The Ro-Man is not like the Hu-man

This is quote from the cinematic classic “Robot Monster”. It is one of my all time favorite movies quotes because, well, who hasn’t felt like that the Ro-Man is not like the Hu-man. It is referring to the Robot Monster’s kind, not fellows from Rome. I find it fascinating the even aliens use the term robot since it comes from the Russian work rabota, it means to work as in “я работаю на магазине (ya rabota na magazineh)”, “I work in a store”. There, now you can say something in Russian! All you to do is get a job at a store in Moscow (Moskva) and you are set!

Have you ever seen Robot Monster? If not the whole thing, you probably have seen clips from it. It is the one where the guy is wearing what appears to be a gorilla suit body and a deep sea diver helmet. I think a clip of it is used in a Cars video, but I can not remember which one.

Anyway, I saw a list of 14 Movies you should see before you die by Will Ferrell and I thought well if he can do it, so can I! This list is not in any particular order and truthfully would probably change if I did it again. I have seen a lot of movie and sometimes I like things more than other times. I am not going to describe them since you can just go look them on IMDB and well, I do not think they are so out there you haven’t at least heard of most of them.

14 Movies to see before you die
1. The Godfather – This is one of the best movies ever made. It is just so lovely to watch the little details. Of course, Godfather II is just a good, so you should watch that one too.
2. Goodfellas – This is like the flip side of The Godfather, just as well made, but a less romantic look at mobsters. Ray Liotta is perfect.
3. 2000 Maniacs –by Herschell Gordon Lewis, the Godfather of Gore. He made several gory movies and they are considered the precursor to the slasher film. This movie is over the top and made on the cheap, although it does star a Playboy Playmate! Be warned, there is blood. You could watch Blood Feast instead, but I think this movie is better.
4. Drunken Master II – the Hong Kong version, not the one that was released in theaters in the USA. I think this Jackie Chan’s best movie. Plus, I love his pregnant step-mom kicking butt!
5. Raising Arizona – I love the Coen Brothers and I think this is their most accessible film. If you like this one, then go see “O Brother, Where Art Thou” which is awesome and has the best soundtrack ever.
6. Halloween – The original John Carpenter version – this is one of the best horror films ever made.
7. Strangers on a Train – Okay, you should see as much Hitchcock as physically possible, but I happen to really like this one. You could watch it with “Throw Mama from the Train”.
8. Blade Runner – the directors cut, of course. The only real down side to this movie is the cheesy soundtrack by Vangelis, but that is the price you have to pay to see one of the best science fiction movies ever made.
9. Double Indemnity – This is my very favorite Film Noir movie. I love Edward G. Robinson in it.
10. My Man Godfrey – This is a classic screwball comedy.
11. Midnight Cowboy – This is one of the best buddy movies ever made and it is probably my favorite Dustin Hoffman film. There are parts of it that are very dated, but the story is fabulous.
12. Bride of the Monster – by Ed Wood Jr. – This should be watched for Bela Lugosi’s big speech if nothing else. Ed Wood if often considered the worst director ever, but he always was trying to make a good movie, he was just bad at his job so I consider him better than some. You could try watching Plan 9 From Outer Space, but not everyone can make it through.
13. The Killer – by John Woo. Watch it in Chinese with subtitles, this is the only way to watch any Hong Kong movie. This movie is very violent.
14. Singing in the Rain – This is my favorite musical. If you can see it on the big screen, I would recommend seeing it that way since it is a Technicolor wonder.

There you have it. Go out and rent some movies.


But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise that they're
giving none away.
- Money by Pink Floyd
So there is going to be a layoff at work. Rumor has it that they are going to lay off 200 people. It looks like it is going to happen on Tuesday. This is very concerning to me because well, I have a lot of mouths to feed here. Plus, I really do not want to be out looking for another job. I don’t find it scary, just depressing. I hate looking for a job and truthfully, I just want to work for a few more years and then move to a farm. All I can do is hope for the best.

Knitting News….
I finished the baby booties. The pattern is dead simple, but it leaves a big hole right below the eyelet row. This bothered me a lot, but I could not figure out to fix it. I had just enough yarn to finish them so that is another 64.6 yards down. Anyway, here is a picture of the completed pair.

I did not work on the rug for the last two days so today I need to work really hard on it today and tomorrow. We have no big plans for the weekend, so I should have time.

One Small Step

I have completed my first item on my 5K knitting goal.
I present to you – Yellow Pig Potholder!


It is for one of The Hub’s swaps. It only used 70 yards of yarn, but it is a completed project never the less and counts towards my goal. Only 5398.07 yards to go!

I am also half way through some rainbow leg warmers for The Baby. So that will be another step.

I am going to go out and buy yet another size 7 – 16” circular needle in order to continue on my Daily Sweater. I actually already own 2 of this size, but they are both in a box which is MIA. This box actually contains 95% of my stand alone circular needles and most of my dpns. I am very concerned where it might be since I have looked everywhere I could think of. However, I can not wait any longer to continue on my sweater. I wove in the ends on the body and just need to put on the sleeves and I will be done! It is so close…

MOVIE REVIEW
On Saturday, The Hub and I went to see “Drag Me To Hell”. It is a good horror movie. It is directed by Sam Rami and very much in the vein of “Evil Dead II”, only there is a gypsy instead of the Necronomicon. The basic plot is that a gal angers an old gypsy woman and the gypsy curses her. The plot is not terrible surprising and you will see the end coming a mile away (I know I did), but it is an entertaining ride. There are several really gross scenes and it has really tense music so I was very jumpy. I personally found it pretty scary, but The Girl did not (they went later that night and we babysat). However, I believe that horror is a very personal thing. What I am scared of is not necessarily what you will be scared of. I find dead things not staying dead very upsetting, where others may find demons upsetting and still others find blood upsetting and so on.
There were not and hand knits per se, because it takes place in sunny CA, but the gal does wear some nice lightweight sweaters that I could image being translated into hand knits.
Overall, I am going to give it 3 knitting needles out of 4. If you like horror movies, I say go see it. It is very much an over the top horror film.

