Shannon's not just a River in Ireland

Moving right along...

2004-07-28T22:59:00.000-06:00

You can go see my even newer blog at http://shanknits.typepad.com/

Okay, revelaing one of my guilty pleasures....

2004-07-20T21:50:00.000-06:00

To be honest it wouldn't even be a guilty pleasure if it wasn't on Sundays, a day that I beleive should be dedicated to doing good in the world (my interior counts as being in the world), not just mindless entertainemnt, but I think I pass it off as being at least mindful entertainment. (What is she going on about?) Six Feet Under.

I have been meaning to blog again (is it really a verb?) since Wednesday and promised myself that I would on Sunday night for sure, but then I watched Six Feet under and it had me so tense and entranced that I couldn't step away even once during the hour. And it's odd because it was such a sort of typical soap opera device, a car jacking (soap opera-ish being somthing that could happen but hasn't happened to anyone I know or anyone they know,) but it was so incredibly effective. Michael C. Hall is an absolutely incredible actor. Just truly incredible.

What made me think of all of this, besides a twinge of guilt about not having written, was a quote from the week-before-last's show. Russell, whose sexuality has always been a little questionable, (this is paraphrased, btw) is sitting in the cafeteria knitting and Claire's friend looks over at him and says, incredulously, "Is he knitting?!?" And Claire responds, "Yeah, it's like the new thing. Like 'Look, I'm so straight I can knit.'"

Today I was in charge of the preschool storytime, and tomorrow, the school age story time. I was going to do something on pioneers or Native Americans, but since I don't have a craft and am subbing for our children's librarian, I may let her do whatever she planned for the Native Americans and instead do something on illness, because I know of a few great books, or maybe something on water, because a lot of them are swimming a lot right now.

I got some denim yarn, though not the Rowan Denim, at the Wool Cabin's Christmas in July sale and now I'm thinking of things to do with it. I have about 700 yards which isn't enough for a sweater, but could do a cute t-shirt or maybe a really fancy bag, but it seems a waste to use that much on something as small as a bag. Plus I've got another marsupial going as well as a french market bag and that should really kill the new bag urge for a little while, right?

SnB was fun tonight. I was tempted not to go, forgetting that my brother would be here to let out the dog because his girlfriend's dog was neutered today and they were hanging out. But I'm so glad I went. Laurie gave Margene a brilliant button that said "I read banned books." I must find something like it for myself.

Margene, who is a total sweetie, gave me some leftover yarn athat I will have lots of fun with it, and also, did I mention, bought me a sandwich last week.

Mom and Dad are in Vancouver, BC right now. Mom said that she would pick up a copy of Men with Brooms for me on DVD, as I do love that movie. It's not even the Paul Gross thing, lovely as he is. Or even the James Allodi thing, even though he gets points for being handsome, funny, and having played a really funny librarian on TV. It's just a sweet movie.

I also told Mom to keep an eye out for White Buffalo Yarn for me, because after reading the review on Knitter's Review I think it would be incredibly fun and I didn't know what other Canadian yarns to have them look for. Obviously I hadn't realized at the time that Koigu is Canandian. Probably a good thing because I would be tempted to throw soemting insane like a Charlotte on the big pile o' WIPs and that's the last thing I need. Oddly of the colorways on this page the one that pleases me most of the browns and I am not much of a brown girl.

I am going to try to wake up for a few minutes at 3:30 and see who's on World News Now these days. My favorite newscast. Err, except for Anderson Cooper 360, of course.

It's 0600 hours. What does the "O" stand for? O my God, it's early!

2004-07-15T21:50:00.000-06:00

(Quote from Good Morning Vietnam) A 7:30 meeting. It's obscene. Okay, so in the grand scheme of things it's not that early, my folks leave for work before 6am every day, but I, unlike my people, am not of the morning tribe. But it's not my fault, it's genetic. See?

On the happy news, I was educated about finding consumer health information online, and, most interesting to me, perhaps, was the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. I have been hoping for ages that I could find a legitimate and scientific site that would support the use of Alternative Medicine. Now I'm not saying that this site supports much right now as they only began clinical trials in 2002, but it's fascinating and gives me hope that people will start looking at kinder, gentler methods of healing to compliment or replace traditional western medicine.

Staying on the bright side for the moment, my first paycheck will be here tomorrow or Saturday, so I can finally buy the pattern for the Dale Sweater (page 12, on the left) that I've been working on, as well as buy the rest of the yarn. I can't wait to get it as I am really enjoying this yarn and want to keep progressing on it.

On the slightly less bright side, Phildar has brought out the new Tendances for autumn/winter, and there's not a Phildar to be found! I shoudl probably not travel, I want all LYSs to be MY LYS.

