T is for ...

T is for The Dark Knight! Woot Woot! As a piece of Facebook Flair says, "I was a Batman fan before the movies!"

I don't really have anything to say without going on a massive fan-girl rant that will freak out half of you, so here's some eye candy brought to you by the wonderful Jim Lee (yes, he's the second person I know with a job after getting a psychology degree: he's a Harvard or Princeton grad... and a professional comic book author.)

Finished first week of Job!

Well, training has gone by, then the first full week, and here I am starting my second full week at the school. The first three days I was hired, I was in day-long trainings at the agency HQ, so they don't really count towards work experience. But I was assigned my school, and have been there for over a week now with no crises! That's a good thing.

So I have my own case load of 5 kids at a local high school, and we are doing ok. I've got some of the less volatile kids, I think, because I am newer than the other clinicians... and I am not complaining, let me tell you! I've seen some of our other kids, and I am not sure I could handle that right out of the gate. But my supervisor and co-workers are nice and helpful, so I don't feel too "thrown into the deep end with no swimming lessons."

And I have to mention this: The fun part of the job is the daily Project Notes that we have to do. Because we are technically medical health care professionals, the Agency gets to deal with Medicaid and insurance and all that fun. Thus, we clinicians have to write up a page on each client ... every day... then do a weekly report... then do a weekly phone interview with the parents. We have to turn in 35 pages of notes at the end of each week! Paperwork makes the world go 'round.

So, I am excited. Job is not too crazy, pay is good (well, my check doesn't come for like two more weeks, but I am told it's good), I wake up / get home around when John does so I can actually associate with him... there are only two downsides I have found so far. 1- Internet access at work is limited by the school filters, i.e., no webmail for me. I have to come into G&B after work to check my email, which is super annoying. 2- I was placed out at a COUNTRY high school, so my commute is 45 minutes long. Literally, my round-trip drive to work is 62.1 miles. All I can say is, "thank god for a hybrid car!"

S is for ...

S is for Stonehenge!

Let's just say that it was really windy that day, and the hair could either be blown back like in a wind tunnel or blown forward like Cousin It. As silly as we all look in these pictures, I think we made the right choice.

Sooo... as my bus driver said to us when I first went to visit, "You guys know it's just a bunch of rocks in a field, right?" But I've been a couple of times, and I still think it's fun. They've got a great tour to listen to, telling about the history and theories behind the structure. I remember a few of the fun facts:

1- "Henge" is the circular monument. They've also got woodhenge and dirthenge, depending on what the structure is made of. Hehe, Woodhenge. No where as near as impressive as Stongehenge.
2- National Trust is trying to get the nearby road moved, since the traffic is causing vibrations that are harming the structural stability of the stones.
3- As much as we think it's a Druid sacred place, there's no connection between Stonehenge and Druidism until like the 1800s when all kinds of hippy people started practicing "sacred rites" in the inner stone circle. Apparently now the only time to get in there is at the solstices... and with a permit.


Little did you know that Stonehenge is really a cell-phone-reception booster point for contacting the aliens. (No, really, those are the little automated tour headphone thingies to hear the recorded fun facts.)

Holy Giant Knit Bags, Batman!

BEHOLD! The mighty Noni Medallion Bag! Look at it and marvel in its hugeness. See how big it is? It could eat you! Stand in awe of the so-large-it's-not-really-good-for-anything bag.


So yeah, the bag is finished being knitted. Now I just need to find a laundromat where I will be able to felt this monstrosity. Heh, the pattern said specifically to not even try to felt the bag in a front loading washing machine because it's just too big. (In these pictures it is larger than a cushion on the couch)

REVIEW: A History of Violence

Okay, so I saw this several weeks ago and wasn't going to post on it at all, but then I saw Lara's review of it. And I agree with her on the artistic and thought-producing aspects of the movie, but I just wasn't thrilled by it. When the movie was over, I felt like I had read Chapter One, and was waiting on the next installment. It just had this "and then what happened?" feel to the ending. I had to look at the clock to tell myself that an hour and a half had truly gone by, because it just felt like an episode of a show, rather than a full-length movie.

And I know that the sex scenes showed how the marital relationship had changed, but they just felt voyeuristic. Watching the first one felt like an intrusion on a couple's intimate moment, and the second one (being much angrier) felt like a weird fetish porno. I was uncomfortable watching both of them. I usually don't mind a gratuitous scene now and then (it gives you time to focus on your knitting for a moment), but these just weirded me out. As much as I love Viggo, and certainly don't mind a bum shot of him, these scenes were a waste.

What I did like about the movie (maybe the only redeeming thing for me), was how schizophrenic Tom Stall (Viggo's character) was in his fight scenes. It was so on/off for him to be serving coffee to a local, then punch the bad guy / whirl around / stab him in the foot / shoot the other guy / shoot the first guy ... aaannnd stick the dismount! The motions were ingrained enough in him that he didn't have to think about what he was doing. He was just fluid. Maybe that's my action movie -lover coming out, but whatever.

My rating: almost bad enough to want the time back. But maybe I just wasn't in a "thinky" mood. I was hoping for a more thoughtless flick.

R is for ...

R is for Really Cool Cake! okay... I totally cheated on this one, but I have no clue what to do for R. Plus, I am late for the post, so I am rushed and have no time to be creative. I was, however, creative for John's birthday cake. See?

I got the idea from Geek Crafts's list of Geeky Baked Goods. Take a look; some of them are quite skilled, even if you might not necessarily want it for your own birthday cake. So having seen all that, I said to myself, "Self," (and I knew it was me because I recognized the voice) "an original Nintendo controller is just a plain rectangle, much like a 13x9 cake pan. I think we can do a fancy icing job on a regular cake and make it something special for his birthday." (Don't get me started on shopping for John's birthday! It is impossible to get him gifts!)

He had already decided on red velvet cake and white icing, so I got some spray black tinting for the main section... and that was the easiest part, let me tell you. What got tricky was the details. I went to Michael's and got some red and white pipe-able (squeezable?) fondant instead of regular fondant because they only sell fondant by the pound and I really only needed a few ounces... let me just say fondant a few more times: fondant fondant fondant. Trying to be clever, I piped out the white buttons and let them dry and harden overnight so I could manipulate them like candies rather than like wet icing. I'm still not sure if that was the easiest way to do it, but that's the way it happened.

Assembling it all was the tricky part. The fondant squares were brittle like spun sugar, so they had a tendency to crack and raise my blood pressure. By the time I had assembled everything and piped on the red A/B buttons, I was ready to call it a day. I did NOT feel like trying to write with the icing.... John actually did all the writing when he got home. But even he did not feel like tackling the "Nintendo" that is supposed to be in the upper right corner of the controller.

All in all, I feel that I did rather well for my first foray into cake decorating. And besides, as John said, we all know that I am not a professional cake artist, so as long as it tastes ok, then everything else is inconsequential. (See why I love him?)

I have Job!

Woohoo! I did it! I got a job! Starting the 15th, I will be a clinician with the Central Virginia Community Services school-based mental health program. (I know, it's really a mouthful.) But it's a job! Yay for jobs!


Oh, and I've finished the Noni Medallion Bag. Just need to felt it now... Just need to go to the laundromat to felt it because it is so freakin' huge that it won't felt in our front-loader.