Squid on Wheels -- Thanksgiving Edition

Thanksgiving morning dawned clear and warm and Mama wanted to take advantage of the unusual weather with a bike ride. Sadly and gladly (at the same time) only one other Squid was willing to join her. So, off they went, Mommy and Monster, for a Thanksgiving ride.Our goal was 10 to 15 miles but, after just 2, Little Squid asked to abbreviate the ride and turn around at Stuyvesant H.S. Mama, looking to con the little one into a longer ride, suggested skirting Battery Park City on the waterside edge. Conning accomplished, the pair wend their way through Battery Park City, stopping to admire various sculpture and plantings, something they would not have done if accompanied by Papa and Squidette. At one point we even doubled back (gasp!) to check out an apple sculpture that Little Squid spied.
Interesting

I forget the name of this one, but it was way neat.

Irish Potato Famine Memorial, side view

Apple Sculpture

All in all, a lovely morning.

Teens Knitting: Preparing for the Holiday

Theoretically there should not be an edition of "Teens Knitting" this week since I plan on shoving all of the teens in the building, knitting or not, out the door at 3:00 tomorrow. I take my long weekends VERY seriously! Also, for some strange reason, teens in a mostly deserted building, the night before a long weekend, tend to get up to some really odd stuff. So, we shove them out and make sure they are GONE. O.k., we strongly encourage them to leave -- no physical force is employed. Promise.

Before we strongly encourage them to leave, however, they must fill up on yarn. And some of them, knowing that I am not always in my office, stocked up early. Every lunch period today saw a multiple young people digging through the newest arrivals from Elizabeth and Knits With Cats. Thank you so very much, ladies!

One young lady brought in her half finished scarf and moaned about not having enough yarn to finish it. While I was pretty sure that we no longer had any matching yarn, I helped her dig through the stash and, voila!, we found one more ball of the same colorway! I think that it was this deed which earned me my good parking karma for the afternoon. (I have a strong belief that good deeds towards young people earn me good parking spots. The deed has to happen in the same day as the spot is needed or it doesn't work. And no fair intentionally doing a "good deed" to earn the needed parking karma. It has to be unplanned. That said, 6 out of the last seven street parking spots that I have found have been at failed meters. Including today.)

The afghan "squares" are piling up and I may bring them home this weekend to wash and hide ends on. After a disaster with the synagogue project blanket -- where 1/4 of the squares turned out to be wool and felted when I washed the completed blanket -- I now wash first. Good thing, too, the last batch of synagogue squares had almost a blanket's worth of now felted squares. They will not go to waste, however, we will put together a felted-square blanket.

Finally, a picture of the package I received last week from Felecia (no blog that I can find) -- it was kind of freaky to find the needles poking up through the yarn as I emptied the envelope.

Gone Quiet

I know I have been quiet lately. Nothing is wrong things have just been so busy that when I get home at night, composing a blog post is beyond my mental capacity. I really need this four day weekend to decompress and sleep a little. Or a lot. Mike and I have promised each other to not set alarms this weekend. Other then Thanksgiving with my family, we have no plans. Maybe lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant or some long walks, but nothing specific.

Last night, Mike and I attended a concert at Carnegie Hall and noticed that the streets were surprisingly empty of people. We debated if it was a side effect of the stagehands strike or if it were just because it was Sunday night. Or maybe a combination of the two.

As we walked uptown, we saw a few picket lines and the question arose: "do you really need to walk a picket line if there are no scabs to cross it?" Mike marched with his mom on picket lines many years ago, the last time the NYC teachers struck. I guess the purpose of the lines is two-fold as the strikers get their message out to the public as well as stopping scabs. Outside the theater housing Chicago, we saw some of the musicians striking up a tune. Interesting. By the time we walked back home, the strikers were all gone and Times Square was eerily quiet.

True Conversation

I swear this was a real conversation:

Squidette: "So, we're going to Bubby and Zeida's for Thanksgiving?"

Me: "Yup. And your cousin S will be there and Uncle Josh and Aunt Jaye and ..."

