have you ever passed a math class??

So the diner at work has a new host who is still in high school, and apparently hasn't been trained very well. Tuesday night, he comes up to the cage with a dollar bill and asks how much is in a roll of pennies. I tell him 50 cents, and he says he needs two rolls. About an hour later, he comes back up with a 10 dollar bill, wanting to know how much is in a roll of quarters. 10 dollars, I tell him, and I also tell him how much is in each roll, and to remember that for next time. He kinda gives me a "whatever" look, and walks away. A couple hours later he is back. He slaps a 100 dollar bill on the counter and asks how many 20s are in that. I tell him four, to see if he will catch that I am lying to him. Nope, he sure doesn't. He says that he needs some 20s, in that case.

So I grab five 20s out of the drawer, but when I count them out to him, instead of saying "20, 40, 60, 80..." I just say, "One, two, three, four," and keep the fifth one hidden from sight. "Thanks!" he says, swiping the bills off the counter, and walking off. Three steps away, you can see him counting the money. "No! That's not right!" he shouts at me, coming back to get the rest of his money.

I don't know if that's someone I would trust at my cash register...

head stalks

Have you ever seen a small lima bean plant sprouting out of the ground, just before the leaves open? Okay, kinda keep that visualization in your head...only skin colored.

Yesterday I have a dream that I am at home, doing my hair, when I notice that I have these small tab-like bumps on my forehead, that appear to get longer and rounder as they go towards my hairline. Along my hairline, they are little stalks of skin that are growing out of my head. I pluck one off, not quite sure what to do with it, as that kinda hurt, and I still have about a dozen more of them to go. So I take it to Mom, who is in her bathroom, getting ready for the day. I show it to her, and to my surprise, she is not disgusted or horrified by what I am showing her, but simply offers to help me get rid of them.

I pull my hair back to where she can easily get to them, and I'm not sure how she did it, but she managed to remove all the little head stalks that were growing from my scalp, leaving only small ouchies on my forehead that could easily be covered by hair.

Now...I'm not sure what these growths were, why I got them, or anything like that...but that was one bizzaro dream.

molting

Well, in the week since my sunburn, I have had what could be considered BURNS, as I was glowing red for about three days, and then my shoulder turned all hard and leathery for a few more days before the first three layers or so of skin started sloughing off, revealing bright pink new skin underneath. Gross. That phase of my molting has finished, and now just the very top layer of skin is peeling off my arms. I don't feel quite so itchy or disgusting anymore.

What was funny is that only a few days afterwards, I went back to Gillette because Dad's shop was holding their summer picnic, and I had the day off. When Dad and Mom each got home, they asked, "Where did you get that horrible burn?" because they didn't believe I'd gotten ALL of that sun from the mere 3.5 hours spent outside with them at Cook Lake.

Aaron and I finally had an afternoon off together this weekend that I didn't nap away, so we went to Rapid City for something to do. He had a gift certficate to Red Lobster, so we ate dinner there, and then were going to go to a movie. By the time we made it to the theatre, they were already starting their 7:30pm showing, the mall was closed, and we didn't want to hang out in my car in Rapid City for 2 hours 'til the next movie showing, so we drove back to Spearfish with enough time to change clothes (it was getting cooler outside), and head over to the local theatre to see X-men 3. All in all, okay movie, but pretty dark and dreary. Good special effects, though, as always, but a strong lacking in the new character developmental part of the movie.

Then I was invited out to see Superman Returns by Henry, one of Aaron's good friends, and some other of Aaron's friends, so that was pretty nice of them, especially since Aaron's still at work and I would have been bored outta my skull all night long. That movie was also good, but I had nothing to compare it to because I've never seen a Superman movie, only watched the TV show with Dean Cain and Terri Hatcher. The Adventures of Lois and Clark, or something like that.

It's kind of weird that I've seen two movies in the last week, when I can't even remember the last movie I went to see. I saw Harry Potter in November, and Aaron swears we saw something else after that, but I can't remember what it was for the life of me, so it can't have been that important. Also, Pirates of the Caribbean is coming out next Friday, and I think we're going to go see that the following Sunday, as long as Aaron still has that day off. That will be a lot of fun, as well, I think.

Not much else going on in my life right now, just working on picking up the apartment a little, getting some things done around the house, and keeping myself entertained while home alone.

Until next time!

who thinks to put sunscreen on their toes?!

(My mother, of course, after having burnt everything from the top of her head to the top of her toes when she was probably younger than me.)

But can I live vicariously through my mother's mistakes? Of course not.


After Tim at work took some time off and I filled in for him, I ended up getting today off, and my parents were spending the weekend at Cook Lake, so I wandered on over (taking the long way) to visit them. Knowing it was going to be at least in the 70s today, I slapped on flip flops, jeans, and a tank top, brought my hoodie, just in case, and headed out. After spending about 4 hours out in the sun, (which equals more time than I have spent in the sun all summer combined), I am now a crispy critter. But only on my arms, chest, half of my face (because I didn't move with the Sun), and the tops of my toes. The rest of me still looks like the underbelly of a fish.

