Small Thrill

It's funny what a couple decades (and an historic election) can do to your point of view.

When I was fresh out of HS, I got a boring job with a fancy, big-name government agency (a friend called it the "F-ing Big Indians"). The novelty wore off pretty quickly, and I moved on after a short 3-year stint. During that time, however, I was stopped many times in traffic on the way home by the presidential motorcade of then-president George Bush (Sr.) - yes, it was THAT long ago!

I never really thought much of it, other than - "Oh, you're kidding - we have to pull over AGAIN???" It seems, and logically so, that no other cars should be moving within a certain radius of the President's motorcade. Yeah, yeah, okay, so do all this AFTER the good, hard-working people who pay your salary are finished with their daily commutes, will ya??

So . . . . . it was very interesting that Monday night, I was actually EXCITED to be a stationary witness to that rolling security detail!

I was leaving the Kennedy Center, where I'd just come from a teacher's workshop, when I came up to stopped traffic and noticed a LOT of flashing police lights. My first thought was that it was an accident, and I wondered which street to turn down to get around it. Then I noticed that all my available options had flashing police lights blocking them, too, and thought - "Hey, maybe it's the President??" My heartrate sped up, and I realized I was a bit excited to see this! Quite a different reaction from 1989!

Well, it was, indeed Mr. Obama's motorcade (although I really have no idea if HE was actually in it - I'm assuming "yes" since there were at least 3 of those cool sedans they've put in place for him, as well as 3-4 SUV's and a TON of motorcycles. I immediately sent out a text to friends that I thought would be impressed, told my family all about it when I got home (The Boy was very jealous), and even tried (somewhat unsuccessfully) to show off to my students the next day.

It's funny to me that I was so excited to see those cars rolling by. Since I grew up in this area, I just have never been that impressed with the presence of the president in and around the area (sometimes you go places and realize that you can't get around because things have been blocked off for his protection/safety - particularly around the base).

But this time, with this president, it definitely seems like a big deal to me. I was honored and excited to be stopped to allow his car to pass. It didn't seem silly or inconvenient to me at all (then again, I wasn't rushing home to fix dinner or something), and I'm actually glad to have been where I was at the time to have seen it.

Funny.

:O)

Busy, Busy, Busy.

Wow. What a weekend! If only the "long" weekends off from work coincided with weekends like this, where there are 50 things to do, and only 20 time-slots available!

Here's our weekend in list form:

Friday:
1) Picked The Boy up early from school and took him to the doctor's office, where we were equally traumatized by the fact that he needed a flu shot.
2) Stopped off at ColdStone after said flu shot. We BOTH needed a cool treat (have you had one of their smoothies?? All that's missin' is the hooch. I'm just sayin' - had I the self-control to wait until I got that badboy home, that would have been a "spiked" smoothie.)
3) Realized that we were both too stressed and tired to brave traffic to go for a free showing of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. We have that movie here. 'Nuff said.
4) Proceeded to eat McDonalds for dinner, then watch Tales of Despereaux and crash on the couch together.
**I did wind yarn and do some laundry somewhere during this evening, but I can't for the life of me remember exactly when. . .***

Saturday:
1) Feed and properly clothe The Boy in time for an 11:00 soccer game against the team from HELL. We won. Hale-stinkin-lujah.
2) On the way to the game, stop at Safeway and pick up gift card for birthday/slumber party later in the day. Line too long to get Starbucks for Mommy.
3) Get gas, then stop at CVS for birthday CARD for party mentioned in #2. Find singing Spiderman card - BONUS!!
4) Zoom to the house, shower The Boy so he is fit for public again, pack slumber party bag, zoom to his school, where they are holding a Fall Festival.
5) Enjoy an afternoon at the Fall Festival playing with friends, talking with other parents, answering questions about the school from community members who came out to check out the school.
6) Follow Slumber Party Boy's mother home to drop The Boy off for party.
7) Go home and crash.
***At some time during the evening, I did manage to cast on for a new sweater and pack a bag of spinning things for a spinning demonstration, but I do not remember when/in what order I did these things. I do know they were accomplished, but the details are a bit fuzzy.***

Sunday:
1) Wake up waaaaaaayyyyyy too early for a morning without my son. Decide I might as well knit a bit. Manage to screw up knitting several times, then fix it, then realize I need to move on to #2.
2) Finalize packing and leave the house for Kinderfest.
3) Demonstrate spinning at Kinderfest, where I said things like "I'm making yarn." and "Drop-spindle" at least 100 times, and had 50 different kids 'help' me make a wonderful spindle full of Hog-Island Wool into yarn.

