Just a few notes

Sorry, gang for my little leave of absence lately. I have been particularly busy the last couple of weeks because I have been putting in extra hours at the library ever since I got promoted to the "Circ Clerk" job. I am still shelving a little AV there, but I have been training the last 2 weeks with my supervisor, sometimes working two shifts, while also taking on my 12 students throughout the week as well. It's been a stressful time, and I have been getting home late, eating late and doing little but watching tv because my brain is fried, overly tired, giving my headaches, or all the above.

I do have lots of things to share with you all though, regrettably not too much in the knitting department. I have been working the past month in a half on various hibernated projects, but I have also casted on for something wintery because I just couldn't take it any longer. I'll talk about it more later on in the post.

I have a new toy! I bought this Wurlitzer piano off of a lady in my hometown, and I'm thrilled to have my very own piano. I have been falling out of practice ever since college, and I am practicing with a vigor that I haven't seen in ages. Granted, I do have to play as quiet as possible, since the piano carries in the apartment and I am trying to avoid a "noise complaint." I haven't gotten one yet, and I want to keep it that way. It is very difficult to play quietly every time I practice, but I tell myself that it is only temporary until our lease is up. Joe and I plan on searching for a reasonably-priced townhouse or a stand-alone when our lease is up.

I've been playing around with photoshop for these pics, because my apartment isn't really photogenic. I really like the edited pics.

I've been cooking too. I've made a cheesy hash brown casserole, experimented with a mango turkey meatloaf, a red cabbage & green apple side dish, scalloped potatoes, a "spaghetti squash" dinner with my specialty garlic bread, etc. The gizmo that you see in the picture was one of my wedding shower gifts from Avon that is really fun. It cuts your veggies into those slices when you push the lid down on it. They cut the potatoes into really nice sized chunks for scalloped potatoes or for cutting carrots.

Has it been snowing a lot by you too? I've been having a hard time just getting out of my parking spot! My balcony is definitely feeling the weight of the snowstorms.

I've been working on EZ's "Mitered Mitts" in the Frog Tree yarn that I bought a while back (the same yarn as used in my Striped Shawl). I'm digging the mitts so far, and I have been knitting them during my work breaks. My Striped Shawl is coming along too. I don't have a recent picture though to share with you all.

I have one more interesting (and a horror)story:
A couple of weeks ago, Joe and I invited some friends over for a "game night" with appetizer foods and some fun board games like "Dirty Minds" and "Cranium." After leaving-this is a Sunday evening mind you, and they were only over like 2ish hours-my friend calls me on the phone and says her car is gone. Now, we ran out of visitor passes, and the apt. office is closed on the weekend, so were were on good faith (naive) that a towing company wouldn't be around on a wintery Sunday evening. She first thought that someone might have stolen her car, but we found out that she actually did get towed! OK, so we called them up, they towed her car just TWENTY MINUTES before my friends left, on one of those random "patrols" they they must do to earn another buck. We ended up having to drive to a town 30 minutes away(!) and have to bail the car out for nearly 200 dollars, meanwhile having to drive to a shady shack in the middle of nowhere with a dark lot and a little house with no heat and carpet ripped out in nearly half the house. The money and drive wasn't the worst part, mind you. While we were paying, one man was taking care of the "business" transaction (only hard cash allowed) while the other man was in the darkest part of the shack, with a hooded sweater on, and hands in is pocket while he stared at us girls (Joe was along, though, it was the three of us). While we finished, we three collectively felt that this short mysterious man that was either DRUNK, or on DRUGS or both... was going to knife us as we walked out (he was standing by the doorway the whole time). Hey, that's three purses/wallets and no money trail since it's cash. This guy gave all us the serious creeps...and he really looked like a serial killer...and I'm not just saying that because of the hood and dark room. Bad vibes were flaring off of him, and we all felt the same way. We almost bolted out of that place, locking our car doors as we got in. We all wonder what would have happened if we didn't give them the money and tried to get out of paying. That place still gives me the goosebumps. We complained to our apt. manager, and he said he got a complaint about the creeps before.
That's my scary story for a while, hopefully. We all keep thinking of it as our "near-death" experience. I was very, very angry about the predicament, but I'm glad that we were all safe. Never, ever go alone to those places if you don't have at least a guy. It was us two girls and a guy, and we still all felt in danger. I can't imagine two girls going alone.

I'm going to leave you on a better note now and end with a trivia question: a thousand points if you can name this chord! :)