So where's the camera again?

I've been working on a wide variety of projects over the last few weeks. I've got several different spinning projects going, as well as four different pairs of socks on the needles, all in different stages of completion.

And once we got the camera back from Jon and Lindsay, I used the opportunity to snap pictures of most of my assorted works in progress.

Unfortunately, at the moment, I can't find our camera for love nor money. Which means that I can't transfer all of those lovely pictures from the camera to this blog.

So, once again, I'm going to attempt to distract you with the pictures Brian took recently that are already on our computer.

The woman in the blue shirt is my sweet-but-occasionally-demonic former roommate Sarah Maddox, who just graduated from Trevecca Nazarene University's PA (Physician's Assistant, for those who have not been brainwashed by the medical profession) program. We had a lovely time when she visited last month, complete with many conversations (for which our husbands smiled blankly and nodded obligingly) about antibiotic-resistant micro-organisms.

I participated in Black Purl's May Flower Power Swap last month. Sadly, I have yet to receive my flower-themed accessory from my secret pal. However, I am incredibly proud the necklace I contributed to the swap, which I hope my person will wear with pride.

I had to work Memorial Day weekend. However, then I got four days off in a row! So Brian and I drove to Powell Gardens over the state line in Missouri.

Due to the questionable intelligence of the Missouri Department of Transportation (I could do a complete new post on how the Missouri road system is causing me to think that perhaps one shouldn't elect officials whose IQ is lower than that of chimpanzees.) we had a very difficult time finding the place (We're starting to think that Missouri is called the "Show Me State" because the roads are so confusing that you need a local riding with you to give you directions when you go somewhere.)

Brian spent much of the time we were there experimenting with something I don't completely understand in order to better photograph flowing water. I'm not sure I'd know the difference between a focal length and an aperture if one bit me in the behind, but the final results are stunning.

And I'll end the post with my favorite picture from the trip:

Domestic Goddess

Working nights has really screwed up my sleeping schedule. I went to bed at 0130, and woke up once more at 0345 this morning. I type this in the faint hope that I might eventually be able to get some rest once I clear my mind.

For some reason, when I can't sleep, I get these bizarre urges to do something domestic. (If you've ever been to our house on an evening when I'm working, you know how I feel about housework and cooking and other womanly skills.) I dye fiber, spin fiber, knit things (if I can concentrate enough to count) or feel led to cook something. Anything. Must turn on stove and make something!

So this morning, I got out the candy making supplies and was mid-way through making a batch of Cheater Fondant (Mix powdered sugar and sweetened condensed milk until it's a stiff paste. Roll into balls. Add flavoring, dip in melted chocolate.) for peppermint patties when I realized that I was out of peppermint oil. Thwarted again!

Generosity

We finally did locate the missing part for the battery charger. Unfortunately, we found it the day after we'd ordered a new one from Amazon and thus we now have two battery chargers for the camera.

However, friends of ours have been re-modeling their house for a couple of months now. And (I guess for insurance purposes, although I suppose a visual reminder that they are making progress would also be nice) Lindsay and Jon have been using disposable cameras to take pictures of the various stages of raising and vaulting their living room ceiling. After they filled the last one, Brian loaned them our camera to help document the process.

There's one small catch to this: I joined Anni's Sockamania Knitalong, which requires that you post pictures of the socks on your blog every month. While I only got one sock done (cursed short attention span!) I still would like to post a picture of it. Ah, we'll see if Jon and Lindsay can do without the camera for a few days.

Words of Wisdom

Fred, one of the nurses from the telemetry floor (for patients who aren't sick enough for the intensive care unit, but still need a continuous heart monitor) is a bit of a legend at my workplace--he can get an IV in anybody.

Now I'm a fairly new nurse, but I've started enough intravenous lines in people to know that some people have good veins, and some people do not. (One's risk for having bad veins goes up in direct proportion to one's age. Every time I have to start an IV on anyone over 65, I wince, because I know I've got a less than 25% chance of getting it in myself.) And some people--especially fair skinned women with red hair--have complete and utter crap for veins. (For some reason known only to God, red headed men have veins that make nurses and plebotomists drool.) I've learned that there's really no point in torturing these poor souls by trying (and failing) to start an IV on them when I can ask a more experienced nurse to do it.

