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.

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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.