Knitting, blogging, wedding stuff

Work aside, lots of things have been going on in our lives recently.

Knitting
I've created and completed a beautiful Forecast cardigan for my mother's birthday, which she loves. I still need to get her to wear it to take a photo...

I've started another beaded cardigan - Martha from Rowan 37. It's cotton and with over 1,700 beads... I've done the 2 sleeves and am already thoroughly sick of beads.

I am about to start another River from Rowan 38 - a lace mohair wrap - for my grandmother, who turns 95 on Boxing Day. The hitch is that I need to get it knitted and blocked in time for my mother to take it to Florida, and I don't have the yarn yet... I'm looking forward to this as a kind of do-over of the first one I made - they will be identical, except the new one won't have errors in the lace.

I've also discovered some great patterns for honeymoon knitting - a lace mohair cardigan in Kid Silk Haze, and a lace shawl in some very fine yarn. I'll need maximum yardage for minimum weight and space, plus the smallest, least threatening needles I can find, so that it's practical and hopefully plane-safe. These projects are still being considered. The Trouser's wedding gift of a man-cardigan or sweater will have to wait till we're settled somewhere.

Blogging
I've come to the momentous decision that by the end of the year - or when we leave - I will stop blogging here and will start a new blog with my real name - the end of my anonyblogging.

I'd like to keep in touch with people without boring them senseless with group emails, and I think I may even invest more energy if it's my blog in a public sense. I'll let you know when I start.

Wedding stuff
Well we're coming on apace! The international invitations are out, and the local ones are slowly being handed out. We've had a hard time with the guest list - several tiers, plus trying to anticipate who will and won't come from overseas. We're aiming for 100 max - but if some unexpected overseas guests get here and push us over the magic number, what the hell!

We opted not to get the expensive personalised stamps you can get, mostly because the cost of postage is really, really high already. (Trust us to pick the oversized invitation!)

At the moment, the most exciting guest prize is tied between my older brother's mother-in-law, who's coming from Japan; and a friend from my student exchange in 1995, from Germany.

W've made some real progress in real stuff too - The Trouser picked his ring and it's ready to pick up; and we had a lot of fun compiling a couple of registries. Since we already have lots of stuff, and we're moving, we have asked for less household-type stuff, and have included a honeymoon registry.

Ooh, the honeymoon. have I raved about it already? (I don't think so...) 3 nights in Hong Kong, 2 1/2 weeks in Goa, then a week in Crete - then on to Dublin or London to start our "new life". It may be the best part of the wedding...

Ding dong the bitch is...well, leaving in 7 weeks

The news I was waiting for was finally announced a couple of days ago.

The nasty boss is leaving... in about 7 weeks.

It isn't the immediate exit that would have made us all a lot happier. It also isn't the "right" way to do things - the [insert name of fancy consulting firm here] way is to leave within the week.

But she will be going.

Not too longer after that, I had a meeting with her boss, to discuss my leaving strategy etc. and it was clear that he and I were on the same page regarding my work, which was timely reinforcement.

My only - and admittedly very small - worry is that our leaving functions may be combined. Frankly, I'd rather eat my own toenails than let that happen. I guess we'll see...

Ahem

In the course of normal speech, I don't usually call people "bitch".

(Though during a family weekend I got my mother to refer to me and The Trouser as her "bitches and hos" several times, to my sister-in-law's great amusement. Faux-gangster-speak is fun!)

Last post, I was a little bit upset.

I'll try harder with the potty mouth, honest.

And I'm expecting a development in the offending area (work, not my potty mouth). I'll keep you informed of what I hope will be spectacularly good news.

Bullies suck

I've gone on about it here before, and I am so sick of it that I can't even be bothered to link back to the relevant entries - my boss is the bullying bitch from hell.

On Tuesday she yanked me in her office to berate me for my allegedly poor attitude and lack of commitment. Then she told me I should consider if I wanted to stay for the next "six weeks or whatever".

It's three months, bitch. You should be counting down the days if you hate me so much.

Pretty dumb of you to try to push me to resign, bitch - you should remember from your long-ago prestigious legal training that constructive dismissals are illegal.

And as for me? I'm reporting this to her boss, and considering making a formal complaint to HR. I'm sick of the bullying, and unlike everyone else in the office, I'm not going to roll over and die.

Reasons to love the Irish

Open-mindedness.

Ireland, you're lovely. I can't wait to get to you!

Resuming normal transmission

I would've blogged last week, but I was stopped by a sore throat, high temperature, litres of mucus, and a lack of desire to do much other than watch or read trash.

Sorry about that. I'm still snotty, but I'm back.

Disappointment

I had some M&Ms today - regular/plain - and they tasted... well, funny. A little pukey, almost.

I know there are rumours that American chocolate tastes pukey, but I checked - they were made in Australia.

It's okay, the funny over-sweetness and general lack of depth (which, together, combine to make a distinctive "pukey" taste) didn't stop me eating nearly the whole 55g package.

But I won't buy them again. Peanut M&Ms, maybe - but never the plain.

Family

I just found out that my grandmother was hurt. She's doing ok, but an early-morning fall and a fracture were involved.

How did I find out? From my cousin's blog.

I'm not close with the cousin - depsite visiting the States numerous times in the past 17 years, she was always too busy to see any of us. So the last time I saw here I was about 11. Most of what I now know about her is from her blog, plus a bit of Googling when I got curious.

Her post on our grandmother was, unsurprisingly, all about her and her impressions of what our grandmother is feeling, and how it affected her. Fair enough, it's her blog... But somehow it irked me even more. The blog post went on and on about how my cousin imagines our grandmother feeling... but I didn't buy it. *Everyone* is scared of growing old, but old people much less so than the rest of us - stop all the transference already!

Hmph. As much as I rail against the stereotypical American image of self-obsession and a lack of interest in the real world, some days I'm definitely related to examples of it.

Hello, pumpkin

I discovered that Starbucks has introduced the Pumpkin Spice latte to NZ recently.

There are a lot of things wrong with the timing and marketing of it... Rather than repeat them here, read my rant at Starbucks Gossip.

That said, the syrup I tasted was pretty good - a little like pumpkin pie, but as a syrup. Not being a huge coffee fan, I'm unlikely to order the latte - but I might try it chai-style (that is, just the steamed milk and the syrup).

And if you haven't ever had pumpkin pie, you're really missing out. I personally avoid pumpkin like the plague, but by the time you puree it, add lots of spices and pastry, then bake it - I'm in.

And after all, Thanksgiving is coming up soon. What better way to celebrate self-enforced exile than with pumpkin pie?

More wedding planning

It's been awhile since I've posted about the wedding plans, which are coming on fairly well. New developments are:

- We have dresses for the brides- and groomsmaids. They should arrive in Auckland before Xmas, which means some intensive knitting to get the lace wraps ready in time.

- We have a car, so I'll turn up to get married.

- We're meeting a potential celebrant on the weekend, and if we like her, it will be good. We have some ideas regarding the ceremony, including readings and vows.

- We have contact details for a cake lady.

- My wedding band is "on layby". They re-sized it and then we paid a deposit (wrong way around, surely?), but we've decided to keep the money in the mortgage as long as possible, so we'll pay for it closer to the day.

- We have an action plan for dealing with my uncle who decided that since our ceremony was outside, he'd invite all his grandkids.

- The invitations will be printed soon. It only took 6 drafts to get everything how we wanted it. (Memo to invitation printers: capitalising Random words Does not make Them More important, It Only looks Stupid.)

I'm hoping we'll make some progress on boys' clothes and The Trouser's ring this coming weekend.