In brief..

I ran out of yarn with 6 and a half rows to go to finish the toe of my first Jaywalker. This happened while I was on a plane from Minneapolis to Detroit, so I could really maneuver so that I could try the sock on to see if it would be okay to just rip back and start the toe decreases a repeat or two earlier. Now that I'm settled into my hotel room, though, I definitely think that's in order.. the sock is.. boxy at the toe now, so decreasing earlier, even if I end up decreasing more in the long run (the pattern says to kitchener the remaining 28 stiches.. way to boxy for my comfort in shoes) sounds like a good plan. I'm a little torn, though.. going up a needle size definitely fixed the issue with the socks being too tight, but I think they're also now just a tad too big. *sigh*

My other option is to start a different pair with the Lorna's Laces (Barb - it's the Bucks Bar colorway which is a sort of pale blue/green/pink/beige one) I brought, but I sort of want to finish the Jaywalkers. We'll see.

Sorry about the lack of photos.. I decided that I didn't want to try to figure out how to get the digital camera into my carry on safely, so it stayed home.

I thought there was more of this post but it seems to have wandered away. *shrug*

If only all things were this easy to undo..

My husband had oral surgery on Tuesday. It was not terrible, but it was a bit more invasive than your typical tooth extraction. I'll spare you the details of the surgery and instead show you what I started to occupy myself while waiting:



Yup, it's a Jaywalker done in KnitPicks Memories in the Pansy colorway. It's a quick little pattern, easy to memorize, and therefore just about perfect for waiting rooms. I have to admit,though, that I wasn't thrilled with the striping - I didn't like that the colors *always& pooled in pairs, so that the black and dark purple were always striping and the yellow and magenta were always striping - so I wasn't too terribly upset to discover that the sock was much to tight when knit on US 1 needles.



So I ripped it out and started over, doing the ribbing on US 1s and then switching to US 2s for the chevron pattern. So far, I like it much better - the striping seems to be more mixed up and it's definitely not as dense as the first time.

This will likely be my plane knitting for my trip to South Carolina this weekend, but I'm also bringing some newly acquired Lorna's Laces (my first time ever using this yarn!) just in case I finish this pair before I get home.

PSA: CALL CONGRESS TODAY IN SUPPORT OF SASP FUNDING FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008!

Representatives Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) are circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter that is intended to demonstrate to House Appropriators how important the Sexual Assault Service Program (SASP) is and to request full funding for the program in Fiscal Year 2008. Dear Colleague letters are generally initiated by two Members of Congress (usually a democrat and a republican). These letters are sent to each Congressperson to ask for their signature to show support for funding a particular program or to gather support for pending legislation.

We need your help to get as many members of Congress as possible to sign on to this letter to show that SASP is an important program to all communities across the country. The deadline is this Friday, March 16. In 2006, 110 representatives signed a Dear Colleague in support of SASP funding for Fiscal Year 2007. It's crucial that we show the same level of support for SASP in 2008.

Background: The Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP) was authorized by the Violence Against Women Act of 2005. SASP is the first federal program to provide a direct and dedicated funding stream for services to victims by rape crisis centers and other sexual assault organizations. SASP funding is also directed to Native American tribes as well as culturally-specific organizations to better reach and serve victims in communities that have been historically underserved. In addition, SASP makes resources available to state, territory, and tribal sexual assault coalitions who work to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of local programs. For more information on SASP, visit the National Center for Victims of Crime website.

Please call your representative today to ask him or her to sign onto the Baldwin/McCotter Dear Colleague letter in support of SASP. Congressional staffers who have questions or want to sign on can contact Elizabeth Pika in Rep. Baldwin's office at 202) 225-2906. If you don't know how to reach your representative go to www.house.gov or call the Capitol switchboard at 202.224.3121, and they will connect you.

If you have any questions, please contact Ilse Knecht, Deputy Director, Public Policy at 703-732-2446 or iknecht@ncvc.org.