Squidette, interrupting: "Louis!"

Little Squid: "Yea!!!"

Me: "Huh? remind me to bring allergy medicine"

Louis is my brother's cat. I never did finish listing all the aunts and uncles who will be there. The cat is all they care about now.

Sounds Worse?

I have been fighting a cold for a week now and as colds go, it has not been too bad, makes me sound much worse then I actually feel. Got that sexy, hoarse thing going on. Today, however, that hoarseness gave me a good excuse to go home a little (only 15 minutes or so) early.

I had to make an announcement over the p.a. and in doing so, realized just how rotten I sounded. Hmm ... I thought ... the entire building just heard my hoarse, cracking voice. No one will think less of me if I go home right now.

And I did. Hung up the p.a., grabbed my purse and jacket and came home.

To do many loads of laundry and make dinner. A mother's work is never done.

(Dinner, by the way, was tasteless but the kids humored me and ate it anyway. I am seriously out of practice in the kitchen.)

***

Mucho thanks to Felica who found me via Sprite and sent yarn and needles for my kids. Thank you!

And one more aside, my knitting guy came in during lunch today and I got him going on dpns, making his first sock! Woo Hoo!

Teens Knitting: Where are the Guys?

My current principal is a guy. Like the rest of my principals, he supports the knitting club and thinks the whole thing is a bit odd but cool. Yesterday he wandered in while I was getting one young lady going, two more were in a corner working on their first pieces and the core group was digging through the stash. He looked around and asked "where are the boys." My answer? "He wanted to sit down, so he's on the couch near your office."

Yeah, we still only have one young man this year -- that's what tends to happen so I don't bemoan it. Frankly, male participation is a problem in the other program that I run -- and that one is geared toward future doctors!

The reason for the lack of males in the knitting club is, unfortunately simple. Guys don't want to be found knitting. Some will have their friends teach them on the side and knit at home or on the sly but unfortunately, knitting is still not macho. And in a school with a 58% Hispanic population, macho has real meaning.

Yesterday's stats? 3 newbies off and running, 1 (female) basketball player grabbing some yarn before practice, 1 core member working on a free Glampyre pattern, our guy making a crocheted hat and lots of squares for the blankie, and lots of stash diving by the other core members -- who swear they want to clean up my desk.

Toxic Waste

Yup, that's been my job for the last couple of weeks. Dealing with the fall out of a sensationalistic news report about my school. Today was the big day, with all sorts of experts coming to talk to and answer questions from parents and staff. Frankly, I'm wiped. I arranged and organized all three meetings today and only got home a short while ago. If I were the kind of person to take a mental health day, tomorrow would be it. But I can't. I've got the knitting kids to think of. And, oh yeah, I have the usual schlepage of my own kids to school, the weekly meal out with the elder child and the wait while she does her Bat Mitzvah training stuff. So, no day off. And it is only a four day week. Followed by a three day week next week!

And, I had parent-teacher conferences with Little Squid's teacher. All in the same day.

I did managed to finish a pair of socks for Mike so at least something tangible got done.

***

As an aside ...

Why is it that people distrust experts? Why do they not want to believe that we are all on the same side? And why won't they believe me when I say that we have more serious problems then the relatively stable toxic waste beneath our school? Or am I being naive in believing the experts and everyone else is right?

Out and About

It's been a long, slow, quiet weekend here at Chez Squid. Easy visiting on Saturday, quiet indoor pursuits on Sunday and a simple family walk today. Lots of time to knit, read and recover from a trying week.

Yesterday Mike made this:

apple pie made with fresh Greenmarket apples with apple goo on top. Mmmm ...

When we set our itinerary for today, Mike reminded me to take my camera. I think he intended to find some blog fodder since things have been rather lean for the last few weeks.
So here you go. First up, possibly the smallest piece of private property in NYC. It was created in the early 1900's when the Hess family refused to cede this small piece of property to the city after having their property condemned for the construction of the subway. Each side of the triangle is maybe 24 inches long. It is a very early protest against eminent domain, a fight that continues today.

