femblog

Go Look

Found some great (if somewhat depressing) web sites for you all to check out.

This web site, Cost of War, is keeping a running tally of just how much the war in Iraq is costing the country every second.  Just to keep things fun, you can limit it to how much just your particular state or town pays every second.  It is running so fast that you can hardly read the first five digits of the number.  My city has only paid about 12 million so far, so, you know, no biggy.  Just something to think about next time you're watching the dollars add up when you are pumping gas.  Oh, and it has a widget so you can post the running tally on you blog, if you so desire.

Then, if you think you can do better, go check out Budget Hero.  It's a little game (activity?) run by NPR that lets you make budget decisions and then move your time-line into the future to see how well you do ten or twenty years down the road.  It definitely has it's limitations - you can only make the budget decisions it lets you make - but it is a fun way to pass a half hour.

Have fun!

Tagged

I've been tagged by Catie for a Meme.

*Pick up the book your reading.   Turn to page 124.  Write the first three sentences you find there. (I've actually done this one before, but since I'm reading a different book now, what the hey).

"If there were some way to say, objectively,what was the best vacation, or the best job, or the best way to spend a Saturday night, then adding options could only make people better off.  Any new option might turn out to be the best one.  But there is no objective best vacation, job or Saturday night activity."

The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz, p.124

Now there is a little bit of cheating involved here.  I have 10 or 12 books waiting to be read.  And I usually am reading a couple at any given time.  I read a lot of Young Adult literature (both for work and because I like it) and I tend to temper that with non-fiction. 

So I grabbed the non-fiction book instead of the fiction one (Jazmin's Notebook, by Nikki Grimes) to look more impressive.  Which I've promptly ruined by telling you.  Alas, such is life.

What Gauge?

Nice sock, no?  I know it's unblocked.  This is my very first foray into two color knitting.  I was very nervous and sure that it would be even harder than it looked.  Of course, it wasn't.

But a funny thing about this sock.  Despite the fact that I didn't measure my foot or make a test swatch to find my gauge or anything, the sock is the wrong size!  I mean, what is with that.  This sock might fit a very small child (and I do have a couple floating around the house somewhere) but it won't fit me.

What to do, what to do?  That striped foot took me hours!  Do I really want to frog it all and start again?

Too late!

My sock.  Well, at least I'm getting in lots of practice knitting with two colors.

WWKIP Day

Yeah! It's WWKIP Day!

Okay, okay, I'll take pity on all you non-knitters and tell you that it is World Wide Knit In Public Day.  But you knew that, didn't you.

I missed the knit-in in Boston, but I did take the kids bowling and knit in the bowling alley - does that count?

We all went to the RiverFestival by the Charles River.  There was ice cream (of course)

And really cool art.  This is from Ralph Brancaccio's Y project:

Sidewalk Sam had the chalk out:

Let's not forget balloon hats!

All this, and bowling too!  No wonder I didn't get much knitting in!

Random Friday

My friend Liz came to visit.  My daughter roped her into playing chess.

I finished more socks!  These are out of the nice alpaca I bought at the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Festival last month.  Can you see the little cable running down the side?

My oldest got henna-ed at Girl Scouts. 

     

Why this picture wanted to be upside-down? I swear, they have a mind of their own. 

That's all for now.

Got The Photos to Upload!

   

 

Birthday Weekend

I took my daughter and four of her friends (one girl couldn't make it :( we were sad) away for the weekend.  I got to bring a friend too!

Of course, I am unable to get any of my pictures to upload right now so mere words will have to sufice.

My daughter turned 13 (no really, 13!  I can hardly believe it) so when I took the girls into town, I gave them a little money, made a plan to meet up, and then them run free.  I got to window shop with my friend.  Very civilized.

We went to the beach and caught crabs, and swam, even though we forgot our suits.

Dinner was make your own pizzas and ice cream cake!

Even though they are now official teenagers, the movie of choice was Kiki's Delivery Service.

In the morning, there was time for a quick dip in the pond - with bathing suits this time.  Lots of frogs and tadpoles were caught.

Of course, we hit tons of traffic coming home and it was 95⁰ F in the city.

And I did get a pair of socks done!  One of the joys of older kids is they need less entertaining which leaves more knitting time.

Of course, you are just going to have to use your imagination about all of this for the moment.  When I figure the problem, I'll update with pictures.  Sorry about this Eldest Child!

Rules

I've been thinking about the rules we have when we have children.  I mean the rules we, as parents, make up.  Not the rules we follow.

We have the ususal assorment of rules in our house, that are probably common to all households with children: No running with sciscors, look both ways before you cross the street, no sweets before meals. And a favorite, "Different parents, different rules," which nicely cuts off the whinning about how "little suzie gets to do everything!"

Then there are the rules specific to our household.  Like, "No melting wax on the lightbulbs."  I never thought I would have to make that rule.  I guess I never thought I would have a son either.

Or rules that have bcome shorthand, like, "Rule of three."  This came about because I decreed that three repetitions was the maximum number of times anything could be repeated before it drove me insane.  That new song you learned?  I'll listen three times.  That new word you learned that feels so good in your mouth to say?  You can say it three times only.  Teasing your sister?  Well, I guess that kind of falls into more than one rule category.  But if I haven't yelled at you for breaking the "no teasing your sister rule" then you're definitely going to get nailed with the "rule of three" rule.

But my favorite rule was, "No having babies in the food court."  This was a real rule we had.

Let me explain.  My twins were very interested in birth and babies.  Their favorite place to go was the birth display at the science museum.  They would watch the videos of live births over and over.

We also liked to have lunch at the mall because the food court had a big open space in the center so I could sit and watch them run around. 

One time I looked up, and I saw twin A lying on the floor, in the middle of the food court, with her legs bent (yes, of course she was wearing a dress) with twin B sitting between her legs saying "Push! Harder, harder! 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Okay, breath.  You just have to hold the pushing a little longer." and then rubbing twin A's stomach gently.  (This is almost verbatim what is said in the video). And then pulling an imaginary baby from between her legs.  And then taking her turn to have a baby.

Yeah, we made that rule up really quickly!

TV Free?!

TV Free Summer begins today.

Yes, really.  The TV free Sundays were an experiment this year, but this is our fourth TV free summer.  We live directly on a park.  This is great because it's like having a really big back yard where all the kids play.  I can stand at my window, doing dishes, and see the kids.  I don'tdo this, but I can.  We live somewhere where it's cold and (occasionally) snowy in the winter.  So we're not out a lot then.  I figure, this helps our yearly average.  You know, definitely more than an hour a day in the winter; nothing in the summer.  It balances.

Usually, there is a two week adjustment period and then we're all used to it.  Sometimes I think that it's harder on me than on the kids.  Then again, it's nice to actually, you know, talk with my husband?

But this summer, we have a computer.  A first (really). What to do about that?!  The goal is to have nothing in the house as exciting as friends in the park.  Unfortunately, mofunzone.com usually trumps that (and, no, I'm not going to link to it).  It's one of the parts of parenting that is such a pain - coming up with weird rules that embody your values and yet are clear enough to follow. (Frankly, I think the weird rules deserves it's own post!).

Any suggestions?

Anemones