More Geeky Funnies

John, in his internet wanderings, found a bunch of hilarious t-shirts at the Mental Floss shop. If you don't feel like clicking the link, here's a run-down of the better jokes:


Friends Don't Let Friends Derive Drunk (with a picture of the quadratic equation all messed up)

Inconsistency: It has its ups and downs.

Hokey Pokey anonymous: A place to turn yourself around

Veni Vidi Wiki: I came. I saw. I edited collaboratively.

You say tomato, I say tomato. Doesn't make much sense when you read it.

Square root of Negative 1 Heart Math ("i" love math ... get it?)

I'm an English Major. You do the math.

Hyperbole is the Best Thing Ever!

Fibonacci: It's as easy as 1, 1, 2, 3

When life gives you Scurvy, make Lemonade

PLUTO: 1930-2006, Revolve in Peace

Pavlov: The name that rings a bell!

Lady MacBeth Hand Soap

Beethoven: The Original Deaf Jam



and my favorite.....

Palindromes are rasemordnilap !

Geeky Funny

Is this not the greatest thing EVER??!?!?! "ceylon" teas .... Cylons..... get it? I laughed so hard the first time I saw it, I think I peed my pants a little. :)

F is for...

F is for Full-time! Sooo.... it's not really something I've got a picture of, but I am currently obsessing about it. At the Agency, I am technically employed full-time because I work a full week, but I am "hourly" as opposed to "salary." BIG DIFFERENCE! For the same amount of work that my salaried co-worker does, I get an hourly wage... which averages about $8,000 /yr less... plus no benefits, no vacation, no sick leave, no health insurance. When I think about it like that, I get really depressed. I have to tell myself that this is the "foot in the door" / "get that initial 2 yrs experience" job. (Have you ever noticed that ALL employers want at least two years experience? where are you supposed to get that experience if NO ONE will hire you fresh out of college?)

To make myself feel better now that I've been hired for 6 full months, I've applied for a full-time position. My first application a few weeks ago missed an invisible deadline, so nothing happened; but, I have recently turned in application #2 and am hoping that it sticks.

(fingers crossed)

(holding breath)

This is the happy hammy dance. How cute!

Happy St Paddy's!

I hope everyone celebrated St Patrick's Day in whatever fashion you saw fit. (green beer aint for everyone, that's for sure!) I was sure to wear green today; I work in a school, and my kids were warning us yesterday to wear green or be pinched!

Ok, I have a ridiculously cute picture from several years ago off of a little online game called "Shammy Hammy." The game was rather simple, just click on clovers to feed Hammy, and when he was full he did this little happy hammy dance. However, I cannot find it online anymore and I do nothave it saved on my laptop... so sadly, you must wait for the cuteness that is Shammy Hammy. :(

BUT! While I was searching for Shammy Hammy, I did manage to find numerous weird sites, and one really funny one. Check out: Unexpecedtly Funny things to do with Hamsters when You are Bored. I promise that there is no animal abuse or other such "wrongness" (if you thought that, you are a dirty dirty person!), just a lot of cute hamster pictures. Such as....

Teach hamster Yoga!

Teach hamster to act! (can't you see a skull in his hands, "alas, poor Yoric!")

Shamrock Gloves in da Mail!

Well, I mailed off Mom's Shamrock Glove set today. There was yarn enough for the gloves and headband, as well as an extra headband and at least one tiny sock. I think there's another tiny sock as well, but I haven't weighed out the scrap leftover to see for sure.

John's modeling one of the headbands as his head is big enough to fit it. It was a little too loose for my noggin. I love how he has accepted this kind of craziness. :)

Gloves Step 11-12: Thumb & Finishing

11 - THUMB

Place held thumb gusset stitches on needles. Join yarn and pick up one stitch at palm (22 st).

Knit ~20 rows until half-way up your fingernail. Finish with 3-row taper.

As you try the glove on, if it seems like the thumb is too short, the problem often is in the pointer finger. Add a few more rows to the pointer, and suddenly the thumb fits perfectly.


12 - FINISHING

(Do I need to say, "knit another glove" ?)

YAY! Gloves have been made! John calls the result, "Freddie Kreuger Gloves" because of all the strings. So, to finish, just weave in yarns at end of fingers. Use yarns between fingers to mend any gaps or holes.

Now you have a pair of finished, wearable gloves!

Great Cupcake Extravaganza

So, you've seen the pictures of the giant cupcake cake-form that we got a few weeks ago.... well, John and I finally broke down and tried it out. We both wanted to avoid work and bake something. :) We did use the "from scratch" recipe on the inside of the label, so it was a total experiment. Though, we did not make our own icing, not wanting to go that far.