I let the kids give the spindle some twist (little boys do it best, with their "zoom-hands") while I (mostly) pulled - some wanted in on that part, too! I plan to use this for something. I really had a good time!
4) Drive home with a sleepy boy in the backseat who REFUSED to nap, even though he looked like a zombie.
5) Finish homework.
6) Bathe and put Zombie Boy to bed.
7) Knit and relax.


Whew!!! Here's some picture proof of the final package (which ROCKS) of the Secret Pal 14 exchange.
My pal really rocks, and I HAVE to figure out who she is - need to do some sleuthing still, tho! More details on just exactly what was in the package tomorrow!


:O)

NOW I'm Ready

Guess who I got to meet??



Yup, Cookie A!

Cookie came to Crazy 4 Ewe to teach classes this weekend, and seeing as how I'm an excellent educator, I was given Friday afternoon off (I busted my butt and did some extra training earlier in the week, after a full school day). So, I was able to attend a class on reading charts, given by Cookie Friday afternoon.

She was wonderful, and even though my sister and I were a bit late (couldn't seem to find the street without a STREET SIGN - thanks, Solomon's Island!), she had no problem catching us up to the rest of the class (with a bit of help from the lovely Ellen, of Crazy 4 Ewe), and we were reading cable charts in no time! See:



She was a wealth of information, since I'd done cables before, but not necessarily from a chart, and NEVER something that twisty-turn-y! I was very happy with myself, and plan on using the beginning swatch that you see above to extend into a cute lil' scarf from SpinOff magazine. I have some handspun that will be an outer shell to the strip that I'll knit as one long, winding cable. Progress photos will help, and I should be posting soon!

Also during her class, she had a lovely "bag O tricks" - she emptied out a huge sack full of . . . wait for it . . . all the socks she's designed. O.M.G. Makes me wish I truly had an inkling to knit socks again!!! They were gorgeous. Her gauge is perfect and machine-like, and of course, her color choices are outstanding!

I think my sister was duly inspired - she purchased a book and asked for Cookie's autograph and everything. We followed her and Ellen back to the yarn store after the class, and had a good time picking around a store that was new to us - see Crazy 4 Ewe is a mini-chain (!) and we're patrons of the La Plata store, which is much, much closer to our house! I managed to find some Shaeffer yarn on sale (!!!) and wound up buying two skeins of Schaefer Yarn's "Nancy" in the Rosa Parks colorway(!). I might try to copy the cardigan Amy did with this, but for right now, I'm just happy to have 1200 yards of this colorway in my stash - it's my favorite!

So, now you see why I was so tired - after such a great, busy day, all I wanted to do was rest (even though I actually knit a bit more on my cable strip and THEN rested!).

It was a very nice day!


:O)

How DARE you!

Joe Wilson, you ought to be ashamed. You should have been "escorted" out by the Secret Service, at the very least. Grow up and treat your office and position with some respect, so that you can learn how to show it to the leader of your country.

Didn't your parents raise you better than that?

:\

Quick Holiday Weekend Update

Just a quick update to show progress. I have been knitting - when I'm able - on my Poppy sweater. I'm approaching the finish line, too! Just one more sleeve to go!



School has me almost completely distracted - jobs take up so much valuable knitting time! My class this year is interesting. I see them shaping up nicely. Notice, I'm trying to keep a positive attitude!!! LOL. More on that later!

The other thing that has me distracted is the "Twilight" series. I keep going back to the books. They are a guilty pleasure. There's no reason a grown woman should enjoy a book about teenagers and vampires this much. But I do. Just finished "Eclipse" and got myself put on the list at the library for both regular and audio versions of "Breaking Dawn." Oy. Let's hope it's the audio version so I can get some knitting done!

Other than that, between constructing new Alien Police sets of Leggos, The Boy is trying to get me waterloged by spending every waking minute at the pool. Ah. The end of Summer. What a nostalgic time.