Current signatures include:
1. Tammy Baldwin
2. Thaddeus McCotter
3. Dennis Moore
4. Rick Boucher
5. Neil Abercrombie
6. Jim Costa
7. Carolyn McCarthy
8. Todd Russell Platts
9. Luis G. Fortuno
10. Elijah Cummings
11. Howard Berman
12. Mike Michaud
13. Dianna DeGette
14. George Miller
15. Jim Langevin
16. Michael E. Capuano
17. Stephanie Herseth

[Note: We are still uncertain about the Fiscal Year 2007 funding levels for SASP. Because Congress passed a continuing resolution for the whole of 2007 for all agencies and did not direct how federal agencies are to spend those dollars, federal agencies are still sorting out how they will spend those funds].

{All above text excerpted from an email message forwarded by the staff of Houston County Women's Resources.}

On gardens.

Yup. Gardens. It's mid-March, there's still at least 10 inches of snow on our yard, and I've been pondering garden thoughts for some weeks now. Now, before we wander off down the paths of my mind, let me remind you that I'm by no means what any sane person would call a gardener. But I am learning, and we have plans that will help me learn more.

I don't recall if I talked last year at all about the plans for the front yard when we pulled out all the bushes, so bear with me if this is old news. Basically, there's no real grass in the front yard - it's all weeds and dirt with just enough of a smattering of actually grass-like substance to require us to mow it. We find this annoying (really, Jack finds this annoying since he ends up mowing more often than I do) and decided that it would be just lovely if instead of a front lawn, we had instead a nice little garden area there. Something that is mostly perennials, with maybe room for an annual or two as the mood strikes us.

So this past weekend we met with two greenthumb-enabled friends - who themselves have an absolutely beautiful and self-sustaining garden for their front lawn - to plan what to put in there. There were some rules - for instance, given that we just tore out several monstrous evergreen shrubs that were as tall as the first story of the house, we didn't want any bushes that would get unmanageably tall or dense. We also didn't want it so dense that it was just a patch of vegetation with no rhyme or reason. Finally, we wanted it to "flow" or "transition" well visually into the grass of our neighbor's lawn, without threatening to overtake said grass.

After flipping through lots of catalogs and books, we decided on the following to fill the approximately 15 foot square space:
*Closest to the porch, where the old bushes used to be, we'll plant three weigela bushes. The two on the ends will be of the Wine & Roses variety, and the middle one is Variegated.
* In front of the weigela bushes, from the left to the right if you're standing on the sidewalk in front of the house, sort of on either side of the Variegated weigela (which is bigger than the other two), will be some mixed foxglove.
* The front left corner will be a combination of Bright Lights Cosmos, a smidge of Evergreen Vinca, and a fronting of either sapphire blue or white delight creeping phlox.
* The rough center of the patch, in front of the variegated weigela and between the two patches of foxglove, will be a Blue Star Sea Holly.
* By the sidewalk to the porch, from the corner of the porch to the main sidewalk, will be a patch of Ipomopsis Hummingbird Mix, with more of the phlox in front of it, then some more of the evergreen vinca and another corner of the phlox. Tucked in behind the phlox and to the front right of the Sea Holly is a small patch of Balloonflowers.

In terms of height, it will be shorter as you work toward the front corners and sides, and we're pretty sure that we'll have something blooming most of the summer. The weigela and ipomopsis are both attractive to hummingbirds, which will work well considering I have a hummingbird feeder on the porch.

I ordered all the plants today (they won't ship until they're ready to go in the ground - likely the last week of April or the first week of May). We'll need to rent a sod cutter to get rid of the weeds and such that are currently in the yard, and put down some gardeners cloth and edging to keep things from getting too invasive where they shouldn't be, but I'm hoping that by mid-May the front lawn will be more or less set.

