Its official: Michael Savage is an idiot... (as if this really is a newsflash...)

Savage: ‘In 99 percent of the cases’ of autism, ‘it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.

Yesterday on his radio show, right wing talker Michael Savage said that autism is “a fraud” and “a racket” and that “in 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.

” Savage then asserted that all these “brat[s]” need as a father to tell them to “stop acting like a putz“:

That’s what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’” Savage concluded, “[I]f I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, ‘Don’t behave like a fool.’ The worst thing he said — ‘Don’t behave like a fool. Don’t be anybody’s dummy. Don’t sound like an idiot. Don’t act like a girl. Don’t cry.’ That’s what I was raised with. That’s what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You’re turning your son into a girl, and you’re turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That’s why we have the politicians we have.

Savage later claimed that there was “an asthma epidemic amongst minority children” because “the children got extra welfare if they were disabled.”

A/C...

Well... the AC is now working - and my pockets are $277 lighter. Oh well, you gotta stay sweat-free, right?????

Taking Donations...

If you would like to contribute to the "Keep Keppy Sane Fund" send donations to .... lol

Well, you know, it wouldn't be like me to not share my woes with ya'll, right?????

But!

I'm gonna restrain myself... Things are abnormally stressful around the Boone household, but all I'll share with you is the HOTNESS. And not GOOD hotness either lol. Our good car is still in the shop (and will be for a lonnnnnnnng time since we don't have $$$ to fix it) and so we have to drive the old car - which has no a/c AGAIN! We were told today it's a leaky evaporator core... lovely. To add insult to injury our house a/c is not working right either. We finally broke down and called a repair dude to come check it out they will be here in the morning - and walk away w/ a couple hundred bucks, I'm sure.

Why does everyone want our money???? Can't we keep any of it?? lol

Here are some pictures to enjoy from Sunday when my parents visited and we went to Red Lobster.

The Universe Hates Me

Its official.

We took our car in to get it fixed since the power steering went out. Well, it was the whole steering rack. The warranty company is refusing to pay for it.

So - $2400 to fix.

Which we don't have.

Which we have no way of getting...

Why can't we ever get a break, I mean seriously!!!

Honked off!!

A good friend emailed me an article today and I just can't get it out of my head. Now, I'll tell you what it is, but I won't tarnish my blog with the actual entire article, but you can read it here. Go ahead, read it, I'll wait.................................)

Ok, so you read it? Are you angry? And no, I don't mean angry the way HE's angry, I mean angry at his viewpoints? FIRST OF ALL: I am totally about free-speech and he has every right in the universe to write this article. He has every right to have it published in well-known local (or even national or international) media. I don't have a problem with that aspect at all. There are many people who have read and who will read this article that will whole-heartedly agree with everything he says.

I am not one of those people.

I have a few problems:

He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat; he might be a Libertarian or a Green. He knows that his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.

Highly unlikely that this "angry white man" isn't a Republican, but that's not the part I have problems with. Um... I'm perfectly capable of making rational decisions. Just because I have a vagina doesn't mean I can't be educated and have a rational thought process... *sigh*

The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.

Wow... where to begin...?? Like all those "helpless and stupid" people in nursing homes? Those elderly people who "helplessly and stupidly" lived alone? Those "helpless and stupid" people who were unfortunate enough to be born into extreme poverty with no means of escape - oh yeah, and didn't you really just mean black??? Are those the people you mean? As for the rescue, yeah, helluva good job you "angry white men" did, too!! Kudos! "Rescuing" those "poor unfortunate black people" merely to send them to their deaths in the Superdome, and the streets. His grouping metrosexuals and homosexuals into this paragraph is so crazy I'm not even going to elaborate.

I could go on and on, but I'm done. Stick a fork in me, I'm done. I'm proud that I don't have this opinion. I'm proud that I'm a person who fights against injustice and defends fairness in all situations. I'm proud that my husband has the same political views as I do (for the most part), so that he sees me as his equal and not a second-class citizen. Some would even say that this response is emotional and it proves his point, I suppose. But I'm also proud that I'm a woman and have instinctual emotions to care for those around me. That doesn't make me weak. It makes those I care for STRONGER! I can tell you one other thing, no one president will be able to undue everything that's gone askew in this country and there will never be a time when everyone is happy.

Status

Well, my throat is better, the fever blister feeling is gone, at least... So at least something I did last night helped. It could have been the two big cups of chicken broth, or maybe the peppermint tea, or the giant swig of apple cider vinegar. But whatever, I'm just glad it feels better. My chest is still very congested and some wicked gross substance is being continuously dislodged, which TRUST ME you don't wanna hear about lol!!

