Help! I've Been Kidnapped by Miles Vorkosigan!

A while ago, I finished up reading some books, and looked around for something else to read. I realized that I hadn't read the Vokosigan series in a while, so I started on that.

Not long after I started, Amazon sent me some of their spam that recommends books for you. Actually, it's probably not fair to call what they send spam, because they actually recommend books that I like, and want to read. One of them was a new book in the Vokosigan saga called Cryoburn.


Being short on money, as usual, I immediately went to the website for my local library and checked their listings, and it was there. I requested that they send it to the nearby branch, and picked it up on Thursday of last week.

I skipped a few books and am now up to the volume called Miles in Love, which includes two novels and a novella: Komarr, A Civil Campaign, and Winterfair Gifts.

To give you a better idea of what these books are like, I once asked a friend if he had read any of the books. He said he had, but had given up reading them. I asked him why: didn't he enjoy them? and his answer was "No, I enjoy them, but I'm tired of staying up until 5 am because I can't put them down when I have to get up at 6 am to go to work!

This is what's happened to me this past week. I haven't done a lot of things that I should be doing because I can't tear myself away from the books. And so far, I've been reading ones I already read and know what's going to happen! If you think potato chips are addictive, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

One of the things that has kept me from blogging about the books is that it's complicated!

The novels first came out as individual books, as they were written. But Lois McMaster Bujold also wrote some short stories and novellas which were published in science fiction magazines.

Then the publisher started publishing "omnibus editions" which each included at least two novels, and sometimes some short stories and novellas so that you could read them all in order. At this point, they're all available in hardback, paperback, and a batch of ebook formats.

If you want to get started on them, either get the omnibus edition, Cordelia's Honor, or the two novels that are included: Shards of Honor and Barrayar. I was astounded when I looked up the link for Barrayar. They're out of print now, I think, and the first one I found was a hardback edition for $75! You won't find most of them on Barnes & Noble, but if you look around for ebooks, you can find the B&N format (epub) in those titles, probably free. If you have Kindle, Sony, or other reader, you can get them by searching for ebooks and selecting the correct format for your reader. I was going to set up a more comprehensive listing of all the books, but it's way too big a job to list all of them in all the formats they're available in.

Oh, and the books have chronological listings in the back of the titles of the books and short stories, etc.

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Last Saturday was fun. Holly and I went shopping, partly at Michaels, and then at WalMart.

I got some neat swag at Michaels. Boye has a "Yarn On The Go Bag" which will hold a ball of yarn. It's got a long enough strap to go over your shoulder or cross-body. The strap can be snapped off if you don't want to use it, or you can tie a knot in it to shorten it, or tie it something. Inside, near the top, there's a short tab with a snap so you can snap it around the yarn where it leaves the ball. And it's got two bags in each package at a very low price! This is great if you're doing Fair Isle colorwork because you can put one bag on each side and keep them tangle-free!

It's available in red, as shown, but also in other colors, and each package has two bags, each in a different color. I got a package that had a blue one and a purple one. You might want to find a store that has these, because the colors are random, and you can pick out two you like in the same package if you do it in person.

Holly liked them so much that I gave her my purple one. These are very high quality for such a low price!

I also got their last ball of Loops & Threads Santa Fe yarn in Blue Suede Stripes. I've never seen the Santa Fe in the store before, but they were almost sold out when I was there. It's very pretty, and I'd like to buy more, but it looks like they only had it available for about a month.

When we went to WalMart, I needed to get new fluorescent bulbs for the ones that are wearing out in my kitchen, and I did that.

I had also found a vacuum cleaner I liked (judging by the reviews at WalMart and elsewhere), the Hoover Nano Light, but they said they were out of them online. I looked around the store anyway, because the report that said that was a few weeks old. I looked for it again online, and on Sunday, the website said they had it! I ordered it right away, and it arrived yesterday.

My old vacuum had been progressivly losing it's suction, so I wanted to replace it.

The new vacuum arrived yesterday, late in the afternoon, and I sat down and assembled it right away, then vacuumed a few square feet of carpet, just to check that I had assembled it correctly and that it was working. I thought it would probably pick up a lot because I knew that the old one was dying, but it still didn't leave the carpet looking like it had anything on it or was dirty.

