Thursday, September 07, 2006

More from Phoenix

My most favorite band, Barenaked Ladies. Guess what? They are coming to Phoenix in December and I GOT TICKETS! I should have looked a couple of weeks ago... I had gotten an email about pre-sale tix but it was only for Austin, TX. Well, I went back and looked last night and they had tix for Phoenix so I bought a couple. I got 9th row, center section, so I am really really happy about it... Time to find the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese boxes ;-) Now, hubby and I need to decide if we want to pay the big bucks to watch the Rolling Stones play here in November...

OK, so what has been going on since the last time I blogged? TONS!!!

I went home for a couple of days over the Labor Day weekend. Hubby picked me up at the airport on Saturday morning and we spent the morning with some friends that we have not seen in a LONG time! It was great to catch up. After that, we headed down to Coaches Locker Room to watch our Beloved Gators play football. Man, they REALLY look rusty. I hope this was a fluke. This weekend, they play UCF (also known to the locals as U Can't Finish) and I hope they look a lot better. Sunday, Mike and I went out for brunch, went to the casino and played some blackjack then over to the NE Heights for a Trader Joes run... Got some truffles, some strawberry lemonade sparkling beverage and some other goodies then we went home and vegged out. It was such an excellent weekend! I had to be back on a plane at dark thirty on Monday morning, but I was just happy to be home for a couple of days. I miss my hubby, my son, my kitties, my puppies and being home. Hopefully in a few weeks the new house will be ready and they can all join me down here. I will say that living in a hotel is not the best thing in the world, but it works...

Tuesday night was my first spinning class. The LYS I am taking the classes at has 4 classes that meet on Tuesday nights in Sept. Our first class we learned how to spin on a drop spindle. Fun... For the first hour of class, I felt like a cow on roller skates. I could not get the whole concept of spinning the drop spindle then drafting the yarn. I was really afraid of the drafting process. The teacher, bless her soul, had the patience of a saint. She watched and figured out what I was doing wrong and then the light bulb went off! Once I got that taken care of, the drop spindle was a breeze. I will be working a little more on the drop spindle tonight before I go to bed. She gave us a bag of sheep fur for next week and told us how to soak it to get all of the lanolin out of it. We have to have it cleaned for next Tuesday so we can learn how to card the wool. She also is having us bring our wheels so we can learn to treadle on it. So I have some greasy sheep fur sitting in the hotel room sink getting cleaned right now... Yummy! I am glad I have eaten dinner already...

Hubby is coming down to Phoenix on Saturday! I AM SO EXCITED!!! I will pick him up from the airport and we are heading from there down to the house to check out how they are doing on it and get some details taken care of. I hope to have pix to post next week on the progress. After we talk to the builders we are going to meet with the local Gator Club and watch the UF vs UCF game at a local sports bar. Hopefully, the NASCAR race won't interfere with game time, but who knows? It's a sports bar and they will hopefully have the race on also. Sunday, we will finish up any house business then meet up with Julie and Loren for a while. It should be a really fun weekend. The weekend after this, I am back up in Albuquerque for a full 3 days to spend with the family and take care of any fines that the schools have so my kid can have his school records released for his new school down here.

How has work been going? OMG! I think I have died and gone to heaven! If someone would have told me that this new place was so awesome, I would have asked them if they were smoking crack. I have been at the new plant for 3 weeks now and I am still in love. There is a bit of a learning curve getting used to a new toolset, but it's not nearly as big as I was anticipating! Everyone here is really supportive and it has been no problem getting the training that I need for my new job (which is scheduled to start sometime between January and May of next year, no firm date yet). Tomorrow is a half-day since we have a team building going on starting at noon. I am looking forward to getting to know my new co-workers. I get the feeling that they think I am a squirrel on crack since I am asking so many questions and so eager to learn anything I can get my hot little paws on. It is SO DIFFERENT than the place I left, it is hard to believe that this is the same company... WOW! I really miss the old crew that I used to work with. Those folks were the BEST! I hope they are all doing well and I hope that they can stay sane in the insanity there. I do miss them! They were really good people, workwise and personality wise. Yes, I still think about them quite often (and have the group photo on my new desk). My new group has less people but seems just as nice. Things are done a lot differently around the new place so that is taking a little bit of getting used to. My external monitor and keyboard should be here in the next week, so that will be the last things I need to get to make my office complete. Now, I need to concentrate on learning as much as I can learn. I think one of my co-workers in the new place is one of the techs so we will probably bounce a lot of learnings off of each other between now and when I move over to the new place.

Tomorrow, I am going off to get my hair done, getting my car to the dealer to get the check engine light checked out and going to a team building. This should be a great weekend!

OK, the sheep fur has been through 3 water changes and it is starting to turn white. Wow! Hopefully there won't be too many more needed before I can set it out to dry. I am keeping it in lukewarm water and not agitating it. (Don't agitate the sheep fur... Who's agitating my sheep fur? Are you agitating my sheep fur? I love that commercial...)