptop, trying to get the final pieces of my troubleshooting project approved, merged, and published. I kept finding small things that were borked that needed fixing (formatting errors, one last missing error message). I finally got everything merged and published, went to check the website before I made a big announcement and found two more problems (an inconsistent file name, broken links, BAH!) Took forever to get someone to approve those changes, and then had to wait for the website to update again. Announcement is happening tomorrow morning. Whee!

We’re also about to let some members of the Community take over publishing the Helm Chart (installation files) for our product. So I was also trying to get a bunch of updates merged for that, so that when they take over the files (and move them into their own repository where they have admin permissions) that things are semi clean and up to date.

I made 41 merges today. It was a busy day. And I did a load of laundry too!

Is it Friday yet? I’m pooped, and it’s only Tuesday.

totchipanda

It is only day 2 of not being directly in my boss' presence and it's amazing how relaxed I feel. Who could have guessed being away from toxicity actually works??

Decided to make a skillet lasagna last night, so I went to the store for basically everything. I spent way more than I expected, but to be fair, I did buy a lot of cheese. And it was worth it because it was sooooo cheesey and delicious. Also knocked out some dishes while the sauce cooked and then -- GASP -- actually did some cross stitch after! Couple more threads of green filled in.

Wrist is super sore today, likely because the desk i am at right now is not ergonomically set up, even with my keyboard and mouse here. Going to make adjustments through the day to find the sweet spot.

Woke up at 430 am and thought fuck it, I'll just stay up. Hahaha no, 6 am rolls around and I am fighting for my life. So I decided to just rest my eyes, and predictably, did not fall asleep but also did not want to get up.

I think I will prep some patterns/fabric for cutting and bring them with me to make use of a conference table or two without my little helpers. Considered it today while I was laying awake, but nah. Too much to plan for with the limited time that I had. That gives me time to plan what to bring lol.

koshka_the_cat

I knit a row tonight!

Impressive because I couldn't sleep because of the time change, woke up what felt earlier, and really, woke up is the wrong term because neighbors unloaded a U Haul so loudly from about 4-7 in the morning that I couldn't sleep. Ugh.

brickhousewench

One of our docs managers stepped back to be an individual contributor again. So we have a documentation manager posting open.

I’ve received two messages on LinkedIn about this opening already.

One from my fabulous former Documentation Program Manager from my last job, who I would love to work with again. About a year before I left, he left to work for a company in Australia (where he lives). But his whole department got laid off last March, due to AI. He pinged me to ask about the location, since the job posting said we were looking for a manager in either Europe, Canada, or the US. I checked with our Director (because I’d love to work with him again, he’s one of those people who is brilliant, very technical, and just a lovely person). But Australia is nowhere near the right time zone, so I had to tell him that we wouldn’t consider him.

Then I got another message, from a former manager from my last job. And probably my least favorite of all the many managers I worked under there. Looks like she may have just gotten laid off? Her LinkedIn shows her at her last job until February 2026. And it’s March. She’s also seen the job posting, and applied for it. It would be fun to work together again. She says. Um, not it would not. She’s not very technical, which I found immensely frustrating as I tried to explain my job to her, and was not what I’d call a good manager either. My Director always pings me to ask “did you work with so-and-so, they worked at this company” and I’ll be able to tell her “I do not recommend.”

totchipanda

Health: Improving. Saturday I woke up NOT feeling like I was swallowing glass, so there's that, but I had a heckin' migraine that drugs were not touching. It started with waking up at 1:45 am feeling very nauseous and generally gut-sick, but I managed to get back to sleep without being sick. Woke up again around 8 or something, still nauseous, managed some drugs, watched some videos, and fell back asleep for another 3 hours. Headache then was still present but less painful, and then M pointed out (since we'd had tentative plans, and I messaged saying absolutely not) that the weather had changed drastically. Like hovering 0C to 12C, and incoming wind warnings (the wind was indeed heckin' windy). But I did feel good enough to meet my dad and sibling for dinner, where I absolutely destroyed the fried pork dumpling pan. Yum yum yum.