Then on to Father Demo Square. The sign is pictured to show you that typesetting errors wind up even on Parks Department plaques. Look for all the question marks.

The church where Father Demo was pastor.And then a change of religion ...



O.k., a quick google turned up very little about this synagogue but it was organized in 1838 and in 1865 the congregation started a cemetery out near where my folks live.
Speaking of Google, I originally took the picture above to show the contrast between the old row houses at the bottom and the very modern black building. Then Mike pointed out that Google is housed in the very large building behind it all. Yup, the NYC outpost of Google. Mike's got a bunch of former students working there.

And finally, to prove that this is a knitting blog, the back of Little Squid's sweater and the graph for the front.

The felted slippers on the floor are mine.

And ... my Blogger Bingo prize!8 ounces of Sugar Lips BFL top from Adrian at Hello Yarn! It is much more purple then it looks on my screen. Yea!!!

Off-Line

Woke up yesterday to find Mike doing his weights with the t.v. off. Not unusual in itself but the timing was a bit off -- he usually does weights after the aerobic part of his workout, not before -- and the t.v. is ALWAYS on when he works out. As I headed for my computer with my morning cuppa, he said "don't bother." Huh? He had to repeat himself and explain before my sleep befuddled brain comprehended that we had not cable service. This meant no t.v., no internet and no phone.

I grabbed a book and settled in for a nice quiet morning.

The t.v. stayed off all day, even after service was returned -- sometime shortly after I really lit into the customer service agent who kept insisting that it was only an "assumed" outage and not a verified outage. (The difference? Not enough people had complained yet. Really! At least that's what she told me.) After 15 minutes on hold for a supervisor, my agent came back and said that now it was a verified outage. Um ... we reported this at 5:30 a.m. and it was 6 hours later ... even if it was not widespread, it was verified as far as we were concerned. I never did get to speak to the supervisor and I actually accused the agent of sitting and twiddling her thumbs for 15 minutes while I was on hold.

One of Mike's cousins was in town for the day, so we had a lovely time visiting. Lunch at a favorite, local, Indian restaurant, a wander through our favorite Indian market and lots of lovely knitting/schmoozing while we caught each other up on the families.

During the visit I finished cute scarves for my youngest niece and nephew (no pictures, their parents read the blog) and made major headway on Little Squid's new sweater. (Also no picture, imagine 10 inches of ribbing and stockiette in teal wool.)

Lovely, relaxing day.

Bits and Bobs

My day was dragging. People were peppering me with requests -- mostly reasonable, but all while I was trying to count to 34. Over and over again. And then a package was delivered. From Paul! More yarn, needles and candy for my students. Woo Hoo!

Then, I managed to find a parking spot only 2 blocks from my appointment and when I got out to feed the meter, discovered that it was "failed." (Meter-speak for "don't have to feed, you lucky duck!") This is the third day in a row that I have accidentally parked at a failed meter.

My prize wool from Blogger Bingo was just mailed!

My daughter looks far too grown up in her turtle neck sweater which contains practically no ease.

My son loses sleep because his teacher said to staple the work into his notebook and he had to use tape because we could not find the stapler.

I am now addicted to EB Robb's (aka Nora Roberts) books thanks to Cookie. One is now being read and two more are sitting on my shelf. And it looks like the library has plenty more.

I misread our concert tickets and now have one fewer obligation on the 19th. Phew!

Oh, and right now my job is "all toxic waste, all the time" right now thanks to this news report. We are the second school mentioned. Please note, the report is GROSSLY exaggerated and one of the most irresponsible pieces of "journalism" I have seen in a long time.

Yup -- I'm just all over the place and thought I'd share my scatter thoughts with you, my faithful readers (who probably abandoned me after "Woo Hoo!") Time to leave the computer and knit a bit.