Hello It’s Me

Greeting and salutations! I am sorry it has been so long since I last blogged. I started summer hours this past week and it really has taken it out of me. The best part of summer hours is that this year I am taking Mondays off and it gives me extra knitting time. I can knit in larger chunks of time.

I have quite a bit of knitting news!
I finished a hat I have been working on since, well winter. It is the maple seed hat pattern and I used Mountain Colors Mountain Goat. I think that is the yarn, I can not find the tag for it, it might be a different Mountain Colors yarn. I had not been working on it because I could not find my size 8 Dpns. I still have not found them, I just went out and bought some over Memorial Day weekend so I could finish this hat.
Here it is:

Pretty snazzy, huh?
I am glad to have it done.

Last weekend I participated in a shop hop. Every year there are 7 shops which host a shop hop and you go from one to the next and sign up for prizes (which I never win) and get a free goodies. This year it was charms and patterns. I was not able to go to all 7 shops, but I did go to 5. However, the last shop was out of charms and I got an IOU I was supposed to turn in at the last shop I went to, which of course I did not make to any more so I only receive 4 charms. It is okay and I think I will make them into stitch markers since I really have no other use for them. There were a couple of notable things that happened while I was in the stores. First, when I was in one of the stores, I looked at The Expectant Knitter and I fell in love with a couple of patterns in it. Okay I should back up, I had heard about the book at Knitpicks because they were featuring Her First Party Dress and I thought it was too cute so I was actually looking for the book. Anyway, I thought about buying it, but it was $28 and just could not bring myself to do it. So on Sunday I went to the library and checked it out.
Second, I bought more yarn including yarn for my mom’s Christmas present. I will get to buying yarn issue in a moment.

Here is the result of getting my hands on The Expectant Knitter: it is the Girl’s Summer Suit.

Here is my granddaughter in her new outfit. She just tried it on since we are in a cold snap and it was way to chilly for her to wear.
It is really easy to knit. The hardest part is sewing it together. I made it in cotton (the red part is cotton blend) and cotton is not the easiest thing to sew together.
I think I will make another one only I am going to knit the top in one piece. I am going to make the skirt longer (even though I made this one longer than the pattern, it is still really short on her) and do it in a feather and fan lace pattern to girly it up even more. And I am going to use a thinner yarn for the skirt. This one was a bulky even though the pattern calls out for worsted. But I really liked the color.
I am also going to make Her First Party Dress and the leg warmers out of the book. I actually think I will end up buying the book, but I will have to see. There are just so many cute things.

On to the issue of buying more yarn. I have been buying a lot of yarn lately. And I need to stop. I have way more than I am going to be able to knit up in a timely fashion. So I am going to take a moratorium from buying yarn. Yesterday I bought a little bit, mainly, I bought some Rowan 4 ply cotton from the NU Outlet in order to make previously mentioned party dress for The Baby. So I am going to try to avoid buying yarn from stores or Ravelry or the internet etc. until October. Why October you ask? Well, we are planning a trip to New Mexico to see the In-Laws and to go to the Taos Wool Festival. So I can buy yarn then.
I also need to try to get through some of the yarn I have. At last count, I had over 78 miles or 125 kilometers of yarn. This is a LOT of yarn. One day my DH made a comment about knitting a marathon. And this has got me thinking… perhaps I should try to knit 26 miles worth of yarn. But I think I need to work my way up to it, so this summer, I am going to knit at least a 5K, which works out to about 5,468 yds. Since the yarn in my sweater is still considered “stash” by Ravelry and that is where the number is coming from, it is going to count against the running total. Get it… running total… 5 K! Ha I crack myself up!
So starting today, 6/7/09 and going through the end of September I will attempt to knit a 5K. Wish me luck.

Family – Bah
So last Sunday my nephew (The Girl’s brother) got confirmed. We went down to the church to witness the confirmation, we were late, because The Girl can not get anywhere on time, but we only missed about 10 minutes and since the service ended up being like 90 minutes long, I think that is pretty good. However, overall the whole thing was a disaster. Not one of my family members came over to see The Baby after the service, well, my nephew who was getting confirmed came over. I was forced to talk to people I have not seen in 20 plus years and try to remember who they all were. It was a miserable experience and it really upset The Girl. She really thought that actually seeing The Baby would make them change their minds. In fact, when her brother and her went outside to visit their mom’s grave, everyone was standing outside and they all stopped talking when they came through the doors. When we left the church they were are still standing there and only my oldest nephew said anything to us. Oh and we saw my crazy brother on the sidewalk on the way to the car and he felt obliged to say hi and look at The Baby although you would think we were pulling out his fingernails as he did it.
Over all, it was a very unpleasant experience. Plus, my mom arrives in the state on Tuesday and she had already said that she would not be spending any time with us since we do not have room. She said that she would stay with my oldest sister’s girl and we could come down there and visit. Given the icy reception my niece gave us on Sunday, this seems unlikely that this visit will occur. So I suppose I will have to call my mom and tell her what happened, but in reality, I do not want to look like I am complaining so I have been putting it off. I hate family. It is more political than work, which is saying a lot!

Well, I have a lot of knitting to do. Talk at you later.