I am a failure of an embroiderer.

Last week on April 30th, my second oldest sister had her baby boy, Elliot. Mom and Dad are going out to visit soon, and Mom has a ton of embroidery to get done before she leaves. So I, being the helpful little Timmy that I am, decided to help her out and embroider some things for her. She had a fairly big order of T-Ball hats, and I've done plenty of hats before, so that seemed like the job for me.
She went out to manage the store today (Jimmy is gone to IL for a doc appt.), but not before giving me a quick crash course in how to do the hats and when the colors would need to be changed. Everything went great during the morning, and I was snapping hats on and off those machines as fast as I could. Around noon, one of the machines had an error that I couldn't fix, so I called Mom and she told me a few things that didn't help either. So I reluctantly decided that I'd better finish the job on the one machine. I had about 20 or so hats left, so I settled in.
I got about 4 hats done when a needle broke on the machine. I hadn't replaced a needle for a while, so I wasn't entirely sure how to do it. I knew how to take one off and put it back, and somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that there was a front and a back to the needle, and it had to go on right. I just didn't know which was which. I chose a side and installed it.
4 broken needles, 2 ruined hats, and one very frustrated Timmy later, I called Mom and told her what was happening. I couldn't figure out why the needles were breaking, because I'd tried installing them both ways ("The groove that goes all the way up goes at the back, right?"). Apparently the answer was no, but it's hard to understand everything over the phone, so Mom told me yes. I was at my wit's end, since I've not done very much embroidery before, and don't know much about the machines. I really really wanted/needed to get the job finished before Mom got home, because she had more stuff coming that she had to do after supper.
I was frustrated with myself and the machines, and I took a long break. Then I tried again, with a new hat and a freshly installed needle. The thread broke at least 6 times on the first letter, was fine on the second letter, then broke 2 times on the third letter, and started ruining the hat. I quit. I was frustrated. I didn't know what to do. Both Mom and Dad were gone, and they couldn't help me over the phone.
When the rents got home, Dad had a look at the machine and promptly informed me that the needle was in backwards. He showed me the correct way to put it, and thankfully I had cooled off enough that I was simply amused with the whole situation. Moral of the story: if you know next to nothing about the machines, unless absolutely necessary, don't do embroidery while both the boss and the machine tech are gone. The end.

In other news, Poppy and I finally made it to the library today. They called me probably 2 weeks ago and told me that they had a book I had been looking for, and I just never got down there until today. I had to do some banking for Jimmy and pick up some cleaning supplies as well, so I just combined the trip. I had to walk home, but I can't say why because it has to do with my Mother's Day pressie for my mother. Not sure if she reads this or not, but you can never be too careful, right?

Last night I was searching recipe books for something to make for supper, and I came across a delicious looking pudding pie. We didn't really have enough ingredients, but I decided to give it a go anyways. I followed the recipe almost exactly, except for the little bit of cool whip I didn't have. Poured the pudding in on top of the cream cheese and proudly put it in the fridge. An hour later, the pudding was still just as watery. Two hours later, no difference. I was confused, because usually pudding sets in about 5-10 minutes. I decided that I would check it in the morning. I open the fridge today, and it hasn't changed a bit.
I didn't want to waste all that yummy goodness, especially since the only thing wrong with it was the texture. So I poured the watery pudding into a bowl (the bottom layer of cream cheese had solidified), and whipped it for 3 or 4 minutes. No change.
I dug the box out of the trash and guess what? Right there on the box it said cook and serve. Not instant. Apparently there's a big difference. After a well-deserved facepalm, I poured the stuff into a pot and cooked it. Sure enough, it thickened up right away *sigh*. Only me.

This looks like a pretty depressing post, but really all in all today wasn't that bad of a day. Thursday is the best day of the week, and other than that embroidery madness, today was good. It was fine. I guess.

I miss Jimmy.