Kiss My Knits!

No major theme in today’s post, just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. Which, given the state of my house, would probably be everything.

I’m enjoying poking around my neighborhood with http://www.wikimapia.org/ . It’s interesting to see not just what’s around, but what other people think is of value to note. I added notes on a few things near me, like the park across from my house. Someone noted that they heard it was on the site of an old drag strip. It’s actually on the site of an old soap box derby track. If you drive by, you’ll see that the downward slope is perfect for getting up a good head of steam on the cars.

Girl Scouts was good yesterday. We had two new girls joining us. They’re sisters. One has speech, hearing, and fine motor control issues which are somewhat more pronounced than Emily’s. Some of the other moms seemed to have a little bit of a hard time understanding her, but I didn’t. Maybe it’s because I’ve got enough people in my life that I have to listen really closely to in order to hear. Anyway, I felt really good about these girls, and their mom has decided that it’s a good fit, so they’re joining the troop. Since one of our girls moved away earlier this year, this isn’t a big burden.

I need to go out to Girl Scout HQ and get signup forms for the new girls and badges for everyone – we’ve earned three so far this year. We worked on the “art to wear” badge by coloring on T-shirts with Sharpies. The sharpie coloring went well. Emily did the barest minimum, as she usually does on the art projects in Brownies. However, even though she doesn’t participate in the group projects like that, her fine motor control is improving. Check out her drawing of Betty from the Archie comics. She seldom adds color, so this is unusual for her. I don’t think she was going for “evil” on the face, but man. I’ve got the chills. The eyebrows, the toothy grin… brrr.

I joke around, but I like the drawing. It’s easily the most elaborate she’s done. By the way, I spoke to her art teacher, and reading is her reward for AFTER she’s done with her art. So when she tells me she’s reading, she’s right… but she’s giving me the short answer, which is usual for her. It may also be a way of telling me that she did so well that she got to read. Anyway, I’ve started getting reports from the art teacher and am feeling much better about the whole situation.

Much to the dismay of my knitting group, we were unable to get Girl Scout cookies picked up yesterday. Our cookie mom has a lot on her plate. I should be picking them up this weekend. I have some friends doing Weight Watchers who asked what the point values were for Girl Scout Cookies. Based on this weight watchers point calculator and this .pdf of nutritional info for the cookies, I *think* it stacks up like this:

Lemon Chalet Cremes: 1 cookie = 2 points
Trefoils: 5 cookies = 3 points
Do-Si-Dos: 2 cookies = 3 points
Samoas: 2 cookies = 4 points
All-Abouts: 3 cookies = 4 points
Chocolate Chip: 3 cookies = 4 points
Tagalongs: 2 cookies = 4 points
Thin Mints: 4 cookies = 3 points

Of course, all points are rounded up to the nearest point, so if you just have to have that extra cookie, you’re probably technically still okay. 🙂

I need to knock out another hat and run some more errands, so it’s off and away for me. But a few time-wasting links before I go:

Chicago election shenanigans: invisible ink
“Eat your candy, do you want to get cavities?”
hermit crab in a glass shell
And for my game show playing friends, Never underestimate dumb luck.

Peace out!