We also planned a rather extensive vegetable garden - 3 different types of tomatoes, blue potatoes, sweet potatoes, french radishes, purple carrots, garlic, chives, watermelon radishes, three kinds of peppers, three kinds of basil, and Walla Walla Sweet onions - that will go into raised beds that my dad's coming to help me build the second week in May. Oh, and a couple different kinds of squash, but we're going to train those up the fence in the back yard. At least half of the crop from the veggie garden will go to the friends who are helping us with the planning (they're also going to come help get things in the ground and teach me what I need to know to maintain and care for everything), but I still expect that I'll have more than my share of fresh veggies this year.

The raised beds will run the length of the yard where we took out the bushes-gone-wild last year, with a space between them that will have a smaller raised bed where I can plant something that will vine - maybe clematis or trumpet vine? - and an arbor over a sitting area across from the apple tree in the side yard. I might also try to plant a row of sunflowers on the street side to give a little privacy screen, but I haven't decided on that yet. I'll be ordering the plants and seeds for the veggies in a week or two, once I have a chance to confirm with dad that we really can make the beds as large as we planned.

So now that the plans are done, we wait. Fortunately, I know the time will just fly! Dad's coming down next week to help us rip out and remodel the upstairs bathroom and we're trying to pick out paint colors for the dining room to get at least one of the interior rooms painted something other than white before summer hits, so between that and work, I'm sure it'll be planting time before I know it. Yea!

It's that time of year..

.. in the next week or so, I expect to receive 3 email messages from U.S. News & World Reports containing the links to their annual survey of undergraduate institutions. While the data provided in these three surveys - the Main Statistical Survey, the Finance Survey, and the Financial Aid Survey - comprises the bulk of the data used by USNews to calculate their annual college rankings the largest single factor in the ranking - coming in at a whopping 25% of the final ranking - is a so-called "repuational" survey of University administrators. This survey is rather highly subjective in that it asks top administrators to provide their opinion on the reputation of their peers. This reputation survey, as well as USNews's method of statistically imputing missing data such as average admissions test scores, is now under attack by a small group of college presidents who feel that it's time for higher education institutions to "fight back" against USNews.

The text below is excerpted from a newsletter I prepared for distribution on my campus last fall to try to shed some light on the USNews Rankings and what they might actually *mean*. Given the current kerfuffle, I thought it might be interesting reading, though I am just about 100% positive that my colleagues at other higher ed institutions won't find anything particularly new in it.

The rankings are based on data collected by US News from a variety of surveys and sources in “15 areas related to academic excellence”. US News participates in the Common Data Set Initiative, which means many of their survey items are drawn from a common core of questions used by many of the larger publishers. The Common Data Set saves colleges and universities time by allowing them to answer one set of questions on a given topic, rather than slightly different variations from each publisher. This consistency also means that consumers — students and parents — will find similar information about each college even if they look at different publisher rankings. Data not provided by institutions via survey response are either computed from other sources, such as the US Department of Education, or statistically imputed.

US News assigns each indicator a weight determined by their editors. Weights reflect which of the various indicators US News feels provide the best measure of the quality of a school. Rankings are based on the total weighted score for each institution.
... Understanding how each factor is weighted explains why some institutions rank higher than others in any given year and also why US News provides a ranking for Public institutions separate from the full rankings.

Factors included in US News Rankings, including their weights and sources

Academic Reputation (25%). Determined by the Academic Reputation Survey completed by the President/Chancellor, Provost, and Dean of Admissions at peer institutions. Each individual is asked to rate peer schools' academic programs on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). The survey is administered by Synovate and had a 58% response rate for the 2006-07 rankings.

6-year Graduation Rate (16%). The Department of Education requires institutions to report on the percent of students who start at their institution and complete their degree within 150% of expected time. For most baccalaureate institutions, 4 years is the expected time to degree completion and 6 years is 150% of expected time.

Average Educational Expenditures per Student (10%). Educational expenses are reported to the Department of Education annually; US News uses the same data supplied to the Department of Education and available in the Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data Systems (IPEDS).

