Happy Birthday, Robin!

Happy Birthday, Robin!

Holly's boyfriend, Robin is having his 40th birthday today! I say again, 40 isn't old if you're a tree. Happy birthday!

Robin doesn't have a Facebook page, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't read my blog, but I did send him a text message earlier today. He's also lucky enough to have today and tomorrow off of work, so he can celebrate in style.

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For you knitters out there, this is the last week of Knit Pick's book sale. They have fabulous prices on a lot of wonderful books, so check it out!

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Update on the Mobius Hat instructions: The Screaming KnitFit version of the instructions are almost finished. I've been writing as I knit so that I won't miss anything you need to know in the instructions. I should point out that this is the easy version of the hat without the cables, so it has a plain cuff.

I'm almost finished knitting the actual hat itself, and I've been taking photos as I go along. I have just the top of it to do, and the trim around the cuff. Now I just have to invent what I'd like to design for a scarf and cowl or something to go with it, knit it and write the instructions. Oh, and because of the complexity of the construction, I need to put together a table of numbers to go with it. Example: if you're knitting at 5 stitches to the inch, you should have X number of stitches.

I've ordered the yarn for the cabled mobius hat, and it was shipped out yesterday, so it should be arriving soon. A lot of the instructions for the hat at least will be able to picked up from the instructions I'm writing now, but there will be a lot of charts and other things, and I'll probably make the accessories differently.

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I've been having lots of problems with my new TiVo, but some of them were because I didin't understand some things about the new version. Some of the problems haven't been solved, but when I called Comcast to ask them if they were making the problems, I got a recording saying that there is an outage in my area. So, I'm going to wait and give them a chance to fix it before I go nuts over it.

It's insisting that I don't get some of the channels that I was able to get as recently as yesterday (early), and that I've had for the past four years. There was an outage in the past that did that, so that may be what's wrong. We'll see, eventually.

The sad part about all this is that Flix had A Boy and His Dog on last night, and that's one of the channels that went out. I thought I'd talked about this earlier on my blog, but only mentioned the movie.

A Boy and his Dog was a short story written by Harlan Ellison because another writer said that his stories were so dark and twisted that he should write something cheerful and fun and challenged him to write a story with that title.

So, Harlan wrote a novella with that title about the aftermath of thermonuclear war. The dog's name is Blood, he's telepathic and smarter than the boy. He keeps trying to teach the boy, Vic, (Don Johnson, in his first movie) history, but it's hard work because he isn't interested. The reviewers at Amazon have done a much better job than I could of telling the story, so click the link and read. The only thing I can add is that Harlan Ellison said it's the only thing he wrote that was filmed and he liked the filmed version. Although Harlan was not only an advisor on Babylon 5, but appeared in it and pretty much got his way because every time someone wanted to do something different from what Harlan wanted, Joe Strazinski always sided with Harlan.

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There's a new Big Bang Theory on tonight! That's always a cause for celebration.

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Right now, the temperature outside is 65 degrees, which means it was probably around 70 for a high, like it was yesterday. I'm already feeling it with the heat as "off" as I can make it, the windows wide open, and a temperature of 85 degrees in my apartment. I'm hoping for highs of around 50 between now and late April, which is when they turn on the AC here.

I ran into someone the other day who was waiting for the elevator, and they remarked about how warm it was in the building, and that was a cold day, when we could cool off by opening the windows. Once it starts to warm up, it's a sauna in here!

Have a wonderful evening and keep cool!

RenFaire!

Well, we went to the RenFaire yesterday and it was wonderful! As usual!

The weather has been dry for a while, and the ground was not only dry, it was like a fine powder, about a quarter inch deep, and it quickly coated not only shoes, bottoms of pants and other things near the ground, but everything, even faces! In fact, there's a lot of evidence that I breathed a lot of it in and the inside of lungs are probably coated with it. I could barely breath to sleep last night, and my nose is running.

But let's get to the fun part: the photos!

I showed off my new camera, and almost everyone who looked at it took my photo with it. See, Lynn, you did good!

I like the first one better.

Here is a series of photos of the people who went:

That's Holly in the front with Robin behind her.

I think that's a really great photo of the two of them.

A close-up of Robin.

This is a really good one of Robin.

Robin is waiting to try a swing-a-mallet-and-ring-the-bell game.

And a view of swinging the mallet.

This is Everett sitting in the crab chair (more about that later).

Here's Jeff and Everett.

I tried to take some photos of Aston, but they all came out blurs. That's the problem of trying to photograph children: they never stand still. He wore the hood I knitted for him for christmas, and almost made me sorry I'd made it. I was afraid he was going to have heat stroke, but he refused to take it off! So, I guess I found something he liked. He brought along a sword that Jeff bought him a few years ago, but it's pretty bashed up. Ashton and his cousin have play sword fights all the time, and they've nearly destroyed this sword. So Jeff bought him a new one at the faire.

I also took some random photos of architectural details (the buildings are so neat) and other interesting things, and I think they'll all be self evident, so here are the photos.

Well, I have two more photos, but Blogger is refusing to load them, so they'll have to wait for tomorrow.

But we all had a fabulous time and came home tired but happy.

Instead of Holly driving me home last night, they gave me the use of the car while they're trying to sell it. So I drove home myself. I'd love to go somewhere today now that I can, but my breathing is bad from all the dust at the RenFaire, and my muscles are complaining about all they did yesterday! I'm going to have to walk more so I don't feel so bad from it.

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End of season finales that are on tonight include: Warehouse 13 (Syfy), White Collar (USA), and Covert Affairs (USA).

I hope your long Labor Day weekend was as much fun as mine! And I hope you're having a fun, short week!

Four Wheeling and Miscellaneous Information

I'm having a dull weekend at home, but Holly and Robin have gone four wheeling in their new Hummer this weekend!

