Saturday, October 28, 2006

Feeling a bit guilty

Well, I didn't tell my study buddy about the quiz because I wanted to see if he deliberately withheld the info from me. He didn't show up to class until 8:55am (class starts at 8:00am) and we had already handed in the quiz and went over the homework. Thank goodness the Prof. decided not to collect it because one of my problems was wrong. I had the correct formula but didn't convert the 0.05% to 0.0005 for calculating purposes and came up with the wrong answer. Whew, I was lucky that he didn't collect it. All in all I had 3 of the 4 correct.

When "study buddy" showed up we were in the middle of the next chapter and I just said that the Prof. didn't collect the homework. I wanted to see if he asked about the quiz. He didn't and now I feel a twinge of guilt because I don't believe he knew about the quiz. Now I have to watch out for the karma train to get me for this.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Super Sly Study Buddy?

Last week I left school early and asked my "study buddy" to let me know what happened in class. I didn't expect notes (because study buddy hardly takes any) but I did want to know if the Prof. assigned homework. I left at 10am and class gets out at 10:45am. So, I e-mailed my bud on Monday to find out if we had homework. He replied that he didn't have his notebook at work with him and he would e-mail the assignment the next day. True to his word the next day I found that we have four problems to do, two of which we will hand in to be graded. I thanked my buddy and went about completing the assignment. Today I had to log into the school website to enroll for next semester and while I was there decided to see if any new Power Point lecture presentations had been posted. There were new lectures and to my SURPRISE, a QUIZ!!!!
That's right, a quiz that has to be handed in tomorrow that my study buddy did not tell me about. I wonder, did he do this on purpose? Does he know that there is a quiz? Should I ask him about it? Should I just take the quiz, hand it in tomorrow and just forget about it?
What should I do?

Super Sly Study Buddy?

Gray + Cloudy = Cranky

I want to see the sun!!
Please let there be sun today.
My day has not started off very well, I have resorted to chocolate to make me feel better.
It started with sleeping through my alarm (CD player) and then this icky dark dismal morning.
I have so much to do at work today that I hope that the sun comes out to help me through.
Thank goodness that it is Friday!!!

Hope your day is going better than mine!

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Sew much to do so little time

Well, the first of the three craft fairs this year has been completed. I made a profit so that is a happy thing. I was able to put money away for a Christmas gift and that was my goal. I saw evidence of the knitting and crocheting rebirth at this fair. Many of the vendors had beautiful scarves and afghans. I was able to sell one of the baby afghans which was a good thing. The cards seemed to be the biggest seller. Thank goodness my brother got the new display rack done in time.

My friend Simone is too kind. I am so used to having my brother to help me at the one craft fair that I was doing each year and because of his truck we are able to bring a dolly to haul the many containers into the school. I completely spaced when I packed for the first show with Simone and it resulted in Simone making many trips to the car to haul my stuff. I felt VERY guilty. I vow to pack more compactly and just bring the rest of my inventory when I join her after school.

I have been doing some crafting at work during my lunch hour and then going home and doing more. I want to make sure that I have enough stuff at the big two day show. I have even dusted off my sewing machine and have made one prototype wine bag. Now that I have completed one I have cut out some more and plan to use those for the show. I hope to get some aprons and maybe some potholders done too. I want to try and get some more cross-stitch baby bibs done also but time will tell.

So between work, school and crafting I haven't been out to see anyone or have I done anything exciting like see a movie, go to a museum...
Maybe after the fairs I'll have time, before the Christmas rush begins.
Wish me luck!!!

Friday, October 20, 2006

My brother is awesome!!

This post is to heralded the innovations of my brother Rick.
He took my very simplistic idea for a display for the upcoming craft fairs and took it to higher levels. (I had written a very detailed description that Blogger didn't post).

To sum it up, my idea was to use 2 wire shelves from Home Depot, stand them up vertically at a 90 degree angle (held together with twist ties) and with "S" hooks use the horizontal rungs as a way to display my greeting cards which are in individual ziplock baggies.

Rick took it to a higher level by purchasing a third shelf. Positioned them in a pinwheel style arrangement and secured them to a triangular base. He then took that base and attached it to a lazy susan moveable base and now instead of just 2 sides to display cards I have 6 sides and it spins!!!

The best part, then entire thing breaks down flat for easy transport and storage.

Like I said, my brother rocks!!!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Busy Bee

Wow, time sure does fly when you are having fun, or in my case when you are crafting like crazy for upcoming craft fairs. I don't know about anyone else but I have a hard time trying to figure out what people would like to buy and at what price are they willing to buy.

I will preface this next entry with the fact that "I AM A PACK-RAT". It doesn't make it any easier that my brother who lives with me is also a pack-rat. So, you can imagine, that there is 21 years worth of "stuff" in the basement and most of it is mine.

