Something to be proud of

Yes. We are now wireless in the Chittum household. I got it hooked up and humming this morning.

I didn't even have to call customer support...We didn't get a Mac-dedicated wireless unit, so I actually had to go through the instruction, read them, follow them, blah blah blah. The unit says "If you're running Windows, just click easy install and it does the work for you." Couldn't do that.

Seriously, when will people realize that more and more people are getting smarter and smarter and buying Mac instead of PC? At least write software for easy install on Macs and include it on the same CD.

I don't need no stinkin' Wii to keep me happy

Here's one of the other things that Mom bought me for Christmas. It's a Mama Bear yarn swift and ball winder. The swift is made by the Oregon Wood Worker, and it comes in pieces. It's super easy to put together, and works like a champ. Check it out.


Betsy brought over some beautiful yarn she had purchased in Santa Fe. It was all still in hanks, so it was a perfect chance to make some more yarn cakes.

Yarn cakes are great to knit from because they don't roll around like balls, plus, they just look damn pretty.

The weather report (a few weeks old)

I shot this the after the first ice storm we had this year. Just didn't get around to putting it together until now.

Chili Chillin'

I've divided for the heel, and kept on going. We'll see what happens. I made a ton of progress on it tonight because Betsy came over to play. We wound some yarn, and she started on a scarf. Adam made chili for all of us for dinner, so we ate chili and chilled.

I shot footage for a little movie about another one of my Christmas presents, a yarn swift and ball winder. Bets had some great Manos Del Uruguay yarn that needed winding, so we went to town on it.

But, it's late, and I don't feel like putting it together right now. I'll do it in the morning, so that you can see that in addition to Wii Christmas, I also got Amish girl gifts...

The Seven Ages of Sock

I had to use that as the title because we've been watching "The Seven Ages of Rock" on VH1, and tonight's was American Alternative music. So, while watching what was basically "Behind the Music: Kurt Cobain" with a dash of R.E.M. and Pearl Jam thrown in, I worked on this sock.


As you can see, it's knit on size 1 needles with thin yarn, which are about as big as toothpicks, so it will probably take a while. I started it it yesterday, so I've made quite a bit of progress.

I like knitting with self-striping yarn because it's fun to see how the colors look once they're knitted. It's quite different from seeing them in the skein.

Check out my "Perfect for Online Auctions" portable lighting studio. Santa brought it to me. It has two different color backgrounds, and it's own tiny tripod. If I ever get my shiznit together and get an Etsy site up, I'll be able to shoot merchandise photos, even when the weather is bad.


We were supposed to be in Wichita tonight, but Adam is currently in quarantine. He's been sick for the last three days, and today was the first day he didn't spend almost the whole day in bed, and he actually ate something today. So, hopefully he'll be better fast. Looks like we'll be down for New Year's and I will get to do the Frosty 5 with Kat. It's kind of a tradition for us, so I'm glad I'll get to do it this year.

Lagging on blogging lately

Maybe it's the Christmas hangover, who knows.

I am so close to getting all my scrapbook stuff sorted, culled, organized and put back in the closet. Now, if I could just say the same thing about the yarn.

Baby steps, I guess.

Last night, I went back over to Mom's and had dinner with her and my aunts Janet and Alice. Alice taught Janet and I how to needle felt, so this is what we did:



Needle felting is pretty cool - I need to get busy and make some more purses so we can practice it some more.

All right, I would love to say more, but like I said, I'm so close to being done with the organizing, if I stay on my butt too long, I'll stop, and then it'll take me three more days to get up the motivation to finish.

Rockin' right next to the Christmas tree

Well, she didn't pay $9,000 for it like that one idiot, but Mom did get "Guitar Hero" on Wii for Adam.

Here, Ned Schneebling (right) gives Dad tips on how to rock it.


Dad can't really do GH because it's based on colored lights, and he's color blind.

Here, Adam shows us his Rock Face.


Nachos and margaritas - Feliz Navidad!


Adam gets his very own Food Network Chef's knife (with sheath). Now he can chop to his heart's content.

Mom gave me this cool gift. It's a framed copy of the Bonnie's last column from last year's Derby newspaper.

The moment.

Family photo.

Jayne got a massaging hairbrush. She was in a bad mood earlier, but I think she really liked that thing.

Why I'm glad I'm friends with Betsy

Because when she hears the words "Cookie Decorating Contest" this is what she comes up with:


Niiiiiice.

Oh, so THIS is where all the lost luggage goes

Apologies on the poor quality of this photo, but I hurriedly tried to surreptitiously snap this while waiting for Alice to pick up her bag. I wish you could see ALL of the bags that were just left here. The carousel in the foreground isn't moving. It was deserted, and bags were just left on it.

Then, over by the huge crowd, there looked to be at least two flight's worth of unclaimed luggage. Just sitting there. No one watching it.

Two things:
1. How many times have we all heard that canned announcement: "Ladies and Gentlemen, please do not leave bags unattended...blah...blah...blah."?
2. It's Christmas time - I wonder how many of these bags had gifts in them?

Alice's flight was almost two hours late getting into KCI. I circled Terminal C about 10 times, got fed up, parked and went inside. Had to wait a little bit longer, but as any good knitter would, I had a project in my purse, so I whipped it out and went to stitchin'.

After we made it back to Mom and Dad's, we all had spiral cut ham, and other holiday goodness for dinner (about 8 p.m.).

Here's a few cute photos of Malachi. Couldn't resist posting them.

