progress bars

so, i implemented a progress bar a short time ago using anna knits flash file, but today i replaced it with divs and css instead. so far it works om all the mac browsers i have tried, but i do not have a PC connected to the internet anymore, so i hacve not tested it in those browsers. i'd be interested in finding out how it works on PCs.

she knows...

after an email 20-questions session, my sister figured out that i was giving her ---- Canning Jars! I got these at my landlord's garage sale and the glass ripples on the inside, they are so old and they have glass tops, too. i think they are gorgeous. any way, here's a picture:

and here's one of the top:

one hand for warmth

as i sat in my office yesterday literally shivering because it was so cold (and only 80 degrees outside), i wished i had the other one of these finished:

made of elsebeth lavold's angora yarn in bronzed green (also known as #15) these this is one warm glove. i used the pattern in weekend knitting and made a couple of adjustments (of course) as well as a couple of mistakes. the garter cuff is supposed to be longer (at least it is in the picture in the book) so i must have read the pattern wrong. it probably said "repeat these two rows 16 times" and i edited it to be "16 rows". i added a couple of rows on the palm of the hand after making the pinky finger because i hate how most gloves give me a web there and i am pretty happy with that. One more to go!

not making friends at photo lab

photo lab has been a bit un-relaxing lately. a lot of new people doing things like putting tongs from the developer in the stop and then back in the developer and not closing the filter tray on their enlargers and then flooding the darkroom with light or (and here i am being just really nit-picky) leaving their test strips in the developer (or fix, or stop) and going on to their next text strip - never taking their discarded bits out of the chemicals for the whole evening! sigh. well, last night, some chick (biased already, i know) asks if the lab has any canned air. i say "no, i don't think so". i do not work for the lab, she was just asking people in general. i'm at the chemicals, putting a contact sheet through and then she starts looking around all the enlargers. She sees a can of air in the enlarger space i am using and goes in and grabs it. As she is coming out i say, "you mighht want to go get your own." She looks at me, "what?" "you need to get your own canned air rather than just using other people's" "oh," she says, and returns my canned air to my things. Listen chickiboom, i have not run in ages, you do not want to mess with me! i know, it is just canned air, but it really bothered me that she was just going through people's things and using them. plus, i am not her supplier of photo equipment! i lend my things to people i know, but not someone i have never seen before.grr. it just bugged me. man, i really need a run! then maybe i can relax in the lab again. or, as discussed with SOP last night, i can buy some more equipment and set up a darkroom in his house. he has an enlarger, i have other miscellaneous equipment, a rack print-dryer would be easy to build, so i pretty well just need a print washer and i would be free of contaminated chemicals, fogged paper, and cheeky newbies.

no pictures this weekend

so i drew you one instead...

however, i DID take many pictures this weekend. 2 rolls of slide film (color) which i will drop off after work today so i can scan them soon! lots of pictures of lily-pads, maybe one of them will turn out. spent sunday out on a lake in the uintas in SOP's canoe (which he built himself, being the talented man that he is).

oh, and i have a gift for my sister! shh, don't tell her! hee hee. i'll post a picture of this cool item after i get it to her. ooh, i am so excited!

This just in! i finished 1 of my fingerless gloves this weekend and started on my poncho! i also broke multiple DPNs through transportation -grr- and ordered a variety of replacements to see which ones can handle my haphazard toting-around (i am also trying to tote around not-so-haphazardly). the fingerless glove is made of a woll/angora blend and is so warm it makes me ill! but while i was using it to hold my marshmallow shake purchased at Dick's on the way home from the lake, my hand did not get cold at all (though my fingertips did).
REAL pictures coming later this week!

oh sad day

i have run out of earl grey tea. sure, i can use another tea, my sister gave me some wonderful sassafrass, but my dear earl grey is gone. and no simple walk to the store will replace him, either, as he was loose and free and not confined in a bag. but there is now a tea store in SLC (alas, not mine) and i will venture there today, in search of another loose earl grey.

are we having fall or autumn now?

i made soup last night. summer must be over. and, in looking at the calendar (if you are into that kind of thing), it is.

"fall has officially begun" i comment to my compatriate in soup-eating, who wishes to remain anonymous for reasons that will soon reveal themselves.

"huh?" my compratiate (from now on refered to as CP) inquires.

"well, it's the 22nd, fall has started"

"is autumn already over?" CP asks.

"um, no, it's just started. it won't be over until december, the equinox, december 21st"

"but doesn't autumn come before fall?"



yes, my dear CP had always thought that fall and autumn were two seperate seasons and had wondered why we would have two seasons in the same time period covered by just one for the rest of the year. he then said that he was glad he had found out the truth with me, because it could have been really embarrassing had it been around someone else. Which is why i am sharing ;-)

a movie is not like real life

unless it is The House of Sand and Fog. Filled with characters that are multi-faceted. Characters that you do not think you can like, and then you find yourself doing exactly that. Sorrow and despair as deep as in real life. A movie that will cure you of any optimism you may have been feeling and set you straight: Ripping out your heart with pain as you sense the inevitable and you watch the rug being pulled out yet again.

