I think I saw a former student at the mall

So the other night when Betsy and I went to the KCEtsy meeting, we met outside of Nordstrom's. Their window displays reminded me of one of my students. Not the mannequin, the background. Some of you will know of whom I speak.



Can anybody guess?

Typo of the Day

A feature on money-saving on a local TV newscast this morning:

29 Ways to Save

• Beauty schools
•Manicures, peticures, facials
• Use savings on permanent services

How about investing some of that money in a software program with spell check?

All I ever hear is Martha, Martha, Martha

This time it's for a good cause, though.

Friday, Martha Stewart will be featuring Etsy on her show. I'll have to root around on the DVR and see if I can get it recorded. I'm excited because I hope this will really get the word about Etsy out to people who aren't already on the site. There's a little story about it here.

•••

We had yoga today for the first time in what seemed like forever. We had a snow day that canceled it one week, then Amy, our instructor, got really sick last week so we canceled again. It felt so good today. I'm pretty darn sure I fell asleep during shavasana which is the relaxation pose at the end of the class. Yoga must really work, because I can fall asleep in about two minutes after a yoga class in the middle of the afternoon, but in my bed, at night, with a pillow and blanket and the whole she-bang, it takes an hour of tossing and turning for me to fall asleep.

Yoga will have to be the extent of my exercise today. Betsy and I went to a KCEtsy meeting tonight, so I didn't get home in time to run. That means I'll have to run tomorrow, Friday and Saturday to get my week's total up where I want it.

•••

For tonight's little slice of randomness, here's what I want to know from y'all -

What the heck are you planning to do on Friday? It's Feb. 29 - you have to do something! It's a once-every-four-years-opportunity! I was really proud of my newspaper kids - they actually thought to go and ask the registrar if we had any students whose birthdays fell on the 29th, so we could put a special happy birthday shout out to them on the calendar page. Unfortunately, we have no four-year-olds at BV.

Wrong on so many levels - Mobile (Mo-beel) Leprechaun

Check out the TV news story found at this link. The kids at school showed it to me today. Of course, they watched it 472 times, and laughed their butts off every time (I think you grow out of that habit once you walk across the stage.)

I want to know - are they serious? Is this a real newscast? The best part is the composite sketch.

Knitting - Before and After

It's been entirely too long since I've published any photos of recent knitting projects. That probably means it's been entirely too long since I've actually had a finished object (that's FO, for the uninitiated).

Here's what I finished tonight. FO, yes, but I suppose since it's supposed to be one of a pair, it's only half of a finished object. Would the pair be the finished object? Ah, the sock and glove and armwarmer knitter's conundrum.

This will be armwarmers for my sister, Jayne, since her coat is made to fit over her and her wheelchair. It doesn't have arms like our coats do, it's more like a poncho. She can wear these armwarmers over her shirtsleeves for an extra layer of warmth on bitterly cold days (of which we seem to be having WAY too many lately).

Don't be alarmed, Mom, it only looks like it stops below the elbows because my arm is so much longer than hers. It's actually knit to spec for Jayne's arm, and I sorta made up the pattern as I went. Technically, it's the first thing I "designed." Didn't take much - Cast on, knit 20 rows ribbing, knit a whole lotta stockinette, with a little decreasing thrown in down the forearm, then a little more ribbing at the bottom. I was going to do equal lengths of ribbing, but I wanted it to be obvious which end was the hand end.

I also only wore it for a minute - just long enough to shoot the photo - because my arm is so much heavier than hers I didn't want to stretch it out. The ball of yarn in my hand is what I'll use to knit its mate.

I have decided I really like self-patterning yarn. It's truly a surprise to see how it knits up.

•••

We had late night for yearbook tonight. Got home about 7 p.m. Tuned into "Biggest Loser" and finished that armwarmer. I've got it paused right now - they're fixin' to do the weigh in. I wonder what will happen?

I think I'll settle in, cast on for armwarmer number two, and find out.

New Budgetary Guidelines

You've heard me lament the economy and the fact that no matter how good we are, and how hard we try, it seems like it is impossible to get ahead. Every time we get a little money saved up, something ridiculous happens (car troubles, something with the house, have to pay taxes, etc.), and the savings goes kablooey.

