Betty, sweet Betty

You're Betty Grable!


What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
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And here I was hoping for Betty Boop. No kidding. I have this thing about Betty Boop, her shapely bod and high heels along with that "boo-boo-d-doop". If I ever come back as a cartoon, please let it be Betty Boop and not Marge Simpson, Betty Rubble, Wilma Flintstone or Jane Jetson. Nothing wrong with them, I just really, really want to be Betty Boop.

I'm so incredibly flattered! Kerstin, of At My Knit's End stopped by and left a comment. Even if you aren't a knitter, her blog is a must-read. A never-ending source of info on her infamous yellow sidebar along with her wit and honesty. Her writing and knowledge inspire me to learn more about darn near everything.

Went out this afternoon to do grocery shopping and stopped by The Gates of Hell for coffee since Hubster insists on Maxwell House and Aldis doesn't carry it. I swear, every single time I go to WM/TGoH, things are worse. We actually had an employee push one of us in her incredible rush to get on break. 3 pounds of shredded cheese, 2 big cans of MH coffee, 2 boxes of microwave, pour-over butter popcorn and $95 dollars later, we escaped for another few months. Only thing I bought there that really was worth the hassle: "All Jacked Up" by Gretchen Wilson. I cannot remember the last time I bought MYSELF a CD so that makes it doubly tought to remember the last time I enjoyed every single song on a new one as much as I'm enjoying this. Maybe it's my country girl heart, I do not know, but this music is toe-tapping, sing-a-long stuff. Well, if you dig country. Miss E has already memorized several songs and sings along with me. After all this, I remember, I forgot batteries for the digi cam! I wanted to hit the Dollar General (we go through batteries something shameful) but our town is having another one of their weekend-long ploys to suck folks into the downtown area. Hmm, if we had just said no to WM/TGoH, maybe downtown wouldn't be suffering quite so much? And another thought for the planners of these "festivals"...folks aren't interested in coming to a place where the parking is on the main drag yet we shut that drag down to auto traffic to allow vendors in the street. 'Nuff said there too.
Well, the Hubster has hinted he'd like some attention sometime this month so maybe, just maybe I ought to tend to him??

Houston, We have DSL!

Yeah, buddy! I am one overly excited mama right now. Our dsl was ready a whole day ahead of schedule (thanks verizon!). Despite my fears that I would somehow manage to screw up the installation of the kit provided, things went quickly and smoothly. Have I mentioned how much I'm loving this?! The kids do a lot of online games, music, etc...I just cannot get over how quickly everything loads. Even blogs carrying warnings for those not on broadband which used to take forever as done in a blink of my eye. Good-bye aol, you money-sucking, not-so-virus-protecting thing, you. You read right. I found 4 viruses last night after getting dsl up and running. AOL's promise of virus protect rings hollow here as does their spyware stuff. Unless I'm a complete moron, as my kids suggested.

I'm itching to add graphics and lots of pics to this space but someone (NOT me) has either lost or used all the correct sized batteries for the digi cam so I'm up the creek without a paddle for a few more days. There really isn't all that much to share, I am just in a hurry to get this space "jill'd up". lol

R. and I haven't been home much thanks to SuperGrandpa. SG is doing a house remodel for a friend and asked if we'd be willing to help out. Power tools! Hammers! Crow bars! Demo work! We are tired, sore and still feeling filthy after several showers but we have been having a lot of fun. SG lets R drive the truck around the property and let me tell you, if your kids don't have the chance to do stuff like this before they are legal, they are missing out! I think R's favorite thing so far, besides being a truck driving gal, has been the demo work. Ripping out 8' sections of sheetrock(drywall) with a hammer and crow bar is great therapy. We've had some giggles drawing faces on the walls (complete with names) and smashing them between the eyes. Don't go call the authorities on us, it's all harmless fun...she doesn't have a mean bone in her body normally. Blame SG for the idea. He thought it was funny.

A new reason to homeschool

We have homeschooled for a long time now (over5 yrs) and just when I thought I'd come up with every reason under the sun as to why we do it, a new one appears. GA Schools . We are not Georgians but given Ohio Gov. Bob Taft's incredible lack of intelligence coupled with a huge absence of common sense, I can see it coming. Our small town police force has already parked some cruisers and are not responding to some calls in an effort to control the budget. Which I understand but crime is climbing here. (Hub's car has been broken into TWICE in one week...once they got nothing, the other time they drained the gas tank) What happens when kids aren't in school and are too old for daycare? We know they will not stay meekly inside their homes. They are going to be out wrecking havoc, frightening the public and all that. I'm about to snap off up in here (pointing to head). Are you picking up what I'm putting down?