Ally went to school today, but Syd stayed home (she had some tummy issues, but she's better now), and Trey was basically back to his normal self.

I went to the store and bought some Traditional Medicinals teas, so hopefully that will help get us over the final hump of this nonsense.

Flu Update

On Tuesday at about 7am I woke up throwing up and feeling terrible. Syd was feeling better but laid in bed with me all day. Then this morning at about 3am Ally came into our room saying that she couldn't sleep in her bed because it had vomit all over it. She threw up about every half hour for about 3hrs, then finally went to sleep. We kept Sydney home from school again today to help Charles and I out as well as to give another day for her to no longer be contagious.

And then...

Trey started acting strangely about noon today, crawling back in bed with me and just being listless and limp. Now its 6pm and we finally got him to eat one tylenol but his temp is 102. He's miserable. I don't know what to do now because he was the first one to get sick and now he's sick again. I hope this isn't an indicator that we are all going to be sick again. :-(

Vomit, Vomit, Everywhere

Well, I've been a little um... busy the last few days... Mostly cleaning up vomit lol. On Sunday morning at about 3am Trey threw up all over our bed. We got up and changed the sheets and put down this waterproof blanket we have. He threw up again a few hours later, and a few more times during the day. Then yesterday afternoon Ally started saying she had a migraine and she was looking a little green around the gills. She never got sick, but she looked like death warmed over and slept for nearly two days straight. Neither Ally nor Trey has eaten in two days. Trey just finally started drinking (and keeping down) some Gatorade. Then Sydney started feeling a little yucky after dinner and a few hours later she ran to the bathroom just in the nick of time. She was feeling better after a bath and went upstairs to grab some towels out of the dryer for me and poor thing threw up all over the dryer. But she was so sweet and thoughtful because she just cleaned it all up and put all the dirty items in the wash and just went ahead and washed them. She's so big lol...

Charles and I are just waiting for it to hit us. We can't wait. ><

Ridiculous, I say!

So I read this article online tonight... What in the world does this guy's sexual preference have to do with anything?? Can a gay man not run a company? Is his preference somehow linked directly to mental ability?? **ROLLS EYES EMPHATICALLY - for the 2nd time today** I mean really - come on people. Its 2007. Why in the world can't we get over it already? Like the funniest quote I think I've ever heard - who cares who's the pin and who's the cushion!?!?! LOL This guy had worked for BP for 41 YEARS! y e a r s!!! And suddenly he's having to resign because he's gay? Meh, people will say its because the ex-lover was making allegations about misused funds and blah blah blah but everyone knows thats just an excuse. I hate discrimination, it's so retarded.

I hate banks

Why does my bank hate me?? Please, explain it to me...

When we were in Rio in December, Charles lost his credit card so we called and put a block on it. No problem. Then about 2.5 weeks ago I called to get another one sent to him (at a ridiculous fee of $7) and they said we'd get it in 7days. We still haven't gotten it. I called them today and they woman wouldn't check into it for me because it was in HIS name. I'm like, dude, I am the one who called you to get this card replaced in the first place. He's using MY card because we havne't gotten the new one yet and he can't call you, period. She didn't care in the least. She's all like, well, we sent on on 2/23. So?? I don't care if you sent me $2340 on 2/23 I haven't gotten it yet, and that's a problem! Basically I slammed the phone down after the upteen-hundredth time she told me she could only speak to him about this. *sigh* Everyone hates me.

Knitting Circle

Much fun was again had by all the wonderful ladies who attended our bi-weekly Panera bread take over knit-in. We are growing by leaps and bounds and its so fun meeting new people. I even got to meet Marigold irl - woohoo! (Her Rogue is VERY pretty, btw...)

I am still working on my dad's hat. Its almost done, but probably won't be able to be sent home with my mom tomorrow.

On a side note, I hate Indianapolis sometimes. There is a city ordinance that a vehicle cannot remain in the same spot unmoved ANYWHERE in the city for 72hrs. This means EVEN IN YOUR OWN DRIVEWAY if someone complains about it. Yup. You could go on vacation and come back to a towed vehicle... Believe me, I talked to IPD themselves about this. The Jag was "tagged" on the 3rd (which means someone complained about it and IPD put a pretty orange sticker on it saying it has been made an "unclaimed vehicle".) Well, this is just dandy, indeed! So Charles and I went out there at 11pm and pushed the SOB up about 15ft and I put sticky-notes in all the windows that the vehicle had been moved. The lady at IPD said all we had to do was MOVE it within 72hrs of the notice, even if that just meant pushing it up the street a bit. So, hopefully they won't tow it. We are less than happy about this whole ordeal anyway - it was either the Homeowner's Association or our mailman, who was a real jerk to me the other day about our car in the middle of the snowstorm. *sigh* It never stops, does it???

