Shrinking Toilet Rolls and Top Down Knit Hats

Has anyone else noticed that toilet rolls have shrunk? Companies have been steadily gypping us out of our money by shrinking packaging, but lots of their ploys are obvious. Take ice cream for example. We all have noticed the disappearance of the half gallon and the price hasn't dropped accordingly. But manufacturers are using stealth mode for many more items now including candy boxes which haven't changed size ..they just weight less now. Same for some boxed spaghetti. Ever notice how much air in those chip bags? Ridiculous. Now I am convinced that the yardage of toilet rolls has decreased. But with the very significant decrease in gas prices, why aren't the grocery bills coming down? Dumb question I guess.

Over the weekend I finished spinning up some wool for Mike's gloves. It's all plied up and ready to go. Since I am knitting toe up socks I decided to see if people actually knit top down hats, and lo and behold they do! So I am trying a pattern in which I do just that. This should ensure a perfect fit. (as always click to enlarge photos for best detail)


This is the bobbin of 2 ply yarn being wound into a skein for Mike's hat. Rather than spin two bobbins I took this wool off the bobbin with my yarn winder and made it into a ball (photo below). Then I plied using both ends of the resulting ball. The bobbin below contains some singles from Albert that I plan on eventually knitting into a bed jacket for my MIL. I've spent for-e-ver searching for a pattern for this project and now have a few strong candidates in my Ravelry queue.


This kitty below ain't no fool. She knows where the warmest spot in the house is on this 15 degree day. She is stretched out for maximum heat exposure in front of the stove.

The "sort of" Epidemic

There seems to be an epidemic of randomly inserting "sort of" into spoken sentences. The perpetrators are news reporters, political pundits, scientists, analysts and anyone else who I've seen on TV lately. It seems to be relegated to the well educated population and makes absolutely no kind of sense to me at all. The phrase does not enhance the sentence in which it used in any way. It's a sort of destruction of the economy of words. Has anyone else noticed this? Does it sort of grate on your nerves?

WTF?

I was in Walmart this morning and I noticed that a big bag of el cheapo cat food has gone up $4. FOUR DOLLARS? Something tells me there will be quite a few more strays on the streets soon. And that got me thinking: Oil prices have plummeted. Does anyone see the price of food going down? After all, that's why the food prices along with everything else went up right? So it follows then that food prices and everything else will plummet too. But I ain't seeing it. Are you?

And why is the price of gas in Norwich about 40 cents more per gallon than in Syracuse?? FORTY CENTS people. Syracuse is less than an hour away!

Bald on the Inside

That's right, three of my truck tires are wearing badly on the inside. The tread everywhere else is fine. At one point both of the front bearings had gone bad, so driving under those circumstances didn't do the tires any good, but who know what that sound was? Now I'm told it is probably the alignment and the tires will be no good soon. Wonderful. I can only imagine how much tires cost nowadays. I haven't confirmed that inside wear is definitely a bad alignment issue so feel free to chime in here folks with your thoughts.

Human Breast Milk For Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream!

I have always been anti-PETA for a million reasons but this new stunt makes me wonder if I should laugh or cry at their stupidity. The latest stunt is a request to Ben and Jerry's that they use human breast milk for their ice cream in order to relieve the cows of their burden of producing milk because cows are kept in "filthy" conditions. Now I don't know how they can make such a blanket statement about cows. I wonder how many of them have actually been to a farm because clearly they never saw a farm around here. Cows are outside (with lovely views I might add) most of the year and when they are inside the barn it is cleaned every day. You have to have sanitary conditions in order to supply the public with milk and not kill them. Let's have breast milk farms!!! Really they go too far. Ben and Jerry's response was of course a politically correct no and you could almost hear the snickers under their breath. As an aside, most people that support the Humane Society of the United States don't understand that it is the non terrorist side of PETA. What people need to understand is that animals are NOT human and they need to stop humanizing them. A perfect example is sheep, cold weather and snow. When given a choice, most sheep will choose to stand outside in the snow rather then go into the barn. PETA and much of the public in general will look at that and say, oh how cruel, those poor sheep must be freezing! Sure people really are cruel to animals in various places and in various ways and this is where animal activists should be concentrating their efforts.

We Are in Deep Trouble If...

....McCain and Palin get elected. Just look at this:

Sarah Palin has said that the Iraq war is part of God's plan...so is drilling in the National Wildlife Preserve. She has asked us to "pray on it". Please join me in prayer.

WHAT IS THIS COUNTRY COMING TO?????

