iron-on frames: a tutorial

This weekend we were hoping to head down to Virginia for a little small town Halloween fun. Alas class schedules got in the way and we had to cancel at the very last minute which meant that we a) had no food in the house when it started snowing on Saturday morning and b) we had a long (cold outside) weekend to fill with fun to make up for the fact that we were not back in Charlottesville with friends. So we baked, and we cooked. And I did a lot of dishes from the baking and the cooking. And we played games and watched movies and got some crafting time in. Among our projects was this one.
A year or so ago I framed two of our favorite picture book dust jackets for the kids room and I've been meaning to add to the collection ever since. It's not super easy to find el cheapo frames in the city to paint, however, so I've been holding off. Recently we purchased both Fireboat and Wildwood, both of which we are loving, and they seemed like they would be good additions, so I've had their dust jackets tucked away in my craft stash awaiting frames.

Back up to this past summer. While I was visiting my parents I went a little crazy at having a Hobby Lobby (and a car to get me there and back with many, many bags) so close at hand and brought back almost a full suitcase full of supplies. One of these being a bottle of spray called "Stiffin Stuff" which I had been wanting to experiment with. I'd heard you could use it to make iron on wall decals and I wanted to try making some big fabric words for the kids room. (I also bought polka dot fabric for the project at the wonderfulness that is Hobby Lobby) But when I was heading through the security line at the airport, a grumpy TSA guy pulled out my bottle of Stiffin Stuff and lectured me about tying to sneak liquids on board. Frankly, I hadn't really thought of the stuff as liquid, I though it was more gel like, similar to Modge Podge, but whatever. I handed it off to my dad on the other side of the scanner and went home without my Stiffin Stuff where my fabric languished in the cupboard. And I forgot totally about the project.

Until my parents came for a visit and brought the bottle with them (in checked luggage, smart folk those parents of mine) So this weekend I pulled out the bottle and scanned the web for some details about making iron-ons and came across this tutorial. Perfect! I could use my Stiffin Stuff and frame those dust jackets at the same time. In the end I altered the process a little, so I'll run through what I did.

First, lay out some freezer paper on your work surface. You really have to soak the fabric with this stuff and it's not really something you want all over your table. The Freezer paper keeps it from soaking though. For what it's worth, I found that shiny side up was better, the fabric seemed to dry faster. Lay out a chuck of fabric larger than you need for your frame and spray all over with Stiffin Stuff, making sure it is fairly damp. I actually sprayed one side, let it dry and then flipped it and sprayed the other. But I'm not sure that was necessary. Let the fabric dry completely. I left mine overnight.
Trim the dust jacket down so that only the front cover is left and the edges are nice and neat. Lay this out on the (dry) fabric to get an idea of how big your frame will need to be. Err on the side of too big, it's easier to cut it down than to start all over.
Fold the fabric in half and then in half again and cut a piece of paper down to match this size. Either freehand sketch or use an existing frame to sketch the outer edge of the frame. remember your folded edges so that the pattern repeats nicely. Lay your template onto your fabric and trace with a piece of chalk or a sewing pencil.
Cut out the outer edge of the frame and unfold the fabric.

Flip the fabric so the right side is down and center the dust jacket on it, tracing around the edge with the chalk. Trim about 1/4 inch in from the line (so the square is smaller than the dust jacket by a bit)
Now, time to hang the art.

I found it was easier to use very small pieces of painters tape to hang the art in place and then use larger pieces to center the frames over it. Using a hot but dry iron and moving all the time, I pressed the fabric from the bottom up, removing the tape as I came to it (the small pieces underneath stay put, but they didn't show)
The kids were tickled to have the new book covers on the wall, I think we'll have more to add in the next few weeks as well. Tomorrow we are going to hear Tommie de Paola read his new book and I really want to get this new edition of Pippi Longstocking for them since they both love Lauren Child. I also still plan to hang some words, I'm thinking of spelling out READ in the center there, or maybe just doing a great big E and B over their beds. We'll see. For now I'm just enjoying the fact that the iron on frame thing worked so well.

