A good day

Yesterday was a good day. It is always a good day when Ohio State wins, and especially when Ohio State wins AND Michigan loses!

Ohio State - 43
Youngstown State - 0

Utah - 25
Michigan - 23

Go Bucks!

Shut up and vote

My mommies' group "debated" online this week the important issues of the election. What started as a simple statement of interests rapidly spiraled downward into a nasty exchange of self-righteous indignation. And what was really odd is that most of them feel the same way, yet still got snippy with one another - one woman actually said that she is tired of working hard so that illegal immigrants can come to this country and "have it easy." Once again, I realized that I am SO not in sync with 98% of them!

I stayed out of the debate as long as I could, but once they inevitably reached the point where multiple posters stated that we had no good choices for president, that neither candidate represented their views, I had enough. It was time for a reasoned point of view that was different from theirs:

"As a person with a strong liberal leaning, I feel very differently than many of the opinions expressed yesterday. And that is okay. All I will say is that I am excited about this presidential election, because for the first time in my life, I have the choice of voting for someone other than a white man, and that is thrilling to me. And the white man in the race is not exactly your typical run-of-the-mill politician, which also pleases me. I had hoped to vote for a woman, but that did not happen (this was before McCain named his vice presidential candidate).

As long as I can remember, people have said that there aren't any real choices for president, that we are choosing "the lesser of two evils." Good grief, is that really true EVERY four years? Just because a person who represents your views 100% is not running doesn't mean you don't have a real choice. I expect that I will have to make some compromises when it comes to choosing the person who gets my vote. And I admire the people who choose to put aside their personal privacy and run for office, whether or not I agree with them or like them or am suspicious of their motives. It takes a certain type of person who is willing to step out into the national spotlight and sacrifice everything, perhaps even their life, and most of us are not willing to do that.

Presidents don't really have the power that we think they do or what the candidates' campaign promises state. For me, the President of the US plays two important roles: 1) representing the US in the global arena, and 2) possibly nominating Supreme Court justices. Obama or McCain will represent us well on the global stage, I have no doubt, and my vote will be for the one who would nominate a justice in whom I could feel confident.

Surprisingly, I received fairly positive feedback to my post. But, of course, there was one woman who said that after reading my post, she "might actually 'like' a liberal." Well, good for her.

But what really frosts my fanny is that despite their vim and vigor, probably half of them won't bother to go out on 4 November and vote. There will be excuses out the window, but the bottom line is that many people simply do not care enough to vote. And that is a shame.

Don't spout your conservative or liberal ideologies at me - just shut up and vote.

Look! Up in the sky! It's RAIN!

In case you did not know, the southeastern area of the United States has been in a drought now for, I don't know, seems like forever. This area is six inches of rain down for the year and something like 15 inches for the combined last two years. Reservoirs are low, lakes have piers on dry land and we haven't been able to wash cars for years.

Note: It used to be that I was lazy for not washing my car - now I am a water conservationist!

Thanks to Tropical Storm Fay, we are in our fourth or fifth day of rain. Not just sprinkles, but true pouring rain...and it is lovely. Everything looks lush and green, and the sky is a wonderful gray color. I sound nutty, I know, but we have received so little rain over the past few years that four straight days of rain is a treat.

I can't believe that people are already complaining. Several of the women in my mommies group have posted comments that they are tired of it being gloomy, and the weather is so wet. GET OVER IT! We need this rain, desperately, so put aside your personal perferences for sunshine and dryness. Or move to Arizona.

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

Proud Ravlete

I am so proud...I finished my scarf for the Ravelympics and received my medal:

I finished the scarf on Friday evening, well within the parameters of the Ravelympics, which stated that the item could not be started prior to the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics and had to be completed prior to the end of the Closing Ceremonies. I still have to block the scarf, but it turned out very nice:


Within Team MotherhoodLater, I did not place for a medal but received an honorable mention for taking on a new technique and tackling a lace project. While I will certainly make more projects using lace weight yarn, I will only do so without time constraints!

Participating in the Ravelympics was great fun, and now I have a Christmas present (almost) ready for gifting.

My eyes! My eyes!

My new favorite web site (and source for online friends), Ravelry, is holding the Ravelympics. To put it as simply as possible, you join a team(s), choose an item(s) to knit or crochet, enter that item(s) in the appropriate event(s), cast on during the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics (or sometime thereafter), knit or crochet like a fiend, then finish the item(s) before the end of the Closing Ceremonies. Whew. Just explaining it is tiring.