Then I took this photo so I could post it here.

After I took the photo, I looked at it a little closer, and realized that the dust cup was FILLED! I could not believe the amount of dirt that was in that small space of carpet! I'm going to move everything heavy in the apartment over the weekend and vacuum under it all so that all floor surfaces have been cleaned.

Oh, the handle collapses down, and I photographed it with the handle folded down. That's nice, because it fits under my kitchen counter with the handle down. It's small and light, and easy to maneuver around things and does an amazingly good job!

While I was in "walking around looking mode" I happened to find a 2 quart saucepan right next to the vacuums. I've been looking for one in stainless steel for about 4 years. I have two 1-1/2 quart saucepans and a 3 quart one, but I often want to heat something that really only needs a 2 quart.

During the last 4 years, the cheapest one I've found has been $40! But WalMart had one for $15! It has a copper clad bottom, which I didn't really care for, but did I mention it was only $15? I snapped it right up!

It's so nice when you find something you've been looking for for a while! And I got three of them this week! The yarn bags, the vacuum cleaner and the saucepan!

I feel like having a party!

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I'm going to watch the reruns of Supernatural and Fringe, and the season finale of Merlin.

Have a great weekend!

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Happy Distaff Day!

Happy Distaff Day!

Distaff Day is the day after Twelfth Night, and, during the Middle Ages, it was the day when spinners had to go back to work after the Christmas holiday.

For any of you who are not spinners, maybe I should explain. The long stick-like thing the woman in the picture is holding in her right hand is a distaff, and it holds the fiber she's going to spin on the spindle that's hanging from her left hand. That's a drop spindle she's got. Between her two hands, is the singles she's just spun and is ready to wind onto the spindle to store while she twirls the spindle and spins some more.

Since I'm a spinner and interested in the Middle Ages, I tend to keep track of, and enjoy these things, and I thought you might, too.

It's also, by the way, Pearl Harbor Day.

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There's currently a Merlin marathon on Syfy, and they're going to show the new season premier of Merlin this evening. If you think of it as something that happened on some other planet at some other time, it holds up well, and has some good stories. It is not, however, anything like the Arthurian legend in any way, except that they used the names of the characters from Arthur. That's where the similarity ends.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sad Thursday

I got up yesterday, and almost immediately, the TiVo I ordered arrived! I was going to link to information on the one I got, but they're not available anymore, and I got one of the last ones. There's a new model out instead, but that's not what I bought.

This was both good and bad.

Good because it arrived, and bad because it and my TV don't have any connectors that are compatible.

As I've probably mentioned before, the RCA plug inputs on my TV are broken, and the only input to the TV is now coaxial cable. The TiVo has no coaxial out, only RCA plugs, S-video and a couple of other connectors. But since none is coaxial, I can't plug them together.

The tech people at TiVo told me that I need an RF Modulator. They said I could get one from Radio Shack for $10. Well, it turns out that's true and not true. They do have one for $10, but it's not available on line, and very few of their stores have it. The listing said to not even bother to go to the store without checking beforehand to make sure that the particular store had it.

I checked with Amazon (and some other places), and found some very basic RF modulators for as much as nearly $200. But I also found two really neat ones on Amazon that are available for somewhere between $20 and $25! Actually, if I had known about RF modulators, I would have bought one long before now.

The two I saw have 4 input sections (which accept several different kinds of input) on the back with an RF (coaxial cable) out to the TV, and four buttons on the front so that you can push them and switch between the different inputs! So, I can plug in my DVD player, my DVD recorder, and the TiVo, and I can not only use the TiVo, but I can watch DVDs again! The very idea makes me so happy!

But, unfortunately, I don't have about $30 or so to spend on a modulator plus shipping, so I'm going to have to wait until next month to be able to do all this.

I'm not usually a sad person, but for some reason I don't understand, spending all my free money this month on a TiVo and then finding out I can't use it until next month is making me so sad, all out of proportion to the situation. I don't know why, but I think it's me, and not the situation.

So, I've been amusing myself by reading the instruction book that came with it. If it works the way it says, it'll be amazing!

