Back, Unemployed, and Ready for winter

Well...I am not only back from Antarctica, but I am unemployed as well. Additionally, I am less stressed, sleeping better, and knitting like a fiend. I just made my first mitten-glove, and I'm very excited about it. It's one of those fingerless glove deals with the mitten flap that can fold over and keep your fingers warm. Warmth with a dexterity option. They are a present for my little brother for Christmas. I can't remember why I got it into my head that he might want a pair, but I did, and now that's what he's getting. They are made with 100% pure New Zealand wool...yay!! I think he'll like them whether he needed them or not. I guess he and his friends wear my early mistake mittens around town...you know, the ones I made when I was first starting out that weren't good enough to give away, so I left them for dead? Yeah, they get paraded around town. So he might as well have a decent pair to parade.

In other knitting news, I've got multiple Christmas projects going, so I won't mention them by name, nor will I mention their recipients. Also, I still haven't finished that sweater for Jim, I'm such a deadbeat.

So...New Zealand was unbelievable. I can't wait to go back, and believe you me, I will go back ("I'll be back"). Hopefully I'll go and stay for awhile, maybe grad school, maybe just up and move. All these ideas are currently just on the backburner while I wait for my last two paychecks so I can pay my sizeable credit card bill and January's rent and still have something left for a little food any any last-minute Christmas gifts. I'm waiting for a number of jobs to call me and say either, "We'd love for you to come in for an interview as soon as possible!" or "When can you start?" Barring those more fortunate possibilities, I looked into Unemployment Compensation, which is pretty good pay for looking for a job full time. I appear to be quite eligible, and I can only hope that I don't have to bother. But I will bother when the time comes. It's clear I can't knit for a living.

I just tried to make it possible to post comments on my blog. I may play around with this feature more, try different services and formats. Most of the blogs I've seen have the option of making comments, and I don't want to get left behind in the dust. Plus, I'll have one up on Jim if I get comments and he isn't comment-enabled, or what-have-you. Ha! My first comments will no doubt be my own.

They captured Saddam Hussein. I'm not entirely sure what this will mean as far as changing the rate of Iraq clean-up or what it will mean for Bush's re-election, but I guess it can't be a bad thing that Saddam is in custody. I am watching (well, semi-watching, I'm also writing this and knitting) Donald Rumsfeld on 60 Minutes, and I have no idea why they even bother talking to this man. He is totally full of hot air, and says next to nothing. It's like watching an instruction manual on how to hedge on a question. He hasn't given a straight answer yet, and he just keeps talking, yak yak yak.

In unrelated news, I could really go for some chocolate pudding. I ate some at Maine Super Buffet, but it just didn't taste right so I didn't finish it. I guess after reading some stuff on Fark a couple months ago about the worst things people have done to food while working at fast food restaurants, I couldn't rule out that the pudding might be tainted. It may just be a different kind than what I'm used to, but I didn't trust it. Oddly enough, I trusted the buffet sushi enough to eat some. I didn't get sick, so I guess all of it was fine. I could go for some sushi right about now, as well. Sushi and chocolate pudding would be welcome in my home right about now.

Winter storm moving in, I can't wait.