Sunday, August 31, 2008

Little Known Fact:


Little Known Fact: the Northern Lights are really just the reflection from Sarah Palin's eyes.

Little Known Fact: The Russians sold Alaska to America because Sarah Palin would not submit to autocracy.

Little Known Fact: The Arctic Circle runs through Alaska so the Sun can have some relief from Sarah Palin's bright glare.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin is allowed first dibs on Alaskan wolfpack kills.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin personally hog-tied two reps from Planned Parenthood who came knocking at her door.

Little Known Fact: It's not raining in DC. Those are God's tears of joy that McCain picked Sarah Palin.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin's hotness is the largest single contributor to melting polar ice caps.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin is the "other" whom Yoda spoke about.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin's presence in the lower 48 means the Arctic ice cap can finally return.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin kicks Chuck Norris' ass.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin's pageant career ended early so other women could have a chance.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin's son is going to Iraq after the Surge, because a Palin during the Surge would have been unfair.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin wears glasses lest her uncontrollable optic blasts slaughter everyone.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin knows how old the Chinese gymnasts are.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin will give birth to the man who will lead humanity's war against the machines.

Little Known Fact. Three of Sarah Palin's 5 kids came out sideways and she never flinched.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin is the missing Cylon.

Little Known Fact: Global Warming doesn't kill polar bears. Sarah Palin does. Generally with her bare hands.

Little known fact: Chuck Norris wishes he was Sarah Palin trapped in a man's body.

Little known fact: Sarah Palin once guided Santa's sleigh through an Alaskan blizzard with the light from her smile.

Little known fact: Sarah Palin fishes salmon by convincing them it's in their interest to jump into the boat.

Little known fact: Palin once won the Iditarod without any dogs. She simply willed the sled to victory.

Little known fact: Sarah Palin used to wrestle kodiak bears in Alaskan bare knuckles fight clubs.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin actually has Big Foot in her freezer.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin doesn't need a gun to hunt. She has been known to throw a bullet through an adult bull elk.Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin keeps her hair in a beehive to hide her ninja weaponry.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin will send Biden a pre-debate cheat sheet. The sheet will have tips on defending against Kung Fu Death Grip.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin could not find a man good enough for her, so she built her husband from scratch using the DNA of Washington, Lee, Eisenhower, Churchill, Shun Tsu, and Genghis Khan.Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin isn’t allowed to wield the gavel at the convention because they’re afraid she’ll use it to kill liberals.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin once won a competitive eating contest by devouring three live caribou.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin once carved a perfect likeness of the Mona Lisa in a block of ice using only her teeth.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin will pry your Klondike bar from your cold dead fingers.

Little Known Fact: After the Sarah Palin pick, the Democratic National Committee was forced to retroactively rebrand their national convention theme to: “Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead”

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin drives a Zamboni to work.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin was kicked off Survivor for killing a man and eating his entrails.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin can divide by zero.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin poses more danger of creating world-destroying black holes than the Large Hadron Collidor.

Little known fact: Sarah Palin is the true name of the Child-Like Empress.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin's enemies are automatically added to the Endangered Species List.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin homeschools her kids because any of her offspring would be so supremely intelligent that she is the only teacher that could possibly challenge them.
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The best acne treatments can rarely be found on the internet! But it's worth a look!
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Sunday, August 24, 2008

tired.... so tired....

It's almost 2am.

They're still at it.

I had to put my foot down.

2 o'clock comes and they are out the door and into their tents.

I know they'll be up at the crack of dawn. What was I thinking?

The younger ones are staying inside. This'll give them a go at the Wii without the big boys bothering them.



Oh,, and another thing. Our friends Steve and Christina stopped by (thus the wii, Thanks Ya'll!) and of course their daughter Madison and her friend Whitney came too. You never saw so many sweaty awkward boys posturing and fluffing their hackles. It was frankly a little disturbing but they're pretty girls, so you can't blame them really.

B: (playing guitar hero)

G: wooooww, you're REALLY good at that! (dreamy voice)

B: "yeah,, I know,, probably the best I know" (dorky Napoleon voice)

G: "That's really coooool" (dreamy voice)

Kill.

Me.

Now.

I'd rather just have my head up my rear thank you very much.

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How funny is it that I've been assigned to talk about acne treatment cream? 'Nouf said really.
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Saturday, August 23, 2008

We've been invaded

Squeeky voices.


Stinkiness.


Argueing.


Rough Housing.


Sleeping Bags.


Flashlights.




Slumber Party.

Happy Birthday Thomas!

I have more than a 1/2 dozen stinky boys in my tiny eensey weensy house. The noise level is "pert-near" deafening. They are camping out in the yard tonight. Thank goodness for small miracles and good weather. The cats are a nervous wreck and I am well medicated. Thank God for Chris, I couldn't handle this without him here! A gaggle of teen and pre-teen boys need a dad to be around.

They're off to play flashlight tag.

Send Pizza.... and valium.

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I wonder if there are any franchise opportunities available to take care of these kids?