On the last night I worked, between Tammy (the other nurse) and I, we had at least five IVs that went bad and needed to be restarted. And as Cindy's Law (If anything can go wrong, it will, and when you're short staffed and the patients and families are cranky to boot) would have it, they all had lousy veins.

So we wound up calling and asking Fred to come down a lot. He was very gracious, and had much better luck with the process than we did. When we pressed him, he was even kind enough to share some of his tips for starting IVs with us.

"I don't get frustrated when it doesn't work the first time. I keep trying until I get it right."

Now this is a wonderful tip for the rest of life as well. But I bet the fact that the majority of Fred's patients are too sick to care if he has to try four or five times before he gets an IV line started probably helps.

Don't these people knit?

For my mother's birthday, I made her socks. (Wow, bet you had a hard time guessing that one!) And as the local Stockshow (live stock sale, rodeo and fair) was coming up last weekend, she delayed wearing them in order to enter them in the fair for me.

Today, I got an e-mail from her saying that they'd taken Best of Show. Now it's been several years since I entered anything in the St. John Fair, but I seem to recall that that only occurs when it's better than a blue ribbon--when it's the best thing in the division.

I hand dyed the yarn to be self-striping, but the socks were just ankle footies with a 2X2 ribbing cuff and stockinette feet. I enjoyed making them (how can you not like knitting?) but compared to other projects I have knitted over the years (the lace weight raglan sweater with lace hearts all over I designed comes quickly to mind) or even other socks that I have knitted recently, this was truly child's play. Just hours and hours of "plain knitting," as the old patterns call it.

Instant ego gratification is always nice, but this seems a bit excessive.

Vacation photos

The battery charger for the camera is missing a few important parts. Specifically, the part that plugs the battery pack into the wall. So until we track that down, there won't be any new pics of my projects on the blog.

Might I distract you with photos from the Oregon Coast?

Brian grew up ten miles south of Newport, Oregon, and his family still lives in the area. Conveniently enough, his parents run a bed and breakfast so when we come to visit, there's always the chance we'll get to stay in the suite. (When there's guests, we sleep in Brian's old bedroom. Which means that we still get the home-cooked breakfast, but we have to forego the comfort of an attached bathroom.)

This group of sea lions was on the Newport docks. They like to laze around and bark, in the hopes that someone will be so enthralled with their charms that they'll drop their lunch. I think of this particular group as the alley cats of the sea. 800 pound alley cats.

Brian's father taught me how to use a spinning wheel during this trip, but I sadly have no pictures to commemorate the event. However, here's one of Pop and our friend Meghan and the spinning wheel.

Haceta Head Lighthouse:

40 miles to the north, Yaquina Head Lighthouse:

And my favorite sunset picture (out of the ones that I took) of the trip:

Some of our friends from Nome came to visit us for the week. As it had been so cold in Northern Alaska the week before that 20 people had dropped out of the Iditarod, Hayley, Kara, and Meghan were very excited to be somewhere where the daily low temperature was 35 F, instead of minus 35 F.
And because no seaside vacation is complete without building a beach fort:

He is Risen!

I gave up posting on this blog (and checking out other people's blogs) for Lent. (Lent marks the forty day period between Ash Wednesday (forty days before Easter, how handy is that?) and Easter Sunday. It commemorates the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness before he began His ministry. It is traditionally a time of waiting, contemplation, and denying oneself in order to concentrate more fully on God. )

While some Christian traditions have specific things which one does or does not do for Lent--my Orthodox friends are going vegan on Wednesdays and Fridays for all Lent--the Church of the Nazarene does more of a "choose your own adventure" approach to Lenten devotions. This year, I realized that I've been spending a great deal of time in vain self-glorification (and yarn-glorification) and decided to not blog for Lent.

Unfortunately, I reached the decision to give up blogging for Lent during the Ash Wednesday service and neglected to do a post to explain why I'd be MIA for the next six weeks.

Note that I didn't give up knitting for Lent, just the blabbering about it. I should have more pictures of my assorted projects coming in a few days.