Serious Nothingness...

Hey Y'all!

Well, as you can see, I have been playing around with the ol' blog lately. I made changes to some books I am reading in "Reads From the Beach Chair." And yes, if you have noticed... I do have my Netflix rotation back. I have to confess... I did miss getting my weekly movies in my mailbox. Also, Redbox is great, but I could never seem to get the movies I wanted. Redbox doesn't carry exercise DVD's or TV series either. So I relented, and went back to Netflix. I am also enjoying the whole watch a movie on your laptop through Netflix as well. Beside, during an economic downturn a girl has to entertain herself as best she can!!

This weekend was pretty low key. I ran some errands, THOUGHT about spring cleaning and hung out with the Z-man. Yes, I did think about spring cleaning, so that ought to count for something! I also cooked up a storm yesterday. I made up a batch of chili to freeze, some veggie soup and some of Zorro's yummy food. In case of WW III we are good to go on the freezer front.

I am really looking forward to this coming weekend. Not only because, I will be on spring break... whew... but two of my favorite people are coming to town to see their son play a little baseball against Coastal. I can't wait to see and hang out with my friends Johnny and Marie! Just to be sure I have some baseball sock knitting waiting to go!!!

I am off to grab a little dinner and get ready for some laptop tv show watchin'. I think I will Hulu some Fringe (I am having withdrawal) and then some Castle a little later!!
:) JKP

Lights Out for Earth Hour!!!!

Hey Y'all,

Well maybe you are not feeling at all ecological lately. Maybe you just shopped at the Evil Empire of Walmart today, and you didn't get a chance to choose "paper" over "plastic."
Maybe you didn't recycle this week.

Well, there is a little something you can do tonight that shows you care! With a flick of all of your light switches tonight, you can join an initiative for a united call for action on climate change. It's called Earth Hour! Tonight from 8:30-9:30 all you have to do is turn off your lights. Your TV can remain on and so can your computer. Just turn off your lights.

Zorro and I will be sitting in the dark. How about you?
:) JKP

Lake Tahoe... Here I Come!!!!!

Hey Y'all!!

I received some really exciting news today! Check out where I get to go in July! That's right LAKE TAHOE!!! Now, you may be scratching your head and wondering, how in the middle of such economic times one plans a trip to Lake Tahoe... well, I have a very good reason. A conference of course!!!! Back in January one of my colleagues and I applied to attend a 3 day retreat/conference that is part of the National Writing Project. This is for technology liaisons of current local writing projects to get together and plan and learn how technology and literacy work together. I am so excited! I get to bask in technology and I get to stay here.......

The Z-Man already has a reservation at Mom's! Our conference is July 8th-11th. I really wanted to take a trip this summer, but I wasn't sure how all the particulars were going to work out. I have also NEVER been out west before, so this is going to be loads of fun!!!!!

Alrighty... back to regular programming!

:) JKP

El Calcetine!

Hey Y'all!

Well, here it is! My first finished sock!!!! It was definitely fun to make, and I have already casted on for my second one. I just couldn't wait to for it's brother or sister to be finished before I showed it off!

In other news, we have a baby shower for one of our 100 teachers that is preggers tomorrow! No, we really don't have 100 folks preggers, but y'all, somedays, it feels that way! Here is the Bamboo Kimono with matching booties ready to be gifted. I tried to find some sports buttons, since the father to be coaches soccer and baseball... but I had to settle for the ABC's. Well, at least both parents are teachers and it fits the theme!

Lets' see... what else have I been up to? Today I attended a knitting retreat and had a great time! I had a yummy lunch (which my stomach is currently NOT liking at the moment) and met some great new folks. I had to come home and take a two hour nap today! I am not sleeping well at night, because I keep waking up to check on Mr. Zorro. Zorro has taken to sleeping on the sofa at night now. I think he likes this option because he can use the doggie door whenever he wants and he doesn't have to wake me up. I just worry about him and check on him through the night. Tonight however, I think it is back in the bed with me. I am exhausted!

Things are still pretty chilly in these parts. Our high for tomorrow is supposed to be 70. Then, we are right back into the 50's. I just hope it warms up and stays warm for Spring Break in about a week in a half.

Ohhh... exciting news! My Boys is back on TV as of the 31st of March! Yippee! I have also gotten hooked on a new show. It is generally my rule of thumb, NOT to get hooked on a new show that happens to premiere during March. Because, more than likely, it won't make it and won't be picked up. So you invest all of this time remembering when the show comes on, etc. Then it's all for nothing. Well, check out the show Castle on ABC. It is really good! It's about a mystery writer who has writer's block, so he annoys/follows around a detective to get story ideas. It is a really good show, and you can't guess the ending. So, it gets an A in my book for entertaining. I have to DVR it most weeks, it comes on at 10 on Mondays, but they do replay it at 10 on Saturday so you can catch it then.

Well, that's about it folks. I am going to go and spoil my furry boy a little bit! Have a great night!

:) JKP

Lord Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise.......

Hey Y'all!

Well, I am finally back to my old self. Whoooo. I was worried about myself for a little bit there. It took me until this past Monday to finally get well. Then after getting back into the routine of school, I was just wiped out! Today I am still totally exhausted, but I did manage to do some light housework when I got home, so I know that I am on the mend now! When I posted last week, things were on the verge of getting worse! Last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I was running a fever of about 102 to 103. I HAD to go to school because we were giving the state writing test. I just knew if I didn't go to school, my kids wouldn't do their best work. Well, by the time I finished giving the test on Wednesday, I could hardly stand up and was throwing up every five minutes. Good times. So, I somehow drove myself home and didn't leave my house for 4 days. But I am better!

