A Blockbuster Week From Hell.

The thing I'm most thankful for right now is that this week, at least as far as enforced dealing with the outside world, is OVER. This one will go down in the books as a bonified week from hell.

On Monday my boss had an insurance guy come in to talk about changing his group insurance, as it's too expensive. My boss has always provided health insurance for me, but not through his group policy - I had my own private policy when I started there and he just paid that instead.

My boss has an accounting firm handling his books ... I've had my taxes done by someone almost every year ... there was no reason that my boss paying for my health insurance should have thrown up any red flags in my world. But this guy, out of the blue, just blithely informed us that we'd been committing tax fraud for 14 years, as the way the laws are set up, because I wasn't a part of the official 'group' plan, all money my boss paid towards my health insurance premiums should have been taxable income to me, and if I ever got audited, I'd owe taxes on it (minus the part I would have been allowed to write off - if they consider it income to me, they have to allow me to write off what "I" am paying for health insurance, to a point, but there's a cap on it - it would no way have been all of the premium every month).

The astronomical health insurance premiums times 14 years meant I could have owed the IRS upwards of $100,000. Needless to say, I was kind of freaked out. Yeah, only if I got audited, but still ... for someone who is beyond anal about always making sure they do things like taxes absolutely right (I paid a tax person $40 a year for a decade to do my taxes all just because of a $20 a year royalty check I got from a gas and mineral rights contract - I'm anal about taxes).

So I was pretty freaked out about that, but the next day my boss checked with his accountant, and Mr. Insurance Guy Who Thinks He's A Tax Expert was wrong. My boss' accountants DID set it up right, so that it's all legal and above-board, nothing wrong.

Then on Tuesday my boss sprung on me that the day after Thanksgiving, which I've had off paid for 14 years, is no longer a paid day off. I can work it, or I can take it off without pay.

Lovely. I respect the fact that economy sucks, and that a lot of people do have to work that day - but that was low on several levels. For one thing, I've been there FOURTEEN YEARS ... I'd think I deserved a little consideration, especially considering not paying me for the day saved him a whopping $95. Big deal. I'm sure that didn't make or break him financially, but it's 3 or 4 Christmas presents for me - right now, mere weeks before Christmas.

But even more crappy, he could have freaking given me some warning, instead of springing it on me two days before-hand - and that only because I asked, because I'd heard a rumor that's what he was doing. For financial reasons, I'd have probably chosen to work it instead, but after the way my week went steadily downhill (oh, the best is yet to come), I was in NO MOOD and desperately wanted that long weekend to recuperate. So I took the hit and took the day off, without pay.

And that really pissed me off.

Then, the icing on the cake was, I came home and accidentally did this in the driveway.

WARNING: Disturbing Photo To Follow


Yep. That's my Droid. To say I was pissed was the understatement of the decade. I was taking my stuff out of the truck when I came home from work, and it just slipped and hit the driveway.

Sigh.

Initially I thought I was going to have to shell out hundreds of dollars for a new phone (no, of COURSE I didn't have the damned insurance). But something finally went somewhat right. (or, well, it might - remains to be seen).

The phone does still work, completely normally - it's just annoying as hell looking at everything through that web of cracks. But I found out that these screens (or "digitizers" as they are actually called) are replaceable. The guy who does our computers at work has done this many times for people. I ordered one on ebay for $40 (which our computer guy said was a really good price) - it's advertised as being brand new, still in the original packaging, never opened or used. And I did some poking online, and apparently this is REALLY common, and many people have successfully fixed the phone this way.

I only say 'remains to be seen' because it is possible the process could go awry and wreck the phone - it looks complicated to me, as you basically have to take the entire phone apart from the back through to the front, removing the motherboard and all it's guts ... but even if that happened, I'm not out anything but $40, because I would have to get a new one anyway if this wasn't an option - as I said, I can't deal with trying to read anything on the screen through all those cracks for very much longer.

So ... there's hope that it can be restored for a mere $40. Which makes not having the insurance a little more of a non-issue, because with the insurance I'd have had a $50 deductible, they'd have only sent me a refurbished phone, and I'd have had to set it all up all over again. This way I get to keep my phone, all personalized the way I like it, and it cost $10 less.

I think I need to be kept away from expensive electronic equipment. I wrecked the keyboard in my netbook last spring by spilling an entire drink into it (well, that really wasn't my fault - someone set a full drink down RIGHT in FRONT of the keyboard, without me knowing it, while my back was turned - so I turned around reaching towards the computer, and knocked the whole thing over right into it - I never, EVER sat my drink down that close to the computer, so I don't take full responsibility for that one).

Sigh. I just want to go hide in the Imaginarium until next Monday morning.

More Creativity On The Loose

I've been working on some projects.

I made a necklace awhile back, but I don't think I posted any pictures. It's kind of simple, but it was my first foray into working with clay and making beads. The three brown beads are clay, and the strip with studs around the middle bead is also clay (well, the studs are mini-brads).


That was nice as far as it went. But I've made another one.