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Friday, August 22, 2008

I'm Disenchanted





Yeah, I said it. I'm bored with blogging. It seems that there is nothing new under the sun lately.

We're doing stuff I guess, but it's that same ol' same ol', ya know? We're back to school in full swing. That's something I suppose. Big things are happening with our local HS group. That is very exciting but the ball isn't rolling at full speed yet.

We did go to a friend's yesterday and had a great time. She has a lovely home and an awesome pool. My boys are sufficiently jealous and dreaded coming back to the Land of Cramped and Boring.

One of the girls found this great caterpillar yesterday. I have honestly never seen one before.


Someone looked it up and apparently it is the largest caterpillar in North America. I say GOOD. Because if they made 'em bigger than that, I might have a little trouble sleeping. Have you ever seen such a thing?!?! he reminds me of Heimlich from Bugs Life!



It's a Cecropia (soft c). It's adult state is just as impressive and it's called a Robin Moth. If you want to check out the entire life cycle there is a great kid friendly site called wormspit.com. Thanks for finding that Jenny!




The same little girl later showed me her pet turtle.



She said she's had it since Christmas. I'm going to have to investigate that! HA! I'm not doubting her but isn't it a bit teensy to be 9 months old? I may be wrong. The funniest part is that she has that poor turtle's shell decked out with glitter! I'm obviously no turtle expert but something tells me that's not healthy!



I also managed to come home with a few less books. That's always good. The boxes are getting lighter but they still weigh a ton! I only came home with ONE book, no,, ok,, 3 books, but one I'm really excited about. It's The Trail Guide to World Geography. Thanks Kathy!


I stayed up way too late last night reading it over. I'm gonna need a nap today!

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Saturday, August 16, 2008

Galleries Field Trip.

On Tuesday of this week wen went out the the Huntington Museum of Art to see the exhibit on Civil War photography. I thought it was incredibly interesting but I think it could have been done better. The kids were a little bored with it I think.
I tried to make it more interesting for my kids by helping them build a pinhole camera and doing a little history of the Daguerreotype. They really got into it at home. Of course when we got to the Galleries the nice lady asked "Has anyone done any research on civil war photos and pinhole cameras?" and both of my kids are like "uh duhhhhhhhhh" and had a little drool coming out of the corners of their mouthes.
I'm trying so hard to help them be smart,, really I am.
So I couldn't take pictures there. It's understandable. But I could take pictures in the conservatory.



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Today I'm supposed to tell you about balance transfers. I'm clueless. Perhaps I should read the balance transfers 101 article on smartbalancetransfers.com?
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Monday, August 11, 2008

Squirrel Nutkin Bootie- a free pattern

This is the quickest little bootie! I can get a set done in 40minutes! If you try it let me know! Sorry about the upskirt shot baby Victoria! Ravelers can see it HERE.

Yarn: Any worsted weight
Needles: Size 7 straits (I knit loosely, use your own judgement) and one size 9 for the bind off
A yarn needle for sewing up.

Notes: I was given this pattern by a wonderful knitting friend in Texas. I kept loosing it and I would have to
call on her to give it to me again. She knits hers without the ribbing. I thought I'd put it here on my blog so
I'd never loose it again. I also modified the way it was written down in case anyone else who's knitting these
has never knitted short rows before. I added "line checks" after all the short row rows. I hope that I've
written it in such a way that even the most novice knitter can tackle it! Thank you Squirell!

CO 31 stitches using long tail cast on (or whichever you choose)
R1-5 Purl every row
R6 (starts shortrow) K17, Sl 1, K2tog, PSSO, TURN (you will have 18 st on the right needle(RN) and 11 on
the left (LN)before turning (BT))
R7 Sl 1, P3, P3tog, TURN (16 RN, 11 LN BT)
R8 Sl 1, K3, Sl 1, K2tog, PSSO (16 RN, 9 LN BT)
R9 Repeat row 7 (14 RN, 9 LN BT)
R10 Repeat row 8 (14 RN, 7 LN BT)
R11 Repeat row 7 ( 12 RN, 7 LN BT)
R12 K12
R13-16 Knit in Stockinette Stich (Knit a row, purl a row) (19 stitches on the needle)
R17-25 Knit in 1x1 rib (knit one purl one across first row and knit the knits and purl the purls from there on
out)Bind off in rib (continue to knit the knits and purl the purls while binding off) with larger needle.
Leave a long tail for sewing up.
Sew up the sole and up the back.
Tuck in your loose tails.
Place on baby's foot!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Baby Sweater

Anyone who knits has heard of the 5 Hours Baby Sweater. It does go together quickly. I don't know about 5 hours (who has time to sit and knit for 5 hours strait?) but it was quick. I've since knit the hat and booties to match but I'm not real happy with them so I'll probably knit something else. I used Moda Dea Vision and can I just say? I love that yarn. It's like the 4th time I've used it and it feels good, it looks good, it knits well and washes well. The best part? It's reasonably priced. I think it's $4.99 a skien at ACMoore. This sweater used almost exactly one skien. I like to use non-pastel colors for baby clothes. I think it's a nice change.