"The Holiday" - official dishcloth knitting movie

I love the movie "The Holiday." Amy and I saw it in the theater, then we watched it again while she was here on Thanksgiving break. Yesterday, I even got Adam to watch it with me. Even though it's a romantic comedy, he actually liked it. (He'll probably kill me for saying that for all the world to see).

When Amy and I watched it, I worked on a dishcloth. Didn't get it done, because the stitch pattern was pretty involved. Yesterday, though, I started and finished a dishcloth in the exact time it took to watch the movie.



The movie inspires me to knit up a storm, because while Cameron Diaz's character spend the holidays in frosty Surrey, England, she wears the greatest knit items. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've written about those items before on this very blog. I'll have to go back and look. Sweaters, hats, scarves - you name it.

Here's the trailer, in case you haven't seen it.

Then, last night, it was Santa's workshop in here. Dragged out ALL of the scrapbook stuff for a couple of projects I need to finish by Christmas day. I'm only posting one photo, because they're SURPRISES, but I know Jayne won't be looking at the blog, so here's hers:




In the morning yesterday, I had my first dose of holiday stress. I don't usually get too stressed out about holidays. I'm not at work, I'm not on deadline - there's no reason to be wigged out. But, God, all I wanted to do yesterday was mail a couple of packages, buy some stamps and copy our New Year's letters. Is that too much to ask?

Apparently, yes.

We're in a weird vortex of not being close to any post offices, so I went to Hy-Vee (where there's a helpful smile on every aisle - except the customer service desk) to mail packages.

"Our scale is broken. You'll have to go the Hy-Vee on ...."

Didn't hear anything past that. AND, in my frustration, I got flustered and forgot that I had to buy stamps, so I walked out empty handed.

Found a UPS store, mailed boxes. Sorry folks, they're not getting to you until most likely Friday. Lame, I know. That's what you get for having a procrastinator in the family.

Saw sign at UPS store: COLOR COPIES SALE! 35 cents!

Thought to myself: "Self, 35 cents is going to add up to quite a bit if I'm making a bunch of copies. There's a FedEx/Kinko's across the street. Maybe they'll be cheaper."

Go across street.

See sign: COLOR COPIES SALE! 45 CENTS!

Think to myself: "Dammit."

All of this is happening, mind you, during the great sleet storm, preceding the great snow storm of 2007. Not the best time to be out running errands.

Get frustrated. Decide to go home and change letter to black and white only, thereby increasing the lateness of said letter. Do remember, though, to stop back at Hy-Vee (still not overly helpful) and buy stamps.

THANK GOD when I see that I do actually have cash in my pocket, after I see sign that says "Cash only for Postal Transactions." I NEVER carry cash, so at least one thing went right on that whole trip.

At least that's all over now. Still haven't gotten those letters taken care of, but I've got almost two whole weeks before I have to be back at school, so I'll do it then, I guess.

Off to do more Santa's workshopping.

Oops, that family did it again

I know I'm a couple days late on this one, but I can't believe no one else in our circle o' bloggers has crowed about this. C'mon, you pop culture people!

Maybe it's because I teach high school, but the last two days, the saga of Jamie Lynn Spears has provided much-needed laughter and levity for a bunch of stressed out kids.

Thankfully, the reaction of most of the students has been utter disbelief, and general annoyance.

"Who has a live-in boyfriend at 16?!"
"Did you hear her mom's writing a parenting book?"

God, I'd love to get my hands on a copy of the manuscript that is now "on hold," most likely permanently. What I'd like to know is: WHO THE HELL thought that Lynne Spears is a likely candidate for great parenting advice? And what planet has that person been on for the last, oh, 18 months or so?

I'm sure her advice on how to get your daughters into showbiz is valuable, because obviously she's done that, and I'm sure is reaping all the benefits.

I'm not condemning Britney's sister for getting pregnant at that age - she's not the only one, and I know there are moms out there who were young, and did a great job of raising their kids. But, she's on a NICKELODEON TV show, for God's sake. You've heard me say this before: that makes here a role model, whether she likes it or not. When you're in that position, you have to make good choices. I'm sure the brass at Nickelodeon was oh-so-happy about this news.

I'm so glad I don't have a kid that I'd have to explain all this too.

Hopefully, Jamie Lynn has been storing up all the whacked-out crap her sister has been doing with her kids, and already has a pretty good idea of what not to do.

A lazy post tonight

I stayed out way past my bedtime last night (it was Wednesday trivia, after all). It was an easy day at school - only two periods, and each were Newspaper, so we did our gift exchange and ate and played Charades.

Their final was to turn in a portfolio of work from the semester, so they didn't actually have to take a test.

I stayed at school until 4, working on getting those graded, came home, ate dinner, and took a two-hour nap. I'll still probably go to bed at 10, though.

This is a lazy post because I'm going to put up a couple of links that you should check out.

First, for those of you who know Cary Conover, check out this interview with him. A few of his photos are up, as well as some thoughts on his days at the K-State.

Second, one of my newspaper students, Amanda, was featured on the local news last night. She is one of a handful of students whose work has been chosen by Hallmark to be made into holiday cards that will be sold next year. Proceeds will benefit Children International. She made the cards as part of her digital imaging class. The link will take you to a transcript of the story, but click on the video link to see the TV story.

•••

Wednesday trivia didn't go so hot. Only five of us showed up, so our pool of random pop culture knowledge was quite a bit smaller than it has been lately. Plus, almost every round had R&B and rap questions. Not my forté.

From the mouths of babes...

