Maize Again

Pattern: Maize

Yarn: Mystery yarn from the "free" box at my retreat last month, I think possibly Malabrigo Rios?

Needle: US6

Notes: Knitting these for a second time made me realize I hadn't followed the pattern correctly the first time! Whoops. I love the fit of these mitts. They are nicely snug especially around the fingers. They are lightweight but feel very warm to wear. 

I made these at Younger Son's request. He picked out the yarn and approved the pattern. When I showed them to him he balked and said he doesn't need them anymore. New mitts for me, I guess.

The Kid Is Funny

I asked Older Son to text me the grocery list. He said he would but then didn't send it.

Me: Dude, where's my shopping list?
OS: (sends snapshot of list)
OS: BTW, that'd be the worst stoner comedy ever.

He Got Me

Last night Younger Son was complaining that he felt feverish and had a sore throat. He insisted that I take his temperature. It was 97.7°. No fever. Go to bed.

This morning he comes to me again. "I don't feel well," hand pressed to his forehead. I take his temperature. 99.6°. Oh my. Guess you're not going to school.

I call the school. He goes upstairs. I wandered into the kitchen to make some tea and realize the electric kettle has been on and the water is still very hot.

"I need to take your temperature again."

98.4°

"Did you have hot chocolate this morning before you took your temperature?"

"Not right before."

Yeah, he's fine.

Questions Younger Son Has Asked This Morning While Reading Mad Magazine

1. Who is Captain Kangaroo?
2. Who is Captain Morgan?
3. What is the Mile High Club?

Time for that magazine to go back to the library.

Bake Sale "Pies"

No, there's no bake sale but younger son got What's New, Cupcake from the library and wanted to make the "Bake-Sale Pie" cupcakes. The book is filled with really cute, inventive decorating ideas but I was mortified to discover that there are no cake or frosting recipes in it. They want you to go to the store and buy cake mix and cans of frosting. No thanks.

We used Rose Levy Berenbaum's definitive Cake Bible and Martha Stewart's Seven Minute Frosting. If I had more time I would make a Swiss meringue buttercream because the Seven Minute Frosting does not love to be in a piping bag. It gets kind of foamy. Swiss meringue isn't any more involved but it takes a long time in the mixer to get to the right consistency. We also had to hunt a bit to find all red M & M type candies that don't have anything stamped on them.



They're cute though.

Zing!

Infomercial on Green Lantern: The ring can be used to make anything.
Older son: Why didn't they use it to make a better movie?

What Was That?

Younger Son: (looking guilty) That was an armpit fart.
Me: That came out of your butt?
YS: Damn.

Good News Everyone!

Younger son brought home this Futurama mural yesterday.



It was for a carnival they had at his afterschool program. Carnival goers could stick their face in the holes and appear to be a head jars. Bender is off to the side, pointing and laughing.

Wes posted a picture of it on Twitter and my college roommate, currently in LA, just wrote back to say, "Pls tell 10 yo that executive producer of Futurama says: 'Quite well done, in my opinion. Bender's expression is excellent.'"

Pretty cool!

More Reasons I'm a Terrible Mother

1. Younger son order Buttermilk Pancakes for brunch. On the check it was abbreviated as BUTT CAKES. I laughed for about five minutes.
2. Older son was picking fruit out at the grocery store. He said he liked under-ripe nectarines because, "they're hard and chewy." Without thinking about it I responded, "That's what she said!" Then I laughed for about five minutes.

Can I chalk these up to fatigue?

I Almost Feel Bad About It

Older son is fired up to get an iPod Touch. I said that would be fine if he could save enough money. He has a notoriously bad track record for being incapable of saving money. He saves for a little while then decides he wants something else and spends then laments not being able to get the big ticket item. This time he is being a lot more determined. Last week he helped me with my office for nearly three hours. This week he wondered what he could do around the house for some extra money. He suddenly seized upon an idea.

"I can clean the toilets! Will you pay me 50 cents to clean the toilets?"

I suppressed a grin and agreed to pay him 50 cents if he cleaned all three toilets knowing he would never do it.

"Would you pay me 75 cents if I cleaned the shower and bathtub too?"

"Sure, honey."

Well, yesterday he cleaned all the toilets. He didn't do a very good job but, hey, for 50 cents...Then this morning he wanted to clean the shower. As he's up there scrubbing away and I'm down here casting on a new hat I almost feel bad about it.

Older son now says he wants to be paid a dollar for it. I can live with that.

Is This My Haircut?

I don't know how this happened. I went to finally--finally!--get some color added to my hair for a little grey coverage. But somehow through a miscommunication I was not able to get my hair colored. So I asked if they could give me a trim. After a bit of discussion about how much length to leave the stylist chopped off a ton of my hair but left a small whispy section the agreed upon length. She thinned out my hair all over and flat ironed it which I have never done in my life and will never do again. The result is I think I look like Joan Jett.