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I'm still thinking about and working on (mentally) the Lion Brand Yarn Imagination Contest. I keep thinking there must be a winning idea somewhere in the back of my brain. If there is, it's been doing a great job of hiding from me. I've been looking for information I don't have in hopes it'll spark an idea.

But you might be interested in checking it out.

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Well, at least there is some good stuff on TV tonight.

Stargate Universe is on SyFy right now and has been all day and will continue into the evening with a new episode which will be followed by a new Merlin.

There will reruns of Medium (CBS?) and Supernatural (the CW) on toninght, too.

Not much, I know.

Buck up, July is coming, and that's when all the good stuff will be back. And I'll have my TiVo up and running just in time! Can't wait!

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Good Friday

Happy Good Friday!

For more information about Good Friday, Wikipedia has some information here.

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Tonight, on SyFy, the new seasons of Stargate Universe and Merlin will premiere! And on CBS, we have new episodes of Ghost Whisperer and Medium!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings this weekend, TBS will have The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King, respectively. Yes, if, after all this time you missed The Lord of the Rings, you can see it now.

I hope you're having a wonderful Easter Weekend!

Happy Palm Sunday

Today, SyFy is showing a lot of the Merlin series.

If you're looking for the authentic story of Arthur, this is not the place to find it! The costumes are only vaguely Medieval, the castle is from about 900 years after Arthur's time, and there are characters in the series with the names of people in the Arthur saga, but they're not anything like the originals. Examples include Guenivere, who became queen, and was not a servant; Merlin, who was enough older than Arthur that he saved Arthur right after he was born, and was not younger than Arthur, and so on.

Some of the stories are very good and do embrace Medieval ideas and principles, but some of the stories are squarely based on 20th and 21st century ideals and viewpoints.

I won't even mention the clothing, some of which seems authentic, but some comes from eras more like 1500 years in Arthur's future.

He's called "The Once and Future King," so maybe this is someone's idea of what might have happened if he came back 900 years later than his time.

Some of the stories are entertaining, though.

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My copy of Spin-Off Magazine appeared in my mailbox today!

You can see a preview of it here.

There was information about spinning heavy singles that are soft and (reasonably) balanced.

There was also an article about a spinning wheel maker with a company name of Spinolution. I've seen at least one of their wheels at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, but haven't really sat down and tried one. They actually treadle well, even though the treadle mechanism looks so odd. They have a new wheel out called the Hopper Travel Wheel, and it is small! Even if you don't watch the video at that link, you can see the woman's arms in the photo and get an idea of how small it is. It was intended not only to be small and a travel wheel, but also to be used to create art yarns, hence, the very slow speeds available, although it can spin pretty fast, too. I haven't tried it yet (it's just out), but it seems a little pricy.

There will be another wheel that was created just for spinning art yarns that will be unveiled at the Sheep and Wool Festival, too, and it's by Majacraft. They're not telling, or showing anybody anything about it before then, though. Somebody there is a Firefly fan, and they've named it Serenity, too! They have talked about some of the yarns you can spin on it, though, and showed them on their blog. I can't wait to see it!

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend!

Yarnstorm!

When I was a child, I remember reading a poem in a book of fairytales or something. It went like this:

"Oranges and lemons" said the bells of St. Clements.

"You owe me five farthings" said the bells of St Martin's.

"When will you pay me?" said the Bells of Old Bailey.

"When I grow rich." said the bells of Shoreditch.

"When will that be?" said the bells of Stepney.

"I do not know." said the great bells of Bow.

This live London yarnstorm was brought to you by the Knit the City. Mischief managed. Off to pub.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!

This was a series of posts on Twitter from knitthecity. A person's name is not given for this twitterer, and I suspect that it's actually used by a group of people. See more about knitthecity here.

I can tell you about yarnstorming, graffiti knitting, yarnbombing, gritting (contraction of graffiti knitting) etc. Actually, the name "graffiti knitting" explains it all.

I was going to put another example of gritting in here, but Blogger won't let me upload another photo. At least I got all of them from the sequence in here. I'll post the other photo another time.

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I hope you haven't missed Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family. It'll be continuing today. And Eragon will be on right before it, so check it out!