Yesterday still not feeling great, but well enough to make a (very large) cup of coffee and cross stitch. In the afternoon, M watched Heated Rivalry finally and I watched along with her. We banged out the entire 5.5 hours in one sitting. I put SEVERAL threads into it, mostly flowers and leaves, I am so proud of myself. When my hands got tired, I glued together some boxes for my flower shop booknook kit that I bought uh... October? All the while, Calcifer slept on me, so I'm sure she's saving up her crimes for later.

Then I took a stupid shower for my stupid mental health and it stupidly worked.

Today, my sinus is still congested and I can feel it all along the left side of my face, into my teeth and down my neck. It's really uncomfortable. I think I ought to do my erranding that I didn't do on the weekend (bc sick) or at least go to the store and pick up something to make for supper. Did I bring a shopping bag with me? No, no I did not. Heck.

koshka_the_cat

I made the first quick mockup of the 30s lawn dress. The bodice is very simple, basically two pieces. Actually three, the front has a center seam, but it has a side closure so acts like two. It has a split kimono sleeve, so also easy. It also means there's only so much fitting you can do and I always find loose things odder to fit than fitted things.

Anyway, it looks pretty good. I had to take in the side seams a bit, not a surprise since I think it's for a bigger bust than mine. There's a weird neckline step, for lack of a better term, that's not in the layout of the original instructions or mentioned in them and doesn't make sense, so I'm guessing the original pattern had a tear. The side seam is also curvier in the original drawing than the pattern. I thought it needed a little more curve trying it on, so my instincts are apparently still intact, so that's good!

Not bad for a quick pinned mockup!

Even though the skirt is clearly too long and I'm sure needs width in the hips, I'm not worried about it. Hopefully it will be easy to adjust.

koshka_the_cat

I slept til 10:30 and took a nap. In between, I read with Tom snoozing next to me, did the puzzle, and drank hot chocolate. A good Saturday!

atherleisure

I had enough orange yarn for the edging but not the handle or the tassels. Fortunately I bought it from a physical store instead of an online one so I should be able to go in and get more.

Instead I wound a couple of balls of wool for another 1930’s bathing suit. I know I don’t need it, but they’re so much fun.

koshka_the_cat

I have treatable eye issues!

I probably have keratoconus which seems to be basically a misshapen cornea thing. It can be treated with special contacts. Surgery can be necessary too. I have an appointment with the opthalmologist who sent me to the specialist on Thursday and I've read reassuring stories on Reddit.

I also have a partial hole in my left retina, so am getting a referral to a retina specialist. It's a wait and see, possibly surgery thing.

I'm obviously somewhat worried, but science is amazing and even if I have to wear weird contacts forever, I'll be able to see.

brickhousewench

I had to chisel out the car this morning.

We were supposed to get 3 - 6 inches of snow overnight. I checked out the window before I went to bed, and it was not snowing, despite my weather app showing that we were supposedly getting snow at the rate of an inch an hour. I really hate that Dump/DOGE cut so much money from things like the National Weather Service (and the USDA and FDA, and on and on) because those cuts have an effect on me personally. Cut the Defense Department budget, and that doesn't affect me. Cut money from the National Weather Service, and I get my weather app telling me that it's blizzard conditions outside when there's not a snowflake to be seen.

Instead of 3 - 6 inches of snow, we got about an inch of ice. I did a slow penguin walk across the parking lot to my car this morning because it was a skating rink. I didn't brush the roof or the hood of the Forester, because I would have had to chip at it, and I don't feel like damaging the paint on my new car. So of course, when I was driving home from my massage appointment and braked hard at one point, the car was warm enough that all the snow/ice from the roof slid down on my windshield. I had to pull into a parking lot and clear it off by hand because it was too frozen for the wipers to deal with the chunks.

But at least the car is cleaned off. And it's going to be in the 50s all weekend, so there should be melting.

Come on SPRING!

atherleisure

I finished the knitting on the bathing bag and blocked it.

I seamed it and started the edging on the top but don't have a newer picture. I'm concerned that I may run out of the orange yarn. It's the one that is supposed to be used for the handle and the tassels as well as the edging around the top. We shall see.

koshka_the_cat

Three day weekend for my eye appointment! Sleeping in, and a hopeful way forward to halfway decent vision!

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sewloud

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