We have been working extremely hard to pay debt (so. freaking. close. to having cards paid off). I can't tell you how good it feels to say that - although, I feel like I better knock on some wood. We never get tax refunds since I always do the summer workshop circuit. So, I'm sure we'll have to deal with that in a few months. So far, two of my friends have found out they have to pay more than $1,000.

Seriously. We work our butts off every day, molding the minds of the youth of America, doing the right thing, and the money situation never gets better. We don't need a lot of stuff, but if the economy keeps going the way it is, pretty soon I'll be wondering whether or not we'll be buying gas and groceries every time we need to. Gas gets more and more expensive, and so does everything else, because it takes gas to get it to us, but our paychecks never get fatter.

I used to watch Suze Orman every weekend, when Adam was working at QT, because he was gone every Saturday night. So, I watched her while he was working. I'm sort of over her now, but on Headline News they've begun a new feature with Clark the Money Coach. He deals with people who have MAJOR debt issues. Ours really aren't that bad at all, when you consider that some people have more than $50,000 in credit card debt. YIKES. So glad we're not in that boat.

One of the people he advised was a single girl who was trying to pay down cards. She's a teacher, and when she gets paid, she goes and takes out $500 cash for all non-bill living expenses. That's what she lives on for the month. We're trying this approach. So far, it's worked quite well. It's so much easier to keep track of what you're spending when you're not using a debit card. This is the second month, and it's worked pretty well so far, even with my trip to Wichita (had to fill up twice and get an oil change) and Adam had to get an oil change too. Since there's two of us and one of her, we get a LEEEtle bit larger allowance, but not too much.

To some of the people reading this our allowance will sound like a pittance - but it's quite satisfying to know that I'm not going out and spending money on random crap that I won't use, or clothes I don't really need. I have so much stuff in my closet that I hardly wear.

Since we moved here, we've been very good about not going out to eat all the time - mostly for health reasons, but there's a definite financial benefit as well. I would much rather save money for a cool vacation that I will remember always than have a meal that I'll forget about in a day or two.

I've never been one for willpower, and this method of budgeting works well for me. When the money runs out, the money runs out. It's much easier for me to conceptualize that when I'm standing at the store holding the cash in my hand, instead of an ATM (access to money) card.

•••

I don't know if the story I read about the Eagle's new print size inspired me or what, but I decided to try a redesign on my old web home on the range. What do you think? I was over the black.

•••

I won't post much about the Oscars since I'm pretty late on that, but I loved Helen Mirren's beautiful red dress. It was probably my favorite. And see Lori's blog for some great Jon Stewart lines. Unfortunately for Betsy, none of those lines were: "Betsy, I want to help you have your babies."

Because I know there are Cat People reading this: The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee

Betsy got me looking at this site - The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee.

You must check it out. It's a family who foster parents for kittens who will eventually be adopted out. They have one big cat who serves as the mama cat, basically, and then they have tons of KEY-yute kitty babies!

My favorite - who could resist this face? Meet Bernadette.

photo by Laurie, Kitty Wrangler

You must see what she looked like after her bath.

All the kitties have such grown up sounding names, like Augustine and Clementine.


Betsy doesn't even like cats and she loves these kitties!

Cisco's Green Bus: Reason #472 Why I wish I lived in San Francisco

Cisco has unveiled a "connected bus" that will become a part of San Francisco's Muni public transportation system. It's a hybrid, running on battery power, and it houses routers and all kinds of computer equipment that will give its riders "close to DSL speeds" on their laptops while on the bus.

I read about it here.

SF's mayor says he thinks it will encourage more people to ride the bus, because they will have so many options of what to do while riding the bus. They can download music, get work done, etc. I would be torn here - do I use the laptop or do I knit on my commute? The knitter's dilemma.

BUT, how nice it is to see a government official finding ways to encourage citizens to use pubic transportation. It's amazing what you can do when people actually work to find solutions and creatively problem solve, instead of just saying "People won't do it. We don't need that. It'll never happen." (Feel free to insert other Wichitan poo-pooing ideas saying right here.)

The Crafty Sweat Shop

We've watched "Ocean's 11."

We're watching "Saturday Night Live." Thank God the writers' strike is finally over.

We're crafting away. I've made some favors for another girl who will be doing a craft fair later this spring. She's putting our favors in with her grab bags so that we can promote our shops. I've done business cards with a little hole punched in them with some pieces of cool yarn tied to them. Pretty simple, but they might encourage someone to check out my shop.