Later tonight, there will be a special treat on for all the fans of Dead Like Me! The SyFy Channel will be showing Dead Like Me: Life After Death at 9 pm here. Check local listings.

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I have just a few more rounds to go on the sixth sock for Kyle. Only two more for a total of four pair! I have to take a break and knit the hat I said I would do before the end of the month.

Have a great weekend!

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Addition:

There will be two more episodes of Merlin on tonight, and this really will be the season finale! Don't miss them!

The second episode shown last week was really good.

OK, I know it featured a unicorn, but it was a very medieval type of story, depending on Arthur behaving in a noble manner to fix the problems he got into by behaving badly. There's so much about this that has nothing to do with the Arthur saga, but if you ignore that (and I know it's hard to do), it does have it's moments!

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Another Addition:

This was actually written on Sunday and the posting was postponed to give the folks at Knit the City a chance to get their posting up first.

Birthday!

It's my birthday today!

The photos are ones that Malaia took at a fairly recent air show, and they're there because I just like them.

I couldn't get her to answer me about this, but they look like the Blue Angels to me.

Steve just put up an entry on FaceBook that says:

Off to the air show, then a swell party.

I asked about the show, and he said:

51st annual Chicago Air and Water Show, with the Thunderbirds, Lima Lima, Golden Knights, and assorted other team and single displays by civilian and military fliers. It included a flyby of the USAF Heritage Flight, a P-51, A-10, F-15 and an F-16. All were "loud and proud". Sorry, no pix.

This is part of the reason that I felt compelled to put up photos of planes, even though they're not the Thunderbirds.

On the subject of birthdays, I really got a haul this year. The computer I've been saving up forever to buy is finally bought, shipped, and has arrived. I now have to configure it to utilize the internet, and then add software for the things I want it to do. John called me and told me about a pile of software that I need to install immediately to avoid viruses, etc. It sounded all very complicated. I need to get him to write down the list of what has to be installed.

Before I can do that, though, I needed to get an internet connection for it, and I looked to T-Mobile to provide it. They currently have two deals to do that. One is a USB dongle that connects your computer to a 3G cell phone line. It's an elegant solution, but the monthly charge is a bit pricey, and there's a limit on how much use for each month.

The other one is a really great deal. Start-up costs include about $40 for a combination converter for a phone, wifi, and T-Mobile hot spot that plugs into your existing broadband connection, plus a $35 installation fee. Monthly fee is $10. For that you get an unlimited connection for a landline phone inside the US. If I'd wanted to call overseas, I could add $5 additional. Also, unlimited wifi and/or hotspot.

I had been planning for a while to get the $10 a month unlimited phone service for a while. The new hardware also includes wifi at no extra cost, and since I'm about to set up the computer right now, it seemed the perfect time.

Of course, that also means that I need an actual phone. Holly chipped in $22 of the total price to buy me a really nice phone, rather than the cheapest one from WalMart that didn't have all the features I wanted. The one I got has everything I could possibly want in a phone: volume control on the ringer, with several different ringer sounds that I can really hear, and that won't sound like the phone on a TV show; volume control on the handset; it's cordless; 50 name/number phonebook (this is what I need to program); and I can plug in the headset I already have!

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I got this far in my post, and Lynn called to wish me a happy birthday. I told her all about my new phone and gave here the number and her cell phone battery ran out, so she called me on the new phone! My first call on the new phone was my sister, to wish me a happy birthday! How cool is that?

She also had some news that was a little less happy. She's been diagnosed with a macular hole in her eye, and had surgery for it on Wednesday. She's off from work for a while, and at home recuperating. If everything goes the way we hope, she'll have all her vision back in about 6 months. As of right now, she can't see out of her right eye. So far, everything seems to be going perfectly. I'm glad that it's fixable, and that it looks at this point that she'll be OK, but I feel bad for her that she had to go through it. At this point, it's a major nuisance, but that's so much better than losing the vision in that eye. It would drive me crazy, though, if I had to go through it, so I feel really feel bad for her.

I told her that from time to time I feel sorry for myself that I'm losing my hearing (especially since I really believe that I don't need to, but that doctors don't care or feel I'm worth bothering about), but then I think that if I had a choice between losing my hearing or vision, I'd definitely want to keep my vision. Lynn said I need to get another eye exam soon, and I'll have to investigate that, and plan to do it in September.

