Last night was a night where an issue bubbled up between the Hubs and I, one that I had been stewing over off and on for a few months. I was upset. Very upset. He finally got me to talk about it and I basically emotionally vomited on him for the next 20 minutes.

Then, with tears still wet on my face, I turned to my loving, concerned husband and said “Have I ever told you I hate our curtains?”

Hubs’ response: “This random moment brought to you by the number Q.”

Some days my mind frightens even me. For the record, they are the curtains that came with the house and I’ve never cared for them. They’ve never been replaced because they block the light so well. But man, are they fugly.

Cinna (aka Turd Head) taught herself how to play fetch.  No one really seems to believe us when we tell them our cat fetches.  Here’s proof:

Almost 2 weeks after it was supposed to have been delivered.

Hubs came home for lunch, as he does every so often, and there it was.  The opened box (as you see above, exactly how he found it) was inside our enclosed porch.  I told Hubs to look it over (he called me) and then leave it be as I would examine it when I got home.

The box shows no damage.  It was taped correctly.  As far as I can tell, someone took it, opened it with a sharp object, and kept it for almost two weeks.  The safety seal was even intact.

I opened everything up.  All parts are accounted for and in good condition.  I’ve already cut several things with it and have realized that there will be a learning curve with it.  I also need the tool set…

Also, a further plug for Oh My Crafts.  This morning, I emailed Helen (the nice lady I’ve been dealing with) and requested an update on how the replacement machine/credit from UPS was going.  All of this occurred before I knew the machine had arrived.  She responded that UPS would be declaring the ticket closed tomorrow and would deal with the issue at that time.  I’m happy with the customer service I’ve received.  Every time I’ve sent an email it has been responded to in a very courteous manner.

I will be forwarding them a link to this post as well as an email explaining I now have my machine and am happy.  I will also ask for Helen’s supervisor’s name so that I can pass on a kudos for her.

Still sorta wonder what actually happened between delivery time and actually arrival.

I’m actually rather impressed with UPS right now, as far as staying in touch with me goes.

Tuesday afternoon the driver that my package was assigned to came by the house.  She swears she doesn’t remember delivering to our house or even to an area around our house on the day that my package was “delivered”.

Yesterday a Customer Service rep from UPS called to confirm whether or not the package had ever shown and if the driver had come by.  She made mention that within “a few days” they would issue a credit back to the seller.  This fits with the 8 day (I assume business days) turnaround that the seller had told me.

Since the seller has (up to this point) been really good about everything I want to plug them a bit.  Oh My Crafts! is who I bought my Cricut Expressions machine from.  I am very satisfied with their customer service.  I originally tried to order the Tuesday after Memorial Day with a Memorial Day themed discount code.  The site hiccuped and I wasn’t sure if the charge had gone thorugh or not.  To be safe I decided to wait until Wednesday morning and see if anything hit the bank account.  Of course, Wednesday when I tried to order the code had expired.

Hubs conviced me to go ahead and call Oh My Crafts and ask if they would give me the discount anyhow.  I did.  And they did.    The gentleman on the phone was very nice and didn’t even hesistate to give me the discount.

Now I just have to wait for the refund to be given to Oh My Crafts so they will ship me a new Cricut Expressions machine.  My scrapbooking is on hold until I get it in because there are so many things I want to do with it.

As of right now, with the information available to me, it appears that someone stole my birthday present off of my front porch.

I had forgotten about a tax refund I was to receive from the State of North Carolina.  (I worked there, but lived in a hotel, for most of January 2008.)  When the check arrived right before Memorial Day for the majority of the purchase price of a Cricut Expressions machine I was esctatic.  I’ve wanted a Cricut for a while and had decided that I’d have to sell some things to save up the money for it.  Thanks to the tax refund and my upcoming birthday, I managed to convice the husband that it was a perfect time to buy with the 15% off code that I had.

