so, i, uh, i did a bunch of work yesterday on the finances, and i, uh, wrote a really fucking big check to discover card, and, um, i discovered that that check is going to save me some money over the next year, and, um, i decided to spoil myself by spending slightly less than the now-realized 21% savings on that cash over the next 13 months on, um, don’t mock me, a spinning wheel.

(finances: yes, i was sitting on cash. i have been sitting on some cash for months, though it is nice that apparently i just got my direct-deposit of my 2005 tax refund — don’t ask. it’s because after living paycheck to paycheck for so very long, including the first part of this year where i was literally charging my groceries in order to save up for my move, i got very, very paranoid about spending cash. anyways, new job == sitting on cash. i knew it was bad but i couldn’t seem to bring myself to spend it, until sunday i went “let’s figure out exactly how bad of an idea this is” and figured out how much cash i could afford to fling at creditors without losing the entirety of my little comfortably above-zero checking account balance. there was excel, of course, because as everyone knows i adore excel and it does my bidding without argument because it knows i love it, and i will get up in the face of any linux weenie who defames its fabulousness with “one word: FORMULAS.” anyways. turns out if i flung $X at discover now (basically 5x the monthly payment they were going to get for november anyways), i get paid off two months early, next year, *and* i pay like $350 less in aggregate interest. (GOD, I LOVE EXCEL.) so. this is really the best of all possible worlds, wherein i lose the guilt of sitting on cash, gain happiness at realizing of how much cash i am depriving discover card, and gain further happiness at getting a cool new spinning wheel. also i get to make excel do cool things to entertain me, which i enjoy. that said…) i really really wanted a spinning wheel — i mean, i like my drop spindle and all, but it does actually wear on you to use it. i spun something like 100 yards (guessing) of shetland top into singles yesterday, and by the time i was done:

• my feet hurt, from standing, because i’m too big of a dumbass to wear comfy shoes or at least cushy socks;
• my right arm was slightly tired from constantly hanging out in front of me or over my head;
• my right shoulder was a little stiff from my arm hanging out over my head,
• and dude, my thumbs were killing me from drafting.

also, i was just a little bored of standing up, and felt bad for probably driving my downstairs neighbor nuts because every so often i would let the yarn untwist and the spindle would plonk down onto my hardwood floor. so. yeah. i wanted a spinning wheel. a spinning wheel will still involve thumb pain from drafting, and possibly a tired leg, but i figure if i use my left leg, which is totally buff from using the clutch (i joke, except for how i don’t; and don’t worry, you’d have to drive stick regularly to get that) then i should be good. at least i’ll get to sit down.

also, i’ll be able to ply my singles, which i haven’t yet figured out how to do with the drop spindle, since i lack bobbins. i pretty much spin up very decorative little skeins which then sit in a basket and look nice, with the drop spindle. (see, only now does the purpose of a lazy kate become apparent!) and also, see, this post is a perfect example of one of the reasons i have been contemplating switching blog software. don’t get me wrong, i love blosxom — it’s been just this side of “completely painless” for the over two years i’ve been using it — but, dammit, this post should go in at least three (maybe four, now) categories, and yet i’m limited to the filesystem hierarchy model of categorization, so here it is as hobbies. insofar as “knitting,” “spinning,” “finances,” and “blogware” are hobbies, i suppose it works, but, dammit, i want real keywords. so i’m eyeballing new software choices. so long as i’m moving to a new web host, which i totally, totally am — the idiots at the current webhost still have not bothered to respond to my last email (which was “um, you broke my chroot, please give me my shell back in the chroot so i can run my vi shell macros and, you know, like, ‘!!date’ and stuff, and oh by the way would you be so good as to ACKNOWLEDGE THIS EMAIL since you always totally blow off all my unix support requests?”) of several weeks ago, which is really just like playing poker and getting dealt a card at random which says “Dear Sabrina, Boy, is your webhost ass; You really should pick a new one. Love, Fate.” (is that a fifth keyword? anyways.) so. thinking of WordPress. it seems overkill, but i am also lazy and tired of shopping for the perfect blog software which, if it’s not blosxom (which it clearly yet sadly isn’t), appears not to exist. so i may just go with WordPress. anyone who cares to express any opinions to me on this matter, i’d welcome your input. but let’s get back to what’s really important here: as a unix system administrator and IT support professional who cooks well and makes things from scratch, makes her own soap from scratch, can sew (but doesn’t really like to), knits things, and spins her own yarn — i am well-suited to working in the computer department of any pioneer settlement. i’m just saying, you know, when Stephen King’s The Stand comes true in real life, you won’t be mocking my lunatic hobbies then, ol’ Stinky-Hasn’t-Got-Any-Soap, will you?