Franco, what a hoot!

Weekend! Spring Brea-oh wait, I'm not in college and I have a job. Spring weekend!

It was a solo day. I ran a mail errand before work. Good ol' post office. At work I started by reclaiming 10 screens, then I cleaned the ones that didn't have tape, then I removed the tape from the ones that had tape, then I coated a few of the reclaimed screens with Aquasol emulsion, then I cleaned the rest of the screens, then I reclaimed 15 screens at the end. Not a full day, which was nice. Just me and Lord Peter Wimsey.

My Threadless shirts arrived in the mail, so that was cool. Now I have some neat shirts to wear, wheee!

Had an avocado creme cheese sandwich for dinner. Thankfully I gave the avocado a squeeze and found it to be fit to cut open. It's a good thing to know how to test food ripeness. Avocados, those are fruit, right?

I saw Harmony Korine's movie Spring Breakers, because I was curious. It was a trip. Not quite my type of movie, though it had some nice film work.

Weekend!

it's on Soquel, so it is semi in the right direction for work...

Thinking about joining a gym again. I really want to be in better shape so that I can do my job better. And also getting in better shape while I'm young and it is easier to get in shape than when I'm old and it's...more difficult. Plus healthy, healthy, healthy! And a gym would put me in contact with people.

Hmm. I'd have to work out before work, and hopefully the energy would do me good.

Anyway. Ran the fronts on shirts, Cara/Karah/Kara helped me with a bigass banner. 15'x5'!!! So big. Way too big really, but I did it. And a smaller banner. And I cleaned stuff and chopped stickers. The banner was the doozy. Took a lot of effort, but before I knew it, the day was done!

I ran a little bookshop errand after work, though I didn't find the book I wanted, so I got a more contemporary crossword puzzle collection and a birthday card for Heather and Daniel (their birthdays are about a week apart, so I double dipped, haha).

Do you eat after a morning work out? Before? A little nibble to get your metabolism started?

Welp, I'm going to work on me crossword puzzle book.

in an octopuses topiary

I burned my hand a bit on the heat press. Booo! I was as careful as I could be, but still when you lightly graze something heated up to 315 degrees, it will burn. Though not too bad, it certainly isn't leaking puss.

Oh, there is a new radio adaptation of Neverwhere. I put the first four episodes in Dropbox Ma & Pa, so give those a listen.

Also at work I caught, I taped, I cleaned, and I heat pressed.

After work I went food shopping. Got some salad fixings. Awww yeah salad. Green stuff. I also remembered that avocados exist, so I predict a couple avocado creme cheese sandwiches in my near future. Mmmm. And I bought a shirt from my coworker, one of his octopus designs. It's a pretty rad shirt. Good deal for ten bucks.

I...I need to find something to do in my evenings. But by the time I'm home and cooled off from work, it's past 7. Hmmn.

oh Lord Peter, you crack me up

Taped zee screens, caught zee prints, unboxed zee shirts, printed zee more hats...I can't keep writing like that.

I started listening to another Peter Wimsey novel, though actually it is a collection of short stories. Just very delightful stories across the board.

I also hauled out the trash and chopped stickers.

At home I did jack and squatt. Not really...good. And I forgot to go grocery shopping! I'm out of fruit again (and vegetables).

Tomorrow. I'll do that tomorrow. And I'll have my paycheck by then, so I can go hog wild on salad.

new threads

Pressed hats for most of my shift, and I hope I pressed them right. Placement is tricky. Centering things is hard, especially when the graphics are lopsided. Ah, oh well, it is done so...it is done. Also pressed patches on hats, which is possible. I stamped them down real snug on the machine. I also burned some screens, and since they are for discharge I double coated and hardened them, so they'll be good to go soon.

Cut stickers. Did banners. Finished listening to The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning. Because the book was narrated with a strong Croatian accent, my internal dialogue got a bit of an accent as well. The narrator was really good at a broad range of accents. There was Icelandic, American, and err...others. It was a fun listen.

At home, I relaxed. Watched telly. Bought a couple Threadless shirts, because whenever Threadless shirts are on sale for $10, I have to give it a browse.