I placed the order over the phone Wednesday the 27th and was told shipping would take a while but that I would get an email when it shipped.  This morning I emailed the seller asking for an update on status as I had not received an email.  They responded back that according to their records my package had been delivered yesterday at about 3pm.  News to me.

I double checked with the Hubs, he hadn’t noticed a package from UPS when he got home at about 4:30.  I didn’t notice one when I got home at 5:20.  To be sure, I went home (after having already taken a lunch) and checked.  I looked on the stoop, the front porch, the back deck, the storage closet on the back deck, inside the garage, behind the garage, behind the shed, etc.  Basically I looked all over the outside of my property. 

As the Hubs isn’t the type of person to have put my present away until my actual birthday (June 20th) I came to the conclusion of foul play.  I reported the missing package back to the company both by email and phone.  UPS has already called me for some details and have told me they are opening an investigation. 

At this point I am sad that my birthday present has been stolen.  I’m also angry.  If the package was put inside my enclosed porch then someone had to go into an enclosed porch and deliberately steal the package.  Otherwise the UPS driver left the package sitting on the steps for all to see and someone swiped it there. 

Regardless, I’m without my birthday present.  I’m considering submitting a police report with the Tulsa Police Department just so I have a record of it. 

Depending on how the company I purchased the Cricut Expressions from handles the lost/stolen package will decide what sort of review I give them.  Right now I’m impressed that shipping happened so quick after I had been expecting much longer.  The customer service has also, thus far, had timely responses.  I just hope I continue to have a good experience with them.

But I really wanted my birthday present!

I know I posted on Knitty about this but I wanted to update others.  I got the Clomid!

My yearly Woman’s Health appointment was on Monday the 4th.  I had never actually seen this doctor for yearly stuff, but she was the one that helped during my miscarriage.  I sent a coworker to her, and coworker loved her.  I love her too, now. 

Dr. K sat down with me and talked.  She asked how things were going and really wanted to know.  So I told her what had happened with the Fetility Clinic.  Hubs and I had discussed previously that I would ask Dr. K if she would give me the Clomid without the ultrasound monitoring.  Danged if she didn’t offer, offer!, it before I could ask. 

Dr. K did mention that she doesn’t necessarily get the results that the Fertility Clinic does.  As she uses the lowest dose for a few months and then you have to talk and discuss your next step.  I told her that right now, since I am still fairly young, that Hubs and I are ok with going low key for right now. 

I started the Clomid on Tuesday, so we’ll see what happens.

Or, what I did on my summer vacation Friday morning. 

I’m a geologist by trade and education.  For the most part, I’m in the office writing reports.  Occasionally I go out into the field; either to do a site visit to check for conditions or sometimes to be the rig ‘engineer’.  Rig Engineer means that I get to sit/stand there and watch the drillers work.  Then when they collect a sample I have to say “Yep, it is the dirt/rock type that they thought.”

Our driller has been doing this more years than I’ve even thought about it, so I find it a bit ridiculous that they want me out there to confirm it.  Either way, it was a nice day.  The sun was shining, the wind blowing just a little, and temps in the 60s.  Perfect weather.

Here is what I got to look at the majority of the morning:

(Taken on my iPhone) 

And yes, we are taking up one entire lane of the road.  Thankfully there wasn’t that much traffic but people didn’t slow down.  I kept myself plastered to the edge of the trailer just praying I wouldn’t end up as road pizza.

001, originally uploaded by krysstyllanthrox.

I’m currently running on about 4.5 hours of sleep so forgive any delusions.

For over a year I’ve been kicking around the idea of a business that is rather knitting centric. I’m going to make and (try to) sell knitting swifts. I have some things I’m going to do to make me stand out from the crowd a little bit that I don’t want to reveal until too late.

I’ve looked at all the swifts out there on etsy, yarn store websites, artfire, etc. And I think I can do alright if I market it just right.

