01.07.09
Posted in The ins and outs...., Knitting.... at 2:19 pm by smarriott
I guess you could call this my foreign film review for the month. Nothing better to battle the winter sniffles than some good sleep, warm coffee or tea, soup, and a good movie to snuggle in with on the couch. Of course, happy, sweet pups are good to snuggle with, too, and I’ve had plenty of that as well.
The first movie is Das Leben der Anderen, in English it is “The Lives of Others.” Even J liked this one. Its a film about the GDR and its Stasi (German police) in East Germany and their spying techniques on local artists. Of course, its a little more detailed than that, but I won’t spoil it for you. Lets just say its about character, the effects of social milieus, and the price of morality in Communist Germany. Excellent movie. I might even watch it again.
The next movie that I just finished a few hours ago is Le Fils de l’epicier , translated “The Grocer’s Son.” This one is a French film about a man living in the city forced to return home to Provence after 10 years to work his father’s country grocery store. Oh, poor guy has to live in Provence. The store is not really a store but a traveling deli van that delivers goods to the elderly living way out in the country. The son is cranky and difficult to get a long with. He resents being home and his father, while at the same time is dealing with unrequited for a girlfriend. The trip home is a good way to prove his feelings, but ultimately ends up disastrous. There’s more to it, again. Family feuds, personal struggles and finding oneself. The background is beautiful and the scenes quaint. Makes me want to move to France and raise sheep. I, of course, loved the feisty old women and that everyone eats “tins of peas.” I may just eat them myself.
Next we have Hors de prix. This is another French film staring Audrey Tautou from such films as Le Fabuleux destin d’Amelie Poulain (Amelie, 2001) and my favorite Dirty, Pretty, Things. This one is a bit different than the above. It’s a cute romantic comedy; not exactly thought-provoking but it’s entertaining. Like I said, it’s a romantic comedy. ‘Nuff said.
Finally, I recommend Lars and the Real Girl. This one I watched last month, but I just can’t stop thinking about it. In fact I watched it twice in the same day. It’s about a small country town up north, probably Minnesota somewhere, and how they deal with Lars, an awkward chap who just doesn’t deal well with real people. It also stars some of my favorite actresses Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson. All of the characters are wonderful in this movie. I highly recommend it.
I’ve been using all this movie time to work on my socks. I’m nearly done with the first one. They are of the toe-up variety. My first attempt at this “easier” sock pattern. Toe-up socks are a bit easier; it just takes a little while to decipher the directions. Once you get those down its a piece of cake, especially the heel since its exactly like the toe. I’d supply you with a picture, but J can’t find the camera.
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07.09.08
Posted in Knitting.... at 6:44 pm by smarriott
I’m sure you’re thinking at this exact moment that I never intend to post again. I can say this with pretty good certainty because at this moment you are checking my website for probably the one thousandth time expecting no new updates. If it was any other day, but today, you may be correct. Today, however, I am feeling, oh, contemplative.
The past few weeks since finishing school have been a whirlwind. I could provide you with every minute detail, but, frankly, that will most definitely bore the pants off of you. Just know I’ve had some great visits catching up with old friends and family. All of whom were probably feeling neglected by me during my vacation to the abyss (re: nursing school).
Since finishing, I have returned to knitting, which also was neglected. Below is a picture of a gorgeous beaded scarf, I finished a few days ago. Very simple pattern. The most laborious part was moving all the beads down when I needed some more yarn. That is it. No decreases, no funky pattern, just knitting, counting, and adding some beads. Frankly folks, you can do this! You’ll probably look way more cha-cha in it than I. My boring self just doesn’t do it justice.
Isn’t it impressive.
I’ve also started working on a sweater. Its a 2X2 raglan sweater from Sally Melville’s Purl book. I had the pleasure of taking Sally’s class a few weeks ago and getting her expertise in purchasing yarn for this project. I selected Classic Elite in Avocado, maybe. Its a 50% wool, 50% bamboo yarn. Let me tell you, this stuff is glorious. It may not be Touch Me yarn, but its fabulous. So silky. I just want to cover myself in it. Can’t wait to finish the sweater.