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There will be two episodes of Merlin on tonight, and if I'm not mistaken, these will be the end of the season for the series.

Also, The Chronicles of Narnia will be on tonight on ABC Family. Naturally, with two good things, they'll be on at the same time (at least for part of the shows).

I hope you're having as much fun as I'm having!

We Have a New Element!

Well, it seems I was confused about something, and that is the definition of an element.

People learn to talk by listening to people talk. Babies listen to their parents and others who happen to be nearby, and eventually add meaning to the sounds they hear so that they understand what is being said.

In school, when they tell you about a new word, they give you a written or spoken definition. But after using words for a while, they acquire nuances in our minds, subtle shadings of the original definition, until we'd be hard put to define the words without using the same word.

One of those words for me is element.

I know that at one point in time someone defined this word for me, but somehow along the way, my personal definition of this word went something like this: A substance that is a basic, pure chemical substance, such as helium, hydrogen, oxygen, iron, copper, silver, gold, etc. Pure silver is an element, sterling silver is a compound, an alloy made mainly of silver, but also containing other elements to make the silver harder, thus making it practical for jewelry.

But they are adding a new element to the periodic table, and the new element is made by combining other elements, which is where I begin to be confused. This new element is made by fusing zinc and lead. The fusing part is where I begin to lose it.

So far, they've made a whole atom of it on two different occasions, for a total of two atoms. I know when you get this high on the periodic table that atoms start to be unstable, and it stands to reason that you don't want to get too much of it together in one spot or you'll precipitate an explosion. But two? Two atoms who haven't even been introduced to each other? And one only lasted "an instant." It seems a little skimpy to me.

But I'm guessing that, being scientists, they know what they're doing. And they've finally proposed a name for this new element, Copernicium.

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For you science fiction fen, you should be aware that the fabulous SF roller coaster ride is beginning today on BBC in America. At three this afternoon (here), they will be showing reruns of five Doctor Who episodes to get us in the mood for what's coming up this week.

There are two episodes from the first season of the new Who: the two-parter, The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances. The Empty Child is one of the most frequently cited as scary in the list of new Who episodes. It's chief feature is that it's the first episode where we run into Captain Jack Harkness, and he's a lovable rogue and con man, traveling in time.

The next three are from the third season finale, and are Utopia, The Sound of Drums, and The Last Time Lord, which also involve Jack.

In my opinion, they should have just continued to the end of season one with Boom Town, Bad Wolf, and The Parting of the Ways. The last two explain how Jack came to be (for all intents and purposes) immortal. Rose also wears a scarf in Boom Town that I would love to copy. It's beautiful!

So, they're getting us in the mood for the new Doctor Who special, Planet of the Dead, which will be shown next Sunday, but they're also getting us ready for the big news this week, Children of Earth, which is a five-part story that will be shown every evening this week starting on Monday, preceded by an inside look at the hub. Each day's new episode will be shown after a recap of the previous day's show. In the spoiler-free reviews I've read, each one of the five parts has left their audience jumping up and down and screaming at the end, so expect this to be something you'll get involved with.

Not letting us up for a moment this week, the BBC is following Torchwood with Being Human. This is the premier of a new series about three "flatmates" who happen to be a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost. I haven't seen this one, but I have heard good things about it.

As if all this weren't enough, it will be followed on Sunday by the new Doctor Who special, Planet of the Dead. What can I say? It's Doctor Who! What's not to like?

There's another Merlin on NBC tonight. I'm beginning to think of this as something someone from another planet wrote after hearing the Arthur story, but couldn't remember it right and didn't know much about Arthur's era. Once you do that, and stop looking at all the things they got wrong, it's an OK series. The original story contains enough scope that they could have done this and made it historically accurate as well as true to the legend. I suppose that part of my problem is that shows like Doctor Who and Torchwood have lead me to expect intelligence from the BBC, and sometimes that expectation is misplaced.

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Holly and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince yesterday.

It was far better than I could have hoped for! With a few relatively minor quibbles, I loved it!

