Tale of a Shooting Star…

And the winners of the great scissors giveaway are:

A – Lalana
B – Svenja
C – Zohrah
D –
E – Heather (UK; I need your address), Meari, Susan (I need your address)
F – Cindy G., Outi
G – Kali, Melanie
H – Lelia
I – Coral, Harsha (I need your address)
J – Michelle (I need your address)
K – Anita (I need your address)
L – Cindy (Is this Cindy G. or another Cindy? If it’s another Cindy, I need your address)

Congratulations to the winners! As you see from above, I still need mailing addresses from 5 of you. Packages will probably go out to the U.S. winners first, simply because I can stuff them into a mailbox at any time. I do need to pick up some more bubble wrap and envelopes, so I can’t send them all out right away, but they will go out sometime within the coming week.

If you didn’t win, don’t give up hope. For the 7 of you who entered, but did not win, you get a second chance. Because I drew for the scissors in decreasing order based on the number of votes for each one, there are still 4 pairs up for grabs. Pair D, which is metallic red, silver and blue; two pairs of H, which are the lovely and lively orange and yellow pairs; and one pair of I, which is the creamy pink pair.

So… Angela, Barbara, Cathy (in PA), Cathy MK, Myrna, Rafaella and Stitch, listen up. You have until Sunday to comment on this post or email me with your entries for the remaining pairs of scissors. That’s 4 pairs in total and you can enter for any combination of them. Just comment or send me an email with which ones you would like to enter for. I will pull names again Sunday evening, so please get your entries in by Sunday morning (Eastern time; GMT -5 hrs).

And, just for the record, the choosing was done by a completely impartial party – a friend at work was kind enough to draw names for me. I tried to be as fair as possible, working from the most popular pairs downwards. I will have Terry draw them on Sunday.

So, to recap: 5 of you need to send your mailing address ASAP to jenna at magees dot net; and 7 of you need to respond to me with your picks from the remaining scissors by Sunday.

Congratulations to the winners and good luck to those in the running for the final pairs! I hope that you had fun! 🙂

*sigh*

[Written on Wednesday, September 20, 2006, but not posted until now in order to keep the focus on the Great Scissors Giveaway]

I went in to work today for the first time in a week. What with being sick last week, then Phoebe’s problems and then the software deployment this weekend and subsequent recovery and troubleshooting of problems relating to the deployment, I worked from home all of that time. Which is nice, but sometimes you need a change, right?

Ugh.

I wish I hadn’t come in. First of all, I’m starting to notice that I don’t hit my work stride until 1:00 or 2:00 PM. I might have to do something about this, like modify my working hours or something. I don’t know.

Anyway, the day started with getting out of bed late this morning because Terry is the current keeper of the alarm clock and he didn’t realize that I had to be in for a 9:00 AM meeting. Whoops! During a hurried attempt to go from bed to the car in 30 minutes (didn’t happen), I checked my BlackBerry (these things are the most evil devices in the universe) and discovered that there was a problem with another piece of software that I manage. And it was affecting an outside customer. And I had no idea how to fix it. Still don’t, for that matter.

So, I instant message the guy running the meeting, letting him know that I would be late. I told him that I was working on some issues. Which was true. I didn’t lie. I consciously make an effort not to lie. However, if he put those two pieces of information together and came to conclusion that I was running late due to working on said issues, who am I to argue, right?

We get into work, I boot up and immediately find out that there’s a problem in the system we just deployed. This is going to be a running theme for a little while until we get through a settling period and everything gets to a normalized state where it should start working as I designed it. 😉 So, I spend the next couple of hours working through system issues, completely missing the meeting by a mile and then some. Before I know it, I’m looking at yet another issue (they just keep on coming) and my alarm goes off about my next meeting, warning me than I have 30 minutes before I need to go to that. Oh, and by the way, it’s a working meeting, for which I am unprepared because I’ve been wrapped up in this other project so long that I have gotten no other work done for months (literally). I look at the reminder and think, “There is no way that I am going to make it to this meeting.” So, I pop over to the next cubicle and talk to the guy coordinating the project meeting (same guy as this morning). Who, at this point, is quite exasperated with me. I tell him that we’re still working through issues and that I will put the work that I’ve accomplished to date (which is not a lot, but it’s something) into the database that we’re using to track the work on this project. All I get are a series of signs and “Whatever.” Nice.

