I prepared a shrimp boil for supper tonight. There's plenty left; so, come on over...
MK out.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The One About Movies
I've been there and back...I went to Columbus, Ohio in June for TNNA. It was fun, and I only took one picture, but I will not share it in this post. I also went to Colorado last week and it was nice...then came back to the heat. I need a nap! All the time! The heat just wears me out.
Oh - if on June 27th, y'all happened to have seen the sunbeams coming through the clouds and heard the collective voices of angels singing, "Ahhhhhhhh," it was because I finished the June 2008 socks. They are cute, and pictures in the knitting post. This one is about movies.
It's not really movie season for me...I tend to gear up after that back-to-school time of year starts, but there are quite a few DVDs on my Blockbuster list, and I have been trying to work through it.
I did see one movie at the theater last week, with some of the mothers of the boys who received those hats that I made: In The Proposal, Sandra Bullock plays a hard-driving boss who happens to be a Canadian citizen with an expired visa. Ryan Reynolds plays her executive assistant, who happens to be the unlucky guy she picks in which to enter into a marriage of convenience in order to avoid deportation – mostly because he just happened to be standing there. Betty White, Mary Steenburgen and Craig T. Nelson also star. It is definitely a chick flick and the funniest one I’ve seen in a while. Definitely a must see.
The DVDs:
In Mama’s Boy, Jon Heder plays a guy whose father died when he was a young teen. He is now in his late twenties, and is still living at home looking out for his mama (Diane Keeton). Mama is more than ready to move on with her life, and starts dating a nice man (Jeff Daniels). Baby boy is not too pleased…Cute movie.
In The Walker, Woody Harrelson plays Carter Page, an overly gay son of a former senator who earns his way by escorting Washington’s grand dames around town when they need a date. One of his ladies (Kristen Scott Thomas) finds her lover murdered in his home, and Carter does what he can to protect her and her husband from any media investigation. If the plot sounds a little like American Gigolo, it’s because both movies were written by the same person.
In The Other Boleyn Girl, Scarlett Johanssen and Natalie Portman play the Boleyn sisters, who compete for the attentions of King Henry VIII (Eric Bana) to ensure their family’s place in the royal hierarchy. It was pretty good. I liked the costumes, too.
In The Hunting Party, Richard Gere plays a reporter and Terrence Howard plays a photographer who covered the war in Bosnia. Years later, Gere hatches a plan to capture Bosnia’s most wanted war criminal. It was a good movie.
Phoebe in Wonderland is about mental illness. Felicity Huffman and her husband are writers who have two imaginative daughters. The oldest one (Elle Fanning – Dakota’s little sister) exhibits bizarre behavior that concerns her mother, as well as her drama teacher (Patricia Clarkson). It is a really good movie that captures the struggle of dealing with a mentally ill family member. That Elle Fanning is a good little actress, and Patricia Clarkson was wonderful as always.
In Smart People, Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker play a widowed professor who starts dating his former student. They meet again after he is involved in an accident and she is his emergency department physician. His adopted brother, a rather ne’er-do-well (played by Thomas Haden Church) enters the picture when Quaid’s daughter calls him in to help with the carpooling. The daughter (Ellen Page) is quite academically bright, but rather lacking in the friends and fun department. It was pretty good.
Helen Hunt wrote, directed and stars in Then She Found Me, about a woman in her late thirties who wants to have a baby desperately. She was adopted and has a brother who is the biological child of her parents and doesn’t want to adopt. After a series of life changing events, her birth mother (Bette Midler) comes looking for her. It was pretty good.
Stay cool.
MK out.
Oh - if on June 27th, y'all happened to have seen the sunbeams coming through the clouds and heard the collective voices of angels singing, "Ahhhhhhhh," it was because I finished the June 2008 socks. They are cute, and pictures in the knitting post. This one is about movies.
It's not really movie season for me...I tend to gear up after that back-to-school time of year starts, but there are quite a few DVDs on my Blockbuster list, and I have been trying to work through it.
I did see one movie at the theater last week, with some of the mothers of the boys who received those hats that I made: In The Proposal, Sandra Bullock plays a hard-driving boss who happens to be a Canadian citizen with an expired visa. Ryan Reynolds plays her executive assistant, who happens to be the unlucky guy she picks in which to enter into a marriage of convenience in order to avoid deportation – mostly because he just happened to be standing there. Betty White, Mary Steenburgen and Craig T. Nelson also star. It is definitely a chick flick and the funniest one I’ve seen in a while. Definitely a must see.
The DVDs:
In Mama’s Boy, Jon Heder plays a guy whose father died when he was a young teen. He is now in his late twenties, and is still living at home looking out for his mama (Diane Keeton). Mama is more than ready to move on with her life, and starts dating a nice man (Jeff Daniels). Baby boy is not too pleased…Cute movie.
In The Walker, Woody Harrelson plays Carter Page, an overly gay son of a former senator who earns his way by escorting Washington’s grand dames around town when they need a date. One of his ladies (Kristen Scott Thomas) finds her lover murdered in his home, and Carter does what he can to protect her and her husband from any media investigation. If the plot sounds a little like American Gigolo, it’s because both movies were written by the same person.