Betsy's working on magnets for hers. Fortunately, OSHA isn't staking out the Chittum household, because I'm pretty sure they'd have something to say about the poor working conditions of our apartment.

My scrapbook stuff was all over the kitchen table so Bets worked from the TV tray. She had a better view of the TV that way, anyhow.


Here are her finished products.

Etsy Love - Deals of the Week

Got home from Relay for Life about 4 this morning. Legs and hips are a little sore from doing the circuit on the gym floor hundreds of times, but it was a lot of fun, and we supported a great cause. I slept until 11 this morning, so I really have to get some work done today, before I lose my motivation...So, a brief post of some cool items I've seen on Etsy lately.

First off, check out this too-cute Camera Necklace, by Pixydoodle.


Next, from Amie's Card Shop, this All-Occasion Sunflower Card. I chose this one in honor of the fact that most of you readers live in the good old Sunflower State.


And, in honor of all of us teachers, here's Betsy's Apple of My Eye earrings. I've had my eye on these for awhile now, so you better go buy them before I do!


The latest addition to Knit1Scrap2 is this Pocket Golf Towel. It hangs on the side of your golf bag, and the large pocket keeps everything you need on the course handy. No more digging through the huge side pockets on the golf bag anymore!

Happy shopping!

Man, what a couple of days

I hate it when I don't blog every day. Then, there are so many things I want to talk about, I forget them, I don't want to bore everyone, etc.

Some of you might have seen Amy's blog about the contest she was in charge of in Wichita. That's the one I used to go to with my Derby kids. At my new school, we go to Emporia for regionals. Except that yesterday, we didn't go to Emporia for regionals. Our bus trip got canceled due to inclement weather conditions on the road between here and Emporia. I cannot even begin to describe the hellish day I had yesterday because of the stupid weather.

Those of you who are avid readers of the ChittumFiles will remember that EVERY SNOW DAY WE'VE HAD THIS YEAR HAS FALLEN ON A BIG DAY FOR JOURNALISM - whether it's yearbook deadline, newspaper late night, newspaper deadline, etc. Well, this was the whopper of all weather related journalism snafus. School wasn't canceled, but we didn't get to go on the trip.

I had so many kids who had spent a lot of time preparing for this contest - they were studying the AP Stylebook, doing practice writing prompts, studying our writing textbooks. Many of them were so excited to be going and to have the chance to compete for some individual recognition. Luckily, we are able to submit electronic copies of the carry-in contests, so at least some students will get to compete, but even that raised the stress level yesterday. We were told to send PDFs of all the entries, so I gathered the troops and instructed them to furiously PDF the files. We thought we'd have to have them there while they were judging the on-sites. We e-mailed everything. We stopped, took some deep breaths.

Guess what? I suppose 100 e-mails with attachments will clog an inbox. Now we have until 5 p.m. Monday to get them sent to a new address. I wanted to do it today, but by golly, I actually have to do this little thing, called TEACHING, during the day. So, I think I'll just go up this weekend and get them sent. At least then, it'll be quiet, and I'll be able to keep track of what I'm doing and be sane.

I couldn't write about this yesterday. I don't think I would have been able to keep it together. I think the worst part is that I got NO sleep Wednesday night, because I knew I had to be at the bus at 6:30, so I kept waking up thinking I had overslept and missed the bus. Tired and stressed, in a room full of pissed-off, stressed kids is not a good combo - it takes a lot out of you. I was about as tense as Cameron in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." And I didn't even get a diamond out of the deal - couldn't get my hands on a lump of coal...

•••

Someone sent me a link to this trailer today. It's for a documentary called "Two Million Minutes." I will have to see if I can find the entire movie. The trailer brings up interesting points, but of course, once in the trailer, they make a comment about "the American education system." I don't want to see it if half the movie is bashing teachers and schools. Has anyone else seen or heard of it?

•••

Tonight is our Relay For Life at school. We're headed back at 7 p.m. The kids were all pretty jazzed about it today, so I'm anxious to see how it goes.

The truth about cats and dogs

You just never know what you're going to get when you mix a Betty and a Minnie.

It's past my bedtime, and it's a school night, so this is all you're getting tonight, by the way.