snippits of the week

There is nothing sweeter, I think, than waking up to find someone small and warm (or not as small as they used to be and warm) snuggled up in the crook of your neck. Or finding a note on your pillow from a small someone who has suddenly realized the wonder of words.
Some days, motherhood (parenthood) is hard. I don't want to get up and pack a lunch and take her to school. I don't want to teach or make dinner or do anything. I want to read, or daydream, or just sleep. Fortunately, that's only some days. Most days, most days are sweet. How can they not be with these two around?
It's getting colder here. On Saturday it's supposed to snow, although how much I don't really know. Although the city is a little faster paced than my internal clock, the weather here is much more my speed. Wool coats and fleece jackets and hats and sweaters. I'm comfortable dressed for cold in a way that I will never be for heat. Last night the radiators in our building came to life, hissing and clicking and giving off that lovely radiator heat. I haven't lived in a house with old radiators since I was little and just the sound of them was comforting. The candles help too. I sometimes forget about candles in the summer, but when they days get short, it's nice to see them glow.
Last weekend we found a street fair. They are every where right now. Streets closed off, games and rides and good things to eat. (And really bad for you things to eat. Mozzerapes. Grilled cheese sandwich made from cornbread and mozzarella. Yum). This one was small. Hosted by a Montessori school a few blocks away, but lots of fun. Cupcake decorating, toss games, face painting. The perfect Sunday afternoon.
And just so you know I didn't forget that Halloween is coming. Here is the sign of the week. I'm tempted. I tell you. Totally tempted.
Have a happy weekend everyone!

project bags: a tutorial

A few months ago I was strolling down Broadway heading to a bookstore when two girls stepped out of a knitting shop down there and started walking right in front of me. They had that stylish "I'm a New Yorker: kind of look. Tall boots, slick hair. I believe one of them was wearing tights as pants. Those kind of girls. Except they were also knitting as they walked. I actually had to speed up and pass them and then do the fake "Oh I forgot something" turn around so I could make sure. Yes, they absolutely were knitting and walking. Needles clicked, boots sashayed, and the yarn hung from their belts in brightly colored drawstring bags. Genius.
I'd love to knit and walk. I was actually thinking the other day that if I could some how figure out how to knit while doing the dishes, I could get a lot more knitting in my day. This is the level of depravity that I have reached. And knitting and walking, well, I walk A LOT in this town. Just think of all the knitting I could do walking to the library and the grocery store and the park and the school and the subway station. I'd be speed knitter girl!

This, I'm afraid, will never happen. A) because I almost always have someone or two some ones whose hand I need to hold or whom I need watch like a hawk to make sure no sidewalk licking is taking place, or my hands are just full of two backpacks, tow coats, a discarded scooter and a bag of groceries. But even if that were the case there is B) the fact that I am totally uncoordinated and knitting while walking would just lead to face plants and possibly getting hit by a taxi, because they rely on you watching them, not the other way around.

But just because I can't walk and knit doesn't mean those little project bags wouldn't be handy. Since then I've actually noticed a lot of knitters with them. And it makes perfect sense. Instead of toting a whole separate knitting bag with you, these small, squishy bags can be stuffed into your normal purse and they will keep your yarn and needles from getting tangled with your string cheese and ipod earbuds. They also keep your yarn from rolling all over the place while your are sitting around the living room (park, kitchen, playground, subway) knitting.

I could buy one, yes. They sell them at every knitting shop around, but why, when they are so simple. Plus I had a bunch of ripstop fabric out yesterday while I was working on making a draco lizard costume (Don't' worry, I don't know what a draco lizard is either. My kid, he picks the weirdest things to be for Halloween).

You could make this smaller or bigger, depending on how much storage you want. I'm working on a sweater and have a few more ready to cast on when this is done so I wanted something that could hold a lot of material.

You'll need:

1/2 yard of fabric - lightweight is best, ripstop was perfect
1/2 yard of double fold bias tape
1 yard of cording or ribbon

First cut a rectangle 25 inches wide and about two and a half inches wider than you want the height of your bag. for me this was 18 inches.

Along one of the long sides, fold the bias tape over the raw edge and use zigzag (or straight) stitch to attach. I used a contrasting color since the bias tape I had was the same color as the fabric. Needed a little zing. Ya know?
Three inches down from the bias tape edge, fold a 1 inch channel and straight stitch across, backstitching at each end.

