An old project on a new friend-to-be

This weekend we get to meet Baby Kelly, so I thought that would be a good time to share a photo of a little no-biggie project from a while back. A little improvised Who-Hat with a tassel on top. Cute for a cutie! I can't wait to see her in it. And believe me, we'll be having a photo shoot of Kelly in the Matinee Coat and also one of her Uncle Mark in his new sweater. Whee!

Finished!!!

On Telemarketers

For those of you who work in offices with heavy telephone traffic, you'll know what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't (and for the lady I just talked to), see if you can appreciate the situation and give an office manager a break.

There's a new type of call the last few years that generally comes from companies trying to renew your car warranty before it runs out, move your information up to the front pages of Google, offer you free installation of your home's new satellite television system, or tell you that you've won a trip to Cancun just for existing. It's always a very chatty (computer) voice. It gives you time to say your spiel, in my case, "Good Afternoon, Dr. Williams' office, this is Natalie." and then there's an inappropriately long pause (just in case your spiel is long, I guess) and the chatty voice says, "Hi. (pause) Did you know that..." whatever they're selling. Have you gotten these calls? The kind that make you so mad because you fall for it about half of the time even though you should know better? I get them day in and day out. One of the worst offenders is American Express. We don't, for our own reasons, accept American Express cards. It's just policy. And they HATE that apparently because they are constantly ringing our phones with both live and computer operators. I have been asked if we would like to add American Express to our system so many times that I've become... let's use the word cavalier... about ending these phones calls as quickly as possible.

So today...

The phone rang. I picked it up.

"Good Afternoon. Dr. Williams' office, this is Natalie."

Pause.

"Hi. (pause) Do you accept American Express?"

Naturally, I responded: "No, and we're not interested, thank you." Click.

Done. Minimum of wasted time, AND I didn't even spend energy on getting indignant. Just politely let them know where we stand and...

The phone rings.

"Good afternoon. Dr. Williams' office, this is Natalie."

"Natalie, do you mean to tell me that, as a new patient with an American Express card, you're not interested in my business and you would hang up on me every time I call?"

Woops.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, of course not. That's not how I generally address patients. I just get many calls from American Express telemarketers and I mistook you for one. Unfortunately we do not accept American Express, but we do accept Visa and Mastercard."

"Well, I'll have to think about it." And she hung up on me.

Can you blame me, though? How about identifying yourself as a human with teeth who's interested in our dental services?

I feel kinda bad. But then she didn't have much of a sense of humor about the situation, either. Maybe we don't want her anyway.

Something tells me we won't get a chance to find out.

Baby Names

No, I'm not here to discuss our list of favorite baby names... I know you probably would like that, but I'm not sure I could handle the volume of input that would surely invite.

I'm here to let you know the baby, as of yet unborn and ungendered, has seen to it that it's name has been changed (but only until it gets it's real official name which it can just wait until it's 18 years old to change if it must). I guess it didn't like Frijole. It didn't take. We didn't find ourselves referring to it as such in conversation, and thus knew it wasn't the right name.

But then the right name presented itself. In describing how I was feeling to some friends of Senor's, I found myself using a Ghostbusters analogy. And out flew the words, "There is no baby, only Zoul."

Zoul it is.

As in "Zoul doesn't like mommy to eat fruits, vegetables, or anything else good for it," and "Zoul makes mommy cry at the dumbest commercials," or the popular, "Zoul doesn't want mommy to get a whole night's sleep but does want her to sleep in the daytime."

See how neatly that works?

People, Frijole.

Frijole, People.



Baby Strong
Due March 21, 2009

Welcome to the womb, Frijole.

Ravelympics 2008

The goal: To cast on a project during the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics-- a project of somewhat epic proportions-- and finish it by the end of the closing ceremonies on the 24th. 17 days of mad knit sprinting!!

My event: The Sweater Sprint

The project: A self-designed sweater for my fairly manly-sized cousin Mark, who is currently in attendance at the actual Olympics.

My Team: Team Middle Earth. One Team To Rule Them All!

My Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers in colorway "Shire" (of course).

My Status: Four days down, back completed.

What Michael Phelps thinks of this progress:



Evidence:


(I am using one of Mark's favorite sweaters as a size/shape template)

On to the front!!

8 squares to the end

With Ravelympics starting tomorrow (YAHOO!!!), I won't be able to finish the remaining 8 squares necessary to complete the knitting on the Barn Raising Quilt. I was cruising along with cat-like quickness when, for some reason, knitting the squares started making me sea sick. It slowed me down more than I could manage, and thus I did not make my goal. But I did photograph some of the pairings that WILL appear in the final blanket. The colors are more vibrant in real life, promise.

Enjoy!