Teens Knitting: On a Roll

Last week my assistant decided that I needed some fun, and made a big push to recruit knitters. She made up colorful posters and had them put up all over the school. The result? My office overflowed this afternoon. Four brand new knitters learned to cast on and knit, my lone young man dug out what had to be my only crochet hook and started making something. A couple of basketball players came by to get yarn to knit before practice, my freshmen girls continued to work on scarves in some of the wonderful yarn that Paul sent a few weeks ago and a senior sat in my desk chair knitting something white and fluffy. Paul's candy came out and, while it did not quite disappear, it came close.

All in all, a solid, fun hour. Our collection of blankie blocks may now be full enough for me to put together the third blanket. I'll assess it after next week and decide if they will come home with me for Thanksgiving weekend. I had about 2/3 of a blankie going into this semester.

My assistant was right, I needed something to look forward to in my day.

Halloween Answers

I was just reminded that I never revealed what the kids actually were. Squidette is, as she appears, a black cat. Little Squid is a white cat. But wait, there is more! He is actually "Cloud Tail," a Warrior Cat from the Warriors series of books. He was very insistent that he was Cloud Tail and not just any white cat. He was particularly insulted when an elderly woman kept saying how scared she was of the ghost. When he started to argue, I reminded him that we do not argue with people who are giving us candy! He stopped getting insulted after that -- or at least stopped complaining about it. *grin*Squidette was supposed to be Crazy Cat lady but managed to get her costume thrown out. Yes, there is some irony about her being Crazy Cat Lady accompanied by a cat.

Fancy Schmancy

Today was a long day. O.k., it wasn't really -- all days are the same length. Except for yesterday which, at 25 hours, really was a long day.

I woke up early -- see that comment about yesterday -- and kept looking at my watch all day. I don't usually do that, I usually look at the school clocks but they were wrong. So I kept looking at clocks and then looking at my watch. And the day seemed to go much more slowly then usual. You see, since I kept looking at the clocks, I kept thinking it was an hour later and then had to correct myself and kept getting disappointed. Or relieved. It depended on what time it was and where I had to be.

The clocks should be back to normal tomorrow. We are supposed to have a fancy, schmancy computer controlled clock system. Since it was installed last year, before the government changed the rules governing Daylight Savings Time, I asked the installers if it would update correctly. They said no. So, the weekend before the spring time change, I changed the school clocks and the system that controls our bells. And came in on Monday to find the time 2 hours off. This time I laughed. "Ha!" I said. "We have the fancy, schmancy clock system that updates itself, no need for me to reset the clocks." Just in case, however, I made sure to get in to school a bit on the early side today, to discover that, not only had the clocks not updated but that the master clock was off by ... wait for it ... SEVEN hours. Good thing I got in early.

So much for the fancy, schmancy clock system.

Oh, and yesterday? After an afternoon out with my daughter, I sat down at my computer, glanced at the clock, compared it to my watch and almost cursed out my operating system. You would think that a brand new edition of Vista would have the right programing to update. And, in fact, it did. My watch however, is an old fashioned Timex. Which does not automatically update. Um ... can we say "user error?"

Flower Basket Shawl

I finished it! Presenting the Flower Basket Shawl from the Fall 2004 issue of Interweave Knits. My eye was on this for a long time but it wasn't until I finished spinning this laceweight alpaca that I knew the time was right.
The pattern calls for a laceweight yarn held double but I used it single and knit for 10 repeats instead of the 7 called for in the pattern.

Ta Da!

And yes, yes I did choose my outfit so that I could wear the shawl today.

And the Winner is ...

SJ from Knit/Wit!

SJ guessed that we would ride 749 miles by Oct. 31 and we rode 745 miles.

Congratulations, SJ! Email me your snail mail info and favorite colors for your prize.

(We will continue to log miles for the year, assuming the weather and the kids' schedules cooperate enough to let us get out on our bikes.)

The Aftermath ... and other Blather

Here you go, cute picture of the kids sorting and swapping candy. This stuff will last until next Halloween -- at which point I will dump it. Yup -- did a big dump just before trick-or-treating started. All the stuff that didn't get eaten last year -- mostly Almond Joys.