I got SOOOOOO much done today - I cleaned and mopped the foryer and 1/2 the dining room. I got much cleaning done in the kitchen, and the living room is in decent shape as well. Charles almost fell over when he got home. AND AND AND I have fixed dinner for the 3 nights in a row we've been home (with the exception of one night in the middle of those three days which we were in Sullivan). This doesn't SOUND like much to most of you, but trust me, that's big. I just haven't cooked many suppers in a row for a LONG LONG LONG time. I missed it, too. I've had fun getting everything ready for when Charles gets home from work. It certainly might not seem like it, but in many ways I'm old-fashioned at heart lol.

PULLING MY HAIR OUT (and yarn, too)!

Ok, so I scrapped the felted bag... I just couldn't find the needles I needed for that particular pattern. I needed 16" sz10 circs, and I only have 29". They are just too long to make the knitting easy. So, the wool is back in the stash bag, waiting patiently for me to decide what to turn it in to.

Now, on to the Fetching. I am so nervous about using this yarn! Its just too expensive to be messed with willy nilly. LOL Really, though, I realize that many of you don't consider $7 for a tiny skein of yarn expensive, but I do because I just am a total tightwad, and there is ALWAYS something else we need/want the money for. That being said, I am trying to get better about this, it will just take me a while... So....................... I can't decide what to do with the Cash Vero, either. I am still planning on making them into fingerless gloves, but I think I will just use a very generic "tube" type of dealio and just leave a hole for my thumb. This is actually how I like my sweaters, so I think I will be happier with this.

*sigh*

On a brighter note, I took the kids to the McDonald's Playscape for a few hours today and we all had a good time. I worked on the Skull Illusion Scarf, and wasn't paying close attention so had to frog a few rows here and there lol, but it's ok. We were having fun, and that's all that counts, right?

I'm just frustrated because I have all these projects I want to make and so much yarn I want to use, I just can never decide what to work on in what order.

Sock Sadness

Why oh why do socks hate me so? I love knitting socks, and I have started countless socks, but they always look like crap, so I frog them. I wonder if I need to try a few pairs with the cheap RedHeart SportWeight Yarn that I use for all my trial and error projects because it seems like when I try to knit with the thin sock yarn the fabric ends up being loose and the hand feels like it wouldn't be comfortable on the foot. (HAHA play on words... I am one funny gal...)

I am currently making a toddler size sock just for the heck of it to see how it turns out and although it started with a funky cable on it, the kids/dog/unknown tore out part of it so the cable had to be frogged. Anyway, tomorrow its back to the sweater most likely, but I am a sad girl because my sock making sucks.

Sweater Update

Well I finished the first sleeve today. Its all looking cute. This picture is of the back and the sleeve.

(And my daughter broke the Flash card reader on my printer last night!!! I'm SO mad! At least the cord to the camera still works so I can upload the pics, but its not as easy as just inserting the card... *sigh*)

Fever Fever Everywhere

Trey was still running a fever today, but Ibuprofen has him jumping on the bed again. (I totally just typed "has him humping on the bed again" and realized my mistake - lol, yeah, that's quite a few years away!!) Anyway............... So he slept nearly all day, then woke up when Charles got home and was fine again once it was time for more medicine. Then I realized Ally was asleep on my bed and not watching cartoons afterall. She came in the living room a few hours later bright red and running a 102 temp. After nearly having to pour it down her throat she finally got the medicine down. Now they are both not realizing they are sick because they feel so much better and don't want to get to sleep - it's 12:53am. About three hours ago I realized that my throat was feeling pretty scratchy and my head was a little dull feeling, so I take my own temp - 100.2, but I am TOTALLY ignoring that and pretending it said 97-something like it normally does. :-)

Do any of you watch Grey's Anatomy??? Yeah, I'm freaking out here. They CANNOT kill off Meredith, right?? The frikkin' show is NAMED after her for crying out loud. *sigh* Poor McDreamy. (He will definitely be added to my eye candy Friday later today - I've been putting together this week's group in my mind all week hahaha!!)

There's a blizzard coming my way!!!

