yikes

the past month has been jam-packed and fraught with... well, pretty much everything...

lots of knitting: i'm currently working on finishing up the christmas socks. i've got 3 socks to go - one full pair and one half sock in two other pairs. can't wait until it's done!

this past week saw me volunteering to demote myself at work with no loss of pay or benefits. i just can't do the 50 or 60 hour weeks with the ridiculous frustrations caused by my superior and still be a happy person outside the office (or inside it for that matter). so, as we were hiring someone else anyway i just went ahead and suggested that they hire someone to do my job and i'll take over the clean-up of everything that has been ignored for the past two years. as well, i'll be working on special projects and moving more into working on the productivity improvement program we have underway. i'm really excited about the productivity improvement stuff actually. it's a company wide initiative being led by a third-party company. basically it is officially time for us all to pull up our freaking boot straps and get something done to address our problems. this is the kind of thing that gets me excited to go to work. lots of new processes being implemented, lots of decision making, lots of systems upgrades. very cool.
now of course it's a matter of them finding a suitable replacement for me. they had problems finding someone a year ago when they hired me, so i can't imagine it being any easier this year. in fact, i'd hazard a guess that it will be harder. for now i'll continue with my present duties and begin off-loading everything that i can onto the other accountant. i had been taking a slower approach with not, not knowing who we would be hiring, but now that i know i can easily divide my work between the two of them (isn't that sad, that my ENTIRE JOB is being split now between two people? ya. i thought so too. basically it means that i've been completely and totally used by the company for the past year.). this is part of my plan to live my life the way i want to live it. rather than always assuming that something external is going to happen to make things better, it's time that i just took things into my own hands and started making choices and decisions for myself. if that means stepping down from my current position into something less stressful then i'll do it. and i won't feel guilty about it.

this weekend was supposed to be fun-filled for me, but instead basically sucked. we were planning on getting out of town, however that didn't happen. turns out Boy didn't really want to go... he's been gone for the past two weekends and is going to be gone for the next two... he wanted to do what would make me happy, but didn't really want to do it himself. which is fine, we worked it out. we had fun in town actually, i shouldn't say it sucked. i went out on my new snowshoes again and tromped about in the woods and he did a similar thing with Joe-the-dog. i'm digging the snowshoes. considering how much i love going for walks, this is a great solution to my "oh no, i'm hip deep in snow again" problem with winter walking. so, the new plan is to get out to cornerbrook in late february. i'm going to keep him to that too. or else i'm going alone. either way, i'm getting there before march.

hmmm....what else... i should really have photos, but the light is so sparse these days i just haven't gotten around to taking any... i finally fixed the buttons on olivia's baby surprise sweater. i went over one night and fixed it while they were eating dinner. it is MUCH better. now i need to think about knitting her another sweater. maybe the i took the opportunity to try michelle's sock on her foot as well and i apparently guessed correctly on the sizing - it fits!

well, that's all for now. i really need to get some photos onto this here blog... and i need to get more regular about updating it. i'm even boring myself now...

oh ya, it's snowing again. nothing new. another 30cm expected over the day and tonight. it's nice though. gentle and fluffy. can't wait until it turns into ice pellets or maybe rains, causing it to turn to concrete. fun.


edited to add: i was just poking about online and came across this ecological footprint calculator. now, they remind you that it is grossly oversimplified and that it doesn't take a lot of things into account, blah blah blah. but still, pretty scary. we would need 5 planet earth's if everyone lived like i do. apparently, i suck. eek. i got there from the MEC site here.