This is a photo taken with Holly's phone, and it shows how much fun they've been having! She said they've also scratched the paint. I can see from the photo that they've gotten and installed a roof rack, spotlights and a grill over the front of the vehicle. Oh, and they've also installed a lot of mud!

Looks like they've been having fun!

Speaking of fun, Holly and Robin and I are going to go to the Renfaire on Labor Day! Everett and Jeff have been invited, but I don't know if they're actually going to go. I am so excited I can't wait!

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I've been mentioning information about thyroid problems from time to time on the blog, and ran across a useful post on the Stop the Thyroid Madness blog. Check out Ten Thyroid Tidbits!

There were a few things that surprised me in it. I had heard that most cooking oils tend to suppress thyroid function, and that one of the best things is to switch to coconut oil for cooking (and be sure to cook at a lower temp--coconut oil burns at a much lower temp than most cooking oils), but she sounds like she's talking about eating it. Which sounds gross, except that I've cooked with it, and it tastes sweet. Her recommendation of coconut milk would probably be the way to go if you're not planning to cook with it. One thing you do NOT want to do is drink Silk (soy milk)! Not only does it suppress thyroid function and promote weight gain through that mechanism, it also adds lots of extra estrogen to your system. As a country, we're using so much soy that the excess is causing pollution that's making fish hermaphroditic.

Anyway, if you're interested in your health, check it out!

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In science fiction news, I just found some information about the new season of Doctor Who! The way it's explained, it sounds good, but all I know about it is in the article, so check it out.

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There is a blog that I've been reading since 2004 (wow--six years) by fibermom which is an interesting blog, or I wouldn't have been reading it so long.

I'm mentioning it today, though, because she's doing something she's been doing since before I started reading her blog. She's going to participate in the Holiday Grand Plan, which is a plan which happens to start today, and is intended to get you ready for the holidays without getting frazzled. You can read about it at the above two links.

Yesterday, I suddenly decided I need to start making a list of Christmas presents to get/make for friends and family, so I guess I've already started in a way. Mind you, I didn't actually start making the list, but I thought I should do that since most of the presents I give are hand made.

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Have you ever watched TV and saw someone use a gun with a silencer and wondered how it works? Well, you can find out right here.

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It's getting late, and I've been thinking for a while that I need to try to get out and walk every day. So, I'm going to go and do that. I'm taking my camera! Just in case.

Have a fabulous week!

Schedule

First, before I get into scheduling for the rest of the year, I want to say I haven't been ignoring you.

As every year, in the Spring and Fall, the apartment place I live in has a problem with the heat/air conditioning. Or, more accurately, I have a problem with the heat/air conditioning. They couldn't care less.

The heat is either on or off, and the air conditioning is either on or off. They hire a company to come in here and turn the heat off (in Spring), which they say takes a whole eight hour day, and then later they get the same company to come in here and turn on the air conditioning, which they also insist takes a whole eight hour day, and both of these events have to be scheduled ahead of time. Which involves them having to predict the weather and the optimum time to do that. Which, of course, they can never get right.

Their standard answer to my complaint about this is to tell me to open a window. And since we're having record high counts of tree pollen, to which I'm grossly allergic, this poses a severe health problem every Spring, followed in the Fall by the same problem with ragweed. This problem doesn't end with the windows closing, but manages to keep me feeling sick from April to around the beginning of the new year. Every year!

The end result of all this is that we always have at least a week, and usually closer to a month where the temperature in my apartment never gets lower than 80 degrees. It has been over 110 degrees in here already

This is that time. I had a week where the temp in my apartment didn't get lower than 80. All I wanted to do was lie down flat and sneeze and sneeze, blow my nose and try not to drown from all the junk draining down my throat! Then, on Thursday, late in the day, early in the evening, a thunderstorm swept in with a cold front behind it (naturally), and it cooled off for a few days, which is giving me a chance to recover somewhat before the heat hits today and tomorrow.

So, I've been dealing with what is about equivalent to a bad cold. And the worst thing is that it's going to go on for a while. The heat is finally off, and the AC isn't due to be on until the 19th of May, around 4 or 5 o'clock.

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Robin hasn't had a vacation in ages, and was getting to the point where things were starting to be stressful for him, so he decided to go on vacation, which he had scheduled to start on Thursday. So, he drove to Assateague Island to go camping, set up camp, and the temperature plunged and the rain (and thunder and lightening) started. Eventually, he called Holly complaining about the weather and asked her to make a reservation for him at a hotel in Ocean City. I feel bad for him that so much of his short vacation was spent outdoors in the rain and cold. I was out on Friday, and it was chilly enough that I wore my Winter coat, and was glad I did. They said it wasn't supposed to go much above 60 degrees, but it was windy and cold in spite of all the sun.

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On Friday, I was out to get a CT scan of my ear so they can find out why my middle ear is blocking sound instead of conducting it like it should.

I talked to Holly about it before hand, and she said the scan would be very noisy. I mentioned that to the technician before the test. She said that Holly must've had an MRI, because CT scans aren't noisy, and she was right, it made kind of a whooshing noise.

Friday night I told Holly that the CT scan wasn't noisy, and she said "How would you know?"

I waited around, and they gave me the disk to give to the doctor. I thought I might be able to see the inside of my afflicted ear on my computer, but my computer doesn't have whatever special program is needed to view it. It seems odd to me that they'd invent a whole new format just for things like this. I mean they could have used JPEG, EPS, or any other format, but that doesn't seem to be the case. They didn't even use any standard text format for the written summary. The only thing I could view was their logo. I'm disappointed!

I plan to take the disk over to the doctor on Monday and make an appointment. So, we'll see then.

