This and That

Well, both the Block Kids event sponsored by NAWIC and the Science Alive! event at the SJCPL were a lot of fun. The weather was a concern Saturday as the temp was a very brisk -23 degrees with wind chill, so attendance was down a little. The young builders seemed enthusiastic and thoughtful about their constructions. Part of my duties as judge were to ask the kids questions such as what they wanted to be when they grew up and how they planned their project. I met a future art teacher, a designer, an architect and a veterinarian.

Science Alive! was incredible! There was a kind of trade show set up in the large meeting room and so many groups were represented I can't even hope to list them all. I do remember the Potawatomie Zoo booth, the Civil Engineers from Notre Dame and the Physics Club, also from Notre Dame.

Block Kids was held at the Boys and Girls Club here in South Bend. It was my first visit there and I am impressed. In addition to being spacious, clean, comfortable and welcoming, there are lovely original paintings in the hallways of children who use the facility. The artist, Kelly, works at the center. Good job, Kelly. I love the portraits, they are large canvases with a bright background, one child in each, and a real joyous atmosphere. I felt like I was actually meeting the child as I viewed the painting.

After the library it was home to blessed warmth, KFC and the entire 3rd season of Smallville. What a great day.

The intense cold didn't lessen it's grip on our town until Wednesday. It's hard to be cold all the time. I suppose that contributed to the grumpiness I felt this week more than anything. Now that the thermometer is up to 17 degrees life seems much better. I have been researching ways to improve my knowledge base, both to make it easier to find better employment and to challenge my brain. I picked up two "Classroom in a Book" volumes from Adobe, Illustrator CS and Photoshop CS. I am planning to take the Adobe Certified Expert tests in both. I am also planning to get certified as an expert in Microsoft Office and, possibly, become certified as a Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician. I already use most of these programs so I'm halfway there. I would like to get back into desktop publishing, I'm kind of finished with the production printing end of things. It's not very challenging to me, and kind of smelly with the solvent inks we use.

On the hobby front I have taken the first steps to becoming a Master Knitter. It's pretty cool in an humbling way. Learning is fun, but not as easy as it once was!

All Kinds of Fun

The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) are sponsoring a Kid Event at the local Boys and Girls Club here in South Bend and I get to be a judge for part of the fun building competition! Each participant gets 100 interlocking type blocks and up to 3 of the following items: a small rock about 2" long, an 18" x 18" square of tin foil, a 12" long piece of string or a 12" x 12" piece of poster board. This promises to be very interesting. My sister will also be a judge.



After this event my nieces and I will head over to the Main library for the afternoon events of "Science Alive." The 2:30 program is Service Dogs on the Go presented by Paws with a Cause and we get to meet Magic and his trainer.


At 3:30 is the big one - Eye to Eye with Indiana's Creepy Crawlers, meeting with snakes, frogs and lizards. Even though the Science demos were in the morning there will still be science demos and projects happening in several rooms including a Dino dig, Stars and Stellar art projects, Kids Astro Camp and QuarkNet Physics activities.

Science Alive has been presented the first Saturday in Feb. for 15 years. It is always a good time! Since both girls want to go into some kind of work with science and animals (what kid doesn't want to be a vet?) this is very good for them. While we are there I'll get a movie for our pizza and movie night. I love it when a plan comes together!

Happy New Year!!

We haven't had snow save for a sprinkling Christmas eve, very unusual for northern Indiana. This week is making up for it!! It began snowing Jan. 25 and has snowed at least an inch, often more, each day since. I now have about 9 inches on the ground at my house, and it snowing as I write. The 7 day forecast predicts snow 6 of the seven. It's good for the ground water level and it's really pretty but, my gosh, shoveling is a workout. Thank God it's all light powder. The weather people may call it lake effect but it's not the big wet flakes we usually get.

I'm embarrassed to realize how long it has been since I posted. I wish I could claim to have been on holiday in the islands or something exotic. Alas, no. Christmas has come and gone and January is over! I spent my holiday knitting and doing the bare minimum of cleaning around the house. I completed 4 purses and 2 skull scarves, all tucked into zippered pillowcases waiting to be felted. I have 2 more purses on the needles. I did a little embroidery on the finished purses, but I wasn't really inspired. I plan to add some buttons and brooches after felting. Oh, and my den is within 3 hours of being useful again!! The piles of yarn and various projects are tucked into storage drawers and the loose papers are filed away.

The Walmart by me finally opened. I have been waiting since early last spring for this! It is built on the site of the business my Dad helped start. At various times all of my family has worked there, so it was sad to see the building go (the business closed it's doors about a year after 9-11). On the other hand just the rumor of Walmart coming to the south side caused a wonderful growth of restaurants, stores and services. I hope to see a lot more, the south side has been pretty run down.
Anyway, back to my story, I visited Walmart on my way home from work last week. It's great to have some businesses open on my schedule (being a night shift worker and all). Of course, I picked up some yarn and a pattern book called crochets afghans from A to Z. I'm starting with A. It's an American flag. I have made 2 flag afghans in the past, but this pattern is a little different, kind of based on granny squares. I chose a fairly dark blue and dark red and a winter white. This will be a birthday present for later this year. I haven't crocheted in quite some time and the muscles used are different than for knitting. It's good to keep my hands busy, the arthritis is kept at bay!


I spend a lot of time at the library. Our county library is 4th in the nation and it is a pip, let me tell you. I love it. Every branch has something special in the design and in the staff that makes each one a pleasure to visit. My branch is the Virginia Tutt. Mrs. Tutt was a educator back in the day. I have visited this branch once or twice a week all of my life. Just recently Kim, an old school chum and, now, librarian, asked if I would be interested in presenting a program for teens at the Tutt! How fun! We decided to do painting on rocks, something I have done for the past two years with the 4-H program my township as an introduction to painting. There are a series of wonderful books by Lin Wellford that are inspiring. The directions are clear and the photos are tremendously helpful. My program will be April 16 so I have plenty of time to make some samples (an excellent snowy day project by the way). What a great excuse to play with paint!! Just having the opportunity to teach something arty through the library is a great blessing for me. I would love to do a program each month if this works out, as I'm sure it will. I'd also like to develop a knitting class of maybe 4 weeks that could meet at the Tutt and cover beginning knitting and a simple project, possibly a felted purse. By the way, the web address for my library is www.sjcpl.org - visit and see if you don't fall in love with it!!