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.