76 Trombones in the Big Parade

That's what my mother always sings to him. She played trombone when she was in high school (about 1,000 years ago, when trombones were still made from stone). This picture was in our little town newspaper and didn't have his name on it, but doesn't he look handsome? Okay, as handsome as you can look with a trombone sticking out of your mouth?

Dear Microeconomics

It's not you, it's me. I'm sorry to do this in a letter, but you don't seem to listen to me anymore. All you do is talk, you never stop to see if I'm with you, you just keep going and expect me to be there. Well, I can't do it anymore. I'm tired of beating my head against the wall. It's over.

Please stop calling me, I've met someone new. It's the funniest story, how we met. He coughed all over me in Math Camp, without once covering his mouth. Now we have something in common.

Best of luck to you. I hope I never see you again.

It's Official

I am now officially a fabric whore. This is a photo of the fat quarter Amy Butler packet I picked up on eBay last week. I must say, the fabrics are very pretty in the pictures I've seen. It didn't prepare me for how gorgeous they are when you hold them in your hands. They are luminous. I bow down before the genius that is Amy Butler. These may become a permanent part of my collection. I don't know that anything I make from them will ever measure up to their promise.

Jillian showed you the yarn we used at our Yarn Tasting at Threadbear on Saturday. I also took a picture, but apparently I can't quite use the digital camera as well as I thought. I'll try again tonight. You'll just have to satisfy yourselves with the purchase photo.

This is Adrienne Vittadini Trini and Great Adirondack Texas Bighorn. The Vittadini is a cabled merino and is lucious to knit with. Not terribly expensive in individual balls (I don't remember how much, but under $10), but it only had 71 yards. The Texas Bighorn, on the other hand, comes with a whopping 325 yards! It was a comforting, easy knit on US 9s. J picked out the color for me - you can't see the orange that's hidden in this skein. It's beautiful.

And what's this? My very own orange calculator. It has all the higher functions needed to figure out how lucky you are to have a friend who listens to you when you whine and commiserates about how miserable things are right now. And then assures you that graduate school won't kill you and it will be over sooner than you think.

Katrina

Every morning I listen to NPR on the way into work. I breathed such a sigh of relief when New Orleans was passed over by the hurricane. It seems now that they were spared the storm, but really are taking the brunt of it after the rain and wind has stopped.

I grumbled this morning about paying $3.25 for a gallon of gas and then bit my lip when I thought about the mothers who were worrying how and what they were going to feed their children.

Etsy is a clearing house of sorts for us crafty types. You can have your own store and sell things from their site. Many, many crafters are donating items with the proceeds going to the Red Cross hurricane relief fund. There are tons of cool things ranging from yarn to jewelry to beauty products.

Also, if you're of a mind, America's Second Harvest is a worthy place. No one should be hungry on top of everything else.

Graduate School

I went to orientation yesterday. Guess what you get for shelling out lots of $$$ (or in my case, borrowing lots of $$$)...this



but wait, there's more!!



The best part? I also received an invitation to Math Camp. That's right, Math Camp. It is the place where all the math-phobic, didn't take an undergraduate math course, suck at Algebra pretty people go. There is no campfire, no mixed drinks, no filthy, cute guy singing with his guitar. On the upside, I get to sleep in my own bed at night and don't have to take communal showers.