Musings

A lot of nothing changed around here. I'm still searching for a job. I'm still getting unemployment benefits, although I've now exhausted the primary account and am now on an emergency fund that was triggered because of the high unemployment rate in the state. Health insurance application is being processed so that should be live soon.

And believe it or not, I'm still stitching. I've stopped keeping track of my time, though. Originally I was tracking it to see how much I was spending on hobbies compared to family or work. And it just made sense for some reason to break it out by projects. Maybe because other bloggers were doing the same. But lately it's feeling like a chore. Not the stitching, just the tracking. And long time readers may recall that when I feel like I'm obligated to do something, I tend to not want to do it anymore. That's why I don't do any sort of consignment stitching. So I'm just not going to keep track any longer.

Amazingly, I also found the motivation to do some serious deep cleaning around the apartment. I know I'm not the greatest of housekeepers, but it's not a complete pigsty like some places I've been. This past week has been a bunch of weeding out of old clothes and toys and books, steam cleaning carpets, rearranging furniture, and figuring out what I need to replace or buy new when money becomes available to get everything closer to how I want my home to look.

On another note, Pepsico brought back sugar-sweetened Mountain Dew and Pepsi recently as a limited time promotion. I'm hearing mid-June. Oh man what a memory rush. I was never a Pepsi fan, and drank it only when there was no other choice or during the New Coke fiasco because Pepsi was actually preferable to that abomination. Mountain Dew, however, was nectar. When it switched to HFCS, I couldn't stomach the stuff anymore. Acidic, too tart, overly carbonated, and oh the smell. I knew there was an independent bottler in New Jersey or somewhere similarly out of reach that still uses the original formulas and glass bottles. But even when I was working, that just wasn't an option. So to have it come back nationwide, even for a limited time, is absolute heaven. And interestingly, my father's blood sugar has DROPPED by roughly 50 points since he also started drinking Throwback Dew rather than the HFCS version. Of course, in that time he also lost his job which means less stress, but I still credit the lack of HFCS in his diet with a good portion, if not all, of the reduction. We're both stocking up as much as we possibly can to make the goodness last.

Finally, the Blackhawks are STILL in the running for the Stanley Cup. Tomorrow starts a best-of-seven against the Detroit Redwings. Khabi help us... I really wanted to see the Anaheim Ducks (formerly the Mighty Ducks and owned by the Walt Disney Corporation.... yes, it was a tie-in with the Emilio Estevez movie) take the Wings out, but it wasn't to be. One of my dearest friends lives just outside Detroit and has been heckling me mercilessly. I'm tempted to stitch him an Indianhead patch for when his Wings go down.

- posted @ Sun, May 17, 2009 - 10:12     | | Permalink

 
Time to switch

Life has been a blur lately. Not because things are moving quickly, but because things seem to not be moving at all so there's little to mark the days.

I'm still stitching. There was a lull but I'm back at it... and at a good swapping point with Nordic Needle Rose. Aside from a small bit of pink, I've completed the bottom three pages of chart, and today I finished the leaf I was working on. So that's coming off the floor stand today and Autumn Sunset Sampler is going up. It's been a long time since I worked on this one. I've also put some time into Chrissy the Christmas Fairy and into the little Dutch heart piece.

I'm still unemployed and still collecting benefits. I think those run out soon, though, so something needs to change quickly. I'm putting out about 15-20 resumes a week and getting absolutely no phone calls back. It's time to start applying for retail and food service positions, I think. And Mom's trying to convince me to enroll in classes at a community college that does not service my area because of an advertisement she saw in her industry magazine. I'm pretty sure the same program is available at my college for significantly more money (which honestly makes me wonder what's missing from the other program as the credit hour total is vastly different) so I wouldn't qualify for non-resident waivers based on a lack of program availability. And I'm certainly not in a position to move to that college's territory in order to enroll there.

I haven't gotten any child support payments for over two months now and the ex hasn't seen the kids in over a month. I think he knows that if he tries, I'm going to demand money, and has just been avoiding me completely. This has been totally under a verbal agreement between the two of us because neither could afford to go to court and file. I'm looking into whether I can get pro bono or reduced-fee representation to at least get an order of support and garnishment filed. I did find a phone number for a Legal Aid office but haven't gotten any response from them yet.

