Friday, September 26, 2008

Pushing Twilight

You all know my intense love for the Twilight series. I checked our school library before the first day of school and saw only one copy of Eclipse. Why have book three of a series and none of the others? Once school started I found out that few students had read any of the sereis. I'm on a Twilight campaign. Even though I swore to myself that I was NEVER EVER going to loan out my copies to students, I gave in. I found one or two students who had read some but not all of the series and we instantly bonded. They were so excited about the series but either couldn't find the next book or didn't have the money to buy it, so I loaned them what they needed, making them swear to me that they would be gentle with my beloved books. Ever so slowly, my "I'm never loaning my books out" wall began to crumble. The more I talked about the books, the more students became interested and soon enough all seven of my books, plus my two printed out copies of Midnight Sun, were loaned out. Here's what it's come to:This is my board at school. Students are in line to borrow my books. They ask me if so and so is almost done because they can't wait for the next one. Can I just say that this pleases me to no end. Not only am I creating a whole new pack? flock? herd? of newborns, I am getting them to READ!! (I also ordered the American Library Assn's Twilight Read poster, too. Having it laminated this weekend!)

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Music from My Graduation Year: 1987

OK. I'm dating myself, but I'm doing it anyway. I got this idea from Jess.

The rules:
A.) Go to musicoutfitters.com
B.) Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year
C.) Bold the songs you like, italicize the ones you hate and underline your favorites. Do nothing to the ones you don’t remember (or don’t care about).

I can't figure out how to underline just one song, so I'm putting a star next to my faves.

1. Walk Like An Egyptian, Bangles
2. Alone, Heart*
3. Shake You Down, Gregory Abbott
4. I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), Whitney Houston
5. Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, Starship
6. C'est La Vie, Robbie Nevil
7. Here I Go Again, Whitesnake
8. The Way It Is, Bruce Hornsby and the Range
9. Shakedown, Bob Seger
10. Livin' On A Prayer, Bon Jovi
11. La Bamba, Los Lobos
12. Everybody Have Fun Tonight, Wang Chung
13. Don't Dream It's Over, Crowded House*
14. Always, Atlantic Starr
15. With Or Without You, U2*
16. Looking For A New Love, Jody Watley
17. Head To Toe, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
18. I Think We're Alone Now, Tiffany
19. Mony Mony, Billy Idol
20. At This Moment, Billy Vera and The Beaters
21. Lady In Red, Chris De Burgh
22. Didn't We Almost Have It All, Whitney Houston
23. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, U2*
24. I Want Your Sex, George Michael
25. Notorious, Duran Duran
26. Only In My Dreams, Debbie Gibson
27. (I've Had) The Time Of My Life, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
28. The Next Time I Fall, Peter Cetera and Amy Grant
29. Lean On Me, Club Nouveau*
30. Open Your Heart, Madonna
31. Lost In Emotion, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
32. (I Just) Died In Your Arms, Cutting Crew
33. Heart And Soul, T'pau
34. You Keep Me Hangin' On, Kim Wilde
35. Keep Your Hands To Yourself, Georgia Satellites
36. I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), Aretha Franklin and George Michael
37. Control, Janet Jackson*
38. Somewhere Out There, Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram
39. U Got The Look, Prince
40. Land Of Confusion, Genesis
41. Jacob's Ladder, Huey Lewis and The News
42. Who's That Girl, Madonna
43. You Got It All, Jets*
44. Touch Me (I Want Your Body), Samantha Fox
45. I Just Can't Stop Loving You, Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett
46. Causing A Commotion, Madonna
47. In Too Deep, Genesis
48. Let's Wait Awhile, Janet Jackson
49. Hip To Be Square, Huey Lewis and the News
50. Will You Still Love Me?, Chicago
51. Little Lies, Fleetwood Mac
52. Luka, Suzanne Vega
53. I Heard A Rumour, Bananarama
54. Don't Mean Nothing, Richard Marx
55. Songbird, Kenny G
56. Carrie, Europe
57. Don't Disturb This Groove, The System*
58. La Isla Bonita, Madonna
59. Bad, Michael Jackson
60. Sign 'O' The Times, Prince
61. Change Of Heart, Cyndi Lauper
62. Come Go With Me, Expose
63. Can't We Try, Dan Hill
64. To Be A Lover, Billy Idol
65. Mandolin Rain, Bruce Hornsby and the Range
66. Breakout, Swing Out Sister
67. Stand By Me, Ben E. King
68. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, Genesis
69. Someday, Glass Tiger
70. When Smokey Sings, ABC
71. Casanova, Levert
72. Rhythm Is Gonna Get You, Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine
73. Rock Steady, Whispers
74. Wanted Dead Or Alive, Bon Jovi*
75. Big Time, Peter Gabriel*
76. The Finer Things, Steve Winwood
77. Let Me Be The One, Expose
78. Is This Love, Survivor
79. Diamonds, Herb Alpert
80. Point Of No Return, Expose
81. Big Love, Fleetwood Mac
82. Midnight Blue, Lou Gramm
83. Something So Strong, Crowded House*
84. Heat Of The Night, Bryan Adams
85. Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You, Glenn Medeiros
86. Brilliant Disguise, Bruce Springsteen
87. Just To See Her, Smokey Robinson
88. Who Will You Run To, Heart
89. Respect Yourself, Bruce Willis
90. Cross My Broken Heart, Jets
91. Victory, Kool and The Gang
92. Don't Get Me Wrong, Pretenders
93. Doing It All For My Baby, Huey Lewis and The News
94. Right On Track, Breakfast Club
95. Ballerina Girl, Lionel Richie
96. Meet Me Half Way, Kenny Loggins
97. I've Been In Love Before, Cutting Crew
98. (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right To Party, Beastie Boys*
99. Funkytown, Pseudo Echo
100. Love You Down, Ready For The World