With the channel sides out, fold the bag in half (hamburger style) so that the bias tape ends and the ends of the channel meet.
Slip a loop of bias tape in just above the channel. This will allow you to clip the bag to your bag of your belt, should you feel the need to walk an knit. :)
Sew from the bottom of the bag to the bottom edge of the channel and then from the top of the channel to the top of the bag. Leave the channel ends open.

Sew along the bottom and trim the excess fabric on both bottom and side seam so they are nice and neat.

While the bag is still inside out, run the cording/ribbon through the channel and then tuck the tails through the opening you left at the ends of the channel so that thy will be on the outside on the bag.
You can leave the bag like this or, if you want a flat bottom (so that it will stand up) fold the bottom so that you create triangles with the bottom seam running up the center and stitch across about 2 inches in.
Trim all your threads, turn the bag right side out and pop in your yarn.

thinking of

Blogger, for reasons unknown, seems to have eaten yesterday's post. Perhaps the good folks in charge don't like beets and sweet potatoes. Who knows.

This morning I'm sitting in an disorganized apartment listening to workmen re-plaster the wall in the kids room to fix some Hurricane Irene damage (water + wind + old walls = plaster disaster) while the furniture from the kids room takes up all available space in our room and the office while Briton does his work at the coffee table (next to Will, also working at the coffee table). Hopefully this will be a one day project. I'm not sure we could last in here longer than that.

That's what I'm doing. But as for what I'm thinking...
I better send this little lady off today, because Evelyn has been casting longing looks at her. Seeing that lovely poofy hair on her makes me want to give Eliza a new do.

Knitting baby hats is ridiculously fun. I'm halfway through a pair of very small hats for a pair of as yet to be born twin girls which makes me wish that I'd been a knitter when my own kids were babies (don't even think about it. That ship has sailed!)
Trying to decide which of these clothes Eliza needs and which of these Evelyn needs for Christmas. And also trying to decide if my French is up to pattern reading.

And thinking of sewing, maybe the two blissful, child-free hours that I'm getting this afternoon will not be spent on paperwork, or even writing. But where oh where can I set up my sewing machine today?

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bread Mix is much better made with applesauce and an egg instead of oil and milk and eggs. And it was pretty darn good the original way too.

One Halloween costume down, one to go, and then I can work on my own. This year I am not going to be a witch or Donna Reed, my standards for the past several years. Shocking, I know. Will hasn't figured his out yet, but since the bearded lady idea and exicution materilaized mintues before we headed out last year, I think he can handle himself (although I did float the idea of the two of us going as Mary Poppins and Burt. No go. Maybe next year)
No one in my family will do this costume. Such a shame. I love it. (via Pinterest)

And that will have to do, because now I need to go help translate some hieroglyphics numeration system math problems.

she colors

She colors here.

She colors there.

That girl she colors everywhere!
Ah five.

I did, however, find a good use for some of that art. (Besides sending stacks of it to my mom, which I have also done)
People on my Christmas gift list, be forewarned, Evie art will figure heavily into my wrapping this year.

snippits of the week

Windy days. Rainy days, Cold and sunny days. At least the weather is feeling fall-ish around here. And Since it's feeling like fall and I've been missing fall, I went looking for fall.

It's there. You just have to look.

We bought a bag of apples and cooked up a pot of applesauce yesterday afternoon for our afterschool snack (thanks for the idea Sara!). Delicious. We ate every speck.

Bad day for umbrellas. After I took that picture another was added to the heap. This is why I like raincoats!

We're expanding on our watercolor project from a few weeks ago and are now doing watercolor and oil pastels together. Ahem. I mean, mixed media.
These little birds spend hours cleaning themselves in the puddles of the playgarden. I can't help but imagine it as a ladies dressing room at the gym. They sit there, flicking their wings and chirping at each other, preening, grooming, singing. Have a happy weekend!

root veg goodness

Cooking and me and the city have, thus far, not been very...copacetic. I've written before about my theory on New Yorkers and eating out and I still pretty much think it's true. Unfortunate, being on a student budget and all, we can't do a whole lot of eating out. Hot dogs from the cart or noodles from the cheap but yummy noodle bowl place are about as fancy as we get take out wise. Add into the mix the fact that this term Will has a night class twice a week and isn't home for supper on those nights till very late and you get me, falling back on easy to make meals. Not even meals. Easy to make things. Mac and cheese. Cheese on toast. Scrambled eggs and cheese (cheese figures highly into most meals since, along with pasta, it is something Evelyn will always eat). It's not how I'd like it, but this year I'm giving myself a bit of a pass. Budget and time is tight. Life is crazy. You gotta make things easy on yourself where you can.

