Everybody's doing it - you should too!

I've already done it, but if you haven't...

Get out and vote today!

Bring something to read - you'll probably be waiting in long lines, but don't let that deter you.

I've been wondering what the polls would look like on election day, since we voted in advance, I thought I wouldn't get to see it. But, our school is a polling place, so I'll be able to get an idea of how crowded it is by checking that out.

Happy First Tuesday after the First Monday of November!

Double the dress up, double the fun

Last Thursday, at Adam's school, all of the teachers got to dress up crazy for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As I'm sure most of you know, the chance to dress all crazy doesn't usually pass Adam by. He went all out.

Some of you probably recognize that scarf, from my knitting works in progress post of last week.

Then, the next day it was Halloween. He's been working on a "sweet 'stache" for the last few weeks, so he could dress up as Magnum P.I.

Thank God for ebay so we could find a cheap Hawaiian shirt, and a Detroit Tigers hat.

When I got up Saturday morning, I fired up the DVR to watch "My Name is Earl" and guess what? Earl dressed as Magnum P.I., too!

Yes, I totally paused the DVR, grabbed the phone and shot a photo of the show just so I could put it on here. Hold your snarky comments!

P.S. I'm campaigning for the mustache to make a hasty departure. It's okay for a Halloween costume, but it's not 1976.

DON'T take the kids, DO check out the knits!

Last night we saw "Zack and Miri Make A Porno," the new Kevin Smith movie. At the theater, they had blacked out all of the posters and signs, so that they just said "Zack and Miri."

Right next door to our theater they were showing "High School Musical 3: Senior Year." As we exited our theater, the screaming tweens came pouring out of that one, too. Thank God they didn't get the films switched and accidentally show the wrong ones - moms would have been quite peeved about that...

We were in the mood for a silly, laugh out loud movie, and that's what we got. Just be warned if you go, though - the title of this blog could easily have been "Don't take the kids, do check out the-something-that-rhymes-with-knits" because they were all over the place.

I'm such a knitting dork, because here we are watching a movie about making a movie where people take OFF their clothes, and I'm watching all the of hats, scarves, sweaters and shawls worn by Miri and the scarves worn by Zack.

The movie takes place in Pittsburgh, in the winter time, so they're always bundled up when they go out. That's something I remember vividly from the only time I've been to Minneapolis. It was January, and we went to a bar, and everyone there had giant parkas and hats and scarves and mittens and gloves that were draped over the backs of chairs. Here, when it's cold and people go out, they leave coats in the car, and run, not walk, into establishments.

I guess in colder climes, you've grown up with the need for coats, so it's not a big deal to wear it into a bar.

The photos I found aren't the greatest to showcase all of the knitwear, but it's the best I can do. I've written about this before. It's one of the hazards of being a knitter - you go to a movie to watch the movie, get the plot, explore the characters, and all that jazz, but you end up looking at the wardrobe, trying to decipher a pattern for what you're looking at.



As we walked out of the theater, Adam said "That movie should have been called "Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow Make A Porno." It was hilarious - if you're in the mood to laugh, go see it. If you're on a first date, or with one of your parents, DON'T go see it. Potentially awkward in those situations!

El Dia de Los Kickballs (Or Muertos)

This is an historic post, O readers of the Chittum Files: You are about to see the first post with photos taken entirely from my iPhone, not a digital camera of some sort. I'm not posting from the phone - I don't have the patience or attention span to try to type all of this on the miniature keyboard.

El Guapo played the first round of the end-of-season playoffs tonight. True to our Mexican roots, we celebrated El Dia de los Muertos while on the playing field. I knew that was the plan, and I needed to get there earlier if I wanted to get my face painted.

Of course, newspaper is on deadline, and their worknight was tonight. They packed it in at 6:30, I scooted home, quickly changed clothes and headed off to Penn Valley Park.

Let me tell you - most of you probably don't know how far it is from 159th street to downtown. Downtown (at least where we play) is around 25th street. I didn't think I would get there in time for the game, let alone for the pre-game revelry.

But, I made it home, changed, hopped back in the car and got to the game in time for Andrea to get my pre-game ritual taken care of.

My face felt so itchy after she painted. I don't think I really was itchy, but since I knew I couldn't scratch it, or touch it, for fear of smearing, all I could think about was how my skin felt funny and needed to be scratched!

CY and Rita definitely win the prize for complete costumes - check out their bones! Cap'n Dave, one of the instigators of this blessed event, is conspicuously makeup-free over there on the right...He SAYS it's because he had to ref the game right before and it went over. Maybe he just wussed out on the makeup?

Nah, I doubt it.

That's me, getting made up by Andrea. I shot that Hail Mary style with the phone while she did the work.

Checking out everyone's handiwork. That's Kristin back there on the left, working on Andrea's face. Wait til you see how it turned out. It's freaking great.

Bag of bones.

There's Kristin's handiwork. Check out all of the shading in those flowers. Not bad for a job completed in the dark, in the dugout.

What do you think about the iPhone photos? I might be able to eke 4x6 prints out of them for my scrapbook. Those'll be a little pixelated, but I think they look pretty damn good on here, considering they were shot after sundown, only lit by baseball field lights. I'll be interested to see what else I can do with the phone, photo wise.

Oh yeah, we crushed the other team, good ol' Swunts and Swalls. So, I think we play twice next week. I went 1 for 2, with a single and a run scored.

The Big 6-0

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is Dad's 60th birthday. If it was a Saturday, he'd be celebrating by hitting the links, but I'm guessing he has to work today.

The photo above is from our trip to K-State for the Louisiana-Lafayette game. We rode up with Mom and Dad, and on the way, we stopped in Maple Hill at a dive called Puffy's Steak and Ice House. He'd heard from the guys he works with that Puffy's sold chicken livers, and that's what he wanted.

Yes, the plate of chicken livers was as big as it looks in the photo. He didn't eat the whole thing then. We boxed some up and took them home. Adam and I each tried a piece, but decided we can probably end our chicken liver experience there.

Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you!

Wii Fit - Fun with Balance Boards

Since the weather has gotten colder, and we had Friday off from school, Betsy and Mitzi came over and we played Wii, just like it was a good ol' snow day. If you have a Wii, you need to get the Wii Fit, we love it!


Here's Betsy, demonstrating perfect ski jump form. She got the highest score on her first try on the game!

Mitzi tried a few games as well. My favorite games are the hula hoop, the yoga poses and strength training, and I like the aerobics too.

I'm not sure how much REAL exercise it is, but at least we're up moving around while playing, not sitting on our duffs!

Baking Goodness - Can we have S'more?

If you are looking for a great brownie recipe, try these S'mores Brownies, from Food Network. The batch we made last week were much more photogenic, but I ran out of large marshmallows so I had to improvis with the regular size marshmallows. They taste the same, though, so you could probably use either one.

Underneath all of that marshmallow is a fudge brownie (made from scratch) on top of a graham cracker crust. These are great warm, with a glass of milk to wash it down.

We have to be careful, though, because our broiler is quite small, so once we add the marshmallows, we have to watch them very closely. It only takes about 20 seconds for them to get the nice brown roasted coating.

Try them, you'll love these!