Sweeps Month!

I mostly just wanted to comment on the fact that now that we're halfway through the sweeps month, Syfy seems to have suddenly figured that out, and is now putting on their new shows.

Monday night, we have three premiers. Eureka and Warehouse 13 have season premiers, followed by Alphas, which is a series premier.

I can't actually recommend Alphas, because I haven't seen it yet, but the trailers look good.

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Blogger has taken an excellent interface, and changed it all around. While it did that, it removed a lot of features, and made it malfunction in various ways. I can't deal with it at the moment because I have other things to do, so this is all there is to the post.

Except that I hope you've been having a wonderful weekend!

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Eleven Days Until Christmas!

Time is moving way too fast for me, as it usually does at this time of year! It seems like there should be more time until Christmas!

I'll bet you're all feeling the same way.

If you still have Christmas presents to make, there is my Santa Hat,  which is a quick knit, but there's also my Dicky Pattern, which is another quick knit.

There's also my Watch Cap pattern and a version of Crazy Aunt Purl's beret translated to a worsted weight yarn. You can read Crazy Aunt Purl and get her original beret pattern for heavier yarn by clicking here.

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I'd like to write more today, but Comcast is at a point where it's internet connection almost isn't working at all, it's so bad. So there won't be much more to this post.

The CW will be running two hours of Vampire Diaries reruns every night all this week. There will be a new Human Target tomorrow night. And if you're looking for some good, offbeat Christmas programs,  Eureka, Warehouse 13 and Leverage have had great Christmas episodes on in the past week which will be repeated to death between now and Christmas. Keep an eye out for them!

Have fun until I can get Comcast to actually provide internet service again!

Scary Monday Night

I've been wanting to see the movie, Avatar, for a while. I considered renting it from Blockbuster, but then realized that I could get a copy of it free (for a week) from the library! I asked for it to be sent to the library right behind my apartment building, and yesterday I went and picked it up.

But I'd had trouble connecting everything when I got my TiVo, so had to plug in the DVD player, and wanted to plug in the DVD recorder, too. After I was finished watching TV last night, I did that, and thought I'd blown out the RF modulator that I need to connect things because the TiVo doesn't have an RF output.

I couldn't get anything to work! I thought I wouldn't get to see any more TV until I could replace the modulator, and wouldn't have enough money to do that until the third of September.

But I did some more investigation today, and finally discovered that if the modulator doesn't have something plugged into it, or doesn't have something that works plugged into it, it will not function. The true culprit of the piece turned out to be the DVD recorder, which either doesn't work, or it's RCA jacks don't work. I have to do some more research on that.

The recorder is going to be more expensive to replace than the modulator, if I have to do that, but at least I can watch TV at the moment. The bonus is that the DVD player is hooked up, it works, and I can watch Avatar later tonight, after all the good TV is over!

Speaking of which, tonight there are new episodes of: Warehouse 13 (I think this is the season finale), White Collar, Covert Affairs, and Memphis Beat. Almost all the new episodes of shows this week are season finales. After all that, I'll be checking out Avatar. If I can find the remote, that is. It's been so long since the DVD player has been hooked up that I'm not sure if I can remember where the remote is.

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I finally got the last book in Meg Cabot's Airhead series (Runaway) from the library yesterday, and, as with all her books, it's a fast read. You may recall that I mentioned I bought the second book, Being Nikki, for the Nook application on my phone. It's the first real ebook I've bought, and it was an interesting experience. I suspect the actual reading might have been more comfortable on a real Nook, but it was OK. On my phone, it ran the battery down fairly quickly, which shouldn't happen on a real Nook. Otherwise, it was enjoyable.

The one surprising thing about it is that it was suddenly over! With a real book, I can see that I'm near the end, and I kind of expect it to finish soon, but this just suddenly ended.

Part of that was because the three books are really more of one big story that's been chopped into three pieces. The first two don't really have endings, they just stop. I'm already near the end of the third book, and I'm assuming that it's going to have an actual end.

The one thing that I could really get addicted to is being able to decide I want to buy a book, selecting it, and then having it just be there, ready to read! No going to the bookstore, or ordering online and waiting for it! Just press a few buttons, and the book you want to read is magically in your hands! And some of the money in your account is magically in the hands of Barnes and Noble!

It's truly amazing the first time. If I get a Nook WiFi (which I'd like to do), I could download a book at home without having to plug it in to my computer, but with the phone, I can get a book to read almost anywhere!

The twenty-first century is truly amazing!

Eureka is on, and I'm going to go catch the last few minutes of it.

