What’s the point of this blog?

Damn good question.  We’ve covered, knitting, cooking, dining, wine, projects, dating, friends, life, kids, can it be more convoluted that that?  Probably.  After all we’re talking about me now aren’t we?

On the knitting front.  There hasn’t really been one.  It’s the second week in November and I haven’t even started the kids knitting projects.  Crap.  This is the first year I’m having an extremely hard time getting my shite into a pile.  Anything into a pile for that matter.  The kids have requested Shaun the Sheep toys or a jellyfish and a pumpkin, miniature of course, and I still can’t find any motivation.  I blame a lot of things for my severe motivation loss, first and foremost being overwhelmed.

I’ll try to catch up a little bit.

My recent project has been this pair of socks made of Malbrigo sock. Great stuff. Very soft. This is my second go at the socks, and I hate to admit, this is what it looked like before I frogged it the first time. I am now to the gusset part and they are still coming along.

My second project that has come in a big fat halt is this scarf for my friend K. She’s been super supportive of me and the minions. She came over and gave me a much needed hour to myself and they are enjoying talking to her about minion stuff. This will be my thank you to her. Eventually.

Speaking of eventually. Exactly 15 months to the day I finished the Henry scarf. Finally. Some days it felt like it would never be finished. It does deserve a post of its own. The recipient was very pleased about the scarf (even though I thought it was going to be more blue). Taking pictures of the scarf on said recipient are still on my to do list. Maybe I should name my platypus Henry.

This week until the 20th is Boulder First Bite. Quite the deal, you should go check it out.

I finally found some.  Yes.  Watermelon sock yarn.

Imperfect. Clashing. Finished socks.

I’ve started another pair. Again. (Pictures to come in another post.) Out of a mess I tried last year. I think it’s just the pattern that makes it seem odd to me, but I press on. This is the first time using the magic loop for sock knitting. I have mixed feelings about it. This go around they feel less tight on the foot, but I think I’m knitting them with a larger needle than I did before. I’m not sure how I determined I should knit on US 0 when the pattern clearly mentions US 1. The appearance of ladders is nearly non-existent (I can tell, because I am a crazy perfectionist), but the cable is a bit unruly and gets in my way where DPNs do not.

It’s occurred to me after watching a movie recently based off of two true stories, perhaps we do not have any original ideas to sell anymore. I watch or read about other people’s lives, people who changed the way we think, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s my generation?

Blogs seem a little passé and I long for the human social interaction again. Perhaps it’s taken for granted that acceptable social interaction is conducted through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and blogs. I keep reading about how awful it is to keep any sort of public information about yourself out there in the muck of cyberspace for fear of your boss or future boss stumbling upon it. Sometimes I wonder if perhaps there is something to be said of privacy.

It’s fascinating to me watching how my interests change over time.  Right now, its cooking.  I’ve become fully obsessed with Kitchen-Aid stand mixers.  This is partially due to wanting one because I grew up in a kitchen that had one and partially due to the fact that my last hand mixer came to an untimely death.  It was a part of the divorce settlement and it’s not missed.  In fact it’s given me inspiration in acquiring a new stand mixer instead.  As a matter of fact, I bought one this last weekend, which I returned today.  (Costco has a good return policy even though I am not a member currently, I did have a receipt, they did return cash.  I give them about 3 out of 5 stars for non-members, if they had taken the opportunity to try to sell me on membership I would have rated them higher, instead they gave me a mild attitude, but I didn’t have to lug it back to the car.)  Why did I take it back?  Well, even the professional versions of the stand mixers now come with burnished attachments instead of the white coated attachments.  From what I can reasonably assume, some of the wire whisks are not stainless steel since there are specific descriptions of that in their catalog.  Coated and stainless steel are important since those can go in the dishwasher, burnished cannot.  Burnished must be hand washed immediately, as in don’t even let sit in soapy water while you shape the loaf of bread.  Burnished means that if you or some unknowing party (children) stick it in the dishwasher it will oxidize and get a filmy layer of black on it.  I was sad.  I really would like to have a stand mixer.  Now I’m researching which models come with the coated items, I’d prefer not to have to order those on top of the purchase of a mixer.

Now you may ask, why a stand mixer?  The best reason is because you don’t have to hold the mixer.  I always hated that about hand mixers.  Now you may ask, but you don’t really cook and do you remember the last time you baked?  Um, no, I think it was frozen cookies and I somehow managed to mess those up.  Talented.

Part of my inspiration is coming from friends that do cook / bake and from nosing around fine dining for the last year.  I can’t tell you the difference between a $50 bottle of wine and a $25 bottle of wine, but I can recognize a not so good $6 bottle of wine and I have a new love affair with white truffle oil.  Expect more food blogs in the future.

The blanket for The Captain is coming along slowly. Very slowly. I have until April, or college. It will get done.  Eventually.

This is the latest spinning project. It’s coming along well.  It actually looks way better than it’s cousin on the left.  The difference?  The diz on the roving before spinning.  I can’t wait to see how it plys.

