Yes, that is correct.  I am actually getting payed to talk about and teach other people how to knit.  (OK, not a huge amount.  Turns out sharing knowledge on knitting isn't quite as valued by society as say filling in tax forms or catching footballs.)  But still, how cool is that?!    I taught my first classes at our community center last Tuesday and had a total blast.  I met a lovely group of ladies (not surprisingly, all women) ranging from pre-teen to post-retirement. 



 My DH surprised me with these to congratulate me after a successful class.  (I'm sure I've mentioned before that  he is a good man.)

Now follows some other random bits:

1.  It was a colorful Christmas:



Yup, yarn gifted out right.  Yup, yarn bought with a gift card.  Yup, books about yarn.  And, yes, that is 176 different shades of eye shadow.  It's a wonder it doesn't take me 3 hours to decide upon what color combination I'm in the mood for on any given morning.  Thank you all!


2.  It has been cold.



And I don't mean chilly. Cold.  That's Fahrenheit and we're not even talking wind chill, people.  I generally don't mind winter, but the deep freeze is getting a bit tiresome. 

3.  What do you do when it's sub-zero outside?

Go see a (comparatively) nice warm hockey game.



Go Rochester Institute of Technology Lady Tigers! 



We enjoyed it! 

4.   What else do you do when it's sub-zero outside?




Continue on my knitting fingerless mitts jag.  These are for my dear MIL. 
Yarn: Universal Yarn Classic Shades
Needle: US 5
Pattern:  Susie's Reading Mitts by Janelle Masters
Mods:  Added a bit of length to the thumb and hand so that knuckles would be sure to be covered.  The yarn is just lovely.  Soft and the colors are saturated and rich. 

5.  Meet the new(er) additions to our family



Fish.  It's surprisingly difficult to take a picture of rapidly swimming fish, in a fish tank (of course -- where else would they be.  It would be much easier to take a picture of fish flopping around on dresser.  But the ending would be bad.) , backlit against a window.    You really can't tell but there are 3 zebra danios, 3 red (they are clearly orange.  Don't know who named them.) platies and one black molly. 

And our last fall addition.




Meet Toady (and a rather too trusting cricket).  Toady was rescued from our neighbor's window well in late November.

A few minutes after the above picture, the cricket moved.


  
Clearly this is a suicidal cricket, or Toady and this cricket have reached an uneasy detente.  That picture was taken yesterday afternoon.  I haven't heard any cricket chirps this afternoon.  So much for detente.



Toady took a trip into DearSon's kindergarten class for show-and-tell this week.  In this picture, Toady had just pooped, clearly Toady has mastered public relations for the 5 year old crowd. 


6.  Thank you Tim Horton's

I was just starting to bemoan the loss of Tim Horton's holiday season peppermint encrusted chocolate dipped chocolate donut when this came along.



A peppermint encrusted chocolate dipped, chocolate filled heart shaped donut.  Oh, my.  And, thank you.