Rainy Day Reading

Today is a rainy day, it's been raining all night and suppose to rain the majority of the day.

Finn and I drove the boys to school this morning even though Rylin insisted it would be better for him to walk in the rain and as he owns a rain coat sincerely thinks this should to be totally acceptable to all parties. It was unacceptable to his brothers as they are old enough to know they will not enjoy sitting in sopping wet sneakers and socks all day. It was also unacceptable to me because in spite of rain coat ownership I have definite fear of one of my neighbors contacting Florida Children's Services about my children tromping throught the Tsunami on their way to school. In this day and age allowing your children to become 'damp' is most likely child abuse, as is discipline and giving your child dirty looks in public.

Finn thought this what a great adventure because the one person in this family who does not own a rain coat (me) is the one who had to stand in the down pour fastening him into his car seat while he squirmed and told me over and over "It's raining, Mommy." Hmmm... I'd noticed.

So what does one do on a rainy day? Read, of course. What is the perfect rainy day read? I went to my book shelf and perused the books I have yet to read. There are a few I had procured from my grandparent's house, among them I knew I'd find what I was looking for. Can you think of any book more perfect on a chilly rainy day than Wuthering Heights?

These books are not some cheap old paperbacks. My copy of Wuthering heights was published in 1907. There is another book named 'Anna Clayton' that was published in 1856. Depsite the stains the covers are beautiful and Anna Clayton has a very intricate design on the cover. The pages feel as close to silky fabric as you could get in a fictional book. I think back then books must've been quite a treat as tv wasn't invented until quite a long time after. No stupid dust jackets covered them, I sincerely dislike book jackets and when I am reading a hard cover book I usually remove them. I wonder who in my family read Wuthering Heights before me. Grandma? Gram Galla?

I'm still not over my cold and it's going around the family. I'm calling it 'The Consumption' and taking to my chaise to read and drink tea.

As The Phone Ringeth

Once again we have received a call from companies we have specifically told to stop calling us. Usually Bob fields these phone calls and has all the fun but this time I had a turn after all, if they can waste our time it is fair indeed for us to waste theirs.

We are enjoying a nice quiet evening together as a family when the phone rings. I pick up the phone and look at the caller ID. Bob says, "Who is it?" I say, "TruGreen Chem Lawn", he says, "Give it here." I say, "No'.

Me: Hello.
T.G. : Hello, this is Matt from TruGreen Chem Lawn, we care for your neighbor's lawn and we've noticed you have quite a weed problem in your front yard.
Me: A weed problem? Well, that sounds serious.
T.G.: Yes, well that is why I'm calling to offer a special introductory rate...
Me: Well, that sounds like a good deal. I've seen you all at my neighbor's house doing her lawn.
T.G.: Yes, we have been caring for her lawn for quite some time now.
Me: Well... her yard is brown.
T.G.: It is winter time...
Me: But my yard is green.
T.G.: But it is full of weeds.
Me: My weeds are green. Her ChemGrass is brown.
T.G.: But you don't want those weeds in your yard.
Me: I want my yard to be green, aren't we after the same thing here? A green lawn? Are you the one who tells my neighbor to run her sprinklers all the time? Because she wastes all this water and her yard is still really brown.
T.G.: Your neighbor seems happy with our service and I think you could be too.
Me: I won't be very happy if you turn my yard brown. All these chemicals are they safe for the environment? The St. John's is turning green and I think it may have something to do with you people.
T.G: Our lawn care plan has been proven safe for the environment.
Me: Well, that's good to know. I'll tell you what I'm prepared to offer you my weed clippings at a very low rate... they are guaranteed to stay green year round.
Me: Hello?
Me: Matt? Are you there?

Colds and cold

Here is how Finn has been dressing lately. It's been cold enough here that if we go out in the morning I actually have to put a hat on Finn. Finn of course continues to wear the hat in the house through the day and night.