And the winner is....

The charity scarf is knitted. All I need to do is weave in the ends and add some fringe to the ends.

And the winner? Selected at random by the independent accounting firm of Adam, Deloitte and Touche?

Betsy!

However, do not despair, those of you who were not chosen - everyone's a winner in this contest. Each of you will receive a small token of my thanks and appreciation for your help in the fight against cancer. Look for it in 4-6 weeks.

•••

I really have got to go to bed. Amazingly, a three-day weekend is about all it takes for me to get in the vacay mindset, making it extremely hard to go back to work. And I like my job. I feel sorry for all the people out there who don't enjoy their jobs. It must be a million times worse.

Also - was October Road new tonight?

Etsy Deals of the Week

In honor of the snow falling outside my window at this very moment, here's my Etsy Deal of the Week.

Check out this Chunky Blue Cheese Scarf. It's knit with a superthick and thin blue and green novelty yarn, and it'd be perfect for a cold day like today.At $10, it's a steal!

Also, check out some of these other favorite items of mine from other Etsy sellers:

Earrings from NicoleleeArtistry:


And, from JenVecc, this Snazzy Raspberry Clutch:

And last, but not least, from TopQualityScraps, a sweet valentine page:


Happy shopping! Don't forget to support your independent artists!

3-day-recharge

You might have noticed the lack of new posts the last few days. Thursday night I came home from school about 30 minutes early and crashed on the couch until Adam got home. I woke up long enough to have dinner, fell back asleep, and Amy called just in time to wake me up, have a little chat, and then watch "Lost," and go right to bed.

I'm sure when I answered the phone I probably sounded like my head was in a fog. My head was pounding all day at school and I was just so groggy. I guess my sleepfest on Thursday night was what I needed, though, because I felt a million times better on Friday at school.

We passed out the February issues Friday afternoon. It was probably one of the top two the kids have put out this year. After lunch, as I walked from the lounge back to my room, I was walking behind a kid who was walking/reading page two of the paper. Then, I started to notice all the other kids who were carrying the paper. That's one of the most fun things about being involved with a school newspaper - you are surrounded by your audience, so you get to enjoy them seeing the product.

Last night Mitzi came over for dinner and general dorkiness with Adam and I. Betsy's out of town, so she missed all the fun. Mitz hadn't watched this week's "Lost" yet, so we watched it again. I've decided that I hope Miles gets the axe soon, because I just don't believe anything he says. It all comes out with the exact same volume and inflection.

Adam cooked up some awesome homemade wings and fries, and we just took 'er easy.

Sidenote: YES! I'm watching Beverly Hills, 90210 as I type this, and they're playing "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News. ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE SONGS!

It's a long weekend thanks to ol' George and Abe. We don't have any big plans - had all those last weekend for Cropaganza. One of my cousins is getting married this afternoon, so we'll go to that. Then, it's Amy's (not that Amy) birthday, so we might meet up with her and friends. What am I most excited about this weekend? Tomorrow I have an hourlong massage!!!!!!! The best part? It's only $25! I'm going to the massage school here in town. I'm sure it won't be as good as the Healing Waters experience, but you know what, I'll pay $25 for an hour of "me time."

•••

Last but not least for today:

This is cool - one of the Etsy girls has featured one of my items on her blog. It's a great way to get more exposure to my work. Check it out here. Her Etsy shop is here. My hope is that I can get some new items up on the site this weekend, to get some more views and hopefully more sales!

"God is testing us. HE'S TESTING US!"

So, did y'all know that one of the GREATEST movies of all time has been made into a stage musical? You probably did, but I'm going to tell you again anyway.

BV High is putting on "Footloose" this weekend as the big musical for the year. The cast and crew performed half-hour teasers for classes today, and I took the yearbook staff to one. And, even though I've probably seen that movie oh, about a million times, I actually learned a few lyrics today.

Or, I guess I should say, I learned that I've been singing some of the lyrics all wrong since 1984.