I picked up that center piece - the heart - at a craft store one day a few weeks ago just because it was cool. I was planning to make a skirt, and had gotten the material for it - shades of brown - and decided that I wanted to wear a brown turtleneck with it, then use that focal piece to build a kind of large, rather simple necklace to wear with it - it all seemed like it would go so well together.

So that's what I did. All of this necklace is from store-bought parts except the twisted brown and tan beads - I made those.


I like this one a lot better. I'm sure over time my skill and creative 'eye' for things will improve. But in the end, all that really matters is whether I like it ... I'm the one making it (and wearing it, for now anyway ...).

In other clay news, I was making my first steampunk Christmas ornament, and finally finished it today, and put it in to bake - and promptly burned part of it! I'm not sure what happened, as the oven hadn't even heated up all the way yet. I hadn't moved the oven racks or anything, and I've been baking my other pieces in the same exact spot, so - I'm kind of baffled by that.

Oh well. I took it out to cool, I'll trim away the burned bits, try to re-fashion it a bit, re-bake, then post pictures. It'll be fine. It was mostly a practice piece anyway. And I need it - the practice - this type of work is kind of complex and tricky, so I suspect it's going to take a lot of practice and trial-and-error, and it'll be awhile before I'm turning out anything really stellar. At least a couple weeks. ;o)

... like another hole in my head ...

Well, I've gone and done it now. I've found a new hobby - uh, art form. I've hesitated to even mention it, as I have so many hobbies that I can never finish anything as it is. But this one ... um, this one feels different. I've never been quite so enamored of a new hobby before. I just spent about 6 hours today working on a project, and didn't want to stop, but had to - had to get a few other things done (like walk and feed the dog!). It's a rare hobby (even a new one) that can keep me interested for that long at a stretch, and I still didn't want to stop - and can't wait for the next session, I have so many ideas!


Oh - what is it? Polymer clay! Holy cow, where have they been hiding this stuff? It's like the perfect art medium. You can do just about anything with it. You can make beads (of an incredible variety), or sculptures which could become anything (jewelry parts, pins, Christmas ornaments, etc.), you can make boxes and vases, cabinet door knobs - pretty much anything decorative that exists, you can create (or re-create) out of polymer clay. You can put things in it (gems, stones, wire, metal), you can paint it or treat it with metallic or decorative powders ...

... I know, I'm gushing. I'm pretty enthralled.

I tried polymer clay many years ago, when all there was, was Fimo. It was hard and crumbly and I couldn't accomplish anything with it. I only bought one or two packages, messed with it once, and I think threw it out.

I had one other foray into clay, a few years ago at an event there was a 'dress up your stuffed animal' contest. I had a stuffed bear I decided to dress as Robin Hood, so I made him a quiver and bow out of clay. Problem was, I didn't know you had to bake it. (duh) So I got the bow made okay, and it looked alright, but when I tried to attach a taut string to it, it just began to bend.

This time I did a little reading up before trying anything. (and they have better quality stuff now - the clay I bought, Sculpey and Premo, is FAR easier to work with than that beta version of Fimo) So my first project was totally successful! It was a necklace - I made some of the beads out of clay, then after that was done, added another clay embellishment to one of the plain beads, and re-baked it. (Yep, you can even do that! and I didn't even have to take the necklace apart to re-bake it, because the low temperatures used for clay - about 260 degrees - wouldn't harm the other metal findings or the leather cord it's strung on). It turned out pretty nice (I forgot to take a picture of it today though).

What really got me fired up (no pun intended) about polymer clay, though was a book I ran onto by accident called "Steampunkery" - steampunk polymer clay sculpture. Totally, completely awesome. (that's what all the detritus in the lower half of the picture up there is - watch parts for steampunk sculpture!)

So some of my first projects are going to be steampunk Christmas ornaments. :o) I mentioned this to my friend Wren, and she wants one, so today's marathon session was creating a steampunk bird ornament for her. It's going really well, but it's not done yet, so no good pictures. I have lots of other steampunk Christmas ornament ideas ... steampunk Santa, and/or steampunk sleigh pulled by a mechanical reindeer ... an airship (of course!) ... wreaths, snowflakes, 'regular' ornaments with various interesting embellishments ... steampunk angels? The imagination staggers.

I'm also working on a second necklace (made the beads for it today, just haven't put it all together yet), and then another necklace - I'm designing these around my wardrobe. (I'm turning into such a girl). I recently bought a turquoise sweater, since most of my wardrobe of late has been various shades of brown, and I thought I needed something colorful. It's a v-neck sweater, so I thought a nice piece of jewelry to wear with it wouldn't go amiss. While brainstorming what would go with turquoise, I decided on a snowy-looking, turquoise-and-white winter theme. There are going to be turquoise and crystal beads, with probably some snowflakes, and a clay snowman motif going on somewhere.

Well, I'll stop now. But I'm thinking some of the other hobbies are going to be hitting the highway, because I'm pretty well seriously addicted to this clay stuff.