The good news is that it's finally cool enough that our apartment isn't 100 degrees every time we (or really anyone below us) turns on the oven, and this is bringing back a little bit of the cook in me.

Lately, on Will's late nights, I make the kids something very kid friendly and then cook myself something that only I would eat. Out of the four of us, I'm the most adventurous eater. Followed, probably, by Briton, although Will has become much more game to try new things over the years. Still, there are lots of foods (especially of the vegetarian ilk) that my family probably wouldn't eat as a meal. A side, sure, but not as the whole meal.

Right now I'm having a love affair with root vegetables. I've always been a big fan of Parsnips and Sweet potatoes, but again, as a side. And last year I discovered that I really like beets (who knew? I also love brussel sprouts which, after a bad run in with bubble and squeak during my formative years I thought I'd never eat) So a lot of my solo cooking experiments have been centered around whatever root veg I can find at the farmers market.

This weeks favorites (and, sorry, no pics, these meals are usually made and eaten after the kids go to bed, by which time our apartment is so dark and yellow that photographs look very unappetizing) have included Sweet potatoes loaded up like a taco (avocado, sour cream, corn salsa, black beans) and roasted beets with kosher salt, sesame oil and greek yogurt. Delicious. I can't stop eating them. I almost accidentally bought $30 worth of beets on Sunday (15 pounds might have been overkill) and I saw a little mention somewhere about beets with curry spices which might be on the menu next. By the way, the sweet potato taco thing ended up on everyone's plate the day after I tried it and everyone (except Evelyn, go figure) liked it. The beets I'm keeping to myself for the moment. Because, really, I don't want to share.

Do you have any root veg as a main dish recipes that you like? Share, please!

pants optional

Living around, practically on, a college campus brings it's own kind on entertainment. Particularly when you are not a college student yourself (wife of a graduate student doesn't count here) but are, rather, approaching middle age. We see all the normal stupid-college-student type of things, of course. The drunken walk home from the game. The drunken walk home from the bar. The drunken yelling a la Animal House. Last weekend I saw a girl lay down on the sidewalk and rinse her face in the gutter water (yuck, right? I bet her parents are proud) Finding students sound asleep in odd places is pretty normal too, they really seem to like the concrete benches that I find too uncomfortable to even sit on, but whatever.
What really fascinates me though is the fashion. Times, they have a changed since I was in college. Granted, the University of Oregon is not really known for its sharp dressers. People went to class in their pajamas most of the time. And I'm not just talking about those dreaded 8 am classes. They really just wore their pajamas most of the time. Or if not pajamas, really, super comfy clothes. Jeans were considered kind of dressy. People sat around in the dining hall reminiscing about their first pair of Birkenstocks. It was that kind of place. I thought it was the norm at the time.

Perhaps it's because we are in New York, or maybe it's a private, Ivy League college thing, but the kids here, the girls here particularly, seem to be very fashion conscious. In that, everyone wears the same thing so as not to stick out kind of way. When we came up to visit at spring break every woman, EVERY WOMAN, wore skinny jeans (dark blue) with tall leather boots and drapy tops. EVERY ONE. Even the guys were more often than not wearing skinny jeans with beefy ankle boot like things.

This fall it's been all about Hunter Rainboots. With jeans. With slacks. With skirts. With formal looking dresses. With suits. Lots of hot pink or bright red boots in addition to the standard black, but always Hunter. Preferably with Hunter rainboot liners folded over the top (with the Hunter label showing, natch) if it's a cold day.

I actually like this look. I've long been a fan of rainboots and I really like the almost to the knee style, which makes sense when you think about what is mixed in with the water on the streets of New York (serious, that girl washing her face in it almost made me retch). I'm not sure I could ever bring myself to buy a pair of $120 rubber shoes. I mean, you can buy rainboots at Target for $20 that look almost identical. But that's just the practical girl inside me.