Luckily, I didn't pass any of my germy germs on to my munchkins. Things around here have pretty much returned to normal. I am a little bit bummed that I missed the nice warm weather during my sickness hibernation, but it looks like the nice weather may reappear next week. This weekend I plan on taking it easy and Zorro and Zoe have an appointment at the doggie spa. Zorro seems to be hanging in there with good days and bad. He LOVES his new food that I am making him and even does a little dance at dinner time. :)

On Sunday I am participating in a knitting retreat given by The Knit and Purl here at the beach. We are going to meet for lunch, do some fun knitting and hang out. I am looking forward to it! I also finished knitting my first sock! I have just casted on for sock two. I will post some pics soon.

Well, I am off to chill on the sofa. I don't ever want that nasty flu again!!!
:) JKP

Esta Muy Enferma

Hey Y'all,

This will be short and sweet. Zorro is fine, I have the flu! I have had a temp of about 101 since last Friday. What I thought was allergies has turned into a nasty flu with nasty temps. I'll post more once I can crawl out from under this rock. Zorro sends his love!
:) JKP

Mama's Got a New Recipie......

Hey Y'all!

Happy second day of March! Well, with Zorro's diagnosis of sorts last week, the vet thought it would be a good idea if we changed his food to a restricted protien diet. He offered up some Science Diet k/d, but it is dry food and I knew that Zorro wouldn't touch it. Enter in recipies for homemade doggie diets! I started making this last week for Zorro and the boy is attacking his food! I made another batch tonight and he stood in the kitchen the whole time watching me cook this up. Too cute!

To make a restricted protien diet for your dog you will need the following ingredients....

1/4 ground beef (do not use lean round chuck)

2 cups cooked rice

1 hard boiled egg finely chopped

3 slices white bread, crumbled (I cube mine)

1 tsp of calcium carbonate (bascially take 1 extra strength Tums and crush it into a powder.)

Cook your rice (yes, I use the bag kind. I hate to ruin pots and I just can't seem to cook rice in the pot without burning it to pieces. Ugg.) Brown your meat, slice your bread and hard boil and chop the egg. Then combine.

(At this point I add the crushed Tums and stir it in.)

Viola! You have just made doggie food! I scoop about a cup into Ziploc baggies. For me, this recipie makes enough for 3 and 1/2 days of feedings. Zorro eats twice a day, so it makes about 7 meals. I put three in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. It's also more econmical.. I paid about $4 for the meat and less than $4 for the other ingredients. I always have bread, eggs and rice, so it's not a big deal. He seems to like it!

In other news... I have a new cell phone! I decided to go with the Samsung Propel. I text alot, so the sliding keyboard is just awesome. My other phone was so old that they don't even make the sim card anymore. Yup. I got a great deal on my phone and I am really happy.

That's about it for here today. I've got to go knit on my sock, I haven't finished my homework for tomorrow night. My stomach is giving me a fit (stress anyone?) so I've been taking some more meds for that. It's back to the hurting thing that it was doing a while ago. I've lost my appetite and my stomach hurts all of the time. I am just hoping that this is a reaction to all of the stress I have been under. :)

Later Gators!
:) JKP

Happy 100th Post!

Hey Y'all!

Well happy March AND Happy 100th post! This is my 100th posting on this here blog. Yippee! Also, today is the day that I have had Mr. Z for 7 years! So, double yippeee!

Last week was a hell week, but I did get alot done. I am still taking my sock class and have one more class to go! Here is the progress of Le Sock... I have to knit to the end of the toe by Tuesday... I have actually enjoyed this process and can't wait to knit up another pair!

I also have 5 teachers at my school who are all preggers right now, so I have had to put my baby knitting into high gear. This is a set that I started last fall, and now I really need to give it as a gift. I got this pattern from the book One Skein Wonders and it is the Bamboo Baby Kimono. This pattern had a lot of errors and if you want to make this baby sweater, check out the errata site. You will be glad you did! The booties in this set are from the Bernat Organic Cotton Baby Bootie pattern and it is a VERY quick knit. I can make these booties in under an hour.

On Friday, I took a field trip with my munchkins to Brookgreen Gardens. We went for the Gullah festival. Y'all, field trips make me very nervous, because, well, I am afraid that I am going to lose someone's child! However, this was the best field trip I have ever been on. My kids were well behaved, the weather was PERFECT and we all had a great time!

Yesterday, I taught a Digital Storytelling Workshop for the Coastal Area Writing Project at Coastal. It was alot of fun! It makes me really miss my training days. I love teaching teachers about technology and then seeing them integrate what they have learned. It makes me smile!

We are still on Snow Watch 2009 here in these parts. The forecast has changed and it looks like my friends in Cola Town are going to get slammed with about 4 to 5 inches of snow. They do not think that we will get any snow here at the beach because of some high pressure something or other. Oh well. It was nice to think we might get snow!!

I'm off, I have a ton of papers to grade, but I'm not going to. I am going to hang out with the Z-man and take him on a walk. We are in between rain showers and he is about to attack me to go outside. He is doing fine today so keep your fingers crossed.

I hope where ever you are, you get to see some snow!

:) JKP