Finn caught a really nasty cold last week and gave it to Bob who spent Thur. - Mon. sick with it. They were kind enough to gift it to me. I spent yesterday on the couch knitting and watching a movie (A&E's Pride and Prejudice) when Bob came home from work he sent me to bed (away from him where the risk of reinfection will be lower he thinks) and hooked up a dvd player in our room and popped in Sense and Sensibility. When he came to bed however he demanded it stop, I am in full agreement because otherwise he will sit and mockingly speak to me in an atrocious British accent of things like crumpets, clotted cream and anything else that sounds even remotely British to him.

I finished the fingerless mitts and had to model them on Finn due to the fact that I could not wear them and take the picture and my dress form does not have arms.

I cast on a new project last night; The Stolen Moments Wrap and I'm using Bernat Bamboo yarn.

I'm going to go make some tea, grab my tissues, my knitting and my blanket and set up camp on the couch. I'll try to forget the fact that I should really switch the laundry, clean my room and take a shower. Seriously, it was too cold this morning to even contemplate wet hair!

Bob has also instituted a rule that I am required to wear socks and mittens to bed, my hands and feet are always like ice and according to him, "If I didn't talk so much he'd think I was dead."

Oh, and proof that I'm sick... I'm wearing sweat pants and no make up, I am so totally HOT right now.

"Big Girl Pants"

Tuesday my friend Mrs. M. visited we chatted and played with Finn, had some show and tell, ate lunch and then put Finn down for his afternoon rest. Once Finn was down we got out the pants that Bob laughingly has named, "The Big Girl Pants". Har, Har! Mrs. M. had quite a laugh when I held them up to me, yes, very very funny. Ya'll just wait...

We used a pattern I had in my pattern drawer as I cutting guide and I made it harder than it had to be because I demanded that the zipper be left in tact because I hate putting zippers in. We got all the pieces cut out ate some chocolate pie and then Mrs. M. had to go. I was a little down about the fact that we took pants from size 26W to my size and there was only this little pile of fabric (I seriously thought there would be more)

I sewed up all the seems and then tried on the pants. And guess what....?









They're too tight! I mean they're wearable and they're cute in an Audrey Hepburn skinny pants type way, but they were not what I was looking for. Not enough seem allowance to let them out. That means one thing - treadmill.

Dear Jo-ann,

Dear Jo-ann,

I am writing to let you know that your fabric store has gone severely 'down the toilet'. I went there last night with three children while my fourth one was at an appointment. I had approximately 1.25 hours to spend in your store. In the form of reality I chose to live in this should be ample time to buy the things on my list which was:

5 yards of fabric for backing a quilt
1 spool bobbin thread for embroidery machine
1 package of Avocado Cucumber soap
1 art item for Rylin to buy with the allowance that is burning a hole in his pocket

Your store was not busy in the least. (If you are easily offended by any kind of discrimination go away now this is fair warning) I walked into the store grabbed my buggy placed smallest child in said buggy and proceeded into the store. Glanced at bin right there in main aisle and picked up one package of Christmas labels for $.30, made note to self that I need to store these somewhere that will make me recall next Christmas that I own these and do not need to buy them. I then proceeded to go to the thread section... it wasn't where I left it. It had gone away. I walked around the store trying to locate where an entire retail section could have gone off to. I eventually found it behind the cutting table (where the people cut your yard goods for you) I thought to myself, "Well this has got to be dumbest place to put this as on Saturday or sale days when this place gets busy and the line is all over the place to get your fabric cut you will have to push, shove and physically harm folks to get a spool of thread." So I got my thread, went straight to the back of the store and started looking through the quilting fabrics. Everytime I found something I liked that was the right price there wasn't enough left on the bolt. I finally found a fabric that was acceptable, apeared to have just enough fabric on it and that was not priced so that I would have to chose between finishing my quilt and feeding my beloved offspring. So off we go to the cutting table.

As I walk up there 3 people waiting. A man with a huge pole with home dec fabric on it. A woman with a child wearing a cow boy hat in the front of the cart and a new baby in a infant carrier in the back, Finn declared, "That's a nice baby." You know, like you would say about someone's new car or truck. Then there was a lady with a cart full of pillow forms and fabric & trims to be bought to cover them. So now we have our setting. Also, your store has recently implemented a number pull thing like the deli at the grocery store. The 3 children and I stroll up I pull a number from the pole and look up. They are on #74 I am #79.