Question 6: What five freedoms does the first amendment guarantee Americans?

Answer:

1. Petition
2. Speech
3. Press
4. Religion
5. Bare arms

I couldn't decide whether to mark it wrong because they got the wrong amendment, or because it's just so wrong.

Besides, who wants bare arms in December?

So. Darn. Close.

Seriously - students start finals tomorrow. As sore as my neck and shoulders and head are, you'd think I'm taking 75 honors finals this week as well.

I really do like my job, but finals, holidays and a 50-page yearbook deadline five days after kids get back from break is not a recipe for happiness...

I need a good, old-fashioned, Chainsaw-style tension breaker (a la the 1987 cinema classic "Summer School"). Had to be done.




At least we're on a finals schedule that makes sense for both teachers and students: three exams Wednesday, kids go home before lunch. Two Thursday, kids go home at 10:30, three Friday, kids go home at 10:30. That means the teachers actually can get exams graded and grades posted and have a tiny bit of afternoon work time before vacation. I wonder if Derby every got their finals schedule to make more sense?

On a good note: I did get word today that one of my students won First Place in the KSPA Story of The Month - News Story last month. Pretty cool, and she was really excited - another certificate for her ever-growing résumé.

To all the teachers who read this: Congrats on getting through the first 18 weeks!

Smarter than a smart phone?

This'll be short and sweet - I've got a new "toy" I've got to get set up.

I will probably never use half of the features on here, but it sure looks cool and it was cheap. And, it's got a QWERTY keyboard, so I hopefully will no longer be the slowest texter in the west.


Look at the super cool wrapping on these presents from the guild gift exchange.


This one was my mom's. She did a great job - everyone loved it.

In the exchange, I got a cute little snowwoman pin, and she's knitting a swatch. Also, hand-dyed sock yarn - which is exciting. I've never tried socks, but I've been mulling them over in my head.


Last but not least - here's the finished baby doll blanket. I enjoyed the log cabin method, and it kind of looks like a quilt, but I HATE picking up stitches. And, that's pretty much all you do when you're doing Log Cabin.

Off to listen to ring tones and program numbers.

In the nick of time

The doll blanket is done. I've photographed it, but you'll have to wait til the guild meeting is over to see the FO.

I'll upload photos later tonight, I promise.

Time to go.

I AM LEGEND

wait for it...DARY.

Just kidding. This post has nothing to do with "How I Met Your Mother." It's the Will Smith movie, "I Am Legend" that we are talking about.

Now that we don't live in the same town as Jeff, Kat and Terry, rarely do Adam and I see movies on the weekend they open. For whatever reason, we just don't. But, he's been waiting to see this one for months now, so we went out into the winter wonderland that is O.P. and saw it on the IMAX at AMC.

If you have to see a movie that features solely one speaking human being for the majority of it, Will Smith is a good choice. He's pretty easy to watch for two hours. In addition to Will, what made the movie is how the sets showed what New York City landmarks would look like three years after the human race ceases to exist.

I won't say more about the movie - don't want to spoil it for anyone.

It's been snowing all day here, lightly for a while, then a bit heavier. I'm hoping that by tomorrow morning, they'll be enough white stuff that you won't be able to see the grass whiskers poking out.

I must go finish the doll blanket. I really want to get it done tonight so that I can wash it, block it, and it will be all ready for Monday's guild meeting. If I do git 'er done, I'll post a few photos.

South Park Mac vs PC

All right, I in no way advocate smoking what the video producer obviously does, this is pretty freaking funny, especially for a bunch of journalism/photo/video/Mac nerds.

The Mitchell Report: Truth, Justice, and the American Way?

Well, today's Mitchell report detailing rampant substance abuse in Major League Baseball is just one more reason it's hard to try to tell high school students why they should do the "right" thing. Why should I beat the drum for doing your best, working hard because of intrinsic motivation, doing your own work, when it seems more and more we hear about "heroes" making horrible decisions?

It's already hard enough working with some kids. They've grown up being rewarded for things most people just do: show up on time, do your work, behave in a civilized manner. It's not enough to have the satisfaction of a job well done - they want candy (even Adam's elementary kids are already this way), gift cards, accolades. Last time I checked, the principal doesn't come down and pat me on the back every day just for showing up to work. It's expected, so I do it.

Baseball players being exposed as frauds just reinforces a perception that you have to lie and cheat to be the best. Now, it's hard to know what the "best" is.

The MLBPA executive director has been quoted in published reports today saying "In retrospect, maybe we should have done something sooner." That's pretty much the understatement of the year. According to the Mitchell report, every club had at least one player fingered in the investigation. Every club.

What is the American Way these days? It's certainly doesn't seem to be truth and justice in a lot of cases. It's more like "Oh crap - what did I do and how can I spin it?"

I can't even imagine how frustrating it must be for the guys who actually have God-given talent, and have chosen not to use. Seemingly, you'd be at a disadvantage no matter how hard you trained, if you're constantly competing against roided out apes.

The reports only been officially released for a few hours now, and already the denials and "No comments" are flying. I hope all the sports reporters are safe tonight.

I imagine it might be a little intimidating knocking on the door of some of these guys. I'd be a little worried about roid rage - "I SAID NO COMMENT YOU LITTLE BLANKETY-BLANK! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

It could happen. They're probably pissed off about their tiny little thingies, as well. Steroids don't exactly enhance ALL kinds of performance.

YES! Happy Dance Time!

Woo hoo! I got my invite to Ravelry today! I got to join!

