Recently in aimless wandering Category

Not much knitted. The mind is busy with work stuff, as are the hands. By the end of the day, they just kinda turn off.

Perhaps what I need is a nice plain sock with a lovely yarn to entice me, but that doesn't sound interesting. How do you balance finding something just interesting enough but able to do while dead tired/asleep?

Pattern suggestions please. I need something that is practically stockinette and won't look bad if I mess it up. Is a sock in a nice yarn the answer? Or just piling some yarn on my bed while I sleep enough to comfort the Knitter in me for a while...

Knitting pictures should appear soon!

Hehe. I wonder if they pronounce it similarly to my name!
Phreesia - Electronic Doctors Office

I would never pass muster as a Japanese housewife... But I want one of these bento lunch jars! (undecided on model)

• Mr Bento
• Ms Bento
• Gigantor Lunch Jar
• non-thermal but really awesome GlassLock Jars which I spotted in the work lunchroom.
  Update Found five different sizes of GlassLocks at Marina for about $6 each

I saw the Mini Bento and while super cute, it is also super small with only one section for hot food (that was about the size of a cup or so?)

And some who read this blog also know that I enjoy my morning sleep, balancing the "lemme sleep some more" with "Uh oh. I gotta do this before I get to work" rationale in the morning. Those people are laughing their heads off right now.

But one can dream and admire those who would beat me up in a lunch packing contest (does takeout count? 'Cause Nijiya Supermarket in Mountain View makes great bento)

• I would fail as a bento packer in terms of efficiency
• If I were a mother in Japan, my child would envy this child's bento and feel inadequate
• Flickr'd Mr. Bentos dangerous to look at if you're not 110% full or have some kind of stomach flu.

Things you may not know about my mother:

• She doesn't like microwaves because she believes they will turn food into radioactive waste
• She has filled the microwave with dried goods and uses it as a storage locker
• She thinks standing near a working microwave often enough will give you cancer
• She believes heated plastic is the next worst thing to Styrofoam
• We both have a thing for containers, mostly made of plastic. Yeah. Go figure.
  (Scientific or not, you don't want to mess with my mother)

I have lots of Stuff and know people with Stuff. eBay is a good place to attempt to rid myself of stuff. Company has a promotion to give recognition to recent college grad employees who lists/sells the most items and a few other creativity categories (quality and ingenuity counts, too). All this translate to some incentive to finally list my items and my stuff will become your stuff!

I'll be listing an assortment of items like Yarn, Knitting Books, Used Books, Longaberger baskets, and other little doo-hickeys that I have around the house. I have quite an awesome and eclectic selection of doo-hickeys, some of which are sheep things like sheep Pez or sheep paperclips. Oh, and a few SHEEP NOTEBOOKS! which make great knitting journals. How can you resist notebooks with Mouton written on them? Don't bother, you'll only hurt yourself in the mad rush for the sheep notebooks (my local supplier has been wiped out by the rabid knitters).

Thanks for taking a look and if you see something you know someone else would love, by all means, pass it on.

Contest Alert! If you refer someone else who does end up buying something, cc the referral email to moutonme AT freecia dooot com and I'll correlate their paypal email with the email you cc'd (so yes, the paypal email and the referral "To" email address should be the same).

Prizes: Two winners will be chosen:
- The person who refers the most completed winning auctions will get a free mouton mini notebook!
- A winner will also be drawn at random from the received emails. Prize is a mouton mini notebook!
(The things are too cute)

Yes, you can refer yourself ;)

Don't drink and watch.

The somewhat shameless - I am posting about an item I'm selling on eBay. Somewhat only because 100% of proceeds will go to Reading is Fundamental to support literacy programs for children.
The somewhat self promotion- Well, sure, it is my auction, but the company I work at¹ is actually matching the final donated price 100%, so double the winning bid goes to charity. And well, they're also taking care of the listing fee (but hey, I listed on a $0.20 insertion day to save the company some money).

So here it is. If you've ever wondered what books I choose to read in my downtime, when I'm not reading something Oprah would approve of:

¹ In case you didn't know - I work at the same company that well, made the nifty widget up there and has those IT commercials.

Do you ever buy yourself a little luxury product then get disgruntled when it doesn't work as advertised?

