Kaity came home with geometry homework today.  Simplifying radicals.  She was in need of a better explanation than either her book or her teacher had provided.  A quick Google search turned up this (embedding has been disabled, but you can watch it directly from the site).

YouTube.  Not just for silly videos.

Technical specs:

• Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted
• Needles: Size 6 Bamboo
• Pattern: Inverness Diamonds, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker
• Cast on 29 stitches
• Repeat pattern 3x
• Bind off knitwise

The view from I-70.

Today was one of those days.  Kaity had her first Science Olympiad competition, meaning she had to be at school at 6:45 am (on a Saturday!).  Brae got up at 8am to go to the KU-Texas game with his Nena. That left Hannah to spend the day with us.  We spent some time looking for some new boots for Brandon (after checking most of the shoe stores in town last Saturday, a trip to the outlet mall in Olathe on Sunday, and 90 minutes in Vanderbilt’s on Monday night). First stop was Urban Outfitters, on the advice of co-worker, who was sadly misinformed.  Then we walked over to Yarn Barn to wait for the buffet at India Palace to open. We saw a giant sock monkey:

Sock Monkey

and a man demonstrating how to spin fiber into yarn, which Hannah thought was very cool:

Spinning

more…

I swear.

Notice the Pants

Apologies for the funky colors, my camera was apparently channeling 1976. They had the Fun Run Assembly today, where the kids who raised the most money get some cool prizes, like a PS3 or an iPod Touch. Those who raised at least $100 get to throw a cream pie (whipped cream on a paper plate this year, though in past years they have been actual pies) at the teacher of their choice.

Kaity decided she wanted her favorite science teacher, Mrs. Hurt, to pie her instead. When I picked her up, she had whipped cream in her hair, and streaked all over her face (in addition to the pants). It was on her T-shirt, too, but it doesn’t show up in the picture.

A nice reward for helping her school raise a record setting $20,000 this year. Beats selling wrapping paper and cheese balls.

Recently I wanted to reduce the amount of fun fur that was taking over my stash, and slowly choking all the other yarn to death. I wanted to knit a pillow. So happily I sat down and commenced to knit a pillow. After going around about thirty to forty times, my mom told me that some people knit their own Ugly dolls. I’ve wanted one for a long time, so I started to decrease the pillow. I ended up with something that looked somewhat like a hat, that was too small. I knitted a bottom, penguin feet and one eyeball and ended up with this:

Mr. Bigglesworth

Isn’t he the CUTEST THING THAT YOU’VE EVER SEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The video for Seether’s latest single, Breakdown, premiered today.  It’s one of my favorite songs off their newest disc.

Dewey tells the story of Spencer, Iowa, and the kitten who found his way into the library book drop one cold January night. Rather than taking him to a shelter, the librarians decide to keep him.

He becomes a fixture, and a favorite, at the library, napping in patrons’ laps, helping them search their bags for papers, and attending meetings.

Dewey eventually garners national attention, appearing in cat magazines, various library newsletters, and on Japanese TV.  But more important than his fame are his relationships with the library patrons, which develop over his 19 years as the official library cat.

This is a very quick read in the vein of Marley and Me, though I found that book funnier and better written.  I may be a little biased, however, since I’m a dog person.  This is a good book, though, and makes me wish my local library had a its own cat.

Since we’ve moved to a hosting service, I’ve decided to try a little experiment.  Rather than burning a bunch of DVDs for the grandparents, I’m going to upload the videos of various school performances here. These will be in Quicktime format (get the plugin).  The first is the 9th Grade Recognition Band Concert (large file), held on May 13th of this year.

Note: We’ll be working backwards through 8th grade, and then I’ll start uploading the stuff from this school year.  Enjoy!

Technical specs:

• Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted
• Needles: Size 6 Bamboo
• Pattern: Inverness Diamonds, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker
• Cast on 34 stitches
• Repeat pattern 3x
• Bind off knitwise