Poor Sydney, she's had a really rough weekend. On Thursday I had to pick her up from school because she was throwing up and she was sick 2x otw home, then 2x more that night. Friday she had a 102ish fever most of the day (Ibuprofen did help take it down). Then all weekend she was doing fine. Last night she spiked a 103 temp again so I kept her home again today. I was talking to her teacher via email and she was going to leave me her homework in the office to pick up if she was still sick tomorrow, but said she thought there would be a snow day tomorrow. I was like whaaaa? So I looked up on our local news and this is what I found!!! LOL

Are you KIDDING me!?!?!

UPDATE: Now they have added a few inches up north and moved the line down meaning likely more snow here, too...

UPDATE 2: Changed again... now we are in the 6-12" range - oh yay...

Cars SUCK!

So Charles decided he wanted a Blizzard and some movies, so I go to get it all for him and get to Kroger to pick up some Kleenexes and soda and the stupid car won't start!!!!! **curses curses** I realize its the security thingy (yes, that's the official term) and call my dad (since its his car). He doesn't really have any ideas either, so I just call Charles and have him come get me (in the OTHER broken car...)

See, here is the situation; Charles and I own two cars, a Jaguar and an Audi. Sounds nice, huh? Yeah, well, it would be if they didn't break down all the time. The Audi had transmission issues in 2005, and we got it fixed and bought the warranty, and then lost the keys... yeah, it sat for nearly a year unused in our garage. We then got new keys and the car had a whole new set of problems: brakes, burns oil, and since it sat for a year, expired plates. *sigh* Well, in the meantime of the Audi being down we were just using the Jag and it was fine then one day it just stopped as I backed out of the driveway and the display said "engine failure" or something like that... Its been out of commission since late fall. They are both so ridiculously expensive to fix... and at then to add insult to injury, the Jag's plates expire at the end of the month. *sigh* There goes our tax return........ Anyway, so we've been borrowing my parent's extra car - which has now decided to drop dead. Life hates us, its definitely official now. What have I done to deserve this bad Karma?!?!

Ally modeling PurpleRain

Its still smaller than I'd hoped. Man, I just don't GET it!!! The guage is right on... So, here is my solution for future hats. I will increase the number of stitches on the beginning and end of the pattern (each round) so that there will be more stitches cast on. I'm updating the patterns I've already made right now.




Alright, I have made some adjustments to this pattern, to make it wider. It is 4sts wider in each repeat, so 16st total all the way around. This will increase it about 2in, which should be good. Its also 1 row longer. The pics aren't the same size because I had changed the template size between the edits lol, sorry...

[Old vs. New]

Purple Rain Problems...

So as I'm knitting along on PurpleRain, I've been dreading the center where the symbol is. It wouldn't be a good project for intarsia or Fair Isle. So I tweaked the pattern a little, yes, its really busy in the middle, but I'm not sure how else to do it. I still like it though and it will be easier.

Guage (and other things)

Well, I actually kind of sort of maybe a little did a swatch-ish type thing before I started my pirates hat. I had the guage right on. And it STAYED right on, until I realized the problem was my circ's size (that sounds like a man's problem not a knitters, huh, but I digress...) and had to switch to a 16" instead of my 29". I thought is was going along well, and just seemed littler because it was next to that tiny size circ. Well, I may have been wrong.

Cathy noticed this last night at the knit-in and asked me about my guage. So I dragged out my handy dandy super duper guage-o-meter and lo and behold she was right. I had gone from 6st=1in to about 7.5st=1in. Now, someone else mentioned a good point, I'm nearing the top of the hat and it really shouldn't matter if its smaller because I will be decreasing soon anyway. Well, I hope they are right, because when I try to smash it onto my head on the needle, it seems very iffy that it will fit me. *cry*

Oh well - like I always say, my projects always have one monumental error - this time, as with others, its size...

I will put a pic up soon so you can see for yourself.

On to other news... I went to Mass Ave Knits again today to have my recycled yarned balled up. It was very exciting. I got two big balls out of it - I will post pics of that soon as well. (Charles still has my batteries in the X-Box controller... *grrr*)
I have another sweater almost picked apart, too. It was a striped sweater so that made things a little interesting lol. Oh, and I got two more skeins of Katia sock yarn on sale for $3/ea, and three patterns. One was FREE!!! Yup, a whole sock pattern book for free cuz it was really old and worn but idc about that lol. The other was a sock/mitten/hat set pattern and the last was a pattern book FULL of sweaters for kids. Did I mention that those two books were $1/ea????? :-) Happy Camper Am I. (And since I'm a picture junkie, I'll show it all to you soon.)

I feel like crap today, so I'm going to go try to finish my hat and watch tv.