Yes, it is a rather small haul. We live in a NORC (naturally occurring retirement community) and an average of less than 1 apartment per floor was giving out candy. We did all of both cores of our building -- 21 floors each and what you see was the result.

By the way, the "proper" way to trick-or-treat in an apartment building is to take the elevator to the top and then go down the stairs, floor by floor. For the first core, we had friends with small kids so my kids would shoot ahead, scout out the floor (candy-givers had paper pumpkins on their doors) and let us know if we should stop or keep going. For the second core, my legs gave out and I let the kids do the top 6 floors by them selves while I sat and knit on 15.

For all of you looking for my costume ... I didn't have one. My school doesn't allow costumes so a black suit with an orange blouse and my fancy nails was as halloweeny as I got. When I got home, the suit became jeans and I added a button that Sprite sent. By the way, you all should hop over to her blog and get info on how to send some holiday cheer to our troops.

There is knitting going on here and in the next day or two you should look for a finished Flower Basket Shawl and the start of Little Squid's new sweater.

Happy Halloween!

I feel that I should write something clever but frankly, after searching hundreds of backpacks, patrolling miles of corridor and walking down 40 flights of stairs in search of candy, I'm just too wiped. So, we will make due with pictures.

For Dave, who did a muscle edition today ...
There is a second shirt rigged so it could (and was) be ripped off multiple times during the day. There were also boots. This is the "home edition."

And the ... um someone out there wanted to guess so I will let you all figure it out and then tell the tale of my son the ___ who kept contradicting the elderly residents who said "oh a ___."

My Dehaired Husband

A picture is worth a thousand words laughs.

(the tanning stuff does not seem to be working yet)

Any guesses as to what he is going as for Halloween?

Twas the night before Halloween

and all through the house, all the creatures were stirring, including the mouse.

Mama had done all the shopping with care, and was now grooming Papa, removing some hair.

Products applied and and fingernails painted. Mama! they all cried, you should be sainted.


And now Mama sits, alone in her chair, praying the Great Pumpkin will soon be here. And for Susan -- Little Squid's new sweater.

A Ride in the Park

Weekends have been busy lately. Saturday, Squidette had her band rehersal and qualified for a special program with the New York Pops. Expect to see more on that as the program continues. I was busy working on tweaking halloween costumes and except for some last minute work on Papa's body, am done. Squidette had a last minute costume change due to accidentally throwing out her other costume.

Sunday was a lovely day and we all headed uptown when Little Squid went to hebrew school. While he did his thing, the rest of us did a loop of Central Park and Squidette and I discovered that our lungs do not like doing the Great Hill in 50 degree weather. We did finish the loop and then some and, since Little Squid and Papa did 9 miles a week or so ago, we are counting yesterday's mileage toward the family total. Yes, that brings us up to 745 for the calendar year. I will go and check who the winner is and announce it in the next day or two. We do plan on continuing to ride if the weather is agreeable but, maybe not the Great Hill in colder weather.
Kudos, by the way, to the New York Road Runners Club for cleaning up their act. Despite a pre-marathon race yesterday, Central Park was quite ridable. Last year you could not say the same and Papa wound up getting injured.
After the ride, the three of us had breakfast and then Papa Squid rode home while Squidette and I hung around until Little Squid was done. Our rearranged trio then crossed the park on foot, heading to Knitty City to get yarn for Litte Squid's new sweater.

On the way we passed this rock outcropping of Manhattan schist -- bedrock to you and me.



And on our way back we walked through the only tunnel in Central Park that is carved out of the bedrock .

What do Squid Read?

A very good question given that I was willing to try out a social-networking site centered around books where I have not even gotten on the waiting list for Ravelry. (By the way, there is a minor rant about that site at the bottom of this post if you wish to assist in my self-flagellation.)

Squid, as you should know, are prodigious readers. We do have to take special precautions since reading under water is tricky ... um, o.k., maybe we surface to read our books. Squidette's first sentence? "Read to you!" Accompanied by a book slamming into the lap of the chosen parent.

