I'm Baaaaaack!

I've been in a blogging funk. I'm not sure why. Perhaps I've gotten sucked into the national sour mood. I'm fortunate to be employed in a job I love, but unless you've been under a rock, you know that education has been a hot topic in the news these days. The message is that public schools are bad, public school teachers are lazy and don't give a shit about kids, charter schools are good and the Teach for America volunteers who agree to teach for 2 years with only 5 weeks training will save America's schools. I read that I my job performance should be evaluated by the gains in test scores of elementary kids who have no incentive to do well on said tests or who face no consequences for not doing well. There are those who feel that my salary should be determined by those same test scores. Given that I teach in a school that is 92% minority, 65% free and reduced lunch, and at least a third who don't speak English, I find the rhetoric to be depressing. Those of us who do what I do understand that this is all about political spin, saving money and ultimately privatizing public education. Hopefully no major changes will occur in my district until I retire in 2016. Our state superintendent, however, has other ideas. Keep in mind that this is a woman who probably hasn't been in a classroom in 40 years. The legislature is keeping her in check however and some major decisions now rely on the governor to make some choices. Hopefully he will use basic common sense and read some research pertaining to the issues he has to decide on.

Enough of my rant! I've been busier than ever at school as I lost a planning period and gained another class which is a new prep. However I have this to look forward to:

Mmmmmm. . . . MadelineTosh!

The green merino light is currently being used for a sweater. The brown on the left will be another sweater. The two singles--blue merino light and red sock will be shawlettes.

Speaking of shawlettes--Here are the two I recently finished:

 The first one is called Fan Dance and it is knit in Sanguine Gryphon Kypria which is a merino/bamboo blend.  It's simply delicious to knit with!  The second one is called Ruffle My Feathers and it is knit in Wollenstudio Sock yarn in Blue Bijou.

Here's another silly little project:

 

I loved the little iron on transfer so I decided to add it to a basic black tee!  

Other news--the kids have moved in together in the first floor apartment in Ems' building.  Her building is a gorgeous large house built around 1900.  They have the whole first floor and they enjoy some neat architectural details like oak paneled walls, ornate fireplaces, stained glass windows, 12 foot ceilings etc.

Kitty news--Samantha was diagnosed with cancer.  She had a little growth between 2 toes which we had removed.  The biopsy revealed it to be a slow growing cancer in the skin so in order to remove enough clean margin, she had to go back in to have half of her hind foot amputated.  She seems completely back to normal and hopefully we've seen the last of that!

Holiday time is fast approaching and I decided that my furry friends outside needed some help so I hung our squirrel feeder on the tree in the front yard.  The squirrels are rather comical to watch.  Sometimes there are 4 or 5 of them out there but only one at a time can get to the feeder.  They sit on a perch and open the top lid to get the food.  When the food gets low, some of them will go inside the feeder and when they hear a noise, the lid pops up as they poke their head out to investigate.  Well, apparently word has gotten out because the other night, a new friend was visiting:

 

DH was bothered by our new visitor and thought we should take the feeder down.  You know me--I thought he was cute and I welcomed him.  He cleaned out the feeder but he hasn't returned.  Perhaps he's found a better feast elsewhere.

This will be the first Thanksgiving without Jeremy.  He has to work Wed. night and Friday morning so he can't make it from the Burgh.  Ems is in the same situation so she may not make it either.  We're still waiting to find out.  I do have a good friend coming.  We hope to go see the new Harry Potter movie after dinner Thursday.

I plan on staying in on Black Friday.  I can think of no sale that would be worth putting myself through that madness.  That's what Ebay and Overstock.com are for!

I hope to be better about keeping up here.  I have a new blog project, however.  I was so depressed after the midterm election that I decided to try my hand at political humor.  You can find my alter ego at The Fake American.   Enjoy and be sure to leave comments!

Kitty Cam: The boys have been throwing hints with the weather getting colder.  They love the fireplace.

 

The things we Caps fans will do to get to a game!

DH spent about 10 hours shoveling. Our driveway is 140 feet long and he shoveled a crapload of snow! There is no place to put it. Since the Caps-Pens game was the NBC game of the week, they weren't going to change it and it went on at noon as originally scheduled. We carefully went through the neighborhood, to Rt. 32, Rt. 95 and the Capital beltway to Bethesda. I was amazed at how bad Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda was! The metro was swamped and I think everyone on there was going to the game. It was quite a party atmosphere. We were packed on like Sardines and we got to Verizon Center a few minutes after the puck drop. I was bummed during the game because the Caps were down 2 - 0 then Ovie scored 1. Then were were down 3 - 1. They must have decided that they weren't ready to break their winning streak and they came back third period to tie it up 4 - 4. So on to sudden death overtime and we won! It would've sucked royally to go to such effort to get there only to lose! We now have a 14 game winning streak. If we can win the next three games (right up to the Olympic break) we will tie the NHL record of a 17 game winning streak--held by (who else) the Pens!

