Another day, another 50 cents...

Well, I tried spinning at work on Thursday, but it wasn't that easy. I can definitely see spinning while sitting in the passenger seat, but it's not meant to be done by a right-handed person while sitting in the driver's seat. I had to put the window down to get enough room to extend my arm to... what's the terminology? I think it's to draft the spin? I haven't got a clue, except it was to get the spin I put into the yarn up further. Well, either way, it had to look pretty funny to see this arm extend out the window with a few fibers from the hand and then watch it spin up.

I normally get some strange looks as the kids pass by me. A few have asked how I can knit on socks while watching the traffic go by, but that's the easy stuff. If I could learn how to post pics to my site (when YD - youngest daughter - wakes up, I'm going to nail her @s.... er, tushie to the chair until she shows me how she does it so easily... ), I could show you why it's so darned easy. I do very plain, very vanilla socks. Since my colors are almost all variegated, I keep the designs simple. Simple means I don't have to think about what I'm doing. Not thinking is what gets me into trouble, though...

Let's face it. I get bored. So I start thinking about things I could be doing rather than all the stuff I'm not doing. I was talking with Mom yesterday (yup, I spend hours on the cell phone rather than falling asleep) and was telling her some of my ideas for one of the programs through my business. It's called the Gift & Incentive Program. It uses the catch phrase of "give the gift of choice". I say it's a lot easier to just tell people to stop buying those durned white elephants and let people choose what they want.

For those who haven't a clue, a white elephant is that gift you give someone because you think it's perfect, but it's an item that will never be displayed on a shelf in their house and will have a place of honor someday on the center table when they run a tag sale. You paid good money, probably $50 or more, but they'll be lucky if they can palm it off on someone for $5 at that yard sale.

In this program, you pay for the gift upfront, but you buy a catalog of choices. There's probably 10 pages or so of items they can select from. IOW, they choose what they want and either log onto the site on the Net or use an 800 number they can call and simply pick the item and tell the company where to send it. It's all paid for, including the shipping costs, but there are no prices attached to the catalog so no one knows what you've paid. And it's actually less expensive than most people think when they look at the catalog. The gifts range in price from $20 to over $500. You can even purchase vacations. Imagine giving your parents a 3-day, 2-night vacation for their wedding anniversary? Wow. They'd be impressed. And it's not as expensive as you'd think. You can get one of those for $240.00.

Before I forget, my website is http://bpierson1.ordermygift.com/ Blatant advertising here, but check it out and help me help you so I can dump this drag of a job... LOL!

Anyway, I have all sorts of ideas for this and was telling Mom that I'm literally beginning to resent sitting at work while I could be out selling this program. Problem was that she agreed with me... I shouldn't complain. Everyone tells me to enjoy being paid to sit around and do next to nothing, but I wasn't raised to just sit around and do nothing. That's why I knit and read and plot my next path of world domination while I sit... LOL!

Another great rediscovery. While sitting the last two days, I reread the first book, Into The Dark Lands of The Sundered series by Michelle Sagara (West). Wow, what a terrific story. I actually have a copy of her first printing. This is a series that was recommended by a great friend, Eve Ackerman, and it took me almost two years to track down all the books. (There are 4 in total.) This is also the series that seriously brought forth the idea of a true marriage between romance and SF which later resulted in the creation of the epublishing company, Dreams Unlimited. Michelle's touch is so soft with the romance in this book that it keeps me absolutely glued to the pages. When Stafanos asks, "Would it bother you if I remain?".... WOW!

And the books are finally being re-released. They were out of print when I first read them, hence the reason it took me almost two years to find them all, but they're being re-released. Woohoo!!! They haven't released the last book yet, but I highly recommend the first three so you can drool until they release the fourth. (And, if you look carefully, you can get the fourth from the original printings for almost $100 on Amazon.) I hope they do because this series is well worth the time and the price of a couple paperbacks.

I can also highly recommend No Quarter by Tanya Huff. I'm never quite sure if I like the other books in the Quarter series, but this one is outstanding. Complex and yet another subtle touch in the romance department that underlies the main story.

What else can I recommend since I've switched over to the subject of books? Anything by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Connie Brockway (I adore her oxymoronic use of language. It's almost poetic.), and of course, for the more direct and humorous, you can't beat the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. If you want something that's very non-subtle, you can read Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series. Laurell's good people and I'm glad she's finally getting the recognition she deserves, but don't try to read her books back to back. Her style of writing is very direct and blunt. All of her books have a ticking clock (time is short) and her style can literally wear you down and make you tired if you try to read them all in one huge chunk. I adore her (note to self: Have to tell the story how I got into the acknowledgements of book 6, The Killing Dance and book 8, Burnt Offerings.) but I can't read them back to back without feeling like I've just been put through a spin.

Hubby is out of underwear, so I guess it'll be laundry today. Wow, do I live an exciting life or what?!?