Man...that's gotta be attractive.

wild bill days

This weekend in Deadwood marks the start of Wild Bill Days. There are rodeos and who knows what else going on during this time. It'll bring in TONS of extra people (cowboys) to the casino, and we're going to be swamped. Parking is going to be a bitch over the weekend, and I'm working the swing shift tonight and tomorrow night (normally I have Fridays off and work weekend mornings), and I will have a second person in the cage with me for help, which will be nice, except I find her a little dull to converse with. And that she's weirdly opinionated. And speaks to customers in a falsely high-pitched "nice" voice when they approach the window.

Meh, whatever, it's only for two nights, and then I get Sunday (Father's Day) off. Thank goodness, I HATE working Sundays. We lovingly refer to that day as "Free-loader Sunday," as all the coupon-toters come in to get their free money, free breakfast, and free food on floor, without so much as spending $10 the entire time they are there. They are regular customers, in at the crack of 10am, and very demanding, thinking because they are there so often, they should be entitled to this and that.

Since I have Sunday off, and my parents are going to be camping sorta near by (closer than going home), I will go visit them for a bit and have lunch/dinner with them before they head back to civilization.

I finished up a second shawl, this time in bright pink (not the best of colors, but I was mostly testing out my size-reduction of the piece), and am working on crocheting a purse. I'm a little more than halfway done with the main part of the bag, and once that is finished, will need to work the handle and stitch up the bottom of the bag, and I think it'll be good to go. I'll post pictures later.

kangaroos and a wedding

So Aaron got Friday off so he could attend the wedding of someone who used to work in the kitchen with him. As soon as I found out this news, I made plans to go to the Roo Ranch, as well, because, if taking the right path, it was on the way to the wedding. I'm so sneaky.

The Roo Ranch was fun, but getting your picture taken with a joey for $15 was a little out of my price range, so I opted not to do so (and I was wearing a white shirt). There were kangaroos, wallaroos, and wallabies at the Roo Ranch, all in pens. Our tour guide was probably hung over, 22 years old, and a football player for the university. Rockin'. I would have taken pictures of the roos, but they were just all in pens, inside or outside, and that's a little boring - pictures taken through chain link fence.

After the trip to the Roo Ranch, Aaron and I picked up a co-worker, Bryce, and headed for the wedding. We were a little late, but weddings never start on time. Right? Actually, this one did, and it's the first wedding I've ever been to that ever started on time. By the time we arrived, 5 minutes late, the "wedding march" was already playing. The wedding took less than an hour, the shaking hands of the wedding party was awkward 'cause I hardly knew the groom, let alone his new wife and family, but I survived.

We skipped out on the reception, figuring it would be lame (I guess her family is big into not drinking...), and headed back to Deadwood to drop off Bryce and lose some money before heading back home to Spearfish.

A quick change of clothes and we were at the bar, where I ran into someone who's blog I used to read (until he discontinued it, which made me sad, 'cause it was good to read). He knew who I was through my blog, and I knew who he was through his blog, although this was the first time we'd met face to face. He'd conversed with Aaron in previous times, and Aaron had even asked me, "Do you remember so and so? He had this blog..."

So he's working at the bar and comes up to the table, "Hey, it's Andrea! How are you doing?" I must have looked weirded out or something (even though I wasn't, 'cause I knew exactly who he was), but after that quick little greeting, he hardly stopped by the table or made eye contact. Maybe he thought I was freaked out by it? Who knows.

Anyway, I'm rambling now, and no one wants to read that. Aaron has tomorrow off, so when I get home from work, we can DO something! Hooray!

Oh, I crocheted a beautiful shawl over the last couple of days...but after trying it on, discovered it is entirely too large to wear without looking silly, but the shell pattern in the stitching turned out wonderfully.

Here is a close up of the shell pattern.


And the whole thing on the floor, pardon the skeins of yarn and crap all over the place...


And this is when I first started the project, one skein into it. Just trying to capture the shell pattern.


I'm going to make one in pink, but instead of starting with 20 shells at the bottom row, I think I'll start with 15, which seemed like a good size when I folded it over. Plus it won't take nearly as much yarn or as many hours to make.

Last night at work we got a call from our graveyard cashier, who said he would not be coming in to work at midnight because he was sick. After many failed attempts to call the only person who had the next day off, we finally got ahold of the day shift cashier and worked out a plan. I would work all of swing shift and the first half of graveyard, and she would come in at 4am and work the last half of graveyard and her day shift.

Wow, did that make for a long night. Swing shifts are already nine and a half hours long, so by the time I got done with that and half of graveyard, it was a 13 and a half hour long night/morning at work.

Getting home and trying to fall asleep at a quarter after 5am was difficult, as well, since it's light outside and we have white curtains that do little more than block vision, but not light. By the time I woke up this afternoon, Aaron had half an hour before he had to leave for work. What a wasted day.

Fortunately, yesterday was the last day of the work week for me, and I have three days off in which to laze about and work on crochet things.

And that's about all the news I have...I know it's pretty exciting and whatnot...

scarf

This took me about three hours to complete, while I was waiting for my loads of laundry to wash/dry, and then of course folding the laundry.



It's a scarf, and this is just a close up shot of it to show the pattern on the borders. It was really simple to make, once I deciphered the "sl st" and "sc" and "sk" coding. I know it makes for shorter directions/patterns, but I'm just learning how to read crochet patterns, and they are still a little confusing to me.

skullholder

This is something I created from my Stitch 'N Bitch: The Happy Hooker crochet book. It's probably the coolets pot holder on the planet, but it's about twice the size of a normal pot holder for some reason. Oh well, I'm sure it will work just fine.