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The digital TV Guide just rolled over to next Saturday, and BBC in America is having a full day of Doctor Who next Saturday! It'll start around 6 am (here) and run through the end of the fourth season, some Doctor Who specials, all of the fifth season, and continue with the first new episode The Eleventh Hour! Then there will be several repeats of the new episode. Check your local schedules and set your DVRs/TiVos!

Episodes to especially watch for include Silence in the Library/Forrest of the Dead (a two-parter: a horror story with a love story embedded), Turn Left, and the finale: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, with all the major characters that have been in the series recently, including Sarah Jane Smith, Rose, Martha, and Gwen, Ianto, and Captain Jack from Torchwood.

Don't miss it!

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And, finally, to the schedule for this year!

• May 1-2--The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival The biggest event of it's kind in the United States, the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is not to be missed! We almost always go on Saturday. The hours say that it's open until 5 on Sunday, but people start packing up at around 3, so you miss a lot if you go on Sunday.
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• Jun 12-13--The Potomac Celtic Festival All things Celtic! Once again, Saturday is the day to go!
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• August 28-October 24--The Maryland Renaissance Festival  We don't usually decide which weekends we'll be going this early, but we usually try to make it twice once in September and once in October.
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• October 2-3--Fall Fiber Festival and Montpelior Sheepdog Trials  This is so much smaller than the Sheep and Wool Fest, but something to tide you over until the next one.

And that brings us up to the cooler weather when these kinds of things don't generally happen.

This year, Lynn will not be joining us for some or most of the fun things we'll be going to. She's having more eye surgery, this time for cataracts.

I'm really upset that she won't be going, but even more upset because of the reason. I wish her the best with the surgery, and wish her eyes were just OK and didn't need the surgery at all, but I am thankful that what's wrong is something that can be fixed. We're going to miss you while we're doing all these fun things! Maybe you can get to go to the Renfaire in the Fall, if you can get off work!?

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The high today is over seventy, so it's already getting uncomfortable in here, and it'll be even worse tomorrow. It's supposed to cool off a bit on Tuesday and Wednesday, but there will be more heat and indoor pollen before this is over. Don't worry if I don't blog every day. It'll just be the heat!

In case I don't blog as often as I'd like, have a wonderful week!

Christmas Presents Gone!

Most of the Christmas presents are finished and gone. Holly came over yesterday, and since she was sending presents to some of the same people, she took those so that she could mail just one BIG box to the recipients. She also took the presents for people she would be seeing real soon. I'm sorry that these didn't get out sooner. Mailing was delayed mostly by weather, snow, sleet, extreme cold, and/or wind, plus a couple of days that I was feeling really bad.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that I've finished all the presents.

I've been going crazy trying to think of a present for Robin. It's really difficult, because Robin has so much money that he can buy whatever he wants, so he has everything he wants, and I'm so short of money that I can barely afford anything. But, after 3 months of looking for the perfect present for him, inspiration finally struck. Actually, two inspirations, one to make, and one to buy. The one to buy has been ordered over the internet, and has been shipped and is on it's way. I bought most of the yarn for the other one yesterday.

The other person who hasn't got a Christmas present yet is Everett. I've been trying to find yarn to make his present, but haven't had any luck so far. We looked at Michaels, and AC Moore yesterday, and neither had what I needed. Well, actually, Michaels had three of the six balls I needed in the color I wanted, but in different dye lots. So, I'm still looking.

While out, Holly and I stopped a Borders. I finally got a calender for the new year, plus the Septimus Heap book that is the fourth in the series (Queste), and out in paperback at last. I have the fifth book (Syren) ordered at the library, but it will be a while before I get it. Holly had a 33% off coupon for me, and I used it to buy The Sorceress of Karres! Now I have lots of great stuff to read!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Holly gave me a gift certificate to Knit Picks for Christmas! Now I'm mulling over what to buy.

Knit Picks has piqued my imagination with their new designers program. I have got to make some designs for them and for myself! I'm considering making a hat for my first project.

While we were out, we stopped at the WalMart that's at the Manassas Mall, and were amazed! This WalMart is so big and has lots of stuff that the others don't have! Having all that stuff available would seem to be an advantage, but it is so big that I got tired of walking before I got everything.

We topped everything off with a trip to Ruby Tuesday and a lot of catching up and fun.

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There are lots of programs on TV tonight with new episodes! They include: Chuck, Heroes, Castle (this is the episode with Alyssa Milano), Fringe (on a different night), and The Big Bang Theory! Unfortunately, Heroes, Fringe and The Big Bang Theory are all on at the same time, thus exceeding my DVR's capacity to record two shows at once.

I promised John that I would finish the work he wanted me to do on the Steve Canyon poster today, and it's not done yet, so I have to go.

There will probably not be a post tomorrow due to my last dental appointment! There will be drilling and a dubious filling will be replaced, and I will get my final caps, and I'll be done. I don't feel that I can really say that I'll be happy to go, but I'll be happy to get it finished!

Have a great evening and a wonderful week!

Christmas Eve Is Two Weeks from Today!

I just wrote it and I still can't believe that two weeks from today, it will be Christmas eve!

I still have so much knitting to do!

Just before I sat down to write all this, there was a knock at the door, and when I went to answer it, there was a box full of shiny yarn! Some of it is Lion Brand Festive Fur, and some is Paton's Brilliant, but it's all shiny, and it's all intended to make Christmas stockings with.

About two weeks 'till Christmas, and I still haven't made all the Christmas stockings! Well, I made some shiny Christmas stockings for Malaia and John a couple of years ago, so I don't have to do those. But I'd like to get some made for Kyle, Bob, Holly and Robin, at least. I'd like to make stockings for several other people, too, but I think that's unrealistic at this point.

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I have hypothyroidism (low thyroid function), and I got a phone call from the pharmacy yesterday. I ordered a refill on my prescription three days ago, and they called me two days ago to say that they'd run out and would have to order more, so it wouldn't be ready on time. I thought it was odd at the time. I mean I had filled a prescription with them and they knew I would be coming back for more, so why not keep it in stock?

