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I don’t live within Houston’s actual city limits, even though I still refer to where I live as Houston. Technically, our mailing address is Tomball now, but the Houston mailing addresses are just a few blocks away. I generally try to pay attention to what goes on within the Houston City Council though, because it still effects me. Somehow the whole “Safe Clear” thing slipped under my radar until Emily had an incident with them trying to tow their vehicle.

Now I’ve seen the “Safe Clear” zone signs on the highway, and I’ve paid attention when they talk about it on the news. It really made me perk up this morning when they said that the city council had discovered that ONE THIRD of the tow truck drivers involved have a criminal record. One third. And they can’t tow your vehicle with you in it, so they would have offered to let you get into the tow truck – unless you specifically requested a police escort instead.

Today the City Council passed unanimously an ordinance that bars violent criminals from Safe Clear. “Convicted sex or violent offenders will never be eligible for licenses to perform non-consent tows such as those under the city’s Safe Clear program or others ordered by police. Anyone convicted of committing other crimes, including fraud, robbery and auto accidents (thanks to the help of this

charleston car accident attorney) , must have a clean record for seven years before being eligible for a license.”

I’m still not very comforted by the whole thing. I’m not sure why, but it just freaks me out a little. I guess I just need to make sure I never need a tow.

I pretty much understood how to purl last week, thanks to Knitty Gritty and KnittingHelp.com , but I wasn’t brave enough to actually try it. I had my knitting class yesterday, and guess what?

Now I can purl!

I made nice pretty little “V” shapes on my practice swatch, and I’m so excited!

You guys warned me that this whole knitting thing is addictive, and you weren’t kidding. The first thing I thought about as I woke up this morning? That I wanted to get up and finished my scarf that I was working on before I went to bed last night!

It was a long weekend, but a very good one. Here is the recap:

– Thursday night: Went to Kathy’s house to spend the night, working cards to swap on Saturday.

– Friday: Lunch in downtown with Gayle, our Stampin’ Up! upline. A shopping stop at Sephora at Memorial City mall. (Mmmm… Sephora.) Drive to San Antonio, and check in the nice posh Hotel Valencia. (Expedia rocks!) Walk to the Rivercenter Mall, then back along the Riverwalk to have dinner at Casa Rio. Check out the Alamo. Stop by Hard Rock Cafe so Kathy could get her San Antonio t-shirt. Return to the hotel, pamper myself with a good facial and a loooong shower. Finish stamping my cards.

– Saturday: Early start, had to check out of the hotel before the conference. Walk to the Convention Center and check in. Got a new adorable stamp set that will be in the 2005-2006 Stampin’ Up! catalog that comes out this summer. Swapped cards with others at the convention. (500 stampers!) Listen to the seminar, learn cool new things, find lots of inspiration in all the things I saw. Very tired by the end of the day. Walk back to the hotel to get the car and drive back to Houston. Picked my car up from Kathy’s house, headed home. Bummed when I got home to discover that my favorite pillow was left in Kathy’s car.

– Sunday: Slept very poorly without the good pillow. Slept some more. Caught up on some e-mail. Got ready for Scout Sunday. Drove across Houston so Jason could receive his Ad Altare Dei award. Dinner at Fuddruckers. Home to catch up on more e-mail. Mastered my new French phrases. Je suis belle!

– This morning: Sorted mail, prepared to pay bills. Cleaned out part of the closet; time to get ready for another garage sale. Sorted my yarn. Bagged up some things I need to return to the store. Clean, clean, clean. Clean up the Helpdesk. Clean out spam e-mail. When I get a lunch break, it is going to be time to KNIT! Wheee!

There are pictures from San Antonio in the Flickr sidebar, and I’ll post some more later tonight, including a scan of my cute card that I made, and photos of the knitted goods!

Thanks to a pattern at Knitty (the Clapotis, found thanks to YarnHarlot), I have found a simply fabulous new favorite phrase…

“Je suis belle et ça ne demande aucun effort*”

I stand by the original statement I made on the streets of Paris last summer. In order to speak French well, you must say everything really fast, while slurring your words. Unfortunately, I have a “German mouth” and I tend to pronounce things instead of slurring them. Thanks to Mike, I can now say my new phrase with only 1-2 mistakes. My first attempt was a very bad effort by someone who can sight read German very well (I don’t know what I’m saying, but I can pronounce things in German easily.) If you know how to speak French, you will realize that nothing is pronounced like it is spelled, so my sight-reading efforts are simply horrid.

However, when in Paris, I can speak enough rudimentary French to ask a Virgin Record Store employee for “Jenifer’s CD Original.” A girl has got to do what a girl has got to do.

* I’m beautiful and I don’t even try.