In The Other Boleyn Girl, Scarlett Johanssen and Natalie Portman play the Boleyn sisters, who compete for the attentions of King Henry VIII (Eric Bana) to ensure their family’s place in the royal hierarchy. It was pretty good. I liked the costumes, too.
In The Hunting Party, Richard Gere plays a reporter and Terrence Howard plays a photographer who covered the war in Bosnia. Years later, Gere hatches a plan to capture Bosnia’s most wanted war criminal. It was a good movie.
Phoebe in Wonderland is about mental illness. Felicity Huffman and her husband are writers who have two imaginative daughters. The oldest one (Elle Fanning – Dakota’s little sister) exhibits bizarre behavior that concerns her mother, as well as her drama teacher (Patricia Clarkson). It is a really good movie that captures the struggle of dealing with a mentally ill family member. That Elle Fanning is a good little actress, and Patricia Clarkson was wonderful as always.
In Smart People, Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker play a widowed professor who starts dating his former student. They meet again after he is involved in an accident and she is his emergency department physician. His adopted brother, a rather ne’er-do-well (played by Thomas Haden Church) enters the picture when Quaid’s daughter calls him in to help with the carpooling. The daughter (Ellen Page) is quite academically bright, but rather lacking in the friends and fun department. It was pretty good.
Helen Hunt wrote, directed and stars in Then She Found Me, about a woman in her late thirties who wants to have a baby desperately. She was adopted and has a brother who is the biological child of her parents and doesn’t want to adopt. After a series of life changing events, her birth mother (Bette Midler) comes looking for her. It was pretty good.
Stay cool.
MK out.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
I Really Have Been Knitting More Than Hats
Here's The Kid's sweater that I finished back in March. It took a whole year to complete, because other things came up along the way.
Here's a beret I designed for MadelineTosh. It's a free pattern.
I also designed these for MadelineTosh, but made this pair in my favorite colors for me. It can be purchased on the website.
I finished the Gathered Pullover! I used Brooks Farm Yarn Mac Acero. My sewing dress form is modeling it, and you cannot tell by looking at it, but it fits me well.
I made the Mara Shawl (another free pattern) by MadelineTosh using a skein of MadelineTosh Tosh Worsted in each of the Carmen and the Oak colorways. It is currently blocking. I hope to wear it soon.
MK out.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Time Flew
The Kid graduated from high school last night.
All that hat knitting business was for him and his friends. I made each a hat in his college colors.
Yep, time flew.
MK out.
Friday, June 5, 2009
How to Knit a Hat in One Day
There are two methods:
1. Accompany a friend or a family member to a big city university hospital while he or she undergoes a special test that takes about 5 hours from start to finish.
You may not necessarily spend the whole five hours knitting, but you end up with this:
2. Knit a hat on a day that is full of errands and tasks.
1. Accompany a friend or a family member to a big city university hospital while he or she undergoes a special test that takes about 5 hours from start to finish.
You may not necessarily spend the whole five hours knitting, but you end up with this:
2. Knit a hat on a day that is full of errands and tasks.
It is not as effective as the first method, and the probability of ending with a finished hat by the end of the day is lower, but...
I gathered the materials.
Then I made a little breakfast, ate it and tidied up the kitchen. On the agenda today is to steam clean the grout in the kitchen only - That shouldn't take too long.
For those of you who have known me for a long time, this grout cleaning thing - been going on for y.e.a.r.s. Kind of like the decrapification thing. I'm all into it for about the first day, and then realize how monumental the task is, and the enthusiasm fizzles. It's just not fun!
I tidied up the den.
I cast on and started the first row.
I went for a three-mile power walk in the neighborhood.
I came home and it was about time for lunch; so, I made a little something, ate it and tidied up the kitchen.
The Kid needed a ride to drop his truck off to get some speakers added to his stereo system and then he needed to be dropped off to school for a mandatory graduation practice.
I got home and pulled ot the steam machine.
I started in on the grout. I'm ashamed to show you how gross it was.
I steamed and scrubbed for about an hour, and cleaned a 4-feet by 6-feet section of the kitchen floor. I was tired and put away my cleaning supplies.
I knitted some more on the hat, and realized that I was inadvertently knitting a mobius.
I tinked back, untwisted the stitches and started in on the hat again.
It was about 3:30 by then, and I still had errands to run. I took a shower and got dressed.
Before I got home, I picked up supper at Pei Wei. Yum!
After supper, I went to get my knitting, and discovered that my mom had found it and had knitted to the second red stripe while I was gone before supper.*
The hat was finished by me at a leisurely pace by 10:30ish.
The end.
MK out.
*There was still a chance that the hat would have been finished by me before midnight had she not done that, but less likely. Thanks Mom!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The Yarn Harlot Pays a Visit
The Yarn Harlot finally made an appearance in DFW last night, when she stopped at Legacy Books in Plano for a book signing. If you've never heard about the Yarn Harlot before, Dude - you are seriously behind the times. True, she writes a lot about knitting, but the knitting applies to life, in general.
