Missed a few

So much for blogging every day - I didn't go near my computer all weekend. Just knitting, and reading, and, well, working.

I finished my tank and wore it to work on Friday. It looks very nice and I got lots of compliments on it. Next time I use that pattern I will make the lower half longer and the neck not quite so tight on the bind off (speaking of Friday, we had Knit Nite at the store and I tried to teach Janice to knit; I'm not an experienced knitting teacher and whoever helped Janice pick out her yarn did not pick out a good yarn for a newbie so lots of frustration all around).

Worked a full shift on Saturday. Yup, Christmas psychosis - that should be a recognized disease in the DSM-IV.

Had the store meeting Sunday (also worked a split shift due to a sick co-worker). We gave the store manager his "mohawk" hat and I think he liked it. Just because I'm silly, I packed the hat in a box punched full of airholes and had "this side up" written all over. If I could have found something that would have meow-ed or ribbit-ed I would have snuck that in the box for effect. I didn't have my camera, but I'll post a picture once I download a couple Beth took.

Current book-in-progress: I had to start Middlemarch for BNBC November since that board will open the Monday after Thanksgiving
Current knitted item: Socks!!!!!!!
Current movie obsession: "History of Britain"

It's like they read my mind!

Creepy. Very creepy.

Current book-in-progress: working on that ARC because The Almost Moon weirded me out

Current knitted item: Seaming the straps on the tank. Then all I have to do is work in the ends, knit the edges, and presto! Done!

Current movie obsession: "History of Britain"

Yup, this really happens

People do actually do things like this. Among other things.

The other day a woman asked if she got a free polar bear plush for buying the new Jan Brett book. (Uh, no.)

I also had a woman get mad at me because I would only discount a damaged item 10%. Or I could order her a new one. She asked if I would give it to her for free. (For the record, the cover and pages were falling out of the book and considering that this woman was wearing at least three designer label items, she was obviously not strapped for cash.)

In other book-related news, I tried to make headway on The Almost Moon. Ummm, I thought the book was going pretty well until I got to an unbelievably ludicrous sex scene. Between the protagonist and the protagonist's best friend's son. In a car on the driveway. In the front seat (I think - I was starting to get grossed out). That might have ruined the book right there. No wonder the reviews were so harsh.

Current book-in-progress: The Almost Moon

Current knitted item: I can't decide what other color to make the "hair" since I ran out of dark blue....and I have to start a scarf.

Current movie obsession: Perfume is being shipped from Netflix

Tuesdays are terrible too

This morning I had an email, addressed to my boss, about the issue from the phone call last night. Gee, thanks for waiting until you had my reply LIKE I TOLD YOU ON THE PHONE. So I called this person and let them know that the email was not appreciated at all. Then he got read the riot act about how crappy his organization was being. Sigh. Probably not the best course of action but I was beyond pissed off at that point. He's lucky I didn't yell.

I've been updating my book journal. I find I've been very lax regarding that bit of bookkeeping.

Current book-in-progress: finishing an ARC (new author) and The Almost Moon (I'm in finishing mode)
Current knitted item: I left the "hair" at home, so the tank is with me
Current movie obsession: I just ordered "History of Britain" from BN.com - it was on sale and I had a coupon!!

American Gangster

'tis a two-post day. Hah.

I went to see a movie in an actual movie theatre tonight (two movies in less than six months, I must be caving); I'm not a complete social outcast, I went with some friends. We saw "American Gangster" which was the only choice that was compatible with all three of us.

The choices:
1. American Gangster (two screens) - eventual pick
2. Bee Movie (two screens) - deemed as too juvenile, besides having a bee's voice done by Jerry Seinfeld among other things
3. Michael Clayton - ruled off limits because someone doesn't like George Clooney (I don't mind)
4. The Life of Dan - ruled off limits by us girls as too juvenile and yet another loser guy movie
5. Game Plan - none of us heard of it
6. Saw IV - ruled off limits due to general disgusting offensiveness and the fact that the last two sequels were terrible
7. Thirty Days of Night - also ruled off limits due to potential grossness
8. The Final Season - a future rental; I have a tough time with baseball movies after "Bull Durham" because nothing can beat it

This really is a good movie, well shot, well scripted, and well acted. Denzel Washington is phenomenal (Oscar?) and Russell Crowe shows that he actually can act. The design people also did a phenomenal job recreating 60s and 70s New York/New Jersey. Very much in the vein of "The Departed" except more of a business movie, not a dirty gangster movie. Since "American Gangster" was based on the true story of Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts, the whole thing feels very real, less Hollywood.

