I thought I'd be the first to sign my nephew's cast--with chalk--before he got it off. Notice the pink "K". The little guy caught on to this fun activity and spent the next several minutes thoroughly decorating his arm in a rainbow of colors. 
As is tradition, whenever a baby nephew is blessed in our family my sister and I dress the child in his white suit. We're really experienced now that we've got two nephews. I'm still working on my technique, but here's what I've got so far.
First, find a willing subject, preferably one that can neither speak nor has mobility:
Next, use lots of laughter, and use phrases like "pull harder", "I'm going to rip his arm off" and "how do you do this?!"
Fortunately little Eric didn't cry during our prolonged antics, though he pulled some pretty funny faces of discomfort. What a cute baby!
p.s. My talented seamstress mom made his whole outfit. The little dress shirt was my favorite--so cute. His mom made him the mini tie.
I recently just took a crochet refresher course from my mom. My sister enrolled in the class as well, and here are the tips we gained from our session:
a. use some concentration, especially if wearing long sparkly fingernails
b. it's normal to get mad
c. anger usually fosters mistakes
d. try not to fall asleep
e. once you get the hang of it, it's fun!
f. pay attention to the teacher
g. laugh when your mom does a wild demo of your technique
h-k. act completely normal if anyone is capturing it on film
l. keep your mouth open long enough near a crochet hook and you get free dental work
Steve and I attended the BYU vs. Colorado game a couple weekends ago with his brother and wife. It was my 4th--yes, 4th ever--BYU football game. I'm a huge fan of BYU (love it), but not so much a fan of football. It seems simple: dudes piling on top of each other for four hours, yet I get lost quite easily. The amount of focusing it takes for me to even locate the ball on the field is way more work than 'recreation' should require. This is why I watch approximately 1 game per year. This year's game was exciting since I got to be there in person! and in great company. 
This is for all the people (like the former Ms. Larsen) who thought I was exaggerating about my recent falling out with baking. I made these. Notice they're so thin you can see through them. They were a big hit, as you can see by the excitement written on this consumer's face.