Most of you who read this blog won't care - but I'm so excited and I just can't hide it!

(You know I must be excited - I never EVER use that many exclamation points.)

It's really cool - kind of like an online knitting journal, plus online knitting community, plus all-around general crafty coolness.

Seriously, when I applied for the site, there were like, thousands of people in the queue. I must have gotten lucky. Now I just have to figure out flickr.

The dinner bell just sounded. Gotta go.

UPDATE: Seriously, thousands. I just checked. 6,900 people in the queue.

Chillaxin' on the snow (?) day

All right, everybody - next time I say we're having a snow day - please remind me to turn OFF the alarm clock. I DID sleep in today, but only after I woke up at 5:45, walked across the bedroom and turned off the alarm, and then again at 7:15 when I did the same thing.

I went back to bed, slept til about 9, got up, made some coffee, checked the blogs, and watched a girl movie since Adam slept in even later than I did. "Because I Said So" with Mandy Moore, Diane Keaton - okay movie, but glad that I got it for free from the Dunes clubhouse. Probably wouldn't have been worth the price of admission. But, for a day off from work, it was a pretty mindless movie to accompany some mindless knitting.

I'm working on a doll blanket to donate for the Sunflower Knitting Guild's Christmas Service Project. The knitted items will be given to needy Native American Families. I guess in the past, the little girls have always asked for blankets for their baby dolls.

I thought this would be a good excuse to use up some of the stash that my Uncle Mark passed my way from one of his houses. It's tons of baby weight Red Heart Yarn, and the price tags on most of it say $1.19, so it's probably almost as old as I am. I noticed one of the stickers says "Lee Wards" crafts store. I think I remember going there with my mom when I was a kid, but I'm not sure. So, it's safe to say it's "vintage" acrylic yarn...


The colors on the blanket are a little funky, but since it's for a little kid, they might like it. Who knows. Here's what it looked like right before I went to bed last night.


Here's what it looks like now, after knitting and watching "Because I Said So" and "Hollywoodland" this morning.


It's a log cabin pattern, taken from the book Mason Dixon Knitting. Great book. Lots of cool patterns. If I get really brave (or bored) while I'm at home today, I might try to crochet an edge along all the sides. We'll see.

The weather report: It's raining. There's ice on the grass, but the streets are just wet. It's supposed to rain all night tonight, with temperatures at 15 degrees during the morning commute Wednesday. Looks like we'll probably be back in school tomorrow. Or, at the very least, we won't get called until the break of dawn, so that they'll actually KNOW the streets will be bad.

Any bets?

Update: Ice Storm Cancels BV schools for Tuesday

looks like I'll be uploading PDFed pages from home tomorrow so we can meet the newspaper deadline. Good thing the kiddoes had worked a little ahead and gotten done by 3 p.m. today.

Ahhhhh....an extra day off. What a treat!

We've already stayed up past our bedtime, played nine holes of Tiger Woods Golf on Wii, and Adam's going to watch a movie. I'm sure I'll fall asleep about 15 minutes into it.

Ice Ice Baby?

Pretty much the only thing on students' minds today (and who am I kidding - teacher's minds too) is the Apocalyptic Ice Storm of 2007 that has been forecast for overnight tonight and early tomorrow morning.

Gary Lezak, Katie Horner and all the other KC weather dudes and dudettes are saying it could be a big one. So far, all of BV's evening activities are already canceled.

Even as I speak, NBC's Brian Williams is saying that there are ice warnings in 19 of the 50 states.

I'm not getting my hopes up, but there will be some knitted items photos posted tomorrow if this forecast holds...(hmm...I guess I have to hope the power stays on)

Fingerless gloves definitely movin' on up

the project list.

It's officially 50 degrees in our spare room/computer room/yarn storage cave/scrapbook storage cave.

It's too hard to type when my fingers are this cold. I either need some wrist warmers, fingerless gloves or a dman wireless hub, so I can sit out in the living room where it's toasty warm.

In honor of Mitzi's Mad Banjo Style - Wii Party I

Please do not mock my video editing skills...I haven't had professional training like half of my readers have...

P.S. This was all shot on my Canon Elph. I love that camera more and more each day.

You'll notice in the video that our apartment looks kinda like Jeff and Kat's place - more than one TV going at one time in the same room during a party.

Two years in a row

BOWLING PARTY IS OFFICIALLY CANCELED DUE TO ICE.

DAMMIT.

A riddle

This is from one of my seniors:

What can go through the green glass window?

a poodle can, but a dog cannot
a noodle can, but pasta cannot
a Jill can, but an Adam cannot
a yearbook can, but a newspaper cannot
a foot can, but a toe cannot

Can you figure it out?

Lots of stuff

So, last night I through a couple of my knitted bags in a hot wash cycle to clean them up, make them presentable for the sale. Some of you might remember my orange, yellow, gray and blue tote bag. The giant one. Well, it's TINY now. It's gone from a tote to a cute little purse. It's amazing how much shrinkage was left in the wool, I guess.

Here I sit, at the keyboard, hoping that it doesn't ice too much this morning and afternoon. We're supposed to have the Battle Bowl I/Yearbook and Newspaper Non-Denominational Holiday Party at 1. I'm watching the weather, thinking about how moms would feel about their kids out driving around when the roads might be bad. We all traded cell phone numbers yesterday so that if we do call it off, the word will get out. It would be funny to call it in to a TV station to see if we could get on the list of closings.