Have a wonderful evening!

Another Giveaway and Miscellaneous

Wow! I opened my email today, and there it was… Berroco sent me a notice about their newest giveaway, a kit for the Northampton Kerchief. This is much prettier than it sounds like it would be.

The photo doesn't have a link in it, you have to click the link in the paragraph above.

Pretty, isn't it?

I entered immediately! You might want to do the same, since entries have to be in by the 26th. You might also want to sign up for their newsletter, because the winners will be announced there.

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More knitting content: If you design your own knitting patterns and/or would like to chart your own designs, here's some information about three knitting chart fonts! I haven't tried the fonts yet, but they sound like the best solution to charting yet. And I chart things all the time.

My previous best solution has been graph paper and pencil. Although that's probably the best while you're developing something, I really want to keep a permanent, and reprintable solution on my computer! Not to mention that you can publish it that way!

I'm seriously considering frogging almost all of the Celtic Sweater and redoing it! There are a few things that I'm just not totally happy with. I'm still thinking about it, but you may suddenly be hearing a lot more about it on my blog (with photos, I do have a new phone, after all).

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If you use antibacterial soap, you might want to reconsider.

The ingredients that provide the antibacterial effect for these kinds of product can pose a severe threat to your endocrine and reproductive systems. Please click on the link to find out more.

There are millions of people in the US with hypothyroidism who have not been diagnosed due to the misinformation spread by drug companies to doctors who hang on their every word. I see people around me all the time with hypothyroid symptoms that are so bad that I notice them just from sharing a bus ride with them. And their doctors not only don't know enough to recognize these symptoms, but are actively testing those people with inaccurate tests and telling them that they don't have a thyroid problem!

And, by the way, if you have high cholesterol you do have a hypothyroid problem! Not maybe, not possibly, you DO! And I can almost guarantee that your doctor is unaware of this connection.

If you have high cholesterol and you do happen to be diagnosed with hypothyroidism by your doctor, make sure he prescribes natural desiccated thyroid (Armor Thyroid, Naturethroid or West Throid), which he probably won't want to do. This will fix the cholesterol problem (along with a lot of other problems) whereas Synthroid or other T4 medication won't fix those problems. But the drug manufacturers have told doctors to prescribe T4 medications so that they can sell lots of other drugs for cholesterol and more. Check this link!

I'm glad to hear that it's the FDA that's being sued. Maybe they'll learn to stop rushing dangerous drugs to market so that drug manufacturers can save money on the testing and start making money on drugs that are going to kill thousands. The drug companies won't learn. They make so much money on drugs that they feel they'd rather pay out some of it to the people they harm than miss all the profits. Unfortunately, the episode of Leverage that dealt with this problem is all too accurate! It's called The Double Blind Job, and I'm sure they'll rerun it. Watch for it! TNT (I think) has been airing reruns of Leverage on late night/early morning.

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I was going to post this earlier, but we had a power outage last night, and somehow, it damaged the elevator. I was just about to start the post earlier today, and my computer went off. I panicked for a moment when it wouldn't start up again, but then thought to check the printer, which also wouldn't start, and after a bit of investigation realized that the stove didn't work, either.

I tried resetting the circuit breakers with no effect, and then they made an announcement about the problem with the elevator and said that they'd turned off the electricity in part of the building while they fixed it. It seemed confusing, because the TV and some other stuff, like the microwave and refrigerator, still worked.

Everything's back to normal now, though.

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I love my local library, and read lots of books that I borrow from them on a regular basis. There's just no way that I could afford to continue reading without them.

But I ran into a bit of a problem with them this week. There are some books that are very popular, and I ran afoul of that this week with Meg Cabot's Airhead series. There are three books in the series: Airhead, Being Nikki, and Runaway, in that order. They have plenty of copies of Airhead, and I got that with no problem, but they don't have many copies of the other two books. Unfortunately, Airhead doesn't have much of an ending, it just segues into Being Nikki, so it's kind of like getting half of a double-length book. I picked up the first book, which my local library had on the shelf a week or so ago, and read it. I had the other two books on order, but had to wait because of the demand.

I checked on what books were in, and found that Runaway was sitting and waiting for me, but that I wouldn't be able to get Being Nikki for a while! Who wants to read the first, third and second books of a series in that order? And, since there are other people waiting for the last book, I can't keep it very long.

So, I broke down and bought a real, honest-to-goodness ebook copy of Being Nikki, my first ever real ebook! I got the Nook application for Android on my phone, and it seems to be working well. I'd rather have a real Nook ebook reader, though, because I can run down the battery on my phone pretty quickly when I read.

