Domestic Geek

I keep looking at my current design trying to figure out why I can't make myself fix the few issues I have left and it has just struck me that it is the two sidesbars that bug me.

I first starting working on this design back when I did paid blogging and was still active in a bunch of the blog directories. I put in two sidebars because all that extra side content made my previous single sidebar way too long.

Well, I've since decided I don't need all that extra crap (in my life or on my blog), but I kept the two sidebars because it took me so danged long to figured out the spacing and stuff. When I get home, I need to dump them and figure out a new layout. I still love my header, I'm just not happy with the rest.

Maybe once I am happy with a design, I will blog on a regular basis again.

Trying to get this to work.



posted via Moblogging

I've been trying not to write about work stuff on here anymore. Mostly because it's boring, crappy news. SSDD. I need to write about this, though, because it is really bugging me.

With the "economic downturn," first we started having to pay part of our health care and then they stopped contributing to our retirement plans. Next came the mandatory week furloughs. Normally, I would understand why we have to take a week off each quarter (using vacation if you've got it, unpaid if you don't), but the management has been calling in other people to work OT to get the work done while we're still being required to take mandatory time off. How is this saving the company any money? Not to mention that it's causing morale issues amongst those that are not offered overtime. It's lame. Couple that with a cryptic note in our paychecks today that doesn't really say whether we get the 4th of July off or not, and attitudes amongst my coworkers is dropping further in the toilet.

It's looking like once Marcus and I get back from vacation, I'm going to have to find a secondary source of income. I won't have any vacation hours left and I can barely pay my bills with my bare minimum paycheck. Now that I've gone back to my old position, my opportunities to sneak in an extra hour or two of overtime a week are gone.

I know I should be grateful I have a job. There are a lot of people out there who don't have one. Still, the nonsense occurring daily is driving me insane. I get grumpy when I can't afford yarn or Tokyo Joe's.

On a related note, I'd never be this hard up for a job. Apparently, if you want to work for the city of Bozeman, MT, you have to give up user names and passwords. According to an article on cnet:

The Rocky Mountain city instructs all job applicants to divulge their user names and passwords for "any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc."

Uh, invasion of privacy anyone? Shame on them for asking and shame on those who willingly give up such information. No freaking way am I giving those up for the possibility of getting a job.I agree that they have the right to base employment decisions on what an applicant may have posted online, but demanding access to logins? Disgraceful. I really am starting to wonder what country I live in anymore.

I saw this great article about how teens in Britain have taken up the craft of Cross-Stitch. The revival, dubbed "Urban Cross-Stitch," consists of creating designs based on video games or street designs, rather than the more sampler or picturesque designs normally associated with the craft. Very cool!

I know, I've been absent of late. I've been around. Mostly on Facebook, Twitter and Ravelry. I'll be honest — I lost my blogging mojo. Even the big things that happened over the last six months or better, such as shattering my left pinkie at work*, haven't pushed me to compose anything for this blog. Today, however, an event happened that made me go, "I so have to blog about this."

So what is so momentous that I absolutely have to share?

I discovered that the Swiffer Wet Jet totally sucks.

See, I wanted one of these things for ages. The commercial when the thing first came out made mopping the floor (one of my least favorite chores ever) seem like a breeze. I looked longingly at them in the store. I dreamed of having a spotless kitchen floor. For Christmas a couple of years back, Marcus gave me a Home Depot gift card. I used it to buy a Swiffer Wet Jet and, per my standard method of operation, never took it out of the box. It's been sitting on a shelf in our laundry room since. Yes, I hate doing floors that much that even my dream device couldn't get me to do it. (Marcus usually does our floors and prefers using the string mop and bucket.)

Well, Tuesday evening after a long, rough day at work, I reached into the refrigerator to get the tea pitcher and proceeded to knock a big, glass mixing bowl full of sugared strawberries that I had made for shortcake for the preceding day's Memorial Day festivities right onto my foot and all over the kitchen floor. I stood in this puddle of goo crying and in pain while Marcus got me towels to sop up the mess. I did the best I could to get it cleaned up, but I really needed to get to bed and there was a little bit of syrup stuck to the floor in various places. I decided that today would be the day that I would finally give that Wet Jet a try and see what it could do.

First thing out of the box, I was ticked off that it needed 4 AA batteries. I didn't recall seeing that mentioned on the package. After scrounging up some, I got the thing assembled and gave it a try. Following the initial pass across the floor, I was really impressed. It was light and easy to use. I was getting a lot of dirt up off the floor. I thought my floor cleaning nightmares were over. I left for a bit for the floor dry. When I came back, the floor was no longer shiny. In fact, it looked rather hazy. Then I walked on it. OH MY GOD, it was so sticky. At first I thought it was the strawberry juice, but after doing a bit of Googling, I found that it was one of the biggest complaints. That, and that the company changed the pad at some point, so refills were now crappy. Now I was pissed. It says right on the bottle of cleaner that it won't leave a residue. Were these people high? Calling what was on my floor a residue was a major understatement. I broke out the vinegar and warm water and have gone over it several times and it is still slightly tacky. I'll try again in the morning to get it totally cleaned up. I was so mad, I almost burst.

Well, the thing is now residing in the trash dumpster. I thought about trying to use it with another cleaner, but would I? Doubt it. Certainly not going to waste my money on inferior refill pads. I have never been so disappointed in a product in my entire life as I was with this one, I can't believe the POS is still on the market.

*At some point, I will blog about what happened to my finger at work.