The funny thing is - if we did have to cancel it, it wouldn't be the first time a publications bowling party was canceled due to inclement weather. At Derby last year, we had to cancel a spring bowling event because we were under a tornado warning, and we didn't want the kids to be out in case something happened. Weird.

•••

I was pleasantly surprised twice by former students this week. One surprise was a phone call. Steven, our photographer extraordinaire from the Class of 2006, has finally returned from Iraq. He's back in San Diego (which he reminded me on the phone the other night means "whale's vagina") right now, but it sounds like he will get to visit his girlfriend in Austin and then visit the greater Derby area the week of Christmas. I was really happy to hear his voice again, knowing that he is home safe and sound. When he was in high school, he was pretty soft-spoken, but I guess a couple years in the Marines makes you a little bit more boisterous.

For his sake, I'm hoping our wonderful president doesn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed and decide we need to send troops to Iran or Korea. It sounds like if that happens, he'd get called right back, off his leave.

The second surprise was this morning. I guess Bonnie must have been REALLY bored yesterday, because she left comments on like 15 blog posts...She was reading the story of my life all at once. I don't even know if I could have done that. It was fun to see what she had to say.

I think that's best part of blogging. I mean, sure, I like to sit here and write about my days, or my knitting projects, or movies I've seen, or whatever, but I love to see what people say back. The weird thing is - most of the comments sound EXACTLY like I'm talking to that person face-to-face.

So, congratulations you guys - you all get an "A" for voice in your writing.

I'd love to spout more, but I've only finished the Secret Non-Denominational Gifter Gift for my newspaper Secret Non-Denominational Gifter, now I've got to go finish the one for my yearbook one as well.

Oh yeah, I also have to clean house to day because we're having friends over to play Wii tonight. (Yes, I really am 30 years old). I'm sure they'll be some fun photos to post out of that event (maybe even video). How exciting - we're finally having some friends over who aren't from out of town - slowly losing "loser" status!

Winners become LO-sers

Ah, man. We were supposed to play trivia tonight.

Adam doesn't feel well (might be getting a sore throat)
Betsy's got muchas housework to do
Mitzi can't play
Manal snowed under (she's a teacher like me, so of course she's got a billion things to do)

I guess we'll just have to bask in the glory of our win last week.

I'm not gonna lie, though, I'm secretly glad that I will not be out until midnight tonight! My warm bed will be calling my name long about 9:30 or so. For now, I've got to whip out two secret santa gifts - hats knit on big needles with bulky yarn - one for a newspaper staffer and one for a yearbookian (someone wrote that word on the board today and I kinda like it!).

At least there's a "Closer" Christmas special on the DVR list. I guess it was on Monday night. I love it when shows surprise me with new episodes.

•••

On a slightly unrelated note: I've been thinking about making a couple of quick videos that show different knitting techniques - very basic - how to cast on, how to do a knit stitch, how to purl - in hopes that some more of my friends will fall under the spell of needles and yarn. If I made those and posted them here, would any of you actually TRY it?

Other crafty endeavors

Days like today make me glad that Adam and I did decide to move to Kansas City. I have A LOT of family here. My mom comes from a five-sibling family, and her parents also came from large families, so I have tons of cousins, second cousins, other-types-of-cousins, etc.

Today, one of my cousins (daughter of my mom's cousin, so you figure out the technical term) had a bridal shower. It's a lot of fun to get together with everyone. There's always lots of laughter.

Here's the gift I took to the shower:

It's a 12x12 scrapbook framed page with Shannon and Joey's wedding invitation on it. I had made one for Shannon's sister-in-law at her shower a few months ago, so Shannon's mom slipped me the invitation for this one a little early so I could make another. It's nice to take a break from the knitting and make my brain and hands do something else.

I also made this one this afternoon, since I still had all my scrapbook stuff out. I hate dragging it all out of the closet just to make one piece. Hmmm, wish I knew that Amy was going to have a girl, then I could say that this piece is spoken for! I guess I'll have to wait a few more weeks for that news.

Again, I thought maybe I'd try to peddle this at the school crafty fair. I think it would make a great gift for a new family.

•••

"August Rush" was quite the tearjerker, but the simple fact that it starts Jonathan Rhys Meyers makes it worth the price of admission in my book. I loved him in "Bend it like Beckham" but in this movie, he plays a musician, so his sexy quotient gets upped quite a bit. Plus, I'm not gonna lie - the Irish brogue gets me every time!

In the beginning, the plot was a little slow, but as it picked up, I really got in to the movie. Plus, the music is amazing.

You probably won't convince the males in your life to see it, but if you're looking to see a movie with a friend of the female persuasion, you should check it out.

When UFOs attack

They look like this:

I'm sort of buried in unfinished objects lately. I've just been too interested in trying different patterns and different types of yarn. I suppose my knitting attention span is getting shorter by the day.

That photo shows:
1. Adam's sweater vest (by now infamous).
2. Amy's bag (See that strap? I worked on it this morning while watching two episodes of "Pushing Daisies.")
3. Yes, that pink thing is a halter. NOT for me, by God. I just thought is was a cute pattern and something I'd never tried before, so I did it. Might throw it in with the craft show stuff next week - some little chippy might want it. Who knows.
4. Another (possible) dish cloth for the craft show (possibly). At this point, it's not looking like it will be done by then, so it will most likely morph into something else.

I did, however, recently knit myself a hat - I'd been wanting a hat and scarf set for a while.

I whipped up this sucker while we watched "Blood Diamond" on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It's Lamb's Pride Bulky, in creme and spruce. Might start working on the scarf any day now.