This past Saturday I ventured down to the basement where the purging of mountains of Rubbermaid containers is still an ongoing event. With winter on its way, much too soon in my opinion, I realized that if I want to park in the garage again that I need to continue to dig through the stuff that is still in the basement and get that all squared away before I can start bringing the other Rubbermaid containers back into the house. I have come to realize that I currently have enough craft supplies to open a store in my basement. It doesn't help that I like to do a variety of different crafts, from sewing, knitting, crocheting, card-making, counted cross-stitch... which means that I have many supplies for all the different mediums. Along with all of the supplies come the containers with the decorations that I like to change for each month. I have purged a great deal of the snowmen that I usually put out during the month of January. I never realized as I was out and about shopping the after Christmas sales and such that I had accumulated 3 containers of snowmen. Geez, my house isn't big enough to hold all those guys. See what happens when organization goes amuck!! The containers and contents multiple until they begin to take over. Okay, okay, I know that's a tad bit melodramatic but I haven't fully fessed up to the fact that I was the one who purchased all of those snowmen. Hey, allow me some self denial, it took a long time to admit that I was a pack-rat. I am very happy to say that many of those snowmen and snowwomen have found good homes in my friends and co-workers homes. Now that the snowpeople are all squared away, on I went to other containers. So as I was sorting through and making the three piles as seen on those "neat" shows I was able to fill four garbage bags for the Salvation Army and a bag to the office and a smaller pile to keep. I also discovered a container of baby afghans leftover from previous craft fairs. I washed all of them last night (want to make sure that they are fresh for the customer) and took them out of the dryer and folded them this morning. Nice to have a little extra wares to sell as I was stressing that with three craft fairs this year that I wouldn't have enough made. I also found another container that had some more crafts and I will be bringing those out to the fairs with hopes of selling them. I hope that I will sell enough to cover the cost of the spaces and have some money left over to buy some Christmas presents.

Speaking of Christmas presents, and I know the next statement may elicit a collective groan, but I purchased my first Christmas present this past Saturday. I just ordered another one online this morning because I got an e-mail of a sale and took advantage of it. I get a small sense of happiness whenever I can mark someone off my list as having been completed.

Well, that's all that is new in my world. Work, crafting, school and sleep, not very exciting but it's the truth.

Have a good day!!!

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Just some ramblings

Well, since my last post I have attended class and my "study buddy" still stank. It must be that the class is at 8:00am on a Saturday morning and he is just rolling out of bed and coming to class. Maybe I'll bring gum this Saturday and offer him some, that will hopefully eliminate the mouth odor. We got our test results back and I was delighted to see that taking more time than half the class to complete the test was worth it. I scored 90 points out of 100 on the exam. I found out one very interesting fact, the professor had areas that we never covered in class on the exam. I definitely will be reading the book for the next test. I want to have a decent average going into the departmental, cumulative final at the end of the semester so that I won't be excessively stressed out come finals week.

I have been crafting like a fiend lately. This year instead of the one craft fair that is held at my old high school I will be peddling my wares at two additional fairs. I am hoping to compile enough inventory for all three fairs and not have to worry in between them whether or not I have enough crafts to sell. Two of the fairs that I am participating in is a split table. I am sharing a table with my friend and fellow crafter Simone. She is the one that let me know of the other fairs that were out there and has graciously sent in our applications. The first one is on Saturday, October 21. I am having my brother make me a "lazy susan" type display for my greeting cards. It is made up of wire shelves (for your closet) standing vertical in a triangular shape that will spin. Since I will be at school during the set-up phase of the fair I want to make it as easy for Simone as possible. The entire display will break down into just the components for easy transport. I still have 1 full skein of yarn to turn into a baby afghan and hopefully will have the one I am working on done by this weekend. That will give me three afghans for the fairs. I hope to complete at least one if not two more before the last fair on November 11th.

Later this afternoon the weatherman has told us that a cold front will be making it's way through the city. I can't wait to see what my puppy Gidget does when she goes out this evening to near freezing weather. Since she is only 7 months old, this will probably come as a shocker to her. I have to get her a winter coat and have been holding off doing anything because I don't know if she will grow anymore. I know that being a chihuahua she will not be huge but I want to make sure that the coat I get isn't too big or too small. She is amazed when the leaves blow around and chases them as they fly around her.

Today is my sister Caryn's birthday. She is just one step closer to the big 5-0! As she likes to tell me I am not that far behind her, and although I like to think that I am not in the second half of my forties, the truth is that I am marching to that same 5-0. Oh well, it's just a number, mentally I'm still in my 30's. (or at least I keep telling myself that).

That's it for now, I have to get back to work.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

A sticky/stinky situation

I seem to have a bit of a problem. I currently attend school to finish my degree in accounting. I am currently enrolled in a class that meets on Saturday mornings. The first day of class a few weeks ago I struck up a conversation with a guy in, I am guessing his late 20's. He is a Finance major and I thought it would be good to know this guy since this was a Finance class we were about to begin. We have been sitting together in class and have shared our e-mail addresses so that we can "cover" for each other and to discuss problems we are having with homework. I like this very much because it helps to know that if you don't understand something perhaps your "study buddy" knows and can explain, or if you are sick or have to leave class early that there is someone who can let you know what you missed. Please let me also state that my "study buddy" is a VERY nice person.

So this is where I call for your help. How do I convey to my study buddy that he has a hygiene problem? Not only does he smell of body odor but his breath is also poor. So, if there is anyone out there that can give me some subtle ways to let him know please leave a comment.