The look I'm not too sure about, however, has emerged over the past few weeks as it's cooled down and turned rainy. This usually consists of a waist length sweater + t-shirt combination, Hunter boots or other tall boots, and tights. And that's it. Tights. No Pants. NO PANTS. These aren't leggings either. These are tights. When did pants become optional? I mean, I went to a school where shirts actually are optional according to the Eugene City Laws, but pants, pants were required. I must be getting old. Just seeming these girls without their pants makes me feel exposed. And cold. It's too cold to not wear pants. Hilariously, when I googled "Tights without pants" I found this. I couldn't agree more.

I'm also not sure about a style which seems to consist of nylons (black, but not opaque) heels or boots and the kind of shorts that we like to pretend we did not wear in the early 90's. You know the kind, pleated in the front with that weird yoke thing and a folded up hem. Those. Except way shorter. Something along the lines of this picture (which I found on Pinterest by looking up "shorts and tights" apparently it's a thing. I'm still unconvinced.) But at least she has something pants-ish there.

Lest you think I'm just poking fun at the girls, let me tell you about the boys in the architecture school. I saw a crowd of them streaming out of Will's building the other day trying SO HARD to look like beatnik designers. I had to work really hard not to laugh. It's like they had to wear a uniform. Black skinny jeans. Black sweater with no shirt underneath. Black, heavy rimmed glasses. Black or (gasp! An almost color!) gray scarf tied artfully around their neck. Everyone of them. (although, that's really nothing new. I think most architectural students, male and female, feel they have to sport this look at some point in their career) But again, they were wearing pants, so I can't complain.

Now let's be clear. I'm not a fashionista. I'm more of a fashion-notta. But even I know that you should wear pants. Pants are important! Let's spread the message. Pants, don't leave home without them! Who's with me?

(I even found this handy dandy press kit with printable Tights are not Pants flyers if you really want to help get the word out!)

missing fall

I looked up today and realized that we are almost two thirds of the way through October. My favorite month has come and almost passed, and I hadn't really noticed.
Sometimes New York feels like a bubble, you can see the world around you, but it's distorted, unreal, a little too shiny. I think it's the lack of horizon. You can't really look out into the distance here, because the distance is usually the building across the street. Even in the middle of Central Park, where, by design, the hills and trees block your view, so you can neither see the rest of the park nor the city that surrounds it.

This lack of horizon plays with your mind a little. I can look out my window on a rainy day and not see the rain. Against the brick, the drops disappears. There are no plants for the water to bounce off of, no leaves to get shiny. The wind is totally undetectable from our window because there is nothing for it to blow. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it means that we live in a sort of unending pleasant by mild day as long as we're indoors. But it has meant that we obsessively check the weather app on our phones when we get up in the morning, because otherwise, how would you know what to expect from the day?

The signs of fall are not all around. No pumpkins on porches, no garden yellowing with age, offering up the last produce of the summer, no giant piles of leaves to rake. The ginkgo trees on our block are starting to drop leaves, but they are simply washed away each morning when the supers come out to rinse down the sidewalks (even more important now that the fraternity boys are back!) The only hint that Halloween is almost here are the pumpkins (small, generally) that have been added to the produce racks outside every grocery store.

I miss fall. I miss picking apples and pumpkin patch trips and canning, canning, canning. I've thought about buying some apples from the farmers market to make apple butter just to get my preserving willies out a bit, but the cost of apples+jars would so outstrip what it would take to just buy some apple butter that it doesn't seem to make sense. I'm not sure where I would store them either. I may have to give in and make some of the soup mix I loved last year, my fingers itch to can something and that is one thing you can't really buy. But sitting up on the forth floor staring out at a brick wall doesn't seem to get my mind in the canning mood.

Yesterday I was chatting with some other homeschool moms about Halloween in the city.Those who had spent most of their life in the city assured me that Halloween was a blast here. Crazy people, crazy outfits, just riding down to the Village on the subway that evening would be an adventure. But then the other transplants spoke up, and their consensus was that Halloween here is pretty lame. It's just that the city people don't know what they are missing. There are events, sure, but they are crowded and tiring and, after all, events. Not knocking on friends doors for candy or marching in a raggle taggle parade through your neighborhood.

We had planed to go back to Virginia for Halloween and then, with Will's busy schedule, it started to seem like it was unlikely. But the closer it gets, the more I crave some small town life. Yards and wreaths on the door and gardens and apple orchards.

