PlazaJen: Passion Knit

Do you like how I'm putting the time on my blog posts to the future? I feel powerful doing it. It's like I'm blogging - when I'm asleep! Tricky, tricky! But if I don't do it, I'll forget the gems of the day.

Let's see. I have random things to assemble and throw, like grapefruit. Here goes:

Operation Halloween was a grand success. We learned from last year. In that some kids (and grown-ups with grocery sacks) come to your door without a costume on, and ask for candy. Rather than be ass clowns, and mean ones at that, and since these folk are often intermingled with perfectly classy costumed children, the Wo and I devised a plan: Two Sets of Candy. No diving in and grabbing, we hand it out. (We lost some volume last year to grabbers.)

Courtesy of our loverly CostCo, and the coupon, we had a box of absolutely fabulous full-sized candy offerings: M&Ms, Snickers, Skittles, Starburst and other Mars Products. Also courtesy of loverly CostCo, we had a box of Sour Gummi Belts, 100 per box, $2.97 a box. We even tried them, to make sure we weren't being Totally Evil Ass Clowns. (They're definitely more a kid food, we decided. But loads of sugar, nonetheless.) So when the kiddoes came a-knockin', if you were in costume - and let me interrupt myself to say, there is nothing cuter than a baby in a bumblebee outfit. NOTHING. Except a walking toddler in a bumblebee outfit who won't stop thanking you for her candy. That was the highlight of my night, right above the noises the dogs were making in their abject disgruntlement over not being allowed to charge the door and bark their heads off. Eating numerous squares of a Rosati's pizza came right after that highlight, if anyone's keeping score. Oh, yes, I interrupted myself. If you were in costume, you got an awesome full-sized Mars candy item. If you were in street clothes, or say, someone in their mid-50s with no obvious small child in even proximity to yourself, you got Sour Belts. I informed a nice couple at CostCo this was our plan, as I watched them debate over how much candy to buy. I'm just sayin', we've gotten a little lax as a society, and just hoofing your ass around without a costume does not mean you deserve a big-ass Snickers. It's Jen Justice, and for the most part, it works.

Let's see. While I was battling people all day as if I were starring in my own version of Star Wars, taking on countless Storm Troopers of Evil Credit and Bad Doings, I saw what has to be the most challenging, exemplary customer service situation I think I've ever seen before in a restaurant. Kristin and I dined at McAlister's for lunch, and we sat near two old biddies who were sharing a sandwich. They called the manager over, and motioning to another sandwich plate, with a big-ass sandwich sitting on it, and informed him they had no idea the sandwiches were so large, so they were splitting the one, and could he take care of the other sandwich they'd bought. He first offered to give them a to-go box. They said that they would do that only if they HAD to, but they'd much prefer him to just give them a refund and take the sandwich away.

And that's exactly what he did. He had a choice, to make them take the sandwich (that they TOTALLY should have taken), and potentially never have them come back in, or to give them their $7, throw the sandwich away, and not have two selfish old ladies leave, never to return & possibly bad-mouth his restaurant. He gave them cash back and they ate their split sandwich and Kristin and I marvelled at the entire thing. I need to remember to call & commend him, because honestly, given the day I'd been having? I might have shoved their heads in a pitcher of sweet tea and told them to bob for their fucking dentures.

Oh, and I totally tried to pick a fight with the Bunn Automatic people, because the coffee carafe we have dribbles everywhere, and they (surprisingly, and wonderfully) responded to my email with a "Hey, call us, we will send you a new one free of charge", and since it had been two weeks, and I was spending half my day tearing up the phone lines and ripping into people, I called them & they apologized profusely that at the time there was a backorder, and they were checking daily for the carafes to come in and I was on the list and it would be turned around as soon as possible.

I swear. Customer service. It just soothes the angry beast.

Oh, and our pumpkin-carving competition submission at work was completely subversive. We showed a pumpkin asleep, with a (my) letter opener jabbed in the side of its head, with ketchup blood falling down onto our weekly status (think: TPS Reports and Office Space). And to think, they were going to carve a bat with the company logo. Oh and no, we didn't win the competition. But we won in our HEARTS! Let me just say that a pumpkin throwing up is NOT original. Not that I'm competitive. But with our theme we didn't stand a chance.


Yeah, so I came home & took off the first round of blocked strips:



(Polly checked out the first set and gave it the A-Ok to unpin)



And then I pinned out the next round:



The third set of strips are "waiting in the wings" on the end there. It's just astounding how much the color definition grows once they're blocked.

It's freaking gorgeous. When it's all sewn up, I will fall over in astonishment at the combined beauty.


That is all. It was a full day.