Archive: July, 2008

Whadyaknow - I learn something new everyday. When it comes to air in my tires, I always went off of what was on the tires, not what was listed in my owner's manual or on the driver's door. Just curious if anyone else follows this rule of thumb.

http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/package/0,21861,1814385-1083882-2,00.html

Now here's in interesting thought for a tennis tournament. The underhand serve seems a bit odd, but understandable.

http://www.sportsline.com/tennis/story/10905807/rss

The Cincinnati ATP Masters Tournament is less than a week away and I'm starting to get excited. The summer tennis season is in full swing (pun intended!) and this tournament is one of the best. The venue is much smaller than the US Open in Flushing Meadows NY, and seems much more accessible. I can say that I've been a few feet away from some of the greatest players of the game - Federer, Blake, Agassi, Djokovic, Roddick to name just a few. It doesn't attract as much media as some of the larger tournaments, but I'm fine with that. My friends would agree that we'd rather keep this great little secret to ourselves!

We only spend 2 days at the tournament, but it's always action-packed. It's also a time for me to catch up with one of my dearest friends who lives in the Cincinnati area. Here's hoping we have some great weather to match the impressive tennis performances.

Got a bit of a shock today. The son of one of my old co-workers was killed on Sunday afternoon. He was 16 years old. It's stories like these that upset me about how fragile life is and that you never know when you might be seeing someone for the last time.

My heart goes out to Annette Dadante and her entire family.

http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/121671541850620.xml&coll=2

When I was growing up I was addicted to reading. I can remember early memories of walking to the library after school and spending what felt like hours in there, finding all sorts of treasures to take home. In the last few years I haven't read as much, partly because of other interests and not being able to take public transportation to work. Man, did I get alot of reading done on the bus/rapid/subway.

When I was a stage manager, I used to have my actors fill out an emergency contact sheet that I kept on file in my production book. In addition to the contact, it also asked for any allergies or known medical conditions, etc. but I added one more listing on the sheets that I gave to my actors. I asked for their favorite author or book. I often got a lot of people questioning why that was on the sheet and I told them that was purely for fun. It was how I got my summer reading lists, when I was laid off from June to August. I would also post the list on the call-board for anyone else who might be interested.

Right now I'm reading "Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair" and I heard about 2 different books that I want to check out: Butterfly Garden and Suite Francaise.

So, I'm curious what people would state is their favorite book or author or what they're reading right now. My summer reading list needs some new materials!

After several months, 5 to be exact, I have finally gotten through level 9 of Zuma. To say that this has been a pain-point for me is putting it mildly (just ask Jeff about my swearing tantrums while playing!). I am not really a gamer, but this game has become an obsession for me and it had been my solitary goal to get to level 10. I can finally release all my pent-up gaming anger as I've gotten over this hurdle.

Well, the Waiting Game is over. I was notified this afternoon that I didn't get the job. The other candidate already had some Employee Relations experience so it tipped the scales. Typically, if you don't get the job at my company, you hear from the recruiter. If you do get the job offer, you hear from the hiring manager. It was refreshing to hear from the hiring manager telling me that I was an extremely strong candidate and that it was a very tough decision. Who knows, maybe another position will open up in that department soon and they'll think of me first.

Earlier this week, I needed to stop by my local yarn shop to pick up some additional yarn for a project I'm working on and was lucky enough to score a special $20 off anything in the store coupon. That's like being a kid in a candy store to me. After much deliberating, I selected a beautiful hank of 100% Alpaca in a rich Nutmeg color.

Browsing through the rows and rows of richly colored yarns, feeling the glorious textures, I'm finally learning a tough lesson about yarn - the finished project is only as good as the materials used. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee talks about this in one of her books. She compares it to cooking and if you substitute mediocre ingredients in a recipe that calls for more expensive & rich tasting ingredients you're going to end up with a mediocre dish instead of what the recipe intends. It's the same with knitting - I just have to retrain my brain to be okay with buying a $28 hank of yarn instead of the Jo-Ann's $3.99 discount yarn. That's the difference with knitting and cooking. It's not as drastic of price difference between margarine and butter, or milk and heavy cream as it is between acrylic yarn and silk, wool, cotton, or alpaca yarn. But you can tell the difference in the finished project.

Lucky for me I had the $20 off coupon so I only paid $8 for the luscious alpaca. Now I'm trying to find the right project for this yarn. I have 665 yards to work with and I'd like to knit myself a shawl with it, but haven't found a pattern that I like yet. All in good time.

I feel so helpless right now as Jeff is laid up with a severe allergy attack. His level of miserable-ness is off the charts and I just wish there is something I can do to make him feel better. If anyone understands what it's like to have allergies kick your ass, It's me. I've been on prescription medications for my allergies since I was 3. I've had to be taken to the hospital on at least 4 occasions because of allergies/asthmatic reactions. When it comes to allergies, my first instinct is to take drugs to fix it - even if it means over-medicating so that I'll just pass out. I've taken and tried it all, and it's not uncommon for me to become immune to a specific medication. Jeff's definitely not like that, which makes the helpless feeling all the more pronounced.

He's sleeping now so I hope he'll feel better soon.