Then yesterday they called to say that the Armor Thyroid that had been prescribed wasn't available AT ALL! The woman I spoke to said that they'd keep trying to get some more, but she didn't hold out much hope.

There are two different types of drugs for an under-active thyroid: natural hormones and synthetic (patentable) drugs.

The thyroid hormone that human bodies make includes chemicals called T1, T2, T3, and T4 as well as calcitonin and possibly others. The most popular synthetic drug (Synthroid) contains T4. The argument for the synthetic drug is that T4 is kind of a "holding" substance, and can be converted to T3 (which is the active ingredient that your body actually uses) in a body with a healthy endocrine system. Since it's only given to people who are already proven to have endocrine systems that are malfunctioning, as you might expect, some people just can't convert T4 to T3 well or at all, and Synthroid is about as useful to those people in solving their thyroid problems as drinking a glass of water. The further argument for synthetic drugs is that researchers haven't been able to discover a use in the body for T1 and T2, so they have come to the illogical conclusion that they don't do anything, and therefore, don't need to be in the drug given to people. Of course, if they put all those things into the drug, it wouldn't be patentable, and they wouldn't be able to charge the big bucks.

Calcitonin, by the way is also marketed as a drug to deal with osteoporosis and Pagets disease. I have Pagets, by the way (in my skull0, and I'm working on osteporosis, so this is important to me. A large amount of Calcitonin gives me horrible headaches, so I don't really want to take the very expensive drug form of it, but I suspect that the bit that's in the natural hormone helps. And, of course, that's not in the synthetic.

The problem here seems to be Big Brother. In all it's wisdom, the FDA is jealous of the small amount of money that the manufacturers of Armor Thyroid and the two other natural thyroid drugs are making and they want those profits for the manufacturer of Synthroid (and more, since Synthroid costs a lot more), so they're coming up with the idea that the natural hormones that have been safely in use since the 1930s (closing in on 100 years) are "new drugs" and have to go through the whole certification process from scratch! They're overlooking the fact that almost all doctors who actually have hypothyroidism have tried Synthroid, and switched to a natural thyroid medicine because they found out how BAD Synthroid makes them feel!

They're also proving once again, that they couldn't care less what they do to US citizens' health, as long as they get their bribes and help the drug companies harm us. At least I can't think of any other good reason why they'd do such a thing!

So, the plan is to find out if any other natural hormone is available, and if so, get a revised prescription from my doctor so that I can get that. Failing that, I need to get a new prescription and send it to a pharmacy in Canada or Europe, where these drugs are still available because doctors there are out to cure or help people rather than make lots of money for big drug companies!

As a matter of fact, if I lived in Europe, all I'd have to do is go to a doctor and he'd prescribe an antibiotic for my ulcerative colitis, and I'd be cured. But, unfortunately for me, I live in the US, and doctors here would rather tell me it's incurable and prescribe a drug that costs $400 per month (well it did nine years ago, it's probably more now) and doesn't do much of anything.

Lucky for me, I talked to someone who grew up in England, and he told me what doctors prescribe there: multi-minerals in a sublingual form. I can't find them in sublingual form, so it took longer for it to help, but multi-mineral tablets (at just under $10 per month) do a much better job than the expensive drug (Asacol)! In fact, they make the UC act like it's not there, which Asacol never did.

I HATE the FDA!

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I have so many things that I'd like to get done today that there's no way that I can possibly do them all. The day just isn't that long.

I need to do something about getting some more natural thyroid medicine, pick up the books I ordered at the library, go try to get the shoes I want, get to WalMart and get some new jeans as well as the vitamins, minerals and OTC stuff I've replace all my prescription medication with, and a trip to the grocery store would be helpful. Since I have to do any traveling on the bus, that's way more than I can do in one day.

And I have to knit those presents!

So have a great evening and enjoy all the reruns on TV tonight!

Recovering from Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was wonderful, as usual. I got to see Holly and Robin's new, 52 inch TV, and it's wonderful, but we actually had Thanksgiving dinner in the new bar behind their house.

A while ago, Robin bought a Chinese dragon kite, and he wanted it for decoration. Here's a photo of it on the ceiling in the bar.

And here it is close up:

Here are Holly and Robin behind the bar:

A photo of Robin getting ready to answer a question, it looks like:

And a couple of photos of Holly:

I finally gave up and went home after 1:30 am.

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Before I forget to tell you, Vickie Howell is having her annual book giveaway! Today is the last day to enter, so get right over there!

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For all you knitters out there who need/want a yarn winder, here are instructions for making one of your own for a low cost.

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The ABC Family channel was running the "coundown" to 25 Days of Christmas, but gave up on that for Thanksgiving and Saturday. They're back with some Christmas movies, if anyone cares. I have to admit it, I'm a sucker for those gooey Christmas movies.

BBC in America told the people who put up the digital TV guide that they were going to show the Doctor Who episode, Utopia yesterday, but they really showed Turn Left. I hope they show the two episodes that come after Turn Left (The Stolen Earth and Journey's End). The other two are considered to be a whole story, but I think that Turn Left should be included as part of that story, and it should be a three-parter.

I just looked it up, and they're not showing Doctor Who next Saturday. In that time slot they're showing Torchwood, and they haven't put up any info on which episode yet.

By the way, SyFy is now rerunning Doctor Who on Friday mornings, very early, again, at least for a few more weeks. Next week will be Fires of Pompei. On Christmas Eve (Christmas day) and New Year's Day, they will not be showing Doctor Who. Hopefully, he'll be back in January.

Heroes will be the only new SF programming on Monday. Of course, SyFy will have it's usual reruns of Ghost Whisperer, and there will be reruns of The Big Bang Theory, and Castle. I know Castle isn't SF, but I like Nathan Fillion so much from Firefly.

