This Is My...

 Stalker came slinking back into work yesterday with his tail between his legs like a whipped dog.  And boy, did he have the attitude!  No matter, we were all laughing at him.  Hey, he shouldn't have gone around gloating about that job before he even knew if he had it or not.  That's all I have to say. 

As you probably know by now, I've rekindled my love affair with vinyl these last couple of years.  Vinyl is a living, breathing medium -- so much more alive than CDs or digital downloads.  Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks so, as vinyl is making a comeback.  

You know, sometimes the old ways really are better.

Anyway, I've been trying to replace some of the old records we had when I was a child, that my brother said got ruined in Hurricane Ike.  I've already picked up several, and behind that cat is my latest addition to my collection. 

Hang on a minute....  

OK, here it is:

One of my childhood favorites.  It's not an original release, but a re-pressing of it.  I haven't listened to it yet.  Maybe over the weekend. 

I guess that's all for now.  Maybe something exciting will happen soon, and blogging will become interesting again.    

Finally!

Yes, I know, it's been a while.  The sad part is, I've actually had stuff to say, just no motivation to say it, so this'll be a bit of a catch up post.  It'll be a bit long, and probably pretty disjointed, but bear with me. OK, are you ready?  Let's dive in...

First up, if you don't have the ibotta app, you're really missing out.  I know some of the deals aren't really deals -- like if you normally buy the $5 laundry detergent, but get the $8 laundry detergent so you can get the $1 rebate, you've actually lost two dollars.  But sometimes, there comes along something that is such a bargain you just can't pass it up.  They've got a special deal going on this month, and let me tell you what it is.  Do you see all this stuff?

Every bit of this stuff was absolutely free after the rebate.  Yes, you read that right.  Free.  Even that turkey breast.  Absolutely free!  If you do download the app, use my referral code:  lypnolp.  

Next up:  Let me give you an update on my cleaning efforts.  I've gotten all the lose yarn sorted and neatly stacked into the closet.  

 I offered all this yarn up for free, but the person who wanted it hasn't shown up, so I think I'm going to list it on FB.  

If you want it, let me know.  It's free to locals, and cost of shipping to anyone else. 

I still need to sort the project bags and get them squared away.  

And maybe finish some of these projects while I'm at it.  Or rip them out and use the yarn for something else.  This is a dishcloth I started several years ago, but ran out of yarn before I finished.  

I kept saying I was going to buy another ball of yarn and finish it, but I never did.  This afternoon, I finally broke down and ripped it all out.  I'll knit it into a smaller cloth and do this cloth with a full ball.  Of yarn, I mean.  

Wonder of wonders, I finally finished this scarf!  

I've only been working on it for three years.  I had originally cast on when I went to Missouri in '17 to see the eclipse, but earlier this year, I decided it was too narrow.  I ripped it all out and started over.  Now it's a bit wider, but still plenty long enough to wrap around my neck a couple of times.  I'm debating on keeping this one, even though I seldom wear scarves.  

Well, we finally had our first frost, so I brought all my outside plants inside, and went ahead and settled them into their winter home.

 

All of my Whatever Cacti are covered in buds.  It ought to be a glorious show when they start blooming. 

After I moved the gun cabinet out of my kitchen/dining area, I had a bit of a blank spot on the wall.  I finally found something to hang there:  

It fills the space nicely without being overwhelming. 

And finally, my latest eBay score arrived today.

There was a copy I'd been watching for a while now, but the guy wanted $50 for it.  Yeah, that's not going to happen.  Every so often, I'd log in and check to see if he'd lowered the price.  One day last week, as I was checking on it, I found another copy from a different seller.  This one wasn't still factory sealed, but it was only $15, so I ordered it. 

As soon as it arrived this morning, I dragged the ol' record player out and listened to it.  I was a bit worried, because it appeared to be pretty warped, but it sounded just fine. 

And with that, my record collection is complete.  

At least, it is until I find something else I want...

That's all for now, but I'll try to do better from here on. 

The Last One

And with this arrival, my collection is complete. 

There are other records that National Geographic has put out, but this is the last of the American themed ones.  Hopefully, this weekend, I can get my record player out and listen to all of them. 

In other news, Stalker was out of sorts all day today. Out at the plant, they've decided to try once again to open up a third shift -- because the first five times worked out so well.  Anyway, they brought back an old supervisor to run it.  Old as in  "worked here before", not old as in aged. 