Hero is not like real life. It is much better than that. it is the pain that comes with understanding, a pain we would be lucky to feel.

honeydo(ne)

this is the first time i've done sleeves, so i am pretty happy with the whole thing. anyway, here are my comments and changes to the original pattern:

1. i knit the fronts and back as one piece, instead of 3, and decreased the cast on amount sum by 4 stitches to account for the seams that would not be there. i also decreased the cast-off at the armholes by one per direction (4 total)


2. i knit both sleeves at the same time, using one needle and two balls of yarn, flat. i was not up to adjusting the pattern to knit in the round at that point.


3. i used invisible grafting on reverse stockinette to join the sleeves together


4. i joined the sleeves to the body using matress sitch

i am pretty happy with it. it always is so cool to finish something!

productivity up!

let me start by saying: The Roof is Done!
and let me follow up by also mentioning: The Roof is Done!
have i mentioned that the roof is done?
now, this is not my roof. it is SOP's roof. and yet i have spent more time on it that nearly any other roof in my entire life. it has been the direct object of all my weekend sentences for about 7 weeks and i am very thrilled to have it be the subject of this final sentence: the roof is done!

i wants it

yes, i've been drooling over the bee house teapots for over a year, but i thought i'd share today.

it's here...

i've reduced myself to a number

"CSIS, this is three"

yes, that is how i answered the phone at work once today. one of our techs is on vacation this weeka nd so i am answering the phone more, and obviously doing an amazing job of it as well. don't ask me how i blanked out on my name and called myself "three", but trust me, i've been a source of amusement for many this week.

last night's adventures

i'm on a plane. i wish they'd explain the parachutes to the passengers so that we'd know what to do with them if we had do evacuate. then i realize that they never gave us any parachutes anyway. i don't have a lot of faith in the seat-cushion plan.

i'm outside at the dugway proving ground, as are many others. we're all examining the crashed capsule. i don't have my camera with me. aren't all these people clambering all over the capsule going to destroy any surviving data? but they tell me i have to go look at it and so i do. i'm climbing up close to it, looking into it. it reminds me of the stones you find in the escalante desert. then i remember the explosives that were supposed to engage the parachutes and i decide i do not want to be so close.

i'm inside with twp others. i'm talking about the curry recipe i am going to devise and submit to the local paper. the one person tells me to just change the amount of salt in that recipe in the book, but i have greater plans than that. i call the orchid shop to find out what their hours are. i have to get this ready.

waiting for merino

my postman must hate me. or maybe he's a knitter and is stealing the lovely yarn i ordered for the poncho-a-long. or perhaps he is psychic and knows that i am not set on the pattern yet anyway, so what does it matter if i have the yarn or not? but then again, he could just hate me. but, on the off-hand that it is the psychic thing, i have done a rough sketch of what i think i want the poncho to look like:

the main color is a dark purple and the contrast color is a pistachio green. the colors are based on a house i saw while walking harley. the texture is based on a zip-sweater that my dad's mom made for him long ago. it is mostly purls, with 4 knits (on top of each other) every so often. boy, what a description, aren't i good with words? anyway. i want the knit columns to go up and down, so i will need to cast on a few stitches and keep increasing from there, and then decrease after the halfway point. the pistachio color will come in for some of the knits. anyway, maybe i should do a test strip first, just to let the postman know that i am really serious...

freetime (or the lack thereof)

i spent the long weekend working for the ski resort selling pre-season passes. it's the same resort i worked at while finishing my degree and i really enjoy the people. it is so different from my regular job, that it doesn't feel like i am working on my 9th day straight of working, but i am. and by this time next week, i will be working on my 16th day straight. sigh. and so i am debating whether i should work there again this winter or not. last year, i definitely needed it, with R having just died and just needing to be kept busy all the time by outside forces, but this year, i am not sure. this year i think i can motivate myself without having a place that i NEED to be at X hour, etc. well, i have until october to decide, so there's no super rush.

honey

okay, only one picture turned out. it was late, any picture i took had a big me-shadow right in the center of it and well, this is all i have to offer today:

if you want to see a big picture of the exact same thing, i think you know what to do


i have made quite a bit of progress, if you couldn't tell. you are so lucky. SOP gets to here me say "oh! look at it now!" about every three rows, but you get actual leaps and bounds!
i think the main reason why i am cruising on this is that i FREEZE at work and desperately want something else to keep me warm. it is not good when your teeth chatter and you can hardly type. makes web work pretty difficult, let me tell you! i'm sure that is the reason behind all my typos.