What if.....

Pre-Game Coin Toss Makes Jacksonville Jaguars Realize Randomness Of Life

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE

Researchaholic

My Andrew announced that he'd like me to make him one of those hats with the ear flaps. I was shocked and amazed. Shocked that he asked me to knit him something and amazed that he chose an earflap hat.

I immediately began running this search program I had installed in my head (mothers have super powers of course - and, y'all know that ain't me in the picture with him). I wanted to be certain that I would pick the perfect pattern using yarn that I have "in stock". You see, like many of you, I have tons of knitting books and binders and folders stuffed with patterns. Last night, rather than sit and start knitting the first hat pattern I found that met the "hat with earflaps" requirement, I decided to rummage through ALL of my pattern books and patterns.

No way could I just be satisfied with Kirsten's Thorpe. I had to consult Ravelry too and well, I don't need to tell you the hundreds of possibilities that I found over there: the Snowboarder Hat that Rocks, and the Andean Earflap Hat, the Large Earflap Hat... The choices and the yarn possibilities were endless. I wanted to press onward until I found the one pattern that I felt was absolutely, positively the best choice and would become the most perfect first hat for my '17 year old and soon to be off to college senior in high school'! Then, this dark desire overtook me and I ventured out of the safe confines of Ravelry and went to the Google. That is where danger awaited this humble and unsuspecting knitter...

My pal Phyllis commented that she hoped this wasn't where all those helmet liners ended up...

Grand Theft Auto

For years I had successfully imposed the, "No violent video games in my house" rule. If any of my boys even hinted that they wanted one of those games, they would have to endure endless hours of my stories about how unglamorous it is to grow up in the projects or the ghetto or a major city if you can't employ several body guards to walk around with you.


I'd make my sons listen to me go on and on about how I could not walk or drive through any number of sections in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, Manhattan or the Bronx because I could be attacked by bigoted mobs with baseball bats, mobs intent on robbing me, wilding police or just plain ol' sicko rapists. Why, having lived this, would I want my children playing with a game that celebrates this madness?

Well the other day, I happened into the living room and there they were on the $300 plus xbox playing this "game". I went crazy! Their response? "Mom, we are responsible teenagers now, not middle school dorks who don't know the difference between a game and a bad influence..."

Ironically, while my AP and Honors student tried explain why he lost his mind, playing in the background on my kitchen TV was the CSPAN hearings of even bigger car thieves - the CEOs of the so-called Big 3 auto manufacturers. Visions of Michael Moore's Roger and Me converged in my brain with flashbacks of my risk soaked days living the viva loca in New York City in my way cool pre-war apartment and how I traded in all in for a Chrysler mini van, 3 kids and a mortgage with an interest rate scheduled to reset in a few years. WHY????



Well, there is always knitting...




And escapes to cool knitting spots -

Charity yarn being sorted at Creative Knitworks in Hillsdale, New Jersey. The many bins of yarn will go to afterschool programs in Paterson, NJ and other youth programs in and around New Jersey!

That's Sharon, the owner, enjoying being in textile heaven!