If you're interested in the books themselves, they are considered "young adult" books by the library, but a lot of adults are reading kids books these days. As I've said before, "A good story is a good story." The premise for these books is a little hard to believe, but if you can get past that, they're the usual top-notch writing that I've come to expect from Meg Cabot.

In the first story, Em dies in a freak accident, her body crushed beyond repair at the same time that Nikki Howard dies from an aneurysm. The doctors having a ruined body with a perfectly good brain and another perfect body with a useless brain are able to combine the two and create a healthy person, who is Em in Nikki's body. Obviously, Em has trouble dealing with a past that she can't remember and another that she can remember, but which is not legally her past.

The Meg Cabot series I've liked best so far is the Mediator series, and I have to say that if you like ghost stories and liked the Twilight series, this is even better!

I'm really tickled about my first real ebook, though.

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There's a new Eureka and Haven on SyFy tonight!

If you're a Harry Potter fan, ABC Family will be having another of their Harry Potter weekends, starting with The Prisoner of Azkaban tonight, Half Blood Prince Saturday night, and finishing with The Order of the Phoenix on Sunday evening! To the best of my knowledge, it'll be the first time Order of the Phoenix will be shown on non-premium cable.

Other than that, the big news on TV is that it's nearly football season, and it's squeezing almost everything else off TV! My only consolation is that it will eventually go away.

Have a wonderful weekend!

I Ignore the Universe for One Day, and It Gets into Trouble

I had lots to do yesterday, and was online for about a half hour, and then went to do my stuff. As a result, I didn't get to read much on Facebook or really connect with other people.

I thought that would be all right. I mean how much trouble could all of you get into, right?

Well, John's sister, Doris had a heart attack and died. I found out about it when I got on Facebook today.

I feel sad about that. The last time I saw her was right after she'd had heart surgery. There's so much I want to say, but words are failing me at the moment. We'll miss her.

Then I read down further on Facebook and find that his daughter, Sara's boyfriend was in a theater when someone started shooting randomly. He's OK, but someone else was shot and died.

What's wrong with the world? I can't leave it alone for a minute!

There were a bunch of things I wanted to talk about today, but this has really taken the wind out of my sails. Everything will be postponed until later except for the TV info.

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Tonight, the new shows on include: Warehouse 13 (SyFy), White Collar, and Covert Affairs (USA).

On Saturday, BBC in America will be having a Doctor Who marathon, culminating in The Pandorica Opens, and The Big Bang, two episodes comprising a two-part story, and the last two episodes of the season. They showed The Pandorica Opens last week, and it is so good! I expect that the final episode will be equally good, maybe better.

And, as if that weren't enough, it will be followed by the first episode of the new season of Being Human.

I am so excited to see the last episode of the season of Doctor Who, but am expecting to be really sad that it's over.

For any of you out there who haven't been watching the Doctor and thought there was no way for you to catch up, BBC in America is giving you the chance to see the whole (new) thing, right from the beginning. They've been airing Doctor Who episodes every day at 5 pm (here), and they've cycled through, and will be starting with the first new episode (Rose) on Thursday!

Do not be discouraged by watching by the first episode. It's almost a rip-off of one of the old series, and not one of the better ones, either, but it sets things up for what is to come, and the stories get better and better as the season progresses. For Torchwood fans, you can get to see the beginning of Captain Jack Harkness in the two-part story The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances! Those two are followed by Boomtown, which has a kind of reunion party vibe, and Rose wears a beautiful knitted scarf. And learn about the founding of Torchwood itself in Tooth and Claw. Eventually, you'll work your way along to Blink, which is one of the best little horror stories I've ever seen. If you don't want to see Doctor Who, watch for Blink anyway, because it's a teriffic stand-alone story that you won't want to miss! And Captain Jack reappears from time to time, and fills in the blanks about what happened when he was absent from Torchwood.

On Friday, there will be a new Eureka and Haven on SyFy! Haven (the series) is based on a Stephen King book, The Colorado Kid, which I haven't read, and so can't comment on, but the series is shaping up to be good.

So, now I'm caught up on the TV part of the blog for the next few days, at least through Saturday.

I plan to blog before then, but if something happens and I don't be good and have fun!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

I feel sorry for you because I had the best mom anybody ever had! But I hope yours is really superlative, and if you are a mom, I hope you have the best Mother's Day ever!

Holly and I went out together yesterday to celebrate Mother's Day, and had a fabulous time!