Now for the bad news. I took Nicodemus to the vet today. In the last year, definitely in the past few months, J. and I have notice Nico has lost some weight. Concerned, we got him into the vet today. Initially we suspected worms, but Persephone isn’t acting sick. Then we suspected a thyroid problem. Sadly, wrong again. Today I find out he has kidney failure. I didn’t even think about it. So, he has to be hospitalized for the next two days and then a special diet and monitoring. Poor guy.
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01.08.08
Posted in Knitting.... at 5:43 pm by smarriott
Recently, I started a new knitting project. Jane is always knitting socks and after seeing her progress over the holiday, I thought I would give it another go. I attempted knitting socks one other time, but quit discouraged after the project took on gargantuan proportions. That is, the sock, rather than fitting my dainty feet, looked to fit the pig-toes of a much, much larger fella. Maybe even the giant at the top of Jack’s bean-stock.
This time, however, instead of making the sock too big, I made it just slightly too small, noticed mostly in the heel. The error occurred while watching the final few season three episodes of Deadwood. I completely missed the directions to decrease every other row. Lucky for me, I have one foot that is freakishly a whole shoe-size smaller than the other. Knitting disaster averted! I just love the pattern. So much green.
Before I end this much shorter post (courtesy of grumpy you-know-who, that insultingly stated he skimmed (!) my entries), I thought I would leave you with Sigma’s commonplace, but always perfect moment. Enjoy!
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01.03.08
Posted in Knitting.... at 2:30 pm by smarriott
The holiday season is coming to a close and the new year blooms, while I sit and ponder if I have lost my following entirely. Now I recognize condom cozies are not kid-friendly nor are they family-oriented topics of conversation, but alas, I made no promises about either at the onset of this site. That said, I will abandon the topic of cozies completely for the time being and pray that at least a handful of you have remained with me. If you didn’t abandon “Purls” while in its three month hiatus, I cannot imagine that a mere condom cozy could run you off. I have, however, been wrong on many an occasion.
In previous posts, many of you will remember I have started a new job. Last night marked a very momentous occasion…I am now on my own delivering primary care on a post-surgical floor. What does this jargon mean? Well, namely, that I will be taking vital signs (temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and respirations) every four hours on a number of patients (ranging from one to, HOPEFULLY, no more than twelve), walking people to the bathroom, giving bed baths, doing finger sticks on people with diabetes, etc., etc. This might be considered the grunt work of nursing and, well, it certainly isn’t always pleasant or aromatic, but it is desperately needed and, not to brag or anything, but I am sure I do it with a certain flair (like the flair of a sinking ship). But seriously, I am enjoying my job and getting pretty good at it, a side from the unfortunate incidence of causing a fellow co-worker to suffer a urine-soaked backside and waking up every few hours because I could not remember if I included the finger sticks on a patient in report the night before. These are mere peanuts in my quest for patient care excellence, however.
Along with the positives of a new career, namely financial stability and general life purpose, of course, comes some major downfalls, particularly around the holiday time. My vacationing was unfortunately cut short a week early. This sadly, is what I have to look forward to for a while, or possibly the rest of my life. On the upside, however, is holiday pay and shift differential. Oh, sweet holiday pay. Oh, glorious shift differential. May you both be destined to relieve my constantly accruing education debt. Outlook looks good for a debt-free me.
Although I speak with self-indulging pity about my reduced lounging and knitting time, I have been quite busy. Prior to now my holiday creations could not be revealed for the sake of bringing cheer and the element of surprise to all gifts. As the gift-giving is winding down I present to you two of my outstanding creations: “le bibi rouge” and “feuilleton a domicile” (pardon the french, but I am trying impress you. If, however, you speak french fluently, I am sure I have failed in that endeavor.) Moving on, here is one of the fabulous items modeled by its recipient courtesy of her parents (who, hopefully, will not kill me for this public display of their daughter). These items are certainly not 100% original, but I did add my own sense of style and gourmet talent to each and every item.