I have to get going now. I promised John I'd get some more done on the back cover of Volume 3 of the Steve Canyon DVDs over the weekend, and yesterday went in a completely different direction from what I intended, and I didn't get anything done then, so I have to make it up now.

I hope you've all been having a great extended holiday weekend!

Quiet Thursday

One of the best things about Holly and Robin's trip to New Orleans (for me) was that they saw Doctor John. The main reason that was so good was that I looked for some music from Doctor John on the internet, and found some great recordings on You Tube.

I've seen lots of recordings on You Tube, and I usually try to avoid them. My computer is older and doesn't play most of them in any sort of coherent way. But the recordings of his music were clear, had great sound, and played well.

Which lead me to look for some of my other favorite music makers.

Today, I'm going to let you hear Chris Smither, who, on a list of my favorite artists would be fighting it out with Ry Cooder for number one. I will undoubtedly write something about Ry Cooder sometime soon.

Here's Chris' most famous song, Love You Like a Man. You should note that when Bonnie Raitt transposed genders so she could sing it, she also softened up the language. This is lowdown blues at it's best!

The first time I ever saw Chris was at The Main Point outside Philadelphia in the very early '70s. I went to see John Hammond, and Chris opened for him. He came on, sang Love You Like a Man, and I fell in love! I didn't even care about Johnny Hammond after that!

Chris is not only a superb musician, but he's a showman, too. Not in the sense of putting on a fabulous light show or anything, but just plain charisma. When he comes onto the stage, it's like he grabs you by the collar and drags your attention onto the stage. You can't walk out, you can't talk to someone else, you can't ignore him! You can't do anything but sit there and enjoy the show with him. When he finally lets you go, you have been entertained to within an inch of your life!

Chris always plays sitting down, and he had a large board at the Point to stomp on because almost everything he does has a hard, driving rhythm, and he pounds it out on a board (one of these recordings has a shot of his foot stomping on a board). One of the people at the Point said that they had a "Chris Smither memorial chair" in the basement that they kept for sentimental reasons. It had been reduced to rubble!

Here's Chris doing the classic Statesboro Blues:

But he's best doing his own songs, like Train Home. This recording was hand-held, and the picture bounces around a lot, but the music, as always with Chris, is excellent!

Here's another handheld recording, complete with people walking in front of the camera, of his song Crocodile Man.

This is not his best work, just the best that I was able to find on You Tube. I, personally, like his own songs better than a lot of stuff that other people wrote, with the exception of Catfish, which was not written by him, but is very good nonetheless. And, of course, I love the classics, like Statesboro Blues.

Catfish is another lowdown blues, but in a cute way. Part of the lyrics go:

Catfish got whiskers and a sweet little grin,

but you never can tell where a catfish has been.

I'll be your catfish, honey, any old time,

just call out my name, girl, and drop me your line.

Some lowdown blues goes overboard, and is in questionable taste, but Catfish is more like flirting, cute, not raunchy.

Oh, and I should mention that Chris will be at the Birchmere (in Alexandria) on the 13th of November for anybody reading this locally. You can see his schedule here, find out more about him at his website, and follow him on Facebook.

If you look at his website, you'll find that there's a book that's just out with a story that was written by him. This is the first I've heard of a completly unsuspected talent that he has! The book is Amplified.

I don't remember the name of the author, but there is/was someone out there writing mysteries who was also a fan of Cris'. Sometimes the books would just have a reference where the character would get in their car and turn on the radio and Chris would be on, other times there were other mentions, but he was in most of the books.

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The Legend of the Seeker is about to come on SyFy in a few minutes. If you want to catch it from the beginning, this is it!

And, of course, there will be the usual great stuff on TV tonight: The Vampire Diaries (which got off to a slow start, but is beginning to get good), Supernatural, Flash Forward, and The Mentalist. Those are all new, by the way.

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I've decided that I need to change my whole Christmas present strategy in relationship to my blog. From now on, I'll be talking about Christmas presents, but I'm not going to tell who they're for.

I placed two orders yesterday for yarn for Christmas presents, and they will be original creations, and I'll be writing up the instructions and publishing them in PDF form.

But I'm not saying who they're for.

Legend of the Seeker is on now, so I'm going. Have a great evening!

V!

Well I recorded most of V on my DVR. That is I tried to record what the SyFy Channel aired. Not all of it, thanks to the shoddy Comcast DVR that failed to record about an hour of it. But not one episode. It failed to record the second half of one episode, and the first half of the next episode.

Aside number one: Comcast DVRs do not work well. They malfunction at random and in random ways all the time. About one out of ever ten times I go to play something back, the screen goes to black, and the whole thing locks up. I have to turn it off and back on to get it to play the recording if I'm lucky. The thing it's currently doing is saying it's taking up 4% of the disk space to record a two hour movie, but if I erase that same movie, it says I freed up 1% of the space. As you can see, this is eventually going to be a problem. Even though it said I had 18% of disk space free, I think it quit recording because it thought the disk was full. I'm having to disconnect it for 30 seconds and then reconnect it and leave it turned off for 15 to 20 minutes to get it to malfunction at it's usual level, as opposed to not functioning at all.

They are coming out to fix it on Monday. At least that's what they told me. Then again, they also left a message that said that they had fixed a problem in my area, and that they think it fixed my problem with the DVR, and my appointment was canceled, and that if I still had a problem I should call them and they'd schedule an appointment. When I called them, their automated service confirmed the existing appointment.

But there is a Comcast representative coming out to talk to all the people in the building that have problems on the 19th. I suspect that he, like the people I speak to on the phone, is an expert at blaming someone else, and will not really answer any questions or do anything to help. Comcast almost never does.

Aside Number Two: I had forgotten that Judson Scott was in some of the later episodes of V. He's been one of my favorite actors ever since the first time I saw him on Phoenix.