The quibbles involve the fact that it would be impossible to fit the whole book into a movie. I knew that going in, and I knew they were going to have to cut a lot of it. There is one quiddich game, and the rest got cut. But the teams do have some neat new uniforms. I want a quiddich robe like theirs!

As expected, a lot got cut, but what's left is far more of the book than I ever thought they could cram into a movie. And it's wonderful!

Order of the Phoenix had so much cut out of it that it wasn't even a coherent story anymore. If you hadn't read the movie, I'm sure it didn't even make sense. But I think Half Blood Prince stands alone. You can see it without having to have read the books first, and it will still be a coherent story.

There is one scene that was made up of whole cloth, and came out of left field. It also could have ramifications for the next movie, but I won't spoil it here.

The bottom line is: you should go and see it if you haven't already.

I hope you're having a great weekend!

Merlin

Well, I watched the first two episodes of Merlin this weekend, and I was confused and disappointed. I had the apparently misguided idea that this series might possibly be about the Arthurian legend. In spite of the fact that it includes characters called Merlin, King Uther Pendragon, Prince Arthur, Morgana, and Guenevere, it has nothing to do with that legend, unless you take the "once and future king" to heart, and reincarnate all the characters 900 years into their future with lots of changes to their stations and relationships.

The original King Arthur was supposed to live during the early 6th century. The castle, armor and clothes are from the 15th century in this series. After the first 20 or 30 anachronisms I saw, I just stopped counting and realized that it's really set 900 years after the original legend was supposed to have happened. There were several people wearing knitted mitts! And that's one of the most minor of the inaccuracies! I could go on for a half an hour just listing the anachronisms. The mitts were probably accurate to possibly as early as 1200 (almost certainly to 1300), but not during Arthur's time! The problem with clothes from that era is that little survives, so we have no way of knowing with absolute certainty. And what does survive is special, usually ceremonial clothing. I base the mitts statement on the fact that simpler knitting must've happened before some of the more complicated knitting that we know existed later.

Merlin (an adult), took the baby Arthur to be fostered by different parents in the original story. In the series, Merlin is younger than Arthur, who, by the way, is a nasty, spoiled, arrogant bully, rather than the humble, hardworking, polite squire he was in the original legend. And the way this is set up, the sword in the stone can never happen.

Morgana has some real problems, too. She was his half sister, but in the series, is dying to marry him in order to become queen. Yes, I know that in the original, the two had a son, Mordred, but although there were several versions, in all of them the two were unaware of who the other was when the indiscretion happened, and were both embarrassed by having a son with a sibling.

And Guenevere is a servant in this series! No matter which way you slice it, this is not the original legend, and I know that legend has a lot of variations, but this is not it!

Oh, and there's a knight named Valiant! Maybe from the comic strip I used to read in the newspaper when I was a child???

Another character that didn't appear in the original is a dragon that Merlin has conversations with! There seems to be a lot in this series that's treated with such disrespect of the original legend that it tends to resemble a comic strip.

The credits mentioned that these stories were based on a book or series of books, but it all obviously has nothing to do with the original legend. Other than borrowing the names of the major characters. The name of the books and the author are not listed on IMdB, though, and it went by quickly enough that I missed it, and had to erase it because my DVR is too full.

NBC also did everything in it's power to ruin the start of the series by scheduling one thing and then broadcasting golf instead, and running over the time limit and into the time allotted for Merlin. The result of this is that if I hadn't noticed this and just let my DVR run, I would have missed the last 20 minutes or so of the second episode. Way to go, NBC! 

I'm not sure if I want to keep watching this. On the one hand, it may be a good story, even though it's not the story of Arthur and Merlin (despite the names). On the other hand, it's shaping up to have all the horror and fascination of a train wreck that you just can't stop watching even though you want to.

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Comcast has broadcast THREE "weekly" tests in less than three hours today! They broadcast two of them within the space of a half hour! I do understand that they are required to do this weekly, but cable companies that actually want to keep customers usually try to do this sometime between the hours of 2 and 4 am once a week, not on a several-times-daily basis during daytime TV and prime time!

This is just one more example of how much Comcast doesn't care at all about it's customers! I hate them! I've already tried to find another service, but the building I live in doesn't allow it.

