Sunday Meme

Over on Jen's blog I read about the Daily Meme site and I thought I would give it a whirl (even if I have already written a post for today.) I have chosen "The Sunday Seven" (Originally found here.)

This week's question: Name seven TV shows you’d like to banish from the airwaves forever.
(I haven't actually watched any of these shows. I'm just offended at the idea of glorifying bad behavior.)

1. Survivor
2. Keeping up with the Kardashians
3. Jersey Shore
4. Real Housewives of anywhere
5. Teen Mom (and it's original 16 and Pregnant)- Hmmm, at least 3 of my former students are now teen moms. Don't tell me TV had nothing to do with it.
6. America's Got Talent
7. Kendra

Animal Free Yarns

After my self-imposed year-long yarn diet ended in July, I decided to challenge myself to another duel with my will-power: to purchase only vegan yarn. For me that means:

• No silk
• No wool
• No alpaca
• No cashmere
• No angora

You get the picture, yes?


So I spend a lot of time looking at yarn, but thanks to my challenge I'm not blindly purchasing all the "ooo shiny" that I see. When I started this new experiment I decided to create some standards for myself so I wouldn't buy a bunch of crap just because is was animal free My criteria includes:

• Natural fiber content (acrylic is ok, I just don't want a 100% acrylic sock yarn)
• If I must buy acrylic, make it microfiber.
• A palette that span the seasons (if it's only offered in summery pastels I'm not that interested)
• A variety of dye techniques (solid, semi-solid, stripes)

 Here are some yarns I'd like to try:

• Maizy
• Katia Mississippi 3
• Cascade Fixation
• Berroco Comfort

We interrupt this draft to admit defeat. I just don't think I can go animal free when it comes to yarn. Animal fibers just plain block better. Yes, yes, I know acrylic and other fibers can block...but ugh! It requires so much work. (*shudder*)

Maybe I should just try to go non-animal with 90% of my purchases...

Another Week-end Another FO (or Crochet to the Rescue!)

HPKCHC Rules state that students must turn in at least one homework assignment per month (partials also accepted.) Failing to do so can jeopardize your sorting order.

Well, last month I didn't turn in anything. When I got my homework reminder yesterday I was about ready to just throw in the towel and quit. But dagnabbit I was not going to let real life mess with me anymore. I checked out the class descriptions in the hopes of making a dishcloth fit the requirements of a class. Luckily, the assignment for Herbology this month was to craft something using yellow, red, orange, purple and brown. Easy enough. I had been needing a coaster for my tea mug at work and I happened to have some deep red thread.


Quite lovely, no?

I used the Crochet Hexagon Dishcloth pattern and a size C (size 2.75 mm) crochet hook with size 10 crochet thread.

Might I also share with you a gratuitous kitten picture?


I didn't think you would mind.

I hope this is the beginning of my return to crafting and blogging. I miss all my blog buddies. I've been trying to keep up with all the posts in Google reader, but I haven't been commenting very often. The new job is time consuming because whenever a teacher has a new textbook and/or schedule, prep is a beyotch. Grading? I got that. Teaching? Puh-leeze...piece o cake. Writing a lesson plan for a super crappy textbook and 103 minutes AND only having a planning period 3 times a week? Painful.

Friday Fill-In 10/29

1. While the cat's away the mice will play.

2. Es fabuloso!

3. Children make life sweet...when they aren't annoying the crap out of you.

4. I just want to decompress when I get home from work or shopping or what have you.

5. This may seem odd, but I like butter on matzah.

6. (Drawing a blank) and that seems like a fine idea to me!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to seeing Offspring, tomorrow my plans include football and Sunday, I want to watch more football!

Holy Soapsuds, Batman!

I've got two (wimpy) FO's!



Two dishcloths. The solid, cream-colored one is for Dishrag Tag. Neat pattern. I love diagonal dishcloth patterns.

Other than that, nothing to report. Plenty of blog topics have popped into my head, but I don't have the mental strength to actually write them. I think I am officially dealing with a "blue funk." I'm not sure "depression" is the correct term. I'm having issues adjusting to the new job. I hate the schedule (8:15-3:15 and no planning period on Tuesdays or Thursdays... 6 hours with only a 25 minute break for lunch is not fun.) I'm too used to being home by four. Now I'm not getting in until around 4:30. And I'm sure you will all understand when I say that I still have stuff to do when I get home. Sometimes I'm not actually settling down until 7 or 7:30. When you go to bed at nine,it doesn't leave much "me" time.

I'll stop whining now.

It's Blogtober!

And I will not be participating this year. I don't seem to have energy for anything. I took a nap yesterday and still went to bed at 7. I haven't knit a stitch in weeks. Weeks!!

The Education Post

• Teachers seem to get blamed for everything and it really annoys the piss out of me. Be a damn parent and help your kids. I know I helped mine. Don't drop them off at school  for 12 years and expect them to be magically prepared for what comes next.
• Speaking of "what comes next." What the hell ever happened to Vo Tech in the schools? Or shop, or an number of programs that taught SKILLS. Great, your kid went to college. Guess what: his mechanic (the one that dropped out of high school) makes more money per year than your kid. By the way, when it's 103 degrees outside and my AC doesn't work, I'm not going to waste time asking the guy who came to fix it if he has a college degree. 
• It's not about your kid having a great degree or money. It's about making sure your child can function on his own and pay HIS OWN DAMN BILLS. 
• I've taught 16 years and I have yet to work with a truly inadequate or incompetent teacher (and believe me, I am very opinionated about the subject.) And if you know one who was, I'm sorry. Truly I am. But schools will attract truly good teachers when they PAY them what they deserve. One of the easiest degrees to get is one in education. Just sayin'.
• My Juniors missed 30 minutes of my 7th period class one day last week to see a presentation by the class ring rep. Then for the next two days, Juniors missed part of their 1st and 2nd period classes to order the rings. Class.Rings. Who gives a damn?
• Students will pretty much miss a week of decent teaching at least twice this year for the Alabama High School Graduation exam. Oh, we know you've already passed the class and did a bunch of work and your teacher did a lot of work, too...but we'd like you to pass one more test......A YEAR LATER....to prove you learned something.
• I'm starting to feel like education is all about making money...for textbook companies and computer software folks. Funny how in the days of the one room school house kids would leave 8th grade with an 8th grade reading level. Now we have kids graduating 12th grade with barely a 4th grade reading level. Technology my ass. Bench+slate+McGuffy's = I can read.
• It doesn't matter what the numbers and population studies show, my students still think Spanish is a waste of their time. These same kids tell me they want to be a nurse or doctor. Jebus help them. (And their future patients.)
• Ummm. They do speak English. They just know that you don't speak Spanish. It's pretty easy to keep a conversation private if you know another language (at least in the States.)