For example:
Been working so hard
Keep punching my card

Okay, I always got that right. But here's where the problem starts:

Eight hours, for what? <----------- I never knew that was that line. I always just went: "AY yeah, oh wahhh"

Oh, tell me what I got <----------- Always thought that ended with "what a guy"

I get this feeling
That time's just holding me down
I'll hit the ceiling
Or else I'll tear up this town
Tonight I gotta cut
(Chorus)
Loose, footloose
Kick off your Sunday shoes
Please, Louise
Pull me offa my knees
Jack, get back
C'mon before we crack
Lose your blues
Everybody cut footloose
You're playing so cool
Obeying every rule
Dig way down in your heart <----------- Never knew that one either. I always thought it was something like "Did the way down lead to your heart" (Yes, I know, it makes no sense my way)

You're yearning, burning for some
Somebody to tell you
That life ain't passing you by
I'm trying to tell you
It will if you don't even try <-------------- me: It will it will go little tiIIIIme (again, no sense, I know)

You can fly if you'd only cut
(Chorus)
Loose, footloose
Kick off your Sunday shoes
Oowhee, Marie
Shake it, shake it for me
Whoa, Milo <------------------- wha? Always thought My Lord
C'mon, c'mon let go
Lose your blues
Everybody cut footloose
FIRST - we got to turn you around
SECOND - You put your feet on the ground
THIRD - Now take a hold of your soul
FOUR - Whooooooooa, I'm turning it
Loose, FOOTLOOSE
(Chorus)

Good ol' Kenny Loggins just doesn't enunciate like the choir kids do. I could understand them MUCH better this afternoon. We got to see them sing the big opening number "Footloose" and "Let's Hear It For the Boy" complete with awkward Willard-learning-how-to-dance scenes. AND, the girls even sang "Holding Out for a Hero" except there was no game of tractor-chicken.

You can't beat early Kevin Bacon. To this day, I still LOATHE John Lithgow, no matter what character he plays, and I know it stems from his portrayal of Rev. Shaw Moore. And, a little lady named Sarah Jessica Parker - post "Square Pegs" pre "Sex and The City."

I think I'm going to see if the library has a copy of Footloose to check out for the long weekend. Maybe that's where my tendency to fall for the rebellious bad guys sprang from. I still heart Ren McCormack and I probably always will. In fourth grade, I was soooooo jealous of Livvy, who wore a baseball style shirt (white with lavender sleeves) with a picture of Kevin Bacon on the front. I wanted that shirt so badly.

The soundtrack still ranks among my favorite CDs. Anybody else out there Dancin' Disciples?

Your life in six words - can you do it?

A fellow teacher sent me this link to an NPR story he saw online. Surprisingly, I hadn't heard the story on the radio - I listen to NPR every morning and every afternoon going to and from work. Apparently, there's a new project asking folks to write their memoir in six words or less. I guess it started with an online magazine, Smith. The submissions have been compiled into a book, called "Not What I Was Planning" - presumably someone's memoir in itself.

We talked about it at lunch today. I've been working mine over in my head, but I'm having a hard time.

Some good ones:

Catholic school failed. Sin is in!
I still make coffee for two.
Cursed with cancer, blessed with friends.

And, last but not least, in honor of my buddy Jeff, and his wife's mad Cropaganza dancing skills: "I like big butts, can't lie."

I'll continue to ruminate on mine, but how about you show me yours?

October in February - "October Road"

It's been a while since I've written about TV. Hell, I guess it's been a while since anyone's written any NEW TV. Lucky for me, since I am such a TV nut, a few shows had episodes in the hopper so I'm still getting to watch a few nights of TV a week.

One of the gems I'm currently into is "October Road." Amy and I got into it last year, and it's one that we talk about when we get on the phone. I need to do some research - I can't remember why it's called "October Road" - it takes place in a small Massachusetts town called Knight's Ridge.

It's your basic prodigal son story. After high school, one of the popular boys ran off to New York and published a novel in which he alienated much of the town's population. He left behind his girl, who had a baby shortly after (like, nine or 10 months) after he left town. The series opened with him coming back to town 10 years later, and general angst ensued as he tried to hook back up with the old girl, thinking the kid was his. Sounds kind of sappy and run-of-the-mill, but as it's gone on, we've gotten to know the town's other characters, and they're all people I'd like in my tribe. They're our age, and remind me of people I would be friends with. They play air guitar, hang out in the local watering hole, etc.