Incoming First-Time, First-Degree Seeking Student ACT/SAT Scores (7.5%). First-time, first-degree seeking students are what are considered “traditional” undergraduate students. This group includes only students who have enrolled in college credit courses for the first time with the intent to complete a degree-granting program. High school students participating in post-secondary options and students who transfer from a prior institution are not included in this group.

Average Faculty Salary (7%). Average faculty pay, plus benefits, during the two previous academic years, adjusted for regional differences in the cost of living (using indexes from the consulting firm Runzheimer International).

Opinions on the usefulness of the rankings vary. For many looking for a simple way to compare institutions, the rankings provide a quick and easy reference. Critics claim the rankings simplify the value of higher education too much by focusing on inputs, such as funding sources and student test scores, when the real focus ought to be on how much and how well students are learning. Of the top 5 factors by weight, the only output measure is graduation rate. While other “outcome” measures — such as 1st-to-2nd year retention rate (4%) and a value added measure that compares actual graduation rates to the graduation rates predicted based on various input measures (5%) — are included in the total ranking, they are dwarfed by the effect of academic reputation and financial resources.

Sources: U.S. News & World Report ranking methodology website
V.M. Conley & G. Fink. “Using National Data Sets in Institutional Research”, Association for Institutional Research Foundations Institute.

PSA: Support women & women's shelters!

Click to donate feminine hygiene products to women's shelters in your state!

To quote a friend, "Seventh Generation,a green paper products and cleaning products company, has a do-good attitude and will donate a box of sanitary products to a women's shelter in your chosen state - just for clicking the link. Talk about easy, and, yes, it is legitimate!"

Please take a moment and make a few clicks to support women and women's shelters!

Thoughts on stewardship

Those who've been reading for a bit pr'bly know that last summer, after having served on the HCWR Board for just six months, I was elected President (I swear I talked about this here, but I can't find an entry on it.. hrm.. maybe you don't know this?) after our then-President was reassigned to another parish by her Bishop mid-year. This was in no way any sort of overwhelming statement about my abilities - it was simply that I was the only regularly attending Board member left who wasn't already an officer. While the Vice President would normally have stepped up, the woman in that role had stated unequivocally that due to other projects she was engaged in at work she did not feel she could serve as President. She assured me, though, that she felt she would be able to step up to fill the role at the turn of the new year when the next full round of Board Officer elections was scheduled.

Two or three months after I was elected, the Executive Director of the agency for the past 14 years decided to pursue a new opportunity and I was suddenly President of a Board of Directors faced with replacing a much-loved and admired Executive Director. While I can claim none of the credit, we managed to mount a successful regional search and hired a new ED before the end of the calendar year. We celebrated our annual meeting by paying tribute to the outgoing ED, introducing our incoming ED, and welcoming no fewer than 7 new members to our Board of Directors, more than doubling the size of the Board from the previous year.

Due to the transition in ED and the comparative new-ness of a large portion of the Board, the Board elected to postpone new officer elections until our April meeting. This allowed the remaining members of the Board - all officers by necessity - to work as an Executive Team with the new ED through the first few months of the transition period while the newer members of the Board learned more about the agency and our responsibilities as a Board for a non-profit agency. It also allowed me to take some initiative to craft the new, larger board into the body that I felt we should be in order to best serve the agency by establishing an updated committee structure and making some changes to regular Board meetings that will allow the committees to meet as part of the regular Board meeting time each month, a move that I hope means our committees will be more viable and productive.

I've been on the fence about the April elections. Part of me knows all too well that I'm not prepared for the role of Board President - I'm comparatively new to the area and not at all well connected within the community we serve; while I'm grounded in domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy principles, the vast majority of my work in the field has occurred in much larger cities with inbedded infrastructure such as public transportation and multiple emergency shelters, not in the considerably more rural environment HCWR serves; and I'm facing another uncertain year of expectations in my day job, with 5 of the top 7 administrative positions currently held by interim appointments, including my direct supervisor.