Here's what the wall of snow looks like in our driveway:



Dug out just in time for the next storm coming on Tuesday! They are now saying 6 - 12 inches! I'm so glad that I have a sense of humor!

Kitty cam: Meanwhile, the boys enjoyed a spot of sun while hinting for a fire!

Snowcopalypse 2010

Remind me to stop wishing for snow. My wish was granted. In fact it was granted retroactively for the last 10 years or so. We got about 4 inches last weekend which was pretty. They've been calling for a big storm and in anticipation of that the area schools closed 2 1/2 hours early yesterday to make sure everyone got home safely. The snow was expected to start late morning. It actually began around noon but the temp was above freezing so the roads were just wet. Here's what things looked like Friday afternoon:


I put a snow stick out to measure the coming snow. The marks only went up to 12 inches so I put marks up to 25 inches on the back. The whole stick is about 28 inches tall.


Last night around 6 pm it looked like this:

I got up in the middle of the night and looked out but the screens in the windows were covered. It had gotten really windy and I just couldn't see anything!
Got up

At 10 am Saturday morning we had this:






The last photos were at 11 am. Note that a meter stick shows 27 inches at that time. We will probably end up with about 36 inches!






>

We stayed in Friday night and rocked the red! That means we watched the Caps game. I decided to rock the red and knit a red hat. I needed a break from my Brigitte sweater which happens also to be red. I had bought this Teva Durham pattern and the yarn for her assymetrical hat about 3 years ago. The yarn was all wrong though. I knew when I took it out. The pattern calls for bulky yarn with a gauge of 12 st. /4 in. on size 11 needles. I got gauge but the pattern really needed a thick single ply yarn like Rowan Biggie. My hat is too lacy--the stitches are too open. I haven't decided if I will wear it or not. I don't think it will be that warm. The yarn was really nice though. It was Tahki Torino Bulky. It's a lot like Berroco Pure Merino. It has a lovely twist!


I am concerned though. We have tickets for the Caps - Pens game Sunday at noon. There is no word as to whether or not the game is still on. The Pens are playing in Montreal as I type this and I wonder if they can even fly into the city! I hope they will do a ticket exchange if the game is still on because I really don't know if we can make it. We had figured we'd drive the highways into Bethesda and take the red line, which is underground, down to the Verizon Center. I hope I didn't throw away $250!

I'll keep you posted!

Kitty Cam: Meanwhile, Greg has the right idea of how to spend a snowy day!

So much to do!

I've been collecting hand dyed yarn! Those who know me know that I don't simply buy stash yarn. I buy yarn for a specific purpose. Sometimes I may end up using the yarn for another purpose, but rarely as I demonstrated with my most recent FO which was planned over 2 years ago! Check out the goodies:

On the left we have Malabrigo Twist in Teal Feather. This will be for the Scoop Pullover:

On the right we have Dream in Color Groovy (chunky weight) in November Muse which will be for the Owls Pullover:
Next we have Miss Babs Yowza Watta Skein in Vlad's Red for Sylvar:


Check out the extra goodies that came with the Miss Babs--a sample of sock yarn, a stitch marker and a sample of Soak. I love those freebies!

Last we have Fleece Artist Nyoni in Ivory for Myrtle:


I'm thinking that Myrtle will be good for spring.
My current project is the Birgitte Lace Pullover in Red GGH Soft Kid. The mohair feels nothing like the itchy mohair I remember from the 60's! This stuff is super soft!



On the sewing front--I have boatloads of projects to make. There are three biggies though. One is a gold three quarter length coat with black velvet collar and cuffs. I have to redraft the pattern as I will be using a combination of two patterns to get the style I want.

A friend gave me some gorgeous white mohair blend coating which I intend to use for this:


This summer I want to make this:

I've had this pattern and some incredible 4 ply silk in a cinnamon color for several years. The pattern is out of print and I needed to get a larger size so that I can combine that with the smaller one for the right size. Fortunately I found it on ebay. DH and I will have a formal occasion in August so i figured that summer would be a good time to make this. It is too hectic to make something this involved around Christmas which is when our usual formal functions are!

Those are the big projects on hand. It will be interestsing to see how many of them I actually complete!

Kitty Cam: Greg eagerly waits for someone to start a fire!

Be careful what you wish for!

So I've been wishing for a nice snow since Thanksgiving. However this is not quite what I had in mind. I woke up to this:
About 10 inches or so. By 6 pm we had about 20 inches or more: The snow covers the first rail on the split rail fence and the cars are completely covered. I hope we can get it pretty well shoveled tomorrow. Unfortunately it is too deep for the snow blower.