The characters and good writing are helped along with a great soundtrack. Music was one of the things that originally pulled me into Grey's back in the day, and it's doing the same thing with this show. "October Road" has featured Ryan Adams and other singer-songwriters, and tonight they played a great old Mighty Mighty Bosstones song. It makes me nostalgic - maybe that's why I like it so much. Plus, I have a big, fat crush on the guy who plays Eddie Letekka (he's on the left in the photo above).

From tonight's show:

"I wish I was cool in high school."
"Oh, I'm sure you were cool."
"No, I was all indie rock and nose rings, Sylvia Plath poems."
"So you were college cool in high school."
"Yeah, and college cool in high school isn't cool."

An exchange between Pizza Girl (yes, that's her name on the show) and Hannah (Donna from "That 70s Show" but with blond hair).

Ain't it the truth. I see those "college cool" kids every day, and in general, they are not among the generally-thought-of-as-cool population of the school.

Of course, the "writer for the yearbook" featured on tonight's show was kind of dorky and overly enthusiastic. They always are, in books and movies. Just like Patty Simcox in "Grease." I don't know about other schools, I was NOT that girl. And in my four years of teaching yearbook, not one editor I have worked with has been that girl. (And yes, I say girl, because it's all girls on my staff right now, except for one boy.)

•••

It's time for bed. Hopefully Adam's got the space heater going and the bed all warmed up. Our little apartment isn't exactly energy efficient, so when it's cold outside, it's cold in bed. Good old Bryan Busby says it's going to be 10 degrees tonight.

Yay.

My last few pages - made it home okay!

40 pages - sometime Saturday night.

Here's Kat celebrating her 50th page of the weekend. The sad thing is, it's nowhere near the actual total number she completed. You'll have to see her blog for that. I know she got at least to 60, but how far beyond that, I don't know.

Here's the last few things I worked on:

Some of you will recognize this as our house in Valley Center. As you can see, I don't necessarily crop in chronological order.


Photos from the Wii Like To Party Party - our first experience with Guitar Hero...



One of our favorite 2-year-olds:

And here we are just before I hit the road. These are the faces of two crapped out croppers.

Thanks to the gals of Scrap*FunAttic in Andover - without all of their hard work, this weekend would not have been possible. Now, if I could just figure out a way to teleport myself there, and a way to make money no object I would be a happy camper...

They keep alive my dream that I will someday be able to make a living in the craft world.

It's all over now

You need to check out Kat's blog for all the news from her side of the table at Cropaganza.

I'm getting ready to get in the car for a three hour drive - let's all say a prayer that I don't fall asleep after this mad weekend of scrapbooking.

Cropaganza Crazies

Unfortunately I missed what would probably have made the best video footage - one girl actually did the worm during the dance off portion of the night's festivities. In my adhesive and Cricut induced daze, it took me a few minutes to realize "Hey, I should make a little movie of this weekend. "

I'm so torn, and maybe this is what photographers who are also reporters and videographers feel - when you concentrate on one job (for me this weekend, scrapbooking) it's hard to remember to do the other jobs (shoot photos and keep up with the blog) at the same time.

Anywho, here's a tiny sneak peek inside the sordid world of weekend crops. Don't get the wrong idea, though, there's not music playing and dancing all night long. We all needed a recharge so Steffanie and the gals got the music playing. Selections included "Baby Got Back," "Strokin'," "The Cha Cha Slide" and other dance numbers.

The recharge session was good. Kat and I were playing on calling it quits at 2 a.m., but she's now SAYING she could go til 3. We'll see about that.

Enjoy!

When you get drunk I'll be the wine

Obviously that title has nothing to do with Cropaganza, except that "I'll Be There for You" by Bon Jovi was just playing on the P.A. system.

Here's what I've done so far today, along with some gift tags that I didn't photograph.

Day 2 - Crop til you drop

Well, here we are on Day 2. We went to bed about 1:30, and I was up by 7:45. I got cleaned up, and we went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. So far this morning, I've completed two pages.

I'm finally done with Summer Solstice Party pics, so I'm going to start on something else as soon as I'm done posting to el bloggo.


Here's what it looks like from the second floor balcony.



I discovered at breakfast this morning that there are two kinds of Cropaganza scrappers - those like Kat and I who went to bed fairly early, and were showered and dressed and somewhat bright eyed for breakfast. Then, there are those who stayed up all night long, and went to breakfast wearing the same clothes they were wearing last night. They're hard core.