End Results:
1 - Quite delicious the first day, but make sure you securely store it, or else it gets very dry.
2 - Much fun to be had, and much easier than expected.
3 - Great idea for birthday or party where you will eat it all in one sitting (see #1)

You need to level the pieces so you can assemble them later. Of course we ate them!

Ginormous cupcake parts.



Chocolate Spackle.



Giant chocolate bullet!



We may have gone overboard with the toppings....



John wanted to eat it whole.

But I satisfied him with just one piece.

Gloves Step 8-10: Ring, Middle & Pointer Fingers

8- RING FINGER

K9, place next 34 on waste yarn (or a circular needle), CO 3 to bridge the gap, K9 (21 st).

Knit ~20-30 rows until half-way up your fingernail. Finish with 3-row taper.

9 - MIDDLE FINGER

K 8, keep next 18 on waste yarn, CO 3 st to bridge gap, K 8, pick up 3 along base of ring finger (22 st).

Tip when picking up from base of next finger: If it says "pick up 3," I pick up four or five, then on the next round, k2tog until I've only added the needed three. That way, there are more stitches joining the fingers together, which will give you less holes between them.

Knit ~20-30 rows until half-way up your fingernail. Finish with 3-row taper.

10 - POINTER FINGER

Place remaining st on needles, join yarn and pick up 3 along edge of middle finger (21 st).

Knit ~20-30 rows until half-way up your fingernail. Finish with 3-row taper.

E is for...

E is for enormous couch!

I know, I know, I just talked about this like a week ago, but we are still in love with our new, giant couch. The only problem is the plethora of pillows that came with it... we still don't know what to do with them all. (At the moment, they are in a big pile on the floor.)

Gloves Step 6-7: Pinky Finger & Upper Palm

6 - LITTLE FINGER
K8, place next 50 st on waste yarn*, CO 3 to bridge gap, K to end of round (18 st)

* This is where it gets annoying with the waste yarn, as you put it on and take it off about a million times. I have found that if you have a circular needle same size / smaller, use that as your waste yarn. It will make further steps much less annoying and tedious.

Now, there are two ways you can do your fingers:

a - Fingerless gloves: Arrange sts evenly on 3 needles and work until little finger measures 1" long. Work 3 rounds in Seed Stitch. BO loosely in Seed Stitch.


b - Fingered normal gloves: Work little finger until half-way up your finger nail. Then use "three-row taper" to make finger tip.
Round 1: *K2tog* repeat around.
Round 2: Knit all stitches.
Round 3: *K2tog* repeat around. Break yarn and draw through remaining 5 stitches.



7 - UPPER PALM
Remember all those stitches I advised you to put on a waste needle? If you didn't, pick them all back up again and join yarn at base of pinky finger. Pick up 3 st along base of finger (53 st) and knit for four rounds.

If you look at your hand, the notch between your pinky and ring fingers is lower than the other fingers. (Picture on left) Adding a few rows here raises the palm to meet the other fingers (picture on right).

Gloves Step 4-5, Thumb Gusset & Palm

4 - Knit in stockinette stitch, working increase round every third round. (See below.) Work increase round 10 times - until there are 21 st between markers (85 st total).

Increase round: K to marker, slip marker, make 1, K to marker, make 1, skip marker, K to end of round. (Increase of 2 st each round, at start and end of gusset.)

It should make an ever-growing "V" shape in the glove body, so that a thumb will fit in it like shown below.



5 - K to marker, remover marker, place gusset sts on waste yarn, remove marker, CO 1 st to bridge gap, knit to end of round. (65 st)

Work even until Palm measures 3.75 inches above ribbing.

The glove is now starting to look like a glove and you can try it on to see how it fits! This is the best part of the pattern, as you can adapt to different sizes, but check the fit along the way. (John got tired of trying on his gloves, but I wanted to make sure they fit right!)

Apologies & Snow Day!

Okay, people, I know I just said that I would try to keep all my new posts on the main page, but I apparently had a very busy February. So if you feel like you have missed anything, feel free to click back to the New Year (I know my Resolution was posted late) and work your way forwards in time.

Again, sorry about that. We had a snow day today and I caught up on all the activities. Here is a sampling of the snow fun: It snowed about 8 inches, enough to swallow the puppies!

It all started Saturday with just a little snow. So little that John didn't even put on real shoes to walk the puppies.


Then it kept snowing... all day Sunday, it snowed. Harvey says it is very "un-kittenish" out there!




Maile had much fun romping in the snow! The first two pictures are her landing and tunneling her way out of a snow bank we might have thrown her into. She was a total mess when she finally came inside. So much ice was caked on her belly that I gave up trying to dry her in front of the fireplace and just gave her a warm bath to melt it all!


Even Inu joined in the rompage. Though she did not stay out quite as long as the little ice-ball we call Maile. :)


In the country, you have to plow your own area.