Check out the scarf Adam is wearing - he KNIT IT HIMSELF. If I can teach him how to knit, I think I can teach anybody! Now he's working on one for Mommaw for Christmas. Since she lives in Colorado these days, she might be in need of winter wear goodness.


So, I mentioned "Pushing Daisies" earlier. Anybody watching it? I had been DVRing all season, and finally decided that a cold, rainy Saturday was a good time to start watching. What a darling little show. And, yes, it's about death, and YES, I did mean darling. The writing is so tight - the lines come fast and furious, and I love Chi McBride's dry delivery. PD will probably soon be added to the ever-growing list of TV shows I watch.

•••

My mom and I went up to the Legends this afternoon for a little shopping. I haven't been there in so long. All I had ever seen was Cabela's, Nebraska Furniture Mart, and the Great Wolf Lodge. My lord, now it's like the Barry Bonds version of Bradley Fair - TONS of great shopping, and just about any casual dining chain you can think of.

I'm headed out now to see "August Rush" with Betsy. Adam's been up to his neck in football (and basketball) games all day, so we're going to a chick movie.

Gotta scoot.

A little embarassing, but here's the link anyway

Check out Amy's blog for the Rocky steps video from Philadelphia.

It's cold and rainy outside. I foresee some knitting today, since the TV will be on football for about 12 hours.

There'll be a real post later, I promise.

One quick note about school: On Thursday, my 2nd hour took a test to see how well they knew the First Amendment. They had to memorize it, and on the test, simply write the whole thing down. In a class of 20, EVERY ONE of them got it within 2-3 words, and almost all of them got the entire thing. It was pretty cool - that's the best any of my classes have ever done.

Pep Pep Peppy - but pass the Pepto Bismol

At least, that's what my tummy was saying just before I had to walk out with the yearbook and newspaper kids during the Winter Sports and Activities pep assembly today.

Seriously - it takes a lot to make me nervous. I'm normally a pretty confident person. I can stand up in front of a room full of teenagers and try to impart knowledge in an entertaining way. I can stand in front of a workshop audience of 50-100 people and talk high school journalism. But, my heart was racing and my stomach was in knots when that music started playing today.

One of the senior StuCo members chose songs for each of the activities that sort of went along with what they do - ours was "Paperback Writer" by the Beatles. It was pretty cute. I only had to do a quick 1-2 minute spiel, so basically I mentioned the senior editors, and congratulated the yearbook staff for being ahead on their current deadline and the newspaper staff for working on their current issue. My opening line was something like: "Here are some of the hardest working students at BVHS, you just might not see them altogether outside the classroom working as a team...blah blah blah."

1,500 sets of eyes it a little overwhelming. Granted, I'm sure that half of those people were either a.) talking to the kid next to them, or b.) texting a kid across the gym from them.

It's a bad time for us to do an announcement like that because our competition season is the spring. Regionals in February, State (hopefully) in May. Most of the other activities have been to competitions and performances, stuff like that. Oh well, all the kids said I sounded good, and they said they couldn't tell I was nervous. My voice wasn't shaky or anything, they said.

Anywho, it's bedtime. As you know, I was up late last night, and I didn't get home from school tonight until 8. Just enough time to watch the Office, Earl, and check the blog.

Nighty night.

Week 9 Champs - Team That's What She Said

We rocked the Extreme Team Trivia tonight - no one came close. We've already qualified, but now we get a gift card so we can eat and drink for free at next week's.

Not areally exciting post, but as you can see by the time posted, it's WAAY past my bedtime.

More later.

J

Late night with Jill Chittum

So, the blogging will most likely be on the light side this week. Tuesday is yearbook work night, Thursday is newspaper work night. I guess this is where I pay the price for doing pretty much absolutely nothing during my wondrous five-day break. It's karma, I tell you.

BUT, we did send 18 pages to the plant today, so we're still ahead on submissions. Luckily, the editors and I are on the same page here - let's stay ahead for as long as we can, so that if we hit a horrendous deadline in the spring, we'll still have some padding.

Picked up the yearbook staff shirts today. We had nicknames put on the backs of all of them. On Thursday, there's a pep assembly, and activities will be recognized (instead of just athletes). I guess I'm supposed to parade the two staffs in front of the entire school, and say a few words.

A few words? How about "Oh. My. God. I really have to speak in front of the entire school?" I'm sure ours will be short and sweet. A couple of the girls are working on a banner for the staff to hold as they walk by.

A big week, indeed.

At the risk of pissing off half my blog readers...

It's happy dance time! KU will not end this season undefeated! Not a huge Mizzou fan, but I can't take smug KU fans.

Okay, that's all, I promise. I don't want to rub it in or anything.

•••

Now, I've got to log in to ABC.com so I can watch the "October Road" from Thursday night before it's on again tomorrow.

Did anyone else notice that Bree's daughter from "Desperate Housewives" played an unwed mother on "Private Practice" last week? What's up with all these TV stars hopping shows? My peabrain can't take them being more than one character.

Two of my faves from "The Closer" have recently been spotted on other shows: Sgt. Gabriel was on "Private Practice" a few weeks ago, and Sanchez played a prisoner on "My Name is Earl". At least "The Closer" is on hiatus right now, so they're just working on the side. I can't believe ABC would double cast someone like they did with the girl who plays Danielle on DH. I know the writers are on strike, but I'm sure there's no shortage of young girls wanting TV roles in Hollywood.