I'm hoping that our school system has the courtesy to tell us Sunday night whether or not we will be closed on Monday. I suspect we may be closed all three days next week. Montgomery County is the worst about clearing local roads and the school system is the worst about being considerate of their employees. That's the way it goes! I planned ahead however and I packed my book bag with everything I would need to plan for Monday Jan. 4 just in case. I hate going in to school not being prepared it makes for bad lessons and bad student behavior. So I am always over prepared! I bugged out in a hurry on Friday because I needed to go to BJ's before my 5 pm massage appointment. We were out of kitty litter! I got the litter and some over the counter meds and I stumbled across this on one of the aisles:This will come in handy now! I had been looking at full length down coats last year when a friend of mine got a Michael Kors one at Filenes. Hers is a little more stylish but this one is by Anne Klein and it was only $59! I like that it has a 2 way zipper and has side zippers so I can loosen it up at the bottom. I typically don't wear down coats unless I 'm going to be outside for an extended time because I get too hot in them. I have outside bus duty and it gets pretty cold so this will come in really handy!

I've been a lazy slob today--staying in my pj's until dinner time. We had our traditional snow day dinner of Pasta e Fagiole with Parmesan Pepper Baguettes. Good stuff! Nothing like homemade soup on the stove on a cold day. I finally watched the 4 hours of "Sing Off." I'm typically not into the talent shows on TV but I couldn't resist one with a cappella groups! They've all been really impressive!

Gonna watch the Caps game and do a little Christmas knitting. Tomorrow we hope to decorate the tree!

Kitty Cam: Greg finally cooperated for his Christmas portrait!

It's that time of year!

Back to school! I will be a total wreck for the next two weeks. Don't get me wrong--I like my job for the most part. It's just that I am a total night owl! Typically over the summer I get into the habit of staying up until 3 and sleeping until 10. I was better this year. I was usually in bed by 1 and I got up between 8:30 and 9. That felt great. Now I have to get up at 6 am. The problem is that I will still end up going to bed around midnight. I just can't seem to break myself of that habit. It's worse in the winter when it's dark in the morning. My body rebels against getting up when it's dark! I'm thinking that I will alter my morning routine a bit this year. I tend to be a little leisurely in the morning, taking the time to check my email before I leave the house. I think I will just go to school and get there a half hour earlier which will allow me to leave a half hour earlier in the afternoon. The next trick will be actually leaving school on time. I think if I make myself leave on time, I won't waste a single minute at school. I'm getting too old to continue to work hours and hours of unpaid overtime. We gave up our cost of living raise this year and our workload increased so I'm thinking that I'm not feeling very compelled to donate more of my hours. People have come to expect us to do that and my profession has gotten in the habit of apologizing when they can't work additional hours for free. No more! I'll do the best job I can do, but when my day is over, I'm going home! That is my plan!

In the meantime, I've been trying to catch up on my summer wardrobe--now that summer's almost over! I made a silly little 50's style circular skirt with a Day of the Dead skulls print!


It's fun! I was going to line it, but there was just so much fabric that I didn't need to!

Last night I finished a dress. This is the same vintage pattern that I used for my red silk dress. I love this pattern so much that I decided to use a cotton for a dress I could wear to school. I did end up fully lining it with Bemberg Rayon.

I actually have 2 pairs of shoes that match this--the green ones in the photo and a pair of blue sandals with kitten heels.

I've already moved on to my next dress. I have 3 more to make. This one will be out of some vintage fabric that I found in my Mom's house. I believe my aunt brought it to her from some of her travels. It has hula girls, ukeleles etc. It took some planning to cut it out properly because the motifs are so large that I had to make sure they were placed appropriately. Who wants a large hot pink flower right on certain parts of one's body? If you know what I mean!

Other news--My secret pal sent me a package which was waiting for me when I returned from Boston. I thanked her privately but I wanted to thank her publicly. She sent me one of the books on my Amazon wish list. There are some really cute projects that I can use all my cotton scraps for! She also sent me a notions bag with a funny VanGogh keychain, some very nice stitch markers (can't have too many of those!), some note cards and--best of all--some fingerless mitts that she made!

Check out the mitts! I absolutely love them! They will go with so many of my clothes! I wear a lot of 3/4 length sleeves in the winter and these will be perfect with all those greens and browns that I wear!

I don't know what yarn she used, but it is incredibly soft and I simply love these mitts!
Thank you again, Secret Pal! You're the best!

Ems got a new tat! Check this out:

Is she her mother's daughter or what!!!

That's it for now! Sorry to be so brief! I have to attempt to get myself mentally prepared for the next 10 months!

Kitty Cam: Greg has been very clingy now that Mikey is gone. He inches up onto my lap whenever he gets the chance!