And that's it for the quick update - off to buy more Leggos and look for dress shoes for The Boy. . . and maybe his mommy!

:O)

2nd Package

It's been a whirlwind week, what with actual students showing up in my classroom this week and all . . . but I didn't want to let even one more hour go by without thanking my Secret Pal for a lovely and awesome 2nd package!!


I should have taken a picture on Thursday night as my family played the Harry Potter trivia game (achem *Iwon* achem). That was a really great surprise! Thank you so much!

The rest of the package was equally delightful! There are two skeins of fingering weight yarn ready for me to dye, (I think they'll be headed for the indigo pot my friend Gregory is setting up at her farm next month), a most gorgeous and huge braid of spinning fiber in lovely plum shades (I'm thinking it may be BFL???), and the cutest sock shaped needle gauge. I'd secretly been coveting the needle gauge! Must be that's why she's my "secret" pal!!

Once again, thank you so, so, so much! I loved absolutely everything!

Today, I'm off to knitting group in Bowie, to work on the sleeves for my Poppy sweater I'm knitting (another KAL with my sister - she's ahead of me, finishing her second sleeve as I type!). Here's a progress pic, taken as I was finishing the tube of the body. Since then, I've attached the back and two fronts to what you see here - in Noro "Chirimen" which should make it bearable to wear this with the required cami underneath, since all Noro, no matter how beautiful, is just too scratchy to go next to my skin! This is a fun knit, and I highly recommend it to everyone who likes a bit of creativity in their knitting, but may not want to brave changing a pattern around to accomplish that! Check it out! Sorry for the sideways pic - forgot to edit!


:O)

Goodbye, Friend

Well, after 8 well-served years, my Jeep has met the end of it's very useful (if somewhat pampered - for a Jeep) life.

Yesterday, I took advantage of the CARS program, and traded in my clunker for some cash towards a brand-spankin' new car. My first. OMG!

I was intrigued by the idea of the CARS program, since I KNEW that I was not going to get a good return on my car. It was 10 years old, with close to 150,000 miles, and the A/C system was shot - apparently a common problem in the 1999 model Grand Cherokee. And, well, sorry to say it, but it IS the truth - it was a GAS GUZZLER. Since I don't drive very far at all these days (my work and my son's school are both within about 5 miles of our house), I didn't really feel the "pinch" that much. But I was very aware that it was drawing near time to put some money into it for repairs of some sort.

Friday night, that realization hit home. I had to stop suddenly in D.C. (okay, I was about to run a red light, but still), and when I stepped (hard) on the brake, I felt them sorta smush in, rather than grab hold. I did come to a stop, but I glided to a stop, I didn't STOP like I needed. Since I was not far from my destination, I went on and found a quick parking spot and waited till the ride home to panic. On the very slow ride home, it was very clear that those brakes were D-O-N-E. I canceled my plans for Thursday, and enlisted the help of my child to get the car all cleaned out and ready (although I think they take them in whatever condition you bring it to them - more on this later), made sure I had all my necessary paperwork, and asked my lovely sister if she'd mind accompanying me the next day.

We got lots and lots of knitting done while waiting for different things (well, she got lots and lots, I just got 1 lots!)

Jennifer knitting:

We are both knitting versions of "Poppy" by Lisa Mason. Awesome, creative knit, if anyone's in that market!!

When the day was done yesterday, I drove home in this:



Isn't it CUTE???? It's a good thing it is, because they told me what was going to (did) happen to my Jeep. The CARS program is intended, partly, to take some of the environment-killing gas-guzzlers off the streets (and give the car industry a boost - both of which are happening), and when they use a car for the program, they have to disable it. Kill it. Put it to sleep (I like this last description best). So, they drove my car into the service bay, drained the transmission fluid, and poured in some evil potion in place of it. Apparently, death comes quickly, because when they drive the cars out of the service bay, they're already coughing and sputtering! I feel like a beloved pet has left me! But I'm also excited to have my first brand new car, not to mention the first car I've owned/signed for by myselfies, so I think I just might make it. The Jeep, no. Me, yes.

Anyone need a lift?

Oh, and P.S. - if you're in the market, go over to Honda and ask for Elliot Bourne. He'll hook ya up with a few jokes on the side, and everyone will be happy. And mention my name so that I can get some cup holders for The Boy, will ya?

:O)