Personally, I am a fan of fiction. How heavy or light it is depends on the time of year and my mood. Right now I am in a light-fiction mood and am currently rereading some sci-fi already on my shelf in the absence of anything grabbing me from the new releases shelf at the library. As part of my current Tuesday and Wednesday "shuttle and feed the kids" ritual, I now stop at the library closest to the synangogue in order to collect Squidette. While there I either look for a old book from an author I am working my way through, or check out the new releases. Since I am not working my way through an author right now, I have just been checking out the new stuff. Last week I grabbed the new Debbie Macommber but this week, nothing struck me.

Print, however, is not my only book absorption medium. I am a voracious devourer of audio books. My commute home every evening (when I am the sole occupant of the car) is accompanied by the sounds of my latest Audible download playing on my Treo. Right now, my listening is also on the lighter side as I listen to some Marion Keyes but if the book is absorbing I will listen to more serious fare. Last week I downloaded "The Nazi Officer's Wife" and kept looking for traffic jams so that I could get more listening in. In the past, the David McCullough books have kept me pleasantly absorbed as I took in John Adams and Truman.

On the heavier side of things, I am working my way through "Acquiring Genomes" by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan. When I was a graduate student, Lynn Margulis was one of my heroines. She was a famous female scientist when they were few and far between. "Aquiring Genomes" is actually a very readable book -- good to read while knitting. I made my way mostly through it while traveling this summer -- propped on my lap with my feet up it was a good "sit outside in the wilderness" book. Hmm ... maybe I'll make the effort to finish it this week ...

So there you have it -- eclectic tastes. Love the Elizabeth Peters' books -- especially the Ameila Peabody series. Love Jasper Fforde. Really like Richard Dawkins. Ann McCaffery is an old favorite and I still raid Squidette's shelves for the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I'm looking for a new series -- got any suggestions?

***
Minor Rant

Looking for a new author is why I decided to join this Shelfari thing when Debby invited me (you can all go blame her for the massive amounts of spam this thing has generated). It looked like a cool thing and even Mike thought so (yup, spammed my own husband). After it sent out a second email today, I dove right back under the rock of humiliation, sank into the moat of despair and basically thought about changing my name and moving to Tahiti.

Instead, I shot off an email to these folks. It read as follows:

After I accidentally spammed my entire contact list -- by the way, having everything automatically checked is a BAD idea -- I thought I was done with it. I issued an apology to the same people and took the flak that resulted.

Then I saw that an automatic NAG was sent out, further adding to my mortification. Can you please tell me what you are doing to remedy this situation? Your emails claim that people were purposely selected but your software automatically selected them and grabbed them from my contacts list and then continued to bother them.

Please, please tell me what you are going to do to fix your software to stop this harassment, both purposeful (the nag) and accidental -- the automatic selection instead of purposeful selection?

I receieved the following reply:

Good morning Devorah,

That certainly is disconcerting. On the invitation page it lists all of the friends you are inviting and states that we will invite those checked once and send one reminder a few days later. After those are sent, we send no further emails.

I do get some emails from people who invite to Shelfari and don't want that second email sent, and we cancel those reminders.

I realize this was a rocky start to Shelfari, but I do hope you stick with the community. It's an incredible group of readers.

--Dave

O.k., I know I was stupid. I acted quickly and didn't read the fine print. I still think there is some deceptive stuff going on but right now ... I'm going to have a drink and take a break from the computer for most of the weekend. I have a blanket to finish crocheting together by Sunday, cat ears and a tail to sew (why are Black cats the only kind that you can find in the Halloween sections?) and other costume adjustments to make. Plus the semi-annual Mitzvah Sunday group to run. I'll be back Sunday night or Monday and maybe I will have stopped beating myself up by then.

Teens Knitting: Juggling the Academics

Yesterday was report card day. As soon as one of "my" kids (be it scholar or knitter) walks into my office on report card day, I ask to see the report.