Christmas in the city will be exciting. Summer was an adventure. Thanksgiving will be, well, Thanksgiving. In New York. How can you top that? But Halloween, I suspect, was made for small towns and friendly neighborhoods.

paper piling up

When Briton was two-ish, I had a panicky first-time-mom moment that he had no imagination. He spent hours, hours playing trains, but really, nothing else. He didn't dress up, he didn't pretend to cook, he didn't have imaginary friends or favorite stuffed animals, he didn't draw crazy pictures. he just played trains. For me, this was horrible. As a child, ok, also as an adult, I had a lot of imagination. Possibly too much imagination. The idea that a child of mine could be lacking in the pretending department seemed awful. I used to coax him with costumes and ever brighter markers and crayons, dancing around our teeny tiny apartment, trying to get him to join in. And he would play with trains or want to go watch trains, or ask to go ride on the trains. (yes, I know trains are imaginary play, what can I say, it was one of those this-is-my-first-child-I'm-obsessed kind of things. )
Eventually, of course, it did kick in. We gained, over the space of about a week, not only an imaginary friend but an entire family, including pets. Millie the stuffed cat became our constant companion and we spent a lot of time wearing firemen/policeman costumes. But he never really liked to draw. I can see now that a big part of that was wanting it to look the way it did in his head. He wasn't satisfied with scribbles, he wanted detail. Go figure. Daddy's an architect, Briton will probably end up as an engineer. It all makes sense now. But back then, I worried still, that he didn't sit and color the way a lot of his friends did.

As it turns out, he was just helping me save up for the reams of paper I would need to buy for his sisters art projects.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have hit the five-year-old coloring phase.

The girl colors and colors and colors. We've used up more paper this month than in previous years. Coloring books last a week, sometimes days. The paper is piling up around here. Rainbows, family portraits, fish, pets and words. Words, words, words. Our afternoons are a constant buzz of "how do you spell...." and then "Mama! I have a surprise for you!"
I love it. As a friend told me yesterday, she is just so very five. It reminds me why I loved teaching kindergarten so much. Everything is new and interesting and fascinating and wonderful. That sudden realization that letters make words and words make sentences and sentences convey thoughts. The leap from simple stick figures to details and backgrounds and swirls around the edge of your drawings to make frames.

At some point I'm going to have to go through the drawings and decide what to keep and what to recycle as the pile grows bigger by the day. But for now I'm just enjoying watching her enjoying drawing. And drawing. And drawing.

snippits of the week

Squeeeee! I finally got a yarn swift and yarn ball winder which means no more trying to balance a skein around my knees while I balance on my tailbone and wind as fast as I can (it's attractive, I'm telling you. I could win a medal for it) Not that I've gotten to wind any yarn yet since my kids are obsessed with doing it for me. FYI I got this yarn swift and this winder. Love them both (and so does my tailbone!)
Will's mom and I spent Tuesday morning at the Nate Berkus Show. I didn't really know what to expect since I've never actually seen the show (sorry Nate) but it was really fun, mostly because Paula Dean was the guest and that woman was hilarious. I've always though her shows were pretty funny, but in person and unedited, so much funnier.

"You can really make any kind of biscuit you like Nate!"
"What kind do you like Paula?
"Well, I like me a cat head biscuit. Like the size of a cat head!"

Somehow I don't think that will make it to air. Also probably not the moment when Nate introduced her new book as the Bible of cooking and Paula went all white and serious and said "But I don't want to take anything away from Jesus!" And then everyone just stood there for a minute trying to figure out where to go from there.
We got to take home all sorts of goodies from the show, my very first sway bag, which was awesome too. I bet you could rack up some pretty good stuff just hitting all the talk shows that are filmed in town. That would be bad though, right?
I took the kids over to the cathedral for a medieval art class (Will is trying to convince Briton that he should always say the word 'medieval' as if he were an announcer for Medieval Times, Briton is unconvinced) We got a chance to try some stone carving, made clay gargoyles, did a few brass rubbings and some paper stained glass windows.
And Evelyn discovered gold crayons at the illumination table. It was hard not to get her to take the whole basket home with her.
Looking through my photos of the kids over the past few weeks, I've realized that my son wears two t-shirts 90% of the time. This one
and this one.
Die hard Duck my kid. I overheard him tell his grandmother (who is from Texas) that he would root for Texas unless they played Oregon "Then, I'd probably have to root for Oregon. Sorry."

Quack quack.