I decided to play and joined Team Motherhood Later than Sooner. I adore this group, which is made up of women who had children at 35 or older. We like to think of ourselves as “moms with more life experience than baby experience!” I entered the Scarf Stroke and chose a pattern called the Party Lace scarf. It is knit with Rowan Kidsilk Night, which is a lace weight mohair/silk blend shot through with a metallic thread. The scarf begins and ends with little Swarovski crystals knitted into the edge.

The pattern is very simple but knitting with this yarn is not! It's as though I went through the house collecting cobwebs (not that there are any in MY house) and knit with them. After only a few rows, my eyes start to burn and blur, and I risk dropping stitches. I have learned to knit in short, four row sessions and to run a lifeline after each set of four, so if I have to frog to fix a problem, I lose four rows at the most.

Whether or not I finish by Sunday is definitely in question, but that is okay...I will be done soon enough, and I will have a lovely little scarf to set aside to give to my hair stylist for Christmas. I adore the look of the scarf, but it will be a long time before I work with a yarn like that again. Besides, I need to get going on the scarves for the Special Olympics World Games!

A very worthy cause

I learned about a wonderful project last week - the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games Scarf Project. The goal is to give a scarf to each athlete participating in the winter games, which will be held in Boise, Idaho in February 2009, so they need at least 5,000 scarves. I heard about the project on Ravelry, the fabulous online knitting/crochet community to which I belong, and it is being enthusiastically discussed on many of the special interest boards.

The requirements are very basic: knit or crochet a scarf using two specific colors of a specific yarn. The yarn is an inexpensive acrylic brand and while I would not normally use that type of yarn, I understand why it is being specified: they want an economical and easy care scarf. Any pattern can be used, so I imagine this wonderful array of blue and white scarves in a multitude of configurations!

I was a volunteer at the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Chapel Hill, NC. It was an awesome experience that I treasure, so I am very excited about making another small contribution to this wonderful event.

One of my most cherished memories of those games was riding one of the buses around the UNC-CH campus after working my venue. The bus was filled with athletes and coaches, in addition to a few fellow volunteers. One of the coaches suddenly said something like “Athletes and coaches, there are volunteers on this bus and they make everything possible. Let’s show them our appreciation.” They started clapping and cheering, patting us on the back and hugging us…I still get verklempt thinking about it!

My goal is to contribute at least two scarves to this very worthy cause. So as soon as I finish the lacy scarf that I am making as part of Ravelympics, I will cast on a Special Olympics scarf.

New front door

The home improvement projects at our house just keep on happening!

We had money left over from our Disney World trip (believe it or not) and we decided to use it for a project we have wanted to take on since we moved into this house nearly three years ago: a new front door. The existing door was ugly, had gaps all around it, was in bad condition and afforded no privacy. That last point particularly bothered me; I felt as though anytime I walked through the hallway at night, I was on display. If I did not want to answer the door, there was hardly any way I could avoid doing so without the person at the door knowing that I was ignoring them.

So we bought a new door and painted it a rich red that is slightly reminiscent of one of my favorite stores, and we also had enough to buy a good quality storm door. Two weekends ago, we started the installation process.

Note: In this case, and in any home improvement project, the pronoun "we" is really more of a royal we, since James really does 95% of the work. I only fetch tools, hold things in place, sweep up and ooh and ahh.

It is safe to say that James never wants to replace a door again! It was not a simple case of hanging a new door on the old hinges; he/we wanted to do the job right and replace the entire door unit, which meant cutting the old frame out of the house structure and installing the new one. What a task! What a mess! There was much swearing and sweating, but James finally got it done. Even though the project was not yet finished, it was already a 100% improvement.

Last weekend he finished the job. He installed the storm door, and finished cleaning/painting/installing the around the door trim. Every time I walk down the hall or the stairs, I admire the new front door and enjoy the privary it provides.

Good job, James!

Before:

That's what it's all about

I adore the Olympics. I will watch any event at any time, although I admit that water polo bores me beyond reason. And I have some serious quibbles as to why China was even awarded these games, but I am still watching. I adore the concept, the pageantry, the back stories, the competition, the pride.

For me, it is not about the medal tally. Certainly I want my country to succeed and to represent us well, but I don't get caught up in the medal count or not rooting for any athlete who is not from the US. On the flip side, it aggravates me that some in the world go to the Olympics with the sole goal of beating the US. Sheesh, people.

It is amazing that countries send delegations to the Olympics knowing that they will likely not win any medals. So it thrilled me to no end to watch Benjamin Boukpeti win the nation of Togo's first Olympic medal ever, at any time, in any sport. He won the bronze medal in the men's single kayak competition and the joy on his face when he learned he had won was priceless. And how wonderful for Togo!

