The entire family is sequestered while we try to complete the massive amount of stuff that needs to be done before we leave for our “Not Back To School Days” trip to Disneyland. The older boys proved incapable of doing schoolwork on our spontaneous trip to the Vegas last week, so that means dozens of lessons have to be finished in addition to their regular work. No one is very happy at the moment, least of all me.

Some things that are making me happy:

Mon.thly.Info - This site keeps track of your menstrual cycles and predicts when I will have my period (and ovulation, if I was into the idea more babies right now). It even e-mails a helpful reminder two days before the “event”, so I don’t have to make a rushed trip to The Store That Shall Not Be Named for tampons. Brilliant use of technology.

Ruche - This online boutique has a feeling that’s similar to Anthropologie, yet I don’t have to sell my first-born child to afford it. Also: some organic cotton items. I highly approve. I bought this Magenta Flowing Forest Scarf, this Wooden Branch Charm Necklace, and these Leafy Filigree Earrings. I wish I wasn’t too fussy to buy shoes online, because these Brown Lacey Lace Flats are calling me.

The local library added shopping baskets for use by patrons. As someone who wanders among the shelves while balancing a precarious stack of books, this addition is greatly appreciated. Now if only they could block MySpace on the public computers…Thirty-two computers, and every one is occupied by a preteen.

Twitter - Now that I have an iPhone, it is 10x more fun. I can twitter while doing interesting things, as opposed to every post being along the lines of: “Sitting at my desk. Working.” TwitPic is my friend. (Not so much: the Twitter application for Facebook. I gave it the boot after it filled up my profile page with status updates, making me look like a loser who hangs out on social networking sites all day long.)

Brady fell in love with a kiddie piano at FAO Schwarz and I hesistantly plunked down $50 to bring this one home (because a pink Baby Grand for $175? Not happening.) Would he continue to be enamored with it enough to justify the cost (as well as the hassle of dragging it through Caesars Palace)? Oh, yes. Brady thinks he’s Baby Elton John, tickling the ivories all day long (and sometimes teething on the piano lid, using it to pull himself to a semi-standing position, or falling over and hitting his head on the keys with a resounding “PLONK!”).

I kicked off the day with a dentist appointment, and left with an aching mouth and an exhortation to floss (which I do, religiously).

School starts in less than a week, and we have yet to receive our books. I can’t get organized, and my sanity depends on organization.

I’ve got an inbox full of correspondence I’ve neglected.

My hip is acting up for no discernible reason (aside from scoliosis).

Brady was fussier than usual.

And my grandpa died this afternoon.

Yeah, it was a bad day.

At least I have this to cheer me:

Brady with the piece of tortilla he mooched at Chipotle, 8/3/08

This is the time of year when people express disbelief over my interest in the NCAA basketball tournament. “I didn’t know you you were a sports fan,” they exclaim. Correction: I am not a sports fan; I am a fan of money.

Since I was a little girl, I’ve played in a bracket pool. Dad used to run a large pool comprised mainly of school district employees, and I have fond memories of him shuffling through the stack of photocopied brackets as he tallied the points by hand. The mantle has passed from Dad to someone else and the pool is maintained online now, but I still see the familiar names of teachers who knew me as a redheaded sprite with pigtails. (And then I relish obliterating them. Mwah-ha-ha!)

When I was younger, I would pencil in teams based on the appeal of their mascots or an unsubstantiated hunch. I progressed to following the higher seeds, throwing in some requisite upsets for good measure. My bracket-picking technique has now been refined somewhat. I spend the days leading up to March Madness cruising the sports websites, armed with a notebook in which I tally up the various experts’ opinions. It works for me- my finish is always respectable, and (most importantly) always ahead of my husband (who is a sports fan).

This year was a bit dicey. Since we were in Vegas when the bracket was released, I didn’t have time to do my usual amount of research, so I did an rushed job of it on the night the entries closed. I was resigned to not placing, so imagine my surprise when I saw this on Sunday:

(That’s me in second place, under someone who picked Ohio State to win.)

If Florida wins tonight, I am going to be over $400 richer. I will also be able to do a gloating “Winner!” dance around Kyle, and that is always a good thing.