Ah, the previews, only four this time:
1. I am Legend - never read the book. But I am debating about that now...
2. Wanted - a "fraternity of assassins"? Plus side: has Morgan Freeman; Minus side: has Angelina Jolie; also a potential minus - there are some Matrix-like effects occuring in the previews and that's starting to get old
3. National Treasure 2 (it actually has a subtitle instead of a 2, but I can't remember what it said) - the appeal of the first movie was that they didn't have car chases through Washington DC; from the previews it looks like the second one is more action movie and less thinking movie - drat
4. Charlie Wilson's War - since this is also based on a true story, it might be good; also has Tom Hanks as Charlie Wilson and Julia Roberts as some rich woman

Current book-in-progress: finished What-the-Dickens at dinner (was OK - its a kids book and it is pretty darn cute), need to find something else to finish now
Current knitted item: "hair"
Current movie obsession: Dangerous Beauty is being returned to Netflix; a good movie (also based on the true story of Veronica Franco, a courtesan in 16th century Venice - what is it with biopics lately), if a little slow, and borrowed only so I could drool over Rufus Sewell

I hate Mondays

People at Western IRB are incompetent - they had a last minute question about a checked box on our application before the app goes to the board on Wednesday. If we keep the box checked, it will delay approval even further because the board on Wednesday won't be constituted for that specific question; we would have to wait for a correctly constituted board.

My problem: I answered all the questions from a previous regulatory analyst and this wasn't mentioned.

WIRB's response to that point: oh,...that must have been missed. (Really??? You've been making us cool our heels for three weeks before the application gets scheduled for board and you only see this now??? Morons.)

Did I mention these yahoos are in Washington (near Olympia) and called me at 5:15pm central time? I was 5 minutes from leaving...stupid people suck

Current book-in-progress: gonna try and finish What-the-Dickens (need to finish some things so I can start Middlemarch
Current knitted item: Having got most of the "hair" on (ran out of dark blue, so I'm going to be creative), I think the "mohawk" hat looks like the top of a hobby horse rather than a bonnet
Current movie obsession: 300 (when did David Wenham get hot?); not real jazzed about Gerard Butler's Scottish accent, sort of on-again/off-again sounding

I was wrong

The mohawk hat pattern is not fairly easy to stitch - the directions are vague so it sucks. I googled the pattern for commentary and found a page of errata for the pattern. Great.

It looks like an oversized bonnet. I got the gauge asked for, so I'm not sure why it turned out so large. Oh well, not like I'm expecting the manager to wear it for warmth.

Gearing up for another shift in kids. And it's Sunday.....

Current book-in-progress: see previous (I'm almost done with Classics for Pleasure)
Current knitted item: Having finished what looks like an oversize bonnet I'm now working on the "hair"
Current movie obsession: 300 looks friggin' awesome

Secret Knitting

Here I am knitting yet another surprise. Not so terribly secret - the store manager saw a pattern for a knitting "mohawk" hat (yes, it's a hat that looks like a mohawk haircut) and said he'd wear it if someone made him one.

Never tempt a knitter.

It's a complicated design, but simple enough to stitch. And I'm using some really, really ugly yarn that I bought waaaaaaaayyyyyy back when I re-taught myself to knit. TLC Red Heart acrylic. Yuck (he's only got to wear it long enough to get a picture of him in it).

I worked a full shift in kids at the bookstore today. The shoppers are already developing Christmas psychosis. God help us.

Dance Gala was really nice. The department limited the show to six pieces so the length was really just right and all the pieces together showed a very nice range. Alan did a beautiful homage to David Berkey's "White Mountain" and guest choreographer Toni Pimble created a nice ballet piece to a Villa-Lobos string quartet (the Maia quartet played the music live).

Current book-in-progress: Lies My Teacher Told Me, revised edition; The Almost Moon; Classics for Pleasure; it never decreases!!!!!
Current knitted item: Tank, secret hat (heh, heh)
Current movie obsession: Hamlet is still in the player, but I did receive 300 from Netflix, hmmmmm

NaBloPoMo

So I guess this is National Blog Posting Month...is this new? Or have I just been living under a virtual rock? Don't even ask what I thought when I saw the abbreviation. My friends Kate and Beth are doing this so we'll see how far I get this month.

So, daily update:
1. I had to be my boss on a conference call (she's on vacation); guess I did OK. I've picked up the active surveillance in the MICU so that should make them happy because they don't like the other RA who was doing surveillance.
2. I'm going to Dance Gala tonight! Merde for all the dancers.
3. I've been reading too much Shakespeare and not enough of anything else I've previously started reading. See? Startitis again.
4. I indulged my pen/marker addiction at Dick Blick (I was going to say Hi to Jordan, too, but she doesn't work on Thursday, boo).
5. I bought too many books yet again. Purchased two academic titles to help with my Joyce reading, Finnegan's Wake (stop snickering, I mean it), a couple of Harold Bloom books, and another Portable Professor course about Walt Whitman. Someday I will get Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake, and In Search of Lost Time finished. Quit laughing. You'll wet your pants.
6. I was inadvertently a bad friend this week. I'm sorry.

