I had the day off work anyway for July 4th, so I pretty much lazed around the house and took naps. lol I received some awesomely AWESOME yarn from M, which I love and will make pretty things with.

Birthday yarn of awesomeness:

I also ate way too much ice cream cake, but one’s birthday is the best time for making excuses, like being lazy and eating too many sweets, right?

- Even though I complain almost daily about it, I’m thankful that I have a job that pays my bills.
- Even though we’ve had some bumps in the road recently with unexpected expenses, I’m thankful for our house and cars.
- Sometimes they annoy me, but my parents always check up on me and they really do care.
- M is the best and I’m so happy he’s in my life.

And on a…less serious note:
- It’s kind of a pain to work on a deadline, but I really enjoy knitting holiday gifts for my loved ones. I’ve got almost two projects finished and have time to get the rest done before next month.

Look, I got an iPhone! I’d been coveting one for a long time, but had to wait till this week for my contract with T-Mobile to end. For some reason, I’d been getting a lot of “no service” on my Blackberry, mainly at work–I’d be sitting at my desk and the service would just disappear, then come back later, randomly. It’s kind of annoying to try to text when the network is all wonky like that. Anyway, hopefully AT&T’s network will be more reliable. Hopefully.

I’ve had my iPod Touch for several months, and it just spoiled me. I knew I wanted to get the iPhone, especially since I’m always on my iPod for Twitter, email, web, etc. It just made sense to get rid of the Blackberry and have one device that does everything, in addition to a camera and all the other cool stuff.

I bought the iPhone at my local Apple Store–the only Apple Store within 100 miles or so!–and I’m so glad I did. I wasn’t sure if I should go there, or to an AT&T store, but the general consensus seemed to be that the Apple Store had better customer service. I’ve been there in the past, to the Genius Bar when I had my MacBook woes a couple years ago, and they were always really wonderful. This time, I was helped by a girl who was really friendly, but it also turns out that she’s a crocheter, too! (I told M it figures that I would find the one crocheter in the whole store at the time.) She was trying to get me to subscribe to MobileMe, and saying that she uses hers to upload pictures and crochet patterns, and that’s when I mentioned that I crochet (and knit) too. I asked her if she’s on Ravelry, and she is, but I didn’t get her username.

Anyway, after that she had to move to the register, so another employee finished my phone setup. He ported my T-Mobile phone number over without any issues–it only took 15 minutes or so for the port to complete, really fast! I was worried that it might take a couple hours, but it didn’t. After that, the same guy helped me find a case–I’m so paranoid about my devices and potentially dropping them, and I wound up getting a Speck CandyShell.

After that, M and I had to go to T-Mobile to do a Change of Responsibility on the account, since I had been the primary account holder and ours was a family/shared plan. The girl at T-Mobile was really nice, too–I was worried she’d be mean since I told her that I ported to a different carrier, but she wasn’t at all. She put us in touch with corporate customer service, we got everything transferred over, and she fixed M’s insurance when the phone rep forgot to transfer it over. We had pretty good service at both the Apple store and T-Mobile, so I was glad about that!

I’ve been downloading apps the past couple of days, mostly productivity, social networking, and music related. I don’t play too many games. If you have any good app suggestions, let me know! I did install the WordPress app, so maybe that will encourage me to blog more than once or twice a month? We’ll see.

Come to think of it, maybe silence isn’t so bad, since right now I’m just rambling aimlessly…

Happy holiday of your choice, or happy winter (is it winter yet?) if you don’t celebrate anything in particular

M and I are off to the parents’ house…all the family is going to be there…may the force be with us.

Here’s what Dream Moods has to say this time:

To see roaches in your dream, represents an undesirable aspect of yourself in which you need to confront. Alternatively, it may be a pun for smoking marijuana. On a positive note, roaches may also be symbolic of tenacity and longevity.

Marijuana? lol The other part is pretty general, I mean there are tons of things about myself that I need to confront! Really helpful, subconscious. Helpful indeed.

Well, according to Dream Moods, my dream is warning me of impending doom and disaster. No, really:

To dream of a bleeding nose, is prophetic of disaster and danger.

Something to look forward to?!

