It's The Thought That Counts

....Right?

This is a tale about how my plans for Mother's Day socks went awry, with a cautionary note about a yarn shop I won't be patronizing any more.

At the beginning of April I decided to do a little online yarn shopping. Socks are quickly becoming a regular gift from me, and Mother's Day was far enough away that it was absolutely doable. Earlier this year I had purchased some yarn from kpixie.com, and they give out a coupon code when you register a new account that you get to use on your second purchase, so, that's where I decided to shop. They have a pretty well-designed website, and what appears at first glance to be a great selection of less standard sock yarns. But appearances can be deceiving.

I picked out a great yarn. It was called Mama Llama, which I've never used or even seen in person before, but it was for my mama, she loves llamas, so.. yeah. Plus it was washable and came in a really neat colorway. So I added the Panama Purple to my shopping cart. Then, well, if I'm going to pay for shipping I might as well order yarn for a few projects, right? So I picked out some nice manly yarn - Madeline Tosh Somewhat Solid (which I have used before and LOVE) in Graphite - and some TOFUtsies for a friend. I also added to the cart some size 2 dpns, because I recently broke one of my bamboo ones, and kpixie had the Swallow casein ones and I think I'd be much less likely to break one of those. I entered my coupon code and placed my order. It was April 8th.

The next day I got an email saying that they did not have 2 skeins left of the Madeline Tosh Graphite, just one. One skein of this yarn is enough for a pair of socks, but I know more than one man and I had been intending to make two pairs of socks. But I could still get a whole project out of the one skein, so I said fine, refund me for the other and send the order.

Then I waited. And waited. And checked my order status on their webpage obsessively. On April 21 it still said "Processing," so I found the email I had gotten from the girl at kpixie, and sent a query to that address trying to figure out what was going on. Another week went by with no response, so I went to their homepage and filled out a "Contact Us" form. The tone was slightly more heated, I confess, than the email had been. May 1st I got a response. It said:

"We dropped the ball with your order."

They had not shipped it yet. AND, they did not have ANY of the Mama Llama in stock. (I feel that there was probably plenty on April 8th.) They said they would refund me for that yarn as well as my shipping charge and would send the rest of the order that day, and they gave me another coupon code for my next order.

So, no Mama Llama for Mother's Day. And sure, everybody makes mistakes, sometimes orders get overlooked, and I know yarn shops are often run by creatively disorganized people. But only one of the three yarns I ordered were they able to provide in the full quantity. Plus, I mentioned I had shopped with them earlier this year - well, half of that order wound up being backordered, and I only found that out after the money had come out of my account.

I wrote them an email expressing my dissatisfaction with their shop. I felt it was not an overreaction. I was not terribly heated in my verbiage, but did suggest that they make a stronger attempt to keep their stock updated on their website, etc. I also mentioned that my gift intentions had been spoiled by their mistake. The response I got back was a brief apology and:

"We ship almost all orders in less than 24 hours. It is very rare for us to have a customer who is not pleased."

WHO CARES? *I* was not pleased.

I'm not saying that no one should shop at this store. You may do as you like. But do so with this word of caution - try not to have deadlines dependent on their timeliness.

Oh, and my order came yesterday. At least, what was left of it. And casein needles smell funny.


As for Mother's Day, my mom is actually going to be in town this weekend. I'll figure something out.

Vehicular Shuffle

I got a new car!


It's a Mazda CX-7. And yes, it is purple. I heart purple.


It's huge and comfy, and it does lots of tricks (I never have to take the key out of my purse!), and it's fun to drive, and I love it bunches.

But this meant selling my old faithful pickup. (B has his Mini and his project car, and we really don't need four cars...) We sold it on Craigslist three weeks after we got the new car to some nice Canadian folks in Yulee FL. Unfortunately, in the last week of ownership, B's Mini was in the shop and he took the truck to work, and somebody pulling out of the next parking spot scraped up the driver's side door pretty roughly (and, of course, they didn't leave a note). So we didn't quite get the price we wanted for the truck, but we got enough to pay off the balance of B's car loan, so we're only making payments on the new car.