Mom, you should buy this shirt, so we can be twinsies! This is also a cute design, but I didn't get it.

Crap, still haven't ordered that scanner.

I wore pants, not cut offs, to work. It's supposed to be low to mid 60's for the rest of the week. Oh well.

There are shirts to print, but they are doing on site installs, so I don't know what I'll be doing during the next couple days. Maybe I'll have a day off? Wouldn't be the worst thing.

bulbin'

Saturday:

Just a stay at home and get things done kinda day. I made a Target run and got lightbulbs, soap, face wash, work shirts, and other household stuff. I got the fancy long lasting lightbulbs. Cuz I'm living large.

Annnd that was pretty much it. I didn't run errands till later in the day, and I didn't get out of bed and on with breakfast till afternoon.

Sunday:

I set my alarm because I didn't want to sleep allll the way in. Had a little breakfast. Got in touch with Nathan. At 2ish I swung by Trader Joe's and got some snackums and then I went up to see Nate in Redwood City. We played some Portal 2 co-op, watched some Adventure Time, ate some cupcakes and candies, and watched a bit of Attack the Block, which is a wicked cool British action alien movie. He had a dinner thing, so we parted ways at 7. I called Steve because San Jose is near to Redwood City, and I went over and hung out with Steve, Molly, Kyle, Adam, and Jenn. Had pizza, drank a few beers, chatted, watched stuff. Had a generally good evening.

Rolled into Santa Cruz late in the night, and all was well. Not a half bad weekend. Bring it new week!

stoked (did you see what I did there?)

Ended the week on a really nice note. It was bright, though not as hot as it has been, though I was still in cutoffs and my shirt, so I really can't complain. I coated the screens and caught the hat transfers that were run (as well as set up and broke down the hat transfers). With hats, you print the design backwards, then put this powdered glue on it, and send it down the dryer. Then you use a heat press to transfer the image to a hat (or any other fabric surface). The paper you print on just peels away. Pretty neat. So we made a bunch of hat transfers, and I finished the day by pressing a bunch of hats. There are more to press, but only a few got done. I also cut up some stickers and stuff. All in all, pretty nice.

Ryan and I caught a showing of Park Chan-wook's film Stoker at the Del Mar. I got popcorn for dinner and I put wasabi powder on it. Wasabi is a vegetable, right? Anyway, the movie was visually quite amazing and the performances were stellar, and oh that sound track! The script was written by Wentworth Miller, which surprised me.

I haven't been out to the movies in a while, it feels like, so it felt good to go.

Might hang with the Brother during the weekend. Or I'll just take it easy. We shall see.

fine for failure to observe mountain

Another relatively solo day at work. It was once again a beautiful day and I was in cut offs.

I burned a couple screens right at the start, then I got to cleaning. I reclaimed 11 screens, and got those drying, and I broke down the press, and I cleaned a few more screens, and reclaimed a couple more, and taped up some, and OH I coated the screens from yesterday. Tomorrow will be more coating, and then I think we'll have a good number of screens on hand to burn. We need to call some of the people to see if they plan on running jobs soon, because there are a lot of screens sitting, and they could be reclaimed any ol' day.

I finished Handmaid's Tale. So good. Started The Left Hand of Darkness, which is pretty interesting. I'm really getting through audiobooks these past couple weeks, it seems. But they are also shorter ones. I define short as 6-9 hours, which is about 3 work days worth of listening, because I sometimes break it up with music.

At home I washed dishes, had a fried egg sandwich for dinner, watched some telly. Might actually properly leave the house tomorrow. We shall see.

nanners

While I like having more daylight, my body still isn't liking the adjustment to Daylight Savings. Still, gotta force it to lay down.

Work was scattered and all over the place, but good news! I'm back in cutoffs! It is warming up. Yaay.

I caught, I cleaned, I reclaimed 3 screens and coated them, I reclaimed another 16 and those will be coated tomorrow. There are still a good 20 screens to clean, but not all are being reclaimed. Screens keep getting set in the "we may run them soon" pile. I think it is better to have screens on hand to run immediate jobs, but I guess it does save a bit of effort and materials if they are ready to go.