We started by going to the new yarn store in Old Town Alexandria. Holly is about to start a knit-along, and wants to see what colors, etc. the possible yarn comes in and check for availability. They haven't chosen a project yet, so she didn't want to buy the yarn yet.

Next stop was AC Moore. I can usually get four socks out of three balls of Knit Picks sock yarn, so I bought three balls of Red Heart Heart and Sole sock yarn in toasted almond. I knew it had just a little less yardage than the Knit Picks yarn, but I thought I could make it anyway. I finished knitting the second sock, and it's obvious that I won't make it, so I bought two more balls. I'll be able to get an even six socks out of that much. And, as if that wasn't enough, they had it for $1.50 less per ball than JoAnn Fabrics, where I bought the first three balls. And Holly had a 50% off one item coupon for me! Actually, the coupon went toward a fresnel lens bookmark, which I've wanted for a while.

Then we went to Borders, where Holly said to pick out a book and she would buy it for me for Mother's Day! I got the newest Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead in the Family.





I had been reading Forever Odd, but I was almost at the end and wanted to buy a book while I was there. I was thinking about buying this book even though it's only available in hardback now and cost more than I can normally afford to pay for books. So, I was delighted.

The Borders we went to is one of my favorites. It's the one at Bailey's Crossroads, and Holly and I met Stephanie Pearl McPhee there, and I demonstrated spinning in the children's section there, too (wearing a medieval cote and surcote).

Then, we went to La Madeleine, which is right next to Borders. This is a little Parisian restaurant that has some of the most delicious food. We both had the same thing: Their tomato basil soup, which is thick, rich and very tomato, with their Strawberries Romanoff (which is topped with their brandy sour cream sauce). The food was some of the best it's possible to get, and amazingly filling for the little we ate (although the strawberries come in an enormous helping)! We were both full when we left.

I'll be posting more photos from the Sheep and Wool Festival (Holly returned my camera) and photos of my swag (well, the balls of sock yarn and at least one finished sock) in a post real soon now.

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I would have put this up at the top of the page, but I don't think my brother is going to read this.

I want to wish him a happy birthday, anyway, though!

Happy Birthday, Jeff!

He's my baby brother, and I love him, even if he's been a adult for quite a while!

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Eureka is on SyFy all day today! That includes this evening, too! I know they're only reruns, but they're good!

Practical Magic is on cable TV sometime today. I think it's on ABC Family, but I couldn't swear to it.

I wish everyone as happy a Mother's Day as I had yesterday!

Quiet Start to Labor Day Weekend

Well, it's been a quiet day at home for the beginning of the Labor Day Weekend, here.

I have been suffering from an aggravated case of my usual post nasal drip for the last couple of weeks. I've been wading up the past few nights and not sleeping well because I'm basically drowning! I'm reluctant to go to a doctor, but becoming resigned to the necessity, so I spent part of today trying to find one over the internet. I found a doctor very nearby with good references, but too late to call. I'll have to make an appointment on Tuesday, when office hours are more likely.

I plan to see Holly tomorrow, and that's always fun. She just called to tell me that she got out of work early today and is still getting paid for the whole day, so she's got almost four days off! And Monday is Robin's regular day off, so they'll be able to do something together. She's a happy camper at the moment!

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Yesterday, I ordered more raw materials for Christmas presents, and a set of Zephyr needles from Knit Picks. They're currently in the mail. I love Knit Picks!

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Eureka has been on SyFy all day today! It's been fun!

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Wedding Story

A fellow Tweep just put up a tweet about a woman who owns a flock of sheep, and made their fleeces into a beautiful wedding dress. You really ned to read the whole article and see the photos! The dress is unbelievably wonderful!

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Not much going on here at the moment. I've started on the fourth sock (of eight) for Kyle, and I'm up to the heel flap.

I have today and tomorrow before I'm one year older on Sunday, and I'll be spending today quietly, mostly knitting.

Tomorrow, Holly and I are going out. We'll be going to JoAnn Fabrics to get some supplies for a project she's making for Robin. We'll also be going to Olive Garden for dinner. I'm going to talk her into taking me to WalMart, too. And I'm really thinking seriously of giving myself a land line telephone (with wifi) for my birthday to supplement the computer. It will be so much fun!

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There's a new Eureka on SyFy tonight, and they'll also be showing episodes of Ghost Whisperer sometime over the Labor Day weekend.

Have a great weekend! I know I will!

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Addition:

Read about how wonderful a pair of socks can be here!