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!

Eastwick Tonight!

Eastwick will be on tonight! It may be the last episode (I read that somewhere, but I'm hoping there's at least one more).

Before you watch Eastwick, though, tune in to ABC Family at 7:30 and watch Practical Magic! If you haven't seen it, you're in for a treat, and I can promise you that if you like Eastwick, you'll also like Practical Magic.

I have more I'd like to write about, but I want to get this info up right away, so I'll write the rest later.

In the meantime, have a great next-to-last day of the year, and also a great New Year's Eve. If the weather isn't too bad, I expect to be out doing things tomorrow so don't expect a post.

Oh, and enjoy the movie and Eastwick!

Grey Saturday

Last night all the walking and other stuff I've been doing (including dental visits) caught up with me.

The sinus/throat/ear infection with bronchitis that I had last summer and still have in spite of a ludicrously large doctor bill flared up last night. I took some stuff for it, and feel much better after a good night's sleep, although my colitis is still annoyed with me that I did so much walking.

I wanted to go to Michaels to cash in on their sock yarn sale that ends today, but Holly's car still isn't fixed, and I just can't do that much walking at this point without making myself really sick.

I have to walk over to Safeway to get a few things no matter what, though. I do have a supply of Chicken and Stars, but the way I feel, I want some more comfort food. I need to get food no matter what, it's just a matter of choosing things that I'll like better when I'm not feeling well.

But I did get some yarn while I was out on Thursday, and plan to make a hat and mitts. I lost a mitt somewhere in my travels that day, and until I can get to the WalMart that does carry the yarn I want, I won't be able to replace it.

But here's a photo of the mitts so far. One is done, one has the knitting done and needs the ends darned in, and one is just started. I haven't decided how I want to make the hat.


Progress has been made this last week on the second of the commissioned Christmas stockings. Here's the second one almost finished. It just needs the toe and back seam done, darn a few ends and block lightly. The third one will be underway shortly.

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Practical Magic will be on tonight on ABC Family. It's not action/adventure, but it's one of my favorites. When I got my first DVD player, this was the first DVD I bought, and I still love it.

The thing you really don't want to miss this weekend is Harold and Maude, which will be on Turner Classic Movies tomorrow. This was a cult movie that truly deserved it's following.

Another not-to-be-missed event on TV this weekend is two Doctor Who episodes which, together, make up a whole story. BBC in America is showing both of them back-t0-back today, and possibly on Sunday. The two episodes are Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead. They were both written by Steven Moffat, who also wrote the Doctor Who episode, Blink. As usual, he has written horror, but, as usual, it's kind of low-key. But you'll never look at books quite the same way again.

I have to go get some cough drops, and other stuff from the supermarket.

Have a great weekend, and don't miss Harold and Maude and Doctor Who!

Busy Days!

Today, I got all busy doing some more work on the Steve Canyon DVDs, and everything else slid.

I have places I have to go and things I have to do tomorrow and Tuesday, so posts then will be iffy.

Practical Magic will be on TV today at 6:30 (here) on ABC Family.

Happy Celtic New Year!

I hope you're having a great weekend!

Great Weekend!

The weekend started on Thursday evening, when my sister, Lynn arrived.

Lynn was determined to cheer me up, and she was wildly successful. We stopped by Arby's for a quick bite, and went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

It was wonderful! Everything you would expect from the next Indiana Jones movie, and everything they need to continue the stories. I loved the movie! I could go on and on about it, and, in fact, I did, all weekend to the total annoyance of everyone around me, no doubt.

I loved it so much that I want to run out and buy lots of Indiana Jones stuff (especially a hat), so I added a page to my store.

But I don't want to include any spoilers here, and anything I said would spoil it. 

On Friday, Lynn and I had planned to go to the IRS office and get all my problems straightened out. Well we went, and they weren't there.

The people from IRS on the phone promised that I could get my problems straightened out at their local office. Well, from what I could tell, there where a whole two people there! And one of them was a security officer, so there was only one person available for help, and they told me that they couldn't do anything that the people on the phone said they could.

They urged me to come back another day, but that's pricey on public transportation, and would have me walking a couple of miles from the bus stop on a foot that's been aching and making me think there's something seriously wrong with it. With no guarantee that they wouldn't help me then, either.

So, Lynn and I went out of there wondering what we were going to do with the rest of the afternoon. I made a few suggestions and asked her what she wanted to do. She said "Why don't we get you some new glasses?" At first, I didn't think she meant it, but she did, and I had an eye exam and new glasses.

They have a gunmetal finish metal frame which is a little bigger than I might otherwise want for glasses, but there are sunglasses that clip magnetically to the frame. They are the perfect size for sunglasses. Lynn and the saleslady said it was silly to buy glasses and not get bifocals, and the difference between line and no-line was a whole $7.50, so I have no-line bifocals.

Talk about the ultimate present! She said these are for my birthday, Christmas, my birthday next year and Christmas next year, and probably a few other presents, too. It's a present for the rest of my life!

Friday and Saturday evenings, we watched some TV and movies and talked. Movies seen were: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (she hadn't seen it before) and Practical Magic. Movie shows included Ghost Whisperer, and the Blink episode of Doctor Who.

Saturday, we went to the Potomac Celtic Festival, and met Holly, Everett and Jeff. 

There was no cider! They had a problem with some of the equipment that puts various drinks on tap, and so they had just beer and (I think) stout. They could only sell two drinks, so they eliminated the cider.

We wandered around and found loads of neat stuff, and then the sky got grey, and we shopped our way back to the cars. I wanted to go back to Echo and Wild and buy a sterling rune pendant that I had seen, but all the sales booths were being packed up for the rain that was coming and I couldn't find it for a while. I bought a beautiful silver Algiz (or Elhaz) pendant. Most runes have several names. Algiz is a rune of protection, and it's a rune that also appeared in New Genesis  (also known as Twilight of the Dogs--I'm in photo 13), a movie I worked on.

I bought my rune (which I love), and it was just starting to rain, so I headed across the field, directly toward the entrance, and the sky opened up and rained harder than I've ever seen it do. I had an umbrella, but my pants were soaked through before I could get out of the open and to shelter. This was not just rain, it was a storm. When I got toward the edge (near the exit), I hid under a tent with a lot of other people who wanted to get out of the rain, and called Lynn. She had gotten back to the car, and had pulled up near the entrance. She moved a little so I could see her headlights, and I made a run for it. We also picked up Everett and Jeff, and drove them out to Holly and her car.

After a little milling around in confusion, we went to Pizza Hut and had some wonderful pizza (what else), with all the usual stuff. It was wonderful! It gave us a chance to talk and catch up, and was loads of fun!

On Sunday, Holly got together with Lynn and I for lunch and we got a chance to talk and catch up on more things, we saw Lynn off on her trip home, and Holly and I went to see The Happening. It was spooky, and strange (you were expecting something else?). I was slightly disappointed with the ending.

We went to Borders so Holly could get a copy of the next Dresden Files book, and she bought a copy of Lord Foul's Bane to loan me and to read after I'm done with it.

Then she dropped me at home, where I crashed and burned with the current cold/sore throat/misery that I'm still fighting off.

What a weekend! I feel like I've been through an adventure to rival Indy's!

Have a great Tuesday! More on cameras and photography tomorrow