Back on Topic: V was a really wonderful and important show in a number of ways. It showed beautifully how a population can be convinced to do really terrible things. It compared what the visitors were doing with what Hitler did before and during World War II, and it was an excellent comparison, too.

When I was in High School, the teacher showed us an educational documentary to illustrate the way the communists were dealing with propaganda, and how they were manipulating people's minds.

The thing that was truly scary, is that a large group of the population of the town I went to school in protested vigorously about the fact that she was teaching this, and, even more terrifying, was that they followed all the procedure to stop her that the teacher was trying to teach us! They illustrated what she was trying to teach perfectly.

And the visitors in V are doing the same thing.

But, what is even more chilling is that some of those things have been happening right here in the United States, and the majority of the citizens I've spoken to have been calling it a good thing! One of those things that stands out is the federal laws about terrorists that have been passed under the last administration.

What people I've talked to seem to miss about all this is that by "terrorist" what they really mean is accused terrorist. In other words, all you need is to accuse someone of terrorism and all their civil rights go away, and they can be tortured, imprisoned, and even killed! This leaves the door open to someone who's miffed that their next-door neighbor has let their dog loose to make a mess on their front lawn to accuse that person of being a terrorist, and the federal government will punish him. To within an inch of their life. If they're lucky. It's the first step to abolishing democracy.

And I can't help noticing that it was extremely convenient for that administration to have everyone upset by the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I also couldn't help noticing that a couple of days after the attacks, there were no plane debris anywhere near the Pentagon when I rode past it. And in spite of the government insisting that hundreds of people saw the plane hit the building, I haven't been able to find even one, and I live nearby.

And I can't help thinking that if someone who wanted to pass legislation to start to legally abolish democracy in the US, it was awfully convenient.

Aside Number Three: I saw a program on The History Channel recently about people who have a conspiracy theory going about 9/11, and the show drove me crazy. The show gave both conspiracy theorists and government representatives a chance to state their case.

Surprisingly, the best information to prove that it was a conspiracy came from the government reps!

One of the things that really gave me a jolt was that the government people said that large parts of both of the twin towers were closed for about two weeks before the "attack" and there was a lot of construction/destruction going on without an explanation. I didn't know that, and it provides an excellent explanation for the fact that both buildings went straight down without harming adjacent buildings.

Back on Topic: The second reason I think V is so important is that it provides lots of ideas for how to fight back. So, pay attention. It could save your life and your country. I'm sure the Germans thought it couldn't happen in their country, but it did.

I should mention, at this point, that I feel that the US is getting back on track as a country I can be proud of under the current administration.

But the best thing about the previous miniseries/TV show called V was that it was entertaining. And the new version promises to be entertaining, too. The first episode alone is too small a sampling of quality to be sure, but keep watching.

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In other SF/fantasy TV, Eastwick will be back on tonight, and now that Chad is dead (killed by the statue his girlfriend, Roxie, made) things may be heating up. I can't wait to see it!

The SyFy Channel will be showing a new (for them) series tomorrow evening, called The Legend of the Seeker. The show is based on the Sword of Truth series of books by Terry Goodkind, and is the very thing that all you Sword-and-Sorcery fen have been waiting for.

I haven't read the books, but I have seen the first season, and it's better than I expected. In addition to being based on books from a respected author like Terry Goodkind, Sam Rami also has his hand in it (as one of what seems like a dozen different kinds of producers), and his brother, Ted, even appears in an episode. You might remember Ted Rami from Xena Warrior Princess, where he played Joxer.

So, you might want to check it out on SyFy tomorrow night if you haven't already seen it.

Oh, and SyFy will be showing Doctor Who on their daytime rotation on Friday!

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I have some additional photos from Holly and Robin's trip to New Orleans.

Here, you see an overall view of Robin in his costume.

And, in case you missed the point, is a close-up:

Holly said that everybody recognized him instantly.

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Well, my Social Security arrived yesterday, and I've paid my bills and bought some things to make Christmas presents from, and now, one day later, I have barely enough to buy food and stuff for the rest of the month.

What else is new?

I need to think up a good money raising project. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Have a great evening!

Happy All Saints Day

Happy All Saints Day!

Although It's All Saints Day, I expect that I'll be dealing with the fall-out from Halloween for the coming week. I still haven't gotten all the photos from Holly with her and Robin in costume.

But her sister, Heather, and her husband, Rob were in the newspaper today! Read the whole story here.

This was the view of their house yesterday.

Rob apparently scared kids with a (bladeless) chain saw.

And Heather posed with her son, Mitchell.

The problem with all this is that next year, we'll expect bigger and better things from them! But then, Heather is only following her father's example.

When we lived across the street from my mother, Al made the house so scary that none of the kids would stop to trick or treat! He finally had to turn off or take down some of the stuff so that kids would come for the candy!

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Well, V is on SyFy! All day! And all day tomorrow and Tuesday!

Today, they are showing the original mini-series (twice, it's on later, if you missed it) followed by the two other mini-series. Tomorrow and Tuesday, they'll be showing the TV series during their daytime rotation.

I have a lot more to say about V, but right now I just want to make sure I don't miss any of it!

Have a great All Saints Day!

Day at the Dentist's Office

Yesterday, I had to get up at 7 am (that's really early in the morning for me!) to get myself ready in enough time to catch the bus and get to the dentist's office at 10!

I wanted enough time to get a chance to eat something because I didn't think I'd want to eat later, and I was right about that.

The plan was for me to get a broken cap replaced, and get a new cap for a badly damaged tooth. Since the teeth were next to each other, and they weren't sure how well the new cap would do because the tooth was so badly damaged, the plan was to get one cap of two teeth stuck together (no space to floss in between).