Weekend in photos- Random is the word

Well, I don't have a lot to SAY about the last few days, but here are some random photos from the weekend's events.

As you will see, when we were walking around on the plaza, I got on some sort of photos of windows kick.

Of course, it's Thanksgiving weekend. It's Kansas City. It's 20 degrees outside. Let's go look at the Plaza Lights.


Amy and I ran around all day Friday. We did yarn stores, thankfully avoiding big-box MegaLo Marts and thus, avoiding crowds. We at lunch at d'Bronx on Bell Street. Great pizza. Here's a photo of some random people eating there.

I saw the other day that they're opening a d'Bronx at 103rd and Metcalf. Weird. Again, the suburbanites want to feel urban without leaving the friendly confines of Johnson County, I guess.

I stopped for coffee after an hour or so of walking around on the plaza. Here's Adam holding my coffee.

As I said, Amy and I only did yarn stores, so it really as Yarn-O-Rama.


Help me out here. I don't "get" Urban Outfitters window dressings. Everything is crossed out, Xed out, edited looking, but when you read the un-edited words, they don't make sense. What are they trying to tell us here?

Other bloggers posted turkey photos, so here's Adam's. He did a great job all by himself on dinner for six.

After turkey dinner, we played Tiger Woods Golf on Wii.

After 15 holes (about two hours) of Tiger Woods Golf, I gave up and started knitting. Joshua had to take over for me (I was Annika Sorenstam). Okay, the game is fun, but it starts to get a little boring and frustrating, especially when Annika wasn't having the round of her life. Although, I did get a couple of birdies and one eagle. Too bad the "exceeding the stroke limit" on the other holes completely negated those.

Oh, we also did Extreme Team Trivia Wednesday night. Our team, "That's What She Said" qualified for the big money no whammies final round in two weeks. So much to say about that adventure, but it'll have to wait until I can post the photos and video.

I love it when Tuesday is not a school night

Watch out, world - teachers all over the country are letting their hair down for a few days.

Last night I went out with the goils. Adam works with all these ladies, so I got invited to their GNO. We had dinner and wine (so. much. wine.) at Spin. It's a pizza place similar to Il Vicino, for the Wichitans on here. It's kind of funny, though, because it's in a strip mall in Leawood (119th and Metcalf, behind Cheesecake Factory) but they've totally done the fixtures like it's in some reborn industrial cavern, with exposed cinder block walls and exposed duct work on the ceiling. Ooh, pretty darn edgy for Overland Park-Leawoodites. I guess you can be urban without going to "the city."

It was really nice to have a social group of women to hang out with. Seems like Adam and I are still trying to get our social lives moving up here.

Mitzi, Betsy and Amy. There was a whole LOT of photo-taking involved in the evening.

Looking at photos that were already taken.

Betsy's comment card on the wines she tasted. You'll notice, her first wine says "Free Wine." The restaurant manager had a little thing for Miss Betsy. She was the first to arrive, so while she was waiting on us, he bought her a drink. Then, throughout the evening, he proceeded to "help" the server work our table. Miraculously, ManagerMan always worked the table from Betsy's end. He was mighty touchy feely about the whole deal, as well. I used a simple 1-10 rating system for my card, Betsy was definitely more creative. By the end of the evening, we were trying to figure out how to spell "woot! woot!" (you have to say it out loud to yourself).

Yum, wine through a (I mean, four) straws.

A few of the wines we tried. My favorite was a Riesling by Polka Dot. It came in a tall, thin, bright blue bottle.

Everyone except me works at the elementary school with Adam. Their school stories are pretty damn funny. I don't know how they do it everyday.

We shut Spin down. They had the whole place closed and cleaned around us, but ManMan let us stay two extra hours because he was doing inventory. So, I guess you could say we did benefit from his little crush on Betsy.

I had a great time. It's a little nerve-wracking going out with people you don't know for the first time, but by the end of the night, I was feeling pretty comfy with everyone. They're all super nice and friendly, and I'm sure the copious amounts of wine tasted helped, too.

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday, the girls at school were wearing short shorts and flip flops. It was 75 degrees when I drove home.

Today, snow is falling.

It's just started, but the flakes are big and wet. Not much is sticking just yet. This makes me glad I've decided to make this day off from school a Do-Absolutely-Nothing-Work-Related Day. I brought home grading and some other things I need to work on, but it's going to have to wait.

Snow falling outside the sliding glass door makes a perfect sit and knit day. Just grabbed "The Holiday," "Blood Diamond" and "Running With Scissors" from the clubhouse.

•••

Here's Alice's finished bag. It shrunk up quite short when I felted it. Amy had the same experience with the Noro yarn. It felts much more vertically than it does horizontally.

Okay, Cat People - listen up

You must go look at Crazy Aunt Purl's blog right now. She did a cat sweater contest, and the winner photos are on her site. They are freakin' HI-larious.

A few of the winners are featured on the post, but then if you click on the gallery link, you'll see TONS of crazy photos.

It's pretty good for a laugh. The only thing I kept thinking while looking at the photos was "Gracie would scratch the fingers right off my knitting hands if I tried to cram her into one of those things." I guess other people's cats are a helluva lot more chill than mine.

I think I can...I think I can...

Now that I think about it, that little phrase really fits in with many aspects of my life.

Running: I think I can run four miles today. (Yes, I did that!)
Knitting: I think I can figure out this crazy stitch pattern I've never tried before.
Teaching: I think I can find some new and exciting way to engage 20 kids for 53 minutes at a time.