A final piece of interest is updates on the bedroom construction. The closet has been built and the first coat of ceiling paint has been applied. I tell you, wonders never cease. It may just be ready by 2009! But seriously folks, while these pictures may not look like much they are a major improvement to the room’s original condition. I cringe at the thought of those frilly curtains, bright blue paint, and claustrophobia-inducing ceilings! Our engineer in this picture seems to be cringing for other reasons, or rather, rueing the day I got a new camera.
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12.17.07
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.
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12.01.07
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:
Excellent volunteers and judges.
Intense competition.
Renovations:
New closet space.
Mudding.
I’ll end this exhaustive update here until more exciting news happens.
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04.28.07
Posted in Knitting.... at 7:35 am by smarriott
I know, I know two posts in two days, but I just couldn’t resist posting this image. I think this would be awesome to make, but entirely nonfunctional for the weather. To block the sun maybe, but to protect from the rain, forget it.
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03.28.07
Posted in The ins and outs...., Knitting.... at 6:37 pm by smarriott
As you all know, I have been a bit…..hmmm, absent is the word that best describes the situation, I believe. Life these days are filled with sleep-study-class-study-work-study-jog a mile-sleep. Posting new news has come to mind somewhere in the midst of that, but I have to say, I drowned it in a pot of coffee. No big deal, I thought, until today. I do believe today, I received my first “hate mail.” To be fair, this is an exaggeration…..I simply received word from a very sweet person that I need to get off my a-double-s and write something somewhere, anywhere.
Since I don’t know what anyone has heard in the last, oh, two months, I am not sure where to begin. Here goes:
School - exhausting. At least one test/quiz/paper, if not more every week. I’m doing well, as best as can be expected. In the next month I have 2 papers, 1 portfolio, 2 HESI exams (standardized tests for nursing), 1 presentation, 5 exams, and 6 final exams (cumulative). Not to mention a load of chapters to read. Did I say that school is exhausting? I think I just had a panic attack.
Spring Break - not long enough. I did get to see some friends, but spent the remainder watching TERRIBLE tv and eating frozen pizzas.
Sigma & Wiley - a few attempted escapes that were all significantly halted. Wiley’s war wound from the holidays is now almost nonexistent. He looks just as adorable as before the Wailing of 2006 incident.
Knitting - I’m afraid this has been put on hold for a while. No time I’m afraid. I did at one point think it would be a brilliant idea to knit and study. In that I time I did make this for my new PDA. Sadly, knitting and studying do not mix, as my second pharmacology test proves. I may actually redo it, however. I don’t like the inside very much.
Lastly, I did get my scrubs. But was only able to take these very blurry pictures.
I actually think that is all the news I have for you. How sad that two months can be summed up in five short paragraphs. Oh, well. Hopefully this will last you for at least one more month. I am significantly detained until the second week of May!
I will, however, leave you with the consequence of another spectacular idea I had one day…..creating a cat-hat from the remains of one of the dog’s stuffed animals. Nicodemus and Persephone were not amused with me, neither were John’s students. What can you do? I have too many more important things to do than contemplate how a bunch of geometry students feel about my treatment of animals. I’ll save that worry for another year.
I almost forgot!!! I’m still running. Sigma and Wiley accompany me every once and a while. They got nuts whenever I put on my running shoes. I think Wiley has even lost a few pounds.