I have started another Marsupial with a spare skeing of periwinkle Bulky Lamb's Pride that I had lying around. I think I might do it in thirds, purple on the bottom, and then pink, and then... orange? Blue? A nice bright blue might be just the ticket, now that I think about it.

Quizilla Results...

2004-07-11T23:07:00.000-06:00

You are Merino Wool.
You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to
keep you close because you are so softhearted.
You love to be comfortable and warm from your
head to your toes.

What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Despite the fact that a little behind has always been one of my goals...

2004-07-07T23:52:00.000-06:00

I'm a week out right now. So, quickie update. Still knitting the cotton string bag... and the Dale Sweater. That Svale yarn is so lovely, and the green is so pleasant. Our SnB was small last night, just Valerie, Erin, Steph, Barb, and me. Sometimes there are up to 20 of us. For any of my non-SnB friends who read this, stop by the Jitterbug Coffee Hop on 7th east and 1855 South one of these days. Bruce is a total sweetheart and the chicken sandwiches are wicked good. (Though next week I'm trying the California melt.)

I have an truly obscene number of books checked out right now... 20 to be exact, and that's just from the library where I work. I'm having a hard time getting into the books on tape I've been checking out. It's just hard to give them enough attention while driving. (Suggestions anyone?)

Thing is it's just so incredibly easy to pull any interesting books while I'm checking them in or covering them and just "take it home for the evening." Like I read. I watch the Simpsons, make some dinner, hopefully talk to a friend or two, catch up on blogs, and exercise on a good night. (Already I'm up too late.)

Anyway, my goal was the tell about my 4th of July weekend. I know that many found the Utah-specific splitting of the 4th of July this year to the two days around the 4th instead of on the day to be upsetting, but I rather enjoyed it, being that it meant two nights of fireworks for one holiday, and to me that's about as good as it gets. (I am such a fireworks girl.) Saturday night I just watched them from the back porch and enjoyed the Murray to Riverton panorama, and Monday night we went down to Thanksgiving Point and enjoyed the display there. That was actually great, the fireworks were quite low in the sky but we were just across the freeway so we still had a great view.

Oh, because someone asked, to leave me a comment on my blog you can click on the link at the bottom of each post that says how many comments I have and that will take you to a page where you'll have a link to do so.

An a side note, I'm desperately homesick for France. it wasn't so bad today until I made a baked apple and then I mentally flashed to the wonderful compotes (pureed fruits like applesauce) that I would eat there. And I don't have any new yarn from the Droguerie. I love my LYS's (local yarn shops), but there's nothing like buying yarn in Paris.

The Random Anne Lamott Quote of the Day

2004-06-30T23:18:00.000-06:00

I hardly know what to feel most days, except for grief and bug-eyed paranoia. But my faith tells me that God has larger cojones than Bush or Condi or Saddam or bin Laden, and that he has skills, ploys and grace adequate to bring light into the present darkness.

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

2004-06-30T21:26:00.000-06:00

Good old Groucho Marx.

The commissioned bag for my mom is coming a long, the bottom and almost half of the sides done. It's the Oregon tote so it's got a really interesting I-cord bind of on the top edges which I'd never seen before and am anxious to try. And then the handles. It was really cute as we were leaving Black Sheep after buying the yarn and my mom said to me "Now, do you have a spool? Those handles were done on a spool, do you want me to pick one up for you" I explained that I could do that on double-pointed needles and she was astounded.

As for the new job... it's good. Not super hard, but pleasant and steady. Everyone's really nice and the space is quite pleasant. Great view! Always something to do but I've managed to check my e-mail right before lunch the past few days. Everyone's really nice. Monday after my appointment with HR in Coalville they sent me to Kamas to train. Kamas... wow that place is small. But it was pleasant, the people at the library know all of their patrons by name. It was sweet in a gosh-I'd-be-bored-if-I-lived-here kind of way.

I did have to work last night so I missed my SnB. I really missed it. Such good company.

This might be the only person who will get me out of bed before 8am jsut to see what's happening in the world. Plus I keep checking to see if Soledad O'Brien (who is way too little and cute to be pregnant) has popped yet. Bill Hemmer

This is my lesson for Enrichment tomorrow night (the topic for the lesson is service): http://www.salon.com/weekly/lamott961007.html

Before I forget...

2004-06-27T18:52:00.000-06:00

I forgot one important thing about the Harry Potter movie. The Dementors. I consider the dementors among the creepiest creatures in all of literature (read as: all of the literature that I have read). Really really bone-chillingly creepy. And they were one of my main concerns about how the book would translate to the big screen. And I must say that in my humble opinion... they were really well done. The effect of what they do wasn't the way I would have envisioned it, but it was effective, and they were truly.. well, icky.