I think I like music from other years a lot better than my own grad year or the music I liked at the time was not in the top 100. I only somewhat like most of the songs I boldfaced.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Today's FO

Brooklyntweed's Habitat...

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A "Snow Day" Already

Due to Hurricane Ike coming through, we didn't have school yesterday. Coshocton was harder than any of us are used to. Some of my students still don't have electricity today. Luckily, we didn't have any damage. We spent two hours picking branches in the yard. I consider myself very lucky. We live in the woods where a tree could fall on our house at any time. (I'm knocking on wood right now!) The boys still don't have electricity at their school and had a second day off today.

Here's how G2 spent part of his day. He loves Playdoh and loves to make me cookies, pizza, and to leave me messages...

I also made a dent in my second attempt at the Habitat hat. It's going a lot better now that I'm using a circular needle. Cabling in the round with DPN's is not enjoyable at all. I love this pattern, though. Lots of cables running everywhere.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

I think I figured it out

I have solved the problem of chart reading, I think. I have color coded the different cable stitches so I don't have to keep double checking myself, which is what's taking me so long. It's only the 4th week of school and I'm sick already. I started feeling bad last night--sore throat, head pounding, achy, etc. I figured if I took Tylenol and went to bed early, I might beat it. Not a chance. I feel even crappier today.

Here's a pic of G2 from the football game last weekend. He and I wore our Bobcats stuff. We were way outnumbered. We sat in a sea of scarlet and gray. Every other Bobcat fan who walked by G2 either cheered him or gave him high-5. He, of course, ate up all the attention. I thought he looked so cute in his jersey and visor.
Then he wore the jersey to school last week and lots of kids told him "You suck" because he was wearing an OU jersey. G2 came home crying. Why do kids have to be so stinkin' mean?


Saturday, September 13, 2008

My Eclipse Socks Done!

I finished them yesterday at lunch. I've been able to knit three or four rows after I eat lunch every day. I loooovvvee this pattern. It's by MissJulie from Ravelry. She's working on a pattern for Breaking Dawn now. That'll be an upcoming project for me!

Right now I'm working on brooklyntweed's Habitat hat. This is the most complicated cabling I've ever done. Plus I'm reading the pattern from a chart, which I've only done a handful of times. And those projects were never cabled. Whooeee! It's a toughy. I thought about writing the entire pattern out, but that seemed like too much work, too. If anyone has any chart reading tips, please share.

On the homefront, we went to the Buckeyes-Bobcats game last weekend. It was pretty fun. Our alma mater, Ohio University, was winning until the 4th quarter. It was a good game. For me to enjoy a football game, it had to be good. I'll post pix in my next post.

**Happy Birthday to Bella Swan! (Yes, I know I'm a geek for wishing a fictional character a happy birthday)