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01.06.07
Posted in The ins and outs...., Knitting.... at 12:51 pm by smarriott
On Wednesday, I started my first day of the Post-Baccalaureate Accelerated Nursing program at SIUE. Orientation was scheduled from noon until 4 p.m. that day, followed by class time, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. the rest of the week. What I imagined as a getting to know you session, including introduction, punch and cookies, “this is what we expect and this is what you will be doing for the next 15 months” speeches, topped off with an inevitable tour, was not what this entailed. Instead I was fit for scrubs, posed for a picture and immediately rushed into class. I came home that day with my mind swimming with anxiety and confusion. I already had two paper assignments handed out that day! It makes me worried I will be Nurse Ratchett for the year, grumpy and pissed-off looking all the time.
While I certainly didn’t expect the university to hold my hand, I did think more time would be allotted to ease the transition, or at least given more of an idea of what to expect. I guess, however, we can’t always get what we want (I apologize for quoting Mick Jagger).
Needless to say, I fear this is just the beginning of things to come. For the next few months, I will live a meager existence of studying, eating, sleeping, and, of course, running (this is where you pity me….). Don’t feel sorry for me, however, (no, please do) I will survive the confusing assignments and horrible, horrible group work and the loathsome skits (oh, it is such a dirty word isn’t it). But really, I think it will be stressful, but it certainly couldn’t be any worse, as far as not having a personal life, than the two years I spent in AmeriCorps.
The bonus, of course, is I have already been fit for scrubs and just purchased my first stethoscope. Isn’t it a beauty. I could have gone for the Master Cardiologist, but I’ve been told less is more and having a stellar stethoscope would make me the envy of all the thieves in the medical industry. Had I gone for the latter, I’m afraid I would constantly talk about it; incessantly is probably a better word for it. The Master Classic II is also a good name, but it just don’t ring as much to me. Regardless, I am on my way to looking as much the part as all those gorgeous TV characters on Gray’s Anatomy, M*A*S*H* (although they aren’t as glamorous) and even ER (even though I don’t like it). Now I just need to work on my skills, or at least the pronunciation of diseases. But seriously, this is happening and fast. As neither of the above items are in my possession yet, I cannot provide a picture of me preparing for my new profession, but I will….in due time….
Updates: First, Sigma and Wiley are still under house arrest, much to their discontent. Wiley still looks mangled and his scabs are falling off. Correction, one-half of a scab has fallen off and the other half is half off and sticking straight up in the air. I pray his hair will grow back. If it doesn’t I will sue the pants off Shiloh for emotional distress, mine of course. Although, I probably shouldn’t say that, she might bite my nose.
Second, the 365 quest is still running (no pun intended). John and I have both stuck to the pact of running at least a mile every day. Wiley has even accompanied me a few times. He is eager to shed Levi’s stigma of “fat dog”. So week one (almost) down and 51 more to go, that is 359 more days. Realistically speaking, I don’t think we’ll do it, but I’m certainly not going to be the first to fail. I’d never hear the end of it. I might even get the stigma of “lazy wife”.
Finally, I haven’t made any more progress on the “Green Sweater”, as I’ve been going to sleep very early. But for those of you who haven’t seen what I accomplished over the break here is the back and part of the front. Yes, yes, it looks small, but I have checked the measurements to that of my sister’s and I believe they are on par.
Now off to write a paper…..or at least to pretend.
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12.23.06
Posted in The ins and outs...., Knitting.... at 2:30 pm by smarriott
Ah, it is that time, again. Time to pack up the dogs, say good bye to the cats and spend many-o-hours in the lovely wagon, eagerly awaiting family events. I really don’t mind road trips all that much. Something about being huddled in the car is slightly appealing to me. If it weren’t for the flattness of the Prairie State, I would be exstatic about all road trips. Well exstatic about everything, but the dreaded “Escape Pod.” Ooooh, how I loathe it. I’m not really sure what bugs me more: the crap-tastic stories or the endless droning of the host. Oh, I know I shouldn’t complain or use this medium for any ill-favored business, but something about the “wish-I-could-escape” pod just gets under my skin and makes me what t
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