Little outdated TV Guy used to be the talk of the town, but now he is dwarfed by today’s modern technology.
There’s not much to him, just a blank screen and antennae. (His knobs fell off sometime in the early ’90s.)
He doesn’t measure up in more ways than one….
Retirement isn’t so bad, though – now that no one is watching him, TV Guy has more time to watch what he wants to watch: Trading Spouses.
Sick of her nursing mannequins and all their complaining about being in pain, my mom came back to New York with me from Oklahoma last week. On Saturday, we paid a visit to Mood, the ultimate fabric destination as seen on TV.
The staff was much nicer than I remembered from before, when I had visited during Fashion Week and they had all been in an understandable tizzy. So I definitely recommend a non-Fashion Week visit.
To complement my awesome cotton print that’s now sitting in a bag somewhere, I got this awesome cotton jersey print to sit in another bag somewhere until I actually take up sewing:
But really, it’s so pretty, I have no excuse this time not to pick up that Singer manual. I’m thinking a pretty tunic top, simple and sublime. Or at least as sublime as a first sewing project can get.
As of last night, our ’70s-lounge-y lamp from Target is broken.
My handy husband did everything he could – he checked the bulbs, then um, checked the bulbs again. Nothing wrong with the bulbs, so we can’t think of much else to do. It seems such a waste, since the lamp is only a couple of years old. But as you can see, my computer screen is now the brightest thing in my corner workstation, which is no condition for knitting.
While we think about what to do with the lamp, we’ve started appreciating the alternative lighting we have in our bedroom. Not really enough to knit by, but pleasant nonetheless:
This is Marcel Dzama’s Sad Ghost lamp. I got it for John for Christmas a year and a half ago. He is so sad, you have to love him.
And this one was a gift to me from John’s sister several years ago. This cat is apparently called Kamkam, but I haven’t found much about it on the web, though I think I’ve seen other products at Toy Tokyo.
In any case, I wish our so-stylish Target lamp had lasted as long as our silly novelty lamps!
I knew that my mom’s job teaching nursing students at Tulsa Community College was awesome, but I didn’t know it had become even awesomer since her department was moved to a new building at TCC’s Southeastern campus.
No, this isn’t a hospital, and those aren’t real patients. This is the nursing department’s new skills lab, and those are hi-tech simulation mannequins, which do more than lie there looking creepy.
Above, my mom demonstrates how this particular mannequin, whom she calls James, is able to have a pulse. James can also make various bowel sounds, take shots, and have a catheter inserted by the nurses-in-training. Through patient simulations in this fake hospital ward, the students can practice basic nursing skills in a hands-on environment, responding to the changing needs of their eerily realistic patient-bots.
Apparently, James can even talk, and say things like “I’m in PAAAIIIN.” Luckily, Mom didn’t demonstrate the speaking function for me. She did tell me that once the students get over their giggles and start working with the mannequins as if they were real patients, they can get rather emotionally involved in taking care of them, and have to have “decompression” sessions after the experience.
So train to become a nurse and you might be able to play with these cool toys! Or, you know, help save lives and stuff.
This is a free and easy pattern for everyone to enjoy. Please check out the Mochimochi Land Shop for more patterns that you’ll love!
This is Bob. Bob’s shape was inspired by the plastic thing that floats in your toilet tank. He’s not an elephant, or an anteater. He’s just Bob!
As a summertime knit, Bob is made of cool nylon yarn, but you can make him out of almost any yarn you like. The pattern is knitted in the round on double-pointed needles. Continue reading “Free Pattern: Bob”
Tezzcan just added the sweetest photo to the Flickr group.
I am blown away by her gorgeous tri-color Rainycloud and the touching image of her son Jack modeling it. Tezzcan says that after the photo was taken, her Rainycloud was sent off to her husband, who “is somewhere hot for four months with the British Forces.” It’s now hanging by her husband’s desk.
I hope it’s reminding him of both the cool rain and his beautiful family.
Owasso, Oklahoma, is my hometown, which I’m visiting right now. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the city – open skies and strip malls and a church on every corner – which I can appreciate so much more now that I’m no longer living there.
When I’m home, I always make some time to peruse the Owasso Reporter. In addition to the pageant queens and local parades and the occasional sex offender story, in recent years the paper has also included all the police calls and arrests from the week. They are generally a riot and make Owasso seem like the the oddball suburban town that it never really was.
Browsing the past week’s calls, many of them struck me as more poetic than droll, so I thought it might be interesting to rearrange some selected calls from the week into an imagined day in the life of my hometown. You could almost build a very atmospheric movie or novel out of these slices of humanity. (Street addresses have been omitted.)
10:54 a.m. – Check person. Elderly man all dressed in white staggering. Out with subject. Arrest.
1:43 p.m. – Accident no injury. Parking lot by the baseball field, vehicle was backed into by a semi, Mountain Dew truck. Report.
2:06 p.m. – Found property all. Someone left a crate box of chemical bottles on the corner near the church. Handled.
3:26 p.m. – Found property all. Small piece of luggage placed on her driveway, she has had problems with neigbors and is afraid to open it, would like officers to check on it. Unknown if this found property or supplemental. Recovered a large amount of jewelry. Report.
3:33 p.m. – Follow up all. Caller thinks the man that stole her radar detector a few months back just walked into the store, saw her and then left. Report.
3:56 p.m. – Check person. Kids are swimming in Three Lakes pond behind the gas station, caller asked the father to not allow them to swim, he said no. Handled.
4:56 p.m. – Check person. Subject passing out fliers for restaurant, took a large hand full and just threw them into the air and let the wind blow them around. Spoke with manager of restaurant to have the subject come back and clean up his mess.
5:20 p.m. – Follow up all, reported at PD. Caller advised that his house was broken into on May 31. He has filed a report with Rogers County and has been in contact with Rogers County deputy, who advised him that officers from Owasso has located a bag of jewelry on the same day and that they would need grandma to identify it. Handled.
7:32 p.m. Vandal in progress all. Subjects are rocking the Timmy and Cindy statue. Handled, subjects are no longer playing around the statue.
8:30 p.m. – Juvenile nuisance/truant/other. Parking lot, gray shirt, brown hair, is waiting on a boy to get out of the movie to fight with and is out arguing with his ex-girlfriend, blonde, teal shirt and jean skirt. Handled.
1:08 a.m. – Check person. Four Hispanic males chugging on some beer. Handled.
1:39 a.m. – Check vehicle. Silver Dodge truck, keeps driving by a stop sign that has been run over. Handled.
2:21 a.m. – Disturbance loud noise/music. Loud music. Handled, officer advised they pinky swore to keep it down.
To my great joy, I just discovered that the crime blotter is now published online for me to enjoy from anywhere in the world. What a wonderful gift from the town that made me what I am today.
Today I discovered an incorrect link in the Gallery section of Mochimochi Land! I thought I had been directing people to the Mochimochi Friends Flickr group, where everyone (including you!) can share photos of toys they’ve knitted from Mochimochi Land patterns, but it turns out that it was the wrong link all this time.
There I was, with about 7 members of my extended family gathered around the computer. I clicked on the link to show them the great photos people had taken, and I clicked, then clicked again, and well, it was just a little embarrassing.
But now the link is fixed! So hopefully even more people will check out the great photos and add more of their own. For example, who knows how many people have missed seeing this funny photo by Mikkers:
Her Grass wishes he were cabbage. Or maybe he’s trying to disguise himself. Either way, it’s super-cute.
So if you have a Mochimochi Land toy you’d like to share, please join the group!