A Day in the Life

My baby is nine today.  Of course, as A points out, he is not really my baby, SHE is, and as C then retorted, SHE is almost 7 and not a baby either.  Sniff.  My baby is nine.

I went to find a picture of him to post, and realized that he wore the exact same shirt he is wearing today on his 8th birthday.  And on Christmas this year.  It didn’t surprise me at all, as he is a creature of habit and familiarity.  But I am going to have to make him change so I can keep the years straight when I am old and confused.

Nine.  I find that rather astounding.

I am well known among my colleagues and friends for my love of the exclamation mark.  Frequently, once I have eliminated most of the offenders in an email, I get a note back from the woman who will soon have my job that says “Better luck next time, still a few too many “!” !”  Today, C was asked to write a response to an article in class.  Here is what he posted:

The author used a lot of data. The data is useful because if there was no data we would not know anything about the article. The data really supports the authors point of view, which is that Phil is only 39% accurate at predicting the change of the season. The data shows that he is not accurate and more than ½ of the time he is wrong! Groundhog’s day is a fun celebration, but not mathematically accurate! Mother nature decides when the changes of the seasons will come!

Ah, it warms the heart!

My knitting has been haphazard of late, but here is a round up of what I knit for the various teachers this year.  Thanks to a maternity leave, speech therapy, and C’s “Tuesday Class,” the kids have six teachers (not counting the music teacher, the gym teacher, etc, who just lost out on hand knit gifts this year).  Only five of them got pre-New Years holiday gifts, hopefully the sixth will be finished by the time school starts again next week.  All the links are Ravelry links, if you aren’t on Ravelry and want more info on the pattern let me know, I think most of them can be found without a Ravelry account, I am just too lazy to track them down unless I need to!!!  The photos are ehh at best, it was a last minute photo shoot minutes before the gifts were whisked into bags and delivered to school.

A Quick Winter Hood

A Lifted Stitch Scarf

A Just Enough Ruffles Scarf

A Robin’s Egg Blue Hat (A special note for Jody, I happen to know this particular teacher is a hat person .  Everyone else got scarves though thanks to your sage advice!).

A Warmer Republic

I have been working on the scarf that will never end.  I was unsure about the colors at the beginning, but decided to give it some time.  Now that I am halfway through, however, I have decided that they really don’t work.  But, because I am WAY behind in my holiday knitting, some unlucky teacher will be getting the scarf anyway because if I rip it out I will be so far behind that I will never catch up.  I keep telling myself that once it is blocked, it will look great.  Because blocking can cure anything, right?

When M called to check in tonight, however, I left my knitting unattended on the couch with the dog asleep in the corner.  I answered the phone, walked back into the family room, and found the dog with yarn trailing from his mouth, and my only size 4 needles snapped in half.  Clearly the Knitting Gods disapprove of my decision to continue knitting the color challenged scarf.

So, while I wait for time to get another pair of size 4 needles, shall I do yet another Just Enough Ruffles scarf?  Or should I branch back out and start a Brattleboro Hat?

We are entering my FAVORITE time of the year, the time where all good travel plans get destroyed by one illness or another.  And I know we are good and screwed because we are traveling elsewhere for every. single. holiday.  You name the day off from school between now and the end of June and we have tickets or a long car trip planned.  So, in preparation, I have laid in the supplies needed to carry us from now until June in style.  Do you think it will work?  I have my doubts since A started her pre-illness meltdown this evening, but perhaps it will be a quick one as opposed to the two-week stomach bug that turned out to be a parasite, or the 10-day unexplained fever.

While prepping in hopes of avoiding the holiday illness, I broke down and ordered Apple TV, and placed a nice big order at Webs (and yes, I know I have a closet full of yarn, but if I am going to spend the next month confined to the house watching Netflix on-demand, I need some new yarn to perk me up!).  I have laid in a supply of library books for the kids (God bless the 4-week loan period with online renewal and no limit on how many books can be checked out), and am contemplating one of these bread makers to replace the one that just croaked (1 lb loaves, good or bad, please discuss).  I feel like I have done everything I can to prepare for the inevitable onslaught of illness.

But M?  He just committed us to eternal damnation by announcing that in the last two weeks he has been ill and A has been ill, so clearly, we won’t get sick this holiday.

I think I may need to lay in a supply of wine as well.

We still have not had to turn on the heat.  M is trying to cave, but I can taste November 1st like it is 24 hours away.

Long live the down vest and the fleece jacket.

It is October 22nd, and I still have not had to turn on the heat.  Of course, as M has pointed out, I am wearing boots, a fleece, and a down vest in the house.  But I am going to push it as long as I can, as I’m doing it for the polar bears.  It has nothing at all to do with the fact that I grew up in a household that considered those who turned on the heat before November 1st wimps.

I woke up this morning and realized that it was mid-October and I hadn’t even contemplated whining about not wanting to turn on the heat yet.

Surely I just jinxed myself now and it will get frigid in the next 24 hours.