Yeah, I watch a little too much tv at times. That last bit is from a Judging Amy episode. Donna says that to a gangbanger girl and it's become a catch phrase around the J. School for Wayward Girls (AKA our house). It would appear my kiddos are becoming fluent in gangster. Does that count as a second language?

Happenings here at JSWG(see above paragraph if you're confused): R and J are massively cleaning R's room. R is a packrat. Make that WAS a packrat. J is forcing her to ditch stuff. Well, maybe forcing is the wrong word. She's helping her dig through everything and pitch things. I cannot wait to see the finished product. They even took a before shot....will it be post worthy?

Someone just shoot me already!

Last night, I sat down and wrote this wonderfully witty post about in-laws, Rita's Wrath, Dubbya having pissed off God and Mother Nature, etc only to accidently close it out while previewing the damn thing. Shoot me already! It will take me longer than I thought to get the hang of blogger. Oh, well! DSL should be up and running by next weekend unless someone hits my "moron" switch again.

MIL has spent several nights in the hospital which no one thought to tell us until last night. She's coming home tomorrow supposedly. That is good news. The in-laws (Hubster's siblings) are such asses at times. I swear they do this stuff just to get back at me for things. Paranoid? Maybe. Tired of their bull-shit? Definitely.

Took a quilt top over to A.N.'s to sandwich because she has such lovely hardwood, CLEAN floors to work with but did not take enough pins. Luckily, it isn't an issue to leave it spread out there like it is here so I'll head back in the morning to finish it up. Someday, I WILL have a house with hardwood floors again and room to walk around a piece while I'm working on it.

Knitting front has semi-stalled. I cast on last week for the Bird's Nest shawl from the Folk Shawls book. Several reasons for this project: I wanted a longer rectangle wrap for myself and for some odd reason, thought some lace work would be fun. Let's blame Jane for that one. She always has such beautiful work posted on her blog and it inspires me. I want to be that knitter, ya know? The BNS has me flustered for a bit. Just one stinking row that would not come out right, no matter how many times I'd tink it. Finally, I said hell with this, I'm adding a few rows of stockinette there! And presto! the problem seems to have been fixed. I fear it will end up being shorter height-wise than I planned due to a possible yarn shortage but I can live with that. I just don't want to order more yarn at this point. :::gaso:::

Other knitting news: Miss E's cardi is headed to the pond. I foolishly thought I could take a raglan cardi pattern and eliminate the side seams (bottom-up). Something is off somewhere, either the row gauge or my counting because the sleeve will NOT fit into the hole. I'm tired of trying to guessimate a fix for it and she said "I'd rather have a pullover." so rippit we shall do! Going to try a pattern generated here: Knitting Fool and see if my count has improved at all. I seem to have problems counting gauge sts and rows for some odd reason. My eyes play switcharoo on me and I get confused oh so easily.

Yes, I now run ads.

I can see y'all out there rolling your eyes and groaning at the addition of ads to my space. Supposedly, doing this will generate some income for me. We'll see. Forgive me but a girl has to have an income to enhance the stash, buy more toys and tools and be able to get out to see other works of art. And eat. Let's not forget about eating. It is an important part of my day. Bring on the chips!

Moving back here

After months over at aol.com, using the journal set-up there, I am coming back here. We'll be switching to DSL in the coming month or so and aol will be going away forever. It will take me a while to get the hang of this one again but hopefully, I will be able to have more exciting graphics and a nicer layout in the future.

Some quilt content today! Gram gave me a stack of fat quarters when she transferred however many summers ago. I let them age about a year or so before finding something I liked enough to make. Then I let the pieced project age another year or so before finally quilting it. Bad quilter, good project. LOL
That's not me serving as the quilt holder...it's J., the awesome model that she be!

Look for more happenings in the near future. I've applied to Google Adwords and hopefully they'll accept me so this little writing gig will pay a bit. Would be way cool for me but probably not so cool for the loyal readers. You understand, a girl must have means for fiber therapy, quilt tools and just stuff, right?