The teenager is back behind the wheel for practice time (Illinois now requires a minimum of 50 hours over a 9 month period prior to testing, 10 of which has to be night-time driving), but I'm still not ready to let her on side streets. Fortunately there's a parking lot nearby that has always been completely empty when I've been ready to take her out, and she's slowly getting better. There's definitely no way she's going to be ready to test by her 16th birthday, though, and I'll quietly admit that it's partly intentional on my behalf. Truthfully, the longer I can keep her unlicensed, the longer I can delay the huge spike in insurance costs. Plus I still have car repairs to be done if we're keeping this vehicle, and with not having a job, I don't see how I can justify replacing it, even if I take out enough extra from the 401k to buy another used car.

I also got some good news from the bookkeeper at the former job. The insurance company finally confirmed that the policy is eligible for the federal subsidy payment program that's part of the stimulus package that President Obama signed in February. The delay was caused by the fact that the law firm is so small that technically the continued coverage program isn't administered by COBRA but rather by some state legislation, and the stimulus act specified COBRA payments. I'll have to dip into 401k funds to pay the premiums, because I have to pay back to date of termination. The insurance won't let me have a break in coverage, which is actually a good thing considering the younger child's medical issues. And as much as I hate to do it, I will probably withdraw some extra to be cushion for the inevitable emergency since I'm completely without any other source of savings or backup at the moment.

Oh, and my Chicago Blackhawks are in the playoffs! So are the Bulls but I don't pay any attention to basketball.

- posted @ Mon, Apr 20, 2009 - 00:46     | | Permalink

 
I'm still standing

And I'm actually still stitching... at least a little bit. I'll post a status of Nordic Needle Rose at the end of the month, I've got a decent groove going and don't want to take it off the stand at the moment.

No new finishes though. I've started another small piece from the Cross Stitch a Day calendar. Like Friendship, it's mostly a laundromat/doctor's office project. My SIL had another surgery on her elbow a few weeks ago and I've been taking her to do the grocery shopping and laundry and therapy and so on. Gets us both out of the house, gives us time to spend together which had been sorely lacking, and my brother doesn't have to worry about missing work.

No change on the job front. Well, not for me, at least. However, law firms are laying off people left and right because there just isn't enough work. Three major firms made the front page of the newspaper this week, each of them releasing a hundred or more at a shot. One of my dear friends was among the 140 staffers let go at her firm. If nothing else, it makes it more apparent that I'm not getting back into legal any time soon because now I have that much more competition for that many fewer possible jobs. Unfortunately, I'm still getting no calls on the resumes that I'm sending out, even in non-legal positions.

The kids are doing well. They haven't been quite as affected by this yet as I expected. But the money situation is definitely getting tighter, even with the additional funds I get in my unemployment payout as a result of the stimulus bill, mostly because Ex has decided that he either can't or won't pay me any support anymore. I'm going to have to take him to court, I think, and get a judge to order garnishment. Which of course I can't afford. I need to find out if there's a legal aid society in this county.

I've realized that I actually don't want to file for divorce. Not because I still want to be his wife. But as long as he's still legally married to me, he can't give the kids a stepmom. And if, heaven forbid, something should happen to him before we're legally separated or divorced, the kids and I get survivor's benefits from Social Security. If we divorce, though, he's still got a claim on my Social Security income as long as he makes less money than me, which will probably always be the case since he has no ambition. Plus Mini has really been having trouble recently with the idea that either of us are looking to replace the other. I've tried to assure her that nobody else can be her mommy or daddy, no matter what happens. I don't know how much is sinking in, though.

Oh, and it's SPRING!!! It's about 55 degrees out right now, I've got the doors open, and I'm probably going to fire up the grill later. No idea what I'll cook, though. I need to figure that out soon so I have time to thaw something.

- posted @ Sat, Mar 21, 2009 - 11:45     | | Permalink

 
First Finish of 2009

Friendship Blooms Here by My Big Toe Designs

This was designed for Camp Stitchalot 2007. I made a few changes, some of which were to fix mistakes. This is on 28 count Cameo Peach Jobelan with DMC floss, all of which was provided.

Feels good to be back in the stitching groove.

- posted @ Sat, Jan 10, 2009 - 09:55     | | Permalink

 
NNR status and to do list

First - my status picture for Nordic Needle Rose. Please to ignore the backstitching thread hanging to the right and the active length tucked in back where I'm working. :)

According to my Gallery, I haven't worked on this since February 2007. The picture sure jives with where I started the current rotation, so I guess that's right. Wow.

In one small way, that's a good thing. I can't figure out what I did with my 2008 calendar. So if I really didn't work on this at all since that point, then I know my time on it. I was at 185.0 at the end of 2007. I put in 25 hours in the last two weeks or so. So I'm now at 210.0 hours as of this morning.

