Tornado warnings!

Goodness! We have an exhaust fan in our kitchen skylight that we call our wind alarm. It is saying “WHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!’ at the moment, although the worst of the weather has passed Greeley by. I’m a tornado of my own in my apartment as well. I am dying things blue: a thrifted corset-style cotton dress and a thrifted, stained cashmere sweater. Once I’m done, I’m going to go take a walk, maybe fly a kite. I have enough cotton twine to fly my new kite to the moon. That is all.

Justin’s consonant cookies

“Say Murqxjczn!”

Robot Animals

Wow! See more of Ann P. Smith’s amazing robots here. Some of them have animations. Unbelievable.

From the Craft magazine blog.

Back!

I’ve been busy.  Check my flickr page for my first finished sweater, socks and other stuff. I’ve got a ton of confiscated materials, so I’ll throw those up soon.  In the meantime, here’s what I did the first half of Saturday.

A closer look:

The inspiration photo is here. Thanks to Eliaz at Total Eclipse in Fort Collins for the beautiful ink and arranging the shop’s benefit for little baby Eben’s medical bills after treatment for an underdeveloped heart.  I got this for my sweet Granny who recently passed away.  She would’ve said, “Good girl. Give ‘em this twenty for me.” The bees are for her (state insect of Missouri!) and for Casper, our family dog who passed away last week.  He loved to eat bees.

More to come, and I promise I’m back on the horse. <3

My computer’s at the doctor.

So I’m writing from l’ordinateur de mon lion. I still haven’t heard back from the academy, and to say I’m not going crazy would be a lie. My school district’s spring break is over, so it’s back to the sub grind for me. Here’s what I’m doing to keep sane.

• Listening to too much Frank Zappa
• Two krab-spinach quiches in the oven
• DISHES
• Needle felting feathers onto my hippogryph quilt
• 50% of my first sweater is done! It’s a recycled pink wool sweater overdyed varying shades of dandelion green. Pictures when the computer comes home.
• Enjoying the sunshine (not thinking about why I’m knitting a wool sweater)
• Spring cleaning/purging always

Interview today!

So today is the day I interview with Global Village Academy. It’s at three, it’s 11:45am, and I can hardly talk. My throat is all swollen. It’s pretty gross though.  Looking at the bright side, my French ‘r’s, rolled in the back of my sore throat, sound amazing.  Rilke thinks I’m purring back at him.  Wish me luck, friends!

For those who don’t know

My feisty country granny died on Saturday. She is the first family member that has passed away and I’m having a really hard time. I just selfishly miss that she’s not on this earth anymore. It helps to picture her kicking up her heels with her sister Rosie wearing leopard print and red lipstick in heaven, telling us to get busy living.  I’m knitting a pair of red socks to dance around in. She loved knitting socks and bright colors.  My folks left for Missouri on Sunday and I won’t know if they call because I dropped my phone in a toilet. This is frustrating but not worth fretting over.

I’ve got to go teach my crazy 6th graders about colors in French, which should take my mind off things. Wish subs luck today, it is April Fool’s Day after all. I’ll post some confiscated things later today.

Pictures of our trip

They’re at flickr here. One of my favorites:

Running the gauntlet

Two teacher fairs over three days. The Greater Denver Teacher Fair went really well. I interviewed with three places - one offered me a part time position in Castle Rock. One was for a K-6 immersion school which might call me back about a kindergarten/first grade math and science position in French. How fun would that be? Going over the water cycle and animals and addition with little ones… I sure hope they call. They were really looking for someone to do the same for 6th graders, admitting that the person who teaches math and science and French would have to be a “unicorn”. This is how I feel about that.

I went to UNC’s fair this morning and it was terrible. I got a couple interviews lined up and one flat out offer for French 4 and 5 in southern Colorado somewhere. There were so many people there! The booths were super close together. Funny how I felt like a cow in a herd of cattle home in Cowtown… Anyway.

You see, you wear a little nametag around that says what you’re qualified for.  The goal for prospective hires and recruiters’ first moment is to see if your needs (i.e. your nametag and their sign) match at all, while being polite as possible.   What angers me is being hollered at by recruiters saying “You don’t teach Spanish, too, do ya?”   I would have marched into there with a light-up sign around my neck with an Eiffel tower in a beret riding a bull wearing a sombrero if I did.  AND I wouldn’t have had to come back for a second day of interviewing.

Who could knit a rabbit? (200 feet long)

Just taking a break halfway through unraveling a sweater  - take a look at this. It’s a GIANT knitted rabbit installation in the hills of Italy. More information here.