Lamb and Frog

Let’s tie up a bunch of loose ends from other posts…

The School Situation

Stinky and the Duck are enjoying their new school. They have adjusted well and the school is outstanding…although it too is now failing under NCLB. I’m not going to open that box of Pandoras…the law is flawed and everyone knows it but not much (if anything) has been done about it. Oh well. All it means for me is that I don’t get reimbursed for driving them to and from school. I can live with that.

The State’s “investigation” into the fiasco and possible discrimination that was Stinky’s first day of school this year consisted of calling the school district to see if they had done anything wrong. The district said “no” (imagine that). Cased closed. I decided to stop tilting at that windmill.

The Federal government’s consideration of my request for an investigation was somewhat more involved but ended on that unfortunate distinction between “what the law can do” and “what’s the right thing to do.” According to the Office of Civil Rights, they cannot (or will not) investigate the possibility of discrimination because the discrimination was the result of NCLB (Stinky’s right to get transferred to a non-failing school), which is not one of the laws they enforce. Or something like that. I’m sure it’s a fine legal distinction. I kept the paperwork, but otherwise decided to write off that windmill too.

Aside: Right now the only windmills I’m working on are the ones that pay the bills around here…you know, the real ones that supply power to light our world.

The Books

I finished The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It was good and fun, especially if you like 19th century English fiction (Brontes and all that). I also just finished Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (from Great Books Audio). I’m currently enjoying the heck out of the online novel Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith…one short chapter per day via podcast (way fun). The other audio book I’m working on is really long: David Copperfield by Dickens (from librivox).

Aside: Book club is getting ready to kill me. I didn’t finish The Thirteenth Tale until well after our meeting. I didn’t finish this month’s book either…but I did finish a bunch of Christmas scarves, more on that just below.

The Knitting

I ended up with yarn for a baker’s dozen Christmas scarves. I’m totally done with six. I’ve got three more that need their ends woven in and blocked. That’s them in the picture. The one on top is made with Paton’s SWS (ooh, shiny), the other two are Crystal Palace Taos. I’ve got three OTN (one more SWS and two Taos) and need to wind the yarn (Taos) for the last one.

I finished one of Dad’s big ass Christmas socks and I’m half way down the cuff of the other. These are in Tofutsies (soy, wool, and chitin blend). I love this yarn. Some other blogger (I don’t remember who and I’m too lazy to look it up) mentioned a while back that it feels ‘clean’ and it does. It also has 425 meters per 100 grams. That translates to “one 100-gram ball will probably make dad a pair of socks.” I started a new ball for the second sock anyway. I’m not taking any chances, life is exciting enough right now.

I finished the socks for Stinky that I mentioned in this post and have made the first sock of another pair (they’re plain little socks so they go fast). If Stinky’s look familiar it’s because I’m making them with the yarn leftover from Dad’s first pair (which required two 100-g balls instead of the usual one). Seriously though…look at the size difference and you’ll know why it’s two pairs to one in Stinky’s favor (and he’s a little boy…he’s hell on socks so he deserves more, right?). It’s also why I can get a pair for Dad (or Bill) and a pair for Stinky out of 200 grams.

Aside: The Duck disdains hand-knits and knitting. I offered to send him with a hand-knit sock for ‘State Fair Day’ as an ‘exhibit’ in the Arts & Crafts category. He said, “No knitting!” like it’s dorky or something. Kids, go figure.

Oh, and here’s a picture of the dishcloth (that’s a dragonfly) and tribbles (yeah, I ran out of orange yarn on that top one, so sue me) I mentioned in this post.

The Dog

No, Wolfgang is still with us (otherwise I would really be a wreck).

But he ‘finished’ 3/4 of a large pizza (with pineapple) last Sunday. And, unlike last time, he did it without any help from Jumper the Butter Basher (Bill’s cat). That time (last Christmas) we stepped out to grab some takeout and came home to find that the kids’ gingerbread houses (graham crackers, frosting, and candy), which had been in the center of our dining room table were AWOL. Here’s all we found..

Dirty bugger. That story has nothing to do with anything, I just thought it was amusing, so I figured I’d share. Have a great weekend.