Beat that, Geico!

The Setup

Evan and I were working through our taxes over the weekend, and nearly had a joint heart attack (which is funny because he's studying cardiology in med school right now).  We were cruising along in TurboTax, looking at our familiar and reasonable $$$ return figures in the upper right corner, but when we entered the info for Evan's scholarship, there was a $$,$$$ discrepancy between the amount paid and the amount spent, which translated into $,$$$ we had to pay for federal and state taxes each!  Eeek!  When Evan went to investigate his school finances, he found that he owed $$,$$$ that he thought was supposed to be paid for by his loan.  (The amount was similar to the amount of the discrepancy, but not exact.)  This kind of pissed me off, because I had just recently used $$,$$$ from my savings to pay off a significant chunk of his student loans, and those funds would have been very useful right now.

The Situation

So it looked like we were going to have to pay $$,$$$ to the school, plus $,$$$ and $,$$$ in taxes.  Ouchers.  We had been planning on insulating our house, which would cost $,$$$, but that would be impossible after all this.

The Resolution

Evan went to talk with the bursar this morning.  They quickly found that the $$,$$$ discrepancy in his scholarship was due to a payment made at the tail end of December that didn't get processed until January.  So we don't owe the school anything, and we can edit that info in the taxes to remedy the error.  As Evan said, "I saved us $$,$$$ in 10 minutes.  Beat that, Geico!"

Also, Happy Valentine's Day!

B. Russell Quote

Here's a quote that snagged me:

Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.
Bertrand Russell
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970)

It's true. So how do we rework the education system to de-emphacize passive acceptance without sacrificing efficiency? Or how do professors in upper-level education quickly rewire their students' thinking to promote active learning and questioning over passive acceptance, especially in science, where clear and obvious fact have been stressed previously?

Wild Citrus Scarf

Yay, I finally got this scarf photographed and listed!

I made it with scraps of yarn left behind after other projects.  Definitely happy with how it turned out!

Here are some more pictures:

Belated Christmas Scarf

Once again this year, I didn't have a Christmas gift for Katherine (the choir director/my boss at church) ready in time.  So I offered to knit something, whatever she would like.

After some thought, she said she would like a scarf.  She only had one scarf in vivid pink, but her two winter hats were blue and teal, so she never matched.  So she would like a scarf to match her hats.

I chose some Simply Soft yarn by Caron from JoAnn Fabrics (again), because I always seem to go yarn shopping at awkward times when my LYS is closed, and I wanted something soft, machine-washable, with high yardage, and in a very particular colorway.

I felt very clever as I designed this scarf.  One of Katherine's hats has a repeating 6-stitch cable pattern, and the other hat (which I knit for her last year) has a mock cable pattern.  So I incorporated both in this scarf.

I had procrastinated on weaving in the damn ends, though, and only on Sunday morning, when I planned to bring along the scarf to give to Katherine, did I remember!  Luckily, I had a couple moments to spare, so zip, zip, in went the ends, out came the camera, I wrapped up the present in tissue paper and yarn, and ran out the door.

 

Katherine seemed to like it. :)   Happy ending.

Baby Sweater for Amy

Two weeks ago, I learned that there would be a baby shower for a postdoc in the lab. This would be the first baby shower I had ever attended! I had to knit something! Amy wouldn't reveal the baby's sex, though, so I asked if she had a color preference. She said they were decorating the nursery in green, white, and brown.


After researching yarn requirements for baby sweaters on Ravelry, I visited the nearest JoAnn fabrics for some Lion Brand WoolEase yarn. 80% acrylic = soft & washable; 20% wool = warm, for a February baby. I decided to use the architecture from Daisy by Stephanie Pearl McPhee, adding in some gender-neutral color elements.


I've never really dealt with babies much myself, but I've heard other knitters talk about them. So I knew:
• Babies make a huge mess --> sweater must be machine washable.
• Babies squirm --> sweater must be a cardigan, not a pullover, to facilitate dressing and undressing.
• Babies grow wicked quick --> sweater should be a size up, to make sure the baby doesn't outgrow it in a week.


Of course I had delusions of grandeur, planning a complete set with sweater, hat, booties, and mittens. Ha. With only a week to knit, I ended up blocking the sweater the night before the shower with help from our space heater, and sewing on the buttons just before leaving for the party. I suppose I could still complete the set, since the baby isn't due until February...

latest spinning: BFL

Here's my latest spinning:


It's BFL from High Bid Farm, which isn't all that far away from me, that I got at the latest Finger Lakes Fiber Festival. I'm spinning it on a Turkish drop spindle (also shown) that I also got at said Fiber Fest. It's my first Turkish drop spindle, and I love it dearly, because I detest the tedious process of winding yarn off of spindles. I love the immediate ball function on this spindle. My plan is to make a 2-ply yarn, and knit a scarf of some sort. I have 4 oz of this fiber, so that should be enough.

Inspired

I just watched this video -- one of the Handmade Portraits on Etsy. It wasn't at all what I expected to find, but I found it much more powerful than my expectations. Some people thought it was creepy, but I thought it was fantastic! -- beautiful, imaginative, and captivating.



It makes me think about my own story in a different way.