I used needles that are significantly smaller than the suggested size. I tend to knit loosely. I used a size 7 circular. Even with the smaller needle it still came out to be about a size 3-6 months.

It's a cute little sweater but every time I've knit it I have the same problem. About 10 rows in the button band sucks in and it looks like my gauge changes or something. I know that's not it,, my gauge is just fine. It doesn't block out either. Ugh,, oh well.

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Yesterday it was the colon cleanse,, today it's diet pills. I'll spend my money on yarn thank you very much!

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Saturday, August 9, 2008

Pinhole Photography




On Tuesday we are going to go to the Huntington Museum of Art and see an exhibit on Civil War Photography and Political paraphanalia. Now, *I* think this is really cool stuff. It's sciency, it's history related AND it's political. It's the Crystal Tri-Fecta.



The kids on the other hand? This has the potential to be really boring for them so I looked for a way to make it more interesting and make them feel like they really knew why what we were looking at was cool. I decided that we would build our own pinhole camera. So many of the tutorials that I looked at showed children doing it so I thought, "awwh yea,, I can do this"

How many times will I do this before I learn?

We DID do it and we got a few "picturelike" images so I'm saying that the experiment was a success.
Here's one shot that I have handy (the other I haven't loaded onto the computer yet).


It looks kinda "otherworldly" does it not? It was taken out our back door. No, not a masterpiece but really cool considering it was taken with a mentos tin and some electrical tape! (btw,, our camera looks really cruddy like a sardine tin out of which an alley cat would eat. The above picture is one I scarfed from Makezine.com)

If you'd like to learn more about the history of photography and how the pinhole camera came to be you can go HERE.

If you'd like to make your own pinhole camera there are many tutorials on the net but a really good one is the Mintycam found HERE (this is the one we made) and you can make your own pinhole "Brownie" HERE.

The best part about the one we made was that you take the film to Walmart to get it developed. You don't have to mess with Fixer and Stop and Developer and darkrooms. Our first roll was free because they thought it was a blank roll!!! Well,, it was mostly except for the shot above. If you like a challenge, I highly recommend this project! It's great for History and Science!

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Ok, is there any delicate way to talk about this? I mean,, ewww. If you need a colon cleanse I guess this link is just between you and the internet! LOL

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Saturday, August 2, 2008

Yard Sales


I hit a few yard sales with Mom this morning. It was pouring the rain. I kept saying "It'll let up in about an hour, it'll let up" but it just kept coming down. Finally I said "let's just go to Gabriel Brothers, that's like a yard sale except inside".

The boys groaned. Loudly.

They HATE Gabes. There's nothing there that interests them. I can look for literally hours. The boys also know that if mommy goes into Gabes there will be at least a few uncomfortable minutes spent in the bra department.

Lucky for them tho, there was a huge yardsale on the way there that was held in a car wash so it was completely under cover. We stopped and it turned out that a guy was trying to unload a bunch of storage building stuff he'd repossessed. There was a TON of school books there. I came home with an entire trunkload for $4. I probably won't use a fraction of these but I'll find good homes for them! I only took a fraction of what he had, I left the copies and the wet stuff there. There was also a giant roll of paper that I bought for a cool one dollar bill.

T2 bought a pogo stick. T1 bought a CD player. Yeah, that pretty much describes them, erratic and techy, in that order.

That was the end of the rain and the end of yard sale prices! The next sale we went to, I picked up a styrofoam head. I asked the lady "How much for the head?"

She shrugged and replied "eh? how 'bout $10.00?"

My jaw dropped.

"Are you serious?"

"I can get one of these at Sally Beauty Supply right now for $2.oo!"

She seemed very offended. I don't care, I was offended at the $10.00 price tag. She ended up selling it to me for a quarter by the way! ha ha.

That's about all we could handle this morning. We were tired, and sticky and wet

That's pretty much all I did I day!

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Do you know what you probably WON'T find at a WV yard sale? Quinceanera invitations.

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I've Been Really Busy!


There's nothing like thinking you can do something and then finding out that you don't know what you're doing. I do this.. well, a lot. I don't know what they call this disorder of the brain but I really do have it all worked out. In my head, I CAN do it.

I think they call it Stupiditis.

This time it's web publishing. I'd been thinking about putting a website together for a long time. I thought, "Gee, if I can pull it off, maybe I can put one together for our Co-op!"

So I began thinking about it. Not a few weeks later the plea went out.

"Can someone put together a website for us?"

and just like a little kid I threw up my hand and said "ME ME ME!! I'LL DO IT!!"

So I jumped in with both feet. Nothing like a crash course in HTML and FTP to give a person a headache huh?

But you know what?

I think I pulled it off.

It's not beautiful but I learned SO MUCH! I can do this! I even learned how to write and publish a PDF!

I honestly couldn't have done it if dad hadn't come over and give me a quick class in FTP.

Here it is, it's my first website ever so don't judge me too harshly!


Ok, you can judge me harshly if you want. The coolest part is that now I CAN DO IT!! You CAN teach an old dog new tricks!

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You can never have too much term life insurance!

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