Current book-in-progress: Lies My Teacher Told Me, revised edition; The Almost Moon which isn't nearly as bad as the reviews said it was; Classics for Pleasure; and, oh, whatever else strikes my fancy
Current knitted item: Tank (work really sucks up my time), trying to start the scarf, and I did wind up some yummy sock yarn.....
Current movie obsession: Kenneth Branagh's 1995 adaptation of Hamlet; it's beautiful, has a great cast, and Kate Winslet is perfect

I am just, well, ...

...bleah. I've spent the last month trying to catch up from being out of town and haven't done a very good job. I am inundated with work and I can't seem to concentrate on much of anything. Except knitting. I've made considerable progress on my tank but I've been having trouble reading. Or even watching TV for that matter. My couch-potato skills are not working right now.

So instead of reading books, I've been buying quite a few of them. Confessions of a Spoilsport by William Dowling was a really good sports memoir about how Division 1a sports is ruining higher education; got a few more Barnes and Noble Shakespeare titles (Hamlet, King Lear, and Julius Ceasar); picked up the Portable Professor What a Piece of Work is Man (lectures about the seven great tradgedies of Shakespeare by Harold Bloom); the Wrinkle in Time boxed set; Michael Dirda's Classics for Pleasure; Ulysses (stop snickering). Someone stop me please!

In research-related news, I found out that we got the CDC grant that we applied for back before Easter. The acceptance came while I was in Europe. This means there are two ginormous, grant-funded multi-year studies to design and submit to IRB as well as the two clinical trials we are starting at Christmas. And the boss has yet to hire new grad RAs so it's just me doing all of this right now (oh, and the other RA who is useless, so let's not talk about that).

In other news, my youngest brother gets married this weekend. I don't even have a date. Meh. I'll go play with my neices.

Current book-in-progress: Wide Sargasso Sea for BNBC Literature by Women November, Classics for Pleasure, I finished re-reading the UK versions of TN1-4, Death in Venice and, oh, everything else I've started but not finished recently. I'm also entertaining a review of The Red Tent because Anita Diamant will be online at BNBC in November.
Current knitted item: After ripping out the aforementioned crappy dart shaping, I finished the front (the re-done darts look very nice) and I'm past the shaping on the back. Just a few more inches until I need to decrease for the straps. Then I really need to start on Christmas stockings. Oh, but I have to knit a scarf instead (I hate being volunteered for things) so I'm going to knit it with cotton yarn. Ick.
Current movie obsession: After dumping my digital cable (friggin' Internet still costs about $50, then basic cable another $50 - WTF?), I bumped up my Netflix. So I've been drooling over the nearly 400 movies in my queue (is it obvious that the selection is better than anything at the local rental places?) and have recently become obsessed with the Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Gaskell's North and South. Richard Armitage is so gorgeous - in a few years he could be the next Rochester if there are any new Jane Eyre adaptations. N&S is probably going to be my next acquisition.

And one other thing...

While in Europe I popped up to Wales to visit my friend Katharine for a few days in Cardiff. If you have never visited her website, The Film Noir Experience, you should. She had a great new podcast called Curiosities and, well, she's just about the smartest person I've ever met.

Thanks for having me to visit, Katharine!!

Back from two weeks of living out of a suitcase

Dorothy Gale was right. There is no place like home.

Sorry for the utter lack of updates - I was either busy trying to get my life in order so I could leave for two weeks to Europe or I was in Europe whining about the lack of WiFi hotspots (do people not use wireless in Austria?) therefore making me too busy to bother. Don't get me wrong because I had a good time and am forever thankful to my parents for taking me with them; it's just nice to be home and sleep in my own bed again (complete with needy furballs).

Pictures later - I have thousands of varying quality and will need to sort them all.

I finished two books (We and An Introduction to the English Novel), started several more (Death in Venice, The Western Canon, The House of Mirth), bought about ten (including #1-4 of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series in the UK paperback; was unable to find any published in German, hmph), and knit another 2.5 inches on my tank.

I am now back at work puzzling over an IRB application for an industry study and thinking mean thoughts about the pharmacy department for not wanting to provide an exhaustive list of topical medications (for yet another study). And I had to dig up my CV because we think we got a grant. Some things never change....

Current book-in-progress: I finished Cultural Amnesia before I left so now I'm chipping away at A Temple of Texts for my nighttime reading; I also need to get a leg up on The House of Mirth since that's BNBC Literature by Women for October
Current knitted item: I'm working on the bodice shaping for the tank (one of the darts did not go so well) and I'm starting my second sock; crap - I have Christmas stockings to finish/start.