Another part of me, though, recognizes that I *can* lead (this is a part of my skills and ability that I'm still adjusting to, so my confidence wanes at times, but in the end, I do know I can be a capable leader). The simple fact that in a few short months, I've managed to enact several changes in the Board operations that I hope will move the agency as a whole forward stands as testament to my ability to make things happen (instead of just talking about the need for change). My fellow Board members are also extraordinarily supportive - they make it easy for me to lead and seem generally appreciative of the thought I tend to put into proposed changes. And our Vice President keeps reminding me that she has a son who is a high school senior, so this year really isn't ideal for her to step up, either.

So, while I can't count the number of times I've wished to be "ousted", I'm also recognizing that the bulk of the "hard" work is done. Things are settling down to the more routine work of the Board, but unlike last year, there are many more members of the Board to assist in that work which will hopefully mean we will all work hard, but none of us will have to work to the point of burn out (hopefully including the agency staff).

And that leaves me on the proverbial fence.. I'm perfectly willing to step aside and let any of the many equally (or even more) capable Board members take the helm; but I think I'm also willing to stay in the role if my fellow Board members want me to. It's sort of an odd place to be after several months of turmoil and change.

Good Monday Morning!

I walked into my office this morning to this gorgeous sight:



Quite lovely! It's been blooming more or less continuously all winter, but this is the most blooms it's had at any given time. There are still a few more buds that have yet to open, and I suspect it will continue to bloom for another month or so and then go dormant again for the summer. In the meantime, though, it's a wonderfully welcome splash of color in my office, especially with the sunlight streaming in behind it.

In other news, I whipped up another Felted Bucket Hat this weekend for my mother-in-law. No pictures - I forgot to get any before I wrapped it up - but I might try to get one of her wearing it tonight when we meet them for dinner.

More shopping!

Yea! As you may remember, today is Herberger's Community Day. I love this sale. I really am not just saying that because Houston County Women's Resources gets to participate. I really *hate* clothes shopping, mostly because it just seems that everything is so expensive and I just can't seem to bring myself to pay $40 for a simple shirt or $60 for a plain pair of slacks. I can get over it when I have help, but it's because I need convincing.

This sale, though, has some truly amazing deals on clothes that are both comfortable and I think fit my style. Today, for instance, I picked up two nice 3/4 length sleeve button down shirts, a couple Relativity tanks (which I love and now have 6 of - light turquoise, coral, cream, black and these two new ones) in a medium blue and a dark blue, both of which work under the two button down shirts, a knit short sleeve light-ish blue sweater, a black knit tunic-style shirt with a lace insert cuff, and a lovely coral long sleeve button down shirt. Jack got a new belt (which was the most expensive thing on the receipt at $18) and three hooded sweatshirts. The grand total was all of $134. Eleven items, most of them nice clothing that normally retails between $35 and $60.

Yup. Love this sale.

And it just keeps coming..

This was a shot out our front door this morning:



You'll notice my husband - who is 6 foot 2 inches - and our PT Cruiser on the other side of the snow berm that's built up over the last week from the plow and shoveling. Judging from the walk, we had about 4-5 inches overnight. We came home early today and there were another 3 inches or so, and it's still snowing. They keep telling us it will stop.. I'm not sure I believe them.

In the meantime, I've been less than motivated on the knitting front, but I did pick up the Baby Camel Tussah Silk Top that I got from my Secret Pal*:



I had to go back to this picture:



to be sure I had actually made some progress. I mean, I know I had, but it was sort of hard to tell without having a prior progress picture as a mark.

* My Secret Pal from SP9 seems to have been attacked by Real Life(tm). She started a new job about the same time the swap started and that seemed to suck up all her energy and time. I haven't heard from her since getting an email during the last week of the swap in February asking me to re-send my mailing address as she'd mislaid it. I did, but never got a final package or another email revealing who she is; because I know what it's like when Real Life(tm) attacks, I've not wanted to pester her and risk making her feel guilty, but that means I have no idea who she is. :/