The big push though, is an event in Kellyville, Oklahoma (just out of Tulsa) at the end of July. It is called Fiber Christmas. And a small vendor table is just $10.00. I want to go to this event as a vendor and get my product out there.

I’ve got a lot of work to do between now and then. Not least of which is actually making my prototype. Yes, you read that right, I’ve never even made my product. However, I know powertools and woodworking. And I’ve put together my schematic.

Everything appears to be falling into place. And it terrifies me. This is a big limb to go out on. Huge! But I think this is the first step towards a bit more financial independence, pride, and productivity.

Wish me luck!

My father was a Marine for a few years.  Showed up in San Diego the day of his 18th birthday, according to what he has said.  When my grandmother (Dad’s mom) passed away a few years ago I ended up with her 8×10 and two wallet size photos of Dad in his uniform.  He was so fresh out of Basic that his lips were still sunburned/chapped from the exposure.  Those three photos are among some of my most treasured ones.

Recently, a new Michael’s opened just a few miles away.  It is awesome…  I literally got a few steps in the door, stopped in my tracks and said outloud, “Holy crap.”  The scrapbooking section is huge.  Never really interested in it before I wandered around looking to see what there was.  I found a pack of Marine themed cardstock.  One particular page caught my eye and an idea was formed.

This is the phycial form of my idea:

I might go back and add a few embelishments later on, but for now (and for being my first page ever) I’m content with it.

Yesterday I picked up about $20 worth of photos from Walgreens so I can make pages for the nephews, family, etc.  I can already see this becoming a very obsessive (and expensive) hobby.

We have an old hot tub in our back yard.  And by old I mean it is a 1993-ish model.  The previous homeowners left it behind.  We had a service call done on it last year and he replaced the thermostat.  The fiberglass also has a thin crack around the light, but some clear packing tape over it sealed the crack (repair guys’ suggestion, actually).

Huzzah, it worked!  Oh, it was so nice.  Come home from a hard day at work and climb into the hot tub, listen to the bugs and frogs making noises.  Listen to the night sounds of the city…  Ah, bliss…  For about 3 months.

When it stopped heating the water again we called the repair guy and asked his opinion.  Gave him a detailed report of what happened, when, and how it sounded.  He said he thought it sounded “expensive” and as the hot tub is so old we would be better off junking it or just getting a new one.

Last year that wasn’t a high priority to deal with as we had so many other things going on at the time.  This year, however, is has become a priority.  A railing that was secured into the ground (ie, part of the post was buried) has rotted and broke off today with just a little pressure.  We saw tiny bugs crawling around it.  I’m fairly certain that they aren’t termites…but all the wood and the hot tub in that area must go!

Ignore the pile of leaves, please.  Thanks to all the rain we haven’t had a chance to get out in the back yard and really clean things up.

I’ve threatened before to just go buy an axe and wail on the hot tub to get out some aggression.  But since I didn’t want to have to clean up the mess we called a junk service.  They want $200 to haul away the hot tub.  No thank you.  I mean, I get that there is a huge arse willow tree and a deck hemming the thing in and I know it is going to be a pain in the arse to get out of there.  But I’d rather save that $200 for a faster something for my computer.  Or scrapbooking supplies…  (New obsession, beware!)

Tonight I called my Dad to ask his opinion.  “You have a skill saw, right?  Make sure it is unplugged and go after that thing.”  I love my Dad. 

Tomorrow I’m going to Lowe’s and buying an axe.  Why an axe?  Much more of a visceral thrill.  I also have several other things I need to use the axe for.  (And it is cheaper than a skill saw, which I don’t have but can borrow from the FIL.)

Future plans for that area would be to remove all the wood and put down some brick pavers for a nice big patio.  Maybe with a larger flower bed around the willow tree.  First things first though, get that hot tub gone!

Btw, if anyone in Tulsa is actually interested in that thing, if you come haul it away it is yours for free.  Speak up quick though cause I’m getting the axe tomorrow.