In other news... I received an email that Just Nan has decided to make all of her charts limited editions and available only with the embellishments at the same time. I have a huge stash of Just Nan charts with no embellishments, either because I acquired the charts after someone else stitched them or because they weren't requires to be combo purchases at the time and I didn't want to have beadpacks floating around or couldn't afford both at once. So I'm going to need to go through and figure out which ones need specialty embellishments and see if I can fill those gaps. I can understand the desire to control her product. But she does not have a copyright statement that you can only stitch it once (like some other designers) and she's still making money on the beadpacks, right? If she's changing her copyright policy on new charts, fine. I'll abide by whatever is printed on each. I guess I take a little bit of offense at her declaring that I can no longer acquire beads for, say, Amethyst Snowflake, even though I own an original copy (not a photocopy and actually not a recycled through eBay or passed on by a friend, either) of the chart already. She rivals The Silver Lining in terms of sheer number of charts in my stash at this point... although I may find myself weeding if I can't complete sets and I'm probably going to be a lot less likely to buy new ones in the future.

As for the stitchy to-do list...

1. Create a new sub-album for 2008 finishes in Gallery.
2. Upload images of my 2008 finishes in Gallery. Not that there are many...
3. Create a new sub-album for 2009 finishes in Gallery.
4. Figure out what Just Nan beadpacks I need and can still get and justify their acquisition.
5. Restart Pamela Kellogg's Mystery Valentine SAL after having lost the entire project at the laundromat (including a set of scroll bars and a pair of surgical snips - thank goodness I didn't have my good scissors in that one!) a few months ago.

Obviously there's lots more to be done, including things like getting a job. But this is the stitchy blog and I'm trying to keep things separate. Which is why I had such a long drought of posts there in '08. This is a new year and new and better things are going to come my way. They've got to.

- posted @ Sun, Jan 04, 2009 - 15:25     | | Permalink

 
Change of plans

I left myself nowhere near enough time on the mystery project. Fortunately I came up with an alternate plan with enough time. But I really have no desire to go back to that piece any time soon. I have too many large WIPs as it is, especially ones I actually like.

So once I more or less threw in the towel on that one and got through the Christmas mess, I pulled out Nordic Needle Rose for a turn. In the last 3 days, I've completely stitched one of the green leaves. And these are not small leaves, this one was approximately 1200 stitches with a lot of confetti and small areas of color. But it's complete, including backstitching, and I'm back on rose petals.

Since I'm doing so well with it right now, I'll probably keep this on the stand through January and make that my stitching goal.

I'll post a status picture to the Gallery at the end of the month.

In other news, I found software that will actually allow me to make working copies of my Disney movies so I can store the originals and watch from the burns. I've gone through two spindles of Lightscribe DVD blanks (30 per spindle) this month with backing up movies, and I've got a looooooooong way to go. I figure we've currently got about 600 titles, and I'm not burning copies of special feature discs because we so rarely use those. I need to figure out what I'm going to do with Amadeus, which is double-sided and in a cardboard/plastic combo box. Either I need to get a double-sided blank or a double-disc box and figure out how to make a cover for it.

Unemployment did rule in my favor and I'm finally getting benefits. I got 5 weeks in arrears (that was a nice deposit!!) and now get money every 2 weeks. They don't take taxes out of that money, so it's about 70% of my old take home pay. I think I'll still be ahead with taxes at the end of the year, but I'm not completely sure so I'm keeping money aside just in case. There won't be much of a refund this year, that's for sure.

Oh, and I had to replace the distributor on the car. Apparently there's some kind of leak and the igniter and coil were fouled up, which prevented the car from starting at all. There's still a part of the repair to be done but they tell me I can delay that a few months until the money situation improves. I think it's time to start looking for a newer car, that was one hellaspensive repair and it's still not finished completely.

The good news is that the new year starts in a few more days. I'm hoping the employment situation improves soon. I'm getting really sick of being home.

- posted @ Mon, Dec 29, 2008 - 19:39     | | Permalink

 
Call me crazy

Like I don't have enough nuts in my life right now... I'm about to start another new project.

I'm still unemployed, I'm still waiting for unemployment benefits (DES is deciding whether I was terminated for a qualified reason), and the ex is being stingy with support. Fortunately I was able to take out a loan against my 401k savings to pay off all of the bills through the end of the year and hopefully have a little bit of a cushion. However, this means basically no money for presents.

Thank goodness for Fuffies!! I have all but one person covered (I think), and that person is getting the piece I'm about to start. And just in case they read here, I'm not saying what it is yet. I don't think they do, but I don't know that for sure.

So I have about two and a half weeks. Good thing I'm unemployed, eh?

- posted @ Sat, Dec 06, 2008 - 19:37     | | Permalink