I got off my lazy bum around 2 PM today and went to the library. There were a couple books I wanted to check out, plus my card had expired so I needed to renew. I have several branches in my area, but I went to the one closest to my house. When I got there, I was walking toward the front door, passing two guys talking. One of the guys shouted at me, “DAMN GIRL YOU LOOK SEXY, WHAT’S YOUR NAME?” omg. I ignored him and hurried to go inside, and I think he said something like, “I’LL BE WAITING HERE” wtf? ok…I was relieved when I went inside and saw a security guard wandering around, because I planned on flagging him down if I saw the creepster again. I renewed my card and found the books I wanted, then browsed for a few minutes, hoping the creepster would leave…eventually I checked out and left, and didn’t bother looking around much to see if the weirdo was still there or not. I didn’t get accosted on the way out though, so that was a good thing.

oh, and one of the books I specifically went to the library for? The Gift of Fear, what a coincidence, right?! geez.

When I came home, I decided to be even more productive, and blocked a couple knit items which I cannot say anything more about because they are holiday gifts. I kind of dislike the blocking process–I like pinning things down and then unpinning them and seeing how the pattern magically opens up, but I dislike the actual washing of the knit item. However my hands do have a lovely lavender scent on them right now.

Tonight M and I are wrapping gifts and tomorrow will drop them off at the post office, aka the holiday hotspot of doom. This is probably the worst time to go to the post office–well, anytime between now and Christmas, I suppose–and I keep getting emails from the USPS saying that they’re having problems with Click-n-Ship. We might have to stand in line tomorrow, joy.

To be honest, and at the risk of sounding like the ultimate grinch, I’ve never really been into the Christmas thing. Even when I was a kid, Christmas was never a huge deal. We exchanged presents and everything, but as an adult, I feel like the retail/material aspect gets more blown out of proportion every year. Christmas is supposed to be a religious holiday–at least that’s the idea I got when I drove past a gigantic neon “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS” sign the other night. Once upon a time, I was very religious, but I’m not anymore. I’m basically agnostic, and M is pretty much pagan, lol. But we do have a wee tree, even though it is plastic and only about 2 feet tall and black. (I am not joking. I should take a pic.) We will exchange a few presents, but other than that, I’m just relieved when the holiday season is over. The malls are insane at this time, as are the post offices and places blasting Christmas music–it all makes me crazy! Anyway. yeah I think I am basically a grinch, so please excuse me. I know many people love this time of year, I just tend to associate it with stress and bad things. Maybe because a couple years ago I was on the brink of divorce at Christmastime, so the memory of that is still fresh and I’m very cynical as a result…or something.

All that being said–I think this is the first year that I’ve knit so many gifts for people. I’m making a scarf for my sister, something secret for kc, and I’m about to finish a stocking for M in his favorite colors. This is also the first year I’ve crocheted a gift–the afghan for M’s mom. I was thinking about either knitting or crocheting my mom a table runner for her dining room, but I’m not sure what pattern to use…I think basically any lacy scarf pattern would do, just enlarged…not sure if I have the proper stash yarn for it, though…hmm last minute ideas!

oh! I just remembered…I did get a bit of knitting done over the weekend, but I can’t share any details because it’s a gift for someone who reads this blog. I need to block it and do some finishing, but I’m very happy with the finished product. I also worked on my sister’s cabley scarf…hmm ok so I have knit stuff lately, I just haven’t taken pics because I’m lazy.

Actually, I’m hoping to finally break in my sewing machine this weekend and make curtains for my yarn room/office. I meant to do this months ago (like when we first moved in)…I’ve had the fabric the whole time, too. I’ll have to practice on something else since I haven’t used a sewing machine in years. I need to clean the house this weekend, too…cross your fingers that the death cold will be over by then!

* Collective Soul – December

Soooo I guess I’ll gather up all my lemons and…stay home, lol. On the bright side, this keeps me away from the Black Friday Madness that I’m sure is going on right now. I absolutely hate crowds and especially hate shopping crowds. I don’t even like going to the mall and avoid it when at all possible. (Apparently, that’s common when you are a hermit.) I’m making nearly all my holiday gifts, anyway (either knit or crochet) and I think I might try to work from my stash for the rest of them. Or just wait till the 15th, when I have money again, haha.