o blah di o blah da

excellent analysis of bush's speech last night, courtesy of defective yeti

i'd prefer to be uninformed

one of the reasons we don't have cable, other than the fact that we don't have the time to watch tv very much any more, is that we'd probably waste lots of time watching the news.

crabby

[rant]

so it's official, school's out and summer's here. you know how i could tell? i did a few errands on my lunch break today and all the local retail establishments have their summer teen workers crews out. you know, the ones that have NO IDEA WHAT CUSTOMER SERVICE IS.

okay, so i'm a little picky about the customer service thing. i have had many, many retail jobs and in all of them, there were high expectations in the customer service department, thank god. i became a conscientious 'salesman', even if i sucked at the sales part of the job title. it also gave me an expectation of a basic level of how i want to be treated when i am the customer. for example, if you have a shop that is about the size of my living room, and i come in and look around for about 15 minutes without being greeted or asked if i need help or even having my presence acknowledge in any way, chances are i won't come back because you don't deserve my hard earned money.

so back to today. i went to the gap because they were having a sale. yes, when i'm paying $15 for a pair of pants on sale, maybe attention from sale people is too much to expect. but i would like it if you spoke more than three word sentences to me. i would also like it if i didn't have to hunt you down to get a little help.

i then went to the local pharmacy to get a problem with an rx of brian's straightened out. this was the highlight of my day. even tho the problem was complicated and involved many phone calls to the insurance company, the employees there followed through and even called me to tell me everything was taken care of and the prescription was ready. guess who is going to get some cookies delivered to them as a thank you on monday?

i forgot to pack a lunch, so i went to a local eatery to get a sandwich and chips. i asked the guy behind the counter (when he actually acknowledged that i was waiting for help) for the sandwich of my choice. by the stare i got you would have thought i had asked him to make me a nuclear submarine to go. sandwich guy then went to the sandwich preparing area to get the bread, and then turned to me to ask me again what i wanted with that? yeah, um, mayo and lettuce only dude. do you want me to write it down?

i could cite a few more examples, but i think you get the picture. maybe everyone in the universe was having a bad day yesterday and i should just let it go. it was some kind of customer service black hole harmonic convergence thing. what ev.

[/rant]

various knitting geekery items

ITEM THE FIRST: i did my first online swap last week. i saw this post at boogaj and thought i'd give it a shot. i offered cash, OR vermont goodies (you know, syrup, king arthur flour stuff, etc) OR a combo of both. i thought FOR SURE that i wouldn't 'win' (so to speak) since this was my first try at an online swap. well, julie e-mailed me RIGHT back and said she wanted the vermont box o' goodies. off i went on my lunch break to king arthur flour to shop for someone i only know thru reading her blog. the package from her arrived monday and included the yarn plus a couple of her felted bag patterns AND an extra skein of yarn. she got her box o' goodies yesterday and we're both happy!

ITEM THE SECOND: this post about creating a stash spreadsheet totally cracked me up, partly because she's got 57 miles of yarn, people. but also because it's totally the kind of geeky spreadsheet organizational thing i would do if i ever actually had the time to get on the computer at home. my stash is fairly small, due to financial and time constraints. i'm guessing 2 miles tops. a pittance.

ITEM THE THIRD: having just admitted above that i have a small stash, i have been thinking about expanding it with a trip to kaleidescope yarns. i'm going to burlington sometime soon to make a pilgrimage to old navy for the girls (and maybe me too) and it's just a hop, skip and a jump away so...plus, i've been drooling over scarves made with these yarns from a couple of my books. but i also made a vow that i needed to finish one or two projects before i start anything new. and i need to get cracking on socks i'm making for christmas presents before i make anything for myself. right.

cross dressing

from mimismartypants:

"Nora has the "Asian" American Girl baby doll... (I put "Asian" in quotes because there really are no cues that the doll is supposed to be Asian other than the fact that she's not pink and not dark brown.) Anyway, Nora has been rather underwhelmed by this status-conscious plaything until we discovered that the doll's clothes fit Purple Dog perfectly. Purple Dog (or P-Dogg, as we sometimes call him: P to the D to the O double G!) thus spent much of a rainy afternoon wearing a diaper, a flowered long-sleeved shirt, and a lilac jumper with heart-shaped buttons. LT was completely horrified when he found out, and became even more disturbed when I made Purple Dog say in his deep Isaac Hayes voice, "Ain't nothin' wrong with a dog liking soft pretty things." Is Purple Dog on the down low? Or is it just a harmless, occasional kink? Stay tuned. "

LOL

this does not quite live up to the baby-left-in-the-garbage-can-that-turned-out-to-be-a-buritto-story from the palo alto daily news police blotter, but it's close.

from the police blotter of the carmel pine cone: MONDAY, MAY 23
Carmel-by-the-Sea: Engine and ambulance responded to the reported smell of natural gas at the San Carlos Street art gallery. An employee had detected the smell of natural gas in the gallery’s lower-level office. The area was checked with the gas detector, with negative results. Smell of natural gas turned out to be burritos and Spanish rice being warmed up in the microwave.

sex change

last night i was showing off the new ipod to sarah and jane. and i told sarah how i'd bought a few songs off itunes right after the purchase of the new baby-believe by cher, dreamin' by blondie and it's raining men by the weather girls, amoung others. she told me i'd make a good gay man.