The Office Martyr and Signs of Spring

Every office has one. The person who can't work enough. She (or He) doesn't take lunch breaks, they stay late, come in on the weekends, work when they're sick, all to get attention. I've known the office martyr before but never to the degree I have known now. I have a great job, its fun and I have a fabulous boss, really. I also have a co-worker whom I'll call The Pill. The Pill has been working at our company 3 more years than I have, yet she acts as though she's been there for 20 years. She's at work constantly, even when she doesn't have to be. She lets everyone in earshot know about her illnesses, her children's illnesses, personal family woes, how long she's gone without a day off, etc. I don't think she realizes there's a line between personal life and work life that shouldn't be crossed. She jumped over it a LONG time ago. She and I have butted heads since I started. She is a manipulative liar, gossiper, a whiner, a crier, a complainer and most importantly the office martyr. Did I mention she's in her 40's, and not her teens? Her appalling behavior constantly amazes me. What amazes me more is that no one in 'power' seems to want to do anything about it. They just let her act the way she does with no repercussions. I keep telling myself that she must be a truly miserable person and not happy in the least little bit to act the way she does. It's too bad she has to ruin my perfectly wonderful job.

In happier news, our yard is showing more signs of spring. The quince had starting blooming a couple of weeks ago and the narcissus's began blooming this past week. I cut a few before dinner and stuck them in a vase. So pretty. Daylight savings time starts next Sunday (the 9th) too. It'll be 75 degrees ago before we know it.

Sunday in Pictures

Reminder for the first task of the day












A very green salad for lunch









Budding Quince in the backyard









Peas sprouting









How Ed spent most of his day









How I spent a good portion of my day (knitting my Sophie Bag and listening to Lime n' Violet podcasts

Let it be me

Sometimes you get a song stuck in your head and you keep singing and you have to listen to it to me it go away. I've had "Let It Be Me" by the Indigo Girls in my head since last night. The song's about injustice but I was thinking about it because of the chorus "let it be me." We were at a baby shower last night for a very nice couple and going to baby showers when you are facing the possibility of never having your own baby is not easy. It's painful. Especially when you are the only woman in the room who hasn't been pregnant and you don't know if you ever will be. So many people don't understand. They try to be comforting, which I appreciate, but I've almost become bitter about it. I used to have hope but after IVF my hope has slowly disappeared. I don't really know what we're going to do at this point. IVF is so extremely expensive and I'm doubtful it would work a second time. For now I'm just going to try to focus my energies on other things and attempt to regain some of that hope I used to have.

Finished Objects

I've been intending to write this post for several weeks but hadn't gotten around to it until now and now I have more finished stuff for this year.

I present my first, second, third, fourth & fifth finished knitting objects of 2008:

Doug's Tahki Donegal Tweed Scarf in Black


My Pick Up Sticks Felted Bell Hat, made with Cascade 220 in a deep red. My first felted project. It was super easy and quick. Looooove this hat. Love it even more because I made it with my own two little hands.


Scarf for David, modeled by Doug. This was supposed to be a Christmas gift but I ran out of the yarn and Yarniverse didn't have anymore in one of the colors so I had to search for it online and then order and then wait for it to come in, so it was more like a 'first week of February present'.












Next, was my 'Super Bowl' scarf. Just one skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky knit in stockinette until I ran out of yarn.












And finally, Calorimetry from Knitty.com It's a buttoned headband, I think it's cute but several other people I showed it to didn't care for it very much. Which is fine because I didn't make it for them. Blah.

Now that those are finished I have the yarn and patterns for several more things. Socks, several simple tank tops, an empire-waisted sweater and a few bags. I'm currently working on a little felted bag, knit in the round. I'm hoping it goes quickly so I can move on to the sweater, it's so cute I'm anxious to knit it. I'm really hoping to get a lot more knit this year than I did last year. This month marks my 2 year 'knit-a-versary' (as well as my 4 year wedding anniversary).

In other news, I planted some radishes and some butterhead lettuce today and I started my seedlings for broccoli, tomatoes, sweet peas & eggplant. I'm really hoping to baby them so they don't die. My goal is to have an organic garden this summer. Our super awesome yard crew is coming at the end of the month to clean up the backyard (i.e., getting rid of all the junk plants, shrubs, crappy monkey grass from hell and the two 'killing sheds' in the back yard, YAY!) As soon as that's done Doug's going to make my raised garden beds and I'll be able to plant my seedlings (provided they live). I ordered all of them from Seed Savers, they're all organic, heirloom seeds.

Doug is getting ready to fly out to Sao Paulo, Brazil tomorrow afternoon for work. Luckily, he'll only be gone until Friday. I'm saying a little prayer it will go smoothly. Brazil is not the safest place in the world and he is not a good flier. He does get to go to a lot of very cool places, Amsterdam, Brussels, Singapore and now Brazil. Soo lucky. One day I'm going with him (except to Brazil, I'm not really big on Brazil right now but Amsterdam and Brussels are totally on my list).