Things started off pretty well. They gave me the Novocaine and then did an impression of all my teeth. When I got the cap that's now broken, it took something like ten to twenty minutes to do the impression, but this time they did it in under a minute. I thought this was real progress, but it has it's down side.

The next step was to remove the broken cap, which was almost like trying to remove a real tooth. It took a lot of drilling to weaken the cap, and then a lot of force. There was very real violence involved!

Then we moved on to cutting down the other tooth that had already broken and been repaired and then had a bad cavity added to the mix. That went pretty smoothly.

Then we came to the part that was a real problem for me, which was taking an impression of the base of the two teeth that we planned to make new caps for.

They took the impression. But they weren't happy with it, so they added more of the impression material and did it again. And again. And again. And again.

The problem with this is that they were just adding more material to the original impression, coupled with the fact that the impression material seems to shrink a bit as it cures. I'm sure that it doesn't really shrink a lot, but it was enough, since this was an impression of all my teeth, including the back ones that each time he redid it, it was harder to get it back on. Each time they redid it, he had to use more muscle to get it back on. And once it was on, it felt like it was bending all the bones in my face and head. It hurt! It really hurt!

After the third or fourth time they did it, it pulled the cap off my other front tooth. The dentist tried to replace it, but broke it in the process. So, they had to do an impression of the base of that tooth, too.

So, I'm left with the fading taste/smell of: rubber gloves, the impression material, Novocaine, burned teeth (from the drilling), blood and other assorted dental tastes/smells. I thought some of it might be on my hands or face, but no amount of washing/brushing would get rid of it last night. It's starting to fade today. Plus, there are still small pieces of the impression material that I'm fishing out of my mouth and trying to scrape off the inside of my upper lip, etc, and the skin on the inside of my lip seems to be blistered and is partly peeling off.

My whole head, and especially my face, hurt last night from the distortion that was imposed by the impression material. There was and still is a sharp pain in my nose for no reason I can think of unless there was a hairline crack in the area between my front teeth and nose. The whole area that had Novocaine in it still hurts, as it always does for a few days after something like this. The temporary caps are probably a tiny fraction of an inch larger than the previous caps/tooth, so they're pressing against the teeth in both directions, which hurts a bit. And, of course, they had to drill my tooth below the gumline, so the gum is all torn up, and the whole general area has swollen. None of this is major pain, but it's enough to make me feel yucky. I know from past experience that it will be worth it, though.

So, I have temporary caps on three of my front teeth, and instructions not to bite into anything "unless you want your teeth to be all chippy before we can replace them."

In three weeks, I'll go back and they'll remove the temporary caps, fill a cavity next to one of the caps, give me the finished caps, and I'll have time for it all to heal before Thanksgiving!

I had three caps put in almost thirty years ago, and I do know that all this hassle/pain will be worth it. Once it's done, it'll be almost like having my own, real teeth. I can hardly wait!

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Holly and Robin are on their Halloween vacation already. Unless they met with delays at the airport, they should be in New Orleans by now.

Holly called me last night. She's angry at K-Mart. She ordered a camera from them with expedited shipping. They guaranteed absolutely that she would have the camera delivered yesterday. As of yesterday, they hadn't even shipped it! She swears that she will never buy anything from K-Mart ever again! I don't really blame her. So, now she has to spend part of her vacation looking for a nice camera to buy. You would think that in this economy, a store like K-Mart wouldn't want to blow a sale.

So, for any of you planning your Christmas shopping, keep this in mind.

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Eastwick will be on again tonight! I can't wait! The electronic TV Guide on my DVR says that they plan to burn a witch for Halloween! I sincerely hope they plan to do it in effigy! Whatever, it should be good!

I really hope you got to see the Halloween episode of Castle on Monday! It was too much fun!

Have a great evening!

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Addition:

I nearly forgot!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Columbus Day!

Happy Columbus Day, particularly to those of you who have a day off work!

For this blog, it's going to be a Miscellaneous Monday. And to kick off this insanity, here's a great photo with a great story to go with it:

Although, I must say that the photo sort of says it all!

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For those of you who were worried, I found an article that proves that the 21st of December in 2012 will not be the end of the world. According to the article, the people on the History Channel have just misinterpreted some things.

Well, I'm certainly relieved!

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Now we have several different items about knitting.

If you're a knitter and also into fashion, you're in luck this year. Knits are big in both senses of the word in fashion at the moment! Read more about it here!

Knitstorming hits the news in this article.

Has your stash reached SABLE (Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy) proportions? Read about yet another scheme to hide your addiction here.

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I'm busy! Sorry! Otherwise I would be blogging more.

This past week, I had a lot going on that I couldn't control, including: having my kitchen completely redone (they ripped things out to the point where only the walls were left--I'm still moving stuff back into it), a dental appointment, and a doctor's appointment. That's on top of the normal stuff.

I'm currently working on the outside cover for Volume 3 of the Steve Canyon DVDs.

I'm not only knitting, but also designing Christmas presents. I'd love to discuss it more here, but can't for obvious reasons. I have just a bit of the toe to do to finish Holly's birthday present socks. The Christmas present socks are done and were delivered on Saturday. She knew all about them and even picked the colors for them, so I saw no reason why she shouldn't be enjoying them right now. On the subject of socks, that leaves only Malaia's socks to do.

But I'm trying to focus on Christmas stockings for all those that I haven't made them for. Which means that you can forget about it, Malaia. I already gave you and John yours.

But that leaves me trying to figure out how to make a festive Christmas stocking in Robin's favorite color, which is black! I am piecing together a concept for that little by little. Actually, I had a concept a while ago. I just have to find the yarn and stuff to put it into practice. Last year, I gave him a black Santa hat.

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There's a new Heroes on tonight! As well as a new Big Bang Theory.

Dead Like Me: Life After Death will be on the SyFy Channel at 5 (locally) in case you missed it the first time it was on, and will be followed by four episodes of Ghost Whisperer.

