First Day

of eighth grade. For Cody, that is. We went up last Friday and met his teachers. Usually, the teachers introduce themselves and tell you a little about what they will be doing in class, etc, etc. The ones he has this year basically said, "Here's your supply list. See you next week." So there's not much of an impression I can say that they made on me. All but two of them have two or less years of teaching experience. His algebra teacher looks like she's the same age as the students she is teaching. I told Cody he'd better take it easy on her.

So, off to school he went...

I would like to say that I started his day with a rousing breakfast. I can't tell you enough how important a rousing breakfast is, and I had every intention of fixing him a rousing breakfast.

The electricity went out shortly after 3:00 AM. It was still out when we got up at 5:30. I told Cody, "I wanted to fix you a rousing breakfast for the first day of school, but I'm afraid you'll have to settle for cereal or cold pop tarts." He decided to wait a while to see if the electricity would come back on, but in the end, he settled for cold pop tarts.

Still, I managed to take our traditional first day of school picture.

Yes, that uniform does come with shoes and socks, and yes, Katie is usually in them with him. (The pictures, not the shoes and socks.)

Now, back to the lack of electricity...

As I said, the electricity went out shortly after 3, and was still out when we got up. I muttered a few choice words about how I pay good money for electricity to be delivered to my house and by golly I expect to have electricity...all to no avail. The power didn't listen to my grumblings and stayed off.

No electricity meant of course that there were no lights in the house. At 5:30 in the morning, this can be a bit of a problem. I couldn't find our camping lanterns. Well, I found one, but it's batteries had run down, so I got us a couple of candles and lit them. I always have candles around. Cody got into the shower, and I went into my bathroom and applied my makeup by candle light, praying all the while that I was not unknowingly making myself look like Bozo the Clown.

Once I was done making a clown of myself, I went into the living room to check on Cody's progress and to my horror, I found this:

(Re-enactment)

in the floor. It was my now rather bedraggled looking Jaywalker sock. The perpetrator of this heinous act was not hard to spot:

(Re-enactment)

Her innocent act did not fool me, and I muttered--OK, yelled--a few choice words that do not bear repeating here, this being a family blog and all.

--I have no recollection of ever uttering the words "going back to the pound"--

I snatched up the mangy, flea-bitten mutt--er darling puppy and inserted her rather quickly back into her jail--uh kennel. I retrieved the sock and examined it, still by candle light. It appeared none the worse for the wear, and all the stitches were still on the needles. But alas, my working needle was missing.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a 2 mm double pointed needle by candlelight? I can testify that it is very nearly impossible. Fortunately, the sun eventually came up and the abducted needle was successfully located, and puppy was off the hook.

(Re-enactment)

Good thing I was using my Knit Picks nickle plated needle. Puppy teeth were unable to damage it and it was recovered unharmed. Had it been one of my bamboo needles--well, puppy would have been in a lot more trouble.

Time to leave for work was inching ever closer, and still no electricity. To complete the Bozo the Clown look, my naturally curly hair was frizzing out everywhere. No electricity means no curling iron, therefore no way to tame this wild fright wig of hair. All I needed was some orange dye.

I did the next best thing. I borrowed one of Cody's caps. My friend Susan said, "Oh, Becky! You look adorable in a cap!" I don't know if I'd go that far...

(Re-enactment)

After work, when I was finally able to check my e-mail, I found one from Shelly of Scarves from the Heart. She wants to do an article about me knitting scarves for the charity from the contest yarn I won.

Pretty cool. This is the one I started yesterday. I've actually finished one already. You may remember it. I called it the Mardi Gras scarf.

I'm off to bed now. And there'd better be electricity when I wake up in the morning.

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