I bought some hair shine stuff, based on the recommendation of the sales girl at the beauty store, in hopes that it would perk up the shine quotient for my hair. I forked over the $30, figuring if someone has the gall to charge twice what other hair product companies charge, it should probably work. Probably.
I put a little of the Tigi Dream Drops onto my palms and tried to imitate a hair dresser by rubbing my palms together and swiping them through my hair.
Lean into the mirror, decide nothing has really changed.
Wonder if applying some heat would help and break out the hair dryer.
Not much change.
Attack it with a boar bristle hair brush to spread the oils.
Wonder and hope that there was a difference.
Go to my brutally honest parents and ask them. They mock me.
Go to dinner with family friends. Am a little tired and quiet, feeling a little foolish for paying that much for a non-working product. Am mocked again by my mother who claims I am sulking.
(This is not horrible or traumatic. We all have healthy ego's and self-esteem)

Good thing it says Satisfaction Guaranteed. I'm not satisfied and I'm not going to be shy about asking the manufacturer for $30 back. That's a good bit of yarn, a nice meal, or something else that does what it promises.

What do you do when a product doesn't work as well as you hoped? Does the price matter?

I'm also considering a ceramic Flat Iron for my hair in attempts to appease the detractors who insist I attempt to have a hairstyle (also related to me). Any recommendations for products that actually work for the absurd amount of money they cost?

In yarn updates, I stopped by Full Thread Ahead and picked up some Hand Maiden Sea Silk, Fleece Artist Sea Wool, and oooooooohh so soft Misti Cotton. And a hot pink camouflage (yes. hot pink camo) camp counselor t-shirt for the sock camp next month. It deserves a post. I may be short but I'll be noticeable.

Okay, so I admit I'm a bit crazy about Japanese Yen/Dollar Stores¹. They sell fantastic stuff of decent quality at affordable prices. Cookie made me out to seem like a plastic consuming monster with the sparse selection of Sheepish photos she posted. "Selection" would be the operating keyword here.

This is what Cookie *really* bought. Yeah. I might be small but I'm a good enabler.

The awesomeness of Japantown Kitsch.

No Japan for me this spring but I still got to see some nice blossoms.

And for those of you who don't mind the non-knitting non-knitter animal related content, please welcome the newest member of our family:

His name is Okey as in "okey dokey" (thank my mother). He's a little cockapoo puppy. And yes, for those of you who met Snowball who sadly passed away last year, this is another white dog; it wasn't intentional. This one doesn't shed. Yay! He's not as peppy or quick on the uptake as Snow, but he's already figured out how to piddle in the wrong spots. Good thing we look where we step.

¹ Ichiban Kan - 22 Peace Plz # 540 San Francisco map
Yes, I've been to Daiso and the collection of cute stuff at Ichiban Kan is much easier to navigate. Daiso has a larger assortment of goods, though.

I know I've said it before but now you can see how awesome my life is. With a special kick to the end of the day!

Elisa of Concateknit posted her typical day at work and I thought it was a neat idea. My normal day is probably of little interest to most out there, but I rather enjoy my life so I thought I'd post a slightly special "Freecia's Day".

My day usually starts out at about 8 am when I wash my tea mug and look out the kitchen window. I got up a bit early today to track down these great convertible bag backpacks made by Frederic T. I stalked a person in the grocery store last Saturday, refraining from asking where she purchased the bag. The first time I saw this really nifty bag was on a customer shopping at Full Thread Ahead and I forgot the maker.

This is my backyard. It was raining outside. -- 8 am¹

When I park my car, I always chuckle because this company has their own little house as an office building. Seriously, a cute little house in the middle of an office park. -- 9 am

These flowers have been making me smile all week. -- 1 pm

The clouds caught my eye so I popped into the hallway to take a picture of the gorgeous colors. -- 5:30 pm

Normally, this would be nearing the end of an already good day. Throw in some tv and knitting, or if it is Thursday, then knitting group.²

------ Eeek! The special event is about to start! -----------

Here's my boba tea and I'm ready to get my knit on. Instead of the normal Tapioca Express boba knit Thursday night, we're taking it to Stitches West for the two hour Market Preview. -- 7 pm. The wonderful gentleman in the shot is Hollis' father, Don. (shhh, this is a smuggled photo!)

Here are the boba knitters at the end of the night :
Left to Right: Pauline, Margit, Kristi, Cookie, and honorary member Hollis

Sorry they're a bit blurry. It was a long two hours. -- 9:30 pm

Here's my haul: Sarcelle and Avery patterns by Kristi, Louet Gems from Cookie, stitch savers (did Linda make these?), Ribby Cardi and Ribby Pulli from Bonne Marie at Chic Knits sold by Purlescence, and a magnet from Margit (thanks!). -- 10pm

And oh.

My comfortable shoes arrived. Just the thing for the coming weekend at Stitches.

Yeah, my life is so awesome.

Nite! --11 pm

¹ Times are approximate.
fn2. Note, my usual workday is a bit longer than this.