12.22.07

Merriment.

Posted in The ins and outs.... at 4:43 pm by smarriott

Before setting off for a brief (very brief) holiday interlude, I thought I would attempt to provide you with one more morsel of entertainment. I present to you, the most heinous knitting craft I have ever, ever created. Though some of you may love it, I simply shake my head in shame.

Here is Ms. Condom Cozy, a recently created holiday gift:

Capable of holding condoms, or perhaps for the less promiscuous, pens (see below).

I cannot take full credit for this creation, of course. It was presented to me in one of last years gifts of fabulousness, “Naughty Needles,” by Nikol Lohr. I cannot say with certainty if I will make any more of the books creations, but it is quite something, to say the least.

As I am about to embark on holiday travel at this very minute, I will leave you with some holiday cheer and, quite possibly, a seizure.

Happy Holidays!

Permalink 4 Comments

12.17.07

Update on the new employment

Posted in The ins and outs...., Knitting.... at 1:24 am by smarriott

I finally completed the market bag.
It hasn’t been put to use yet, but…..

Sigma really seems to like it.

As per your request here is ceil. If you think I look slightly nauseous, I’ll let you in on a little secret…. I was! Fortunately for me, I did not follow through with that nasty inclination but had a fairly good first day. No one died. I didn’t lacerate anyone’s fingers during blood glucose checks. I promoted patient and hospital safety in the elevators. Finally, the most important of all indicators, I didn’t feel like a totally incompetent fool! Of course, Tuesday may bring a whole new atmosphere.

Speaking of atmosphere, we had our very first snow of the season here in the Metro East region. That is the first snow to actually stick. It snowed all day with a hiatus of only two hours midmorning. The dogs LOVED it. They pranced and danced and stuck their noses in it. J and I had had enough by evening time. J probably more so in that he had to drive home from the Greater St. Louis area; a typical 30 minute drive took over one hour and if you know J, which most of you do, he hates delays. Although, you really gotta love the snow! Hopefully, that is all we see for the rest of the holiday travel time.

More updates when/if they happen.

Permalink 1 Comment

12.11.07

New computer.

Posted in The ins and outs.... at 7:39 pm by smarriott

My new computer has finally arrived. Actually, it arrived last Wednesday. I have been so enamored with it, however, I have yet to post anything about it. This is mostly because I have spent hours tweaking and fine-tuning it for my technological needs (which mostly consist of streaming television shows) that I could never do on my laptop.

Speaking of laptops, look how little Mojo is compared to Henry. That’s right I named them. Henry is the new apple edition to the 317 family of computers.

In other news, I had orientation on Monday at my new job. It went well despite the fact that I also needed to have my 2nd-step TB test read that same day on the other side of Alton, among other things. I even survived driving all the way to Fairview Heights in the freezing rain to buy scrubs for today. My new set is ceil. Strange name for scrubs if you ask me. “Ceil” is an archaic verb meaning to “line or plaster the roof of a building.” These scrubs look neither like ceiling material nor the color of plaster so you’ve got me why their named that. I just wear them, I don’t name them.

When purchasing scrubs, however, I did NOT get “Grey’s Anatomy” scrubs, although they do sell them. Tempting, I know.

Since I have had orientation, I now know my schedule for the upcoming holidays. Some disappointments, I won’t lie. While I have Christmas eve, Christmas day, and the day after Christmas off, I do have to work New Year’s Day and a few days before, cutting short my excursions with family and friends. All-in-all, however, it is not so bad considering I just started and almost everyone in the nursing world has to work some part of the holidays. At least you will all see my bright and shining face some part of holidays.

Permalink 2 Comments

12.01.07

For Joe.

Posted in The ins and outs...., Knitting.... at 12:36 pm by smarriott

For those of you who my not be aware, I have been absent from this site for approximately three months. Three months, yes, that’s right. If you don’t believe me simply scroll down to the next posting and you will see that September was the last day that I posted, most likely with promises to continue posting regularly. Ha! That worked out well, didn’t it.

Now some of you may not notice or more likely you do not care that there has been an extended absence. The latter certainly does not hurt my feelings. I enjoy a good ackbar.org proper posting here and there, but have yet to die from its five month hiatus. Others of you, however, ahem….Joe…. seem deeply forlorn that there has not been a more recent update. In light of this, Joe, this post is for you.

Where to begin, where to begin….

First, let me begin by rationalizing my absence in order to appease my conscience. Posting, or rather the lack there of, is contingent on three elements: time, content, and functional equipment. Now content is a tricky element because one might say that there is never an absence of content, with endless possibilities daily. I might argue, however, that rambling about your dogs and endless chatter regarding nursing stuff cannot always equate to sufficient content. So, I could argue that there has not been endless content to discuss and subsequently due to this, I have not posted. I know this will not appease many of you so I will continue to rationalize my absence with the other items.

Time, eh, that’s debatable as well. Do I waste time watching television? Yes, yes I do. In my defense, however, that time should be used more wisely for studying, I’m just simply preparing to study all those numerous hours spent watching “Pushing Daisies” and “Heroes.”

Finally, the one element that is beyond my control, functional equipment. Many of you will remember that I have been complaining endlessly about my camera and computer. Two critical pieces for updating this cutting-edge blog. Without which you will have blurry photos of my more recent projects and a frustrated author (because I’ve spent 10 hours waiting for photoshop to load or I’ve just had a fight with ackbar himself for confiscating his computer). This equipment problem, however, has been rectified! I am now the proud owner of a Canon PowerShot SD1000! A magnificent piece of machinery that I have yet to explore entirely. The most impressive items I have discovered so far include photographing Sigma yawning without blurring like our old camera (can you tell what that is? Neither can I) and highlighting a single color accent in a this picture. Fantastic. I have also ordered a new computer. I am bursting with excitement for this puppy to grace my presence. It should be here sometime next week.

Now that I have satisfied by conscience, I’ll move on to the updates.

You are now reading the thoughts of the newest PRN Post-surgical Nursing Assistant at St. Anthony’s Health Center. Yay me. I’m sure it doesn’t sound very glamorous to many of you, but I think its just wonderful. Mostly, I’ll be getting a lot of hands-on experience before working as a RN and the hospital will pay for my NCLEX review, test, and licensing. All of which allows me to purchase a new computer and subsequently, bring more posting to you. Excited now?

Next on the agenda, me…..the artist. During my Thanksgiving holiday I was afforded many free hours to watch television and KNIT! Something I have neglected for too long. Once I picked it back up, my fingers were so delighted they refused to put down the needles. I completed a market bag featured on Knitty (I’m too embarrassed to show my own, it is just not as pretty, even though I do love it), scarf, and other items that cannot be revealed here due to the current season we are in….namely, the holiday one. The scarf is mostly stockinette stitch with a herringbone lace pattern at each end.

The herringbone lace pattern:
All odd-numbered rows: purl all sts.
Rows 2, 4, and 6: *K 2 tog, K 2, yo, K 2 - rep from *, end same
Rows 8, 10, and 12: K 3, *yo, K 2, SKP (slip, knit, pass), K 2- rep from *, end
yo, SKP, K 1.

I’ve also adamantly been working on Stella. I gave her some subtle bling.

Now I’ll scoop ackbar.org proper. Recent events include Roboprix 2007, hosted by Edwardsville High School and slow-moving home renovations, to which I’ll bring you a sneak peak.

Roboprix 2007 highlights: