Eclectic Friday

As I mentioned before, Holly and Robin went four wheeling over the weekend. I have some photos of their new vehicle.

As you can see, they had lots of fun and got very muddy. I mention the muddy part because they managed to get mud in through the sunroof on top of them.

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Monday, I got frustrated with the way that the new knitting didn't match the old knitting on the Celtic sweater (I changed needle sizes), and frogged the rest of it. Well, most of the rest of it. There's still a little bit of the hood that needs to come apart, but I hit the nine-hour mark on frogging it, and couldn't stand it anymore. I figured I'll be more willing to rip the rest of it when I've gotten to a point where I need to.

So, Wednesday, I started over completely from scratch, and as of yesterday morning, this is how much I'd gotten done:

That's the band for the front of the hood. The two stitch markers are holding stitches to be continued once I've picked up the stitches along the edge of the band.

In most places, I'll be casting on using waste yarn and picking up those stitches later, or putting bits on stitch holders to pick up later. When I'm done, there won't be any cast on edges left in the whole thing, and the only bind offs will be at the bottom of the sleeves and the bottom of the sweater. Actually, I think those stitches I cast on with the blue waste yarn at one end of the band are the only cast on stitches in the whole thing. No, wait, I'll be putting a band on the edges of the pockets, and that will involve casting on a few stitches.

Here's a photo of the hood today when I woke up. The stitches from the holders have been picked up and continued into the knot that will be on the top of the hood when worn, or in the back when the hood is down. It will look roughly like the old one.

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For all you Steve Canyon fans, John has a new post up on the Steve Canyon blog! New and exciting things are happening. Don't miss it!

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There's not a whole lot on TV this weekend. And that's saying a lot (actually, it's saying a very little) considering that the weekend is three days long. Once again, most of the TV stations have decided that most of us will either be going somewhere for the weekend, or will be out in the back yard, barbequeing some steaks, so they decided it would be wasteful to put on anything that someone might actually want to watch.

So, go somewhere this weekend or incinerate something!

Have fun, though, whatever you do!

Steve Canyon in French!

There's a review up for the Steve Canyon series in French! You can read an English translation of it here! It's actually gone through a translation process, and some of it is quite amusing after being dragged into English.

The good part about this for many people will be the listings of which planes appear in each episode. This is particularly interesting to me because I was in the Air Force right after the series was on TV, and we had many of the planes that appear in the series right on base where I got to see them up close, sometimes too close.

Save Eastwick!

What is it about television networks that makes them remove every TV program that I really like as soon as possible?

The Middleman was there and gone so quickly that I missed most of it because Comcast refused to broadcast it with the closed captioning that was in the signal when ABC Family sent it to them. The little bit I did see was wonderful! ABC Family could have had it for several more seasons and I would have watched and treasured every episode, but no, they wanted me to watch some other network instead of them.

The latest casualty of this kind of thinking is ABCs Eastwick. This is easily the best show on TV right now. Yes, there are other shows that I watch and enjoy, but Eastwick is the one I most don't want to see go off the air. So, naturally, ABC is demonstrating that they want me to watch some other station.

OK, so they're replacing it in the time slot by moving Ugly Betty to Wednesday. While I was searching for more information to link to for Eastwick, I found the link above, which says that not only have they canceled it, but they aren't going to show the final few episodes! The thing that baffles me, is that Ugly Betty is getting ratings that are lower than Eastwick. And Ugly Betty is getting replaced by something even worse in it's old time slot!

ABC, why don't you put Eastwick into a timeslot on Tuesday night? Everything there is so forgettable that I don't even remember anything that's on your network on Tuesday, and I certainly don't watch your network (or any other regularly scheduled show) on Tuesday.

If you want to save Eastwick, or at least try, go here or the Facebook Save Eastwick page (or both). You can get more info about it on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Eastwick?v=wall, or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SaveEastwick. You can write to ABC here.

Well, anyway, tonight there will be an all-new episode of Eastwick, so let's enjoy it while we can! From what I'm reading on the internet, it may be the very last one ever!

While I'm on the subject of canceled/reinstated shows, Chuck will be back in January!

There will be two (count 'em, TWO) episodes of Dollhouse on Friday!

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I'm on the internet! You can see an article about Volume 3 of the Steve Canyon DVD here!

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I've been doing a lot of knitting for Christmas presents, and I'll take a photo of some of it tomorrow (if I get a chance--there's a lot to do tomorrow), when we're due to have some sun, which is something that didn't happen at all today.

I've also been working on the covers for the new Steve Canyon DVD (Volume 3), and I have to do a bit more of that today, so I have to quit writing this and get busy!

Have a great night, and don't miss Eastwick!

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Addition:

Vogue Knitting is having a sale on their patterns. Get more information about it here!

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!

Steve Canyon is Coming Back!

I woke up this morning, and was just about to turn over and go back to sleep, when the phone rang. It was John, in his sweet, loving, ever-so-nice way giving me a shove, and getting me going on the cover of Volume 3 of the complete Steve Canyon on DVD. He had lots of ideas about the cover(s). I was half asleep when I talked to him, so I hope I can remember it all. "F-104" keeps running around my head. I'm not entirely sure why at this point, but I already found some great photos of them on the internet!

I wound up getting up and staggering around for a while (which is usual for me when attempting to wake up) and trying to get ready for the day and all the stuff I have to do, especially with the addition of the finishing the cover (at least the front cover) by tomorrow sometime.

John has had a lot of things to do in real life as well as stuff to do to get the video ready for DVD. You can read a bit more about it on his website, here.

He also mentioned something about selling DVDs on Amazon again. After looking around on Amazon, I find that he's right (he always is). Very soon, you will be able to buy Volume 1 of the Steve Canyon DVDs on Amazon. It's listed as "currently unavailable," but you can find it here, and it will be available soon.

And, yes, that is my artwork on the cover! I'm excited!

So, this is going to be a short post because I have all the aforementioned "stuff" to do.

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For all you science fiction fen out there, here is something really neat!

Somebody made a cake in the shape of a cylon head, and it has a light that really lights up, and that tracks back and forth! See lots more about it, including a video here. You really have to see this!

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News in on Flash Forward! I don't know about you, but I've been feeling that Flash Forward has been bogging down.

In fact, last week it was up against two shows that I really wanted to watch, and it lost the DVR lottery, at least as far as I'm concerned. If it was on a different night (like Tuesday, which has no SF regularly scheduled, or even Wednesday, when the only thing is some fantasy in the form of Eastwick, I'd still love to watch it. But no, they pitted it against the best night of TV all week, and it's losing the battle due to being far outclassed.

So, click the link to find out more.

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Do you want to find out the real reason behind the mask that Darth Vader wore? Check out an interview with Ralph McQuarrie about how the whole helmet thing actually came into being.

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I have to make a quick trip to the grocery store and then do laundry and then work on the cover, and it's dark already, so I'm going.

Tomorrow there will be a Thanksgiving post, and then nothing will be posted on Thanksgiving itself. Black Friday is iffy, but I'll try to get a post up.

Let me know what you're thankful for, and I may include it in the Black Friday post!

So, Happy Thanksgiving in advance!

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Addition:

A friend posted this on Facebook:

There will be no Nativity Scene in Washington, D.C. this year! The Supreme Court has ruled that there cannot be a Nativity Scene in the United States' Capital this Christmas season. This isn't for any religious reason. They simply have not been able to find Three Wise Men in the Nation's Capital. A search for a Virgin continues. There was no problem, however, finding enough asses to fill the stable.

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!

Happy Autumn Equinox!

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

Today is the Autumnal Equinox, or the first day of Fall to all of us.

There's a strange story that says that you can balance an egg on it's end on either of the two equinoxes, and you can read all about it here. Whatever you choose to do to celebrate, the day and night will be in a balance today, with light and dark taking up an equal part of the day. From here, it can only get darker each day until around Christmas, when prayers, feasting (or fasting) and arcane rites will persuade the sun to come back (with luck).

Which reminds me that I have to be really busy on planning and making Christmas presents! I hope you've got it all organized! Speaking of which, I'll finish the first green sock for Holly today and get started on the second one! Only 3 more socks to go, and then two pair of purple ones for her birthday, which is three days after Christmas.

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Well, I feel like I'm about to go over the falls in a barrel again. John sent me some photos (black and white, natch) for the covers of the third and last Steve Canyon DVD last night! I started them downloading and went to watch TV, then checked the computer later and turned it off. This morning, I checked the photos, and, as usual, they're great! I have a batch of things lined up to do today, so I'll be busy, but I can't wait to start work on them. They're going to be beautiful!

If you click on the link above, it'll lead you to a post on John's blog which has links to more info on Doug Drexler's blog about Steve Canyon and the DVD, plus links to an article Doug did about me.

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While John was sending me the photos for the DVD, he also sent a really bad scan of a photo he took of me years ago.

A while ago, I asked John for an opinion on my blog, and he said that he would probably want to read my blog even if he hadn't known me for so long. I asked what I could do to improve my blog, and he said I should write about things that had happened to me and things that I'd done.

So, here's one of them, which is an explanation of the photo.

Years ago (in about 1977?) John and I belonged to WSFA (Washington Science Fiction Association), which may (or may not, depending on who you talk to) be the oldest science fiction club still in existence. It was incorporated as a nonprofit organization, I think. I'm not a lawyer, but that's the way I remember having it explained to me.

Anyway, after years of having Disclave (a science fiction convention) and other events, WSFA had built up more money in it's treasury than it should for a nonprofit, and the IRS was beginning to make threatening noises about it. So, during a meeting, we put up several propositions for ways to use some of the money, and get them off our back. There was a vote, and we chose to rent a tall ship for a day, and go for a sail on the Chesapeake! Aha! Now the photo is beginning to make some sense!

So, John and I set out in my MGB GT for Annapolis and the docks. During a scenic ride, John was busy singing and refining a song he had written called "Gillilands Isle." I'm sure you can imagine the tune, if you think about it for a moment. The name in the title referred to Alexis Gilliland, who is a science fiction writer, member of WSFA, a friend, and whose name happened to fit well into a nautical-sounding song, with just a bit of tweeking. The link above, by the way, is to Wikipedia, but if you want to see more about the real Alexis, check here. He's a fabulous cartoonist! I remember going out for donuts with WSFA, and watching Alexis draw on the napkins.

Well, we had our day of sailing on the Chesapeake, forming up in lines to haul sails up and down, and generally having a fabulous time. John took the opportunity to get up and sing his song, and a good time was had by all. It was one of those long, lazy days where not much happens, but it's all fun, interspersed with frantic ship handling activities. I brought along a camera, and John and I put it to good use.

The photo above was scanned from a 110 negative, so it's not so good, but does convey the general idea. John thinks he can scan it better. I think he should go to WalMart, get them to print the neg and scan the print.

While I was looking stuff up for all this, I came across the Science Fiction Fan Dictionary, which will explain all the terms used by SF fen. If you happen to be a fan, you will enjoy reading it! I liked it so much that I put a permanent link to it in the sidebar so you can read it in the future.

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Well, new shows tonight include: Warehouse 13 and The Forgotten. Warehouse 13 is on all day today, the whole first season in it's entirety!

The Forgotten is a show I haven't heard much about, but it sounds like it's got a good premise and has the potential to be a great show. All we can do is tune in and see. It stars Christian Slater, so it can't be all bad.

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Well, the book version of Flashforward is being held at the library for me, so I'd better get going and walk over there and get it.

Have a great evening!

More Steve Canyon News!

Check out the new post on John's Steve Canyon blog! As usual, John has lots of Steve Canyon news, but he also has a bit about me, too.

John will be going to the San Diego Comic Con tonight and this Sunday, so if you see him there, say "Hello!" and ask about Steve Canyon! Copies of the DVDs will be available to buy at the con.

There's Wi-Fi there, and he'll have his laptop with him, so he'll be Tweeting while he's there, and his tweets will be available in the sidebar tonight and Sunday, along with interesting tweets from others at the con. I'm so excited about all of this!

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Today, before packing to leave for the con, I had a chance to talk to John, and he had just talked to some people at the Smithsonian, and was excited about some stuff on the internet about some of the Star Trek models. You can read these two articles here and here. John was lucky enough to get to see the model before it was displayed, while it was still stored in the old red brick museum building. This was the building where they originally hung Bevo Howard's biplane, the one that I got to stand next to and touch at the air show in Charleston on Armed Forces day in 1963.

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Today is Day Three of Children of Earth. It's been so good so far. I want to say a billion things about it, but I don't want to spoil it for you, so I'm totally frustrated about it. It's fabulous, though!

There's one thing I can tell you about without it being too spoilery. As is usual with these things, they kill Jack. I'm sure you're not surprised. But they do it so thoroughly that he comes back without the clothes that he was wearing. When interviewed about it, Eve Myles said "There was the Barrowman, wearing handcuffs and a bit of dust." She also said "I had nightmares for weeks. It was horrific!" Then she giggled "And I want to see some more!"

So, if you missed Jack in the altogether, you can see him tonight in the rerun of Day Two before they go on to show Day Three, or you can see the whole series rerun in sequence on Sunday on BBC in America. Check your local listings! Oh, and the DVD will be available on Tuesday (click the link above).

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This is a short post today because I'm not feeling especially well. Nothing serious, just really ragged.

I hope you're feeling better than I am. Have fun with Children of Earth tonight!

The Netbook Jones

Within the space of this week so far, several things have changed for me.

These things have only changed in my head so far, but that's the most important place to start.

The first of those things is that I was reading the Drex Files, which is a science fiction blog (see my post from earlier in the week). Anyway, he did a blog post about the Steve Canyon DVDs I've been working on. I made a comment on a later post about something in a Steve Canyon strip, and he asked me to write about myself for his blog: my experiences in the Air Force, and also my experiences with science fiction fandom and friend of John Ellis. What that means is that there's a lot to write about.

I told him that he wouldn't get it all at once.

Anyway, earlier this week I sent him some photos: two newspaper articles about me, two sketches that I did, and a photo of John and Holly and I. Then, I sent the text for the "Adventures of Jo in the Air Force" article. It was rather long, and I told him he could cut whatever he wanted.

It was still long, even though I left out the time I was back late from leave during basic training and wound up climbing over the fence and getting back on base illegally so that I wouldn't be late, and a lot of other amusing stories, such as stopping the stock car races at the airport at Walterborough Airport so we could land and watch the races.

I still have to write the story of my misadventures with John.

And all this got me thinking about the next article and writing in general. About a year and a half ago, I decided to write a book. Actually, I decided to write several books. I even started writing them. But somewhere along the way, I stopped.

I think it's time to get back to writing.

In the meantime, earlier this week, my poor old original iMac (you remember the big old original ones?) started telling me it can't contact some internet sites. It still works well for editing photos, page layout, drawing, doing Steve Canyon DVD covers, etc. I don't have to upgrade it to have it be a very useful tool.

But I can see that it's the beginning of the end for it on the internet.

Yes, I upgraded my browser. I can't upgrade my operating system, because a newer OS just won't work with the processor in the Mac. And the newer browser is the newest that will work with my OS.

So, it's about to become obsolete for anything on the internet. Not now, not tomorrow, but real soon now.

I had been thinking I'd like to have a small notebook computer for writing and accessing the internet.

Then yesterday I read Crazy Aunt Purl's blog.

Crazy Aunt Purl is Laurie Perry, who has a wildly popular and usually very funny blog. She also wrote Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair. And one of her favorite things to do is travel. She most recently went to Ireland. She also sometimes posts about really neat products that she's found.

Anyway, yesterday, she put up this post. If you scroll partway down, you'll see the cutest little computer ever. There's a link to Amazon in her post. You can also see it here, and there's an upgraded version with more features for not much more money here. And if you plan to travel anytime soon, she has a batch of tips in this post.

When I first looked at it, I didn't think it was real. I thought "Wow! That's a really BIG glass of whatever she's drinking!" Then I looked at the passport in the photo, and decided that it is really that tiny. And when I checked on Amazon, I found out that I could actually get one for about $250, including shipping! The upgraded version is better, and is available for more like $300.

I'm in love!

I wrote to Laurie, and she was nice enough to write back with a long, detailed letter about netbook computers, which is a whole different thing from laptops. She recommended a Mac Book. Well, I'd like one, too, but the netbooks are about a third the price. The difference in price is the difference in getting one in the foreseeable future, and getting one someday, maybe.

She pointed out the keyboard is really small and that she wouldn't like to do a lot of typing on it, and maybe I'd like one of the newer, slightly larger netbooks better, and sent me a link to this Acer netbook. I have to say (from the standpoint of an artist) that the fact that it's blue is a big emotional factor in it's favor. Scroll down in the description and see how pretty it is.

The theory that the keyboard is larger may not be completely true, though. It's about an inch wider, but the Eee has a keyboard that goes as close to the edge as possible. The Acer has at least a half inch on either side of the keyboard, so I don't think the keyboard is really noticeably bigger. And I'm really biased toward the Eee because the buttons next to the touchpad wrap around the front and are intended to be hit with your thumbs, which is how I always try to use a touchpad. But a review of the Acer says that you can tap the touchpad instead of using the buttons which is probably how I would wind up using it. Decisions, decisions.

I'll keep you up to date on further developments.

I'll quit boring you with this now, and we can get back to our regularly scheduled post.

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I'm so sorry about saying that Eureka was on the other day. It was actually Warehouse 13, which is good enough that John said he hoped it would remain on the air. I was in the middle of writing my Air Force article, and wrote "Warehouse 13" and then turned on the digital TV guide, and it said Eureka (they were rerunning the last two week's episodes right before the new Warehouse 13), and thought "Eureka is on Tuesdays. What's wrong with me?" Well, it was on Tuesdays, but it just changed to Friday the week before, and my subconscious hadn't caught up. Anyway mea culpa.

Anyway, and all-new Leverage was on last night on TNT, and it was wonderful! I hope you caught it, but if you didn't, it'll be on again sometime before next week.

Tonight, we have The Listener, and The Mentalist, a new Burn Notice, and later, Doctor Who on SyFy, this week, The Stolen Earth, the second part of the three-part finale from last season. Check it out, its so good!

I have a lot to do, so I'll see you tomorrow! Have fun!

Steve Canyon Review!

I've been waiting for this new review of the Steve Canyon DVDs to come out, and it's finally here! And it was worth the wait! What a great review!

I'd love to take some of the credit, and I guess I helped, having done the covers (I did the colorization of the photo above), but the real hero here is John Ellis, who wanted to do this project, and is managing to do it against great odds in the form of a failing economy. He's my hero! He let me know about all of this in a hit-and-run instant message today.

Please notice the name dropping in the form of Rick Sternbach, who designed a lot of the art for the more recent Star Trek TV series, and was co-author of Star trek, the next generation : technical manual / written and designed by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda ; with a special introduction by Gene Roddenberry. And please notice that he's the first person to comment on the blog article.

I was lucky enough to meet Rick years ago, when John and I were at MonCon doing advance publicity for the first Star Wars movie. John and I were on our way to see Forbidden Planet, and Rick said he envied me because I was going to see it for the first time. And well he might. It's an impressive movie.

The photos in this post are phenomenal, too, for any fans of Air Force hardware in the form of planes! Planes are one of my favorite things! The photos in this blog post are great!

I have to take a short break and calm down before I continue writing.

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I don't know if you have noticed, but I now have Twitter posts in the sidebar, so you can get instant updates throughout the day, and during times (like yesterday) when I get distracted with other things and don't post, and days when I go to the Sheep and Wool Festival or the RenFair. The box with posts has a time-traveling slider on the right, so if you miss something, you can go back and see it. If you only check it once a day, you may miss some stuff, because I'm finding I update frequently during the day. So, now there's a reason to check this blog several times a day (or follow me on Twitter--click the link at the bottom of the Twitter box).

If you're on Twitter, it's Follow Friday, so there will be links to neat Twitterers, today, too. If you're a knitter, there are some recent links to spinning/knitting contests with some great prizes, and links to some more science fiction info, too.

One of the contests is the Berrocco Sock Competition. This sounds like fun! Click the link and check it out!

There's another contest going on for the ABC series, Castle. I know it's not SF, but it stars Nathan Fillion, who is always worth watching, even if he's not playing the captain of Serenity anymore. Check it out here and below.

As you can see, the entry deadline is soon, so you'll need to get busy!

I think there was another contest or something important that I've forgotten to tell you about, but put it up on Twitter. Check the sidebar!

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I'm sure I had ten other things I wanted to say, but Eureka is on SyFy all day and the new second half of season three will premier tonight, so I want to get back to watching it.

Have a great weekend!

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Addition:

It's Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family starting tonight. They'll be running a batch of the movies, and in case you've forgotten, Half Blood Prince is opening on Wednesday! Only five more days to go! And the countdown timer at the bottom of the page has a link to more HP information at the bottom. Check it out!

Happy Canada Day!

I had lots of stuff to do today, and actually went out and walked around for a while, so I got to the computer, intending to post a little late today.

Then, John started IMing me, and then called me on the phone to get me started on the third volume of the Steve Canyon DVD set, and my plans for a post went right down the drain.

But everybody on the internet has been going crazy about Canada Day, which is  really kind of Canada's birthday. And I figured that I couldn't possibly, in all conscience, wish you a happy Canada Day tomorrow, so here's my post wishing you happiness.

So everything else I had to say today is going to have to wait until tomorrow.

Have a great evening!

Deadlines!

There are two deadlines I'm thinking about today.

The first is Christmas. No, don't laugh at me. I know it's 194 days until Christmas, but if you're a crafter, you can't start too early. 

It's time to get out that notebook and list all the people you want to make presents for and get started on them. It helps if the notebook is small enough to carry to the craft store with you. If you give each person their own page, you'll have space to brainstorm and write down anything you think of that will make a great present for each person, and, if it's something you plan to make, maybe there will also be space to list the supplies you need for each project. That's where taking it to the craft store comes in.

I am personally thinking about making Christmas stockings to sell on Etsy. After finding that great yarn at Herrshners, I want to get some more and make some glittery stockings!

The other deadline is coming up fast! This is your wake-up call!!!

There are only 32 days until Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince opens!

Are you ready, with something fabulous to wear to the opening? Something that says "I am not a muggle?"

If not, you'd better get a move on! There are lots of great things you could be knitting or crocheting! 

My first thought was to search for Harry Potter patterns on Ravelry, because I know they have a lot of them. But if you're on Ravelry, you already know that, and if you're not, any link I give you won't do you any good. But I found a looooong list of patterns at the Leaky Cauldron! I haven't checked them all out, but with so many to choose from, you should be able to find something you want to make. One of my favorites is the Golden Snitch Hat. There are sparkly yarns out there that would work well for the snitch, too. The pattern calls for black yarn, but the photo looks like it was done with navy blue yarn, and I think I'd like navy, personally, but then, I usually prefer blue. Even if you don't like the hat itself, you can click on the chart to put the snitch design on something else.

Anyway, wander around and have fun on the list. I don't want to see you at the movies without something distinctively wizardly!

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There's a new post up over at the Steve Canyon on DVD blog! Jet on over there and find out what's happening!

I hope you've been having a great weekend!

World Wide Knit in Public Day!

I hope you're out there knitting for World Wide Knit in Public Day, unlike me.

I had planned to go to the Potomac Celtic Festival today, but felt just awful when I woke up.....

I was going to describe how I felt, but when I read the description, I realized it was just too gross. I'll leave it to your imagination.

If you don't knit in public today, you can also try for it tomorrow. Since I knit in public all the time, I guess I'm covered for this one day.

I'm going to get off the internet so I can watch Serenity on TV, now, and recuperate.

Have a great weekend!

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Addition:

Check out this article about the new Steve Canyon DVD!

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Even More:

People are talking about Steve Canyon on the web, too. Check it out here, and scroll down for a couple of entries.

Dollhouse to Get Second Season!

I just caught a Twitter from Eliza Dusku, and she thanked Fox for something. 

I checked it out and found this. Apparently, they'll be showing the episode that's really last, in addition to including it on just the DVD and they've renewed it for a second season! The Fox channel's Dollhouse site doesn't seem to have mentioned anything about it, though. You can find more information about it here and news about Chuck and Dollhouse being renewed here. I couldn't be more happy about this! They also mentioned that Heroes will also be back.

In the meantime, despite May sweeps month being almost over, there is a whole new summer season to look forward to. Burn Notice will have a marathon on USA on June second, third, and fourth, and will be back with new episodes on the fourth of June at a very early hour (1:15 am)! Another USA show that's already back on is In Plain Sight on Sunday evenings. Neither is SF, but they're action/adventure, and lots of fun.

In July, we have tons of great shows coming back! They include: Torchwood with Children of Earth, and I think I'm becoming brain dead because I can't think of any more of them at the moment. As soon as I publish this, I'll think of ten others.

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There's a new post up on the Steve Canyon blog, and if you have red/blue 3D glasses, you can see some photos in 3D. It looks to me like you'd need red/green glasses, but John says not. I tried it with the amber/blue glasses I scored to watch Chuck the day after the Super Bowl (which is what the glasses were intended for), and they don't work. But if you have the right glasses, I think you'll be impressed to see three dimensional photos right on your own computer!

John is so creative!

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I hope you got to watch Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy over the weekend. It's sitting on my DVR, waiting for me to watch it. I think I like the original version better, though.

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I actually have the new chair for my computer, but have to track down a phillips head screwdriver to finish assembling it. In the meantime, I don't like sitting here. It makes my back hurt (although that's gradually going away). So I'm going to quit writing now.

Have a great Monday!

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Addition!

Warehouse 13 is one of those great shows starting in July. So is Eureka.

Happy Armed Forces Day!

Happy Armed Forces Day!

Not that I'm actually doing anything to celebrate Armed Forces Day this year, but you could if you wanted to. There are instructions here for how to have a happy AFD.

In the meantime, I salute all the members and former members of the Armed Forces of the United States!

I have more news in connection with this, but I'll have to wait until I inform the people involved before I can make it public.

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In a slightly related story, I got my copy of Volume 2 of the Steve Canyon DVDs today! I just got home from going out with Holly, and haven't watched it yet, but the outside and inside covers look great as do the disc labels. My DVD player is having a problem with it's connection to the TV, and I don't know exactly what's causing it, so I have to straighten that out before I will be able to see it. But you can read more about it here.

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Holly and I went on our weekly trek to fun, this time to AC Moore, where I bought a skein of Tweedle Dee that I've been drooling over for quite a while. I plan to make a Crazy Aunt Purl Beret with it.

I also got a "task" chair from WalMart, and will be using that as soon as I manage to assemble it. I've been wanting this for more than two years, ever since I moved in here. Not only will I be able to use it for the computer, but I can use it for sewing once I get a table to put my sewing machine on.

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SciFi is having the new episode of War of the Worlds on today, followed by Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The first episode of the new season of Primeval will be premiering later tonight on BBC in America.

And Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will be on (I think) ABC tonight.

I hope you're having a great weekend!

Lost Finale and Steve Canyon!

The finale of Lost was on tonight, and it scored (to my knowledge) a new first in television.

At the beginning of the episode, they show someone spinning. And for the first time ever on TV, the person is actually spinning! Then, he gets up and goes over to a warp-weighted loom, and presumably starts weaving. I didn't see any actual weaving take place, but the warp-weighted loom was dressed correctly, and ready to weave.

There's lots to see in this episode, and if you've been watching Lost, I hope you recorded it, because you're going to want to watch it several times (at least).

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Thanks to the Knitty blog, I found a lot more information about string bags for my current interest. They have links to several sets of instructions for market bags, and there's also a contest for market bags (you have to send them a photo of yourself and your favorite bring-it-home bag. Check it out.

They also remind us of WWKIP Day (World Wide Knit in Public Day), which is next month.

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The Steve Canyon Volume 2 DVDs have arrived from the factory, and are now being sent out as quickly as John can slap labels on them and get them to the post office. Read more about it here.

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Sorry it's been so long since I posted. I'm gradually feeling better and recovering from all the walking at the Sheep and Wool Festival, but the chair I have in front of the computer really hurst if I sit in it for more than a few minutes. I mean it starts hurting while I sit in it, and then continues for quite a while afterwards. So, I've avoided sitting there, so it's hard to post and avoid the chair.

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I went on a shopping trip to WalMart today, and I am wiped out, so this will be a very short post.

Ah, I forgot to mention that the new season of Eureka will start sometime in July!

Have a great Thursday!

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!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Wow! I just started to type "Happy Cinco de Mayo!" and blogger filled it in for me. So, I've had this blog for a whole year, now!

I feel like I should have some kind of contest or something, but I can't think of what at the moment.

Oh well, happy Cinco de Mayo anyway!

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To continue information about the Sheep and Wool Festival: brace yourself for the fun part!

Yesterday was just about stuff. Today is about the people and the fun.

Lynn got down here on Friday around six, and we went out for dinner, did a couple of errands, and came back to watch Ghost Whisperer, Dollhouse, and Moonlight.

We got out the door just a little after ten the following morning, and headed North to the fairgrounds. The weather report called for rain all weekend, and we got some showers on the way up and just a bit more than a shower at one point. We phoned the rest of the party, and they were already there, and Holly walked down to the entrance to meet us. Then we tracked down Everett, Jeff, and Ashton. After that, some really heavy shopping ensued. I tried to stay with the group, but, as usual, got way too distracted by all the great stuff for sale.

I made it through one of the barns that lead toward the back, one of the barns all the way in the back, and the big barn before I got to the point that I really needed to sit down and find some food.

Everybody got together back in front of the big barn, where all the food is.

We sat and nibbled on various stuff and had some great conversation. 

I suspect that Ashton completely misunderstood me at one point, though. He was standing there with an ice cream cone in his hand, and ice cream smeared all over his face. I asked him if he was totally bored yet, and he shook his head yes (mouth was full of ice cream) in an energetic way with a big smile on his face.

Not only did we have fun talking, but we wound up including a batch of other festival-goers in the conversation. I got compliments on the poncho I was wearing, and I pulled out my current knitting project, and a woman on the bench next to me said how much she loved the color. I held my project up to the project she was knitting, making it obvious that they were exactly the same color and shade, and said something like "Gee, really? I never would have expected that." Everybody giggled.

We stopped another woman who was passing to compliment her on her string bag and ask her about the pattern. If you're on Ravelry, you can see the bag here. From that link, you can also find the instructions through Ravelry. Since then, I've bought the instructions and am making an Earth Day bag. I hate to say this, but I'm finding a lot of improvements that could be made in the pattern. The construction is absolutely ingenious, but I don't like the eight-row stitch pattern that it uses. I feel it's needlessly complicated, even though the center of each right side row is either (YO, K2 tog), or (K2 tog, YO), and the WS rows are all purl across. The beginning and end of each RS row is different, and the stitch pattern biases. Once the borders and handles are on, the bias won't matter, but I think there must be an easier-to-memorize stitch that would look even better. I will be searching for it. I may have already found it, but I want to finish the first bag before I start changing it around.

Back to the festival. We did some more walking through the barns that go from the front to the back of the grounds, and managed to get separated again. For the second time since I've gone to the festival, I went to look at the poster, skein and garment, etc, competitions. All I can say is WOW! I plan to spend most of the next post telling you about one of the winning projects. It's totally amazing!

While I was going through all the winning entries, I got a call from everyone else saying they wanted to leave and that I should go to the front gate. I persuaded them all to come back and look at this one project, and then they finally dragged me off to dinner.

We stopped at the Double TT Diner on Route 40, and all had a fabulous dinner, and lots of good conversation.

There was some more rain on the way home, but not a drop fell while we were actually at the festival (unless a couple of drops fell while I was in the big barn). We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was overcast, sure, but the temperature was pretty close to perfect. At a couple of points I wanted to wear my poncho, but a lot of the time, I didn't. So it was right around most comfortable temperature, with just a tiny bit that was either too warm or cool. Oh, and you did NOT want to step off the paved areas! I suspect that if it hadn't been paved it would have been as bad as the mud fest that was the Fall Fiber Fest one year. All-in-all, a perfect day as far as weather was concerned. When Lynn and I got back, we noticed that the ground was all wet, but it wasn't raining when we went in.

Lynn and I watched a little TV and sat and talked (or tried to) and both fell asleep. Eventually we turned off the lights and went to sleep deliberately.

On Sunday, Lynn, Holly and I went and did some errands, including walking around the new JoAnn Fabrics near here, and had dinner at Ruby Tuesday, and then we all went home. Lynn had an uneventful ride back to New Jersey, and the whole weekend was wonderful.

Well, I did way too much walking, and my back is still letting me know how unhappy it is about all that walking. Oddly enough, it doesn't usually bother my back, and I don't know why it did this time. I am otherwise recovered from all that walking, but I've been having a lot of lower back pain from it.

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John got all the masters over to the factory for the second volume of the Steve Canyon DVDs. He expects to get the proofs back at any moment, check them, and give the go-ahead!

I'm excited!

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My back hurts and I'm going to lay down flat on it and finish reading Breaking Dawn.

Have a great evening, and if I don't post tomorrow, It'll be because I'm giving my back a break.

107 Days Until Half Blood Prince

There are 107 days until the premier of The Half Blood Prince!

For all you Harry Potter fans out there who are knitters: have you started your knitting projects so that you'll have something Harry-Potter-themed to wear to the movie? If not, you need to get started in time! You don't want to go to the movie without your Dobby socks, dark mark scarf, snitch sweater and other stuff. It's a shame it'll be during the summer instead of in the winter like some of them have been.

If you're on Ravelry, search there for Harry Potter projects, otherwise, you'll have to use search engines. Whatever you do, there's a lot out there, so get those needles clicking!

Don't forget that there is a count-down timer at the bottom of this page. It not only tells you how long until the movie, but it also has a link to Mugglenet, which is filled with all sorts of wonderfull Harry Potter news!

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Which reminds me that I have to have my mobius hood finished today to turn in as homework for the Harry Potter House Cup KAL/CAL! All I have to do is weave in some ends and take a photo. Oh, and get it up on Ravelry. 

So, you can expect a photo tomorrow.

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This will be a short post. I've just finished putting the barcode on the cover for the second volume of the Steve Canyon DVDs, and I'll be uploading it to a server in a bit, so I can't hang here too long. I may be wrong about this, but the sense I get from it is that John has all the files and stuff he needs to dump it on the DVD manufacturer, and it's about to be out of his hands for a bit. I'm sure that will be a big relief to him. Then all he'll have to do is wait for the DVDs and feverishly ship them out when they arrive. 

I'm really enthused about this!

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Comcast messed up NBC all last night. This is so run-of-the-mill for them that you may wonder why I'm even mentioning it. For three hours on NBC (and maybe more--I only watched it for three hours), the picture would periodically freeze for from one to 5 seconds, sometimes followed by the picture breaking up into large pixels, which then smashed up and slid off the screen. The sound was going in and out, and the story was interspersed with blackouts of sound and picture for several seconds. I got to watch Chuck, Heroes and Medium in that messed-up way. Castle was playing OK, though, and at least I got to see and hear that without all the mess.

There is no Fringe on tonight, but it's supposed to be back next week. I don't know what's wrong with TV networks today. They only have short runs of shows (Star Trek used to have 25 shows per season, now we only get 13 episodes of a series if we're lucky), they interrupt them with other stuff rather than showing the whole series, change the times of shows, and generally do everything they can to sabotage their own series, and then get rid of the series as though it's the fault of the series. It's disgusting!

