Well, I took a break from blogging to work on my things for the fair. It was harder than I thought to have everything "ready to be inspected". I mean, the things that I knit are to keep people warm and be snuggly - most of the time, they get worn/used before the tails are all tucked in! The worst was the world blanket that was being used before all of the strips were sewn together.

But, I did get a bunch "finished" and tagged very quickly, and were put in to be judged on Wednesday. It bothered me more than I thought to have someone really comment harshly. The good part is that I ended up being judged by someone whose opinion I do value. I screwed up my nerve on Friday to go see how I'd done. I got dinged badly for not having enough information on my cards, and dinged that the cheap yarn had allowed the tails to wander out. But, 2 blues and a bunch of reds (1st and 2nd) are pretty good for a first try. Left the camera in the car.

Went back Saturday to take pictures and got "Change the battery pack". ARRGGG The teenagers had used my camera to take band pictures and not swapped out the batteries! I know that I've bought at least 2 more 4-packs of rechargible batteries. Where do they run away to???

I'm supposed to go volunteer again at the fair, but it's melting hot. I'll see if I can get pictures when I do get with it and go...

I'm loving and hating the new coffee pot. It didn't come with directions, so I felt like a monkey in an intelligence test using those 4 buttons to set up the timer. There isn't any "YOU WON" sound, or "GAME OVER" - unless you count the coffee starting to pee as "Nope, that isn't it." I did figure out that a tiny red light means that the coffee will turn on in the morning. Though, I'm still not clear on which combination made the red light come on.

I should probably start a "What I'm reading" section. I've enjoyed the ones I've looked at so far. Sometimes I'll agree, and sometimes "How is that a post?" Especially on Fark. If you are senstive, don't go look - but www.fark.com If nothing else, you'll feel really good every day that you don't let listed in there. There's the stupid criminals, stupid politicos, stupid businesses... People used to say that it'll be a good day if they don't read their obituary in the morning - in the blog world, it's a good day if I'm not on FARK.

Then again, there's boing boing. http://boingboing.net/ Sometimes they have really cool science, really bad art, or wicked knitting. Yet they do have a sense of humor and will skewer. It's always worth reading over.

I have some news services. BBC, Yahoo News, CNN... But the one that I enjoy and think about the most is http://www.newscientist.com/home.ns They'll cover neurology, design, archeology as it happens.

The rest of my RSS is Salon, Slate, Snopes and my Gmail. Exciting stuff...

Alas and alack - My coffee pot died. There was no leak, no explosion - no drama at all. I did everything as normal for the last pot of the nice vanilla stuff and there was no click. Without my caffeine and that time of the morning, I just couldn't grok that there was no click. Click? Click? There's no clicky button and no orange light.

I checked the plug. I'm embarassed to say that I shook it a little and looked all over for some gremlin. Click? Click?

I tried Pepsi, but it didn't clear the fog. Click? Click?

White Grape Juice - very good for my poor allergic nose. But, still in that fog Click? Click??

I did finally wake enough to realize that I do own a French Press. Oh the creshendo of classical romantic music that should have swelled if my life had a good music track. The sound of the water running hot, and that spoon of coffee smell. Yet, I still had hope. Click? Click?

The coffee did kick in before the *IMPORTANT PHONE CALL*. You know that I was too busy to answer. Actually, I was helping a teen who and then I'd offered to take him to NA, AA, find him a mentor or counsellor or even find him someplace else to be until he could get a grip and then he So, this person isn't allowed anywhere near us anymore. You can try and try, but there comes a point when the drama is just too deep and the consequences too severe to clean up the mess. Sometimes that child with a rough life just has to stay in the rough until he's ready for a real hand up.

I did call back the *IMPORTANT PHONE CALL*. I'm glad that I did because Ms. "Too good to talk to me" did turn out to be a Med Student in two months and learned quite a bit from me. She didn't blink when I told her that the study was redundant (ohh, my kingdom for a spell checker on this!), and actually was glad that I shared her obsession with neurology. I'm glad that "just a parent" was able to find someone to listen and give good information so maybe some future children will have better care. I don't want to name drop and bash on a perfectly good hospital, but I will mention that parents aren't stupid people in general. You can't assume that "halo of education" around someone who has spent longer learning about this specific disability than you spent in your entire education and medical career. Ms "Doctor L" may make ten times my income, but I have far more time to read and research. My education is no less valuable for all it was spent on the other side of the fence, milling in the corral of "just parents of autistic children."

I did finally get a coffee maker. I've learned that Mr. Coffee sucks. More accurately, Mr. Coffee pees on my counter after a month or so of Minnesota hard water. So, Black and Decker for me. The old thermal carafe lasted quite a long time (Click? Click?) but isn't available in town. The new one is DE755B - the black, programmable jobbie without the thermal carafe. It's washy, washy and poury, poury so hopefully someone will hear *CLICK* and hopefully I'll wake up to the glorious smell of *COFFEE - EEE - EEEE*.

Still haven't found the beads. But, at least the heat is over and we can get back out to the yard. It's been so dry that even the rhubarb has died! I've never seen a patch of rhubarb die off. I did get some zucchini, peas and peppers. This is the first year that it's been hot enough to get a good crop of peppers.

Ok, this was a digital camera test - but this is the most recent picture of me that I like. My hair is short now. To explain the bathroom - I was making sure the camera was working before the teenagers at the Winter Formal saw that I had a camera. So, the test worked but I'm usually the one behind the camera!

I'm playing with Picasa - putting up the pictures that frustrated me so much before. This is what homeschooling (unschooling) really looks like. No schedule for when he has to read those books on the far right of the picture. Just the checklist in that blue binder to check them off when he's done talking to the dog. I don't remember know what that conversation was about, but it was important to him. My favorite emo about this picture is that picture of a dog waiting for the schoolbus - well, Brock never has to wait for the schoolbus. He just waits until someone gets bored and plays with him. Mildred, the cat, has a better plan. She'll just sit on the book until she gets the warm spot and your attention. Ahhh, the homeschooler's pet's life!

This is Will's Lopi sweater that I mentioned in a far earlier post. It was actually finished in 3/04. This is a heavy enough wool that he's worn it as a warm coat in winter and to go out and snowboard.

It did take awhile - but I found the origional blog. In case you missed the drama, I started on a web page, moved to blogger, set up a blog on my own domain and lost the help file, so now I'm going back to blogger. If I can find an easy way to condense posts, then I'll put it all back together in one place.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Leo's band is working on refurbishing their "studio". At the moment, it still looks like a dairy barn that was converted into a clubhouse with a wood stove, restaurant booth, a phone and electric. He's lobbying to graffti the outside, but I like the traditional red and white barn as a background to flowers!

Niki is filling sketch book after sketch book. She has some very interesting characters and is working hard on improving her writing skills. She's been on Gaia quite a bit and has quite a network going. She was posting on deviantart, but I haven't seen her on there in quite awhile.

William is playing a new game - Chrome Hounds. So far, he's taken over the world twice. He's getting to be a scary little monkey! *L* He and his friend Chris W are just back from a trip to the cities that included Body Worlds and Valley Fair.