The Myth of the Ohio Lottery

This commercial has been airing incessantly for the last few weeks, and it aggravates me every time that I see it.

If you think that buying a lottery ticket is actually helping schools in Ohio, please do a little bit of research. For every dollar that is given to your school by the Ohio Lottery, a dollar is taken away from the state funding that is earmarked for your school. No school in Ohio is helped by lottery funds - only the state's budget.

These commercials started showing up right after Gov. Strickland announced that funding for the schools is going to be cut. That's not a coincidence. He's trying to figure out some other way to save the state's budget - and every dollar that you spend on lottery is one less dollar that he has to spend on education.

If you want to buy lottery tickets, feel free. I've been known to buy a scratch-off or two. Just don't delude yourself with the belief that you're helping schools. If you want to help schools, vote for your local levies - until they fix the mess that is Ohio State Education Funding, it's the only way to make sure that our schools stay open.

Knitters Without Borders

The Yarn Harlot has thrown down the gauntlet...she has set a goal of One Million Dollars for Knitters Without Borders. That sounds insane, but since she has started this cause, over $560,000 has been raised. Surely we can find a way to help her make that goal!

Between now and January 31st, 100% of the purchase price of Windy will be donated to Knitters without Borders.

Top-Down Construction

Materials needed for size S, M, L [36-38 (40-42, 44-46)]
3 (4,4) skeins of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool (65% Wool, 35% Silk 50g = 175 m)
Size 4 (3.5 mm) circular needles 24” & 40” lengths
Size 6 dpns (for I-Cord)
Gauge: 6 stitches and 8 rows per inch

$5.50

There's also a Ravelry Link...

Merry Christmas!

Brrrrrrrrrrr...........

Holy cow, it's cold outside! According to The Weather Channel, it is -2F, with a wind chill of -22F. For those of you outside of the US, that's -19C with a wind chill of -30C.

The wind is howling, I've started my Christmas knitting (yes, I know that I'm running behind...), but I don't have to get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning because it's Christmas vacation! Woot!

Just for fun!

If you've ever gone to Knitting Camp, you've probably eaten at The Kitchen Table restaurant. Personally, it's one of my favorite places to eat in the entire universe, aside from my Dad's kitchen. If you've eaten there, you probably know Stacey the Wonder Waitress - she's a great waitress, a wonderful, funny person, and the biggest Packer fan that I've ever met in my life.

Stacey is in a Packer Fan contest, and she needs our votes! If you go to this website, you can vote for her. She's "Crazy Packer Fan," and she's on page 3, toward the bottom.

(Yes, I know that I'm probably being disloyal to the Browns. Have you *seen* the Browns lately? I don't feel bad...)

Good luck, Stacey! :-)

Secret Pal and a Birthday Present!

My mailman came to the door yesterday, and he brought me a Christmas present from my secret pal!

2 skeins of Lorna's Laces, in the "Franklin's Panopticon" colorway! And.....look to the left of the picture....yes, those are Lantern Moon Ebony Sox Stix! I've seen those needles on the internet, but I had never seen them in person. Wow, are they ever smooth and they have a lovely sharp point on them!

Thanks, Secret Pal, this is really appreciated!

And - in the "Really Appreciated" Department, Sabrina (aka "The Fiber Enabler"), sent me an early birthday present!
The Knitting Around DVD and a really, really, cool book! "Secret London" is a book of walking tours, which takes you to places that no guide book will ever show you. That's the way that Kevin and I visited London ("Let's see what's down this alley!") and this book has a lot more neat locations to check out when I go back with my sister! Sabrina is full of awesome on a daily basis - when she moves to England in a few years, I'm going to be a regular visitor. ;-)

4 days of school until Christmas break - and it's not a minute too soon...the kids and the teachers are squirrely at this time of the year!

Look what my Dad did! :-)

5 (count 'em, 5!) boxes of Jaffa Cakes! An early birthday present - and yes, they've already been sampled and found to be perfect. He found them at a British importer in San Francisco.

What a great way to make a crappy couple of days MUCH better! Thanks, Dad! :-)

Well, I did it...

As of January 12th, I'm back in grad school! I'll be spending Mondays and Wednesday evenings (from 5:00 - 7:40) at Lorain County Community College in Elyria, taking classes through Ashland University.

Both campuses are 45 minutes to an hour from here, but I would rather drive to LCCC than Ashland in the winter - if I run into any winter-related problems, I would rather be someplace that I can call family and/or friends for help. I'm originally from Grafton and my sister still lives there...and I still know people all along the route.

The classes? Qualitative Research and Educational Psychology. Don't those sound exciting? After these are finished, I only need to take 3 more classes and my capstone experience to finish my Master's in Classroom Instruction. Hopefully I'll have more than one English class by then - it would be rather funny (and not in a ha-ha way, I don't think) if I ended up getting tenure in JD Watching!

Gah!

How on earth is it December already? Time really flies when you're stuck on the couch knitting having fun!

I'm on the last project of my catalog/magazine knitting - the vest and the sweater are done and out of here, and now I'm working on the KnitPicks project. I should have it done by the weekend...and then I need to start my Christmas knitting! Unfortunately, because it's all "secret" knitting, I don't have any pictures to show you yet.

Luckily, my shoulder is feeling better. It's still twingy/achy once in a while, but the stabbing, throbbing pain is gone (knocking furiously on wood - don't want to tempt the fates!) It's starting to grind again, though, and that's usually not a good sign. We'll see, I guess.

And now - surprise, surprise - I have to get back to my knitting! :-)