If I lose… well, at least I can still do the “Winner!” dance around Kyle.

Since I wrote my post ranting about my hatred for Ohio State Football and Wal-mart, I have been receiving many hits from people searching the Internets with queries such as “i hate ohio state website”. I was surprised to see that the most popular subject (aside from people looking for photos of Irish dance shoes and information about knitting legwarmers) is “oh how i hate ohio state t-shirts”. I was feeling badly about misleading all of these poor souls who are looking to express their disdain for Ohio State through clothing, only to find my ramblings. So I created a t-shirt through CafePress.

Click the photo to visit Cafepress.

There are many different styles of shirts available (although I prefer the yellow with blue printing, of course), and I only marked them $1 above the CafePress base price. (Hey, a girl has to pay for her bandwidth somehow.) Hate on, readers.

On-the-spot endorsement from Aidan, who is looking over my shoulder: “Does that say ‘Oh, How I Hate Ohio State’? I totally want that.” And he’s not even a Michigan fan.

On that note, I suppose it is time to talk about a painful subject. The Rose Bowl.

My dad is a U of M alumni, longtime season ticketholder, and Victors Club member. When he offered us the opportunity to purchase tickets, Kyle decided to seize the chance to attend a bowl game. So off to California we went, with $300 less in our bank account. Kyle’s brother generously allowed us to stay at his house, and we offered him two tickets (at face value, of course, because he is family) in return.

So what is it like to attend a bowl game? A lot like attending a regular game, except with more traffic and Darth Vader overseeing the coin toss.

The Rose Bowl (or the area around it, at least) is fairly pretty, as the stadium was plunked down in the hills of the California coast. It’s located in the middle of a residential area, which seemed kind of strange to me. I can’t imagine living amidst that chaos for a weekend. (Unless I was selling bootleg Rose Bowl merchandise in my front yard and raking in the dough.)

Our day consisted of much wandering on the Brookside Golf Course, where we managed to park. We were a group of non-tailgating party poopers, so we had nothing better to do than watch everyone else who had the foresight to bring generators and televisions and lots of yummy food. And the centerpieces…people actually brought centerpieces created with roses in their team colors. (And I thought team-branded flags and tents were big doings.) There were many places where one could purchase official Rose Bowl merchandise, but the number of bathrooms and food stands was paltry, creating crazy long lines. (I heard of a mythical “food zone”, but we never stumbled upon it.)

The game itself was…well, everyone knows how that went down. I received a bit of ribbing from the other fans in the Michigan section for bringing two USC fans into their midst, but it was all good natured. (Nothing like this.) Losing aside, it was a pretty fun time. Except for this guy:

He insisted on standing throughout the game. Not just during plays- he remained standing even through the television timeouts. When every single person in the section was sitting, he resolutely stood. Directly in my line of vision. (Lucky me.) Our little group, joined by some equally irritated people behind us, commenced mocking him until he finally caved under the pressure at the end of the third quarter and sat down (to much cheering). His standing companion buckled much earlier, which prompted Kyle to exclaim: “Hey! That’s great! Now I can see 80 yards of the field!”

More photos of Rose Bowl fun (and other California hijinks) here.

My intention was for a portion of this blog to be devoted to knitting, because lord knows there aren’t enough knitblogs in the world. Especially knitblogs from knitters who churn out run-of-the-mill, entirely uninspiring projects on an irregular basis. Like yours truly.

Seriously…since I started homeschooling the boys, my knitting time has decreased significantly. Take this Jayne Hat for instance. It’s a hat. Simple, right? I started it this summer. And I just completed it. Granted, it sat around waiting for an earflap for ages, but still!

I used a pattern that I can’t even find online anymore- I believe the site in question no longer exists. (It wasn’t one of the more widely used patterns, though.) The hat turned out a bit too slouchy and long (which I tried to correct with blocking, to no avail), but it isn’t horrible for my first ever knitted hat. I have a ton of Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride left over, so my intention is to try again with a different pattern.

That is, after I finish Quinn’s quickie sweater…made with 100% acrylic (shudder!)…that he picked out at Wal-mart (shudder!).

On a related note…This Jayne hat cell phone holder? Adorable.

Edited to add: Found it! This was the pattern in question.