I know I don't go to a lot of parties...

But I must say that the discovery of a fresh human shit on the floor is one way to really liven a birthday party up.

Hand washings all around!

Be careful what you wish for

I have been heard to complain that Maryland has been getting all the snow that is rightfully Vermont's. We had the same icy inch of snow getting dirtier and dirtier for the last couple of months. And finally last week the snow came again.

And then this week, it snowed some more.

And I had been wishing for snow. Snow to sit and knit by. Snow to bake bread to. Snow to deposit the children in.

But I didn't ask for feet of snow immediately followed by inches of rain that meant I would be shovelling water. (Yes, I know snow is frozen water.) Shovelling slushy water is about ten times harder than shovelling powdery snow, even if it is less likely to blow back in your face when you fling it. And Sebastian's boots have spent a week stuck in the baseboard heater unsuccessfully trying to dry. You don't want to know how bad that smells. Swampfoot-- ugh!

Lousy winter. You done me wrong this year.

Yes, I'm still alive.

I was just waiting for at least 10 people to complain that they hadn't read anything lately. I'm just vain like that, I guess.

Not really. I just haven't been in the mood. And I didn't feel like boring everyone with my minutiae for a while. But if you want it, here it is:

Crazy neighbor update: No nudity lately, but there is a pile of garbage as tall as the house behind ours that includes a big screen TV among other things, and is so voluminous that it is hard to imagine it all fitting in the tiny house (which is where I assume it came from). However, I have seen enough episodes of Hoarders to know that it is more than possible.

Also, I witnessed the boy who sucks on nails come out of his house barefoot, walk into the snow, scoop some up with his bare hands and go back inside with it. I will never figure those people out.

Dorian and Kindergarten update: Dorian will not be attending Kindergarten next year. The board declined to make an exception. This disappoints me on selfish levels, but is fine. He'll be fine regardless. Now we just have to decide if he'll continue at the same preschool, and if so, for how many days a week.

Work update: I'm still holding down the fort on Sundays which continues to be okay despite the fact that sometimes people show up at closing time with massive knitting disasters they expect me to fix. Like the woman who was making a blanket on circular needles, but blankets are flat (you know this, I know this, everyone but she knows this), and two inches in she started making it in the round and didn't understand why that was a problem. Time to put down the needles, ma'am.

Knitting update: I "finished" the red riding hood. You will notice it has no closure of any kind, which means it isn't really finished. I'm thinking of knitting some frogs with the abundance of left over yarn, but it probably also needs a zipper. In the meantime, I used a kilt pin to hold it together when I wore it as a jacket yesterday. It was quite warm.

And in honor of the Olympics, I made this rainbow cowl. Rarely do I buy yarn without a specific project in mind, but I just loved these colors. It is a fairly expensive yarn, so I only bought one ball which is only 95 yards. So I needed a small project. I wanted to keep the rainbow intact, so I knit this as a long rectangle (like half a scarf) and then grafted it together to make a tube. But the K3P1 rib that I made was a little too stiff, so I dropped all the purled stitches and now it is nice and drapey. I am pleased.

There you have it. Maybe I'll even update the kids' blog now...

My latest project

The moment I have been anticipating/dreading all school year has finally come-- the time to start trying to get Dorian into Kindergarten next year. You may remember what I had to go through to get Sebastian accepted straight into 1st grade all because his birthday is in November and the cut-off is September 1. Well, now I get to do it all again since Dorian's birthday is 4 days after Sebastian's.

I've begun the process, talking to the principal, being told what the policy is, getting past the gatekeeper to an appointment for registration. So now all that's left is to get my supporting documentation from Dorian's preschool, write my letter of appeal, and hope for the best.

My biggest argument (other than the fact that Dorian is capable and ready) is that their policy is obviously not as cut and dried as they would like me to believe since they already bent it once for Sebastian with no ill effects.

We'll see how convincing I can be...

Don't try to play any version of "Go to the Head of the Class" from the 60s

Not only did the one I got from the thrift store not have the booklet with the answers, it also didn't have enough questions-- but the questions it did have were too much.

Here is a sample card: (Remember that this game is for ages 8 and up)
JUNIOR: Give the Latin for the Zodiac sign "The Balance". Any 8 year old who knows this one has some hippy dippy parents or is so bored they read everything on the comics page, including the chess and bridge sections.
INTERMEDIATE: What large American city was once called Village of Shawmuu? You can just see the middle schoolers' faces when this topic came up in Social Studies. Or didn't. Did anyone learn this?
SENIOR: Name the first President of the Commonwealth of the Phillipines [sic]. Mama has less important things to know than this.

The only thing I can think is that since this was series 15, whoever was in charge was running out of things to ask about. Sort of like how the most recent editions of Trivial Pursuit have questions about who won the 3rd of the Women's Bowling Playoff pregames in 1983.

It was all worth it for a few hilarious answers from Dorian including:
Who said "Shoot if you must this old grey head, but spare my country's flag", she said? D: A goat.
What country launched the first satellite into orbit? D: Space.