The man with the home decor fabric is first. His huge pole of fabric is laying all across the cutting counter. The woman behind the counter who is aproximately eleventy hundred years old and due to her advanced age may be hard of hearing, I will give her that... is apparently not qualified to cut home dec fabric, this is out of her job description and in no way will she attempt such a feat and will not be convinced. I know this because she is loudly telling the man, "I'LL TELL YOU WHAT THE ONLY WAY YOU ARE GOING TO GET HER BACK HERE IS TO GO UP TO CUSTOMER SERVICE AND COMPLAIN ABOUT HER! I'VE ALREADY CALLED HER TWICE ON THIS HEADSET AND SHE HASN'T COME BACK HERE YET." The man walks away leaving his 6ft fabric pole on the cutting counter and comes back. "DID YOU GO UP THERE?" The crone says. The man nods. "WELL, SHE'S NOT HERE AND IT'S BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T TALK TO A MANAGER DID YOU?" (In the meantime Rylin is dancing around demanding to know when we can go to the toy aisle, Franklin is sighing and starting to wander off and Finn is telling me he wants to go home.) I discretely tell them, "A few more minutes," and contemplate how I can jump the counter, grab the scissors out of the crones hands and bump her out of the way with my ample hips and cut the stupid fabric. Then she pipes up again,"WELL, I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY EXPECT THIS STORE TO RUN IF NO ONE IS GOING TO DO THEIR JOB." I contemplate what I could use the scissors for before cutting the fabric... it involves this person's tongue. (Frankie and Rylin are looking up at me with their eyes all wide in the way that children do when they come into contact with crazy folk and want assurance it's going to be alright. I wink at them, which is the universal symbol for "it's all good" and make sure I do not smirk cause if I do, they will laugh, then I will laugh and then Ole' Miss Crazy is going to know we're onto her we don't want that because the scissors apear to be sharpish.) So as she's saying this in the loud voice I hear from the next aisle, "I'm here. You can stop now." It is the long awaited employee with the mad home decor fabric cuttin' skillz. Ole Miss Crazy says,"Ok, good." Very quietly, she looked rather red faced and her total demeaner changed." I turned my head and met the eyes of the owner of the 'nice baby' and we both had the very tight faces of people who are putting all their might into not laughing out loud.

The newly arrived employee who is only about ten hundred years old as oposed to eleventy, goes over to the very patient if frightened man and begins cutting his fabric. Ole' Miss takes the fabric & corded trims of the pillow form lady, she asks the woman how much of each trim she needs and the woman says,"I'm not sure I need it to go all the way around the pillow form..." Miss Crazy says loudly, "WELL, YOU NEED TO DECIDE HOW MUCH YOU NEED I CAN'T DECIDE THAT FOR YOU!!!" The woman shamefacedly mumbles something along the lines of, "well I've never done this before..." I look into her cart at the pillow forms and say, "I would do 2 yards per each pillow." She looks at me gratefully and seemed to relax a bit, no longer looking like someone shamed and put on the spot and tells the crone what to cut. New employee finished with the man and started cutting nice baby's fabric, ok I was next please let me get new employee please... Ole Miss says," 76? 76? 77? 77? 78? 78? 78?" I pipe in and Rylin is now sitting on the filthy tile floor and I can't take much more of this. "They probably couldn't stand the wait time and left, I'm number 79." I step up put my bolt of fabric down and said, "5 yards." She unwraps the bolt with her witch like claws 5 yards takes me just a bit shy of the end of the bolt and as she goes to look up I say, "Yes, I'll take what's left." So she says, "WELL, I'LL NEED TO REMEASURE TO SEE HOW MUCH MORE THAT IS." Ok, so she measured five yards, looked up at me and now has to remeasure the entire thing simply because she looked away. She's remeasuring get's to the end and says," 1/4 yard" I look down and say, "No, I don't think so." She looks down at the fabric, I look down at the fabric, I say,"That is less than 1/4 I can see it from here." She looks at me distrustingly like I just told her I could see her girdle under her clothes. "IT LOOKS LIKE 1/4 TO ME!" I said, "Just give me the five yards then, I will not pay for what I am not getting. Please, make sure you cut it even as I will need all of it." She says,"I'll just give you the whole thing and put 1/8 yard remnant on there for the end of the bolt?" I look at her and say very nicely, "Since it's 1/8 yard it sounds good to me." I take my fabric and walk away. Meanwhile my cell phone had rang about 4 times because Bob was calling I picked up and said, "Call you back in ten minutes."