Gymnastics Scoring

What was up with the judges in last night's women's individual gymnastics finals? We all have the same eyes and the benefit of some x-gymnast commentators (including the effervescent Bella!) and everyone seemed to be in agreement. How could Nastia not have had a better score than competitors who were clearly making mistakes on a few of the rotations? If she hadn't won I think some protests may have been lodged. Even my favorite commentator, Bob Costas put the question to Bella about the reason for the strange scores and was there perhaps some bias in the judging. I don't know about you but the whole judging routine was a little odd throughout the team and individual men and women's competitions. All that shuffling around, watching replays, telephone calls and irate supervisors marching around. Keeping the competitors and us waiting while they came up with the score really slowed things down. What ever happened to the old scoring days of Mary Lou Rettin and a simple 10?

But the USA was one and two! Hoorah! They deserved it!

Remove The NBC Peacock!

When we bought our 42 inch LCD TV a little over a year ago, I thought immediately of the two things I love to watch the most: Baseball and the Olympics. So I was pretty excited to see the Olympics this year, especially the gymnastics. Last night's Mens 400 Relay blew me away. I could not believe that the US managed to beat the French by 8/100ths of a second and they were losing until the very end. The comeback was amazing as we were losing by a body length on the last lap. It was one of the most exciting finishes of any race I've ever seen. The victory was especially sweet since the French were talking trash before the race. But I digress. What really gets my goat is this:


That darn NBC Peacock and the rings. Whatever happened to to the top or bottom right CORNER! And it gets worse when it's live because they add the words "Live" to the already intrusive logo. In this picture it doesn't look too bad but in other sports it actually blocks the view. At least they could have made it somewhat transparent. This is ridiculous and almost as bad as those ads for what's up next that come on after commercials during shows on Discovery and some network stations. Those take up the bottom third of the screen and I hate them! Why did we buy a big TV? So I can see the station ID better? And how long do you think it will be before we have ads for Depends and Viagra intruding on our screen real estate?

Alcoholic's Breadanonymous

So we purchased 4 loaves of Freihofer's 100% Stone Ground Wheat bread last week. We opened a loaf for lunch. Tom made some toast and I took out two slices for myself. Whoa Nelly! I caught a whiff of alcohol (no Tom wasn't imbibing!). Tom said "I thought something was funny about that bread." I told him to throw his slices away and we proceeded to call Freihofer's. I am now playing phone tag with them. Is this weird or what? We figure they use alcohol to sanitize their equipment and someone forgot to wash it out? Have any of you ever had this experience with bread? Had we eaten it, would we have gotten sick I wonder? Are we on the edge of a huge recall? Seriously you could pass out if you took a deep breath from the fumes inside the bag!

Drink 24 Oz of Beer in 24 Seconds

Just when you got over your fear of sending your kids to college with all the binge drinking you hear about, along comes the Bierstick to enhance their alcohol poisoning possibilities. I came across a discussion about this in a forum I frequent and all I can say is that I was horrified. Read the Pixel Shack's take on it. Should stuff like this even be allowed? I guess one can argue that humans are capable of making their own choices but college kids in a group have been known to do dumb things especially when alcohol is involved, and this just gets my goat, what can I say...

The Latest in Snail Mail Spoofery

I've been receiving some very weird mail lately and I've been getting annoyed. After all I have to dispose of the junk. I throw most of it away unopened and the marketers know this so they disguise the envelope. This piece of mail was particularly clever. Notice the bubble wrap? This was to make me think there was something worthwhile inside. There wasn't.


What clever mail have you gotten lately?

They Can't Write or Spell in New York Schools

Yes this is sad but true. Frequently there are misspellings in our school newsletter (and emails home) because people have become too dependent on spell check, so I think Microsloth needs to come up with some kind of homonym checker in Word. Even our superintendent who writes a front page blurb each issue was guilty of a homonym error.

But this was on the news last night.



It was a school in Syracuse. Let's blurt out for all to see the fact that we can't spell rehersal... um... oops... rehearsal. Isn't it bad enough that the principal was writing herself checks out of the school's checking account? Yikes what kind of students do we turn out here? Embezzling mis-spellers I guess. Scary.

Do you remember any similar teacher or administration errors or even school misdeeds?

NAIS

I find myself being sorry that I ever signed up for the Voluntary Scrapie program many years ago because now I am automatically a member of The National Animal Identification System, NAIS. Any of you livestock farmers out there are already familiar with NAIS which is basically the government's way of keeping tabs on our animals and adding more cost to the already overburdened farmer. With all the intrusiveness and bungling that is indicative of the government today it makes me nervous that they know anything at all about me or my farm. Heck it sounds like a national ID card is on the way for citizens, similar to a medical id. I am against the idea. Someone always manages to turn this kind of thing around and use it against us.

What is it With Schools?