Bedtime for Crafto

Kat 10, Jill 5

Live from Cropaganza '08 - Kat is officially kicking my ass on the scrapbook page-o-meter. As you can see, she's completed twice as many as I have so far.

Here's a preview of a couple of the pages I have done so far. Sorry about the giant glare on the top photo. It's not censored, I promise, I'm just too lazy to try to fix it.

That one is definitely my favorite of the ones I've done so far. I'm getting ready to work on photo pages from Carrie's benefit garden party last summer. Sometime during the weekend, I'm going to go around and shoot some photos of the whole she-bang. It's craziness, especially for the uninitiated.

The theme for this year's event is 80s, so lucky for me, they're playing all my favorite 80s tunes.

More later - I've got to get to work...

I would post a photo, but...

the camera's packed, the card reader is packed, and the laptop is fixin' to be packed, to head off to Cropaganza tomorrow morning.

I'm so proud of myself - it's all organized and ready to go, I've just got to pack my clothes tomorrow morning, and make a quick stop by the instant oil change joint, and I'll be hitting the road.

Tons of pages to work on: zoo, Derby pics, White Party Pics, Christmas, family, and many more I can't remember off the top of my head right now. I also plan to work on some more gift tags, and framed pages. Kat and I will be blogging on location (that is, if the Park City Best Western has wifi capability....hhhhmmmmmmmmmm).

I am taking my charity scarf project with me, hoping that Amy and I might get a little time to knit on Sunday before I head home, but we'll have to see. My total donations stands at $85 right now, just $15 short of my goal of $100. If you're so inclined, you can join Julie, Mom and Chris as donors here.

I'm looking forward to spending some time with Kat this weekend, just to catch up, hang out, and because she is the scrapping queen, so she'll have lots of good ideas to help me make cool pages. We had a good worknight tonight for newspaper, so I won't have to think about them over the weekend, because I think they'll be fine while I'm gone. Yearbook has a big deadline tomorrow, I'm a little nervous about that, but I guess sometimes I have to let go, trust they'll do a good job, and we can always fix any major problems on the proofs...

I've even gotten my Monday lesson plans done, so when I get back on Sunday, I can just relax and mentally recharge for the week ahead.

Have a great Friday, everyone!

News from the Snow Front

Everyone loves a day off work, but seriously, EVERY ONE of the three snow days we've had so far this year have been right smack in the middle of newspaper production week, and this one is on yearbook deadline week as well.

JOURNALISM GODS! What have I done to you? All I've ever done is try to train the next generation of your disciples!

•••

I woke up at 5:45, checked the district website, saw that we were out of school, and crawled back in bed. Got up about 8:30. I got to try out my new favorite kitchen apparatus:

It's a giant, egg-shaped microwave hard-boiled egg maker. I love hard-boiled eggs, and they're great for breakfast because they're packed with protein, but I NEVER make them because it takes too damn long. This little baby (uh, big baby, I guess) cooks them up in the microwave in 10 minutes.

All I had to do was fill it with water, put in the eggs, set the nukerwave for 10 minutes and let 'er rip. Once I took them out, I put them in ice water for a few minutes so that they could cool. When it came time to crack them, I was a little nervous. Would they be perfectly hard-boiled?

They were. I was nervous putting them in the microwave because there is aluminum on the inside. Horrible memories of the single-serving CheezWhiz fire incident were jumping through my head. I'm no expert on how microwaves work, but I guess since the metal is all enclosed in the plastic, it's not a fire hazard.

That egg cooker just might be the best $8 I ever spent.

•••

Charity scarf progress report: Here's what it looked like at the beginning of caucus.


Here's what it looks like now:

This scarf could be yours. All you have to do is donate to Relay For Life. You can do so online here. Anyone who has donated will be eligible for the drawing, which was originaly scheduled to take place on Feb. 22. All donations must be made by Feb. 10, so I'll draw the winner on Feb. 11, so you can get your scarf while it's still cold enough to wear it!

•••

Time to try and get some stuff accomplished!

Super (Long) Tuesday

We joined 1,250 people at JuCo tonight for the Kansas Democratic Caucus. Four years ago, 37 people gathered for the same event, according to the night's organizer.