Traditionally, the knitting club spans the academic ranges with honor students and those needing lots of support knitting together. It gets a little weird as the high achievers bemoan their 95s and the kids who struggle cheer about their 80s -- and I cheer with them. Ultimately, the answer is to bring the topic around to something else -- or else talk about gym. All of our kids have gym with the same set of instructors and all of the instructors follow the same grading guidelines so it is a safe subject.

Then I broke out the candy that Paul sent! Everyone was happy and the girls laughed at me as I tried to be politically correct about the India/Pakistan/Bangladesh mix up that I always have with them. Then we tease the boy -- who is from the Bronx. Yesterday one girl learned how to bind off, increase and decrease, three girls cast on chenille scarves using stash from Paul's box and our boy learned how to purl. All in all, a lovely hour.

Tonight, parent-teacher conferences. I'm the teacher.

Back in the Saddle Classroom

Last week a colleague was unexpectedly ill and needed an emergency coverage. I ran up, figuring that I would hold down the fort until some one could be found to do it. When I got there I discovered that the class was my subject and I called off the search for a covering teacher. Practically grabbing a kid's notebook (but not really) I asked them what they were up to and proceeded to do a review / elaboration of the digestive system. I had a great time and they seemed to be into the whole, letting me amuse myself, thing. So, the next day, knowing that the teacher was going to be out again, I told the scheduler to put me in for that class and, this time using her prepared sub-plans, once again taught a subject that I absolutely love.

She's going to be out again on Friday. The kids have a test on Thursday so she is letting me start a new unit. I am SO excited!!! Oh, and the feedback to her from the kids was that they liked me and enjoyed the classes. They thought it was funny that I was enjoying myself so much.

For some reason I just clicked with this class and was able to step right in -- and they let me! I'm practically dancing around I am so excited about teaching a double period on Friday. It is almost disgusting how happy and excited I am to have to plan a lesson and teach it. Yes, I've been out of the classroom far too long.

Still Red Faced

I can't believe I was that stupid. That said, I will stop beating myself up in public over this. As Dave pointed out, I even spammed my own blog!

What happened was that Shelfari is a Google creation and when I logged in it grabbed all of my contacts from my Gmail account. That means everyone I have ever sent or received an email from on this account. That includes, by the way, my former boss, her former boss and someone who could have been my boss. As well as lots of people from my synagogue and assorted mail lists. So when I thought I was sending to just a few people who I know who are already on it, I did not see the huge list at the bottom of the screen and neglected to scroll down before I hit send. Call it a slip between brain and finger.

Usually I like the way that all of the Google stuff interacts. One user name, one password. Simple. Not now.

I still haven't even totally figured out what this program is!

Excuse me now while I slink away and go hide under a rock for a few days. This is the kind of thing I lose sleep over!

Throughly Embarrassed!!!

I am so totally embarrassed by my accidental spamming of everyone. Can you all forgive me? Please???

Rhinebeck!

Squidette and I departed Manhattan armed with googlemaps directions, Dutchess County fairground directions and a GPS. The DCF directions are only from the Thruway and the Taconic and do not include directions to either road. That's where I had trouble. As a general rule, when I travel long distances, Papa Squid drives. It's not that I do not drive. I actually drive 5 days a week, to and from work, with and without kids in tow. (They look pretty silly dragging along behind the car.) Rather, he does the long haul driving and prefers to do it and I am happy to be a passenger and knit. Yesterday, however, Squidette and I went alone.

The GPS took us up the west side highway and over the G.W. bridge. Made perfect sense to me. Then it recalculated and tried to get me to go back over the bridge. Oops! I knew enough to realize that it is not too difficult to get to the NY State Thruway from Jersey. Unfortunately we have not done it that often so it is not instinctual. Squidette beat up the GPS a bit and we finally managed to get a route that set us going north. Despite our navigation difficulties, we managed to complete the trip without any more excitement. My daughter and I sang aloud and I enjoyed having her in the front passenger seat next to me -- a new milestone for her.