Finally, this is paco-vicuna, which I found at an alpaca show this past weekend.  It’s exciting when your friends find fiber / animal shows for you to go with and are just as excited to go as you are.

Yea, now that I’m less annoyed, I’m thinking rainbows, sunshine, buttercream.  I especially like the part describing the crazy.  That’s just funny.

I’ll post some time why I am now in the market for a mixer.  Not tonight.

For a great deal currently, and we’re all looking for some great deals, check out 5280 Restaurant week.  This is a great way to check out the finer side of dining in the Denver metro area.

Just as much as I will tell you about bad consumer experiences, I will also tell you about the great deals and great businesses I frequent.  They will always get my business.

Last week was Corridor 44, and as usual I didn’t bring a camera.  Big bummer, since the plates were really cute.  I tried the parmesan truffle fries, which are to die for.  I also tried their beef tenderloin, blue cheese and fig tarts and the smoked salmon and caviar potato chips (hard to imagine, worth the try), which I would order again.  The filet mignon was good with the veal sauce and golden mashed potatoes, but I think I would pass on those if I go there again for the pan seared scallops.  The champagne panna cotta was refreshing and summery.

If you like an upbeat experience in the heart of LoDo that has a restaurant with bar scene feel, check out Corridor 44.  Besides they have a great ghost story that is sure to be a good topic of conversation.

We all get it.  Credit is bad.

Dear Corporate America,

Please remember that not only do customers have access to infuriating customer servicer representatives, but also e-mail, blogs, Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook.  Not only do unhappy customers tell 10 other people, but they have the opportunity to blast it all over the internet now.

Sincerely,

Unhappy customer.

Readers, remember this, if your credit score is not the best, i.e. you went through a foreclosure or short sale, DO NOT contact your credit company for any reason other than to send them a payment.  Period.  If you request, say a balance transfer, then they don’t grant it to you they can and WILL lower the amount of credit available to you.  This WILL effect your credit score.  So the months that you have been trying to do good paying your account down, building up the history of steady payments will go right out the window.

At this point I would like to see the reviews of the banks that don’t try to squeeze every cent out of you the consumer.  I would like to see those that are rewarding people, in the interest of keeping and generating new business.

Let me know if you find anyone okay?  They will have all of my business.

I have had a Chase Visa credit card (boo…I know) since 2007.  I was so happy with them and my interest rate of .0799 that I opened up an Amazon card through them as well.  Okay, now this is where everyone gives me their “Mom Look” and shakes their head.  I have admit that I too fell into the whole sweep of wanting more than my bank account could handle and therefore used my Chase care more than I ought to have.

This actually worked out well for me since my divorce ended up with a lot of bad marks due to not fully taking care of property in the divorce decree that should have been take care of.  Point in case…foreclosure on a condo that was extremely upside down and extremely poor communication with my ex (at this point I could start pointing out lack of responsibility, but really, ladies and gentlemen the lesson to learn here is get a quit claim deed or just sell the property and walk away with your respective loss.  DO NOT keep your name on the loan in any way shape or form PERIOD.  No matter how much you are trying to save face or feelings it’s not worth it.)  Either way in order to rebuild my credit, the regular payments have helped.  Until today.

I got my new spiffy redesigned Chase statement in the mail.  They raised my interest rate by 7%.  Yes, 7%.  I’ve never been late.  I’ve always made my payments.  Not to mention that they raised my rate in March of 2009 3.25%.  Keep in mind, I’ve never been late.  So, now I’m sitting at a nice 18.24%.  I called.

The first person in their customer service center, we’ll call Josh, sent me to Michelle, who was very nice, but informed me that there was nothing to be done with the rate for at least the next 6 months.  Something about corporate wide policy.  She sympathized with my complaint and sent me to the negotiation department.  The negotiation department landed me actually in the “Hardship” department speaking to a lack luster and unsympathetic Cassandra, although I’m not sure since she was muttering the entire time.  She informed me she could try to assist in a negotiation of up to 85% of my account balance but it would land a bad mark on my credit history and I’d have to report it on my taxes if it was over $600.00.  Cassandra gave me the speech about how basically this was my fault and how she could start the process of requesting hardship.  At this point, I told her how I didn’t like being called stupid and that I wanted to escalate the matter.  This got me into call center hell, where you wait and listen to the elevator music.

I then called Bank of America to do a balance transfer, although that turned into another disappointing mess, that isn’t important.  Needless to say, I called Chase back and offered to pay my account in full, only to be told that I should expect one more bill in the mail that would have the interest for the month charge.

sigh

Moral of the story?  Don’t do business with Chase.  They will squeeze every cent out of you, even if you are trying to do the right thing.  I’m currently on hold to find out which government agency governs over them.  They don’t know.

Finally, I got to speak with Daniel a supervisor who actually was able to assist me in dropping my rate back down to the 11.24%.  I understand why people are so frustrated.  I know they’re in the business to make money, but why piss off your customers to this point?  BTW, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency governs over banks.