So, while I am working feverishly with one group and making people happy there, I am neglecting and irritating at least two other groups. *sigh*

It just reminds me of the saying:

I can only please one person per day.
Today is not your day.
Tomorrow doesn’t look good, either.

To which, I would add: “Let’s shoot for sometime next year…”

Comment now or forever hold your peace. 😉

Okay, I admit it. I still can’t sleep and I couldn’t stand to keep you in suspense much longer. So, here’s the deal. After a Stitching Blogger’s Question of the Week revealed that many of my fellow stitchy bloggers were woefully bereft of embroidery scissors, I went out on eBay and bought a bunch of scissors and culled a few from my own collection so that I could give them away to those in need of more. 🙂

As a result, I have a total of 20 (yes, TWENTY) pairs of scissors to give away to my readers. The rules are fairly simple. Click on any of the pairs thumbnailed below to get a larger (if still mediocre) picture, plus a description and the number of pairs available (some have multiples). If you like them and would like a pair, leave a comment on the picture in my gallery and send me your mailing address (I may have some of yours, but send it to me anyway, please). My email address is jenna at magees dot net, if you didn’t know already.

That’s it. You can enter for more than one pair of scissors. If the number of entries exceeds the number of scissors of that design available, I will try to make sure that each person who enters gets at least one pair. So, really, I would encourage you to enter for more than one. That way, you’ll be assured of getting at least one pair that you like. Pretty much the same rules as my ornament giveaway. And if more than 20 people manage to enter, I’ll improvise, so don’t worry. 😀

You have a week to place your entries. I will close the doors at the end of the day on September 25th and the scissors will start flying (carefully) within a week or so after that, unless I will be seeing you at CATS in Hershey, in which case I will give them to you in person.

HAVE FUN!

P.S. If you can’t figure out how to comment on the gallery, feel free to comment here or drop me an email with your choices.
P.P.S. I apologize for the poor quality of the photos, but I tried 3 times to capture the colors and beauty of these scissors and failed each time. This group was the least of the failures. Besides, it was 3:30 AM, do you think I care enough to try again? 😉 If you’d like me to try to get a better picture of any of these, just ask and I will try it again in daylight.

As seen on Outi‘s blog:

If there is one or more people on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

So, thank you to all of you who keep me sane! 😀

Apparently, Phoebe was unable to leave her hiney alone last night and woke us up early this morning with the sounds of her incessantly licking the area. When I got up and checked to see what was going on, she had irritated it to the point where it was bleeding and she was frantic to get some relief. She was scooting around the floor, then climbing all over me, trying to cuddle as closely as she could. I felt so bad for her, but it was only 7:00 AM and the vet’s office wasn’t open yet. So, Terry and I took shifts dogsitting while we each showered and got ready to face the day. By the time we were finished, the vet’s office was open, so I called and explained the situation and that we had an appointment for this afternoon, but the gland was abcessed and bleeding and Phoebe was in a good bit of discomfort. The earliest that they could get us in was 10:00 AM, so we had to reschedule some things at work and then sit and keep her calm until we could take her in. Once we got there, they took her right to the back so that the doctor could work on her. It turns out the abcess had indeed ruptured, so there was shaving, squealing, more shaving and more squealing as they cleaned up and opened up the area. They even muzzled her because they knew that it was going to be very painful for her. She’s never been muzzled before, so it probably didn’t help her assessment of the situation, but it helps the vet and his assistant. I couldn’t see what was going on from the exam room, but I could hear my poor girl yelping in pain. 🙁 Of course, I was freaking out inside, so after all was said and done and we we returned home, Terry encouraged me to take a Xanax to try and give me an extra anti-anxiety boost. We’ll see if that helps me to calm down a bit before I have to go in to work this afternoon.