There will be a new Mentalist on tonight, along with a new Reaper, though.

I have to run.

Have a great Tuesday!

So Much Is Happening!

There's so much going on today that I probably shouldn't take the time to post this, but there's so much to tell.

John is starting to get the photos from his trip to Reel Stuff back. Here's one of them:


There's also a friend of his, Matt Tauber, who put up a post with more photos in it, and you can see it here. The post has some great photos in it and an eyewitness account of his experience. Since I couldn't be there, it's much better than I could do. So, check it out.

From what I understand, there will be more photos here about it soon, but don't forget to check out his blog at Steve Canyon on DVD!

And here's a photo I stole from his blog.

What I should be doing right now is one last round of changes on the inside cover for the Steve Canyon on DVD Volume 2. It's the one page that John hasn't shown anybody, and he has one last option he wants to look at before he makes the final decision. I'm at that stage in the proceedings where I can't wait for it to be finalized and done with. Once that's over, I'll be waiting to get my copy in the mail. After that, it'll be waiting to get the information for the third volume. I'm sure you're getting the drift now. I'm always wanting the next thing.

It's so close to being done that I'm really excited! John is anxious to get it done, too!

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Stephanie Pearl McPhee was interviewed (via phone) on the Graham Norton show. 

Greg Kinnear was on the show and they talked about the word that Steph invented with his name. You can see that section of the show on YouTube. They showed Steph's blog on the show, too. You can catch the announcement of the show on Twitter, too.

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Vicki Howell is having another contest for a copy of her new book over on her blog. There is also a photo up of one of the designs in the book, and I have to say that even though I'm not big on crochet, I really love this one! If you're a crocheter, don't miss this one!

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Well, I entertained myself yesterday (and wore myself out) by going over to the new JoAnn Fabrics here. When Holly and I were at AC Moore last weekend, there was some really pretty yarn that I liked a lot and I've been regretting not buying it ever since. I love the sock yarn that I bought instead, but I wish I had also bought the sparkly, shiny, blue sport yarn, too. The stuff I keep picturing in lace with blue, dark plum and/or white iridescent beads scattered around the bottom.

The first sock, by the way, is nearly done. I have less than an inch before I start the toe shaping. Photos soon.

Somehow, I thought that there might be a good chance that JoAnn would have it, too. I was sadly mistaken. I did find more of the yarn that I liked so much for the Mobius hood, which I really need to get back to knitting. I bought it, hoping that there will be enough to make a poncho with. Then I can wear the poncho with the hood over it. Of course, I can wear the poncho or hood separately should I wish to, always assuming that the hood actually turns out to be wearable. This is all very experimental.

But the hood has to be done by the end of this month for the Harry Potter House Cup KAL/CAL I'm involved in. Getting stuff done works better for me when I have a deadline.

If it does turn out well, you can expect a hood/poncho pattern for sale soon. And another pair of patterns for the book I haven't been working hard enough on.

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There's a new Supernatural on tonight, and not much more in science fiction (or, in this case, fantasy) TV news.

I caught Galaxy Quest and They Live right before they came on in the last couple of days and recorded them, but haven't watched them yet. They're both movies I've watched multiple times and still love.

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I just finished reading Twilight and enjoyed it immensely. There were a lot of strange reviews of this on Amazon, and some of the reviews are grossly misleading. 

One thing a lot of people went on about was the way it's written. The consensus seems to be that it's badly written, which wasn't what I found at all. Accusations were made that there are misspelling, grammatical errors, and more in this book. I found two typos, and that's all. And I was really looking for this after all the reviews. The writing is very clear and allows the story to move at a brisk, easy pace. It's a quick, easy read, and hard to put down. It portrays a teenagers first love very well, so if you'd like to go along for that rollercoaster ride again, here's your chance. 

One thing most of the reviewers missed is that this told as a first person narrative. That's why it's submerged in self-doubt, and dripping with nauseous detail about how beautiful/wonderful/smart/funny/you get the picture the object of her affection is. That's the perspective of this hormone bombarded teen, not necessarily the truth that someone else would see.

The book exaggerates the whole teen love experience by making the heroine's boyfriend a vampire. Making vampirism a metaphor for lust is something that's been done over and over, so there's nothing new in that, but it's done well here. And yes, it's very mellow dramatic! So is first love. Get over it! If you don't want to read gooey trash, skip this. But I found it fun and definitely worth a read.

I have the next two sequels for this on request at the library, but in the meantime, I'm getting back to The Dresden Files series by rereading my favorite from the series, Blood Rites. It's my favorite because Harry gets involved in making a movie. It's only when he shows up for work that he discovers the movie is porn. This leads to more humor than most of the Dresden books. Well, it may have something to do with the fact that I've worked on some low-budget films (science fiction, not porn) myself. I love all the Dresden books, but this is my favorite so far.

I have to get busy and finish the alternate view of the inside front cover for Steve Canyon, Volume 2. Before John has a meltdown. He's not pushing me or giving me a hard time, but I know he wants to.

Have a great day!