The Jacksonville marathon training is officially off. We think one of the Running Chittums (not I) has a stress fracture in his left foot. The only "fix" for a stress fracture? No activity for six to eight weeks. In a way, it's probably a good thing, because we really shouldn't be spending what would probably be over $1000 bucks on the trip. Flight, hotel, race registration makes it an expensive proposition. I'm going to continue training, and start looking for an event that is within driving distance from KC.

As I was trying to organize and do a little housekeeping on the blog yesterday, I looked back at my original post. It was something about Resolutions, and one was to run 750 miles this year. I had started, and done a decent job of keeping track, but in all the craziness of moving, changing jobs, life, etc., I stopped keeping track. I think I'm going to add a spot somewhere on here where I just add up the miles each time I run. Maybe I could turn it into some kind of challenge.

You might have noticed that there are now Google Ads on TheChittumFiles. I've decided to try to make this blogging thing a bit of a business. I'm already doing it, it doesn't take any overhead, and it's something I enjoy. Might as well make a little dough in the process. Each time a reader clicks on one of the ads, I get paid for it. Okay, so I thought it would be like a nickel a click or something, but I've had it on my site since the beginning of November, and I'm on pace to make over $50 this month. Not bad considering reasons previously stated. What I'm hoping is that I can use that money to bolster savings for eventually starting my own business. (I'm sure yarn and knitting needles will be somehow involved in said business.)

It's kind of funny, though, how random some of the ads are. Google crawls my site and decides what relevant ads to post. When I was posting from Philly, they were advertising apartments in Philly, restaurants in Philly. Of course, usually they are knitting-related ads. But, once, and I can't even remember what I posted about, one of the ads was for "Gay-Friendly Autos." It's nice to make the extra dough, but it's also interesting for me to see what kind of content I drive...

Two days of school this week. It will be nice to have a break. We're doing the big turkey day at Mom and Dad's, but Adam will be doing the cooking. (It was either that or Mom picking up the "Festive Turkey Dinner" from Dillon's.) I think we all can agree we went with the better choice.

Saturday On The Move

Phew. Yesterday I was all over the place.

Mom and Jayne picked me up about noon, and we went to a couple of craft sales and two yarn shops I haven't been to yet.

The first craft sale was in a church, and we went because Mom knew that the woman who had sold us basket-making supplies was going to be there selling her work. Her work is amazing, especially since I've now attempted basket-making and I know how time-consuming it is.

She made all of this, and it's just a fraction of what she has to offer. She's got teeny, tiny baskets, all the way up to baskets that would hold a sack of potatoes (in fact, Mom bough one yesterday that is made for holding potatoes).

Unfortunately, she's going to be getting out of the business by the end of the year, she thinks. Yesterday, everything she was selling was 30 percent off regular price.

Look at that lighthouse. Isn't it cool? And it has a tiny battery-operated Coleman lantern in the top that actually lights up when you turn it on. I think that would look really cool in a nautically-themed home.

She was in the process of making this basket, featuring feathers, when we were shopping.

I'd love to be able to sell handmade goods at craft sales, but there is just no way to make a living out of it (at least not for someone like me, who doesn't have retirement income yet...). When you factor in materials and time it takes to hand-make something, there's no way you'd earn the money back. Plus, at the church sale, it was $110 just for a booth! I mean, I guess once you pay that, you get to keep the money you make selling items, but you'd have to sell an awful lot just to make the $110 back.

For example, after the chuch sale, we went up to Oak Park High School, in North Kansas City, for a huge sale. They had tons of tables. Most of them were selling beaded jewelry, but there were a few knitters and seamstresses. I bought a hat for Adam (see the photo below).

A little older lady was selling them, and I bought it for $4. Four dollars! Can you believe it? It looks exactly like one I would make for him, but I couldn't get the yarn for it for $4. Plus, I love the way she did the striping. It's very stylish - I can't believe it was knitted by an older lady!

We also stopped in Parkville, to check out a yarn store I'd heard of before - Florilegium. They had beautiful hand-dyed yarns. I didn't buy anything there. Parkville was pretty cool. I'm going to have to drag Adam up there some weekend. It's a cute little downtown area, with all kinds of specialty shops, and they have a restaurant and brewery so maybe we could have lunch there after doing a little shopping.

On the way back south, we stopped at MisKnits, a new store in KC that I also hadn't been to yet. I liked her store. A LOT. It's definitely on the list for Amy's and my knitting extravaganza next weekend.

We did go to TigerFest, but just to do a once-over of all the merchandise up for auction. I'll be interested to see if my knitted goods sold for anything. Guess I'll find out later this week.

After TigerFest, we ate at Jalapeno's, a cool little Mexican joint in Stanley. It was packed. It very much had the feel of being the only restaurant-bar in a small town on a Saturday night. Families were there, people on dates were there, and people were just hanging out at the bar watching football. The food was good, but not overly spicy. I like my Mexican food to have a little bit of a kick to it.

THEN, (see, I told you I was all over the place) we stopped in at Dean & Deluca. Seeing as how we're both in education, which means we never have extra money, we would never shop at D&D on on own accord, but we had a $10 gift card. So, Adam got some gelato ($3 for about three tablespoons) and I got a piece of key lime coconut cake ($4.50 a slice). Pricey stuff, but damn, it was good.



Once we got home, we watched some more college football, and I finished Alice's purse. Felted it this morning, but I'm not going to take a photo of the finished version until it's totally dry and I can take it outside.