Stephanie is a humorist, if you need a word to classify her, but she is much more than that. She can move knitters to do her bidding. Because of her, in the name of Knitters Without Borders, donations to Doctors Without Borders total $590,768.00 at last count. This figure far exceeds the original goal of $100,000.00. The new goal is a cool million, and I think it will be achieved. Stephanie and a few other glitterati in the knitting world have organized a huge Sock Summit in Portland, OR this August. The registrations opened this past Tuesday at 12:00PM CST, and the 30,000 simultaneous connections, besides crashing the super-server, easily filled the 4000 available class spots in about 10 seconds. The organizers have lured several matriarchs of knitting out of retirement to participate in this event. Y'all do not even have to ask if the Merry Karma will attend. (Duh!)
Stephanie gave a nice little talk about the general misconceptions about knitting. It was funny, and oh so true.
I made a new friend, Melanie of Pink Lemon Twist. That shawl - she designed it.
Here's a future knitter wearing a handknit sweater. Her mommy is a friend of mine.
Royalty visits visiting royalty in full regalia. That's a Merry Karmaism.
It was a fun evening. You should be sad you missed it.
MK out.
Stephanie is a humorist, if you need a word to classify her, but she is much more than that. She can move knitters to do her bidding. Because of her, in the name of Knitters Without Borders, donations to Doctors Without Borders total $590,768.00 at last count. This figure far exceeds the original goal of $100,000.00. The new goal is a cool million, and I think it will be achieved. Stephanie and a few other glitterati in the knitting world have organized a huge Sock Summit in Portland, OR this August. The registrations opened this past Tuesday at 12:00PM CST, and the 30,000 simultaneous connections, besides crashing the super-server, easily filled the 4000 available class spots in about 10 seconds. The organizers have lured several matriarchs of knitting out of retirement to participate in this event. Y'all do not even have to ask if the Merry Karma will attend. (Duh!)
Here's a fraction of the SRO crowd that came to the booksigning. Most of the girls in the forefront are The RockStars. They are some pretty cool friends of mine.
Stephanie gave a nice little talk about the general misconceptions about knitting. It was funny, and oh so true.
I made a new friend, Melanie of Pink Lemon Twist. That shawl - she designed it.
Here's a future knitter wearing a handknit sweater. Her mommy is a friend of mine.
Royalty visits visiting royalty in full regalia. That's a Merry Karmaism.
It was a fun evening. You should be sad you missed it.
MK out.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
A Couple of Flicks
Life has been full lately. The baseball team is out of the playoffs - more on that in another post. I've been knitting, knitting, knitting. The Kid is graduating from high school next week.
I have a couple of posts to knock out, and will start today with some movies I've seen recently:
In Be Kind Rewind, Jack Black inadvertently erases all the videos in a little neighborhood video store, and he and the employee entrusted to run the store while the owner is away, try to refilm - or swede (as they call it) - all the movies. It was cute, but silly in parts.
Charlie Bartlett is about a rich boy having to go to public school and ends up being the students’ psychoanalyst. Hope Davis, Robert Downey, Jr. and Anton Yelchin (who plays Charlie) star in this sweet little movie. It was good.
Tell No One is a good film in French with English subtitles. A woman is killed by a serial killer. Eight years later, he receives an e-mail that appears to be from his wife with a link to a video in which she appears alive and well. It’s a suspenseful movie with a complicated plot. Kristen Scott Thomas is in this film. I recognize some of the other actors from other films that I’ve watched, but don’t really know any of them well. It was pretty good.
Finally, one of my readers mentioned The Great Debaters as being a good film to watch. It was on my Blockbuster queue, and it came the day after her suggestion. The movie is based on a true story about a professor at an East Texas all-minority college who coaches his debate team all the way to a debate with the Harvard squad. Denzel Washington stars as the coach. Forest Whittaker plays a minister who is the father of one of the team members. It was good.
MK out.
I have a couple of posts to knock out, and will start today with some movies I've seen recently:
In Be Kind Rewind, Jack Black inadvertently erases all the videos in a little neighborhood video store, and he and the employee entrusted to run the store while the owner is away, try to refilm - or swede (as they call it) - all the movies. It was cute, but silly in parts.
Charlie Bartlett is about a rich boy having to go to public school and ends up being the students’ psychoanalyst. Hope Davis, Robert Downey, Jr. and Anton Yelchin (who plays Charlie) star in this sweet little movie. It was good.
Tell No One is a good film in French with English subtitles. A woman is killed by a serial killer. Eight years later, he receives an e-mail that appears to be from his wife with a link to a video in which she appears alive and well. It’s a suspenseful movie with a complicated plot. Kristen Scott Thomas is in this film. I recognize some of the other actors from other films that I’ve watched, but don’t really know any of them well. It was pretty good.
Finally, one of my readers mentioned The Great Debaters as being a good film to watch. It was on my Blockbuster queue, and it came the day after her suggestion. The movie is based on a true story about a professor at an East Texas all-minority college who coaches his debate team all the way to a debate with the Harvard squad. Denzel Washington stars as the coach. Forest Whittaker plays a minister who is the father of one of the team members. It was good.
MK out.
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