Stay strong, knit with yarn

This week has been really weird. I think the retail establishment scheduling gods sensed it and only scheduled me for a one-hour meeting and an on-call shift for next week. I'm definitely going to revel in that recovery time.

This morning I took my fabric steamer to the retail establishment with me. I worked at 5 a.m. and was running on 1.5 hours of sleep. The retail establishment has TWO heavy-duty fabric steamers... but both of them are broken. I steamed 25 sets of satin pajamas and a variety of slips and other articles of clothing.

After I got off work, I wanted to make my husband breakfast, so I visited the grocery store and found steak on sale. I made him steak and eggs for breakfast. He appreciated it, as he always does. I've been making his lunches on my day off at the beginning of the week and he's been enjoying chili, stuffed peppers and stir-fry.

This week I picked up Final Fantasy VIII from the Playstation Network. I remember when that game was $50. Now you can get it for $10 on the Playstation Network store. I'm still really close to the beginning of the game (the first SeeD mission, if you're familiar) and it's still as epic as I remember it being when I played it at the tender age of 12.

I've given up on knitting for my coworker. I can't find a pattern that  I like enough or that I have the yarn for to knit. You can't miss gifts you don't know you're getting. So I've been focusing on knitting for my family before the end of the year. Here's some knitted hat action:

I think I'm almost done with the cabled part. I took the picture at Panera today when I went there for lunch and some quiet, focused knitting time. The good thing about top-down hats is I can try it on while I'm knitting it.

I found some insanely glittery chinese takeout boxes at Target to put Christmas gifts in this year. I've already packaged up my grandmother's socks in one of the boxes and they look very nice. I had a hard time finding the kind of gift labels I wanted, so I bought cardstock, stickers and a hole punch so I can make my own. I already have ribbon to thread through the hole, and I'll tie them onto the string of the gift box so the box can be reused. Finished, wrapped gifts will be labeled and placed in one of the massive Aldo bags I have from the other week.

Sometimes I look at knitting patterns and know exactly who I'd knit them for. Or I meet a person and I know right away I want to knit for them someday. I think I might eventually want to knit a pair of socks for my one boss. I think he's really funny and I think he'd like a pair of socks. But I have to finish a shawl for me, more wallets, socks and sweaters for my husband, more things for my knitworthy cousins, and knit up all of my cotton yarn into dishcloths.