I'm on a rant about school again. I know our school is better than most but what does that say about the state of our education system in this country? Bullying is still rampant but that's because it's not just the kids that do the bullying. Change has to happen from the top down. It doesn't. Bad teachers are allowed to continue their employment at taxpayers expense. When I was a supervisor and Tom still is in management, the stuff that is tolerated at schools wouldn't last a day in a business, which is why schools should be run like a business. where the students are the customers. When I was the computer tech at the school I should have convinced the powers that be to buy business performance management software and set benchmarks to judge their progress in improving the school. Since my kids have been in the school district, almost 10 years now, I have seen little to no improvement with the few terrible teachers still collecting a paycheck. And we've had two principles and two superintendents in that time.

Don't Buy This

I've heard people talking lately about getting a term life insurance quote. We fell for that ruse when I was pregnant with Daniel. Don't fall for it. You are throwing your money away. You are better off investing the money than you are throwing it down the drain. Take out a CD or a 401k. It makes much more sense.

I Bought Oil Today

I bought heating oil today. I should really be buying oil stock! It was not fun. It will cost me over $1,800 for a mere 500 gallons. And that's with a big purchase price break! Thank God we only use about 300 a year for hot water and for heating on some below zero days. I can't imagine what the bill would be otherwise. What happens when then kids leave home and we lose our wood helpers? I shudder at the thought. We used to fill the 1,000 gallon tank. Not anymore. It may be just Tom and I out there splitting and hauling wood. And In August Dan gets his license. Our auto insurance will skyrocket and then two years later it will do that again along with the first child entering college. Oh joy......

Don't Buy This

As I've said before I love my car and some people might say I am a little fanatical about keeping it clean. Since the good weather is on the way (SOON PLEASE), I am gearing up to detail it. I dropped into my favorite store, Wallyworld, and decided to pick up this:


It looked like a good idea. It's basically a mild buffer wheel with a cream that is supposed to help in the buffing process. I am sad to say that after almost 5 years and 70,000 miles of ownership, the car has several scratches. Thinking I might be able to buff some of them out, I splurged and spent 12 bucks on this kit. My advice? Don't buy it. It was a waste of time and money as it had absolutely no effect on any of the scratches which ranged from barely perceptible to very noticeable.

It never ceases to amaze me how people can produce and sell products that don't do a thing. I plan on returning this and writing to the manufacturer. Having said that, does anyone know of a product that works? Liquid glass helps but it wears off and it's very expensive.

Is There a Way to Open CD's Easily?

Anybody got the skinny on opening new CD's easily? There's got to be a better way. I either break the jewel case or spend for.ev.er struggling with the cellophane. Once I get the cellophane off it's more struggling with that strip at the top that is practically part of the plastic case because it is impossible to peel off. Then when you start peeling it, it tears. There HAS to be a technique. If somebody knows what that big secret is, please share it!

Now to extreme cuteness. Check out my two favorite pets in this short clip:

Lunacy in Maryland!

I had planned to blog on an entirely different subject than this today, but as I was driving home this morning I heard something on the radio that made my jaw drop.Having just come from the women's locker room at the Y after pickleball, I could relate. This is from Dennis Campbell's site:

"In Maryland's Montgomery County, parents are shocked and angry — being the extremists they are — that new regulations are threatening to open girls' locker rooms to "transgendered" boys (or boys who say they are because they, um, like the thought of showering with girls).
Writing on behalf of these extremists, attorney Susan Jamison said that "any transgender could enforce his rights under this law in a court of law...and, relying on the plain reading of the statute, obtain entry into female locker rooms and restrooms with little to stop him or the many who would follow." Does that make you feel warm and tingly? Probably not, if you are a parent with a traditional concept of societal norms. Probably so, if you are a 16-year-old boy who suddenly has realized that he is transgendered."

What caused this bizarre set of circumstances? An anti-discrimination measure was unanimously passed by Montgomery County's City Council and signed by County Executive Isiah Leggett in November. Citizens for a Responsible Government is tracking the progress of its campaign on its Web site, www.notmyshower.net if you would like to follow this crazy situation.

So if I lived in Montgomery County, I could have walked into the locker room this morning and been presented with a naked man, toweling off! Now I admire the male body, but I'd rather do that on my own terms! And I'd like to decide whether I want to take a shower with a man beside me or not.

It Gets Under Your Skin

It's hard to believe that it RFID chips under the skin are already a reality and they are being pushed as an easier alternative to pay for purchases! This is after all a consumer driven society but what happens next? I can see using this technology for medical id tags but I can also see it being suggested as the new national ID system! The surgical procedure, which is performed with local anesthetic, embeds a very small RFID tag in the flesh of a human arm. But picture this. The tags broadcast a signal, which means a thief could set up an intercepting device and rebroadcast the signal to an ATM! And nowadays when you bankcard is lost or stolen you cancel the old one and get a new one. But with this technology you will have to go see a surgeon! I'll stick with my plastic bankcard, than you very much!