Once we arrived -- and I payed full price for my now "adult" daughter, we methodically made our way from barn to barn looking for the wool for Papa's new sweater. After a lovely conversation with one proprietor, I decided to abandon my quest for washed locks that I would then dye and process myself and settled for already washed and processed roving.

Papa's new sweater!

As I was concluding my purchase, I felt a pair of eyes on me and turned around to find ...Paul! He and I had a great chat and he promised that he had secured the stuff we were searching for for Susan. Good thing, too. I think I found it much later in the day but I since I wasn't sure, it was good to know that she will get it. Paul is a wonderful guy and I am really glad I finally got to meet him in person!
We watched a llama parade and met lots of people who said "are you Squid (s)?" It was so cool to be recognized by Cynthia and Jersey Knitter, Penny and a host of others.
We met Swatchy, Debbie, Jessie, Lindsey, Lorena, Karen and Lise. If I forgot anyone -- I'm sorry! I know there were two people who we had on our card last year but were not on it this year and I was stupid and didn't write their names down. I was trying so hard to remember who I was meeting, too!

Squidette with our purchases. Yup, we kept it small this year.

Penny and PG!

The line for deep fried artichokes. I just do not understand it!

Some pumpkins ...

And some foliage ...

On the way back we only took one wrong turn and had nasty traffic on the Thruway -- my kind of driving! Yup, I actually prefer traffic to wide open highways. I do not know what to do if my foot is not constantly hitting the brakes. Comes from doing most of my driving in manhattan.

Oh, and the rest of my purchases. A few kits from Morehouse Merino. I also got a pretty button but I can't find it right now.

Now to knit some of this stuff!

Birthday Redux

For your amazement

the cake that Squidette baked and decorated for her father.

And the meal that Little Squid made (with some assistance), also for his father.
"Wild" rice salad and stuffed portobello mushrooms. (Little Squid made the salad, including chopping all the ingredients and pushing the right buttons on the rice cooker. The mushrooms were purchased already prepared and just needed to be heated.)

Now, time to wake Squidette and hit the road to Rhinebeck!

No Longer Under 20

When Mike turned 20 he, jokingly, kept saying that he would, very likely, not turn 20. Why? Because for his entire life he had been "under 20" (a category in fencing competitions) and therefore the laws of probability were in his favor. As I could not really argue with that kind of logic, I didn't bother and let time do its thing. For the last 19 years, the odds were still in favor of him reverting to "under 20." Today, however, that all changes. There is still a possibility that he will turn 19 on Friday but, more likely, he will turn 40.I tell you , does this look like a 40 year old? Frankly, he is in better shape then he was back then. The hair is a bit grayer, the mornings a bit creakier but, as a general rule, not too bad. I think I'll keep him, hopefully for at least another 40.

Happy Birthday, Mike. I love you so very, very much!

Time Boy!

Little Squid has developed a love for watches. It was all started by his grandmother who, herself, had an extensive watch collection (which I now own). She always insisted that the kids wear their watches, something that drove me a bit batty but was basically harmless. After all, why did the kids really have to know the time -- the adults in their lives controlled their schedule.

Now, however, I get on Squidette's case for not wearing a watch and Little Squid ... well he wears 7.

Except when he is sleeping. Then he only wears one.

Yes, they are all set to a different time zone. One is set to local time (the digital -- it has an alarm that he regularly uses), one to Casablanca, one to Jerusalem, one to the Galapagos Islands and one to New Zealand. (Two need new batteries.) When you ask him the time, he asks "where?"
Except

Fairies

After reading this post I realized that I am not the only weirdo out there making her kids crazy. We already have a tooth fairy (actually an entire tooth fairy association), a head fairy and a foot fairy. Now given that our turtles are always loosing their scutes, I wonder, should the scute fairy join the flock? And, is that the proper term for a group of fairies?

Happy Anniversary!

Sometimes it is about the presents. Sometimes it's about having grandchildren that love you enough to bake a cake.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad. May you have many, many more!!!