Barack took it, with 886 people, to Hillary's 332. I'm glad that we participated, though next time I will bring more than just knitting to keep me busy. I could have worked on my laptop while we sat there for three hours.

The turnout was quite astonishing. I saw two of my students (and I was very proud), and I saw a gaggle of students I recognized as BV kids, but I don't have them in class.

At one point, organizers asked all who were first-time voters or voters under the age of 26 to stand. They were a large part of the crowd. In addition, those who were formerly registered Republicans or Independents stood as well, and there were a bunch of them.

Some days I really miss working at the Big Bird. Tonight, not one of those times. I see on Maria's blog that the Birdies weren't allowed to caucus. Ethically, I understand why, and I see the logic. But I don't think it's fair that just because of their jobs, they can't participate in the democratic process.

I did get a lot of work done on my charity scarf - at least 8 inches of it knit.

It's a school night, gotta go to bed (in case it's NOT a snow day...).

Arrggghhhh...did you ever have one of THOSE days?

And I can't even blame this one on the kids, because the day at school was actually pretty good. Kids were good, if a little tired, but then again so was I.

I had to stop by the Post Office to mail my latest sold item. On my way, I rang Adam to tell him I was on my way home. Or at least I thought I did.

Apparently, our cell phones have been temporarily shut off because I am ONE DAY LATE paying the bill. Are you freaking kidding me? We have had ATT/Cingular for three years, and have pretty much been model customers. I simply forgot to pay the bill right away when we got it, and paid it online Friday night. It's scheduled to go through tomorrow.

I can't even call customer service. I get a message that says my phone has been shut off. DUH. That's why I'm calling. Fuming, I drove all the way home, thinking I would contact them online.

ALL I WANT TO DO IS SEND THEM A DAMN E-MAIL. Well, I have to set up my online profile. Then, I have to set a temporary password. Then, I have to check my text messaging to reset the temp password...OH WAIT.

I CAN'T CHECK MY TEXTS BECAUSE THE SERVICE IS SHUT OFF.

Can you tell I'm a little pissed about this? I could understand if we were a few months delinquent on the bill. We're not. It's one month's invoice, and it's 24 hours late.

So, if you call us tonight, we're not ignoring you, we're just incommunicato. E-mail is the way to go at least until we get to school tomorrow, when I WILL be calling the 1-800 number and the CSR's receiver will probably melt in his/her hand.

•••

At least my hit count is now over 10,000. That's pretty freaking cool. Since first week of June, 10,000 people have stopped by to check us out.

By the way, the contest for Relay For Life Scarf is still open - remember, all you have to do is donate to our fundraising campaign. You can do so online with a debit or credit card here.

On Location - Etsy Deals of the Week

Blogging on location from Mitzi's tonight, watching ads and football and puppy bowl.

Here's a few Etsy items for your perusal this evening!

Mama's Got a Brand New Bag

Hot Lips iPod Cozy

UPDATE: Hot Lips has sold! No longer available.

I'm not posting photos because I want you to go check them out...

I wish I could figure out who will be the 10,000th visitor to the ChittumFiles. It's getting close. You should comment if you're close to the big number, let me know what number you are!

I think Adam's feeling left out - I'm on my laptop, Mitzi's on hers and Betsy's on hers. What the heck did we ever do before wireless? He's got the football game to keep him company.

UFC at BW3

It's no Extreme Team Trivia, but tonight we played NTN at Buffalo Wild Wings for a round. Of course, the Chittums were victorious. It was Radio trivia, so I pretty much kicked ass.

You'd think it would be all fun and games. But, we had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. The hostess said she couldn't tell how long everyone would be there because the tables had been taken for Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Seriously?

People actually go out for that? Um, yeah, if they're all roided out, missing a few teeth, or have rockin' mullets. If I had a nickel for every guy there who was wearing a tight-rolled sleeves, tucked in T-shirt, I'd be a rich woman.

•••

Betsy and I spent most of the day crafting. It was Crafternoon. We made tons of handmade gift tags, watched "About a Boy" and "School of Rock." It's helping me get even more in the mood for Cropaganza next weekend.

•••

Thanks to Kat for keeping me honest. I have been lagging on both blogging and jogging lately. I did notice, however, that for the month of January, I posted more than 30 times, so I must have done pretty well! Promise, I'll do better. And, I will get off my ass and run tomorrow.