Thanksgiving Feast

We are just over a week away from the big feast and I am getting excited. I'm not exactly sure why I am excited. After all, I have cooked Thanksgiving dinner for any number of years now (at least 10) and there is rarely anyone here besides the four of us and my dad. But once again, I am excited.

Maybe it's the thrill of pulling it all off once again. Or is it cooking a huge, homemade meal? So much of what we eat these days is prepackaged, preserved, oversalted foodstuff. It seems like every night I make something from a can or a box or frozen in the freezer. So that might be the allure of the big turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

And all the trimmings for us means the bird, potates, gravy, oyster dressing, rolls, pickles, olives, cranberry sauce (from a can, jellied only please, and score extra points if you can get it out of the can with all the little can indents still intact), sparkling cider and some sort of dessert. Sometimes it's pumpkin pie, sometimes pumpkin mousse, sometimes chocolate cream pie. Yum.

Beyond that, we have our nephew's birthday this weekend and I don't think I wrote about it but my grandmother passed away on October 28, 2007. I don't know how to even begin to describe my grandmother so I will just say that she will be missed greatly. I loved her and always will and while she may not have been a "famous" person she was a person who knew how to love unconditionally and always find the good and we will all miss her. She was 93 years old and she went peacefully. What more could you ask for?

I love you Grandma!

New Job

It has been about a million days since my last transmission. I think I am finally ready to get back to the land of the living.

Started my new job with the school district last month and things are going...hectic fabulous exhausting as well as can be expected, I suppose.

When I started the job I knew I was going to work with low readers. I knew there would be a lot to learn. I knew there would be difficulties.

What I DIDN'T know is that 2 weeks into the school year it would be determined that there were too many special needs kids and not enough staff to adequately cover them during reading and writing.

So what do they decide to do? Throw me into the mix. Mind you, I have had ZERO training for working with these types of kids. And while these are some awesome kids they do tend to keep a person on her toes. And now, two weeks into it I have found that my toes are VERY tired.

At least I have stopped taking their behavior personally. The first week I thought there was no way I could make it. Now I am starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. It might just be the light from the oncoming train that's about to crash into me but no matter, it's still a light, right?

Back to the salt mines.

McDonald's Iced Hazelnut Coffee

Life has been hectic this past couple of weeks and I have lots to share but most importantly I need to discuss McDonald's Iced Coffees. They are delightful, divine, decadent and devilishly bad for you. The large comes in at 270 calories and 11 grams of fat. It's almost 7 points on Weight Watchers. And at $2.58 it's decidedly affordable.

Sigh....I guess I am not going to be losing weight anytime soon. I can't seem to keep away from them.
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On to other things...I have a job. I am a para-pro at elementary school. Very exciting. I went to a training and ran into an old classmate and it was such an odd thing that I don't know if I can adequately explain it here. Suffice it to say, it was like seeing a ghost.

It's 2:30 in the morning and I must get to sleep. I'll write more later.

Working Girl

Buy me a drink 'cause this woman just got a job! It's been over 10 years since I have been a contributing member of the workforce so I'm a bit rusty but I know it will all come to me.

I was hired on by the school district as a teacher's aide. Looks like I will be helping students with reading and math. 6 hours per day, days off with the kiddos, summer vacations. Wooo Hooo! What could be better.

Of course, the family already has my first 12 paychecks spent on things we have had to put off buying for the last 10 years. Seems like a Wii is one of the first things on the list. If we can find one. What's the deal with that? I can understand them being hard to find during the Christmas rush but year-round? Hmmm....

On to the creative front...or not. I have been home alone this weekend so you might think I would have done a ton of knitting, scrapping, creating. You'd be sadly mistaken. Basically I slept a lot, ate substandard meals and watched some really cheesy Exorcist movies. Apparently the first one was the only really scary one.

