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.