One of my favorite you-know-a-woman-wrote-this touches in the book was also that the cure for a visit from the dementors, what amounts to some serious existential dread, is chocolate. I guess it had to be, didn't it?

Good art maketh glad the heart of man.

2004-06-25T22:46:00.000-06:00

Ah, a nice day. My eye wandered through the weekend section of the paper when I spied the Arts Festival. I was shocked, June 24-27 had seemed so far away when I'd gotten a flier for it a few weeks ago, but a quick glance at the calendar served as revelation. My mom and I went, and it was quite pleasant. I had a yummy chicken gyros and we walked around and enjoyed the different booths. It seemed smaller to me than past festivals, but the setting was pleasant, especially on the city/county building side where there are lots of trees providing shade. Mom picked up a nice photo graph of the Eiffel Tower and a really nice wood inlay napkin holder.

I also made my first trip to the city library while I was there. I know that it seems odd that I, aspiring librarian that I am, hadn't ever been there. But it's true. We saw Andrew at the Library shop, which was fun. His show last night was GREAT. It was an acoustic set with some great songs. One made me want to cry. (In that good, touched way.) I gave him the pink yarn that Margene had sent and he was very happy.

We stopped at Black Sheep because I needed another skein of green for the Cowl and Howl, and while we were there my mom saw the Oregon Bag on the wall and asked me if I could do one like that for her. I said yes, if she bought the yarn, and I thought that she'd think about it and we were talking about a future project, but she started picking out yarn right then. It should be nice, she picked a charcoal main color with a beige/khaki and a gray for the secondary colors. I don't know if I'll get it done this weekend, but it's coming along nicely. She's excited, and that's nice because in the past when I've knitted for her it's been me guessing what she'd enjoy. It's nice to have some certainty.

Tomorrow we're having a ward 5k, but I have to admit that I'm just not that excited about another chance to be embarrassingly winded in public. Though, I was going to have a little party tomorrow night and I don't know who else to invite people. And if I don't have it am I morally required to let my brother know that I won't be having friends over? That'll mean an evening of his friends at the house, most likely, and I don't really feel good about many of them. I don't know why, but taht's the way it is. Maybe I'll jsut stall on it. He'll probably already have made plans to not be here, rather than hang out with a bunch of goody-goody mormon kids.

Isn't "New Dumbledore" an oxymoron?

2004-06-25T10:00:00.000-06:00

Well, not that anyone asked, but here's my personal review of the new Harry Potter. (Spoilers, of course.)

A lot of people that I know felt that the biggest problems with this new one were the new castle and the placement of Hagrid's hut. I had NO problem with the above. I thought that the setting was quite beautiful and brought a lot more of light to the story, in the physical sense. The first two were quite dark in the sense that nothing was very well lit. My main concern was simply a question of length. HOW ON EARTH IS THIS MOVIE SHORTER THAN THE LAST ONE? The books are getting longer and the movies shorter? The main disappointment of the whole thing was, as with all of the movies, all of the wonderful details that were left out. I realize that there's a level of practicality to deal with. More on that in a paragraph or two.

My only real setting complaint was that Hogsmeade seemed to cartoony to me. My secondary and smaller complaint was that Voldemort was completely absent and Malfoy hardly there and even wimpier than you'd hope, so if you know the twist then you really don't have anyone to hate, and what's the point of a good vs. evil story if you don't have anyone to hate?

Now, all that said, I really enjoyed the performances of the 3 main characters, and Professor McGonagall and Hagrid were flawless as always.

Now I realized only after having seen this new movie that part of the charm of Richard Harris's performance as Dumbledore was that he had a charming frailty to him, which made it even more refreshing when he kicked butt. I do wonder now whether that was the result of the actor rather than the performance, but the new guy lacks that, which actually makes me happy for him on a personal level. The other problem is a screenwriting problem. He talked to much. Dumbledore should say as little as necessary, and he kept talking. And what, BTW was the point of the conversation about how adults don't listen to kids?

Now, had I not read the book I think that I wouldn't have felt much of a lack and I would have found the general story quite enjoyable.

All I can say is that the Goblet of Fire had better be at least 2:30. Really. Otherwise they won't even be able to get the bare bones in.

Now that I think I'm getting it....

2004-06-24T12:45:00.000-06:00

Okay, now that I think I'm getting used to this blog and it's quirks, I suppose I should post something. I finished the back of the Howl and Cowl sweater from the Stitch 'n Bitch Book Tuesday night and have begun the front now. I don't know if I'll actually think about the sleeves until closer to fall, but I think it'll make a cute vest in the mean time. It's in Brown Sheep's Pine Shadows, though I don't think the picture really does it justice. It's a lovely green with white fibers (the mohair?) running through it. I really do adore the Lamb's Pride yarns. They felt well and there are millions of colors to choose from and it's plain enough that you could do almost anything with it, but it's nice and soft and pleasant to work with, but like Naturespun, which, nice as it is, is kind of scratchy. I'm working on getting some photos up, but for the moment you'll just have to imagine with me. Or, you know, come to the Stitch 'N Bitch on Tuesday night.