I've been sneezing, so I guess my mysterious vague pollen allergy is acting up. It is just sneezing though. Could be dust.

Handmaid's Tale is so good. A damn awesome piece of speculative fiction (not quite science fiction, though in a similar vein). I have it in my library, if you want to borrow it Ma.

After work, which was a nice full day, I went to get banana bread fixings because the bananas I had went really brown really quick for some reason. I doubled the recipe for double the tasty, and they baked up really well. I'll have to think of something to do with the extra buttermilk. Don't want to waste it.

See, with this week, Thursday really snuck up on me. I guess because Monday put me in such a mood that it sort of became this null in my mind. The lasagna has lasted me perfectly all week as a meal. I'll be back to PB&J soon. Unless I hard boil some eggs and make egg salad sandwich.

I just love banana bread. I made it with that turbinado sugar. Mmmm. Betty Crocker can't fail.

he has the haaaair!

Today was a very good day at work! A lot got done, and a lot went very well. It was also very, very warm. I think I might even wear cut offs tomorrow. It was much too hot, but of course the dryer was going and we were running jobs, which makes things much more warm. Ran fronts and backs on shorts, ran fronts and backs on shirts. I just checked the weather. It is supposed to be 70+ degrees in Santa Cruz all the way through the weekend. BOOYAH! Listened to The Handmaid's Tale. Ahh Margaret Atwood. Such a good writer. It was a full day of work. I wanted to make banana bread after, but I was missing some ingredients, so I did not make banana bread. I drew this drawing of Benedict Cumberbatch instead, because they are going to start filming Sherlock soon and I am SO EXCITED!

grumble grumble

Uhg. Tough day at work. Didn't go well. Stressful. Taped up stuff. Ran a job, and while my running was fine there was something with the shirt and ink. Not my fault but still, just...stressful. Things should go smoothly, or at least smooth enough.

Had a restful night sleep as well. Will probably be tucking in early. I guess my body still thinks of right now at 10pm. So maybe I'll sit and bed and read. Just want to relax. Don't like being stressed and stuff.

The lasagna was good for lunch. Num nums lasagna.

Got the package, Ma!

Today left me wiped. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Spring is coming

Be sure to check out the March 11th Google Doodle. It is in celebration of Douglas Adams' 61st Birthday. I wouldn't be who I am without him, seriously.

Saturday:

Got a full 12 hours in bed, and I woke up feeling great. This whole weekend has been excellent in terms of decompacting all the knots and stress that have built up over this past week. I ran some shopping errands, namely to get lasagna making supplies. I also scrubbed the bath tub and shower curtain and washed the bath rug and went at the no slip thing with the hose. My bathroom, since it has no fan, is a total mildew trap. Trying to clean that gunk out. I was mildly successful. The no-slip needs more work, but it does have a cleaner vibe as a whole.

It was an absolutely beautiful day.

Steve came down from San Jose for lasagna. He helped prepare it. Well he mixed the cheese mixture up. He may have been a bit generous with the portions as he likes cheese. While it was cooking we drank wine and worked on crossword puzzles. I've never put dry lasagna noodles in the lasagna, as the recipe called for, and I didn't trust it this time around, so I put cooked noodles in. It was a bit...well it became more a lasagna puddle and didn't hold its shape too well when it was cut apart. But it was still tasty. Afterwards we watched Ravenous, a favorite movie of mine.

Sunday:

For brunch, Steve & I went to The Buttery. I had the avocado, egg, tomato croissant sandwich and he had the egg, cheese, and bacon one. Also there were pecan and chocolate treats from the bakery side of things. It was all tasty, as The Buttery has consistently been. It is assuredly a place for me to take visiting relatives.

We walked about Santa Cruz after, because it was yet another beautiful day. Steve had errands in San Jose, so he departed relatively early in the afternoon. I ran my laundry and took it easy for the rest of the day. Watched some telly, folded some shirts, looked into scanners. Since I can get bulk shirts from work, I looked into the brands on the distribution site. Might get some nice solid colored shirts next paycheck. Mmm hmm.

I predict next week will contain a lot of cleaning, reclaiming, and coating, with a few smaller jobs ran.

thank Douglas it's Friday

I am bushwhacked. I am beyond bushwhacked. This week kicked my butt absolutely and totally. And it was a full 40 hour work week on top of doing some really laborious stuff.