Goodbye, little blue pickup truck. You treated me well these last few years. Be a brave little truck, and take care of those Canadians.

Resurrection of a Blog

I cannot believe how long it's been since I posted. Shame. Shame on me. I practically forgot I even had a blog.

I know I've said in the past that I will do better. I will really, really try this time.

The Crystal Ball Reveals...

It's an unpleasant truth of military life that one typically is not allowed to know any details of one's future except the very, very immediate. Say, the upcoming week. But each tour, there comes a marvelous, beautiful moment of clarity where one's next destination is revealed. This moment arrives as a wave of relief after a long period of uncertainty - first dreaming about all the hypotheticals, then the discovery of the what's actually available, then the process of picking and prioritizing a list of wants and sending it off to the higher powers, then an agonizing month or two of hopes, fears, conjectures... And finally, there is an answer.

We will be going to Monterey, CA, where B will be attending Naval Postgraduate School, beginning this fall. That will be his job - getting his Masters degree. While going to school, he does not have a 'job,' but he continues to receive his full salary, and does not have to pay for his education. He doesn't even have to wear a uniform except one day a week. (However, there are still lots of rules, for instance: one's backpack may only be black or navy blue, and if one has a laptop bag instead, then one may only wear it over one's left shoulder, I presume so that one may still salute when necessary.)

Before you get TOO jealous, check out his schedule. It's a bit grueling. I certainly wouldn't want to have any other job while trying to tackle those classes. In comparison, for my Masters degree, if I continue to take two classes per semester, I will finish in two years, total - that's the same amount of time allotted for his program, with its 4-5 classes per semester. And I don't have to write a thesis!

This wasn't his/our first choice (Molesworth, England) or even second choice (Naples, Italy). But it was third! Which is a distinct improvement over last time, where the job and location combination were not even on his submitted list... And this will probably be the best move for his future career. Plus, we'll be about an hour and a half from my parents. You can bet they are psyched. *Of course, all of this is still only a probably; he won't have orders in hand until around April, and until then, things could easily change.

Additionally, since I was just on the subject of the prospect of working while getting my Masters: Things are finally happening for me with the Jacksonville Public Library paying me for my time there. I can't say what with any certainty - it's complicated. Here's the basics though. They said they had a part time shelving position coming open and would I be interested; I said, well, that isn't my ideal situation but it would be better than working for free, so sure. Immediately after I submitted the paperwork to get myself hired, the branch manager pulled me in her office to ask if I was aware that there were 6 full time clerical positions open in the library system, but in other branches. So then, with my part time paperwork on its way to City Hall, I was at Human Resources taking a typing and clerical skills test to see whether I was qualified for the full time job(s), which, of course, was no sweat. And then yesterday I went to the Main Library where I was interviewed for full time job AND processed into the system for the part time job (provided I pass my drug screen, again, no trouble there), with the idea that if I am picked for the full time position it will somehow be easier to transfer me within the system...

Believe it or not, that's the short version of the story.

Either way though, I will be employed again, until transfer time comes. And in an environment where I actually WANT TO BE. It's a lovely thing.

Pomatomus for Mom

(Or, "Po-Mom-tomus")

Remember this teaser? Well, that lovely yarn became #2 of 2 total knitted Christmas gifts. Yes, it is February and I'm just getting my Christmas knitting up for display. Oopsie. Where does the time go?

Well, anyway, here they are - Pomatomus Socks for Mom!

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A. from Knitty's Winter '05 issue. (Cookie A. apparently keeps a collection of Pomatomuses - I'll have to submit mine!) I really enjoyed working this pattern - my favorite socks I've made thus far. It was pretty exciting watching it develop so mysteriously on the first sock, and by the second the pattern was completely logical. Stimulating, but not as challenging as they look!

Yarn: Shibuiknits Sock in "Midnight" - 2 skeins. I like the yarn a lot, it feels great and comes in gorgeous colors. My one issue is that the striping pattern that developed wasn't quite what I expected - you can see what I mean especially well in the following picture - but it's certainly livable. I will purchase more of this yarn in the future.