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The Philanthropist debuts tonight on NBC. I know it isn't science fiction, but it may be as much wish fulfillment as Leverage witch is on at the same time on TNT. Unless you have a DVR, you'll have some hard choices.

I have been knitting and knitting, but there's not a lot different than there was yesterday, so it's probably best not to mention it.

Have a great evening!

Zombies In Area! Run!!!

Last night on the news here, there was a report of obscene signs on the GW Parkway yesterday morning. Along with the report they showed photos of these signs:

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos. I took them from the TV screen. 

It turns out that they left a lot out of the news report. The (apparently) correct report about the signs can be read here. It's titled "My, My, GW Parkway, Aren't We Saucy Today?"

From what I can tell, the signs shown weren't actually shown on GW Parkway today or any other day, but, in fact showed up in Austin, Texas, and you can read about this much funnier episode here. Scroll down and watch the video. There's a commercial on first, but the rest is good. If you don't want to watch the commercial, check out the same video, below, commercial-free:

OK, I know that this is a safety issue, but it's also funny!

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Don't forget that Father's Day is on Sunday! Just thought that if you haven't seen seventeen thousand commercials yet telling you about it, it might help if I reminded you.

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My care package from Knit Picks arrived today with the 16 inch needles for the Christmas stockings I plan to knit and, hopefully, sell! 

There's also some yarn in the package to knit "wristwarmers" in Ravenclaw colors for the Harry Potter House Cup KAL/CAL. I'm using my own mitts pattern for them in navy blue, and I plan to sew silver colored stars on them. I know the book says bronze, but I really like the silver/grey color from the movies better, so that's what I'm doing. I'm also doing two more mitts in the light grey to go with the one I already knitted from the leftovers of the copy of Hermione's hat. Since the mitts work on either hand, I always knit three so that there are two left over after you I lose one.

Here's a photo of a mitt I made for photos to go with the pattern.

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By last evening I was feeling much better than I was earlier in the day. On Wednesday, my monthly order of non-prescription "medicine," in the form of nutritional supplements, etc., arrived, and I bought some 7-Keto this month, which I haven't been able to afford for a long time.

Some people did a study, years ago, where they found a group of the sickest people they could find, and another group of people that were the most healthy they could find, and just tested everything about them that they could think of to test. The idea was to see if there was something inherently different between the two groups.

Surprisingly, they did find one big difference. The healthy people had a lot of DHEA, and the sick people had little or none. They didn't know (and to the best of my knowledge, still don't) why that is, but they tried giving DHEA to sick people, and their health improved. They have several theories: that sickness "uses up" the DHEA somehow; that people with more DHEA naturally just don't get sick or as sick; that people are sick because they don't make enough DHEA, etc., etc.

But I've found that I have more energy, and feel healthier when I take DHEA.

There's just one catch.

Some people (and that includes me), get a rash when they take it as a supplement. I happen to get a rash all over my face. Which can be embarrassing.

But more research was done on this topic, and they found out that it wasn't the DHEA itself, but a metabolite, 7-Keto that really did the trick. Luckily for me, this doesn't put a rash all over my face.

So, I'm guessing I felt down because I just wasn't feeling good, but I'm feeling much better now.

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Well, I've had True Lies on TV while I'm writing this, and I want to get back to it, so I'm going to wish you a happy weekend (and Father's Day), and get back to it.

Don't forget Merlin on Sunday!

Depression

No, this time I'm not talking about a financial depression such as the great depression, although I'm sure that there are a lot of you out there that are feeling bad because of it.

This time I'm talking about being bummed out.

I haven't got a reason in the world to be so down, but I am for no reason at all. And the fact that I know there's nothing wrong and I'm still bummed only makes it worse.

Maybe it's due to the prevalence of rain ever since the middle of April that's got something to do with it.

It started yesterday, and might have had something to do with the fact that I was thinking about going to see a doctor. 

Yes, my sinuses are still doing their absolute best to drown me. 

Yes, my ear is still clogged up, and I suspect that anything that will unclog it will also unclog the other ear, too. 

Yes, my bones and joints hurt all over every time I move. 

