To whom it may concern:

I love Starbucks Coffee. So you can imagine my delight when a free standing one finally opened up in [my town], Colorado. That was, until one of the Starbucks employees refused to make my drink, a decaf, skim, iced latte, blended. Apparently it’s against Starbucks policy’s to blend a latte. (Although, I know it’s possible because my first trip through the drive through at this new Starbucks location got me a decaf, skim, iced latte, blended. Apparently the girl was “new” and didn’t know she was breaking company policy. There was even a free add-on on my receipt that said, “double blended.”)

What I’m writing today is to ask that you reverse those policies. In my consumer mind, I see no reason why an iced latte cannot be dumped in the blender and blended? I also wonder why Starbucks would refuse to make my drink? Doesn’t the customer come first? What options are there for blended drinks for those who don’t like or can’t have sweet drinks? Doesn’t Starbucks want all it’s patrons to be happy with their coffee? I hope so.

I sincerely hope that you take my plea into consideration. It’s getting hot here in the desert and I plan on drinking a lot of iced, blended lattes this summer. I just hope that they can be from Starbucks.

Sincerely,
Allison Blevins

———————-

Emailed to Starbucks this morning at 8:45 am.

I went to the dentist today. I had another effing root canal.

I don’t want to talk about it.

I finished Picovoli last night. Or I should say, I finished it as much as I could. I ran out of yarn. It’s about an inch short. And of course I picked the last 5 balls of Rowan All Seasons Cotton Color #186 there are, on earth. Isn’t it just my luck to pick a discontinued color, that NO ONE HAS?

But really the lack of yarn really isn’t my problem with the shirt. I should have known from the beginning that I wouldn’t like it. I’m knitting on gauge, the yarn is a good match in weight to Debbie Bliss Cathay, and I’m just finding the fabric to be too firm. I knit this whole thing on 5’s. (And this is were I get to talk about my needles. I bought a size 5 32″ addi turbo for this project. There were rough spots on the needles, so it was like fingernails on a chalk board! I had to stop every few rows because I was being driven insane!!! Finally I borrowed some needles from the store, because, of course I bought the last size 5 32″. I have to send them back.)

Another thing that I should have thought about was the rolling. I just don’t think rolling like this will block out. I should have done a folded hem, although it would have been bulky with this dense fabric. I also planned to do longer sleeves but the lack of yarn nixed that.

Finally, it flares out too much at the waist. I could easily fix that, with fewer waist increases, but it won’t matter. I still won’t like it. There’s nothing like knitting a whole garment, just to try it on to see if you like it.

So here’s my plan: If I can stand to look at the yarn again after all the hours and hours and hours I’ve spent with it, I’m going to rip the whole damn thing out and start over. I’m going to knit a raglan tee-shirt style shirt with folded hems and a more open raglan “seam.” I’m going to knit it on 8’s too. And I’m NOT going to run out of yarn and it IS going to fit.

•33 comments so far and not a one is male! But it was amazing to hear from all of you!
The internet brings people together in ways that are impossible. It’s something that I’ve really grown to appreciate.

Amy was the winner, her itunes gift certificate is on it’s way!!

•I taught a group of women to knit in November. They decided they would all stick together for all their classes and only I could be their teacher. Since then, they’ve learned how to make a hat, a felted bag and a baby sweater. A few weeks ago they decided to name themselves the “Knitwits.” Their class tonight will be the first of their “independent study” classes, each of them will choose their own project to begin.

Over the months, I’ve gotten to know each of these ladies, each different and amazing in their own way. Each one has had an impact on me. This is why I love teaching.

•My Grandma is in town today from Wyoming. I’m going to go meet her at her favorite place, Taco Bell. She hasn’t seen the kids since before Honor was talking, so I’m excited to see her reaction to how much they’ve changed. Since I see them every day, all day, all the time, the changes happen so much more gradually that they don’t seem so huge and amazing. I really enjoy experiencing them through someone else’s eyes.

•I’m working on a worsted weight sock pattern right now, for beginning sock knitters. The good thing about worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles is that it goes really fast. I got to the heel last night and should finish the sock today. All Seasons Cotton is really strange for socks, but at least they’ll be washable.

•I helped my friend Sarah get her new website up and running this weekend. Go check it out.

Last week Jim and I met with our insurance lady to talk about adding more life insurance to our policy. If we go with the changes, it’ll be about $70 more a month. A few days after the meeting, Jim came to me with a plan. “We should take that $70 a month and buy powerball tickets!!!” He went on to explain, “With life insurance we have to wait for the other one to die, but with the lottery, we can be rich and be alive to enjoy it.”

Sounds like a plan to me.

Jim’s little birthday celebration was a success. We had a yummy meal and headed over to the mall for a movie. V for Vendetta wasn’t playing until 9:45 (of course) so we saw Failure to Launch, which I thought was hilarious. We had a little time before the movie started so we headed over to Target. It’s like we’re just pulled to Target when we’re at the mall, it’s the default, I suppose. This turned out to be pretty ironic because yesterday there was a small interview with me in the local paper about how we always end up at Target on date nights. funny.

Little Miss Eden got her ears pierced on Friday. I’ve been trying to talk her into getting them pierced for quite awhile so when she told me that she wanted them pierced, we went right to the mall to get them done. She looks cute, but won’t pose for a photo right now. So instead, I’ll leave you with some puppy shots.

re: the Victorian Wristlet pattern. It’s available for free download on my knitting page. Enjoy!

re: My tooth. Jim tells me that everyone is sick of reading about my tooth. So hopefully this is the last I have to say about it. The specialist said that he thinks that I should wait a month and see how it is. Hopefully it is just still healing up. That’s a relief.

re: Church. Jim has been filling in at a church in town whenever they needed a guitarist. Their regular guitarist quit so he’s going to be playing full time. This will be ok with me, I’ll attend with him when I can. I think this will be good until we’re really ready to find a permanent place to attend.

re: this website. I re-wrote my about me page. I’d love any constructive feedback about it.

We’ll I’ve tried to refrain from writing about my tooth, but… well… sorry. Today I go to see the Root Canal Specialist. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been to the dentist at this point. I even went to another dentist (who I plan on switching to) for a second opinion.

As it stands, I still have an abscessed tooth. I just finished my 3rd round of antibiotics and the pain is pretty minimal. The problem is that it may not be the original tooth that is abscessed. It seems that when my original dentist did the filling on my second tooth at the time of the root canal, he put in a big filling that is apparently sitting on the nerve of my tooth. So the specialist will determine which tooth it is that is infected and hopefully we’ll know where to go from there.

I think that I’m about at the point where I tell them to pull them all and I’ll just eat all my meals in liquid form from now on.

Yesterday, on a whim, we decided to hop in the car and drive to Ouray, CO. Jim had the day off and we thought it would be fun. When we were already on the road it occurred to us that we should call a head and make sure the hot springs pool was open. After two phone calls to Verizon 411, they still couldn’t find the number. Seriously, it’s 411 and they can’t find the number?

So we stopped in the next town, about half way there, to look up the number. The pool was closed. So, this isn’t the first time this has happened to us. Two years ago we drove all the way there to find the pool closed for cleaning. Yep, you’d think we’d learn. (The thing that’s driving me insane is that I blogged that trip, with some really cute pictures and the post is gone.)

So you can see, all that worthless driving time (and the 2 hour Alias) gave me time to finish my sock. And it’s a beauty if I do say so myself. Now I just have to finish the other one.

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

-e.e. cummings

[can you tell what movie I just watched?]