O.K. So, This Is What We Mean By Snow.......

It may melt by April.......It's getting hard to see around corners when driving since walls of snow are everywhere!

Aprons

Made the apple apron for me around Thanksgiving. Just completed the doggie footprint/checked apron for a Carol, a friend at work today.

3rd Place ! ! !

What a thrill! I really didn't expect to win anything by entering my crazy quilt sweater in the Lake Farm Park Quilt Show. I was just excited to actually have something I made in my very first quilt show - and to have finally finished this project which I've been working on for 15+ years off and on! I got a message on my office phone that I placed 3rd in the quilted garments category! Now this may mean that only 3 things were entered in this category, but I'll take it!!! Cool beans! Now, maybe I should go to the reception after all.....

Snow Day !

It doesn't happen often - but Hiram College declared a snow day today! The Plain Dealer said we are on track to beat the 1978 record snow fall for January of over 42 inches in one month. We have about 4 new inches on the ground this morning (on top of what was already there) and are supposed to get another bunch today! It's coming down in heavy in big white flakes right now. Fortunately I'm all ready for lab tomorrow and brought home all my grading.

I'm back to being a cat nurse again. Arlo has skin problems again and I get to apply and squirt medicines into him for the next week and a half. He is being relatively good about everything though this time.

Ponderable words.....

Cherokee Fable:
One evening, a grandfather was teaching his young grandson about the internal battle that each person faces.

"There are two wolves struggling inside each of us", the old man said. "One wolf is vengefulness, anger, resentment, self-pity, fear. The other wolf is compassion, faithfulness, hope, truth, love."

The grandson sat, thinking, then asked: "Which wolf wins, Grandfather?"

His grandfather replied, "The one you feed."

Make it a good day!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

My finished crazy-quilt sweater thingy that I'm entering in the Lake Farm Park Quilt Show!

-5 degrees this morning, which is warmer than Friday which was -10! We only have about a foot of snow.

One week accomplished and only 11 more to go for Spring '09 semester. All this week's classes went well. The students enjoyed the "crime scene" lab and their chance to figure out "who done it"! (Most of them shouldn't sign up to be detectives!). The lab was called 'The Case of the Missing Plant Press a.k.a. microscopy and plant cell structure'. The goal was to learn how to properly use the microscope, dissecting scope and learn basic plant cell structure and organelles. An additional goal was to practice deductive thinking and learning to support their statements with data (a real challenge for some!). The case they had to solve involved 7 plant suspects (Tommy Tomato, Mr. Potato Head, Flora Plantae, Gym Pine Tree, Ella Elodea, Gary Grass and Ollie Onion) who were 'rounded up' in the vicinity of the destruction of a plant press. A note was left at the crime scene signed by the 'PLG'
(Plant Liberation Gang) claiming responsibility with the letters cut from a newspaper. The suspects were carrying various newspapers, scissors, razor blades and serrated knives and left debris, fibers, tissue and pollen at the crime scene. Students were given various tools such as labeled sample fibers, test cardboard to try out the various cutting implements to compare to the destroyed plant press pieces to figure out which implement was used in its destruction, and demonstration scopes with ID tissue (with various plant organelles) and pollen samples to compare to the tissues and pollen found at the crime scene.

Socks!

Finished my first pair of colorful socks! (Can't say they are the first socks I've ever made since I made 3 socks when I was a junior in high school - I still have one - the other 2 I gave to my boyfriend at the time, Jerry Benson! I ran out of steam I guess and never finished the 4th sock.) These took some figuring out, but I finally got the hang of it and finished this pair today and started on my next! I love the self-striping wool!

I also finished a project that I've been working on for 15+ years! ! ! And the hilarious thing is - I really don't like it now that I'm done! It looks great on the hanger - but not on me. However, since part of it is a crazy quilt (the rest is knit) I've entered it in a quilt show at Lake Farm Park which begins in February. I'll post a picture of it once I get the buttons on and press it for display. Maybe I should just frame it afterward!!!

We have 9-12 inches of snow and its still snowing. We hibernated yesterday, but had a nice day with just the 2 of us. Watched the movie "Juno" last night. I'd recommend it. We had bluebirds at our suet feeder yesterday.

Walked the dogs and cleaned house today since George had to be gone all afternoon for a Phoenix Univ. meeting. I go back to teaching next week.

More pictures...

Vanessa modeling her new jacket and belly dancing scarf!