And yes, I've gone to see doctors many, many times about all this in the last 35 years, and usually those doctors tell me (in spite of obvious, visible evidence to the contrary) that there's nothing wrong with me. 

Except for one doctor, who seemed to have it in for me, and refused to prescribe anything that wasn't harmful, and the thing he really wanted me to do would have been lethal! And telling him that I'd already tried it and nearly died from it seemed to make him even more excited, and anxious to try it again right away!

I really don't understand doctors in the United States. They seem to have lost all contact with the idea that they're trying to promote the idea that they'll do something good for your health. 

Most of them are obviously not doing anything good for your health, but at least they used to pretend they were.

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I've been meaning to go to JoAnn Fabrics all this week, and it's been raining all this week. Today, I thought I might have a chance, but it's been cloudy, overcast and rainy all day. Now that it's too late to go, the sun has come out, of course.

JoAnn is having some great sales today. If there's one near you, look up some great coupons on the internet, plus a list of sale items (scroll down for yarn, etc), and get on over there on or before Saturday!

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There's a new Burn Notice on tonight! That link will take you to info on tonight's episode, plus games and other neat stuff.

Merlin will be premiering in the US on NBC on Sunday. This is a show that was on in England a while ago, and is finally coming to the US. I don't know what the quality is like, but it's got a lot of potential, so I want to at least check it out. The NBC link is here. It has some fun games, too! Check it out!

And BBC in America has released some more information about Children of Earth, the new season of Torchwood. The whole season consists of one big story which will be shown over five evenings, starting on July 20th! I, for one, am very excited! Check out the Children of Earth link. There's a sweepstakes for a trip to Wales!

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I was distracted by finishing other projects, but I'm back to working on the purple beaded lace shawl. There's a lot of it to work on, too. After all the frogging I did, I'm back to where I was before I went berserk, and just a  little further.

You know, the sun has come out, and I'm starting to feel a bit better. Maybe it's just all the gloom and rain we've been having that's got me down.

I hope you're feeling better than I am!

Getting Up-To-Date

Last night, I got to the bottom of the body of the Celtic sweater. It now has a picot edge on it.

I looked around at the amount of yarn that's left, and there's about two skeins. And I still have to do the sleeves.

I originally bought 12 skeins, and then later bought two more in the same dye lot. Those were in-case skeins, and I-can-make-a-hat-out-of-it-if-it's-left-over skeins. That should have been more than enough.

I suspect that those two skeins are still in their original bag somewhere, and that I didn't put them with the main stash of yarn, so I may have plenty to finish with. But it's possible that I'll have to unravel the bottom and start the edging with less space between it and the knots on the side. And it might have to be narrower. 

I'm not even going to think about the pocket linings until I finish everything else. They can be finished with a different dye lot of the same yarn and color without making it a disaster.

On the knitting front, I saw the neatest pattern. SCA fans will love this. Check it out at Wicked Woolens blog. You'll love it!

On the science fiction (or, rather, fantasy) front, there's a new "autumn fantasy drama" coming out on the BBC, and I can only think that they'll be doing something really stupid if they don't also show it on BBC in America, and probably fairly soon. It's a 13-part series called Merlin, and, not surprisingly, it's the Arthurian legend retold. I can't wait for it to come to the US!

For Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams fans, the website for Dollhouse is up, and has lots of information. For those that missed out, Dollhouse is about a group of people who are kept as slaves, with their minds wiped of memories. As assignments come in for them, they are given false memories and appropriate skills to carry out the tasks they are hired for. But one of them is starting to remember a little each time. It has the possibility for greatness! Especially with those two creators (plus Eliza Dusku). Check it out.

If you'd like to see some photos of Stonehenge, check out this post from pink_hebe. Be sure to scroll down for more henge photos at the end of the post. She just went to visit it recently. Wish I could go.

And for a couple of funny photos, check out this. One of them is science fiction related.

Around here, it's overcast and rainy again, with a reasonable indoor temperature of 73 degrees. I should really get out and return my library books and try to find a place to buy postage stamps so I can mail out all these forms I'm filling out.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

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Oh, by the way, there's a count-down timer to Christmas, and another to the next Harry Potter movie at the bottom of the blog (in case you don't usually scroll down).