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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!