Writer's Block: You're Outta Here

[Error: unknown template qotd]

Transformers: Dark of the Moon. It is my One True Hate, on so many levels, and for so many reasons. Frothing rant still pending until I'm cool-headed enough to actually do it justice.

Old Stitches

So even after switching out the hook-and-eyes for tie closures, his good Renfaire shirt (the linen one, with heavily-embroidered blackwork cuffs and collar) no longer fits Wonderful Husband. Which is a mystery to both of us, as (1) it fit when I made it, (2) his added weight since then isn't in the areas it doesn't fit, and (3) linen doesn't shrink that much in the wash! Which, I guess, means that I should try it on and see what adjustments would be needed to make it fit me.

This also means that, after Costume College, I get to buy more linen, re-measure him, and make him a new shirt. With new collars and cuffs! And since by the end of it I got sick of the embroidery pattern for the old shirt, I want to find a new period pattern to play with. (I used the central/major motif from the cuffs of the Holbein portrait of Jane Seymour; after a while I took to calling it the "crosses and tombstones" pattern.)

After consulting my (two) blackwork books, I came across the Jane Bostock sampler (third one pictured; click on it for a larger view) which has a couple patterns that seem suitably intricate without being overwhelmingly feminine... now I just have to find large enough views of the patterns that interest me, and chart them.

Other People's (Fax Machine) Problems

I am sensing a theme to my work week.

Tuesday I get an irate call from the manager of our financial office, berating me for not faxing up on Friday a copy of the FedEx shipping label for the contracts. I pull my copy out of the drawer, tell her I faxed it just after 11am on Friday. "Well, you need to stand by the fax machine and make sure it goes through, because we never got it!" I go downstairs, pull the fax machine report from Friday, call her back, tell her what I'm looking at, and that our machine report says it went through to hers, no problem. "Well, we never got it!"

I fail to see how her fax machine hiccups are my fault.

Today, I get a first call, determine it's not one of our contracts, fax it over to the Neptune that (1) is affiliated with the office that issued the contract, and (2) actually covers the area the hospice was calling from. Three-quarters of an hour later, I get a call from the hospice asking for an ETA, relay the information, give them the number to that office. Not ten minutes later, I get a call from that office, demanding what's going on since I never called them back about it. I tell them I faxed the information to them. "Well, the fax machine is in [person]'s office, and we can't go in there when she's not here!"

*facepalm* Again, their lack of planning and foresight is not my problem, not my fault.

One and a half more days to the weekend; let's see how many more variations on this theme I can collect....