Not Again!

Wow - long time, no post!  Things have been busy round these parts, what with another science fair project, family gatherings, the start of soccer, and yes - some job interviews!  I had sent out a resume at the last second for a job teaching 5th grade math at a really swanky middle school, and lo and behold, they called!  I've now completed my 2nd interview with them, and I guess it was a success, because they want me to come in to teach a demo lesson.  Sadly, the words "demo lesson" strike fear into my heart, as I've never done one (I've always gotten my teaching jobs in the summer when there are no kids, hence no demos), so we'll see how it goes.  There are some other interviews looming as well - who knew?

I was able to find the time to blog today, because we have once again run slap into "TV Free Week."  Now, I don't like TV Free Week.  We've done it every year since Miss Serious started Kindergarten, and seem to be the only parents around who actually participate.  I figure if we're going to make the kids shut off the TV, it's only fair that we do, too.  And, since the whole point seems to be to illustrate how much time we're actually sitting planted in front of the little box with the pretty pictures, it makes sense that we partake.  Especially since I'm one of those people who is in serious denial, and keep thinking to myself, "What?  I don't watch a lot of TV..."

So - I've read a couple of books, listened to some books on tape (David Sedaris' "Santaland" is really funny - I highly recommend it), but haven't gotten a lot of knitting done.  I've come to the frightening conclusion that I may actually knit just so I have an excuse to watch television...

The blanket does continue to grow, so much so that I'm actually using it as a little throw on the couch while I'm knitting on it (TV-less - what could be sadder?), but I can't get my computer to acknowledge that I've connected my camera, so I've stuck in some already loaded pictures of cards.  It's starting to do odder and odder things - I wonder if it misses TV too?

Baby It's Cold Outside

Of course, it's all relative, but compared to the week we had (I think it actually hit 90), a morning in the 40's is cold.  Of course, because of the bizarre weather, my kids think they can wear shorts even though it hasn't cracked 45, and they were asking me when the local pool would be open.  I tried to explain that as it is only the beginning of April, the pool will have to wait for a few months.  My favorite part of this hot week was that I actually had to slap on pantyhose on the hottest day to toddle off to a job interview.  One would think that in the first week of April I wouldn't have to sweat while wearing interview clothes, but one would be wrong.....

I did make some springy cards - I got some spiffy new paper from PTI (lovely company) with my hoarded birthday money, did some coloring and even slapped on a little glitter - because nothing says spring like a sparkly butterfly, right?

Spring, Spring, Spring, Spring

I love the advent of spring.  I think I must have a touch of SAD, because the winter always gets me down a bit.  It doesn't help that the cold and I are not friends, and that my circulation is stinky and causes me to lose feeling in my fingers and toes as soon as I go outside in cold weather.  I get so weary of darkness, and every year when spring starts to appear, I feel a definite lift of my spirits.  I love the buds on the tress, the warm sun coming through my windows, and all the flowers shoving their way up through the cold ground.  I even finished some really springy-looking socks, and though they are wool, they're pretty lightweight and good for this weather.

Geek that I am, the main reason I finally finished these socks is because I wanted the leftover sock yarn for my blanket (you can see a big square of it at the top).  I thought I had a lot of leftovers, but the blanket plows through them pretty fast, so I'm going to have to purchase some odd skeins if I want to continue with it, as my rate of sock knitting is not nearly fast enough to get ends to add squares.

I also must admit that I got a chuckle from knitting squares with the sock yarn while wearing the socks, but then, I am easily amused that way....

It's Raining....

unfortunately in my apartment.  (Well, not anymore, as this is a post from Tuesday that I couldn't get the pictures to work on.)  We have been battling leaks around our windows for years (supposedly it's coming in through the bricks of the building), and numerous companies have been called in; they set up scaffolding, bang around on the side of the building for a few days, declare the job completed, charge the building many thousands of dollars, and are on their merry way.  And then it rains again, (it has to be a rain with hard winds, and since we are so close to the coast and tall, these are not infrequent), and my windowsill once again looks like this.  It drips in weird places around the top of the window frames, and then the drips splash onto our window seat, hence the myriad of towels and containers.