At work I taped screens, and they were popped into the press right as I was done. I also cleaned a couple floodbars. It was an 8 color job and it took a few screen swaps to get it right, but we got it right! And it looked pretty awesome. We printed the fronts, I caught. I did some tidying up while the Boys swapped the press to run the fronts. Then I caught the fronts. And boxed them. Then it was time to go home and take my "damn I am tired" relaxation bath.

I'm going to sleep so hard now. It's going to be awesome. I think I'll make lasagna tomorrow. That'll be nice. I'm trying to switch up my lunch meals. I've done pretty good in the not having a PB&J five days in a row front, though the PB&J is a lot more satiating in the long run compared to leftover Chinese food, and the burrito, whole good, also doesn't fill like it ought. Plus it is harder to eat gradually through the day.

I'll probably make more portraits to scan

Blerggh I don't feel too good. I had a very fitful night sleep, and this whole week has been very tiring. Plus I worked a damn full shift today. I heat pressed backpacks, did a banner, reclaimed & coated screens, burned screens, burned more screens. It was a very full day. I got some fast food on the way home, because I was lazy. Unfortunately I don't think my body can really eat fast food any more. At least, not a massive quantity of it. The way I graze through my work day makes it difficult for me to sit and have one big meal.

So I'm going to bed now. So tired. Nice to be having hours though. A nice big full week. It's good to have because I've had some really short days.

I think I said earlier in the week that I'll probably be saying "wow this week went by fast" but it didn't. This week feels like two weeks. At least I can treat myself to a scanner soon. With a scanner, I can scan art, and make art to scan. Wheee!

derp

I arrived at work and Stu was already sorting sweatpants, so I broke down the press and cleaned squeegees and floodbars. Then the job was set up and I ran it. Several hundred sweatpants, and I ran it at good time. It slowed down when I had to drape the pant leg (we printed on one side of the pant only) over the arms of the press (the arm that holds the pallet that gets the stuff printed on). That was run, and that took most of the shift. It was boxed up and counted and numbered and whatnot. I cleaned some screens, so those should be reclaimed tomorrow.

I got out of work at a good time, so I swung by Jiffy Lube and got my oil changed. Then I went home and parked it and there is where my trouble began. At home I changed and then left for Trader Joe's and then my car was like BEEP BEEP WARNING LIGHT WHAT THE HELL. So I drove it back home (I was two blocks away) and called the Jiffy Lube and they told me to come in. So I did. My car was not accelerating past 12 MPH for the last stretch, but through diligence  use of warning flashers, and pulling over to the side when possible, I made it. They gave it another look over and did a scan and said that there was a battery alert and that was all that was coming up and that they didn't do anything wrong. But after having it there and having it sit, the battery charged up a bit, and thinking about a warning message that briefly flashed about parking in neutral, and calling dad, the pieces fell into place and without a doubt I had, like a dumbass, accidentally left my car in neutral (or it had been in neutral at the shop when they repaired it, though driving home should have charged the battery back up) when I went home, and drained the battery. I drove it down Highway 1 a bit, got it up to good speeds, and all was fine.

Now I know what happens when I drain my battery. Like I said, I feel a right dumb ass. They were really nice about it, though I didn't come at them with full accusations of bad service.

After all that, I went to Trader Joe's and did some good proper shopping. Went home, had some dinner, settled in and all was once again well.

Seriously, such a dumb mistake to make.

da-da da-da da-da DA

I dug out my old crossword puzzle book, this one I got in Portland a few years back (yikes, Portland now counts as being "a few years back") and I've been working on the puzzles. There are 50 in the book and I am one solved puzzle away from 100%. Unfortunately the puzzles themselves are a bit dated (1999) so some of the clues need Googling. I should see if Bookshop Santa Cruz has a more up to date puzzle book.

I think I forgot to mention this, but last week at work a chicken wandered into the studio and I had to chase it out. Silly chicken!