Of course, I have since learned that Boukpeti is French, born to a French mother and a father from Togo, and that he last visited the country as an infant. But he still went into the competition ranked 56th in the world of kayaking, and he beat all but two other athletes. How cool is that?

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Aidan started back to school yesterday and I couldn't be happier - we were both so ready for it. We were pleased to learn last week that he has the teacher we requested back in the spring, which I did not think would happen. When talking with other mothers about first grade teachers, only one name came up as THE teacher to get, that she was wonderful, yada yada yada, so we decided to request Mrs. M.

Last Thursday afternoon was the Meet the Teacher event, where we got to meet Mrs. M, her para-professional Mrs. D, and to see the classroom before it is wrecked by 19 first grade students. I was surprised to see that only one child from Aidan's kindergarten class is in his first grade class (and also frankly surprised that child was promoted to first grade); the class next door has seven of his former K classmates. But Aidan is a friendly child and will have no problems making friends in his new class.

We bought a new backpack and a new lunch box, but I am holding off on buying many items of clothing for fall. He will continue to wear shorts and short sleeve t-shirts until well until October and I never know when a growth spurt will hit, so I will wait to buy long pants and long sleeve shirts for at least a little while. I did pick up a denim jacket from eBay, so he will have a light layer to wear once it gets a bit cool in the mornings.

I did not have to go shopping for school supplies - the school PTO contracts with a company that offers packages of supplies based on the teachers' requests. These packages are sold in the spring and the box o' supplies is waiting in your child's classroom come the start of school. I chose the buy the package so that I did not have to get the supply list a few weeks before the start of school, then go to three or four different stores to buy the exact brand and type of item on the list. James was dubious but I can tell you after last year's experience with the supply list, it was well worth it in terms of time, money and gas.

Aidan was eager to get out the door yesterday morning and to the bus stop. When I met him at the bus yesterday afternoon, he will all smiles and said that he had a "great" day. He was excited about his teachers, his classmates, art class, lunch...you name it, he liked it.

And me? I spent my first day of freedom cleaning the house and doing laundry. Not so thrilling, but I did it in peace and still had some time left to knit!

Not quite scarf weather

Evelyn received the scarf and sent me the nicest thank you: “The colors are just right, and the pattern is so pretty. I especially like the way the ends of the scarf are scalloped. It really amazes me that something so complex and pleasing can be crafted with just two 'sticks'. Thanks especially for taking so much time to make this. I look forward to wearing it when the weather gets a little bit cooler!"

She is going to have to wait quite a while for scarf weather...the forecasted high in Raleigh NC today is 99F!

Send in the clown

Aidan attended a day camp last week, which was run by the Hooter County Parks and Recreation Department. What a deal...he was gone from 9 am to 2 pm for five days and the facility is less than five miles from the house. I enjoyed a few hours of alone time each day and he had great fun.

It was called circus camp, but the time they spent on circus-related activities seemed to be very limited; they also did crafts (such as the lovely tie-dye shirt he is sporting in the photo below) and played outside. But supposedly they worked all week on a circus performance that was held on Friday afternoon.

On Monday, Aidan told me that he was going to be the lion tamer.

On Tuesday, he told me that he was going to be a lion.

On Wednesday, he announced that he was going to be a clown.

Thank goodness, he finally stuck with being the clown. The two ladies who ran the camp were very indulgent of his whims; as one of the youngest campers, he tended to spend more time with them and they said that he was always so sweet to them (apparently not to be said about some of the other campers - there seemed to be a few real tyrants in the making).

The performance on Friday was, well, lame. But the children seemed to have a good time, the parents and friends clapped politely and a good time was had by all - not too shabby.

Here is our little clown (or is it our little Groucho?):

Evelyn's scarf

Today I mailed a scarf to my friend Evelyn in North Carolina. She is one of the people who agreed to let me practice knitting by making her a scarf.

I used a 100% alpaca yarn called Atacama from a Chilean company called Araucania Yarns. The color is a teal/green/brown mix, which I think will suit Evelyn beautifully. The yarn feels lovely and knit very nicely.

The pattern is called Misty Garden, but I refer to it as the Misty Garden of Good and Evil scarf. I adore the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt and have read it four or five times. Berendt really captures characters well and each chapter is like its own little short story, but it all fits together well as a novel.


I even liked the movie version of the book; what is not to like about a movie with Kevin Spacey AND John Cusack? Come to think of it, I first saw the movie with Evelyn - how about that!

I think the scarf turned out very well and I hope Evelyn is pleased with the result.