Hey, here's a little factoid for you. The guy who played Grima Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings is the same guy who played Billy Bibbitt in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and he also played in Exorcist III: The Legion. His name is Brad Dourif.

Back to the creativity. I did go over to a friend's house to look at her daughter's new bedroom. I am going to help make curtains and I think we are going to modify twin sheets to make the curtains. I know it's supposed to be uber easy but I have never done it before so I am really looking forward to it.

I think I am off to finish knitting my little soap saver sack thing. I can get it done today if I focus.

Happy Summer.

Yahoo avatars

I have been using My Yahoo a lot lately. Mostly to keep track of my favorite podcasts. However, I lately have started using the calendar feature and I love how it ties in to all of the yahoogroups I belong to.

Tonight I was playing there and found the cutest avatars. So this is my summer look. She's quite a bit cuter than me but it's what I fancy I would look like in my fantasy world. Cheesy, huh?

A bit of good news. It looks like I should have an interview on Wednesday for a J-O-B. It's been 10 years so I am a bit nervous but it will be good if it all pans out.

Off to dreamland.


One last thing...I meant to post a picture of the soap saver thing I talked about in my last entry. It's about halfway done here.

Ravelry accepted ME!!!

I've been accepted by Ravelry! It is completely awesome. Knitters, and crocheters, can track ALL of their projects, see how many others are working on the same projects, keep an inventory of needles, keep an inventory of stash yarn, rate WIPs (works in progress) on a happiness scale and get all kinds of ideas. You can link your blog to ravelry, link your flickr account and just have a great time.

Ravelry is still in beta stage so I am hoping it will be a huge success and last forever!

What else is new? I am working on a cute little soap bag. I picked it up here and it is completely cute. I made one in white but my dad snagged it before I even had a chance to take a picture. I'll get a picture of this one when I am finished with it.

We celebrated niece J's birthday this weekend at the cabin. She is 7! Only 7 more weeks until T's birthday and he will be 7 too. Wonderful weather and good food. Brother and I made homemade onion rings and I think we have finally hit upon the perfect method. Found that here.

C fixed my XM radio antenna in the car. Finally I can actually receive a good signal. Now if I can only get HIM out of the car so I don't have to listen to Squizz all the time. I'm more of a Sunny girl myself.

Great American Pasttime

Was it Tennyson who said "In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of ...baseball?" Ahhhh...the roar of the crowd when Jr. knocks the ball out of the field, the groaning and grumbling when the ump makes a bad call, the distraction of a pile of dirt or your best kindergarten buddy on the base you are supposed to be covering during your t-ball game...

I think Tennyson was actually speaking of love but that's probably only because he didn't understand the passion of baseball. Heck, maybe they didn't even have baseball back then. Isn't he English? Wouldn't that make it cricket over there anyway? And obviously cricket and baseball are miles apart.

So, both boys are in baseball. B is in the minor leagues and T is in his second year of t-ball and I, for ill or good, am in my 3rd year as a board member of our local youth baseball association. Why they chose me I will never understand. I do know that I enjoy the games and I get a bit of knitting done so it's all good.

Speaking of the knitting, I attempted a sock and am thinking of frogging the whole thing on account of the wonky bits on the heel. I finished a couple of burp rags for a friend who is having a girl (she has 4 boys, poor woman-she is due for a girl!) and I have a few WIPs on the needles that I have little interest in finishing right now. Here's what I started last night.

It's called the Ballband Dishcloth. It's the pattern that comes on the paper label on Peaches and Creme 100% cotton yarn. T said it looks like blue bricks. The fun thing about it is that it looks best in bold, funky colors. I was thinking pink and orange might look good too so that might be next.

Finally, my new favorite station on XM Satellite Radio is Sunny, Channel 24. I don't know how to describe it but they play lots of stuff. Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, The Beatles, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Jim Croce, Heart, all kinds of stuff. Right now they are playing Eye of the Tiger so I guess it can't all be good. However, if you have the XM, give it a listen.