Have a great evening!

We Hate Comcast!

Comcast, the company that hates it's customers and doesn't mind showing it, turned off service for Holly and Robin.

They couldn't pay their bill due to the fact that Comcast's computer is messed up. Comcast refused to accept a payment, thus (according to legal precedent) cancelling the debt. Robin told them to cancel service permanently, but they said they couldn't do that because (according to them) they still owed money.

So, Comcast is stuck in a limbo of their own making. They'll have an account with Comcast forever because their account can't be closed because they (according to Comcast) owe money that Comcast won't let them pay.

Once again, all together, with feeling: "WE HATE COMCAST!"

The great side to all this is that they'll be having DirecTV installed on Monday! They'll be getting a DVR! And by that, I mean a DVR that works! Not a DVR like the one I have from Comcast that works sometimes. If I could get DirecTV where I live, I would have done it two months after I moved here! I hate Comcast!

They'll have a DVR that has twice the capacity of mine. And it will just work! When they watch a movie and get interrupted and go back to it later, they'll be able to go back to where they stopped watching it, even if it's an hour later, unlike my DVR that remembers where I left off for all of two minutes (if I'm lucky).

And when they go to watch something they've recorded, they'll be able to watch it, not get a black screen that will necessitate unplugging the DVR for at least 5 seconds, and then make them wait another 10 minutes while the DVR boots up to have another shot at trying to watch it. Which is what mine does all too frequently.

And it turns out that you can get internet through DirecTV, too, unlike what they told me a while back.

And Holly said that if she forgets to set the DVR to record something that she can call it on her phone and tell it to record!

I envy them!

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A bit more than a week ago, I answered a call on Twitter and volunteered to make a hat for someone for their yarn store. Last week, I got a ball of yarn in the mail that looked and felt like it had been wound by the incredible Hulk, and he was trying to see how tight he could possibly wind it. Photo later.

Well, I've rewound it, and given it some time for the yarn to relax from the outrageous stretching it's been subjected to. The ball of yarn is much bigger now.

I've been searching on Ravelry for a nice hat to make. Since the yarn is variegated, I thought a nice entrelac would be be good. She specified that it had to be knit in a free pattern. After a long search, I decided to knit a Quant from Knitty.com.

Spin-Off did an article about this pattern, and I've been wanting to get the pattern and knit one. I'd like to knit it from some yarn with slightly longer intervals of color, but I think it's going to be nice after all. And it's one of the few patterns that can be made with 200 yards of yarn or less. The ball of yarn said it has 200 yards, but the ball was about the size of a softball when it arrived, so I have some serious doubts about that. If it was measured while under the extreme tension needed to wind the ball so tight, it's probably more like the 150-160 yards needed to knit the Quant.

More info and photos on this later.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Rapunzel's Felted Tower

The last stop for us on the tour of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival was at the skein/garment/etc. competition.

There were some really impressive garments in the competition, but the thing that I will remember best is the felted tower for Rapunzel.

Here's an overall photo of the tower.

Followed by a close-up of Rapunzel, herself. Note the flowers growing on the tower near her.

Not only was the tower three dimensional, but parts of it extended past the base of the tower, including Rapunzel's hair, which was braided and hung freely from her window at the top of the tower and coiled itself at the base of the tower. She's even wearing a beaded necklace.

Some real towers have gargoyles or other decorative stonework protruding from the side, and this one was no exception, with decorative "stone" roses extended from the sides. Beautiful!

This photo shows a bit better how the roses extend from the side of the tower.

The side of the tower has a vine growing up the side of it. The roots of the vine also extend off the bottom of the tower onto the table, looking as if they are growing from the table.

The vine also has little, felted flowers growing from it.

There was a lot of detail that I can't really show here. The software didn't want to let me show this many photos. I was amazed!

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John has announced the release date for the newest Steve Canyon DVD! Check it out!

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I am still having problems with my back. I am more and more convinced that I strained some muscles. So, of course, it hurts like the dickens, but I don't think it's done any permanent damage. I'm at a point where I can sit, stand, or walk without too much problem, but moving from one of those conditions to another is still very painful. For example: sitting is OK, but getting up hurts. Once I've stood up (and given it a few seconds) it's OK again, but if I start walking, it hurts for the first 10 seconds or so.

Which is giving me a lot of sympathy for Holly, who did something similar a bit more than a week ago, and didn't see the worst of the effects until after the Sheep and Wool Fest. She and Robin went to Annapolis and went canoeing (which she hasn't done in years). Apparently, she did something to some muscles that suddenly let her know they were unhappy by causing a lot of chest pain, to the point that she wound up in the emergency room wondering if she was having a heart attack.

I'm sorry for her that she's in pain, but if it has to hurt, I'm so glad it's a muscle problem rather than a heart problem.

That said, muscle problems hurt!!! I'm feeling sorry for both of us.

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All this has made me post less than I would like to, and leave out stuff that I would have liked to mention, but missed out on because I was distracted by my backache.

Yesterday and this morning, I caught some really good movies on cable. Last night, I caught They Live not too long after the beginning. It's one of my favorite science fiction movies, and seems to have a lot to do with our current financial crisis. When it was over, I found Duck, You Sucker on another station, about half over. This is a good movie for the first viewing. It's a very offbeat cowboy movie set during the Mexican Revolution. I loved it in the theater. But it wears off quickly.

Today, I caught Enemy Mine by Barry Longyear. This is an excellent SF movie about two soldiers on opposing sides of an alien/human war. They crash land and are stranded on a planet together. I love this movie.

Check your local listings if you're interested, because these are stations that tend to show a movie several times over the course of a week. I think they were in the many Encore stations.

We have another new episode of Supernatural tonight (I think), and I know we're getting to the end. This may be the season finale.

Have a great evening!