If my blog were a Tamagochi Pet it would have died already from neglect. After a good start, I fell off the wagon and it just seems hard to get back in the habit of posting, even though I really enjoy blogging.
First of all a crafting update so I can post a picture to make it look interesting:
After sending off a pair of mittens and a baby blanket to Afghans for Afghans for their current campaign, I joined a Ravelry group which is making hats for premature babies at Mary Bridge Hospital in Seattle. Making them takes hardly any time at all, I can churn out 3 every two days just in TV time without really trying. I should probably knit for my own family---but let's face it, no one in my household has a head so small that I can make a hat in a couple hours with less than 50 yards of yarn. (Thank goodness for that actually----that would be a seriously pin-headed deformity.)
Family updates:
The family (minus Audrey who stayed home sick) went to Seattle last Sunday to see KISS in concert. Fun, actually. They may be old, they may not be the best or cleverest band, but they put on a good show. There were flames in 4 different colors, fireworks, rising platforms, a spinning drum stage, and plenty of kitchy stage stunts. I even recognized a few songs.
I am knitting and coaching the Knowledge Bowl team at the kids' high school. Knowledge Bowl was cut from the school budget, and in order for RAL to have a team, I volunteered to coach it. Instead of using a school bus we are car-pooling the team to meets (meaning John and I drive them in our vehicles.) It's fun hanging out with the smart kids essentially playing really hard trivial pursuit. The varsity team even took 2nd place at their first meet, only one point behind the rival high school from Longview.
John is working and practicing with his band for gigs at the family practice dept.'s Christmas party, and a private party at a yacht club in January. He wants to buy a banjo, preferrably an electric banjo.
James had a jazz band concert in the new theatre at the community college on Tuesday. His bass playing was quite good, and it was the most pleasant school concert I have ever been to. He has his driver's license, and is actually driving the '95 Jetta we got for him back and forth to school. I discovered that insuring a teenage boy is every single bit as economically painful as everyone tells you it's going to be--our payment doubled. He took his SAT's earlier this month, he has great grades, he's doing his Senior Project a year early, he's one of the two best players on the Knowledge Bowl team, and he plays a lot of World of Warcraft.
Audrey has been struggling with being sick. I think she's up to 20% absenteeism for the school year now, but it's all been legitimate. It's hard to keep up when she is taking Ceramics and Welding which are a series of projects that have to be completed in a certain amount of time, and all honors/advanced classes for the rest of her schedule. She's trying very hard, and doing admirably well. She also has a steady boyfriend (and having a teenage daughter with a boyfriend, like insuring the teenage son, is every bit as bad as people tell you it will be---as much as I denied it up until now.) She's president of her freshman class and is working on organizing a clothing drive to benefit the kids at her former middle school, and is alternate on the Knowledge Bowl team (and I'm glad to have her. . . she's the only girl, and gives some much needed relief to the clouds of testosterone that hang over our practices.)
Thanksgiving will be had at home with just the four of us, which I rather like. We will then observe Black Friday as the official start of the holiday season (not the day after Halloween like some people.)
And we still have two naughty dogs (though there haven't been any misadventures since the pocupine incident of October 15,) and Bob and Norman.