I look at my watch we've been here an hour already. We run to get the soap, then to the art aisle where I tell Rylin to pick quickly. And he says,"Stop rushing me." There were not prices on the shelves or products anywhere!!! We get up to the counter and I look at the two cashiers one is high school age the other is elderly. I'm noticing a trend...
We pay. We leave. I call Bob back, he says,"What is your problem?" I explain to him what I'd just witnessed and endured. He says, "Maybe you should get a job there." I said,"I've applied there before they weren't interested." He says, "So they hire people who cannot competantly cut fabric and they weren't interested in you." I said, "No. I figured it out. They do not hire women of child bearing age. Every employee was either too old by far or too young. They had said that they'd keep my application on file, they'll call when I'm Medicare eligible."

So, Jo-ann what I am thinking is this: #1 - You do not hire women who have children if you can help it because inevitably these sorts of women will be required to leave early or call in due to a sick child etc. as you cannot ask, "Do you have children?" by law you simply do not hire anyone of a certain age. Other than that your standards regarding your employees seem a bit lax to say the least. #2 - You in no way screen your employees for any kind of customer service skills or even plain old manners. #3 - You do not verify that they are capable of cutting in a straight line or have the ability to cross train between regular fabric and home dec fabric. I cannot positively say that this is what you are doing but that's where the evidence leads me. I am not going to say, "Don't hire this sort of people." That would not be right. I'm just saying do not hire people and then put them into positions they cannot fulfill. I don't care if you hire orange Oooompa Loompas as long as they understanding the first grade skills of measuring and cutting accurately. Futhermore, stop moving things around. I am not comfortable with change. Put the thread back where it goes.... everything else too, I couldn't find a price for one single thing because when they got moved the prices did not follow them to their new shelves perhaps that would be a fitting job for the crone instead interacting with people.

Should the employee I've complained about in this letter decide to gather her coven together and take action to harm me, let her know I have $4000.00 eyes and I'll see them coming and she was right I can also see her girdle...

I will be calling your store and speaking to the manager today. I thought a fabric store was the sort of place where you could take your impressionable children and not have them pick up rude, nasty habits such as verbally slamming a co-worker in front of a whole slew of customers, or listen to your mother get that slightly threatening tone in her voice while speaking about yard goods. And it is a wonderful thing that they couldn't read my mind where in there was a picture of me leaning over the counter and snatching someone up by their purple polo shirt.

Lastly, please tear up the application I have submitted. I do not think I have the sort of tolerance required to work with your existing employees around sharp objects, I would probably go all crazy in my mind (seems to be a bit catching there) and label the scissor section"Shanks" and relocate those long poles that hold the Home Decor fabric some place very inconvenient. It's best I look for employment elsewhere, you continue getting your day labor from the asylum as you have been doing.


Regards,
Jessica Wandtke

P.S. You were having a big yarn sale but I didn't buy any because I spent all my time waiting at the cutting counter.

Relaxing Pastime Photos

Pieces for the Christmas Mystery Quilt. Which will from this time forward will be referred to as "The Winter Quilt" as Christmas is over and changing the name will make me feel less inadequate. I appreciate your compliance with this

Here is the Fingerless Mitten that is completed. The ends still need woven in but I'll do that when I finish the second one. I am almost finished with the ribbing on the 2nd one in spite of the naughty cats theft attempts. She steals my knitting, needles and all and runs making me chase her and strewing yarn all over. In case you are interested the Pattern is Mitt Envy (free on Ravelry), knit with fingering weight yarn on size 0 needles. I have altered the pattern by doing the first repeat 8 times instead of just once in order to have them be longer they are a little shy of elbow length.

Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!!!