A finished sweater, just in time for Texas summer

Finally finished, just in time for the 90 degree Texas summer. I actually like this pattern a lot and will make another one for the Little Guy, but next time I will make the body longer. You can see his tummy hanging out the bottom in the picture. I made it in a sport weight acrylic for ease of washing and it was inexpensive enough to practice with. I like the boxy shape and I didn't have to figure out how to shape raglan sleeves. (It think those are what the diamond shaped set in sleeves are called, mental block right now)

I know a locally owned yarn shop in the area that has a beautiful selection of organic yarn. Now that I know how this pattern knits up, I will work it in a little more expensive yarn. If I start now and apply myself, maybe I'll be done when it is cold enough to wear it.

Book #6

Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris

A Sookie Stackhouse Novel

Yuppers, True Blood! This is the first book in the series that HBO's True Blood is based on.

Pretty cool. I see why everyone raves about True Blood. I have watched the first 3 or 4 episodes of True Blood from NetFlicks and liked them alot. The series, from what I have seen of it, follows pretty truly to the book. Who's to say it continues on like that, but I imagine it does. HBO is pretty reliably good.

I have read a few vampire books in my time and this one is quite good. I will be reading the next in the series, so that says something right there.

This leads me off on a tangent. I have to comment on Stephanie Meyers (of Twilight fame). She is not as original as one would think, after they have read about Sookie Stackhouse and her vampires. Ms. Stephanie "borrowed" a few ideas I do believe. Loosely, but similar all the same. Things that make you go hmmmmm.... But, in defense of Ms. Stephanie, she may have gotten some inspiration from Ms. Charlaine, but the Twilight books are G rated and Sookie Stackhouse is definitely not.

Ok, confession time, if it isn't obvious already, yes, I read the Twilight series, all of them. I have only seen the first movie and that will probably be the only of the movies that I will watch. Enough on that, I can save Twilight for another time. Maybe if I ever knit the Twilight mittens, I'll post a picture and devote some creative energy to a dissertation on Twilight.

So, Dead Until Dark....I will be reading book 2. That sums it up right there.

Book #5

Bridget Jone's Diary - Helen Fielding



Ya, I know, I'm only a decade behind the rest of the girls that have read this book, but I did finally get around to it.



I do have to confess that I did not read this book in 3 days, like it may look. I have been picking at this one for about six months, off and on and did finally finish it.



I'm not going to elaborate much, everyone should know basically about the plot, even if by just having watched the movie.



I was more interested in the parallels between the book and Pride and Prejudice, which besides that fact that the male hero's name happens to be Mark Darcy, are pretty sparse. I suppose if you think loosely and squint you may see a few similarities.



It's a clever book, all things considered. And that is all there is to say, 'cause I'm pretty sure I'm one of the last girls on the planet that have just now gotten around to reading this book.

Book #4

Ambulance Girl by Jane Stern

Jane Stern from NPR's Splendid Table, Jane and Micheal Stern - Rood Food and many other foodie books has written a book about becoming an EMT at age 52ish.

She actually really did this and worked/works (I don't know if she still does?) for the volunteer Fire Dept. in her small town in Connecticut.

I loved this book for many reasons. Not the least of which is that is it really pretty damn funny. Like laugh out loud, guffaws kind of funny. It also appealed to my deep seated adrenaline junky medical personality. As the saying goes... you can take the girl out of the ICU, but you can't take the ICU out of the girl. (or something like that) I could relate to many ,many things she wrote about, from the nurse's attitudes in the ED, to the frequent flyers, to the burn out. I found it interesting that she experienced burn out in a remarkably similar way to how I did. I have never had a poll about how burn out is manifested from person to person. I don't think I want to know. I have moments of.....well.....probably shame, that I got burned out. Well, enough about that.

The book takes you through her initial classroom training, then her real life training (when the learning really begins), through a rough bout of burn out and then her reaction to 9/11. The story takes place starting about 2 years pre-9/11.

Lots of good gross out factor and morbid humor that I suppose health care providers certainly have an affinity for. And a story about a gal working herself out of a mid-life crisis of sorts by realizing she is helping and healing herself by helping others.

Recommended if you are into reading about medical stuff. I don't know what you would think of it all if you didn't have any particular interest in emergency care.

Book #3

Hmmm, it's May and I'm on book three of fifty, I think I should have aimed much lower. I'll be lucky if I finish ten at this rate.

So, Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. I have a few things to say about this book.

Everyone should, by this point in time, have at least heard of the movie Julie and Julia. Cute movie about this cute twenty something gal that idolizes Julia Child and cooks her way through MtheAofFC. All the while blogging about it. Cute movie, cute girl, did I say that already??

Well, the book.... Julie Powell is neither cute nor sweet, but rather foul mouthed, self centered and bat shit crazy!! That being said, the book is really pretty funny, more about blogging than cooking. She is a good writer, witty and dry and uses cool terms like culinary plutonium and bleaders (blog readers).

This is the first time that I will ever recommend that you should see the movie prior to reading the book, if you were planning to do both. If I had read the book first I never would have watched the movie, making the assumption that the character in the movie would be as awful as the heroine in the book.

But liked the book, I laughed at it, even though Julie seems like she would be an awful, whiny, narcissistic, bully (at least to her husband, anyway), she has some redeeming likable qualities, too.

Whatever, just read it with caution...not cute or whimsical as you might think based on the book jacket. Expect an f-bomb-palooza.

BTW, I did get MtheAofFC Vol.1 and 2 for Mother's Day, look out....

Much Ado About Nothing

We went to see another play this weekend. My Beloved did a review, see Theater Jones.com for details. Much Ado About Nothing done contemporary, post WW2.

It was a brilliant interpretation!! The correlation between the soldiers returning home in the classic play vs the soldiers returning home after WW2. Add in all the cool retro 40's costumes and hair dos, plus singing and dancing. Someone took a great deal of time to do wonderful choreography for this play. I love it!! Man oh man, Hollywood or Broadway could do this interpretation with pizazz!! Beloved and I both said we would love to see this done by professionals.

Now, at this point I need to mention this was done by a small community theater in Bedford. These were not professional actors, singers or dancers. But, wow they pulled it off beautifully!!

I am probably the most familiar with this Shakespeare play as any of them. My Beloved played a role in Much Ado in grad school, so I saw many rehearsals and spent time running lines with him, so I know the play pretty well. It is a cute story, with lots of comedy, some mistaken identities, a costume party, a faked death, and of course it's going to end with a wedding!

A Shakespeare comedy, my favorite.