Just because I think that it's interesting and I've hardly shown anyone these photos, if you would like to see my last near-near-death experience (last September) you can see the photos here.

I am going to try to see Harry Potter today at 2:10 on the big screen at Jordan Commons, and then Andrew's show tonight. In between, while I really should clean, I'll probably try to make more headway in Foucault's Pendulum or work on my various B&N University Classes. I may also continue my studies in the art of training a man. Now I've just got to find one to practice on.

Salon | Anne Lamott: Traveling mercies

2004-06-23T13:23:00.000-06:00

Salon | Anne Lamott: Traveling mercies When your comptuer dies, your temp agencies aren't calling, and no one's calling about any of your 40 job applications somewhere out in the ether... well, you need this.

But of course, I don't even drink caffeine!

2004-06-21T16:00:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm sure that all reading will be unsurprised to learn that I passed my drug test. This means that I now have a real offer of employment. I'll start on Monday, which means that I have to go up to HR in Coalville at 8:15. AM. I guess if I leave by 6:45 I should get there on time... right? I loved the description of the intersection where the courthouse is. "There's a house that's been turned into a restaurant, a house, and an LDS stake center." I guess that just because it's the same county as Park City doesn't mean that it's not still a little town in Utah. I am excited to start. Of course the most obvious reason is that I would really like to be able to go out to eat again instead of living off what I make helping my dad sell on eBay, (I can buy yarn again!!!!) but also because it really feels like I'm on my way to my goal. I'm that much closer to being a real librarian.

Father's Day

2004-06-21T13:07:00.000-06:00

Dad quite liked the Dilbert book. We went to the Mayan for dinner, where I was the only one actually pleased with her food. The animatronic birds and lizards seemed cute, but they were very hard to hear and I guess I missed the point of the divers... were they some sort of sacrifice to appease the gods? Were they vacationing divers who just happened to end up on this tropical island type place? Were they just the kind of people who jumped off of rocks trying to escape animatronic prattle?

A friend did tell me once, however, that it took a secure man to bring a date to the Mayan and risk being mentally compared to the divers.

Saturday, Saturday

2004-06-19T21:33:00.000-06:00

Did I mention in my last entry that I got a job? I'll be a library clerk for the Summit County library system. The is contingent on my passing a drug test, so I think I got the job. Otherwise I haven't done much. In one of the biggest shocks since I got home it turns out that Matt didn't like the 3rd Harry Potter movie, so it looks like I'll be seeing it one my own. Though no rush on that because I used what I'd budgeted for that on my dad's Father's Day Present. It's pretty cool, a best of Dilbert hard back. Hope he likes it.

Mom asked me to mop the kitchen floor, which has always been Dad's thing. He was so incredibly impressed with that. I didn't even claim it as my own, too bad. I also made brownies. For eating. Not for taking somewhere.

I'm watching Crossing Jordan in reruns on A&E. It's the episode that was supposed to be the basis for Jerry O'Connell's spin-off starring him and his brother, but never seemed to happen. I suspect that they figured that they'd fill the hottie guy gap when the brought on Ivan Sergei, therefore freeing Jerry O'Connell, but Ivan Sergei is a whole different kind of cute and since they haven't, from what I've seen, ever done much with that character (too bad, especially in light of his fun-to-watchness on Once a Thief) so I think they had to keep good old Woody around. I just can't see them setting up Peter (Ivan Sergei) and Jordan. I found a really cool looking Law and Order book on bargain at B&N tonight too. Only other thing going on is that Anderson Cooper is going to Iraq for 2 weeks to cover the handover and Heidi Collins is taking his show this week. Too bad, I really wanted to see Bill Hemmer do AC 360.

Here we go again.

2004-06-18T23:31:00.000-06:00

After the stunning (ha!) success of my in France blog keeping I figured I'd better start fresh. I realized that my dad has a blog. My dad! He's like... 50! And I got all inspired by the blog of Steve (Elder to me) Eastman, who always seemed to be serving in the town just next door during my mission. I am hopelessly behind on my e-mails and need to contact E. Minchin and the girls, but I'm waiting for the system recovery disks for my computer to come. (Be swift, little postal service!)

Thanks must be broadcasted to Brandon and Don for their help with the nightly writing dilemma.

I guess I'll have to start telling people that I have a blog now, eh?