Wes says he thinks it's cute but then it's his job to say things like that. Younger son immediately laughed at me and said, "Is that your haircut??"

In more satisfying news, I joined the sleeves to the body of Lloie's Cardigan. I feel like I've been working on this sweater since the dawn of time. Okay, since February. This feels really major. I have a week to finish the yoke, steek it and knit the edging. I might make it.




Heading off to spin a bit for Tour de Fleece.

Start of Summer

The Seattle Schools let out on Tuesday. I took a few days off work and spent the balance of the week at home with the boys doing not terribly interesting things like getting them new sneakers and jeans. Because of bad planning (mine) and a bad tummy (not mine) we ended up having to make two separate journeys to the mall. We rounded out the weekend with a trip down to see Wes's parents while his brother, uncle, aunt and cousin were visiting, hosting a sleepover (younger son, going to a birthday party (also younger son) and taking George to two dog training classes.

I did manage to finish the second sleeve on Lloie's Cardigan and start the body.



My hope is to finish this in time for Knitting Camp which is startlingly soon.

Last night, to keep older son from disturbing younger son's sleepover, I watched Jaws with him. He's not like me. He doesn't scare easily. Watching it with him was just like watching Lord of the Rings with him--and endless barrage of questions. "Is he going to die?" "Do they get eaten?" "Are they all going to die?" In the end he declared the movie awesome. Which it is. But I doubt he'll be going swimming in the ocean any time soon.

Hey, Hey, Hey!

We all went to see Bill Cosby perform at Benaroya Hall tonight. We'd never seen him perform live and figured the chance of seeing him again were slim. The performance was really hilarious and wonderful, like spending time with an old friend.

On the way to the theater Younger Son asked, "What does Bill Cosby look like now?"
Older son replied, "Like Nelson Mandela. But funnier."

Overprivileged?

We went for breakfast at the Original Pancake House. Older son saw a small dish of whipped butter on the table. With excitement in his eyes he pointed and asked, "Is that Mascarpone?"

Crepes!

Older son is home sick today. He asked if we could make crepes for lunch. Sure, why not? The batter is so simple he could easily have made it himself. It took a few until I got better at spreading the batter out on the griddle without making bald spots or leaving really thick spots. Very yummy.

Today's Post is Brought to You by the Letter S

Younger Son is Sick with Strep throat (again) and a Staph infection. While I'm Stuck at home I put on the Sashing for the Scrappy quilt blocks and Surfed the internet. This Sucks.

Sick Ward

I have been to more doctors' appointments in the last month than I have in the last several years. It turns out that I have high blood pressure and a chronic small sinus infection that's been around for years. I'm on all kinds of medication right now and none of them are making me feel any better. In fact, they may be making me feel worse. Today is my day off and I'm joined by my younger son who has a slight fever and a little cold. He is currently very upset with me because I found him in his room last night at 12:15(!) playing on his Nintendo DS! It's been confiscated. The little sneak...

All this feeling crummy has given me a lot of knitting time. I started Girasole on Monday night. I'm using Rowanspun Aran I bought over four years ago. I kept thinking I'd use it for a sweater. I might have. But it's making a lovely Girasole blanket. And I definitely have enough to finish the project.

Right now it looks like some kind of sea creature.




This pattern is working up really quickly. All of these shawls I've been working on lately have been such pleasant, effortless knitting. I love lace knitting.

They're On To Me

I told my younger son the other day that this lamb costume was so cute I was going to have another baby just to have someone to put it on. He looked at me sideways and in his best Bill Cosby voice said, "Riiiiiiight."

Right!

The kids have been listening to The Best of Bill Cosby a lot lately. I summoned Younger Son to come downstairs and he said, "Whadya want? I've been good."

Not Kid Stuff

Older Son was stocking up on comic books at the library yesterday. He often tries to sneak home book with some not kid-appropriate content. One of the books he grabbed yesterday, X-Men: Magneto Testament, had a parental advisory label on it. I told him I would check it out and let him know if it was okay.

The purpose of the book is to tell the story of X-Men villain, Mageneto, in his youth. I'm not an X-Men expert. I knew that surviving the Holocaust was part of his backstory. The authors, one of whom Wes and I know, pieced together whatever clues about Magneto's childhood with an accurate history of Jews in Germany, Poland and at Auschwitz. It's a sparingly told story but incredibly effective. There are numerous notes in the back of the book to flesh out the narrative. There is also a teacher's guide and a bibliography.

There is a brief bonus comic that tells the story of Dina Babbitt, a Czechoslovakian Jew, who artistic talent was discovered and used by Josef Mengele. She paintings she produced while a prisoner are held at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and State Museum. She had fought for decades to get them back. And just now, as I tried to find a link about her to include in this post, I found she died this past August and the museum continues to hold her paintings.

This morning I gave my son the book to read.