Yesterday, he came around and was speaking to all the employees he'd known when he was there before.  Except me.  He walked over and gave me a hug. 

When Stalker found out, he was livid.

He spent all day today stomping up and down behind me.  You could almost hear him growling like an angry bear.  Shortly after lunch, things only got worse.

Now, let me preface this by saying, I've known The Boss Who Must Not Be Named for a long time.  I even taught his kid in karate, way back when I was still in karate.  He was my friend before he was my boss, and no matter how bossy he gets, there will always be an element of friendship there.

This afternoon, along about 1:00, TBWMNBN was heading upstairs to his office.  He glanced over towards the sub-brazing department, and I smiled.  No big deal, right?  It shouldn't have been...but Stalker saw it.

He parked his behind behind me for the rest of the day.  Every time I put a header down, he'd run over and snatch it up, peering at it as if he were hoping to find something wrong.  Every once in a while, he'd wander over and look at someone else's headers, but it was perfectly clear -- to everyone -- that he was trying to intimidate me.

I just laughed at him.  It's going to take a whole lot more than a pathetic loser like him glowering at me to intimidate me.  I put him out of my mind, and took my imaginary boyfriend alligator hunting.  Only not really hunting, because we had no intention of killing one.  But I wanted to show a Cornish man a real dragon, so we went and found some. 

He asked if they breathe fire.  I said, "Nope...but the ants do."  And I showed him a fire ant bed.  And a trash panda.  And ..."[Unwholesome word!]  Cottonmouth!"  Heh, you should have seen our old, fat butts trying to run!  After all that, ain't no way Stalker is going to intimidate me with a few dirty looks. 

OK, enough of that.  Here is your Texas History lesson for today.  Day three of the Siege.



Now, I'm headed for bed.  To dream of dragons and knights in battle tested armor.

Rewarding Myself

But first, a bit of good news.  Apparently, the plant decided to scrap that idiotic idea of only allowing us to use two turnstiles to exit the building, because no one was out there guarding them.  So, that's one small victory.

Other than that, it was a rough week.  I really rough week.  Second shift tubing has been undermanned for quite some time already, then I heard they went and fired three people last week.  I don't know why, but that has put them into a serious bind -- which puts all of us into a serious bind.

And of course, nobody comes over there and asks, "Why is there nothing ready for the brazers?"  No... they're all up in our grills screaming, "WHY DON'T YOU HAVE ANY HEADERS READY FOR THE LINES????"

I'm telling you, when we got there Friday, there was nothing on the lines, and nothing ready for us to ever start on.  We've taken to calling my stalker The Warden, because he patrols the brazing department like a prison warden guarding a chain gang.  He was over there saying something to Group Leader Shark.  I wish I knew what he'd said, but she had a look of pure disgust on her face, and was saying, "But it's not the brazers' fault!"  We're doing the best we can, but all we can do is all we can do.

One of my coworkers said she was going to reward herself for surviving the week by buying some muffins from Wal-Mart.  The expensive ones.

Me, I buy books.

I haven't started reading it yet, though.  One of my friends suggested I read The Raven first.  Not the Poe poem.  The autobiography of Sam Houston.  I ordered it from a used book store, and am still waiting for it to arrive.   While I was on Amazon, I found a book about the Galveston hurricane called Isaac's Storm.  Which I had to buy as well. 

Now that I'm getting a little overtime, I've ordered the last three of the National Geographic Records I wanted.  The first two have arrived.

To be honest, I'm not that keen on jazz, but I wanted to have this one, just to have the complete collection.

As far as I know, these are the last three of the folk and Americana records.

I had a nice surprise when I got home yesterday.  My Whatever Cactus is blooming again!

More good news, I have finally finished that horrible scarf with that horrible yarn!

There are lots of things I didn't like about this yarn.  First of all, it's single ply and very loosely spun.  The plies kept untwisting.  Second, every color change left a gap along the edge.  You can kind of see one when the brown changes to blue on the left edge of the scarf.  I'm not sure what was causing it, because I knit every single row the same.  And third, there were knots.  It's probably a good thing this yarn was discontinued, because I sure wouldn't buy it again.

And lastly, today marks the anniversary of the beginning of the Siege of The Alamo.




We will remember.