Now it's finally dried out, and I've washed all the soggy towels, and put back my curtains and the cushion for the window seat.  The wood surrounding all my windows is totally trashed, but our building will take care of that once they tell us that the outside is, once again, fixed.  I'm sure it will work this time.....

Skywalk

This weekend we took a drive up to visit The Professor's parents, and they suggested that we go to a newly built park called Walkway Over the Hudson.   (I know the weekend was quite a few days ago, but for some reason Blogger steadfastly refused to publish my photos until today...)  It's the longest walking bridge in the world, and was built on top of a disused railroad bridge.  It was really neat - about 1.25 miles across the Hudson River, with a gorgeous view. This picture was taken from over the side (by The Professor, his palms don't sweat about that sort of thing, and thus he can hold the camera steady.)

It was a beautiful day, and there were lots of people on the bridge.  You're even allowed to bring dogs, so Tobie tagged along (he actually pulled the leash the whole way - I wish we could have hitched him up to a plow and he could have been doing something productive with all that energy). 

Big Trouble brought his binoculars to check out the birds, and a lovely time was had by all.  If you're in the area, check it out - free and fun - two of my favorite things!

It's Not Easy Being Green

I think I've done at least one other blog post with that title, but my brain cells are running low.  The kids had a superintendent's conference day today, so that meant no school for them.

I have been in charge of battery recycling at their school, and it's been really successful; people drop off their used alkaline batteries at the school, and I periodically scoop them up and recycle them.  This is a tad easier said than done, because although many places accept used rechargeable batteries, it's harder (but certainly not impossible) to recycle alkaline batteries.  For a long time our county was telling people to just throw them in the garbage (the amount of toxic disasters and heavy metals in batteries is truly horrific), which was just unacceptable to us, so that's why we started the program at the school.

I've been taking them to IKEA, a store which is near and dear to my heart because of its oh-so-Swedishness.  The store also accepts used fluorescent lightbulbs (which shouldn't be thrown in the garbage because of the mercury content), printer cartridges, and cell phones.  The kids think it's a really fun outing - we walk through all the rooms set up with furniture, they have some Swedish meatballs in the cafe ($1.99 and served on a real plate - can't be beat!), and I might pick up a Malm or a Hoppen - I love that they keep the Swedish names - makes shopping much more fun and exciting (and Scandinavian).

We haven't made the trek in a while, and I therefore had about 9 jillion pounds of batteries residing in my tiny kitchen.  For those of you who haven't tried to carry 9 jillion pounds of batteries, batteries are really heavy.  I mean seriously heavy.  I separated them into three bags, I handed one to each of the kids, and we trekked to the car (amidst a fair amount of whining...).  We drove the 40 minutes to IKEA, dragged the batteries out of the car, got to the little recycling kiosk, and were met with a sign stating that they no longer accept batteries for recycling. 

Hmmmmm.....so the batteries got hauled back to the car, and we had our day at IKEA - even brought home a bag of frozen Swedish meatballs for the kids.  (Who of course had to help me haul the batteries back up to the apartment, as I wasn't sure if 9 jillion pounds of batteries in a hot car were a terribly good idea).

Where shall I drive my batteries to tomorrow?  They do so like getting out of the house.

Spring has Sprung

But then it decided to go back into its little hidey-hole - we had a whole pile of days in the 60's (I think it may even have hit 70) which were really lovely, but also make me a little irritated because I know it's only March and it's one giant tease.  Yesterday we woke up to heavy fog - so much so that Big Trouble woke me up exclaiming that something was wrong outside.  The only thing wrong in my book is that it's not summer, but whatever....

Now that all the birthday festivities are over (we jammed just about all of my family into my little living room this weekend - what good sports!) we've been getting back to our regular routines, such as they are.  I made another pile of thank you notes for Miss Serious to send - she's pretty good about writing in them once she can bring herself to put down the latest book she's reading. 

It does so pain my heart to have to tell my children to stop reading.  However, if I didn't, my house would be covered in underwear which never seems to make it to the hamper (still don't know what that's about) and nobody's bed would ever be made (although I don't know if you can really call the half-hearted pulling up of comforters actually making the bed, especially with the myriad of lumps caused by various stuffed animals and discarded clothing....).  Take what you can get, I guess.