We got right to printing, and because it was fronts and because it wasn't so affixed to the pallets and because the fronts didn't make much registration, we were done with the job by 3:30ish! I was properly tired, of course. So very. Tired. Arms, legs, knees, all that good stuff. So many sweaters. Stu caught and Kara/Cara/I should really learn how to spell her name boxed. We chatted about stuff and it was nice. After that massive job, I burned and taped some screens and the press was broken down by Andrew and then I called it a day at around 6, because even though I could have worked more I was properly pooped. At least I have a job that is flexible and not NO YOU MUST WORK THIS MANY HOURS EVERY DAY.

My refund checks went through, so I treated myself to some take out. Num nums. I picked up a menu from Yan Flower and am highlighting the stuff I've tried. It all tastes a bit the same, though the snow peas and water chestnuts aren't half bad and the ginger beef has WAY too much ginger. Now I must research scanners! Weekend goals: oil & filter change, and scanner research. Wheee! Maybe some thrift shopping for work pants. I just wore a hole through the knee.

Welp. Time to rest. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier on my old bones.

Except they are not old at all, just not used to being used. Hhaha.

Oh after work I also took a nice hot bath and worked on crosswords. That bath was awesome. Viva baths!

mondaaaay

Mailed some letters, got to work, set up ze job, and spent the rest of the day printing the job. Boss started, but I took over after the really small sweaters were printed. 468. That is a lot of sweaters, and it took a lot of repeated effort to tug them off the pallets. Tomorrow will be the fronts, but they should go faster because it is a smaller print area and the set up is only underbase and top white. I'm going to get big muscles soon, if I keep this up. I'm looking forward to it.

What was that filter I should get changed when I get my oil changed? Gotta do that this week.

Back at home I relaxed and didn't really move any more once I got to my room. I predict tomorrow will have a similar evening. Yay for laborious jobs!

my banana bits are all gone, boo

Found my book of easy crossword puzzles, so I've been working on those. I've got a few more of the clues, so that is good. Hurray!

I have eight cards ready to post in the morning. That is pretty swell. I'll have to come up with a new design soon. I think I'll come up with several designs, and print a ton of cards, so that I could sell them in an Etsy/street fair type scenario. Have 'em on hand and whatnot. I'm going to run out of stamps at about the same time that I run out of cards.

I made a Staples run to pick up more envelopes. It was a beautiful day. The days are looking nicer and nicer. I can't wait to be back in my cut offs. I have one pair of work jeans that I didn't turn into shorts, and they are getting mighty worn.

I need to get a second pair of work jeans...except they would be clean new jeans and I like to wear older clothes to work because the ink doesn't really come out of clothes. Maybe I'll go thrift shopping or something.

Hmm.

Anyhoo. It was a quiet Sunday. Wrote letters. Tidied up my room.

Another week begins, and soon I shall be saying "wow that week went by fast!".

out and about & in and din

Friday:

Ran the front and backs on a shirt. Broke down the press. Moved on to Moving Pictures, yet another Discworld audiobook. Burnt a couple screens. Sorted and stacked several huge piles of sweatshirts. Lots of printing is going to go down soon. It'll be nice to clock the hours.

After work I got some cupcakes and went up to San Jose and hung out with Steve, Kyle, Molly, Adam, and Jenn. We had pot roast and stew and bread and wine and played Settles of Catan (Steve won). It was a good night all in all. I got back late and promptly went to sleep.

Saturday:

Slept way, way in. Had some funky dreams. Had a massive scramble. Caught up on television. Ate some chocolate covered banana bits. Generally had a relaxing day. Quite nice, really.

I learned a cool trick to multiplying large numbers. It utilizes lines and counting intersections of things.

licensed Californian

When I got home today my mailbox contained my new drivers license (the photo doesn't look too good, but that is the way it goes), my second refund check aka the big one, and a letter from Serenity. Triple score!

Then the interior hall light when out when I turned it on. Oh well.

At work I set up and ran a job, and it didn't need to get the thumbs up from the boss man. I was all kinds of trusted to run it. That was awesome. I also did these heat transfers on these things. And set up the backs on another job. And did four banners. And cut some stickers. And cleaned squeegees. Pretty productive day at the studio.

Can't believe it is Friday already! These weeks are just going by too fast.